Chapter 9 - Personal Cataclysm

There were two observations rooms in which one of them had people in it. What drew Jim's attention was the male child that was sitting in a chair. The appearance and identity of the boy hit him hard. Still in disbelief, his heart began to beat faster. His mind was telling him to reject what he was seeing; however, it was something that shook him hard enough to doubt himself.

"...John...?" he whispered still staring with shock.

Seeing that his son was surrounded by lab coat wearing individuals, he looked for anything around the room. Seeing the signs of both medical and scientific tools and equipment, there was a small plaque on the back wall. The print was large enough for him to see while squinting. Seeing and recognizing the name as the Tarsonis Institute of Health and Sciences, he turned his attention back to them. Watching carefully and slowly walking closer to the observation glass, he could hear them mutter words.

[Let's try again John] one of the scientists stated in a neutral tone.

"..." Raynor responded watching his son give a short nod.

Seeing him focus on the object on the table, it had a variety of objects. One of them reminded him of the tests that Valerian had Kerrigan do. It was a small mechanically constructed orb in which it started to vibrate. Forgetting about the danger he was in still, his full attention was on watching the boy. Slowly, the machine ball started to float a few inches off the table.

[Good...now let's hold it for 30 seconds] one lab coat person spoke having a clipboard in hand.

[...] John responded with a tense nod.

While watching the test being conducted, the Commander noticed that a blood vein was slowly surfacing just above the kid's left temple. Only seeing the ball float for about 15 seconds, it was lowered back to the table. Once it was on the furniture, the boy breathed from feeling winded a little. There were some murmurs heard in which a couple of staff members stated about how annoying it was to train the new applicants that were exceptionally gifted. Though Jim felt a little impressed that his son did have psychic talent, he resisted wanting to shoot the two snooty individuals.

Hearing the lead scientist tell the child to try again, the boy complained a little that his head hurts. The man told the child that it was a normal feeling due from not having expended their telekinesis ability over long persons of time. Seeing his son nod, there was a mild comfort and pain look in his face. Sensing the shapeshifter was inching closer behind him while watching, something occurred that made him not move.

Seeing the mechanical ball get raised in the air again, it stopped after being a few inches in the air. Watching his son clench his teeth and the vein appear above his temple again, the boy pushed passed his 15 second mark. Reaching only 25 seconds, John gasped in pain. The floating sphere suddenly dropped to the table and made a loud clang before falling to the floor. Seeing the men in lab coats not move, they were looking down at the boy despite seeing him look in pain.

"...daddy..." John whimpered as he cradled his head.

"..." Jim reacted with tension. Resisting the instant urge to go him, he closed his free hand into a tight fist. Re-gripping the revolver tighter, his trigger finger squeezed the trigger off and on.

"Does this ssssssight strike a nerve in you?" the creature asked in an airy voice. It placed its stretched out face to be next to the Commander's.

"This vision came...from the minds of two of the lab coat wearers," it continued slowly shifting itself to be on the other side of Raynor's head. "What was it...that the boy's mother sent him toooooooo?...ahhh...yeessss...Tarsssonissss research institute...for psychic experimentation and...brainwashing."

"...!?" Jim responded with turning his head slowly. Coming face to face with it, the ex-marine stared wild eye at the creature. Boring at each other for several seconds with no movement, the shapeshifter was about to dig its thin appendages when he blinked. Without concern or fear, the Terran man reset his face.

"..." he spoke. Slowly turning his head back to the observation window, the monster watched him carefully not knowing what the reaction meant.

"...is...this sight...you are showing me...true?"

"#^...it is...uuuurrrrrkkkk...a memory of two...humans...#$%"

"..." the Commander said then stared hard at what was occurring on the other sight of the glass. As if frozen in time, no one in the room was moving or appeared to be breathing. Breathing in deeply, he exhaled and holstered his gun.

"...I...lost my son...when I was a marshal in Mar Sara...it was during a time that he was sent to that institute for his gifted psychic abilities and power...I was told by them that...he died from a shuttle transport crash...did he die in the institute?"

