Project: Hippo

A few months have gone by since Lee's awakening, and new innovations have popped up recently. Many more people are trying to find ways to bring back society, and now have started teams to create and study new machines. Some have made oroborn mining drills, while others have created weapons to stop cultists and the mutation, but the most favorable ones are those who want to take the old world back with peace. Finding a way to peacefully settle this war, and bring back the old war. But everyone knows that it is highly unlikely, maybe even impossible for that to happen.

As Lee left the mobile base's gym, he looked in a mirror and noticed that he was bigger. He wasn't as lean as he used to be, but he was bulking up. Le put his hoodie on and started heading back to his room.

In the mobile base, there are 20 thousand designated rooms, and only 15 thousand are occupied. The base is running off of oroborn, which is a mineral that can rebuild itself after a day of use. So if they are cautious of how much oroborn is used, they will have infinite energy, food, water, and overall a normal life.

When Lee entered the room, he smelt something burning. Diana ran out of the kitchen holding a wet towel and wafted it out of the window. Lee peaked inside of the kitchen and saw that she had made steak! But the steak was unsafe to eat.

"You dumbass bruh, how did you even mess this up?" Lee grabbed the meat and threw it in the bin. He looked in the fridge and grabbed a water bottle. He drank a little bit and twisted a sheet of paper into a cone. He put the small part into the bottle and funneled in a scoop of creatine. He put the cap back on and started to vigorously shake the bottle. Then Lee noticed something, it was Diana's height.

"Hey! Did you get taller?" Lee asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"You're 26, why are you still growing?" Lee asked.

"I'm a Bengal tiger, I'm naturally taller than most humans. Plus, if I wasn't below average, I'd be at least six feet tall." Diana explained.

"God damn, mother fucker gonna be taller than Jimmy." Lee whispered.

But then, an announcement came on. The announcer loudly stated that, "Project Hippo has commenced, please all commanders report to the main hall."

Lee stood up and left the room, as he was heading there, he ran into jade!

"Oh, hey!" Jade greeted him.

"Hi." Lee said back.

"How's it been, being out of the coma and all." She asked.

"Well, my body's not what it used to be. And I'm a lot weaker now. But I'm slowly getting back there." Lee said.

"Hmm, nice."

When they entered the room, dozens of people huddled around a single piece of blue oroborn. Normally, oroborn is bright to dark red. But this one was illuminating some kind of blue light. Which is the main focus of Project Hippo. Weaponizing and utilizing this blue oroborn in everyday life for the better of humanity.

"So, have we found any uses for this yet?" A man in a black tee shirt asked. His hair was raggedy, and his body was thin. He looked like Lee when he woke up from the coma. But he was way skinnier. He had long brown hair, and his eyes were dull green.

"Apart from its regular uses, no. But we have seen it pulsing with energy while around hybrids. Lee, what animal do you have equipped right now?" The researcher asked. His hair was long and black, he even had to tie it heading his head to see. His eyes were brown, and his energy was vibrant.

"Well, currently I have a tiger beetle." Lee told him.

"No wonder you were so fast." Jade said.

"Look." The researcher told everyone. He brought the crystal up to Lee's chest. And as he did, it started to strobe. It kept flashing every few seconds, and then started shaking.

"Now, we don't know how or why this is happening, but we have guessed that it's because of the animal parts in hybrids. It doesn't sense humans, so it only reacts when in close vicinity to a hybrid or animal. Lee, can you keep this on you and try to do some tests on it?"

"Of course." Lee then took the crystal and put it in his pocket. When everyone was dismissed, Lee started feeling a weird sensation. He had a rush of energy, and he felt that he needed to use all of this energy. Then he thought about it, he took the crystal out and placed it far away from him. The effects started wearing off and now he felt normal. Lee's eyes widened, he sprinted back to his room and started taking notes.

"Holy shit. This is so fucking cool!" He squealed in excitement.

"What are you all hyped up about?" Diana asked from the doorway.

"Hold on." Lee grabs his phone and contacts the head of the project.

"What is it Lee." He asked.

"Hey umm, is this information disclosed to the public?" Lee asked.

"Well of course, anyone can access this information with proper supervision."

"Ok thank you, good day sir." Lee said.

"You're welcome."

Lee hung up the phone and turned to speak to Diana.

"So basically, we found this blue oroborn that reacts to hybrids and animals. It basically releases tons and tons of ATP in the body, and makes the body just react in weird ways." Lee explained.

