Chapter 8: Interesting Development
'What the hell happened here?!' John yelled in confusion, looking at everything around the Template. He moved his gaze and stared directly at his creations with exasperation. 'I only left you for a day though?' He asked towards the Template with an incredulous gaze. The Template had the audacity to look down towards the ground and rub their necks like a scolded child.
'Sorry…' A voice apologised towards John, it sounded like a 10 year old child's voice. John was surprised by the voice and stared at the Template for a while. 'What???' John thought bewilderedly. He didn't really think of the idea of his creation having their own thoughts. John remembered the time when two drones managed to fall down to the ground onto each other. In another case, he also remembered the time when he created the first Wickerman and how they managed to stick their upper body in the side of a wall when he sent it into the city for combat testing.
Then John remembered that one time when a group of Tankers were thoughtlessly watching a small mutated Finch on top of a tree. At the time, Any semblance of the idea that John thought his creations had thoughts to them, sometimes if any of his creations did something stupid, he'd mentally facepalm. 'Well now that I think of it. I had never checked it extensively before.' John admitted to himself before refocusing on his creation. The Template sneakily glazed at John from time to time, not knowing they were hiding it poorly.
'Now I just feel bad;;' John made a coughing sound. Before noticing something moving underneath one of the bodies. Focusing his order towards the Template he mentally pointed towards the shuffling body. 'Check what's beneath that body.' The Template looked towards the body and silently approached it, unconsciously tensing their body and slowly changing their stride into the stance the closer they got. Grabbing on the body's shoulder before swiftly turning it over and pointing their other hand towards what's beneath, powering up with energy to crush whatever it was.
Beneath the body were two small shivering children of the same species as the ones dead. Their skin was light blue, ears rounded but noticeably pointy, shirts made from simple linen had a design of a flower and leaves; pants woven from simple wool. The older one stared at the Template with fear, tears dripping from their face, wetting the smaller one he was holding towards his chest. Then a flash of recognition after the bout of fear before the child beamed with hope. "Ashen one! You're here!" He shouted excitedly. The smaller one tentatively peeked from the boy's chest. The Template was confused on what to do while retracting the energy and putting his hands down. 'Isn't that cute.' John thought teasingly before snapping out of his thoughts with a shake of his head. 'What am I thinking, I already have four back in the Main pool!' John glanced towards the two children, the boy now standing up with the smaller child hiding behind him. "I overheard Elder Bromn say that an Ashen one was fighting a Human!" The boy excitedly told, he would practically jump up and down like a bunny if the smaller child was not hiding behind him.
'Pft…' John quickly held his laughter, only letting out a splutter before stopping himself. 'Isn't that cute.' John thought good naturedly but a thought entered his mind. 'Now that I think about it, what do I name them?' He stared towards the template with a thoughtful gaze.
The bushes suddenly shook, taking everyone's attention. The two children hid behind the Template, who turned around and faced the shaking bushes, their arms spread out and formed their translucent blade. Slightly lowering themself and spreading their feet. The bushes shook a few more before a scarred hand exited the dead branches, making the three tense and John more focused on the translucent blade, the hand grabbed the side of the bush and pushed it to the side before a shuffling body came out. There were wounds here and there leaking blue blood, sword held in the other hand dripping with red blood. A familiar face was met with two shocked faces and a realised look from the Template. It was Merelia, the young warrior that was arguing with Elder Bromn previously and tried to aid the Template in beating Arize.
"Guard Captain Merelia! You're alive!!!" The boy shouted excitedly while the small child separated themself from the boy and ran towards Merelia with tear filled eyes. "Big Brother!!!" The voice was that of a small child in the age of 8, who forced herself into Merelia's surprised embrace and clung on to his left thigh, crying loudly. Merelia on the other hand let out a hiss of pain from the sudden force and dropped the sword hurriedly before falling down to the ground, the little girl following suit while the unnamed boy ran beside them.
'Hm…What are they? They looked like elves but blue?' John thought curiously and began to narrow their vision and investigate the bodies laying around on the ground. He noticed that some of the bodies had necklaces or emblems of a crescent moon with a back layer of a star. 'That emblem…Do they worship the moon?' Through time that had passed, John's personality slowly changed from his usually calculative mind, and was now slightly chaotic. Instead of having more organised activities and plans, he was spontaneous and erratic. John couldn't tell whether it was because of his current predicament or the time that has passed and his mind was trying to support itself from staying sane. A cough brought him back to his senses and looking back at the group. Merelia sat up while the two kids stayed by his side, one crying while the other patted her back. The Template was curiously watching the scene before sensing John's gaze and glance towards him with embarrassment and a slightly raised lip.
