Now I am become Death

September, 21st

"She's what?"

The man sitting at the wooden desk was positively growling with anger. He stood up, his large bulk making the man in a white lab coat sitting across the desk look like a little, scared, boy.

"D... dead, sir," he replied, stopping for a moment, waiting for a scowl that didn't come. "Well, not technically dead, but she suffered extreme brain damage. The cortex is completely gone, along with most of the deep forebrain. There's some function left in the brain stem, but that's all."

The other man grimaced, making his already large jaw stand out even more.

"And I assume her cybernetics can't just take over."

"They can make her follow commands, even execute complex motor tasks, but they can't replace a human brain in terms of flexibility and tactical thinking. Certainly, they can't make her fight. She'd be nothing but a puppet, a terrible drop from the highly trained agent she used to be. I am afraid," he added, "the Omega Project is at an end."

The large man suddenly slammed his fist on the desk.

"The project isn't finished until I say so! I didn't spend billions to create a perfect, living weapon only to give it up like this!"

"But... Sir! She's dead! Her brain isn't working, it's broken, kaput!"

"Then, Doctor Chester, find me spare parts!"

~o~O~o~

Eight months later

There was a time when my name was Jason Caldwell. When I was a regular college boy. When I was human.

Then they took me. They stripped me of my identity, my gender, my humanity. They made me hunt and kill for them. Man, woman, teenager - it didn't matter; as long as they were metas, they weren't people. They were threats. They were targets.

I should have felt horrified, disgusted, even desperate. I would, if I still were human.

But nothing of that mattered anymore. It was all left behind. Because I had become the End, Death Incarnate.

"This is Command to Omega, report."

The voice of Brannon, my comms operator, echoed in my head, directly transformed from radio waves to thoughts by my internal communication system. I stared down from the edge of the rooftop I currently laid on, my targeting software highlighting a figure standing in front of the small warehouse below.

"Only one target in sight, the adult. He's watching the door. The others are likely sleeping," I replied, without the need to speak a word.

"You're clear to engage, Omega. Remember that the adult has enhanced strength and reflexes."

"Copy. I'm taking him out first with the sniper rifle."

I opened the large satchel I'd brought and took out the weapon, assembling the silencer and stock, then I suddenly realized I had no clue on how to use the rifle when my ranged combat software suddenly stopped working.

"I'm getting strange logs, Omega. Everything OK?"

"The ranged combat software just crashed. Rebooting it now."

"I'm sending a patch through. Hold on."

My Operating System signaled me the incoming update in familiar orange letters, glowing on the left side of my field of vision. Directly interfaced to my visual cortex.

UPDATE IN PROGRESS... STAND BY.

I watched a progress bar quickly fill up, while keeping watch on my target. He had no clue I was here.

UPDATE CORRECTLY INSTALLED.

"Done. My systems look stable again," I thought back to base, as I took aim at the man's head.

BLAM The target collapsed on the ground. Swift and clean.

"The sentry is down. I'm going in."

"Good. Just to be sure, stick to close combat."

"Copy."

I dropped the rifle - someone from the cleanup team would take care of that - and jumped down the edge of the rooftop. Activating my flight systems, I slowed down and landed without a sound on the pavement below. I crossed the few feet dividing me from the door in a fluid, quick pace, picking up the dead body of the sentry as easily as I'd lift a rucksack. I dropped it just out of sight from the street, and then concentrated on my next targets.

I knew a group of people was hiding out in the main storage area of the warehouse. Some of them were metas; they were my primary targets. Everyone else had to be taken down too, though; we couldn't afford to deal with witnesses.

I silently slipped into the large space. My targeting software quickly identified three heat signatures in the room. Two of them were sleeping, apparently, but one was standing and was busy waking up the others.

If I could still feel emotions, I'd be annoyed at this development. I wasn't; I just calculated the best course of action and sprung into business. The target who'd been awake first, obviously a meta with some kind of improved senses, knew I was there and turned around to face me. It didn't do him any good. In a moment, I was on him, running a scan of his biometrical data, along with some random stuff such as his cell phone number. An energy blade emerged from my right wrist and precisely buried itself in his throat, leaving him dead on the floor.

While I moved on to the next one, I registered they were kids. All of them - none older than twenty, probably.
Again, it didn't matter to me; my orders were clear.

