Chimera and her team had finally started to get their gear together when their ride started down the road from the Hero’s League. She absentmindedly chatted with Glow about who would shut down the place, betting against each other and the other members of their team.
Though Chimera wasn’t really into it.
Sure, get the credit. All I want is that sweet tech.
She side eyed the other factor in their group, making sure that he wasn’t doing any moves.
Gideon was still as could be, seemingly looking at nothing as he sat staring at the floor.
Chimera made out the eye movements though, subtle as they were, and there were those perfectly normal brows of his knitted into a slight frown.
I’ll pair up with him. Friends close and enemies closer and all that.
She wrapped an arm around Gideon, pulling him close in a side hug.
Making sure to connect with his skin, she grabbed a bit more of his DNA and coded it inside her.
Maybe time to use that on him, but with this set up inside him, its hard to even say if it will work.
Chimera glommed him as he tried to push her off, causing the rest of the heroes in training to laugh.
It served to place a certain something on his person.
“Enough! We’re almost there, and the clock is ticking. Bullet, Chase, you two are on a team with Glow. Chimera and I will team up to check the lower levels while you three focus on shutting down the defenses.”
Glow reached out and took Chimera’s hand, “why don’t you go with Bullet and Chase, Gideon? Chimera and I can check out the lower levels.”
Gideon shook his head, “I have the Tech Bot, and only I can pilot it, since none of you know how to operate it. Chimera needs a handler until we can be sure she’s alright on her own so that means leadership needs to take control here. Leave her to me, focus on your objective.”
What a load of shit, he just wants me alone because I’m the unknown here.
Sarah calculated that something like this would happen.
It made sense to her mind, if she was trying to get rid of an unknown variable, she’d isolate it first and try to figure it out.
Not that she minded, this worked out perfectly for her.
When it happens, I’m going to pry those secrets in his head open.
She shooed away her new friend, “well, guess I’ll see you guys after we crack this vault open.”
Glow looked a bit despondent, but she braved a smile and nodded as the group split up to search for clues about the defenses Dr. Zlo’s base would no doubt have.
The door opened to reveal the New Terra City Park Zoo, with all its abandoned by man glory.
The Great White Disaster did a number on the place, leaving most of the facility in ruins.
A few of the exhibits were destroyed outright, leaving a trail of tracks and footprints of an assortment or animals.
Chimera picked up the DNA trails left in their wake,
Oh, savannah tiger, Hippopotamus, field mouse, and a zebra! All good finds!
She had been here already while she was ‘training’ but she still managed to find new stuff.
“Why are you dragging your feet like that?”
“Itchy feet.”
The two returned to silence as Chimera saw Gideon start to gag off to the side.
Does he think I have athlete’s foot or something? I ran into that hot mess a month ago, that shit isn’t on me!
She realized at that time that fungus was a very good attack against her, as the spores tried to propagate themselves on her residual energies.
It took a bit for her to assimilate and purge their influence from herself, which made It almost as bad as the disease when it got on her toes.
She grinned to herself as she made a new pair of feet while also placing her previous feet on the back of his knee, rubbing the ‘gunk’ off on him.
“S-Stop that! It’s so dirty!”
“It’s itchy, and the ground isn’t peeling it off. Get moving so we can get away from this crap.”
Sorry, but it’s too much fun messing with you!
After a bit of running, the two made It to the polar bear exhibit, the uneven chill of the area sifting into the surroundings and leaving a mild frost.
It looked just how Chimera pictured it would, like a fifteen-meter monster polar bear burst out of the enclosure and left a frosty chill in its wake.
“There's the entrance to the lower levels. The others should be using the backrooms behind the enclosure to find the defenses.”
Gideon spoke as they reached the hatch that was under the water reservoir for the enclosure, now drained of its fluids.
It had a bit of frost on it as well, but Gideon made short work of it with his arm cannon.
A dull red laser slowly melted the hinges and ice, his careful aim working around the metal trapdoor.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Laser weapons, among other things, good to know.
Chimera moved beside him as she lifted the hatch open, ripping the metal along with it.
“Shall we blue boy?”
Gideon gave her a grimace and a low sniff as he jumped inside, Chimera following him shortly after.
To both of their surprise, the hatch led to a slide, and both were currently sliding down the icy slope.
They gathered speed as the frictionless surface propelled them faster and faster, and through it all Chimera was enjoying herself.
“WOOO!”
She let out a whoop of joy as she switched to her blobby form, taking advantage of the slide to go even faster than before.
She zoomed right passed the quiet boy as they made their way to the end of the ride, landing in a bundle of foam squares.
Chimera bounced off the foam, ascending a good fifteen feet in the air before landing back in her human form.
“That was awesome!”
“Damnit Chimera don’t-,”
The whole room, once pitch dark, burst with light as the room came into focus.
It was a warehouse, large and open, with a good fifty feet of length from ground to ceiling. The room itself was filled with boxes and paraphernalia that marked it as zoo merchandise. Nothing was too tall, but the floor and a good half of the structure were even leveled with the crates of goods.
Chimera and Gideon weren’t looking at the crates however, no.
They were looking at the massive screen that hung over the warehouse, a large twenty foot screen that wouldn’t be out of place in a battle ball arena.
Chimera felt a chill in her spine as she saw the screen come to life.
“*Ahem* is this blasted thing on? How am I to let the foolish heroes know of their doom if they can’t even hear me?! Oh Jacques, thank you for that… wait… it’s been on this entire time?! You blithering buffoons, make sure the camera is on me this instant!”
Shit!
Chimera, or Sarah actually, knew that the worst thing for any person to be was in the middle of a villain’s monologue.
