The King of Chaos
A figure hung suspended in the middle of a massive room, completely bound by medical bandages from the feet up, and the torso secured by a steel reinforced straight jacket. An iron helmet covered the figure's head, sealing off any vision of the world.
A pair of white clad figures gazed down at the body that hung suspended from the ceiling from a window high up in the wall. The room, other than the chain hanging from the ceiling and the figure suspended on the end of it, was completely empty.
"So this is specimen number one," one of the figures muttered, a tall dark haired woman in glasses.
The man standing next to her nodded. "Yes," he replied quietly, "This is…the original."
"Director, is it…" the pause was sickening, "is it that dangerous?"
"It has never attacked a human before, but we don't want to give it the chance. Never in all our research have we found one that has more control over their vectors. This specimen is the ultimate diclonius, the ultimate killer. It is the one thing that we can base our research on, however."
The woman looked up into the eyes of the other, startled
"His blood is pure, perfect, and untainted with other human traits."
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I opened my eyes slowly, staring at the back of the same helmet that had covered my head for as long as I could remember. If only I could see light once more, if only I could feel the warmth of the sun, see the green of the grass, the blue sky.
I shook my head, I couldn't get weak now. I had planned for so long, timed things out, and today was to be the day of it all.
I let my vector snake out of my back, finding the needle where it was stuck into my spine, and gently following the line to where it trailed back to the ceiling.
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"Director!" a white clad scientist yelled from behind a desk, "It's awake!"
"That's fine, let him awaken. It has been a few months since last we let him wake, and he needs to be somewhat rewarded for not struggling to much."
"Umm…ok," came the answer.
"Just keep a close eye on what's going on, and if he tries anything, hit him with a heavy enough dose to keep him out the rest of the week."
The scientist nodded, and sat back down at his station.
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I rolled my tongue around in my mouth, working the feeling back into it before I started talking. I gently flexed each one of my muscles, working out age old cramps and stiffness. Once I was sure of my speech, I began to put my plan to motion.
"Good afternoon, Director."
Every eye in the control station was focused on the hanging body, tensed and fearful of what would happen next. The air hung with suspense as every person prayed for the situation to stay calm, but prepared themselves for all hell to break loose.
"Good afternoon, Joshua," Director Karuma responded, speaking through a microphone that fed a speaker system in the walls of the room.
"Why do you insist on keeping me asleep?"
"For the safety of the rest of the world, you know that, we have been over this many times."
"Why can I not exist with humanity?"
"Because every one of your offspring are killers."
"Maybe they wouldn't be quite so homicidal if you didn't lock them up and shoot your little bullets at them."
The director fell silent. How could this prisoner, locked up in his own cell, completely secluded from the world know what he did with his other specimens?
My head dropped, and a low laugh escaped my lips. "Didn't I tell you, director? I hear every word you speak in that room. Every time you speak, even when you think I sleep."
The whole room collectively gasped, staring at the bound figure.
"Good, I'm glad I have all of your attention, because what about to happen here is very important, to all of you."
With that, the cloth was torn from my body in an instant, the IV lines plucked from my skin, and the medical monitors thrown roughly to the ground. My vectors cut through it all as if it were not even there. I hit the ground in a perfect form, my body still in perfect shape even after years of imprisonment. I had managed it through using my vectors to stress my muscles even while they thought that I had slept.
I took off for the door at a dead sprint, counting the seconds until the second door would slam closed behind it. My vectors shot out in front of me, pulling the door completely from its hinges, and I managed to barely squeeze through the opening as the security door slammed closed behind me. Bypassing the doors, my vectors went straight to work on the wall, burrowing myself a hole straight through to the control room. A platoon of soldiers was already there waiting for me, and the report of gunfire was deafening in the little room.
One after another, I heard the weapons click, reporting loud and clear that they were out of ammunition. In an instant, I was over the computer bank that I hid behind, and bodies exploded away from me. The room was painted in red, and one lone soldier was left standing unscathed in the center of the group. I stood not two feet from his face, and smirked as I moved a single vector to his head, crushing his brain into a quivering mass inside his very skull.
