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// The Creations 
// Story: More than Appearances 
// by KidatHeart5 
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	Kenneth and Justine were hailed as heroes in both Japan and Clerval upon word that the evil had been destroyed, despite what the two truly knew about Aku’s fate. To their fortune, they had managed to smuggle the elixir to their laboratory. They also brought star stones and acupuncture needles back from their journey. With these new materials, they made modified plans to create life. After many trial runs, they were delighted that their formulas and methods were successful.
Still, the shadow of fear that Aku might somehow return hung over them. As a result, they decided to make their experiments super-warriors, ready to fight Aku. Despite having vowed never to use a human corpse, they decided to go on with it and stitched only muscular body parts together. As a circumvention of Frankenstein’s original experiment, Ken and Justine decided to implement lynx DNA into the creation to enable him to have useful traits from the animal. They also made modifications to their chimera and metal man. For the metal man, they put in reptilian eyes so he could have better vision; for the chimera, they stitched on sharp parts of various animals along with a horse’s head to fit with the rest of its sleek body.
After much preparation, the time finally came for Ken and Justine to bring their creations to life. That fateful night, Justine was preparing the spells for intelligence and life while Ken was attaching acupuncture needles – which were connected to electric wires - to the covered bodies. 
When he put the human corpse inside a large, water-filled bronze tub and pierced it with the needles through accessible portholes, Justine said, “I think we are ready. I just need you to keep the lid off the tub so I can perform my spells.”
Grabbing some purple dust from her bowl, Justine tossed the powder into the air. It then puffed into the image of a lynx before descending into the water and the corpse submerged in it. Justine then grabbed a yellow dust and spread it to all three of the creations. 
When the powder settled, she said, “The cantrips have been spoken. The patterns of force are aligned. Now it’s up to the machine, Kenneth.”
After he secured the lid on the tub, Ken said as he grasped the two pronged levers, “If this works, it’ll be a miracle.” 
When he pushed the levers up, an electrical surge ran through the bright Van de Graaff generators over the creations. The electricity then sprouted from them and flowed through the acupuncture needles attached to the experiments. When the generators burst, green rays of magic from the elixir in the urn emerged and snaked towards the creations. When they reached the corpses, the rays were gradually absorbed into them. To the surprise of the couple, a metal claw reached out of one of the canvases and a growl was heard beneath the large blanket. 
Ken shouted in glee, “It’s alive! Alive!” He then told Justine, “I’ve always wanted to say that.”
The creature – still covered with the canvas – sat upright and removed the heavy blanket. Even with the metal-clipped needles still clamped onto him, the metal man was still a sight to look upon. His yellow reptilian eyes gleamed from the light as they scanned the surroundings.
Justine said, “As you said, it’s alive.”
Ken breathed in amazement, “We…we did it. We actually did it. We created life!”
“But did we succeed with all three of the creations?”
Just then, they heard a moan from beneath the canvas that covered the chimera. Ken slowly removed the blanket to reveal the horse-headed animal and he and Justine gasped slightly when they saw that the chimera’s eyes had become yellow and red.
Justine asked, “What happened to the eyes?”
Ken suggested, “I think the elixir did something to them when it was mixed with the intellect spell.”
“But why did the metal man’s eyes stay the same and the chimera’s didn’t?”
He gave it some thought before he said, “Maybe the side effects are different for each creation.”
Suddenly, the chimera groaned and grabbed the canvas Ken was holding. When the creature covered itself with it again, Justine chuckled, “I guess it wants its beauty sleep. I’ll take off the needles now.”
With a gesture of her hands, the needles came off just like that. However, the chimera yelped in a masculine voice as he jumped in mid-air. After he landed back on the table, he covered himself with the canvas and snarled at Ken and Justine. 
Ken joked, “Oh, prickly creature.”
Justine asked as she went to the huge tub, “What about him?”
Even though the portholes were fogged up, Ken and Justine could see that the creation wasn’t moving.
Ken said somberly, “I think we can chalk this one up as a failure. We’ll just have to make do with the two we do have.”
Justine used her magic to remove the needles from the portholes and suddenly, the tub started shaking. She breathed, “Wait. Is he…?”
Ken cried, “Alive!”
When his lover used her magic to unlock the lid, it flew off with one swift kick from the creation. Droplets of water splattered the couple and their creations, but it wasn’t enough to electrocute the wires. Justine flew up in the air to help levitate the creation from the tub. Before she could, however, the creature roared as he emerged from the water. Reaching for Ken, he ended up tipping the tub over.
Justine grabbed her lover and hoisted him into the air as she cried, “Ken, look out!”
They watched from the air as the tub fell to the floor and the water drenched the creations and the wires, thus electrocuting them. When the electricity stopped dancing, Justine used her magic to disconnect the wires to prevent any more electrocution. When the couple landed on the wet floor, they could see that their creations were as good as dead. However, one in particular caught their attention. To their surprise, their human creation had transformed into a catlike creature with purple fur and dark purple stripes. He also had a beard divided into three sections, with two of those sections bearing the resemblance of that of a lynx’s hairs. 
Justine asked as she inspected the cat-man, “How was this possible? He was supposed to have catlike traits, not a catlike appearance.”
Ken said, “Well, whether he would’ve acted like a lynx or a human, he’s no good now.” He tsked, “It’s a shame, really. The metal man actually turned out perfect. He and the others would’ve turned out to be perfect super-warriors.”
Justine chuckled sadly, “I bet they would’ve taken out Aku with one fell blow.”
“Well, we tried. I suppose there’s nothing else to do but discard this experiment entirely. We’re just going to have to find some other way to defeat Aku should he escape again.”
