Like so many times before, Kuro Shadowhisper Transmitted back to base after chasing down another empty lead. He slowly trudged his way from the primary Transmission hub of the NeoArcadian Army. He shook his head as he exited the building into the now dull city, things had changed so much in the year he had been inactive and had been getting worse in the year since.
The Transmission shield was always active, with the exception of occassional breaks for the military's own use. Because of the bubble that surrounded the City, the little sunlight that managed to get through was spectrum-shifted to a matte grey. It had been the first thing that he'd noticed upon his reintroduction to the "utopia", the colors that had once shone brightly were flavorless and drab. He often attributed this as part of the daily worsening depression of the people around him.
The people on the streets may not have openly harrassed them, but the hatred of Reploids ran deep in their blood. This hate was furthered by the fact that now the only Reploids that hadnt been retired or branded maverick were now the Labor and combat types; returning the status of Reploids to servants of man, less than human, simply smart machines. Even so, all of the same humans were under the protection and almost daily care of these machines they so hated.
The Reploids were, equally reviled by their status drop. Simple rights that had seemed granted by mere existence were now far out of their reach; rights to own things such as businesses, homes and vehicles, rights to free speech, rights to not be arbitrarily retired at the random word of anyone higher ranked than themselves.
Kuro would have mused at how far this city had fallen, had he the good humor left to do so. However, the sight of the administration building loomed ahead as his destination, further adding to the darkness of his mood. Inside he had to report to the man who, quite literally, controlled his fate; the twisted and utterly sadistic Dr Weil. He pressed on, gritting his teeth as he entered the lift, and the door shortly opened to reveal the cause of all the grief inflicted upon the city, and much of the past century's calamities.
Auric Thaddeius Weil, was the worst of humanity packed into an equally unappealing cybernetic body. The Humans, however, thought he was their salvation from the Reploid menace. This was the man responsible for the Dark Elf becoming the corrupting, destructive force it was. This was the man who had in his quest for absolute power, ressurected both Kuro and Copy X. Reproggramming them both to suit his needs, yet leaving their personalities and combat skills intact, had created two perfect killing machines; capable of potentially regretting their every action and never being able to stop any of it.
The Doctor's face twisted into a leering sneer as Kuro snapped off a crisp salute. "Failed again?" Weil's dark voice came through teh speaker on his suit, sounding somewhat amused.
"There was no sign of any activity in the area for weeks," Kuro responded, not allowing the relief at that fact to show.
"The Resistance was almost completely destroyed on In the battle two years ago," Weil turned his back to Kuro and the shutters on the window he now faced slammed open on a wordless command. "How is it that a ragtag group such as that could still be on the lam?"
"I don't know, sir?"
"Latent Command!" Auric commanded
Kuro knew what was coming next and dropped his system defenses, allowing the other presence in his mind, that he knew was his former self Shade Kraven, start to erect file barriers around anything that Dr Weil might ask about that needed to be hidden from the sadist. Every nanosecond could possibly allow lives to be saved.
"VERITAS!"
At the word, Kuro lost all controll of his own vocal and mental functions, -All archived information at your disposal Doctor- the voice was his, without any emotion or thought.
"Disclose all information discovered on this mission."
-The mission was unsuccesful in uncovering the whereabouts of any known Resistance Members-
Weil's face turned to a scowl as he realised that Kuro wasn't lying. but he needed to have a control in this experiment. When he was reprogramming the Reploid, there was a great deal of Black Box Data that he couldn't access, mostly focused around the physical component known as a Shadow Drive. However, he knew that if he removed the Shadow Drive, it would have permanently disabled the Reploid. Shadowhisper was not only a great weapon agaisnt the Resistance physically, but had been with the Resitance and sacrificed himself for them. He knew that he couldnt afford to NOT use the psychological warfare involved with one of their heros turning blade against them.
"Disclose what youve been trying to hide from me about Leviathan."
It was too late for Shade to realize he'd missed something when he was trying to protect the few things Kuro knew about the Resistance's current status and location. He would have swore every curse in every known language were he capable of expressing.
-Unit Siren "Fairy" Leviathan... is currently Engaged to, and bearing the child of, Unit Kuro Shadowhisper-
The resulting chuckle started out, sounding as a throaty cough-like sound. it however grew into a fullborne laugh with enough menace that all who heard it, even two levels below, quivered. "END LATENT COMMAND MODE!"
Kuro shook back to reality, somehow knowing that something monumentally horrible had just happened as the leader of Neo Arcadia bore down upon him with a look of the purist sadism ever concieved.
"WAHAHAHA! PREGNANT? ENGAGED? AHAHAHAHAAAA!"
Kuro felt like his core had shut down and his power was slowly draining from his every system. He couldn't reply, nothing he could think of could slow down the monster before him more than an ant could stop a nuclear warhead.
After almost an entire minute, the laughter slowed back to a chuckle. "Oh my foolish, foolish, toy. You've commited two egregious crimes. Those were the first two things i removed from Reploids! Procreation and marriage!"
"D-don't," Kuro's fear prevented him from being able to say anything more. He desperately wanted to rip the blade from his hip and charge the man in front of him, however these were impossible due to Weil's safeguards.
The Doctor hovered over to a console, "I won't," He replied as he brought up a screen and adjusted a few settings. "You will."
A flash of light appeared between them and Leviathan stumbled to catch her step, instinctively tugging her shirt down to hide the slight bulge of her stomach.
"NO! PLEASE!" Kuro screamed
Leviathan's eyes widened as she realized what was about to happen, "K-kuro?" A begging plea or a question, it wasn't clear.
"LATENT COMMAND! ABSOLUTE ORDER!"
"NOOOO!" Kuro screamed as he felt all motor control leave him, tears streaming from his eyes.
"KILL HER!"
The activation of a beam saber and even Leviathan's scream were drwoned out by the laughter of the worst human to have ever existed.