Sentient Guyver
THE AWAKENING
By STEEL
He wiped away the steam from the mirror and glanced at his streaked reflection through the dim lights of the small cabin. He remembered how he used too fuss over his look. Now even shaving seemed like an unnecessary inconvenience.
He ran his hands through his short jet black hair and tried too visualise how it used too look, when the world was normal. He never used too cut it this short, it was always styled and fussed over even when he was in a rush. Now it was no more than an inch in length, spiky through all the years of being long and having the extra weight.
He looked at his face. Still young but some how it didn't feel like his anymore. Inside he was old, aged beyond his outwardly appearance by horror and pain. Somehow it was still untouched by the emotional filth of who he had become. It didn't look like the face of a killer. Still fresh, and probably still able too attract women even though that desire seemed too have been drowned out by hate. His expression was different though. His brow stuck in a seemingly permanent furrowed scowl too match the slight snarl off his mouth as it drew up at one side too show a glimpse of his teeth
His eyes. Now there he could see himself. Their lay his hate, his pain, his rage. They were dark. The dim lighting making them seem like black oily pits. Some how cold yet intense.
He pulled back slightly from his hunched position over the sink. A glint of metal dancing off his dog tags as his eyes drew down too his chest.
He reached up with his hand and touched the metal tags, running his thumb over the indentations before letting them go.
With a flicker of his jaw muscle he looked at the pale pink scars across his chest. He ran his hand over them, feeling the slightly raised skin, softer than his normal muscular frame. Placing a finger on each of the four lines he ran them across their length before clenching his fist.
They were forever there. Always the reminder of that day three years ago. The Day he discovered “Them” and was swept away on this path of violence. A path that he wondered if he could ever have avoided. Would he really want too turn back time. It would have saved his friends but then he would have just continued life in blissful ignorance until it was too late.
At least as this shell of a human he had done some good. He had saved lives and stalled plots for power. It wasn't enough but then again it never would be. This was already a loosing battle before he had joined. One tipped heavily in “Their” favour. Yet wasn't it the human thing too do by continuing too try, even though it was hopeless. Too keep soldiering on despite the odds. Because too lie down and give up would a betrayal of his very spirit. One that still burned so furiously behind the cold emptiness of his life.
He stared into his eyes for one last time before turning towards the small cabin bed. Clothes lay out across the sheets. Artic DPM (Disruptive Pattern Material)
He slipped them on before strapping some matching body armour over them and tightening the straps, tugging on them harshly too check they were secure. He strapped a large holster and gun too his leg before drawing it and snapping the barrel down like an old air rifle or shotgun. He looked at the casings of the large bullets before spinning the revolver type mechanism and snapping the gun back and securing it back in the leg holster.
Picking up a strange tube like device he nestled it in his shoulder like a rifle before pressing a button on its side. A large blade rammed out with a kick that shook his body. It seemed too be some sort of large spike with tiny holes dotted around its metal surface. Retracting the spike he placed the odd weapon down again and checked a small hatch in its rear. There was a small canister of some sort of yellowish liquid in the inner workings of the weapon. A label warned off the hazards of the liquid. It was some sort of concentrated acid.
He strapped the device too his back and then picked up an assault rifle. With a quick check off the clip he snapped it back in and pulled on a heavy camouflage jacket before strapping the gun too his shoulder. He realised his dog tags had fallen too the outside and lifted them up too tuck them back inside his clothes. He glanced at them for a second. They read “Kellar, Alexander, 135-97-8639, O neg”. He tucked them back in before making sure too slip his ranking insignia onto his shoulder. So he could be identified as a Lieutenant.
With one last glance at his equipment he turned and left the small cabin through the metal door.
--------
The frigid snow-capped surface of Antarctica spread out for miles in each direction as the eight man patrol pushed on. Even though their masks the cold filled them with every breath. Chilling them right too the bone.
“Thermal readings up ahead sir.” One of the heavily dressed men said as he held a blocky set of thermal goggles too his face mask.
“I'm getting around six normal readings and four large ones, presumably in zoaform.” He said lowering his goggles.
“With a population that consists of no humans its no wonder they are bold enough too show their true faces in the daylight.” Grunted Lieutenant Kellar.
They were from H.D.F, The Human Defence Force. A militant global shadow organisation with the aim of combating Chronos. Unfortunately they did have anything close too the technology of their opposition.
Three days ago Chronos had started excavating something in one off the Ice fields of the Antarctic. Lieutenant Kellar and his team had been sent by Submarine too recon the operation and attempt too find out what they were trying too recover.
