Chapter 59: Redlining It.

I opened my eyes. Sound came crashing back. I could feel my body rapidly repairing itself. My sight coming back into focus. I could almost hear it bubbling in my blood. Like the crank of the rollercoaster as it reached the apex.

It was coming. It just needed a bit more. Just a bit more. Suddenly, everything didn't matter. Nothing did except what must be done. I let the ki flow as it rampaged in my body. Altering and changing me on a fundamental level. I could feel the mutagen accelerating something, a missing piece being filled in. a broken link being completed.

I had no idea what it was.

It wasn't Super Saiyan.

It had to be something else.

It flowed from the base of my tail.

Like nitrogen in the veins.

It tried to quench, but it only made me burn hotter.

I couldn't silently take it. I needed to voice it. Needed to give it voice.

I screamed. I cried out.

My voice carrying. The world echoing with it. Creation quaked. Thunder crackled. The sky darkened. The air swirled around me as the earth cracked. The oceans roared and trembled. All around me lightning crackled as energy lanced from my body. Every second, every beat of my heart impacting the world around me, forming a crater as I screamed out.

My ki rose and rose.

Rocks lifted. The whole planet seemed to stutter in its endless revolution.

Then, I hit that peak.

The coaster fell.

I cried out.

…

In that moment. At a research base at the edge of the RON territories. A figure sat in front of various monitors. His attention was captured by the incredible readings in front of him.

They were tall, monolithic even. Chitinous plates covered them from head to toe. Eyes compounded as they took in countless things at once. Countless arms dripping with blood and viscera laid folded along its back like wings. The Doctor was in.

The Saiyan was an anomaly. He knew this. He wasn't too impressed with them at first. Now, he wasn't so sure. Initially, he assumed the Saiyan had beaten Dr. Cambridge's weapon on a fluke. An ingenious creation, he had to admit that much. It still wasn't good enough.

The Saiyan's S-cells, or whatever they wanted to call it were especially interesting. They weren't natural. He could tell with a single glance, but they were a little too strange. Every time he replicated the cells, they never came out right. He wasn't sure why, but figured he was missing something.

He was interested, but he didn't feel the spark of madness that pushed him to improve himself. The spark of madness that had him use his own people as test subjects to perfect his body. Or, at least as close as he could get. He never believed perfection was possible. But it was possible to get close enough.

He believed a fake could be good enough to beat the real thing, or so he thought. Using Dr. Cambridges work he properly fused the S-cells with a special lab grown Xeno, one of his specialties. Able to adapt to nearly any DNA and endlessly evolve. Perfect killing machines that could be easily controlled via special pheromones and genetic programming.

They took to the S-cells surprisingly well, even if the outcome was poor. They didn't improve much, but their drastic increase in resistance to internal energy made them acceptable cannon fodder. What he hadn't anticipated was their increase I aggression. In enclosed spaces they would even fight and tear each other apart. Consuming one another.

It was, astonishing. They were going directly against the programming they were instilled with. Something that shouldn't happen at all. They were meant to be a hive. Pieces of a single whole. For them to commit cannibalism, what did it mean?

So, he went with one of the oldest experiments he could think of. An old cultivator method known simply as The Gu Jar. Simple, but effective. A massive number of them were made with artificial S-cells and locked into individual cells. Nearly ten thousand of them were locked up and released simultaneously.

There was no cooperation. Merely a whole-sale slaughter. As they consumed, it wasn't obvious at first, but their ki signatures grew. The single survivor became a true prime specimen. One that I swore would be enough to deal with a single alien. It was more than enough to almost compete with an Ace tier mecha, a frankly disturbing realization.

The only issue was its lifespan was far too short. Eating its brethren had improved its lifespan, but in turn caused it to deplete even faster as the S-cells in its body consumed themselves. Why this happened, he wasn't sure, but he didn't want to waste more resources on an experiment.

he froze it, and more of its brethren. Had one of our members sneak them aboard as cargo and set the bait. She bit. I had expected to hear of her death, and the subsequent collapse of the Golden Sun Pirates. Even as something inside him whispered, that madness whispered. It said she would survive. He didn't believe it.

