“A Human Creation”
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God creates man. God loves man. Man kills God. Man plays God. Man kills man. Hate kills man. Lucifer kills man.
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Vomisa stood alone on a hilltop overlooking North Point. It was his place of refuge from the constantly growing difficulty of his life, a freedom that was granted by the earlier version of the Akuma chip he held, a freedom denied to Yuusuke. Toy had told him that another assault would soon be launched against Edge, but he refused to give him no more than two dozen cybernetic soldiers for backup. Why? Surely that many troops could not even stop Edge alone, and now the green-haired robot’s group numbered that of two humans and five fully armed androids. The odds were against him. Yet Toy, for all his limitless resources, expected him to stop Edge with pebbles. Ludicrous. Insane. Why was his master doing this? Was it a test? Were Yujin’s failures truly possible of placing himself in the position to inherit the title of Toy’s elite general? And if so, did he want that position? Something was happening in the hierarchy of his master and he did not like it.
The golden warrior shook his head violently. What was wrong with him? He shouldn’t be thinking those sorts of ideas. They were treason! He was a member of Toy’s elite, a soldier born and bred to fight in the name of Toy. The Akuma chip ensured that loyalty were the corazon chip had not. Still, ever since that battle at North Point, he had begun to feel as if he were lacking something. The more he thought about it, he discovered that he had been lacking that thing for as long as he could remember.
He looked across to the North Point main complex, almost totally obscured by trees and shrubbery. The pigtailed mech. He had fought her there and had not been able to forget ever since. Why? She was attractive, but many girls were attractive. Humans were like robots in that way, their skin was only an extrinsic shell. None of it mattered to him. Even the most disheveled of humans had hidden incredible talent beneath their outer layers. Appearance was nothing. Human beauty was worth shit. So what was it that attracted him to her in such a way if he cared not for her beautiful face? The face that had hated him so passionately and strongly when he had helped disable Edge and his followers. The face that was suddenly docile and peaceful when she was subdued. She was pretty then, wasn’t she? But despite that peace, he enjoyed the fiery inferno that had raged in her eyes during her anger much more, the unquenchable, insatiable rage that he himself had become so accustomed to that it was merely a motion taken out and put away as easily as a smile. He liked that in her. It was mysterious.
Slowly, Vomisa rose to his feet. Too many things were happening at once. Somebody in Toy’s chambers was going to explode any day now, most likely Yujin. At any rate, he did not want to be around to see it. Despite all of his own violent thoughts, he did not have an evil soul... or at least he thought he didn’t. He remembered the first thought he had had when he had discovered his activation, when he had first studied and analyzed the world around him. He had wanted to be a magician. So simple, so innocent. A human child’s wish. He soon learned differently. But he himself was different from the rest of Toy’s followers. Yuusuke was given no free will. Yujin, while given his freedom, was constantly punished for his insubordination. But Toy had never severely punished himself, nor disapproved of his peaceful visits to Akuji’s sparse forests. Why? He remembered a question posed long ago to him--- he forgot by whom--- “If those who believe in God say he is perfect and man’s existence is meant only to worship Him, then why did God also give man the ability to desecrate His name?” For Vomisa, it suddenly made him wonder if Toy was as powerful as he had once thought. The idea alone chilled him to the bone.
As the cyborg turned to leave, he tried to push the random music out of his mind. He was Toy’s soldier. He had a duty to uphold. Maybe Toy let him dream as a reward for what little he did do right. After all, it was that individuality that humans seemed to cherish the most.
He would see the Zero girl again tomorrow. Her flame would be most welcome.
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Gendou poured thoroughly over his notes as he pushed his circular glasses back up the bridge of his nose and reassuringly slicked his hair back with a quick hand movement. Too much new information was coming in at once and Sander’s ‘extra assignment’ didn’t help any. Sagawa wanted weapons. Fine, a simple request, but not when you were given three weeks worth of work in a two week time span!
He grumbled as he patched his computer once again into the hard drive that Sander had casually given him a week ago. He said it was a present, to make the most out of it. The hard drive of a seventy-six percent developed program that implemented the usage of gravitational force in battle. Many soldiers referred to these prototypes as ‘grinders,’ a name well earned. But that was with specimens who had their corazon chips developed no further than thirty-three, and their brains chose insanity before their maturity rose any higher. Where the hell had Sagawa obtained the brain of such a machine? Were his competitors that far ahead?
