K/R vs Kigo

The Chapter That Leads Up To Drakkim

By MaceEcam

MaceEcam checked the settings on the machine one more time and stepped back to admire his work.

He was staring at the Pair-Cloner 2.0, the last one having been destroyed in the fight between Jade and Wonique, and he'd had to rebuild it setting him behind schedule nearly a month. No matter, he told himself, as the new version of the machine was more powerful that the last.

He checked the tube in which the clone would appear before checking the wall of the machine, over which dozens of slots were in the machine. Most of the slots were filled with small cards, each card containing a different DNA sample and mind scan and labeled as such. These cards would be taken from the wall and inserted into the machine to create a mix.

Mace checked for a final time to make sure that the machine was calibrated properly and considered his options. What pairing could he make today…to tell the truth he was running out of options. He had made all the major ones except-and here Mace shuddered- Drakkim. And he had sworn on his soul-not that he still had one mind you- that he would never make that particular pairing.

Just then a chocolate chip cookie landed squarely on his desk in front of him. At once he fixed his eyes on it.

"Stay in control Mace. This is what the therapy and the medication is all about." He thought to himself.

Suddenly the cookie gave a jerk and went flying across the room and out the door. Mace was after it in a flash, yelling "COOKIE!!!!!" at the top of his lungs.

The lab was empty for a moment, and then Neo popped into view from her hiding spot behind huge rack of severs and approached Mace's machine. Her plan had worked; while Anabri drew Mace away with the cookie Neo would come in here and create their pairings. Selecting the DNA cards for Drakken and Kim Neo slid them into the machine's two slots and pressed the button to activate the device.

The cloning tube filled with an undeterminable viscous liquid. In the middle of it gross looking clumps began to appear and form together.

Neo's radio buzzed to life. "Neo, neo do you hear me?" Anabri's voice came over the receiver.

"That's a ten four good buddy" Neo replied speaking into the mic. There was moment of silence on the other end, then-

"What does that even mean anyway?"

"No clue" Neo replied. "What's the sitch?"

"Mace caught the cookie and is on his way back!"

Neo let out a string of words totally inappropriate for the person she was talking to. "Neo!" Anabri admonished her and Neo flinched. "Sorry. Look I got to go. And with that she stuffed her radio back in her pocket and ran over to the computer console. There had GOT to be a way to make this thing work faster. She started pushing buttons at random causing the machinery to beep and whirr. Turning to look at it, she froze in shock.

Mace reentered his lab chewing on the last bite of his cookie. Immediately his eye fell upon the woman standing in the center of the room, then moved over to the cloning tube where sparks were flying off of the machine and smoke was pouring out.

"What did you do?" he demanded pushing Neo aside. Typing a series of commands the machine quieted down. The decal read that the process was 100% complete, and that the clone was having a mind downloaded into it at the moment. When that was done the tube opened and Mace and Neo turned to look at it.

What they saw instead was a them. Standing to the left was a man who appeared to be in his late 20's or early 30's, with pale, blue-tinged skin and red hair that hung loose behind his back. Large white teeth lie inside his thin-lipped mouth with a heart-shaped face and an innocent expression. His emerald eyes had flecks of black in them and, though he lacks much in the way of cheekbone, has ears that stick out to the sides. He was built smaller than the average man, and had tiny figured built for working tiny machinery.

Next to the man was a girl, but what was odd about this girl was her age. While most of Mace's clones were the average age of the "donors" this girl appeared far younger than either of them, around 12. Her skin was an even lighter shade of blue than the man's, but her hair was a dead black. Her eyes- and here both Mace and Neo shivered- were bright green, but of the kind of eyes that you felt could see everything there was about you. Both of the them were dressed in the plain grey nano-built jumpsuits that the machine placed them in waiting the creation of their clothing.

"Neo, what did you do?" Mace demanded as the clones started wondering around. "It's not supposed to make two of them!"

"Don't know!" Neo admitted. "I was just pressing buttons…are they ok?" she asked nodding at the pair, who had yet to say a word.

"Yes yes, it just takes a moment for the artificial mind to fully kick in." He sighed. "Drakkim I'm assuming?"

Neo nodded.

"Very well, we'll name them "Drakkim" and "Drakkima" shall we? I'm mad at you, but right now we need to take them the meet the others."

Neo nodded and radioed Anabri to meet them there.

"Wait a sec." Neo said and walked over to put back the samples. Removing the Kim one, she yelped in surprise as she pricked her hand on a sharp piece of metal. Pulling it back she looked at it; it was only a slight cut and wouldn't bleed long. Forgetting about the Drakken card, she returned the Kim card to its slot and hurried after Mace, who was busy trying to herd the two Drakkims into the hallway.

After they had left, a drop of Neo's blood fell from where she had cut herself into the slot that Kim's DNA had previously occupied. Sensing the new DNA inside of it, the machine returned to life…

A/N: Yes, it's another in between chapter. I thought about having a whole other story just for these, but decided against it since it does fit in the overall story line. Neo, I know it wasn't what you were expecting but I needed to explain why I was doing Drakkim. The REAL Drakkim should be up tomorrow.