Chapter 3: Mind of a Monster
Howling winds were blowing sand into Ronnie's eyes. He was standing in front of his ship, in the middle of nowhere. Ronnie had just returned from Victor's house, where he had finally taken revenge on him. Ronnie pressed a button next to the door of his ship.
"Please identify yourself," a robotic voice said.
A small drone came out of a hole above the button. It scanned Ronnie's fingerprints.
"Welcome back."
The door opened. Ronnie entered his ship, and pressed a button on the control pad.
"What do you wish to do, master?"
"Take off."
"Affirmative. Takeoff in sixty seconds."
"Call Skugha."
"Affirmative."
Ronnie waited twenty seconds.
"Hello?"
"Skugha, can you hear me?" Ronnie said.
"Yes, master. Loud and clear."
"Tell everyone they can expect to see me in three days. I'm taking off right now."
"Understood, sir. We will be waiting for your arrival."
Ronnie broke contact.
"Takeoff in ten... Nine... Eight... Seven... Six... Five... Four... Three... Two... One... Takeoff starts now."
The ship took off at a speed too fast for the naked eye to see.
"Colony in sight. Now slowing down," the voice program said.
The alien colony was a gigantic metropolis, home to technology most alien races wished they could replicate. It was also the home of the thursugians, also known as the faceless. They were the alien race who had created Ronnie's huminal body.
"Now preparing to land."
The gate of the colony opened. Ronnie landed his ship inside the colony in front of an enormous crowd of faceless awaiting his return. They all wore masks, hence the name. Ronnie wasn't sure exactly why they did, only that it had to do with some kind of ancient tradition.
Skugha was standing in front of the crowd. He was Ronnie's right-hand man, and also his advisor. He was different from the other thursugians in the fact that he didn't wear a mask. Instead, he wore a cape and a cowl, which obscured his face. Also unlike the others, Skugha was fluent in the English language; the other thursugians used a translator instead.
Ronnie opened the door, and left the ship. The faceless kneeled.
"Welcome back," Skugha said.
Skugha turned towards the crowd, and told them something in Thursugian. Ronnie and Skugha walked through the crowd, and entered colony's main hallway.
"I figured you would be hungry, so I ordered our cooks to prepare a five course dinner for you," Skugha said.
Ronnie nodded in approval. "I'm assuming Bonnie and Bobbie know about my return," Ronnie said.
"Most likely, yes."
"Where can I find them?."
"Bonnie is working in her lab on some kind of new contraption. Bobbie shouldn't be too far off. Shall I leave you to it, then?"
"Yes."
"Understood. Don't forget your meal will be served soon. You wouldn't want to be late."
"Naturally."
Skugha walked away. Ronnie kept moving through the long, metallic hallway. He walked, and walked, seemingly to no end. Ronnie wasn't feeling right. He stopped, and looked at the ground. Ronnie started breathing heavily. Suddenly, voices started echoing though his head. They were whispering names.
"Victor Lynx..."
"Great leader..."
Ronnie sat down. He put his hands against his head.
"Thursugians..."
"Alone..."
"Dark..."
"Tests..."
"Stop it," Ronnie said.
"Project H..."
Project H. The first day. Memories started flooding back. Ronnie remembered...
The horse woke up inside a cramped, black room. Where was he? The last thing he could remember was a bunch of strange figures dragging him out of the stables. Suddenly, a painful rush went through the horse's body. He screamed. The horse was completely puzzled as to what was happening. Everything seemed wrong, somehow. Somewhere close by, the horse could overhear a few people talking to each other. Then, there was a flash. A few figures dragged the horse out of the room, and put him on a chair. The figures were all wearing strange masks, as well as a lab coat of some kind. After a while, the figures started asking the horse questions.
"Horse. How do you feel?" one of the figures said.
The horse couldn't put his finger on how he felt. He had so many questions, so many unexplained feelings.
"It's okay, horse. You can tell us how you feel. We're your friends. You can trust us. You can talk, right? You should be able to."
Talk? Ronnie had no idea what the figure meant by that. Or did he...?
