Creation
December 31st, 2020
On the eve before New Year’s ingenious companies rivaled each other for the last day of yearly sales. This was of the utmost importance to every C.E.O. across the United States of America, and more importantly, to announce the release of new products and for many, this was the start of a new age. The age of technological findings like any other, the founding of Kingston Plaza Incorporated’s prestige: the beginning of Project G.H.O.S.T. Many executives across the world who saw the dawn of this project to be a failure, and others approved that the Ghosts would retrieve human superiority over the animals across the world, which would lead the Japanese government to hide its operations to desecrate Project G.H.O.S.T. and all of the U.S.’s ploys to fund the company responsible. Under jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Law in the District of Colombia, the nine Justices ruled that Kingston Plaza Incorporated to become the peak of Military funding and developer of new weapons. On December 31st, the first Ghost was released for testing…
And…they never witnessed…
“So…Miss Keln, is it?” A disgruntled voice echoed from behind a plank of wood, which clipped paper close to it via metallic blades. The man sitting in the leather chair, dyed scarlet, his pinstriped suit holding signs of evident wrinkling and wear, obvious that he didn’t care the least about what he appeared to the public. Half-moon glasses were placed directly onto the bridge of his nose as his bald head furrowed while he read, becoming silent. The anxiety in the room doubled, since the woman sitting directly in front of the desk didn’t answer, her mouth drying with evident nervousness.
“Uh…y-yes, yes sir.” Her perfected dark eye brows rose to show the signs of complete loss of control, the very air that the man before her held seemed to degrade her self-confidence and pride. She gripped her velvet suit overcoat, the buttons beginning to fold within the cloth while Keln felt the need to compel her-self. With a lifting sigh, she straightened herself, brushing away black hair to reveal a set of muddy brown eyes. A soft, delicate and pale face hardened itself into a mask that showed no signs of emotion, nor any sign that she was hindered any longer by the man before her. She ran her fingers gingerly over a set of full, moist lips from habit, her muddy brown eyes furrowing as she felt the tension around the room lift.
“Alright then…you’ll be leading Science Team Alpha in the creation of S.O.S, the first Ghost to be set into the terms of Creation!” He tossed down the clipboard against the metallic surface of his desk, laughing a bit as he saw her calming ritual. “There are no worries here… We all are family, well…most of us. I’m Dr. Hannibal Ken, pleased to meet you.” After which, Hannibal thrust a slender hand towards her; despite the showing of age across his face as he did so, he nodded towards her to take his hand. Heavy bags were evident underneath his eyelids, showing apparent hours of sleeplessness, and his gentle blue eyes appeared dull while Keln reached up to take Ken’s hand, which they both shook. Once she was released, a pair of gray jump-suited women hopped into the room, giggling uncontrollably.
“Jen…! C’mon now…don’t dillydally around…! We’ve heard, come to Alpha Labs!” The pair soon leaped out of the room through the door, stepping gingerly on the conveyor-like floor. Keln’s hand shot directly to her exposed pale forehead, her mask breaking itself of all emotionless as a grimace played itself across her lips.
“Those are the Diddle twins…don’t mind them. Come, I’ll escort you to your new position on the Alpha Labs, I’m sure that they will welcome you.” Hannibal reached for his cane at the side of his chair, slothfully making his way past Keln’s chair, and she rose immediately from her seat as he passed. He limped onto the conveyor-like floor, leaning to his right side, waiting for her to catch up before the belt began to move again. Silence clouded both of them, the signs of eeriness from the shining metallic scene that surrounded them. Turrets, gizmos, and machinery of all shapes and sizes zoomed past on the belt to their right, while they were surrounded by a crowd of white-coated persons; their eyes drooped to show signs of evident exhaustion. After which, they all leaped off onto a prismatic slab of material, zooming off into another direction, which left Keln and Hannibal alone once more. As time passed between them, she shuffled her feet nervously, but in moments, the man took a step to the side. Immediately, she hurried against the belt’s moving ground to leap to the official’s side. With a heartening sigh, the door opened as he placed a foot directly in front of himself.