“What should we do with these guys?”
“What else? Put them in bags and pass them off as trash.”
“Which they are now.”
After they put the chimera in a burlap bag and smuggled him onto a garbage wagon, they went back inside the warehouse to prepare the next burlap bag. Suddenly, they heard metal clacking against the wooden floorboards. 
Justine asked in unease, “Ken, did you put something close to the edge of a table?”
Ken shook his head, “No. I always put items as close to the center of the table as possible.”
“Then what…?”
They turned towards the door and yelped in surprise when they saw their metal man, alive and walking on all fours! 
Justine squeaked in a frightened tone, “Ken, he’s alive!”
Ken sputtered, “How can this be possible?”
They tried to stand still as the metal man came up to them. He then stopped just a foot from them and stared at the two for several moments. When his eyes turned back to Justine, he grabbed the top part of her skirt!
Justine shrieked, “Aah! What are you doing?!”
Ken rushed to her side and started attacking the creature, saying, “Get away from her!”
In retaliation, the metal man grabbed Ken’s arm and started pulling him towards him. This time, it was Justine’s turn to defend her lover. She angled her palms towards the creature as she shouted, “Don’t you dare hurt Kenneth!”
In a blast of magic, the metal man was driven back against the wall. A black burn mark was now visible on the creation’s right chestplate. In response to the attack, he growled at them.
Ken whispered to Justine, “Okay. Grab the net over there. It should keep him still until we put him in a bag.”
As Ken told his lover this, the metal man eyed the window, his only means of escape. When Justine took a step towards the net, the creature suddenly lunged. The couple jumped out of the way before the metal man could ram into them. To their surprise, the creation took another jump and crashed through the window! After the flying glass had landed on the floor, Justine and Kenneth rushed to the window and saw the metal man getting up from the ground and scampering into the forest.
Justine asked, “Should we go after him?”
Kenneth said, “Yes. To make sure he hurts no one else.”
Minutes afterwards, Ken and Justine left the warehouse armed to the teeth, unaware that another creation had just woken up. When the cat-man had opened his green eyes, he witnessed the scuffle between the creators and the metal man. Looking at his own paws, he realized the same thing could happen to him. He had to escape, but how? He got off the table on which he was lying and walked on all fours to the room with the broken window. As he got closer, he noticed how much colder it got. He pinpointed the source of the cold to the broken window, where the dark green curtains were gently flapping with the wind.
The cat-man retreated back to the lab to get warm again. He had seen Justine and Kenneth suit up before they left the warehouse, so the creature knew he needed a coat of some sort. Luckily for him, there was a spare overcoat hanging on one of the levers of the machine. Carefully, he grabbed it and put it on. Since it was tight on him, he had to stand upright to put it on completely. Even though it might’ve been too small for him, it had to do. He walked on two legs into the room and inspected the broken window. When he put his paws on the windowsill, he looked out and saw the broken glass on the ground, the distant lights in the forest possibly from Ken and Justine’s lamps, and the tall buildings of Clerval about a mile away.
Suddenly, a sharp pain pricked his paws. He looked at them and saw pieces of glass sticking out of his palms. After he slowly pulled out every piece, he saw that his paws were bleeding. He looked all around for something to stop the blood from oozing out until his eyes fell on a white roll of bandages. He took the roll and wrapped both of his palms with white strips. 
Even though the bandages made it hard for the cat-man to flex his paws, he was glad he stopped the bleeding. Now he had to get out of here. He certainly couldn’t go out the window for two reasons: the broken glass and how high the window was from the ground. He decided to use the door Ken and Justine used when they left the warehouse. He opened the door and found a pair of stairs and a platform in between them waiting for him. This was the first time he encountered stairs, so one could imagine the curiosity and apprehension he must have felt at that moment. He decided to take a chance and descend the staircase.
Slowly, he put one foot on the first step and the other on that same step. When he tried to put his right foot on the next step, he felt as if he was losing his balance. Quickly, he grabbed hold of the railing and did not let go of it as he climbed down the rest of the steps. When he got close to the platform linking the two staircases, he tripped on the steps and landed roughly on the platform. After he recovered from the hard landing, he grabbed the railing of the second staircase and managed to reach the floor without falling. When he looked around the first floor, he was amazed at how expansive it was, despite the darkness that the night had blanketed it with.
He then reached the front double doors and opened them to see the world before him. The cat-man took in everything with wonder: the stars in the sky, the cool ground beneath his feet, even the fresh, crisp night air. He knew he could not go into the forest, so he began walking towards the city that laid near the warehouse.





The metal man had successfully evaded Ken and Justine by hiding out in a large, rocky den obscured by tree roots and vegetation. Once the couple was gone, he put his back against the dirt wall in relief. However, he felt something sticking out of his back. He reached back and felt the strange object. He tried to pull it out with one hand, but was unsuccessful. When he tried to pull it out with both hands, it flew off and landed in front of him. 
Thanks to the intellect spell cast by Justine, the metal man now knew what the object was: a brown leather book. He took the book and flipped the pages. Unfortunately, the intellect spell was not fully in effect, so the creature could not read. He gazed at every page until one caught his eye. There was a drawing of a metal creature…a creature just like him. The four-fingered hands…the arms…even the chest. He then realized that he was looking at himself.
The first thought he ever had in his newly-created life crossed his mind: Is this me? Is this…truly me?





The evil banished in the tar pit was not gone forever as many people assumed. A pillar of black ooze slowly rose from the pit and leaned to the edge. At that moment, a glass bottle slid from the tar and onto the ground. Glaring eyes then peered from the transparent prison that held Aku.