His first few memories of the event were hazy, to say the least. But he was able to recall the basics.
The first memory he could recall was waking up in a dank, sanitized cell of sorts alongside a group of about nineteen other children. They ranged from young adults to children who were close to his age. Based on appearances alone, he had a feeling that he was the youngest.
The boy could recognise everyone in the room, at least by their face. To his knowledge, none of them had names, at least not proper ones, and were orphans for a large period of time. None of them were particularly outstanding, simply normal children who were child soldiers for a large amount of their childhood.
Each one of the teens in the cell wore a white, sanitized uniform of sorts. The boy's uniform was noticeably the smallest, and even then it just barely fit him. Every uniform also had a name tag located on the right breast. The boy's tag read: Subject M1K4. Even now, he did not know what that meant.
About two hours after he had woken up, the door to their cell swung open, and a man in a white lab coat and a mouth mask stepped in, flanked by a pair of armed guards. The man in the coat simply examined the children/teens in the cell and pointed to one of them, a dark skinned young adult who had the nametag of CH4D. the soldiers promptly dragged him out, knocking aside any resistance showed by the other children/teens.
Subject CH4D was gone for the better part of a week, leaving his friends to worry for him. After about a week of time, the scientist returned with a different pair of soldiers who carted off another teen, dubbed Subject AK150. The same scene repeated for the next eighteen weeks, with the number of children slowly going down up till the point where only two subjects remained, Subjects M1K4 and O5G4.
"You gotta wonder what they're doing to them," was something O5G4 muttered when the third-to-last subject, SH140, was carted off. M1K4 did not respond, simply sitting in his corner of his cell, grimly silent as he hugged his knees. It was odd, to be frank, as M1K4 kept sitting in his one corner of the cell, staring at nothing in particular. The other kids found it rather strange, but O5G4 had a feeling that it was because of something else. O5G4 blinked at M1K4, looking rather worried for his fellow child as he scooted over next to him. "You alright?"
"I…" muttered M1K4 as he tightened his grip on his knees. "I'm fine…"
"Pshhh, don't lie to me. You've been sitting there for nearly eighteen weeks or so," retorted O5G4 as he snorted. "Your demeanor says it all, and frankly you're worrying me. So spill, what's bothering you? Don't make me force you to say."
Subject M1K4 turned to O5G4 and gave him a neutral expression, though hints of fear could be seen in his eyes. He considered O5G4 for a moment, only to bury his chin between his knees as he replied. "I… I'm scared."
Despite his somewhat cheery demeanor, O5G4 could agree with him. He was scared himself as well, but he didn't want it to become contagious as he rubbed his comrade's back. "I understand how you feel, man. But you gotta stay strong, y'know? Stay calm, level headed and you'll definitely pull through."
"Easy for you to say, you're older…" muttered M1K4 as he turned away from O5G4, who slouched a little in mild annoyance. M1K4 wasn't wrong, but O5G4 decided to tell a mild lie to cheer him up.
"Age doesn't define stuff like this," retorted O5G4 as he tried to calm the younger child. He was at least two years older than M1K4, but he still remembered being as he was now when he was at his age, though his memory could be failing him. "Just try and keep cool and you'll pull through just fine."
M1K4 stayed silent at that as he contemplated what O5G4 had just said. He didn't respond, prompting the older child to sigh as he began to think of another way to try and lighten M1K4's mood, only for M1K4 to give a very small smile, earning O5G4's attention. "I'll… try and keep my cool."
"That's the spirit!" proclaimed O5G4 as he sat back down, glad to see that his fellow orphan's spirit was lifted ever so slightly. M1K4 simply spared him a small smile as the older child began to converse with him in regards to several prior events. O5G4 did most of the talking while M1K4 listened ninety percent of the time, and over the course of the week the two of them forged a rather impressive bond in a somewhat short amount of time.
A bond which was severed when O5G4 was carted off at the end of the week. Despite not doing anything while prior subjects were carted off, M1K4 almost immediately charged the guard that was pulling O5G4 out of the cell. He knew that O5G4 was not going to return after he was carted off, and he wasn't about to let that happen, or at least he tried. It didn't take much to knock him back as O5G4 was pulled out of the cell.
"Don't forget to stay calm… Mika," was the last thing which M1K4 heard from O5G4 before he was carted out of the room, leaving him as the only one left in the room. He would be lying if he said he did not shed several tears when he realized he had lost his only companion in this hellhole, but true to what he had told O5G4 he'd try to do, M1K4 held them in. He needed to stay calm, and he did, simply sinking over to the corner he was usually in, waiting for his time to come.
It took another week before he himself was carted off in the same way as everyone else, and during said week, M1K4 wondered what happened to the others, and to himself in due time. He never really pondered the question up till now, after witnessing someone he'd consider a friend to be carted off. That wasn't the only thing which he really wondered about, as the boy did spare some time to think of the name which O5G4 gave him… Mika. It stuck with him, to say the least.