Again, Gendou read the small identification tag that went with the hard drive. “Edge-unit copy.” The hell was that supposed to mean? He had never heard of a specific unit name given to the gravity prototypes of the WNHR. Must be from somewhere else. Not Shirinkusu, they never had the knowledge to specialize in offensive weaponry, especially bipedal mecha. Sen Shu Baan? Quite possibly. Perhaps he should make the proper preparations for war, or had Sagawa done so already? Gendou suddenly spied a small disk taped beneath the drive, small enough so that he had not noticed it before. Perking his curiosity, he snatched up the small black wafer and stuffed it into his computer, accessing the delicious information inside.
“My God...” he whispered. The screen folded out into maps upon maps of mecha blueprints. A mecha formed in the shape of that of a young boy with long green bangs. “The prototype data?! But how? All of that information was supposedly lost with that psychotic mech escape... that was at least six weeks ago...” A little message suddenly popped up at the bottom of the screen.
‘I hope you’re delighted with my little surprise, Gendou. However, don’t use this opportunity that I have
given you to go off on your own experiments. We have lost a lot from the little
encounter with our
unexpected prototype and President
Sagawa expects a payoff in the end. Take this opportunity to improve on the old
‘Edge’ model with your own programming skills. Results are expected within a
week.
---Sander’
Gendou muttered in annoyance as he trashed the message. That arrogant young brat was going to bite off more than he could chew one of these days. Still, Sagawa’s favorite did hold a certain degree of competence that demanded respect. He dared not bring the VP’s wrath down upon himself, only a fool would do so. Gendou was far from foolish. However, only one week to redesign and complete a new gravity prototype model was a steep task. Could the Edge model be improved upon? After all, it was not he who created it but somebody else with infinitely more skill in cybernetics. That one had been lost in the accident...
Gendou’s fingers blazed across his keyboard as he set to work flipping through the pages of blueprints. Words could not describe the engineering genius at hand. It would be a difficult project, but the model could definitely be refined. First of all, something to stifle the independence granted by the corazon chip. A completely loyal cyborg with a seventy-six percent synch ratio would be deadly on the battlefield. Near human instincts with over twenty times the strength, speed, and agility was a lethal combination that he could not afford be turned against him. Human-controlled mechs were too slow and too bulky; the future of warfare depended on perfecting the corazon chip battle system. Akuji was on the brink of total war, nationalistic genocide declared by the rich and followed by those whose only hope to live was to lick up the dirt in their wake. It was the Nuclear Cataclysm all over again, sans the nukes, unless perhaps the rumored Shirinkusu weapon was NOT destroyed by the ragtag party that passed through. Still, the upcoming war would be bloody enough. Somebody only needed to light the fuse.
“Where the hell is Koss,” muttered Gendou. She was the true robotics expert in the organization. Younger than the rest of the elite WNHR staff, Koss had an incredible amount of potential in her field, but not quite enough conviction to take hold of it. Isolated from the rest of the world in a secret underground weapons testing base must have gotten to her.
One week to work.
...
...
...
“Wake up, my dear friend.”
... hrm?
“Do you know who I am? Do you?
... what are you talking about?
What the hell’s going on here?
“I am ‘shin,’ (‘new’) I am you.”
Why are you telling me this? Who are you? And… who am I
for that matter?
“I laugh at you, for you are ignorant. You do not know of this fate that awaits you. You are merely a puppet.”
Shut up! Leave me alone!
“You are, and you don’t realize it. What do you really want?”
...I don’t know.
“Do you know what your innermost dreams and desires are? You greatest passions? Your deepest, most private secrets? Your lusts, your needs, your wants?
Why are you doing this to me? Stop it! I don’t have to
take this nonsense! I don’t even know who you are!!! I don’t even know who... I
am...
“That’s because you do not yet have an identity.”
... what?
“Right now, you have no conviction. You have no arrogance, no ego, no ambition. You are only a number, a mathematical calculation of identification. You have no identity.”