"I suppose that if you're not going to talk, we're just going to have to show you." The figure looked at one of the others. "Get the mirror. He might unstabilize, we'll keep him calm."
One of the figures walked away, and grabbed a big mirror. He held it in front of the horse.
"Say hello to your new body," the figure said.
What the horse saw in the mirror was not himself: it was someone else. His body had completely changed shape. It had become much smaller. Not only that, but his hooves were gone, replaced by strange flat objects that had five long things sticking from them. Something inside his head was telling him the first two were called 'feet', while the other two were called 'hands'. The horse panicked. What on earth had he become?
"Hold him!" one of the figures said.
The horse tried to push the figures away from him, but their grip was too strong.
"Horse, stop it! We're trying to help you!"
"No!" the horse screamed.
The figures released the horse. He put his hands on his mouth. Did he just... speak?
"New... Body..." The horse looked at the main figure. "Name... Your name...?"
"Are you talking to me?" the figure said.
The horse nodded.
"My name is Vollthaga."
The horse stared into the figure's eyes. "Vollthaga... Explain..."
Vollthaga turned away from the horse. "Very well, then. I'm going to start from the beginning. You may have already noticed this, but we are not like you. We are a race you will come to know as 'Thursugians'. Our race specializes in the development of new, groundbreaking technology." Vollthaga grabbed a chair, and sat down in front of the horse. "Anyway, all of that doesn't really matter. You want to know what happened to you. I'll try to explain it to you in the best possible way. Look behind you, horse. What do you see?"
The horse turned around.
"Try to explain to us what that is. In words," Vollthaga said.
The horse was looking at a strange, red, metallic object. "That's a... machine."
"Correct. That machine is called 'Project H'. Your new body is a direct result of multiple experiments we have conducted with that machine. Horse, you are the first of your kind: a mix between a human and an animal, created by thursugian scientists, called a 'Huminal'. That's what the H in 'Project H' stands for. Although this new body of yours looks a lot like one of a horse would, it is, for the most part, human. That's why you feel so strange. We have given you a new brain; one that retains your memories. However, your personality has been altered drastically as a result. Not only that, but now, you act, think, and speak like a human being would. This is correct, is it not?"
The horse thought about what Vollthaga had just told him. He was right; he didn't feel like a horse anymore.
"I... I get it..." the horse said. "But... why...? Why did you give me this body...?"
Vollthaga looked at the other scientist. All of them shook their head. "That is not important right now." Vollthaga paused. He cleared his throat. "So, now that that's out of the way, we have to give you a name. Do you have any suggestions?"
The horse remained silent.
"Is the name 'Ronnie' okay with you?"
"...Yes."
"Very well, then. Ronnie it is. Now, there is one last thing I need to ask. It's nothing much, but very important nevertheless. Can you tell us a little bit about your past?"
"My... past?"
The word 'past' made Ronnie feel... Cold, for some reason.
"Yes, your past. The place where found you... Well... It didn’t look very comfortable, to say the least. Is there something we must know?"
At first, Ronnie couldn't remember anything. However, after a while, his memories started coming back. Ronnie didn’t want to believe them. He told himself that his new mind was lying to him, that they were just some side-effects of the experiments. But as more and more started coming back, he knew they had to be true.
"Is something wrong, Ronnie?" Vollthaga asked.
"Dark room... Can't move... So much pain..." Ronnie grabbed his head. He started screaming.
"Ronnie, please, calm down!" Vollthaga said. He grabbed Ronnie, but he managed to escape from Vollthaga's grip.
"Get away from me!" Ronnie tried to run out of the room. However, in his panic, he tripped. He was pulled away from the door by Vollthaga. Then, Ronnie felt something hitting his head. He blacked out.
The voices had stopped whispering. Ronnie closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
"Why is this still happening...?" Ronnie said to himself.
Ronnie stood up. He walked to the end of the hallway. There, he pressed a button next to a door.
"Yeah? Who is this?"
"Bonnie, it's me," Ronnie said.
"Oh, hey. Come in."
The door opened.
"Take a seat, Ron," Bonnie said.
