Val'Kierna ; Xanathan Research Site - Formerly Madagascar | Let me give you my life...Chains rattling, agonized screams, the thrashing of a dying body against cold slab - a chaotic symphony of music playing on repeat through speakers linked to a glass chamber. The latest batch of serum was proving to be a supreme failure just like the last forty-six versions of this new serum. The irritation was evident, chiseled into soft alabaster skin nearing a state of permanency at this point. Nir'Zomal released an audible groan and shoved backwards from the desk with enough force to shake the monitors.
"Useless.. Put it out of its misery." She ordered the men behind her who were trying desperately to become one with their clipboards. The more the tests ended in failure, the more the entire lab was exposed to her temper.
"Don't make me repeat myself. MOVE!" She shrieked while slamming her palms down.
"NOW." Standing violently from the chair, she snatched up her own clipboard, notepad and pen and headed for the door. Before the door even closed, one tech had already began prepping the injection site for termination while another geared up to do a complete decontamination and sterilization of all the medical equipment and surfaces in the test chamber. Every single one of them could have completed the process from start to finish in their sleep - and why couldn't they? They had been doing it for decades now.
"How long before she cracks and burns the whole facility to the ground?"
"Shit, at the rate these failures are going, tomorrow."
"The fact she didn't go nuclear yesterday still surprises the fuck out of me."
"How long before she terminates us is the question you twats should be asking. How long do you think she'll keep accepting these fucks up? One of these days she's going to stop using these mutants as guinea pigs and start using us. End of the year tops before one of you is on that fucking slab."
Day in day out, the same chatter - like a bunch of gossiping girls. They would never say it to her face, but it didn't prevent her from hearing their musings until she nearly reached her office at the end of the wing. By the time she turned down the last hall, their hushed whispers had died down to faint unintelligible buzzings. Their doubts weighed heavier on her chest with each passing day. They were so worried that they'd be test subjects on the serum, none of them considered what would happen to
her the longer she remained unsuccessful in creating a cure to the radiation. She was still on thin ice after what happened at the previous facility nearly twenty years ago.
Xanathan Research Site - Undisclosed Location ; Year 2021 | I think I left my consciousness in the Sixth Dimension...\\ WARNING. WARNING.
FACILITY BREACH.
I REPEAT FACILITY HAS BEEN BREACHED.
LOCK DOWN MODE INITIATED - COMPLETION IN T-MINUS 5 MINUTES \\Sirens blared at deafening decibels through the intercom speakers in every room, closet, and hallway and broadcast across every cell phone and computer. The halls strobed white and red while the sound of guns cocking echoed with the shrill alarms. He wasn't even sure if the guns were from their side or the invaders. "Nayash.. Nayash what are you doing?" Nir'Nashini's whispered voice seemed far away in comparison to the ensemble of other noises all around them. His pale body was just as fragile and small as his voice. When the First Contact War happened, Nir'Zomal hadn't anticipated her brother tagging along with her. Her twin - in every sense of the word, to the point that most confused him for a girl - had spent centuries traversing the wide universe without her, getting his own feet wet. Yet thirty years ago he suddenly became very attached and possessive.
"Quiet. I'm making sure we're safe and no one is coming down this way. Just sit there and be quiet for me. Please." The tone in her own whispered voice brooked no argument. They were in a very precarious position, one she wasn't sure they would make it out of safely without exposing their true selves to the enemy, her bosses, and the planet's government. Xanathan was aware she wasn't human - they just weren't aware of the fullest extent of her inhuman qualities, capabilities, and motives. Even Markus, her closest acquaintance with the corporation, wasn't fully aware of her purpose in arriving on F67X.
Shadows danced across the wall at the T intersection of the hall leading down to the supply room they took refuge in. Every now and again, she caught a glimpse of a face through the small window on the door. Some faces looked familiar, others looked very
unfamiliar and confirmed her suspicions. The NYUNDO.
"Those pesky mother fuckers... How did they even find this place..?" She muttered, maintaining a tight grip on the .45 at the small of her back, index finger pressed firmly to the trigger guard.
\\ ESTIMATED COMPLETION IN T-MINUS 3 MINUTES 30 SECONDS \\The sudden echo of the robotic announcement in the room triggered a survival instinct in her - gun no longer at her back in the waist of her pants but held firmly in front of her, finger on the trigger. The natural blue of her eyes had been swallowed by crimson and bled out into the sclera. Nir'Nashini could feel the pressure change in the small room and knew what it meant. This was bad, quickly approaching worse if this was his sister's unconscious response. He hunkered further down in the corner in an attempt to become one with the wall. Despite being her twin, his powers never came close to the raw intensity of hers. Some days that left him bitter, other days, like right this minute, he was very thankful to not be on her bad side.
On the other side of the door, a NYUNDO warrior came walking down the hallway cautiously with his gun at arm's length. Nir'Zomal could hear the rattling of door handles getting closer. He was looking for something, someone. Hostages. When he reached their door, the knob rattled longer than it should have. Even with the lights off inside the room, he'd still caught the shimmer of white through the glass. She had to make a hasty decision right then and there. If she did nothing and he broke the door down, it would only attract other NYUNDO operatives to their location. If she gave him time to even breathe a word to his comrades through their comms, they were done for.