The second kid, a scrawny boy with brown hair, threw himself at me with a scream of rage. Again, my blade flashed and he went down.

"Adrian! Die you bitch!" screamed a girl on my right. She was one of the youngest in the group, sixteen or seventeen. I turned to face her, and a burst of electricity shot out of her extended arms, hitting me squarely in the chest.

I actually felt that. My core systems were insulated against electrical overload, but that didn't do much good for exposed flesh. Not that I actually cared for pain.

I merely adapted to the new threat, a shimmering energy field expanding from my left forearm into a square that looked like a large riot shield. The girl fired another burst, but the shield caught it and the energy dissipated into nothingness.
She was frightened now. I could see it in her eyes.

"Who... What are you?" she muttered, taking a step back.

I didn't answer. I just kept walking, some leftover of my human brain taking note that I must have looked just like a killer robot out of Terminator; and she was my Sarah Connor.

I let the shield disappear and my left arm shot forward, grabbing the girl by the neck, staring at her face and running a scan of her too.
Just then, the girl discharged again. Once more, my insulation flared to life, and suddenly something was wrong.

WARNING. INSULATION SYSTEM FAILURE DETECTED.

I let her go just in time to save my CPU from frying, and shot a punch at her face, missing completely! My field of vision was now a constant flash of orange, messages running at alarming speed through my sight.

WARNING. CLOSE COMBAT SOFTWARE MALFUNCTIONING. RANGED COMBAT SOFTWARE MALFUNCTIONING.
MULTIPLE SYSTEM FAILURE. SHIFTING TO CORE FUNCTION MODE.

The girl realized something was wrong and started to run away, panting and sweating.

"Command, I'm damaged. Multiple system failure. All combat software is crashing."

"I'm seeing that, Omega. Disengage and return to base. Abort mission!"

"Copy that, Command. Engaging emergency teleportation device."

"Omega... Wait!"

He never got to end his sentence, as I felt the tingling on my skin signaling my teleportation device coming online.
I emerged in the tech bay, back at the base. It was my default emergency teleport point.

WARNING. CORE DATABANKS DAMAGE DETECTED. EMPATHIC INHIBITOR DAMAGE DETECTED. LOYALTY PROTOCOL SOFTWARE MALFUNCTIONING. DISENGAGING OBEDIENCE PROTOCOL. TRANSFERRING CONTROL TO LOCAL USER.

Suddenly, I let out an ear-piercing yell.

Now I am Become Death - 2

Thanks to everyone who commented on my first installment of this story. The spped with which kudos flew up was amazing. I hope I'm going to keep up with your expectations with the coming parts.

~o~O~o~

The full extent of what I'd just done came crashing down like a hammer. I wasn't supposed to feel emotions... I though I couldn't even feel them anymore!
I collapsed on the floor of the tech bay, trembling. I was a monster. A murderer... Those poor kids...

"Omega? Are you OK?"

I tried climbing back on my feet, and a moment later I felt an arm encircling my back, helping me stand up again.

"Darn, girl, you're heavy," Brannon's face, with his light blonde hair and round glasses, was staring at my eyes, "Just hang on, we'll plug you into the mainframe and reboot the system in a moment."

Reboot? That's right. They were going to repair me. Reactivate the control protocols, and make me kill again. I was going back to being their slave.

"No. I'm not doing that again!" I grabbed him and just pinned him to the wall with all I had.

"O...Omega?"

"My name is not Omega!"

I threw him aside like a rag doll, then ran past the other technician in the room, a short woman called Francine that was staring at me in total disarray.

Letters flashed up in my head again when I checked my systems.
COMBAT SOFTWARE REBOOT COMPLETE

I smirked, realizing I was ready to fight again... and I was still in control!
I slammed open the door and all the alarms in the base went off.

"ALL SECURITY PERSONNEL, SUBJECT OMEGA IS DAMAGED AND OUT OF CONTROL. INCAPACITATE HER!"

That was Dr. Chester, the project's Scientific Director. The man who created Omega. He was the one who turned a woman into a monster, and when she died plugged my brain in her body like a spare battery in a toy.

"Fuck you, Chester. I'm not your puppet anymore!" I yelled, and kept running down a hallway for the base exit. When I came up to the closest security checkpoint, I found five security guards barring my way. They were fully geared for combat, stun batons and tasers in hands. I stopped and looked them over.

