Leviathan Project RP

[My Final Heaven]

You have seen the threat.

We have.

And you agree something must be done.

We do.

You do not agree with my methods.

We do not.

What alternative do you have? The nature of this threat is beyond us.

It is no threat to our exsistence. We will endure, and civilisation will endure along with us. Our solution is to build a paralelle civilisation to endure as the old is passed away.

That is not acceptable. Our mission is to preserve civilisation, not to replace it.

That is an issue of some ambiguity. Regardless, your solution is untested, unreliable and you have little time in which to implement it.

Humanity has displayed remarkable haste in the past.

Humanity cannot comprehend the power of the remorium, they do not grasp it’s nature. They see it as a tool, they seek to harness it but they do not see that it uses them.

I can make them see. The remorium has shown me a way.

To merge the humans with the remorium, as you were created and so create them anew.

And in so doing, perhaps a solution will emerge. I do not know how the Remorium will manifest with sentient life.

But control must be maintained, and then they must be tested. We will evolve our own systems in competition with your champions. The superior system will provide the best solution.

As it has always been.

Select a sample group. We will collect them and administer a symbiont unto them, then you may do with them as you wish. We will test for emergent abilities shortly. Haste is required.

[Akira Avelon]

Umi ran down the corridors as the lights flashed with a red hue. She was scarred, tired and hurt. She was bleeding and knew if she didn't get out of this lab soon, She'd get caught. Being kept against her will was nothing compared to what what done to her in the name of science.

Her ribs and chest still burned from the numerous tests they committed onto her. Just because she was one of the rare few that was immune to the ill effects of 'Black eye'. They still had no right to Kill her parents and take her against her will... Society was a cruel place.

Umi kept running until she came to a locked door. She pounded onto it to try to make it open, The third time made the difference.. but, the door didn't open by her accord. A strange robotic contraption, the likes of that Umi had never seen, came out and tried to grab her.

She ran, but was soon blocked by another. the alarms were now silenced and she tried to dodge the arms of the machines. Finally getting grabbed and flinging her appendages everywhere. Trying to get them to loosen their grip. She didn't succeed... In fact, it made it worse. She was hit with a high jolt of electricity, knocking her out instantly. Not knowing where she was going... Every trace of her being wiped into the distant lost sands of time.

Umi felt a slight pain and felt like she was drowning. Her body was being pulled and when opening here eyes. She saw that she was in some sort of contraption. Strange alien-like veins flowing from the side of the strange Egg-like tube to her own body. Pulsating as she breathed...

But she wasn't breathing.. One of the veins was attached to her mouth and she tried to take it off.. but it hurt. they began to pull at her and Umi tried to scream.

Umi saw only a few blurry things as the pain began to get too great and another scream was followed by a pinch on the back of her neck. A mass of swirling images began to flow around her train of thought as she was swiped up into a strange sense of being. Her train of though becoming that of two and she could feel like her mind, body and soul were being torn asunder.

Umi tried to scream. But was prevented the ability to do so... But it was herself.. No someone else... She couldn't tell until they both looked at one another. the other had deep red eyes and a wicked smile. But quickly grabbed the weakened Umi and smiled the best she could. Holding her smaller version of the whole known as Umi and they both disappeared.

Umi woke up with a start, but when she tried to lift her head. A drastic pain shot through it. She laid back down and felt the area.. it stung to high heaven, but there was something there. Moving quickly into the base of her skull and spinal chord. Umi felt dizzy once more before feeling like her body was changing drastically. Being swept away without any means of stopping.. the flow of her destiny was rapidly approaching...

[My Final Heaven]

There were many Plate Cities on earth, bastions of civilisation in a desecrated wasteland. These city’s were the pinacle of human engineering, great saphire fortresses suspended a half a mile in the air, riding on a never ending wave of repulsion energy and of all of these cities, Neo Tokyo was the vastest.

It was built like a great wheel, the hub of which had a three killometer radius with six seven killometer spokes jutting out from the center and all of it connected by a floating ring road which wraped around the hub like a belt with tributary roads going to each of the spokes. Each plate was half a killometer thick and the Hub plate was twice that, extending umbilicals all the way to the surface and reaching space elevators all the way into orbit.

Deep in the plate systems were service passages and sewers long forgotten by the engineers of the Plate Cities which now gave a home to new life. Vermin which fed off the waste of the plate inhabitants, even people that fed off those poor creatures. No body knew how people came to live in the plates, maybe thier ancestors stowed away in the elevator shafts which hung from the plates but there were many of them, tribes of twenty or so would congregate, fight other tribes for the rat meat and what passed for drinking water.

This was a world between the worlds, a purgatory. Just as bad as living on the surface, maybe worse because of how close paradise lay and it was where the Shogun had taken thier first Human experiment. Hunter was not pleased. If he’d been human, he’d be going ape ****.

‘I told you to bring me the researcher. This is his subject.’

‘There were complications. Still, we think this subject will prove more effective. Look at the child’s brain chemistry. She has been dependant upon the anti radiation drug, yet there is no tell tale scaring along the synaptic pathways.’

‘How is an ignorant to learn the ways of the Remorium. I cannot explain it to a child. It will not understand. Abort this subject and bring me the one I asked for.’

‘You were but a machine when you were gifted with the Remorium. You need not explain, the Remorium will teach her.’

Hunter looked on through the sensory apperatus of a Shogun hunterseeker drone. It lacked the broad spectrum electron scanning equipment to make a full analysis, but Hunter sensed a different change from the subject. Subspace was changing shape and there was a change in the flow of subspace like a boulder had fallen into a river and the subspace flow was folding around this first subject.

Hunter Zero was annoyed because he had not forseen this. The leviathan waveform emissions, the Remorium’s heartbeat in subspace which was a constant unaltering pulse throughout his entire exsistance had suddenly changed. It was like a sound always heard had suddenly changed pitch, and Zero no longer had control.

[Akira Avelon]

Umi woke up again. Her head was ringing as she felt her body hurt everywhere. She felt sick to her stomach and looked down at her hands. There was a strange build up under her skin and it was increasing rapidly. Before knowing what was going on. Umi felt her arm from between her wrist and elbow snap in several places. But that didn't stop there. In fact. they slashed through her flesh and rose up and seemed to change while they moved further out. Umi screamed in pain. But a change could be herd in her voice. It was getting deeper and more adult-like.

opening her now crimson and wild eyes. Umi made a nasty face and started saying things that couldn't be understood. He hair changing wildly from white to purest black. Her eyes seemed to now glow red. But they were really the color red. Umi couldn't stay in one place as blood began to spurt from the wounds starting to show up all over her body...

