Queen Killer

by M. H. Johnson

  John's ephemeral hands stilled. No, he certainly did not want to do that.

  "Relax, John. You have a 14 Intuition. Just trust your gut! Which genes control your heightened perception? Which ones involving your sclera were warped along with your boosted senses? Maybe, if you look really hard, you can flip the switch that will give you a pair of beautiful obsidian irises highlighting an otherwise perfectly normal pair of eyes.”

  A tingling thrill coursed through him. John was somehow gazing upon the very genes that made up his being. Dizzying, overwhelming, an orchestra of noise and potential he didn't dare mess with. But then, like learning how to pick out melodies within a cacophony of sound, he began sensing how various traits connected with each other.

  Hit with a sudden epiphany, he realized that he could modify the melodies while still keeping true to the underlying symphony of his soul.

  Yet there were so many discordant cacophonies as well. Deadly recessive traits, selfish genes that did nothing but transpose themselves throughout his chromosomes, potentially wreaking cancerous havoc, and endless thousands of pseudogenes long since defunct and deactivated. All of it was filling his chromosomes with endless clutter.

  Fortunately, he sensed odd sentinel genes keeping it all in check, allowing his cells to metabolize with an efficiency he somehow knew was unheard of in the animal kingdom. Yet, sadly, so many of those sentinel genes were now inert. Turned off by the crude, patchwork incisions of the very traits that had fused himself and his symbiote into one terrible, wondrous potency.

  And how easy would it be, John wondered, to turn on those sentinel genes once more, somehow knowing they would fully incorporate his bizarre, improved genetic code? And that was just the start, he realized. Who said he had to become a monster as he grew and evolved? All it took was a certain intuitive understanding, knowing just the right chords to play, and he knew that the symphony of his genetic matrix, the music of his soul, would always play true for him.

  Warm laughter trickled through his mind as he stared in wonder at the DNA matrix of his soul. "That's right, Johnny-boy. In a flash of insight, you understand so much of what the greatest scientists Jordia ever produced have been working on. Creating the perfect hybrids. Fertile, near immortal. And the Highbloods almost got it right with us. Before our fathers took their research and used it to turn us into abominations."

  Sade smiled into his eyes, looking absolutely stunning in the prom dress she now wore. "But you've beaten them at their own game, Johnny-boy. Fusing all your potential into mastering your own matrix. Now you alone control the path of your own evolution. You, and no one else."

  Congratulations! You have chosen the path of self-mastery! 5 of 5 points spent! Mad geniuses and genocidal scientists might have enjoyed mucking about with your chromosomes, mastering charts you couldn't hope to understand. But their knowledge is just theories and approximations, and no one knows the truth of their own soul better than you do your own! Minimum Insight and Willpower requirements met! You have achieved Greater Genetic Insight! You may force-evolve your traits and symbiotic powers without risks of interlinking genes transforming you into an abomination to rival all the horrors unleashed by the contenders for Jordia's throne!

  John shuddered, suddenly dizzy with Sade's intoxicating musk. "What did you do to me?" he gasped, his heart pounding with her chocolate-flavored kiss, their bodies twining as she bit his lip before straddling him, gazing into his eyes as she slowly consumed him with her hunger. No more words, then. Just passion and sweetest bliss, aching for a life where this dream could be real, where the girl crying out in rapture was his and his alone, no threads of horrific destiny leading them both to mutually assured destruction.

  He yearned for a time and place where she was his prom queen and he her king, and together they would take the world by storm.

  "And nothing says we can't do just that, Johnny-boy." Her beautiful eyes pierced his soul. "Find me. Claim me. Love me. The world will be our stage, every actor moving at our command, and never will we know sorrow or pain, ever again."

  His heart roared with the sweetness of her kiss, even as his bedroom door rattled with his father's frantic pounding.

  "I know you're in there, Johnathan! You will open your mind to me this instant!"

  And the rattle was muffled as obsidian stone suddenly walled off his bedroom door

  Castling Rank 2 fully quantized: Zero cost!

