= EGO 1: IMADAETH =
= Prelude =
On the day of his birth, he killed 3 interns with his bare hands.
A month after his birth, he killed his Vykker master and escaped.
One year after he was born, he massacred a Slig battalion as if it was nothing.
This is the tale of Imadaeth. The strongest Slig in Oddworld.
Beware the darkness,
Beware the night,
A flame appears to extinguish the light.
Death lurks,
Evil howls,
Killer, prowls...
"Well, is it alive?", the Vykker asked hopefully. The Intern mumbled excitedly. "Excellent", the Vykker clasped his hands together, rubbing them.
Suddenly, a spurt of blood flew past the Vykker's head. The Vykker instantly froze, his smile still on his face, afraid to even move a muscle for fear of retalliation.
The Vykker slowly turned his head, the Intern was dying. The heart was clutched in the hand of the newborn Slig. The newborn Slig giggled at his new toy to play with. He threw it on the floor, hearing it make a sickening noise of living flesh.
"What the?", the Vykker was speechless. He couldn't believe that a newborn could have done something like that.
"Seize it!", he shrieked. The two Interns put their hands on the newborn's shoulders. But at that instant the newborn's smile faded. He put his hand on one of the Intern's arms, and without any effort at all, he ripped it clean off the Intern's shoulders.
"This can't be happening". The Vykker could hardly believe what was happening. The other intern made to strike the newborn on the head with his baton, but the newborn stuck his hand right into the Intern's head. He felt the crunch of the bones and felt the brain juices flowing out, still warm.
The armless Intern was clutching his bloody stump on the floor, crying in pain.
The newborn jumped off the table, onto the Intern's body. The instant he jumped onto the body, it was crushed underneath him. The body didn't resist at all, it sank right down to the same level as the floor. Unbelievably flat.
The Vykker couldn't contain himself, he fled the room and locked the door behind the newborn.
The newborn was dangerous. This was impossible.
This was one baby you did not want to slap.
= A month later =
The Vykker came into the room. He had discovered the wearing the armor protected him from the newborn. Unluckily for him, he had been on holiday and had forgot to measure the strength of the newborn. He walked into the room as usual, but he realised too late, that the Slig was becoming absurdly stronger as each day passed.
The Slig was bored of his master's stupid whining voice. He jumped into the air, and punched his head clean off. It hit the ground with a satisfying crunch.
"Maybe I can get out of this dump now". He turned, and walked out of the room.
Alarms were sounded. A group of armored Sligs approached him, guns held out.
"Freeze!", they yelled. The escaped Slig continued walking.
"Back off pal", the tallest armored Slig yelled. When the escapee didn't respond, the armored Slig fired his gun.
At first, it would seem like the bullet went into the target. But in fact, it had just been crushed as it hit the surface. It hadn't gone into the skin at all. It was like a lump of jelly hitting a steel girder.
"What the tunk?!". He fired again and again... but none of the bullets penetrated the escapee.
The other Sligs screamed and started running as he approached them... but the Slig who fired was dumbfounded, he couldn't believe what his eyes were telling him.
"What the heck are you?". He yelled, moving backwards to the wall.
"I", said the escapee, walking right up the Slig, "am everything wrong with this world". He head-butted the Slig with as much force as he could muster. When he moved back, there wasn't a single part of the Slig's head left. All that was left was the neck bone, connected to the torso like some unfinished robot.
He kicked the body to the floor, and walked away.
The escapee smiled his back facing towards the laboratory.
His name was Imadaeth.
* * *
= A month later =
Imadaeth was choking another Slig to death. "Stop 'im yer fools stop 'im!", a leader Slig yelled. About fifty Sligs came in the room, shooting at the rogue Slig. All the bullets bounced off him, some of them rebounding and hitting the Sligs who were firing. "Frak, this guy is invincible or summat".
The Sligs attempted to hit Imadaeth but they were not nearly strong enough. Imadaeth started punching, kicking and shoulder-barging them out of the way. He beat Slig after Slig until about twenty five of them were on the floor injured. The other Sligs tried to flank him from the other side, but he did a leg sweep and knocked five of them over.
A few minutes later all of the Sligs were lying on the floor, clutching their injuries.
He spotted one squirming, lifted his leg and brought it down with a crunch, breaking the Slig's skull and cracking his head right open.
"Fools", Imadaeth cracked his knuckles and left the room.
= Meanwhile =
"Yes it has escaped. Yes I know it's bad. No, he doesn't know anything about why he was created. No he has no idea about the DeathSprout or the source of his invincibility"
The Vykker was speaking on a phone, looking outside the window.
"He's killed hundreds of Sligs now, it's impossible to stop him... No we can't create another, even if we did, how would we be able to control it? A BBS experiment? I doubt it...".
The Vykker looked at the phone, shock on his face. "Get him to join us? You think he'd accept?... Oh right, you're going to force him into it? I'm not sure that will work".
The Vykker put the phone down. "Frak, this is pointless, why didn't we make a failsafe?".
Imadaeth came across a mudokon. The mudokon stopped scrubbing the floor and looked at him. Imadaeth just walked past it, "I don't care about those daft things, Whatever... I'll kill whoever tries to kill me and no one else".