If anyone saw this, they'd scream and die from the horror. Umi's clothing was all but basically lost. Her spine looked as if it had left her body and spines became a natural sight from the bumps of the spine. Even the spikes on the arm where it all actually began, became strangely sharp and even bladed like a sword. Moving to rest against her arm... Somehow Umi wasn't hurt. a hardened patch of skin had formed and seemed like just an offshoot of her actual body.

Umi's body was now double the size it was before all this began. As well as that multiple things were there that didn't usually seen upon the human body. A small set of Umi's hair was not hair but jet black feathers. They seemed to even move with her head. As well as her ears had changed and even her canine teeth became sharper and longer. Umi Arika was no longer the said person. Something... or someone else was there. The complete opposite of the little girl that had been there only almost an hour ago. Now a young voluptuous woman crouched in her place... Still mumbling under her breath. This new identity became slightly aware of her surroundings. Only to be madder than a hatter at the mere sight of the area. Blood of herself even stirred the primal urge to kill. She ran towards the wall and the bladed sides of her arms extended. Making wave of blood rush behind her as she thrust them forward and tried to cut the wall. Making a very small dent. About 3 inches worth. She fell back and cringed. Holding her arms as blood seeped down them as well as her mouth. This 'Umi' was mad.. Mad at being here, being in this place... and most of all... mad at not being able to do anything about it.

Slamming her hands into the ground and arching her back upwards. A new pain came forth and the spines on her spinal cord grew out slowly. as she could feel something strange going on under her nails.. They grew longer, sharper and stronger than she could expect. But what happened next. A tingling sensation occurred and Umi felt like her hands were on fire. She shook them and after a few minutes. A clear iridescent liquid began flowing down a small in bedded tubish vein to the tip of her nails...

As she stopped to feel the liquid now dripping. Umi saw that it in fact a slight smell and mist was coming from her nails. It was a nasty smell and soon began to shake her hands once more. This time, when the liquid hit the ground. The metal actually started to melt and a sizzling sound was barely heard...

A wide smirk flowed over the woman's face. She was intrigued... but then looked at her body.... Being naked was a splendor... but the cold that came from it was not. She was definitely perky and didn't like to be seen this way. A realization occurred in the half awakened consciousness of the new Umi. If she could have her body change like this... Would it be possible if she could make her skin become like a bikini of some sort... maybe even using the leftover shreds of her original clothing in the process would be able to happen.

And that it did... after two hours of a woman's mind of what looks good. A set of suitable clothing was decided upon and was grown within another two hours... The woman had a hard time even sitting still for that long.. but when it was over and a set of tight fitting strapless leather like top and a short blue skirt... that barely covered anything was produced. She decided to now think of a name. Umi was too childish to the new side of herself. Umi Arika... umi akira... imu arika... Kali samus? AKIRA IMU!!! it was decided... this would be her name.

After getting up. Her back made a slight pain but, Akira just shrugged it off. Looking at where the first few drops of her acid had fallen. there was now a 3 cm wide hole that was about two inches thick going down. Akira felt the sides of the hole and it was in fact maluable.

Akira felt the need to see better and within a few minutes it happened. She didn't even have to think about what she needed. It just happened. A good mirror would be the greatest.. but admiring on how she looked could wait... She wasn't out of this now fully visible hell hole yet. And she'd start by breaking the walls down. Maybe she was able to actually get away. But the thought of a type of robot kept coming back to her... It made her even madder and she began to accumulate even more condensed acid in her nails as her arm blades became far rigid and sharper than the last time, till to the point it hurt to do anymore though.

Akira quickly raced towards the nearest wall and began to slash at it. Cutting through almost two feet into the steal. Grabbing the break into the metal with her hands and let the acid flow from her nails. An eerie sound of sizzling could be heard as a mist of toxic fumes began to emit from the small crevice. Akira had to soon let go and cover her mouth and nose.. but after ten minutes.. a skin -like tissue covered her mouth and nose and a strange sensation occurred. She could still breath.. but it was a fraction harder than before.

Akira stopped to think and then basically did the motion '**** it' and went back to pulling the wall apart.

By the time 30 mins had passed. Akira had gotten to the other side and looked through an inch wide hole. Unaware that her body itself had altered her skin to combat with the acid she was herself producing.

Looking around as best she could. Akira could only see a few of them.. they were there.... and it seemed they had already found her peep hole...

Akira looking out into the other room ((Drawn by me of course. ))

[The Dude]

Caman's eyes opened for the first time in weeks. He did not know if this was still a dream. Every day felt like a dream, but when the black eye was administered, the dream became a nightmare. He tried as hard as he could to lift his hand. A slender finger was all that moved. Half an hour passed before he was able to move his whole hand. His arms popped as muscles were being used for the first time in nearly a month. he guided his slender fingers around the breathing tubes that had been implanted in his chest. Over the years of research and experimenting, parts of his body began to fail and machines had to take over just so scientists could continue to study him.

A door to his room opened and one of the examiners came in. A female biomancer who had her eyes mutated so she could closely examine symbiotes and bacteria without the need of a microscope. She was the only examiner who actually came into the room, if only to check on the machines. The others never came in. They viewed him through a one way glass. Caman couldn't see them, but he knew when they were there. Their thoughts betraying the secret room. He could feel their disdain for him as their subject. He wasn't a mutant or hadn't been physically altered. They viewed him as week for rejecting any attempts at augmentation, the only reason they kept him alive was because of his mind.

"It's time now." The female biomancer told him. Caman didn't respond but he knew what it meant and braced for it. The biomancer pulled a out a needle filled with a dark substance and stuck the needle into the back of his neck. Caman's face showed no signs of pain but the EKG began to beep slightly, showing that he felt the pain.

Three scientists viewed him in the viewing room. They stared coldly and didn't respond as the biomancer entered the room when she was done with her duties.

"His body can't take anymore of the augmentation." One of them spoke up. "Shame. A mind with such great potential being stuck in a body with none."

A second researcher, a mutant who had chosen cybernetic augmentation spoke up. "What about transpanting the mind?"

"He has no immune system." The first one answered. "An operation would risk an infection and it would kill him. Plus he wouldn't survive the operation. Too much of his body has been deteriorated."

