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Clone Creation

        The number on the door said 222. Fantasma checked the key that she was given to make sure they matched and proceeded to unlock the door. Stepping in, she looked around the room. A large lab table was in the middle of the room, white boards on two of the walls. The sinks were shiny stainless steel, as well as the refrigerator. All the equipment that might possibly be needed was neatly arranged around the room.
        Deek stepped in after her carrying a box of books and his arms were starting to get tired.
        "Need ... surface... NOW!" he sputtered.
        "Oh!" she quickly stepped out of the way. He walked over to the table and dropped the box with a loud bang. He hung his arms loosely by his sides and looked exhausted.
        "I'm sorry, I didn't realize that it would be that heavy."
        "Yes you did, that why I was carrying it!"
        Fantasma put on a look of mock shock, "Would I do something like that?"
        "Yes!"
        She looked hurt and put on puppy dog eyes. He looked back at her with narrowed eyes. She stuck out her bottom lip. Both knew they were playing a game, it was just a test to see who would stop first. They didn't have to worry as they were interrupted by a voice from the doorway.
        "Wow, this is one sweet lab!"
        Fantasma and Deek turned to see Indigo and MediKai taking a look around.
        "Indigo!" she greeted her friend with a hug, "Isn't it amazing?! We could probably take over the world with all this equipment."
        "We could, but do you really want to?"
        "Nah, I suppose not, at least not today."
        Indigo smiled and she hugged Fantasma back. The brothers looked on, and then they looked at each other.
        "MediKai!" Deek ran over and gave MediKai a big hug. A little surprised, he stood there, stiff as a board. He leaned slightly over to Fantasma, "Has he been hitting the dew or the Windolene?"
        Fantasma just shook her head, "Nope, that's pure Deek."
        MediKai nodded, a little wary of his brother now.
        "Well!" Indigo clapped her hands together, "Let's get some clone creation going!"
        "Sounds good to me, I do have on request. I'd like to make a clone for my English brother. I've got my DNA sample, and I thought it would be just as easy to create two clones at the same time."
        "I guess, sure. Who is it?"
        "She's from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Tara. It was a struggle for him to give me any clue as to who he might want, but I was bound and determined to do it."
        "That's kind of you."
        "Well, he's my bro, he's been there for me when no one else was."
        "Then, let's give him a Tara."
        Indigo, Fantasma, MediKai, and Deek all dressed in their lab coats, rubber gloves, and safety glasses. It looked like a mad scientist convention! Deek snapped his gloves and announced, "One Xev, one Tara, let's get cookin!"

        Indigo and Med go out to their car to haul in the rest of their equipment.
        "You looked a bit uncomfortable there my dear. Problems with being hugged all of a sudden?" She questioned, never being one to mince words.
        "No...I was just a little taken a back. Some of the other clones I have met have been so stiff and formal. I never seem to know what is acceptable." He replied somewhat sheepishly.
        "Well, Deek is your batch brother so he is about the closest family you have. Maybe you should try to get to know him a bit better. He may think you aren't glad to see him based on your earlier reaction"
        MediKai brightened at the prospect of being part of a family. He was so intrigued by the idea. That was part of the reason he was so glad to have a hand in    creating more of them. He supposed it was the closest he would come to having children of his own...
        After carrying piles and piles of the stuff they brought from their university lab space into the new cloning lab. MediKai sidles up behind Deek and catches him in a big ol' bear hug, much to Deek's surprise! "It is good to be working with you brother!"
        He then flips open a notebook and begins scribbling in an orderly fashion... *test batch #1 underway: subjects Tara and Xev enter first stage cloning procedure -isolation and initial replication of stem cell structure.*
        Indigo takes a peek over his shoulder and nods to herself. Then she winks at Fantasma. "Lets get these lovely ladies underway!"

