Disclaimer:

All characters, settings, etc. that are recognizable are the property of their respective owners. I am not associated with them. I do however own any original characters or ideas etc. that you find within this story. No copyright infringement intended.

'thoughts'

"speaking"

Italics or bold are just for emphasis or to make something stand out.

A Different Beginning

Written By: Northerner7

Deep underground in a hidden bunker lay an experimental hospital. This bunker was home to some of Japan's best. Doctors, engineers, mechanics, physicists, you name it and they were there. Within one of the hospital's operating rooms, a team of such assembled professionals could be found grouped around a patient. A six year old boy in fact.

He was missing his entire right arm and his right leg from the knee down. His left eye was a bloody hole, and his body was riddled with cuts of all sizes. All of these wounds were only an hour old and the blood was barely held at bay by countless bandages. Hooked into his body were dozens of wires and tubes.

These assembled professionals might be the only one's capable of keeping the boy alive. However they stood stock still and stared at the child. Their team leader, a young women who was considered one of the best even among those within the bunker, stood just off to the side of the boy. She was waiting for him to wake up. She had a very important question she needed to ask him.

One of the waiting doctors leaned and whispered into his colleague's ear.

"Hey, do you think this kid has any chance of survival anyway? I mean aren't we just ensuring he is going to die?"

The man he whispered to, turned and whispered back.

"The survival rate for just replacing a hand is 0.0005%. That is to say, no one has survived even such a simple replacement. And this boy needs a lot more than just a hand."

The answer was monotone and did not give away the sadness the doctor felt for what they were likely about to do. The first man found himself nodding and turning back to look at the boy again. When suddenly a murmur a whispers swept through the assembled as the boy's remaining eye opened. The team leader waved her hand in front of the boy and caught his attention.

"Satomi Rentaro yes?"

Not waiting for his confirmation she continued on.

"You are on the edge of death right now Satomi. If you say yes, my team and I can attempt to save you. But the procedure is also very likely to kill you. What is your answer yes, do the procedure with a high chance of death, or no risk surviving as you are which is basically dead anyway. Answer now."

Her tone was commanding and she spoke quickly, but clearly. The boy likely was feeling very faint from blood loss and had a severe concussion, she really doubted he could coherently think over the situation.

A feeble croaking noise delivered her answer.

"Y-y-yes.."

The boy found his vision fading to black as the team immediately sprang into action and began pumping him with drugs to knock him out. They moved quickly and no mistakes were made. Varanium infused body parts were brought forward ready to be attached to the boy's body. Before they really got going the team leader spoke.

"Alright guys, let's see if we can get this to work finally. This kid really needs our help."

Looking over the scene through a one way mirror was a collection of government officials, politicians and high ranking military commanders. They had all been present for dozen of similar operations, maybe not as frantic since the one being operated on hadn't been on their deathbed till the varanium came out. But each one present really doubted the success of this operation. The boy was only being given the chance because his care taker, Tendo Kikunojyo was one of aforementioned military commanders.

They had watched as all the volunteers bodies had rejected the new varanium additions and violently reacted. In every case the patient's death resulted from varanium poisoning. It was impossible to be poisoned by the metal. Or at least it was thought to be until someone tried to attach varanium to the human body. Which led to the very lethal condition flowing through every candidate's blood stream and melting their insides out. Not a pleasant death.

One of the politicians who opposed this plan spoke up.

"The 'New Human Creation Plan' is a failure. This boy is going to melt within the hour. I have said it before and I will say it now. The 'Ladder to Heaven' is what we should be focusing on. The results for it so far have only been positive. Besides once this child dies that will be the hundredth attempt failed. The agreed upon death count to cancel this program."

Another politician spoke up, cutting off several replies that would have challenged the other man's.

"Honestly, it is no longer about how to beat the gastrea, they are overwhelming not only us, but every nation around the world. I think we should throw everything we have into delaying the gastrea as long as possible to give the 'Monolith Barrier' plan time to reach completion. That is the only way we can guarantee our own survival. Maybe once we are safe we can begin thinking again of how to beat the gastrea."

Around the room people grumbled and whispered their opinions to those who thought likewise. When a third voice spoke up.

"And tell me, what will you do should the boy survive?"