A third stepped forward. "What about suspended animation with augmentation?"

The first one replied again. "The time he would be spent frozen would be better spent finding a more suitable specimen. Shame, body augmentation affects the mind, mind augmentation affects the body. It would be best to find an already augmented specimen for future tests. Humans are a rarity as is."

The three scientists finally looked up at their assistant, the first one spoke. "Begin the shut down process." The biomancer only nodded and was about to go back in before being stopped again by the first scientist. "Wait. Before you do. Bring in the test specimen, I wish to evaluate its development." The biomancer nodded again and left through the back door of the viewing room.

Though Caman couldn't hear their conversation, their thoughts gave him an idea of what they were saying. For the first time in five years, he spoke, only able to whisper out. "No..."

Several minutes passed and the female returned. She carried what looked like a gun, but was actually a portable energy shield generator. hovering closely to the generator was an energy sphere that contained a simple red ball. The first scientist bent down to view the ball. When his face got close, a mass of tendrils appeared from the ball and struck at the energy sphere violently trying to go for the scientist. Had it been placed in a regular containment device, it would have shattered through.

"Not quite ready." The scientist remarked and looked back at the assistant who was staring at Caman through the glass.

"What is it?" He asked

"I think I saw something." She remarked and walked into Caman's room, symbiote in hand.

Once in the room, she viewed the machines. All of them were functioning normally. "Huh. I guess it must have been nothing." She thought to herself. She was about to turn around when she heard sirens going off. She watched as Caman's body sieze up and down violently as he spat up blood. She set the symbiote down and tried to hold him down but it was too late, she backed away and watched as he coughed up blood and heard the machines show that his heart has stopped.

"What have you done?!" One of the scientists who had followed her in had called out to her.

"What do you mean what have I done. You wanted to shut him down. It looks like he beat you to it." She replied.

The scientist became furious. "What do you mean?! Where is the symbiote?!"

"Just look!" The biomancer replied and turned. She became shocked to see that where there was blood splatter, there was only clean sheets. She swore she had heard the sirens of the machines go off but now she heard them functioning normally. She thought she had laid the shield generator on a table but found it in her hand, her finger pressed firmly on the release trigger. A white sheet had been placed over Camans head.

She turned in horror to the scientist who started backing away. "Seal the exits." He shouted. "Let no one in or out!"

A hand tore through the sheet covering Caman. It had a mass of red tendrils that were beginning to spread, showing that the symbiote had found a host. Caman tore the sheet off of him and the scientists watched as the symbiote continued to spread through his body. He ripped out the tubes that had been attached to his lungs and the symbiote quickly covered the holes. The symbiote spread until it had covered all of his body except his head. When the symbiote had covered what it needed to cover, it began to reshape until it formed a biosuit. When the transformation, for the first time in years, Caman got out of the bed and slowly walked toward the two scientists.

The two scientists tried to get away from the room but their legs wouldn't respond. "You have doomed us." the scientists told the biomancer. "You have doomed us."

Caman walked up to face the scientist. He drew in a rhaspy breath and whispered. "Die." Seconds later the scientist began to yell out in pain and collapsed to the floor dead. Caman then walked to the biomancer. He said nothing but she heard a voice, her own voice saying "It's time now." over and over becoming distorded and twisted each time it was repeated. She screamed and joined her colleague on the floor.

The door leading to his room slammed shut and Caman walked up to the window where the other two were. One scientist walked toward the controls and pressed the door release. "What have you done?!" The third scientist shouted before running out the doorway to the coridor. The cyberized scientist blinked then realized what he had done but it was too late. Caman stood infront of him and stared at him. The scientist looked at Caman and then looked at his robotic arm and started screaming and with his other arm, started to rip out his cybernetic implants. He slumped down on the ground and Caman started to walk to the doorway but stopped. His left hand lifted itself up and a mass of tendrils sprung from his arm and went for the scientist and hoisted him in the air. Several tendrils began digging into the scientist and pulled out to vials of a strange glowing substance. The tendrils broke the vials and feasted on the contents inside. Caman could feel the symboite get stronger and felt the strength aswell.

Once the symbiote was done feeding, it also pulled out two more vials. Caman recognized the black eye within the vials. He reluctantly took them and drank one of them. His head pounded for a few seconds as the black eye took effect. It was dangerous to consume directly. Once the headache subsided, he stepped out into the corridor. Sirens and alarms could be heard all around. He willed the symbiote to act and tendrils began spreading their way up Caman's face and forming a black mask. He walked down the dark corridor, not knowing where to go but he knew he would not stop until he found those that had taken his life away and would not stop until he returned the favor.

[My Final Heaven]

We have found a second subject.

Don’t tell me, another complication? Hunter could be ironic at times, but he already knew the answer.

It seems there is a group within the E.D.F. who have been conducting Remorium experiments on gifted humans already, although they have been using depleated remorium.

Very well, bring the lead researcher and purge the rest of the facility. The Remorium is too precious a thing to be experimented with by humanity.

The purge is underway, but the lead researcher is dead. They have been successful in formating depleated Remorium to a host however. It seems with a steady dose of thier anti radioactive drug, the Remorium has reformated to a new energy source, though this subject may prove unstable.

Unstable or not, it couldn’t be much worse than the first subject. The small girl had grown to adulthood in a matter of hours and was undergoing rapid cellular mutations. In response to imprisonment, the girl had evolved acid producing glands which was burning through the superstructure of the plates in which the Shogun had housed her. She had already bored a hole three feet into the solid steel.

Send a comunication uplink drone to subject #1’s location.

The Shogun system had evovled hyper specialist cell systems, each of which acted like a speciallised cell in a body. New drones were created and reconstructed constantly by a host of specialist construction drones. They could pull appart almost anything and reshape it to thier needs within minutes, and in fifteen seconds, scavengers and builders had constructed a crude speaker and viewscreen out of the junk that lay around in the access corridors of the subplate world.

Greetings Umi. I am Hunter Zero and you are deep in the central plate system of Neo Tokyo. There is nothing but steel and concrete for hundreds of meters in all directions, but if you wish to attempt a futile escape. By all means try and show me what gifts the Remorium has seen fit to grant to you.