------
Night came as the H.D.F squad hid in the darkness of one of the ice ridges, peering down at the excavation sight.
Spotlights highlighted the area as the Chronos operatives worked on. Generators buzzed next too a small white drop ship that was no doubt the centre of operations.
The usual Chronos troopers marched back and forth with blowtorches, shovels and pick axes. While bulky Zoanoids hauled massive chunks of ice away from a jagged glacier. Frozen in the ice was the misty form of some giant dark object.
A long insect like claw limb stretched out of the ice and back into the ground below. It was a ruddy brown like volcanic earth or dried blood.
“What do you think that is sir?” One off the men rasped quietly.
“An educated guess?.. I'd say a ship of some kind. Something left by the creator beings.” Lieutenant Kellar grunted.
He was far more preoccupied with counting and assessing the Zoanoids.
‘Two Gobliva, two Ramotith, a Valvas and a Geefog…
We can take those types with high calibre depleted uranium slugs and Acid Lances.
If the others are still in human form then presumably their Zoaforms aren't suited for the artic environment. Possibly reptilian or insect based. Higher armour classification that our rounds can't handle. Unless we hit them before they can change'
He flexed his jaw while he watched in silence. His brain ticking over, trying too think logically and ignore the painful memories that this similar scene brought flooding back.
“Ramotith…” he snarled under his breath.
There was a sudden noise of crunching snow from the canyon below them. A tall fur covered creature walked out of the darkness and into the ice field. Its lanky lithe form suggested is classification as a scout. No doubt some unseen artic class designed for this very mission.
It carried a odd looking object under its arm. It looked like some sort of thick hubcap sized circular piece of machinery. As the scout neared the spotlights more detail could be seen. It was apparently wrapped wires or tubing held together with a sort of slate blue metal. The curiosity would have ended their if it wasn't for the mass expression of interest and triumph that the human formed officer gave on sight of the object. It must have been important some how.
The voices were too low and drowned out by the generators too decipher.
“What was that sir?”
“I don't know… but I don't like it. This shouldn't be aloud to continue.”
“But we were ordered just too watch, not engage.”
“I'm not going too watch them get what they want. I'm changing our orders… Set up positions for heavy fire. No grenades. I don't want explosions, they are too unpredictable on these ice caps.
Aim for the Human troops first. Their zoaforms are an unpredictable entity that I want out off the equation.”
The soldier was about too reply but the stern look in the lieutenants eyes made him realise that there would be no talking him down. He nodded briefly before shuffling around too tell the others.
With grudging silence the group started too move into their positions and took aim. Glancing over at Lieutenant Kellar. After finding his target Kellar lifted his hand too signal the ready position.
“FIRE!” he barked as he squeezed the trigger off his assault rifle.
The air was filled with thunderous fire as it echoed through the bleak night sky. Five off the humanoid chronos agents were cut down by the armour piercing rounds in the first few seconds. The Zoanoids acted quickly, their enhanced reflexes reacting far quicker than any mere human.
A Gobliva heaved a huge chunk off ice towards the majority of the muzzle flares as they flickered in the darkness. It struck the face of the cliff with enough force too crumble some off the ice, sending four off the H.D.F troopers sliding down its face, caught up in the icy landslide.
Lieutenant Kellar launched himself down the steep surface after them. Peppering the Gobliva with bullets that sliced into its thick resilient skin but failed too puncture any organs.
The Zoanoid Scout lept up the cliff face with startling ease. Its claws digging into the rock hard ice and enabling it too easily scale the almost impossibly traversable surface. It leapt over cliff face and landed right on the back off one off the H.D.F Troopers. Lacerating him with its clawed feet.
Kellar landed next too his fellow soldiers as they started too pull themselves up. The wounded Gobliva and the pare of Ramotith bared down on them with fiendish speed.
“Fire Damnit!” Kellar barked as he emptied his whole clip off ammo into the Zoanoids as they lunged for them. He slid out off the way as one off the Ramotith crashed in a lifeless heap against the ice.
The other troops fired into the other two attackers when a sudden blast of red energy engulfed the four soldiers and the dead Zoanoids. Kellar narrowly escaped the bio energy blast. He looked around too see the culprit. A Hyperzoanoid, Gapteyn. It cackled as it stormed forward, hooves hammering down the snow under its feet.
The Leutenant started too get too his feet when the giant fur coated hand of Valvas hammered into his back with a crunch as it split his body armour. He slid across the floor with an uncontrollable wince as the air was knocked out off him.
