Disclaimer-I only own my Original Characters.
Two figures sat in a darkened room, with the only source of light coming from a metal stainless steel "coffin" through several windows at the top and along the sides. One was a man adorned in black clothing and a large black trench coat, in his early 40s. The other, a slender woman, dressed in a lab coat with seemingly long raven hair that ended at her ankles, full lips and an incredible figure. Both were glancing over the content of the cylinder.
"Look at it Doctor. Near the peak of perfection." said the man, waving his right hand, exclaiming the contents. The good doctor came close to the cylinder, placing one hand against the glass. "Yes, to think that this is my own work."r
The container held a person; he appeared to have the face of a young child kept from the sun, with the same raven black hair as the doctor laying face up, floating around in the translucent green fluid with several tubes running into his back.
"I congratulate you on your efforts, Doctor Matsumura. We couldn't have gone this far into the project without you." said the man, rubbing his chin. The doctor smiles and placed a hand to the face window gliding it slowly. "In a short while, you can call me mother."
Suddenly, another character walks into the room and salutes the man. "Captain Hirogawa, the board meeting you requested is ready. We are waiting on your arrival." said the lowly Ensign. "Thank you." Hirogawa turns to the doctor, "Doctor, I want you to monitor the project." Dr.Matsumura nodded and the Captain leaves the room through a sliding door.
Prologue-Out of Hell, into Purgatory
Hirogawa walked into a room with a round table and a projector; in the room were several pairs of men, in chairs, whispering among themselves. The rugged captain calls out their attention.
"Gentlemen, thank you for coming to this meeting. The higher dealers here at Murakumo assure that you will get what you pay for. The doctor and I have designed the perfect weapon, one with no weaknesses."
A scrawny man raised one hand, and asked in a less developed voice than the captain. "Now tell us Hirogawa, what is this 'perfect weapon' a giant gun maybe?"
The tough man scoffed at the comment. "No, that's has been clichéd so many times. This weapon is a smaller, more maneuverable unit, capable of both covert and frontal assault operations." He then takes a remote in one hand then clicks a button on it, showing a widescreen television, with the lifeless body of the child in view. "This is our weapon."
A blonde in a blue suit stood up, shouting in disbelief. "What the hell! Do you honestly believe that this brat is supposed to be a perfect weapon? How am I supposed to bid on the life of some kid who just passed toilet training?" Hirogawa snapped back at him.
"I recommend keeping your peace until this gathering ends, or I will make you", two other men in black aim twin rifles at the blonde. Hirogawa then presses the button a second time, displaying on the projector a picture of the boy in the cylinder.
"This is Project Zero-One. This 'cyborg' is the first of its kind, designed to be the ultimate soldier. We'll start production once we see that it meets our needs; let me show you some of its integrated abilities."
He presses the button again, and shows different statistics, such as bone structure, muscle mass, and brain functions.
"Thanks to the efforts of Dr.Matsumura, she managed to supplement it with artificial enhancers to its natural body parts, including muscles, and the brain itself. This of course meaning he will have physical and mental abilities that any human that cannot possibly be achievable. Also note that with standard combat protocol of military self defense, and knowledge of firearms. In addition of basic knowledge, it has the ability to analyze enemy tactics, modify them, and then redirect them if necessary. We dubbed this feature 'System DG' or 'Doppelganger'.".
The men returned to whispering among themselves in astonishment. One other man wearing a Lieutenant uniform stood up and asked a question, "When you say cyborg, do you also mean to tell us that this killing machine is also human?"
Hirogawa smiled, "Yes, this weapon has a soul. And with good reason, this is because like all faults with robots, they only follow through with straight commands, this one can think for itself. That is why we made this cyborg, an operative capable of designing superior battle tactics."
The Lieutenant scratched his chin, "We may consider this new creation an advantage.", he said with some doubt forcing words out his throat, "But we'll need some proof, some evidence that one you say is true.". With that sentence, the Captain raised an eyebrow. "You'll have yourself a real demonstration."
After that meeting, Hirogawa returned to the chamber with Zero-One. The good doctor Matsumura sees the Captain come in, and smiles. "He's ready. Let me just awaken him and get his bearings straight." said the beautiful ebony haired doctor. With that notion, the Captain nodded and exited the room to his office.
