《Exitium (dropped)》 Prologue - The UN meeting May 13th, Year 2232 A secret meeting would be happening in the UN this day, concerning a very important subject, so important it had managed to gather all nation leaders, and all the most renowned scientists from all around the world: World destruction. One would ask how did this happen, how would the people there take it... So I''ll answer that- It was absolute chaos. Bottles of water thrown all around, people shouting at every corner. All in a heated up discussion regarding the safety... of their beloved citizens... - As if-. Each and every one of the leaders were devising safety plans for them and their families, ways to escape the calamity they brought upon themselves. Scientist were trying to neutralize the problem, but to no avail, as they knew that something of this scale couldn''t be stopped. Everyone in the room was in panic- but a woman. This woman was called Dr. Yamagiri, but the whole scientific society used the name Yama, because of her unscrupulous and dangerous ways. Yama had been seating on the edge of the room, near the exit, watching people fight with words and even fists, with a glint of amusement in her eyes. After getting enough of the scene, she slowly stood up, walked down the stairs of the circular room, and made her way to the podium in the middle of it. As her high heels hitting the marble floor echoed throughout the room, silence slowly spread, and every eye started to turn toward the mysterious woman that walked calmly towards the its center. After reaching it, walking up the stairs, she simply pressed a button, releasing spotlights on her, and said "Are you all done throwing a fit?" After this, silence was maintained for a bit, some people could be seen red, some yellow, some white, and I think one or two were blue, but let''s not get into details. Silence was broken by the person who got over the surprise- Guess who? Yeah, the US president, wich said, abandoning all civility: "Who the hell are you? What the fuck do you want? And why the hell are we here? Is this some kind of joke?" Taking a bit of time, to stare at the president in disappointment for his lack of chivalry, Dr. Yama sighed, took a deep breath, and answered "My name is Yamagiri, answering your first question, and I am a doctor in Biochemistry and Bioengineering. Jumping to your third and fourth questions, I think the reason you are here is the most important part of this meeting. You are here because the world is ending. While I was occupied with research, I sent my team all around the world to investigate recent events that have been taking place. Strange occurrences, like-" She pressed a button, and holograms appeared behind her, depicting cars that had melted down in the streets, people dead because of asfixiation, and high levels of carbon monoxide, and square kilometers of dead plantations " - the ones shown here. After their research, they conveyed me the same thing you heard at the beginning of this meeting: The world is about to end. But- here''s what you really wanted to know: I have found a way to save our race." Once again panic and chaos broke out. "How are you doing it?" - Said the italian president "I want to participate in this" - Claimed the Russian czar Many other made their statements and requirements regarding participating on Dr. Yama''s experiment, or program per se. In the meanwhile, the doctor called other scientists to the podium, and said, silencing everyone: "This is my team, and we have devised a way to make humans strong enough to inhabit the planet known as Exitium" As she said that, everyone went silent in fear. Exitium was the closest habitable planet, it would be a perfect place for humanity to colonize if they had enough technology to transport masses, if only 80% of the flora and fauna weren''t able to kill humans as easily as breaking toothpicks. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. "Yes, the most dangerous Eden Garden. But not one of you will be able to participate in this program, because of your old age. The experiment we led had a need for large telomers in the DNA, and a somewhat big quantity of telomerase in somatic cells for it to have any chance of success, thus making it necessary the use of children or teenagers- babies and adults are too far off the line." She moved around a bit, took some time to breathe, and continued "There is no hope for us, individuals, but there is for some children, and our race. With this said, Mr. President, I will now answer what I want from every one of you. I want resources and political immunity. Why? Because my research has led me to find a way to make DNA... unstable, but in a not detrimental way. To better explain this, I would use a very old scientist''s theory, Lamarck''s. The subjects'' body and mind will change according to its necessities, and to its psyche. Along with that, my team has developed synthetic organs, wich are much more resilient than our natural ones, so the subjects will undergo surgery along with the DNA modification." She took a pause to pass her hand through her long, blonde hair, and put her glasses back in place, and resumed: "Why I need the resources is simple: the way to make the DNA easily mutable is through a radiation wave, wich is very costly to produce, I would preferrably use the LHC to speed up the process, and all the chemicals needed to protect the useful strands of the DNA are rare." Standing up, and saying in a calm voice, the mexican president, whose country had developed a lot in century XXII, asked: "And what about the transportation means, how will they be sent to the planet? Won''t they grow old during the trip?" Doctor Yama raised her eyes a bit, while touching her galsses in a surprised manner, answered in mockery "Thank you, for showing some brains amidst these gorillas. Our engineering teams devised a capsule, a "Seed" for the transportations, it wild work on inertia of first launch and will carry all of our knowledge, all of our history, and will use all of the state-of-the-art tech we have, so we can only send some few. About the age of the subjects, they will be maintained inside cryogenic chambers, tanks, equipped with life support, and anti-crystalization serum on their veins, to keep their cellular structure stable after the freezing, while they are kept safe from aging." Not giving her the chance to continue, the Brazilian president said "But Doctor! Using radiation is extremely dangerous, won''t you be putting children in danger by doing this? We will have a massacre in our hands!" Yama looked at the man, raised an eyebrow, while putting her glasses halfway down her nose and answered "Dear president, it indeed is a dangerous experiment, but frail as our race is, it will not survive on Exitium... And as I recall, I may have heard you saying something like "The others can go fuck themselves" or the like in your heated up discussion... Actually, I may have heard a lot of you declaring that- But anyway, I serioulsy didn''t think you''d have a problem with that. There''s a saying that goes "you can''t make an omelette without cracking some eggs"" As that phrase sunk in, everyone bowed their heads in shame, and accepted Yama''s project Author note Hey guys, this fiction just got approved, and i''ll start posting new chapters this wednesday, thanks --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.Edit: I got too excited about this, and people liking it, and couldn''t wait until wednesday to write more, so I posted two more chapters, hope you enjoy :3 Chapter 1 - Edens Garden I feel so tired... ... I don''t want to wake up right now ... But it hurts so damn much! I try to pry my eyes open, only to be blinded by a strong light. I try to breathe, but it feels like there''s no air at all... My body is so cold, yet so warm... "What''s going on?" I try to say, panicked, but instead, I wince in pain, from my dry cracking lips. "Where am I? Why am I here?" I think, trying to recall everything that happened recently, but it seems my mind is clouded. The last thing I remember is leaving the front door of my house - ready to go to school - and then... Darkness. Regaining my calm, I realize I started breathing, but something feels wrong with the air... Or maybe right. It feels too pure, too comfortable on my lungs. I remember the feeling and taste of the air at home, and this definitely wasn''t the same. "I need to open my eyes" I think. Taking half a minute to gather courage, I forcibly open my eyes, and resist the pain that comes with the strong light. One minute... Two minutes... Three minutes. Finally, my eyes start getting accustomed to it. And as the agonising white fades, my vision reveals something that I didn''t expect. Green. So much green. I was awestruck by the sheer quantity of trees, birds and grass. I thought plants only existed inside sanctuaries, and only in small quantities, with small species. Enormous trees, with hanging vines all over were spread in front of me. Grass was dancing with the wind on the ground, and the breeze gently caressed my face, bringing a calming feeling that I''d never felt before. Tears rolled down my cheek without me realizing it. Never had I dreamed that I''d live to see such a beautiful scenario. Life was teeming all around, the sky was painted in blue, and no buildings were in sight. Getting a grip on my thoughts again, but still mesmerized by everything, I remembered I was lost, and started to look around. Looking down, I noticed I''d been sitting in some kind of tank all this time, and that there was a big, red, button beside my hip, with the word "instructions" written above it. Nervously pressing it, because of the self-destruction button stereotype, a hologram suddenly appears in front, almost giving me a heart attack. On it, there was a beautiful, blond woman. She wore glasses and a white coat, and stood with a serious face in front of me. A few moments later she started talking: "Hello Nathan, my name is Yama, and I am happy to inform you that you survived an extremely dangerous, compulsory, experiment, that enviosioned the perpetuation of the human species." An experiment? I don''t remember anything... What the hell... "You may not remember some things because of the stress you were under, and because of the nature of your changes. You were subjected to radiation waves that interacted with the molecular structure of your DNA - it made your disulfides bridges and nitrogen bases unstable, making it possible for your genetic code and form to change in short time spans, according to your needs and character. To make it easy for you to understand, it''s possible to say that all subjects of the experiment make Lamarck''s laws true. With your genetic rearrangement, it too became possible to make full use of synthetic organs, so several of your organs were exchanged for stronger and more resilient versions - and because of this, you may experience some inicial discomforts, such as light sensitivity and balance loss." This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Okay, she''s telling me that I was part of a dangerous and compulsory experiment, had my humanity changed, and my organs taken away. This woman is starting to get on my nerves. She, then, continued: "To ensure that the experiment would not be detrimental to your development, we injected several serums on you, with chemical components, along with special polymers that ensure the permanence of the effects. None of your mutations will be useless, nor bad." The hologram paused, and I was relieved. It was so much that had happened in such a short amount of time that I didn''t think I could pay attention to that hologram anymore. I was kidnapped. Experimented on. Violated My mind spun, got lost and hazy. My vision followed. I felt nauseous and threw up on my left. Breathe in, breathe out. This thought turned into a mantra for who knows how long. The hologram had paused, as if it kept track of my state. Slowly, as my calming mantra repeated itself in mind and body, my anxiety faded. Then I focused on the chirping of the birds, again on the melody of shaking grass, my heartbeat was finally slowing down. As soon as I could focus again, the hologram resumed its notice. "You and several successful children have been sent to planet Exitium, which is the closest habitable planet next to Earth. All of you have one single mission there: to survive. As of now, considering you travelled for 30 years, cryogenized, inside your hibernation chambers. Earth has ended. You are the last humans alive..." What? "...Capsules sent from earth contained, each, a full team of four people..." It can''t be... "...You have been assigned as the captain of your team, for your psychological profile and knowledge..." Earth is no more? "...You are to ensure a prosperous location, collect all capsules, put them together, and found a human society to colonize this planet..." Is everyone really dead? "...In the name of our planet, our home, I wish you the best of luck, Nathan Eden, leader of team Eden, and may you and humanity rise once again." The hologram darkened and faded, leaving me all alone in my hibernation chamber, catatonic. I couldn''t move, I couldn''t see nor hear. My home doesn''t exist anymore, my family is dead. Earth is dead. (Proofreader: VQ - leader of the galaxy) Chapter 2 - Team Eden Fifteen minutes. One hour? How long had I been sitting looking at nowhere particularly? I don''t know. But I couldn''t stay there forever. My body hurt all over, but even more so did my heart. And still, with all that aching, I tried to get out of the hibernation chamber... And it definitely was not a good idea. When I pushed my hands against the metal plate under me, I threw myself nearly three meters in the air. And then I fell painfully on the grass. Very painfully. If my nose hit the ground instead of my shoulder, I''m sure it''d be broken. Trying to stand up slowly, I was finally able to balance myself... For five seconds. What the hell is happening to me? Is this because of the synthetic muscles? It took me many tries until I could finally walk normally. While standing, I looked around, and saw a big structure, around 20 meters high, standing 50 meters away from me. That must be one of the capsules. Our capsule. I slowly made my way to it, avoiding rocks on the ground, because they were sharp. Stepping on them was worse than stepping on Lego pieces. As I got closer, I noticed the capsule really looked like a seed - and just when I thought that, I realized there was something written on the capsule hull. It was "Eden Seed". Talk about poetry - you send a seed to the middle of a forest, and call it Eden. The only problem is that this is no garden, dammit. Everyone knows from school that Exitium is the most dangerous planet out there. Hell and paradise all the same. Reaching the "Seed", a bright light flashed at me again. "Fuck!" - I complained, while putting my hands in front of my eyes, blind once again. A robot voice started talking: "Scan complete: Nathan Eden ... Initializing wake up sequence... ... Team vitals stable... ... Ejecting pods." Mechanical sounds screeched after the seed''s notice, and all three pods that were inside the capsule were ejected in a 10-meter radius, making some kind of incomplete circle "Setting protection perimeter - this seed will now attack anything that threatens the subjects health in a hundred meter radius." All the pods opened, letting out a cold fog, because of their low temperature. No movement could be seen inside them yet. "Relaying notice to commander Nathan. This seed has one year''s worth of provisions and water, and will protect Team Eden during this period. Energy sources won''t be necessary as the capsule is equipped with several ways of reestablishing its electric power, such as eolic generators, magnetic generators, that use the planet''s pull as source and kinetic generators." Well, at least it won''t bring trouble "All subjects will be protected during the adaptation time, but when it ends, this capsule will need repairs, and thus need the "Repair Seed", which fell along with another team." ... Shit. "Along with the provision storage, this seed is equipped with a weapon arsenal, provided to ensure your own protection during travelling periods." Well, we have weapons, but I don''t think any of us knows how to use them. "It was required by Dr. Yamagiri to relay that during the experiments made on you. Your brains were enhanced and linked to a microchip, which will interact with your neurons as you enter in contact with the weapon of your choice. It has all the information on how to use all weapons your race could muster. But you are, from now on, advised that ''knowledge and experience are not the same, and you should train yourselves on the use of such weapons''..." The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The voice continued. "It is also required that I warn you that the restriction of touch was made to reduce the strain on your brains while the weapon''s information are being uploaded to your system, as an overload could cause a great amount of pain and trauma. All instructions relayed... ...Initializing ''silent protocol''... Sound shutdown complete." The robot voice said before going into some kind of sleep mode and opening three big compartments. One of them was full of boxes depicting food types, another had shelves filled to the brim with gloves, swords, pistols and daggers, and the last one looked like a room. It had four bedsin on the left corner, a table in the center, something that looked like a kitchen on the right, and two doors in the back, one with a man painted, and another- with a woman. Those must be bathrooms. Thank god we''re not being left for dead... And dirty. Looking back a bit, I saw the three pods still covered in ice and fog, and realized I had some time until I had to meet my teammates. So I ran to the bathroom, first to drink some water, because I was hella thirsty, and had enough of my lips cracking at every movement. As I was seeing the wall-sized mirror in front of me, I was a bit shocked. Why? Because I didn''t look the same. I was sixteen years old, and I was always a bit short for my age, measuring 1.72m. Back home, I had short hair and was very skinny, I was an average male: not handsome, not ugly, just normal. But now... I had around 1.80 meters, my hair stood long till'' my middle back, my face was more handsome, my green eyes stood out more, nasty acne gone and all. It looked like I had some muscles... And the strangest thing - my hair was blond before, but now it''s jet black with reddened ends. Maybe I spent five minutes admiring myself on the mirror... Maybe not... We''ll never actually know. Still in the bathroom, it hit me again that I didn''t have any family left. And it left a bitter taste in my mouth, while I though that I''d easily trade this body to have my parents back. I drank my water, and cleaned my face a bit, ''cause it was kind of sweaty. When I looked to my left I saw a holographic device beside the sink, and activated it. It showed me the following words "Enjoy having the body every teenager wants... And building the one every woman desires. With love, Yama" I instantly broke the damned thing. What''s up with that sadistic doctor anyway, does she like fucking people up? I took the device outside and threw it away as strongly as I could, and the result was utterly satisfying - it flew right out of my vision field, who knows how far away. Still having some time left to look around before the teammates wake up, I decided to take a look at the beds - there was something shiny on the top of them. Looking more closely, I saw that each bed had a military dogtag on top, all of them silver, but one that was golden. I took a peek at the golden one - it had my name on the front "Commander Nathan Eden", and in the back, there was a beautiful drawing of a forest. I decided do