Hero's Duty didn't just consist of a battleground plagued with cybernetic bugs (or Cy-Bugs, as they are commonly named), it also contained an advanced research facility where scientists conducted experiments on said bugs. Be it gathering data, developing weaponry or even new forms of life-saving equipment, there was always a fancy, high-tech project going on in the murky green facility.
Sergeant Tamora Calhoun didn't care much for these experiments. It wasn't part of her programming. But she always stayed up to date on what was taking place in the science lab just to make sure there was no threat of an invasion from within occurring. Very rarely, she'd hang around the research facility after the arcade's closing hours to supervise any particularly one-on-one-with-the-cy-bugs-type experiments, and thankfully there hadn't been any outbreaks of savage mutants that she'd had to take care of.
Today was one of those rare occasions. Sergeant Calhoun watched with grim tension as the scientists all hurried around setting up last-minute bits of equipment and flicking through long, numerous strings of code, the whole scene bathed in an eerie green light.
"Tamora, are you sure this much extra security is necessary?" asked the head scientist, a tall, slim woman of a similar age to the armour-clad sergeant. She had short, spiky red-russet hair that flew everywhere and black-lensed goggles were clad over her dark brown eyes. Her name was Jean Cassienka; a good friend of Tamora who still remained on first-name basis with her. Their backstories had stated that they'd started off as recruits on the same squadron, until Jean's talents for science and observation had resulted in her being moved to a different field.
Then thanks to their programmers, they'd found themselves on the same bug-infested planet, working for the same goals, and they'd become even closer since then.
"I don't want to take even the slightest chance with this, Jean," Tamora replied. "You're trying to create a new breed of Cy-Bug, and I don't want a new infestation taking over the arcade like last month."
Jean visibly cringed at the mention of that incident, the images she'd seen still disturbing her.
"Tamora, trust me, I've made my calculations and I'm certain that-."
"It's not you that I don't trust. It's the Cy-Bug coding. No matter how many calculations you make, chances are that something will go wrong."
"… You're right… But you know what I'm trying to achieve here, right? Trying to create a Cy-Bug that… won't kill us..? A tame one…"
"Cy-Bugs will never be tame," Calhoun stated indifferently. "Your optimism is starting to remind me of Felix."
"Your handyman boyfriend?" the goggle-clad scientist chuckled. "Perhaps he and I should-."
"Get on with the experiment, Jean or I'll take the Cy-Bug egg you've been working so hard on and-."
"Okay, I get it! Don't get your hair in a twist!" Jean laughed as she strode off to make a few final checks, smirking when she looked back to see Tamora's face morphed into an indignant scowl.
She knows I'd never do that, she thought, knowing that the friendship she shared with the stony sergeant made them much more than mere friends.
"What's going on?! Jean?!"
Tamora's eyes flickered over the screens, realising the coding that was displayed on them had turned an alarming red and an incessant, high-pitched beeping rang in her ears. Something was wrong, and years of programmed training told her that if she didn't do something, then it would get even worse.
"There's been a surge in the power, Tamora, we can't get it under control!" Jean yelled, panic seething behind her goggles as more lights began to flash around her. "This could end badly..!"
Tamora scowled, steely determination simmering in her eyes. If that egg hatched, then there was no telling what sort of abominable catastrophe could spawn from it.
"I'm destroying that egg!" she shouted over the noise. The beeping had evolved into a wailing siren and some of the 'younger' scientists were panicking.
"What?! No! You can't do that! I've worked so hard for this! I am not letting anything undo all my hard work! I've trusted your judgement since we first met during the backstory and since we got plugged in over a month ago. Now I want you to trust me. I've been working on this since the incident in Sugar Rush, trying to create something that can understand us and the Cy-Bugs at the same time, spending endless hours developing something that just might stop something like that happening again. You have to at least let me try!"
The pleading, desperate and almost borderline insane expression on Jean's face told Tamora that if she did indeed destroy the egg, then she'd never forgive her.
"Fine!" she yelled over the sirens. "I'll trust you, but the moment it's necessary, I'm putting that thing down!"
Before she'd even finished that statement, Jean had run off to one of the monoitors, barking orders in a way that reminded Tamora of herself.
"Wilkins! Quit running around like a headless chicken and unplug the power to that egg! That'll cut off the surge and stabilize it somewhat! Macintosh! Get the secondary power source up and running! I'm not letting this thing die yet! GET TO IT LADIES!"
Three hours later
Jean slumped against the monitor, her body feeling hot and sticky with sweat. Three exhausting hours of yelling, running, and various other activities had left her with sore legs, head and throat.
