June 4th, 2030
It took awhile, but the puppet Lisa had wrapped around her finger had finally come to the Black Network, carefully moving through creaks and crevices while careful not to step on any eggshells planted by all authorities out on their wild goose chases. Feds, Homeland, CIA, and every police precinct had APBs circling around for the same figure they knew as the man behind Vial Corporation, the science firm that had been exposed just days ago for kidnapping various people to further their scientific advancement.
James Shepherd had been handling everything from the chair Lisa supplied him, usually being told on the hows and wheres, but he got a hang of being the so-called CEO of Vial Corp, and it was fun for those few years, feelling gradually important. The only reason he had such power was because he brought to light a dream Lisa herself could have never accomplished to begin with, and seeing as how she came to him, a scientist working in the tech department for Kapacity Korp, and pitched all she had created with the proper funding being the key that was missing. That funding he could be able to acquire from scratch.
Vial Corporation, the dream of a simple child with a really high IQ, maybe one of the top ten highest ones in existence. It was all too surreal for him, even after how far they'd come. First it was just one facility, then Lisa proposed the nationwide expansion. That alone sent millions down the drain, but the money was worth it, every penny dropped to establish a corporate super power paid off slowly. Vial, started from the bottom while Kapacity Korp and Mandel Industries, two rival firms mainly centered on technological advancements, had been surpassed by the new kid on the block.
Vial was a triple-threat if one such person were to give you a complete rundown. And no better person than the one who created this fictional science firm, right? The three fields for them were of the technological, alluding to the expensive but amazing goods like virtual reality simulators where one can move freely while being in a virtual world- without actually moving about in an unnecessary pattern. That was the flaw the original goggle brands presented, unlocked at its highest potential by them. They also manufactured vehicle alarm modules that responded to the voice of the owner to lock and unlock vehicles on command. These modules were only compatible with the newer brands of vehicles only. And it worked wonders for people who rushed it and forgot their keys in the car. The way it was explained of how these modules worked, the devices, black cylinders, shape akin to a cup, detected not only one of the four voices that it granted access for, but the sound waves that struck against the glass, which would muffle the voice by a fraction.
The medicinal field, where cures for diseases were being created and tested around the clock. This was dangerous on itself considering what the risks were for discovering an antidote to some powerful diseases. All her findings, never to be disclosed to the public eye. However, there had been some very wealthy folk who'd pay top dollar for anything they'd have caught. She made a buck or two this way, and the money would add to the renovations, resources, and anything else Lisa saw fit to add. Thirteen diseases with a cure and counting.
And then Lisa had a thought; if she could play it dirty, then maybe she could think outside the box. And that's where the third field came in; biology. Biology, which started with animals. The goal here had been the same for generations; to adapt the human body system on superior levels. She agreed that time was too valuable but a shortage of it had always been known to her. Weak bodies susceptible to the lesser of physical problems, so much that enhancements were needed. That's how the hybrid tests had come to be.
In other words, Lisa extracted blood and DNA essence off of many animals, and when she had to acquire the far away ones, she had quite the talk with poachers who had nabbed those on her wishlist. African animals, rare exotic birds found in Brazil, up to specimen underneath the deep blue. So many unexplored fish and sea creatures that Lisa would have loved to explore, but this, her gigantic brainchild, was the dear thing she put ahead of everything else.
And everyone else...
Meanwhile, she brought original formulas to the table, original in the sense she played with chemicals of all sorts.
Only, she knew she could not always be using guinea pigs and test rats for all those trials she planned out. Humans. She needed to see for herself how humans would fare when being fused with the better properties of the animal collective. And that was the first real crime underneath her secret rule. Taking the fine people away for science, so that mankind could adapt, overcome their inferior traits. Obesity, diabetes, physical deformities, stunted growth, and if she could even reach insane levels, she could gather an incest couple pregnant with a child of sin to which she can help and snag away the flaws. Well, that was just an idea she got, sitting on her high horse.
Lisa herself had been in am aggravated mood since the damned Patriot Division had made its move, and actually used her siblings to do its bidding. Six of them, at the hands of those who caught wind of her wrongdoings she felt she could justify it for all of mankind. Barbarians who didn't understand, who were only playing good guy, bad guy. Blasphemous! What right do they have to attack my research like this?! Can they not see I am trying to create the formula for a superior generation for mankind?!