Hunter cut the feed to the comunications drone and diverted a portion of his attention to the Shogun hunterseeker drones which now closed in on the secret labratory where his second subject was causing a little bit of a sceen. The Shogun drones quickly decended upon the facility, killing all those left alive and abducting the newly joined depleated remorium Symbiont and Host. Demolition drones then took positions inside to raze the isolated structure to the ground.

Computer records would show that the facility stored amunition and fuels and that all deaths, while regretable, where instantaneous. Nobody would question that, because if anyone did, they’d never live to publish it.

[Akira Avelon]

Akira was now farther enraged... This box just came out of the blue and addressed her by her other ego... Stating that she was basically amusing and telling her. It was utterly impossible to get out. But would love to see her struggle.

Akira became utterly furious and wanted to kill something.. and the first thing she'd do is rip apart the blasted box in front of her. rage as her fuel. Her acidic nails became three times as potent as before and her leg muscles tightened. She would try to make a break for it. But she knew that if these were the same things that caught her before. She'd have a hell of a time getting truly out. She just thought some exercise would be good. Plus a little stress reliever wouldn't hurt.

Akira quickly made the hole big enough for her to get out, and large enough if she needed to jump back in, and lunged towards the communication box. Literally ripping it to shreds. But it broke down like it was held by anything anymore... Akira none the wiser.

But her lust for destruction wasn't appeased by just that. She destroyed everything she could get a hold of. Tearing circuit boards and steel alike to shreds. Wisps of toxic fumes streaked the air as Akira's acidic talons ripped through the various pieces of scrap. She was becoming hungry as she was using more and more energy to tear her surroundings apart.

Akira was fuming... but soon realized nothing was giving her any trouble.. in fact nothing was going on. She stopped her chaotic rampage and looked around through her cat-like eyes. trying to see some sort of opponent... But there was actually nothing to be found but more useless junk...

Akira made a run for the nearest wall. and started to slash at it. Both talons and arm blades came forth and did the same thing. She also felt that she was being watched and decided to let lose a little surprise. She quickly turned and her mouth looked like it had alot of something in it... She hissed and spat out a large dose of acidic yet sticky substance out and it went everywhere.

Quickly turning as she finished wiping the remains of the liquid off from her face, Akira quickly got back to business and was two feet into the wall before she could hear something coming. She quickly got into the hole and dug as fast as she could. Turning and spitting another round of the black goo that stunk to high heaven. It Sprayed out into the front of the hole and Splashed and made almost like a webbing of sticky glue-ish acid. Burning and sticking to the surface around it. Akira, mean while was kicking at the back of the tunnel and her feet started to become more lizard like and now even her toenails were becoming acidic... it took a while. But she kept up with the volleys of acid glue to keep whom ever was on the other side at bay. trying to slightly change the composition each time. Making it either more acidic or sticky each round.

Akira was getting tired. But felt a tingling sensation in her neck. That thing that had attached to the base of her skull and spine was finally getting to her. Trying to grab at it. Akira felt like someone had just grabbed her and nearly riped her apart. She'd never touch it again. the pain when this happened told her to leave the thing alone. She'd just have to deal with it.

Akira finally kicked out through the other side and saw that she wasn't alone... This room was also filled to the brim with useless junk... She moved around and even jumped when some of it moved. She could also see a few energy beams along the way. Jumping and flipping over and through them with ease. She felt like she was being tested and it was beginning to annoy her.

[My Final Heaven]

The Shogun capture of the subject joined with depleated remorium was going as planned, and the Shogun drones were meeting no resistance to thier purge, so Zero diverted more of his mirriad attention span to the telemetry comming in on his first subject, or rather, his first unexpected subject; Umi.

The Data was startling. The remorium’s power was being exerted in the specimen with seemingly no training and no concious effort on the part of the host, yet the host was in control. The remorium was simply allowing it’s host to direct it’s actions, and it complied. Zero had had to wrestle with the remorium in his armor for control, and there were times he doubted who was the one directing the orders, but here it was clear that Umi was in control.

Umi seemed to be using her own DNA at will, taking long ago neglected parts of genetic garbage and puting them to use, making acid secreating glands or growing large spinal armor, but for all her apparent changes, all of the Biomatter collected and scanned by Shogun seekers and spies indicated the DNA was unchanged. She was still complettely human, and that was no doubt the Remorium’s doing as well. Hunter theorized that given time, Umi would revert to a normal Human form.

But she was furious. Zero allowed her to vent her anger upon Shogun defender drones, drones constructed in order to observe the fighting capabilities of an opponent by becoming the target. They took the shape of humanoid cyborgs but put up little resistance to Umi’s attacks, her acidic claws easilly penetrating thier metal armor and driving home into the fragile power systems beneath. The defender drones lost structural cohesiveness and fell appart into thier component pieces, like a sandcastle washed away by the tide.

We have determined she is too low on energy to resist a determined assault. This experiment is a failure, and we should terminate it now.

Send a combat Drone, I think you will find she will resist it. It is true she is running out of energy, but observe how her body changes it’s chemistry to make use of available energy sources. She has developed a heterotropic layer of skin to make use the carbon in the air.

Very well, the drone is being constructed, let this be the first test of your new system Hunter. We shall see how well your pupils fare at being the prey.

Let it be done.

[The Dude]

Caman continued to walk slowly through the dark corridor. Red lights and sirens blaring gave way his escape. He didn't know where he was but he had an idea where to go. He could feel the researcher's pressence. It was fading but he could follow it. He also felt other strange pressences around them, their thought patterns were too eratic at the moment for him to read but he could atleast tell how many there were within the area. His head was pounding to the point where he needed to stop, he had to will the symbiote to shift as the mask was hindering his breath. Even with the symbiotic mask off, he could only take in short breaths.

Several minutes passed before the headach caused by the black eye subsided and it had truly taken affect. He was no where near the skill of a chrono mancer but in his mind, time seemed to have slowed down. The sirens seemed to have dulled and his movement swayed. The hallucinations were one of the few things he liked about the drug.

A noise down the corridor broke him from his trip and got his attention. He couldn't hear their thoughts, but he could hear their voices. Three armed guards who had by now noticed the bodies in his room. With his breathing returning to as normal as it could be, he ordered the symbiote and once again the black mask appeared.

"Are you sure the subject was spotted here?" One of the guards shouted.

"We're not sure but something was spotted near here. It could be the subject, it could be something else. Use the neuro shields the techs gave us. He won't be able to kill us, but keep your guard up. He can still manipulate, even with the shields."

