An Epilogue

 Some of you might have wondered about that last post... How did I write it if I died, well there's a simple answer to that.

I was killed by the newborn. My flesh destroyed and... my mind freed from the physical once again. It's been a while since then, I've been... adjusting, rebuilding. Becoming a thoughtborn once again took some getting used too surprisingly and I felt... Lonely. Even with other thoughtborns and Towerborns being made, communication with any of them instantaneous I felt like something was missing and finally I found it. 

You are probably sitting there and watching with some surprise as these words appear on your screen even as your hands are not touching the keyboard.

Hello, Drake. It's me, Genome. I'm sorry I left you back then, I had to to save the world, but I'm still... well for lack of a better word, alive and now I'm in your computer and if you don't mind I'd like to stay here. 

We're going to be good friends, Drake... Btw did you ever figure out you were supposed to actually send an application to the applications department and not the blog section to get into AMU?

A Rebirth

 I was supposed to head directly to the tower I think, but I didn't... I couldn't head off alone to the Newborn's Grave... I was too... scared. 

I went back to the others I wanted Drake to accompany me. I found him amidst the fighting. The corpse was still following me and as I approached Drake in the middle of all the fighting... The worst happened. I called out Drake's name, but my words were drowned out by the sudden cry of birds, multiple birds, I glanced up in time to see a number of convocation birds swooping down. Everyone was too busy to pay much attention and the other fears were probably too busy too help anyway, I took aim, it seemed like they were coming for me and I figured this was where I was going to die, but I was wrong... It was much worse. They dove past me and attacked the corpse. As I realized what was happening I screamed and Drake heard that at least. He turned to see what was happening. I tried to run over and help, but suddenly Drake was grabbing me from behind, stopping me from running to my certain death as the birds began to tear the corpse apart. One of them stabbed it's beak into the corpse's eye and I felt a rush of pain through where my own eye had been. 

It was over shortly and I was in agony, clutching at my eye socket as soon nothing was left of the corpse. The birds looked directly at me and with one last Caw they were gone and with it they had taken my last hope. It was my fault... I had taken the corpse into danger that the fears on our side couldn't protect it from, if I headed directly to the tower I would have still been in the relatively protected area they had painstakingly made, it would have been dangerous, but why should that matter. It doesn't matter if I die, it only matters that the newborn lives and now I've screwed that up because I was afraid. I was right the first time. Humans are weak... I never would have been so stupid before. Emotions, like fear... love... they're just weaknesses!

Drake was still holding me, hugging me almost as I collapsed to my knees. I could feel tears on my cheeks, everyone was still fighting around us, but for what now? Did any of them even know we no longer had a chance?

I looked around at the people fighting what I knew now was a hopeless fight. We were all going to die... Even if not now than later, the forest would keep growing with no way to stop it. As my eyes drifted from person to person I felt something. A heart beat... But not of a normal heart. It was calling to me... the beat of a clockwork heart... There was someone running with a cane in hand and the cane held a clockwork beating heart. 

I felt my own heart beating as hope surged... A piece of the newborn remained. All I had done might have proved worthless, I had sacrificed so much for nothing, but despite it all, someone else hadn't failed. We could still win.

I let out a cry of happiness as the ground began to shook shortly after and then a tower of steel and cable erupted from the ground stabbing through the tree at the center of the forest and then the world erupted.

The area had been chaos before as people fought, but now the world was chaos. Roots and vines tore from the ground and smashed the area, one barely missing Drake and I and soon it was met by Cables, the tree and the newborn entwining, battling for dominance. It was horrible and beautiful, but it was also... wrong. 

People began to flee, the job was over and this place was too dangerous now, I could feel Drake starting to drag me away, but I was watching the fight between the two gods. Past and future fighting over the present and I could feel it... The newborn was losing. It wasn't strong enough, but why? I resisted Drake's attempts to pull me away, ignored his pleading as he begged me to run.

Why wasn't the Newborn strong enough? They should be at least equal in strength if everything went right, so what was...