Not wasting a moment, I stripped the soldier of his uniform, and clothed my nude body. It would be much harder to tell me apart without my horns showing. I pulled the hat low over my face to hide my blood red eyes, and marched out the exit. I made it but two steps out the door when one of my vectors shot back in, grabbing the soldiers rifle, and placed it on my own shoulder.
I found the elevator easily. They had been far to careless in what they talked about while they thought I slept, and while I had never walked these halls, I knew every turn that I needed to.
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Director Karuma stood in the midst of a group of his elite security force, staring at the flat grey doors of a usually unnoticed elevator. The doors slid open silently, and a dark figure stood imposingly just behind the doors. Without even being given an order, the soldiers fired as one, raining an ungodly amount of lead into the tiny space.
Again, I waited for the tell-tale click of an empty chamber before I even moved.
"If you wish to live, you need only throw your weapon to the door and lay on the ground," I growled.
Not one man moved from his position, they had already reloaded their weapons, and aimed at my motionless figure inside the elevator.
Karuma swore under his breath. How could he have 3 of his most important specimens escape from him in less than a month? It had only been three weeks since Lucy had just up and walked out on them, then he had helped Nana escape, there was talk of taking number 35 out of her storage facility and using her to fight the two that were already out there, and now this? How could he loose the King? No, it was better that this one die before it could set foot out the door.
"Everyone concentrate on his chest!" Karuma shouted, "If we concentrate the firepower, there's no way he can stop it all!"
A smirk crossed my face, "Do you really think I'm just going to stand here forever and let you shoot at me?"
Fear crossed every soldier's face. They had seen what Lucy had done, and she hadn't even had the pride to crack comments on them. One screamed in fear, dropped his weapon and ran for his very life. The very distraction I had been waiting for.
Plaster and paint fell from the walls as two of my vectors dug in, throwing me forward into the mass of security. In half a heartbeat, every last soldier had fallen, their bodies torn and twisted in their gruesome fate, save one man staring into my blood red eyes. I returned his gaze long and hard, standing only a few feet from his face. A single vector drug its way across the ground, until when it was lifted blood dripped from my palm. The director watched, his body shaking in fear as the bloody palm approached his head. One bloody finger drug its way down his forehead and across his nose, bisecting his face from top to bottom with a single, bloody stripe. This man had already been marked. He was a carrier of my disease, and I would let him suffer the fate that it drug humans to.
As I walked out the door, I heard him shout something about bringing the partition down, and sealing the emergency exit. The doors slammed and I was trapped in a single room. Looking at the walls, I saw the marks that another diclonius' vectors had left on the wall. Had another one escaped? I prayed that they had, the experiments that they were subjected to were ten times worse than the ones I had endured.
My vectors made their way around the edges of the exit, searching, hunting. Finally, I found my goal. With a snap of my vector, I severed the lock and hinges alike, letting the door fall outwards with an explosive crash.
The sea. My heart raced as I looked out over the open ocean, knowing that my freedom was but a few more steps away, but as I stood there, something caught my attention. On the very edge of the cliff, there were red stains on the rock. Not many, and hardly noticeable, but there they were, clear as day, and in my vision, it sang out as diclonius blood. So one had tried to escape, but had been shot on the end of the pier, the pattern on the ground was like that of a head wound, and I shuttered at the fate of the one who had tried to run.
I shook the trace of fear from my mind. I had come this far already, and I only had a few steps left for my own freedom. The armor that I had taken from the soldier when I first had escaped was completely saturated with my own sweat, and my breath came in ragged, jerking gasps. I gathered my strength for this one last push, and dashed for the end of the cliff. My vectors spread behind me in a defensive pattern, careful to ward off any assault that they may attempt to bring upon me.
Up in a window above the cliff, the director stood alongside his most trusted sniper.
"One shot, I know," muttered the sniper, as he racked a shell into the chamber of his rifle.
My head snapped to the side, hearing the snap-click of the round locking in, and saw the sniper out of the corner of my eye. My vectors sprang from my body, dragging across the ground, and creating a cloud of dust in my wake. Two drug behind me, and two leading in front, I could not see, but I know that the sniper had the same problem.