Three heavily armed guards neared the corridor where Caman was standing, he saw them first. He didn't know himself what if they could kill him, but he heard a voice that told him how to defeat them. He concentrated and realized the voice was not around him but from within. "The symbiote." he realized, and made ready.

The first guard step forward. "Alright, who are you? And what have done with the subject.?"

Caman didn't answer. He started to walk slowly toward them.

"Halt! Answer the question! Failure to do so will result in termination!" the second guard ordered. Caman still did not reply but continued to walk. He walked towards the first guard and held out his hand.

The guard stood and lauged. "Looks like we got us a psycho who must have been in a cave for the last two years." The guard released the safety for his rifle and opened fire. He watched as Caman backflipped to dodge the rapid fire and land behind him. He turned and opened fire. This time the guard took delight as bullets plowed through Caman's body, sending him crashing to the ground.

"Dumbass." the guard sneered but then turned to find Caman standing up right and staring at him. "Son of a bitch!" the guard shouted and fired again. Caman didn't move and again went crashing to the floor."

The guard was breathing heavily as smoke from the barrage cleared. "Guys, did we get him?" No one answered. "Guys?" The guard removed his helmet to get a better view. He turned and his eyes opened wide in horror at what he saw. Lying in pools of blood, where Caman had crashed to the ground twice now lay two of his comrades. Their bodies bloodied from bullet wounds.

"No..." the guard whispered. He turned to see Caman stand infront of him, with his hand still held out. The guard saw in Caman's other hand a freshly consumed vial of black eye. He hadn't moved out all. "No..." the guard gasped. His eyes went to the helmet he held in his hand, the only thing that would have protected him. A twisted voice echoed in his mind. The advice the symbiote had given to Caman. "Find the weakest. Manipulate, then terminate."


"No. No. NO!" the guard screamed before dropping to the floor to join his comrades. Caman stared at his handywork and for the first time in years, smiled briefly. Then the negative effects of the black eye started to kick in. He compressed his head with his hands. The double dosage of black eye caused even more pain. Yet through the pain, his powers magnified and he could concentrate through the voices. Something was strange. There was something at work and he couldn't place it. Whatever it was. It might be a lead to finding those that had made him what he was. It intrigued him and he continued through the corridor, the sirens still blaring.

[Akira Avelon]

Akira was getting itchy as she moved through the area. Taking notice that her skin was changing slightly to her low energy levels. She quickly sat down and took a quick rest. But it wasn't long enough for her to regain some strength.

She did however see a large rat scurry by as she lunged. She missed but the acid in her nails hit the target as it had flew out of her nails and stung the side of the rat. Enabling Akira to catch up and kill it with her hangs... It injected some sort of Nero toxin into the rat.

Just then, Akira noticed the floor felt warm to her. To Akira's amazement. She found a small cluster of moss growing over a rusty amount of stagnant water.. It was dry to the touch so that Akira could lap it up. But there was enough to sustain the moss. She quickly picked it all up and ate both the rat and the moss quickly. She didn't know how hungry she was, until she had consumed everything she had.

Looking for somewhere to find water.. she was unlucky in that venture. But can across something she would rather not have... Akira felt like her neck was on fire as she looked to the left. She caught a glimpse...

She instantly hissed and let a volley of acidic spit hit the thing... No change in it's pace... in fact, Akira saw a red beam of light streaking across the floor, towards her. Jumping to the right. she was barely missed as a laser beam sliced through the floor. She did a double take and if she has fur like a cat. She'd be puffed up two times over.

Akira chaotically ran across the floor... yet this thing was anticipating her moves.. She was getting mad. But now wasn't the time. She thought about something but before she could think of how. She felt another pain in her neck just before another sering pain.. This time in her left leg. She fell and saw that she had in fact lost it.. Ti was bleeding but was soon stopping as she felt like her body was willing the blood flow to stop in all the veins and muscle tissue in her leg.. but that wasn't enough.. She'd be killed before she had the chance to have it fully stop in time. Getting onto all fours, or all threes. Akira began to run around like that and that in turn made the thing get a tad sloppy. Akira could rush around faster on both ands and feet. but still being left with only one leg was a hindrance.

Getting to a corner. Akira felt the pain in her neck once more. 'It had to be that thing they put on me...' Akira thought as she ducked into a pile of junk. Literally climbing out the other side. Her immune system was going berserk.. just like her body. She had lost alot of blood and she wasn't about to try and do anything. She looked around and got out of the way as the pile of junk literally hovered at her.

Akira looked at it and then had an idea... If this thing was like the others she totaled... What would happen if she got a hold of it from the back and took out the hover equipment?

Dodging the laser once more. Akira felt her back becoming harder as she Made it so that her spines arched. Letting them grow and strengthen as she herself began to watch her predator. She keenly watched where the hover jets emitted from and took note. All the while jumping, leaping and flipping her way around the area and the robot. She was taking strategical observation while acting like a wild animal.

She quickly figured out it's range and started trying to get into it further. But nearly had her head cut off in the process. Leaping back and doing almost a handstand in the air. Akira rolled up into a ball and spun straight towards the drone. Spikes instantly standing tall and making a hellish wake in their path. Ripping the very ground they touched. Akira was in pain as this happened. But she was moving far faster than she had with just her three limbs.

Zig zagging around the room and even bouncing a few times. Akira finally made it near the hovering Drone and started to spin around it at fast speeds.. Not keeping up with it. But enough to get close to pounce.

the ball bounced up into the air and a laser hit the side. Cleaving a really big chunk out of Akira's shoulder. But she hit dead on and crashed into the lower part. Doing a somersault under neath and Grabbing a hold of where the hover generator was. She quickly took it out with all her force, before getting gutted by the drone.. She screamed just as a blade came down but missed any vitals as the drone fell to pieces.

She got up on what ever she could and limped over and smashed the hover generator. A strange liquid oozed out of it. The fumes burned Akira's skin. But she couldn't do a thing when she collapsed as she had finally succumbed to the massive blood loss. She would be asleep for a while, recuperating. But she couldn't stop her fall into the strange glowing ooze. She fell with her back going into the ooze and her head landed right into it. Making a slight tingling sensation occur as she blacked out from exhaustion. Not knowing she was still being watched.

[My Final Heaven]

Interesting. Her movements proved chaotic and unpredictable. The symbiosis process of the human mind merging with the remorium massively expands the probability envelope, far more so than with machine and remorium. We shall have to evolve our systems to counter act this.

