Chapter One: Awakening.
What am I?
…
Where am I?
The facility was shaking. Red lights were flashing. Eyes opening, slowly.
Light? It had been so long she had last seen it. Or had it not been? When she was in the blissfulabhorrent frozen sleep it was hard to tell, deep under the earth with layers and layers of horribletorturousinsanity-
She shook her head. It felt heavy, as it always did nowadays.
Where was she? Was everything before-… dreaming? No…
Light. Red and flashing.
Red. Blood. She was so, so thirsty.
Red and flashing; facility was in danger.
God, that light was blinding. Natural or artificial-
Artifical. The laboratory, the House of Evolution.
It was only now that she realised there was sound; the alarms were screaming, red and angry and-
She had to get out.
There was no power to her restraints, whatever had occurred resulted in power being diverted to the emergency functions only.
Functions that didn't include containment, thankfully. With gritted teeth, she pulled.
Metal warped under her strength as the latches snapped open, freeing her arms.
She could see more than just the blazing lights; she could see her containment the clear glass walls that made her feel like a bug under a microscope.
That's what she was now, though. That's what he made her into.
He stole everything, even her name. She had a name… what was it?
It took so long for the cold to wear off, but she could feel that sluggishness now, and had enough awareness to notice it.
Sight always came back first, hearing made a slow return, followed by touch sharply. That's usually when the samples were took, in the brief period she couldn't resist him and his little clones. This time, it came when she rolled off the thin platform that held her middle. She knew from past comments that framework was an apt description to the contraptions keeping her suspended above the metal flooring, as she was laid out like a landscape portrait.
She had liked art once. She was good at it. Was she? Was that a dream? Who was she?
Mosukito groaned, noticing the cold steel her body had fallen to without the support of the restraints. Yet, she was positioned at an odd angle. Her abdomen was still latched.
She gently wiggled her talon tipped toes, all four of them, two to each limb. She brought her dominant left to her rear, and carefully gripped the metal latch before tearing viciously.
It was rent open, freeing her body at last. She nipped her abdomen slightly, drawing a trickle of blood that smelt glorious.
Mosukito tumbled a few times as she eventually righted herself in a standing position on shaking limbs. Her talons clicked against the metal, indenting it while she flexed her equally grouped claws.
She hadn't been released this time.
Yes, the facility, the red blazing and screaming (so thirsty) alarms and lights told a different story.
Mosukito-… No, that wasn't her name…
That was the name he gave her, a name gifted by the Devil.
Genus.
And there was the surge of hungeranger, the thrum of riptearandKILL, it always came last.
Slowly but with purpose, she approached the door to her containment.
The muscle memory of how to tear open came back to her in an instant as she embedded her two claws into it, and delighted in the sound of the screaming metal as she pulled in opposite directions.
She hoped Genus would make a similar noise when she opened his back.
She smelt the human before she truly noticed him. He stank of sweat and carbon dioxide.
"N - nē! Yameru! Soko ni modotte, Mosukito Musume!"
Genus clone. He was staring at her in fright from the corner on the room often she only saw for a few moments as she was transported to the combat room. Was he hiding down here?
What was he saying?
Right. Japanese.
"My name…" She started throatily, voice hoarse from disuse, "is not 'Mosquito Girl', bloodbag."
"Mat- Matsumi." He answered quickly, voice shaking.
"Yeeeeees." She grinned, voice drawling into a hiss as she salivated.
"Please, don't…"
"What's wrong, number Thirty Six?" She cooed, her artificallyforceduponher eyes finally reading his designation clearly; bug vision made her rather short-sighted now. Her talons clicked on the floor as she approached.
One-two, three-four. One-two, three-four.
She had long legs before, but now? It took some time between her strides.
"The Hou-House of Evolution is-is-, it's under attack!" He stammered, misreading her intentions, or perhaps just foolishly hoping, praying that her bloodthirsty state could be directed elsewhere.
But her hunger was Lust incarnate.
"So I see. Is that why I am not been carted, strapped down and thrown against some clones? My my, I do hope you improved the Beast King strand since then. That weak flesh was so fragile when I was tearing it apart before."
Rip.
The clone swallowed, jutting its chin out defiantly. So there was indeed a touch of Genus in the spineless cowards after all.
Tear.