And then the ground disappeared. I flailed as I fell, struggling to turn my body to a position where I knew that I could land safely in the water.
I failed. The water hit me like a brick wall, and I could taste blood in my mouth. The world threatened to douse itself in darkness as I struggled my way to the surface. The shore was not to far from here, and I was determined to make it.
The swim to the beach tore at my body, and several times, a wave washed over my head, dragging me under, and threatening to never let go. I struggled and fought against the pull, but felt like I was loosing the battle.
And then I was on ground. It came out of nowhere, and knocked me off of my feet, but I could not have been more relieved. I crawled slowly up away from the surface before the darkness overtook me. Falling face down into the sand, I prayed that I would still be here when I awoke.
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Morning broke with a vengeance, and I rolled to my back to greet the morning sun. I knew that the soldiers would be getting ready to start their hunt for me, and could be here any moment. The thwop of a helicopter's blades in the distance reminded me of my predicament here, and I rose swiftly, hurrying off the beach, and into the middle of the nearest market I could find.
I became increasingly aware of the amount of stares that the cream colored horns sticking out of my black hair was drawing, and knew that I had to do something about it. I reached out with one of my vectors, plucking a cowboy hat off of a store shelf as I walked by. The shopkeeper sat and stared as one of his hats mysteriously lifted itself off the rack, and took off through the air.
I let my vector drag low, even wincing as one person stepped on it, but it quickly drug the hat back to where I stood. Without even raising a finger, I let my vector set it on my head, taking care that nobody noticed it happen. Stepping back out of the shadows, I continued my way down the market. Even with the hat, I noticed that my clothing was drastically different from those around me. Then again, I was still wearing the one soldier's uniform that I had stolen from the lab during my escape.
My vectors snaked out of my back once more, snagging various articles of clothing from various shops, until I had enough of an outfit to disappear in. Stepping into an alley, I shredded the clothing off of my body with my vectors, turning the cloth into scraps.
'Harder to track me that way,' I thought.
As the cloth disappeared into lint and fuzz, I pulled my new outfit on. Looking into a puddle at my feet, I smiled at my new look. Blue jeans, a white t-shirt, floor length leather duster, and the brown cowboy hat to top it off, I didn't make that bad looking of a cowboy. Nobody would ever suspect me to take on a look like this, and it would fit me perfectly.
Pulling the hat down low over my face, I stepped back into the crowd, and disappeared.
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Night fell, and I knew I had that my trail had been well covered, but now I needed somewhere to sleep. Not understanding the feeling, I followed my feet until I was standing in front of a gate set into a long wall.
Kaede House? Why did my instincts lead me to a restaurant? And by the smell of things, it wasn't even an open restaurant, just a closed up old building. Oh well, at least it was a place to stay for the night
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Inside the house, both diclonius awoke with a start from their slumber. Who was this presence, why was it so powerful, and why had they not felt it till just now!
The older of the two diclonius lay in her bed, absolutely terrified. Her aggressive side had taken over the moment this power had been felt, and even still she shook in fear from the power that stood outside the gates, the younger, on the other hand, felt a completely different resonation coming off this stranger.
"Who are you?" the little one spoke aloud.
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"Who are you?" echoed inside my head.
Grasping my head, I shook it violently. What was going on, and why was I hearing voices again? It had happened every once in a while back at the lab, but I had no idea what they were and where they came from, and now I was worried that I was cracking up.
"Get outta my head!" I growled.
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The young diclonius grabbed the sides of her head, and curled up in a ball on her sheets. She squeezed her eyes closed, trying to endure the pain from the power that had just hit her.
And as soon as it started, the pain stopped again, and she felt another presence in the house.
"Lucy," she whispered, "Why are you awake?"
But it wasn't just that Lucy was awake. She could feel the other diclonius' fear, and that was one thing that she had never felt from the more powerful being. Who was it that could even make Lucy quake and fear?
