Something Borrowed, Something New

The Lab

"—HAG"

Pesto abruptly woke up, nearly hitting his head on the glass wall of his small enclosure. It had been about a month since he and his fellow clones had been taken from their home in the alleyway and trapped in...the tower? But how? It was nothing more than rubble the last time he checked.

Besides Cacio, Bigoli, and Alfredo, they weren't the only clones in this makeshift laboratory. However, Pesto didn't recognize most of them. They were about a dozen cylinder-shaped glass pods, and about half of them were full of clones. Pesto would sometimes look over at his friends and put a hand on the glass, and watched as they did the same. He promised himself that if he ever saw an opportunity to escape and save his friends, he'd take it.

However, escaping wasn't what he was thinking about at the moment. He could hear muffled voices coming from outside the room, which meant only one thing: today was yet another needle day.

Every now and then, a mysterious purple figure (who he recognized as the one who had first trapped him by his voice) would come in, and inject them all with strange mystery liquids. They would all beg and cry for them to stop, but their pleas always fell on deaf ears. Some clones tried to resist him, but were quickly subdued. Pesto knew he had to just grin and bear it, but that was easier said than done.

Pesto looked over and made eye contact with Seeker, who had now entered the room. Today, he was wearing some blue suspenders with a white shirt underneath. It looked...familiar.
He approached Pesto's glorified giant test tube, before opening a small hatch on its side. As Seeker reached inside, he melted into a puddle in an attempt to avoid what would surely happen next.

"Don't be shy, little guy." Seeker said in a tone that could barely pass as sympathetic. "I'm doing this to help you. All of you. You know that, right?"
Seeker watched as Pesto slightly reformed, just enough for his eyes to be seen.

"—Do you know how many germs there are in the outside world? Beings like you could easily get sick, or worse." Seeker continued. By now, Pesto had completely reformed, cocking his head slightly to the side. His captor had never explained his motives before, and to Pesto, they sounded genuine.

As quick as a flash, Seeker reached through the opening, and grabbed Pesto's arm. Before he could do anything, a syringe (which Seeker had hidden behind his back) was stuck into the clone's goopy flesh. Pesto let out a pained yelp as its contents were emptied into him. Then, the syringe was pulled out, and the opening was closed. The whole ordeal took about thirty seconds in total, but it felt like an agonizing eternity for the poor Peppiclone.

"See? That wasn't so hard." Seeker said, a twinge of malice in his voice. Without another word, he walked off to another tube and repeated the process with new syringes. Pesto sat down, holding his throbbing arm and quietly whimpering. Why did this have to happen to them? What did they do to deserve this? Would they ever be let go? These questions echoed in the clone's mind as Seeker passed by Pesto's tank once more.

"Whoops! Almost forgot. Can't have you going hungry on me." He dropped a few apples through the slot, before leaving the room. Pesto pushed them to the side, as he definitely didn't feel like eating at the moment.

Time passed, and most of the other clones had curled up and went to sleep. Pesto turned to face Alfredo, who was in the tube directly to his right, and put a hand on the glass. Alfredo noticed this, but just sighed and looked away in response. After a moment, Pesto took his hand off the glass before staring at the floor. His fellow clones were losing hope, one after one. The hope of one day returning to the life he lived previously with his friends in the outside world was the only thing keeping Pesto going.

As he laid awake, now looking up at the grey ceiling, he kept thinking about that dream. One day, he promised himself. One day.