The goal was to find which serum was the best one applied into the human body. Of all the persons ever tested for multiple concoctions of all sorts, only a fraction of those passed expectation and were recreated and inserted into other poor souls. From the top of her head, these were; AZ-132, the "superhuman" one which came with properties of not one, not two, but three different animals, these ones being of a rhino, a newly-discovered snake, and a wolf. However, it seemed that the chances of physical attributes were unlikely, as portions of the three rivaling properties crashed in and cancelled each other out. This was the one Lincoln had; tough as a rhino, fast like a wolf, and regenerative just like the snake. For all Lisa knew, Lincoln and the second person to take that paticular formula had venom in their blood. If only she could catch them and see why they turned out to be compatible. Lincoln and the second person, chosen over all the others Lisa put that formula in. Bad enough those properties fell on two Freights, but it became even worse when one was dead, and the other one...
AZ-165 was the one Lynn, the twins, and... If Lisa remembered correctly, a random girl, the fourth zoomer alive, who survived the initial insertion trials. Of course, her memory could not be trusted as much anymore. Keeping up with all of this, the projects, the series, the assets, and those who weren't killed by the foreign reruns- it had been too much for even her by then, so thank God James Shepherd went about it like a pro and backed up all their data.
149 belonged in that group. This one was the carnivorous one that could turn a regular person into a humanoid lizard. Four people died for it before the fifth one, Luna Loud, had broken the streak and successfully became the first super beast of all the world. A great accomplishment, and Lisa barely had enough to compare the results with the other. Funny... Why did it seem her family members were more compatible and immune to the dangers the concoctions presented? Logically and on the probability chance, at least two of them should have died.
Then, there was that inexplicable thing that Lisa had caught; Lynn was not a Loud sibling Lisa brought into her world...
Then how did she get her hands on the 165? Lynn had never stepped foot on any Vial Corporation prior to the funded Division stunt they pulled. And no leaks had compromised the safety of the formulas' equations. Then... Something else had happened, not to her knowledge, that guaranteed Lynn that zoomer power. If this was somehow possible, then was it likely outsiders were entering the battlefield? Or did they have their own planss they planned to execute using Lisa's science?
BLASPHEMOUS, BLASPHEMOUS, AND INFINITELY BLASPHEMOUS! She couldn't say she was surprised when it went down, even after the word of the accursed Patriot Division, a bunch of spineless devils in her eyes, had gathered six of her older siblings and pit them against her, and the future of Vial came falling down with just one raiding of a facility. She allowed them to take it... Take it just so they could be deceived to think they took all she had.
In this war, deception was key just like any other strategy. Vial Corporation had been reduced from a dependable company with many achievements and creations under its belt to nothing more than bait left for the ravagers, giving them the evidence that revealed all of her deeds and the phenos still held captive.
But the upside of having a friend high up in political power proved to be of great help. Without that bushy mustached senator not dropping those warnings, Lisa would have been defeated, dragged into the ocean with the boulder tied to her legs keeping her from swimming to safety. The boulder of her lifelong work. Lifelong... And she wasn't even middle-aged yet. Funny how that worked for her.
Except she had been too frantic about it that she overlooked some things when retreating to this Black Network base, the undegroud where she moved much of Vial's workers, equipment, the complete data, and the five dangerous toys still in the making .
"Lisa, I realize how much you've lost," the middle-aged puppet spoke, standing at the other side of her desk. James Shepherd of age thirty-five, was clearly getting older. The pot belly on him didn't help either, but the brown-haired man in his nice business suit was still able to man the front lines, despite him being wanted by the whole world. He knew what he was getting himself into the moment people were being pulled off the streets for the cause, but Lisa, despite being a young kid compared to him, had no real reason to fall in the shithole, not with her whole life ahead of her. "But is there really a reason to stay in?"
Lisa had the assumption that he was telling her to scram so that he may take over what she started. Couldn't blame her, she had no relation to him apart from their professional one. Nothing involving feels, and that was always the norm with Lisa, a female brainiac lacking in emotion on the outside. Whatever rattled inside, it had to be something more, and deeper stuff he couldn't tell just by constantly staring at her. Even when he had looked into it and had made the connections between her and the Louds, plenty was missing.