Bonnie was the second huminal. She was a giraffe, and unlike the others, she had hair growing on her head. What made her so special was the fact that her genetics had been altered, boosting her intelligence to incredible levels.
"Bobbie's here too, if you haven’t noticed already," Bonnie said.
Ronnie turned around. He saw Bobbie leaning against a wall.
"Well, if it isn't the big guy himself!" Bobbie said. "How are you feeling, Ronnie?"
Bobbie, on the other hand, was a completely different story. He was a black ox, with large, curved horns. Like Bonnie, he had received boosts to his genetics, although his were a little different. His boosts had given him superhuman strength and endurance.
Even though they technically weren't related, Bonnie and Bobbie considered each other brother and sister, because they were both turned into a huminal on the same day. However, personality-wise, they couldn't be any further apart. Bonnie was rather introverted, and worked alone, preferring to develop technology and weapons for the Thursiugian army, which she and Bobbie were the lead generals of. Bobbie wasn't having any of that, though. He was a fighter at heart. In fact, fighting was all he did. He had developed his own style: a combination between boxing and wrestling, with a lot of his own ideas mixed in. Bobbie also talked a lot; perhaps a bit too much.
“I’m good,” Ronnie said.
“That’s good to hear, buddy,” Bobbie said. “So, what’s going on? You just came back from earth, right? Can you fill me in? What exactly did you do to this ‘Victor’ guy? Did you murder him, or something?”
Ronnie extended his claws, which still had blood on them. Bonnie put her soldering iron down, and looked at them. Bobbie looked surprised.
“Shit,” Bobbie said. “On second thought, I don’t really think I wanna know. What matters is that you did it, right? You gave that son of a bitch what was coming to him! You know, I think we should celebrate this! Bring out the vodka, who’s in the mood to party?”
Bonnie face palmed. “Jesus Christ, Bobbie…”
"What?"
Ronnie gave Bobbie an unamused look.
“No?” Bobbie said. “Really? No one?” Bobbie looked at the others, expecting an answer, but he didn’t get one. He raised his shoulders. “Guess not. Hey sis, what are you working on, anyway? Is that some kind of new weapon?”
Bonnie nodded. “It’s the Zetacannon V3.0.”
Bobbie burst out laughing. "You've gotta be kiddin' me! Didn’t you just finish making V2.0 a few weeks ago? Did it explode, or something?”
“Yes, it malfunctioned,” Bonnie said, sounding irritated.
“Same thing." Bobbie stretched his arms, and cracked his neck. "I have to go. I have a fight coming up. They captured an assassin. You know, the one who executed a bunch of our commanders? Anyway, they sentenced him to a cage fight with me. You know, I never really thought about how harsh that punishment is." Bobbie laughed. "Yup, definitely wouldn’t want to be in a cage fight with myself. Well, see you guys later."
Bobbie walked out of the room, and closed the door behind him.
"Good, he's gone," Bonnie said. "I love him, I really do, but he can really get on my nerves sometimes."
"I'm leaving, too," Ronnie said.
Bonnie looked surprised. "Oh. That's a... rather quick visit, then. But, I suppose if you want to leave, I'll see you around."
Ronnie opened the door.
"Ronnie, wait."
Ronnie stopped.
"Are you feeling alright? You're awfully quiet."
Ronnie turned around. He looked Bonnie dead in the eyes.
"I just came back from my original home planet," Ronnie said, "where I murdered a man's wife and six-year old daughter in an act of revenge for what he had done to me. I expected to find satisfaction in that. When I walked out of that door, I thought I would be able to finally leave my past behind me. No. No, that same feeling of anger is still burning inside of me, still eating me away like a god damn parasite. And everyone here on the colony seems to think all of my problems have magically gone away. Now tell me, Bonnie. How the hell do you think I feel?"
"I was just asking..." Bonnie said.
"You shouldn't have."
Ronnie slammed the door shut. He walked through the hallways, while trying to get a grip on his feelings. Why did he still feel this way? Ronnie realized his idea had to have lacked something. Perhaps he had had to take more drastic measures. Maybe this wasn't enough.
