A Little History

Upon hearing of the new recruit, everyone cheered. It was almost always a great thing when someone new joined the team. More fighters meant the work and the fight was potentially divided up better and gave the teams a better chance at survival, especially when fighting against several beasts. The only drawback to a new recruit is that the team doesn't know whether or not they will be a solid member. Because being a fighter was essentially voluntary, a fighter could quit at any time, and during training, you would receive some of the most comprehensive combat simulations you could imagine, but no matter how much training or VR you put yourself through, it was never anything like the real thing, when you knew your life was truly on the line, when you knew the pain you felt would be real, and lasting. Many times, a graduate would quit after only their first beast encounter. Sometimes of course, they also died in combat. That's to be expected though, the more battles you survive, the more experience against these creatures you gain. Which in turn increases your chances of surviving future fights. So it would make sense that the newer the recruit, the more likely they were to have a short "Shelf life". "Only time will tell if he can survive being one of us" Flare thought.

After everyone was done eating, all of the squads members families went back to their individual rooms, leaving the teammates alone to properly introduce themselves their new recruit. This included everyone except for Flares little family. Flare sat there in the chair, holding his little girl as she slept with her head on his chest. Jess asked if he wanted her to take Anja to put her to bed, but Flare declined, it had been a while since he was able to hold Anja like this since she was always so rambunctious and would typically never be held long enough to fall asleep while being held. So Jess sat back and just enjoyed the company.

Seeing everyone out of their combat gear was almost disorienting considering they basically lived in it. Caim was hanging out around the fire, no shirt and bulging muscle as is typical for a strength enhanced fighter. While standing he reached 6'4" and had fair skin with short cropped blonde hair and hazel/green eyes. a short but slightly wide and rounded nose and strong, very prominent cheekbones and jawline. His twin sister Claire was lounging about in short denim overalls with a pink top underneath, one flipflop on the floor with the other dangling from the toes on her right foot. Her long blonde tied up in a cheerleaders pony tail, yet still reaching down to the bottom of her back, standing at 6' even, she had a trim but athletic figure and legs that could kick you from across the room, with similar facial features as her brother, their most striking feature being those hazel/green eyes.

Marek was sitting with exemplary posture, conversing with the new hire Kai. Marek was a mixture of British and Egyptian descent, bearing a deep tan, dark hair nearing black that was relatively long and tied back in a messy ponytail along with almost white blue eyes that offered a stark contrast to his complexion. His eye shape was also very unusual, being similar to a hawks eyes due to his ocular enhancement procedures, after all, range and acuity of vision were integral for archers. Along with that he stood an average 5' 10".

Maria was sitting next to Marcos and obviously eating him alive with her honey brown eyes, Flare couldn't tell if it was funny to watch or if it made him uncomfortable. Either way, Marcos was oblivious. "Poor guy, someone should really tell him, I bet they'd really hit it off together." Flare mused. Looking at Maria again, she didn't dress as "business casual" as Flare typically would see doctors do. she preferred long and baggy overalls as opposed to the "Daisy Duke" style that Claire was currently wearing. She also enjoyed the scally flat cap that she was currently wearing along with her mid chest length twin tail hair style, and working on engines. During our down week we would very typically see her moving in and out of the shop, covered in grease. Even though she enjoyed doing these things, it never took away from her femininity.

Marcos and Flare However stood at an equal height of 6' 2". Being an all rounder means his body hadn't changed too much compared to the speed enhanced or the strength enhanced. He was obviously greatly muscled, but lean and tan skinned. He kept a constant scruff on his face and had dark brown, curly hair and equally dark eyes to match. His son Caim taking after his sharp features.

The new one however is 100% Japanese. Flare sees that he has the definitive lean body type of the speed enhanced, always making them seem almost cat like. His eyes however were pure black, even the whites of his eyes, Flare hadn't seen eyes like that before, making him wonder if its some new ocular enhancement or just something like eyeball tattooing. He made sure to make a mental note to ask him about it at some point.

After several minutes of talking with Marek, Kai sat forward and addressed the rest of the group now that the rest of the non-squad members had gone to bed. "It's nice to meet you all", he said with a quick bow, showing that he was very formal. Everyone else nodded their heads in a similar fashion in acknowledgment. Kai continued "I would like to take a moment to introduce myself and tell you a little about why I joined the beast fighter squads. I hope you don't mind?" Marek reached out his hand in a friendly gesture and simply said 'Please'. Kai gave a slight smile and moved on. "I am 20 years old and have lived my entire life within the borders of Japan. My father was a fighter for my locality and he taught me the way of the sword, Bushido. That is the type of nuketech weapon I will be using whilst fighting alongside you all. During a terrible explosion from a gas leak many people in my town died, we ended up with multiple A-B types and my father was cut down. That was 5 years ago and I have been training intently ever since. I came to the North American territories because I had heard of how advanced they are with their combat and I have heard of the quality of the teams here in the Midwest sector as well which is why I chose to come here. I have hopes of growing with you and some day avenging my father back home." Kai then took his seat and his eyes were full of emotion as he attempted to calm himself after his speech. Not everyone was here for revenge, but for those that were, no one could really blame them either. Where else could they possibly direct their anger or frustration?

