Freezing – ECHO

Chapter 0: Echo of the damned

2 days before Start of series

The crack of a gunshot rang out as a guard sank to the floor with a hole in his head, the blood trailing behind on the wall. The other guard turned and was shot as well. After double-checking that the guards were dead, the cloaked stranger walked up to the cell-like door. Two teenage females, also armed, stood watch as the cloaked figure worked to unlock the door. The cloaked one tapped a code on to a terminal, causing the cell door to hiss and turn. As the door removed itself, a series of bodies on different operating tables appeared. Blood has long since turned the floor red. The tables were set up in three rows of four. This room usually brought twelve teenagers to the grave each month.

On this day, eleven patients clearly lay dead in various stages of cyborgification. All eleven lay dead, yet one survivor remained sleeping. The metallic plates covered much of his arms and his entire torso. The plates also covered all of his lower legs. On his back lay four forcibly implanted stigmata, forced to operate through the machinery. The chest plate was clear of any imperfections bar the engraving of "52" over the right shoulder. The name written on the patient data sheet simply read, "JET."

The cloaked one pulled off his hood and revealed a man with grey hair and amber eyes. The cloaked one signaled to his companions and walked over to the sleeping form of Jet. The cloaked one moved his hands to the several places of interest on Jet's form and made several observations, "Stigmata implanted, little we can do without major nervous system damage. Weapons systems? When did we even get some those? Good, he hasn't been programmed with the programing ship yet. Then why are there so many surgical scars…? Regardless, Sarah and Allis, guard the door, I am waking him up." The cloaked one pulled a syringe out of his cloak and injected it into his neck.

Jet immediately snapped his eyes open and quickly looked around. The cloaked man grabbed him and calmed him down as he pulled him out of the table. Jet asked in a harsh voice, "Where the hell am I?"

"The cloaked one simply said, "No time, but I need to get you out of this base. I will not allow you to become the fourth human test subject for them to study and dissect." The cloak fell off of the man and a matte black suit stitched "07" on his back appeared. The two girls came back to 7 and reported that the guards had been discovered. Two guards came in the room and were immediately shot against dead upon entering the room itself.

Jet handed a spare pistol to Jet, "SIG 2022 handgun, French Army Standard issue in .357 Magnum. It only has 12 rounds so make them count." All that information blew right over Jet's head. He didn't even know what a gun was really. After grabbing it, Jet's hands moved all around the weapon of there own accord. "How the hell did I do that?" 7 looked at Jet, "He has INDI?" Sarah looked in shock, before she suddenly stiffened and fell to the floor died due to more approaching guards. Allis turned and was gunned as well. 7 Grabbed Jet and put him into the ventilation, handing him a silencer, a book, and the saying, "Never stop running."

7 sealed him in the shaft and then stood in front of it, but he was then mowed down until his body slumped until his corpse covered the shaft's entrance. Jet moved through the shaft and eventually exited the building when the building's alarm went off. Jet landed on the ground and took off running, running through the remnants of ruined trees and roots of uplifted plants. Jet vaulted over one of the trees and simply continued to run away, like he had always done.

Day of Aoi Kazuya's arrival at West Genetics.

Jet had continually moving for to day, towards the receding sounds of a small-scale war from what he could tell as the smoke from the fighting stretched high unto the sky. Jet climbed over some the ruins of the buildings that clearly once stood there. The day's work had started to show on Jet's physical features. The gun in his right hand was half empty now, only having six shots remaining. The book was in his left, still completely unopened. He would read it, once he was sure to be safe.

Jet peered over top of some ruins to see a short teenager, with short blonde hair, in what appeared to be a dress running with a pair of headphones on her head. Jet followed the teenager but lost her in the area near a sewer entrance. Entering the sewers to escape being seen by anyone, passing a couple of fights in the sewers, Jet entered an empty portion of the sewer that was a dead end. He pulled out the book he had an skimmed the first few pages of the book which started, "Controlling your Initial Non-limited Destruction Stigmata Catalyst Armor or INDSCA/ "Indesca (In-desk-ca)" for uses of self-defense and anti-nova/Pandora operations."

Several hours later

Better armed with the knowledge he needs to operate the INDSCA, Jet ran back into the sewer and eventually arrived on the other side. After arriving on the surface and running towards the nearest intact building, he heard the words, "Volt Weapon Deploy!" come from his immediate right. Jet immediately jumped to the side and dodged the attack that would have bisected him at the waist. Jet hid behind a pillar and spoke, "INDSCA Armor." His metal portions of his body grew and expanded and covered every vital area except his head. Jet had his gun at the ready when he aimed around the corner. The girl was using an acceleration move and was to close to Jet by the time he pulled the trigger. The gun kicked back solidly, the bullet lodging in the girl's leg and caused her to spiral and crash into a wall, but knocking his gun into the center of the crater to his right.

Running to the gun, he was tackled out of the way and flung back by an accelerated Pandora. But not the injured Pandora, but the short, headphone wearing blonde from earlier. Jet simply stood up and spoke the only other command that wasn't that command, "INDSCA weapon Deploy."

An ornate rapier formed in a liquid like state from a hole in his right palm, then solidified into an ornate rapier. Jet simply noted the situation and noted that she was between him and his gun. She was armed with dual arm-based trench knives. She was short in stature and… Jet's internal monologue was cut off but the blonde yelling, "Tempest Typhon!" Then splitting into ten copies of her self.

"Oh, that is now a problem." Jet said as one of the copies rushed him, but was run through with the rapier before the girl's weapons could reach him. Jet received several strikes to his armor, denting it in several places. Jet was thrown into the crater, the book in his other hand dropping to the ground. Trading the book for the gun, Jet moved out of the crater and proceeded to take out three of the clones with headshots. Then the blonde hit him several times in the back and legs, flinging him soundly forward. Using two more rounds to eliminate more clones, before dropping into a completely defensive form, but the blonde quickly disarmed him of his rapier. Jet used that command from the manual, "INDSCA Shatter." The armor quickly compressed into itself, returning to its original shape, but sending out a pulse that pushed the blonde and her clones back.

Jet closed his eyes and put the gun to his head. He immediately pulled the trigger, "Click." Jet sighed, "Figures." He never saw the punch that knocked him unconscious.