Comm: Bye-Bye to Byron’s Brain (Part 1)

Bye-Bye to Byron’s Brain: (Content Tags: Brain damage, brain removal, humiliation, diapers, wet pants, messy diapers, twisted fate, dark ending) Byron always had to be such a pompous little know-it-all. 'Genius' this, and 'stunning brilliance' that; it had grown from simply tiring, to aggravating, to downright sickening. It wasn't a lie by any measure; by all accounts, Byron was a super-genius that would have a flourishing career in whatever advanced sciences that interested him. For Kepler? It being true didn't make it any less grating to hear. Him and Byron had ostensibly been best friends for years, though their actual dynamic was more toxic than most. Byron was an egomaniacal narcissist, and Kepler was a borderline-sociopathic enabler who had lost the will to continue things the way they were. Their less savory characteristics were what had brought them together in the first place. Byron wanted a sycophant that he could boast to, and Kepler wanted a friend that wielded great power; what better form of power was there other than intellect? A few years later, and Kepler was ready to pull the plug on things. Taking advantage of Byron's genius was a nice perk, and being in association with the boy did make him feel powerful, but the incessant smugness from Byron was really not worth it anymore. Kepler would have been satisfied enough to end the friendship the traditional way, but Byron had pushed things too far. The day that he'd initially intended to do it, while approaching the topic gently, Byron had ended going on a rant about all the 'puny minds' he had to surround himself with. In that diatribe, Kepler himself had been labeled a 'tiny-brained moron' with hardly a shred of decency from the loon mouthing off. Kepler had interjected, to call Byron on his nonsense, and the genius had rebutted with brushing off Kepler's feelings. "I'm just saying what's true, Kep. My IQ score is over double what yours is. You're practically just a mentally vacuous moron in comparison; wouldn't you feel the same about the kids that have half your IQ?" The intention of the statement was brutally clear. Byron had pretty much stated that in comparison to him, Kepler was no different than the drooly, diaper-loading morons of the 'special' classes. After all that Kepler had put up with, and Byron unceremoniously insinuated he was a retard in contrast. Thus sprung the nuclear option. One of the reasons that Kepler had a difficult time making friends was the fact that he could be somewhat...Unhinged. He wasn't necessarily violent or loud, but he had a spiteful seething that was void of any true empathy. He was willing to do harm to someone, just in more clever and devious ways. So he began to hatch a dark plot against his 'best friend'. Something that would take that smug grin off his face. The most obvious target of his assault would be the thing that Byron treasured most: his intelligence. So the planning stretched along, with Kepler charting out various different plans, each one finding its way into the rubbish bin. Until he figured out what the perfect thing would be, and the perfect way to execute it. With the final draft concluded, Kepler now had a way to turn Byron into the very thing he'd so pompously said that Kepler was. And it'd all look like some big unfortunate lab accident. That brought things to the scene of the crime-to-be: the academy laboratory. With his IQ score, Byron had full access to everything in the facility, which was exactly what Kepler had planned on. He would need to be able to use one of the more advanced machines to put his plan into action. Kepler had been waiting for Byron to need to be here of his own volition; he hadn't had to wait long, with Byron mentioning he was working on a new theory and that he'd need a lab assistant to do the grunt work. As usual, that meant Kepler, but this time the boy had brought something else in his bag. A diaper. One big enough for a pompous preteen like Byron, and bulky enough for what Byron would become. After all the reflection on the matter, Kepler had come to the revelation that a diaper was the ultimate symbol of idiocy. It was a cornerstone to the archetype of the mindless, and its simplistic function was the greatest symbol of what Byron would be reduced to. The diaper was only an accessory here though; it'd become helpful, once Byron's brain was out of the equation, and it'd magnify the humiliation that Kepler intended to deal. "Here, hold this flux charger. Try not to jiggle anything." This would be the last time that Kepler suffered this indignity. Byron was oblivious to the treachery in the air, while his quiet friend was acutely tuned in to all the blood that was in the water. His hazel eyes tracked every step that the genius took, and the impulse to act was beating like a drum in his ears. Once Byron had turned away, Kepler reached a hand out and grabbed one of the boy's tools off of the work table. He tossed it off to the side, right toward the machine he'd had in mind for this whole twisted tale. "Ah, oops...Your thingy rolled off the table, man." Byron turned around and stomped to the table, putting down his clipboard as he looked at everything present. "You imbecile! That was the sonic warper! Where'd it bounce off too?!" Kepler pointed in the direction that he'd tossed the thing, "Over there, I think. You want me to grab it...?" "No, no! Something like that is too advanced to put in your hands. I'll grab it." The brainy brat huffed and stormed across the room, unaware