By the time a week had passed since O5G4 was carted off, a scientist alongside two soldiers entered the cell. Unlike a majority of the other children/young adults, M1K4 followed them with little resistance. Only one soldier had his hand wrapped around M1K4's wrist, with the other aiming his tranquilizer gun at him.
"Still chicken, hm?" quipt the one that had his fingers wrapped around M1K4's wrist. The soldier he was addressing grimaced.
"You'd wanna stay as fucking far away from these bastards in case they bite you!" protested the soldier, fingering the trigger of his tranquilizer gun. "Bloody child soldiers… why'd he even choose these kids for this procedure anyways? Seems… cruel, for the most part."
"They're kids, yes," replied the other as they took a turn. "But you need to remember that, under the jurisdiction, they're also criminals. They took the lives of countless, not just Grimm."
"Yeah but… they have not undergone any trial yet," retorted the soldier. The other simply snorted.
"Consider this their trial. The nineteen others failed theirs," responded the other as they stopped outside a door with the name: MT Glenn Lab 42. M1K4 did not know what that meant, as he had lived in Vacuo for a large chunk of his life. "Let's see if this criminal passes his."
And with those words uttered, M1K4's mind focused on one thing as he perked up, was O5G4 dead? He did not want to believe so, but everything the soldiers had said thus far told him that his companion was no longer alive. He prayed that it wasn't so, even as the soldier forcefully pulled him into the rather clean lab.
The room which he was dragged into was decently sized, with several control panels all over the place. Monitors hung on the walls and tables were scattered all around the place. Said tables held more monitors and keyboards, and every last contraption in the room was operated by at least one man in a lab coat. At the center of the room was what appeared to be a surgery table which had restraints for a 'patient's' wrists and ankles. A mechanical arm of sorts was positioned beside the surgery table. Said arm looked to be able to rotate at three points, its base, its center and the top, and the top of the arm had a sort of needle with a canister of black substance connected in it.
If he narrowed his eyes, M1K4 could see that there was blood on the tip of the needle. Dried blood, sure, but it was there. However, M1K4 was not focusing on what was before him. Instead, he was listening in on a conversation between a scientist and a soldier that brought him in.
"So, the final Subject is here?" inquired the scientist as the soldier nodded. Said scientist walked over to Subject M1K4 and knelt down to examine him. Despite him kneeling down to his absolute lowest, the scientist only managed to make direct eye contact with M1K4. The close proximity between the two made M1K4 feel rather uncomfortable, though he did manage to see what this mad scientist looked like.
His black hair was still present, but a few strands of signified his transition into old age. His stache' and beard were similar, black but with several strands of grey which stuck out like a sore thumb. His crisp white lab coat really clashed with M1K4's (by now) rather damp and dirty sanitized uniform, with his name tag all rusted and dented up. Speaking of name tags, M1K4 noticed the scientist's name tag located on his right breast: Doctor Merlot.
After some time of staring, with M1K4 simply glaring rather hatefully at the older man, Merlot flashed a smile and stood, arms behind his back. He seemed rather pleased with M1K4, though the reason as to why remained to be seen.
"He's a fine specimen, that much is certain," said Merlot triumphantly, turning on his heel as a soldier, the same one that dragged him from that sanitized cell to this lab, firmly held him by his shoulder. "Bring him to the table."
The soldier complied, shoving M1K4 forward towards the surgery table. Despite his best attempts, M1K4 was unable to stay calm. In fact, he was practically breaking down at this point. Despite this, he still wanted to know something before he… went away.
"What did you do to him…?" muttered M1K4, barely audible. The soldier that escorted him to the surgery table didn't seem to care about his inquiry, but Merlot somehow managed to hear him. Not knowing this, M1K4 repeated his question, only a little more forcefully. "What did you do to him?"
"By him, I am to assume that you mean Subject O5G4?" inquired Merlot as he held a hand up to stay the soldier 'escorting' M1K4 towards the surgery table. It calmed the boy down just a bit as he nodded. He needed to know this, he thought… but after Merlot told him what happened and why, he wished he never asked. "To put it simply, Subject O5G4 has expired. His frail, human body simply could not withstand the Nevermore genome we injected into him."
"What do you mean…?" muttered M1K4, confused by Merlot's use of words he did not understand. Merlot rolled his eyes as the soldier beside M1K4 gave a few non-verbal gestures which told the scientist that this conversation was going nowhere, but he ignored him.
"Subject O5G4 has died," deadpanned Merlot, prompting M1K4 to widen his eyes. The scientist held a hand to his heart as he said it, but the way he had said those four words made the boy think that he was more upset about something else, not the fact that he had just killed a child, most likely on that surgery table he was about to be put on. "His body was unable to take in the Nevermore genome we injected into his system. His cells were unable to coexist with said genomes, and within three hours, he passed on. His death, however, will be remembered in the history of Mount Glenn. An acceptable loss, for the betterment of mankind."
