JENOVA
Chapter 04
Several men had gathered together outside the next morning to watch the Helicopter land. The craft carefully touched down in the snow and the engine was cut- causing the propellers to gradually slow down.
Then, the door to the cockpit opened and Cid and Hozloff hopped out. They ran and pulled open the doors to the passenger chamber and climbed in.
The next thing that happened was the sight of Cid, Henson, Hozloff, and Tseng emerging from the chamber carrying a large object- six feet wide and over seven feet long- that was rapped up in a couple of blankets. The four of them began running towards the entrance with the rapped up load in their care. Mideal followed behind them, carrying two suitcases with him.
The breaths were visible on the men as they ran through the wind and tramped through the snow.
***
Wedge turned to the others. "Hey, clear out of their way, get that door open!" He shouted to them.
The men nodded and stepped back. One of them pulled open the door for the Commander and the other four to get through.
Reno looked at Wedge. "What the hell do you think they had in that thing?" He asked the man.
Wedge looked at him. "I have no idea." He replied.
***
Everyone gathered into the large briefing room, where the Commander and the others had set down their large bundle, to see what Hozloff and the others had brought back with them. The men were definitely eager to see what was underneath the heavy canvas thermal blankets.
Commander Hozloff looked about the room and counted all of the faces looking back at him in silence, he then determined that all twenty-two members of the researchers were there, including Cid and himself, and Wedge (who was standing off to the left.)
"I have called you all here- all twenty-five of you- because I believe that what we have found concerns all of you." The Station Commander began. "We found something quite extraordinary when we went to go investigate the Wutai Camp." Hozloff informed them all calmly. He then turned to Cid. "Tell them about the other station we found." Hozloff instructed the pilot.
Cid stepped forward; the pilot was tall and his blond hair was held back by a pair of flight goggles, a cigarette hung in his mouth, the tanned skin on his face was visible as he spoke. "I flew the helicopter, but when we got there, our worst fears were confirmed. All that was left was the charred remains of the station, just a burning husk." He told them.
"The station was still smoking, so it must have been destroyed recently." Hozloff added. "After Cid brought us down, we set out to investigate the station." He went on.
"What did you find?" Asked one of the men in the crowd.
Hozloff looked for the source of the voice and saw that it came from the Meteorologist, Dyne. The dark hair, broad shouldered man was sitting on a stool and looking pensive.
"I'm getting to that." Hozloff replied. "As Doctor Mideal theorized, there were no survivors. Everyone was dead. We found a few corpses. The Wutai body count now stands at least at five confirmed dead and I doubt that the state of the place that anything could still be alive." He finished.
The men became quiet. Cid and other three men offered no argument with the statement.
Mideal spoke up in a sad tone. "It's hard for me to recall the state of the camp, it was torn apart. There were holes in the walls and ceiling and icicles were hanging all over the place." He said to the crowd as he elaborated on the situation. "It was like a graveyard." He then added before he became quiet again.
By this point, Hojo had emerged from the crowd, stepping forward for a better look at what was beneath the covers. Gast quickly appeared at his side.
Hozloff then cleared his throat and waited for them to quiet down so he was sure that everyone was paying attention and went on. "And now, gentlemen, I present you with the thing that you have most likely all been waiting for." He said as he turned around to the mound of blankets. He exchanged a look with Cid, Tseng, and Henson, who stepped forward in response. The four men circled around the bundle and grabbed hold them and began pulling them back.
Everyone in the room watched as the four men took hold of the blankets and began peeling back the layers.
Everyone gasped as they finished pulling the covers back, revealing what was underneath it.
~~~
The thing under the covers was, to their astonishment, humanoid in appearance, though it was a push to make a strong reference to it as being anything too much like a person. It had orange skin that looked like sunburned flesh, but the skin was still very smooth and supple.
Its body was actually somewhat feminine looking, with a narrow waist and wide hips; it had long legs- muscular and firm like a dancer's- and its feet were ironically. physically perfect with a good arch to them. However, the feminine curves were abruptly interrupted by what appeared to be extra appendages and partial exoskeletons and even hard spikes protruding from the body.