  Sade chuckled softly. "Nice trick, lover." Soft green eyes pierced his heart. "I see in your eyes the sweet warmth of friendships you forge even now." Her smile grew. "Who knows? Maybe one day you and I will walk hand in hand, and we will savor all the delectable treats a city full of butchers, bakers, and cafes would arrange for our pleasure."

  John froze at those words. Sade's smile, though mischievous, was still gentle. "Perhaps I could enslave them all, Johnny-boy. But if you have coin to purchase our fare? That will be enough for me." He gasped when she bit his ear, before kissing and licking the drops of blood oozing forth, purring like a cat savoring a favorite treat. "But not all my kind feel the same."

  She held up a crimson tipped fingernail, scraping a promise upon his chest. He gasped, though whether it was from bliss or torment, he could not say. "You wear my mark now, Lover, so I may take my due." Her eyes suddenly flashed a hellish crimson hue. "And if any other Queen seeks to take you from me, you do whatever the hell you have to. I already lost you once, Johnathan Cypher. I won't lose you again."

  The door burst open. Sade screamed as his father entered, wearing shimmering mesh armor and holding a blade of absolute darkness, purple lighting crackling along its length. The very sight of that weapon was enough to send John stumbling back as windows in his mind were opened once more, flooding him with horrific memories he had long since forgotten.

  Mindblade Rank 1 Successfully Quantized! Captain Greenfield trained you better than she thought! Or perhaps you knew all along?

  His father’s cold voice pierced his soul. "You, who I raised from mere filth and slime, would dare to oppose me? I have spared the rod for far too long! It is time for you to remember old lessons I was too lenient in letting you forget. Pain and fear shall be the chains that bind you, as they are for all those who dare to cross their betters!"

  And John screamed as his world suddenly became one of endless pressure and searing pain.

  Ego Crush Rank 1 successfully quantized! Remember what you forgot long ago, as your father seeks to crush your will from a world away!

  John opened his obsidian eyes and howled his rage.

  Racing across the room before his shocked father could do more than blink, smashing him with a furious barrage of hooks and uppercuts, a spinning back fist sending the surprised Highlord lurching to the ground, nose smashed, spitting up teeth and blood.

  John sneered, now ignoring his father's cleaving Psiblade that was, after all, no more real than shadows and light. "This is my dream, motherfucker! You're nothing but a bitter figment of hate and memory. You ignored me when I was a boy, took me from my mother when I was a teen, and were perfectly willing to use me for your goddamned experiments, even if it killed me! Your own flesh and blood! And I'm not the first, am I? One of the girls your asshole buddies made into a monster fell in love with a kid just like me, didn't she? Who the hell is John Cypher? How many of me did you make? How many clones of me did you kill? Did you really name them all John? How fucking original! Well, fuck you, Dad. They're me. All of them. And I claim all their power, all their potential, for myself!"

  Even as John roared the words, his father's eyes widened with absolute fury. Time itself seemed to freeze to a halt.

  Insight gained! Every version of yourself is but an echo of potential, of endless possibility! Just as the deadliest of delvers has the power to claim the souls of every foe to fall to their blade, you, initiate upon the path of self-mastery, have chosen to reclaim yourself and all your endless potential once more!

  His father cursed and stumbled back, wilting before Jo
hn's eyes. John collapsed to the floor, howling with the sudden rush of power and Psions now flooding his body and mind.

  Your Psionic potential has doubled! Insight has increased by one!

  He didn't know what it meant, what would change, or even who he really was now, but he welcomed those lost fragments of possibility, those alternate versions of himself into his soul once more as his childhood bedroom filled with searing white light, then nothing at all.

  _________________________________________

  John Reacher – Level 3 Evolved Symbiote

  Primary Attributes

  Strength 14 / Vitality 14 / Finesse 12 / Quickness 14 / Perception 15 / Scholarship 11 / Willpower 14 / Charisma 12 / Luck 12

  Secondary Attributes

  Health 154 / Survival 196 / Stamina 154 / Mana 50 / Psion 100 / Insight 15

  Base Appearance: 13 +1 (12 Charisma) +1 (Athletic) -1 (Dark Points) = +4 reaction modifier! (What pretty obsidian irises you now have! Amazing how a single good night's beauty sleep (and a dash of genetic engineering) can make all the difference!)

