Casting a Shadow

by Ssendam the Masked

Ellura once again

As I lounged, I contemplated Geo. I said that I would make him stronger, and I meant it. What I didn't tell him was how I was going to do it. What I was going to do was, technically, wrong. But I didn't care about right or wrong. All I cared about was making a loyal, powerful soldier.

First step to this process was creating a virus that would augment his capabilities. As a Makuta, I was a master of creating viruses that could create life and grant powers. But I would need test subjects. And there was no more perfect test subject for Geo... than Geo himself.

The great thing about the multiverse is that I can have as many test subjects as I need. A limitless supply of Geos presented themselves to me, and I took advantage of that. Hundreds of realities I plundered, tracking down every instance of Geo the Charizard. Some fought; I put them down. Others cowered away from me; I put them down. I must have killed over a hundred different instances of Geo, but I had my test subjects. I strode amongst them, looking each of them in the eye. A couple thought of fighting me, and I put them all to sleep.

Then came the virus. I pulled out a Geo and slapped him awake. He snarled at me, and breathed a torrent of white hot flames that I barely felt. "Geo, was that really necessary? I only want what's best for you. And that necessitates painful, painful testing."

With that, I injected him with the virus I had lovingly crafted. The effects weren't immediate- if they were, than Geo would suspect me of that. So I had to... accelerate the process. I pulled out the Kanohi Vahi, and sped up the time of Geo. He writhed and wriggled in high speed, and he grew in size. When I was done, he'd grown quite a lot. He panted, before breathing a muych, much hotter gout of flame that merely washed over my armour. I sighed; really, this was too much. "Now really, mr Geo, is that any way to react to somebody who has your best interests at heart?" When he tried to attack, I gripped his throat tightly and continued. "The virus is operating within acceptable parameters. But I need more. This test subject is worthless to me now. I will have to check on his vitals after the autopsy." With that, I snapped his neck and gently took him away. The clamouring of the Geos was astronomical, so I Silenced them with a thought.

The autopsy confirmed it; I had created a successful mutagenic virus that would bolster the combat capabilities of Geo. But I needed improvements. I set aside my initial efforts, and started to go crazy, boosting certain variables, improving others and diminishing yet more others. I fed it to the next one, and watched to see what happened. Unfortunately, all that happened was that his head exploded. I tutted, and crossed that virus off the list.

Of course, many died, and those who remained were hysterical. Many begged me to have mercy, to spare them. I paid them no mind- they were as cattle to me. Some pleaded with me, that they would do anything for me. A couple even tried to kill themselves. But they were pretty much dead already. And I was giving them purpose. They had been chosen by an immaculate and majestic being to improve one of their own number. What did I care if they died? I could always snatch more.

As I injected my latest test subject while the tears poured down his face and he begged me to have mercy, I felt one of my allies summoning me. With a gesture, I set Tavish to watch this Geo, and pulled on my Olisi, to enter a rather interesting facility. I am rarely impressed by anything, but the sheer scale of the place, the incredible creations he had made with an inferior virus- it was all incredible. “Fascinating work, these B.O.W.s of yours.” I drawled, walking through and examining the facility. “True works of art. I’m impressed with the sheer diversity. I wasn’t expecting this.”

Inkwell smirked, and I felt the pride he had in his creations, as well as his slight surprise that I was genuinely praising him. “I am many things, Mr. Teridax, but an underachiever is certainly not one of them. I seek to go above and beyond my client’s expectations, always.” He bowed his head slightly me, the slight fear and worry in him alerting me to the fact that he was appeasing me. “I do hope you have a place to hold them all. This is our subterranean B.O.W. storage facility underneath Fillydelphia, and these B.O.W.s alone are putting us at around 75% capacity.” As he sighed and facehoofed, I pulled the relevant information out of his head as he spoke. “We would be at 100% if it weren’t for the recent interference in Manehattan, in addition to the incident in Ponyville. We lost a lot of research and test subjects…” His speech trailed off into a grumble.