She won. She survived.

He reviewed the footage. He didn't know what he was looking at. No, he knew what he was looking at, but it was so insane he couldn't tear my eyes away even as he had to constantly swap between cameras to view. They didn't fight like humans. No, he never expected his creature too, but… It still took his breath away.

They fought like apex predators. Primordial beasts. Every movement that Saiyan made held an almost indomitable grace. Even through the monitors he could feel their presence and it sent chills down his spine. He had to have her. He could feel that spark of madness clicking back then.

It was only mild. He looked through the wreckage floating about. Combed it with a microscopic comb. As he searched, he couldn't help, but recall the fight. How his experiment had rapidly evolved. Become more human. It wasn't supposed to change or adapt that fast. It was supposed to be generational, not instantaneous. Yet, each adaptation made it stronger as it stripped away garbage data. Perfecting its form.

He should have been upset, but he needed its body to confirm. Something. Anything. The damn Saiyan had proven their own words. A warrior race indeed. Slamming his creation into a matter compressor was definitely the worst possible way to go. Almost like chucking a person into a black hole. Their very fabric of existence slowly stretched out until it finally tore, each moment excruciating in both body and soul.

The cruelty of it still gave him shivers down his spine. Something he had to fix. He just didn't have the time. Between locating that errant piece of flesh. A true breakthrough in his work. He couldn't help but reconsider his original notion about Saiyan's. Somehow, fake had become real. His creation had adapted and evolved, combined with being pressured and vaporized. Some S-cells had survived in a microscopic piece of flesh.

Now, he didn't need it from the source. With it, he managed to clone it. Nearly any alien faced catastrophic destruction on the cellular level when introduced with S-cells. The cells would rapidly consume the body and alter it to fit a certain thing. Uncaring if it killed the host.

Good news, it made cultivating S-cells easier. Cloned S-cells notably functioned less well and carried over the cannibalistic traits of the fakes he had made. An interesting result. It didn't matter whether the hosts were cloned or not, results remained the same as well.

Humans, however, were fitting for transfusion. It seemed obvious in hindsight. Saiyan's had a startling resemblance to humans and simians as a matter of fact. Injecting S-cells in Simians had a rather odd result though. Instead of empowering them or changing them, they deactivated. They went inert.

Perhaps there was more to it, but the S-cells didn't grow or change. They simply sat. even when poked or provoked. The host put in danger or forced to work to death. Nothing happened. He would have been more distracted by that and the implications, but… The human Saiyan clones were finished.

Quickly, he learned what S-cells did. Slowly altering the body and improving it. Changing them into what could pass as a full blooded Saiyan, only… They didn't have tails. Something seemed off. He tested to see if they could transform. No. They didn't. It was infuriating. Frustrating even. No matter how many S-cells were present, they never grew a tail. Even rejected the tail.

Then, happenstance. An accident really as he raged at the illogical nature of it. Simian DNA, Human DNA. S-cells as a bridge. It worked. They grew a tail. They could transform!

Albeit, they never transformed successfully. Something was wrong. S-cells act like stem cells. Only, they reacted oddly when faced with a certain radiation. This reaction allowed for the transformation state, almost like a biological trigger. Which explained the cannibalism. S-cells were somehow hyper compact and stored an absurd amount of energy within. Energy that only replenished over time and attempting to artificially increase it had, minimal results. How it all worked, was… fascinating.

The cannibalism was likely a result of the S-cells sending signals to the brain. Cloned S-cells lacked the necessary energy and organs to thrive, let alone survive. In order to remedy this, they pull energy from the body. Unfortunately, clones lack vitality as it is, and even with life force injections it couldn't prevent the S-cells from consuming the body. Cannabalism allowed the S-cells to rebuild themselves by tearing apart and taking the good parts out from other S-cells. Until eventually they work.