Silence was the only answer as everyone turned to watch as the right arm was bolted and attached onto the boy's shoulder. Everyone was deep in thought of the grand scheme's they originally had at the program's start.

-[B]- -[B]-

Gastrea are large mutant creatures. They take the form of various animals in their lower stages and as they evolve to higher tier's they begin mixing all manner of creatures together to create freaks of nature. For the past nine months since they showed up, humanity has been fighting a losing war against them. Like a plague hell-bent on eradicating human's the gastrea spread across the world and killed or infected more and more people. Regular weaponry proved to be ineffective against the advanced regenerative powers these abominations displayed.

It was discovered the metal varanium was capable of cancelling that ability and killing the gastrea. They also could be repelled when large quantities of varanium were gathered together, like trying to stick two of the same polarity ends of a magnet together. Across the world, humans were beginning to build massive pillars of varanium to ward off cities from the gastrea. But it was taking time. Not only to mine the metal, but to then transport it and construct it into the shape required.

The loss of life to accomplish this was nothing short of record breaking. Hundreds of millions were already dead from the gastrea, but millions more found themselves dying to delay the beasts.

Currently in Japan there were five areas being sealed off. Tokyo was one among the group. But it also was closest to where the majority of the gastrea could be found. It would take another two weeks to finish the circling pillars and that was two weeks the military was going to struggle every minute for.

But perhaps recent events involving a young boy could be used to lower casualties. Satomi Rentaro had somehow survived his surgery and his body did not fall prey to the same fate as all those before him. His body was now a weapon designed to fight the gastrea. The money spent on his surgery required results to be delivered. His age be damned.

So Rentaro found himself in the back of a helicopter as it hovered near the rear of the retreating Japanese forces. He was handed a rope and told to fast-rope down and land on his new leg so he didn't hurt himself.

Complying he felt the air rush against him as he slid down. With a dull thud the boy found himself standing near a tent. A tall soldier exited and walked straight toward him.

"Call-sign 'Mech' glad to see you could make it."

While the man might seem all business to the young boy, inwardly he was frowning. He had not been briefed that the 'special soldier' was a young boy. And his job was to point the boy in the direction of the gastrea and pull the trigger so to speak. Someone would be hearing from him about this soon.

"Alright boy, listen up."

The man pointed off to his right.

"You are to head in that direction and provide support to any soldier you encounter. Kill any gastrea you encounter. That is your mission do you understand? If I need to reach you, I will call you through this radio headset. Got it?"

After Rentaro nodded. The man handed over the radio and was no longer able to look at the boy, so he turned around and quickly strode into the tent.

-[B]- -[B]-

Rentaro hadn't known what to expect. He had seen some bloodshed as a refugee before he was handed to the Tendo man. But as he headed in the pointed direction, he could hear loud roar's echoing through the forest he was in. The sound of gunfire and explosion mixed in and created a frightening noise.

But once he had woken up from his surgery, a man in a suit had told him to do as he was told to repay them for saving his life. So here he was. Running through a forest toward a battlefield. His body was pumped full of drugs to remove any fear and to put his adrenaline into overdrive. He would barely register pain at the moment.

Minutes later when he broke the tree line into a clearing and he saw soldiers ducking behind all manner of debris and firing shots off at the monstrous creatures approaching them. With no pause Rentaro ran forward to meet the closest gastrea head on. He had been informed that his new arm would be capable of killing the creatures, along with his new leg. All his new features were on display as he had not been giving a fake layer of skin, the doctors had been told it would just come off when the boy got into combat anyway. Not that he noticed in his hazy thoughts.

Still charging headlong, soldiers began to notice the young boy. They were shouting at him to get back and run away. What could a six year old be doing charging at a stage III gastrea anyway? The beast was something like a giant green bull with giant horns, mixed with some sort of spider as it had eight skittering legs, as well as some sort of avian wings that were coated in pitch black feathers. But the wings looked too small to bear the beast's weight. But Rentaro's adrenaline was drowning and he could hear nothing but a dull roar blocking all other noise around him.

Rentaro let out a high pitched battle cry as he used his leg's booster to jet straight at the gastrea's face. Intent on smashing the beast's head in. As he was about to contact, he cocked his right arm back and allowed the arm booster to fire off a canister which sped his arm forward at incredible speed.