After he left, the doctor walks over to a console and the screen fluttered to life, asking for a Key Code. She punches in a practical code, almost appropriate. "Its-time-to-be-born"
With a set of clicks, the umbilical fluid drains through the bottom of the coffin. Zero-One lay slumped down, the cords disconnecting from its back as the door to his casket open. Dr.Matsumura steps over to him and bends down to his level. Suddenly, Zero-One tilts his forward upright and slowly opens his eyes to a welcoming light; eyes sliding into focus. The doctor gave him his first few words to hear, "Ohaiyo, musuko." He looked opened his mouth, and out came a voice, it was soft almost a whisper.
"…Mother…?"
Dr.Matsumura nodded, "Welcome to the world." This confused the newborn child, even though he had been programmed with several thousand words to understand, he couldn't contemplate why this woman called her "son", but since she is the first woman he saw, he acknowledges her as his mother. He slowly rose up to his feet shakily, while the doctor dried him off with a nearby cloth. A blank smile crossed his lips as he was handed a pair of clothes to wear; a sky blue shirt, and a pair of jeans with some sneakers. Matsumura had to bond with this newborn child, gaining his trust. So she started with the first thing a real mother does for a child, "Musuko, how would you like to be named?" The newborn turned to face his creator and tilted his head, "I don't know." he said still mellow, "Oka-sama, what do you think I should be called?"
His new mother puts her ivory smooth right hand on his left shoulder, "How does 'Soma' sound?" she suggested. "I'm very fond of the name." He tilted his head, "I like that. My name is Soma."
After establishing a name, she consoles her newborn son. "Soma-chan, would you please tilt your head down?" Wordlessly, he complies with her request. Taking a syringe filled with a blue gel, and injects it into the back of his neck. A slight cool sensation filled his body until the syringe was completely empty, "There, all finished. How do you feel?" the doctor asked. Shaking his head side to side once to clear up some dizziness, he replied "Normal. What was that?" Putting the needle down on an operating tray, and rubbing his neck to get rid of any residue she put it simply "Something that will become part of your central nervous system."
Matsumura-san asked Soma to follow her to meet his "father". Leading him through several corridors filled with scientists and security guards until they reached an elevator, leading up to the top floor.
On the top floor, was a singular office leading straight from the elevator. At the desk at the end of the room filled with cabinets, awards, photos of friends and workers displayed like a sideshow of memories; A faint smell of cologne, sickly sweet and getting stronger to the source—the Captain Hirogawa. He turned in his rotating chair to meet face to face with his lead Scientist, and his project.
"Captain, this is your son, 'Soma Matsumura. Refer to him as Soma." said Dr.Matsumura. Soma smiled at the Captain. "Hello, otosama." Hirogawa nodded, "Soma, your a smart boy, aren't you?" he said, opening a drawer. He places a black gunmetal colored handgun on the desk. "Can you describe this for me?"
Soma looked down to the pistol, and began to talk in Captain. "Desert Eagle Forty-Four, eight rounds, nicknamed the hand cannon." The Captain took notice of the downloaded combat data, smiled and scoots the gun near Soma. "Fantastic explanation, you can keep this gun as a memento." Soma happily took the handgun and stuffs into his right side pocket. Hirogawa then decided to fast forward to the point of his explanation. "Soma, what do you like to do for fun?" he said, Soma blinks "Have fun." Hirogawa then places a piece of paper with some pictures of men holding AK-47s on the table from another drawer, "These people here are bad men, they must be punished. Does punishing them sound like fun?" He almost took pleasure in patronizing him. Soma cocks his head to one side, "Bad men? Do I get to use the gun you gave me?" he said, in a mix of sadistic pleasure and naivety. Hirogawa laughed, "But of course you can. Use it as much as you like." Excited, Soma asked when he could go "punish" the bad men. His mother took him under her arm and escorted him out the door.
After leading Soma to a garage filled with numerous cars, the good doctor shows Soma into a Toyota Sienna (Thanks to Asskicker2004 for fixing this error. I was debating between a Toyota or a Subaru, then accidentally put "Toyota Subaru" without considering a model). With a driver in ready she signals the driver to go, the car speeding out of an open door.
