Author's Note
EDIT 2/9/16: I edited some stuff based on problems that some people reported. Nothing that deserves much of a mention other than that I completed a sentence that was integral to the explanation of the powers and changed the adoptions/abductions to be from the CIA instead of the FBI. More edits may come in the near future depending on what critiques I receive. So that's happening.
This is an idea that I came up with today, but the concepts behind it have been plot devices I came up with years ago. So it's sort of old, but sort of new as well. I'll tell you what's new and what's not at the bottom, after the story reveals them.
Also, I know full well that this thing is pitifully short (for frigg's sake, the two author notes together are almost as long as the whole chapter!). But to be fair, it's only a prologue, and the next chapter will be twice to four times the length of this one. It's only short because this omniscient perspective I used for this is painfully full and boring after too long, so I made it as short as I could.
Also, the standard warnings apply, along with some others:
Kirito is female. I mean, since when have I ever written a story where he's a male? It just hasn't happened on this account. Anyway, her real first name is Kimiko, which means "Empress Child" in Japanese.
There is yuri, lesbianism, femslash, whatever you like to call it. If you don't like that to the point that it interferes with the reading experience, then stop right here, otherwise you'll waste both your time and mine.
Also, there is no virtual reality in this, it's an AU mostly modeled after the real world with a few sci-fi elements added in.
Another nonstandard warning is that I changed the ages of most of the characters. Pretty much all the mains are over 18, with the exception of Kiriko, who is still a teenager. There's reasoning for it, but I won't spoil it yet. On top of this, I changed the nationality of most of the characters as well, from Japanese to American.
The third and final warning that is unique to this fic is that I have no idea whether this whole scenario is either scientifically or realistically possible. You may be able to suspend your disbelief for the science aspect, but I have no idea whether this kind of thing could happen, politics-wise. It's certainly unethical, not to mention that I don't know whether this situation accurately describes the relations between countries I pointed out. I could be totally off base, and I don't really care, so if you're going to just bash me for being wrong there, I'd prefer it if you just didn't review at all, because I know and it's not worth my time to answer you (though I already blocked the guy who usually does that, so it shouldn't happen).
Anyway, that's enough out of me. Hopefully you like it. See you below!
Weapons with Hearts
Prologue: Project Uninhibited
In the year 2020, the threat of a third world war was imminent. Diplomatic tensions between nations across the globe were at an all-time high as everyone struggled to come to an agreement on how to deal with the Islam terrorist group IS.
However, the inability to come to an agreement led to an inability to act, which allowed the terrorists to continue on without much fear of repercussions. As they grew more and more confident that no one would ever come after them, their strikes became more and more bold, leading to increased casualties as a result of the world's inaction.
However, the impending world was not between IS and the rest of the world. Instead it was to be between the US and its allies and Russia and its allies, whose opinions on how to stop IS differed drastically. Russia wanted to bomb all of their known bases and be done with it, and the US wanted to come to a solution with less potential for collateral damage.
Their disagreements threatened to bring war to the whole world, not just to IS. As such, seemingly every country that was not neutral continued to build up their military forces – both in humans and in weapons.
Around this time, a young philosopher whose popularity was on the rise said something that went viral in a day. The philosopher was in favor of attacking the terrorists, but was against using bombs to do so. He wanted to end the fight with humans rather than explosions and radiation. The words he uttered while speaking on television were:
"The greatest weapon is not a bomb. It is the heart and mind that does not hesitate. Humans and their nations have opposing forces in their hearts and residents, and so they hesitate. And that hesitation weakens them. The only way we can actually win against our enemy is if we don't hesitate."
His words took the country by storm. They transformed him from a young and inexperienced philosopher into a man revered as one of the best in his field. He became nationally famous almost overnight. If only they realized how true his statement would prove to be.
Shortly after this happened, geneticists working secretly for the military discovered a new kind of gene that all humans possessed. They discovered it by accident, while performing genetic experiments on monkeys. They didn't even fully comprehend what had happened at first. All they did was completely delete a few genes with ambiguous purpose in a young adult male specimen through a newly-developed process. The plan was to see if they could change the color of the monkey's fur to make it blond, but they accidentally entered the wrong command into the machine, and suddenly the primate was lifting objects as heavy as steel safes – with nothing but his mind.
Of course, an animal such as a monkey having such power could be very dangerous, so they had to put it down. But before they ended its life, they took one more sample of its DNA for analysis. They discovered that there were roughly a hundred genes with similar or close to identical properties as the ones they deleted. They dubbed these genes "inhibitor" genes, because after they were deleted, the subject's continuous and peakless evolution would begin without end.