The story was that she ran away from them after a tragedy had happened to them. He didn't need to know what it was, so she never gave the details. Multiple sisters and a single brother, from what she told him. Whatever made her abandon whatever left there was had him thinking, wondering why Lisa later decided to pull three of those sisters as Vial test subjects. Did she have a grudge against those three? Did she have some locked-up feelings that drove her to do this?
Or was there another reason he didn't see?
Lisa exhaled though her nose, calming herself to decrease her elevated heart rate. "I have to be here for this," Lisa scorned. "Negatory on abandoning the Network, Shepherd. It's all or nothing, and I'll fight for this until the end! I won't cease and desist until I've assembled all the right ingredients for the formula that will forever change the average homosapien's very way of life!"
...Why can't you just obsess over boy bands like the regular girls?! Lisa had never failed to put the fear of God into him. No way he could ever subject his siblings, if he had any, to the horrors the Louds known as Luna... Lyla... And Lizy? Too many kids with four letter names, all starting with the same damn letter. Lorn this, Leah that. What next?
"I understand that, and I applaud your strong persistence, but I have a gut feeling it's not going to be too long until they find us." Shepherd placed a hand to his chest, speaking out of the goodness of his heart. "Nobody knows it is you behind this, right? Maybe the guys who made their move do, but the whole world- this Patriot Division wouldn't let it get out of hands. The way I see it, there would be many people who would want to get their hands on that brain on yours, and all that noise would be bad, right? You'd never be safe again."
Lisa took this to account, then laughed. "Ha! Safety! You amuse me with that preposterous outlook on it!"
"What do you mean?" Shepherd shook his head, lost and baffled in fully. "What's preposterous about it?"
"When you stop feeling safe long enough to make you fidget out of character, you realize that safety in general is just a mask for the constant danger all around us, hidden in plain sight," Lisa shared with a breeze of coldness. "A simple illusion, when compromised, you'll never have the luxury of feeling ever again. You'll never be the same safe you that was before, replaced forever with the one that is paranoid, twitchy and...-" Lisa stopped, exhaling through her nose.
"Oh..." And now it made sense to him. "I see... So you're saying-"
"I was never safe to begin with, Shepherd," she explained to him. "There are portions of mankind who grow up thinking they are safe, only because they've never had encounters with danger beyond sports-related injuries or concussions, maybe even a crash crash or two. Go, go to a hospital, any hospital. Patients with terminal illnesses, namely young folk, will be crying, panicking inside, thinking- Thinking they're not gonna live, how they're going to die, and how its all unfair, right? They're only young, so why should they get to die so early? Why, when they have a whole life ahead of them?"
"I don't...?" Shepherd propped his shoulders up, unsure where Lisa was going with this.
She raised her left hand's index finger diagonally at him. "No one is bothering to strip them away from that illusion. They're fed... They're fed and they wind up disappointed when they do the dying, and not just them. It's like... It's like the norm is to not know death is a thing. They choose to ignore it-"
"Well... I figured knowing about that was scary," Shepherd opened up. "I didn't ignore death or anything, Lisa, I just lived. I lived doing what I wanted, and I did for the most part. Now here I am feeling old, and I agree that we, the human race, do turn a blind eye, because... Well, I think it has to be that we're all scared of dying."
"But... It should be known that is it the natural order of things!" Lisa reasoned. "People live, people die!"
"And people also feel..." Shepherd added. "I know I'm going to die, I'm not immortal, so I live. I live the best I can... That's how it's been for me, and you know what? I've been the most happy being part of the world of science. Kapacity Korp was my heaven, you know? And I've done it, even when I had my bad days and moments... I've picked myself up and continued on. And if I do that..."
Lisa flinched. "Its..."
"Not an illusion. It is a choice to let yourself be sulky and live in fear and paranoid that today would be your last, or live right, surrounded by-" He stopped himself before the verbal mistake. "Well, with good people who support and validate you. But you're only young, and I would generally like it if you had a change of heart. I mean..." He laughed. "We're well beyond the point of undoing this, but you can still have a life. You can take a copy of the research and I'll destroy everything-"
"No!" Lisa had made up her mind by then. "And I don't need people to validate me! Everyone in existence has proven to make the simplest of irrelevant acts they deem relevant, always eager to hang one another for fuckery that can be resolved with words. If you had to ask me, you can't walk through a city without seeing some kind of dispute."