A handful of scientists in the room muttered in agreement, making M1K4 think that they were just a hair's length away from being insane. However, the larger thought going through M1K4's mind was a lot more aggressive, to say the least. He was mad, beyond that even. His only companion through this Hellhole… gone, taken away by these self righteous lunatics who would gladly throw away a life… no, at least nineteen lives, lives of children no less, for the 'betterment' of mankind as they said it.
M1K4 had apparently froze up in shock as he stood in place for a considerable amount of time, long enough to make the soldier beside him smack the back of his head, causing him to stagger and turn to glare at the soldier. "Move, kid. You've got your answer!"
Frowning, M1K4 turned to the soldier, who simply shoved him forward before placing a hand on his shoulder. Knowing that he was most likely dying today, Subject M1K4 looked at the soldier's hand, only to get up close and clamped his teeth down on it, biting down hard on the joint of the soldier's thumb.
The pain felt by the soldier began mildly, with the soldier not even noticing that he was bit, only to grow as M1K4's teeth broke through his Aura and sunk deep into his flesh, and by then he had realized that M1K4 was going straight for the bone. Under calmer situations, the soldier would have pried him off, but the pain which Subject M1K4 inflicted on him wiped away all sense of calm in the man as he dropped his tranquilizer gun and tried pushing the boy off his hand, but he didn't budge, simply clamping his teeth down on the soldier's hand as though he were holding onto something for dear life.
The other soldiers immediately aimed their tranquilizer guns at the boy when they heard their comrade scream, but reconsidered shooting after they realized that they wouldn't be able to get a clear shot on Subject M1K4 without hitting their fellow soldier. Said soldier didn't really care, as he screamed in anguished pain. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! GET THIS KID OFF ME!"
Only a single soldier managed to shake off his shock as he ran to pry M1K4 off his comrade's hand. Wrapping his arms around the small waist of M1K4, he pulled, and in a rather maronic fashion, all he did was help the boy rip off a chunk of flesh from the soldier's hand.
Landing on his back after pulling M1K4 off the soldier, the uninjured soldier turned up to his apparent senior and widened his eyes when he saw the bloody wound on his hand. He was missing a large portion of the flesh which was located just below his thumb, and he was screaming bloody murder as he glared at the child in his colleague's grip.
"STUPID FUCKING KID!" exclaimed the injured soldier as he staggered back, eyes bulging and a vein visible on his head. His formerly calm demeanor was gone, and he seemed keen on ripping M1K4's throat out. The one who inflicted the wound, however, remained impassive as he turned to the side and spat out the chunk of flesh which was ripped off the soldier. The chunk landed with a messy splat, and M1K4 seemed oblivious to the blood on his lips or the fact that everyone was looking at him. Instead, he was glaring at the soldier, who had fallen over and promptly lost consciousness from pain by then.
"An excellent display of defiance, Subject M1K4," congratulated Doctor Merlot out of nowhere as a pair of scientists moved to cart the unconscious soldier off for medical treatment. M1K4 himself was still restrained by the soldier, who refused to let him go despite him not showing any resistance. "I have a good feeling that you will be our first success…"
'First success…' thought M1K4 as Merlot motioned to the soldier restraining him, who hoisted him up onto his feet and poked his back with the barrel of his tranquilizer gun, obviously not wanting to get too close to him after what he had just witnessed. When he was right in front of the surgery table, the other soldiers in the lab rushed over and shoved him onto it. M1K4, being an eight year old child, wasn't able to resist the grips of the four grown, trained soldiers.
Before the four shoved him on the table, they made an effort to remove M1K4's shirt. It made M1K4 uncomfortable to say the least, and despite struggling rather impressively, they didn't allow him to stop them.
The soldiers forced M1K4 onto the table, stomach first, before they clamped him down with the restraints on the surgery table. M1K4 did try to break free, but to no avail. From there on, with him positioned face down towards the table, M1K4 was unable to see anything which was going on, but he could certainly hear and, more importantly, feel it.
The first thing he heard was that mechanical arm that sat beside the surgery table swivel downwards, and a shiver went up his spine when he felt the needle of the mechanical arm hovering close to his bare back.
"The Death Stalker genome is set," informed a scientist over to the side as M1K4 realized that they were about to do. "Waiting for your orders, Professor Merlot."
"Do it," was Merlot's immediate response, and within several short seconds, the needle of the mechanical arm plunged straight through M1K4's beck. It pierced through his flesh with very little effort, and the boy had to grit his teeth to hold back his cries of pain. He'd be damned if he let these madmen think he was hurt.