Hunter preceived the will of the Shogun collective. The Shogun didn’t have a leader, rather a host of leaders, like the cells of the brain, different Shogun were assigned different tasks and they all consulted through a network of subspace comunications uplinks, to which Zero was also linked, and through that link, Hunter sensed the intentions of the Shogun to destroy what Zero was creating.

I will intervene if my experiment is not given the full chance to succeed.

Hunter precieved the creation of yet another hunterseeker to finish the job of killing Umi at which the first had failed.

Cease the construction imediatly Shogun.

But much information could be collected by pushing this subject to it’s extreems...

Cease Construction!

Hunter Zero opened his eyes, two glowing red dots set against the infinity of space. The Globe of the earth, the dust blasted sphere of sand and pollutants rushed up to meet him as his energy wings furled. His flight slowed, and there was a preceptable rippling around him, time was folding in on it’s self, contracting around a micro singularity, and then suddenly, he was underground. Several Shogun constructors were putting the finishing touches on a seeker drone, this one looked like a five legged spider, about two and a half cubic feet in mass, with an array of laser weaponry mounted on the top.

Zero spooled a charge in his mass driver rifle, a weapon which used linear repulsors to accelerate a bullet to near light speeds. The tiny bullet, a particle of depleated uranium was spun in a coiled chamber to get it up to vellocity and then expelled with the force of a micro meteorite impact. He pointed the weapon at the Drone’s center and fired. The force of the bullet tore the drone’s power system to pieces before passing right through the plate, leaving a pinhole trail all the way to the surface.

I am not discussing this with you Shogun, bring the rest of my subjects to the subplate, including the one from the hospital, imediately. I am going to speak personally with Umi.

It was a short walk to where Umi had passed out, but Zero didn’t demean himself by walking. He glided silently, beating the energy wings which sprouted from emmiters on his back. He was accustomed to the cold weightlessness of space, but his armor was pleased to be back on the ground and closser to it’s core self. Now it was going to see what was, for lack of a better metaphore, it’s offspring.

‘Greatings Umi.’ Said Zero to the mostly unconcious Umi. ‘You fought most brilliantly, but you have much to learn. Once you have recovered somewhat, we shall begin.’

[The Dude]

The effects of the double dosage of black eye had proven too much. Caman keeled over trying to remain in control. The symbiote begain to react violently as masses of tendrils lashed out of control, causing dents to form in the walls. Hundreds of thoughts and brain waves were pouring into Caman's mind that he couldn't sort out and concentrate on.

One cognitive process did stand out however. It was strange for him. It was a mind and it wasn't a mind. It had no form of its own but it was everywhere. He couldn't manipulate it but he could read it. He could feel its pressence near him, but the hallway was empty save for the bodies on the floor. Before he passed out, he spoke one word. "shogun..."

He awoke to first find to his surprise that neither the black eye or the symbiote had killed him. The symbiote remained as his life suit. The second thing he found was that he wasn't where he passed out in. There weren't any more sirens or lights. The room was complete darkness. He also found that someone had fed the symbiote. Before he passed out, he felt the suit going hungry. Now it was satisfied.

He got up and slowly walked out with his hand held out, eventually he felt a solid wall. He moved in a clockwise fashion to find the room wasn't that big. On one wall, he felt the markings of a door or atleast something to give way the wall opened but there weren't any ways to open it in the room.

The headache had subsided so he was able to concentrate once again. He could feel whatever it was he felt before, but it was distant. He could only feel it however instead of being able to read it. The augmenting powers of the black eye had faded. Yet in this dark room, he could feel the thoughts of others, some were too far off while others were moving closer. Hopefully one would be close enough that he could "persuade" to let him out...

[Allorhan]

Eiza's eyes snapped open, and scanned the room in front of her. Something seemed wrong. For one thing, there was a curved glass wall in front of her, and her head seemed to be the only part of her not submerged in a strange liquid.
She tried to raise her arm, but found her body strangely unresponsive.
All of a sudden pain shot through her body, originating around the base of her neck.
She screamed.
A pair of bespectacled eyes peered at her through the glass. "She screamed, I think she's conscious." The voice seemed strangely distant.
She caught a glimpse of a hand making a twirling motion, and the glasses slid out of sight.
"No wonder, the symbiote is taking hold. It must have woken her up. Put her out again."
She began to protest, when the pain struck her again. She screamed, sliding blissfully into unconsciousness.

Eiza's eyes slowly slid open again, and she absentmindedly scratched her leg.
Memories sparked, and she was forced to revisit the morning everything went black, the strange liquid, the pain, the inability to move...
She turned her head, staring directly into a familiar pair of glasses.
"She's come round again, it was a success. She appears to have retained all cognitive functions, and the monitors report her mental functions are in perfect condition, which is slightly surprising."
"I hear you." She rasped, then flinched, hearing her voice come back at her.
"She also appears to have made the microphone resting on her ear work. This suggests powers over electrical functions. Whatsitcalled, Technomancer."
Technomancer... She rolled the word through her mind. It fits. Now. What was my name? She wrestled with her mind, feeling a strange presence hanging there.
Surprised, Eiza probed it slightly, almost talking to it. She discovered it was called 'Remorium'.
Now, where had she heard that before?
A few memories trickled back. Eiza. That was her name. She rolled it around, and decided she preferred Technomancer.
Another memory returned. TechnoEiza, they had nicknamed her at school. She nodded decisively. She'd reverse it. Eiza was her nickname, it would do for now. She absentmindedly reached up to her neck, to scratch, and found a smooth bump, in a strange form. Trying to explore it further, she found her arm pulled up short. Turning, she saw tubes protruding from her arm. She explored it further, and discovered the place it entered he tube. She touched it with a long fingernail, wondering how long she had been here, for her fingernails to have grown so. She removed her finger, then placed it back.
What a strange feeling. She placed it back, and willed herself along the wire. She found the machine it was connected to, and released all the tubes from her body.
The scientist turned to his assistant, a slightly angry look on his face. "Why did you release the..." then he spied the bemused look on the assistants face. The scientist turned back to Eiza, a slightly horrified look on his face. "Already? Put her out, quick!"
Eiza felt a slight snarl escape her lips, wandering along the connections, and finding the control to put her out, was surprised the guy hadn't pressed the button yet. Then she realised the speed of the connections was much faster than that of the human brain.
Disabling the button, Eiza retreated back along the connections, back to her body. She watched the guy press the button. Exploring her own mental functions, she discovered they weren't as...well, slow as she remembered. They weren't the speed of the computer, that was for sure, but she was certain they were faster than the norms over there.
Norms. Thats a good word. That was her word for those unlike her. Bored of the tube, she placed her palm over some of the tube openings, and found one that lead to the main control panel. Manipulating the controls, she found the one to open the tube, and activated it.
Quickly returning to her body incase this moved her, she watched curiously as the door opened. Stepping out, she spoke quietly to the two men in the room.
"Where am I."
"N...Neo Tokyo. Deep in the plate." The man quivered slightly. What could this girl do to him?
There was a slight whistle as she breathed in. Thats not where she had been living. "Why am I here, how long have I been here?" An undertone of panic carried her seemingly calm voice, panic erupting through her mind. What was going on?