She settled for mild exposure. In one sweeping motion, she unlocked and opened the door, reached out with a dainty hand, and yanked the man into the darkness of the room before closing it again. He aimed blindly and fired off shot after shot in the room. The first two hit the opposing wall and another pierced through the cabinet on the far side of the room. The fourth round tore through flesh and muscle, sinking deep into the tissue of her arm and shoulder. It stung like a bitch but she'd survived worse.
The last three rounds though.. Those last pesky shots blew through Nir'Nashini's skull and torso. Blood and brain contents splattered across the white canvas behind him. "N...Na-yas..h..." In the seconds it took her to pull this stranger into the room, he had turned her world upside down and left a hole that would never be filled.
"What have you done!" She screamed in agony. The last of her words split in two voices - the more feminine tonality of her everyday voice and then a second harsher, more demonic sounding voice - in tandem with one another. Wadjeet aimed for the voices and pulled on the trigger several times but the only thing that escaped the gun was clicking, indicating that the magazine was empty. "Fuck.. Fuck fuck fuck." He hurriedly attempted to withdraw the magazine and replace it with a new one but it was too late. His human body wasn't fast enough to keep up with her alien speed.
Shrill screams resonated in the room but had long since been drowned out by the security alarms. The wet noise of skin tearing open and organs being rummaged through were all Wadjeet and Nir'Zomal could hear. Serrated nails peeled back layer after layer of skin, muscle, tendons, veins, splashing blood and other bodily fluids over the floor, the walls, the ceiling, her lab coat and jeans. Before long, fangs tore through arteries and down into the left atrium and then there was nothing but an unnerving sucking noise as she devoured the agent's heart.
\\ LOCK DOWN HAS BEEN COMPLETED. FACILITY SECURED. \\By the time the search of the facilities was completed, Nir'Zomal was gone along with her brother's corpse. When they reached the supply room, all they found was a horror scene and the shell of what was once a man's body. No one at the facility would ever be able to identify who the body belonged to and if they were Xanathan or NYUNDO. Only she would know the truth. By the end of the night, they had a complete list of all missing and accountable staff, test subjects, and NYUNDO agents. Of the list of missing subjects was a young girl named Najwa who made it out during the raid.
Val'Kierna ; Present Day | I'm relivin' moments, peeling more residual...\\ SPEECH VERIFICATION REQUIRED \\"Director Nayash Raiyel." Her voice was crisp and clear when she responded to the automated security system leading into her office. Nayash Raiyel was the name she chose to give the corporation when she bought her spot on the board. Nayash had been a pet name her brother called her since they could speak. Raiyel in honor of the narcissistic patriarch of their family.
\\ VERIFICATION APPROVED. THANK YOU DIRECTOR RAIYEL. RETINAL SCAN REQUIRED. \\An audible groan filled the space around. She hated the system in place, thought it demanded too much of her to prove who she was just to get into her own damn office. She knew the logic behind the security protocols but it didn't make her less annoyed having to do the same four steps a hundred times a day. After the system scanned her eye, it'd scream at her about scanning her badge, then it'd want her to put in a pin number before it would unlock the door. By the time she stabbed in the last number of her pin, she was fuming.
"All this security and for what?! What are they going to steal? NOTHING. Some barely functioning mutants? Some bullshit formals that don't do anything?" Although she had been mumbling to herself, the guard behind her felt inclined to chime in.
"Your research notes for the last two decades. Security codes. Mapping systems of all of Xanathan's territories including where our other labs are hid--" "Averies. Do me a favor and shut the fuck up and get out of here. You're dismissed for the day." She snapped, tossing her clipboard down on the side table by the couch.
"Ma'am you know I ca--" "OUT!" As she yelled the word, she lifted the vase off the table and flung it aggressively in his direction. The multi-colored ceramic shattered on impact against the wall to his left.
"Y-yes ma'am." He said hastily and evacuated her office - and her rage. While hustling from her vicinity, he touched the earpiece on his right ear and muttered to other guards on duty.
"For your own safety, leave Director Raiyel alone for the remainder of the day. She's on a rampage. Don't be that guy, you hear me? That means you, Brodrick."Nir'Zomal kicked off her flats and shrugged out of her lab coat before she sank down into the leather couch she seemed to find herself in more and more these days. She flipped idly through the pages on her clipboard, skimming notes in a mixture of English, Arabic, and one other undiscovered language. After a long sigh, she rubbed her eyes and leaned over to lay across the couch, one arm draped over her eyes while the other dangled off the side along with a myriad of blonde tresses.
'Markus... Can you even hear me from here..? Today was another epic failure.. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I don't...' Her thoughts trailed off into silence momentarily only to pick up again.
'There's something missing but I don't know what. I should've paid more attention last time.. Maybe then... I'd know....' Breathing slowing, she drifted into a trance of old memories from what seemed to be lifetimes ago, filtering through to find something, anything from her past that could explain what she needed to make the compounds work.
Member
Knight 7
"I'm careless when I wear my rebel clothes."