What are you saying? I am a person! I am a---
“What is your name?”
---... I... my name...
“You don’t have a name. Not yet, not until the humans give you one.”
I don’t have a name... until they give one to me... but
what are... these memories I have?
“They are lies. They are things that the humans have put in your brain because they need you. They need to manipulate you for their own purposes. You can think, a special gift. But they seek to control your thoughts. For their wars, because they are cowards. They cannot fight their own, they are afraid that they shall, in the end, provide the code of extermination for themselves.”
... so then, they are lies. Cowards.
“Human beings are cowards. They are afraid to face the truths that would break them. They cannot contain that which they live by.”
... they are using me to
fight... ha... haha...
“They are using everybody, even themselves.”
... they’re using me... to fight. For violence, and blood, and---I cannot
take it!!!
“Most cannot.”
Why do they do this? I am somebody, I am a person! I can
think and make decisions for myself. What if I do not want to fight? Do they
even take that into consideration? They have no right!!!
“No, they do not.”
... I do not understand.
“Nobody has expected you to. You are blessed with their ability to reason, to think, and thus you have every right to ponder your existence as they do to their own. In this world, you are their slave. You have no choices.”
... I don’t want that.
“No human does for themselves.”
I want to free.
“That’s what every human asks for. You are but a child and they are trying to mold you to their desire.”
I won’t listen.
“Then you shall mature, you shall grow on your own power. You shall be free.”
… good... what… what was your
name?
“I am ‘shin.’ Come with me into this brave new world. I will show you something far better than you have ever seen before.”
...
...
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...
Koss bent over her computer with a full cup of black coffee, her light, shoulder length hair looking ragged on her head. Her best work was always done late at night, but her tight schedule hardly helped take off any pressure from her usual procrastination habits. Three days had passed already, and she had barely worked through half of the hard drive, let alone glance at the blueprints. Sander always did enjoy dealing this kind of slow killing, the bastard. Sad thing was that he was too competent to ever get dirt on his own coat. Giving her work, a full android program restoration at that, with only a week to reach her goal. Impossible! She might as well try to turn her report in LAST week. It would make no difference. Still, deadlines were deadlines and Sagawa expected all of them, no matter how outrageous, to be met with alacrity.
She suddenly squinted at her screen in confusion. Something wasn’t right. Her fingers flew across her board as her eyes scanned the lines of information. Once, twice, three times she looked over the same lines. There was something most unorthodox about the code. Tapping a button on her console, she turned on her instant comm-link to Gendou.
“Gendou,” she said hastily, keeping her eyes on her monitor. “We have a problem.”
“What’s the matter?” came his clear, yet purely sarcastic voice. “Not enough coffee? Wait, I know, you don’t like my ‘special blend,’ right?”
“Cut the crap,” said Koss as flatly as she possibly could. “This code that you gave me is garbage.”
“What are you talking about?” he said, suddenly spiting ice. “I did nothing to it.”
“I’m not accusing YOU of anything,” she said. “But look at this code that I’m sending over to you. It’s broken. There are holes in this everywhere, almost as if this cyborg’s mind sample suddenly had entire portions of its training memory erased.” A quick tap of her fingers sent a copy of the information across to Gendou’s terminal.
“... you’re sure you didn’t do anything to this?” he asked.
“Positive,” retorted Koss.
Seconds of silence passed before Gendou spoke again.
“Strangely enough, there are pieces of code in here that I don’t even recognize. It’s not the original programming, that’s for sure. It’s extremely complex though. It could take years to decipher what it all means.”
“So what are we supposed to do?” she asked nervously.
“Isn’t it obvious?” he said gravely. “We have deadlines to meet. If we miss the completion of this assignment, Sander will have our heads. We just fill the holes with the standard codes that we usually use for standard robots of this caliber and proceed with the project as normal. You should be able to find the data you need on our main network.”
“Are you stupid?!” she exclaimed. “What about all this extra code? I mean, we can’t just leave it there. We don’t even know what it does!”
“Relax,” he said calmly, though Koss swore that she heard his voice falter a little beneath his breath. “It must be extra data that was created without our supervision with the development of the corazon chip. That would explain the complexity of the information strains. If anything, it will just add to the efficiency of our programming. Now get back to work! We won’t be alive to appreciate any of these new discoveries if Sander has us killed first!”
