• Prologue: Confusion and Frustration in Modern Times

    Pherreew! Pherreew!

    Two deafening shots pierced straight through my shoulder with something splattering across the ground. The momentum of the bullets and blazing pain suddenly flared through my entire body. And of course, I ended up face-planting into the marble flooring and sliding forward about five feet. I quickly lifted my upper half with my non-blown arm to survey the damage. Huge, dark blotches of red soaked my injured joint with shreds of what was left of my sleeve. Thin red lines of blood artfully trickled down my right arm. Then another wave of pain zapped through my head, just in case I didn’t get the memo. I gritted my teeth together, I was just so pissed and tired. The only thing on my mind right now was the stupid bullet that blasted apart my shoulder. Coiling my fingers into a fist, I brought my hands underneath my chest and slowly pushed myself off the floor, trying to ignore the stinging and protesting twinges in my shoulder. I managed to get onto my feet for about two seconds before my legs immediately gave out; I fell back onto the wall next to me. All of a sudden I couldn’t even see straight. That definitely wasn’t a good sign. I mean if the walls and the ceiling were spinning circles around you, you would think something was a tad off. Just a bit. I rapidly blinked in an attempt to clear the fog clouding my head. Even though my mind was mush and my body maimed at the moment, something thudded in my ears pretty loudly, growing even louder as a shot of adrenaline swam through my system.

    Incoherent shouts rattled in my head like marbles in a mayonnaise jar. I could hear the sound of feet trample closer, but they were still a good distance away. Shutting my eyes closed, I tried to resume my focus not to fall. I can’t let them catch me, I can’t let them catch me, I can’t let them catch me... I pressed into my mind, yet I doubted I would be able to follow through.

    So hurry up and move then. If you didn’t notice, you have poison in your body and it’ll kill you if you remain here any longer. A thickly male voice I was forcibly merged with echoed in my head. That’s why we have to get out of here. Outside the poison will be negated because of the purity of the air. But you have only a few minutes till it reaches your heart and... Well you know what will happen then… Let’s see that’s translated as “get out of the building and the poison will go away, or else in few minutes you’ll be screwed”. Jeez it was annoying. It never was straight forward about things but I got used to it. And I'm sure you could see how close they are... With that in mind, you think you could make it time? It ended its mockery with its stupid evil chuckle. Great I’m happy it has a sense of humor. Too bad its presence vanished before I could shoot back a few words from my word bank. But talking to me didn’t help the outbreak of migraines exploding in my head.

    So it wanted me to use “that”. I inwardly groaned. Y’know I hated almost everything about myself and this was one of them. Everyone keeps saying how blessed I am to have this “ability”, truly a gift from the heavens that I never believed in. Unfortunately everyone just happened to be crazed scientists who kept me locked up for seven long years of my life (and don’t ask me about the other six ‘cause I wouldn’t know either). And I can tell you they didn’t leave very happy memories. Now you tell me what it is: a curse or a blessing? However when it came to escaping a building full of white-coated brainiacs, it proved to be handy. Keeping my mind steady, I closed my eyes until I felt a rush of energy surge up my spine. It was weird how it all worked, and I didn’t understand any of it myself, but the end result was all I needed. When the time felt right I snapped open my eyes and saw everything in a new light. Literally. All the colors were mixed up in batter of dark blue. Solid objects appeared as only white outlines. It was as if someone slapped a pair of x-ray glasses over my eyes. Now all I needed to find were big human-like blobs... that were running down the second hall next to mine... Dang it! Couldn’t I ever catch a break!? A second later, an image flashed in the back of my mind with a pallet of colors, giving me a more exact picture of my pursuers: four whitecoats wielding their usual rifles. Fun. They were mostly likely the ones who somehow shot me earlier. I drew in a deep breath, frustrated. Damned thing was right. I didn't have the time or strength to fight them off.

    Despite the freakin’ pain that constantly ripped out of my shoulder, I tried pulling my dying body straight up. Then a sharp stabbing pain raced up my spine, leaving me worse than crippled: vulnerable. That and with a tingly feeling in my backside. With every second it became harder to breathe. Crazy genius poison at its best. I’d appreciate it if you helped me out! I harshly called out in my head. And as expected, nothing responded back.