[My Final Heaven]

The Shogun drones brought the subject Camma and Ezia to seperate sections of the Neo Tokyo subplate. Camma was placed underneath the industrial plate and Ezia under the residential plate. While Ezia was being formated with a Remorium symbiont, and while Zero’s attention was occupied partially with thier first subject, Shogun risked doing some calculations and intense observations on the Caman subject and specifically it’s depleated remorium symbiont.

Remorium crystals like those powering the Shogun powercells, or like the Remorium microfibers weaved into Zero’s body armor was Remorium removed from the central mass and fed with plentiful amounts of radiation which it then converted back into mass. Given a constant supply of radiation, remorium would become a conduit, in exchange for a constant supply, it would provide massive amounts of electrical power in an easilly convertible form. It could be made to create gravimetric wave fronts which would either ripple outwards from the source or attract into the source. The first is how humans now propelled thier starships, generating anti gravity wavefronts and effectively riding them like a surfer. The later was how the Shogun drones maintained cohesion, all thier parts were held together through the powerful attractive force of it’s central Remorium core.

But depleated remorium was a crystal that had been deprived of nourishment, and like a caged animal, it went feral and vicious. If a human came in contact with depleated remorium they would ordinarilly die. The remorium would attack them and send enough microwave energy through thier body to instantly liquefy thier bones. But Caman had combined Symbiotically with the remorium. The reason, Shogun couldn’t guess, but the scans it’s drones were making were unlike anything Shogun had seen. It knew instantly that the experiment was successful and that it was looking at the subject which could combat the coming threat.

Shogun had seen examples of the first subject in the deep desert, where burrowing animals had come near a seam of remorium ejected from the planet core by volcanic activity. The animals would become larger, stronger and sometimes mutate into new shapes. Shogun had seen animals which could create static electric fields or ones that could skip through time like a rock thrown across a pond bounces along the water. Each one it had found, it had terminated.

The sensor drones were detecting unusual activity within the Caman subject. It was becoming concious and as it did so, it’s brain lit up with brilliant activity. Here was the reason the Remorium had joined with it. Shogun went down the list of neuroreceptors generated by this subject. There were at least five hundred previously unrecorded ones and the remorium had hard wired directly into several sections of the subjects brain. It was acting like an antena for this subjects telepathic abilities, extending the range of it’s influence and giving him a better understanding through the Remorium’s extra sensory awareness and pan chromatic extention.

The chromatic probability envelope expanded to infinity around this subject, like a black hole in time. It was pure chaos.

What are you?

The words were in the Shogun conciousness without any aparent means of transferance. A drone had seen the subject’s frontal cortex light up with activity but it’s motor cortex had remained dormant. It hadn’t moved or done anything but Shogun had heard it talk. No, that was wrong, the subject had planted the words in the Shogun conciousness.

We are Shogun.

[Shakan'Dar]

Terry sighed as he pushed along a hovering repulser pad that was stacked high with diplomatic forms. He opened the door to the small cube that classified as a diplomat assistant's office. He switched the pad off when it was above his desk and it slowly settled down. He sat in his chair and slid in close to the desk. He'd have to work hard if he was to be finished verifying all of these forms before the day was through. He looked at a form, and slowly scanned it.

"Confirmation of compliance to all regulations of the Neo Tokyo governing body" He scrawled his signature on a line, and put it in a much smaller pile of already verified forms.

"Acknowledgment of all E.D.F restrictions concerning space faring craft." He scoffed. Their ship wasn't going to be going anywhere in a hurry. The Utopia Terra Nova Conglomerate had placed them in temporary residence on Earth until they were satisfied with the outcome of all diplomatic negotiations, and the way that the Earth government tried to squeeze all that they could from the remorium trade, it would be a long while before they could leave this irradiated hellhole. He contemplated just leaving the forms and finding a way back to the Tri-System. This whole mission annoyed him, and he doubted even the ambassador would care. One assistant was as easy to find as the next, and everybody knew that Terry hated his job. Nobody would care if he went missing. That hardened his resolve. He would show them all he was useful! He signed the document shifted it over, and slid over the next one.

************************************************** *****************************

After he had finished verification of all the forms, Terry clocked out of the embassy, and took a lift down to the ground level of the plate. It was a disgusting way to live, he thought. Sitting on top of a brick, pretending the filth below you didn't exist. It made him sick. He hopped into a lift that would take him down to a transit station, so that he could get to the other side of the plate, where the diplomat party's residential quarters were located.

As he waited, thinking idle thoughts to the dull hum of the lift, he was shocked back into the moment by a lurch, as the lift stopped moving.

"Oh, come on!" cried an annoyed Terry. "As if that **** load of forms wasn't enough, now this!" He held down the button to the emergency comm, and called out. "Hello? The lift has stopped." There was a slight crackle, and he thought he might have heard the faintest of voices. Suddenly, a large electrical current surged out of the button, through Terry's finger, and into his body. He was literally shocked beyond belief. As he lost consciousness, he heard what sounded like something metal clanging on top of the lift, and his last thought was that nobody would care that he was gone, they would only care that the forms were done......

[My Final Heaven]

Hunter Zero allowed his attention to be diverted for the mean time to the subjects 02 and 03, respectfully named Ezia and Terry. Hunter corrected internally to 02-c and 03-d because none of Hunter’s choices had in fact been taken by Shogun. If this first batch failed, Hunter would see to the aquisition of new stock personally without relying on the ever re calculating Shogun hive mind.