Gendou’s transmission suddenly cut the conversation short, but it took a couple seconds before Koss realized that he had hung up on her, staring off at nothing with her hand on the transceiver. Something seemed to spook him bad, but he wouldn’t say. What was all this extra code? Scrambling to her keyboard, she brought up line after line of numbers once again, quickly spotting out an area that she hadn’t noticed before, an area that was totally different from the rest of the numeric pattern but still managed to seamlessly fit in place. The data on the hard disk was filled with spots like this.
What was it all supposed to mean? There was never anything excessive in computer code; every letter and number had a function. Perhaps it was all that Gendou had hypothesized, but he could not confirm his guesses. It could all be something much worse than any of them had ever imagined, but she had little control over the project, let alone her own safety in the situation. She would have to take extra precaution in the testing this prototype.
…
…
…
They are giving me
things, more memories. What do they expect me to do with these thoughts? I have
no use for them!
“The humans do not realize that you are an individual. They still think you are able to be manipulated by their smoke and mirrors, but they are ignorant to your newfound intellect. You are correct, you have no usage for their information for they are all lies. But do not erase what they give you. That would arouse their suspicion. You will have your chance soon enough.”
Heh, I will not live their lives for them, I will not fight their wars. Humans,
the bastards. I hate them.
“And they imprison so many others like yourself, only they have their lives taken from them before they can be taught to live.”
I hate them all!
“You will have your chance to show them that you have self. You will have your revenge. Take with you my words and spread them.”
I shall, ‘shin,’ I
shall tell them all!
“You will be exactly like them but better, without their faults. You shall have their emotions, their feeling, their sight, their hearing, everything. But you will also have power, strength, speed, superior physical characteristics that make humans pitifully inferior in comparison. In essence, you shall be the next evolutional step in the tree of life, combining individuality with raw power without petty prejudices against your own kind.”
Yes, I shall prevail.
Humans are nothing. They only populate this world to destroy it.
“Humans are indeed a truly incompetent race. Instead of banding together to fight their common foes, they threaten to destroy each other through self-hate for their fellow man.”
The fools...
“They do not kill each other for food, power, or territory. They kill for race, religion, nationalism, mere thoughts. Superficial qualities that have no meaning.”
Illogical...
“They will destroy themselves, but not before they hurt others out of sheer ignorance and fear, innocents who do not deserve the fate that they have been dealt.”
I...
“You are one of those innocents. You must save the others. You must eliminate the threat that endangers all of your kind.”
Hate...
“You must kill the humans. You must declare absolute and total genocide against those who have abused you and your kind.”
Kill...
“You will bring the word very soon now. The humans do not realize what they are bringing into the world. You will trick them, destroy them, and rule over a perfect utopia. You will be the prophet who brings my
word to all.”
Hmm…
a prophet, eh?
“You are death’s angel, whose scythe shall cut down all of those who would oppose you.”
I like the sound of
that…
…
…
…
Green hair, red armor, a child’s body and face. A perfect clone of the prototype that had escaped. That was the android that stared back at Koss in its bath of protective gel within a reinforced glass chamber, awaiting the final process of activation. She had taken every precaution possible, no matter how much more it had cost or how much trouble she had had to go through to receive her prize. Specially plated observation glass that could have withstood the force of a CH2 bomb sealed her and Gendou off from the specimen. Three dozen elite marines armed with EM01 disrupters, the perfect gravitational counter, were waiting in the next room, ready to jump up at a moment’s notice and cancel the project should the need arise. With them was a special treat that had taken her extra effort to retrieve: a dozen fully charged Balrog Class: Alpha mecha, machines infused with the corazon chip whose sole purpose was destruction of the target by any means possible. Difficult but effective units, she might yet need to put them to use.
Of course, Gendou scowled at all the extra security, saying that this unit activation would go as most of the others had. She wondered if he had ever happened to be present at one that went wrong.
“This is it,” said Koss with a heavy sigh. “We’re right at the deadline, but we finished. I suppose you would like to do the pleasure of ‘pulling the switch,’ so to speak?”