Then John noticed that Merelia was staring at his creation with a darkening blush on his cheeks. 'Hm?' Sensing that John was looking at something else, the Template followed the feeling and made eye contact with Merelia, who quickly looked to the side with a larger dark blue blush on his cheeks. 'Curious…' John mentally smiled before he moved his gaze into the mountain cliff where the second pool is. 'Come here.' John sent out a mental order for a few Drones to come to this location. After a second, John heard distant rustling and snapping while he sensed that three Drones were heading towards him speedily. 'I need to return back to the main pool and finish my research on the new types I plan to have,' John stared at the three hugging each other. 'But I can't leave them here as well. Whatever happened here is something I need to know.' John then switched his gaze towards the Template and thought about something. He considered if he should guide the three in front of him to a place somewhat close to the mountain pool. Focusing on the Template, he gave an order. 'Guide those three somewhere close to the Mountain pool.' The sudden voice of their Mother, in their head, made the Template look towards John's general direction. 'Make the place observable from the cliff edge, it will also be guarded by one Tanker and a squad of Drones.' Coincidently, when John finished giving his order to the Template, was when the three Drones made their appearance by suddenly bursting out of the bushes and landing right behind the three survivors, 5 metres away.
The sudden appearance made the two children scream and yelp while making Merelia reach for his sword in surprise. Merelia failed since the little girl clung to his side and his wounds started to sting, hampering his movement. The Template walked forward and stood beside the three. Raising their hand and making a placating gesture. Merelia lowered their arm reaching for the sword before covering their mouth and tentatively coughed up a few splotches of blood on his hand. 'That warrior needs to get checked.' John thought before looking towards the direction of the main pool and thought about the process he did to the injured teen. 'I'll send out some Drones to search for anyone similar to them.'
Looking back at the group, the Template was aiding in carrying Merelia via princess carry. The two children followed only a step behind them like ducklings. Then an idea struck him before he connected with the Template. 'Child, I give you permission to name yourself.' John's words processed in the Template's head, the previous neutral expression gone and replaced with a slightly surprised look. Then their focus went deep in thinking about a name for themself.
Then they swiftly looked forward and said their chosen name out loud. "Scorran…" Merelia stared at them before blushing heavily and glanced away as fast as he could. In the current avatar template, John made the body possible to switch their genders, it was a passing thought that came to his mind if ever that his creations were to have intelligence in the near future. John smiled like a proud parent. 'Scorran, the first of the Symbrionts, Congratulations!' John shouted out in the connection, unaware that his voice was heard by his other creations, the first of the different types felt jealousy and began to work harder to get noticed and named. Meanwhile, back at the Main Pool, the knocked out teen that was beside the drone feeding the children suddenly twitched slightly before opening their eyes. His tattered clothes had tears and holes. What was most noticeable however was on his shoulder where he had the injury.
The wound was gone leaving nothing even a scratch, but instead of the teen's original light brown skin, the area of the wound now was black that slithered down to his arm while his entire hand was covered in black and his nails sharp and pointed like the sharp claws of the Wickermen. His lithe form and height of 5 '10, his dark brown hair was messy and slightly brushed to the side, courtesy of the younger sister. "Big Brother! You woke up!!!" The little girl yelled excitedly before engulfing the slowly sitting up teen back to the ground while the older boy was rubbing his forearm to their eye and wiped away his tears. The baby only giggled and blubbered.
From the stadium that the expedition group used to stay at, Wickerman-01 was staring towards the human that was getting closer towards the entrance it guarded. The human was a woman wearing business attire and holding quite a large suitcase. Her wavy long blonde hair flowing with the wind and their vibrant green eyes staring directly at the Wickerman.
