The Little Girl and the Ottomans

Chapter 16.5

Play: Lightless Dawn from Kevin MacLeod

An undisclosed prison in an undisclosed city in The USSO:

Shin could not move. His body was electrically bonded with the metal prison wall. No matter how much he struggled, nothing happened. It annoyed him greatly. He waited for the Syndicate to come and break him out. He waited...and waited...and waited some more. Yet nothing came. He doesn't even remember how long he'd been in there.

"A brilliant warlord such as yourself doesn't belong in this cage. Rise like the phoenix you are!"

"W-Wha!? Who said that!?" he muttered. What made that noise? He looked around the cage to find nobody there. The hallways were also empty, for it was night and the other inmates were in bed. Well, it should be empty...what were those flashing eyes?

Before long, the screams of his fellow inmates filled his hearing sensors. These screams slowly went silent as the sound of breaking bones replaced them. The bellowing and growling of unknown creatures put him on edge. Guards soon came to check in on the noise through a door they could see through. However, these guards were of no use, for a mass of tentacles clambers up towards them, dragging them down into the darkness. Their lights landed on the floor, showing that it is covered in blood and strange tendrils that crawled around the gates.

The alarm was going off as gunfire, followed by the roars of those creatures and the screams of guards that sounded like they were ripped limb-from-limb. That alarm soon faded away as the electricity to the whole prison shut off. The gates to his cell rose and his electric restraints ceased functioning. He fell to the floor, his eyes glaring into the dark.

He activated his night vision, only to be disgusted by what he saw. These things were monsters, yes. Some were large balls of tendrils while others looked remarkably human. All of them were soaked in blood, consuming the flesh and bones of the prisoners. They gave no notice to him as he stepped out of his cell.

"Who knew creatures of flesh could be this terrifying?" he said to himself, walking up the flight of stairs. When he got up the stairs, he was met with a scary sight.

It was of a figure, draped in an old and tattered cloak. A mask resembling those of a plague doctor poked through the cloak. Through the cloak is a mass of darkness, with only two yellow lights for eyes. The figure's arms and legs were rotten, with bone being visible, and bright yellow tentacles are attached to its back.

The two stood in silence, not daring to move an inch. It was Shin that broke the silence first.

"Who are you?"

"Your saving grace," the figure says in the familiar deep and demonic voice.

"That isn't exactly a name," he says.

"My name does not matter, for it's the actions that I take that show who I am."

"Okay...whatever. You mind telling me what's going on!?" Shin demanded an answer. The figure appeared only a few inches away from him at a speed that even Shin's most advanced sensory detectors could not see. This...thing is not like those monsters. It's something much more terrifying.

"I broke you out of that barren cage, for I have a task for you," the figure told him.

"And that being?" Shin asked. The figure opened his gloved palm, showing a strange glowing orb.

"That "Syndicate" of yours is nothing but a tool in our plans. This is a virus, not unlike the ∑ that plunged the world into a war that lasted over 250 years. Take this virus, fuse with it, and start a revolution," the figure ordered.

"Why should I work for you!?" Shin questioned.

"You will need to create as much chaos as possible to distract those heroes as we set our plans into motion. To bring the progress life was destined to go through, you must do this."

"I don't know what you're talking about! Now, if you will ex-"

The figure grabbed his neck, and his entire world went black.

He awoke a few hours later, outside the prison. He felt like he was sick. Wait, sick? He was a robot! Robots can't get sick...or can they? He lowered his gaze to his wing to find white vein-like lights.

"Those weren't there before," he says to himself. He was shocked at what his voice became. It was a bit distorted, mixed in with a voice that sounded familiar to him. "What the hell happened to me!?"

As he stood, he realized those white veins are all over his body. As they pulsed with light, he began to feel good. He felt stronger, faster, and much more durable. Despite this, it gave him a feeling...a feeling of obsoletion. This robotic body wouldn't cut it for him anymore. He needed a new one. For that, he turns towards the city. His optics narrowed at it. A filthy city full of disgusting flesh and corruptable metal. That, no, all of this will be his.

"Maybe that freaky guy was right after all," Shin said to himself. His war will soon take on a new look that he knows will cause a global scare...just what he needs.

"I am no longer the Shin you remember, Ottomans. Your people will crumble under me, the Destroyer of Cities, Bringer of War...Emperor Shin!"