Almost There

Night One Hundred And Forty Five

Age 1991

Organizations Secret Base...

"Is... Is this it..." Bright asked. He held a suit case now. In it hundreds of syringes filled with what looked like a yellow, and silver powder could be seen. "Did... Did I finally do it."

"Bright my boy you did it!" Mr. Hyde announced in a loud laughing tone. "All the people you turned into Bestia Macht's finally allowed me to make that. Within that Powder is the Corruption. Those bugs never would have made a Seraphin, but they did allow us to study the patterns of the Human Bestia Macht. Within those viles you have it... You can turn someone into a Seraphin. It's low right now... Only about 1-2% so more will have to suffer, but once you make a Seraphin with that, I can compare their body to Viper's, and figure out a way to increase its chances. Pretty soon I can make more and more Seraphins. Your dreams are almost here. A world filled with people who can fight for themselves."

"O... Oh thank you..." Bright said collapsing to his knees. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." He smiled. "I had to hurt so many people... I still do but now... Now... We're almost there... I'll make it... A perfect world. No more dead cities. I'm going to be a hero of justice... A Superhero..."

***

Rafflesia City...

The Wall Shook as what looked like a large gorilla like monster rammed into it as hard as it could shaking the massive stone wall.

"Black Coats! Barriers on!" Ace, the led Black Coat yelled waving his arm.

"Don't bother." Ace stopped and turned seeing Squad Six Member Dawson Blight. In his arms he held Hero Law, and in Hero's arms he held Ken Red. "We'll handle this one." Behind him Kitsune, Light, and Irene rested.

"Finally!" Hero said with wide eyes when he saw the large hairy beast. "Just a normal Viscount Bestia Macht! None of that lame human ones!" Hero was now fully healed, as it had been a few days since the incident with Squad Nine. There hadn't been any new signs of Human Bestia Macht, or Squad Nine. The only thing that happened all week was this random Bestia Macht which began to attack the wall.

"Man... Why are Devil arm and Ken getting some action." Kitsune sighed throwing his arms behind his head. "I wanna fight."

"They can handle it." Irene shrugged.

Dawson grunted. "Remember the plan. Take its head down!"

"Right!" Hero and Ken both said nodding their heads.

The red armor covered Dawson's body as he entered his Red Demon form. He brought his arm back and slammed his leg down into the ground as hard as he could as he threw Hero through the air at a fast speed. Hero spun in the air gritting his teeth as his right arm shifted into his clawed hand and he threw Ken as hard as he could as well.

Ken rocketed through the air bringing her arms up as she let out a loud yell. A large black spike fired out as she plowed through the beasts neck ripping it right off of its shoulders in a single strike blasting the monster to bits. "I did it-" Ken smacked into the snow floor on the other side of the wall. "Ow..."

Dawson let out a small hum as he folded his arms. "This was a nice distraction." He said as his red armor began to pull itself back into his body.

"Indeed it was!"

The entire group froze suddenly as they all turned when they heard the voice. Hero and Ken let out loud groans when they looked up seeing Captain Newt, Vice Captain Automata, who was currently in the form of a truck, Rilla, and Ghazel. Dawson's armor came back as he moved in front of his Squad Members.

"We're not gonna fight!" Newt said rolling his eyes. Dawson eyed the man up with a suspicious look. Newt gave a grin as he strolled over twirling his cane. He looked better and had his lab coat once more. He reached into his bag and pulled out something which he tossed over to Hero who caught. "Take that kid."

Hero raised it up looking into the bag. Kitsune did the same looking it over. "What is it?" Irene asked folding her arms. In the bag was a small weird yellow square covered in a yellow powder. While they looked it over Ken climbed up the wall and fell back into the city walking towards them. She froze up when she saw the bag staring at it in shock.

"That! Is what's inside of her!" Newt announced twirling and pointing his cane at Ken. "The Corruption. In that bag is the secrets to make a Seraphin."

"What!" Hero asked shocked looking down at the bag. "So I could eat this and become a Seraphin?"

"Don't even think about it..." Dawson said flatly taking the bag away from Hero.

"Not quite." Newt hummed. "You see... I made this after being able to study Ken while I had her... Whatever my father did to her was different. This one works... Those white bugs... They would never turn a person into a Seraphin. They could get closer and closer and the Bestia Macht would be more human but it would never reach that point. That's why it never worked. My father did a secret thing to Ken, and that Viper girl to make them. That's why they're the perfect Seraphins... And that block in there is it. I finally made my fathers version. The secret was with my evolutionary animal people you see! The white bugs turned people into monsters, beasts. But Ken and Viper aren't animals. They aren't humans either. They're weapons. Designed to be beast like, but still human enough to pass in the world, a blood thirsty sword. Of course they're also flawed weapons. Because of that love nonsense."