"Carnage Kabuto is dealing with the intruder now, and after he has done he will put you back in your cage, insect!"
Kill.
Matsumi chuckled darkly.
"He might, or I might be free at last of this godforsaken place. The only thing I am certain of is that if he does, he will hesitate. I did leave quite~ the mark when I tore open his carapace last time."
Rip.
Thirty Six still stood defiant. He wouldn't be standing for long.
Tear.
"He healed. He doesn't scar, and he will always beat you back, bug."
Kill.
"Oh, dearie. I meant his fragile ego. He'll heal without a physical reminder, but he'll remember the screaming and the pain and the terror before he-"
"-swatted you."
Matsumi pouted, releasing her pent up breath through her nostrils.
RIP.
"Darling. Insect was pushing it. You should've stopped at bug. Now?"
TEAR.
Matsumi dipped her head, aligning her proboscis with the clone's chest.
KILL!
"noNONO-"
Matsumi gently wiped her cheek, coating the splatter of blood on her claw which she slowly licked clean before ripping open the elevator doors to the next floor.
It was good to use her wings again however brief it was in the narrow shaft.
Another clone greeted her, and all she could hear now was the thrumming of his blood under his skin as she salivated again.
She paused to shake her head briefly, trying to rid herself of The Bloodlust. That feeling that made her want to rip and tear and kill and feed and consume; she had struggled to fight it in the beginning, with waking to the mutation and the constant fighting and sweet smell of sustenance and the cold, cold sleeps.
She had learned over time to rein it in, to prioritise. The mantra never went away; the crescendo was woven through her being, encompassing her genetic code. It could only be sated and ignored. Right now, she just needed to escape.
So instead she let the clone run, his screams of terror creating a discord with the wail of the alarms.
Leisurely she followed behind, still working through the process of remembering how to walk properly in her lanky form.
These lower levels were a labyrinth of walls and rooms and labs, but she kept a close track on Fifty Six as he single-mindedly ran for the elevator to the above floor.
That was the problem with Genus. He was always so obsessed with evolving humans and thinking himself oh so much better, that he forgot that he still thought like one. Confusing layout that probably had some system in his admittedly genius mind meant nothing to her, she wouldn't get lost.
She could track the sweat and terror from the clone running to its (and her own) freedom.
She had sated her thirst, for now. She didn't need to kill this one.
She might, though. It was like killing a part of Genus.
She clicked her tongue reproachfully.
Genus was the one who turned her into a killer; she didn't want to fight anyone.
Kill whatever of his clones she came across? She was considering that, however. They could think, they could rationalise, but they helped him and watched on, never did one of them consider rebelling. With all that brainpower, they never stopped to think they were wrong, or perhaps they just couldn't, having come from his mind.
It would be a mercy then, to kill such slaves to Genus.
They finally reached the wider elevator, probably used for crates and multiple clones as this area perhaps saw more traffic.
The clone was furiously pounding at the button to the next floor, and when he looked up and saw her approaching, piss joined the sweat.
Matsumi wrinkled her nose at the smell, turned away from the thought of drinking from him only to pause briefly in confusion. Where exactly where the sensors? Mutated into her nose, or the proboscis? Maybe the nose was just for assisting in breathing now, a redundant organ. Rather like human ear muscles. An interesting thought.
The elevator doors started sliding to close, but she stopped that with a brief touch of her claws, the sensors causing them to start retracting. The clone backed into the furthest corner, eyes darting wildly.
Stepping in, Matsumi was rather curious to see what he would do.
"Just- just kill me alre- already you stupid bug!" It bellowed with eyes blown wide in terror. "You're useless anyway; the last clone of you got killed-"
"The clones were always dull, stupid things, bloodbag." Matsumi interrupted. "The originals are always superior, no matter your pathetic attempts to produce otherwise. Don't pretend I'm not needed by Genus, not when I'm the one with a name instead of a number, clone."
She hated Genus and what he had done to her, but aside from some added tendencies, she wasn't turned into a mindless drone of his. She still had her pride, that useless thing that led her to not even suspecting something was awry, something which got her into this in the first place.
She knew that the originals were better than the clones, whom were never… whole.
Often they were fragmented things, usually driven by very few aspects of the original, or focused on select few of their own traits; revenge, violence and overwhelming ego being the most common. The Beast King clones were always just foaming, fury driven brutes that could be directed by Genus with the promise of violence. The few pretenders they tested against her she tore apart and feasted on.
