Welcome... Host! 1

For this man, years seemed to have passed. Before he found his life boring, tiring, and unsatisfying. But now, he knew that his life was a paradise compared to what he had experienced in the last few weeks. The last normal memory he remembers was coming home and not seeing his family, and he decided to go to sleep, and when he woke up, there were hooks driven into his hand, holding his dying body. His wife was being tortured in front of him, her skin had been completely torn off, and he could still vividly remember his wife's cries of despair and pain, begging for death.

His wife was tortured for several more days and then used as a morbid and sinister human sculpture, displayed for sick and twisted people who shared the same pleasures as the one who kidnapped him. But as incredible as it may sound, that was not the worst part. After all these horrors, he does not know what end his wife met, but he knows that she would be better off dead than in this terrible and cruel world.

After all this, he was tortured, every day. The torturer just said something like, "The cries for help and cries for help are the symphony of the soul." He lost first his fingers, then his hands, and after that his skin was torn off and his organs were switched around in a surgery in which he had no anesthesia. They cut out his eyes, his tongue, his lips, and his genitals.

It was then that everything got worse. Although he could not see or move, he had to listen to his children go through the same torture he was going through. He had no right to scream, for even his vocal cords were torn from him. His agony had no limits, and even his mind would not allow him to lose his sanity or wish for death. Despite all he had lived through, he still wanted to live, he wanted to see the sunlight again, he wanted to feel the air on his face, he wanted to be able to speak, scream, or cry.

One day, his battered and almost energy-depleted body was abruptly carried somewhere else. Although he was still treated like a piece of trash in the new place, at least he could eat every day, and get a good night's sleep without fearing for his life. The man lived quiet days, but now he could no longer remember who he was.

'What is my name?'

'Did I have a wife?'

'What are the names of my children? What were their appearances like?'

Why am I here?

Questions like these kept popping into his mind, and he wouldn't know how to answer them. Worse than not knowing something, is knowing that you have forgotten it. And even worse for this man was not knowing what he forgot.

One day, the man woke up, and as if by miracle, he could see once again. He looked at the place where he was, and everything was pure white. His bed, the walls, the ceiling, the lights on the walls, he couldn't see a single speck of dirt, everything was immaculately white. He looked at his arms, or what was left of them, and was surprised that his hands that had been ripped from him, were now mechanical implants, they had a silvery glow, and with a thought, the gears began to turn and a blade emerged from the top of his hand. The man was momentarily startled but soon laughed, happy that he now had a way to defend himself. If he had had this before, he would never have had to suffer that inhuman torture for who knows how long!

With awkward steps, the man got to his feet. He didn't know how to control his legs, but from what he remembered, it was similar to controlling the legs he was born with. The only difference was that these legs had surprising strength. In his effort to take a step forward, he ended up launching himself several meters forward in a single step.

The man punched the air once and felt a stabbing in his shoulder. It was then that he noticed that although he had new limbs, his tendons, muscles, and blood vessels were the same as before. What is the use of having great strength if your body cannot support it? But he would not despair now, baby steps.

He kept training and trying to adapt to his new limbs and functions that he knew little about. When his body was completely exhausted and he was covered in sweat and on the verge of collapse from hunger, he allowed himself to fall to the ground and take a breath of air.

"Haaa, haaa... the possibilities with this new body are almost limitless! Is there anything I can't do? Hahaha!"

Despite the fatigue and pain, he never felt so amazing before! As he thought about the limitless possibilities of his future, a little door opened in the corner of the room, on the opposite side of the bed. From the hatch, a plate of food and a glass with a grayish liquid.

In normal times, he might have doubted the food, the liquid, or whatever. But after being locked up for so long and under constant torture, one of the only pleasures in life was eating, he would not spoil this moment by wondering what the food was about.

-----

Days passed, and the man couldn't tell how many really, he couldn't see the sun or the moons from here, he would never know. Sometimes he felt he had slept much longer than he seemed to, his body was sore, and he felt his mind was different, but with no one to ask about it, he had no way of knowing what had happened.

After some time completely alone, this began to affect the man's mind. He began to talk to himself more out loud, and after a while he began to freak out, trying to break through the lifeless white walls that always surrounded him, causing his arms and legs to become damaged.

After a few days of waking up mad, perhaps because of something in his food, whenever the man woke up and ate, his mind became foggy and he understood little of what had happened the day before. What he did notice, however, was that whenever he damaged his new limbs, the next day they would be completely new, which made him notice that someone cared for him or wanted something from him and so they took care of his limbs.

Some more time passed, and the man went into a catatonic state. It was a surprise that he had endured so long with a partially sane mind. The man, who could no longer even remember his name, just exercised his body, as a ritual that could not be missed, and spent the rest of the day staring at the walls.

Sliiip

"Test subject 05465412, get up!" A voice came up as the man slept.

He thought it was just another one of his hallucinations, and completely ignored that voice.

But then an electric current coursed through his entire body, causing the man to shiver. He widened his eyes as his body went numb, and got into an attack position. His black eyes shone like headlights on a dark night, radiating red light. In the man's vision, two people were standing there, wearing strange clothes, like doctors'. But this was not the strangest fact, no, there was something else. Above the heads of these people, there was the name [UNKNOWN] and he could see a shower of information next to the bodies of both of them.

'So my eyes have the ability to quantify the power of those I consider enemies... this is going to be interesting, to say the least!'

"Who are you?!" The man asked.

"For the record: leaving test subjects isolated from any human contact for an extended period is detrimental to resocialization." One of the doctors spoke, and the chip on the side of his head, near his temple, flashed in blue light, signaling that the data was saved.

