Chapter 2: Repeating Factor
Dr. Noitpeced laid out his plan.
"Create a new device...A weapon...Using both Magical and Technological components..."
He quickly presented this idea to Dr. Aeon, who almost imediatly accepted.
"I'll need mages...Any kind will do. Professionals are prefered of course."
So Dr. Aeon pulled some strings within Arachnos, and through negotiations, soon had mages from the Circle of Thorns helping him.
"So you say that your spells would bind best with a gas?" Asked Noitpeced.
"Yes...The less matter in an object, the less time the spell takes, and the more intact it will be." Said one of the Madness mages.
So Dr. Noitpeced decided the weapon should be biological. A germ, perhaps.
Over the next few weeks, the Mages successfully bound their spells with a virus. The problem was that the virus soon died, and lacked the instincts of normal viruses. So the doctor needed to give the virus a mind.
That part was easy. Fortunata Mistresses often gaurded Aeon's labs, so it was simple to have a few of them assigned to the project. Using their psychic abilities, they were able to enhance the virus to a point where it was sentient and intelligent.
It was still not enough. The virus was smart. It was deadly. But it lacked drive.
"The problem is that our spells concentrate mostly on the mind..." Said a Madness mage, tapping his temple.
"There are very few diseases which directly interact with how the brain works."
So Dr. Noitpeced got Dr. Aeon to empty the asylums, and scour the island for people who were mad and insane.
"Now we just need to study their minds, and figure out how to manipulate it with the virus..."
At first Noitpeced tried to have the virus move the matter in one part of a brain to another part, but this killed the patient rather then manipulating the way he thought. Then he tried getting the virus to alter the electrical pulses in the brain to force it to see random or set images. However, this was only met with moderate success. The patients affected this way had Nightmares, but otherwise were fine. The others literally exploded due to over pressure in their heads.
Finally, Dr. Noitpeced had the mages and his asistants examine the minds of some of the captured mad men.
"They have nothing in common in their heads. Normal strains of thought which have been thrown out of alignment by their madness. They see the world differantly, so there is never a pattern in one mind that follows the pattern in another."
The assistant delievering the report paused.
"Save for one strain...It appears that in the strain for fear, everything is still out of alignment, just like everything else. However, there is always one small portion, which is always the same, in every mind, mad or not. We may be able to exploit this repeating factor."
To be continued.
Chapter 3: The Inherit Fear in Man
Dr. Noitpeced studied this strain for a good two years. No matter whos' mind they examined, one portion of the fear strain was always exactly the same.
"A single notion in the mind. A single thing that all of mankind inheritly fears." Muttered the doctor.
An infinite amount of time was spent replicating this one strain, introducing it into the magical and technological fussion, binding it into the virus, and getting the virus to use the strain in the right way. Finally, the day for the virus's first test arrived.
Dr. Aeon and Dr. Noitpeced stood behind a wall of fiberglass. On the otherside, in a plain white room, was some random bum they had picked off the streets. He had whined and complained, but had quited down after a while.
"Release the virus." Dr. Aeon said.
Dr. Noitpeced pressed a button, and a sudden hiss announced the arrival of the virus in the room beyond.
The man looked around in confusion.
Then he scream.
He gibbered and started to foam at the mouth, he tore his own hair out, and ran into a corner, where he curled up into a ball. He howled and cried and shook.
There was nothing else in the room except for him.
"Tell the virus to kill him." Dr. Aeon commanded.
Dr. Noitpeced pressed another button.
Suddenly, the man seemed to be dragged out of the corner. His legs were being levitated into thin air.
Dr. Aeon frowned.
"I'm fairly sure the virus can't interact with the enviroment..." He said.
"Ah, but that is the genius of it! You are right. It can't. It has just shown this person the inherit fear of mankind. In this man's mind, the fear is dragging him out of the corner. He so firmly beleives it is there, that reality, and his body, will make it happen." Said Dr. Noitpeced in a smug voice.
"Remarkable." Muttered Dr. Aeon.
Then, the man, levitated in the air, was ripped in half.