"Omega, stand down. You're not yourself," the leader, a tall man in combat fatigues, couldn't hide the fear in his voice. He knew they couldn't stop me.

"Sorry, but I'm more myself than I've been in months."

"You asked for it." another guard hit a security panel on the wall, and a blast door started closing down behind them, as they sprang forward to attack.

I ran straight for the door, spinning in a mad cartwheel to avoid the first opponent, then hitting another with my elbow, knocking him down.
Tumbling gracefully through the door, I resumed my mad run.

I dashed down a hallway, past a row of office doors, and as soon as I turned the next corner I was met with more guards, these ones possessing lethal weapons. I barely managed to roll back to where I came from before being turned into a pin cushion, but now I was trapped.

I couldn't go back, the blast door had completely closed behind me, and even if it hadn't, there were still guards there. Think, Jason, you can't let them stop you now!
If I remembered the plans correctly, we were on the fourth floor of a building and the offices I'd just passed had windows. I slammed open one of the office doors, and jumped out of the window and in the sky. Yes!

I activated my flight systems and sped up and as far as I could from my hellish prison.

~o~O~o~

I set down in the park on the outskirts of the city. I really, really needed a place to collect my thoughts and the woods, being vast and scarcely visited, seemed like a good enough idea.

I spent the rest of the night hiding under a tree, sobbing, crying and punching away all the pain, anger, and shame for what I now was, what I'd lost, and what I'd done. Finally, sleep came and when I woke up, the sun had risen.

I still felt like crap. I stood up and stretched my limbs while reading the morning status report from my OS. I was free, and still some habits died hard. Some stuff was still not working, including the Empathic Inhibitor, which prevented me from feeling emotions, and the obedience protocols. I fully intended to leave them like that.

OK, Jason, time to take stock of the situation. You're finally free from the obedience protocols' freakish mind control, but you're still trapped in the body of a female combat cyborg. If you don't keep running they're going to find you, and then they'll either kill you or brainwash you again.
I pushed the thought aside for now.

There was something I had to do before going into hiding, or I'd never forgive myself. The girl from the night before: I had killed everyone she cared for, but she managed to run away. I'd scanned her mobile, meaning Command would be able to pinpoint her position... I had to find her, protect her, and make sure she got away safely. Luckily though, I could track her phone just like Command could. It wasn't far from where I was.

I quickly and silently started running, still amazed at what I could do in this body. At least, now I could do something good with it. I took in the sounds of the woods and managed to crack a smile. When my obedience protocols were running, I would have never noticed something like that; I was just a weapon, a machine programmed to focus on the mission and nothing else. There was no reason for me to keep track of the flutter of wings in the tree canopies, or the cautious steps of a squirrel in the undergrowth, besides the tactical advantages of knowing something had scared off the animals. Everything my senses picked up was processed, dissected and coldly catalogued, leaving only what was important to the immediate moment. Too bad that was also what made me feel human.

My running brought me to a pond. It was beautiful, but as much as I would have liked to, I really didn't have the time to stop and enjoy the place. As I was about to start running again, I caught my image in the still water and I stopped.

As with everything else, in the months I'd spent as Omega I had never stopped to aknowledge my reflexion. It was of no consequence for my mission, and thus overlooked.

I stared in a mix of fascination and disgust at the... thing... in the water. On one side, she... I... looked good, even beautiful. The constant training and fighting had given me an athletic shape, but that did nothing to ruin my body's beauty. On the contrary, it enhanced it. Even with my fairly sizeable breasts I had the physique of a gymnast, or a martial artist.
Also, I had exotic looks. The body I had inherited wasn't Caucasian; guessing from the skin tone, and my long black hair - how could I fight with hair that long? - I had to be Indian.
In short, I was the kind of beauty I'd have fallen over myself to ask out, which was by itself very disturbing.

As freakish as that was, though, it wasn't the worst of it.
The critical areas of my body, except for my head, were covered in matt white 'armor'... except it was actually my skin. My wrists, forearms, chest - they bristled with hidden weapons systems. Machineguns, energy blades, mini-rockets, electric rods and even an energy cannon that could take out a tank.
Then came the flying systems, the teleportation device and all the integrated computers. All of that looked like it came straight out of a sci-fi book. None of this stuff should be even possible given the known rules of physics... Where did I take all the energy to power up these things? No, whatever I was, I sure wasn't human anymore.