"Test subject 05465412 put your hands back very slowly, lower your head, and don't move until we order you." The other man in a white lab coat said.

"My name is not a test subject!" The man replied.

And as if by calling of his wrath, his arms displayed sharp blades at his elbows and his silver nails grew into claws. Blades appeared on his heel, and his toes became animalistic claws. His eyes shone brighter, like lanterns on a moonless night.

In his vision, he could see shapes of the entire room, but no information could be gleaned, for there was some form of blockage, perhaps some equipment, the man did not know.

"Hm? And what is your name?" The man in the white lab coat spoke with disgust.

The other doctor frowned, and on the object he held in his hands, resembling a tablet completely made of glass, he hit the alert button. No loud sounds or people were running everywhere, but in less than 10 seconds, the outside of test subject 05465412's room had at least two squads consisting of 50 people, all heavily armed, and waiting for a small signal, for them to enter the room.

Noticing this anomaly thanks to his new eyes, the man then decided to pretend to be mistaken. It was a relatively simple thing, after all, he really couldn't remember his name. He does remember having had a wife, maybe children, and that he was kidnapped from his home, but that is all.

"My name is...what's my name?" Although it was all an act, he really expected them to say his name.

Who, being a conscious creature, would wish to live without a name? A name is your identity, what differentiates you from the person next to you. Man A may be the same in appearance as Man B, but because their names are Matthew and Luke, people will always remember that although they are the same in appearance, they are two completely different people.

Both doctors were clearly more relieved but quickly pulled themselves together. They forcibly took the man into another room, and a battery of tests were done. After this, he was taken into a large, completely white room. There were other people in hospital clothes, like the ones he himself was wearing, so he quickly understood that they were guinea pigs just like him.

Among them, a young boy, maybe 25 years old, became very close to the man. The boy still remembered his name, Pluto, after an old tale about a hero of the giants, who single-handedly fought an entire army, only to have his wife and children flee. Years later, his sons and wives gathered a large army and killed every surviving soldier of that army, and Pluto's family offered the blood and soul of those people as a toll for Pluto to have a good reincarnation.

The two talked about many subjects, and among many subjects, the man touched on the subject of how they got here and how they could get out. Pluto told the man that this place is a government research and development center. The purpose of the research in this place is to build a super soldier, or rather, to build an army of super soldiers, to defeat the androids, and eliminate the threat they pose.

"How come I've never heard of that? I mean, it's normal for the government not to talk about something like this, it's top secret, after all. But nobody knows anything about it? And is it really necessary to torture the guinea pigs first?" The man asked.

"You were tortured? That explains how much scarring you have, and those cybernetic limbs... but not everyone goes through that." Pluto said.

Pluto then explained that although it was a government research center, the methods they got guinea pigs were all illegal and unorthodox Pluto, for example, was sold out by his older brother. His family had a huge debt to a surname family, and in an attempt to pay off this debt, Pluto was sold. Because Pluto was sold, he no longer has freedom, he no longer owns himself.

Knowing this fact, the man did not know whether it was more revolting to be enslaved and tortured, or betrayed and sold like an object. The man swore to himself that even though he couldn't remember who enslaved him, he would still find him and kill him, no matter what.

Because of his thoughts, the man's arms almost went into combat mode, but the man was quick and calmed his mind. At the first sign of the man's out of control, the test subjects' cafeteria filled with guards dressed in black, armed from head to toe, with shields that protected against plasma and laser weapons, with weapons with cutting edge lasers, a single shot would take a poor soul to eternal oblivion.

Trying to change the subject and make things less tense, Pluto decided to change the subject.

"We've known each other for a while, but you never told me your name." Pluto said as he looked cautiously at the guards in the corners of the dining hall.

"I can't remember my name." The man replied.

Pluto then changed to a depressed expression hearing this, he was not the only one to forget about himself. In search of the perfect soldier, the people in this research center took drugs and performed surgeries on their brains every month, so that they would forget about everything, and just be killing machines.

Pluto found these means deplorable, but he understood that Amerid's government felt threatened by the androids, but that didn't mean he agreed with their means. Although most of the guinea pigs were immigrants, there were still Ameridian citizens, and no human should have to go through this.

Suddenly, a man in an army uniform entered the cafeteria. He was clearly a giant, standing over 13.1 feet (3.99 m) tall, and as if in response to the stereotype that every giant has a body with impressive muscles, this giant seemed to have 3 more layers of muscle than ordinary humans.

"WARNING!" He shouted.

Pluto and the man felt their organs trembling and their ears ringing with that shout. It seemed that the giant had an iron throat, his voice alone being a critical attack.

"Starting tomorrow, all guinea pigs will participate in combat classes! At the end of each month, there will be a practice fight between all guinea pigs! The winning guinea pig will have the right to leave the facility for one day! So work hard you miserable worms, if you wish to see the sunlight once again!"

This was the opportunity that the man had been waiting for a long time. He didn't know how long it had been since he was kidnapped, but a few years had passed for sure. The war against the androids was over, and he could see his reflection, he had aged. He would not be a tool of the government, no, he would be more than that!

"I will be known as a god that I deserve to be. From that day forward, everyone will call me the god of vengeance! My name will be Catlicam, god of all existence!' The man... Catlicam muttered to himself.

All the nearby guinea pigs were busy talking about this news and did not hear Catlicam's self-proclamation. But Pluto, who paid no attention to the news, did. He didn't know if his friend had gone crazy, or if he had always been crazy. Countless thoughts crossed Pluto's mind, but he didn't voice any of them.

Catlicam had decided his path. Was he a madman who does not know the meaning of life? A visionary, able to do what he promised? Or will he forget it all in the next brainwashing? Only time will tell.