"..." the thing breathed before responding. "What differenccccccee would knowing...truth do now? Your offspring died in the handssss oooooffff mmmaaannn'ssss ffffooollliissshhhhnnneeesss."

"..." Jim responded with only blinking and taking a shallow breath in and out. "It would give me...closure...to be sure that what I thought versus what lie I was told was true."

"Wwwwhhhyyy," it whispered closer to his face. "Would I...do that for...you?"

"What's wrong?" Raynor asked moving his eyes right to see its hideous facial features. "I thought you wanted to experience...all the troubles I have...live through them...to find a purpose for yourself...are you lying to yourself now?"

"..." the monster countered with grinning a little.

Slowly turning toward the observation window, it did the same. The scenery glitched hard for a couple of seconds. Multiple objects were out of focus and/or twitching in place like when a computer gets frozen in the middle of processing a program. Blinking, the distortion cleared and showed a different vision. Still in the same observation room as before, there were only a couple of lab coats standing around the boy.

As if they were going to conduct another type of experiment, there were noticeable differences to the child. The vein above his left temple seemed to have permanently stayed in a surfaced form. There were dark circles around his eyes and he looked both tired and drained. Already feeling himself tensing up, Jim tried to restrain himself. Telling him repetitively in his mind that this was just a vision from someone else's memory, he felt it was not going to be pretty how it ended.

[Alright young Raynor...let us try the experiment again...focus on the inactive machine...deconstruct it seen in a blown up schematic...then reassemble it] one of the scientists spoke.

[...] John responded with a tired nod.

Complying, the small boy raised his arm toward the object on the table. Partially opening his hand toward it, the device began levitating without trembling at first. Slowly, the components of the unit began to disassemble itself. Recalling how Kerrigan did the same thing in her rehabilitation captivity in the facility that Valerian had, it seemed things were going fine. Focusing on John, his son looked like he was slowly paling.

In the middle of the device having all of its components blown out to look like a 3D blue print, the boy coughed hard. Blood came out of his mouth in which he pulled his extended hand back to cover it. All the parts floating fell to the ground like metallic rain. The sight of none of the lab coat employees rushing to the ill boy made Jim's blood boil. Instead, all three of them just brought their clipboards up and did some notetaking.

[...daddy...] the child whispered quietly after the coughing calmed down.

"..." Raynor reacted walking forward to be right in front of the observation window. Not caring if the creature stopped him or hurt him, it only followed him and hovered around him like a cloak.

[...mommy...] John called quietly again as blood started to seep out of nose.

"...no...no no no..." the Commander muttered not wanting to think of what was going to happen.

[...I'm...so...tired...] the boy spoke in the same low tone as crimson started leaking out of his eyes.

"NO!" Jim spoke loudly. Raising both hands, he hammered both fists on the glass that made a clang; however, it didn't break it. Watching one of the scientists walk closer to the child, he just kneeled down. About to put a hand the child, John closed his eyes.

[...I miss you...] he breathed in he took a sharp painful inhale.

Immediately retracting his arm from being touched at, the boy put both hands on his head and cringed loudly. As if that was a sign for something, the men in lab coats quickly moved away from the child. Seeing him thrash around a bit started pulling Jim's heart as he focused on him with fear. Not able to do anything but watch, the hairs on his arms and legs were standing on end. Hearing another sharp inhale, John started crying out loudly.

[Mommy! Daddy! It hur-] he began to shout until half of his head exploded suddenly.

"NNOOOO!" Raynor shouted with horror. "JOHN!"

"..." the monster reacted with not moving and watching the raider leader more than the vision.

The expected emotion and reaction it thought he would do had occurred. Though when it did similar things with others, the creation had no concept of what it was supposed to give him. However now having self-thought and beginning to construct an identity, the hybrid reacted with mixed feelings. On one side, it received enjoyment from seeing suffering. However from being connected with this Terran physically, it seemed to have changed to have shared the same emotions as him. The intensity of it was enough to block out the sadistic mental thoughts and sensations making the monstrosity feel neutral.

[...another deficit...] one of the lab coat men stated with no concern of what just happened. [We will have to get a cleaner in here and dispose of the body]

[What should be released to the parents of this one?] another asked.