"Ohh, no wonder you fucking nerd." Diana teased him.

"Ok buddy, now get away before this starts having effects on you too. I don't know if it only releases ATP, so don't get any closer. It may make you or me release more dopamine, endorphins, or serotonin." Lee warned her.

"Ok, well come to bed when you're finished.

After a few hours of taking notes and studying its effects, Lee finally got up and went to bed.

"You fucking dumbass! I didn't think you'd take that long!" Diana scolded him while pinching his ears.

"What? Why are you so mad?" Lee asked.

"I had a surprise for you, but I don't want to show you anymore." She said while pouting.

"What, were you gonna let me hit or some shit?" Lee said jokingly.

"Possibly." Diana said.

Lee jumped up and started pacing around the bed.

"What? Did you imagine something?" Diana teased him.

"Yes, now shut up. I'm trying to think." Lee said.

"What did you think of? Oh, was it me you thought of?" Diana asked.

"Fuck no! I just realized how I could use the oroborn. See ya, I'm gonna study a bit more." Lee said as he left the room.

"Oh my god." Diana groaned.

The next day, Lee sat in front of the researcher to provide his notes and experiences.

"So, what have you found out about the oroborn?" The researcher asked.

"Well, when I was walking back, I felt a huge surge of adrenaline and my body felt that I just had to do something." Lee told him.

"So it can energize hybrids."

"Not only that, but I felt massive dopamine rushes and it felt like I was having the best time of my life. It's very strange, but maybe one way we could use this was in battle." Lee said.

"Like putting this into the armor or just making hybrids keep this on them to be more excited to fight?" The researcher asked.

"Exactly!" Lee said.

"Huh? You're pretty smart, thank you for the debrief, you may go. Oh wait! Leave the crystal here so other commanders can research it." Lee placed the oroborn on the desk and then left the room.

The next day, Lee was called down to the court for a test on the blue oroborn. He would be fighting a hybrid that had a few blue oroborn crystals in him, while Lee had nothing other than a wooden sword.

"Lee, make sure you don't have anything right now." The researcher told him. Lee poked himself with regular oroborn and there was no effect. Lee's opponent was July Harigan, a lioness hybrid. Her eyes were bright yellow, and her hair was a light brown. She was quite muscular and had large canines.

"Lee, are you ready?" The researcher asked.

"Yeah." Lee yawned.

"Commence!" The researcher said, and July charged Lee. She grabbed Lee's sword and broke it in half.

"Rude, what the fuck, now I don't have anything to fight with." Lee said all while dodging every single attack thrown at him. But then his ankle twisted and he lost balance, causing him to fall straight into one of July's attacks. His head jerked up and his body slammed on the ground. The researcher ran up to him to check if he was okay, but Lee stood up and now he was mad.

"What the fuck, I didn't think you'd hit that hard. Well, that's kinda my fault." Lee sighed, "Fine, let's get back into it."

Lee ran at her and chopped her shoulder, arms, and then her abdomen. As July blocked them, Lee sprung up and hit her in the face. Her head cocked back but it wasn't enough to knock her down. She brought her hands up, but Lee uppercuts her in the stomach. She coughs up some saliva and falls to the ground.

"Damn, I thought this would be harder." Lee said. He knelt down to her and shook her to check if she was okay.

"Hey man, I'm sorry." Lee apologized.

"Nah, you're cool. It's a test after all." July said.

"Okay, umm, are you able to stand?" Lee asked.

"Yeah, hold on." July struggled but eventually got back up.

"Lee, do you want someone stronger?" The researcher asked.

"Umm, yeah. Give me a bear or something." Lee said.

A few minutes later, Jimmy went down and was getting ready to fight Lee. As they prepared, Lee hopped around his corner until Jimmy was completely ready. They went to the center and the researcher explained to them the rules.

"Ok, so Jimmy here will have the blue oroborn to grant him an extra boost of energy, while Lee will just have to try his hardest to survive." He explained.

"He doesn't need to." Jimmy said.

"What do you mean?" The researcher asked.

"What if I told you Lee Ming had that dawg in him?" Jimmy said.

"Ok buddy, c'mon let's just fight." Lee said while impatiently jumping around.

