Chapter 1
"Try it now." Nana shouted from across the room to Stella. "K." She replied as she typed in a code in the computer in the Fuji Data Center base. She finished typing the code and checked over it just to make sure that it was correct before pressing enter.
There was a roar of a machine coming to life and a faint moan before the machine shut itself down and Nana walked into view. "Did it work?" Stella asked. "I think so, I can remember a little bit more than last time." Nana replied. "We need to work on it a lot more then…" Stella said quietly.
A low growl filled the room and Nana gave a shocked look before smiling and said, "Oh, seems like you're getting hungry." "Yeah, and we're low on food right?" Stella asked. "Yep, that means we have to go hunting again, where do you think some animals are?" Nana asked.
Stella thought for a moment in then came up with something "How about Kansas?" She asked. "Kansas?" Nana said, confused. "Yeah, we haven't been there yet and there's bound to be something alive there." Stella replied. "You're right, we might see a deer or something there, maybe a human if were really luckily." Nana said before they both gave a little giggle at the thought.
They got in Brunhilde and set their coordinates to 39.0558° N, 95.6894° W. That's Topeka Kansas, the capital of the state.
Almost to Topeka, Stella started to slow down the Brunhilde and hovered for a moment.
"What's wrong?" Nana asked from the back seat. "I'm picking up a life signal on the radar." Stella said, pressing some buttons in the console. "Well yeah of course you are, we are hovering in the middle of the forest that's probably filled with animals." Nana said. "No, these life signs are being stabled by something, like when I was sleeping for 15 years." Stella said starting to lower the Brunhilde.
"Oi wait a minute, what if it's just some bug in the computer system? I mean, the UEF or Papa would have known of this and not have kept it here in the middle of nowhere." Nana said, trying to change Stella's mind about this. "It's not a bug or something; Nana, I think we might not be the only ones still alive!" Stella said receiving a gasp from Nana. "Really?! Do you mean it or are you joking this time?" She asked. "We'll have to find out and see." Stella answered.
They landed the Brunhilde in an open field, scaring a few small creatures away from them. Stella grabbed a small device and jumped out to see Nana waiting for her.
"Were does the device say to go?" Nana asked. Stella flipped the switch and the device turned on, the signal was literally right where they landed. "We're on top of it." Stella replied. "What? No that can't be right, if it was like the sleeping trailer you had, you would be able to see the trailer from here." Nana said. "Not unless…" Stella said, kneeling down to knock on the ground to hear a metallic sound.
She felt her way around the ground till she felt what probably the edge of the metal floor under them. Stella lifted the edge of the metal sheet and pulled it entirely off to see a set of stairs that went down into darkness.
They grabbed a flashlight and headed down the stairs and once they reached the bottom, they could see a faint glow. They took a few steps before the lights automatically turned on, along with all the machinery.
"Greetings Black Rock Shooter and Nana Grey, to the secret facility of the 4th and final generation of clones, designed and created by Professor Onmyō and the currently deceased Wasure rarete ita." A computerized voice said. "How does it know our names?" Nana asked. "My name isn't this Black Rock Shooter person, though I would like to meet them someday by the sound of her name." Stella replied.
"This green tube most be hosting the clone, but that computer said she was the 4th generation of clones, Papa died after the 3rd generation." Stella said walking up to the green tube, which had filth floating around inside it. "She might have been in there for a very long time if they haven't changed the filter in the tube if her water is green like that." Nana said walking up to the console in front of the tube and started typing stuff in.
There was a sudden noise, a scurry by the sound of it. "Nana, did you hear that?" Stella asked looking around. "Heard what?" She asked, not looking away from the monitor. The scurry happened again, closer this time and faster. "Nana, we should probably get our weapons." Stella said, trying to follow the location of the scurries. "Hold on, I've almost got her released from the tube." Nana said typing the last bit in on the computer.
Nana stopped when the final question asked if she wanted to release the clone, it wasn't a question if she should or shouldn't, but the date of when they are supposed to be awakened is always shown on that particular question; there was no such date of awakening on the monitor.
The scurries multiplied and something busted through the wall to have revealed to have been an alien, an Eater that seemed to have survived. Stella rolled out of the way and shouted for Nana to hurry up, but she was already done.
The green water started draining and gave Nana a shock at who was inside the tube. A male with silver-greyish hair was curled up in the tube.
Stella pulled Nana out of the way and the Eater rammed its head into the glass, instantly awakening the man inside, as his eyes had opened immediately after the crack.
"Project: Second Chance is now active, initiating safety glass rem – Error, safety glass could not be removed, calling an engineer down to help." The computerized voice said before an alarm went off and several more Eaters busted through the walls and cornered Stella and Nana.
There was a sudden sound of cracking. The Eaters turned around to see what was going on. The man was standing, up and he had just punched the safety glass, making a large spiral crack from the first impact. He punched the glass again and it shattered into several pieces.
He jumped off his podium and landed his bare feet on the sharp glass, but ignored the blood that came from his feet or the fact that he was completely naked in front of two girls.