Then there was the face- The skin covered the mouth like a thing membrane that was slightly darker to show that the covered lips were parted open. There were two large placid eyes that were a foggy blue opal color, and a third eye on the forehead that matched the two others. All eyes were slightly narrowed as if to show an expression of malice and irritation. Dark, wide stripes came down from the bottom eyelids to the fringe of the jaw and then from the top of the eye lids to just below the scalp- reminiscent of a cheetah. Small spots came up from the backs of the jaw, the outer edge of the face and up along the forehead before the hairline. In place of actual hair were large, dark green dreadlock-like tentacles that came down past its round hips. A much larger, orange tentacle hung down on either side of the neck, coming down a few inches past the collar- bone. Two horns projected from the forehead, above the third eye, and curved to stick upward at just a slight angle. And finally, it had long slender, elf-like ears.
An arm with a praying mantis claw came from the back on the left shoulder blade and stuck upward. A strange scaled appendage came from between the right shoulder and the neck. The end of it had a pronged mouth and several multi-colored insect eyes.
The left shoulder was replaced by a red blob covered by large, thick pink veins. Three insect-like legs with hooked and barbed tips stuck out of the blob. The left arm was a massive appendage of bulging brown muscle with raiser-sharp claw-shaped bones sticking out in place of fingers. Some of the veins had lassoed themselves around the right breast- which was devoid of any sign of a nipple or some sort of mammary gland.
The right arm matched the rest of the body, but the right shoulder was replaced with a hard gray exoskeleton-like shell with a large, spherical red pearl-like object. There was also a second right arm that was covered in smooth purple-gray skin and capped off at the end with long narrow fingers. Several sickly green tentacles hung out from the hard gray mass.
Yet, the final and most disturbing thing was that the left breast was replaced by a huge gaping jaw lined with cruel-looking teeth. The mouth was covered by a thick, brown leathery skin that covered the left side of the torso and down across the main body's groin- giving it some level of modesty- until it came to the right hip where it caused spikes to jut out suddenly. The strange thing was that the giant mouth seemed to almost have been trying to escape from the main body when it was frozen into its living death.
The concept of hybrid organisms was no new idea; but this. this was no hybrid, this was no even mix of different organism's DNA; this was a walking personification of chaos and disorder, it was as if the all the different appendages were forced together in some sick collage and that the orange main body had only just won the battle for dominance through what appeared to vary violent means. it was, as it seamed to the men, "Genetic Chaos"!
It could only be guessed as to how horribly gruesome and obscenely cruel the orange creature must have been to have defeated the other (much more fierce-looking) animals that were now permanently attached to it.
~~~
Everyone stood there starring at the form in front of them. Some of them had to look away. Some had to take a step back. One of the men, Kennings, looked as id he was going to vomit.
Hojo placed his hand over his mouth and said nothing as he looked at the creature. Gast looked down at it in disbelief.
Everyone had gotten the answer they were waiting for, they had seen what was under the covers, and now they weren't so sure if they had made the right decision.
Hozloff looked over at the Biologist. "Hojo, I want you to begin an autopsy as soon as this is this thing is carted into the lab." Instructed the Commander.
Hojo nodded and left the room to go think.
Biggs couldn't help but notice that the fingers on the 'normal hand' were a much lighter color and that the skin between the stripes on the face was a much lighter color as well. just like his. cat back home.
***
Hojo looked at the clean scalpel. He liked everything to be the way it should be: nice and orderly, and clean!
Hozloff, Cid, Wedge, Tseng, Dr. Mideal, and some of the other men were standing in the room with Hojo and Gast. They were watching to see what might be learned from the corpse.
"The thing is evil." Remarked Wedge. "Like something out of a nightmare." He remarked unhappily.
"Really, now, Wedge, I'm surprised in you, you're a scientist. You shouldn't be emotionally unstable." Mideal replied.
"Wedge is right, that thing is wicked, I sat next to it in the helicopter, it had a bad feeling to it." Henson added.
Tseng looked back over his shoulder, where he could see Hojo and Gast standing near it He then looked back. "Its face, its expression looked like the face of something that spent its time hurting small animals; I get that feeling that from wherever it came from, it reveled in causing pain and committing acts of torture." Tseng finished.