[We will put it on a transport and have the shuttle crash...that way it will clear the evidence of what happened here] the first one answered. [All files and recordings of this incident shall be scrubbed prior to putting the corpse through transport]

"..." the raider leader reacted with distraught.

Feeling his legs grow weak, he pressed his hands on the glass for support. Sliding down till his knees contacted the ground, he looked downward. Staring at nothing, he replayed what he witnessed to the past. Certain thoughts and suspicions resurfaced which correlated to the times his son called out to him weakly through telepathy. Remembering him reasoning with himself in the past that it was just him with doubt, it now meant something.

"...I'm..." he muttered feeling guilt starting to eat at him. Knowing that he was being unreasonable for how could he have known, the aspect of the cover up and being lied to made him angry. Clenching both hands into tight fists, he slammed his right onto the metal ground.

"...sorry son..."

"..." the creature reacted with just staring. Not liking the growing feeling of the ex-marshal emotionally destructing himself, it retracted all the needle tentacles from his skin. Despite the sensations dropping, they still lingered. Seeing the human do a haymaker with his left fist to the ground, it created dull thud.

"God damn them," Jim seethed with hatred. Glaring at nothing, he felt his prejudices against psychics resurface twofold. The controlled urge of violence upon them in the past came back. It made him recall all the individuals he met after his son's death with those abilities. Some were descent people while the rest made him bare his teeth and squeeze them together harder.

"Your resssponssseee to this...window of the passssst," the shapeshifter commented then emitted white nose. "You are afffectted...uurrrrkkk...when you did not know...at the time...diifffferent from otherssss here."

"You said...two of the researchers came here," the Commander spoke in a controlled and tight voice. "Were they here when you broke out?"

"...yyyyeeessss...they were...wwwhhhyyyy?" it asked. Flinching in surprise, the Terran looked at him with vengeance on his face. Blinking and watching closely, the ex-marine stood up slowly while staring him down.

"Did you kill them?"

"...mmmmaaayyyybbbbeee..."

"Show me," Raynor ordered with an expression of constrained wrath.

"...?" the thing responded with blinking then narrowing its eyes. "You can't get...uuuurrrrkkk...revenggggee whe-"

"Listen here you bastard," Jim interrupted and walked to be in front of its face. "You showed me something...I want to see the end of it."

"Heh heh heh...WHAT WOULD SHO#$WING YOU BRING YYYOOOUUUU?" the monster threatened pushing its forehead against his. "SALVATION? PEACCCCEEEE? SSSUUUUFFFEEERRRING?"

"You don't know what it is like losing a family...do you?" he continued not backing off or being deterred from its threatening stance or voice. "In your mindless slaughtering, did you find out anything from the people? Did butchering them allow you to think for yourself?"

"Thhhheeeeyyy...were torturersssss...they were bound...to die."

"They were torturing you from the experiments. You reacted with revenge," Jim claimed sternly. Still not caring about how dangerous the thing was, he brought his hand up toward it. Pointing at the monster, he emphasized his point by taping on what looked like a morphed torso.

"You. Sought. Vengeance. Against them," he stated evenly while glaring. "You broke your programing. You broke their forced upon will on you...and sought a human emotion and desire against them."

"..." the monster responded with boring back at the man. Processing what he said, two parts of it were fighting inside its head. One was wanting to warp the logic and use it to see if the Commander would crack like previous ones did. The other felt a connection with him and was finding the reasoning behind it. Seeing movement, it blinked to see Raynor grabbed its neck and brought its face to his.

"Right now...you will show me those sons of bitches that killed my son," the raider leader demanded in a low tone. "You took my revenge...if you are a man, you will show me...you owe me that much."

"I do not owe you...anything," it stated narrowing its eyes initially. However, it formed a cruel smile after a couple of seconds.

"...but...if you are so eager...to see my work...then let's sssseeeeeee."

Back on the Leviathan, Stukov finished discussing about the terrestrial gamma ray flashes with Kerrigan.

"In theory and results from UED testing, producing TGFs with intense explosives gave a better outcome."