They slowly descended down a pair of stairs, the steps themselves starting to rise at their footsteps, then falling into the abyss below. From then, they finally reached the base, a hiss of steam following close by as Keln’s eyes began to wander, her muddy brown eyes beginning to slowly droop as she took in the machinery around her. Valves busily sent fluids to giant tanks, the tanks emptying directly into a pit below, which bubbled and surged with electricity. She gaped at an elongated tongue of flame, with several people standing behind it with a wide grin. As moments passed, Hannibal finally stopped, facing the crowd of people. Expectantly, his head rose, and as it did, the white coated group turned to face the two. He extended a hand towards Keln, who straightened.
“This is Jennifer Keln, the new head of Operations down here in Alpha Labs, and you all will call her by her surname only. She will lead the production in S.O.S.’ Soul Cube and Creation…so, I believe that in time, we will have him, or her, set into Creation…” Hannibal trailed off, his hand lowering to his feeble self.
“Sir…we are ready to bring S.O.S. to life…today.” One of the scientists piped up, raising her hand.
“Ah…that’s good then… Have all personnel report to the booths…we are to begin his formation… The world will know us for all eternity for what we have done…!” Hannibal’s eyes twinkled with a sign of his past youth, beginning to limp deeper into the Alpha Labs, soon disappearing from sight. Afterwards, the group’s faces all turn to sullen hate, their evident loathing could be felt from their glares as one of them stepped forward, pointing a seemingly accusing finger.
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“You won’t mess this up for us…we’ve been working too hard for too long for this moment…! We’re so close…and Hannibal invites some newbie to join us in our research project…assigned to this sector alone! S.O.S. is ours…and he, or she, will not break free… And better yet, if you screw up…then you are to blame!” A fit of laughter escaped the woman’s mouth, her sadistic grin spreading across her lips.
The booths lined themselves up in each corner exactly, a shower of sparks lighting up the room indefinitely as the bulbs above dimmed. For a few moments, the booths themselves remained darkened, showing no life signs behind them. After a few moments, a slight vibration from behind the booths as the scientists themselves slowly made their way into the room. Hannibal stood directly beside Keln, his feeble stature showing signs of wear as he leaned against his cane. She sighed heavily, holding her head in her hand, chills running up her spine as the gargantuan tubs slowly slunk their way from blocks in the ceiling. The liquid which was held by the glass seemed to swirl and even illuminate itself as time passed, the tension within the booths appearing to intensify as time dragged on. With a whirr and a wave of hissing, a plate of ethereal metal was slowly spun from the ceiling, its surface almost glass-like. The metal itself appeared to surge with an evident maelstrom, which never reached the outside world. As it was inserted directly onto the pool below, while arms surged into live, their metallic fingers slowly placing giant corkscrews into similar sized holes with a loud whirr.
Steam hissed from the pipes ahead as the mechanical arms skewed across the chamber to disappear, the room beginning to rock violently. Keln gripped the railing directly in front of her, her eyes widening at the force of the shaking. The tubes emptied themselves into the pool of water, their giant lines opening to inject themselves directly inside the liquid. As the atoms and molecules began to meld together, electricity sparked wildly within the massive chamber. The forks of lightning pierced directly through several of the booths, causing them to crash to the ground below them. With a deafening explosion, blood spewed from the blast, hunks of meat splattering and sticking to the walls. Inside of the pool, the molecules formed a complete husk of outer skin, the veins stretching themselves along the vast sheet of epidermis. Metallic bones slowly escaped vast tubing on each side of the square-like pool, the skin itself shooting out in all directions, latching onto the bones, reeling them into the skin indefinitely.
Instantly the bones themselves were inserted into their rightful place, the veins tapping directly through the mid-section. Marrow slowly filled in the hollow bones, pores bubbling violently on the frame, the muscles themselves filling in the space between each vein. As time passed, the skin itself appeared to be stitching itself together once more to become whole. Inside of the body, the organ’s outer casings quickly bubbled into existence, the liquids filling up the rest of the gaps in between. In an instant, the outer husk drifted with the rest of the body, hair fibers extending themselves all along the husk’s head, arms and legs. As this occurred, a tiny cube slowly began to descend from the metallic sheet of metal, along with a simple, gray-matter brain. The intelligence slowly drifted down towards the head, the head skull itself slowly beginning to open itself, welcoming the brain itself into the skull. As it made its way into the head, the brain itself began to molt, chunks of the brain falling off, only to be replaced by other pieces. Chunks of the brain-matter hooked onto the side of the skull, the objects themselves stretching all across the brain. Electricity surged around the now present wires, which now stretched along the spinal cord. For a few moments, the water appeared to be completely still, until the left arm quivered.