However, the boy couldn't hold back his screams when he felt the needle pierce his upper backbone. When it did, M1K4 let out a whimper and began convulsing mildly on the surgery table, and it only got worse when he felt something get pumped into his spine. When he felt that, M1K4 gave up on holding back and screamed bloody murder, with tears of immense pain flowing down his cheeks as he convulsed intensely.
The pain went on for half a minute, but it felt like half a year to M1K4. By the time the needle had been removed from his back, the boy was close to passing out, but through some cruel miracle he was still conscious, albeit barely.
And little did the poor child know that this was just the beginning of the pain.
"Genome successfully transferred," informed a scientist, though M1K4 couldn't even hear him by now. The pain dulled his senses, and all he heard was a strange whisper at the back of his mind, like a woman who was silently speaking to him… "He should undergo the physical transformation anytime now-"
And as those words left the scientist's mouth, M1K4 began screaming once more. Unlike the pain he felt prior, a pain which was primarily concentrated in his spine, this new sensation struck every part of his body, though the pain was primarily focused on his arms and back. He didn't know what was happening to his frail frame, but the scientists all around were watching and talking with interest, interest in what was happening to him and not the agonizing pain he was currently in.
"Subject M1K4 appears to be growing a form of exoskeleton on his arms and back!" exclaimed one of the scientists, taking down several notes as M1K4 convulsed immensely on the surgery table, the only thing stopping him from falling on the floor being the restraints on his wrists and ankles. "They seem to resemble that of a Death Stalker."
"Keep observing him!" exclaimed another, and he gasped right after. While he gasped, however, Subject M1K4 screamed, this time much louder, as something began tearing straight through his upper back. It felt like something was trying to force its way out of his upper spine, and it was tearing a hole in his back as it did, and to make matters worse, M1K4 was still awake as it did.
After about ten seconds, the thing which tried to force its way out of M1K4's upper back succeeded, though M1K4 himself suffered immense blood loss and nearly tore his vocal cords from screaming by them. The loss of blood made his vision blurry, and he found himself losing consciousness, though not before he caught a glimpse of a blood stained, bony spear of sorts, attached to a bloodied 'wire', spear a man through the chest.
During his tenure as a child soldier and even before, Subject M1K4 was never too afraid of the dark. If anything, he always thought whatever was in the dark was afraid of those outside it, always cowering in the shadows, hiding from those who were in the light.
He kept that ideal for a long time, and he always stood by it… at least until now, after awakening in a landscape cloaked in shadows. Eyes wide, M1K4 looked around, scanning the landscape and seeing nothing outside of an unending sea of black.
And suddenly… she appeared. Her skin a deathly white colour and with her deep red and purple veins visible, the woman made M1K4 fall on his back when she quite literally materialized before him. Scurrying backwards, M1K4 tried to put as much distance between himself and this woman as he could. He was no coward, not by a longshot, but every bone in his body was telling him to get away from her. Or at least… half of the bones in his body told him to.
As a matter of fact, the other half told him that he should bow to her, to prostrate himself before he very presence and beg for forgiveness. Despite that, M1K4 kept backpedaling as the woman approached him, a look of disgust on her face.
"Merlot truly is an imbecile," said the woman as she approached M1K4, and with a simple hand gesture, she managed to levitate the boy into the air, perhaps due to her semblance, thought M1K4, and look him in the eye. M1K4 tried to put up a brave face, but he didn't manage it as the woman's red irises bore straight into his ocean blue ones. "Fusing the genome of my subjects to create an abomination such as yourself… that man has only sealed the fate of Mount Glenn."
With that said, she flicked her wrists, and M1K4 dropped back onto the ground and stared up at the woman in fear as she stared back with a look of disgust.
"Mankind has fallen much further than I expected, to have to resort to combining the genome of my Grimm with such a frail, underdeveloped specimen," continued the woman as she turned her back on him. "However, you being able to survive the insertion of the genome of my Grimm is still unprecedented. Perhaps terminating you is unwise… for now."
And with those words uttered, the woman turned to give M1K4 one final glare, one which would haunt his dreams for years after, before she simply faded away.
After she was completely gone, M1K4 forced opened both his eyes and, with adrenaline assisting him, shot up from the rather soft material he was laying on. Breathing hard and sweating intensely, M1K4 took in his surroundings as he calmed down.
The last he remembered, aside from that horrible nightmare, was him passing out on the surgery table in that lab and some strange, demonic spear stab a guy. So, strangely enough, M1K4 noted that he wasn't in the lab, and he was definitely not laying on a surgery table, but instead on a less than comfortable bed within a horribly dull room.
The room he was in was rather cramped as well, almost like a prison cell, except for the fact that the cell was very sterilized. Aside from the bed, there was nothing else in the room.
Grimacing ever so slightly, M1K4 felt his head spin in a rather painful manner. It was nothing short of a miracle that he managed to take in his surroundings, and to counteract the mild headache he was experiencing, M1K4 closed his eyes and lifted his right arm up to perhaps rub his temples to ease the pain, only to stop when his thumb made contact with his forehead.