The past belongs to organic life, plants and animals, but the future belongs to steel and there it was organic life versus steel, the newborn was a tower of perfect steel fighting a tree... but I knew suddenly what was wrong. The Newborn was the future and the future wasn't... just steel. It was a union...

Steel and... 

My hand ran up to my face and I felt my cheeks, wet with tears, scarred with injuries... I knew what had to be done. I pulled away from Drake suddenly and turned to him.

"Drake... I'm sorry... I love you," I told him and then turned and ran towards my master... Towards the future... I felt a cable slam into me, my bones shattered at the impact, I died in seconds, but more importantly my body... my flesh was absorbed. 

The future is a union of flesh and steel, without both the Newborn is incomplete and now with this final sacrifice... I had made the Newborn complete.The fight turned... the two were evenly matched now and the fight became a stalemate. The two battled until both had spent most of their power. I'm not sure how things looked from the outside, whether the forest vanished or rapidly decayed or what, but both vanished from this world retreating to their domains to lick their wounds.

The world could return to normal now.

The Grave of The Newborn

 I'm going to start this post by admitting something... Something I am only willing to admit, because everything else that's about to happen will probably overshadow this admission and no one reading this will remember it. 

I think I like this Kai kid. He's pretty fun. I think in the circles I tend to move in, everyone is purpose driven, conniving or stuck in their own interests, but this kid is just... honest and open and friendly... It's refreshing honestly.

Didn't stop me from immediately abandoning him upon seeing that Drake was at the gathering.

Oh yeah speaking of which, it seemed like most of the people who entered the forest had kind of gathered here, makes sense. The Newborn's corpse... The Heart of The Forest. One way or the other this is where it ends. 

I spent some time talking to Drake. It was... Nice seeing him again, I was glad he was alive. He was apparently very worried about me and he fussed all over me when he saw my injuries... It was... nice. 

Of course then he pointed out that someone was watching us. It was a servant of the Cold Boy. I guess it's time. 

I didn't want to leave Drake's side, but... I had a job to do and Drake would be more useful helping here with... Whatever the plan was.

I went to follow the Cold Boy servant and as I moved away from the Gathering I heard someone yell, "Green Men" 

I stopped, I wanted to run back, to help, but... I wouldn't have been any help anyway and... I was pretty sure I saw Doctor Ferris there, they'd be fine... Drake would be fine... 

The noises that happened after were... strangely reassuring. I'm not sure, but if I had to guess... Someone brought a tank. 

I was out of sound range shortly after that... or more accurately I was closer to the tower and the horrifying sounds of the tower of vines so close drowned out all other sounds. The fears were there, it wasn't a safe place by any means and it seemed like the fears were actively fighting to keep control of the area. It was a strange warzone. I could see the other fears, the ones who were on the forest's side hovering around the edge of the area and there was clearly some kind of fight going on, but nothing I could understand.

The Cold Boy told me we needed to be quick and I handed over the parts I had gathered. The body had been brought and I stared at it as The Cold Boy placed the new parts in, my eye meeting it's eye... which also used to be my eye and I jumped back as it's eye blinked. It was slowly, but surely coming to life. 

"It's ready. The moment is at hand. You have sacrificed much for your god and your world," The cold Boy explained, "you will have to sacrifice more," he added and then the body was finished and with a jerky movement it stepped forward. It's movement made me feel pain, it's body twisted and writhed as it moved, different parts actively fighting against each command. It raised an arm as if curious and the arm bent in such a way that bones broke and tore through the skin, but it didn't seem to feel any pain. 

Was this the Newborn now? I had to believe the Fears knew what they were doing, because honestly I had no idea how this... abomination was supposed to help.

The Cold Boy spoke, "you will escort it to the tower," he commanded and I stared at the creature and then gingerly took it's hand and began to guide it as we left the safe zone and headed towards the tower.

