(A/N) What's up guys, NicKenny here, bringing your you're slightly late dose of X-Ray and Vav, although, surprisingly, neither of our dynamic duo actually feature in this chapter. However, two other highly anticipated characters do, so I think you'll enjoy this chapter. Hell, I know you will! Written by the fantastic Maple Alycia Hood, this is not just a mere chapter. This is an origins story.

Also, some big news to announce, which is that our very own Jerem6401's artwork was mentioned recently by Ray in the Let's Play GTA V Online - Part One, namely, his incredible X-Ray and Vav poster, which you can see on the X-Ray and Vav page of our wiki! For those interested in hearing the part, just go to 32:27, and feel both proud and extremely jealous!

Enjoy!

Chapter Thirteen – Transformations

Dr Michael Jones / Mogar & Ryan Haywood / Iron-Ryan

Written by Maple Alycia Hood

"We make our own monsters, then fear them for what they show us about ourselves." ― Mike Carey & Peter Gross, The Unwritten, Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity

Everything was black. He couldn't see or hear anything. Where was he? Was he dead? That would suck. He hadn't been given the chance to marry Lindsay! She'd be so upset! He couldn't do that to her! How was he supposed to go about stopping himself from going... wherever he was going, and get back to living so he could hold her in his arms again? That was all he wanted. Lindsay. He needed to wake up. He didn't want to die. There were so many things he hadn't said or done. No, he refused to die.

There were muffled noises that became clearer after a few seconds. Beeping. A rhythmic beep that he recognized all too well. A heart monitor. Was he in a hospital? Damnit, what he wouldn't give to just wake up and get the fuck out of here. What had happened, anyway? He tried to think back. There was a power cut, and some pirate guy on the TV, and then some red mist, and suddenly he was here. Where was here? Michael tried to open his eyes, and was thankful that he could at least do that now. His vision consisted of a blur right now, but it was clearing up, slowly but surely.

He was in a hospital bed. He wasn't, however, in a hospital. He was in a very dark room, but he could just make out the condition he was in. Dozens of tubes were in him, hooked up to various machines surrounding the bed. Inwardly he began to panic. What the fuck was going on? Had he been kidnapped?! No no no no... His thoughts raced with the panic, and he tried to sit up, but found that he couldn't. He was strapped to the damn thing! Furiously he pulled at the belts and chains. He would not die here! He wouldn't even stay here! He would go home, he'd find Lindsay, he'd call Gavin and ask the idiot what the fuck he was thinking leaving his shift early like that, and damnit, he'd ask Lindsay to marry him, and this would all be over.

Someone was here with him. There was a figure over by what looked like the door, though he couldn't make them out. He tried to raise his voice and ask them what was going on, what they wanted, who they were, anything, but his voice came out as a croak, so he shut his mouth again, frustrated by the whole ordeal. What was their problem with him? He'd just been sat watching TV. He hadn't done anything!

"Hello, Michael" the person murmured, moving closer, but Michael's vision was still top blurry to make him out. More questions came to him. How did they know his name? How were they so fucking calm when they'd just kidnapped him? What were they doing? "How do you feel?"

How did he feel?

How did he feel...?

Michael felt a lot of things. He felt kind of upset because he might never see Lindsay or Gavin or anyone ever again. He felt annoyed because he and his fiancée were supposed to have dinner together tonight, and they'd ruined it. He still felt kind of tired and woozy from whatever the red mist was. He was very much scared because hello, he was tied to a hospital bed and had God knew how many tubes and machines hooked up to him, what the fuck did they think? What else did he feel...

He felt... kind of angry. No, like…really angry. Really fucking angry. Where was this coming from? It felt like his entire body was on fire. This was no Rage Quit anger, this was genuine fucking rage. It was expanding inside of his head and it needed to get out. He'd tear himself from this bed, he'd wrap his hands around this person's neck, he'd snap it, he'd go kill everyone in this goddamn building. The biggest surprise was when a feral growl escaped his lips, and he wrestled with the belts and chains keeping him down, more fiercely this time. Yes, he'd get out, and this person would regret ever laying hands on him.