"Now we shall do the exact same test. Only we shall tell the person in the test that he will be assaulted by an illusion." Dr. Noitpeced said.
Dr. Aeon frowned again. "Wouldn't that mean the illusion wouldn't be able to do anything to him?"
Noitpeced just smiled. "Watch, Dr. Aeon, and be amazed.
The next person appeared in the room. The virus was released again.
Suddenly, the man in the room started laughing.
"You're just an illusion! You can't hurt me!"
Then the man's head was ripped off. Something then bit off a chunk of it.
"Enlighten me." Dr. Aeon said in a stunned fassion.
"The illusion is so powerful that it still effects the body and reality, even if the subject knows it is an illusion. THAT is how powerful it is. Also, we can command it to only infect certain select people. So if we released the virus into a crowd, only one person would see the illusion. It also works vice versa." Dr. Noitpeced said. He was beaming with joy.
Then he accidentally slipped. His hand accidentally hit a button...
To be continued.
Chapter Four: The Psycho Fear
Dr. Aeon, predicting the worst, imediatly teleported to safety.
Dr. Noitpeced got back up, and looked back in the room.
He saw the THING standing in the room.
"I've just infected myself with my own virus!" He thought.
He didn't panic. He knew it was an illusion. He also knew that wouldn't save him.
"Do you think I am some toy for you and your underlings to play with?" Said a voice, which sounded like a hiss.
"I am much, much, more then that...I am no longer just some biological weapon on a shelf waiting to be used...I am now a force! I am an entity! A being! I will no longer be classified as a mere virus!" The air shook and wavered about the inherit fear of mankind.
"I." The air around the thing glowed with energy.
"AM." The shadows in the room appeared to be fluttering...
"THE PSYCHO FEAR!!!"
A few seconds later, the entire labratory, and the building it was in, exploded. The cause of the explosion was never found.
In the slipstreams of the air, a force descended upon the unknowing population of the rogue islands....
The End
Chapter 1: A Fold in the Grey.
((Paragon City, Atlas Park, City Hall, M.A.G.I.))
Dr. Noitpeced walked into the M.A.G.I. department of city hall. He did not like magic, and absolutely hated having to come here.
The good doctor was a Biologist. He was the inventor of the transferable psychic gene, the secondary brain, and the inteligence booster shot. All of them were restricted to military access only, and even then, only Special Agents ever got to use them. This infuriated Dr. Noitpeced to no end, for two reasons. A: He had invented these things for public use, to make the world a better place. B: Since only a select few people ever got to use these things, he had a very low income.
Then, he got a lucky break. Agent X, a hero in Long Bow, offered Dr. Noitpeced a military contract. All new inventions of his were to be restricted to the military, and in exchange, the doctor was given monthly checks of a round million dollars. As long as he kept inventing, of course.
However, Dr. Noitpeced was now in a tight spot. All of hisrecent inventions had been turned down recently. If he couldn't get anything new in a week, his contract would be terminated.
Dr. Noitpeced explained his situation to Azuria, and told her how he thought that magic crossed with technology was the only option he had not currently tried. Azuria almost kicked him out of the department, she was so angry.
"Doing so would be incredibly dangerous! You would threaten every life in the city, and it is also illegal! Magical and Technological mixture is strictly forbidden."
So the doctor now had to consider his position. He worked hard for the next week, but the military turned down his idea for re-usable missiles, and canceled his contract.
It wouldn't have been so bad if it wern't for a tiny detail. Dr. Noitpeced knew plenty of military secrets, and as a civilian now, he could not be allowed to live. The doctor had quickly made a run for it, and had caught the nearest ferry to the Rogue Islands...
He worked there for a few years. Then, Dr. Aeon found out about his history, and employed him as his new lead researcher.
It was a good time for Dr. Noitpeced. Since the technological limit was more lax in the rogue islands, almost all of his military inventions were accepted and patented. So the money just kept rolling in.
But a thought kept tugging at his mind...
"What would happen if I were to make something new using both magic and technology?"
To be continued.