Zêta Industries

I suppose my story begins with the creation of Zeta Industries, over 500 years ago. Such a group was formed to defy the modern science of their era and generate the most impossible productions. Not many knew what the purpose of this group was, and those who went looking for it came home with a faulty memory, or never came back at all.

Now, like most human organizations, Zeta was obsessed with the idea of power. They wanted to be the ones to create life and rule it. Zeta wanted completely adaptable designs, products that would be ultimately useful and serve them for eternity.

That's how I was born.

My design was kept secret from all but the highest ranking Zeta employees. They worked in the sub-basement, 10 floors underneath the camouflaged building in the depths of the desolate mountains. My production started with a lone brain cell found frozen deep under the Antarctic oceans. It was believed to be from an era before the first neopets, maybe even older than the bacteria on this earth. Such a life form was a frightening concept, and a paramount discovery. Though maybe there was a good reason I was so isolated.

They designed product # 007 as an unlimited power source. My cells were perfect for the storage of free electrons., something the scientists had never seen before, and used for their own purposes. I know very little of what happened during my original construction, just that I grew into the shape of what roughly resembled a krawk.

The scientists chose a living being instead of a machine because of the simple idea of evolution. Machines can never really improve themselves, while humans can improve and excel beyond perceived excpectations, and perhaps it's their own power that will destroy them in the end.

When I was fully developed the scientists kept me unconscious while they handcrafted a pair of metal boots to ground the electricity currents in my body, and two steel arm cuffs to limit the flow of electricity to my hands, so I did not create electrical discharges by accident. The blue sapphires on my boots and arm cuffs were excellent places to store unneeded electricity, or "loose electrons".

They installed armor spikes on my tail to act as lightning rods, or weapons if I was ever needed to protect Zeta employees. The cells on the right side of my face were genetically altered to grow into the shape of a blue lightning bolt, or the shape of a Z for Zeta. Lastly, a metal collar was attached to my neck, with a pendant in the shape of Zeta's symbol.

-2-

I turned to survey my krawken form and strange armor. I tried out all my emotions, anger, fear, happiness, surprise, adoration, I heard heard annoying little beeps from somewhere in the room as each one spiked. I felt the exact energy level in the room and the whole building. It was surprisingly low, to my standards, and that made feel comfortable. I guess I liked to be the most charged object in the vicinity.

Scientists of all ranks gathered round for this spectacle, dressed in their formal dark blue uniform, for after all I had been a complete success and they wanted to share the completed product with their company. Many employees were armed with tranquilizers and fire blasters, and my fear level rose, setting the bar on the giant screen in the middle of the room up a notch.

The male sitting in the highest chair noticed this and got up. He walked closer to me and said in an almost calm voice, "Number 007 please relay your fear." I instantly snapped to attention, some coding in my genetic make-up caused me to strive to obey their every will. I couldn't decide if I liked this conformity.

He spoke again, this time I noticed the glint of cold satisfaction in his eyes, and my tail flicked across the floor silently. "Unit 007, you have been created to serve Zeta, protect its employees, and agree to our command. Your purpose is to aid us in our search for the ultimate source of power, which just might be you. You will follow my command! What is your response?

I paused for a long moment as I tried to fight the automatic response already programmed into my head. I would have probably accepted anyway, I didn't really have a choice. I heard my voice for the first time, and it surprised me how emotionless it sounded. "I accept your command, master" was my forced reply.

The soldiers lowered their guns and stepped back. For some reason, everyone was relieved. What did they think I would do? Some of the employees were still staring at me strangely and my enhanced hearing heard something about "eyes". The Master told me to follow him, and as I was lead down to the elevator I glanced into a shiny piece of metal. Two different shades of blue stared back at me. The master coughed and said something muffled that sounded like "oculus mutation." My heart sank as that mention, I wasn't what they had planned apparently. The rising elevator cut off my view of the lab.

-3-

I was used to these sessions; all I had to do was supply energy for whatever appliance or facility needed it. The objects were becoming more energy consuming everyday to test my efficiency, but it never exceeded my abilities. Today it was just some super computer from a rivaling industry, I easily overloaded its circuits and its breakers melted.

007, I don't remember telling you to destroy the material. Do that again and I'll get security out here," Came the master's voice from the viewing room behind me. shivered and the fear bar on the screen went up a little, heat was one of my worst fears, and the security guards always had those flamethrowers, it was one of the easy ways to kill me, for the heat destroyed my internal magnestism and caused a lot of pain. That and mortal injury were two of the only ways to kill me.