        MediKai and Indigo were hard at work. Fantasma had no problem letting them take the reins of this project as she really only had a basic understanding of the process. She watched them, ready whenever they were for whatever it was they'd need.
        Deek stood next to her with his arms crossed, as interested in the process as he was in MediKai. While Deek had met previous batch brothers, in truth he considered all the clones his brothers, this was the first one with which he was able to spend time. He had seemed a little uncomfortable at first, but most were when initially meeting Deek. Deek was very friendly and had no problem showing it. It can startle people. But when MediKai had returned from bringing up all their necessary notes and embraced Deek, it was his turn to be surprised. He hadn't sure if Med was going to warm up to him or not, but those uncertainties flew out the window with the act from MediKai.
        "I like that guy," he mused out loud.
        "What guy?" asked Fantasma.
        "Oh, was that my outside voice?"
        "Forget to turn on your inner monologue?"
        "Apparently. I was just thinking about my brother. I like him. He and I could have some fun together."
        "That's always good to know. Likable brothers aren't always easy to find. My parents gave me one and I still adopted one in England."
        "Yeah, how exactly did that work?"
        "Which one? The birth brother or the chosen one?" she smiled.
        "I know the miracle of birth, I have learned a few things in my time here. I'm talking about Darren, I hadn't heard of him before now."
        "Oh, that's easy. He and I started chatting years ago. It must have been a year and a half ago when he told me he was an only child. We had already grown into good friends, so I decided he needed a sister. At that moment, I told him he was my brother, I adopted him. And then I proceeded to virtually poke him in the ribs and tease him as any good younger sister would."
        "Of course."
        "Hey, are you two going to stand around and talk all day or are you going to help us?" said Indigo.
        "Yup, right way!" said Deek.
        "We are at your service!' said Fantasma.
        "Good, now here's what you need to do." MediKai gave a list of instructions and the lab was alive with energy.

        MediKai and Indigo were indeed hard at work and Fantasma and Deek were assisting as much as possible. They were quite an impressive team.
        Down the hallway from the lab came a loud shushing noise, and the four stopped to listen. They knew that noise -- it was sound Dominique's intra-astral device made when it opened a door between realms. The four technicians looked at each other with dread, and turned to look at the door.
        A soft squeaking was heard in the hallway, and then the sound of wheels, and then a final <thump! Around the corner peeked an auburn curly-haired head.
        "It's just *me*," Semmie chirped.
        The occupants of the room visibly relaxed with a sigh of relief.
        "What can we do for you?" asked Indigo.
        "Um...well..." Semmie smiled bashfully. "Come look." She motioned towards the hallway. The four technicians went to the door and peered down the hall, seeing -- a cryopod with a single occupant.
        "Who is it?" Fantasma asked.
        "It's BodieKai. I rescued him from that *other* lab last night." Semmie turned and looked at the four of them. She had a pitiful and tender look on her face. "They didn't know what to do with him, and with, like, Val sending him back and all since BodieKai couldn't swim, and plus since he's, like, programmed to be *gay*... well, they just left him in cryostasis." She turned and caressed the glass of the cryopod cover. "They're pretty narrow-minded, and none of them would know a joke if you stuffed it up their...." Semmie trailed off sheepishly. "You know what I mean."
        "I understand," said Indigo, and MediKai nodded as well. "What would you like us to do?"
        "Could you, like, reprogram him or something?" Semmie bit her lip worriedly. "I mean, like, make him not attached to Val any more? I just want him to be    happy."
        "Who would you like him to be attached to?" chuckled Deek.
        "Um..." Semmie smiled, and looked into Deek's eyes. "Me? and my brother?"
        "You want him attached to Semiramis?" Fantasma asked. "Then he'll be bisexual." Semmie nodded, and then looked at each of them with a smile, but her eyes were still worried.
        Indigo shook her head. "I'm sorry, Semmie. We do biology, not programming per se. You need to ask Tommen and HackerKai. If anyone can hack into BodieKai's programming and redo the script, that's Tommen." Indigo crossed the room to her computer and sent off a quick e-mail to Tommen. "Wait here, Semmie, and see what she says. You most likely will be taking a trip to Sweden today." (Read the rest of clone adjustments here)