And it was very clear that Dr. Zlo was about to go off into a self-aggrandizing rant that would spell her doom.
She glanced over at her ‘ally’ and noticed that he wasn’t bothered at all.
Good, you be the distraction while I get the hell out of here!
She switched into a blob, this time pushing power down into her lower body. As she bounced off the floor, she catapulted herself into the air, soaring over the crates and making her way towards a door on the other side of the warehouse.
“Oh my, welcome! I see we have two little heroes-in-training to join me tonight on this wonderful experiment. Hah! To think that they would send little canaries down here to test the place for poison gas. How… fitting.”
With her vision being in blobby form she couldn’t make out the image on the screen, and so she grew an eye on her back to stare at it.
The maniacal mastermind was a villain straight out of a cartoon.
A massive top hat covered his dome, and a monocle rested on his left eye. He had a fancy cigarette smoking pipe on the side of his face, puffing a small blue cloud as he stared down at her.
His smile seemed to stretch more than any smile should, making an almost perfect ‘V’ shape as he grinned madly.
“Be sure to let those fools in the Hero’s League know that I am not to be trifled with, eh junior cadets? In fact, wait.”
Sadly… she was caught.
Chimera was already reaching the door as she noticed the television turn toward her.
“What is that thing!? Is that one of my experiments?”
Chimera made a strangled screech as the tv began to follow her across the warehouse, a rail seemingly built for the monitor to chase her.
“Damnit hold still! I’m trying to blast you with gas!”
“No thank you!”
“It can talk?!”
Chimera reached the door and pulled it open, revealing a hallway that looked very much like a laboratory.
She grinned inwardly as she rushed inside, a hissing noise sounding behind her.
She felt it almost instantly, as the gas barely brushed the back of her globbiness.
It burned!
“AHH WHAT THE HELL?!”
She hadn’t felt pain like this ever. Even the memories of her being shot and the phantom pain she felt then did not compare to this.
It was like someone was pouring acid on her soul, it was like being burned alive in hellfire. This gas was something that was made to inflict pain.
She pushed forward regardless, changing back into her human form so that she could book it down the hall.
She dared to look back, and noticed a pale red gas was launched via a canister.
Chimera almost stopped, before she was reminded of what the almost pink gas would do to her.
She reached one of the labs and closed the door, shifting her arm to a gun shaped barrel.
Chimera launched a sticky glob of honey at the door, sealing the sides and preventing the gas from making its way inside.
After the seal finished hardening, Chimera took a moment to breath, and settled back in a chair that was covered in dust.
DNA flooded her once more as motes of dust bunnies were sucked inside her.
Her back was still raw, and a dull pain ached from her exposed side.
Chimera assessed her situation, puzzle pieces wrapping together in her head and falling into place.
The warehouse, was filled with merchandise sure, but Sara was reminded of her early testing with the Crimson R.
Animal testing, specifically older animals that were on their way out, were used to test the bio-recombining feature of the suit.
The results were nightmarish, but she had comfort knowing that the Crimson R almost certainly killed the animals in the fastest way possible.
Yet.
The animals were very tame, compared to the company’s assurance that wild animals were the ones used for the experiments, to allow for more accurate data on what would happen in case of a Class Z event, which was everyone’s fear after Earth had one such event.
Or, so they claimed.
However, that wouldn’t explain the animal's timid natures then, and how they seemed to be lethargic even considering their age.
Sarah looked around the lab she was in, noticing a few cages off to the side that matched something she had seen before.
Cages… with ChemTech’s Logo emblazoned on them.
The experiment’s… the test subjects came from here.
She moved a blobby tendril to her exposed back flesh, feeling the scarring and burning marks from the gas.
Gas that is made to harm a Crimson R series.
The decontamination gas from her old lab used something similar to this.
Pieces matched together, and finally Sarah started to see a pattern.
This zoo, this place, all the experiments, it tells me that ChemTech and Dr. Zlo might be related, but it also tells me something else.
She found a computer, and as luck would have it, the machine was on.
She opened the desktop and stared at the familiar logo of her old employer staring back at her, a test tube with a starry background.
She went straight for the files she saw listed under ‘R’ and noticed they were not locked.
What is this? No one from my department would ever leave their computer this unprotected! Thanks for the info!
She smiled to herself as she started to type, speeding up her time by stretching small tendrils to help her type faster.
Sarah found the file shortly after, and a chill ran down her spine as she stared at the results.
Crimson R Source files, Lead Designer Dr. Monica Ferrous
Alias: Dr. Small Pox.
Crimson R has been the lifeblood of my father’s work, and while his detaining was a blow to most of our operations, it became clear that his thoughts about the future were invariably flawed.
The man believed that humans could be changed for the better, my siblings and I disagree.
This creature of his, an amalgamation of several supervillain corpses, combined with the rapid regenerative factor of the Teras’emon extraterrestrials has allowed for a body shaping formula that will allow me and my siblings to rise over the primitive humans and fulfill our father’s great work, his true work.
It will soon have the potential to turn every human on Asta into a mindless puppet. The wielder being the one to control the hapless minds of the genetically inferior, It also has the added benefit of not affecting us few children. Father would never let such a sloppy thing occur of course.
All it requires now is a suitable host, along with a few experiments to improve its efficacy as a Class Z event initiator. Sadly, it seems that one of my employees has something planned. Foolish, but bold, trying to save a worthless wretch with father’s science.
Though it will be a few years before it reaches that point, Crimson R is definitely the best variant for our plans. And once our little scientist has an accident, nothing will stop our next step.
The binding between us and the R series exo-suits.
I can hear the delicious screams of our soon to be prey. I only hope that fool Sarah decides to fight back.
Watching her despair will make it all worth it.