While the city of Tokyo passed by in a blur turning into a countryside meadow, the sun setting like a sinking orange into the hills, Matsumura engaged in conversation with her son; pulling out a small sheet with several streets and sections of a nearby city. "Soma, several of your father's friends want to see you work." she said while caressing his hair. Soma sighs, "Work? But I wanna have fun!" Matsumura reassured him, like a teacher bribing a student with sweet candy, "You'll have fun, but they also want you to put on a show." Another city arrives through the windows, not very busy, but that would change, "They want to see how good you are in punishing people." she said, whisking her hair to one side. "Will you do it for me?" The car turns onto another street, drifting to the right as snow began to fall outside the windows of the Toyota, like tiny diamonds across a river of darkness. "Okay mother, if you really say so. What do I do?" Pointing to the before mentioned sheet, she points to a place labeled "Warehouse District, Ishikawa Prefecture", "Here, your objective is to take out the terrorists stationed here. We have to insert you a few blocks away, so as not to make your prescience known.". Soma nodded quietly, "We will recover you in an hour." The car then stopped, and the right side rear door swings open, and out comes Soma, his sneakers crunching against the fallen snow. Dr.Matsumura handed him 2 silver ammunition clips for his shiny new handgun before they pull off, "Do what you do best, good luck." The door shuts, and the driver drives off, to a safer location.
Smirking, he walks in the direction of the warehouse, taking his time, placing the ammo clips into his left pocket. As the snow fell, the sky became darker with stars just started to fill with stars. Cars passed pubs and bars that opened up for the late nights, pedestrians scurried for cover to get cover for the cold. Out of those many pedestrians, one specific high-scholar had some harassment troubles.
"Give me back my backpack!" cried the little girl. Two older sophomores were constantly taunting a middle school girl, by holding her book bag out of her reach. The girl constantly jumped up, starting to cry. Soma was headed in the direction of the disturbance, grumbling at how older classmates teased the younger ones. He came to where they were standing, cracking his knuckles.
"Give her back her stuff." he demanded. The two sophomores turned to Soma, laughing. "What are you gonna do about it?" said one of the sophomores. Soma responded by grabbing his wrist, and punching him straight on the underside of his elbow that shattered it in half like a cracker then kicks the poor victim two feet away, "I'll kill you.". The other sophomore freaked out, then managed to slam his fist to Soma's cheek.
Unfortunately, when the punch connected, his hand became sore; the impact of his hand, like slamming his nerves against solid metal. Soma didn't even flinch, the punch just tickling his skin. As he staggers back, waving his sore hand in pain, Soma threw a right haymaker to his solar plexus that proved to be more than enough to knock out a full grown man; overkill to an average high scholar.
The two boys lay on the pavement, groaning in pain. The girl they had harassed held her hands to her mouth in disbelief. Soma picked up the girl's book bag and handed it to her, "Your book bag." The girl took the bag happily, bowing politely, "Arigatougusaimasu.". Soma's curiosity caught up with him, since being born just an hour or two ago. "What's your name?" The middle scholar, blinking twice, her blue eyes twinkled, "My name is Shinobu, Shinobu Maehara.". Soma tilted his head slightly, "I'll remember that." He smiled at her one more time, and restarted walking to his destination. Shinobu continued looking at him, until he vanished under the coming shadows of snow. She frowned, He didn't even tell me his name…
Meanwhile, Soma had reached his objective. The warehouse he had been signed to investigate, run down from decades of use. Closely behind him, was a man in the shadows, a camera in his hand sending a transmission.
Meanwhile, back with the Captain and his clients, they were still sitting down, watching a monitor. The captain started narration, upon prediction of Soma's movements. Pointing out that Soma was being trailed by a hidden cameraman, dressed completely in black, the camera was a miniscule size that latched to his ear.
"Gentlemen, I am providing you with a close up of what you are bidding for. Feel free to give out offers during our presentation." said Hirogawa, confidently smiling. The suits whispered among themselves as the screen showed Soma on the move again.
Soma snuck around a bit behind a stack of crates, peeking from them to see the back entrance; an old wooden door. Slowly opening it, still silent, he tiptoed in carefully, behind a nearby guard, he took out his fathers gift, and pistol whipped the guard, covering his mouth to prevent him from yelling. Professionally he dragged the unconscious guard behind a stack of cargo and supplies, gagging him with the guards own shirt. Afterward, he slipped by to the center of the warehouse, where several men were speaking, all of them discussing the same matter.
"This is total bullshit. Those bastards are sending out threats to us now?" said one man in a black business suit, holding a note he was referring to. The note read
Your services are no longer necessary, we request your silence for us to continue operations. It was good doing business with you.
Murakumo
"Its been a week since they sent this threat. I'm starting' to get fed up with this horse crap, we supply them with chemicals, weapons, etcetera. They don't even give us a freaking' thank you!" said the black suit, slamming his knuckles on a rather large poker table, that doubled as a business table. Another man, a 20 year old yelled in agreement. "Murakumo, feh. They're bluffing' without us, they don't get squat!". In that very moment, Soma walked out from the shadows ready to complete the task his father gave him.