"Oh my mod!" she croaked. "N-never, again! Urgh! Time to see what we've achieved…"
"Are you alright?" Tamora asked. "You had one of your episodes again."
"I noticed. Come on, I want to know if this was all worth it." With that said, Jean hauled herself up onto her aching feet and stumbled over to the small glass dome that emitted a ghostly green light. Encased in the clear vessel was a small, dark egg that glowed faintly, and was barely even the size of Tamora's hand. The shell was an extremely dark purple, and the light it gave off was pinkish in colour.
"Is it..?"
Jean almost cried with happiness as she removed the goggles and replaced them with glasses. "It worked! I-it's alive! Hehe, shoot me for the lame joke if you want, but I just can't believe it! We created a Cy-Bug of our own!"
"Don't celebrate yet," Tamora chided. "We still need to see if it's actually as tame as you were hoping."
If the overjoyed scientist had listened to Tamora, then she didn't show any signs of acknowledging it. Instead she lifted the dome from over the egg to examine it. When she'd first finished developing the egg, it had been cold, black and dead. Now she could see that the pink glow coming from it was pulsing ever so slightly, like a heartbeat.
"Are you sure this will work?" Tamora asked sceptically.
"No, but I sure hope it will," Jean replied, her voice almost a whisper. "Come on, hatch already."
Tamora huffed in slight irritation as she realised that her friend was once again talking to the experiments. Did her obsession with science ever stop producing odd little quirks?
"Don't you have to apply contact to the egg before it will hatch?" she said, more hinting than questioning. "Sort of like an 'on switch?'"
"Oh yeah, I suppose you're right…"
After a little more incoherent mumbling, Jean tapped the egg ever so gently. The action made it glow much, much brighter, and cracks began to form along its surface. A large cracking noise erupted from it, and it cracked open, spraying small shards of dark purple shell all over the place to reveal the creature inside.
It was long, dark and covered in a clear, viscous slime. At around eight inches in length, it could easily rest in Tamora's hand (not that she'd allow it of course), two inches wide maximum and it began to taper at the tail end. Its purple-black head was somewhat round and bulbous, sporting a pair of black, pincer-shaped mandibles with neon pink edges, and glowing yellow eyes that faded into an almost white colour towards the edges. It's 'face,' if you could call it that, had three blue-violet stripes over the eyes and another stripe seemed to connect its eyes. Singular bands of the same colour wrapped around the upper sections of its six legs, and the tips of its claws. A pair of long, tapering, yellow-green feelers, streaked with neon orange made up a tail and flailed around the place, as if agitated. The segmented, centipede-like shell was a dark purple (Calhoun could only describe it as a dark plum colour) and mottled with a rosy pink, spiked shell casing the creature's lower legs were the same dark purple and marked with jagged, neon-rose pink stripes.
"What the hell..?"
"It's beautiful!" Jean breathed with disbelief. "Not like any Cy-Bug I've ever seen!"
Tamora didn't question Jean's logic. They both saw Cy-Bugs differently; she saw them as abominable monsters, the nutty scientist saw them as fascinating… whatever she saw them as.
"Macintosh! Start recording! This needs to be documented!"
Without any consent from Tamora, Jean scooped the… experiment… off of the table with one hand, not even receiving a bite for her trouble. The creature simply let out a high-pitched chirping sound, almost as if it was happy and enjoying the attention.
"Okay, so that's physical contact sorted. No signs of hostility, -. Is that… purring? Seems almost tame. This is a breakthrough in our research. I think we've done it! It's so strange… unreal!"
"So your goal was to create a pint-sized Cy-Bug that you can keep as a pet?" Tamora asked, mixed emotions showing behind her eyes.
"… What an oddity! Tamora, you hold it."
"No."
"Come on! It won't hurt you! Trust me."
Tamora growled and begrudgingly took hold of the creature. A layer of slime still coated it and it took all of the soldier's willpower not to grimace or crush it. The Cy-Bug let out a little chirp and fastened its six legs onto Tamora's hand, forcing an involuntary shudder up the woman's arm.
"This is… disgusting…" she mumbled. "Completely against my programming."
"Do you want to give it back to me then?" Jean asked, holding out her hand. Tamora was more than eager to hand the creature over to the scientist.
"What to call you..?" Jean mused after several minutes of examining the dark purple centipede creature. "You're such a…"
"Such a what?"
"An oddity." A smile graced Jean's lips. "That's what you are; a Little Oddity."