"Love?" Hero asked raising an eyebrow. Ken just kind of fidgeted nervously.

"Yes, yes love! It's like a sword being drawn to another blade. It's this toxic thing inside of them. See a Seraphin craves it but they don't understand. It seems beast like!" Newt announced spinning around. "If I sound crazy it's because I've been up for over a week studying this! You see the bug as I said makes someone a animal. A Bestia Macht. But my cubes if I'm right, should have a 1% chance of making someone into a Seraphin!"

"1%" Irene asked with wide eyes. "Kind of low right?"

"That's what I was saying earlier." Newt giggled. "The bugs had a 0% chance. No matter how close he got, he'd never make one. Because he was focusing to much on finding the perfect bug. You see every bug that was in someone was different. He kept trying to improve the bugs themselves but that's not what you want. You want to improve the dust the bugs make. The corruption. Once you implant it into someone it's up to them to become a Seraphin! Only someone with a strong enough will can pull themselves back from the edge. They need the right amount of hate, fear, and love in their heart. The desire to stay alive, and get revenge. The desire to slay."

"Basically what the boss is saying is that a Seraphin is made the same way we are." Rilla said. "We were just animals but he forced us to evolve by tapping into the evolutionary power of an Equation. Many animals weren't able to pass over into this human form like me and Ghazel could. It took all our will to stay alive. It's the same with this... The boss took one of those white bugs from one of the human Bestia Macht and evolved it to that dust form. A person ingests it, and they have a 1% chance to become a Seraphin, as long as their will of self is strong enough."

"Ken were you aware of this?" Light asked.

"N... Not really..." Ken said shaking her head. "I was implanted with this weird dust when I was a kid which is in that bag, but I always thought it was just a form of the bug... Honestly I don't like thinking about all of this."

"Yeah the past sucks." Hero nodded patting her on the head.

"Okay... I think I get what you're saying..." Dawson said nodding. "But why does it matter-"

"Think about it!" Newt yelled grabbing Dawson on both sides of his face and shaking his head. "I figured it out! And my father is even smarter than me! Chances are he's starting to undercover the truth of that matter! At any time a person could become a Seraphin! And once they find that 1% person they'll take him and begin to study his brain so they can increase the chances to 2%, than 3% all the way up to 75% it'll be rarer to become a Bestia Macht! And if word gets out that the Red Nation found a way to make Seraphins, the other Three Nations won't hesitate to wipe us off the face of the earth! When my father began to Seraphin project way back in the day that was one of the reasons it had to be shut down! The other three nations teamed up. And when he did the God Slayer program, God himself came down and ended it! We can't let this group find out about the project!"

"That... Sounds bad." Hero noted.

"You think!" Newt yelled. "Who knows how long it'll be... And what's worse that Bright guy knows we're onto him!"

"He does?"

"Think about it! No human Bestia Macht here. They've all moved to Rose City... My father must have cracked the code and made the actual powder. At any second that Bright guy could turn someone into a Seraphin, and it's all over... You have to stop him."

"Even if we stopped him, we'd have to actually stop your father." Dawson noted.

"That's why it's important we find Bright." Ghazel said twirling a knife around. "You see he knows where Mr. Hyde is if he's getting the powder from him. he knows where we need to look. We capture him and get the information out of him. We're out of options and time..."

"Have you informed Master Storm yet?" Dawson asked a small bit of worry in his voice. If what they said was true it wasn't good. 1% might not be a lot, but if that Bright guy turned 1000 people into one, he was bound to turn one into a Seraphin eventually.

"Not yet... We believe that the traitor is likely in Squad One though..." Newt said. "Me and him have talked about it... We're not certain who it is but we're certain he's in there. That's why he had me strike when Squad One was in your city. He knew they'd act and send their recruits to help out. Now you guys owe them, and Katrina doesn't like owing debt. It wouldn't be so strange if she sent you guys to go and look around."

"I think I get it..." Dawson nodded. "So that's the plan... A Stealth mission... huh..."

***

Rose City...

"Oh God stay away!" A man cried moving back and hitting the wall that was behind him. "Please."

"It's okay." Bright said holding the syringe up as he walked towards the man. "You just need to believe that you can do it."

The man yelled in pain when Bight grabbed him with his golden gauntlet hand and squeezed down. on the mans arm breaking it as he stabbed the syringe into it. He dropped the man who began to thrash around and twitch as the yellow dust coursed through his body.

"Believe. Believe. You just need to Believe." He announced.

The man let out a loud roar as shark like skin began to form on his body and he began to change. Before it could finish though Bright stabbed his arm into the man ripping his heart out and crushing him in one go. The corpse fell back shattering into a white puddle of goop.

"Darn... Oh well... I've only done this a few times..." Bright said turning around and seeing at least fifty puddles of white liquid behind him. "1% Chance... I'll hit it eventually. I'll make a Seraphin any day now..."