A Halloween Story...
It was a dark a stormy night . . . .
"Excellent!" Exclaimed Mad Scientist Dr. Mijo, "Just the kind of weather that I need for my great experiment!"
She pivoted on her torso, tail lashing with anticipation of the upcoming event. Holding her centaur body in check, she called down to her massive taurservent, Argor.
"Argor, you cretin! Watch what you're doing! The flux capacitors have to be precisely alligned!"
Argor, his strength and size was matched only by the loyalty to this crazed fem'taur, Dr. Mavra Elizabeth Mijo, creator of the self-cooking weiner, and mistress of of the taurisizor.
"Yesss, Missstressss!" Argor drooled in obeyance, "your wish isss my will! Heh... heh... heh... "
"Oh, drop the act, Argor, and just align the capacitors. Plus to minus, plus to minus, you know the drill."
Argor slurped up his saliva and wiped his mouth, straightening himself up, "Oh, ok, Mavra, sorry, got a little too much into it."
She started to rub her hands again, thinking gleefully of the events about to unfold, and what has led up to it. Her subject was some silly sod who had a most unfortunate accident with a power amp and a bolt of lightning. Acting quickly, she had been able to keep his body away from governmental experimentation for all these years, she knew all of the tricks, but there was no spark of life within it. But soon! Soon! Soon the same force of nature that had ended his life shall be used to bring it forth once again!
"MWAAAHAAAAHAAAA(whinny!)HAAAAHAAAAA!!"
Argor looked up after setting down the huge, water-heater sized capacitor, "Mistress Mavra, don't whinny, you're a centaur, not a horse. Remember, horse-like but..."
"Shut up, you! Contentrate on what you're doing, not on my egomonomaniacal laughter!"
Argor sighed, "Yes, Mistress."
"Right, where was I?"
Argor muttered under his breath unto himself, "you were whinnying your head off..."
"Ah! I remember! MWAAAHAAAAHAAA! Soon I will have the power of life after death!"
Argor grumbled, again quietly to himself, "Sure, sure, the power of life, but we can't even get basic cable in these mountains..."
Soon, the preparations were ready, the grand experiment began, lights flashed, dials indicated, nobs were turned...
"Mistress Mavra! You must stop this insane experiment! It is monstrous! Monstrous, I tell you! A centaur was not made to wield power of this magnitude!"
"Fool! Cretin! IMBICILE! The power was here all along! Those cowards at Embry-Riddle expelled me when I proclaimed that it was possible! I shall prove them wrong! Raise the table!"
"Yes, Mistress!" Argor obeyed and did so.
Standing alongside the table, goggles over her eyes, she looked upon the cloaked form under the sheet.
"Yes... yes my un-named centaur creation... you shall live.... AGAIN!"
Seeing that the storm was starting to pass, she cried down to Argor again, "Faster, you fool! The storm is waning!"
"Yes, Mistress! Yes Mistress!"
Operating levers like a madtaur, Argor flipped, turned, and spun everything within armreach, even kicking a lever back with his hind hoof. Within moments, the table rose even quicker, into the heart of the storm.
"Argor! Set the capacitance to maximum!"
"Yes, Mistress!"
"Raise the ionizer up three... more... levels!"
"Yes, Mistress!"
"Turn the flow regulators to... ELEVEN!"
"Mistress! We never tested them to eleven!"
"Do as I say, damn you!"
"Yes, Mistress! Yes Mistress!"
Argor obeyed the wishes of his mad mistress, and turned a knob, previously set at ten, to a badly engraved setting of 'eleven', scrawled upon the sheet metal surface with a second-hand engraving pen.
Turning her attention back to the lifeless body underneath the sheet, she plugged the 1/4-phone jacks into the specially-made inserts on each side of the body's neck, linking them directly to his nervous system. While inactive now, that would soon change.
Looking up at the rolling clouds she saw that... "the storm is fading fast! Egad!"
Leaning over the rail, again she called down to Argor, "Argor! It's fading fast, along with my chance to succeed! Ready the sounding rocket! I shall pierce the heart of this storm cloud with my wrath and experimental genius, and rip from it that which is rightfully mine!" She bellowed outwards at the wind, storm, and driving rain, "I shall have my life!"