    “There she is! We can’t let her escape, shoot her down!” One white-coated scientist barked the command, pointing his rifle at me. He led the other three down the narrow hall. Aiming with anticipated precision, he pulled the trigger with a crack of thunder. It must’ve been the adrenaline kicking in ‘cause everything was in slow motion. I moved my head just so the bullet just barely grazed past my cheek. I saw the small droplets of blood fling off as I pressed against the wall. Kneeling on the ground, the remaining three fired another round of ammo, invisibly cruising at me. But I already broke into a sprint. As I ran a blast of red seeped out of my muscles and somehow froze the bullets in mid-air. Very cool and very useful. I looked over my shoulder, finding blank expressions plastered on their bug-eyed faces. I snickered to myself. I wish I had a picture of that.

    My legs pounded against the ground as I leaned in a sharp turn. Oh and did I mention that I had the worst luck in the world. Because it didn’t surprise me when I found five muscled guys rushing down the same hall. Their faces were scrunched with rage as they charged forward. They all raised their cattle prongs like a club, fully intending to fry me with all the juice they got. And I wasn’t gonna stick around for that. Skidding to an immediate stop, I did a 180, and dashed the other way, but broke hard, almost falling face first. The guys from before had herded me into a now one way hall.

    It took me a second to realize that. Dang, another reason I hated this place!

    One of the bulky guards with a buzz-cut wore a wolfish grin, enjoying my “helplessness”. “Give up girlie. There’s no way you could get out of this,” He sneered. Taking the cattle prong, he flipped the voltage on, surely, to the max. Its eminent buzzing filled the air. “You better pray that he’s going to forgive you for this, or at least be merciful enough to let you live.”

    Taking the chunk of energy out of my body, like he had taught me, I was about to whip out an attack that would have wiped them off the face of the earth when something abruptly impeded the flow. Suddenly I felt sick to my stomach. Following that, something leaked into the back of my throat. I doubled over, violently coughing up red everywhere. A small puddle of liquid formed at my feet, gradually stretching across the mineral white flooring. Blood. My time was almost up.

    “Heh you like the new poison? We made it just for you…” He smiled presumptuously, revealing a row of stained crooked teeth. If I wasn’t dying I would have gagged at the sight. Instead I was raging mad. What got me pissed was the sadistic grin that pulled around the tooth decay. I kept myself steady with my tensed muscles. Acidic hatred boiled in the pit of my stomach; if I was going out I would knock that smug grin off his face first. It was the same exact grin that he always gave me in memories I’d rather not mention. My teeth clenched together when my eyes met the hulking man’s piercing stare. I was dreadfully eager to rip the jerk to shreds. Hmm... maybe I could rip out his throat before they shot me down. Then the massive man stepped closer. The hairs on the back of neck stood up and I heard a feral snarl vibrate in my ear drums.

    Whoa was that just me?

    A moment of fear flashed across his mountainous face. Another picture perfect moment that only I got to enjoy. But he quickly set up a mocking grin and snapped his fingers. “Just kill her. We’ll tell him that this one has also failed.” Obviously the rugged a** was their superior: the scrawny white-coats behind me took aim, angling their weapons at me. With my keen eyes I caught the uncertainty that flittered across their faces, but they obeyed the command nonetheless.

    Then something lightly brushed across my mind. Now it shows up. Looks like you dug yourself into one hell of a hole. Don’t worry, I’ll take it from here-

    Look I only need a small boost nothing else. I don’t need any of your crap right now if I’m gonna get out of here alive. It let loose a snarl that I had learned to ignore. I sighed internally. Well you gonna purr all day or save your a**?

    Don’t push it brat...

    Guns cocked a few bullets. Now I was getting a little impatient. The longer you complain the shorter we have. Get on with it!

    ... I hate you so much...

    Good I’m happy were on the same boat.