wear that dogtag - I''m somewhat weak to art, it mesmerizes me. After putting it around my neck, my curiosity got the better of me, and I looked at necklace on the bed beside mine. Karah Eden, it said... So a girl, then... I wanted to see the other names, but I was hearing some noises outside The Seed and I figured Karah and the unknown others were waking up, so I hastily took some sheets off the bed, took off my shirt and ran to each of the pods, covering the eyes of everyone, and saying "It''ll be alright... you will all be fine, I''ll help you, you are not alone" This will be hard. On everyone. Chapter 3 - Bound by Tears There were two women and a man inside the pods. I remembered the shitty feeling that it was to lay down on metal, and decided to carry everyone to their respective beds. "Hey, everyone!" I shouted "I''m gonna carry all of you to a more comfortable place, so you can get used to everything more easily. I must warn you that I had a really bad time with the light and with my lips, so I suggest you don''t try to talk or open your eyes until I get you to your beds, in the dark" I walked towards the pod in my right, where a girl was lying down. She had beautiful, long brown hair, the face of a model, and a somewhat normal figure, which kind of surprised me, considering the message that fucker left in the bathroom. I told her in a low voice: "Hello there, my name is Nathan, and I''m gonna carry you now, alright?" She nodded with her head, and I proceeded to take her in a princess carry to one of the beds. Reaching the room, I told her: "Well, each bed is assigned to someone already, so I''ll need to figure out your name, before putting you down. Is your name Karah?" She moved her head sideways, negatively. That only left me one option, so I put her on the bed to the left of Karah''s, which had a dogtag registered with the name "Scarlet Eden". "So, your name is Scarlet then. Well, Scarlet, I need to leave for a bit to get the others, but I''ll be back shortly, and I''ll bring water, okay?" Again she nodded, confirming what I had said, so I left and repeated the same process with the other two. Markus Eden, and Karah Eden. All of our surnames had been changed to match our team''s name. Maybe the sadistic doctor did this to create a familiar sensation between us. Enough of the doctor crap. Clearing my thoughts, I resumed my care of the three people to their beds. I brought water, and gave it to each of them. Found something similar to sunglasses inside the arsenal, and put it over their eyes, to help adjusting to the clarity, and covered them with blankets, to fight the cryogenic cold. With this done, I told everyone that while they were trying to get used to things, I''d be taking a bath. I was stinking after that work, and I realized my clothes were dirty all over, from falling around on the grass and the mud. I went to the bathroom, took off my clothes, and threw them in a tube labeled "Dirty Laundry". Just when I did that, the wall right beside the mirror opened, revealing clothes I could wear after the shower. I chose some ripped jeans, a simple, black shirt and combat boots. Of course I took underwear too - damn. After taking those, a panel appeared on the right, asking "Do you want to make this set your default casual clothing?" And displayed the letters Y/N. I pressed Y, and confirmed my choice. I love jeans. Not caring enough to take my dogtag out of my neck, I took a steaming hot shower, and let the heat and flow take away all the tears that spontaneously left my eyes. Even though everything from earth wasn''t lost, everything I had was. I couldn''t handle pretending I was fine for long, and I couldn''t show weakness in front of the others - I was assigned as the team leader, and someone who''s broken can lead no one. So I used the shower excuse to get a grip, and think about what to do, and how to keep us all safe. Done with cleaning myself, and crying my heart out, I got dressed and left. Nervous - and afraid that my sadness would show on my face and that my soon-to-be comrades wouldn''t like me - because, after all, we''d only have each other for a great amount of time. Through the door, I could now see all of them sitting on their respective beds. Karah had already taken off her sunglasses, and was having the same reaction I had with the greenery. She had a wide smile, and sparkly eyes, filled with tears that wouldn''t take long to run down her cheeks. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Scarlet was... Odd? She was shaking her arms all around, looking at me, and screaming "Hi there, I didn''t see you because of the blinds. You''re Nathan, right? Aw, no, that won''t do... That''s it! I''ll call you Nate!" She then gave me a big smile, and tried to get up. Seeing her try that, I panicked and shouted: "No!" She fliched, and looked at me in a questioning way "What''s wrong?" She said "Okay, how do I tell you all this...? Okay. I''ll give you the short version of things, then you can look at the holograms later... I am really sorry to tell you this, but - First: we are not on Earth anymore, this is Exitium, and we''ve been sent here together to build another human society. Second: your body has been altered in many ways, and right now you can be considered as super strong. Third: We will, kind of, acquire new abilities as the need arises." What I said attracted the attention of everyone, and they all stopped doing what they were doing to listen to me. Markus had been messing with his dogtag all this time. "And last of all, but definitely not least, Earth is no more. Our planet... is... dead." Everyone froze. Dammit. Their faces. That sadness. This is going to kill me - but I have to be strong. Not only for myself, but for them, for the rest of humanity - no, fuck humanity, I have to be strong for my family, that got left behind, because they''d surely want me to live my life until the end, to its fullest. I swallowed my sorrow, and said: "I''m sorry. I tried my best to make this as painless as it could, but I''m not able to make it so - it hurts me too, it hurts a lot. But remember. Remember your families, remember your loved ones, and most importantly, remember their wishes: for you to live your life." Lifting my head, I saw Markus and Karah crying, though not moving at all, frozen just like me... And Scarlet. She had a sad smile on her face, and she was still staring at me. I didn''t know what was going through her head at that moment, I couldn''t understand her reaction, that had been so different from all the others, from mine. And while my thoughts were fully chaotic, she slowly tried to stand up, once again - and jumped away, then she suddenly begun falling. I almost didn''t have enough time to catch her. I dashed across the beds and caught her right before her back hit the floor "What are you trying to do?" I asked, clearly worried. She then started crying, hugged me and said while sobbing: "I can see your pain, Nate. Don''t hide it. We all feel the same." So much to be seen through so easily, I think, as some tears form on my eyes again. "You want to know why I smiled, Nate?" She asked "Why?" I said "Because you''re a good person. Thank you" She told me, before letting go of my chest. I offered her help when she was trying to stand up, and she accepted it. We slowly walked back to her bed, and she sat down. I gave her a weak smile, and whispered a silent "thank you" with my lips Walking back a bit, I called out to everyone. And said "Everyone, as of today, we are Team Eden. We won''t be united by the wishes of our ancestors. We won''t be united by the mission given to us. We won''t be united by need. We will be bound to each other by our sorrows, our sadness, until we can turn it into happiness. Let all these tears represent a pact between us, one that lets us come together to stay alive. Let us be bound by these tears" I said, letting the salty water overflow from my eyes, clouding my vision. Chapter 4 - What Lurks in The Night Eventually, everyone''s tears had run dry, but no sound came out of their mouths. A silent agreement hung on the atmosphere, keeping them in focus and getting lost in their own thoughts. The only sound that could be heard was the sizzling of grease over fire. Becoming worried about the others, I decided to cook something. I ventured inside the storage and found some meat, vegetables and juice jars, and brought them to the kitchen. Karah, the short girl, with about 1,50m, with short, black hair looked at me. She has hazel eyes with greens strands - beautiful. She looked at what I was doing, got up and walked towards me. When she reached my side, she gave me a little punch in the arm, and took the frying pan behind me, smiling slightly, while putting it over the fire. I was happy with that, and still not saying anything, I sliced the meat in beef, and gave it to her, along with the fat needed so it didn''t burn. As the pleasant smell of fried meat got up in the air, Markus, the blond haired boy, around 2cm shorter than me, and with a build bulkier than mine, joined the kitchen. He sat on the long table that stood between the kitchen and the "living room" and started playing with his dogtag again. He had taken the badge off the chain, and was throwing it up and catching, like it was a coin, making a pleasant, chiming noise each time his thumb hit the metal. Scarlet was also already up, and looking through the balcony at the forest all this time, but as soon as she saw the gathering, she joined us. The pleasant smell only got better, as the vegetables were added to the frying pan. Rice was cooking on the right, and I used the juice and some spices to make gravy for the meat, in the back. Seeing me cooking skillfully, everyone raised their brows while looking at me, almost asking "What? You know how to cook? But you''re a boy!" I shook my head, dejected, smiled to them and said: "I used to cook together with my mother, back in Earth, so I kinda learned my way through the kitchen" The solemn atmosphere came back, because I mantioned my mother. "Sorry" each of them said, in a low voice. I, then, answered: "It''s alright. As long as I''m alive, she is too" and I made an effort to give them my best smile. It was heartwarming to see they cared. I finished making the food, and distributed to everyone, giving them plates. And man, it was so good seeing their satisfied faces. Sun had begun to set outside, and the sky looked like molten lava, it was truly a beautiful sight. So beautiful that after eating, everyone gathered at the balcony. After a few minutes, I begun speaking: "Guys, as you all know, we are in Exitium. This might be the most beautiful thing we''ve ever seen, but it doesn''t change the fact that we are in extreme danger." I got their attention, so I continued. "Before saying anything else, I need to ask you all something. I was chosen as leader of this team, wich is shown in my dogtag" Then I bring up my golden medal up my palm and show them "Do any of you object that decision?" Karah punched me in the shoulder again, Scarlet was looking angrily at me and Markus shook his head. "Why are you all angry? Did I do anything?" I was beginning to get nervous, because of their reactions. "Yes you did." Scarlet said "You asked a stupid question. You spent all day taking care of us, worried to your wit''s end. You made us food. You tried to lift our moods. Damn us if we reject someone who cares about us like you do" Calming down, I sighed and said: "You guys scared the shit out of me, dammit. I was getting all worried you''d gotten angry with me outta nowhere" Then everyone laughed, before I continued "Well, with that issue solved, I want to propose that we train on fighting everyday, sparring and stuff. And besides that, you all still need to get the bomb in each of your tanks..." I say sighing. They all got scared for a moment, and realizing my mistake, I corrected myself: "Not literally a bomb, just a very irritating message from a sadistic doctor... Anyway, it''s starting to get dark, and I don''t think I wanna know what lurks around at this hour." "Well then, I think we should all go to sleep" Markus added. "Agreed, we got a long day tomorrow" I answered. Then, I said out loud: "Initiate lockdown protocol" This was one of the commands I learned for the seed. There was a list of commands on the wall beside my bed. After saying that, mechanical noises were made again, and the balcony opening was closed by three consecutive metal blinds, leaving only thin stripes, that let us see a bit of the outside, and kept a constant breeze inside the room. To ensure the lockdown, I put on a glove I caught in the arsenal earlier, and punched the blind with all my strength. It didn''t even budge - good. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Giving everyone the "ok", we all went to sleep. The beds were lined up from right to left in the following order: Me, Karah, Scarlet and then Markus. It didn''t take long before everyone fell into a dreamless sleep, mentally exhausted. Four hours was the time I had to rest, before my ears caught the noise of ruffling leaves outside, it seemed like something very heavy was approaching the seed - so I hastily got up and equipped my gloves, glad that I went to sleep fully clothed. I didn''t explain before, but the gloves I got had a kinetic gerenator, when I activated the "Shock mode", it generated electricity with the movement of my arms and punches, and discharged on whatever it hits. Inside the box where I found it, there was an explanation, mentioning that it also made an electrostatic field around me, impeding the shock of hitting back, as if I was inside a Faraday Cage. Everyone woke up along with me, but I told them to keep quiet and wait, while I did the recon of the outside. I said "initiate visual recon" And a hologram appeared in front of me, displaying the surroundings of the seed. Nothing appeared wrong, but I felt the presence of something - it was unsettling. I activated my glove''s shock mode, and said "Lockdown: exception for Nathan Eden" While walking towards the blind. When I reached it, it suddenly opened up, letting me through, and closed when I reached outside. The doctor wasn''t lying when she said our eyes were enhanced. I could almost see as clearly as day, even in the moonless night before me. Crouching and moving slowly and noiselessly in the grass, I paid attention to my surroundings, trying to find the threat. Feeling strange, I stopped. Something was wrong. Everything was too silent, the tall grass around me had stopped making noises. And when this happened, I heard the breathing of a huge animal. If not for that, I wouldn''t have reacted fast enough to avoid the enormous paw that swung at me from my right. I jumped to the side, rolling on the ground - and looking at my arm - there were three big cuts, where blood was flowing out. Dammit, it has claws. I finally caught the sight of my enemy. It was a huge, black wolf, standing 2,5m high, ten meters away from me. I started shaking my right arm slowly, to generate electricity, and my glove started glowing blue, as an arc of energy formed in front of it, breaking the dielectric resistance of the air. The adrenaline in my system made my heart rate spike, and suddenly fist fighting skills dominated my mind. All of this happened in the short span of 5 seconds, as I had a stare contest with the wolf. The wolf then bared its teeth, tensed the muscles on his hind legs, and leaped at me with unearthly speed. But my senses were focused to the max, I had seen his muscles tense, I expected him to jump - and I had the confidence from the fighting skills I''d been shown. As the wolf was about to catch me between his jaws, I used a boxing sidestepping technique, and threw a lightning fast jab at the side of its head. The speed and strength of the punch were so ridiculous that my gloves spread tentacles of light that turned the grass all around to cinders, before touching the wolf, and instantly killing it, frying his brain. I looked at the wolf on the floor, and fell on my knees, after confirming it was dead. All the strength in my body faded along with the adrenaline. How did I do this? I never thought I could fight. Still on the ground, I let my back rest on the body of the dead wolf. But some other sound spread out in front of me, which made my heart race again. Preparing for another fight, I lay in silence and wait for the attacker... But it never came. What appeared before me was a baby wolf, a white, blue-eyed, half-meter-high, pup. It approached me slowly, looked at the body of the black wolf behind me, then looked at me. It stared me in the eyes for a few moments, started getting closer, and reaching my feet, it bowed its head. Remembering a bit about Earth wolves, they always accepted the strongest of the pack as their Alpha, the one whose order they must abide. And seeing this, I realized it recognized me as its Alpha. Lifting its head again, it got even closer, and it sat down beside my hip, under my bleeding arm, and licked my bloodied hand. I smirked a bit, always having loved animals, and petted it on the neck. Not seeing the blood mark on its neck, I accidentally touched an injury, which made me receive a bite, and another bleeding hole in my hand. "Sorry, little pup, I''ll be careful next time" Then I got up, and headed towards the seed again, bloodied all over, and accompanied by a baby wolf. Chapter 5 - Werewolf I will not get into details about how the girls criticized me for leaving alone, as I walked inside, painted red from head to toe- and how Markus simply fell on the floor, and laughed so hard he started crying, seeing my serious face, with a bloody puppy in my arms, as if I went to a pet shop and bought a dog. I didn''t hear even one word from them, I''d fought a giant wolf- and definitely wasn''t in the mood to hear sermons. I simply walked to the bathroom, with the wolf- yes, the wolf. There''s no way in hell I''d let it run around without giving it a bath first. Entering the bathroom, I found the MedKit on the wall, got some local anesthetic, line and needle. But when I was about to apply it to my arm, I noticed the blood on the injury had already clotted, wich was strange. I removed the crust over it, but pink skin had already formed below. Two possibilities. One: the DNA changes enhanced all of us, our metabolism. Two: I got this during my fight with the wolf. Anyway, I only used the medical supplies on my wolf. I stitched the cut on its neck, probably given by its mother, pushing it away when she smelled me. Done with the stitching, I pushed it inside the shower, and took of my clothes. Rumor has it that I used an entire shampoo flask trying to get rid of the wet sock smell that emanated from the fur. During this bath, I found out the wolf was a female. I scratched hear ears, rubber her back, scrubbed in between her toes... and then began searching for parasites, and goddamn, did I find them... Hundreds of fleas and ticks, all around her body... it was time to genocide. Done washing her, and leaving a trail of dead insects over the drain, I put her out of the shower, on the carpet, and finished cleaning myself, watching her roll around like crazy on the floor, trying to dry herself. I left the shower, and put on my casual clothes, similar to the last ones the seed had provided. But, before leaving the bathroom, I looked at my arm in the mirror, and saw there were three lines marked in white on my skin. The wolf claws left a scar. I took a hair dryer from a drawer under the sink, called the wolf, and left the bathroom with a towel over my shoulder. Markus, that had managed to stop laughing while I showered, fell on the floor again, seeing the little she wolf on my heels, and a hair dryer on my hands. Scarlet joined Markus- and I have to admit, the scene was too much even for me to handle, and I started laughing too. Karah was frozen beside the