Ronnie was standing in front of the throne room. A small drone came out of a hole above the door, which scanned Ronnie's eye. The door opened. Inside the throne room, Ronnie saw a long table, filled with all kinds of different thursugian foods. Skugha was sitting on a chair next to the table.
"Welcome, master," Skugha said. "As you can see, your dinner has been served. You can really tell our cooks gave it their all with this one." Skugha stood up from his chair. "I shall leave you to it, then. If you need any more, you can call the cooks, as usual. They have it covered." Skugha left the room.
Ronnie sat down. He picked up some fruit, wanting to take a bite, but he wasn't feeling hungry. He put it down. A few minutes passed by. Ronnie looked around, checking if someone was close by. Nobody. Ronnie stood up, grabbed some of the plates with food on them, and threw them across the throne room. The sound of shattering glass echoed.
"Huminal 1. Huminal 1, can you hear me?"
The intercom woke Ronnie up from his sleep. He was lying on the cold, uncomfortable floor of his two by two meter isolation cell. When he tried to stand up, he collapsed. His injuries, which were inflicted by the last huminal test, were too severe. He looked at the camera placed in one of the upper corners of his cell.
"Huminal 1, I know you can hear me. Speak."
It was the great leader speaking.
"I'm not asking you again, huminal 1. Speak, or the consequences will be dire."
Ronnie shook his head at the camera.
"I'm not going to talk to you until you call me by my real name."
"You want me to call you by your real name, you say? Fine. Number 479."
"Screw you!" Ronnie angrily yelled.
"I advise you calm down, huminal 1."
Ronnie looked away from the camera. "What do you want?"
"I wanted to inform you that the next test will commence in 5 hours."
"What?! No, you can't do this! I can barely stand up, let alone do another test this soon!"
"You're missing the point of these tests, huminal 1. We do these to test your limits."
"Can't you see I've already reached my limits?! Look at me!" Ronnie crawled towards the camera. "Look. At. Me."
"Whether you have reached your limits or not is something we'll see during the test, huminal 1."
"Why are you doing this, anyway? What do you gain out of all this?!"
"Simple. Your kind shows great potential, huminal 1. See, unlike your kind, us thursugians don't have a good physical build to go into direct combat. We have to rely on our equipment to it for us. However, once we find out what your kind's limits truly are, we can create an army stronger than any other. Your strength, combined with our technology, will make us indestructible. Does that answer satisfy you, huminal 1?"
Ronnie didn't know what to say.
"I'm breaking contact now," the great leader said. "Prepare yourself for the worst. You are not going to like the next test."
The great leader broke contact. Ronnie put his head towards the ground.
"Damn it..."
Ronnie started crying. He just couldn't bear it anymore. Ronnie tried to remember a moment in his life, just a single one, where something good had happened to him. But there were none. He just couldn't understand why. What made the people who did this to him deserving of such good lives, while he was left to suffer?
Suddenly, something started resonating within Ronnie. His heartbeat started rising. His sadness became anger. Then, A huge burst of power went through Ronnie's body. A black aura appeared around him, slowly becoming bigger and bigger. Again, he felt a burst of power. His anger kept growing. Ronnie wasn't sure exactly what was happening to him, but whatever it was, it was giving him huge power. All he needed was one more push. Ronnie quickly thought of something. A face. The face of the man who had ruined him. Then, it happened. The black aura erupted around Ronnie. The power was unreal. Ronnie screamed. A bright flash blinded him. Then, it was over. Ronnie opened his eyes. He felt completely different.
"Huminal 1?! What is going on?! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
A reflexive reaction caused Ronnie to shoot a black energy blast at the camera, seemingly out of nowhere, destroying it in an instant. Ronnie looked at his hand.
"What... the hell...?" Ronnie said.
Ronnie was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, this newfound power of his would be his golden ticket to freedom. Ronnie squeezed his fist together. He focused, directing his all of his power to his right arm. The black aura appeared around him once again. Then, he threw out his attack, aiming for the wall. Ronnie punched right through it. Alarms went off.
"Yes!" Ronnie yelled.