"The thing is horrible. I don't care what sort of things might be socially acceptable on whatever hellish little planet or dark, bleak galaxy that it came from. I look at that thing and see nothing but evil." Dyne announced grimly.
"I think that I will see that thing in my dreams now, I'm afraid that I wont ever be able to shake it from my thoughts, not for a long time." Tseng remarked.
"I don't give a damn about the humanoid face, it's the other one that bothers me, the one with no eyes and the sharp teeth, it looks like it's screaming." Quade stated to the group.
"But what was it screaming about?" Asked Dyne, quietly, with a look of uneasiness on his face.
"Don't say it." Mideal interrupted. "We've dwelled on this thing for far too long as it is. I don't want to have anyone loosing sleep over this." He added.
"Perhaps we can't judge it on the grounds of its expressions, it's from another galaxy. Who knows what expressions might mean on its planet, it might actually be happy." Replied Hozloff.
"If it was happy, then it found happiness in the deaths of the Wutai researchers." Cid added.
"So you think that the creature had something do with the accident?" Asked Henson.
"It could be possible that it had something to do with what happened to the men at the camp."
"Perhaps fighting that thing was what drove the two survivors mad." Hozloff suggested.
"It has a name."
The group turned around to see Hojo looking at them, they were rather surprised to hear him speak after remaining silent for so long. "I'm ready to begin the autopsy, and it has a name." He repeated. "I'm going to call it 'Jenova'." He added with a wicked smile.
Some of the other men smiled at the joke, and some frowned.
"I hadn't though of that." Hozloff remarked.
Hojo looked at the group. "Well, after all, she did fall from the sky." He replied. "So, I'm calling her Jenova." He added.
"Nice sense of humor, Hojo, but 'she' is no 'Fallen Angel'." Cid replied.
Hojo grinned as he pulled on a pair of rubber gloves. "That depends entirely on your definition of an Angel." He replied as he turned around to look down at his "Angel". The Biologist's statement was certainly a bit unnerving and he seldom made jokes, so it was uncertain whether he was joking or being serious.
At this point, Coats walked in. "Hey chief." He called over to Hozloff.
The white-haired Commander turned to look at the Black man with the shaved head and dark sunglasses. "Yeah, Coats?" Asked the man.
Coats cleared his throat. "Well, I've been trying to reach somebody since that damned helicopter landed here."
"What are you getting at?" Hozloff asked.
"No one will answer." He replied.
Hozloff straightened up from his position against the counter. "What do you mean, Coats, can't you get anyone?" He exclaimed.
"Nothing!" Coats replied.
"Damnit, what about Icicle Inn?" Hozloff exclaimed in frustration.. Coats rubbed his temples and took off his glasses. "Boss, I've heard nothing, I haven't heard shit from anyone. I doubt it if anyone's talked to anybody on this entire continent. And you think I can just call someone up on a whim?" He exclaimed, holding his hands out.
Hozloff sighed. "Alright, alright, just keep trying." He said as he turned back to the others.
Cid glanced down at the husky as it walked into the room and looked at them quietly. He quickly looked back up at the two biologists in the room
Hojo took up his scalpel and walked over to the side of the creature. "Turn on the recorder, Gast." He instructed his assistant.
Gast nodded and reached over and turned on the audio recorder.
Hojo began by making an incision along the left side of the stomach. The razor-sharp blade cut cleanly through the soft, orange flesh.
The group watched as he stuck his hands into the opening. Hojo actually looked somewhat surprised. "Well, what we have here, appears to be normal, a normal set of human organs; heart, kidneys, liver, stomach, intestines." He spoke as he fingered the dark, sticky organs and their protective tissue. "I'm not sure if I should dissect the other creatures right now, though I believe that it would be best to wait." He added.
He set the organs down gently into pans. Hojo turned to the group and took off his glasses. "A little bit of heaven and a little bit of hell."
***
~End of Chapter 04~
Well, I hoped that you enjoyed this chapter. Anyway, I have a few paintings of the Jenova Monster. And if you could drop me a review and let me know if you'd like to see the picture, then I can e-mail it to you. (Just be sure to send me your complete e-mail address)
-Bojack
(The Pictures are both digital photos of watercolor painting and have good resolution)
Chapter 04
Several men had gathered together outside the next morning to watch the Helicopter land. The craft carefully touched down in the snow and the engine was cut- causing the propellers to gradually slow down.