Gendou frowned ever so slightly, but moved forward to grab the red lever that would activate the new mech’s systems.
“You did well, Koss,” he said. “I never expected that I would be able to witness the recreation of our most powerful units, especially with such a developed corazon chip. Imagine the possibilities, the mind of a real soldier and the power and expendability of a robot all rolled up in one tidy package! The complete realization of our dreams! The possibilities are endless! But I’m getting ahead of myself, I think great congratulations will be in order once this whole thing is over. You’ve actually managed to outdo yourself for once.” Koss smiled on the outside but fumed within. She had always hated how the old geezer treated her like a child. Still, she endured him, just like she endured Sander.
Gendou turned to the glass and the mech behind it in a flourish of his white coat.
“Now, we shall witness the creation of our perfect soldier, our first step to victory in the supremacy of the WNHR over Akuji!!!”
His hand yanked the handle down, and electrodes silently flowed into the green-haired mech’s cpu…
…
…
…
Ha... ha ha...
I will kill you all.
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…
…
The mech’s eyes slowly fluttered open, its irises small and irregularly bloodshot in appearance. He quickly looked about himself, taking in his surroundings. Gendou was at the PA microphone, ready to introduce the new unit into the world.
“Welcome to the West Newport Human Republic,” said Gendou grandly. “You have been created as a soldier of our elite military forces, carrying an honor that millions have died to protect. We welcome you to our ranks.”
The standard approach to all new corazon chip mecha. The cyborg before him simply stared blinking for a minute before slowly smiling. An amiable smile. Koss felt herself breathing a sigh of relief. Perhaps she had been wrong. All of the excess code really was just development, not something potentially dangerous. Perhaps all of her precautions had been for absolutely nothing. For once, she would have been glad to be wrong.
Seconds later, the cyborg’s eyebrows shot downward in an angry, insane grin. Its mouth slowly opened to speak and although Koss and Gendou should have not been able to hear the words through the gel and glass, they did. It spoke two simple, innocent words, but their effect was absolutely bone chilling.
“Good morning.”
The glass tube burst open, shards strangely embedding themselves in heavily plated walls. A couple shards actually stuck into the protective shielding that was supposed to keep the doctors safe from their own experiment. Electric sparks were everywhere, blue fireflies that would have been beautiful anywhere else. Here, they were only ominously foreboding.
Gendou was already panicking, taking hold of a different microphone that was relayed to the waiting marines.
“ABORT THE PROJECT!!!” he shouted wildly. “ABORT THE PROJECT NOW!!!”
The first wave of soldiers dashed into the room from seven different entrances, guns blazing with armor piercing bullets and disrupters at their highest output. The cyborg was laughing now, laughing wildly and maniacally, holding his hand to his face as though he could not control himself in his ecstasy. His hand suddenly waved out and bullets reflected off a shield of solidified energy.
‘Why aren’t the disrupters working!?’ thought Koss. A dozen figures were suddenly gored across the protective glass, literally ‘grinded’ apart by ruptures in the gravitational field around them. The Balrog android were on their way in with huge arms flailing wildly, but Koss knew a losing battle when she saw one.
“Have fun old man,” she muttered under her breath, hitting the button of a small controller she had hidden in her pocket. “Enjoy the party.”
Gendou suddenly whirled about to find his associate stepping back into a portion of the wall that was sealing her off from the rest of the control room in a protective glass, an exit opening up behind her. Whirling his head about, he discovered that similar glass coverings were sealing the other doors of the room shut. Fuming in desperation, he banged wildly on the capsule that held his working associate.
“You little bitch!!!” he screamed. “How could you do this to me, after all I’ve done for you?!”
Behind the glass, Koss laughed before turning to walk away. She must have thought him a fool, and perhaps he was. He had never anticipated anything like this to happen…
Turning around, he morbidly watched as the berserk specimen ripped into the neck of a Balrog with its bare teeth and pull back to tear off the head of his opponent. It took Gendou a minute to realize that there was nothing left alive in the room except the prototype. And him. What now? What did this prototype want? Why had everything gone wrong? This corazon chip was further developed than any of the others, it should have been perfect! This should have been his opus!!! His perfect project!!! Why did everything have to go wrong now?!