Ronnie quickly ran out of his cell. He looked around. He was in a small room, with a long hallway in front of him. To his right, he saw another isolation cell, labeled 'Huminal 2'. A third cell, labeled 'Huminal 3', was visible on the left. Ronnie dashed towards the cell on his right, focused his power, and broke the wall in front of him. Inside of the cell, he saw Bonnie, shielding herself from the debris. When she saw Ronnie, she looked surprised.
"Ronnie?!" She said.
"Stay here!" Ronnie said.
Ronnie turned around, ran towards the third cell, and kicked through the wall. There, he saw Bobbie, who had been completely drained of his power.
"What the hell?!"
"Both of you," Ronnie said, "follow me!"
Bonnie and Bobbie walked out of their cells. When Bonnie saw Bobbie, she walked up to him.
"Can you walk?" Bonnie said.
"Yeah, I'm good," Bobbie said.
"Move!" Ronnie said. He grabbed Bonnie and Bobbie by their arms. He started to run, pulling Bonnie and Bobbie with him.
"Ronnie, what the hell happened, man?!" Bobbie said. "What is this?!"
"Does it matter?!" Ronnie yelled. "It's not important! Just focus on the matter at hand right now!"
"What are we going to do?!" Bonnie said.
Suddenly, a metallic gate closed in front of the huminals. They stopped running.
“No!” Ronnie yelled.
Another gate closed behind the huminals. The great leader started talking through an intercom.
“Huminals, we have you under lockdown! Surrender, or you will face your death!” the great leader said.
The gate in front of the huminals opened. Six thursugian soldiers, who were carrying guns, were standing in front of them.
“On your knees!” one of the soldiers said.
Bonnie and Bobbie fell to their knees.
One of the soldiers looked at Ronnie, who was still standing. “You!” the soldier yelled. “On your knees, damn it!”
“What are you going to do? Shoot me?” Ronnie said, in an angry, yet calm voice. “We’re way too valuable to the great leader. If you shoot me, the great leader won’t be pleased. You know that just as well as I.”
The soldier aimed his gun at Ronnie. “Stop trying to manipulate me! I will shoot you if I have to!"
Ronnie started charging an energy blast. The black aura appeared around his hand. The soldier looked at Ronnie’s hand.
“What is that?!” the soldier yelled.
Ronnie leaped into the air, and shot his energy blast at the soldier. The blast hit the soldier's head, killing him instantly. While mid-air, he extended his claws. He dived towards another soldier, and sliced his neck. The soldiers opened fire at Ronnie, but he effortlessly dodged all of their shots. He quickly rolled behind one of the soldiers, and cut him through his back. Ronnie then held the soldier’s body in front of him, using it to block the other three’s shots. He started to charge an energy blast in both of his hands. With the soldier’s body still in front of him, Ronnie slowly approached the other ones. He shot his blasts at two soldiers, incapacitating them. He then quickly ran towards them, and killed both of them with a stab through their heads. The final soldier, who was to Ronnie's right, had stopped firing. He stood there, shaking, nearly dropping his gun. Ronnie dashed towards him. He pulled the gun out of the soldier's hands, and broke it in half. The soldier tried to run away, but Ronnie grabbed him by his neck, and pushed him against the wall. The soldier looked at Ronnie, with an extremely terrified look in his eyes.
"The great leader," Ronnie said. "Where is he?!"
The soldier remained silent. He was breathing heavily. Ronnie put his claws close to the soldier's neck. "Talk!" he yelled.
"Okay, okay!" The soldier said. "The great leader is in his throne room! I... it's directly below this floor!"
"Directly below? You're a hundred percent sure about this, are you not?"
"Yes! Yes, absolutely!"
Ronnie moved his claws closer towards the soldier's neck. The soldier tried to escape from Ronnie's grip, in vain.
"No! No!" the soldier yelled.
Ronnie slowly cut through the soldier's neck, who made a choking sound. Ronnie kept going until he had impaled the soldier completely. Afterwards, Ronnie contracted his claws. The soldier fell to the ground.