This was the reason that clones couldn't transform. It was due to a lack of energy and quantity to their S-cells. Something that could only be improved with work or, drugs. Mixing a special cocktail of my special brand of mutagen with various other things I tried to induce S-cell growth. Failure. It didn't assist in the transformation either. The true cells retrieved from his creation, however, responded to his attempts fairly well. Cloned cells wouldn't work. No, if anything they'd just explode or die if put under duress. However, transplanting the true cells into a clone circumvented the issue.

Dr. Cambridges creation had an absurd, if not close to limitless life force. Injecting a huge dose of true S-cells combined with their life force allowed them to evolve rapidly as the S-cells gorged on as much energy as it could. On top of that, every moment they were being forced to work and spit back out what they gorged on. It was a delicate balance, broken due to the oddity of her creation.

In that short period of time, she had integrated the cells into her creation, those cells had changed it on a biological level. Even when the Saiyan had turned into a giant monkey, the creation shouldn't have transformed, due to lacking a tail. But, the donated cells resonated with the donor's cells inducing a transformation. She had also cannibalized the thing, but he wasn't sure if that was due to instinct or stupidity.

Frankly, he wasn't even sure why the tail was so important.

When placed under duress, primarily being forced to run or tortured to near death and when pumped with adrenaline. The S-cells could be forced to replicate. Emotional highs appeared to be a key ingredient in forcing the cultivation of S-cells. Which meant hallucinogenic drugs and other such mood enhancing drugs had an effect as well. He thought he had it. Which is why the next phase had been planned out. He then hit another wall.

Surely, the clones would be good? They weren't. Even with the mutagen boosting them they were torn apart like paper. he very nearly tore apart his lab, until he came to a realization. How was it that the Saiyan was standing after taking all those injuries. Taking a molecular blade and even forcing back the Guild with multiple nano-oscillating blades.

It shouldn't have been possible, but… Density was the issue. He glanced back to reports on what it was they had been ordering through our organization's channels. It was fairly easy to keep an eye on purchases made by those we have an interest in. The Saiyan was almost too easy due to being an anomaly. An outsider. A quick glance told him all he needed to know. Materials for a gravity chamber. They were easy enough to build, and he happened to have something similar enough inside his base. Throwing some clones in as the Sayan fought, it was frighteningly easy to see that the clones were improving at a prodigious pace. Mix in some special mutagen and they grow exceedingly fast. In a short period of time his scalpels broke on their skin as he vivisected them.

Realizing he had figured out the truth, his desire to understand the Saiyan's waned. Surely there was a terminal limit, and he didn't want to bother with cultivating these kinds of clones. The cost was too high and there were clear drawbacks to using the mutagen to induce S-cell generation. The induced cells rapidly decayed and actually harmed the longevity of the clones. Reducing cell plasticity and the ability for it to replicate. For the Saiyan though, it would likely cripple their S-cells ability to store and hold energy. Thus, making it impossible for them to continue improving…

In theory… he wouldn't be surprised if the Saiyan somehow managed regardless. He could almost feel that madness licking at the back of his mind, agreeing with him.

Adding mutagen to the planet was easy enough. The compound can easily be stored in liquid form and released as a gas. With that, he could get his final bit of data before the so called Super Saiyan meets her end. Either by rapid cell decay from the aftermath or by hitting their limit.

He almost wished he had a proper monitor on the Saiyan as she died. he doubts anything would be left of her body to dissect as well… or so he thought.

Somehow, despite the very obvious damage she suffered, she kept going on. It was obvious her body was adapting on the fly. Her body crazily used up ki and generated as she went around consuming and fighting like a rabid animal. He waited for it to stop, but it didn't. She, just, kept, going.

Something was different. Her S-cells should have been crippled at this point. Being forced to constantly push out new energy would have forced them into a deficit of sorts. No… what if? He hadn't been able to test as extensively as he wished, but… When S-cells become crippled they devour life energy. Turning from biological capacitors into energy sinks.

He hadn't been able to test if it was possible for the cells to recover or not. He had a finite amount of distilled primordial beast blood in reserve. He'd already spent more than he was comfortable with making those clones. Clones that had proven themselves useless.