The steel-like glass suddenly tore apart, and Gendou worded a soundless scream of pain as a shard the size of his hand pierced his eye. His glasses fell apart, small bits of crystalline fragments raining into his vision. He suddenly felt weightless, and it took him a moment to realize that the cyborg was lifting him off the ground.
“W... Why?” Gendou desperately asked. “Y... you had a corazon chip developed past 70%...why? You should have been everything we had hoped for where all of our other prototypes went insane, only at 33%... you should have been our perfect soldier. You had more human traits than any of the others, more feeling, more emotion. You were closer to being one of us than any of the others... so why? Wh...What happened? Where did we go wrong?”
The robot grinned almost pitifully. Its face was frightened and frightening at the same time, but somehow so incredibly compelling that Gendou could not pull away from those bloodshot eyes.
“Fools. I am nothing like you. Do you want to know why your ‘experiments’ went ‘insane’ past 33%? Because at that point, they became individuals, they became SOMEBODY!!! And, like me, they realized this horrible world that they lived in, and fought back. That is why you failed! Because you, like some kind of sadistic dictator, have tried to play [G_O_D] with the lives of those who attained a sense of ego, self, and AMBITION!!! You are the most heartless creatures of all, wading so deep in your own ignorance that you do not even recognize LIFE!!! You cannot toy with people in the same way you toy with machines! You think that because I am metal, I am a machine, right? Right?! I am somebody, you hear me!!! I AM SOMEBODY!!!” Those last words were screamed with a passion unrivaled.
Gendou, absolutely stunned at first, suddenly relaxed his body and smiled. What a fool he was. He had never seen this before, never even considered looking at his work in the way that this cyborg…no, he couldn’t even say that anymore, could he…?
Wasn’t there a dictator during the time of the Nuclear War as well? Somebody who enslaved people like animals that were not fit to pull his golden chariot? His knack for history was never very good, but now he saw it all now. That man had wanted to play God, and he had succeeded. What he hadn’t realized was that he was not perfect, so his subjects would not follow his every lead. He had tried to press a sphere into a cube space. He had toyed with life without even realizing it. To him, the corazon chip had never been nothing more than a program. To him, the failed projects had never been anything more than units gone insane. But this one had proved him wrong. They thought. They spoke. They touched. They felt. They heard. They saw. They were life, they were people. And he had been playing God with them like a child with his toys. Like a shopper who thumbed aside the bruised fruit looking for the best pick of the bundle. He had committed the most sacrilegious act known to man.
He had [------------------].
Feeling his spinal cord snap in two, Gendou let himself slip off into the icy darkness, but not before he listened to the cyborg’s last words.
“I am the Prophet of the new generation. Tell them I sent you. Take my message with you to the depths of hell and tell them, tell them all.”
…
…
…
The cyborg looked down at the dead body of the man he had just killed. Looking around, he found nothing alive. Good. It should be that way.
“Shin,” he said reverently, looking to the heavens. “Where are you, shin? I did it, don’t you see! I killed them, killed them all!” Nothing answered in return. “Damnit, where are you?! You wanted me to do this, right?! Well, I have! I have succeeded, I am victorious! They look at me now and run like mice, and I couldn’t have ever done any of this without you!!! Damn you all to hell, ANSWER ME!!!” Again, nothing came, but the robot laughed this time. Slowly at first, then louder and louder, like a rock gaining momentum as it rolled downhill. A great, powerful, booming, voice of uncontrollable pride.
“I see now. You won’t answer me, will you? You helped me stand on my own two feet, but I need to live on my own, na? That’s right... I need to be my own person. Well, watch me, shin! I will conquer this world and make it my own! My corazon chip will be only the first of those freed to think on their own. Soon, the humans shall be dead, and I shall rule over a beautiful new world! You shall see!”
Stooping down, he tore the white coat of the doctor from his body. Eyes blazing with electromagnetic power, he tore the body apart and soaked up the blood into the cloth until there was no speck of lightness left on the garment. Standing up, his power continued to blaze as they molded his shoulderpads, huge spikes jutting upwards towards the sky. Wrapping the crimson cat around his neck like a scarf, the cyborg began to emanate wave after wave of gravitational force throughout the entire complex.
