Hey peeps, I'm baaaack!
It has been awhile has it, well remember that little Webtoons competition I talked about last time? Well I decided not to because I still have a lot to learn when it comes to webcomics and digital drawing. As a result I'm sticking with my guns and focusing on the stories I want to write.
Let's get this thing going now. |^)
Chapter 24: An Uneasy Existence
Above the floor of a messy room, a small ray of yellow sunlight peaks through the curtains, gently resting itself on the sleeping Isabel's long blonde hair who's back is turned away from the window. She rolls over causing the light to now rest upon her eyes, causing her to squint and open her eyes revealing her red eyes to the world for the first time of today. Using her hand to obstruct the intruding light she slowly emerges from the covers, groaning in the process.
"Morning already?" She lets out in a groggy voice while rubbing her eyes.
After getting out of bed and navigating her messy room, she exits out into the hallway and makes her way down the stairs, the new thought of hunger going through her mind as she holds her stomach. After reaching the bottom floor she navigates the house until she was in the living room where she sees her father sitting on the couch watching the T.V. But something wasn't right, it was like he was in some sort of trans as he's just staring at the moving images of the device. She stands right next to him and got ready to speak.
"Uh, good morning Dad." Her voice snaps the man out of his hypnotized state causing him to jump.
"Oh, good morning Isabel, how are you today?" Isaac responded, failing to hide a hint of fear in his voice.
"Are you okay?" She asked, raising an eyebrow raised at this odd behavior.
"Y-yes I'm fine." The girl wasn't convinced, she was going to press him further but then she started to hear a faint thumping coming from the front yard. Now curious she quickly approached the front door to the horror of the man. "Wait Isabel!" But the words didn't make it to her in time as she opens the door.
The first thing she saw was the familiar figure of Ares and next to him was an entirely unfamiliar creature looming over him by floating off the ground by half a meter seemingly directing the boy's actions. The creature has aqua blue skin throughout its whole humanoid body with a large smooth crest for a head, and near the back are two tendrils seemingly made of light. What caught her attention was the face, it has two eyes that glow a sky blue, but no mouth was visible on it, she had never seen anything like this.
Heavy footsteps sound off from behind her followed by a low growl that caused her entire body to vibrate slightly. Her breath got stuck in her throat as her body stiffen up in complete shock and fear. She looked behind her and she came face to face with the gaping teeth filled maw of a colossal monster. She slowly looked up to eye level where she sees bright blue eyes glare at her. She could not move away as fear filled her entire being at the sight of the beast.
She suddenly feel herself get pulled back inside the house and the door slamming behind her.
"Isabel! Are you alright?" An extremely worried Isaac firmly grabbed her shoulders, keeping her still before she took a deep breath that filled her lungs. Her hands where over her heart as she slowly sinks to the ground, her father keeping his grip on her. "Isabel!"
"I am, I am." Her mind was able to clear itself just enough to let out these words in a semi-clam manner. Her breath slowed back to how it was before the event. "Just shocked at the sight, that's all." She looks up at her father. "What are those things?"
"Apparently Ares' "brothers", I don't see the resemblance though." The memory of meeting the boy appears in her mind, reminding her as to what happened last night.
"Oh, I forgot. So that's them then." Her head rests against the wall before she continued. "Where's May?"
"Working in the garage, she hadn't come out in the last hour." Isabel sighed in relief as she knows that she's at least safe. But her next thought was that of the oddity of the woman staying in there for that long, this can only mean one thing: she's scared. "The smaller one of the two threatened us that if we did anything remotely hostile, they would kill us." That cements it, whenever May was stressed enough, she would retreat into the garage like a turtle to its shell and will never come out for anything until she calmed down. Isabel and Isaac usually let her be until then.
She brought herself back up and moved the curtains aside giving her a small but clear view of the three hybrids, seeing the big one now walking towards the other two. "You've got to be kidding me." She honestly can't believe it, they're now stuck with creatures that they know nothing about and are not keen of hanging about.
What have they all gotten themselves into?
Cronos approaches Janusar and Ares as the former continues to direct the later in his training, which consists of rapidly shooting more rocks at one spot. His protoss looking brother wasted such little time with training their youngest sibling as he woken him up the moment the sun began to rise over the horizon to start his training.
"Brother." Cronos called out to Janusar and causing him and Ares to turn around.
"Yes? What is it?" Janusar asked.
"The last terran is awake now."
"Isabel?" Ares asks with a hint of excitement in his voice.
"Yes. Go back to training now brother, we still need to talk." Janusar waved him off and the younger hybrid reluctantly nodded and continued to focus while the other two walk off to the side to continue their conversation.
"I want you to tell me now, was the warning necessary?"
"What?" The protoss-like hybrid tilted his head in confusion.
"The warning of their deaths, I don't see it as wise."
"It's to ensure that they never cross us or Ares. Who knows when they would turn on us."