It created a lot of force. His arm smashed into the beasts head and penetrated up to his shoulder. He had hit it right in the nose. So he only managed to break a lot of cartilage not seriously harming it. Still the pain it felt was unlike anything the gastrea had ever experienced, so it was thrashing about and Rentaro was struggling to pop his arm out. He managed and was flung off to the side and smashed into a rock.

Thud

Every soldier was dumbstruck watching and were snapped out of it when the boy impacted violently.

"Shit someone get that boy!"

An officer yelled.

The large bull gastrea was thrashing around still and its screams of pain attracted the attention of other lower tier gastrea. They came swarming out of the forest of the other side of the clearing. A gastrea that looked like a cross between a wolf and a bee came zooming at Rentaro. The sharp claws and fang's tore into the poor boy's innards. His guts were torn out. Alongside that his left lung was ripped in half. The damage was tremendous.

A soldier reached the boy seconds later, the bumble-wolf having charged off in a different direction. He lifted the boy while he stood atop the rock, only for the rampaging bull to kick outward and connect solidly with said duo.

The pair went flying back across the forest. Out of some ridiculous luck, the man's body took the brunt of the impact both going up and coming down. They landing in the emergency medi-vac clearing. With a chopper literally ready to go. The shocked medic's reacted slowly to the duo, but all it took was one shout.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?! DO YOUR JOB MEN, SAVE THEM!"

Yelled a man in the clearing jabbing his finger in an exaggerated point.

-[B]- -[B]-

"Ok... so Rentaro is the luckiest little kid I have ever met. The circumstances you just described sound ridiculous. The fact he survived the chopper ride over to the bunker in time for us to replace basically all his inner organs besides his heart and left lung are beyond comprehension. The boy must have a will to live like no other."

Two doctors spoke as they finished dressing down from their emergency surgery on Rentaro to save him.

"Yeah, I mean his body is now what.. Like 60% varanium? He got that large plate on the back of his skull too, apparently he smashed it into a rock. Not to mention his entire torso is one flexible varanium plate."

Nodding in agreement the first man spoke again.

"Yeah, honestly who sends a six year old boy out into combat..."

The unspoken words between them were the fact that they hadn't tried to stop such a thing.

A similar discussion was taking place behind the glass wall next to the operation room. The same group from the first operation was present.

"NO GOD DAMMIT! THE BOY NEEDS TRAINING! He is a worthless military asset as he is right now. Just pumping him full of drugs will accomplish nothing but leaving his body broken in the field. "

Loud voices were shouting their thoughts everywhere around the room. But the loudest was Tendo. He was requesting several years to train the boy in armed and un-armed combat at his family dojo. And many heads were nodding in agreement. Tendo was likely to win this debate.

-[B]- -[B]-

Rentaro was now thirteen. The last seven years had found him locked away in grueling training and workout sessions with the head of the Tendo family. Rentaro was no prodigy. But Tendo had been ruthless and trained the boy to exhaustion, constantly. Over the years he had learned a lot, and now Rentaro favored fighting with a varanium wakizashi over fighting un-armed. But he had no problems without it.

His status was a highly guarded secret. He had received an artificial skin layer to cover the varanium. Which allowed him to blend in at the Tendo dojo. No one was to know about his condition.

Japan had managed to erect the monoliths and four other cities besides Tokyo were also cordoned off. Rumor of a varanium infused soldier may have spread from sightings of Rentaro, but all the soldiers who saw him had wound up dead the same day. Trying to fight off the massive amount of gastrea the wounded bull had summoned.

Now after all his training, Rentaro was going to be deployed back into the field again. The reclamation of Japan was apparently at hand. Or so several politicians liked to tell him whenever they met. So here he was in another chopper flying off to the border of the varanium pillars.

His first objective for this mission was to head over to the Ladder of Heaven. He was to check on its condition. Then report back. He was to eliminate any and all gastrea he encountered. With his sword strapped over his shoulder, he was ready as he would ever be to set out. He was once again given a multitude of drugs. One to suppress his fear, one to increase his thought speed, one to numb him slightly, and various others to increase his effectiveness for the mission. As the chopper landed, he was given a final dosage and told to go.