Argor smartly trotted over to the big, red, shiny, candy-like button and mashed it with his thumb. Outside, one of the castle's tower's top popped off, revealing a silo, with an untested Atlas-Centaur rocket nestelled neatly within. A roar was heard from the rocket, and flames shot out through the strategically-placed windows, spewing forth the heat of the massive engines, and setting fire to the bushes and trees that surround the castle along that corner. While the rain had soon put out these burning embers, it did not so with the rocket, which shot upwards at great velocity, matching the acceleration of a Sprint, with only five miles of electical cable and a paltry fuel load being its only extra weight.
"Yesss!!" Mavra the Mad exclaimed, seeing the rocket lance heavenward, "For life's sake... I stab at thee!"
"For test's sake, I spend my last dime at thee! Go forth my messanger! Go forth and bring me back my life!!"
The rocket lanced neatly into the storm cloud, and exploding once inside, causing a massive electrical discharge to occur in the highly unstable air, racing downwards along the cable at nearly the speed of light in a vacuum, through power couplings and high-temperature superconductors that were designed to take such abuse. The current started to fill the capacitors, causing them to glow with the immense electrical energy contained within.
"Mistress Mavra! The capacitors! The capacitors! They're filling up!"
"Of course they are! They have the power of the storm and my intellect surging through them now! Close the connection when they are filled to capacity, but not a moment sooner!"
Flipping a switch that only she had access to upon the table, next to the corpse, wired to both it and the hundred-meter long lightning rod stuck upon a hill not far away.
"Capacitors filled, Mistress!"
"Excellent! Disconnect!"
"Disconnected, Mistress!"
"Excellent! Now... wait for it... wait for it..."
As if in an off-hand gesture, Mother Nature slung a lightning bolt at the cast iridium/tungsten rod, sending another bolt of power towards the castle. At the flipping of the switch, she had automated the system, letting the shielded computer down far below control the power surges, regulating the electricity crackle and flow upon the lifeless form before her, laying upon the slab. It jumped and twitched as muscles spasmed, contorted, neurons, previously inert, were jump-started back to life like one would jump-start an old-fashioned automobile from the '80s.
"Lower us down, Argor!"
"Yes, Mistress!"
Again, Argor threw switches and pulled levers, lowering the platform with its known one, and perhaps two, now, living occupants. The body still steamed and glowed with the residual electrical energy that had flowed through it.
"How are the capacitors?"
"Drained, Mistress, but still operational." He looked at the seemingly lifeless form, "Did it work, Mistress Mavra?"
"We wait now, taurservant Argor, we wait..."
The two did not have to wait for long, a flutter of breath was heard, rising of both human and equine chests were seen, proclaiming...
"Alive!" Mavra the Mad screamed, "IT... IS... ALIVE!!!"
"Mistress! What have you done? What have you brought upon us all?!? What is it???"
"Be at rest, my faithfull and loyal taurservant, Argor... I present unto you.... CHIRONSTEIN!!"
Chironstein looked creakily around, and getting shakily to his hooves, and saw an object... a thing of most radiant beauty to his newly-alive eyes... and wobbly clopped to it.
"ErrrrRRRRrrrrr!"
Waving his arms about, Chironstein walked forth towards his goal.
"Yes, my creation, yes!" Exclaimed Mavra, "Walk! Walk! Show the world what I can do!"
Her creation was brought up short, by just a few meters from his goal. The plugs in his neck was holding him back.
"ErrrRRrr? RRRRRrrrrr!" With a yank, he unplugged himself from what was holding him back, and reached forth to claim his prize.
"Yes! Reach for it! Reach for it!" Shouted Mavra.
"Reach for what, Mistress Mavra?" Asked Argor.
"I don't know! I'm just trying to encourage him! Encouragement is a vital part of a newborn's life, you know."
"Oh."
Chironstein reached the object of his desire...
Mavra blinked in mild surprise, "A... stratocaster?"
Argor chimed in, "A... Guild?"
Grinning like death itself, Chironstein held forth his prize in triumph and started to play, in shallow, hollow tones. Reaching for one of his plugs, he plugged it in and strummed forth anew, bringing forth a loud, bassy sound that filled the cavernous room.
"Excellent riffs!" Chironstein proclaimed, "You guys have the *best* accoustics!"
He started playing another tune....
Mavra and Argor leaned against one another in befuddlement.
"Sounds like 'Afternoon Delight', Mistress."
Mavra nodded her agreement, "Yes, it does... c'mon, let's go. We'll try next week after we fish the rocket out of the lake again."
Argor nodded, following her out of the room, leaving Chironstein grinning from electrode to electrode, playing, prancing and strumming along on his guitar.
The End.