"By how much of a success rate did they achieve?" Sarah asked.

"It was pitiful of a percentage when I saw it...wasn't above 25% with or without high explosives," the turned Terran hybrid said with mirth and sarcasm. "Nuclear warheads though fared better...around 45%."

"Those are not promising numbers. Doing so with our formulated variant with this warhead won't guarantee us the creation of this phenomena," she countered and saw him nod his head.

"Even if it does not produce them, the attention it would bring to those in the facility would be well noted...they might possibly surrender seeing such firepower in their skies," he proposed.

"Or whoever is controlling the nanos will finally show their true fangs," the Queen of Blades mentioned.

Both heard the sound of something moving deep within the ship and was coming closer to them. Turning toward where the source was coming from, something slowly began to bulge from the ground. Hearing the sound of membranes squishing and folding over, a hole appeared a few yards away. Crawling out of it the same way he did the first time, Abathur came out. This time around, two of his hands were holding onto something.

"Abathur," Sarah called as the large blue Zerg crawled to them.

"Zerg creation completed," he stated stopping nearby. Holding out two of his arms, he presented one to Stukov and the other to her. Opening his hands, it looked to be deflated neon green organic cocoons.

"Brood cocoons modified to hold energy of Stukov and Queen of Blades. Feed energy into it. Pouches inflate till finite amount," it explained them put both pairs of hands together. Putting them in his normal position, he placed his claws to have left and right thin finger tips touching each other.

"Release store energy, specific wave frequency can be emitted. Similar to psionic emitter."

"Can they be released through telepathy or does it need to be a psionic blast?" Sarah wondered holding it and looking at it.

"Both...will release energies."

"Good."

"Putting these in the compartment space around the warhead will increase the destructive power," the former UED admiral suggested. Seeing Kerrigan nod, she turned to the large missile. Without raising her hand toward it, she began to glow an aura of violet with pearl white colors flaring. In slow motion, the payload began to dissect itself around the front area of where the main explosive was.

Completing that task and keeping the components in suspension, both Terran turned Zerg began to feed the deflated cocoons. Slowly, the sacs began to grow fuller until they became a little plumped. Stopping, both used telekinesis and placed the organic flesh bags around the warhead. Carefully and cautiously, Sarah began to reconstruct the missile. After 5 minutes of tension and metal connecting and securing into place, the explosive projectile was back in its original form.

"Destructive capabilities of Zerg modification into Terran weaponry...has higher potential explosive destruction...intriguing...though limited in evolutionary possibilities," Abathur remarked watching quietly from where he stood.

"...yes...I agree," Stukov commented. "I am more nervous now if this thing goes off."

"Well...then we should go deliver the payload down there," Sarah said. Just about to turn off her aura, a psionic wavelength rushed through the Leviathan. It only lasted for a few seconds. Though it only affected two of the three at the docks, the ex-UED admiral put a hand on his head.

"What was that?" he asked shaking his head to rid of the fast-moving images.

"...!?" Kerrigan reacted with shock and horror from the images seen. "Oh my god...Jim..."

"My Queen," Izsha called from above. Seeing the ceiling part way a little, the humanoid zerg came down near the three.

"A psionic blast occurred from the facility on the planet below. It has rattled the zerg on the Leviathan."

"Hail the Hyperion," Sarah ordered firmly. "Do it right now."

"As you wish my queen."

Watching the monster in his peripheral vision, it moved its arm to be in front of it. Showing an open palm, a dark thin cloudy mist came out of it. Spreading quickly to the environment ahead of them, the scenery began to morph. Slowly watching the room decay and change, it altered from the observation room to what appeared to be like laboratories. Seeing the fog swarm to the left, it slowly began moving to the right.

Within minutes, the nano swarm reconstructed what the room looked like when it was still operational. Looking back at the left window that showed into a lab, he saw the similar scientists doing experiments. However, it was the specimen that made Jim surprised. It looked to be a hybrid of Terran and Zerg. Somewhat similar to the features on Kerrigan. About to ask, the thing spoke to him as if a narrator guiding someone in a tour. It sounded like a loudspeaker and all next to him.

