Sometime in the past...

Ring... Ring... Ring

A candlestick telephone rang waking up a man who fell asleep on his desk work.

All around him in his office were blueprints of some sort and half-finished models of technology ahead of their time.

This man who seemed to be an inventor looked around his messy office before answering the telephone with a reluctant look.

"What?" He appeared to be bothered as he pressed a number on the antiquated telephone, causing a light to flash as a holographic man dressed in a butler's uniform appeared before him, kneeling.

And although this man was a hologram, he appeared so lifelike that one could mistake him for a real person if not physically interacted with him.

"Sir, it is the madam she... well how should I put this..." The butler seemed distressed looking for the right words to say.

"Out with it you dimwit butler!" The man yelled losing his composure.

"The madam has preterm birthed and it's looking quite worrying."

"Ugh... Alright, I'll be there tell them to put it in the artificial womb."

"Yes Sir." The butler hologram saluted before disappearing.

"What a pain!" The man massaged his forehead before also leaving his office with a troubled face.

Later that night the man arrived at a laboratory.

Though the laboratory looked like a mountain on the outside and was situated on an island.

It was a place hidden from the world and if so discovered it would shake up the entirety of humanity.

But the laboratory is owned by a family who strongly believes in the future of advanced humans.

As they aspire to become such beings to dominate the world this suggested they were no ordinary rich folks.

Arriving in a room where there was a disfigured baby inside a giant artificial womb that had green substances inside it and tubes all over it.

The man gazed at the baby revealing a horrified face as he murmured... "What kind of an abomination baby is that?"

As he was murmuring to himself a group of men in lab coats entered the room with weird expressions.

Seeing their arrival the man asked what he was looking at his gaze still to the baby in there.

One of them started to speak pulling up the data about the baby from his tablet.

They aimed to make a super being that was invulnerable to weapons, immune to all diseases, resistant to nature's heat or coldness, and above all the strongest.

"Sir, once we achieved success with the prototype subjects, you instructed us to proceed with the actual alteration and you chose him to be the first one but problems arose in the spinal cord area."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The scientist went on to explain that because they were too hasty to finish the final product and didn't do enough testing on the others the immature child could not take the bone enhancement resulting in permanent damage to the spinal cord.

Said the scientist concluding his findings.

But hearing that the man was indifferent to it all only thinking of how things weren't going well for them.

"Then what of that horrendous face?" He said turning his gaze to them.

Receiving his gaze they said the disfiguration of the baby was due to...

"Sir, we believe this is also a side effect of the drugs, and given his weakened state, it's possible that even small changes can have a big impact on his body."

"Hmm and how many does that make?"

"At least four Sir..."

The man shook his head in disappointment saying to them, "Fix his face and use him as a test subject for the fragment chip program he's a failure with no potential to become an advanced being."

"Yes Sir." The scientist saluted the man as he left the room and moments later after his departure, they removed the artificial womb's name tag, giving the number... No.0002.

A year and two months later a huge moving palanquin with four spider legs came to the island standing in front of the laboratory.

And inside this huge palanquin was a woman covered in veils and two assassin guards who were shrouded in mystery.

"What a misery! They always disregard life."

"When will they learn that this is the way to self-destruction?"

"Go fetch my niece for me they have already destroyed him enough."

The mysterious woman behind the veils spoke her voice solemn and sorrowful.

*

In the present

Going up the mountain the four girls and Sonya took the path Rex and his helper took.

Their steps were swift sometimes leaping to shorten the distance and Sonya the modified human of course kept up with them.

But then suddenly coming to a stop the bear girl ahead stopped sniffing the air and ground.

Sniff Sniff

All her fur stood to the scent of something alerting the rest of her group as they took battle stances.

"Is something the matter?" Asked Sonya as she scanned the way. "My scans tell nothing." She added as she tapped on her temple.

The bear girl growled shaking her head.

"No, I sense a strong beast at the top." She said while growling.

"Oooh can we fight, is it part of the exam?" One of the two identical girls spoke excitedly.

These two were twins and from the way she spoke and motioned her body, to the mention of a strong beast it seemed she was the type to engage in battles.

"Hmph obviously it's there to test us." Said the other twin feeling annoyed.

Of the twins, one liked fighting while the other finds fighting a waste of time.

"Hey, hey I like what L'm hearing what about a race?" The horse girl suddenly said readying herself to run off to the top.

"Huh did you just say a race like running?" The bear girl questioned not understanding what they were talking about.

"Yeah a race but not running it's to see who can beat the beast the quickest." Answered the horse girl as she sprinted up to the top.

She wasn't the only one as the bear girl and the other twin ran after her.

"Are they always like that?" Asked Sonya to the remaining girl.

"Yeah, they're all like that when we're away from home."

Seeing them cheerful like that Sonya thought back to her days at the academy when she was free-spirited like that too.

She wanted to run after them and compete with them but stopped herself as this was their time.

Hers was long gone and it was time she makes a difference taking this seriously.

A smile appeared on her face as turned to the girl saying... "Alright, then how about we go after them since my job doesn't allow me to just watch them run off like that?"

"Ugh fine but I won't run I'll use my powers!" As the girl spoke her body went through the mountainside like she was a ghost.

"Woah!" Sonya got spooked by the sudden disappearance of the girl.

She franticly looked around seeing nothing but as she was about to run after the others a face came out of the mountain saying, "Oh don't worry my powers allow me to face through everything like a ghost." After explaining what happened the girl disappeared again her body going upwards inside the mountain.

"Huh?" The sudden reappearance of the girl and the disappearance just made her speechless.

"Okay, I can see why everyone envies meta-humans."

Sonya said to herself before running after them.

And while they were racing to the top the two at the top didn't know what was coming their way as the rabbit person mumbled some stuff looking at the ground and Rex just standing there waiting.

Fin