Then, the door to the cockpit opened and Cid and Hozloff hopped out. They ran and pulled open the doors to the passenger chamber and climbed in.
The next thing that happened was the sight of Cid, Henson, Hozloff, and Tseng emerging from the chamber carrying a large object- six feet wide and over seven feet long- that was rapped up in a couple of blankets. The four of them began running towards the entrance with the rapped up load in their care. Mideal followed behind them, carrying two suitcases with him.
The breaths were visible on the men as they ran through the wind and tramped through the snow.
***
Wedge turned to the others. "Hey, clear out of their way, get that door open!" He shouted to them.
The men nodded and stepped back. One of them pulled open the door for the Commander and the other four to get through.
Reno looked at Wedge. "What the hell do you think they had in that thing?" He asked the man.
Wedge looked at him. "I have no idea." He replied.
***
Everyone gathered into the large briefing room, where the Commander and the others had set down their large bundle, to see what Hozloff and the others had brought back with them. The men were definitely eager to see what was underneath the heavy canvas thermal blankets.
Commander Hozloff looked about the room and counted all of the faces looking back at him in silence, he then determined that all twenty-two members of the researchers were there, including Cid and himself, and Wedge (who was standing off to the left.)
"I have called you all here- all twenty-five of you- because I believe that what we have found concerns all of you." The Station Commander began. "We found something quite extraordinary when we went to go investigate the Wutai Camp." Hozloff informed them all calmly. He then turned to Cid. "Tell them about the other station we found." Hozloff instructed the pilot.
Cid stepped forward; the pilot was tall and his blond hair was held back by a pair of flight goggles, a cigarette hung in his mouth, the tanned skin on his face was visible as he spoke. "I flew the helicopter, but when we got there, our worst fears were confirmed. All that was left was the charred remains of the station, just a burning husk." He told them.
"The station was still smoking, so it must have been destroyed recently." Hozloff added. "After Cid brought us down, we set out to investigate the station." He went on.
"What did you find?" Asked one of the men in the crowd.
Hozloff looked for the source of the voice and saw that it came from the Meteorologist, Dyne. The dark hair, broad shouldered man was sitting on a stool and looking pensive.
"I'm getting to that." Hozloff replied. "As Doctor Mideal theorized, there were no survivors. Everyone was dead. We found a few corpses. The Wutai body count now stands at least at five confirmed dead and I doubt that the state of the place that anything could still be alive." He finished.
The men became quiet. Cid and other three men offered no argument with the statement.
Mideal spoke up in a sad tone. "It's hard for me to recall the state of the camp, it was torn apart. There were holes in the walls and ceiling and icicles were hanging all over the place." He said to the crowd as he elaborated on the situation. "It was like a graveyard." He then added before he became quiet again.
By this point, Hojo had emerged from the crowd, stepping forward for a better look at what was beneath the covers. Gast quickly appeared at his side.
Hozloff then cleared his throat and waited for them to quiet down so he was sure that everyone was paying attention and went on. "And now, gentlemen, I present you with the thing that you have most likely all been waiting for." He said as he turned around to the mound of blankets. He exchanged a look with Cid, Tseng, and Henson, who stepped forward in response. The four men circled around the bundle and grabbed hold them and began pulling them back.
Everyone in the room watched as the four men took hold of the blankets and began peeling back the layers.
Everyone gasped as they finished pulling the covers back, revealing what was underneath it.
~~~
The thing under the covers was, to their astonishment, humanoid in appearance, though it was a push to make a strong reference to it as being anything too much like a person. It had orange skin that looked like sunburned flesh, but the skin was still very smooth and supple.
Its body was actually somewhat feminine looking, with a narrow waist and wide hips; it had long legs- muscular and firm like a dancer's- and its feet were ironically. physically perfect with a good arch to them. However, the feminine curves were abruptly interrupted by what appeared to be extra appendages and partial exoskeletons and even hard spikes protruding from the body.
