Chapter 4 Aftermath
The invaders swiftly defeated and secured onboard the hovering ship, and the town's people can finally move freely without fear as the protective barrier dissipates. The people started surveying the damages done to their homes while some examine the mamono corpses from a distance. A few who are venting out their anger are seen kicking and spitting on the fallen. The town's governor walks toward one of their saviors, "Thank you, thank you Dark Guardian for saving us from these vile creatures!" One of the guardians turns to him and approaches.
"We're glad that we arrived before something horrible could have happened to all of you." a young-looking woman dressed in an elegant black dress that looks like it belongs to a queen or a royal noble says. The only parts of her body that are exposed are her light ash skin color neck and head. She wears a decorative visor over her eyes, short dark purple hair that reaches the bottom of her neck, and seven small floating orbs above her shoulders. She gives off an aura of nobility which makes the town governor wonder if she is a princess or the like.
She asks, "Do you know what these beings are by any chance?"
The governor just shrugs and replies, "I'm afraid not Dark One, I've never seen anything like them before in my life."
"Please just call me Lizzy and you don't have to be so formal with us," Lizzy says. As the other dark guardians collect the dead mamono for transport, help repair the damages, or chatting with the locals.
Meanwhile, on the ship, the prisoners awaiting questioning and the dead mamono are being thoroughly examined. The leader of the Dark Guard contemplates what to do next but also wonders if there are more of them here somewhere. Questions are about to be answered when a voice calls out, "Commander?"
Snapping the Commander back to reality as he turns to the owner of that voice and replies, "Hm...you found something, Dexter?"
The man called Dexter dressed in white medical clothing with three mechanical arms behind him, each one holding some sort of tool. His skin is light grey with small pink veins barely visible around his head and neck, lastly, he wears glasses with holo-lit information on them. Most people call him Doctor due to his profession.
Dexter reports, "Yes, I've been analyzing the genetic structure of these unusual beings that attack Midway Town and I have found some interesting discoveries."
"What kind of discoveries?" Commander raises an eyebrow.
"One: Their genetic code isn't complete but it is stable enough for them to live like any normal being. Two: All the strange creatures both dead and captured are related to each other in a way similar to wolves, dogs, and coyotes. Lastly: They are all female due to a missing genetic component in their DNA that could have made them male by chance."
The Commander raises his right hand to his chin as he thinks then asks, "Do you believe they are a product of bio-engineered weapons or soldiers or maybe some sort of failed augmented experiment?"
Dexter looks up for a second to think then looks back at the Commander giving his answer, "I'm not entirely sure. I have a few theories but I'll need additional time to do a complete and thorough examination to confirm any of them."
Commander nods and asks, "I see, anything else?"
"Yes, one last thing, and this one was quite the surprise when we detected a power web similar to ours."
The commander lifts an eyebrow at the Doctor's last bit of information and asks "How similar is their power connection to ours?"
"Their energy type is dark that can empower and heal themselves and each other but that's where the similarities seem to end." The Doctor continues. "As for the differences; they're energy connections are more primitive and the flow of energy seems to go mostly in one direction maybe to a source?"
"So, how does it involve the towns' people?" the commander asks.
"I'll need more data to give a proper answer to those questions but maybe Caesar might have found something." Doctor replies.
"Well let us go and find out what Caesar has learned from our 'guests'." the Commander gestured for the doctor to join him as they both left the bridge.
The Commander and Doctor walk across a catwalk that goes over the holding area where the prisoners are being held. Both of them look down while crossing, examining their unique defeated foe as the guards keep a watchful eye over them. All the containment cells were transparent except for the floor, the walls and ceiling were energized so anyone trying to break out would get a nasty shock. The Commander steadily eyes one then moves on to the next until he stops walking.
"Something wrong?" the Doctor asks.
"No, just saw one of the ones I've personally captured" the commander points towards a young manticore huddled in one of the far corners of her cell.
"Ah, I think she is a Manticore or something related due to the fact they can shoot venomous barbs that seem to render its target paralyze." The doctor states. "Very useful in capturing and securing targets."
