She had to keep moving, her time was running out, and the heavy bundle in her arms was becoming heavier by the minute as she kept it close to her chest. She knew she did not have long now, especially when the warning bell sounded not long after her escape, but she had to keep moving, she needed to reach the coast before it was too late. Dashing through the thick forest of trees while attempting to remain some semblance of stealth, she can hear the galloping of hooves off in the distance, causing worry and fear to flood into her system. Pushing herself faster than she thought she could move, she quickly cleared through the forest and out onto an open field as the sound of her crying child filled the air. Doing her best to calm her child and run, it proved to be known as her pursuers seemed to finally find her, as the sound of the baby pierces through the air and gives her pursuers a good location to find her.
As she splits her attention between running and calming her child, the sound of an arrow whizzing past her head tells her that her pursuers had finally caught up. Taking a quick peek behind her, she could perceive ten women on horseback, closing in, wielding either bows and arrows or short swords. Now forced to dodge the incoming arrows, she had to sacrifice what speed she had managed to build up to start moving in random directions to throw off her attacker's aim. After every few dodges, she would let slip a throwing knife, hidden somewhere on her body, towards her pursuers, killing two of them in the process as her knives buried themselves into their throats. However, this proved to be her downfall as the archers narrowed in their aim and managed to let loose a shot that nicked her leg and caused her to tumble and fall as she did her best to cushion her child from the sudden impact. As her tumble finally comes to a grinding halt after a few minutes, she forces herself to a knee and carefully draws a hidden knife to protect herself as her female pursuers finally manage to catch up to her. As she keeps her blade hidden, the four archers in the group aim their bows at her and notch their arrows, ready to kill her in a moment's notice. The remaining four women quickly dismount their horses and draw their short swords, the Amazonen steel shining in the moonlight. One of the warriors draws a pair of manacles and approaches her. Before she could even get close, the woman's hidden blade lashes out and pierces the warrior's heart, killing her instantly as the four archers let loose their arrows, letting them fly at their resistant traitor. Closing her eyes as the arrows close in slow motion, she makes her peace and tries to protect her child before a blight flash of light fills everyone's eyes as the arrows get sent flying away. Letting out a smile and a chuckle, she opens her eyes as a portal opens up behind her, revealing a personification of death to the Amazonian warriors. Sending out a telekinetic wave of energy, the Amazon warriors and their horses are sent flying as if they weigh nothing before landing on the ground violently in a dazed and beaten state
Clad in thick armor forged of imposing and inhuman steel, a man steps out of the portal and reaches a hand out to her. A green cloak covers his body with the hood obscuring his metal face, and is held in place by two large golden circles and a simple chain. "It is time to go, Myrina." He says in a deep and intimidating tone as he gently picks her and her child up from the ground. Helping her walk towards the portal, the two of them quickly disappear inside it, leaving the Amazonian hunting party battered and bruised but very much alive.
Hundreds of miles away in the Balkans, a flash of light signals the teleportation of Myrina and her savior as they both appear in front of a vast and intimidating castle.
"It took you long enough, Victor, you would expect, the "all mighty" Dr. Doom would arrive on time." says Myrina to Dr. Doom as he turns his intimidating face mask towards her.
"I was already waiting for you on the beach for several minutes until I heard the commotion you started." Replies Dr. Doom as they make their way into the castle before he speaks up again. "There has been a slight alteration to the plan today. Two unforeseeable events have happened but, by the look of things, they are for the betterment of our cause if we tread carefully." He adds on as they walk down several corridors showing the lavish wealth and the power wielded by Dr. Doom. Reaching a fairly plain door, Dr. Doom quickly opens it and guides Myrina down a set of stone steps to the bowls of Doom's Fortress and into Dr. Doom's personal laboratory.
Myrina finds her gaze drawn towards a girl, somewhere around the age of nine or ten, sitting in a chair in the corner of the lab. Curled up in what seems like a ball, her raven colored hair and pale skin seem to compliment her Black Leotard and Purple cape and hood, however, simply glancing at her brings as chill down her spine as it becomes apparent that there is more to her than she originally thought as she does her best to remain quiet and out of sight. Dr. Doom directs Myrina's attention towards another part of the laboratory that contains a particular sight indeed. Two hulking and blacked metal pods are easily visible along with several clusters of damaged machinery. Looking closely at the pods, she can't help but notice many strange symbols and words written on them along with a multitude of wards and protective symbols, however the most interesting thing written on the pods were the numbers IX and XVIII in bold blacked letters.
"I see you have noticed our two sets of recent events. Those two pods landed in the outskirts of my country only a few days ago and made quite an entrance with their violent landing. Several of my subjects quickly reported the land and a small party was sent in to investigate the crash. However, when no word was heard back from them after several hours, I went in and personally inspected the matter along with several of my elite troops. Much to my surprise, we found these two pods and the machinery along with a heavily damaged Robot at the Crash site. By the look of things, the Robot seemed to be trying to create some form of communications device, however, once it noticed our presence, it quickly became aggressive and launched an intense psychic attack against us that knocked out all my men. Seeing that I was still standing, it moved to make another attack before shutting down, presumably from power loss or heavy damage. Investigation of the Robot shows that it's a technologically advanced machine with several components that stump even my own genius for several hours. The most fascinating part of that encounter was the occupant of the two pods." Dr. Doom tells her before continuing on, "Both pods contain what appears to be a child in an amniotic fluid like substance. Early research done by my leading scientists and doctors has already revealed some fascinating yet disturbing discoveries with regard to the genetic and physical attributes of the two children. The two of them are currently in a secured and advanced research and medical ward in another part of the castle as my brightest doctors and scientists work diligently on unraveling their mysterious origins while I worked on the technology recovered from the crash site."