    At that moment a surge power circulated throughout my entire body. The atmosphere grew thick with some unknown force, and within the walls the steel beams creaked loud enough for all to hear. The air gradually became suffocated by the new sullen power. Minute cracks ran down the thickened glass behind me, webbing out across the surface with each second. And dents larger than my body dipped into the floor, fracturing the stony plane. I clenched my fists, unable to control the shaking. Hatred fueled that power as I have been told, and that wasn’t a problem, I had plenty of that. But that power, of course, came with a price. A price that I stupidly forgot.

    In an instant my vision tinted red. I anxiously twitched, suddenly feeling a roiling fury rise into my system.

    The men behind the arrogant b*****d immediately broke rank, recognizing the sudden change in atmosphere. I watched them run, some of them stumbling along the way; something creep onto the surface skin. As a hideous growl escaped from the back of my throat, I felt my canines press against my lower lip, slowly elongating. I remembered feeling nothing but anger. All my muscles tensed, wound tighter than a coiled spring under ten tons lead. I remembered the irrepressible desire to kill, absolutely anything. It didn’t matter what it was. Just as long as that hot, crimson blood would spill. That’s when everything went red, and then faded into a cold, black darkness.

    Next was the annihilating panic. For some reason I couldn’t move at all. In fact, I couldn’t see or feel as I floated in the empty space. Thoughts of murder and resentment were wiped clear from my head only to be replaced by a frenzied instinct to escape, survive. God I had to get out. Dark spaces that I can’t move in are never good. What the heck was going on? Then something in the back of my mind clicked. I heard a small voice (a different one than what I’m used to hearing) whisper with a flood of images:

    The exact same thing happened...

    So many years ago...

    Fire...

    Screams...

    Yelling...

    Everything was destroyed...

    Everyone was dead...

    Death...

    It was my fault...

    I immediately recoiled from the memory like I had been burnt. I didn’t want to see it again. Never again. Concentrating on forgetting what I just saw, my eyes drew into the darkness. Perhaps I was looking for some kind of light within it. Unfortunately, only sounds passed through the indestructible wall of oblivion.

    And the last thing I heard sent a chill down my spine:

    Nap time for you, play time for me... Echoes of dying screams followed those words.

    X:XX:XX:XX:X

    When I regained consciousness, I was standing upright. I staggered backward, suddenly feeling nauseated again. My vision dotted with black and blue blotches. Looking for the wall for support, I gulped large doses of oxygen like I’d been underwater the entire time. But how long was an “entire time” exactly? What the heck happened while I was out? Nothing bad had happened. I hoped. Then a burning pain that I couldn’t identify finally caught up to my brain. My hand flew up to the fresh wound on my right arm; pints of dark blood soaked through the sleeve. I breathed in heavily. When the hell did I get shot!?

    My head shot up. I froze. My body broke out in cold sweat.

    The hallway looked like ten sets of explosives had gone off, one for each fissure. Dim fluorescent lights flickered on and off. Casting an eerie radiance over the obliterated hall. An extremely strong smell of iron and salt congested the air. My wandering eyes traveled to the end of the hall, only to find a headless body drowning in a pool of blood. My shocked eyes widened. What the..! What happened? I took a step back, hitting something with my heel. I twisted around. Dreading what I saw.

    Two bodies lay across the formerly white floor, they were apparently dead. Well... At least I thought one was a human body, all that was left of it were clumps of shredded pink skin and muscle and bones stripped clean of any meat. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to get the image out of my head. I usually wasn’t so squeamish about stuff like this but I had a bad feeling I had something to do with it. Before I could puke my guts, I looked over to the man who was still in one piece.

    I immediately recognized him. He was the jerk from earlier who had apparently wanted to kill me. But he ended up being the one getting killed. Oh the gruesome irony of it all. His short-haired head angled 90 degrees; the neck was a light pink and clearly snapped in half. His eyes were rolled up in the inside of his skull, with only the whites showing. And to finish off his horrified expression his mouth gaped open with streams of blood leaking out at the corners. I actually felt sorta bad for the guy. Don’t get me wrong I hated his guts so much. And I was glad he was dead, but this was overboard...

    This whole thing was overboard! This mysterious massacre at my feet. With me as the only one standing...