that Kepler was quietly following. As soon as Byron was in the proper position, Kepler reached over and flipped the switch on the machine that he'd been meaning to ensnare Byron with this whole time. A large tube came down, with a nozzle on the end that looked more like a helmet. Before Byron had a chance to react, the 'helmet' had affixed to his head, and with one speedy 'whoosh', it had done its job fantastically. Byron's expression slackened, his eyes glazing over. "So easy..." Kepler muttered with a grin, pressing a few more buttons on the console and being rewarded with the genius's brain being placed in a glass enclosure. When Kepler had heard of this machine, it'd sounded too good to be true. It was a 'brain extractor', typically intended for implanting special neural augmentations. With stunning science of the future, the machine essentially teleported the brain from the skull, all while leaving a wireless transmission that kept the body functioning at a very low level. Usually, the subject's body would be sedated and restrained during these procedures, but otherwise the body had a very primitive, infantile 'mind' of its own. The transmission didn't end there though. While the brain was excised, the person's brainwaves and subsequent consciousness was streamed to the machine itself. The brain was embedded with millions of nanoscopic machines that kept it functioning independently of a body to support it. Meanwhile, the transmission it was streaming to the device, gave Byron an artificial 'vessel' to inhabit while he was apart from his body. That took form in a life-sized hologram of Byron that suddenly spawned to life in the room, just as Kepler had started to open up his bag. Pixel by pixel, the image of his victim was manifesting, directly connected to the brain sitting in the dome. "You nimrod, what did you do?!" Kepler smiled and looked up, "Just thought it was time for a shake-up, buddy. Thought that maybe I should become the brains of our little duo." He gestured towards the mindless body that Byron had left behind, "Is it strange to see yourself like that? Like a spectator of yourself? It's like a preview of what you'll become...A mushbrained moron, a complete retard." The hologram was fuming, though it couldn't so anything in this ethereal state. Byron had to watch as Kepler coaxed his body over, cringing as he could see drool and snot idly trailing down his face. He then heard a splashing and got wide-eyed at the sight of his mindless body beginning to urinate in his own pants, seemingly without any control. "Uh-oh! Someone is all wet! Don't worry, Byron. I came prepared." Kepler pulled out a large white rectangle from his bag and began to unfurl it from its dormant state. "Is that...That's a diaper! You can't put me in a diaper! It's unbecoming, it's undignified!" Kepler looked back at the hologram and waved the diaper at him. "You're covered in your own piss, I think that a diaper is just what you're in need of. You'll have to get used to wearing them anyways; part of the retard uniform, you know?" None of Byron's complaints or seething fury could stop Kepler from stripping the boy of his soaked pants and replacing his bottoms with the big bulky diaper. He also took the boy's shirt from him, making sure that the huge infantile garment was the only thing he had on. "There we go...Big poofy pottypants for the tard. I made sure to get the thick ones; the ones made specifically just for low IQ morons." If looks could kill, Kepler would have been reduced to a smear on the floor by Byron's steely eyes. Kepler was attacking the ego directly, and Byron just had to take it. "Now that you're all padded up, time to get down to business. As I said, I'm sick of your disgusting narcissism. I told myself if I had to hear you brag about your brain one more time, then I was going to ruin it, and well..." Kepler approached the machine, lifting the protective case from the brain on the podium. "...That's not exactly true." He lifted the heavy thing and turned around, heading back toward the drooling shell that was sitting there in a fresh diaper. "I'm not going to be the one ruining your brain, you are." Kepler bent down and handed the pink structure to the idiot on the floor, much to Byron's clear horror. "You can't give that to him! He'll drool all over it, or worse!" Kepler folded his arms and smirked. "Why are you so worried, Byron? You're so smart that I bet you could withstand a little brain damage and still be a genius." The mindless body of Byron looked down vacantly at the brain that should have been in his skull. Was it some type of toy? He let it drop onto the floor to see if it would bounce, but it landed with an unsatisfactory 'plop'. Looking at the hologram, Kepler could see that Byron had a full-body shudder from the event. It was like a neurological slap, a shock to the system, but no real damage to the durable thing. "K-Kepler, if you don't stop what you're doing..." "Oh? Do tell? Am I supposed to feel threatened by a hologram? Because once you have your body back, you won't even be able to spell the word 'threat', let alone levy one against me." Byron's body suddenly lifted an arm and prodded the brain with more force, giggling vacantly at the squishy feeling he got from it. There was another shudder from the hologram, "N-no, that's the temporal lobe, you imbecile!" Kepler let out a little laugh. "Wonder how long you'll still be able to identify the different parts. It'll get hard once they start to get scrambled, don't you think?" (Continued in Part 2)