Though the manager was rarely present at my tests, usually just interested in the results and not the process. I started to shake off the wires, and I was halfway to the exit dock when the master interrupted again. "Not today 007, please exit to the combat area for military testing."

I froze in fear. Military testing? That didn't sound good. I strode over to the right door this time and entered a very secure looking room. The walls were covered with sheets of steel with thick gashes in them, and burnt parts. What looked like dried blood was splattered in the corner. I was starting to feel insecure, I knew I couldn't fight.

The door behind me locked shut and I stood on the platform in the middle. I heard a loud hum and saw the heat levels of the sourounding area rise through my visor. Electricity was discharged through the spikes on my tail in agitation. Four electrical shockers came out of the wall and fired at me, but I just put my hands up and absorbed every bit of energy.

Various beams and weapons were mechanically used against me by many machines, I was not a fighter and had very little physical strength, so I used my abilities and speed to outwit them. I prevailed against each only by my desire to live. I didn't really destroy any of them, I just used up their power.

Then the soldiers came out. They all started to shoot at me with flame blasts and I was scared for my life. I heard the master's voice come on the intercom. "What are you doing 007! Destroy them! Show me what kind of weapon we humans have the power to create!" I looked at the soldiers and saw the fear in their eyes. Even as stray bullets pierced my arm and leg I could not kill them.

Every cell in my body longed to obey the master, but all the will I possessed fought to never kill a living soul. My conflicting nature was brought on the outside and electric charge gathered around my heart.

I was so involved in my fight that I did not hear the annoying beeps of my emotion spikes on the monitor and the loud voices of the employees. A female voice came on and said worriedly, "Unkown emotion spike rising off the charts. Subject's brainwaves are abnormal." The energy was now gathering in the center of my zeta symbol on my chest. It was glowing a bright white and absorbing the energy of the appliances around it.

The master's voice came on the intercom, which was crackled because the power supply of the building was dying. "007, I command you to obey me, kill them and stop this mad drain of energy." When he saw that I was beyond reasoning, and not even able to listen to him, he issued another order. "All Zeta employees, subject is non-responsive, destroy it before it consumes all the power.

The soldiers fired in vain as the bullets melted in the extreme heat of the absorption, but finally one made its mark. I cried out in pain as the bullet went right through me and into the wall behind my chest. Electrical discharge shot out of my back in the shape of two wing-like structures. The high voltage would have caused a city to lose power. The pain of the wound must have caused my fighting half to slip off into unconsciousness, and my sub-conscience half took over. My whole body began to glow dark blue.

-4-

I rebooted my visor and noticed the coolest path to escape the building. I would be able to walk through fires, but in the heat my powers would not be under my control. The elevator was not working, but the convenient hole I had blasted in the ceiling was an option. A timer had appeared on my visor's screen, one with a timer in which the fire would reach the building's self-destruct machines. That would be disastrous.

I had two minutes to either escape or stop the explosion, and I knew I had to choose the latter because of the other living beings in the place. Plus, the explosion had the power to destroy half a continent. I was exhausted from the drain on my energy from the blast, and the combat training, but I still managed to repel myself from the steel floor and up through the hole in the ceiling. Then I blasted a hole in the next floor and kept repeating this until I found the hottest part of the fire. I had 15 second left as I dove in front of the fire, scorching my skin and causing it to turn a darker grey. By constructing a temporary energy field in front of the fire, I was safe for a time. I tried to disassemble the bomb but I couldn't, as if some part of my genetic coding was not allowed to destroy Zeta property. My left side throbbed whenever I tried to pull out a wire of the machine and I looked down.

What I saw changed my life forever. While the wounds in my legs and arms were bleeding profoundly, my chest wound was not, in fact it didn't possess any blood at all. Inside I realized there was just machine. Zeta Industries machinery must be the source of my automatic obedience. So, they couldn't even create an dutiful life form out of flesh, they still needed their machinery.

I could not remove the machinery because I did not know to what extent I was a cyborg …I just knew that part of me was artificial at the moment. If the bomb was activated, it would destroy my machinery as well, I could not leave this place. I sat staring in silence as the fire died down.

So I stay here, and I protect this forsaken building. I search for one who can remove my machine counterpart, and help me stop the remnants of Zeta Industries from ever destroying this land.