Then there was the face- The skin covered the mouth like a thing membrane that was slightly darker to show that the covered lips were parted open. There were two large placid eyes that were a foggy blue opal color, and a third eye on the forehead that matched the two others. All eyes were slightly narrowed as if to show an expression of malice and irritation. Dark, wide stripes came down from the bottom eyelids to the fringe of the jaw and then from the top of the eye lids to just below the scalp- reminiscent of a cheetah. Small spots came up from the backs of the jaw, the outer edge of the face and up along the forehead before the hairline. In place of actual hair were large, dark green dreadlock-like tentacles that came down past its round hips. A much larger, orange tentacle hung down on either side of the neck, coming down a few inches past the collar- bone. Two horns projected from the forehead, above the third eye, and curved to stick upward at just a slight angle. And finally, it had long slender, elf-like ears.
An arm with a praying mantis claw came from the back on the left shoulder blade and stuck upward. A strange scaled appendage came from between the right shoulder and the neck. The end of it had a pronged mouth and several multi-colored insect eyes.
The left shoulder was replaced by a red blob covered by large, thick pink veins. Three insect-like legs with hooked and barbed tips stuck out of the blob. The left arm was a massive appendage of bulging brown muscle with raiser-sharp claw-shaped bones sticking out in place of fingers. Some of the veins had lassoed themselves around the right breast- which was devoid of any sign of a nipple or some sort of mammary gland.
The right arm matched the rest of the body, but the right shoulder was replaced with a hard gray exoskeleton-like shell with a large, spherical red pearl-like object. There was also a second right arm that was covered in smooth purple-gray skin and capped off at the end with long narrow fingers. Several sickly green tentacles hung out from the hard gray mass.
Yet, the final and most disturbing thing was that the left breast was replaced by a huge gaping jaw lined with cruel-looking teeth. The mouth was covered by a thick, brown leathery skin that covered the left side of the torso and down across the main body's groin- giving it some level of modesty- until it came to the right hip where it caused spikes to jut out suddenly. The strange thing was that the giant mouth seemed to almost have been trying to escape from the main body when it was frozen into its living death.
The concept of hybrid organisms was no new idea; but this. this was no hybrid, this was no even mix of different organism's DNA; this was a walking personification of chaos and disorder, it was as if the all the different appendages were forced together in some sick collage and that the orange main body had only just won the battle for dominance through what appeared to vary violent means. it was, as it seamed to the men, "Genetic Chaos"!
It could only be guessed as to how horribly gruesome and obscenely cruel the orange creature must have been to have defeated the other (much more fierce-looking) animals that were now permanently attached to it.
~~~
Everyone stood there starring at the form in front of them. Some of them had to look away. Some had to take a step back. One of the men, Kennings, looked as id he was going to vomit.
Hojo placed his hand over his mouth and said nothing as he looked at the creature. Gast looked down at it in disbelief.
Everyone had gotten the answer they were waiting for, they had seen what was under the covers, and now they weren't so sure if they had made the right decision.
Hozloff looked over at the Biologist. "Hojo, I want you to begin an autopsy as soon as this is this thing is carted into the lab." Instructed the Commander.
Hojo nodded and left the room to go think.
Biggs couldn't help but notice that the fingers on the 'normal hand' were a much lighter color and that the skin between the stripes on the face was a much lighter color as well. just like his. cat back home.
***
Hojo looked at the clean scalpel. He liked everything to be the way it should be: nice and orderly, and clean!
Hozloff, Cid, Wedge, Tseng, Dr. Mideal, and some of the other men were standing in the room with Hojo and Gast. They were watching to see what might be learned from the corpse.
"The thing is evil." Remarked Wedge. "Like something out of a nightmare." He remarked unhappily.
"Really, now, Wedge, I'm surprised in you, you're a scientist. You shouldn't be emotionally unstable." Mideal replied.
"Wedge is right, that thing is wicked, I sat next to it in the helicopter, it had a bad feeling to it." Henson added.
Tseng looked back over his shoulder, where he could see Hojo and Gast standing near it He then looked back. "Its face, its expression looked like the face of something that spent its time hurting small animals; I get that feeling that from wherever it came from, it reveled in causing pain and committing acts of torture." Tseng finished.