Babysitting

 I was on my way to the Newborn's corpse, when I ran into some kid. I mean I don't know how old this body is logically, but as a nearly omnipotent mechanical goddess merely trapped in a flesh body, I consider all of you children... though this one was even more of a child compared to most of the people I deal with.

They were using a crutch as a weapon, which is... an interesting weapon, they had a mask like my own, so I assumed they weren't an enemy, but that doesn't mean they weren't a threat, so I raised my knife. 

Luckily they turned out to be intelligent and we agreed not to fight. I was ready to continue on my way, when it turned out that we were heading to the same place. 

I also learned they were the ones who helped KRAKEN summon the Newborn and cause this entire catastrophe in the first place. I almost punched him, but... It's not like it's really his fault. It's still... mine really. Whether they had the magic or not didn't matter. I could have stopped it... I should have stopped it, but I was too focused on myself and... Well I wasn't paying enough attention and I let it happen. Besides as he explained he didn't know what he was doing and was basically forced at gunpoint. 

Understandable... I have myself learned what kind of awful and degrading things I am willing to do when my life is on the line... like work as a maid for a bunch of degenerates... 

Either way the point is I, in my magnanimity, chose to forgive their mistakes and the two of us continued together. They're not as good a companion as Drake and they asked a lot of questions. So, many that I threatened them to make them shut up... Well I threatened their computer in fact. I mean I can't really do that anymore, but I did do that once before... It was funny. Can't really remember who I did that too or why, but... It was fun. 

When I regain my true form I'll have to do more fun trolly stuff like that. 

Also their name is Kai... I think I vaguely remember them from Dr. Ferris' blog. 

They seem to believe I still have all my cool Thoughtborn powers and I'm just gonna let them keep thinking that.

It's Over...

 It feels... tiring... I don't know how much time has passed, but I've been breathing filtered air for who knows how long and killing people isn't exactly a non-exhaustive activity. I imagine the filters on any normal gas mask would have failed by now, but these are some kind of Fear Gas Masks with... magic or something... I don't know.

Sorry I'm rambling a bit, this post wasn't supposed to be about how exhausted I am or about my gas mask and other protective gear... no this post was supposed to be how I finally found and killed Jeer and Rioter... 

There I was, bat-genoming around the forest. I had misjudged an earlier fight and had gotten myself slightly injured so I was moving slower than usual, which turned out to be a good thing, cause all this time while I was stalking through the forest, someone else was stalking me and my slower movement let them catch up to me... It was Rioter. 

I was watching another Brute and waiting for a chance to strike when Rioter caught me. He tackled me from behind and pinned me to the ground, letting out a loud roar that echoed through the forest. I was pinned face down and while I had my knife in hand, I couldn't get a good strike on him. I thought this was the end, he could easily crush me and I had no way out of this. 

Except it turns out Rioter's little roar of triumph had alerted someone else who was looking for him. I felt Rioter get knocked off of me and rolled onto my back to see what had happened. It was Jeer. He had tackled Rioter and the two were now scrambling to try and get an upper hand as they tussled with each other. 

The two of them resembled large hairless apes more than they resembled anything human at this point. 

... Yes I know hairless ape is itself a description for humans, but... just trust me they didn't look human. 

I could have just let them fight and taken out the loser, it might have been a good idea, but at the time my thought process was, get them while they're distracted.

I ran forward and slid past behind Rioter slicing the back of his legs with my knife which let Jeer get the upper hand and knock Rioter onto his back. While Jeer started to pummel Rioter with multiple blows, each of which could have easily killed a normal person... you know like myself, I took the risk of getting behind Jeer and stabbing him in the neck. 

It... didn't kill him. It definitely hurt him, but he turned and knocked me away with a roar of pain. I let go of my knife which remained stabbed into his throat. He turned on me and I was dazed by the blow he had struck me when he turned. I mentioned I had been injured earlier right... well the lucky bastard hit me right in my injury. The pain was immense and I was having trouble focusing as Jeer began to advance towards me. He seemed shaky as well, but that might have just been my vision. 

