A/N : First story in this section. No intense flame please…
If any of you asks why it was named 'Horzine' do NOT ask me. Ask those Tripwire Interactive guys.
WARNING : AU (Alternate Universe) resulting OOC (Out of Character), Rating WILL increase.
Disclaimer : I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog and Killing Floor. Sonic belongs to Sega, and Killing Floor belongs to Tripwire Interactive. Starlight is owned by Shadow's Party Girl. I only own Levinski.
Chapter 1 : Origins of the Specimens.
To say that Olgilvie Maurice Hedgehog is starting to get sick with the projects would be an understatement…
It has been 3 weeks since the blue hedgehog was assigned on the Horzine Biotech super-soldier project. He was starting to rethink if he should just run away from the biotic lab he was in or just follow commands from the government. Actually, it's not the result of the projects that makes him sick.
It was the CEO, the lead scientist.
His name is Ivo Robotnik, an egg-shaped scientist who originally only took interests in robotics. But when the government can't find the perfect person to do this super-soldier project, they turn to him. Now this… Robotnik's full interest was diverted to the project. He began to enjoy it. But the worst thing is… he had lost his sanity.
Oh yeah…
It started when he first entered the lab chamber. The scientists sedated him and put him on bed. He didn't know what they did to him. All he knew was when he woke up, his leg was stronger, and faster too. Well, he was already fast, but never as fast as he is now. He's now officially 'the fastest thing alive'. That earned him a new nickname : 'Sonic'.
But that wasn't the thing he hated, in fact he likes it, being fast and all. But when Robotnik spoke to him, that's when the nightmares started.
"You will be the best of them all, my child."
He spoke with a fatherly expression, and a hint of insanity was well-printed on his face. He knew he was serious about what he said, too serious.
Robotnik thinks Maurice as his own son.
It gives him nightmare ever since then. There's not a night without a nightmare with those words echoing. He also began to experience a strange vision, of some zombie-like creature rampaging on the city.
Maurice shook his head. He had made a mistake of coming down there.
He was not the only projects. There were also projects, or specimens as the scientists called it, encased on tubes. They were clones of mobians, all nude, naked. They had emotionless expression on their faces. It began to give him the creeps.
Thankfully he was not the only project being able to walk free inside the lab. There was a yellow fox, a red echidna, a black hedgehog, and a purple chameleon.
The yellow fox and the black hedgehog were unique than the other ones. The black hedgehog, who addresses himself as 'Shadow', was born, or rather made, years ago. He wasn't created by Ivo, and instead was created by his grandfather, Gerald. Shadow is really powerful, immortal, and has so many experiences, most of which are bad ones. The strange thing is, Maurice and Shadow were so like twins, but they hated each others. Shadow has tendencies to call him as 'Faker', much to his dismay.
But they do agree with one thing : Ivo's sanity needs to be questioned.
There was a day when Shadow approached Maurice on the lab, "Hey, Faker." He spoke.
"Oh, what's up, Shads?"
"Don't you think we should make a plan to get out of here before things go haywire? I don't think those specimens are stable."
Shadow has a point. One of the specimens was released in the previous day, and began to attack the scientists, failed to obey their orders. It was exterminated shortly though, as it was the weakest of all the specimens. "But this is the government's order. They want us to stay, to keep an eye on Horzine corporation. You don't want to spend the rest of your life in prison, do you?"
Shadow paused for a while, "You have a point. But I still have a bad feeling about that Ivo."
"Believe me, I know that feeling."
The other unique project happened to be Maurice's best friend, Miles Prower. He was an 8 years old boy genius fox, having an IQ of 300 and all. His grass green Russian-accented twin-brother, Anatoly Levinski Prower, worked as one of the scientist there.
Miles had a balance problem. His tail seemed to lean a little bit too far to the right and was not able to be moved properly as it should have been. Every time he tried to stand still, he always fell. That's why he needed someone or something to stand right without falling to the floor.
Levinski tried to get rid of it.
He tried his best to make his foot stronger, and get his tail on the right position. But things went haywire and it turned Miles into… a freak.
Levinski turned Miles into a kitsune.
A new tail popped out from Miles. He no longer had trouble in balancing himself. But Levinski knew that he would no longer be able to socialize, being twin-tailed and all.
Ever since then, the green vulpine locked himself inside his room, feeling guilty of what he did to his brother. The yellow fox tried to cheer him up, but so far to no avail.
Until one day that is…
Levinski finally went out from his own prison. But his face still showed depression and regrets. Miles quickly approached his big bro, "Hey, Lev. How're you doing?"
"Go away…" the green fox shoved him away.
"Come on, Lev. You can't stay like this. At least I can stand right now."
"But… but look what I did to you! LOOK! I turned you into a freak!"
"That's just a small thing, Lev. And look, these tails are also useful! Look!"
Miles spun his tails like a helicopter. Shortly, he took off from the ground, floating in the air. "I can fly!"
Levinski's eyes widened. He never really thought that the mistake he had made could be a gift for his brother. A gift of flight! "So, what's with being a freak? I still have my friends, and my bro!" said Miles.
The green fox just smiled at his little brother. Soon, they hugged each other like brothers should have.
But Maurice could tell that Levinski still can't forgive himself…
Apparently the project on the natural-borns had given Robotnik some inspiration for the specimens. Sonic's fast and strong legs inspired him to make a type of specimens that can run really fast, faster than normal human. Unfortunately, in the process, the specimen's right hand was mutated into some kind of scythe, and the legs weren't as fast and as strong as Sonic's. But the mad scientist was already pleased. The type of the similar specimens was then dubbed as Gorefast.