Bonnie and Bobbie had silently watched the entire fight happen. Bobbie stood up. He looked at the bloodbath Ronnie had created. He then looked away, and leaned against the wall, visibly almost throwing up.
"What the hell, man?!" Bobbie yelled. "Ronnie, what was that?! What are you doing?!"
"You know damn well what I'm doing, Bobbie," Ronnie said. "You don't honestly think I would let the great leader live after what he has done to me, would you?"
"Ronnie, the great leader can wait!" Bonnie said. "Right now, you should be focusing on getting us out of here!"
"Oh, I'm sorry," Ronnie said. "Since when were you the one in control here?"
Bonnie looked at Ronnie, baffled at what he had just said.
"Stand back," Ronnie said.
Ronnie put his right arm in the air. He channeled all of his strength to it. Then, he leaped up into the air, and directed a massive blow to the ground. It was powerful enough to leave a huge hole in it. Ronnie landed in a large room below the hallway he had just been in. Ronnie looked around. Behind him, he saw a thursugian in a yellow cloak running away, along with three bodyguards, who were equipped with a sword and a gun. Ronnie recognized the thursugian in the yellow cloak.
"Great leader!" Ronnie yelled.
The four thursugians turned around. The great leader ordered his men to kill Ronnie. They unsheathed their swords, while the great leader kept running. Ronnie rushed towards the guards, and extended his claws. He tried to stab one of the guards, but he blocked Ronnie's attack with his blade. They kept trading blows for a bit, until Ronnie managed to cut through the guard's heart, killing him. The second guard had tried to sneak up on Ronnie from behind, but Ronnie had heard him. Ronnie turned around, and smashed the guard's chin with his elbow. He followed his attack up with an energy beam, which he shot through the guard's head. The third guard walked away, shooting a few blasts at Ronnie from his gun. However, Ronnie dodged them easily. He approached the guard, who was still shooting. Only a few seconds later, Ronnie had reached the guard, whom he quickly killed by snapping his neck.
The great leader had almost reached the end of the throne room. At a blinding speed, Ronnie ran towards him, catching up in no time. Ronnie grabbed the great leader, and threw him across the throne room, severely injuring him. When the great leader tried to stand up, Ronnie was already next to him again. Ronnie grabbed the great leader by his neck.
"You son of a bitch," Ronnie said. "Say my name!" He put his claws against the great leader's neck, like he had done with the soldier two minutes earlier. "Do it!"
"No," the great leader said. "I refuse."
Ronnie violently threw the great leader to the ground. Then, he once again held the great leader by his neck. "This is your fault. You turned me into this!"
"How did you escape, huminal 1?! What is this power you're using?!"
"I think you know exactly what this power is. Vollthaga once told me about one very similar to this one. A power which had been considered a myth by your kind for multiple generations. I have that power now, great leader."
The great leader shook his head. "There's no way."
"Oh, yes. You know it to be true. Look into my eyes, and you will see."
There was a short silence. The great leader's composure quickly turned into absolute horror.
"You could have avoided all of this, great leader. But you pushed me, and you kept pushing... until I snapped." Ronnie moved his claws towards the great leader's stomach. "And unfortunately for you, now you're going to have to suffer the consequences."
Ronnie stabbed the great leader in his stomach multiple times. The great leader screamed in agony, but Ronnie kept going. Then, Ronnie stopped. He looked into the great leader's eyes. Slowly, a smile appeared on Ronnie's face. He started to laugh.
Ronnie slashed the great leader's throat. His head flew off his body. The head rolled through the throne room, while the rest of the body fell to the ground.
Ronnie saw Bonnie and Bobbie leaping through the hole he had created. They both looked at Ronnie, who was covered in the great leader's blood. Ronnie looked back.
"From now on, I am the great leader," Ronnie said.
Ronnie was looking at the broken glass on the ground. He could hear Skugha entering the throne room behind him.
"Sir, is everything alright?" Skugha said. "What is going on here?"
Ronnie took a deep breath. "Skugha. Start preperations."
"For what, sir?"
Ronnie turned around. He looked at Skugha. "We're going to war."