Strange… his thumb felt unnaturally rough for some reason… almost like it were covered in a layer of bone. Opening his eyes, M1K4 widened them to their fullest when he realized that his thumb was indeed covered by bone, as was his entire forearm.
Doing a double take to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, M1K4 closed his eyes, shook his head violently, and opened them once more, only to see that both his forearms and thumbs were now covered in a sort of bone structure. The basic shape of said bone structure largely resembled that of a Death Stalker, just made for a human and not a scorpion. The bone on his forearm was a single, solid piece which resembled twin gauntlets of sorts while the bone located on both his thumbs were segmented at three locations, all located at the joints, to allow it to move without much issue.
"What on Remnant…" muttered M1K4 as he clenched and unclenched a fist, surprised that it still felt as normally as it was before it got the bone structure. As for the bone plate on his forearm, it felt strange as it was quite literally attached to his forearm like some sort of natural gauntlet. He did attempt to pry it off, but he never managed it.
Still confused, M1K4 swung his legs over the side of the 'bed' he was on and stood himself up, only to nearly fall backwards thanks to an unfamiliar weight on his back. Squealing as he straightened himself up, Subject M1K4 leaned against the wall closest to him and felt his back, only to widen his eyes once more when he felt what appeared to be bony plates on his back.
Said plate textures felt very, very similar to those on his arms and thumbs, and they were separated into six segments, or at least that was the amount M1K4 was able to make out. Sighing, the boy continued to wonder what the fuck the madmen had done to give him these unsual traits that even most Faunus would raise their eyebrows at, only for him to spot something on the ground not too far from where he was.
It was a bony 'spear' of sorts, roughly fifteen centimetres in length, serrated and shaped vaguely like an L. Attached to it were a handful of segmented, bony pieces, resembling the segmented armour bits of a scorpion's tail. Curiously, M1K4 reached down and picked it up, only to feel a new sensation in his upper spine. Ignoring it, the boy trailed his hand down the spinal cord/scorpion tail which was connected to the 'spear', and his eyes widened when he realized what the other end connected to.
It was connected to his upper back…
It didn't take long for Subject M1K4 to realize that this 'spear'... this new part of him, was the thing which killed at least one person when he was back at the lab. Still, he did not know how it came to be. Perhaps it had something to do with the Death Stalker genome being 'inserted' into him? If he were honest, he still didn't know what that meant, but it was most likely connected to this…
While he was thinking, his 'tail' began to lift itself up the floor and hovered in front of his face. Blinking when he realized it was mere inches in front away from touching his nose, M1K4 blank and jerked his head back as he stared at his tail. Curious, the boy began to try moving it, and he succeeded for the most part, even if it's movements were rather jerky and imprecise, so much so that he nearly poked his eye while moving it. Looking to the bony length connecting his 'tail' to his back, M1K4 was a little surprised to see that it was almost as long as he was, perhaps ¾ his height.
"Test Subject M1K4 has awoken," came a voice out of nowhere, prompting the boy in question to turn and face the door to his room/cell and see that there was a small opening on it. Turning towards it, he saw a soldier peeking in, eyes narrowed as he stared. M1K4 simply stared back with contempt as the soldier closed the opening on the door and walked off, leaving him alone to get used to his new body structure for some time.
About five minutes after, when M1K4 had more or less gotten used to his new 'tail', the door to his room/cell swung open. M1K4 flinched when he saw a pair of soldiers step in, armed with the usual tranquilizer guns and riot gear, perhaps a little paranoid after they heard of how he bit into their senior. A single scientist had accompanied them, though he himself stood outside the room and seemed fearful of the boy inside.
"On your feet, M1K4," ordered one of the two soldiers, raising his rifle up until the barrel was pointed directly at the boy in question. Reluctantly, M1K4 stood up, albeit a little unbalanced as he was still unused to the extra weight on his back. Noticing this, the scientist motioned for the soldiers to assist. Only one of the two helped the kid up while the other kept his distance.
Dragging the child out of his room/cell, the soldiers followed the scientists towards their destination while M1K4 allowed himself to be pulled. During the entire walk, M1K4's 'tail' was slung across his shoulder, acting as an odd sling of sorts.
"You scared of the kid or something, commander?" asked the soldier pulling him sarcastically. His response was a snort.
"You weren't there, rookie," retorted his commander as he shot M1K4 a glare. "Subject M1K4 ripped a chunk of flesh off Commander Trist. The poor guy's still recovering. And as for that scientist he skewered… he's not recovering anytime soon."
"Right, right," muttered the junior soldier as they stopped outside a room. The scientist took over for them, dragging M1K4 into the room while the two stood guard outside. Like before, M1K4 did not resist getting pulled in.
