Around five years ago, an epidemic like never before hit Earth. The virus attacked each cell, slicing through each delicate membrane and into the heart of the nucleus it implanted it's own DNA. Completely overtaken, the immune system was useless as the virus began multiplying within it's host in a matter of seconds. But the virus didn't stop there. It changed people.
They became monsters.
Unrecognizable. Indestructible.
Albino white skin and cold red eyes. Under their thin white skin, you could see webbed veins carrying black blood. Any hair on their body was gone, leaving clear unblemished skin that was as hard as steel.
They became monsters.
Elongated teeth thirsted for blood and carnage. Nails became lethal, each curved weapon as sharp as knives.
They became monsters.
Intelligence hadn't eluded their evolution. Instead, they were tactical. They organized and planned sieges on nearby towns. They waited. They watched.
Then they attacked.
They became monsters.
It was chaos. A trail of death in their wake. Humans trembled in their houses, waiting for night fall, and then the terror would begin.
But the scary thing was, was a truth no one could deny.
They were indeed human.
They were what humans would become.
Mindless, violent, animalistic.... Monsters.
~ ~ ~ ~
Redolent was created.
She awoke, her pupils of liquid fire scanning across the metal table she was laying on . She picked herself up slowly off the icy chrome surface, taking in her surroundings like her first gulp of fresh air. She breathed in, aware of her paper-like lungs inflating, brushing against the metal rotators implanted inside of her. It was eery, how are she was that the air was flooding into her bloodstream, circulating around her body in silver veins. Her brain sparked as the door in front of her swung open cautiously. She tensed and immediately surveyed the room, like it was an instinct to escape. It was a pristine white room, blinking LED lights flashed angrily at her. Monitors of complicated algorithms sat watching her, inputting the slightest action from her into a vault of data. Her eyes trailed up the multiple wires surrounding her body and she studied the blackened screen that monitored all vital signs.
She was silent as the room filled in front of her.
They told her she was created to save Earth. She was created to kill the Pentium-- the monsters plaguing the human race at all costs. At the mention of them, pictures flashed before her very eyes. Startling images accompanied by statistics and information that flooded her system. She blinked and the images vanished. Her sight was ringed with red tick-marks, it instantly computed anything within her vision. Tiny circles enclosed any object she focused on, information automatically streaming for her knowledge. With a flick of her head, the words vanished again, leaving her staring at the scene in front of her in perfect clarity.
She listened to their words. The terror rang in their flying octaves. All eyes were on her, they all watched her like she was their god. Like a deity. Their embodiment of hope.
"Do you understand?"
Their question hung in the air like a heavy thundercloud.
"I understand." But she smiled. It was an eery smile of the sickest delight. The scientists forced themselves to smile back, their worries rocketing with a feeling of unease in the air.
"Do I begin now?" she questioned, her voice patters escalating excitement.
"Of course," the head scientist replied, pushing thin wired frames higher on the bridge of his nose. Behind her, the slick white walls separated into a rectangular opening. An exit.
Redolent slipped off the table and walked to the scientists. She tapped one slender finger against the side of her cheek in a human mannerism programed into her hard drive, she thought hard.
If there are no human hosts, the virus will cease to exist, she reasoned.
In the next .53 seconds the white walls were splattered, dripping, encased in red.
She let the scientist's head fall to the floor, the blood sliding down her arms. She felt the rivulets splattered on her face. Reaching up tentatively, she wiped some from her cheek and stared at it fixedly. It sat in an orb on the tip of her finger. In it's surface she could see her own reflection.
Long tendrils of black hair, pale white face with eyes the color of the dying sun.
She decided she liked herself slathered in red.
~ ~ ~
She tensed her legs and leapt lightly onto the high wall encircling the city. She stood hundreds of feet above the ground, surveying the city at siege below. The air was blackened with smoke, plumes spiraling into the polluted air. Cries and screams rung out in the frigid air, she took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh, closing her ears to the destruction below.
Sitting down gently, she let one leg swing over the brick wall lazily. Abruptly, vibrations carried up the wall as people thundered against it's chrome doors. Smirking, she wondered vaguely why these people continued to fight her. She was protecting them from the Pentium--even if it meant death. Every life is like a grain of sand to her, one little insignificant speck in her existence. She wiped the beach clean first, and then she would watch the waves clean up after her. Nature would start anew with being stronger than before. Evolution would restart again like a never ending cycle. In the long run, what she was doing was right. She was sure of it.
Standing up quickly, she jumped. Summersaulting over the heads of the crowd, she landed with her knee tucked under her, plumes of dust rising around her in an morbid cloak.
She raised one hand swiftly, the black armor wrapping itself around her arms and extending outwards into a pair of thin ebony blades. She gripped one in each hand, preferring to detach it, instead of leaving it attached to her arm. She took a step forward, but a hand was placed on her shoulder lightly.
"Redolent, relax," Calamity pushed a sheaf of electric blue hair out of her eyes and stared at Redolent.
"Get off of me," Redolent snapped, trying pushing her out of the way. Calamity side stepped her, remaining in front of her stubbornly.
"Calamity. Move." the furious girl ordered between clenched teeth. She thirsted for action. A siege was a waste of her talents, yet Calamity had refused to take any other action. According to her, it was the best way to eliminate the most amount of Targets as possible.
"We don't have to kill them off now," Calamity began to plead. Her eyes were swimming in unshed tears, "I let you go the last town, but that was only because they were showing signs of the transformation. These people are innocent."