"Hmmm." Shepherd only gathered more of a cynical view inside her head. "You seem to be giving mankind too little credit, thinking everyone is inferior and incapable of being civilized beings. Is that right?"
"Yes, it is!" Lisa yelled with pleasure. "I knew it! I knew I was right to select you as my spokesperson! My perfect puppet-"
"What I understand is that you are being a little too hypocritical if I'm to be honest. By your standards, we're bad because of the feelings we're born with. You mean to tell me you've never once had a moment where you've been happy, or sad, or even angry?"
She didn't answer.
"So you're not mad Vial fell? I would be, oh Lord, I know I would be." Then he laughed. "i must be too attached to my work that I neglected to keep proper order for it to remain hidden. Ah, Momentum and Velocity were just two great fuck-ups, and I know how torn up you felt- If those were even feel sentiments- Oh, how it managed to angrily bother you, and what was worse..."
"Dare instigate...-"
"Your sister you've given that lizard formula to escaped and showed the world a first-look into your schemes!"
"BE FUCKING QUIET, WHY DON'T YOU?!" Lisa slammed her hands red when hitting upon the desk, causing the hard items on it to clank out of place all at once. A cup of pencils fell over, some paper clips bounced about, and the walkie-talkie jerked a bit, but the keyboard and mouse that rattled were perfectly fine. "Dang it."
"And there you have it," Shepherd triumphed. "All people in existence may have different interests, likes, hobbies, but when you break it down and simplify it enough, we all have the same emotional responses just like any other. We start out that way, and nothing will ever change that. That's what I believe, and even you, who claims to be beyond us, expresses it."
"N-no, wait-"
"And now that I think about it, your whole goal here, the one you want to see through to the end, it's pointless."
"Wh-why is that?" Lisa boomed. "Tell me why you think that is."
"Because..." And he grinned widely. "Wait, let me put it like this. You consider us bound by basic human traits, and for that we're the lesser beneath you, but you want to help us get better? Do you realize how that sounds?"
"Nghhhh..." Lisa leaned back. "Well-"
"And what I can really tell is that you don't care for us all unless we're just as good as you... In other words-" Shepherd might as well have signed his death warrant when dropping the truth onto her. "You are being really selfish to mold us into the perfect human. You only... Care about... Yourself enough to accommodate yourself."
"EVACUATE THE FUCKING PREMISES, WHY DON'T YOU?!" Lisa bellowed, thrashing her computer monitor with both arms, throwing it off the desk. "OUT! OUT WITH YOU!"
Shepherd had every right and reason to fear the intellectual but flawed Lisa Marie Loud, but he knew he wasn't wrong, hitting the nail on the head with perfect precision. He got her, putting her down to their level just as she had been.
Lisa, born as a human, living as a human. Her super intelligence did not, nor did it ever, grant her a pass to place her as a person far superior than the others, but it got into her head like it was a great one-hit wonder written by a nobody. And yet she considered herself a figure full of self-importance, cutting away at any social interaction and all things associated with establishing connections with others. Professional lifestyle, married to her work, and trying to guarantee the survival of humankind. Humankind that was driving itself right to the ground, a theory proven right when she did the math, performed some test runs and finalized that before the next two centuries, humanity would be extinct, losing their physicality to bear children when they'd lose their ability to grow up to their fullest extent.
If only... If only they knew... Why didn't they understand it? Why didn't they have the stomach to let Lisa have live specimen to find the perfect human? Damn them, and even some of the Loud siblings who proved to do the unspeakable horror while she collected data and stored an assorted rainbow of liquids in vials in their freezers.
Humans, an unpredictable race of mindless, inferior beasts acting on their uncontrollable impulses. Of course she believed she needed change... Could she actually achieve something as big as it was? Did she hope too high, winding up for failure in the future? Or... Did-
She gasped. Is it possible to keep going? I... Do not wish to stop. Maybe... Maybe if I can- No, no I can't pass off all my research. It has to be me... It has to be me!
"Well, I'll go check on-"
"Halt!" Lisa circled around the desk, leaving her little area. "You may have infuriated me, but there is..." She hated to admit it but she did so anyway. "S-some truth to that."
"Of course- Wait, where are you going?" Lisa led the questioning Shepherd, guiding him down their cold, echoing maze of corridors and rooms all over the Network. She hadn't calmed, but her anger was subsiding only a little.