The room held only one person, sitting behind his desk as M1K4 approached. He looked just as he remembered, with his grey hair and rather impressive mustache and beard. Once the two were inside the room, or perhaps his office, Doctor Merlot nodded to the scientist.
"Thank you, Doctor Paracelsus. You may leave," instructed Merlot, and the doctor, Paracelsus, nodded before leaving the room, leaving M1K4 to simply glared harshly at Merlot. The other way around, however, was much more mild, with Merlot looking at M1K4 proudly. "Congratulations, child! You have successfully become our very first success in the transference of the Grimm genome into a human's body!"
Surprised by the positive outburst by Merlot, M1K4 stepped back while the madman simply smiled happily, looking rather pleased with himself. Rather unfortunately for the doctor, M1K4 did not understand what he was talking about, so he just asked, his voice rather hoarse thanks to the fact that he hasn't had a drink in a few days. "What did you do to me…?"
"My, child! We improved you!" proclaimed the doctor happily, clasping his hands together. "Your durability and stamina must be improved thanks to the insertion of the Death Stalker's genome, and your addition 'tail' looks splendid!"
Grimacing, M1K4 felt his tail tense up as it moved off his shoulder and began hovering behind him in a threatening manner. Merlot, however, was not threatened by the sight of it, as he simply smirking proudly upon seeing it.
"And for you to even be able to move it in such a small amount of time! Astonishing, Subject M1K4!" praised Merlot as he smiled. "Child, you must understand that you are the next logical step in human evolution!"
Next step in human evolution… M1K4 wouldn't call it that. If anyone else wanted to take this 'next step', they'd more likely die as, from what he knows, he was the only survivor in this twisted experiment Merlot had set up. Only a madman would consider this the next step in human evolution, though Merlot himself appeared to be one.
"What makes you think that…?" muttered M1K4 grimly, making Merlot raised his eyebrows as he chuckled.
"My oh my, what a question to hear from a mere eight year old!" he proclaimed. "You have just asked a rather complex question for your age, and for that, I shall tell you!
"The Grimm, in short, are a superior species! Unlike us, they have superior senses, hunting skills, raw, unbridled rage and a supposed lack of sentience! In short, the perfect soldiers! Imagine an army of humans with such skills, with the basic traits of the Creatures of Grimm! Not only can we beat them back, but we will be able to do so much more! And you are the first step in that direction!"
The nonsensical way Merlot spoke made M1K4 raise his brows. He didn't get what he meant, but he could piece together bits and pieces which he could understand, and even then he still felt that it was horribly dumb.
"You mean you just want to turn us into mindless monsters which do everything anyone says without question…?" inquired M1K4, and Merlot snorted.
"The most effective soldiers are the one who obey orders and nothing more!" shot Merlot as he held a hand out to M1K4, who grimace.
"You're a madman…" he muttered. Merlot simply smirked in response.
"You will see in due time, M1K4, that I am simply a genius who will bring about Victory for Mankind!" exclaimed Merlot as M1K4 grit his teeth. This man was off the wall insane… and M1K4 simply grimaced as Merlot looked at him proudly, like a father staring proudly at his son.
Except for the fact that his 'son' was itching to stab his 'father' with his new tail.
When the 'Grimm Genome Project' was initiated, a majority of the soldiers who were involved in it began a small bet to pass the time they had in between weeks.
Each bet was in relation to the survival of the subjects, starting from the first all the way to the last. A majority of the bets were placed against their survival, with a handful vouching for the opposite, though the latter half tended to suffer some losses.
On the twentieth bet, however, most were horrifically shocked to see that the final test subject, M1K4, had not only survived the insertion of the Grimm genome, but he had recovered with very little visible issues. A handful of soldiers were wary of him thanks to the fact that he quite literally gnawed off a chunk of their commander's hand, but aside from that, they treated him as they used to, as a simple test subject.
Seeing as he was a hybrid, or an Abomination to most, M1K4 was often looked at with disgust by the soldiers who caught sight of him. It did impact the boy ever so slightly, to see so many people look at him as though he were a monster, which he technically was, but he ignored most of the odd looks he got.
However, whilst the soldiers who worked in this Experiment site looked at and treated him like a rat, the scientists who studied him very frequently did the complete opposite. They often spoke to him politely and treated him rather decently, aside from a handful of them who had the same mindset as the guards who patrolled the place. However, M1K4 kept thinking that there was something up with how they treated him. The way they spoke and interacted with him seemed… off in a sort of way, almost as though they were pretending to be nice to him.
The fact that the majority of the time any scientist would visit him was to conduct some form of 'test' didn't exactly change that mindset of his. If anything, it just reinforced it.
Every 'test' M1K4 was subjected to was in relation to his new 'attributes' and 'features', namely the Grimm genome that was now a part of his system. He was very often ran through some form of scanner, though what it was scanning for didn't interest the boy. He was just glad that it didn't hurt.