eletric jack, by my bed, with sparkly eyes, waiting for me... or rather the wolf... She whispered repeatedly "Hairy baby..." "Heyo, Karah, wanna meet my new friend? It''s a she, and doesn''t have a name yet, wanna help me pick one? " Her face lit up in a wide smile and she blurted "Diana!" "So fast?" I asked Her cheeks got a little red when I asked, then she started fidgetting with her hands before saying "When you came all bloodied, with her, the only thing I could see well was the bright white fur on her face. It looked like the moon, thus the name Diana appeared in my head- a moon goddess. But if you didn''t like it, I have lots of others you can choose from like Omega, Artemis, Lupa, Selene..." Then she continued rambling a list of names that seemed to come out of werewolf movies and books. I''d rather give a goddess name to my little pup "It''s alright, i like Diana!" Then I turned to the little wolf that lay between my feet, scared of Karah, and said "And what do you think? You like Diana?" Strangest of all, is that my feelings stirred a bit, when I called the her Diana, and she barked at me. I felt... acceptance? Nah, I must be tired from the fight Still looking at the wolfie at my feet, I remembered the need to dry her up. Put the towel on the floor Put the wolf on the towel Put the plug on the socket Put the dryer over the wolf Groom the wolf And like that I spent one full hour drying Diana During this full hour, Karah sat beside me, and petted Diana. It was funny seeing both girl and wolf faces in bliss. Scarlet and Markus soon joined the petting session, and we got a very happy Diana. When she was fully dry, I let her run around the place, and said "Recognize partner: Diana. Race: Wolf" The seed flashed a scan across the room, and answered "Partner acknowledged and recorded" "Well, now it''s over. We all have a pet wolf, and she''ll be protected by the seed" I told everybody, and smiled When I said that, Scarlet approached me, and punched me in the stomach. She didn''t know how to control her strength yet, and I was sent tumbling on the floor, not able to breathe. "What the hell, Nathan! The seed will protect us at night, there was no need for you to fucking go out of the defense perimeter! What were you thinking?!" She yelled Then Markus joined in "Yeah, man. It was uncool of you to leave us here like we were of no use at all. We could''ve helped you, you know?" Karah was still lost in Diana''s fluffiness, and didn''t join in the conversation/beating. And Diana couldn''t come to my aid, because she was trapped in Karah''s arms. She yelped, and barked twice, but stopped when I got up again. I felt more worry than pain or confusion as I was thrown by Scarlet, wich, again, is very strange. It was like some things I felt didn''t come from me. Anyway, I stood up again, breathing once more, I was greeted by a very worried and still angry Scarlet. She had her blue, teary eyes right in front of my mine, her reddened face suggested shame and worry "Nate! I''m so sorry, I don''t know how I did that! Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. I sighed and answered "This is precisely why I didn''t take you. I''ve been awake much longer than you- and got a hang of controlling my strength. And I left the perimeter because some animal have a pack mentality, such as wolves. If the one that caught our scent were left alive, we''d have an entire pack waiting around our camp, making it hard for us to explore and train ourselves." Scarlet pouted and said "Alright, but promise us next time you''ll take us along to help" I took a few second to consider, but agreed to it, realizing I''d be helping them get used to their bodies in the following day Markus punched my arm weakly and said "Don''t worry us like that, bro." Then walked away to his bed. I did the same in the direction on mine, and declared "Okay people, no more trouble tonight. Let''s have a good night ourselves, and train tomorrow. I laid down on my bed, and looked do my left, where Karah slept, only to find Diana sleeping in her arms, being used as a plushie, while she too slept. That got a smile on my face, and my thoughts drifted to how Diana must be feeling... and when I did this, I got a calm and warm feeling... This isn''t mine- I think, certain that those feelings weren''t born in me. Maybe I have some link with the wolf... It''s better to leave this issue to tomorrow morning, I though, as exhaustion took me over to dreamless slumber once again. This time all of us got at least seven hours of sleep. I was the first to wake up. Why, you ask? Because of the damn loud noises that echoed everywhere. I opened my eyes, and once again was blinded by the light, the same shit that happened on the pod- I was beginning to get angry. It sounded like three giants snored right beside my ear, and tempest raged outside on the blades of grass. I had my eyes closed, and tried to stand up, fearing I had lost control of my muscles again. But it was fine, the only problem was my balance- I felt every change in my body. I felt too much. I stumbled around until I hit the wall, and punched it, out of anger. I felt the metal of the wall deform a bit, and let myself fall on the floor, frustrated with my regress. Again I''d have to force my eyes open, again I''d have to endure the pain. Just before I opened my eyes, I felt something being put on my face. I couldn''t even hear anything anymore, it was chaos. Opening my eyes slowly, and preparing for the pain, I realized it never came. Over my eyes were the same sunglasses I''d put on my teammates to reduce the light sensivity, and in front of me were four pairs of eyes. Blue, Greeny-Hazel, Gray, and Blue with green threads... Wait. Blue and green? Focusing on the face, rather than the eye, I noticed whose eyes they were: Diana''s Ah, I finally understood what happened. The bite, her blood, my blood, both mixing. My unstable DNA, and her favorable characteristics. Dammit "I became a fucking werewolf" I said ironically, not even hearing my voice This earned some strange looks from everyone, so I said "I got a DNA mutation, give me some time to get used to it. In the meanwhile, each one go to your respective pods and listen to the fucker''s message, you''ll understand what happened to me." Dismissing them. Seeing everyone hurrying to the tanks, worried, I crawled over to the balcony, accompanied by Diana, and tried to get used to the hyper-sensitive hearing. After twenty minutes, the sounds started to fade. I could select what I wanted to hear, filter sounds, and control the volume somewhat. "Hell yeah! I did it, dammit" I screamed, joyful With the pain subsided, I could feel worry, and a comforting feeling, in the back of my mind. Looking down, I realized Diana had her head over my legs all this time, and looked at me worriedly. "Is this coming from you, Dia?" I asked her She lifted her head, and sat down, looking at me and tilting her head slightly to the side, just like those little dogs did back on Earth Confusion, again in the back of my mind. Yeah, this was definitely coming from her. Using my cultural knowledge on animal talking, I tried to "direct" a feeling to her. Affection, I tried send, while looking at her fluffy ears She whimpered, and tried stick her nose on my hand, that supported me while I sat. "One success, girl." I said, becoming happy, and petting her. She''d become really fluffy after all that shampoo and hair conditioning... Resuming the experimentation, I tried sending images this time- I sent the image of my dogtag, that was around my neck. A second later she barked, and playfully took my dogtag in her mouth. I smiled and said in a funny voice "Two sucesses! What a smart girl you are!" Whilst messing with her fur. After i stopped, she took a step back, and looked into my eyes. Then it happened. My mind was assaulted by a vision of my fight with the giant wolf, seen from between strands of long grass. The streaks of blue that travelled up and down around the glove, giving an eerie glow to the surroundings, my sidestep and killing blow. Everything seen from where Dia had been. When the vision ended, I pushed myself away from her, and screamed "Holy fuck!" Catching the attention of my comrades, who ran towards me as fast as they could, afraid something bad happened And in the meanwhile, Dia bombarded me with "curiosity" and "worry". Markus held my shoulder, because I was shaking, and Karah asked what happened. "Holy shit... I saw it" I said "Saw what, Nathan? Calm down!" Karah pleaded "I saw through Diana''s eyes" Chapter 6 - The Sparring Match Yo, guys, Author here, I changed some things in the chapter Bound by Tears, so what happens in this chapter makes more sense, thanks for reading :3 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Scarlet, Karah, and Markus all had strange faces And Markus asked "Hey man, are you sure you''re fine? Wouldn''t it be better for you to go rest for a while, and leave me in command in the meanwhile?" With a smirk Then I answered angrily "What''s up with you now? Didn''t you learn anything from the hologram on your tank, dammit? We are all susceptible to fast and definite changes in our bodies, the only thing wrong with me is that I don''t know exactly what changed. You know what- leave me alone for a bit, got set a training field five meters away from the seed, and I''ll be there shortly." Then shook my head, and let it fall on my hand, with the famous facepalm. Markus threw his hands up, as if surrendering, and left. Karah soon followed, but throwing back some worried glances. Scarlet stood in the same place, looking at me. Diana seeing me unmoving with my head in my hand, came closer, and poked my arm with her nose, trying to get my attention- but to no avail. Realizing I wouldn''t move, she simply walked to the space between my legs, and laid down, with her head on my lap. Scarlet then went behind me, sat down, and let her back rest against mine, and just stayed there for a bit, silent. After something like ten minutes, I said "I''m sorry for exploding like that- I was nervous, afraid- them comes Markus with that shit about not being well, and giving up command, I just couldn''t take it." I felt Scarlet taking a deep breath through my back, then she told me "It''s alright. I know why you did that, and I understand, you''ll be fine, Nate." Then continued "But still... I don''t get why Markus is acting that way. It seems he gets distant around you... We chatted a lot when you were giving Dia a bath, and he was much brighter and funny. I just don''t know what''s gotten into him. Anyway, I''m sorry he said that Nate, but you should talk to him later, see what''s wrong, okay?" "Fine" I said, sighing If he had some problem with me, he shouldn''t have agreed on my command yesterday, dammit Deciding I had enough of doing nothing, I touched Dia, signaled her to follow me, and told Scarlet to join the others. Then I went into the seed''s storage, got some meat slabs, two pots, and headed to the kitchen. There I filled one with water, sliced the meat, and filled the other with it. I put both on the ground, and said "Dig in, this is me apologizing for scaring you" to Diana She sent me "happiness" and devoured all the meat. I smirked a bit, seeing my happy pet- and decided to go to the "training field" I asked them to set. But first, I went to the arsenal, because I couldn''t have gloves as my main weapon, it was too limited. I''d decided I would get a sword and a pistol too, the gloves only being my last resort. Walking over to the the firearms shelf, I found out that each of them had a 1.5 meter long, bladed pole on the left. I walked over to the information section each shelf had, and read that the poles were processors- when I ran out of ammo, I''d have to stick the pole on the ground, so it would collect the minerals required to make more bullets, and process them, producing the shells and spare ammo containers. Smart, definitely smart. The pole also ran on kinetic energy, I''d have to move it around a bit until it had enough energy to make the bullets. Understanding how the ammo system worked, I finally chose my gun. It was a fully black desert eagle, its weight and size pleased me. The gun and pole straps allowed me to keep the pole across my back, and the gun on my hip. I looked like an assassin monk. Not changing my mind, even though I technically had three weapons, I walked over to the sword side. I''d already decided that a katana would be my choice, because I''d always loved them, and they would potentialize my defense, because of their flat side. So I got the the shelf and tried the katanas, until I found a black one, with good weight and lenght, and strapped it on the left side of my hip, opposite to the gun. Great, now I looked like a samurai assassin monk, with my long hair moving with the wind and my hand resting on the katana''s hilt. But something went wrong. Pain stormed through my head, as several images, showing warriors fighting with swords, poles, guns and fists flashed in my mind. It was too much information being poured in my brain "Stop" I tried to scream, but no words left my mouth, and the world darkened before my eyes. Wet My face was wet What is happening? I open my eyes and see blue eyes with green strand staring at me Damn, that why my face was wet "Stop it, Dia!" I say, annoyed at all the licking and poking What happened? I question myself, while Dia bombards me with worry. I was on the ground Ah, now I remember- the pain. I fainted. I tried to sit up straight, but the world whirled around me. Why is this happening to me? It one unfortunate event after the other. I search my brain for something, and am surprised by what I know of fighting now. That''s it! The chip! Gods, how I''m stupid- I overloaded myself with four weapons. I''d better warn the others before they do the same. Standing up, but still unable to walk straight, I trip around until I reach door, and call Karah. "Hey Nate, everything fine? And you look like one of those anime characters, like, a samurai, or monk" She says "Not exactly... but I''ll tell you shortly. Can you help me walk to the training field?" I ask She nods, and puts my arm over her shoulder to support me. This kinda looks like I''m hitting on her, because she''s like, 1,50, and I''m leaning on her. Shut up, thoughts. Getting there, I see they did a pretty good job. There was a rectangular cut on the grass, marking the sparring field, there was a firing range, and some... wooden puppets with rotating sections, set on the ground? Where did they find this? Anyway, things look pretty good. Letting go of Karah, who had a smile on her face, I sat down on the grass and thanked her "Yup" she said, and sat down in front of me, waiting so I''d tell her what happened I called the others and waited until they''d gotten near before telling them If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it."Guys, I forgot to tell you all something- don''t choose many weapons at once, in the arsenal." "Oh, and why''s that?" Said Markus, in a mocking tone "Because you''ll pass out, just like me" I looked into his eyes, then continued "A chip in your heads loads fighting info when you choose a weapon, and it will overload your brain if you choose too many at once. It caused me an enormous amount of pain, because I chose four. So I''d recommend you get only two kinds of weapons for now. Anyway, you should all go to the arsenal and pick what you want, so we can start training" Scarlet then gave me a thumbs up, and said "Okay!" Before skipping her way to the arsenal Markus simply left And Karah gave me another smile, and left me with Diana After they left, I decided to test the firing range, there were two types of target, the circular one, for bows, and a plate, painted with a target. I moved to twenty meters from the plate, took my gun from the hip, aimed, and pressed the trigger *click* Shit, I forgot to unlock it I press the trigger again *click* You''ve gotta be kidding me No freaking ammo. I sigh, return the gun to its strap, and take the pole that was on my back. I started spinning it, with my two hands, very fast. Somehow I had muscle memory. I looked like a human fan, spinning the pole so fast it could only be seen as a blur- until it started to shine white. I stopped the spinning, and looked at it- four holes had opened slightly above the blade, and the handle opened up a socket. Doing like the instructions said, I stabbed the ground with the spear-like pole, and waited. Electrical and mechanical sounds chimed from within, and then from the socket jumped out a cartridge filled with ammo. I took it, and loaded the gun- forgetting the pole was still stuck on the ground. Finishing loading the weapon, I looked to the pole, and facepalmed mysef, because it''d spat another five cartridges. I hurried and took it off the ground, seeing that where the four holes had been, the earth had been consumed. Back to shooting- this time I knew the gun was loaded, and made sure it was unlocked I aimed and pressed the trigger thrice *tat* *tat* *tat* Loud noises rang, signaling the gun worked, and the bullets hit the plate where the target was. I almost didn''t feel the recoil I locked the gun again, and put it on my hip, then walked closer to the target. My bullets hit the area outside of it- damn My accuracy is bad, I need to work on that I tried my hand at shooting during the time the three got their weapons, and managed to at least be able to hit the circle, though not the center yet. When they got out, I could see their weapons of choice. Scarlet got a metallic, edged whip and a short bow, and also had some stuff on her hands I couldn''t identify Karah had two daggers on her hip, and a spear on her back Markus had a bastard sword in his hand and a chakram, an edged circle witha a handle in the center, on his hip Well... they sure looked ready for a fight. When Scarlet got closer, she placed five belts on my hands, and said "Strap to your pulses, heels and hip- it''s an armor" And did exactly what she said on herself Apparently, Karah and Markus had already equipped theirs. I did what she asked, and saw a little light blinking on the hip belt. I touched it, and instantly a black layer of who-knows-what covered my body until the neck. It seemed even my clothes had turned black "It''s some kind of polymer that increases blunt and cutting resistence, or at least, that''s what the info on the shelf said" Scarlet explained, and skipped her way to the wooden puppets. "Nate, I''m gonna try the spear a bit, okay? You need anything, call me" Karah said, and left towards the circular firing range Marcus was looking at his blade, distracted and did nothing Curious once again, I decided to test the defense of the armor. I took my katana from its sheath, pressed against my arm, and tried to cut it. It only made a metallic noise, and no damage was done to my skin, nor the armor. Hell, why didn''t I have this during the wolf fight? I though, while deactivating the armor. Markus looked at me with a strange expression on his face and asked "Hey, Nate, wanna give sparring a go?" I though this was a good chance to know what was wrong with him, and train all the same, so I agree, and we walked to the rectangular sparring field. Getting there, each of us headed to one end of the rectangle, and set the rules. No injuries, and only two weapons per fight. I chose the katana and glove He only had two weapons We both activated our armors, and he said "Good luck, wereboy" And dashed at me, not giving time for an answer He ran with his sword held down at his hip, and reaching me, he stopped, and used the leverage to throw an upward slash. I dodged it by moving back a step, and expected an opening, because of the sword''s weight, but what came to meet me was a kick, that hit square in my chest. He used the upward force of the slash to jump and do a rotating kick. Then fell on his feet, while I was