"To your left, we have the research labs. This is where the Dominion government set up laboratories to conduct experiments for the new wonders of tomorrow: new technology to reach across the galaxy, discover new forms of energy to power everything from a clock to a skyscraper, and the latest development: the creation of new soldiers."

"Spearheaded by our Dominion Emperor Arcturus Mengsk, the super soldier of tomorrow will be born and raised in this very lab! With the usage of nanotechnology, we can make the impossible possible. The ability to thread Terran DNA into any alien DNA is achievable. Just look at this fine specimen sliced open. Our scientists want to make sure that every successful creation of a hybrid meets our quality standards. And for the ones that don't pass inspections, they get placed back to be reprocessed."

"Now you might be wondering where would we get the material needed to help create these hybrids...we have the technology...we have the energy...we are missing the pivotal factor to get the new process to work...have you guessed it yet?" it asked still in a cheery tone that had mild reverb in it. Feeling a loud rumble, the emergency lights suddenly turned on. A loud window smash was heard to the right. Looking over, Raynor saw what appeared to the monster; however, it was even more deformed and mutilated as it did a spastic glitching roar.

[RUN! THE TEST SUBJECT HAS ESCAPED!] one of the scientists on the other side shouted before getting sliced in half.

"You guessed it...living subjects! Terran applications have been sent out to the public to help with the cause. But the main bread and butter of our numbers come from the brave men and women who serve in the Dominion military. Those on active duty and seeking another post get a chance to come here and experience-"

[ #$% ALLLLL $^ MMMUUUSSSSTTT #$^ DDDDIIIIEEEE!#$%#$] the hybrid in the vision screamed in a mechanical tone. Without effort, it broke through the observation glass to the left lab. Swerving through the air towards the scientists running away, it nabbed them both. Not waiting for them to plea for their lives, the tentacles turned into multiple surgical knives. Once completed, all of them were hacking away at the men.

"...what the excitement and wonders this place brings!"

[GET THE ALARM! HIT IT TO WARN-AARRRGGGGGGHHHHH!] one of the men in lab coats yelled before his tongue got sliced off.

"..." Jim responded with indifference.

Watching the men get butchered made him feel both disgusted and vindicated. Crossing his arms over his chest, he watched the entirety of the slaughter. Seeing something slowly float forward from behind, it was the current creature. Having its back turned to him, Raynor stared at it carefully. Without turning around, its figure phased out to become an amorphous being.

"I showed you...your revenge that was taken away...now I want to experience#$%#another sensation."

"..." the ex-marshal responded with putting his arms to his sides. Slowly again, the shapeshifter morphed back into focus; however, it was changing to be a human. Choosing to be a female this time, its physical features started becoming more detailed. When it stopped and slowly opened its eyes to show yellow irises, it chose the form of his former deceased wife Liddy.

"...!?" he reacted with wide eyes. Feeling a sense of wrath building inside of him, the shapeshifter grinned cruelly at him. Without thought, he quick-drew his revolver faster than normal and unloaded the entire magazine quickly. Gritting his teeth even after expending all the bullets in the cylinder magazine, the creature grinned wider than humanly possible.

"...Honey..." the thing spoke in her voice clearly.

"You son of a bitch," Jim reacted with constrained hot anger. Holstering his gun, he quickly snatched at his left outside pant leg. Grabbing the dagger and pulling it out, he gripped it with the blade facing the monstrosity. Without warning, the thing glitched hard and vibrated the environment. Blinking, it was in front of his face. The sadistic pleased expression on the creature's face made him glare at it.

"...you need to calm down..." the hybrid spoke then put a hand on Raynor's chest. "I know what I can do to calm you down...it can be a little bit of toxin...or self-control...which will you choose...darling?"

"..." the Commander reacted with tensing everything up. Beginning to shake all over with rage, he tried to reason with himself. Not able to calm himself down with keeping everything in, he turned around then threw the knife at the wall hard. Releasing a bark of anger when he launched the weapon, it only made a dull clang upon impact. Clenching his hands into murderous fists, he turned around and got back in the monster's face.

"...I..." he seethed with malice. "...am...listening..."