"Lisaaaaaaaa..." There was that voice again. The voice of some unknown source, maybe the result of her mind having snapped in two somewhere along the way. A true mad genius. "I sense iiiiiit... I sense your raaaaaaage..."
None of them had noticed the shadow behind them stretch out, almost like an eerie presence at work. And it was for sure an eerie presence at work. A supernatural force unable to be explained by science and logic, the force which pulled its strings around Lisa's nature, spiking up her inner rage. And it fed off of her, continuing to raise it high at the time of its need. Anger, what Lisa Loud felt after the huge roadblock threw everything off course. Rage. Hatred. Ravenous bloodlust upon the Louds backed by the Patriot Division. Rage only just tampered with the plaguing demonic presence she labeled her fractured mental state.
"He doesn't seeeeee what you seeeee... Give him-"
Lisa had then decided what she would do from here on out. "I have to relocate from this base," she informed her right-hand puppet. "If you could kindly copy all research of Project Superior into a drive and meet me at the lab, I'd appreciate it. I've got something to attend to."
"Very well! I'm glad to see you are being reasonable about this."
Lisa went away, taking to the large room that held her new special project, named Project Link, which consisted of five grand human weapons, hidden from the world as of yet, placed in suspension. Going clockwise, it was Chamber A, B, C, and D, and the fifth one, placed in the middle of the room, was labeled Chamber N. This one was different than the other four, the last resort Lisa wanted to release, but N had another purpose; it served to be an infiltration model.
Today, Lisa sought out to release A from its confinement. Reaching the keypad set on the left side of the chamber, she punched in the release code- the day and year she was born- unveiling the clone. From there, the wires and hooks on A had pulled off of it automatically. In mere seconds, the clone, Link-A, opened her eyes and stumbled forward, still needing to adapt physically.
"Ow, my legs!" Link-A appeared to be a young girl, basically a female version of Lincoln Loud when he was young. Her hair had reached down to her shoulders, and her skin was quite paler than Lincoln's. Pressing a hand to her head, Link-A groaned out. "Hey, c-can you hear this ringing in your head? Cause..."
The clone looked around, confused and befuddled. This was nothing like she's ever seen before, but Lisa was not here to catch her up to current events. "Let's go!"
"Go?! Go where?" The girl demanded. "Wait, why does my voice sound different?!" She looked down and saw herself in a tight black jumpsuit of some sort, with the letter A in white, centered on the chest. "What the hell am I wearing?!"
"I need you to follow my orders!" Lisa barked. "Can you do that?"
Link-A shook her head but agreed to it. "As long as I get chicken wings for breakfast."
"Good," Lisa sighed, taking the clone into her lab. Lisa scanned open the freezer of the lab, fetching one of the lizard formulas, giving it to Link-A. "You hold this!"
Link-A held the vial while Lisa looked around for a syringe, which she didn't find. "What is it we're-?" She noticed a closer look at Lisa, figuring out who she was. "LISA?!"
Right, Lisa had not erased the memories of any of the five. Link-A would have Lincoln's memories and traits. All of those skills could be put to good use, for the most part. "Hand it here!" Lisa turned on a device that heated out the frozen liquids in vials. It was like a toaster, but smaller and only had eight entry holes on the top. She had Link-A give her the serum and place it right on the machine, keeping it there for ten seconds.
"Ugh... Where-?" Link-A clenched her face, growling with anger. "Where the fuck are they?"
"Hmm?" Lisa took out the tube, hiding it in her coat just as Shepherd had entered the lab. "Did you fetch what I've asked?"
"I left it at your desk in the office if that's fine with you," Shepherd answered. "Anything else I can do to secure your-?"
Lisa pointed Shepherd, giving Link-A an instruction. "Lincoln, bring him to me."
"What have you done to me?" Link-A tugged her hair, clearly confused and shook. "Lisa..."
"Help me and I will fix you," Lisa falsely promised. "Go, Lincoln."
"Lincoln?" Shepherd was putting two and two together. "Did you- Lisa, did you open-?"
Link-A rushed forward, flipping Shepherd on his back, yanking him right at Lisa's feet. "Is this what you meant?"
"Agh! Lisa!" The middle-aged man's back throbbed with back pain. "What is the meaning of this?!"
The malicious genius opened the tube and handed it back to Link-A. "Force feed him this."