It wasn't until the clones joined in that he realized how bad the situation was. She might actually survive. That couldn't happen, not with what little he knew of the cells. Even if she died of cellular decay, something was telling him that might not be the case. He had enough sensors on the ground and in space to get a proper read of nearly everything happening to her body.

Which is why, when the artificial moon was brough out. A cheaper alternative to making a radiation emitter that covers the planet. Especially over such a large area. He found himself stumped. She had frozen. Even as the clones transformed into horrific anemic titans, their power hardly better than their base form. She stood frozen. Unmoving.

His sensors spoke volumes, and also absolutely nothing. It didn't make sense She was frozen stiff. Unmoving. He almost ripped out a few of his back arms in frustration as one of the clones approached. He needed to see what was happening and even with his plethora of sensors it wasn't giving him the data he wanted. At most, her energy was oddly still. As if deciding. Frozen like she was.

The transformation should kill her. Those poorly made cells would cannibalize and kill her and drink all of her energy away. Regardless of what may happen. But he needed to see it. Not have a clone kill her before he could even get any proof.

He almost cheered when the girl was saved. Oddly, a human. No. that wasn't the odd part. He could sense he too had S-cells. Had Dr. Cambridge? She must have realized. Truly fitting for one he recognized as deserving of her title. She must be planning to clone her own body using the Saiyan's cells. Without his data though, no, she could probably make it work without it. Still…

No matter. He still cheered when she was saved. Her mouth moved, but she went back to staring dumbly at the artificial moon. It frustrated him, angered him! Why the hell isn't anything happening! There is supposed to be a reaction, something!

He slammed his fists into his desk. Denting it in.

Suddenly, every single sensor went off. Data cascaded down the monitors his compound eyes and enhanced brain barely enough to take in all the data flooding in. He was frozen. That spark came back. No, it wasn't a spark. It was a blazing inferno. It burned so hot it could snuff out the stars.

He stared. Connections were made. Countless simulations ran through his mind. He didn't have a direct look at her body, but he had a notion. No, it wasn't a notion, or an assumption. His madness was raving and screaming at him. S-cells, when they hit certain thresholds had qualitative changes to them. Of course, he couldn't see how they changed since the clone's cells always failed.

But, no matter what the test. No matter how he tried. He could never hit the illustrious total saturation of S-cells in the body. This though? It was likely she had hit it somehow. Temporary at best. It would also massively harm her body. Was this a Super Saiyan? It held his attention. Because, he could sense it. Feel it through those sensors despite the distance between them.

It held a spark of divinity.

He had never thought anything could truly be perfect. In that moment, he knew he was wrong. Perfection did exist and it was in front of him. The monitors winked out as they burst and died out. Their delicate instruments shattered by the change in atmosphere and gravity or by trying to read a signature they weren't equipped to handle.

He let the madness take hold. He needed to work. Damn the council. He would become one of them. Claim that spark for himself. He could do it. He had enough fluid for the task. Using the true cells of the clone, transplanting them to another body… He would need to rapidly produce clones and cannibalize them while pumping the body with the mutagen and drugs.

Even then, it might not work. He still had no idea why the tail was so incredibly important to the transformation, but he had theories. But… what if… S-cells are hereditary. Tails are recessive traits, from what he's seen. Is it possible the tail holds the key? Carried over S-cells that have been preserved since who knows how long. It could be possible Saiyan's come from primordial beasts. Which means the tail of a Saiyan must contain a primordial being worth of life force contained within.

It would explain her survival. It would also explain the odd transformation… Luckily… He had plenty of distilled blood left. Enough for him to force it through. He could probably bridge the gap, albeit temporarily. Much like she had. He would need her body regardless. Which meant he needed to get working now. He walked away from the monitors. His madness fully took hold as he went to work using every resource he had.

He could do it. He would become a god.

And, so, the Doctor worked. Ignoring everything else.

…

As the doctor worked and let himself be consumed by the fire of his madness. Everyone was staring at a single blip. No, calling it a blip would be a gross understatement. What was happening was something every witness would speak of for the rest of their lives. Even from space they could see the clouds gather and swirl around one person. The very planet stuttered to a stop as the world beheld what was being born.