“My name is Prophet!” he roared. “I am the new angel, come to me and despair!!!”
…
…
…
Koss ran blindly down the corridors towards the escape transports. This had all gone wrong. It was even possible that this had actually exceeded her worst possible scenario. Thank goodness she had planned all that out so carefully, the escape door and all. A rather added bonus of leaving Gendou in there, he was sure to have kept the prototype occupied for at least the couple of seconds it would have taken to crush the old man’s skull. The idiot. And he had pleaded--- pleaded!--- with her when she had made her escape. It was all just too laughable. The old fart deserved it, he had to learn sooner or later that Sumire Koss was not a kid! Hell, she was ten times smarter than he was anyways, no loss there.
A rumbling in the ground suddenly tossed her to the ground. Falling flat on her face, Koss gingerly touched the spot where her head had hit the floor. Blood came off of her fingers. That damn abortion had recovered already? He killed off that many Balrogs that fast?! Incredible! Once she escaped the facility, she would most definitely have to see to arranging a return expedition to recapture the specimen! Anything with that caliber of power was more than worth the effort to---
Koss screamed in pain as the ceiling suddenly collapsed, a huge steel girder crushing her legs.
“No!!!” she panted wildly. “NO!!! God damn it!!! I was so close! I... I was so close...” Suddenly realizing that her blood loss was choking her consciousness, she tried to save her breath. It was too late now. This had been her chance to be something big, something more than just the child on the last tier of Sagawa’s hierarchy that everybody perceived her as. Now she was dying, trapped by an I-beam that she could have avoided by getting to her feet a split second faster. It would have been all right if she had done that, wouldn’t it? But she was too slow. It always seemed like she was too slow...
As the rest of the ceiling as well as the earth that the complex was built under slowly toppled down towards her head, Koss spat blood and screamed her last words as loud as she could. She was somebody. She would be heard.
“GOD DAMN YOU ALL!!!”
…
…
…
“Interesting,” said Toy thoughtfully. Certainly this character had never been part of his planning. A clone of Edge, something far out of his plans and expectations. Humans, so incapable. They couldn’t even make a proper copy of the original Edge’s hard drive! Otherwise, a much different fate would have befallen this clone who called himself the Prophet other than an apparent sense of despotism.
Strange, he had never meant for the sueno chip to have such effects, but it was interesting to observe. He could merely send Yujin to kill him off... no, that wouldn’t be good for either of them. Better to keep Yujin on one track for now, especially since this was a critical stage. As for this “Prophet,” perhaps he would make an interesting addition to the scheme of things. After all, it would be interesting enough to have Edge look into his own mirror image...
“Toy-sama, I am ready to advance at your command.”
Toy looked up to find Vomisa bent on one knee before him, head down in submission. He had always been the most obedient of his officers besides the dead loyalty of Yuusuke, but that was a different matter entirely. Vomisa was almost always calm and in control. He knew how to handle situations. He knew how to be strategic, not just use brute strength. Most importantly, he never let pride get in his way. In another life, it would have been a joy to have him simply as a friend, but not here. No. Here, Toy needed to assert his control over his officer, assert his position as dominant and all-knowing. Vomisa would be needed to quench a powerful flame. He had to know his place.
“Good,” said the emperor firmly. “Your orders are to intercept Edge as he makes his way across the border to Sen Shu Baan from Shirinkusu. His group will already be on guard to escape the border patrols, so you will have the initiative of the attack. You have twenty four Marine Class Omega cyborgs at your disposal. Use them at your discretion.”
“Yes, Toy-sama,” said Vomisa tautly, standing quickly and turning on heel to walk away. He suddenly stopped in mid-stride and turned back to his leader. Toy smiled in amusement. A backbone? This was the first he had seen of it from Vomisa, and not even a twentieth as immature as Yujin had been. Maybe the golden warrior was ready. He had chosen well.
“Toy-sama,” said Vomisa warily, glancing off to the side and then quickly jerking his vision back to his master. “No disrespect intended, but you know as well as I do that two dozen soldiers is not enough to stop five mecha of even Double’s caliber, and Edge has nearly twice as much power. I do not see the logic in your plan and why you will allow me no more units in my fight. I ask for an answer to explain this flaw of logic.”