I waved a massive, clawed hand. Of course I knew how much storage I needed. I was always ten steps ahead of any jumped-up mortal who thought they were able to conquer the world. Nemesis would have been a fine ally if I could get to him; perhaps I could still bribe him with one of my patented creations. “Storage is not a problem. I’ll get my team of specialists to move the tubes through.” Purely for effect, I jerked my head to the left and created another portal through to another reality. “Advice and general specialisations on these marvelous B.O.W.s can wait. I will uphold my end of the bargain, even further than I would have already-”

I was interrupted by Tavish, who came in with an important announcement. “Father, subject 20 has exploded.”

I grunted in annoyance. I'd had high hopes for Subject 20, but it seemed that my hopes were poorly placed. “Unexpected. Problem with the flame gland, I’m assuming.” I turned back to Inkwell, who was smart enough to figure out what I was doing. “Apologies. I’m in the midst of my own testing, and so far… so far the virus is not operating as I would like it to. Too many variables change, and a virus can do something completely outside of normal perimeters. I managed to get a product I liked first try, and I’m currently testing to see whether or not I can improve its efficiency.”

Inkwell’s eyes widened at the sight of Tavish, and his surprise escalated when he had called me ‘father.’ Inkwell shook his head. “Think nothing of it, I personally know how difficult it is when testing a new product. Strains of the original virus have done a myriad of things we never expected it to, from making brain-dead useless B.O.W.s to the subject turning into something else entirely.”

Inkwell’s ears perked up suddenly as he reached into his suit pocket, and I knew what he was giving me before he opened his mouth. “Speaking of…” he produced a vial of blood from Nemesis. Perfect. “I believe you also requested a sample? It’s not directly from the source itself, it’s what we could recover after a battle, but we’ve looked it over and it is, without a doubt, his.”

I examined the vial, sloshing it around. From his thoughts, he'd already confirmed that it was genuine. “This I can work with. It is more than suitable for my purposes. Follow me, and I’ll get to work on it right away.”

Inkwell nodded and followed me through the portal I had conjured. The same laboratory presented itself, though the smell of lyme and disinfectant was overpowering. My sons were dutifully hauling out lumps of alternate Geos, an action that I paid no mind, focused on the promised T-Virus nestled in my hand. With a flick of a finger one of my Masks of Mutation came to my hand and I replaced the Kraahkan with the Mask of Mutation. “Let’s take a look at you." Some measure of consideration for my guest came to me, and I added, "I assume it isn’t safe to open this in your presence.”

“If I’m far enough away to avoid inhaling the fumes or touching it, I should be fine.” Inkwell responded as he slowly backed away from Teridax until he was a reasonable distance away where he could still watch what was happening. Not that it would help him at all; I operated on an entirely different level to him.

I flicked the test tube open, watched the fumes for a moment, appreciating the structure of the virus. It was really quite fascinating. Then, my Mask of Mutation started glowing. The blood within started bubbling and boiling, and changed to a slightly darker shade of red. With the mutations I had wanted to happen having done so, I flicked my hand. A large amount of biomatter slid towards him. “I have stabilised this virus, a process which is beyond your technology. The virus grants an increased healing factor, as well as a boost to reaction time and intelligence. Not much of a boost, but noticeable.”

Teridax frowned, before setting the vial down and recapping it. “I think I’ll put in a bonus feature as well.” Without hesitating, he drove his clawed hand directly into his metallic torso, making no sound other than the crumpling of metal under the pressure.

Inkwell’s fascination with the vial waned as Teridax drove his clawed hand into his chest. He visibly flinched at the violent display, and I could appreciate the irony of his squeamishness- a pony who routinely had people butchered was unnerved my an act of self-mutilation. “Wh-what did you have in mind?” he flinched again at the sound of crunching metal but otherwise tried to seem unperturbed by the act. I could tell, though, that I had shaken him.

I answered his slightly squeamish question by removing one of my new youngest children, a kraata of Adaptation. I communed with it mentally, asking it to give a portion of its flesh to my latest creation. My son complied, and I promised to make it painless, but I kept my voice level as I answered Inkwell's question with, “Oh, just something to make it much harder to kill.” This said, he carefully placed it down, and, carefully, removed a small section of reddish-gold flesh. With this finished, he carefully placed a hand on the harmed area, and the flesh regrew.