The Ladder to Heaven is an experimental railgun, massive in size that was built to kill stage V gastrea. The bunker the weapon was attached to was in unknown condition, having been abandoned when the area was over run. Between his drop point and the bunker was 25 km of heavy forest growing over steep hills and high cliffs. Not a fun trek when the estimated gastrea population was 2,000-3,000 on his route. There was a chance that a stage IV was in the area. But it had last been sighted two weeks ago, so there was no certainty.

Rentaro was dropped off at dawn. To maximize the day light he would get to help his journey. Gastrea were more active once the sun went down. It took him about six hours to make it to his destination. He had managed to avoid any encounter with gastrea. Even when drugged he still had the wherewithal to avoid fighting when he could. So his arrival at the bunker was a nice change of scenery for him. It was located on the shore line of a bay, near an abandoned suburb. The massive barrel of the railgun extended high into the air, slightly over the bay.

Rentaro entered the building and found the power still worked. He had a checklist of tests to run on the facility's status. Most checked out, but he found the gun to have no stored ammo. But only a small problem as it was unlikely to be fired any time soon. Otherwise everything seemed to be in working order and undamaged.

So Rentaro radioed his findings back to his contact. Now he would be expected to kill as many gastrea as possible while still making his way back to safety in functional condition. A bleak prospect. But it was something he was expected to do.

He was two hours into his return journey, still not having encountered a gastrea, when a dull buzzing noise caught his attention. It brought up a hazy memory repressed by his multiple head injuries, time, and his drug induced mental state.

But this noise was familiar. Rentaro soon found the source of the. Three bumble-wolves came zooming down at him. Their wings beating furiously. One hung back and howled loudly to the forest. The other two charged forward at Rentaro, intent on ripping him apart.

Reacting quickly Rentaro unsheathed his blade from where it was sheathed horizontally on his lower back. Then he and leaped to meet them in midair. Two quick strikes and the charging gastrea were cut in half.

The remaining one snarled at him and flew to get revenge. Rentaro mindlessly stabbed his sword into the creature's chest, another easy kill.

His mechanical eye was whirring furiously as it relayed the world around him to his drug infused brain. The enhanced eye worked much faster than the human brain was capable of comprehending. But Rentaro was drugged to the point where his mind was hell bent on working the information out. It wasn't perfect but he comprehended 50% of the information from his eye as opposed to 35% un-drugged.

Sadly for Rentaro, the intent behind the howl was to attract as many gastrea in the area as possible. He heard the rumble of large creatures heading his way. Trees shook as smaller beasts jumped through their branches. Almost immediately after killing the final bumble-wolf, Rentaro detected numerous stage I and II gastrea enter his vicinity.

He struck out and began fighting the lesser creatures. Like their bumble-wolf counter parts, these weaker creatures didn't stand a chance against Rentaro's enhanced body. He cut any gastrea within reach down, and began slowly retreating along his path to the pillars.

It was a running battle. The gastrea were faster than him, and Rentaro was constantly striking out to kill one that leaped his way. But he had yet to encounter anything above a stage II. For that he was thankful.

He struggled on for another three hours as he made his way back toward safety. When suddenly the gastrea backed off. He was given 30 minutes of un-interrupted travel time, which he put to good use. Rentaro could see the monoliths nearby. They towered over the landscape. He knew he had to make it back before night. Which sadly for him the sun was already setting behind the mountain range in the distance.

As the last rays leaked over the range, Rentaro sighed but continued running. He paused to down as many adrenaline pills as he could handle. And continued running full out. An echoing roar was let out in front of him and he heard the trees ahead creaking violently. A massive body was heading his way.

He entered a clearing, and his heart nearly stopped. Before him stood a stage IV gastrea. It had some sort of feline's legs, then a large bulbous body that Rentaro couldn't make heads or tails of. It had three heads. A shark in the middle, an ant on the left with giant pincers, and the head on the right was that of a snake. Rentaro felt no fear as his thoughts processed. His objective was to eliminate this creature. With a roar he sprinted full out intent on trying to surprise the creature with his speed.