And the red echidna, during his project, his strength has been boosted up to maximum, especially on his fists. He now had superhuman strength, being able to lift up 100 times his weight. This earned him the name 'Knuckles'. Apparently this gave Ivo the inspiration to create 2 new types of specimens. One of which had a very powerful pair of arms that if they grabbed you, you can't get them away until you give them some well-deserved beating. These specimens were also the most efficient in resources manners, thus made them easily made. Ivo dubbed these specimens as Clots.
While the other one was big specimens, the strongest ones. They was more robotic than organic, probably because of Ivo's past interests. They had meat grinders as arms. These things were the type that was called FleshPound. They're the strongest, the toughest, the most hot-headed. Whenever they're angered, their yellow lights on their chests turned red.
The last natural-born was the purple chameleon, with the name Espio. He was a ninja, a member of Chaotix, an infamous detective agency Maurice had known well of. Being a ninja, he was able to go invisible with his ninja tricks.
But now he doesn't need them to go invisible.
The project done to him was probably the most intensive one. They had to implant this cloaking device on his body, attached it with his neurological systems, so he can go visible and invisible as he please. Oh yeah, Maurice was able to see him when he cloaks. The scientists also gave him the enhanced vision.
This also sadly, give Robotnik another yet inspiration. Strangely he chose female for this type, as he only chose male on the previous ones. These female specimens were able to go invisible and have claws as sharp as sword. This type was ironically named Stalker.
There were other specimens that were inspired by something else other than the natural-born projects, such as the Bloat. Here's the story:
Levinski was such a computer freak. He also loved to play a certain zombie game called 'Left 4 Dead'.
It was a break time. Maurice saw him playing the zombie game on the lab with his own computer. He was suddenly interested with the game and stayed there to watch it. Ivo, strangely, was also interested when he investigated the lab.
And then it happened.
Levinski was cornered by this fat, bile-vomiting infected named Boomer, and an infected woman called Spitter who… well, spits. The Spitter spits a large mass of acidic liquids on his player. He then shot the Boomer, which suddenly exploded. He then aimed at the Spitter and killed it.
A smirk suddenly was formed on Ivo's face, but only Maurice saw it. The scientist then left the lab. Maurice could hear a conversation between him and a random scientist.
The next day, a fat specimen was visible on the tube. He looked like the Boomer on Left 4 Dead, except this one was nude, less fat, and looked stronger. Levinski's eyes widened. Maurice could hear him whispering, "What have I done…?"
According to the scientists, when it was released, the specimen vomited acidic biles on them, killing some scientists in the process. They had to shoot it to kill it. When it died, it exploded in acidic explosion, destroying some of the scientists' works.
Ever since then, Levinski was really traumatized. He never, EVER played Left 4 Dead ever again. Miles took this opportunity to play it himself, as well as Maurice. They even played co-op sometimes. They always turned off the monitors whenever Lev passed by, but almost always too late. Whenever it happened, the green vulpine's face turned pale and quietly left the place without a sound.
And there was the Siren. It probably was inspired by the squeal from one of the scientist whenever she saw Maurice. Her name was Amelia Rose, a pink hedgehog who seemed to be obsessed by Maurice. He kinda liked it though. It's just sometimes she went too far, like tackling him on the floor. Not even his super speed can help him when that happened.
These female specimens scream really loud that it can hurt your ears, and probably make them bleed, literally. There were reports of glass windows broken because of their screams. That was why they were never let out again.
And there was also the Crawler. These things were spiders merged with mobians. Ivo probably made it because of one of his scientists' serious Arachnophobia. Her name was Starlight. She was a purple cat who seemed to take interest on Levinski. He also happened to have the same phobia. They were both freaked out when the pitch black, multi-legged and eyed specimens were encased inside the tubes. They seemed to have weak skin though.
And also, there was a classical specimen called Scrake. They were specimen with chainsaw as their right arm. Originally the scientists wanted to put some guns instead, but seeing what the previous specimens had done, they decided to drop the idea.
Maurice and his friends were thinking of just going AWOL and tell the government that the projects needed to be stopped. But it was harder than it seemed to be. The government really insisted that they must be done. Plus, there was no way to escape with all the scientists and guards everywhere.
Suddenly Maurice heard screams coming from the corridors near his personal quarters. He opened the double doors, to see a Clot grabbing a scientist and began to feast on him. Maurice turned around to see Levinski and Starlight running away from a Gorefast specimen. "What the hell?" he spoke.
He quickly used his new technique, the Spindash, to throw the specimen to the wall. As the job was done, he turned to both scientists. "You know whatever happened around here?"
"Nyet! All I know is when we both went to the lab, those tubes were opened! There was no sign of breaking glass on them whatsoever!" shouted Levinski.
"Who in their sane mind would ever release them?"
"Hell if we know! Only insane people would ever do that!" yelled Starlight. This earned her stares from both the hedgehog and the fox. "What, you don't think?"
"It must be him…" whispered Levinski.
"Yes it should be."
All three of them spoke simultaneously, "Ivo."
A/N : When the next chapter is released, the rating will be M. Review please!
So you know all of the underling specimens :
Clots : Grabs you, won't let go, common ones.
Gorefasts : Fast moving, scythe as hand.
Bloats : Acidic biles, explodes when killed, thick skin.
Crawler : Fast, black, weak, small.
Stalker : Invisible, enough said.
Siren : Screams that hurts you.
Scrake : Chainsaw arm, oh no.
FleshPound : Strongest, meat grinder arms, oh noes.