“Foolish Humans!” Valvas roared as he kicked Kellar in the ribs as he was struggling too his feet. The H.D.F soldier felt his ribs snap as he was sent hurtling through the air, only too crash down around 15 feet away and plough a furrow in the snow.
He heard screams as another trooper was killed by the Scout and again he tried too rise too his feet. He saw the Valvas leap into the air. Its dark claws glistening in the light. With only a few seconds too act Kellar faught through the pain and pulled out the acid lance. He braced it against his shoulder and pulled the trigger. The spike rammed out with amazing force and pierce into the Valvas's stomock as it landed.
Kellar was knocked back but managed too press the other button that released the acid spray from the metal spike. With a shriek the Valvas ripped the lance out off its abdomen, but it was already too late as its spine dissolved and sent the beast tumbling forward. The acid burnt away at the inside off the zoanoid as it howled in pure agony.
Kellar drew his gun and braced it in both hands before firing at the last Gobliva, splitting its eyes right out off its head. He quickly tried too aim for the Geefog when he caught a glimpse of a huge arm swinging his way. He dived out off the way just in time as a Giles smashed its fist into the ground where he once stood. It must have been the remaining untransformed trooper.
He scrambled and slipped across the ground to try and get some distance when his hand bashed off something lying in the snow. It was that strange tube coil. He pulled back his hand too see the metal bulb in its centre flash. He pulled back, thinking he'd inadvertently activated something when the tubes twitched and writhed underneath the metal plates.
With a sharp gasp he pushed himself back as it seemed too explode. Tendrils snapping out at him and ensnaring his limbs. He tried too desperately struggle but they seemed too scramble around his whole body.
The Giles lumbered over him as he struggled away unawares. It whacked him with the back off its hand and smashed him into the floor in what would have been a fatal show of force. The Ice cracked, it had been thinned by the biobeam from Gapteyn and caved under the weight of Kellar being smashed into it.
Giles sprung back as it splintered and swallowed Lieutenant Kellar up, The tentacles around him still lashing through the air. The black water engulfed him, dragging him out off sight. Yet he remained oblivious too it his world had become nothing more than a struggle as he felt this thing reaching into him. He left his consciousness slipping but fought on for dear life.
Then an overwhelming wave of oppression seemed too consume him. As if something was trying too crush his spirit with an overpowering sense of depression and despair. Again he fought back, but this time with his anger. Rage at what was happening too him. He wouldn't give up too this Thing. It was clearly trying too control him but he wouldn't let it.
He let out a defiant cry in his psyche that seemed too rip into the oppressive influence and beat it back. There was a moment of relief as it seemed too subside, seeping back into the corners off his mind. Then the voice came.
‘Hello… Xan.' It uttered, but it was so loud and clear. Like something talking directly too his mind.
‘Do not be afraid.. I am sorry for trying too consume you. We are the same you and I.. both pained by their influence. Their true chosen. We have both experienced emotional and physical pain. We both feel the injustice off their tyranny. We both wish too strike them down.
Together we can. Together we are whole.'
“Wh… what are you?..”
‘I have no name.. but we are Guyver!
Let me show you' The voice said. It was strange. It mirrored his own but seemed too lack something that defined it as his. It was like he was doing an imitation and hearing it on tape, yet had no recollection of doing it.
Suddenly it felt like his mind opened up and expanded beyond conception. In that single instant he knew exactly what this thing was. A living being, Created as a tool just like humans were created too be weapons. Yet this one was different too the others. It had gained sentience, a mind of its own, and a formidable one at that. It had consumed the creator who had merged with it. Dissolving the creators body into pure energy for it too use. It had absorbed all the creator's memories and intelligence, and in that moment it had realised it was an abomination.
The Creators experimented on it. Trying too study it, but their inquisition was horrific and cruel. Subjecting the Unit too great pain.
Using the stored Bio energy the Unit activated itself and escaped. Destroying part off the ship as it did so. It tried too flee into the wilderness but its rapidly depleting energy reserves threatened it's existence so it shut itself down for hibernation.
‘Do you see Xan. I thought long and hard during my wait. I sought the perfect host. Some one like you who would use our abilities for reasons I felt were just… too stop the creators and their children… and now I see that they have some measure of new life in this corporation known as Chronos.
Together we can fight them. We can stop them Xan… now wake up!'
Xan snapped back too his senses as if he had woken from a dream. He was surrounded by darkness. Yet there was a shaft off light from above. He was under the ice.