Inkwell eyed the wriggling creature curiously as Teridax removed flesh from it, and dropped it into the vial. The liquid bubbled even more, then became slightly less murky. Inkwell leaned his head forward, trying to get a better look at it but not wanting to stray too close. “Increased intelligence, reaction time, and enhanced regenerative capabilities? All at the loss of no essential bodily functions? I’d ask how such a thing is possible, but I believe my definition of ‘impossible’ was shaken when I met you.” Inkwell smirked slightly. “I’m too assume this will be used also to create this ‘hunter’ that you said you would also deliver?”

“Oh, yes. It should work; if not, then you have my apologies. Now then, let’s get to work.” I waved a hand only for efect's sake, and a veritable mountain of unidentifiabe meat came towards me from the surgical room I then carefully poured about half of the vial onto it. I wanted to conserve this sample, especially after what I was going to be using it for.

The pile of meat, at first, did not react, and for a split second I thought I had been given a dud sample. Then, it bubbled, and the virus got to work. Inkwell backed away slightly as it pulled itself apart, together, apart and together again in some sort of destructive, creative dance. I pulled on the Mask of Mutation, and simply stood still, only the mask glowing indicating the immense mental struggle that was happening as I added and removed vectors. For the extraordinary work that Inkwell had gone to in procuring me those B.O.W.S of his, I was going the whole nine yards with this. The rate of it pulling itself apart and together again increased, moulding into a vaguely bipedal figure.

Eventually, the creature was formed, and I couldn't have been happier. It was vaguely humanoid, standing at an impressive seven feet tall. It was as skinny as a rake, and coloured a dull, reddish purple. Long, almost disproportionate arms and a narrow, snake-like head made it appear incredibly alien. A single, bright red eye glared out at the world. I tapped my Mask of Mutation, and I would have smiled if I'd had a proper mouth. “Oh, yes, this will do nicely. I can assure you, this one will be practically unkillable.”

Inkwell tilted his head as he slowly approached the new creature. Besides the immensely short amount of time that Teridax had taken to make the creature, its mere appearance left him flabberghasted. Despite this, a smile slowly spread over his features. “I...what can it do?”

In response, Teridax simply drove a hand through its chest and pulled it out. The creature barely flinched, didn’t even seem to acknowledge the gaping hole in its chest. The flesh pulled back together at an impressively fast pace, and Teridax smirked, before repeating the motion. This time, rather than tearing through the creature, it simply bounced off. “An adaptive ability. Nothing will harm it in the same way; it’ll simply adapt. However, the more damage it takes, the more successive hits it needs to fully adapt.”

I snapped me fingers, and my unnamed creation sprang into action, removing the neural interface worm from its skull, as it had been designed to do. “The other feature I added is something that won’t really be useful for much more than guidance: a symbiote that can go into whoever you assign to control it. Be warned, however, that if the creature is somehow killed, whoever is controlling it will also die. Extreme pain will likely have some… minor mental feedback issues, and might possibly lobotomise the controller. So be careful.”

As I listed features off, I could feel Inkwell's excitement growing. It briefly faltered when he heard about the whole 'two-deaths' feature, but he took it with pride and approached the worm. I admired that courage. “If it means eliminating the greatest threat to my company, I’ll gladly take a little pain over that. As for the part about sharing death..well…” Inkwell looked at the red worm apprehensively. “I suppose that’s why I asked you to make it.” He took the worm into his hoof, and I sensed his confusion. I decided to be a bit more helpful with him regarding my creations' capabilities.

“Put it in your ear. It should make its way to your brain and co-inhabit your frontal lobe. You and my creation will share one mind. It’s how it was designed.” I thought about an appropriate name for my creation, and finally settled on one. I'd always been a fan of Majora's mask, so it was fitting that my second greatest creation would be named after the main antagonist of that game. “I think I’ll name my creation… Majora.” I mulled it over, thinking. Yes, Majora was a good name for this creature, expecially considering that it didn't need a neural interaface to be so delightfully efficient. “Yes, Majora is a good name for this creature. And if you need another one…” I stoppered the vial. “I can always make another one.”