“I…believe…that we’ve done it…” Hannibal’s eyes widened, his mouth gaping at the result of the process. His eyes beamed with pure satisfaction, his hands clenching into a fist. “Our…creation…S.O.S…he lives...! He breathes…and lives, through our efforts.” He placed his index and middle fingers on the sides of his head, laughing a little, almost sadistically. Keln’s hand trailed over her mouth as she gazed down at the being quiver and shake, her muddy brown eyes slowly widening as she glimpsed the being in the pool clench his hands into fists.
“Hannibal, we must get out of here…we don’t know what he is capable of…and we don’t know if he’s hostile…!”
“Oh, he’s hostile... alright…that’s what he’s been programmed for. His name is Sven…and he’s been programmed…to escape, to test himself…to find what he is meant to be…” The ethereal sheet of metal dented inward as the Ghost slowly swam upwards, seeming disoriented, his fist slugging into the metallic surface. The maelstrom contained inside of the metal releasing forks of electricity as he slammed his fist into the metal again, which suddenly gave in to the force, causing it to soar above the pool itself, crashing into the ceiling above. Hannibal laughed maniacally as he spotted the Ghost leap out of the pool, his scarlet eyes gazing around the premises as the sheet of metal landed to cover the water once more.
“Sir, we have got to get out of here…!” Keln’s eyes widened once more, her hand being thrust to the side in anger towards the door nearby. “He’s going to kill you!”
“I’m not worried about that…” Hannibal opened the doors to the booth, the Ghost’s head instantly shooting to the direction of the floating room. “…I want…to be his first kill.”
“Sir…! No…!” Keln reached out towards the back of Ken’s shirt, but he had already leaped down from the safe-haven. As he plummeted down towards the ground, the Ghost’s eyes flashed an intense scarlet, his hands clenching into a fist, his muscles flexing themselves. Within the blink of an eye, the Ghost’s body blurred then became nonexistent, catching Hannibal perfectly so that he was facing the ground, as if he were lying down. His muscles flexed, the veins evident on his arms as he pulled at each side, his scarlet eyes narrowing without a showing of effort. Tendons and muscle were slowly ripped apart, the spinal cord snapping with an audible: crack! In moments, the Dr. Hannibal Ken was ripped in half, the Ghost slinging each of the halves of the body to the side before he could be showered by the blood, the organs themselves spilling out in all directions from the severed body. In that instant, his head turned to face Keln, her eyes widening as she scrambled to rush back into the safety of the booth. The entrance shut itself, steam rising from the door as it then was struck, and a muffled: thud audible as she wrapped her petite arms around her chest, her staring at the door. Cold sweat beaded its way down her cheek as she began to tremble uncontrollably, gripping her shoulders. Immediately afterward, the door cracked with the next muffled sound; she bit down on her lip, a ribbon of crimson slowly running down from her bottom lip. The glass cracked and a gust of wind busted as it did, the Ghost appeared directly in front of her, his scarlet eyes surveying her closely. She slowly began to creep to the wall behind her, her head thumping against it. The Ghost followed her, his blood-stained hands reaching for her.
“N-No…!” Her voice quaked with fear, her muddy brown eyes nearly bugging out of her head. “…Don’t…kill me…!”
As if out of curiosity, he slowly leaned forward, his head tilting to the right side. With this, his eyes dulled, the intensity of the scarlet slowly melding with other hues until it was mixed into a gentle, almost glowing color of blue, which was a soft azure. His pupil was surrounded by a circle, broken apart by tiny arrow-like features. She felt a wave of calmness come over her as she released the grip on her shoulders, staring into his majestic, almost enticing eyes; she let hers droop as he neared her face, but he soon stopped when he was just barely an inch from her lips, his eyes showing signs of never losing moisture. His mouth parted slightly, his deep, almost whispered comment echoing throughout the booth, almost as if he were talking out loud.
“…To die…is my virtue… And to die…is the will…of God…” His body was slowly encased by pearlescent pixels, which appeared to be eating away at his body as they engulfed him, a gust of wind bellowing throughout the room. In seconds he was swallowed by the tiny boxes, appearing to not have existed at all.