"The thing is horrible. I don't care what sort of things might be socially acceptable on whatever hellish little planet or dark, bleak galaxy that it came from. I look at that thing and see nothing but evil." Dyne announced grimly.
"I think that I will see that thing in my dreams now, I'm afraid that I wont ever be able to shake it from my thoughts, not for a long time." Tseng remarked.
"I don't give a damn about the humanoid face, it's the other one that bothers me, the one with no eyes and the sharp teeth, it looks like it's screaming." Quade stated to the group.
"But what was it screaming about?" Asked Dyne, quietly, with a look of uneasiness on his face.
"Don't say it." Mideal interrupted. "We've dwelled on this thing for far too long as it is. I don't want to have anyone loosing sleep over this." He added.
"Perhaps we can't judge it on the grounds of its expressions, it's from another galaxy. Who knows what expressions might mean on its planet, it might actually be happy." Replied Hozloff.
"If it was happy, then it found happiness in the deaths of the Wutai researchers." Cid added.
"So you think that the creature had something do with the accident?" Asked Henson.
"It could be possible that it had something to do with what happened to the men at the camp."
"Perhaps fighting that thing was what drove the two survivors mad." Hozloff suggested.
"It has a name."
The group turned around to see Hojo looking at them, they were rather surprised to hear him speak after remaining silent for so long. "I'm ready to begin the autopsy, and it has a name." He repeated. "I'm going to call it 'Jenova'." He added with a wicked smile.
Some of the other men smiled at the joke, and some frowned.
"I hadn't though of that." Hozloff remarked.
Hojo looked at the group. "Well, after all, she did fall from the sky." He replied. "So, I'm calling her Jenova." He added.
"Nice sense of humor, Hojo, but 'she' is no 'Fallen Angel'." Cid replied.
Hojo grinned as he pulled on a pair of rubber gloves. "That depends entirely on your definition of an Angel." He replied as he turned around to look down at his "Angel". The Biologist's statement was certainly a bit unnerving and he seldom made jokes, so it was uncertain whether he was joking or being serious.
At this point, Coats walked in. "Hey chief." He called over to Hozloff.
The white-haired Commander turned to look at the Black man with the shaved head and dark sunglasses. "Yeah, Coats?" Asked the man.
Coats cleared his throat. "Well, I've been trying to reach somebody since that damned helicopter landed here."
"What are you getting at?" Hozloff asked.
"No one will answer." He replied.
Hozloff straightened up from his position against the counter. "What do you mean, Coats, can't you get anyone?" He exclaimed.
"Nothing!" Coats replied.
"Damnit, what about Icicle Inn?" Hozloff exclaimed in frustration.. Coats rubbed his temples and took off his glasses. "Boss, I've heard nothing, I haven't heard shit from anyone. I doubt it if anyone's talked to anybody on this entire continent. And you think I can just call someone up on a whim?" He exclaimed, holding his hands out.
Hozloff sighed. "Alright, alright, just keep trying." He said as he turned back to the others.
Cid glanced down at the husky as it walked into the room and looked at them quietly. He quickly looked back up at the two biologists in the room
Hojo took up his scalpel and walked over to the side of the creature. "Turn on the recorder, Gast." He instructed his assistant.
Gast nodded and reached over and turned on the audio recorder.
Hojo began by making an incision along the left side of the stomach. The razor-sharp blade cut cleanly through the soft, orange flesh.
The group watched as he stuck his hands into the opening. Hojo actually looked somewhat surprised. "Well, what we have here, appears to be normal, a normal set of human organs; heart, kidneys, liver, stomach, intestines." He spoke as he fingered the dark, sticky organs and their protective tissue. "I'm not sure if I should dissect the other creatures right now, though I believe that it would be best to wait." He added.
He set the organs down gently into pans. Hojo turned to the group and took off his glasses. "A little bit of heaven and a little bit of hell."
***
~End of Chapter 04~
Well, I hoped that you enjoyed this chapter. Anyway, I have a few paintings of the Jenova Monster. And if you could drop me a review and let me know if you'd like to see the picture, then I can e-mail it to you. (Just be sure to send me your complete e-mail address)
-Bojack
(The Pictures are both digital photos of watercolor painting and have good resolution)