Other less frequent tests included physical tests conducted about once a week. Said tests concluded that M1K4 was much stronger than the average eight year old, with his average strength being comparable to the average fifteen year old person. His stamina itself seemed to be unending as well, something the scientists who ran the experiment site found out when they 'accidentally' allowed a Beowolf into the physical testing ground and chase M1K4 around the entire area for about an hour. Another oddity was the fact that M1K4 seemed to require very little rest. Observations showed that he stayed awake for most nights and had a knack for taking quick naps in the morning. The reasons as to why was attributed to the Deathstalker genome in his system, though it wasn't confirmed as of now.
His new tail and arm gauntlets were also a source of interest for the scientists. They seemed to scan those two parts of him on an almost daily basis and would test the movements of his tail regularly. They discovered rather quickly that his tail was able to pierce through a Nanolaminated plate with ease, though with tampered metal plates, namely the Galvanized Steel walls of his holding cell, the boy's tail would need more effort in order to break through.
Through all of this, M1K4 found himself slowly losing the will to care about his current circumstance. When he was first carted off for testing, he thought he could escape the place as soon as he stepped out the door, but he didn't manage it. He did attempt escaping several more times, but after about a month of trying, he gave up and just followed orders. Once a year's worth of time had passed, M1K4 was quite literally a shell of a child, a hollowed out 'child' who did as he was told and nothing more.
Despite this, the boy still held onto a small slither of hope. Hope that he would one day be able to get out of this Hell hole and regain his freedom. Despite this hope seeming more improbable with each passing day, he still held onto it for dear life, grasping onto it tightly for three entire years.
M1K4's tenacity was rewarded, however, by the time the first month of his third year since becoming what he was now had ended, and not too long after he was considered an eleven year old child, while he was sitting in a cell, running his fingers over the bony exoskeleton on his forearms as his tail hovered in the air beside him. He had just returned from a round of physical exercises and was sent back for some recuperation.
The boy had considered taking a nap, though that thought was quickly ejected from his mind when his entire cell/room began to flash bright red as a loud, oddly calm female voice came up over the loudspeakers in the place.
"Red alert, Red alert, a massive amount of Grimm is approaching Mount Glenn. All armed personal please report to the main hall for briefing," announced the voice, making M1K4 turn up and stare at his cell/room door. Even from inside, the boy could hear soldiers rushing past his cell/room swiftly. The alert did put him on edge, however, as, despite being rather illiterate, M1K4 knew what 'a massive amount of Grimm approaching Mount Glenn' meant.
Despite this, the boy knew he wasn't able to leave despite being in possible danger, so he simply sat and wait while the soldiers of Mount Glenn dealt with the issue. M1K4 simply sat with his bony back against the wall and his eyes closed, thinking about nothing in particular as he rested his eyes, only for both his eyes to shoot open when he felt the entire room/cell he was in shake.
"Wha-" muttered M1K4 as he pushed himself off the wall, only for his question to be answered before the words left his lips.
"Code red, code red. The Death Stalker has breached containment," came the announcer voice of the MT Glenn experiment site. "All available personal, please move to recontain it."
The message kept repeating itself as M1K4 leapt up on his feet and walked to the door of his cell/room, slamming the bottom of his fist up against the frame.
"What's going on out there…?" inquired M1K4, not receiving any answer. It made him panic somewhat as he asked once more, though his only answer was the announcer voice repeating the fact that the Death Stalker had breached containment, making him grimace.
However, before he could slam his fist into the door one more time, M1K4 heard a growl very close to where he was. Widening his eyes, the boy's instincts told him to back away and, in a split second, he leapt and ducked under the 'bed' which was in his cell/room. Right as he ducked under it, the door to his cell/room burst straight off its hinges and slammed over the far side of the cell/room. As it did, a new announcement was heard.
"Code red, code red, Grimm Subject B0W017, Beowolf, has been released from containment and has breached Subject M1K4's holding bay."
Through the door frame came a Beowolf, one that was most likely kept here for quite some time. It had a brand on its bone mask, labeling it as B0W017, and it sniffed the air in the cell/room as it growled.
Peeking out from under the 'bed', M1K4 saw that the Beowolf had lifted the busted down door, checking under it to perhaps see if it had crushed the boy beneath it. It had its back facing him at the moment, and M1K4 knew that this was his chance. If he stayed, he'd be found within a few moments, and if he ran now, he'd have a slightly higher chance at escaping.
Holding his breath, M1K4 crawled out from under his 'bed' and towards the door of his cell/room. He held it until he was out, where he released it and began sprinting down the corridor of the 'experiment holding bay', though in his haste, he forgot that he had a tail, and said limb had knocked against the side of the door frame as he ran, causing him to wince and for a mild 'clank' sound to be heard.