"You don't get paid to bitch." said Soma, pulling out his handgun. The entire room of 10 business suits and 20 guards wearing urban camouflage and goggles turn to Soma, all raising their AK-47 Kalashnikovs in alert, the suits laughing at the feeling of one person; a kid was aiming a gun at full grown adults. "That's funny kid. You just earned yourself a one way trip to hell. Smoke im'." said the black suit, waving his hand in command.
As soon as the suits gave the order and took cover, the entire set of twenty opened fire, as Soma dived to his right to avoid the gunfire. He gets out of the roll into a kneeled position, clicking the safety on his gun. The twenty came to rush him and take out Soma in one fell swoop. Being quick, Soma leaps up and climbed a giant stack of crates. Three riflemen aimed their AKs up to the crates, and opened fire. Soma, still clinging on to a crate looked up and over dodging past the streams of bullets. Several more men pull their triggers to intercept him, he lands on the ground into a roll finding a good position behind them.
"Too predictable." he said as he raised his Desert Eagle up. In his mind, a personal targeting recticle appeared when he took aim, an effect of his enhancements. He quickly shoots and takes down three men with three well placed headshots, the three falling flat on their faces, dropping their rifles. The entire squad was at a major disadvantage as some were trapped behind shelves of crates, and some were sandwiched between a wall and a hard place. The closest five soldiers spread out to flank him, the rest holding so as not to hit their own teammates. They open fire on one point, mainly Soma's location next to the table of business. Soma dives left and took cover behind the tables base, he stands up and pivots around, kicking the table straight forward, knocking over one out of five guards. As the remaining took the opportunity to fire, Soma dashed left and manages to grab one of the guards and fashioned him into a human shield. "Heel boy." He kneed the guard in the backbone of his captive and grabbed the rifle from his hands. While holding his prisoner in a headlock with his left hand, he aims the rifle out and burst fired a few streams, several men having their blood splattering against the concrete walls. With the 5 taken care of, several more guards came to enter the fray, one throwing a flash grenade in hopes of blinding Soma. The grenade flew through the air, the walls of the nade about to expand and explode, Soma first shot his captive in the head with his handgun, holsters it and grabs another AK off the ground with his left hand. He leaps up and with the back of his right heel, he kicks the grenade back to a set of oncoming guards, remembering to turn around and shield his eyes when he stopped. The nade' bursts into a display of a pure white, with the guards either covering their eyes or grabbing their eyes in agony. After hearing at least one person scream, Soma pivots a three-sixty and holds out both rifles and started strafing to his right while burst firing several shots into each of the blinded guards. He tosses away the now emptied AK-47s and grabbed a nearby metal pipe about 6 feet long off the floor, placing some space between him and the now remaining set of infantry, performs a brilliant display of staff swinging, starting with simple swinging side to side, to shuffling it around his waist into a fighting position. The cameraman took great interest as he both watched the action at hand from high above on the rafters on the ceiling like Spiderman as Peter Parker doing his photo job, and sending a live transmission to the captain's audience.
Comments passed around the room like bread at suppertime, or a mosh pit. Compliments of what they paid for were heard by the captain
"Impressive. If this is how one of them handles, and army would be genocide" said the main in the blue business suit. Captain Hirogawa smiled smugly as he watched the fruits of his labor work its magic before his viewers.
The remaining guards encircle Soma, all with their rifles aimed his way. As they pulled the trigger, Soma proceeded to spin his newly found makeshift staff and started ricocheting bullets all over. Some of those rounds hit fellow henchmen, while others hit the walls and ceiling. He even managed to slide a shot through the pipe into another guard.
As more guards fell, they began to run out of ammunition clips, a dozen clicks filled the room. Laughing, Soma proceeded to smack the hell out of the remaining guards. The guards dropped their guns and decided to just attack them by beating the crap out of him, Soma twisted the pipe accordingly and began to counter every move. One guard threw out a front right kick, as Soma then whacks the foot down and baseball slammed him right in the ribcage knocking him over. Soma dashed over to the wall over on his right, as one guard followed him, Soma runs up the wall and slammed the pole down as he fell back to the floor. Unfortunately for the person chasing him, he is now half of what he used to be, laying in a pile of blood and guts. As the other soldiers got scared and shocked as they seen their comrade die in a spray of blood and guts, the murderer was unaffected by his despicable act, as he turned toward his other targets and swipes the blood off the pipe to clean it.