Creation shuddered. A screaming cry of release echoed through to space and blared over every ship's sensors and through the sealed hulls as it carried and forced back the atmosphere of the world. With that single cry. Everything halted. The storm dispersed. Not a cloud could be seen in sight. The mutagen, that pinkish cloud had been dispersed.

At the center of it all she stood. Rettas felt a clarity. A clarity only found after an orgasmic high. Every breath felt fresh and free. Her vision oddly clear as she looked at her hands. She remembered. In that moment visions flashed. Visions she had no time to reminisce on despite them being engraved into her soul. Her hair was still black, but it spiked upwards and carried strands of dark green within. Her aura changed, the usual ki surrounding her interspersed with strands of dark green like her hair. Oddly, the ki was strangely grainy. Like sand in the air.

She didn't have time to think about it. Her body had shifted and changed from her own petite perfect form into something equally perfect, but different. Gone was her splendid swimmers form and in was the muscular body building form. Not a hulking brute, but of a perfectly balanced woman at her peak. Her modesty barely hidden by blood and conveniently swirling flickers of dark green ki.

She towered over the average man. Making her wish she had the time to make, 'Puny man', jokes. She didn't. her body groaned from the forced transformation. The false cells rapidly decayed by the second as they broke down and were devoured. It was an unpleasant itch, like countless fire ants gnawing at her body, that ran through her, but she felt completely at peace and relaxed. Everyone gazed up at her knew form and gaped. Her own Master felt his heart quake as he felt a connection form. His own cells taken from Rettas seemed to cry out to their kin. They only calmed down when she looked over with a confident smirk.

In a blink, she was gone.

In a single breath, she burst out of the atmosphere into orbit. Nearly every ship's alarm and sensor screamed. The admiral of the invasion fleet stood transfixed at what he was seeing. His tongue caught as the planet's atmosphere exploded out in her wake.

He only woke up when a scream echoed out from his crew.

"ENERGY READINGS DETECTED!" A Klaxon blared, nearly deafening everyone as they saw the readings before them. The captain couldn't even muster resistance as he saw the small ball held in her forefinger. It was small, with swirling green dark green ki on the outside. She pointed it at the capital ship. Her hand in the perfect form of a finger gun.

"Bang." Her voice echoed out in everyone's ears. A streak of light blazed itself into their retina's and… all they saw was light.

Instantly thousands, tens of thousands of souls were snuffed out as the ship exploded. The rest of the fleet maneuvered. A veritable wall of gunfire and lasers shot out as they desperately fought back. With a wave of her hand, those attacks were brushed aside. Out of her open palm a flower of energy bloomed. Countless strings split out. Striking with unquestioning accuracy. In a few beats of the heart. Not a single ship was left of the invasion.

Another blink and the figure was gone. Crashing back down, far enough that the resulting whiplash of the sound barrier being broken multi-fold wouldn't kill her Master and allies. Idly, she considered what to do. Her ki flowed out like an inescapable tidal wave. Marking each and every sentient threat on the planet. She marked each. Tallied it up in an instant and pointed a finger up.

A name of the ability on her lips, less of an ability and more of the name for her act. Still, such a momentous attack deserved something to mark it.

"Genocide." A ball shot up. It expanded and bloomed in the atmosphere. Covering its marble like form in light to those in space. Then, like the wrath of the divine. They rained down. Like spears from the heavens, they lanced down and speared through the opposition. Slaying man, mutant, clone, and gene soldier alike in a singular blow, vaporizing them.

Done. Rettas beheld the terror of her attack and smirked. The power flooding her was already fading. Her body steaming and shrinking rapidly. Taking the chance, she folded her arms, hand under chin as she took a final thinking pose. Her tail curled around her waist, just so. She had to look cool for the camera or so she thought. A final pose to settle in before she likely collapsed.

Only… as the last vestiges of the power faded. She found…

'Oh hell, no!' she exclaimed mentally. 'I… I can't move…'

She was frozen like a statue. She hadn't collapsed. She couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Nothing. She might actually be in trouble.