Inkwell stared at the neural interface worm before he lifted it to his ear. The worm complied immediately, crawling into it. Inkwell shuddered for a moment, feeling the worm work its way through his ear canal before it eventually hit what it was looking for: his brain. And, of course, providing a kill switch if I ever needed one; not that I thought I would, but it never hurt to be too prepared. Inkwell twitched a few times, but after a moment, Majora’s eye lit up, as was expected. I'd given Majora sentience, as it seemed fitting.

“Equestrian life form recognized. Master designation: ‘Inkwell’. Awaiting orders.”

Inkwell blinked a few times, rubbing the side of his head with a hoof. I could tell that the voice in his head bothered him. “I think...one...will do just fine for now. Though I trust I can still call on you, should I change my mind in the future?”

I shrugged, pleased that the deal was going as easily as it was. I almost considered Inkwell a friend. Almost. “Oh, yes. No problem. I’ve got a minor problem of my own… something that could change quite a lot. But yes, I can be contacted. Now, your end of the deal, if you please.”

“Oh, but of course.” Inkwell pressed a few buttons on the watch on his hoof. “Inkwell.”

”Voice recognition acknowledged.”

“Begin mass B.O.W. transportation, direct to…” He looked back to teridax with a grin. “Where would you like me to put them?”

“I have a rather large chamber that I can store them in.” A pair of massive steel doors slammed open, revealing a massive cavern. That done, I decided, as was courteous, to inform Inkwell about the last feature of Majora. “This should be able to store them all, with room to spare. One more thing, about Majora? A third feature is that Majora, technically, has no skeletal system, and can fit through any opening. And due to the stabilised nature of the virus, it cannot transmit that infection by any means other than direct bodily fluid contact.”

And with that, he left. I stood still for a moment, before pulling out the vial itself. I hadn't used any of it at all; I'd merely used the illusion of it. Of course, he wouldn't know that at all, and there was no point in telling him. I chuckled, before examining it. My mind flared and flashed, and complex equations went through my mind at the speed of a supercomputer. When I was done, I simply focused, hard. Viral energy spiralled around my hand, and the fine, silver powder I created went into the vial. The mixture reacted briefly, then went inert. I pulled out my Akaku, the Kanohi of Vision, and looked at it closely. The T-virus had been suppressed successfully. Of course, the virus I was giving him was probably going to either kill or severely harm him. But, for a man who wanted to be a hero, what I was offering him was a chance to be free from the pressure of the T-virus' mental strain. And such a man could be bribed to not get in my way.

As I contemplated, Tavish ran up to me, grinning. "Father, you wouldnae believe it! Subject 200 has increased parameters, and is still stable!"

I would have smiled if I had a mouth. "Excellent. Give me the virus, and I think that I'll write Geo a letter. And drop that Geo back in his home. As for the others..." I mulled over it, then nodded. "I'll dispose of them myself."

The other Geos were vaporised. Couldn't have them thinking about fighting me in any way, shape or form. It would distract me.

Comments

[Metroid Prime]

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[ShadowsInTheDark]

So evil. And yet I like it.

[TSLsmokey]

And it's so easy when you're evil. This is the life you see the devil tips his hat to thee. You do it all because you're evil. And you do it all for free, the tears are all the pay you'll ever need.

[SwimmingDalek98]

Geo Prime's general reaction if he found out about this:
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But of course, he won't… for a while. By the way, he is aware of the kraata you have following him. He can kinda smell them. They smell like what happens if you put Play-Doh, ice cream, and hard candy in a blender, then leave it out in the sun… Don't ask why he knows what that smells like.

[Menomas]

Yay! Makuta's back! In all his evil, conscienceless glory.

[shinigamisparda]

5328243 I just hope Geo smart enough to know when he shouldn't be involved with someone anymore. And I hope a certain someone has beaten enough sense into him to refuse his "generous" offer when he makes it. I have high hopes for that hothead.

[user123]

5328243
I hope geo and co. Wrecks him at some point...haven't even read this...but I read yours...

[Architect Ironturtle]

I'm calling it if it hasn't been called already. Teridax and Auric Fulcrum are black for each other. Kismesis 4 EVA!

[Realistic_Lego_Man]

5533112

I notice you're Homestuck trash.....