From there, everyone took turns digging into their most painful memories, the memories of why we also joined the fight against our new nature. Flare took the first turn. "Well I'll get mine out of the way first since it's the most simple. My mother died in childbirth, she turned and took out most of the hospital staff while I was in the infant room. According to the timelines, my mother was the very first person on Earth to turn because she died only a minute after my birth, which just happened to coincide with the Emerald Flash. My father was in the room as well and didn't survive, together they wiped out person after person and after around a half day the military came in to each hospital to collect supplies and found the room full of infants, including me, miraculously still unharmed. From there, being an orphan, I went into the old foster system and at 14 when they allowed down to 14 year olds to join the ranks of fighters, slayers, squads or whatever you want to call us, I joined. From there, I fought to where I am now and that about ties it up in a neat little bow." Several of the members looked at Flare with a renewed interest, this was a piece of information even they didn't have, even in spite of having been on the same team with him for several years.

Marek then took his turn and went on to state how his mother had protected him from a beast when he was 13. Her distracting of the beast gave him just enough time to sneak away and run to the squad that was already on their way. His father had been under an extreme amount of stress at work that led to a severe brain aneurysm and his immediate death which resulted in his turning. Effectively orphaning him at a young age. This kind of occurrence was painfully commonplace, especially in the earlier years before the world governments instituted the regular and comprehensive physical exams everyone goes through now, typically 4 times a year so that anything that could have the chance to crop up will be caught early. Human life expectancy, outside of accidents and beast attacks, grew dramatically after that. Even the rates of depression dropped which was surprising considering what was happening in the world. Suicide is a bad subject, because as much as people wanted to help and save those who were hurting, they knew that they had to let them do it, because at least then they could end their lives in a controlled environment without risking any others lives. It was the only acceptable tradeoff anyone could think of, because those who absolutely plan to end things, will, and then they will end up taking others with them.

For Marcos, Claire and Caim, their answer was all the same. It was one hundred percent for revenge, though for Claire and Caim they did genuinely want to protect others too, from suffering the same hurt they experienced when their mother was taken from them. Marcos interrupted for a moment, intentionally derailing the conversation to avoid divulging his families reasons, "Kai, have you ever seen an A-B type yourself? Or do you only know of the ones involved in your fathers death by word of mouth?" Kai was quiet for a second before responding. "I think I've seen one before. They look like a disgusting patchwork or beast parts yes?" Marcos only nodded, but then continued. "Do not ever engage one alone. Do not ever engage one with just one team. Because even with two full and experienced teams, based on our current track record there WILL be at least one death among you, we can't afford to lose any of you, and neither can your loved ones". This caused Kai to ask a surprising question, "I'm curious... what happens with enhanced humans when they die? Do they just turn into a normal beast or is anything different about them?"

Everyone around the fire went silent, Claire and Caim both had their mouths hanging slightly open in disbelief. Flares first thought was 'No... he can't be serious?" Flare then led the conversation by asking "You've gone through the official training right?" Kai merely responded by showing the badge on his waist associated with graduated fighters. Flare then continued "Okay so that means you learned all the same stuff as any of us, along with more since training has become more comprehensive and we have developed new techniques since our own training... so how on Earth could you not know such a critical component of your training? A subject matter that your entire service hinges on?" Kai looked around, feeling very confused and uncertain... The conversation had taken a very serious turn and the rest of his new squad looked almost angry, what he didn't realize immediately was that it wasn't directed toward him, the anger was just their own inner feelings at a painful reality. Kai continued by adding "I was a very diligent student, I never skipped class or slacked off and I'm certain I would have remembered such an important topic."

The anger in Flares eyes turned to rage, he stood up and walked into the building for a moment and grabbed a scanning device for personal self checkups. Setting it to xray he brought it back out and scanned Kais body. Everyone there knew exactly what Flare was doing, and they were all waiting with held breath, aside from the crackling fire and the electronic whirring of the scanner you could head nothing. Until finally the scanner beeped and projected a hologram above it. "There... right there it is." Flare pointed directly to where Kais abdomen was in the scan. Everyone let out an obvious sigh of relief when they saw it safe and sound, nestled deep in Kais abdomen.

Kai looked at the hologram in horror, and disbelief, feeling his own abdomen with his fingers while not taking his eyes off of the image. "What is inside of me?" Flare answers with "That is the worlds insurance policy AGAINST us. THAT is what happens when an enhanced human dies. they still become a beast, but they become something far removed from dreams or nightmares. The only thing we have that ever stopped one of those monsters with was a Tsar Bomba sized nuclear warhead because its exoskin is too strong even for our current weapons. We had to blast it into nothingness. So immediately during our enhancement, an explosive package known as a tactical nuke is placed into our abdomen for safe keeping. It is tied directly to our bioelectric signal and our heartbeat. Once it stops, we have about 10 seconds of reformation before we are a fully formed beast, at 12 seconds.... Boom. To make sure we never gain enough strength to threaten the rest of world. This is the reality for all of us... and you mean to tell me... that you weren't told of this...?" Flare looked to be in pain while finishing that sentence, but inside he felt a hatred that he was unfamiliar with. "Marcos!" Flare yelled, "We have some questions to ask Central." Just then an alarm blared for the compound. Across Marco's watch he received an alert. "Looks like that'll have to wait for another time Flare, but I'm right there with you, SUIT UP!" Marcos yelled. "We have a 5 beast incident to deal with."