        The cloning process was now underway and all that was left to do was some minor adjustments based on the monitored read-outs. The cloning vats really did the majority of the work from this point on so Indigo, Fantasma, Deek, and MediKai settled in to entertain
themselves for a while.
        The music selection that ended up blaring from the small CD player Med had thought to bring was, if nothing else, eclectic. Indigo brought her strange collection of jazz, ambient techno, and punk. Med insisted on his fair share of Ska and Funk bands. Fantasma and Deek finally ended up exercising their veto and took over the DJ spot for a while. The intriguing visit from Semiramis broke up the afternoon a bit and they all spent the next few hours speculating about the possibilities of rewiring the neglected clone's initial programming.
        Eventually, as was inevitable, the two women became tired and took to the cots Indigo and Med had brought from their other lab where they had sometimes been forced to work through the night to meet deadlines. The brothers, having no need of sleep, continued their
conversations well into the night.
        Finally, Deek became slightly exasperated, "How long does it take to cook a clone anyway?"
        MediKai smiled slightly and replied "We are waiting for them to gestate. It could take a couple of days."
        His smile widened at Deek's tortured sigh of boredom.
        "Hey!" Deek exclaimed, "What are you smiling at!"
        MediKai's mouth stretched into a full-fledged wicked grin at that point. He glanced at the sleeping ladies and back to his confused brother..."Want to have some fun?"
        When Indigo and Fantasma awoke, it was to almost total silence. The lab was eerily quiet except for the bubbling of the fluid in the cloning vats. Immediately suspicious, Indigo whipped her gaze around the room looking for their wayward companions. Her eyes stopped short on the center of the room where the rectangular vats lay like two large caskets. They were no longer the proper shape she noticed. They were taller than they had been and there were two long skeins of black fabric covering them. An idea of what was going on began to formulate in her head and she gave Fantasma a small nudge with her elbow, cocking her head towards the vats.
        The two friends crept up to the vats and eyed eachother knowingly. However, no amount of cunning and humor could have prepared them for what they found when they yanked the sheets to the floor simultaneously.
        There, laying above the regular cloning vats were their clones...Deek having chosen the Tara vat as his resting place, had on a blonde wig, a low cut flowerprint dress, and had managed to give himself a rather convincing third eye! MediKai was squeezed somewhat awkwardly into the clusterlizard skin dress they had prepared for the Xev clone and had, not one, but two short red wigs on, as he had somehow managed to sculpt a second head and attach it to his shoulder!
        The clones-in-drag then jumped out at their stunned companions and proceeded with a very theatrical frankenstien-esk chase around the lab, the shrieking and giggling ladies barley keeping ahead of them!
        Of course they all ended up unceremoniously in a heap of bodies and laughter on the floor. A new clusterlizard dress will now have to be fashioned because the original did not survive the mayhem, having been designed with someone much smaller than a Kai clone in mind. So much for a professionally run cloning lab...but hey! Let the fun begin!