* * *
= Three Months Ago =
"Not another experiment... okay what's it this time?". The Vykker grinned at his friend. "Haha, I'll tell you. An experimental Slig". The other Vykker raised an eyebrow, "Oh really? What did you give him, a metal arm?". "No way, it's a lot more complex than that".
"Muscle fortifiers, compound analysers, steel plated spine, enhanced vision, enhanced sense of smell, thick skin... THIS is my greatest creation". He revealed a small pulsating egg to the other Vykker. "Hmmmm, well it doesn't look tough yet", the other Vykker laughed, "Even the egg is made of titanium". "You give mad scientists a bad name", the other Vykker sat down on the chair. "Having second thoughts?", "Nah, Just wondering... what exactly is this for?".
"That's the beauty of it, there are multiple possible uses; security, test subject..."
The Vykkers left the room, leaving the egg in the room.
= Next Fortnight =
"This time I've programmed him, mentally. He will automatically try to kill as many people as he can". "And you can control that?", the Vykker gave a glance towards the other. "Well, we shall soon find out. I'll raise him to be a killing machine".
Meanwhile, a bunch of Mudokons were chanting in a native village about an hour's walk away. They were practicing a forbidden and dark kind of magic. They have had enough of the nearby factories and wanted to pray to the almighty gods for a miracle. Their bodies began to fade away, as their energies were sacrificed. As their bodies began to disappear into nothing... the egg glowed. The Mudokon's souls departed... the egg shone brighter and brighter. A Vykker headed towards the lab door. The glowing stopped as the Vykker entered the room. The Vykker picked up something from the shelf and walked out of the room.
A godly voice spoke, "Little one, you have been giving the gift of immortality to change the world. You are cursed to forever remain in the mortal realm. Your curse will never be lifted". The godly voice disappeared. The egg moved slightly, but would not hatch for a while yet.
= Back to the Present Day =
The Mudokon, called Neso smiled. "This guy is my ticket out of here, if I can possess him, I can get past the guards!".
Neso started chanting. Suddenly blue light surrounded Imadaeth. He was possessed.
The Mudokon's vision was now obsured with a light red glow. His breathing felt more heavy, and his hands were visibly different. He now had four fingers, and instead of feet, his nerve endings were reacting with the heavy metal pants of the Slig.
"Hmmm, now I have to find somewhere to hide my body for a while". He picked up his Mudokon body, and placed it in a gap in the wall. As soon as he turned around, he heard a strange hissing noise. He turned around to see the Mudokon body behind a pane of glass. "What the?!". The body was being frozen, he watched worryingly, not knowing what to do. He tried to press a button, but the computer voice issued from the panel, "ACCESS DENIED: PROCESS OF FREEZING IS IRREVERSABLE WITHOUT PROPER CLEARANCE". "B-But my body!!! I have to get it back!". He tried to cancel the possession, but he couldn't. With no body to go to, his soul was trapped inside the Slig.
He felt the urge to hit the glass, this was probably Imadaeth's supressed soul, calling out to Neso... trying to get him to kill something. Neso sighed, what have I gotten myself into now?!
An echoey voice inside Neso's head materialized, "Hello there, your body appears to be stuck". Neso spun around, but didn't see anyone. "You can't see me. After all, you're inside MY body after all". Neso jumped back in surprise. "You mean, you're the voice of the one I'm possessing?!", "Bingo". Neso was visibly confused. "This doesn't normally happen when I possess things...", "Ah, but I am not 'normal' after all". "You mean, that rampaging Slig was you?", "Yup, but I wasn't rampaging. I was just doing my duty", "Killing Sligs is your duty?", "Well... more of a hobby actually".
Neso held out his arm, "Do we share control of the body then?", "Unfortunately you are in full control of my body... although I can do a few things". Imadaeth held out his hand. Neso looked shocked, but he retained control and put his arm back by his side. "You can take control whenever you feel like it. But whenever you relax your body, I can take control if I wish... of course when you sleep, then I am also forced to go to sleep as well. Although I can dive into your subconcious and go into stasis for as long as I..."
Neso held his head, "Ouch, too much information man". "Sorry, I tend to do that a lot. My name is Imadaeth by the way". Neso shook out his hand in mock fashion. "I'm Neso". Neso moved the arm as if he was shaking thin air. "Hahaha, very amusing... I think I'll like being controlled by you. This could be fun".
Neso shook his head, no-one is going to believe this...
* * *
Neso continued to speak to himself, "So, any family or friends at all?". "Technically, no". Neso raised an eyebrow, "Technically?". "Well, if it counts for anything, my soul is seven thousand years old". "No way! You have to be joking", "I wish I was, but unfortunately I've forgotten a lot about the things that happened 'last' time", "Last time?".
Imadaeth held out his arm, "The world was imbalanced. There was chaos everywhere. I was summoned by Mudokon Spirits to cleanse the land and restore peace and harmony", "So you solved the problems?", "Well, most of them. Something stopped me before I could complete my task. I never found out what it was... I just remember there was a blue light, and lots of pain".
Neso started moving. "Well, where do we go now?", "It's up to you", "Really? You don't mind about not completing your misson". Imadaeth smiled, "Let's just say... I have all the time in the world". Neso raised an eyebrow, "Whatever".
Alarms started blaring near the opposite side of the factory. Imadaeth started running, "We'll have to get going now". Neso was looking at the body's legs, which were metallic. It was a weird feeling knowing that you were sharing your body with someone else.