  Dark Points: 1 – Congratulations, you’re humanity is almost skin-deep!

  Perks

  Symbiote Hybrid – Who knows what cool abilities you'll manifest? Increase all of your Symbiote-linked stats and continue your metamorphosis!

  Path of Self-mastery chosen. Tier 1 achieved. – Your first Greater Genetic Insight allows you to access your potential while still keeping your humanity! It's all about knowing which genes to activate, and which to turn off. (You have chosen to embrace your humanity. 1 Dark Point Sacrificed.)

  Flaws

  Parasitic Infection flaw has been tempered with Self-mastery! (Graceful temperance or glorious madness, you decide!)

  Skills

  Grappling Rank 3 / Saber Rank 2 / Sword & Shield Rank 2 / Stealth Rank 1 / Mercantile Rank 1 / Persuasion Rank 1 / Arcane Perception Rank 1

  Highlord Skills

  Castling Rank 2 / Ego Crush Rank 1 / Mind Blade Rank 1

  Powers

  Greater Regeneration Rank 1 – You heal 1 Health point per second and 1 Wound Tier every 10 seconds. Once your Health is at full, all injuries are healed!

  _________________________________________

  9

  John lurched out of the silk-lined four poster bed, horrified of what he would see.

  A shuddering sigh escaped his lips after quickly scanning the room, seeing no trace of webs, cocoon shells, or desiccated bodies anywhere.

  Thank God.

  He shivered, remembering his awful bittersweet dream with crystal clarity. All of it, pure madness. But Sade had felt so real in his arms. And the inhumanly cold look in his father's eyes had been sickening. Yet he couldn’t deny the sweet rush of power that reclaiming a lost portion of himself had given him, John somehow feeling far more vital, far more real than he ever had before.

  He was now more than just another ghost or clone of whoever had been the real John Reacher, whatever that even meant.

  His gut roiled in protest, plagued by thoughts he tried desperately to push away.

  All those test subjects Mitch had spoken of so cavalierly.

  Just echoes of himself, dying horribly while he got to live on.

  What the bloody fuck.

  "Don't do it, don't fucking do it, what if it's worse?"

  He ignored his own desperate muttering, jerking his head to face the ornate mirror that had caught the corner of his eye when Agneta had first dragged him into this room, the lingering scent of her natural musk making him flush even now.

  His gut was clenched tight, dreading the next horrific transformation, and how quickly he would off himself if he now looked like a mutated fly horror.

  And looking back at him was a version of himself with flawless skin, perfectly symmetrical features, and the most striking obsidian irises he could imagine, sclera a perfectly healthy white once more.

  He looked fantastic. Whereas before he looked like your average Joe, now he glowed with such bright-eyed clear-skinned genetic health that he was enjoying a net +4 to reaction rolls, according to his character sheet, even with that 1 dark point hinting at the horrors still locked deep within his genetic code. It certainly didn't hurt that his nightmare orbs of liquid darkness were now just perfectly normal eyes with an exotic obsidian sparkle.

  His brilliant smile dimmed to an expression of sickened horror as it struck him then how easily he could have expired, fucking around with his own genes. And here they were, about to take on an enemy stronghold, and John had effectively burned an entire level’s worth of points on pretty eyes.

  For the sake of a fantasy. A girl he had seen only in his dreams.

  What the hell had he been thinking?

  "John, you in there? Get the hell up, man! You and I gotta talk!"

  A still shaken John recognized the voice all too well, opening the door after shoving the dresser aside, surprised to find the man glaring daggers at him, Sophia by his side.

  John blinked, momentarily stunned. Sophia flashed a brilliant smile.

  "Damn, Johnny. You are looking fine!" Sophia enthused. "Isn't he looking great, hon? Thank God he got rid of those weird eyes. I didn't want to say anything and hurt your feelings, John, but they were really creeping me out."