Whirling around, the Beowolf howled as it found its prey, pouncing out of the cell/room and began its chase for M1K4. No longer trying to hide from it, M1K4 simply whimpered and sprinted as fast as his legs would carry him, though his eleven year old physique, and the added weight of his bony exoskeleton, made him slower than usual.
The boy managed to outrun the Beowolf up till the point where he got to the exit door of the 'experiment holding bay', a simple push door. Horrible security, but M1K4 didn't complain. Right as he was about to reach for the handle, however, M1K4 heard the Beowolf howl, and his human intuition forced him to whirl around to see what it was doing, only to widen his eyes when he saw the Wolf pounce at him.
The Beowolf's pounced straight onto M1K4 and knocked both of them through the door of the 'experiment holding bay'. The door was knocked straight off its hinges as the Wolf pinned M1K4 down, though the latter was able to free one of his arms. Opening its mouth, the Wolf was about to squeeze his head between its jaws, only for it to be stopped by M1K4's free arm's bony 'gauntlet'.
Snarling as it's fangs scraped up M1K4's bony 'gauntlet', the Wolf scratched at his exoskeleton while the boy tried his best to hold it back. He knew that the Wolf would inevitably break through the gauntlet and kill him, but he wasn't ready for that, not yet…
Despite not having a purpose, M1K4 wished to do so much more than be a simple labrat. He hasn't seen the outside world in so long, he longed to see it once more… and his name, his horrid codename… he did not want to die with the world remembering him as M1K4, a horrid fusion between man and beast. He wanted to die with a proper identity… and he used these drives to keep the Beowolf at bay, subconsciously prompting his tail to slide up and hover behind the Wolf.
And suddenly, the Beowolf's jaws slacked and it's paws went limp. Blinking, M1K4 wondered what had happened… only to widen his eyes when he saw a familiar, bony 'spike' protruding from the stomach of the Grimm. No, not a spike… a tail, his tail.
Despite owning it for three entire years, M1K4 couldn't remember intentionally using his new appendage to kill anything. Sure, he did use it to whip people who annoyed him on occasion, but that was about it, so seeing it impale the Wolf was quite a shock to the boy.
The tail lifted the dead, dissipating body of the Beowolf up into the air, demonstrating the strength of the joints within its body, before it flung the corpse towards a wall, leaving M1K4 shocked at its power as he stared at it. He then stared at his two arm gauntlets, primarily the one which held back the Beowolf's jaws.
"So this is how it feels to have a way to defend yourself…" muttered M1K4, remembering the days where he could fight back, the days before he became an experiment, and smiled as he stood.
"I missed it…"
Elsewhere
Silently crouched over in a fetal position, a young girl with pink hair whimpered as a man was snatched off the ground by a Nevermore, her horribly widened eyes threatening to water up at any second.
Standing at barely a metre tall, the pink haired girl was dirtied and smelt like a waste disposal unit. She was likely an orphan, and right now, being an orphan living on the streets of Mount Glenn was probably the worst thing to be.
Gasping as she saw what the Nevermore did to the man, the pink haired girl began shedding fearful tears as she charged through the panicked streets of Mount Glenn, where every single inhabitant was running about in panic, doing their best to avoid Grimm, sometimes even sacrificing others to save themselves.
In her own panic, the girl did what anyone her minute age of ten would do, get to a possibly safe location. And to her, it was the abandoned house which stood closest to her. It was a structure which still had a roof, and the door had one of its hinges knocked off, so the young girl could easily push it open and sprint in. The girl sprinted through the room and found her safe haven: a small, wooden cabinet which was large enough to fit three of her. The girl curled up and sat inside the cabinet, hugging her knees as she silently sobbed.
"Please don't come in…" muttered the girl as she sobbed, eyes squeezed together tightly as she spoke. "Please don't come in… please don't come in…"
To say that she was panicking would be an understatement. She was close to fainting at this point, with her ten year old heart not being able to withstand the pressure which was currently put on her. And said pressure only increased as she heard the already half broken door which led to the house of this place turn to splinters, and for a small snarl to be emitted.
The girl whimpered as she tried to back up against the cabinet's corner, wishing that she was small enough to huddle up inside it.
'Someone… anyone…' thought the girl as she saw the Beowolf's shadow through the 'vents' in the cabinet's doors. 'Please… help me!'
And with that, she screamed as the door to her hidey hole was torn off.
In my defence, someone did ask for an IBO and RWBY fanfic. But no one expected something like this, yes? The story was done for about 3 reasons, first is because someone did suggest it, second was because I wanted and the third reason is the need for another 'serious' fic on my profile.
This chapter serves as a basic introduction to two main characters: Mika and Atra. The idea of a Grimm Genome transplant was actually taken from the RWBY X Transformer Fic, RWBY Team GSSSS. Go check it out, it's pretty good.
I don't have much else to say at the moment.
Well, the next chapter will also be a prologue and will be italicised like this chapter, so there's that.
Alright, PEACE
Edited on: 16/6/2019