The gastrea stood fifteen meters tall. It loomed over Rentaro. He quickly covered the distance between the two. Six black eyes tracked his motion as he drew closer and then the beast pounced. The feline paws extended large claws and tried to tear into him as it came down.

Rentaro threw himself sideways to escape being pinned. His leg shot a canister which boosted him outside of the creature's range. He recovered quickly and jettisoned another canister to rocket himself onto the exposed flank.

With his wakizashi in his right arm, he drove the point hilt deep into the creature's front left shoulder. The gastrea roared in pain and started thrashing to dislodge him. Rentaro hung on and switched his sword to his left hand.

With his right arm free he reared back and fired a jet propelled punch next to the sword. With a crunching squelch his arm imbedded into the hard bone. He then withdrew the wakizashi and began saw at the creature's leg to try and hack through it.

The gastrea continued thrashing and roaring in pain. Rentaro was making quick work of its front leg though and was already half way through. He knew he needed to completely dismember it or it was likely to heal within minutes.

With a squelch louder than the rest, Rentaro's blade was through. The lumbering beast collapsed to its side and he couldn't get his arm free in time. A deep thus resounded through the forest as one of its rulers came down hard. Rentaro was pinned and the part of him that were still flesh and blood were pulped.

His left arm and leg were smashed beyond recognition. This registered even is his numb state and he howled from the pain that broke through.

"FUUUCK! That god damned hurt you stupid gastrea bastard!"

His voice was weak but he felt vindicated getting the curses out. The creature was whimpering in pain and lay motionless where it fell. Rentaro found his blade stuck into the ground next to his head and grabbed it with his free right arm.

"Why do I have to do this?"

He spoke aloud to himself. Then without hesitating he lopped off the remains of his mashed limbs. Even with those gone he knew the damage to his body was severe. His varanium implants were dented in many places, and the bones he still had were cracked and shattered. But as he looked around he saw a monolith just a dozen yards away.

So he dragged his bleeding mutilated body towards the haven.

'I will not die! I won't let some gastrea kill me after all the shit I have been through.'

He was determined and he knew he would make it. He could see figures near the base of the pillar shouting out to him. His ears were completely smashed so he had no idea what they were saying. But he was almost there.

-[B]- -[B]-

"At this point the only things organic inside his body are his heart, left lung, right eye, parts of his pelvis, and some of his skull. But his brain isn't even all there as it's now stuffed with microchips. "

"Doctor if want you just said is true… Is the boy still human?"

A doctor stood before the collective politicians and generals. Only there was a new woman in the group. Seitenshi was her name. The daughter of the leader of the Tokyo area. He was intent on teaching her to be the next leader. So here she was learning all sorts of darker secrets that occurred during the war. And apparently even now.

"90% of Mech's body is made up of electrical equipment and varanium. So in a sense he is more machine then human. But as he has yet to awaken from his last peril. We are unable to gage whether his newest set of wounds will negatively affect his psyche. "

Another man spoke.

"Well, at least he managed to recon the Ladder to Heaven. And he downed that stage IV long enough for the new civil security officers to finish it off. I would call his newest mission a success. I just think we should strengthen his varanium coverings and he should be much harder to damage on his next mission."

A rumble of agreement sounded around the assembled members. Tendo stepped forward.

"How long until the boy awakens?"

"I cannot say. But he should awaken within the week. Unless he somehow slips into a coma. Currently there is a 35% chance of that happening."

-[B]- -[B]-

Rentaro found himself floating in a black space. All around him was perpetual darkness.

'What happened to me…? Why-why am I here…?'

A strange bubble floated up from below and then passed him.

'I… I like it here. It is so peaceful. I don't feel any of the drugs… No one is barking orders at me… Yes, I like this place.'

He yawned and shut his eyes.

'I think I will sleep now. No reason to stay awake. I don't want to go back there anyway.'

And with that Satomi Rentaro entered a deep coma. He would remain as such and he would remain as such for another three years. When he woke up it would be his 16th birthday, and the New Human Creation Plan had officially been done away with during his slumber. He was now free to go.

Just a one shot I have had on the back burner for a long time. I decided to finish it up and post it. Basically my take on how Rentaro's status as a mechanical soldier was treated differently in a desperate world. I don't have plans to continue this story. So I hope you enjoyed it.