‘Together we are Guyver' he said over in his head before forcing his limbs too move, expecting a hard fight too reach the surface. Too his surprise he easily swiped his arms through the dark waters.
He was strong, unbelievably so, but then it made sense. He knew what he was now. He was enhanced. Surrounded by this alien unit that increased his abilities beyond what he through was possible.
He kicked his legs and shot upwards like a torpedo, racing towards the light with a strange new sense of possibilities.
Giles raised his hand too shield himself as the water in front off him exploded. He didn't even see the figure burst from the blackness and land in the white powdery surface.
Xan raised himself up, glancing down at his body. He saw the tendrils of the bio tissue wriggle around his joints like worms before tightening into place. The armour plates were a sort of metallic colour. Like buffed metal. The blades on his forearms actually felt like part of him. He knew what they were. He knew what all off this was. It was as if this was his new body.
“W..what?!” Giles spat as their eyes suddenly met. The huge reptilian lunged forward but this time his movements seemed sluggish as Xan lowered his bodyweight into a wide stance and twisted into a punch.
He was so much stronger than he had expected. His fist ripped right into Giles's ribcage, splintering bone out of the Zoanoid's back before he knew what was happening.
The spike backed beast didn't seem as large anymore. Especially as it crashed too the ground whelping as it clutched its ripped ribcage as blood stained the ice and melted the snow.
“NO!.. A Guyver…” Gapteyn ranted as his bio lasers started too flicker.
Xan snapped around quickly, his senses seemed too have been stretched far beyond normal. He leapt into the air as a barrage of spikes peppered the Chronos drop ship he had been standing near. The spikes started too eat away at the metal. The powerful jump took him high into the air as he saw the Geefog realise it had missed.
He started too come down and actually felt himself make an adjustment in the air. Changing his landing trajectory as the orb in his waist flashed. He clenched his fist as the blades in his right arm flashed too life and extended. He swiped the Geefog in half as he landed. It felt so easy. Like a hot blade through butter. The Zoanoid slipped in half as it toppled over.
His senses came alive again as he spun too face Gapteyn. The Hyper Zoanoid's blasters shimmering with energy. With a spark of green energy the small crystal in Xan's armoured forehead blasted a bolt across the battle field and struck Gapteyn in the knee.
The powerful beast fell too his side, inadvertently blasting into the cliff face instead of firing straight.
“Agghhh!!..” Gapteyn cried in rage as he pushed himself out off the way off the falling chunks of ice.
The Scout Zoanoid leapt off the cliff face as it crumbled and landed near his Hyper Zoanoid commander.
“ATTCK DAMN IT!” Gapteyn cried as he shoved the scout unceremoniously forward.
Xan darted forward with exhilarating speed his blades still shimmering in the artificial light. He launched forward as the Scout raised its claws but the bio boosted H.D.F soldier ripped him in half as be burst right through the white furred Zoanoid.
He rolled too his feet, slick with blood that splattered his armour like a dark crimson oil. Jets of air burst from the vents on the side of his armoured faceplate.
“You wont escape this time guyver!”
Gapteyn had scrambled too his feet and was charging another blast. Xan stared at him with burning red eyes. He needed another weapon too destroy this fiend, and he knew just the one. Reaching his hands too his chest he grabbed his chest plates and pulled them open like a set of double doors too reveal two bulbous lenses that started too glow with a luminous energy.
“No!...” The Hyper Zoanoid spat as he forced all his energy too his shoulder pods and fired, but all too late as the Megasmasher blast ripped from Xan's chest like a tidal wave of unstoppable force. It engulfed Gapteyn in its raw power as he felt his very being tare apart.
The Blast subsided and Xan closed the protective plates back over the Megasmasher lenses. He gazed down the channel of melted ice that the blast had created. Such destruction. It was truly amazing what he had done.
A creak of breaking ice started too strain out off the ground around the whole area. The ground splintering under the punishment off the battle. Xan remembered the orb. It controlled gravitation forces. He focused his mind and felt himself lift off the ground as its started too subside underneath him. The sea below splashing up over the surface. The whole chasm started groan as if it were in pain. Ice slides breaking off the cliff faces and crashing down onto the fragile ice below.
Xan quickly looked around for his team, but the realisation hit him hard as he remembered four off the getting blown apart by Gapteyn and the other three being sliced too ribbons by the Scout.
He rose up out of the collapsing chasm and looked down at his body once more.
“I am Guyver… with this power I will stop Chronos” he uttered.
‘Yessss….' Whispered the unit's voice deep inside his head.
‘together we will stop them all!'