"I told you this before they can't do anything to us, even to Ares. The warning will only antagonize them further." Cronos acknowledges that Ares is the most fragile out of all of them, but if his outburst from about a week ago proved anything, it's that he is capable of killing a regular human, at least if provoked. And he's sure that these humans are at least smart enough to not do anything reckless even without the warning.
"And why would you care how they feel."
"Because of Ares, I don't need to remind you as to what happened to him on that day." The memory of the event still burns in their minds. When Ares rebelled because of his separation the terran Sira causing them to be nearly discovered if it wasn't for the storm that came right after. "For the sake of our secrecy and his health, he needs someone to bond to, someone more human than us." His brother's eyes slightly widen at this statement.
"No, he doesn't, he needs to become stronger through extraneous trials without any other influence."
"It is too late for him to solely relay on that, his connection to Sira has left him codependent on companionship. Surly you can see that."
"Then what? His connection to a terran will only hold him back, he can only be with us no one else."
"I'm only suggesting him to be paired with one until he is ready to be without it. You know as well as I his ever-decreasing mental state, he needs this." The two look back at their brother, who's still throwing the same rocks at the same tree, and took notice of his stance and mental resolve. Though subtle to the naked eye, to them it was obvious that his troubled mind is hampering his ability to concentrate. They look back at each other before Janusar hangs his head in defeat in realization.
"Who do you have in mind?" In response Cronos turned to a nearby window and spots the girl known as Isabel peeking through the curtains causing her to retreat into the house in fear. "Why her?"
"Because there is a bond already forming, it is extremely faint, but I can sense it. If you weren't so worried about their intentions, then maybe you would've sense it too." Cronos scolds his brother by slightly bearing his teeth which only annoys Janusar even further.
"Alright, I get it!" He snaps, his eyes giving off a more irritated impression than before. Holding his annoyance in his voice back he continues. "I'll be more lenient with them and his interactions with them." He begins to storm off back towards Ares in silent anger while Cronos watches.
"That's all I ask of you." He mutters as he watches his smaller sibling continue to teach their youngest.
Gorgon-class battlecruiser Bucephalus
Location: Unknown
Daniels walks down the rather lively halls of the titanic ship as he sees crewman and soldiers passing him by to accomplish their own businesses and paying him no mind to his surprise. Ever since he and his entire crew were taken aboard this ship, they all felt tense since they don't feel like they belong here as the Confederacy fell long ago and so they are essentially deep in enemy territory. If it wasn't for Valerian Mengsk giving them and their ship the Sanctum asylum on his ship a few days ago they would've been left at either the mercy of pirates, less merciful Dominion forces, or worse. He's grateful though that none of these are the case, but a part of them is still annoyed that they have yet to locate their only successful subject, Ares. With such little data available for them to use their years of hard work seem to be for nothing.
He sees two marines approaching the opposite direction ahead of him, from the look of their armor they are not his, so he averts his gaze in the hope of not catching their attention. To his relief they pass by him with no incident, he was lucky this time, from what he learned the Dominion still uses criminals as conscripts for their marine corps so things could've gone wrong for him like it did back at the Sanctum.
After a few minutes of walking through the metal corridors he finally comes upon what he was looking for: the tech bay. The door automatically opens for him as he gets close and he enters the facility.
All around him walks a mix of Dominion and his fellow ex-Confederate scientists who have grown accustomed to the updated technologies thanks to the former teaching them. He himself has grown comfortable with their little corner of the ship as Valerian was able to provide them with at least some Zerg sample for them to study on, though protoss specimens are a lot less easy to obtain given the current environment of the sector. He does have plans to attempt tests that uses the little data they have on Ares as a springboard for further study, but even for him that seems like a longshot.
To his left stands a group of three scientists that are surrounding Garis in an arming station surveying his upgrades to his environmental suit and overall equipment. Ever since his battle with Macro his original suit has been replaced with the state-of-the-art gear that is all the latest ghost technology installed, but his integrated psi-blade is still being tested for the new model.
A scientist with a visor he recognizes as one of his own notices him and looks over to greet him.
"Hello sir. How was your meeting with Valerian?" The scientist asks.
"Uneventful like before, we just talked about how we could modify and improve upon subject Ares' model for the future like before." Daniels responds.
"Well that's unfortunate, do you want to watch our next test on Garis' psi-gauntlet?"
"Sure, I like to see our progress so far." The two turn to the ghost who is currently standing in a small platform that is just big enough to fit him. Various wires are hooked up all across his body to monitor his status.
"Alright, starting psi-gauntlet test number 23. Garis, you may activate your weapon." The ghost nods and readies his arm for the action. With a simple flick of the arm he activates the blade causing a flash of condense psionic energy to form right above his hand. The surrounding monitors start to light up as numbers and statistics flash rapidly until the values start to stabilize seconds later.
"Electromagnetic field stabilizing and holding." A scientist reports.