"I think Fredrick killed either her sister or her mother before I stopped him from killing that one." Said the commander. The Doctor nods and both resume their way to the integration room while down below in the holding area where the young manticore is still mourning her dead sister. The other mamono are either too frightened to do something or mourning a loved one or friend since the vast majority of them were easily massacred.
As the duo was closing on the door that leads to the integration room, it opens revealing two Dark Guard members dragging an unconscious Salamander out of the room and back to the holding area. The Salamander has dark orange scales on her hands, arms, legs, feet, and a fiery-looking tail with the same reddish gold color hair on her head. Once they were out of the way, the two went in and had no problem looking for Caesar as he was standing by a menacing-looking chair. Caesar looks up and sees the two people approaching him. Caesar has slightly darker ashen skin than the Commander's, short trim black hair, a long horizontal scar across his forehead, and his dresses in a black vest with a long grey shirt underneath it. Grey cargo pants and brown boots with pointy bits at the front.
"I assume you two are here to find out what I've learned so far?" Caesar guesses.
The commander replies "Yes."
Caesar turns around, walks past the chair, and towards a console with a pad on top, he grabs it then returns to them and starts to read his report; "These beings call themselves mamono, a female-only species that seek out human men to breed with and to control. They've come to this world because their world is starting to run out of men since humanity is dangerously close to becoming extinct. So, when humanity goes extinct, they'll follow suit with a few exceptions thus they have started looking elsewhere."
"So, they're now crossing dimensions in order to keep themselves from going extinct instead of fixing the problem themselves." The commander comments.
The Doctor asks, "Are they actually trying to solve this reproduction problem?"
"No and yes." Caesar answers which cause the Doctor to give him a confusing look. "You see a vast majority of them are incapable of solving this problem and the one that can, she hasn't made any progress at all."
The Commander speaks to the Doctor, "Doctor is their gens flexible in a way to make them give birth to male offspring?" The Doctor doesn't say anything for a few moments, placing his right hand on his chin, then looks up to the Commander and says, "Maybe, but I'll need to examine their reproduction organs more closely on the ones we have collected both alive and dead."
Caesar quickly adds, "They also have the ability to turn Human women into a mamono in a process called Monsterization while the men are transformed into Incubuses." This sudden fact startled both the Commander and Doctor.
The Commander says, "Turning men into breeding bulls and transforming women into more mamono. No wonder the Human race over there is almost gone, bred out of existence. They've lost control."
Caesar speaks up again, "They are currently in a conflict with an all-human faction simply called "The Order" which holds the last and greatest amount of human men who aren't taken but from the information I've gathered that's going to change real soon. These Mamono are getting ready to deal the last few blows before the Order finally falls."
"If this Order falls then they've basically won therefore dooming their own world and both sides will have no future." Commander thinks aloud.
Caesar crosses his arms and asks, "Does this mean we are getting involved with this conflict?"
"Yes, since they are forcing us to BE involved. They have located this world and who is to say they won't send any more of their forces here?" Commander confirms.
The three stand in silence as each of them thinks of a plan of action to deal with this new problem meanwhile back at the holding area, the two guards that were dragging the unconscious Salamander have returned her to her cell. The Salamander's cell is right next to the young manticore's as she looks up to see the two guards leaving that cell once they drop off the Salamander. She scoots over closer to her to see if she is alive or dead and easily finds out it's the former.
"Hey! You alright?" She tries to wake her up but a sudden commotion catches her attention as looks out her cell to see what's going on. She sees a werewolf running around freely, looking around franticly for a way to escape as numerous guards started to encircle her with their weapons drawn on her. She growls as she sees she's trapped by the guards so she prepares for battle, her fellow comrades start yelling at her to flee or to avenge the fallen. As the guards close in, the werewolf looks at each one of them until she finds one she thinks is the weakest. She starts preparing herself to tackle that person but a shot from the upper floor hits her right in the back. The werewolf instantly passes out and two guards walk towards her, grab her by the arms and take her back to her cell. The mamono that were cheering her on fell silent as they watch her being dragged away.
The young manticore retreats back to her corner and helplessly asks herself 'What are they going to do to us?'