The chief scientist's voice crackled over the noise of several hundred videos:
"We've decided that your mental state appears to be stable enough to continue. I just want to remind you that we want to keep you alive and healthy, and we can abort at any time. You've done more than enough today."
"I know. I want to keep going." Ashley beamed 8 beautiful smiles.
"For this next stage, we are going to introduce an additional stimuli. You will need to interact with laptops and input information based on both the media clips being played on the walls, and information I tell you. Like the previous segment, this is also timed, and your objective is to get as many points as you can. The exact timing will depend on the scenario - Just try to do as much as you can."
6 pedestals rose in a hexagonal shape near the edges of the room - far enough that Ashley would need to walk around between them. An open laptop was affixed on the top of each pedestal, and each showed an idle screen saying "Waiting for input". Ashley also noticed that a few of the screens on each wall was replaced by a large number, likely indicating the ID of the wall, as each was different.
"Let's begin. First scenario. Activate each laptop, and input the number of news shows on the wall with the same ID as the laptop. Go."
Ashley rushed over to the closest laptop. She hadn't realized just yet exactly how top heavy she was, but on nearly slamming into the laptop, it immediately became apparently to her. Pushing the spacebar revealed a big 2, which matched the wall behind the laptop. She immediately knew there were 7 news shows playing on that wall, entered it, clicked "Submit" and moved on to the next laptop.
She got through 4 laptops before a buzzer sounded and the laptops reverted to the Waiting for input screen.
"Time. Good warm-up. Accuracy of about 80%. Second scenario. The laptops have to be activated in a specific order. That order is dictated by the number of cartoons playing on the laptop's selected wall. Go from smallest number to highest. In case of a tie, the order doesn't matter. Go."
The screens of the various laptops changed to each show a number, and Ashley started counting cartoon shows on each wall. It took her a couple of seconds to get a count for each wall. Once she had it, she rushed between the laptops as quickly as she could, and activated them in the order. After the 6th one, a chime sounded.
"Early completion. Accuracy of 90%. Nicely done. Third scenario. When activated, each laptop will display a media category, and a qualifier. You will need to enter the number of entries that match the laptop's criteria."
"Wait a second. Is that going to be on a specific wall, or the videos on ALL the walls?" Ashley cringed slightly inside. It was clear that she was doing better than was originally expected, but this seemed difficult even for her. She couldn't watch all of the videos at the same time...
"That may be the criteria. If it isn't the criteria, then it means for the entire room. Ready?"
"Uh, I guess, yeah." Ashley tapped the spacebar on the closest laptop and was presented with the category "advertisement" and the criteria "medicine". A small groan escaped one of Ashley's mouths as she scanned the room for all the advertisements she could find. About 5 seconds of watching later, Ashley thought she had the number - 8.
Entering it, she moved on to the next laptop and groaned with 2 mouths when she saw what it wanted: advertisements with a criteria of not medicine. Another count of the room and she had her answer.
So it went for 2 more laptops - Each one asking her to perform mental gymnastics with the large amount of media data presented to her.
"Time. 65% accuracy. The laptops are going to be moved closer together so there will be 2 next to each other. Watch your feet."
Tracks lifted up out of the floor, and the laptop pedestals shifted so they were spaced roughly equidistant in pairs.
"This next bit expects you to work with 2 laptops at the same time. Each laptop will show you 2 problems. The first problem can be solved through simple observation. The 2nd problem will require the answer from the other laptop's first problem. Ready?"
Ashley couldn't help but smile - this seemed to fit more in her court - parallel thinking. "Yeah. Let's do this!"
The laptops flashed on, and Ashley rushed over to the first set and started to work on both of the first problems. The left problem was "number of cartoons" and the second problem was "number of advertisements". She succeeded in gathering both answers much faster than she expected - just a couple of seconds. Then she looked at the second problems and her jaws dropped.
The left second problem was "number of news shows with a female anchor or guest minus number of advertisements from the first problem that had a car in them".
The right second problem was even worse: "the cartoons on display have been randomized. calculate the number of current cartoons with animals visible, and add that to the number of cartoons from the first problem that did not have animals visible."