"Gauntlet structure holding steady." Another scientist announces.
"All values green and across the board. Try moving your arm." As ordered Garis begins to steadily wave his arm to various angles causing the values on the screens to waver by minuscule amounts showing that the blade is still stable throughout the motions. Daniels smiles at the results, at least not all their research was lost. "You can stop now, everything seems good. We'll conduct a few more tests to work out any remaining bugs." He looks over to Daniels. "Do you want to stay for the rest Doctor?"
"No thanks, I'm going to check up on the other departments. Keep up the good work." The scientist nods and returns to his work while Daniels walks towards the back of the room.
In this section lies various tables and operating tables with some having a corpse of a zergling or hydralisk on them. In the center of it sits a large horizontal capsule that contains a large zerg creature suspended in liquid that the dominion refers to as an infestor which is a zerg creature that they have never seen before and are rather excited as to how they can incorporate its traits into future iterations of the hybrid.
Among the scientists in this section is Sira who is currently looking over the creature in a cold stare. Ever since they survived the ordeal with the mutiny and protoss she has been a lot quieter and more reserved than usual and only talks with her fellow researchers whenever they have a report about the zerg biology.
Daniels was aware about her attachment to Ares, but he never foresaw the impact of their separation being this destructive, there's barely a trace of the old hard working and passionate Sira that he knew at the beginning of the project. To add on top of that for the past week this behavior had only gotten worst and shows no signs of stopping.
He begins to approach the woman who just continues to blankly look at the specimen either just ignoring him or too focus to notice him. He taps on her shoulder causing her to jolt out of focus and towards him.
"Doctor, sorry I didn't notice you there. Need something." Sira greets her superior in a tone much more reminiscent of her pre-Ares self.
"Nothing in particular Sira. I'm actually here to talk to you." He can see the brunette slightly tense at this response, but he continues on. "I've been noticing a change in your behavior in the last few days. You've been far more reclused and quiet than usual, and I can see the bags forming under your eyes."
"Daniels, I'm fine, really." She tries to retort but the weakness in her voice betrays her claim.
"Sira, I'm putting you on R&R for today." Her eyes widen in response.
"But sir, I…"
"I'll handle with what you're working on while you're away."
"But…" She begins to shake out of fear, but Daniels put his hand on her shoulder.
"I'm not getting rid of you Sira, I'm just offering you some rest. These are troubling times for all of us and we need everyone on board to survive, especially you. I know you saw him as the child you couldn't have, but you need to keep focus on your work, and you can't do that while in this state." She looks down supposedly in shame as he continues. "We both want him back for our own reasons."
"Like experimenting on him?" Her voice holds a trace amount of malice within it.
"Does it matter to you if you can have him in the end?" She looks up in surprise at this response. "Valerian and I have been talking about what we should do with future subjects. We plan on simply using Ares to finish gathering the necessary data to move to next version of the project. After that I will allow you to have full custody of him for as long as you can keep control him."
"Are you serious?" He can see that a tinge of exactment has surged through Sira.
"I am, he's still useful even after he pasts the tests. It would be a shame if we just throw him away after we're done with him. I we can keep control of him through you then that will save all of us a lot of trouble."
"So, you just want to keep control of him then?" Sira holds back her malic in the response.
"Does it matter if you get what you want as well?" Her eyes look downwards as she hesitates to answer the question, but she eventually replies.
"I guess not." Though she doesn't sound so sure about her reply it was enough for Daniels. "Here's my current project, I'm going to get some shuteye." He looks down at the pad as she walks away.
The contents of the pad consists of the infestor's abilities such as the fungal growth where it mutates its armor and converts it into a glob of corrosive fungus that it throws at its target to slow and dissolve them. There's a note tab that once clicked on shows a statement potential to utilize this ability as a defensive as much as an offensive ability through it's use of creating new armor above any damaged ones and spitting a corrosive liquid as a last resort ability. He smiles knowing that even in her undesirable state she can still come up with new ideas.
A sigh comes out of him though, the fact that they're essentially Back to stage one still bugs him despite their fortunate rescue.
It's honestly good to be back after that hiatus, this story has been on my mind for far too long and my thoughts of it while at work weren't helping. So yeah, time for the important bits.
Mister Guest from last chapter, you are correct in your assumptions of Cronos being the zerg-like hybrid and Janusar being the protoss-like hybrid. Hope this makes it easier for everyone in the future as well. But I'll still keep your advice in mind.
Trivia of the day:
"When aging bees do jobs usually reserved for younger members, their brain stops aging. In fact, their brain ages in reverse. (Imagine if riding a tricycle didn't just make you feel young-it actually made your brain tick like a younger person's.) Scientists as Arizona State University believe the discovery can help us slow the onset of dementia." (Reilly, 2013 (updated in 2019)) (mental floss .com)
With all that out of the way I truly hope that you all have a great and safe day or night wherever you may be in this crazy world. ^w^