Link-A held down Shepherd tightly by his hands, shaking her head. "I'm holding him down as it is, Lisa. You'd better explain what's happening to me."
"I will..." Lisa went on her knees and hovered the serum over Shepherd's face. "I need you to open up now."
"Why? What are you p-planning?!" He squirmed desperately, trying to worm his way out of the clone's grasp. "I don't consent-!"
"Its in my best interest I turn you into what they're calling phenos, I need all the help I can get to fortify this place."
"What?! You want to turn me into one of your weapons?!" He was appalled and scared all the same, attempting to break free from Link-A's powerful grip. "You, let go of me!"
"No, you stay quiet!" Lisa snorted. "You were preachy about helping me, now here is your chance to embrace your role as my..."
"Excetuuuuuuuum..." The inner voice called out again. "I can sense his rageeeee. Let me, let me transfer into hiiiiiim-"
Do it! Lisa accepted mentally. Whatever helps me!
And before the three people in the laboratory, the shadow of the sinful darkness swept out of Lisa's stature, slithering away to add to Shepherd's own silhouette- and then worked its way to corrupt him. His movements had stopped, finally cooperating with Lisa's agenda. Unto him, the brunette mastermind slipped the liquid down his throat for him to swallow with acceptance. And drink it, he most certainly did, feeling that vulgar, yucky taste on his tongue. Link-A let go on the man, pulling herself back up to Lisa's side.
"Thank you..." Lisa expressed with content. "You've now got the full power of a hybrid Varanus Salvadorii in you, the very same one Luna has coursing through her veins."
Shepherd leaned up, rubbing the back of his head. "So that's what it was."
"Why, of course..." Lisa studied him, touching his face and turning it from left to right. "How are you feeling?"
"What are the odds I'm compatible with this?" Shepherd dared to ask. "Surely you performed runs with me, right?"
Lisa made that awkward, wobbly smile, showing that she hadn't and she would be sneaky about it. "Uhhhh, yeaaaaah, sure!"
"You're kidding me!"
Link-A crossed her arms, growing impatient. "Now what?"
"Now what, indeed?" Lisa repeated poetically. "Let's work on you to see if you are indeed compatible. It would be such a waste to lose you."
"I don't feel funny, that's for sure-" Shepherd shared.
"Oh, one more thing," Lisa forgot to point out. "I added an extra layer of strength to the mix. Have I ever told you about Medi-Sin?"
"I don't think you did, no," he simply responded, getting up slowly while placing hands on his chest, afraid to have a painful reaction. "If I die..."
"You seem to be fine at the moment-"
"Wait until I put one of those in you!" The new pheno had promised. "I swear-"
Link-A looked into the surface of a metal table, eyeing her reflection that differed from Lincoln Loud. She saw for herself that she wasn't him, and yet... "Hey!"
Lisa had turned around, carefully forming her words to keep this possibly unhinged clone at bay. "Yes, what is it?"
"Am-? Am I... L-Lincoln?"
And Lisa had all the reason to lie. "Yes, you are. What do you remember?"
"I..." Link-A pressed a hand to her head. "There was an explosion... F-Freights... Freights!"
Lisa made slow, dramatic footsteps, raising her hands up. "Listen... That explosion sent you into a coma," she explained to the clone. "I had to place your subconscious into this... This artificial body. Believe me when I say you are the one and real Lincoln Loud, and your body is gone."
"G-gone...?" Link-A looked at her hands. "It can't be... I was just running- And then, the debris-" She ran a finger to her forehead. "A b-brick- It's... Gone?"
Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Yes, it appears to be so. Can I trust you to guard my facility?"
"F-facility?" Link-A looked around. "Is that what this is?"
"You are in my facility, yes, and you are safe here-" Then, Link-A froze, head drooping down as if she had fallen asleep while standing. Her nose then started bleeding, making Lisa gasp. "Oh, no..."
"What?" Shepherd wondered. "Why's she bleeding?"
"No, no, no!" Lisa shook the little girl, trying to break her out of this trance. "NO, STOP IT! DO NOT BE LOOKING-!"
Link-A came back to, and returned in an angry state. "Coma?! COMATOSE LINCOLN LOUD?!" Link-A picked her up and threw her across the room. "LIAR! BLACK NETWORK! PROJECT LINK! FIVE CLONES OF- I'M- I'M NOT THE REAL LINCOLN?! I'LL-!"