"Seems like you're more energetic than he is. Ok, begin." Jimmy began throwing a barrage of punches and Lee dodged and weaved every single one of them. Lee jabbed at him and threw a hard right hook to Jimmy's abdomen.

"Fuck man." Jimmy said while still punching.

"Sorry man, the game is the game." Lee told him while still weaving around.

"So, you and Diana do it yet?" Jimmy asked while blocking Lee's punches.

"No, but with me being gone. She might pull some bullshit on me in this weakened state." Lee said.

"Yeah, well just watch out." Jimmy told him.

"Wait, why?" Lee asked while still punching. As Lee threw a straight right, Jimmy grabbed his arm and flung him downwards. Lee quickly got up and punched him in the liver.

"Fuck!" Jimmy then spat out his saliva and dropped to the floor. Lee brought up his leg and kicked Jimmy down. Both Lee and Jimmy were breathing heavily, but Jimmy seemed to be more controlled. Lee then felt the rush of adrenaline dissipate from his body and he collapsed.

Jimmy carried Lee back to his room and set him down on his bed.

"Thanks man." Lee said.

"No problem, but you really shouldn't be pushing yourself this much on a regular basis." Jimmy told him.

"I know, but I just can't have a break without stressing out about work." Lee said.

"Yeah, but you just gotta relax sometimes." Jimmy said.

"Ok, I will. See ya!"

"Goodnight." Jimmy said as he left the room.

Lee then laid there, thinking about what he should do for tomorrow. Then all of a sudden, Diana came rushing in.

"Lee! There's a large group of cultists attacking the northern front!" She told him frantically.

"God damnit!" Lee jumped up and put his jacket on. Lee stabbed himself with a tiger beetle oroborn and they sprinted to the northern gate.

"What's the situation?" Lee asked Jade.

"There are hundreds of not thousands of cultists attacking. And there seems to be a mantis shrimp among them." Jade told him.

"Fuck, I can't deal with that without getting hurt." Lee groaned.

"Just deploy your team." Jade told him.

"Yeah, but, fine." Lee walked around the crowd, collecting everyone that was in his squad. Keller, Finna, Mohammed, Jimmy, Zyion, and Diana. The crew let the door drop, but before it could, they hopped it and they literally jumped into the action. Zyion threw out a bunch of black widow spiders and bundled the cultists into a massive ball. The spiders then bit then, releasing fatal doses of venom. But amidst the cultists, there was a singular woman with colorful hair and pale white skin. The mantis shrimp hybrid. She raised her fist and slammed it onto the ground. A giant shockwave blew all of the cultists away, and some of the operators in the mobile base. Her armor was a thick suit with large metal platings all around her body. She slowly walked up the ramp with grace, yet set fear in everyone.

As she stepped up to them, everyone stepped back while shivering, except for Jimmy, Mohammed and Lee.

"Do you three not value your lives?" She asked.

"Bitch please, if I didn't think I could take you on, I'd be with those pussies." Jimmy said.

"By my hands and feet, I have never felt fear. And you will not be the one to break me." Mohammed told her.

"And what about you? You're just a regular human. What could you possibly do to stop me?" She asked Lee.

"Oh, I'm not doing anything." Lee said.

"What do you me-" Lee then punched her in the gut, Jimmy swooped in and kicked her in the face, knocking her down. Mohammed pulls out a knife and coats it in venom, then stabs her in the back with it. But after all that, she stood up and punched Jimmy. He flew back and crashed into a wall.

"Ohh, damn. Skill issue." Lee said.

"Bro, shut up. You would die if she hit you once." Jimmy said while walking out of the dent he made in the wall.

"Do you not fear me! I can end your life in a single punch. And yet you still proceed to treat me like a toy!" She raised her fist and slammed it down. Lee jumps back and grabs the gun from Keller.

"No, I don't." Lee says as he shoots her head. The bullet flings off, but Lee continues to shoot the same spot to weaken her defense. After one mag, Mohammed jumps in and kicks her down repeatedly. Lee reloads and empties the mag into her head.

"Fucking hell." Lee had blood all over his face and his clothes. As the sun sets behind him, he turns to the others and looks at them in disappointment.

"Imagine being scared, couldn't be me bruh." Lee quietly says as he walks off with Jimmy and Mohammed. After that day, those three were the most popular. Gossip and rumors spread like wildfire, some good, some not so good. But still, they were famous. They showed great bravery, strength, and teamwork without hesitation. A mark of a true soldier.