DarkWing (Final Editing in Progress)

Chapter 26

I turned to Vaine. His long silver hair cast a shadow across most of his face. He stared darkly at the shattered window. The light reflecting off of his gleaming eyes seemed to grow more intense. It also seemed to go from a dull white shine to a sharp red burn. The moonlight coming through the window made his mouth visible. After a few seconds, he smirked. He turned to me, his flaming eyes carving through the darkness. 

"DarkWing... My son," he said. 

"Don't call me that," I snapped back at him. His smirk bloomed into a full smile. 

"You call me a monster. Talk about how many I've killed, but what about you? You're not exactly a saint." I could see his teeth in his huge smile. I studied them, then realized, they were fangs. "I've heard about what you've done in New York. Forget about my men, what about the civilians you've murdered, the cops you've slaughtered. Innocent lives not involved in our 'war.' You didn't think twice about killing them. Hell, you brutalized their bodies in cold blood." 

"It was self defence. They tried to hurt me, my friends, I had no choice. And your the reason they tried to hurt us. You turn me into this. And for what? This company is already rich and famous. What more could you possibly want? Why did you do this? Huh? What possible motive could you have to do all this?!"

His smile faded.

"My wife. She died when Shadow was 8. It was cancer." He paused for a second. It amazed me that this creature could have emotions. "I vowed from that day on that I would devote my life to finding a cure to it." 

"But you did! The cure has been found! Now what are you doing playing with lives, playing God?!?" He looked down. 

"I told you my wife told me to take care of Shadow. Shadow was always a rebellious, independant girl. She wouldn't let me, or anyone else help her out when it came to her disability. So. I cured it." 

"And the other Correctors just went along with you wasting lives and corrupting this institution for your own personal gain?" 

He looked up now. "I told all of the others we were doing this to better the human race. I told them all we were going to be eternally famed for creating the 'alpha sapiens,' the ultimate race crafted from the best genes from every species on this planet. A cheetah's speed, an eagle's eyes, a dog's smell, a bull's strength, all in one, in us. It was my master plan. First, we harvested the genes themself, then made them compatible with humans. But as you have seen, there are side effects, specifically with your physical appearance. Most people are scared by these changes, by these mutations, so after we created the human-compatible gene strings, we planned on locating the side effects and eradicating them. Of course muscle mass, eye structure, wings, some side effects we can't help because the benefits directly rely on them, but we were going to make the alpha-sapiens as similar so humans as we can."

"But your killing humans!? How are you bettering the human race!!" His smile grew even more malicious that I could almost see the evil radiating from him.

"The alpha sapien formula was never meant to be for everyone. It was just meant for me. I would be the perfect creation, and all would have to bow before me. I would be your king."

"That's quite a God Complex you have there. But you're drunk. You're drunk on your power. You're dillusional. It'll never work." He just smiled at me. 

I paused for a second, taking in all this information. Then, I backtracked slightly. 

"But why did you let her leave in the first place? Why did you let her join Jinx and everyone? Hell, why did you use her as one of your experiments?!" 

"It was a temporary solution. Bats see perfectly, but they are born blind. They use a sort of basic sonar in order to 'see.' I figured if it worked for them, I could make it work for her. And I planned on removing her side effects as soon as I had completed the alpha sapien formula." 

"So why'd you let her go? Why'd you let her find the rest of us, become close to us, just to end up betraying us?" He laughed. 

"The people that signed up. They were experiments. EXPERIMENTS. They weren't supposed to be successful. Experiments are meant to fail. Then we study the failure, study what happened, and improve it for next time. Now then, we couldn't let all those failures run around. Not only would it be complete chaos, but they would be the only ones who could challenge my reign. These experiments, they are more powerful than they know. You, you don't even understand your own worth. So, as soon as we finish studying them, as soon as they lose their value to us, they are disposed." 

"So why'd you let Shadow go?!" I asked again, becoming angry and impatient. 

"I'm getting there, son." 

"I said don't call me that," I repeated sternly. He just smiled. 

"Every once in awhile, an experiment would catch on and realize what'll happen to them after we are finished with them, and they would escape. I sent Shadow out. Giving her bat DNA both helped her live independantly as well as made her accepted among the other experiments. She had made it to the inside, became their friends, a double agent. I was so proud of how well she would do. Then, when the others would least expect it, she would eradicate them." I was shocked. My anger froze me. 

"She. She was planning on doing that to Jinx. To Wulf. To Drake." I paused for a second. "To me." 

"No," he interjected. "Not you. The plans slightly changed with you. After you came in, I contacted Shadow. She wanted to deal with you personally." 

"But your men came after me!" 

"Shadow went and found the operation in Ithaca, all your friends trying to survive. It's funny. Any experiments that escape always seem to find the other experiments in their area, if there are any, and work together. I sent my men after you to force you to run, run to Jinx, run to Shadow. I told them to burn down your house, to turn you into a fugitive, so you would have no choice." My fury overwhelmed me. My nose bled more and more, but I didn't care. 

"You played with me! You played with my life! For your own satisfaction, yours and your daughter's!"

"But now, the satisfaction will be mine."

He began to transform, and my face did little to hide my astonishment. My eyes grew, and my mouth slipped open. His skin suddenly went from a fleshy peach to a metallic gray. I could see his individual cells shift and realign right before my eyes.

"It is funny," he said in a shocking, robotic voice. "I originally worked as a nanotechnologist. When I realized it would no longer worked, I turned to gene splicing."

His muscles grew exponentially.

"I was the first one to do so. I began the Corrector movement."

Wings sprouted from his back and sliced through his shirt. They were silver and metallic, but still had a strange, fleshy look. His torso grew as well, and his shirt soon ripped off, leaving exposed his armored, sculpted body.

"This gene splicing, though, it embraces humans' animalistic, savage nature and instinct. But I know the truth."

His eyes emitted a dark, fiery aura, as if his eyes were engulfed in black flames. It was different from fire though. It was controlled, and slow.

"I know that true survival does not come with your instinct, but with your intellect, and our intellect leads us to technology."

His muscles had become 3 times larger than they were earlier. It was pure muscle. His body was forced to grow to adjust to the new-found muscle. He had to hunch over slightly to fit in the room. His wings beat on the ceiling, his thick silver arms lead down to his powerful hands and claws which gently scratched the floor. His huge torso beat powerfully to the rhythm of his heart, and his slightly bent, ripped legs that tore most of his pants supported it all. I couldn't believe my own eyes.

"No... You didn't," I said in disbelief. He grinned monstrously, and my astonishment was soon replaced with anger.

"It's ironic, the solution was staring me right in the face. The balance between all the different DNA strands was impossible to regulate, that is, before I turned to nanotech. The nanotech governs the structure and stability of my new genes. And now, I am the first of our new race, a half-man, half-machine hybrid race." I didn't believe him, I couldn't. "I am the first alpha-sapien."