  "Why the hell didn't you meet me at the gate?" Mason snapped. "Four hours, John. You think I like padding up to the keep with necromancers and zombies and whatever other horrors are lurking out there at night? And where's our reward? The captain and mayor just look at me like I'm a fucking turd, a hanger-on. It's clear they're happy talking to you, probably because you can't negotiate for shit." He gave a frustrated shake of his head. "Alright. Fuck it. Just show me the coins you got last night, and we'll take our cut and call it done."

  "Sorry, Mason," John said, eyeing his acquaintance carefully. "Fact is, I didn't collect anything more than training from the captain last night."

  Mason's eyes widened. He clenched his fists, glaring at John. "Are you fucking kidding me, boy? We risked our asses pulling that asshole captain and her turd-boys from that deathtrap, and you didn't even push for a reward? Fucking hell, what's wrong with you?"

  John's voice went cold. "Coin is all that matters to you, isn't it, Mason? Fine. You go downstairs and ask the mayor for all the fucking reward money you like. Grab mine while you’re at it! Now, how about you get the fuck out of my face? I’ve got better things to do than waste my time with ex-cons eager to squeeze every credit they can from desperate sops with no one else to turn to!"

  Quickness check: Success! You have dodged Mason's blow!

  “You stupid, arrogant punk!" Mason roared, charging in with a flurry of blows. "You think this is some kinda game? You think fucking paladins are anything more than fools being played before they're thrown to the wolves? Wake the fuck up, kid! Prison's filled with confused-looking kids bleeding from their asses who thought they were being some kinda hero! Didn't even realize they were being played till the judge's gavel smashed their lives to shit! I was trying to protect you, asshole! Cover your ass when you fucked up!"

  John grimaced when a gut punch caught him off guard, Mason's left hook sending him stumbling. "You stupid, goddamned arrogant shit. I thought you were actually worth something! Worth the trouble of forging into a survivor. Someone who might actually make it in this fucked up world. Now I see you're just another stuck-up punk who thinks his shit smells like roses. Who thinks he's better than me. Well, fuck you, kid! You can take your pretty eyes and your shitty attitude and go to fucking hell!"

  Mason blocks your spin-kick! Hammer fist hits you for 20 damage and 1 Light Wound!

  "Mason!" Sophia shrieked. "Stop it!"

  And as quick as it had started, John and his former companion broke off their furious exchange, John bitterly certain he had gotten the worst of it by far. His temper had gotten the better of him, and he was paying the price in aching ribs and a split lip, the stronger, tougher man wearing full armor with a strength John instantl
y sensed was 16 the moment Mason's fist had first cracked against his jaw.

  Mason spat as John lurched to his feet. "Fucking pathetic. Come on, Sophia. We're out of here. I don't think this loser is worth our time, after all."

  The now beautiful girl gave John a sad look before following in Mason's wake, and John could hear the man bellowing for a reward long after he was out of sight.

  John couldn’t help cursing himself for being seven kinds of fool.

  What the fuck had gotten into him? He already knew Mason was a prickly hothead with a checkered past. And he had just managed to alienate the guy right before he and Captain Greenfield were going to try to hunt those horrors down in their nest. The most galling part of it was, John knew they needed Mason. As strong and fast as John was, Mason still had him beat, probably having leveled up right when he had.

  Damn. If he had just thought to check the stupid portal before he had crashed, they'd be two men stronger, and Mason might be cracking dark jokes or sparring with him right now. But instead he’d managed to antagonize a man they desperately needed after burning a whole level's worth of points trying to look pretty, and a fat lot of good it had done him just now.

  Fucking stupid choices and their unintended consequences.

  Fuck it all.

  He certainly didn't need Captain Greenfield's cold, measuring stare making it clear she was not happy with him, catching John's gaze before he had even thought to Castle his mind, instantly inferring every humiliating detail of their fight.

  She gave a frustrated shake of her head. "Damn it, John. We need him!"

  John swallowed crow and lowered his head. "Yeah, I know. I fucked up."

  "You couldn't wait to pick a fight until after we had rescued the children?"

  John closed his eyes and sighed. "It's not like that. I'm just so tired of how fucking mercenary he is. We barely survived last night, and all he's worried about is cash flow."