Shepherd came in and punched the clone out cold, displaying his power to be stronger than Link-A's own.
"NO, YOU IDIOT! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Lisa bellowed.
"What? She was clearly attacking you," he defended. "I don't see what's-?"
"THE FUCKING CHIP IN HER HEAD WILL UNALIGN FROM ITS DESIGNATED CEREBRAL AREA!"
"Chip? What chip?" He picked the clone off the ground and carried her with both arms.
"There's a fourteen-million dollar computer the size of an SD card lodged in her brain!" Lisa revealed. "You punching her will bounce the device around easily! It'll mess with her fucking wiring, do you not understand?!"
"Jeez, Lisa!" Shepherd retorted. "How would I have known if you don't bother sharing the files?!"
"THE LESS WHO KNOW, THE BETTER, YOU MORON! QUICK, TAKE HER TO THE MEDICAL BAY!"
Later
"Oh, joy! It didn't move... Only like, a bit to the left!" Lisa checked the X-rays again, sighing. "Way to go..."
"What's the chip do anyway? You said computer, as in an actual computer?"
"This chip, the SCX, I've remodeled out of a prototype that failed. This one, unlike the first one, does not risk the user of cerebral injuries, nor does it overload the brain. The chip itself isn't just a computer, but a gateway for storage of vast information the user can access via the device. And it's not your average hardware, either. The thing is a weapon on its own, able to infiltrate through any security network and more."
"You... Put that onto... Her?" Even Shepherd had trouble understanding her. "That's like, some high-tech military-grade stuff, and you give that to a little girl?"
"That little girl works for me- Well, I hope she's not too mentally damaged from this... I'll have to run tests on her all day." She tisked away, leaving the medical bay, but stopped at the doorway. "Can I leave you all alone to man the fort?"
"Oh?"
"Don't get me wrong, I'll be working on Project Superior from my private estate, the last property I own. You've got access to everything now, keep it running as long as you can..."
"So, I'm the scapegoat, huh?" Shepherd grunted. "You know the Division is coming, and you're leaving us all here to be captured or killed by them?"
"I gave you a serum, and you can release the other four clones when they close in. But, you can release them early if you want. Code is nine-seven-two-zero-one-one. Same one for all keypads. Access code on my computer is Marie, my middle name. Everything you need to know is on there, as it should be known. All my secrets are yours now..."
"So..." Shepherd took it in. "This is the last stand for us if I keep everyone here..."
Clones, some workers from Vial Corp, and a few guards here and there were all those who stood in the way from the Division laying claim to this base, and the secret projects Lisa pulled out of Vial at the last minute. They'll be found in little to no time, there was no denying that or overlooking the fact, and as such...
Link-A would have to be put to good use, a guard dog around these parts. Her and him, with his new ability he had to learn and control. And he had help alongside him, he just didn't know it yet. "Hahahahaha..."
"I'm surprised no one came in crashing. That means Carly has been holding her own with them, but while I'm down one bodyguard-" Lisa then disappeared down the corridors, leaving to gather her belongings and research, forever leaving the Black Network. And she did so without a goodbye to anyone, not even him.
Maybe... Just maybe, Lisa was a true inhuman after all.
Just you wait, Terrethian James Shepherd, the voice of the shadow thought. We're gonna have so much fun!
Act II: Blood Ties, Chapter III: Excetum
AN: The demon enters the stage, but this chapter is not about him, although his time to really shine will come soon. Back with that other fic by the name of Demon, I believe I've mentioned that two creations of mine had the Excetum mantle. Here, both of them have been thrown into the world of Dawn in their prime; James Shepherd, who takes the name when having the serum injected into him (not how I planned it here but oh well) and the second one, the Shadow Demon. Once, they were the same character, I just split them up.
Excetum, the result of a dream in which I saw a commercial about some horror movie about a giant mutated lizard eating folks in the subways of... New York? Man, I don't know about you, but I love taking influences from dreams, and I would suggest it if possible. Although that commercial seemed too real if I'm to be honest. I wonder if I Google Excetum...
Lisa leaves Shepherd to man the Netowrk, and while he does it, he will come to learn every secret Lisa has concealed from him. They might have had a pretty professional relationship, but with Lisa, it be like that. No longer.
Next; Lincoln and the gang come face to face with... Her. And I don't mean Link-A.