sent two meters away flying, outside the "arena". "One point for me!" He said, smirking I shook my head, surprised, and walked back into the sparring area. "Let''s go again" I said And this time, unsheated my katana and took a defensive stance, waiting for him. Once again he came dashing, but threw a downward slash, wich I redirected with my weapon. While I threw his sword in another direction, I put my feet behind his, getting in close range, and pushed him, using the hilt of my blade, throwing him to the ground. But before falling completely, he''d managed to take the chakram from his hip, and blocked my sword, before I put it over his neck. He then threw the the bladed circle at me- and I caught it, not hurt, because of the gloves I wore. This gave him time to jump away and once again grab his bastard sword. I threw his chakram back at him, thinking it was unfair that he fought with only one weapon- but to my surprise, instead of catching it, he sped towards me. In my confusion, I couldn''t react, and ended with a sword touching my neck Again I had lost Markus then said aloud "Huh, maybe someone with more fighting skills should be on command..." Chapter 7 - The Mission That was enough for me. I pulled my dogtag chain with all the strenght I could muster, splattering metal balls everywhere, and threw it at his feet "You want it, Markus? Have it. I don''t care about being the commander, I just wanted to keep us all safe and well." I turned around and left to the bow/spear firing range, without looking back- but I heard Scarlet''s steps reaching him. Diana followed me close, as I approached the field, and jumped over my chest, when I threw myself on the ground. I hugged her and messed with the fur, enjoying the extreme fluffiness she provided. She then left my chest, and started looking at me, sending "affection" and then "worry" Not understanding what she wanted, I sent her back "confusion" And to my surprise, she answered with images of my fight with Markus, and me breaking my necklace ... this little wolf is getting smarter I sent her back "calm" and a memory of me shaking his hand, showing that I''d try to make up with him, then patted her. Karah, who''d been shadow training, and throwing her spear at the target, saw me having some kind of stare contest a wolf, came closer, and asked me what I was doing- to wich I couldn''t find other answer than "Talking with Dia" Karah couldn''t handle my serious face while answering, and fell into laughter "Man, how can you say that with such a serious face? Hahahahaha!" And after stopping she asked "But really now, how does that work? Is she able to use words?" "Not... yet. We communicate thought emotions, I think, and then through ''pictures'' or ''videos''. But little Dia is getting smarter by the day. She was showing me her worry about me and Markus right now" I answered "Wow... wait, what was that about you and Markus?" She asks Damn me and my mouth slips. I sigh and answer "He was pissing me off, wanting to be commander and whatever, since my troubles with Dia, and I had enough. I broke my dogtag chain and gave it to him, he can command for all I care, but I''ll still do my best to keep you all safe" "Pffff" Karah stutters and giggles a bit, then says "I think I know why he wants to be commander" "Why?" I ask, curious "I think he''s got a crush on Scarlet, judging by the way he looks at her- and Scarlet respects you a lot, because you take things seriously, always has good ideas, and takes care of us. Maybe he thinks that being commander will impress her..." She says I couldn''t handle that "Are you kidding me? All that bitching around because of a fucking crush? We''re stranded in the middle of a hellhole of death, and he''s like that?" I simply let my head drop between my hands while hearing Karah''s giggles. Soon she stopped, went behind me and gave me a hug. "And thanks for that part about protecting us" she said while ruffling my hair. Then she let go of me and ran towards the main room, leaving me stunned on the grass with the baby wolf. "Women are strange, Dia..." After hearing that, she sent me "confusion" I just laughed and said "Exactly" While getting up. I spent the rest of the day shadow training, meditating on my fight and playing around with Dia. When the sun was about to set, I decided to go back to the seed. I walked back, with the wolf on my heels, again and walked in the room, to a cooking Karah, and an exhausted Scarlet. Markus was playing with the golden dogtag I had. I sighed and commanded "Seed, recognize new leader: Markus Eden, and relay instructions." And after a pause "Seed, provide tracker and dogtag named ''Diana Eden''" After that, a tube went down over the kitchen table, and dropped three dogtags, and an injection pistol. I walked over to it, picked up my new silver tag, put Diana''s on her neck, and injected a tracker on her, so I''d find her on any occasion. "Hey, new leader, catch!" I told Markus as I threw his golden necklace at high speed Scarlet looked strangely at me as if asking what happened, and I motioned "forget it" with my hands. Then I asked Karah if she wanted help in the kitchen. She blushed and said "No", and that it was her turn to surprise us. I pointed towards the bathroom, looked at Diana and told "Wait for me there" To wich she answered with "fear", "acceptance" and "affection", and walked slowly. What''s up with her and baths, I rid her of hundreds of insects that made her scratchy, and she still doesn''t like it. Whatever. I walked closer to the wall beside the kitchen, where there was a tube, put some kind of grass, that exhaled a good smell, told the seed to analyze its properties and left to the boy-wolf cleaning, and drying. When I finished everything, Karah shouted from across the room "Hey, Nate! Tomorrow Dia''s mine, you already spent two full days with her, and gave her two baths!" I looked at the little wolf, who was sending me "fear" and bits of "panic", laughed and said "Nothing I can do about that, pup" And sent her "calm" and "acceptance", that made her sad to the point of whimpering Wich got a laughing session from me and Scarlet, and a pouty face from Karah. After this episode we went to sleep And the next three days were spent like that. Training, wolf-cuddling, and idle banter between me and the girls. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.Markus spent his time playing chakram-throwing at the seed''s hull, and admiring his sword- as apparently he had found some button that made its edges heat up, and the sword would light up in red. In the end of the third day, thinking it was strange for only his weapon to have some special function, I called the girls, and told them to search for hidden mechanisms in theirs. I found a button on the hand guard of my katana, that turned it into a vibroblade. Scarlet found out that, by turning her whip''s handle clockwise, it''d shrink and become a rapier. Karah''s knives had blades that could be shot out of the hilt, connected by a wire. It was something like a grappling hook- and her spear functioned just like my gloves This was the day the techno-fighting-geeks were born. Three pairs of eyes sparkled constantly in awe with the discovery of their weapons'' functions. I had another idea, wich was to try equipping the armor on Dia- I needed to protect my baby- and she would eventually grow up, and fight with us. So the third day ended with new discoveries, and a black Diana running around everywhere, afraid of herself... We all went to sleep after that- and of course Diana was trapped in Karah''s hug Fourth day began A loud noise rang inside the main room, waking up three humans and a wolf Markus had woken up when the sun rose, and was hitting a frying pan with his sword Karah woke up moody and said "What the fuck, Markus?" With her hair all messed up Scarlet threw a pillow at him, and hid herself under the sheets Diana jumped out of the bed and started growling and barking I just gave up, ignored him, and went to the bathroom, to brush my teeth, and clean my face. "Today we have a mission!" Markus tried to start But me and Karah cut him "Whatever. Later, man" I said "Fuck you, Markus, I''m going to the bathroom" And we both went to our respective bathrooms, leaving a very disturbed Markus behind. Scarlet had went back to sleep After a cold shower, brushing my teeth, and taking a look at my eyes, I left -they had really become kind of blue, it was cool, looked like lightning had spred through them. Just as I walked the door, so did Karah. She wore yellow and pink pajamas, and had brushed her hair. It was all down again. I came closer and said "Good morning, moody beast" with a smile She blushed and said "Go to hell you too" "Already there" I told, then ruflled her hair, while saying "Nice hair" Nedless to say I was slapped and punched several times by a beet-red little girl, who went back to the bathroom with disheveled hair once again. Then I went to the corner of the room, equipped all my armor and weapons, then proceeded to the kitchen, and began making breakfast. "Say it after breakfast, Markus" I told the blond boy who was sitting across the table And he simply grunted in answer I finished breakfast- two natural sandwiches for each person, and two fried eggs, along with banana vitamin. I put everything over the table, and said "Scarlet! Breakfast ready" She instantly jumped out of her bed, startling Dia, who''d been lying down over mine, and ran to the table with a smile. How the hell her hair wasn''t in full disorder is a mystery I can''t unravel. She began eating voraciously. Then I put Dia''s meat- wich was already separated- in her pot, before taking my plate and beginning to eat slowly Markus didn''t even look at the food And Karah sped up, seeing the food, when she left the bathroom again While we ate, Markus tried to begin talking again, but this time Scarlet interrupted him "Eating time! This is a sacred time- no speaking!" And put a finger over her lips Karah giggled, I smirked, and Markus blushed Yeah, seems Karah was right... how do I deal with this, then? We all finished the sandwiches, then left to suit up for the day. And Markus finally got to say what he wanted, while we did. He said "Soldiers, we know too little of our surroundings, and today, I command you all to spread out in the forest, and map the area in a 400 meter radius" "Cut the soldier crap, Markus. You wake me up again like that and I''ll kill you" Karah hissed "I don''t think it''s a good idea for us to separate, Markus..." I say "It''s not an idea, it''s an order!" He said Scarlet then came closer to me and whispered "Let him be, just this time- he''ll realize what he''s doing is wrong in the end of the day" I sighed, looked at him, and gave him a thumbs up, and said "But Diana stays inside the protected area" He squinted his eyes, looking at me, but said "Fine." We all got ready for the mission- each one of us grabbed a map-watch, that signaled our locations, and recorded the topography. All of our watches were synced, so we could see each other''s locations on it. Before leaving I told Dia to stay close to the seed, and send me "panic" if something happened She yelped, and sent "acceptance" After that each of us took one cardinal point, making a dot cross on the map, with the seed in the middle, and ventured into the forest. Chapter 8 - Curiosity Killed the Cat Scarlet''s POV Oh well, a trip around the forest. Everything will be fine I told Nathan to let it be today, hoping Markus would realize he''s not cut for leadership like Nate. I like him and all, just like Nathan, but he''s starting to tick me off now- all that leadership stuff... boys... I begin skipping away to the east, from the seed, spinning my watch all around, so it''d record everything it could. Of course I wasn''t dancing in the middle of the woods, who''d do that... Anyway, I kept danc-spinning around, looking at all the beautiful vines and flowers that adorned the ground and trees Wait. The trees. Maybe I could climb them? Hell freaking yes. I think my eyes began sparkling right now. I take my bow off my back, get an arrow from my quiver, and get some rope from the backpack Nathan prepared for each of us, that contained water, food, rope, and medicine, along with some other small gadgets to collect samples. I tied the rope to the arrow, and shot it upwards, at the crown of the tree in front of me. When it got high enough, across the branches, I pulled the rope very hard, so the arrow would entwine itself around a branch. It did. "Yes!" I said, doing a little victory dance. I activated my armor, in case of falling, covering myself with black, like in one of those two-century-old Daft Punk videos, then tested if the rope could handle my weight. Seeing it could, I pulled myself up slowly, while supporting my feet on the tree. It wasn''t long before I reached the top. I was immediately assaulted by a delicious, strong wind, that blew my hair upwards, and made me feel like I was on the top of the world. Focusing again, something I had to do frequently- no ADD involved- I looked around, and swung left arm around, with the right hand on my shoulder, like I was shooting. I''m sure Nate would tell me the watch records stuff even if I don''t do this... but he isn''t here, is he? I looked around, but nothing got in my sight but trees- although something strange was going on by my north, some trees were shaking, as if the wind there was stronger. I was about to climb down the tree, to walk where the disturbance was happening, but then I had the best idea in my entire life. I pulled back my arrow and rope, putting them away in their places, and took my whip. I swished the whip, and made it hit another tree''s branch, and made it stick there, then I took a breath, and jumped. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.Best sensation ever, it was almost like flying. I pulled myself up with the whip, as the parabolic curve I travelled reached its middle, and pressed the button to turn it into a rapier. It unraveled itself from the branch, and I repeated the process, jumping around the forest like Spider-Man. I may have fallen once or twice... or thrice- but all''s well when it ends well. I reached the intended area, and saw a... mountain? Nope, I don''t think that''s how I should call it It''s like the whole forest we are in is a depression, a hole, so to say. I got curios and hiked my way out of the depression, not even breaking a sweat. I hate-love that doctor Yama. She''s a bitch, but damn my life is easy. Getting there I was really surprised. The biome changed really fast, in front of me spread an enormous Savannah, or Steppes, I didn''t really pay attention to the geography classes. Nathan might know how to classify the vegetation, that know-it-all. I decided I''d had enough of adventuring for today, and began tree-jumping my way back to the camp. Almost getting there, about fifty meters from the defense perimeter, I stopped jumping, and pulled myself up to a branch. Why? Because I saw a damn beautiful flower It''s not your average flower, it was a BIG, and GORGEOUS, flower, I''m sure there''s no way someone wouldn''t stop to look at it. It was the size of your average aegis shield -there was one of those in the arsenal- and attatched to a strange, gray vine, standing out from the vivid green of the others. Mesmerized by the flower, I got closer and closer. I really really wanted to take it with me... Aw, what''s wrong with taking flowers- I touched it. Instantly the vine shook all over, the red flower spewed some strange polen on my face, and I began getting dizzy. When I got a moment of focus again, I realized the vine and flower coiled themselves around my right arm. Then the vine started growing thorns, breaking my armor and penetrating my muscles, causing me an immense amount of pain. The pain only got worse, worse, and worse, the thorns might have reached my bones. My head spun around- then I slipped. I fell down from the tree, and before the ground met me, the world faded to black. ----author here, after this, there''ll be another two short POV''s, thanks :3 Chapter 9 - Since that Moonless Night Diana''s POV It was in a moonless night I saw him It was in a moonless night he killed my mother Me and my mother had been expelled from our pack because of my white fur. All the others were black. But before that, I got to know strength. I saw all the fights, clawing, mauling and biting. The killings, for being the Alpha- and realized I was different from them, even from my mother. She was like them- agressive, and hurt me constantly after she got exiled... until that moonless night. Mother had caught the scent of meat, but some different kind of meat. Something burned, yet not burned... "Delicious" she said, with a low growl, then began sneaking around to find its source. She told me to stay back, that I was undeserving of that delish, showing me her teeth, but my instincts spoke louder. I tried following her from a distance, and was successful until I heard the sound of something moving to mother''s left, and got distracted. She noticed me, got angry, bit my neck hard, and sent me away, tumbling over the long grass. But in that moment, the wind stopped, and the creature I''d heard realized he was about to become prey. From between the strands of grass I could see the stick-like creature dodging my mother''s paw, and staring her. Then he began shaking his thin paw, and suddenly, skylight lit up on his hand! That blue and white light scared all of our race, with its loud noise and destruction. But the thin creature maintained his calm, as if the chaos had been tamed. My ears stood on end, as I waited for the big boom to come- but it never did Mother surely thought it was just a light show, and that skinny creature couldn''t handle the skylight, but the eerie face the creature had, showing his white teeth suggested the contrary, to me. My mother got ready to maul and bite the creature, and jumped. The creature, unfazed moved to the side and hit his paw and my mother''s head, with the speed of skylight- and she simply fell limp on the ground. I stood there and saw the creature fall down. It seemed he didn''t like conflict, althought enjoying fights... a kindred one. I saw his strenght, I saw his resolve, and saw him as my only chance to belong. I''d accept him as Alpha I left my grass hideout, and saw the thing tensing up again. But just as he saw me, he stopped- seeing I was no threat. I came closer, looking into his eyes, and bowed, trying to tell him I''d accept his leadership. He stretched his mouth, and waited, doing nothing So I came closer, and laid down beside him. After this, he put his paw over my head and moved my fur about in the most pleasant way I''d ever felt- until he touched my neck. His claw pressed my bloody injury, on the neck- and by reflex I bit him. Fear. Is all I felt. I hurt the strongest creature I''d ever seen. Of course it''d kill me- so I closed my eyes, and stopped moving, waiting for death''s claim. But it didn''t come- instead, the creature looked at me in a calming way, and ruffled the fur on my head, making some strange and unknown noises, that too, were calming. He then got up, and called me. And I followed. He took me to his home, with the other creatures, carried me in his paws to a closed space, and healed my wounds, he got rid of the itchy things that were all over my body-but in a nasty way, I hate to get wet. He dried me, gave me food and water. He cared for me- and for that, just in this little time, I began loving the creature, that all the others called "Nayt" or "Neit", I didn''t get it all too well. But to him, who had saved my life, I owed everything- and everything I would give, should the need arise. My fur became brighter, softer, smoother. I was not scratchy anymore, I was loved by all the other creatures that weren''t Nayt too. I finally found home. Nayt looked at me, and said the words "Di ah naa" wich I finally understood. Wich was "She, the moon". I thought he was giving me this name, and accepted. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. In the moonless night I went to sleep between one of the creature''s paws. They were warm and comfortable- and this creature exhaled affection when around Nayt. I liked her. I trusted her. The next day I was awoken by a terrible feeling- "worry", "pain", "panic", and "anger". I didn''t know where those feelings came from- but looking around, smelling, and perking my ears up, I heard Nayt thrashing around in his bed. I instantly got worried and jumped away from the other, "Cara", I think. I jumped further than I hoped. And landed up on Nayt''s place, instead of the floor. Realizing something was wrong with my paws, I simply let my hind legs fall, laid down, looking at his face, that was riddled with pain, until he saw me. I was very worried. And when he opened his eyes, he sent me "surprise", then "fear". This too got me worried. He wasn''t talking, I felt him inside myself. I tried to willingly send him something, and kept the "worry" Then he looked at me, moved his mouth making some noises and sent "affection". I loved that feeling, and put my nose in his hand, asking for petting. He became happy and said something else Then my head was invaded by things... a thing- it was like I saw something I didn''t. Then I realized this something was hanging on Nayt''s neck. Thinking he wanted me to get it, I took it with my mouth. This got another happy answer from him. After this I thought that if he could send me things he saw, I could do the same with him. I took a step back, shook my fur, and looked into his eyes. I sent what I saw between the strands of grass- his enormous fighting prowess, the tame skylight, and death. He got startled and jumped away, scaring me. After this, everything became fine, he gave me food, played with me and I enjoyed his company. I just didn''t like the creature with yellow fur, he smelled like "defiance" around the Alpha. Days were spent in this joyful haze until the day the yellow-furred became the Alpha. He soon gave orders that shouldn''t have been given, and got everyone nervous. Nayt came closer to me, in a day everyone seemed to be on edge, and told me to stay near home- I''d become able to understand some things he said. And if something wrong happened, to tell him. The day passed slowly, with me having nothing to do. I began messing around with my two necklaces, that Nayt had given me. One apparently had my name on it, and was very shiny and beautiful, and the other made me become black like my mother. I learned that by hitting my paw on the blinking one, I could do it myself. Playing around I covered myself in black, and began rolling and clawing on the ground and on home''s walls. I realized my claws had become sharper, while covered with the black thing- and my fur more resistant. I began to like this thing that used to freak me out. Then- I heard some loud noise coming from the right, and focused my senses. I could smell one of the pack. The female, "Skahlet" But something was wrong with her, so I instantly sent Nayt "panic" and and image of where I was going. I ran, all black, towards the direction where the noise happened, and soon saw what happened. The death flower had caught her. Why? Why did she mess with the death flower? She would surely die because of it. The red, enormous flower exhaled a strong hallucinogenic, and coiled itself around the prey, growing into it, injecting poison, and waiting until the prey is dead, to absorb it. I pitied the female, and, staying as distant as possible from the flower, I held one of her legs with my mouth, then began pulling her towards the camp- feeling my Alpha''s presence coming closer... ----------- POV 2 out of 3 Thanks for reading, again :3 Chapter 10 - Wrong Choices Markus''s POV Heh, that''ll teach that know-it-all Nathan that you need to be strong in command. You can''t simply just suggest things and let everyone choose. And... hopelly that''ll show Scarlet who''s the real man in the team. She''s the most perfect girl I''ve ever seen in my life- I need to have her. I take out my sword and begin to swipe it around, destroying everything. I like the greenery and all, but it becomes very annoying when in my way. As I walk around, I remember the day we all me, and all the bullshit that happened. "Bound by our sadness" he said, fucking stupid- what sadness? As soon as I stopped crying I realize we got our freedom. No more rules, no more parents, no more government, no more school. We could do whatever the hell we wanted... and surely I will. To those who said I couldn''t rule, I couldn''t be important, or even the president, I can tell you now: fuck you! I smile a little while cleaving around and thinking my stuff- it surely is comforting to destroy things while walking around. I walked around for almost an hour, and still hadn''t seen anything interesting to kill or fight with, so I began throwing my chakram around, to ricochet on trees and come back to me, until the trees began leaking sap. I sighed. Maybe this wasn''t too good of an idea, maybe we fell in a somewhat safe place... ugh, so boring. I sat down, took a sandwich I''d made beforehand , and started eating. It hadn''t been long until I heard the sound of moving leaves and breaking twigs. I put a wide smile my face, and waited for my prey, with sword in left hand, and chakram in right. Then two little snakes came inside my vision field- then moved towards the cut trees, to lick the sap, peacefully. That upset me so much it began turning into anger. Super Nathan comes around and fights a damn giant wolf, and gets a freaking wolf pup pet, and me, I get two fucking snakes no loger than my forearm. Beginning to become red, I throw my chakram at one of the snakes'' head, and cut the other, killing both in a second. Then, thinking a bit, those two might have a mother, wich must be bigger, so I began following the tracks they left on the ground. Half an hour later, I found their nest... but no mother. The only thing there was a fucking gelatinous egg. But whatever, if Nathan can have a wolf, I can have a snake. I took the egg, put it inside the case my sandwich was in, and began to turn back to do recon- but my watch blinked, and sounded an alarm. Opening the map, I saw Nathan''s crosshair moving at unearthly speeds towards Scarlet, who moved slowly back to the base- Fuck! Something happened! I began speeding back to the seed. Ten minutes later I got there, after Nathan and Karah. Somehow she got here before me. Both of them were pacing around and talking in front of the main room, with troubled faces "Maybe there is an antidote..." "But the seed said it'' unknown" Both of them discussed I came in between and shouted "What the hell happened here? Where is Scarlet?" But it was as if they hadn''t even heard me. That got me really angry, and I moved to Nathan''s direction, ready to give him a punch, but just as my fist was about to hit his face, Karah moved in between us, threw my right hand up with hers, put her left hand to my chest, and pushed with strength unknown to me- sending me flying away five meters from them. "You are not going to hurt Nate. Scarlet was already enough." She said, with red eyes, filled with tears and fire. "What the fuck happened?" I shouted again Nathan was still paying around impatiently And Karah told me Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings."Why don''t you fucking go inside and see for yourself, you dipshit?" I stormed inside the room, and saw her. Scarlet was laid on her bed, shaking incessantly, sweat all over her body, her face contorted with pain, and had a big, red flower entwined on her bloodied arm. I was about to touch her, but Nathan appeared fast in front of me, and pushed me away, worry all over his face "You touch that flower and you die too" That was enough for me, I couldn''t touch her, I couldn''t do anything, and he was acting like he led the team all over again "You! This is all you fault! You didn''t send your damned wolf pet along with her, and because of that this happened" I said in an anger stupor But he just made a sad face and asked "Would you send a five year old into a battlefield?" "What!?" I asked back not understanding what he meant "Diana is a baby, Markus. A child. I wouldn''t send her to tread through a death valley, no matter the danger we were in." I got even angrier, and began throwing things around, trying to discharge all of the chaotic energy that filled me- until the seed said "Sun setting- Now initiating lockdown protocol..." And Nathan began talking to Karah "Now we''ll have to wait until tomorrow to search for an antidote... the grass I sent to analysis before was only a light antibiotic- it didn''t have immune-boosting properties." "You''re right, it''s too dangerous to leave at night" she answered him "No way! You are all leaving with me to search a cure for Scarlet right now!" I shouted with all of my strength "No" Karah said "That is an order!" I shout again, veins popping on my head and neck, out of anger at her insubordination "Fuck you, you joke leader, you wanna go die, then die alone out there- hell, I think it''ll be even easier to cure her without having to hear your sissy ramblings" she said, becoming red Then Nathan touched her shoulder and said something on her ear, that made her calm down He looked at me with a sad face, then said "Please Markus, leave this for tomorrow, it''ll be safer, and easier to find what we want..." I couldn''t help myself- at them leaving her to die, afraid of exploring in the night and yelled "You pricks can stay there comfortable all night while she suffers, I''m going out! Seed, lockdown exception for Markus Eden!" The seed received my command, and allowed me to leave it- so I did. I didn''t even look behind. I took out my sword in my hands, activated the "magma edge" as I called it, took out Nathan''s dog tag from my pocket, and sliced it in two. He''d die by my hands one day. I began walking away from the seed, to collect samples from all around, but I realized something far away had been reflecting the light from my blade. Something that lay very tall, almost the size of the trees surrounding me. I took out a flashlight, turned it on, and slowly moved towards the place that reflected the red, emanated from the edges of my sword. But as soon as I did, my blood froze, my tongue, throat and body all froze. Enormous scales, a bifurcated tongue that reached my size, and big, yellow, slit eyes as wide as my arms. A 50 meter long snake awaited me by the trees- and as soon as my light hit it, it coiled itself, spun around and hit me with his turnaround tail- sending me flying to the Seed''s hull, and into a world of darkness. ------------------------- Aaaaand, this is the end of POV''s for now. Slayer- he''s not dead, k? But chill, surprises may come. Next chapter, we''re back to Nathan Thanks for reading, y''all :3 Chapter 11 - Under Siege I had been walking around the forest, collecting plant samples at each step I took, flowers and grass of all colours, blue, yellow, gray, purple... and I even got a blue butterfly. My mood had become slightly better since the start of this "trip" because I could focus on researching things to use, and because I was sightseeing. Damn, it''s already been three times Markus could piss me off- it seems he always finds the right time to do so. Right after my change with Diana, after the chip sent me to hell because of weapon overload... the last one he created the right occasion, he even got Karah and Scarlet pissed. Oh well, hopefully it''ll get better like Scarlet said- hadn''t it been for her, this mission wouldn''t have happened, and I''d have beaten Markus to a pulp. Each passing day I grew in strength and speed, probably because of Diana''s blood, still. My hearing and vision got even better. I knew this because I''d seen through the map that Karah was a hundred meters from me, and I could still hear her breathing and stepping. I kept collecting my samples, and scanning the area with the watch for around one hour, keeping track of my surroundings with my hearing. Eveything had been peaceful... until I heard a small thud from afar, and Dia sent me "panic". Instantly I got an adrenaline rush, and begun speeding my way to where I felt Diana. I didn''t even see the trees or grass I passed by, everything a complete blur. I think I even jumped on some trees- I don''t know, everything became hazy until I reached the intended location three minutes later. The world stopped for a moment, when I saw her on the floor, pain apparent on her complexion. A red and yellow flower, that looked like a rose was fixated on the side of her shoulder, and vines grew from it, making a spiral of blood down her arm, where the thorns ripped her skin. I was about to take in my arms to go back to the seed, but Dia sent me the image of the flower, along with "fear" and "panic" It seems the flower was dangerous for anyone who touched it... Still, I couldn''t leave Scarlet on the ground anymore, and risked myself- I took her in my arms, letting the parasited arm fall down to the side opposite to me, and ran back as fast as I could, with the wolf on my heels, sometimes getting left behind because of my speed. Soon I reached the seed, and let Scarlet down, over her bed. Then I told the seed to analyze Scarlet''s vitals and body condition, along with the flower, and left all of my samples in the analysis tube, so it''d be analyzed in the meanwhile. I touched Scarlet''s head, to check her temperature, and realized she had a fever. I ran around, got wet towels, and put them over her eyes, tied one to each of her feet, and over her stomach, wich I''d exposed, pulling her shirt slightly up. Seeing the pain she was in, I ran to the storage, got painkillers, mashed them, mixed to water and gave her- hoping to appease the situation. It wasn''t long until Karah got to the seed too, worried about the situation, then I explained what happened, and began discussing ways to solve the problem. We reached the consensus that we needed another sample of the flower, to devise a way to fight the one on Scarlet. Then while we were discussing ways to boost her immune system, to help, Markus came in and began throwing a fit. I didn''t even hear what he was talking, as I was lost in thoughs, until Karah moved fast, and sent him flying. I knew I could do that, but how did she? That speed was unnatural even for us. Anyway, I got back to the real world, and saw Markus speeding inside the seed. And I panicked- he was impulsive, and would surely touch the flower. Thinking that, I ran with all my speed, stopped in front of him when he was about to touch it, and pushed him away. He was startled at me appearing so fast, and began shouting and throwing stuff around. I tried to tell him what happened, but he wouldn''t listen, and blamed me. Karah lost her temper- and I had to calm her down I told her "Hey, it''ll be alright, shorty. She''ll be fine" After this the seed began lockdown. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.I tried to convince Markus to stay, but couldn''t do it. He stormed outside alone, while me and Karah stayed inside. The only thing I could do was hope for the best, that he''d come back safe, while Karah hoped he didn''t. I sighed and began collecting antibiotics and all the anti-venom serums I found on the shelves. In half an hour I found around ten of them, and injected intravenously on Scarlet. Now I could only wait. And I did for ten minutes. My ears caught the noise of something flying from far away- then it hit the hull. I heard air leaving lungs, bones being smashed, and blood splattered. Panicking I shouted "Override protocol! Change leadership from Markus Eden to Nathan Eden! Initiate heavy defenses! Terminate lockdown until command "Close" has been given" The seed lit up in red light and the blinds opened. I told Karah to fetch all of the explosives she could in the arsenal, while I went to get Markus, and told Diana to stay. I ran outside, my veins filled with adrenalin. The world was in slow motion as I saw Markus bloodied all over, with a bone coming out of his knee. Several gashes displayed themselves on his arms, and head- and there was a big cut that crossed his torso. I looked around, trying to find what had done this... and I did. An enormous snake made her way to our camp in ridiculous speed. Not knowing if I could fight it, I decided to run. I threw Markus over my shoulder, and got his backpack- that strangely seemed important. My instincts screamed for me to take it. I got what I wanted, then left, reaching the entrance of the room at the same time Karah did. We jumped inside and I shouted "Close!", initiating the lockdown again. I told Karah to get me blankets, and told Diana to go sit beside my bed. When she came with the sheets, I threw them on the floor, and put Markus over. He was still breathing. Alive. I ran to the kitchen wall, and grabbed one of the medkits. I opened it, pulled out iodized alcohol, suture thread, a needle, and some kind of white powder, that stopped bleedings. I called Karah closer, and told her to spread the alcohol all over his wounds while I corrected his bones and closed them. She began doing what I said, then I pushed his bone back inside the leg, making sure no splinters were left, stitched the gash, and threw the "clotting powder" over it, wich made the bleeding stop instantly. I proceeded to stitch all of the other cuts and repeated the process with the powder. The minutes that took me to do this felt like hours- and all the shooting, exploding and slithering noises outside didn''t help. When I finally finished, correcting his broken ribs, and putting his dislocated shoulder back in place, I asked the seed to analyze his vitals "Subject Markus Eden analyzed... Vitals: stable in overall Blood: high erythropoiesis, low volume- stable Heart: stable Brain: swelling on meningis Marrow: no damage. Diagnosis: all medical procedures have been done correctly to keep the subject''s body structure. But subject will stay in a coma for four months before swelling in brain tissue reduces, allowing him to wake up. Please enable life support for said subject. Life support apparatus may be found under each bed." I let myself breathe out in relief out of the perpective of Markus staying alive- misunderstandings aren''t enough to make me want him to die. But still... four months unawake, I think as I place Markus on his bed, and plug all the needles, coming from under the bed, on his veins. The booming and shooting noises still hadn''t stopped, wich made me fear the creature that moved crazily outside, dodging bullets and grenades. And the sound went on for who knows how long... until it happened. The seed shook all over, and I heard something crashing on the ground far away. Then the shooting sounds stopped, and only heavy breathing could be heard from the animal outside. It broke the defense system. It broke our safety. Then it coiled itself around the seed, as if waiting for us to come out. Author Note once again Hey there, thanks a lot for rating, whoever did it. And if you guys think my writing is lacking somewhere, feel free to comment here, PM me or submit a review, and I''ll try my best to get better. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.Love you guys :3, and I think next chapter comes tomorrow Chapter 12 - Bait and boom We were trapped. The giant snake became unmoving after finishing the circle around the capsule, and luckily, only the tip of the tail rested in front of the room''s balcony. I whispered "Initiate silent protocol" The room blinked blue, signaling the silent mode had been activated. I activated my armor, covering myself in black, told Karah and Diana to do the same, and went to check on the supplies in the kitchen. By my calculations, we had fifty days'' worth of food before needing to get more in the storage- but we had one more preoccupation: Scarlet. We knew that Markus''s state was stable, but hers wasn''t- the seed gave her thirty-five percent chance of living, in case no antidote was found, so we had to find an antidote. Because of that need, I called Karah and begun devising a plan to kill that thing outside. I asked Diana what were the weak points of the beast, as she seemed to know and fear it more than anything else. She sent me images of its belly, eyes and mouth, and then "panic", recalling those memories. I''m gonna show this little wolf we shouldn''t be trifled with. I sent her "calm". Karah then came closer to my ear and whispered "Maybe the thing out there is still around because of the food we have... we could try throwing some out as bait. If the serpent eats it, we can load some grenades and C4 with meat, give her and explode it from inside" The air she blew on my ears while talking made me shiver. I gave her a thumbs up, saying it was a good plan, and told her to grab a fifth of the meat we had, while I took a look at the explosives we had. Karah had brough us thirty-one hand grenades, ten land mines, six kilograms of C4 and ten of... gunpowder?. The hand grenades were separated in four types: there were five fragmentation grenades, six chemical, five highly explosive, ten incendiary, eight smoke, and two flashbang. This was a lot of grenades... people back on got us really prepared, huh? But it still wasn''t enough to make me feel safe. I made thirty molotov cocktails, but fully closed, with the alcohol laying around, then got some used up cans and made pipe bombs with the gunpowder. I''d try all the explosion and incendiary bombs and grenades and three chemical, on the bait. I''d use the hydrocianic acid grenades along with the bait to poison the serpent. And if everything went wrong, we''d have to leave and fight the snake ourserlves. I organized all the bombs by use, and went to see what Karah was doing. Sun had already begun to rise, and the light rays passed through the open balcony- wait. Open balcony. Karah opened the balcony, and was throwing out the test bait. Panicking, I said "close" just as she threw the meat, jumped towards her, and fell down on the floor, over her. I felt her breathing speed up as I brought my finger over her lips, in a "silence" motion. The blinds had closed a little after my command, but surely the snake had seen it, and my fear was of it seeing us. Slowly I moved my left wrist, so the glass panel on my watch would reflect what was behind me. As soon as it did I saw big, slit, yellow eyes. I slowly turned my hand back to normal position, and looked at Karah again. And saw her with her cheeks red, hair sprawled on the floor and her eyes closed. I was very close to her so I could whisper low enough that the snake wouldn''t hear "It''ll be alright" But somehow that got her even redder. She opened her eyes slowly, and stared me And we stood there staring at each other for an hour. I think even I began to become red some time- it was hard to keep looking at that beautiful face right in front of me and feel nothing, even though there was imminent danger right behind us. For another hour we stood unmoving and looking for each other''s eyes. I wanted to kiss her, I really wanted to kiss her, but I couldn''t move due to the enormous snake that looked inside- and Karah looked the same as me, she constantly changed her eyeline to my mouth, then back to my eyes. Until the snake finally left. Almost three hours, when I heard the breathing moving away. When that happened, I got distracted, and tried to get up, but something- someone didn''t let me. Karah had held my arm, and began mumblimg some things I couldn''t understand. Trying to hear what she said, I came close, only to hear "You idiot." As she pulled herself closer and kissed me. I was stunned at first, but soon enough I gave myself in to the sensation on my lips. After those second that felt like an eternity, Karah pushed me away slightly, smiled a bit and punched me on the chest, saying Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more."You really are an idiot." In a soft voice. "Maybe I am" I answered, smiling Then I looked outside, and saw the meat she threw was gone and confirmed that she ate it, because my nose told me the meat scent travelled all the way to the other side of the seed. After knowing that, I told Karah about plan A and B, and how night was best for executing them. Then proceeded to wash my wolf, as she had pissed herself, seeing the giant snake- Dia needs to deal with this fear... After doing what I had to, I told Karah it was best for us to rest, got some biscuits, and sat on my bed, to wait for time to pass- but Karah crept her way to my bed with an innocent face, sat in front of me, let her back rest on my chest, and called Diana. I was about to say "What?" But she said "Shhh, no noise until snake-roasting time" And kept petting Dia for hours After night fell, I realized Karah had slept, and lightly moved the hair that had fallen over her face, waking her up. "It''s time" I told her She got focused pretty fast, and begun gearing up for the mission. I got all my weapons ready and strapped over me, divided the grenades, leaving for me four smoke, one fluorantimonic acid and one flashbang, and the same for her. We were all set. Before starting the mission, I took a glance over the unawake party members, made sure they were fine, and told Karah. "As soon as the serpent eats it, you detonate the C4. There will be a chain reaction with the other bombs, causing internal bleeding and cyanide poisoning. After the explosion, we leave immediately, and engage fight if needed, alright?" She nodded, and got the enourmous slab of meat, filled with explosives, held together by a net, and put in front of the balcony. I whispered "open", and, along with her, kicked the slab outside, before hiding behind the wall and whispering "close". The blind closed and we both looked subtly at the outside. Soon enough the snake came, took all of the meat in its mouth, and swallowed everything in one go. I counted in my hands, in front of Karah 5... 4... 3... 2... 1. And she pressed the detonator. A big shockwave came from the outside, making Diana fall from the bed I told her to stay on, and almost knocking me and Karah down. Fast, I whispered "open" and left along with her, to find the snake still alive, but on fire, shaking itself and coughing. We both stopped, stunned by the size of the serpent- but not for long. The beast begun to recover itself, and got ready to strike us. Our luck was that the hydrocianic acid worked, and the thing was unable to breathe fine, thus reducing its physical capacity. It tried to slap us with its tail, but both of us dodged it, and separated. I warned Karah, threw a flashbang to stun the snake, and then threw the fluorantimonic acid grenade I had been cooking at the thing''s face. It worked. The serpent stopped, half a second, afraid of the flash of light, allowing the chemical grenade to detonate right before the beast''s eye. It began cortorting itself out of pain, and hissed, with a disfigured yellow eye on its face. Looks like acid still works on things here. The enormous, scaly beast coiled itself, ready for an attack, and jumped towards us. Karah had been spinning her spear, charging electricity in the meanwhile, and when the snake jumped, she threw the spear against it, and jumped to the side opposite to me, dodging its jaw. It seemed like lightning had been thrown from her hand, and pierced the serpent''s snout. Smell of burned flesh went up in the air, as the shock burned the thing''s skin. Me and Karah ran in a circle, and met far away from it. Seeing it was still alive, I got an idea, and told Karah, while the serpent shook itself, trying to take the spear out of its face. She looked angrily at me, then agreed. Running out of time, I threw all my smoke bombs, along with Karah''s in front of us, blocking the view, and threw a flashbang upwards. As soon as I did this, Karah ran in front of me, and stretched her arm in my direction. I took out my katana, activated the vibroblade mode, ran towards Karah and took her hand. Then she threw me with all her strength, speeding in the air, towards the flashbang-stunned snake. The angle was just right, and I landed with my sword on the thing''s eye, piercing it along with its brain. Chapter 13 - The Scarlet Flower Author here. Thanks for the review, Sedactive, am I''m really sad and sorry you didn''t like the story that much. I took some time yesterday to correct some holes you got to my attention, like the stuff about the crops and the DNA deterioration- so I made some changes in the prologue and chapter 1. Also, thing about the profiling and experiment- I said in prologue it''d be extremely dangerous, and would result in millions of deaths. Beggars can''t be choosers, all the successful children were sent to Exitium, as there was only a small number of them. Aaaand, I never wanted this fiction to be realistic man, that''s exactly why I tagged it Fantasy, and Sci-fi. Thanks a lot for all the comments, and I hope you end up liking the plot or whatever Oh yeah, and I''m working now with an awesome proofreader, Nessa. She sings helluva well, and is a full-fledged grammar nazi, so you all can wait a sparkly neat writing after she finishes re-writing the previous chapters End of notice :3. --------------------------------------------------------------- I twisted the blade, and the snake fell limp on the ground, bathing me in ocular fluid, with the impact. I jumped away from its head, afraid of the acid that sizzled the other eye, but still some of it fell on my hair. Seeing that, Karah came closer and sliced it in a single horizontal swing with one of her daggers, making black and red brilliant threads fall around and fly with the wind. "Damn, go take a bath" she said, pinching her nose and glancing over to the dead snake. "In the meanwhile I''ll cut off this thing''s head, and try to salvage some meat- we can''t forget the meat and skin out like you did with the wolf, and let it be taken by whatever else. We can''t be running out of food" Seeing she already walked away to get her spear, I went to the bathroom. My hair had been cut short, and now lay on neck. The ends somehow got red again. I sighed, took my shower and left. I checked on Scarlet, who was still shaking around the bed, in pain, and on Markus, who lay unawake. The sight of my friend suffering made me forget the recent kiss and prospections of a relationship, my head was filled with thoughts of ways to find the flower and counter the venom. All the other plants the seed analyzed only had antibiotic and anti-inflammatory agents- so none could be used as antidote. Diana, who''d been hiding under the bed, came out and sent me lots of "confusion"- that I answered with pictures of the dead snake outside and the moment Karah cut my hair. The wolf instantly went outside to look at the serpent, and begun barking. I left Dia to her doings and walked back to Karah, who''d cut the snake all around, making a mess. I whistled, getting her attention, and threw my sword to her. She didn''t get overloaded because she was past the adaptation time of the chip. She took the sword, activated the vibroblade mode and began cutting the meat right. While doing that, she asked "What are we going to do about Scarlet? Right now the defenses are down, and we can''t leave them alone. I know some stuff about mechanics and electricity, and can try my hand at repairing the weapons, but it will take time..." "We need to find the plant samples, otherwise Scarlet''s chances of dying are high. One of us will need to go out there to search for it, and the other stays to protect them." I answered She looked at me for some seconds, then said "You go. Your eyes are better than mine, and so is your hearing. And as I''ll be using your blade for quite long, take my daggers" she threw both the daggers to me "I''ll be on watch here, and will begin repairs" I nodded and said "Sun rises in an hour, I''ll be leaving then." She nodded and returned to her cutting. I went to the storage, got some random tables that were stacked there, took them outside, and put near Karah, so she could stack the meat, got a salt bag, and left it over one table, earning a thumbs up from her. Done helping her, I begun to experiment with the daggers- trying shooting angles and curved shots. This dagger was really useful. I strapped them to my hips, checked my gun, and sat down on the balcony of the seed, waiting for daybreak. Dia stopped barking after twenty minutes, walked closer and laid down in front of me. I laughed a bit, petted her, then recalled she knew about Scarlet''s flower. I tried to get some information from her, but she only sent me images of polen and "fear" The polen is dangerous, then... Still having forty minutes left, I decided to search for a gas mask, or something to avoid it. And I found one in the arsenal, that covered my eyes, nose and mouth. Fully geared, I waited until the sunrise, then waved to Karah, signaling I was leaving. She gave me an "ok" and continued her eternal meat-slicing, with Dia on her feet, getting a bit every now and then. I walked slowly, away from the seed, in the same direction Scarlet went during the recon, looking all around and following the tracks she left. Her feet were displayed in a crazy manner... as if she jumped around, or danced... She did it. I sighed and kept following her tracks for some minutes, until they stopped. Suddenly there were no more tracks. Her steps stopped, and only trees were left around me. I searched for broken twigs, stepped leaves, but got no results. Try to think like her... She''s jumping around like crazy, has a bow and a whip... and she had her armor on... I had an epiphany, and looked at the trees, finding dents in the bark. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.She climbed the tree... with her bow... the rope I gave her. Sighing again, I put the mask over my face, afraid the flowers might be all around, and taking out both the daggers Karah gave me. With a swift motion, I shot both of the blades in a curved glide, intertwining them on the tree''s branch right above me, then pulled myself up. I reached the branch, got on it, and untangled the blades, to strap them on my hip again. Then I stood up and looked around, almost getting lost with the view and the feeling of the wind. No flowers like on Scarlet''s arm were to be seen, but I could see some cuts on the branches of the trees next to the one I was on. Deciding I could jump from one tree to another, without a need for the daggers, I leapt away, and landed safely. Inspecting the cuts, I concluded they were made by her whip. This girl really has some crazy ideas. I began following her trail, jumping around, and still couldn''t find the flower. Following the trail for minutes nonstop I even reached the edge of the forest, realizing we were inside of a depression, and surrounded by a vast savanna. I wanted to explore further, especially because I saw smoke rising from the ground in the distance, but time wasn''t on my side, Scarlet couldn''t be made to wait. I turned around and went through the second trail she had left, straying from the original path back to the seed, hoping to find something. Almost at the seed again, blurring through trees and green vines, something red went past my right, making me stop and look. Observing more carefully, I saw what the red blur was- it was a crimson flower, and behind it there were other two, and then six... a sea of red flowers spread to my north endlessly. Cold sweat ran down my back, in realization I was right in front of hundreds of deadly plants. I moved slowly, checking all my weapons, activating my armor, and verifying if my mask was equipped correctly. After making sure I was all set for a full escapade. I took one of the "Grappling daggers" in my hand, prepared myself, breathing out slowly, then swinging my arm, I shot the blade. The dagger and thread made an arc in the air, hitting the crimson flower square in the center, and lodging itself on it. I stopped for a moment, waiting for something to happen, but after the initial "thud" nothing else happened. I began to pull the rope slowly along with the flower- after thirty seconds the flower puffed orange smoke, and my instincts kicked in, making me drop the dagger and jump away as fast as I could, as I heard something falling from above. Landing on another tree, I focused and saw that a gray vine had fallen where I was. Dammit, and I''d already begun to think this would be easy. And to make things even better, it looked like all the flowers felt my presence. An enormous cloud of orange smoke begun to spread everywhere, and vines shook all around. Knowing I couldn''t get close to the flowers without being killed, I took out my pistol, tuned my hearing, focused and began running. I ran to all sides while shooting at the flowers with the gun on my right hand and dodging vines, unable to aim right. The dagger of my left hand cut all the whistling thorned vines that I couldn''t dodge. The plants hit the floor all around, making slapping noises, and sending leaves up in the air, which became glued on my body as I somersaulted around and spun. I could hear the air distorting behind me as greeny whips came closer, and I was beginning to lose out in the fight, my bullets were becoming scarce, and the dagger wasn''t long enough to deflect all vines. Finally my bullets ended, and no flowers were to be seen on the ground yet, meaning I missed all of the shots, so I jumped away, getting time to take out my pseudo-spear, and sheathed the dagger. Focusing on defense, I stood my ground while charging the pole, cutting and deflecting the vines. Seconds felt like and eternity, and slowly my body began to get covered with small cuts. The thorns were somehow able to break the black armor I wore, and dip my skin In poison and blood. The world began to shake slightly, the chaotic scenery spun slowly, almost making me panic and lose focus. Seeing my spear finally charged up, I stabbed the ground with it, and ran away, preparing for my final stand and escape. I found one flower that hung just by a small, almost broken vine, and chose it as my target. I went far away from the spear, dodging most vines, waiting for the bullets to be assembled and distracting the flowers. Seeing the process ended, and standing on my limit, I ran towards the pole with all my speed, loaded my gun, strapped the spear quickly to my back again, and aimed at the flower. When this happened, time felt like it had stopped, everything happened slowly, and I felt in control of everything. I slowly aimed at the thread that held the plant, and shot thrice, hitting just where I wanted. The flower fell far away from me, and if I went to get it, I''d be killed for sure. Still running away I holstered the desert eagle, unsheathed the knife I still had, and shot the blade backwards, towards the flower, not even caring if it hit, and tumbled my way until the seed. I saw a distorted Karah coming my way, and felt like throwing up. I tried to explain what happened, but my mouth didn''t let me. I only got to blurt "Flower poison, analyze" And fell on the floor, seeing the sky change its color, and hearing strange noises coming from the figure that stood in front of me. A/N: nathan be like "I, oh I, oh I, I''m feeling drunk and high, so high, so high" Chapter 14 - Wake Up Author here- It''s become really difficult to keep my writing streak, because of intense studying. My tests are approaching, and I need to spend more time with my face over books. I''m sorry guys, but I think I''ll be posting two to three chapters a week for now, until november 6th, alright? Love ya all, and enjoy. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Karah''s POV The snake finally died- I could relax, at last, and let my mind drift wherever it wanted... and it drifted to Nate. I was ashamed to the core of my being... But I absolutely was not gonna show it to him- I pulled him, I kissed him... damn. Why do I get this shy around him? It''s not like I never kissed anyone before. Shaking my head and thoughts, I looked at Nate, and saw him jump away in fright. His hair was caught in acid, so I finally had an excuse to cut that akward enormous hair, I dashed with a dagger in hand, and sliced it at neck-level. Holy shit, this went better than I expected, he was fucking gorgeous- but as soon as I stopped to admire his new looks, a terrible stench invaded my nostrils, sending me to hell in half a second. Almost throwing up, I pinched my nose and told Nate to go take a bath, while I got rid of the stinky serpent. Even before he left, I''d turned back, and started walking away, disgusted by the smell, to take my spear. I''ll tell you something: you don''t cut stuff with a spear. Just don''t. Like- the weapon was made for poking deadly holes in the enemy, and lacerating them slightly. Anyway, the spear was the weapon left for that job, because the dagger just slid around the reptile''s scales, not even opening the slightest cut- so I poked around the thing''s neck until there were enough holes to sever it. I simply made a mess. Blood was everywhere, a sad smell of rotten meat filled the air, and fat was splattered all around the ground. The odor of the snake guts got even worse, but I didn''t realize, as I''d grown accostumed to it. Finishing his bath, a clean, fucking handsome, and short-haired Nathan appeared in the seed''s balcony, whistled to me and threw his katana. I took it by reflex, and got somewhat scared, afraid of the chip overload- but I remembered I was past the adaptation period of my weapons. I gave him a thumbs up without looking, because I was red, activated the vibroblade mode, and finally could cut the thing without making a total mess. I asked about Scarlet, as she was still poisoned, and Nate said one of us should go get a plant sample to analyze with the seed, and develop a serum. I told him to go, because I had to fix the defense system, and because I knew he could fend for himself better than me... even though I had a secret. In my hibernation chamber there was another message, besides the default one- I was part of a side test to double the body''s efficiency, by using two hearts to increase blood flow and oxygenation, and changing the arteries and veins to manage the high pressure it would cause. Apparently, I''d been the only successful subject, in the ten thousand tested. I didn''t tell this to anyone, afraid they''d treat me differently, but I think I''ll tell Nate when he comes back- as he can relate, being a werewolf freak or whatever. I got absorbed in my work, and didn''t even realize Nathan had been putting tables all around until he threw an enormous bag of salt over one of them. Surprised, I gave him another thumbs-up, and continued my stuff while he waited for the sunrise. He was fully geared, and playing with the daggers I lended him, shooting the blade like crazy, whipping and pulling them. And he kept doing that until it was time to leave. He waved to me and left. Now I was kind of alone at the seed- I really enjoyed being alone, and almost had no time to do so in this planet. Sure, it''s dangerous to be alone, like in the Dumbass'' mission, when shit hit the fan, and right now, but I can''t help liking it. I spent about twenty minutes still cutting meat, salting and stacking it over the tables, for the sun and salt to dry. And then I went to repair the capsule''s weaponry. Coming closer the the ball of weapons left on the ground fifty meters away, I saw the snake had literally destroyed all the heavy weaponry- grenade throwers, lightning generators... most of the helpful stuff was a goner. I saw there was still an intact machinegun in the metal clump, which I could restore, there was a sniping, laser-directer gun, and there were wires everywhere. I got all the stuff that could be salvaged and tied to the wires. Then I threw the rope over the seed, to get everything up. I spent three hours only getting the sniper function to work- and when I finished, I begun getting worried about Nathan. Four hours had already passed since he left, and he only went out to grab a flower from far away. I looked down, full sweaty, wishing for a shower, and saw Dia, that cutie pie, growling low. I didn''t understand what she was doing until she started barking and something went down in her direction from the tree. Dia coated herself in the armor and jumped away. I panicked- something was trying to take my baby. I instantly jumped from the top of the twenty meter high structure, in the spur of the moment. The ground came close quickly, and I met in doing a backroll, so as to not hurt myself. I took Nate''s katana and unsheathed it, looking for the animal, and my spear. I saw the thing. It was a 3-meter long bird. Its feathers were jet black, the beak was slightly curved, with serrated edges, and its long, curvy and bladed talons shimmered in the light, even though they were black. The thing looked like a mix of an eagle with a raven, and creeped me out to my core when it made a gawking, low sound- as if threatening me. I shouted to Diana to back away inside the seed, and she instantly jumped away. The bird saw this and tried to attack the wolf, flying from the tree branch it was on, and speeding towards Dia. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.I shouted "Seed command: reactivate defenses!" And prepared myseld to engage the monster. Electrical sounds erupted from behind me, as I dashed to intercept the bird. The gun had activated, and begun shooting. But the bullets were not hitting- the aim system was still broken. Damn it. I met the bird''s talons with the blade of the sword, making sparks fly up in the air, and ringing a metallic *shing* noise in the clearing. The bird got startled, and flew back a bit, giving me time to find my spear, which lay beside the dead snake''s head. Formulating a plan, I dashed towards the bird again, vibroblade mode activated, and swung in an arc downwards, meeting the beast''s talons, and cutting them away. When they were cut, the best screeched, and its legs were sent down with the force- leaving me an opening to jump on its chest, kick it, and propel myself towards the spear that was stuck on th ground. I sent myself flying, tumble on the grass, took my spear, turned and shot it away. Thunder instantly sparkled on its tip, and the weapon sped, aimed at the black bird''s chest. The blue streak blurred through the scenery, sent with so much strength that even after hitting the the animal it didn''t stop- only after lodging itself on a tree far away. The bird fell down, with a hole in its chest, and bleeding out. I walked closer slowly, taking time to get the katana, looked at the beast contorting on the ground in pain, with pleading eyes, and said "That''s what you get for trying to take my baby, motherfucker." Then severed its head in a single motion. I looked at Dia, who''d been crouching on the seed''s balcony up till now, and called her. She ran towards me and jumped on my arms- getting a strong hug and making me smile. I told her to eat the bird, as I refused to let myself or Nate eat this disgusting black thing''s meat. I left the little wolf to her wolf doings and went to take my so longed bath, before repairing the sniper''s aim. I spent the rest of the day repairing stuff and giving the bloodied Diana a bath, until Nathan arrived. I saw the boy stumbling left and right, holding one dagger in his hand- his whole body was covered in small cuts and blood, he wore a cracked gas mask, and dragged a crimson flower behind him. I ran closer, asking what happened, but it seemed like he didn''t know who I was, and said crazy things. Then he said "Flower poison, analyze" That was the flower then.... I ran towards it, thinking of taking it to the seed''s analysis table, but I remembered the danger, and went back, taking all precautions, before going back to get it. I put Nate over his bed, left him saying meaningless things and repeating my name, got the flower with a very long pincer, and a gas mask, and put it in the table, relaying the command "Seed: analyze and prepare serum" The machine blinked and said "Blood will be needed to prepare antigens, please provide it with the syringes beside the table" I did what the capsule told me, and anxiously waited for a response. Thirty minutes later, a tube went down over the kitchen table, leaving a flask full of some liquid. The seed said "Five doses of the serum have been made, please exercise caution while administering" I took a syringe, pulled some of the liquid, and applied to Scarlet, intravenously, then did the same to Nate, not knowing if he had been poisoned the same way. Then I waited. One hour. Two hours. Three... then Nate finally stopped mumbling and looked like and intelligent being. "What happened?" He asked "You were poisoned by the flower" He looked startled and frightened, so I continued "I already gave you the antidote, and to Scarlet too. Now all we can do is wait." We waited for more six hours, and there was still no response from her. I went to the kitchen to make something for us to eat, and Nate still kept watch over Scarlet. I really wanted to discuss with him what would be of us, and our kiss, and everything, but I shied out. Then he sighed and said "Hey, Karah... how are we gonna take things... with me and you?" I froze- he had been thinking the same thing as me all along, I couldn''t answer anything, so he said "Okay, I''m sorry for asking..." Wich made me panic and blurt "No!" While turning around. Realizing what I did, I reddened all over and said "I... I like you, Nate..." He them beamed that one-side signature smirk that made me melt, and told me "I like you too, Karah." And then we stopped for a moment, gazing at each other, before both said "I know it doesn''t matter so much here, but would you be my boyfriend" "This planet doesn''t take relationships very well, but do you wanna be my girlfriend?" At the same time. Again we froze. Both reddened up. Then we realized that we thought the same. We broke out in laughter. I laughed so much it even began to hurt my belly. After we stopped laughing, I walked closer to him, and gave him a long, deep kiss, which I''d been longing for all day. After that, we spent a few minutes chatting, while I cooked, and then shit hit the fan. Nathan froze out of nowhere, stopped and looked at Scarlet. He said "Her heart stopped." He jumped away from the chair he''d been sitting on, hurried to her, and began making cardiac massage, trying to make her heart beat again. He kept on for a minute, but to no avail. Then he took some distance, messed with his glove, took a deep breath, and moved his hand quickly, hitting Scarlet''s chest with an electric discharge. Her whole body shook, and she threw her arms up, gasping for air. Smoke went up from the vines on her arm, and small red threads began appearing over them. Then Scarlet opened her eyes. Blue eyes... with red threads that looked like vines.... Chapter 15 - Something Wrong Nathan''s POV I had been talking to Karah when things went wrong I panicked, hearing Scarlet''s heart stopping, and ran to help her. I went closer and begun doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. For an entire minute I pushed her chest down rhythmically and forced air into her lungs- but her heart still didn''t beat. So I used my last resort. Lately I had been training with my glove how much strength I could use before killing someone, and how much I needed to use to stimulate muscles. For that, I''d been using the meat we had, as the fibers could still be contracted with electricity. I took a step back, turned on the glove, focused, exhaled, and quickly hit my hand over her thorax. Once again time slowed down. I could see the energy travelling across her body, and somehow I could... feel... her heart contracting, and starting beating... and something else too- I could see smoke going out of the vines on her arm, and then I felt like the plant was part of Scarlet. After this realization, time flowed again, and I tripped back, falling on the floor. Relief washed over me, hearing her heart beat and her lungs fill up with air, but my mind still raced with worry about the plant still attatched to her, and my recent... time lapses? Time almost stopping when I''m focused or in panic had been happening frequently, and caught my attention. Anyway, I went back to worrying about Scarlet. I got up, and went to check her, along with Karah. Karah was frozen, looking at her. And soon I found out why: Scarlet had opened her eyes, and, like mine, they had changed. Red... vines- spread throughout her irises, making the crimson color seem like blood in between the sky blue of her eyes. Scarlet soon sat upright, tilted her head, looking at us, and said, with an innocent face "Hey guys, how are you?" Me and Karah were dumbstruck by her reaction. She looked like she didn''t remember anything, the pain, her fall, so I asked "Scarlet... do you remember what happened to you?" And she answered "Yeah, I touched this flower here on my arm" she gestured to the lustrous flower "and it went all poof! The vine entangled itself in my arm, it hurt a lot, and I fell." While throwing her arms about, then smiled. "And are you fine?" I asked, concerned about the way she behaved "Yup" She said, smiling, then got up and skipped her way to the balcony. "Hey, where are you going?! You shouldn''t be up yet" Karah yelped, and ran after her. "I don''t know, I just wanna feel the sun for a bit" Scarlet answered while humming a happy song I just gave up on understanding, momentarily, sat down on my bed, and let everything that had happened this day sink in... Orange light spread itself throughout the room, bathing everyone and everything in a yellowish tone- making this seem like a dream of sorts... but it wasn''t. Soon I got up again, and wandered around in the afternoon-lit seed. I asked it to verify if the poison in my body and Scarlet''s had been eliminated, got a positive answer, verified Markus'' vitals, and checked our supplies. We had replaced all the meat we''d used before with the snake, so there''d be no problem about food so soon. I took some of the meat back to the kitchen and fried it, along with some plants the seed deemed edible. The results were quite good- so I left to get the girls and Dia (I''d put food in her bowl too) Reaching the room''s entrance, I could see Scarlet sitting down on the stair-like base of the seed, with her eyes closed, enjoying the light as if in bliss, and Karah sitting somewhat far from her, with Diana in her arms. I silently walked up to her and smooched her cheek lightly, then sat down. Dia left her lap and came to mine, asking for some petting. I looked at Karah, who had a worried face, while pouting, and asked about Scarlet. I was told she was stranger than before, saying things you wouldn''t expect, doing things you wouldn''t, too... and that the flower on her arm seemed to move slightly. I sighed, and told her dinner was ready, and that I''d handle Scarlet. I sent the same info to Dia, through the "link"- as I begun calling it, and both of them left to eat. I waited and watched them leave, and when they couldn''t be seen anymore, I made my way to Scarlet''s side. I sat down beside her, and just silently observed as she smiled with the sun over her face. The flower tangled on her arm moved slightly, and begun showing a brighter green on the vines, different from the original gray. The flower is still alive... I stood there, silent, until she said, chuckling lightly "Hey, handsome. You done staring?" "Yeah... and you, photosynthesis done?" I answered awkwardly "Yup!" She said, then jumped up to her feet "How did you know I was staring? I was completely silent." I asked "Dunno... I felt your heat... kinda?" I tilted my head a bit, confused, then she continued "Yeah, it''s pretty funny- I can feel Karah and Dia in the kitchen eating, right now." She said, looking in their direction, and then pointed her arm to me "Oh! Yea! And I can also do this!" Sh said, making the vines over her arm shake all over, and untangle themselves, making it look like three tentacles protruded from her arm. "Wha-" I begun saying, but couldn''t finish, as I had to dodge the incoming green tentacles, that were about to catch me "Looks like I won''t be needing my whip anymore, these things are pretty elastic..." She said, then smiled, taking her vines back "What the hell, Scarlet?! Dont scare me like that, dammit!" I blurted, calming myself. "Why are you doing this stuff out of nowhere? Is there something wrong?" I asked her, still nervous She simply shook her shoulders and said "It''s just because I wanted. And yes- there is something very wrong with me..." I waited for her to answer. She lifted one finger, then said "I''m hella hungry" Then she quickly turned back, and skipped her way to the kitchen She''d been skipping around a lot. Looks like we have another freak on board, and she''s way worse than me or Karah... I let myself fall down on the floor, and laid on my back, looking at the sky- which was painted orange, blue and pink all around, dotted with clouds here and there. I tried to relax a bit, like that, but I couldn''t. Markus was in a coma, and Scarlet was strange, we needed to secure meat and usable crops, find the other seeds, the other people, repair our seed... A thousand things crossed my head in a short span, leaving me anxious. Then, out of nowhere Diana jumped on my belly and begun licking my face. She sent me "calm" and "happiness" ... she''d felt my emotions... Damn I hugged her, and sent her a phrase I didn''t know if she could understand "I love you" I said. But it looks like she didn''t really understand, she just looked into my eyes, and licked my face again, before jumping back and barking, motioning for me to go to the kitchen. I smiled, got up and followed her slowly. Before getting there I listened Scarlet saying "Damn, you and Nate are together? Ow, looks like I was too late... anyway, congrats and be careful so I don''t steal him away from you" If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I pretended not to listen, and moved faster. I saw both of them, Scarlet was smiling, and Karah had her jaw dropped and a vein apparent on her forehead. Before conflict begun, I said somewhat loud "Hey girls, what did you think of the food? It had this planet''s plants" Scarlet gave me a thumbs up, biting her tongue, and Karah said "It was delicious" While pouting and looking down Mission accomplished Then I said "Well, I''m gonna eat later. Right now I''m going to wash myself and Dia" Dia whimpered Scarlet enforced her thumbs up Karah said "Okay, but hey... wait a minute, I need to speak with you..." I waited for her to get up, come closer to me, and asked "Yes?" She signaled me to come closer, as if she''d tell a secret- and when I did, she gave me a deep, hot kiss. I was confused at first, but soon realized the reason. When we finished kissing, Karah put a mischievous smiled on her face, turned around and went back to the kitchen table, walking while swaying her hips. Scarlet still had a thumbs up, and smiled innocently. I shook my head, chuckled slightly and left. I think I like the jealous Karah. I left to my doings, and when I finished them, the sun had already set, and the seed begun lockdown. The girls were spread around the room, Scarlet playing the knife game over the kitchen table, and Karah reading something over her bed. I checked Markus again, and seeing he was fine, left to eat. The brown haired girl didn''t mind me and continued singing ".... oh, I have all my fingers, the knife goes..." While hitting the table between her fingers with a dagger. I shook my head, ate my stuff, had some small talk with Karah and then went to sleep. *******(I''m gonna start using this when the day changes)****** This was one of the best nights I had. I slept so well... I''d been lying on my bed with my eyes closed, remembering my dreams, which involved some picnicking with my family and Karah. And remembering how I felt warmer this night than the others. Still laid with my eyes closed and hugging my pillow, I felt too lazy to get up- my body still had that hazy feeling all around, that tried to pull me back to sleep. Then, before trying to sleep again, I hugged the pillow with more strength- then heard it moan slightly. I instantly opened my eyes, and looked at the "pillow". There was a wild Karah in my arms, looking at me innocently, with a smile on her face. I sighed, shook my head, stopped hugging her and buried my head in the real pillow. She chuckled lightly, and kissed me, before jumping away and running to the bathroom. Just when she left, Scarlet came closer and gave me a "good morning". I replied her in the same way, and after I did that, she froze, and looked, startled, to the balcony. "What''s that?" She asked I tried to focus my hearing and vision outside, forgetting Scarlet''s existence... Which gave her the time and chance to put her lips over mine, and kiss me, before I jumped away. "I know you heard it" She said, with a mischievous smile, then continued "And I''m gonna have you for myself" Before walking out of the room. I froze, dumbstruck, then realized I''d be in a lot of trouble from now on. Karah came out of the bathroom, all of us had breakfast, and begun discussing our plans until Markus woke up. Scarlet looked like she didn''t even care about him anymore. We decided we''d take turns in pairs, everyday, to search around for edible plants, and the one who stayed behind would prepare some kind of "farm", and search for ways to speed the plants'' growth. Diana''d always stay behind, and Nate would be a permanent member of the pair, this way they would know when someone is in danger. With that decided, the girls proceeded to have a stare contest, before knowing who''d be the first to go. I sighed, took a small stone from the ground, chipped one side with a circle, and the other a square, then said "Karah, square. Scarlet, circle" And threw up the makeshift coin into a heads and tails. The stone fell down with the circle up, so Scarlet did a victory dance while Karah pouted. I sighed once more - I think I''ll end up like and old man from sighing this much- and messed up Karah''s hair, before kissing her, then I left to prepare myself, and told Scarlet to do the same. I got ready pretty fast, and left to wait for her. When she arrived, I told her "So, Scarlet-" Then she shook herself all over, pouted and said "Nah! Stop it, Nate! No can do with you calling me Scarlet forever- I have a cute nickname, you know?" She the smiled, and told me to call her "Sky" fom now on. Apparently she''d gotten that nickname back in earth because of her eye color. I gave her an okay, then continued "So... Sky... we''ll be doing recon again, almost the same way Markus told us to- but we cover each other now. We don''t touch new plants. We shoot them from far away before taking. Do you still have your bow?" She nodded, took some device that had been on her hip, and pressed a button on it. The thing opened itself and turned into a composite bow. "That''s... pretty damn cool. Anyway, we''ll be using your bow skills to take the plants and avoid the same problems you had before, alright?" She nodded again, then we left. *********** For fifteen days we did the recon. A reasonable amount of seeds had been secured. Some of them had already been planted, and little green buds could be seen sprouting out of the ground. On the sixteenth day, on Scarlet''s turn, we found animals. First, a giant owl swooped up behind, but I finished it off quickly with a bullet to its eye. Finally my aim begun to get better. Then we found another giant wolf. Before killing it, I sent an image to Dia, to see if she knew it- but I only got back "Anger" and "Fear". She knew it, and hated it. I was going to kill it, but Scarlet put her hand in front of me and smiled. I stopped and waited. Sky skipped her way to the wolf, and attractes its attention. She smiled innocently, and did nothing. Soon, the wolf jumped on her, almost making me kill it out of reflex. But she dodged. She dodged, then caught the wolf with her vines. First, she broke its two front legs with them, then the hind ones. The wolf had begun whimpering and crying as loud as it could- but she didn''t stop. She made the vines tear out the wolf''s teeth one by one, until none were left, and then she said "What a cute wolf" Before going over to its neck and hugging it. The wolf still screamed and yelped very loud, so she said "Shhhh, little baby, doggies aren''t supposed to bark so loud" Then increased the strength on her arms until its neck broke- making the wolf go limp. "Much better" The horrid scene and torture made all the hair on my body stand on end. Seeing what she just did, my stomach urged me to send all my breakfast to the earth, I was frozen, freezing out of fear. "What happened to Scarlet?" I thought, as my fear seeped in through the "Link" and Dia signaled Karah to help me... Hiatus Over, Chapter on Tuesday Finally, fucking exams are fucking over. I''ve been really stressed up until now... You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Aw, fuck it. I''ll be posting a chapter tuesday because GF''s gonna be here today and tomorrow, so obviously I''m gonna spend my time with her and playing PS4. Sorry if the chapter comes fucked up (just like me), and I hope y''all enjoy it- cya Chapter 16 - Plans After that, things happened too fast. I was so shocked that I lost myself to my hearing and smelling senses. I couldn''t see anymore, I couldn''t feel anymore. All I could do was hear the grass breaking under light pressure, in front of me, sand making way under feet, and the song of the wind, broken here and there, where obstacles disrupted its melody. The smell of sweat, blood and earth filled my nostrils, and I could tell where the scents were. I could hear the air whistling far away, and coming closer in high speed, breathing just beside me, and the scent of sweat and soap mixed. I realized Karah and Dia had come to my aid, and they soon reached me... But I didn''t want to remember anything, and concentrated on the wind. I danced around leaves, in between cave crevices, right above running rivers- caught up in the omnipresent song. This song carried the chirping of birds, buzzing of bugs and the sound of all the life around turning everywhere in the flow... while maybe I was being carried home. I spent hours lost in my daze, until the song was disrupted by a loud noise far away: gunshot. But I couldn''t smell gunpowder. The loud noise woke me up. And my vision came back, while the hearing and smelling turned themselves down. I was inside the seed again- the cubic, furnished room. It was all dark, save the small yellow light that hung above the kitchen table, meaning we were on lockdown and it was late. I had been sitting upright on my bed all this time, and had reached the state where both my legs were fully numb, so I had to get up and move them. I used my hands to pull my legs beneath me, and place them beside the bed, and waited until the blood circulated enough to give me at least an uncomfortable feeling on them, before getting up. I stood up and looked around. Both girls were sleeping, and Diana was curled in a ball where my feet would be if I were asleep. So it wasn''t the girls who used a gun- I had to tell them this, later. The girls... The girl. I looked at Scarlet again, and a shiver ran down my spine. She had me completely terrified. Whatever happened with her and the flower, it wasn''t good, something was very wrong with her... But I had to endure it. We had to endure it, for humanity, and for the possibility of her going back to how she was. My legs still hurt, and again I was about to throw up, remembering the recent events, so I moved stealthily as fast as I could to the bathroom. I closed the door and fell on the ground just in time to push whatever I had in my stomach inside the toilet. There wasn''t much, but I felt relieved after that. I washed my mouth to stop the burning feeling on my throat and nose, brushed my teeth and took a shower. This time the seed didn''t give me my usual clothing, only light shorts and a thin shirt, which I didn''t even bother putting on. I put the shorts and left the bathroom, making way to the yellow circle shining in one side of the room- the kitchen. I couldn''t leave my stomach completely empty, or else I''d become nauseous later. I ate a strange, red fruit, that had grown in our "farm", and was surprised. It was pretty juicy and delicious. I finished it, drank water, and observed the room. Scarlet slept soundly, and her flower moved to the sides in random intervals. Karah was having a nightmare, based on her fast breathing and eye movement... And Dia was still curled up in a ball. Thinking about Dia, I tried to acess the Link, without sending any message. I wasn''t sucessful- but concentrating, I could feel the "Worry" she sent through it. I moved closer, petted her, and went to sleep. ************************** I was awoken very violently. Karah shook me all over, worried- Dia jumped on my belly, and I think Scarlet wasn''t allowed near me... I had to get up, and Karah asked me to explain what had happened. I didn''t want to explain, not here, not now, so I just glared at her, and said "It was nothing" I don''t know if she understood I wanted to talk to her later, but it really didn''t matter. She made a sad, pouty face to me, in answer to my glaring...And I just had to mess her hair up. As soon as I started moving my hand through her hair, she backed away, and punched my arm, angry. "I told you not to do this! You know how hard it is to comb this thing every morning?!" I chuckled and answered "Then next time, let me comb it for you" This made her become reddish and leave, mumbling something. We all went through our morning routine. Scarlet acted as if yesterday was no big deal, and I did the same. I couldn''t let her know I''d find some cure to her condition along with Karah. After we had everything ready, I called both the girls outside, to the balcony, and told them about the noise I heard- meaning I''d found a probable location to another seed. The gunshot noise had come from the northeast of our location, the forest. It probably sounded on the plains over there. I told them that as soon as Markus woke up, we''d seal our seed and go explore over there, and they both agreed. With the meeting finished, we resumed the excursions, this time being Karah''s turn. We walked around for a bit, until we were far from from the clearing, and I told her about the plans I had to research and cute Scarlet''s... Problem. Karah was dumbstruck hearing what happened yesterday, and agreed with me on finding a solution. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. We''d be using the seed to scan Scarlet while she slept, and Karah would work on ways while I was out on patrol with her. We made our plans and continued the recon. ************************ For another three months, our routine remained. We got used to life here, kinda. Karah managed to fix about 70% of the defense system, the only thing that wasn''t functional was the grenade launcher. There was no need to guard the seed the whole day anymore. Diana grew a lot, she stood as tall as my shoulder now, and begun participating in easy combat. I have to say: she completely destroys whatever stands in her way. She learned how to use the armor, and isn''t afraid of it anymore, and had pretty sharp nails on her paws. Scarlet... well, she still wasn''t our usual Scarlet, but we learned how to ignore her violent episodes and to avoid her akwardness. I''ve managed to escape her kisses and advances on me... But, thankfully, we were coming closer to find a way to solve her problem. The seed revealed that her flower constantly produced poison, and dumped it into her veins, and that this was causing a disturbance in her nervous system- generating symptoms similar to those seen on psychopaths. Thing is: there''s no way to remove the flower. I''ve seen the vines and the flower itself get torn from her arm several times, but it always regenerates, because the roots installed themselves on her bones. So the answer we came up with was to put the serum on her food until she came to her senses again, and we could explain what happened, and tell her the treatment. Responses would be slow, because it was oral administration, but the seed ensured it would work this way too. Markus''s awakening day was drawing closer, too. I''ve seen his arm moving around, he kicked the air one of these days, but his eyes still haven''t opened, nor has he shown signs of having conscience. Today, I woke up early to take a look at our farm, which had been giving us lots of vegetables lately - and it appears crops mature faster in this planet- and found Scarlet. She was lying over one of the tables set in the clearing... and sunbathing. Must I say she was only wearing undergarments? Yeah This was the third time it happened. Just as I was about to return, silently, to my bed, she said "Like what you see?" I cringed and answered "Sure, you''re lovely, now, if you''ll excuse me, I need to take a shower and make our breakfast" "Mind if I join you?" She asked, probably with that smug smile she wore around me, I didn''t look back to see "Yes, I kind of do, sorry" I answered and left, hearing only something like "aw boo" from her. I finished my biddings, made food for everyone, and left to call Karah and get meat for Diana. I prepared everything, and went back to eat. The taste was different from what I expected, but it was still good. After that, I resumed my training routine, that involved Dia now. We sparred everyday, unarmed, so she''d learn how to move during battles. She learned everything fast. Then the usual recon, to get the plants necessary for Scarlet''s treatment- which didn''t need the deadly flowers anymore, thankfully. Return, then dinner, and put serum on Scarlet''s food. I felt strange by the end of the day, but presumed it was just tiredness, and went to sleep **************** Another five days went by, until something happened. I had been feeling strange lately, but didn''t tell the girls. Maybe I was sick. But today it became worse. I felt nauseous, and my vision distorted. I had to run to the bathroom, and doing so, I startled Karah. She came after me, and found me throwing up in the bathroom, right before I lost my conscience. I woke up five hours later- but for a specific reason. Screaming. There was someone screaming endlessly... and it wasn''t the girls. Markus had woken up, and shook himself all over the bed violently, while shouting "stop" and "let me go" I tried to jump out of my bed, to go help him, but I couldn''t stand up. My legs failed beneath me, and I sent myself tumbling on the floor. I called for Karah and Scarlet, and Diana, through the Link. Soon, the wolf came in running, with Karah just behind her. The seed flashed in red, and said "Subject Markus Eden has a spike in his vitals- forced sedation is recommended" When this happened, Karah ran towards Markus, grabbed his arm, pushed it, so his belly lay on the bed, and hit the back of his neck. The boy went limp, and Karah turned him around again, so he could breathe freely. Karah then said "Relay medical instructions for Markus Eden" And the capsule answered that a low sedative dose would prevent another attack. So she got some sedative from the seed dropout on the wall, and applied on him. Then she came near me, and helped me get to my bed again, then said, angry. "Next time you don''t tell me when you''re not feeling well, I gonna give you a reason for throwing up, myself. Now go rest again, and get better so I can kiss you all I want." Then she gave me a hug, kissed my forehead and left. I fell asleep as soon as the adrenaline stopped working on my system. Then, four hours later I woke up- and heard some mumbling noise. I looked to my side, and saw Markus in fetal position, over his bed, repeating nonstop "I remember everything, I remember..." Im leaving this one (plot release) As you all must''ve noticed, I haven''t been posting any more chapters... well, I kinda list inspiration for this, I did some stuff in the beginning I can''t correct anymore- all in all, I messed up. Sorry for dropping this, to the ones who liked it, *cough* slayer *cough*, and thanks for the support up until now. Maybe I''ll start a new story on LitRPG later, anyway. *edit* Well, I spoke to one of my friends and she told me I should at least "make an ending" to the story, but as i''m lazy as hell, i''m just gonna explain what the plot was - While inside the forest, Karah and Nate try to cure Scarlet, but she finds out and tries to poison Nate -Markus sees that, and kills her outta fear (he thought that the psychopatic smile Scarlet showed was similar to Yama''s, while she experimented on him) -Nate becomes all confused and forgets about Karah and Markus (yay 4 memory wipe) -Karah takes command, and to avoid emotionally scarring the two boys (even more), decides to leave the forest -They find another team to the north, and get along well (3 girls, 1 boy) -They take some time to get used to fighting together and then leave to southeast, to a desert, of sorts -There''s another team there, but full of dumbasses and two crazy girls -Markus goes haywire there too, and gets killed -War happens between them, Karah loses her left arm, Nate recovers memories. Dumbass team almost fully eliminated. 1 good guy left and joined If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.- Guys leave for north, to some icey mountais, and find 3 teams together there -People there got comfy and refused to leave, until some kinda dragon rained hell on them -Everyone left running to southwest, having problems with food. They had around 20 people. -Fights broke out constantly until Nate beat the shit outta some guy who disrespected Karah. -Nate becomes "king" of the nomad group -Teams arrive at some kind of lake -Turns out there was an island in the middle of the lake, to which the "team compass" was pointing -Monsters inside water killed 1 reckless guy who tried to swim his way -The way people found to cross was through some kind of hang glider, that worked through electricity and proppeled itself -In the island were 3 guys and 1 girl -Very suspicious people -Girl, Maya, was curious about Nate and Diana -Girl kidnapped both and experimented on their connection -Girl was Dr. Yama, who used a test experiment to transfer her consciousness into another body -Yama killed Diana -Nate got enraged, and went full werewolf, growing claws and shit, and went on a killing spree, taking out yama, along with the other guys from her team -Almost killed other guys, but Karah got in the crossfire, and got a bit hurt, which calmed him down -Everyone got scared of Nate, and he left, in exile, along with Karah, to northwest -They had to fight a lot, cross some lava planks, and fight their way out some underground-monster pit -They got to a plain and saw something like a stone wall in the distance -Turns out it was a city -Around 300 people had united in that city, because of its safe location, and resources. And that''s it, that''d be the beginning of the 2nd arc, in which Nate and Karah would become some huge asset to the defenses and missions to recover the pods they left behind, and after that, rise to be king and queen (Karah with awesome prosthetic arm, and Wolfling boy)