There is only one Matsumi, and she was not compliant and subservient like Genus' own clones and the creatures with her form.
Mindful of the claws, she carefully bumped the button to the next floor. Thank god this service elevator was made of sturdier stuff that it only left a mild scratch.
"At least I remained an assistant for longer, girl." The clone sneered, clearly falling into fight now that flight was no longer an option. Creatures of few aspects, as she said. The best runts like Genus and his clones could do however in combat was to use barbed words, however she liked to think Genus would be a tad smarter. "I at least wasn't an experiment! Don't act better than me when you were expandable!"
Mastumi exhaled.
She wasn't a killer, before the mutation.
She liked to think the careful removal of the clone's limbs as she put his vocal cords to the test were a good warm-up for Genus.
Matsumi shook the head of the clone still frozen mid-scream from her claw tip, the fragile thing splitting in two before dropping with a meaty thud.
The large combat room was a mess, rubble littered the area, and the building was falling to pieces.
Kabuto's corpse laid in the centre, the top half missing, and the purple colouring signifying he had been in his little 'Carnage Mode'.
That was startling. She had only fought him once when he had done that; he had fallen into it when she ripped open his shell, the single hit sending her embedded into the wall. She had even been in her own Frenzied state, having gorged herself on the blood of seven Beast King clones that day.
The Bloodlust, the thirst that came with her mutation often drove her into the raging Frenzied state upon redirecting the blood to evolve herself.
Plasma, the solution filled with sugar and protein went towards rejuvenating her energy; blood clotting factors combined with latent esper energy running rampant gave her a regenerative factor to be feared.
Platelets prevent blood leakage, small cuts fizzle away and even losing limbs loses her no blood overall.
The more blood or sugar, the longer she can fight for. She literally becomes stronger the more she feeds, which then leads into the dangerous, addictive cycle of her Frenzied state wherein she falls into the haze of the Bloodlust, where only two things matter. Killing and feasting.
She had discovered the hard way that day that she was far better at regenerating than healing; her limbs had been mostly broken and shattered than tore off after being struck and she hadn't been able to resist as they carted her off while scores of Beast Kings flooded the combat room to keep Kabuto's attention away.
Kabuto had been her biggest challenge, the only one she hadn't been able to beat one on one, even when powered, regardless of her admittedly amateur control of the state.
Something had killed him even at optimal strength, and she was rather split about it.
On one hand, it would be impossible to clone him again seeing as he was a one of a kind, so Genus would have to resort to an old favourite technique of waves of Beast King clones to recapture her, which could take quite some time given the level of damage she had seen so far; perhaps the House of Evolution would never recover.
On the other, she wished she had been the one to tear him apart. His blood was rather intoxicating whenever she drank from him, giving a significant power boost to herself.
Human and animal blood was so bland compared to the sweet taste of superpowered blood. It would be like comparing a sandwich to a buffet, a painkiller to a high. It was soooo alluring, and she always preferred either him (in the small period of time she had gotten to taste it) or the Beast King clones for their blood.
She took a moment to rationalise everything, to think.
Something or someone had attacked the House of Evolution and killed Carnage Kabuto.
There was no sight of Armoured Gorilla or any of the others, however. Knowing that ape, he had probably got Genus to safety, as loyal as a dog that one.
Even Genus played favourites with his 'children'.
There were no other corpses, however. Probably laying dead elsewhere, since Kabuto was probably the last resort.
The underground levels were collapsing in themselves, the majority of the clones dead or dying and Genus had disappeared. The House of Evolution was done for and the likely culprit, the Hero Association, would be back to recover what they could.
She needed to leave.
Stepping through the hole made by something else, she paused.
Wind.
She hadn't felt wind on her in so, so long.
Matsumi closed her eyes, savouring the comforting warm carried in the air.
She missed that lingering sweetness of flowers and pollen while under the cold, unforgiving metal layers of the laboratory.
She still didn't know for just how long she'd been kept there, but none of that mattered now.
She had her freedom, at long last.
Freedom to hunt Genus down, take his head from his shoulders, and then…
Matsumi didn't know; she had choice now. Something she hadn't had in such a long time.
She finally had choice but also a new form in an unforgiving world to monsters.
She would persevere.