    I didn’t want to think about it.

    Pulses of pain reminded me of my wound, and frankly, I was grateful for the distraction. During my short scan, I spotted a tool pouch on the man’s waist. So I quickly knelt down and fished out a kunai from the corpse. Taking the knife, I carefully popped the bullet out from the punctured muscle, groaning at the effort as I dug into it. Shouts of furious commands grew louder with each passing moment. I twisted my head in the direction of the sound. And in seconds my wound began to close, glowing a soft red: courtesy of the “thing” inside me.

    Wielding custom rifles, a group of about fifteen whitecoats trampled toward the scene at the north end of the hall. I straightened up, my hands calmly staying at my sides as the gunmen rapidly approached. Within fifteen meters of their targeted freak (me), the first line of men knelt down and shot a wide round of ammo. The others behind them shot another round as well. Now was that supposed to stop me? Didn’t they already know? I held my right hand out in front, feeling a flow of power stream through my arm. Just before the bullets netted me with holes, the same swirling red barrier appeared, catching every single one. They would have to do better than that.

    And you ask why didn’t I do this before? Well to tell you the truth I forgot all about it. Fear + Near Death = Panic = Stupidity. Just a little side note to remember for later.

    The laboratory gunmen gaped at my little show with buggy eyes the size of dinner plates. I nearly busted out laughing. Huh, maybe they didn’t know. I suppose they weren’t associated with the higher ups that were responsible for all the crap that I had to experience. Kinda sucks on their part to capture something they know nothing about. Oh well it makes it easier for me. While they remained dazed like moths to a lantern, I glanced at the cracked wall of thick glass on my left. I immediately threw myself against it, and it easily shattered like I had hoped. Crazy yes, but I did not want to stay in that hell any longer. Shards of crystal-like glass tore the skin off my limbs. Down below were green spikes just waiting to impale me. It was even better knowing that I was twenty-stories in the air.

    Sucking in the fresh morning air relieved my burning lungs. I spun myself around, hearing noisy alarms wail, panicked voices yelling and someone else bellowing orders over the intercom. Probably a capture order. Hah! Like I would let them come five feet anywhere near me. I turned back, watching the blurry clumps of trees gradually grow bigger as I fell faster.

    A smile broke out on my face along with another kick of adrenaline. It was so thrilling to fall like this, free of any people, along with unwanted voices and faces. I wished I could have stayed like this forever, but I wasn’t ready to ker-splat onto the forest floor. And the poison must have cleared up ‘cause I was able to think logically now. Exhilarating as it was, I was free falling twenty-stories into a forest of pines. And at this rate I was going to be tree-kabob very soon.

    Concentrating on finding that red energy, I shut my eyes closed, searching deep within myself. Right now, I didn’t trust that thing to be asking it any favors, if it ever answered them. So I was just gonna find it myself, I decided.

    When I reopened my eyes, I noticed how sharp and clear every detail became. Even minuscule things like the veins in the emerald leaves of the forest were visible. I glanced at the approaching wood, calculating my speed. After confirming my altitude and height, I aimed myself downward, splitting through the air like a bullet. Probably at that point I was hitting one hundred miles an hour.

    And with absolute certainty I flipped over, descending into the dangerous woods. I twisted around the deformed and sharply pointed branches without getting a single scratch. It was too easy. Then by applying the energy to the underside of my palms, I gripped onto the sandpaper-like bark of the large pines. I quickly slowed to a stop. My eyes drifted downward: I was still at least twenty feet above the ground. Good thing I had the ability to defy gravity.

    Completely parallel to the ground, I flashed my eyes in the direction I just fell from. That extra boost of energy heightened all my senses by one hundred, so I felt the small rippling waves that flowed from the ground and into the tree. Now all I had to do was calculate the rate of each pulse.

    They managed to form some sort of back-up. And none of them seemed non-human. Major bonus for me. I caught a number of pounding footsteps, counting each set. Hmmm... Twenty. Thirty of them, with no vehicles. Aren’t they stupid. In the distance, my advanced hearing also caught their angry shouts. A smile of satisfaction appeared on my face. And they’re not too happy with the recent escapade. Those faces of fear and surprise were so funny. However, I sighed disappointingly. Would’ve been better if I blew up the joint.