He'd show them.

He'd show them all.

The person seemed tense. Scared? Worried? Good. Whatever was happening to him was horrible but at the same time it felt good. If he could just let it out, tear something – or someone? – apart, then he'd be okay. He could go home and he'd be okay. That was all he wanted. Just a couple of fights... no, a lot of fights. He needed to do something, break something, and he had so much rage that he felt like he'd need to do a lot of it.

Where was the person going? They flicked a switch on one of the machines, and a soft hissing noise filled the air. There was a white liquid going through one of the tubes now. Sedative? No! There was too much to do! Michael furiously slammed against everything that tried to keep him at bay. He swore he heard something snap. He was doing it! He'd get out, tear the whole fucking building to pieces. He'd show everyone.

Fuck that. FUCK THAT. Fuck... that...

Not... again...

Lindsay...

Ryan was in a similar situation, but he wasn't aware of it like Michael was. In fact, it felt like he wasn't aware of a lot of things. He felt groggy and weak, he was struggling to remember how he had gotten where he was and he could barely see anything. Although it didn't help that the room was dark. There was a beeping noise next to him too, but it was irregular, unnatural. It was supposed to be a heart monitor, he suspected, but that didn't sound like a heartbeat at all. What exactly was it connected to?

Was he dead?

No... he could still move. Sort of. He just needed to stand up, then he'd be on his way. He needed to get back to the store, and everything would go back to normal. Wait. The store! He had worked in a store, selling video games, when…something has happened, and he…had he been injured? Was he in a hospital? He tried to be confused, but... he couldn't. He'd held every question in his mind with a sense of contempt. For the duration of his consciousness, he hadn't felt any sort of emotion. There was no fear, no anger, nothing. He was just there. He just was.

The bed he was on sank slightly, and he turned his attention to the fact that someone had just sat down on the edge. He tried to raise himself to a sitting position to get a good look at the person, but a hand came to his chest and pushed him back down again.

"Easy now, matey," the man, as Ryan found out by his voice, told him. "The store you were workin' at caught fire, and you got yerself pretty messed up. We had to... fix you, in a way, in order to save yer life. After all, we don't have much use for a dead man, do we?"

Fix him? What did that imply? Something was wrong. Ryan's gaze flickered down to the rest of his body. Had he not previously discovered that he couldn't feel emotions anymore, he would've been astounded, and probably very scared. Much of his body was now made of metal. Metal limbs with visible wires and audible hums as they worked. A large part of his torso, and some of his face, he noted after raising a hand to it, was included in this. He was barely even human anymore. That would've made him angry, but once again, no emotions came. And that would've been annoying, but...

"I should warn you, we've included a little chip in the back of yer skull, just in case you get any ideas about escapin'., or nor doin' what we yer," the man rasped, getting to his feet with his hands clasped behind his back and walking a few paces away from him. Ryan's gaze went to the man now, wanting to feel something, anything, but he only felt the emptiness that had filled him ever since he had woken, the void that resided within him. There were no emotions, so there was only one thing left that he could turn to.

A purpose.

A mission.

Something to do.

"What do you want from me?" he asked, and was shocked by how tinny and robotic his voice sounded. Not like a human's at all, but more like something out of a bad science fiction movie. Sure, some of the elements of his voice where there, but the rest was just so...artificial. The man stopped, turning his head slightly, before facing him, placing his hands on the handrails at the end of his bed, regarding him thoughtfully, before he finally spoke.

"I want you to kill X-Ray and Vav."

Ryan lent back on his back, his brain processing this information, nodding slowly to himself as various strategies and plans of attack whirred about within his brain, rapidly evaluating the pros and cons of each, discarding all of the unviable ones from his mind, and, seconds later, he looked back up to the man, his face serious, his robotic left eye blinking red.

"Consider it done."