        Fantasma laid upon the lab table with her fingers laced behind her head and her legs crossed. She stared at the ceiling and let out a breath that puffed her cheeks.
        MediKai and Indigo glanced up from the game that they and Deek were playing. Med raised an eyebrow. Deek, still in the flower print dress that he said was actually quite comfortable, concentrated on his cards.
        "My elbow is wet," Fantasma announced.
        "Then take it out of the sink," Deek said without looking.
        She looked at her elbow. It was in the sink.
        "Good idea," she said. She left it there and returned to her view of the ceiling.
        She sighed again.
        Med and Indigo looked at Deek, expecting him to say something, but he remained quiet as he rearranged his cards and placed one into the pile. He looked over his cards and found them staring at him.
        "Is something wrong, my dear?" has asked as he rearranged his cards again.
        She rolled to her side to look at the threesome in the other corner. "I never knew the cloning process would take so long."
        Indigo opened her mouth to say something, but Deek spoke instead, "Yes you did, you wrote a paper on it."
        "An ethics paper!"
        "No matter, you still know the how, even if it is the basics. You know it takes a while for everything to mature."
        "Yes but..."
        "You're excited, I know. I understand that, but wasn't it you who taught me that patience was a virtue?"
        "Yes but..."
        "But nothing. You just have to be patient."
        Defeated, she returned to her ceiling staring position.
        MediKai watched in amusement remembering how not too long ago it was Deek who was anxious for the process to finish.
        "Actually, " said MediKai as he checked the time, "your wait is over."
        Fantasma jumped up and followed MediKai, Indigo and Deek into the chamber where the vats were housed. "Man, I thought they would never finish! I feel like I've been here for years!"
        "Tas, it's been two weeks. Are we really that awful of company?" said Indigo.
        "Of course not! Actually, it only felt like one week. You know I like to exaggerate!" said Fantasma as she stuck out her tongue.
        "Hey! That's my tongue!" Deek said as he took a step to Fantasma and planted a juicy kiss on her.
        "Deek! Not in front of the children!" chastised MediKai.
        Fantasma, Indigo, and Deek all turned to MediKai. He had opened the vats and two women covered in what had to have been amniotic fluid of sorts were sitting up looking around.
        "They're beautiful!" cooed Fantasma.
        MediKai smiled, happy to see that his first clones were awake, and alive. All he needed to do was run a few tests and he'd be sure they were healthy too.
        "Well, come on, we've got to get these ladies cleaned up! Just be careful! They are sure to startle easily."
 
        For hours the four fussed over the two. The ladies were bathed, clothed, and educated in the fundamental basics. Finally the time came to give them up. Fantasma wrote up the invitations to Nik and Darren and asked Indigo to check them. Indigo read it out loud for Deek and Med to hear too.
        "You are cordially invited to the introduction party of
                    Xev 1.0
                    Tara 1.0
        You will find us in the Tea Garden this weekend at noon, waiting for you. They have been informed as to whom they will be going home with and are looking forward to meeting you. Xev 1.0 has been dressed in the traditional cluster lizard outfit. Her hair is short and red. Tara 1.0 has been dressed in a modest scoop neck T-shirt and frayed hip hugging jeans. Her hair is blond and twisted up with a butterfly clip.
        Interaction with your clone is up to you. You can choose how she dresses; you can choose her name. Or you can leave it up to her. But please, your clone is not an object. Treat her with the respect she deserves for she is your lover, your friend, and your companion.
        Upon introduction she will present you a gift. She chose it specifically for you and it is a surprise. Gifts for your clone are encouraged but not required.
        Beverages will be served, please feel free to help yourself.

        We are looking forward to your arrival."

        "Not bad, Tas," said Indigo as Xev 1.0 and Tara 1.0 smiled their approval, "but who's we?"
        "That's what I'm unsure of. I figure I should be there, and I'll drag Deek with me," she stuck her tongue out at Deek who rolled his eyes, "But I don't know if you and Med wanted to come, or if I should invite any of the sisters or brothers to show up."
        "Why not leave it an open invitation? Nik and Darren, yeah, they need to be there. And if you can be there, great. I need to look into my life and see what's happening. Med? What about you?"
        MediKai looked up from his notes, "I would like to attend, but as Indigo has said, we do not know what is occurring back on campus. If we are there, we are there. If not, let us know how it went."
        "And take pictures!" added Indigo.
        "All right then," Fantasma smiled. She fancied up the invites and sent them out to everyone she could think of. If nothing else, Darren and Nik will be there. They have to be.

************************

        Fantasma and Deek sat at a small, round table with Xev 1.0 and Tara 1.0. The sun was pleasantly warm in this world that didn't have snow. The four of them made small talk as they waited for who ever might show up. Fantasma took a sip of her tea and checked her watch.
        "Fantasma, it is early. They will show up, do not worry," Deek tried to comfort. Fantasma was more anxious for her friends to get there than the clones were.
        She smiled and took another sip of tea. Together, they waited for the moment for Nik, Darren, or anyone to show up.
 
 
 
 

Authors: Indigo, Fantasma,Semmie