Back in the confrences, the men were shocked to see an act of massacre. One man in the audience stood up and asked "Sir! Do you not find it archaic to eliminate a target in such a gruesome manor?" The captain shrugged, "He only did what needed to be done.". The turned back to the monitor, the spy on the other side continuing to film.
The men ran off, and the two business thugs were shouting in disbelief. "Eh! What you guys doing'! He's just one kid!" said one of them. The other whispered to him as a few minions ran out of the warehouse through the main entrance gate, "No worries chief, I got on the horn for reinforcements.". As he said the last word, two humvee skidded to a stop in front of the entrance. Several men peeked out of the top while aiming RPG-7 "grenade" launchers outward, one of the reinforcements saw Soma and directed his squads entire attention toward him. "Target sighted, open fire.", the command was heard instantaneously and the set of four men (Two in each humvee) with the RPGs, pulled their triggers sending their rocket propelled grenades flying. The two business thugs turned as they heard the whoosh of the grenades coming for their target, but for them they would also perish from the power of four rockets. Soma remembered that this was a weapon storage warehouse and quickly ran like hell, the rockets closing in; he jumped in a ninja-ish arc over them and dived down to the pavement to avoid the wreckage.
The cameraman had followed them outside, but had no time to escape a fiery demise. On the other side, the confrences members were gasping as they were about to lose their visual aid.
0.4 seconds later, a duet of screams followed by a massive bang was heard as chunks flew everywhere leaving nothing but a show of orange-red flames roaring to touch the sky. Soma got off and dusted himself off, then looked over to his assailants. The group was surprised to see him still standing, after a moment of surprise they readied a set of assault rifles. As they open fire, Soma weaved between the intervals of the shots to one of the humvees. Leaping up, he drop kicks out two of the soldiers, and carjacked the humvee after tossing the corpses out. He drove off to lure the soldiers away from the district so they don't cause any more collateral damage, as the soldiers gave chase and started to shoot to slow him down.
The chase started to become faster and faster by the second, the speedometer read 65 MPH on Soma's humvee as he furrowed his brow and made a few quick turns into a new district. The street he was on became clear and in a straight line, so he took the opportunity to return fire. Standing on the seat and peeking out of the top, he fire bursts of three, but due to the moving of the car, they threw his shots off. After two clips, the soldier driving looked down to find a pleasant surprise. "Hey, we still got one more rocket!"
The soldier that was peeking ducked back inside to claim the launcher and peeked back out to take aim. Squeezing off the shot, with the hiss of the propulsion system it whizzes towards its target. His ears picking up the noise, Soma slammed the wheel to the right dodging the shot. But along the road the rocket hits a compact car and the explosion blinds him. Seizing the opportunity, the reinforcements began to get some shots in, blowing out his tires and making him skid , as is sped out of control into a guardrail and crashed. He slams into the road, laying on his back; clothes severely torn.
Meanwhile with Dr.Matsumura, she was monitoring Soma's status, but her eyes widened with disbelief when
SYSTEM MALFUCTION
appeared on the screen. She ordered the driver to head for the Ishikawa district ASAP.
Soma, now lying on the ground face first with his head bleeding, was somehow able to survive the blast. The soldiers brake to a stop and got out of the car. "Damn, we actually had to use rockets on this kid. Pretty sad.". The soldiers were about to leave, with their mission accomplished; but suddenly, the screech of death approached them as they began to walk.
Out of the night air, small whooshing sounds were briefly heard. The two turn to look back, only a moment later, their backs sprayed blood vigorously. Shrill screams filled the air as the two fell to their knees and finally on their faces in cold quick death.
In the conference room, there was a total uproar. "Sir! What kind of a joke is this!" said a businessman ruffled up. The captain grit his teeth, with both his visual aid and the doctor having trouble keeping up with his prized possession, this auction was about to go down the crapper.
Back with Soma bleeding on the ground, he was alive due to his enhancements, but he was still human. As he lie in a pool of his own blood, several voices are heard slowly trailing off.
"That was kind of brutal" said one voice. Another, kind of southern replied "Did you really have to kill them? Theres a kid here! He's got a pulse, but it aint much. Lets get him inside.". The voices faded off and the three bring Soma's tattered form, still gripping the handgun.
The next morning...
Soma was lying down on a traditional Japanese paneling floor, still unconscious as four sets of eyes (and one closed one) waited to see if the newborn would ever actually wake up.
One hand poked at the body tenderly. "Is he dead?".
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