Dr. Tiberius Pox, master genius and the first true Huma, stared at the chaos that was engulfing the city of New Terra.
It was by far the most troubling thing he had witnessed in a while.
The Martial Law of the Hero’s League only confirmed his own fears about a few things, and the Iguana that was running through the downtown area didn't help matters at all.
Chaos, it was becoming a part of everything.
If this continued for much longer, Tiberius knew where it would eventually lead.
Shackles, freely placed on the bodies and minds of the public.
For their safety, of course.
By none other than the Heroes that they came to depend on.
For what was a normal bred human to do against such monstrosities?
Dependency.
Tolerance.
Acceptance.
These words were as much chains on the people’s minds as the laws that were forced upon them.
It was obvious to Tiberius where all of this would lead, to him most of all.
Soon there will be no more thoughts of heroes, and only of a collective humanity, bound in purpose and unity.
For the only way to end chaos is with order.
And for the peace of all, what hero wouldn’t sacrifice chaos for order?
Tiberius shook his head as he turned back to his daughter.
“Monica.”
His first creation, the alpha that all of his other children were built from, smiled at him in smug assurance.
“Father, did you like my plan?”
Tiberius shook his head, “the loss of life was unnecessary, and caused a great deal of problems.”
Monica shook her head, “some of us live in reality Father, and you cannot account for every small thing in a plan. Even those human’s who died are useful to us, for they distracted the other heroes from discovering our plans.”
Tiberius was both proud and worried about those words.
What he would give to allow Monica to grow like the others, with emotions that didn’t border on the sadistic.
If the controls were not necessary to keep his children from becoming too… attached to old humanity and allow them to complete his missions, he would have given them the chance to feel…
Normal.
Yet, he could not risk it, not after Crysa’s betrayal.
He needed their gifts, and their powers to further his goals.
“I am no better than the monsters I am fighting it seems.”
“Monsters? Father, you are the one who will elevate humanity! A God amongst the rabble. Monsters are for slaying, Gods only recieve reverance!”
He nodded, if only to placate his daughter.
Her face reminded him of the one that held his heart. The one that he had wished all those days ago that he had the courage to say those three words too… before his best friend had beaten him to her.
Knowing that his friend was gone stabbed his heart.
Knowing that his wife held him in contempt for it twisted the wound further.
Why… did she not see as he did?! That the road to humanities self-destruction was imminent?!
He felt his head swivel to stare at the floor, where two stories below rested a capsule containing the important materials that would allow for the next step in his final solution.
He prayed that he was not too late to stop the plans of those behind the League.
“Monica, how is the first test subject?”
His daughter smiled, “our scientist is all set for the next stage. However, her mind has been under stress and could interfere with the experiment results. I believe the male would be a better choice.
Dr. Pox nodded, “prepare him for the table, we will have guests soon and I need him and them at the ready.”
Monica nodded, “and what of my baby brother?”
Tiberius looked up at the ceiling as he contemplated.
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“That experiment in cyborg grafting that involved the metal suit and spine augments. His abilities should allow for a seamless transfer.”
“Of course Father.”
“Have we located the others yet?”
“Aura has been missing for two days, and brother died at Blackrock Prison. I know not where the traitor is.”
Monica placed a hand to his head, “I bet as much that she is with the Crimson R host. It is quite amusing to think that she will try to use it against us.”
Tiberius sighed, “Crysa likely will try, but it does not matter. Prepare to… receive them Monica. I go to collect the final ingredient for humanity's last days on Asta.”
Monica laughed, “and what is that, pray tell?”
Dr. Pox turned to activate the elevator, staring at her with a determined look.
“Your little pet projects, of course.”
Tiberius noticed the façade his daughter kept up crack a bit.
“W-What do you mean?”
Tiberius sighed as he locked eyes with his unruly firstborn.
“Monica, those materials were for the final solution, and I mean to retrieve them. Of course I’m taking them back.”
“Father, you have to understand-”
“Enough! I will hear no more excuses, not when I am this close. Gather the personnel and prepare to defend the laboratory. It won’t be more than a few hours now.”
“You anticipate they will arrive soon?”
“Of course, after all…”
He smiled genuinely as the elevator began to close, “it is the best time to try.”
…
Monica watched as her father disappeared behind the elevator doors, her mood souring with each moment.
She picked up an expensive vase that she kept in her office and tossed it against the wall.
“Augh! Foolish man! Those experiments… how did he even know about the others?!”
Monica had several contingencies in place for the inevitable case that her father’s plan went belly up.
After all, only a fool believes that their one grand plan for world domination will succeed.
She sighed in frustration at the thought of him getting his hands on her test subjects.
It was true that they were made using Father’s access to the formula that he had built in his old profession with the Bockman scientists, but his vision on their use was so… mundane!
The genetic potential, the means to which one could elevate and evolve.
With just one drop of this solution, they were able to grant gifts to Monica’s siblings.
Crimson R… it would be the elevation point of her own ascension to a goddess, carefully made under the guise of an experiment.
Monica laughed a bit as she pressed a button under her desk in her office.
“Fools think that they have the upper hand, that they are the ones whose plans will come true.”
“Father, your plans were always doomed to fail.”
The room in her office opened up to reveal something that resembled an elevator.
This was no fancy one like the one leading to the labs below.
No, this one was made for her, and only her, to bring her to her own facility.
Monica stepped into the machine as it began to glow with an iridescent light.
She could feel her molecules shift as she ascended to the sky and beyond.
And appeared in her space station above the planet.
It had taken almost no time for her to build it, simply sending off her drones into space using her teleportation device.
She let the little buggers roam around to take asteroids and materials, building them to her specific needs.
Her own laboratory, her own tests and samples.
But more important than any of those things was what she was staring at right now, as she stepped into the one room that lay inside.
Monica smiled widely.
Father, It will not be humanity that elevates to the next stage, for they are a diseased race already, corrupted within by their baser needs. A guiding hand is needed, for them to truly ascend into the Huma you envision.
“I will be that guiding hand of humanity. From here, I will oversee them all, and dictate what they shall do.”
She floated to the tube that she gazed at, that contained a specimen that she had captured ever since she let Crimson R go, into the waiting hands…
Of her sister.
Monica Ferrous… rather than that name she had to keep due to her Father’s foolish need for secrecy, would soon do away with that moniker forever.
Instead, she would begin her new life soon, with father’s failure and her ascension.
“Isn’t that right… Mother?”
She caressed the tube within, her mother’s catatonic body still floating in the embryonic solution.
Monica Bockman felt a tear go down her face as she caressed the tube with her birth mother inside.
“Would you think I'm mad, mother? That I was an abomination made from the genes of the bastard who murdered your husband? I… wish I could know…”
Monica knew her origin from her birth, a curse of her gift that she received from the original sample of the formula that her mother and birth father made.
Cognitive Control.
Total control of her thoughts, her memories... and with time… others too.
It worked on everyone, her family, her coworkers.
Every human was subject to her every whim.
Her mother had the same gift, and the genetic power of the formula passed it onto Monica.
But it was incomplete, it could still allow for certain errors if not applied constantly.
But soon, that wouldn't be an issue.
Soon, very soon, she would absorb her mother’s body into herself.
Her power would grow, and with the formula for Crimson R…
“Mother, we will have vengeance against Father soon, so wait for me a little longer. My sister will be here soon, and we can be a family again. A real family.”
One bound to each other, one always connected, never apart.
One Being.
One GOD.
The Goddess of Huma, Crimson Revelation!
Monica laughed in the darkness of her space station, the walls reverbing with her maddening song that told of the absolute enslavement of mankind.
…