"For now," Redolent growled. She was itching to hurtle into the crowd and dance in the rainfall. She stared into their eyes wide with fear, it disgusted her. These humans were scared of her? She was putting them out of their misery. Better a quick death than one by the Pentium. She had seen the transformation first hand, it was--
Crack.
She whipped around, her scarlet eyes ablaze. The city had become deathly silent, even Calamity had gone rigid in shock. She turned to face Redolent, her face alabaster,
"I-It can't be happening now! We sealed off the doors!"
"Too late," Redolent muttered, "the virus must've been dormant in one of them already." Drawing her swords again, she held them aloft in front of her. Her energy simmered within her and she let out a breath, thanking her creators for making her a Mecha-- a state-of-the-art humanoid killing machine.
"Calm down!" the blue-haired Mecha spat, "My calculations can't be wrong."
Crack.
The sound carried once again, followed by more sounds of the sickening snaps of bones.
"It's beginning."
A scream of pain split the night air as another loud 'snap' rang out.
"First the spine."
Another shriek rose into the air, cut off abruptly with a ferocious growl. A deep guttural sound resonating from a monster.
"Then the voice."
Then an eery silence, as thought the sound itself was tangible filled the courtyard.
"Then the heart goes."
Suddenly, from around the corner, a white blur barreled right into her, knocking her back a few feet and crashing into a dilapidated bread shop.
Pushing herself out of the rubble, she launched herself at the Pentium, grabbing a fistful of the host's hair and ripping it out of his scalp.
"Then the hair."
The Pentium snarled, it's blood red eyes screaming at me. It's spine was arched like a wild animal, its white skin as hard as marble.
"Then the humanity."
Calamity fisted electricity and sent it spiraling at the Pentium. The monster quickly dodged the attack, changing it's trajectory towards her. Before he could make contact she raised her arms quickly, piling a wall of earth in front of her. Sliding one foot in front of her, she raised her hands again as more walls encircled the creature. It growled angrily, snapping it's pointed teeth in frustration.
Redolent walked forward, flashing Calamity a smile,
"Good job! Would you care to end it's--"
But before she could finish her words, it threw itself completely at the earthen wall, crashing right into Calamity with a screech like metal on metal.
Screeching, she flew backwards, tumbling like a rag doll in the dirt. She didn't get up.
Narrowing my eyes, Redolent circled the Pentium warily.
"Are you going to attack?" she spat venomously, flashing her ebony blades in derisiveness.
"Are you?" the sound of it's gravelly voice shocked Redolent and it seized it's moment to spring. Slashing out, she drew blood from a dark gash on it's shoulder. Crying, it retreated quickly, limping slightly.
"You talk." she stated, dubious, "I didn't know Pentium could."
"The virus is evolving," the creature replied smoothly, the voice sounding alien coming from the creature.
"So it would seem," Redolent snarled, leaping towards the Pentium, and bringing her sword down above its head.
The Pentium brought up its forearm, parrying the blow and Redolent skidded backwards. Her feet flying in the dirt, she attack from the right, the left, twirling and catching it in the leg. Dancing between the Pentium's flurry of clawing attempts, she sliced through it's hard skin, leaving a nasty slash through it's chest. The Pentium's chest began to heave heavily, it's eyes still glowing a malicious color. Dropping her arms to her sides, Redolent gasped for air as well, rivulets of artificial sweat sliding down her brow.
"You're finished," she walked over and raised her sword above it's head when--
She was dancing in the garden. The sun felt good on her skin as she pranced through the meadow of daisies littered at her feet. A butterfly stopped to land on her finger as she waded through the tall grass. She was around seven, toddling around her home in search of adventure.
"Daddy?" she called out, turning around to trot back to the house.
"Daddy are you there? I'm home!" she let her backpack fall to the floor, rummaging inside it for the test she had this morning. A bright red 100% was neatly inscribed on the top corner. When she looked at it, her smile grew larger. She walked through the open door to her parent's bedroom calling,
"Mommy? Daddy?"
She fell to the floor, slipping on some liquid underfoot. She lifted the underside of her foot to her face and saw the carmine liquid. A slow river was making it's way across the room, coming from the bodies of...
"ARRGHHHHHHhh!" a scream of pain was echoing around her mind. She curled up tighter in pain, holding her head in agony. She realized with a shock that she was the one screaming, the sound ripping from her lips in a mess of constants. The pain was intense.
What was that?
"You're done," the Pentium's voice rose above her, low and deadly.
She prepared for the blackout. What happened to Mecha's when they die? Do we have souls? Do we go to heaven? She wondered vaguely, a splitting pain in her head.
She just wanted it over.
The sound of a sword slicing through a body awoke her. The Pentium was lying dead beside her, it's red eyes staring blankly ahead, the snarl still on it's face. She was in one piece, her mind foggy and unclear. A hand reached towards her at the edges of her sight and she took it gratefully.
"Thanks Cal--" she began, propping herself up before noticing that the hand she had taken was not Calamity's.
Her eyes traveled up his black leather pants, past the gleaming silver belt, the sword hanging at it's side was covered in black blood. She gazed up past the black shirt, the cuffs rolled to his elbows and the collar slightly pulled back to reveal pale white skin. He had startling emerald eyes, hidden partially by the mess of white hair hanging in sheafs. He had a slight smile on his face.
"Hey there," he said, "I'm Genesis."
~ ~ ~
So.... -tentative-
what.. did you think?
And what do you think of Redolent, Calamity, and Genesis?