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I had to know what was inside this house. I stood at the entrance, trying to figure out what drug me here. There was something that called to me, but I couldn't figure out what it was.
Two somethings, actually. There were two things in there calling for my attention. One was afraid of something, but the other radiated a childlike curiosity, and yet they both felt so familiar, like I knew them without even seeing their faces.
With a simple leap, I cleared the fence, landing silently on the other side. A small dark dashed out from a small doghouse in front of the door, yapping at me. A simple stare was enough to chase the small creature back into his home, whimpering and crying.
With another leap, I stood on top the building, and silently walked across the top, trying to get closer to this feeling that was calling me.
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Nana rose from her bed, and made her way towards the front door, trying to find out what this was that had called her. She paused as she walked by Nyuu's room, only to see her alter ego cowering under the sheets.
"Nana," Lucy's gravely voice whispered, "Nana, don't go out there, you'll be killed."
"Lucy, this one's not a bad person, I can feel it."
"We'll both be killed," the cowering girl whispered, twisting the sheets in her hand, "I don't think even I have the strength to stand up to…" her voice trailed off.
Nana shuddered. How could this presence be so horrible, and yet she felt no fear from it? She turned swiftly, and rushed towards the front door before Lucy's fear could overtake her own. The door slid open easily, and Nana stepped out on the front porch, her gaze searching for what she could feel so easily.
I stood atop the roof, staring down at the pink haired girl that was searching about the yard. Could it be that she could feel the calling as well? With a leap, I stood on the ground behind her, chasing the furry little animal back into his home with another glance.
The dog's yip caught the girl's attention, and she spun around to come face to face with the tall cowboy.
"Hello," the pink haired girl said with a smile. "Who are you?"
I stood there, staring at the horns that grew from her head. Was she another like me? And if so, how did she get here?
Nana cocked her head to the side, looking curiously up at me, trying to get a look at the stranger under the cowboy hat.
"You're not here to hurt us, are you." Her comment was a statement, not a question.
I simply nodded, and pulled my hat from my head. The long black hair bunched underneath fell free, down to the small of my back, and the pair of horns stood out noticeably atop my head.
"You're…like me," I whispered, my red eyes meeting hers.
The girl drug her foot across the dirt, her hands clasped behind her. "I know, are you going to hurt me now?"
My eyes snapped wide. Hurt her? She was just a kid, how could I hurt someone like her?
"Now why would I hurt someone that has been nothing but nice to me?"
Nana giggled, spun, and smiled up at me, "My name's Nana, wanna be my friend?"
I smiled back, unsure of what to say. The girl changed emotions so quickly it made my head spin.
"Oh," the girl exclaimed, "There's another one like us inside! Would you like to meet her too?"
Another one? What was this place, a breeding ground for them?
I nodded, still feeling the extra presence inside pulling at me.
"OK," she giggled, "let me go tell Kouta and Yuka we have guests and I'll wake up Nyuu and have her get dressed too.
My hand on her shoulder stopped her. "It can wait till morning," I told her, "I will come back then."
Nana's eyes grew wide, "But where are you going to go now?"
"I'll find somewhere, it's not big deal."
Turning on my heels, I headed back out the garden door, leaving the pink-haired girl standing on the porch staring after me. I waved goodbye once more as I walked out the gate, shutting it behind me, and letting the cold night accept me into itself once more.
I made my way towards the beach, and finally found a suitable place to spend the night. There, at the top of the hill, I could oversee the entire beachfront. The path I stood on had a good amount of tree cover over it, and it was amongst these trees that I finally sought out shelter. Reaching up with my vectors, I pulled myself up into the crown of one of the taller ones, assuring my view of the beach so that I could keep my eyes open for any pursuers. I shivered as I sat in a crook in the tree, and pulled my overcoat close around me. Why did freedom have to have such…miserable moments? It didn't matter, though. I was still free. No more experiments, no more sleeping for weeks at a time, no more straight jacket. I was free.
Darkness overtook me, and I welcomed it with open arms. My sleep had never before been so pure, and so unadulterated in my entire memory. A faint smile lit my face as dreams danced through my head. It was good to be free.