The Eaters got in a battle stance, while the man just stood there and watched for a moment.
"Identification complete, current time is 2054, aliens do not match current data bank, error, memory corrupted, virus detected, Firewall breached, accessing, initializing, update complete." The man said before walking over to a door and pulled it open to see a black suit, white tie and black fedora waiting inside a closest.
He immediately got dressed before lifting a hatch in the floor and saw a briefcase inside. He clicked the locks open and lifted the lid two see a silver pistol, and an iron pistol waiting for use.
He picked them up and just stared at the closest wall for a moment before the first Eater had enough waiting and lunged at the man only to receive a the silver pistol right to the face.
"You should have been more patient." He said before pulling the trigger and blasted the Eater's face right off. With that, the rest of the Eaters charged in and were found to dead with a body full of lead inside them in only a matter of seconds.
"That was amazing!" Nana said as the man reloaded his pistols.
He looked up at the girls and suddenly had the barrel of both guns against their lower jaws. "I'm going to ask you this once, who are you?" He asked, pulling the hammer on both guns back.
"Easy now… my name is Nana Grey, the 23rd clone of the 2nd generation." Nana said almost calmly. "I'm Stella, the clone that succeeded past the 2nd and 3rd generation with superior memory capabilities." Stella answered.
"Stella… Nana… I must ask you another question, who… am I?" He asked.
"Um, well… we don't know your name, or that you even had one, but we do know that you are the 4th generation of clones and was created after Papa- I mean, Dr. Gibson's death. You were created by two Professors named Onmyō and Wasure rarete ita, though it looks like your generation was abandoned." Nana said trying not to get killed.
"If I have no name, then I shall take one from my creatures." The man said, spinning his guns around his finger before holstering them inside his suit pant pockets. He held out a hand, intending to shake hands and said, "Please to meet you, I am Onmyō."
Stella was the first to shake hands with him and he apologized for his sudden change of attitude and threating response towards them.
"So how old are you?" Stella asked, as they climbed the stairs back up to the woods. "To be quiet honest, I have no idea at all, though I think I'm in my 20's or so, how old are you?" Onmyō asked. "I'm 19, and Nana is 20 years old or so." Stella replied. "What exactly were those… things I fought back there?" Onmyō asked.
"You really are like Stella when she first woke up 3 years ago, clueless." Nana said with a slight giggle.
"Several years ago, the world was attacked by aliens. They wiped the human population quicker than all the past wars combined. Papa or Dr. Gibson created clones that would help with the war, which are us. We are clones or at least I and Stella are clones of Sing Love, but you are a clone of someone else. You shouldn't even exist considering that the 4th generation was never put into consideration or thought of since Papa died during the 3rd generation of clones." Nana told Onmyō.
"So I'm a clone of someone that's probably dead? But, why can't I remember anything, like my childhood?" Onmyō asked. "It's most likely because you're a Grey." Nana answered. "Grey?" He asked. "Grey means an incomplete clone, one that forgets their memories very easily sometimes." Stella answered.
"Stella is what's called a White; she is a complete clone, one that cannot forget their memories." Nana replied "I am not a White!" Stella said firmly.
They walked up the last set of stairs and noticed that the Brunhilde was gone.
"Oh no!" Nana said running over to the empty spot that once had their aircraft landed there. "What's wrong?" Onmyō asked. "We came here on a plane called Brunhilde, but somehow it's missing." Stella said. "Is that it right there?" Onmyō asked pointing to the sky as a black plane did a nose dive before pulling up and rushing past the group.
Brunhilde took a slightly wide turn and repositioned itself in front of everyone. "Crap, they're about to fire!" Nana shouted as she and Stella hid behind a tree and used it for cover against the bullets from the machine guns. Though Onmyō just stood in place and most of the bullets missed him while only one or two scrapped his right cheek.
"Hold your fire, those are actual humans!" A voice from Stella and Nana's communicators shouted. "Crap, they don't look like civilians though!" Another voice said. "Sure, oi! What are you three doing in the middle of the woods? It's a battlefield out here!" The first voice said.
"Umm… what's going on?" Onmyō asked. "There are other humans, but this doesn't make any sense, since the last 12 died in a plane crash." Stella said. "So wait, humanity went extinct, you were the last humans alive and now you're not, what's up with that?" He asked. "I don't know, but we should probably follow the man on the communicator's instructions on getting out of here." Nana replied.
"Sir, where do you want us to move to?" Stella asked, holding a hand to her earpiece and waited for the man's reply. "Go Northwest that should get you to the city where you can meet up with soldiers to lead you to safety." He said before coms went static and they followed his orders.
So this is the first chapter of Project: Second Chance, mainly introductions, but that ending... what happened I wonder? But this will get better, and if you read the last Chapter (when it comes out), it'll have a reference to a certain thing and the reason why there's a 4th generation of clones, and why the only clone is a male. Onmyō will be explained a little bit throughout the story.