"I am going to assume that the girl is the other recent event that I need to worry about now?" asks Myrina after a few minutes of silence as she takes in all this new information and tries her best to figure out how this is going to change things, for better or for worse.
"Ah, yes, Mrs. Roth over there is an interesting case. She appeared at the castle doors this morning in a slightly worse state than she is currently, but the most curious thing is she asked specifically to meet me. From what she has revealed, it's safe to assume she is destined for either a noble future or a terrible demise." says Dr. Doom before turning his attention towards Myrina and her child as the cloth covering her face falls away and reveals her gray skin and blood-red eyes. " I see your end of the plan turned out to be a success." Dr. Doom comments as she can't help but smile.
"It was. The Grail will be our best bet at stopping the Lord of Tyranny when he finally comes." She says as she holds her daughter close to her and manages to catch a glimpse of a monitor showing her the two mysterious children, what appeared to be an angel and what she would describe as a dragon in human form.
If you told Dr. Anastasia Romanov a week ago that she would be the leading scientist on a project that would change the human understanding of genetics for all time, she would have laughed in your face and called you insane but here she was, pouring over all the data collected on IX and XVIII so far as her and her colleagues' minds, struggled to understand the sheer absurdity behind their creation. Adjusting her long blonde hair behind her ear, she picked up a report on the x-ray and CT scan of both their bodies as she tried to wrap her head around the information in front of her.
Looking at the data presented to her in all the charts and tests, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that she was staring at the literal gold mine in regard to genetics and medical science. Despite being only a week since they were discovered, both children have grown to the size of a one-year-old infant and based on these lab results, there was even more to the two of them. Merely reading off their genetic sequencing, she can establish their genetic code is frighteningly like human code, only if you up sized it by nearly 100%. Instead of a standard double helix formation found in nearly all natural beings, both children's DNA are formed in a six helix like formation, a near genetic impossibility. Both children have an enhanced and reinforced skeletal structure stronger than titanium and denser than tungsten, they both also have enhanced and more durable muscular systems that are 100% efficient based on preliminary testing. They contain multiple extra organs, most of them they still haven't figured out what they do yet, but they can clearly recognize a second heart, a third lung, and a second stomach and multiple other unknown organs. Looking back at the skeletal structure of IX, she can see the reports in regard to the wings forming on his back. Basic scans show the bones as thick as the rest of the bones in the body while the feathers were as soft as a swan but more durable than steel. Looking at XVIII, she can see the reports detailing a highly durable epidermal layer highly resistant to most forms of damage to what they have seen so far. That coupled with a stronger skeletal and muscular system along with an insane regenerative factor is simply unbelievable.
Placing the paperwork down, she could already feel another headache forming as she reaches for a nearby bottle of water. Satisfying her thirst, she placed the bottle back down before moving her long blonde hair out of her face and behind her ear. Standing up, she quickly made her way out of her compact office and towards the observation room overlooking IX and XVIII. Listening to the gentle clack of her heels on the metal floor, she finally felt the headache started to disappear as she finally reached the observation room and stepped inside. Glancing around the room, she can recognize the multitude of machines and computers covering the room as she struggles to compute the sheer amount of data being gained off IX and XVIII. Gazing towards the window overlooking their current medical room, she can recognize her colleague, Dr. Dimitri Ambrus, standing there with a clipboard, watching the two sleeping babies with interest as he jots down notes every few minutes.
"I see you are hard at work, Dimitri, tell me, have you discovered something new with your visual examination?" She asks in a bit of a joking tone as she moves to join her old friend.
"Well, at the rate things are going, nothing so far except for the strange physical features." He responds back lightly as they both watch down at IX and XVIII. Looking at IX, they can see the clear allusion towards an angelic appearance of the child. Already, the pure blonde hair could be seen forming on his head that seems to enhance and empower his near perfect features as the pair of pure white wings forming on his back further added to his angelic form. Turning their attention towards XVIII, the black skin on the child looked like it was carved straight off a mountain itself based off its rough and chiseled appearance, and it is a possibility due to the sheer durability of XVIII. The sheer gray to his skin along with his blood red eyes disturbed them a bit due to how unnatural it was and could not help but compare him to the Grail, one of the newest charges to Dr. Doom, however instead of the evil and overbearing feeling they get in the presence of Grail, being close to XVIII was like standing in the presence of an ancient of Regal Beast, something akin to a Dragon, and his appearance definitely leaned towards that feeling, and at this point, all he would need are Draconian wings to fit perfectly in with the image he presented.
"Have you thought about giving them names recently? I think it is merely going to become more difficult in the future simply calling them IX and XVIII for the rest of their life." Dimitri states after a few minutes of silence as they observe the two children.
"Why do I have a feeling that you have already decided to give them names and merely wanted an excuse to say them?" She replies back as she looks back to her old colleague and waits for him to spill the beans on the names he came up with.
"Well, I have been thinking a bit and for IX, I am going to go with Angelus for obvious reasons. For XVIII, it took a bit more thinking, but Ignis Draco seems to fit him well based on the feeling of power you get when you are in his presence and a somewhat supporting physical appearance. " responds Dimitri with a smile on his face as Romanov can't help but believe that despite the cheesiness of the names, they definitely do fit well with them.
AN/ Went through and corrected most of the grammar issues.
AN v2/ sorry for the long wait, school and work is a bitch to handle, went back and rewrote the first chapter and included Chapter two in it as well. Will see yall next time. Feel free to leave any constructive criticism