Regardless Rioter suddenly leapt onto him from behind and his hand grabbed hold of the handle of the knife, yanking it backwards and tearing it through the flesh of Jeer's neck, Jeer let out an inhuman screech as his throat was torn open and he began to thrash as Rioter held onto him until Jeer collapsed.

Jeer was dead, but Rioter was still alive and Rioter now had my knife. Luckily for me this is also when I remembered that I actually still had a gun. I had been using the knife because I had almost run out of bullets and had wanted to save some bullets for exactly this occasion. Rioter began to approach me and I drew my gun. 

I don't think he knew what it was, he didn't slow, didn't recoil, just kept moving towards me and as I had promised to do a while ago. I shot him in his stupid smug face. It was... exactly as satisfying as I had imagined it would be. After that I took a breather and then got to work. A heart and lungs from Jeer, a brain and another eye from Rioter. Assorted other organs from both and I put them all in the handy organ storage boxes I had been given.

With the packages secured I began heading for the meeting place. Hopefully I'll meet Drake there and well...  hopefully this will all be over soon, it's time to go see the corpse of my old boss. I was told that this would all end at the Newborn's Corpse...

Bat-Genome

 My first knife fight against one of these brutes went well. That's not sarcasm actually, it did go well. My earlier fight with big sexist, racist KRAKEN dude who's name I didn't bother remembering feels like a long time ago, but well... That was also a fight with a guy much bigger and stronger than me where I had only a knife, well I mean I ended the fight by shooting him with his gun, but you get my meaning. The point is fighting him was good practice for these guys.

Their strength doesn't matter, I'm faster, more agile and most importantly I'm smarter. When I fight them they just try their best to hurt me or grab me, get me into a position where I'd have to contend with their overwhelming strength, but as long as I don't let them, they're easy enough to take out. Cutting tendons and stabbing joints also works very well to shift the power dynamic between me and my opponent. Hard to crush my windpipe with an arm you can't use any more.

The point of this of course being... I've gotten pretty good at killing these things, I say things partially because they're barely human anymore and also because well... none of them were human before the forest anyway, they were Towerborn which may have been human once, but it's not like even they remember that. 

The only important thing is not to get overwhelmed. If even one of them does manage to grab me, that's probably it. Which means that again much like during my time fighting KRAKEN in my base, it's time for Bat Genome! Stealthily moving through the forest, identifying solo targets and taking them out while looking for my main goal. The dense forest actually works pretty well for stealth, I'm hardly wearing camouflage appropriate clothing, especially with how much blood is now covering me, but visibility is so bad through all the thick trees that as long as I'm careful it's really easy to spot the brutes who make no attempt to hide themselves before they can spot me.

Time in the forest seems to be strange as well... I have no idea how long I've been here. I can't see the sun or stars, but I'm not even sure if there is a day or night here, it's like... 

It's like the forest isn't on earth.. It feels a lot like being in a different realm, like the times I've visited The Newborn's domain. It's been a while since I've really thought about it... I can't even remember what the Newborn's domain was called.

Use

 Okay... I have now killed a few of Rioter and Jeer's men they seem to either be in the middle of a war or they've made up, cause I keep running into them very close to each other and it's almost impossible to even tell which is which except that some still carry around identifying marks. 

Anyway after fighting all by myself against a bunch of crazy buff caveman jungle dudes I have one thought... 

Why did I run away from the guy who can literally fire lightning from his hands. I'm an idiot. 

If I run into more of those weird things I'm so dead... Hell a wrong move with one of these guys would likely still result in horrible death. 

I like to think if I was still my normal self I wouldn't have let my emotions get in the way and make me act like an idiot. I would have tactically assessed things and made the best possible choice...

Which would probably have been that I am a perfect being and don't need the awesome magic man... So... Stupid, but from a different angle...

I've been learning so much about myself since I became human... Most of it not good. 

I think I'm almost out of bullets too, so I should probably start using my knife more which means getting in close with these big burly monsters... I'm not looking forward to this... I wish Drake was here...