Ashley struggled to answer the problems, and moved on to the next set of laptops as quickly as she could. As she did, the familiar throbbing pain returned, slowly engulfing all 4 of her heads.
A buzzer interrupted Ashley midway through the 3rd laptop set. "Time. 37% accuracy. Don't feel bad, we really pushed you off the deep end there. Wanted to challenge you."
Ashley let out a trio of loose and uncertain laughs. "You did."
"Good. You need to be challenged for the chamber to work well. For this next challenge, the laptops will remain where they are. The left laptop can be activated first, and will require some entry. It will also state some information. Once you've done all 3 left laptops, the right laptops will activate and you will need to solve them."
After the crazy challenges of the previous round, Ashley was extra careful to try and remember everything she could about the videos as she raced between the left 3 laptops. On entering the answer into all 3 laptops, the right laptops activated and she looked at their puzzles. The first one read "in field 1, tally the number currently shown on all 3 right laptops. in field 2, report the names of all the shows currently showing title sequences. then activate each left laptop once."
Ashley barely had time to finish the first right laptop before the buzzer rang. "Time. Accuracy: Uhh... Let's move on. Getting the next permutation setup"
The dull throbbing that had been pulsing through Ashley's heads quickly intensified and pushed itself throughout the rest of her body. An octuplet of groans escaped her lips, and she fell to the ground, catching herself with 4 arms. Her rear torso came to rest on top of her front torso, cushioned by her breasts. Spears of pain ran throughout her entire body.
Then her rear torso did something she never would have expected - it launched itself from her body. Her rear torso flew almost 4 meters before painfully crashing into the ground. Where her rear torso had connected to her waist had been severed cleanly and was covered with fresh raw skin.
Ashley looked over at her severed torso in awe and disbelief. Her heads on her severed torso looked back at the body they had just detached from.
"What the he-" "What the fu-"
Her exclamations were cut short as both points of severance started to grow rapidly, triggering an overwhelming pleasurable sensation. On her original body, a new torso rapidly grew to fill the space the rear torso had just vacated. Ashley's separated yet still conscious rear torso was rapidly growing a pelvis, legs, and what appeared to be a new front torso.
Only about 20 seconds later, both bodies had finished regrowing, and Ashley woke up in her 4 new heads. Despite no longer being physically connected, she clearly sensed and moved both bodies. She pushed both of her selves to their feet and for the first time since being changed, looked at herself from a distance.
What she saw was pleasing - she was very attractive. Her extras didn't seem to diminish her beauty, actually they seemed to enhance it. To her surprise, she did find that she was attracted to her other body... With both her bodies. It was a weird feeling to have a lust for flesh that was already hers, yet it pulsed in the back of her minds.
Ashley was slowly closing the gap between her two bodies when one of her front torsos, without warning, fell off. Like with the rear torso, there was membrane of flesh covering the area where it had separated. And like last time, flesh immediately started to grow to replace the removed torso, and started to grow out of the torso itself. Then a torso on her other body fell off, and the process started to repeat itself.
Less than a minute later, all her detached flesh had a full body attached to it, giving her a total of 4 bodies. Ashley was overwhelmed - she had gone from 4 heads to 16 heads in less than 90 seconds. And not only had her consciousness quadrupled, but she was now in 4 pieces that are each effectively complete and whole. What had happened to her was unheard of in all reasonable scientific circles.
Ashley sat her selves down in a rough circle in the middle of the chamber. She didn't want to fall down any more than she already had - it had hurt. And then she waited.
Several minutes later, the projectors and speakers for the video in the chamber turned off, and the intercom crackled on.
"Ashley... Talk to us."
Ashley could clearly see the lead scientist in the control room. The scientist looked incredibly scared and worried - a stark contrast to the smile she had an hour ago when Ashley had gotten in the chamber.
Ashley spoke with the head on the body closest to the control room. "I seem to be okay. It's weird, but I am all 4 uh.. Me's. As far as I can tell, I have a shared consciousness that connects the 4 bodies."
"Tha- We- Uh... Okay. Ashley... We tried to run the devolution process as soon as you split into two. It failed. The chamber can't devolve you... Because you are technically 4 people now."