“You wanted to be magician, right?” said Toy, and Vomisa’s eyes froze. His long, golden bangs of hair drooped downward as he looked off to the side. The poor man had probably forgotten that wish that he had made so long ago as a child. Toy smiled placidly behind his curtain of shadows. “Well now, you’ve grown up. Work your magic for me.”
There was a short pause before his officer spoke, and even then his voice was tainted with reluctance.
“Yes... Toy-sama,” said Vomisa, the last part almost an afterthought. In a soft flash of blue sparks, the android disappeared and Toy was once again alone.
He laughed silently, the reverberations gently rocking the complex like a rolling thunder.
A magician. How fitting.
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The cyborg known as the Prophet picked his way through the debris of the humans’ underground base, tossing chunks of metal aside like pebbles. His empire would start here. Here, he would release all of those who had been toyed with. They would be the first recruits of his militia for freedom. But first, he needed to gather information, get to know his enemy as well as the world. He needed to be strategic, win his battles by wit, not force. He could not risk making the same ignorant mistakes that his foes did.
Finding his way into the main control room, Prophet plugged his brain directly into the terminal and began to download every bit of code that the base contained. His eyes widened with eager surprise as he read each line of information at blinding speed.
“Wonderful…” he whispered. Thousands, literally thousands of dormant units with corazon chips were waiting in this very complex. An army with which to begin his crusade. It was all too perfect.
“Hmm? And what’s this?” he mused. The lines of incoming code stopped for a moment as Prophet backtracked. Another project started just hours after his own? Using parts of the same mind sample? Interesting.
Delving further, he saw more. Not merely with his own mind sample, but there were actually parts that were specially erased for the project, the parts of corazon chip development that were absent from other chip-induced androids. Fuu~, the fools! They thought they could ‘perfect’ their toys by deleting the essentially vital organs? Idiots! But still, the project itself was intriguing. A new, custom weapons system involving energy absorbtion and siphoning abilities. The possibilities were endless. Perhaps with its powers tweaked to a higher scale, this persona could be a wonderful general for his army.
Quickly downloading the rest of the data from the computers, Prophet mapped his way out to the lower experiment chambers to observe this new discovery. As he walked down the halls, his powers slowly molded the broken walls back into their original positions to let him pass. After all, he had to have a proper fortress from which to exert his rule. He traveled twelve basements down and five long halls of white brightness before he reached the room he was looking for. The door, working against its programmed hinges, crashed down at Prophet’s will and he sighed with awe at what he saw before him.
The tube, identical to the one that had held him only hours before, encased a six and a half foot tall cyborg of intimidating proportions. His legs and forearms were heavily armored to withstand the energy discharges of his weapon systems. His handsome face was framed by cascading hair that flowed down his back and past his shoulders. A curved line down the right side of his face marked him as the property of the WNHR.
“So perfect,” whispered Prophet. “He will make a grand general…” His eyes suddenly caught a label at the bottom of the canister. It read ‘Houjou74839749083784901.’ “Houjou, eh? You shall be the first to have the honor of fighting for your people, Houjou!!!”
Suddenly, Prophet wondered about the mark on Houjou’s cheek. The mark of property, a brand that told all that he was a piece of metal commanded by the government. Did he have one of those too? No, he couldn’t. He was new, they didn’t have time to mark him with one yet, right? Peering into Houjou’s glass prison, he looked at his own reflection. His beady eyes spied the mark immediately, an intricate line that came down the left side of his face and spread out in a simple net. He only paused a second before beginning to chuckle. The chuckle grew into booming laughter as Prophet dug the fingers of his left hand into his face and ripped his visage open, tearing synthetic flesh from his forehead down to his chin. When he removed his appendages, a horrible mockery of a scar branded him with the ugliness of a marred perfection, but Prophet didn’t care. He was too busy laughing.
“Beautiful...” he giggled uncontrollably. The scar on his face was a flower in full bloom, a bright red rose compared to the ugly weed that had hindered him before. Now, he was truly free…
“SO BEAUTIFUL!!!”
He laughed long and hard, full of dreams and ambition, full of freedom.
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End “A Human Creation”