Once she reached the entrance, she looked up and stared at the Wickerman with a professional diplomatic smile. "It's nice to meet you. May I ask to speak with you?" Her melodious voice was alluring and may have affected others but the Wickerman blankly stared at her while sending a notification towards John. Although it was jealous and dissatisfied that It did not get a name yet, It followed John's orders and planned to do its best in being the second one to gain a name. With a hidden competitive flame, Wickerman-01 bent its upper body and bowed, shocking the woman and those watching from the convoy, before It returned to its previous position and moved to the side, right arm positioned towards the inner stadium. The representative nodded her head before she walked in and went deeper into the stadium. Her body tense and prepared, heels clicking in the concrete ground. The Wickerman followed suit just a step behind her. After glancing back at the convoy one last time before focusing in front of it and continued in.
John sensed Wickerman-01's notification before switching his perspective to the stadium. His vision cleared and was met with the dark hall and from his right was the said Wickerman, striding steadily while the representative was two steps ahead of it. 'So they did send a representative.' John thought to himself before a sudden idea came to mind. 'I'll do that after this.' John looked onwards and noticed that the hallway was ending. He could sense that the others were spread out all over the stadium. 'It's good they thought of spacing from one another to avoid the chance of group casualties.' John obliviously approved, before he back thought about it again and processed it a few more times. 'Wait…'
John switched his perspective and appeared beside an unsuspecting Swarmer that had control over a Faceless, one of the first infected mutants he faced. The one he faced when he saved that survivor group. John wondered what had happened to them. After the clash John quickly retreated with his Drones but he still remembered how he collected the first virus sample on the previously dying father.
Somewhere, in a small house in a green field the said father sneezed and rubbed their nose. "Someone's thinking about me?'' Before he shook his head and returned to what he was doing previously.
The inside of the stadium was somewhat presentable with the supplies still in the middle of the field, to the left side of the Swarmer and a couple rows down near the hallway's exit where Wickerman-01 and the Representative was coming out. There stood Prisoner 1294, standing awkwardly while he rubbed his forearm, he kept looking around and observed each one of John's creations. His hair all messy and tangled, if John could use his sense of smell, he wouldn't be surprised if the Prisoner smelled awful. 'Maybe he could help in taking care of the children and those strange blue survivors.' John thought passingly. And not long after, the Wickerman and the Representative walked out of the hallway, the taller quickly locked on John's current position while the smaller looked around nervously. 'She's scared…' John noticed how her body shook in fear before masking it and landed her gaze on Prisoner 1294. She looked slightly confused while the prisoner was wide eyed.. "Professor Berk?" She called out. The professor had his mouth agape, like a fish needing water, he opened and closed it for a few moments before he collected himself with a shake of his head. "Ms. Eri?! They sent you here?!" He asked puzzled while he walked a few steps closer. Eri, giving a ghost of a smile, replied with a vague answer that John barely understood. "New Gen needs allies, our host here," She tilted her head slightly towards the Wickerman-01.
'New Gen must be desperate, if they went and sent someone to talk to these beings.' Professor Berk thought while he sent sneaky glances towards Wickerman-01. John, who was intently watching, noticed the Professor's glances and how Ms. Representative did the same albeit more noticeable. He then moved his gaze to the swarmer beside him before he physically and mentally looked around in search of a Swarmer with a survivor as a host.
After a moment of looking, John managed to find a newly Hosted Swarmer body that looked lively than the group of corpses around it. The Body had a stab wound on the side of its lower torso. From the dried blood that covered half the shirt around the wound before it paved down and spread all over the left side of the beige pants. From the dishevelled blonde hair, to the dirtied white shirt and a black jacket. All that was missing were proper shoes and you won't even tell that the body was originally a corpse the Swarmer found.
Reluctantly taking control of the body via the Swarmer, he tested out the joints and noted that they were slightly stiff and rigged. 'Rigour Mortis, the corpse is fresh, maybe around 6 or 7 hours ago.' John stated in his thoughts before he zipped up the jacket and tried to walk towards the group. By "tried", means trying to balance the body and not look like a member of the infected.
John fell down a few times on the way before he got used to the stiff movements and slowly adapted into something similar to a normal walk. If you ignore the body's arms positioned like a t-rex and the slight swaying everytime John takes a step forward. 'This is annoying.' He thought for the umptheenth time before he found the body's face meeting the ground.
Again with the repetitive action of standing back up before John managed to control the body at least within the vicinity of the two whispering humans, who noticed and looked towards him with apprehension and confusion mixed in with uncertainty. 'My creations are far easier to control, but considering I'm controlling the body through my Swarmer.' John relented at that fact. 'I guess my ability to fluidly control only means if I am truly in the body and not a second party that moves the body via a foreign intervention.'