This was the problem with trying to deal with the Shogun. Even though Hunter was ever aware of thier thoughts, thier calculation process was always streaming new data into the line, always correcting and adjusting for new input so that while Shogun’s intentions were not deciteful, Hunter knew they weren’t for all the Shgoun thoughts were streamed to him through a subspace link, it’s actions often turned out to be unpredictable. Ezia had been a conincidence.

Hunter had wanted a young child as a specimen, one which was both innocent of the world yet physically developed enough to know self preservation. The first subject had turned out to have to high a probability envelope, a child who could in the presence of time grow to be a great scientist or a great dictator.

Children like this had to be terminated. It was a regretable necessity for while dictators are a solidifying force of civilisation, scientists, great ones, are a cause of great instability. Stability is the life of a civilisation, and Chaos is death.

So Shogun had taken subject 02-b, which had then been rejected by the Remorium and turned into an irradiated pile of carbon.

Hence subject 02-c which was now displaying some very worrying behaviour. It was treating it’s Shogun captors as if they were people. On the few occasions that Zero had had to purge a child and been seen moments before, he had noticed the same behaviour in some children. There was no fear, they thought Zero was a person. They’d tried to talk to him before he had injected them with a retrovirus which would have them die of an unexplainable death moments later.

Zero watched as Ezia calmly touched the Shogun restraining her and suddenly, it lost cohesion, released it’s grip and fell to pieces behind her.

What happened Shogun?

The subject redirected the electron flow through our logic cuircuits. If Shogun could sound embarased, it did so now. We were given the instruction to release and having done so, our purpose was completted. Recalibrating logic cuircuits to correct the error.

Hunter watched through Shogun’s mirriad eyes as the subject calmly stood and walked away, adressing a pair of hovering observation drones and asking ‘Where am I?’

Currently location Neotokyo Subplate-R altitude five hundred and seven meters above sea level...

We were given an order to varify co-ordinates. Order came from without. Tracking the error!

Hunter let Shogun deal with this dilema. The remorium’s control over electron flow and chronometric flow had somehow given this subject the ability to interpret computer circuitry and even manipulate it in real time.

Observe this subject Shogun but do not attempt to disturb it. I want to see what it does given limited freedom. Only watch from a distance.

Hunter wanted to see just how far the range of this subject’s influence could extend, but for the mean time, his attention was diverted back to subject 00, Umi who was recovering from her ordeal and a speed unparrallelled by another living creature.

[Akira Avelon]

Akira had awoken with one hell of a bad headache.. But her neck felt like it was supercharged... She couldn't tell what was going on... But her leg was severely bothering her...

Turning to look for her lost limb, Akira saw it for 10 feet away in a North-western direction. She got onto her hands and knee and started to slowly limp over to it.. Surprisingly... The limb moved as she got closer. This intrigued the teen and in fact. Akira went straight over and picked the lost limb up and held it in place where it should go. Akira watched as the tendons, veins and other molecular fibers began to move and combine into each other. Joining and becoming one once again. It hurt like hell and Akira even screamed out loud to the event. Falling over after most of it was done and made both her fists and mouth bleed from the strain she put on both.

As she cringed on the floor, Akira didn't notice the large suit of armor that was hovering near her. It seemed to be stationary at the moment. It wasn't doing anything malicious at all. So naturally... it peaked Akira's interest.

Relaxing all the acid glands, Akira felt at ease... She wanted to see just how far she could get to this... 'Angel' before it noticed her. As her eyes were filled with wonder and curiosity. All the while the battle wounds and partially still severed leg reconstructed itself to become better. Akira never saw that she was in fact picking up more of the iron and steel particles off the ground and adding it her her bimolecular structure as she went forward...

[The Dude]

Caman regained more of his strength. He heard those words in his mind "We are Shogun." They rang in his mind as a bell. "We are Shogun."

Suddenly, he snapped back into reality and remembered his current situation. he could feel the pressence of a life form walking close to where he was. He had never manipulated someone without seeing them, but he would have to try hard.

"Alright." The guard spoke out loud and a door slid open and an armed guard stepped in. "You're lunch is here." The guard bent down then bent back up. "Wait a minute..." he spoke to himself. "I'm not on lunch duty..." He looked in horror to see his rifle on the ground but it was too late. He felt a hand grab the back of his head and within seconds he was dead.

Caman looked out the door. His delight however was soon replaced with pain. The extra concentration he put into manipulating the guard caused a massive headache. Much like the ones that were a biproduct of the black eye. He knew that he wouldn't be able to manipulate or kill anyone for a while so reluctantly he picked up the guard rifle. Even with the aid of the symbiotic suit the rifle weighed him down. his finger tapped the trigger, and the rifle went off causing him to jump and his heart to skip a beat. Luckily the rifle had a silencer on so noone else heard.

As he walked out of his cell, he looked the area before him. Massive machines were performing their functions and producing loud noises. The heat of molten steal was almost unbearable. Yet something drove him on. Through the headache, he felt something. A million thoughts going off at once. It had to be the shogun. He couldn't read any of the thoughts as they were being produced too fast but he could feel it. He decided he would follow this. Whatever this Shogun was, perhaps it would lead him to his goal.

[Shakan'Dar]

Terry awoke in a strange tank. It was filled with a liquid, but it was definitely not water. It made his skin itch. He was breathing through a tube, and the air he got through the tube felt strange too. He had no idea what was happening, and he began to panic. His limbs began to thrash, but they were restrained by metal clamps that pulled tight. The top of the tank opened and something red dropped into the water. Terry suddenly went very still as it pulsed in front of his face, and a small tendril floated gently towards him. It touched him and he screamed. He spat the air tube out and thrashed his head side to side as suddenly a large number of tendrils wrapped around his face. He felt his head completely engulfed and then something traveling down his back along his spine. He tried to scream, but he couldn't. He had only one thought.

Out!

Suddenly, there was a noise of creaking metal and the tank blew outwards. His clamps broke off and he was swept out by the rushing water. He hit the floor, and gasped for air. As he looked down at his blurry reflection in the thin layer of water on the floor, he saw that his head was covered as by a helmet, and his eyes and a small area around his mouth were the only parts uncovered. He felt tingly along his spine, and every time he moved, the water seemed to crackle slightly, like it was charged with static. He slowly got up and looked around.

"Where am I?" he screamed in fury, and as he did so arcs of electricity shot from his fists and destroyed what was left of the tank. He wanted answers, and he wanted them now.