Moving on, I finally managed to close in on the area the girl's phone was in. Apparently, we had the same thought and she tried hiding out in the park as well. I started to look for her, trying to be as quiet as possible.
Then, gunfire started. I quickly turned and started running in the direction the shots came from, and as I closed in the shots became more frequent. I heard footsteps coming, and I stopped just in time for the girl to fall right out of the undergrowth and bump into me.

She was a mess. Her clothes, the same jeans and hoodie she was wearing the day before, were torn and muddy and she had deep, dark circles around her eyes. Her dark hair was dishevelled. I'll never forget the look of absolute, hopeless terror she gave me when she saw me there.

She raised her arms, undoubtly about to shoot me with her electric shock again, when five armed men emerged from the woods behind her and opened fire on us. I activated my energy shield and dived on the girl, dragging her down on the ground with me.
She let out a yelp and released a burst of static. I winced at the pain, but my insulation held; I rolled to the side and kneeled behind the protection of my shield, while tagging the shooters with my targeting software.

A moment later, the machinegun in my right wrist roared to life and all the men went down with a long burst.
I finally let the shield disappear, and stood up again, turning to face the girl. She was a pitiful thing, scampering and struggling in the mud.

"Please... Please don't... Don't kill me!"

With a clack, my gun retreated into my wrist too.

"Believe me or not, I'm not here to kill you. But they," I pointed at the armed goons on the ground, "are, and they're not going to stop. In fact they want to capture or kill me too."

"You lie... you killed Adrian... and the others..."

I sighed, and suddenly I couldn't bear looking straight at her anymore. I turned to the people I'd just fought and started taking note of who they were. Definitely from the base, I'd seen them there before.

"Yes, I did, but I wasn't myself back then," I replied sadly, "listen, I promise you I'll tell you everything once we're safe, but we need to go. If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead, trust me."

She gave me a dubious stare, and glared at the man I was busy scanning.

"They're not dead. I used electric darts, they're basically miniature tasers. Trust me, I'm done with the killing."

She finally managed to stand up again.
"You say 'trust me' an afwul lot for someone who's trying to say she's on my side. And you killed my friends, how do you expect that I just came with you? Do you at least have a name?"

I just stared down. She was right. Who was I to try and help her now, what right did I have to try and make things right? It was a miracle she didn't fry my butt there and now. I found my eyes getting wet again.

"OK, you're right. I guess I was a fool, expecting you to give me a chance after what happened tonight... And yes, I have a name," I sighed.
I couldn't really tell her my name was Jason, could I? And I'd be damned before being called Omega again. There was still the third name... it felt sad to use it, since it was hers. The name of the woman who gave Omega her body. But I didn't have many choices, and it made sense. At least, she wouldn't be forgotten.

"Call me Karima."

I felt her gaze piercing me, and I stayed silent for a moment. I was about to turn around and leave, when she spoke.

"More of them will come, right?"

I nodded.

"They're fanatics. They're going to hunt you, and every other meta they can find, until all your kind is dead."

She finally sighed.

"OK, Karima. I guess you make sense... somehow. Just... let's go, before I regret this. And my name... It's Kim, but people call me Tesla."

I felt a weight lift off my chest, and immediately smiled.
Too bad I didn't notice that the guy behind me was crawling to his knees again.
I felt a jolt of absolute pain hit me as the man's overcharged taser shot me in the back. I spinned around and kicked him, hitting him in the face, all of my vision flashing orange.

WARNING. MULTIPLE SYSTEM DAMAGE DETECTED. OPERATING SYSTEM UNSTABLE. CANNOT SUSTAIN COMBAT MODE.
COMBAT MODE SHUTTING DOWN. PLEASE CONTACT A SYSTEM TECHNICIAN FOR IMMEDIATE REPAIRS.

I felt a wave of dizzines run over me, and an uncomfortable feeling of pulling on my skin. When I regained my senses, I registered the feeling of the breeze on my body. I was naked, every trace of my cybernetic implants had vanished.

Tesla was staring at me in disbelief. "Ka... Karima? What's going on?"

The truth was I didn't have a clue.

"Just... Let's go."