What made this significant was the fact that every single gene in this group was one that both monkeys and humans shared. This meant that in theory, if the same gene deletion process was applied to humans, those humans could develop strange powers as well.
But the ethics of such a thing were debatable at best. Therefore, they worked with the CIA to gather a group of around a thousand adolescent test subjects from foster homes across the country. The "gathering" event was actually just the gatherers adopting these teenagers throughout a four month period so as not to arouse suspicion.
The testing began as soon as the adoptions were all finished. The process to completely delete a gene from all of a person's DNA was painless, and the technology used to do it looked very similar to a tanning bed, so very few of the teens were suspicious enough to try to stop the process.
The results, as one would expect, were all across the board. In the first place, the experiments were just as diverse. The first group, one of roughly a hundred subjects, had all one hundred inhibitor genes deleted. The very next hour, about fifty of them died before their powers developed. After two days, forty more of the subjects had died as well, leaving only three of the subjects alive. Of those three, one had undergone serious degeneration of the brain, leaving him unable to be of use. That left only two of the subjects alive, both of whom suffered no noticeable negative effects.
Those two, both female, developed frighteningly intense and dangerous powers. Their personalities were altered, but their brains showed no signs of defects or degeneration. These two were considered uneasy successes, because the extent of their powers struck fear into the hearts of the staff. These two small successes drove the experiments forward where they had come close to termination.
The next group, another hundred, only had ten of the inhibitor genes deleted. None of them suffered negative effects, but at the same time, the powers they developed were phenomenally weaker than that of the two survivors of group one. They wouldn't be strong enough to be of use in a battle, and therefore these teenagers were removed from the experiment – they weren't killed, but they were taken care of under close supervision and complete isolation to ensure that no information leaked to the public.
The next several groups were all used to determine how many genes would yield a proper balance between safety and power. The final group, consisting of the last two hundred subjects, had about fifty of the hundred inhibitor genes deleted. They developed strong powers that weren't so dangerous as to be uncontrollable, yet could still be used to great effect in a warzone.
These complete successes, along with the two survivors of the first group, were quickly dispatched among the military forces. As the president of the US became aware of the new power they possessed, he quickly changed stances and declared war on IS, having enough support from congress to go through with it.
The battle was decided in a matter of days. The "uninhibited" three-hundred were each an army on their own, and they stamped out any and all resistance and threat of counter-strikes with no effort and a matching lack of hesitation. IS was completely destroyed by these teenagers before it could mount a single retaliatory effort. Not a single life was lost on the US' side.
The members of the terrorist organization that were living in other countries lost the will to fight after hearing the news of their complete defeat, and most of them either turned themselves in or committed suicide. The rest couldn't muster up the courage to commit any crimes anymore, believing that their resistance would get them killed, and they became as dangerous as normal citizens – they weren't even worth finding to prosecute.
And just like that, the threat of both war with IS and a world war between the US and Russia were completely eliminated. The groups had nothing to fight about anymore, and so the diplomatic tensions were brought down as a matter of course.
This left only one unresolved issue. The matter of what to do with the now battle-hardened three-hundred teenagers with almost supernatural powers. By this point, their existence was public knowledge. People were both amazed by their power and appalled at the military for sending a bunch of minors into a war zone, regardless of the outcome.
The government needed to do something fast to avoid the growing threat of anarchy. And so, after a month of debating, they devised a solution: to integrate these three-hundred teenagers, along with the other surviving test subjects, back into normal society. It would be a long process, but it was the best way to avoid the threat of the government being overthrown.
One year later, just as the last of the teenagers were adopted, is where this story truly begins.
Author's Note
Because the above note was super long, I plan to make this one short. I'll just explain a few things and leave you to work on chapter one.
The idea of inhibitor genes that when deleted/destroyed would make the person develop superpowers is something I've both fantasized about and written about for years. The other stories with that included as a concept (whether it's over or not) aren't on this account, but if you want to read them, I can direct you to the pages. There are two in total.
The idea of impending world war three (even if it got averted right away) is something I recently thought to write about, and I know it's far from original, sue me. I don't know if the US and Russia are allies or not (I'm pretty sure we're not, but I haven't totally confirmed it), and I don't know if what I said accurately described the intentions/goals of either of these countries regarding IS/ISIS. If I'm wrong, please don't tell me, because I frankly just don't care enough to try to fix whatever I may have messed up.
Anyway, that's about it. If you have other critiques, don't hesitate to share them. If not, don't waste either of our time with a review.
With that said, see the people who liked it in chapter one!