    Don’t think about that now. We have to get out of here brat.

    Wow you decided to talk to me? That’s a first. Seriously, it never wants to speak to me more than necessary. Vice-versa.

    Shut up and listen to me. Most of my power hasn’t fully healed yet thanks to that scientific b*****d at the testing grounds, so you’re only going twenty percent. If you deplete our energy with one big attack, they’ll capture you before you get a chance to escape. The demonic-like voice admitted regrettably.

    Now it sounded reasonable (extremely rare). I suppose it didn’t like their kinky little experiments either.

    So with that said and done I twisted around, and pushed my legs as hard as I could. I flew through the trees, completely focused on out running my pursers. Did I care where I was going? No. Did I care what happened after that point? No. All that mattered was leaving that life and the memories that went with it.

    I wanted to forget them forever.

    X:XX:XX:XX:X

    Scientists rushed down the blood splattered halls. Panic filled their minds and rifles occupied their hands. Besides the strong hope that the research equipment escaped harm, dread loomed over their heads. Their most financially and time invested specimen escaped. The only specimen to survive through the never-ending experiments, through the agonizing tests, through pain filled trials; everything it survived through was entirely and solely designed to be as inhumane as possible. That’s what made it so powerful and capable. It was their most successful creation to come out of the hybrid laboratory in the Underground. And that’s why they had to retrieve it as soon as possible. All the training and tests made it stronger than an entire nation of most powerful shinobi in the world. However... it was still biologically unstable. With that much potential destructibility, it was their greatest weapon that could backfire at anytime. Like they say. A double bladed weapon needs to be handled with caution or else you get cut. So it was absolutely imperative to capture her before she got that chance.

    In the midst of the chaos a man of blazing blonde spikes calmly stood at the site of the murders. He stood a good six feet or more and was of medium build, most likely a fighter as his appearance dictated. Clad in black leather, he wore a flowing trench coat and underneath was a tight fitting vest with a thin layer of chain mail underneath that, outlining the hidden muscles underneath. His hard set eyes reflected a sharp blue while he surveyed the fully-limbed bodies that sprawled across the ground, which wasn’t much.

    Finally he came across a body that wasn’t too badly thrashed. When he meant thrashed he meant “still in one piece”. He took a knee next the bulking man and gently examined the neck of the muscle builder. All of the skin had been stripped and burnt off of the throat, exposing the pink muscle underneath. Then he lightly applied pressure to the back of the neck, becoming aware of the misalignment of the man’s vertebrae. Damn she got him good. She not only snapped his neck in half but practically shattered it into a million pieces. Man she can go a little overboard sometimes… However, it’s nothing beyond repair. He exasperated a sigh as he got up and quickly looked over the bodies again. Everyone else’s been ripped to shreds. It’s a shame she didn’t leave me with much to work with, but it will have to do. Snapping his fingers, two scientists dressed in the same white coats appeared on either side. Their faces were covered by leather gas masks.

    “Tamaki! Takashi! Bring this one to the Underground,” The blonde spiked man sternly ordered. “Patch him up, reconstruct his cervicals, and insert the next batch of serum into his bloodstream.”

    The two obediently nodded and hoisted the body onto their shoulders. After a quick hand sign, a shroud of smoke replaced where they stood.

    The man ran his fingers through his yellow hair, releasing a huge sigh. Whatever the hell went on here, it was fairly contained considering her condition. It only cost him a couple of squads, but he acquired so much new information. Her response to danger was amazingly calm and alert; better than what he expected. Her thought process was... out of the ordinary, yet it still held above the average level of intelligence. Her synchronization level was pretty decent, however it seemed to overpower her mentality. That was one factor that could cause problems. All these things he would have never discovered in this “safety bubble”. A wretched smile slithered onto his lips. Now it was getting interesting. With this final test he would be able to judge whether or not she was prepared for her designated purpose.

    He hoped that she would pass, for her sake.

    Failure meant immediate extermination.