FtF Anthology 2022

Prompt 2

The clouds held an ominous orange glow to their already wispy brown color. The sun having been blocked many years ago, but still fought to shine through from behind. Small droplets of rain dripped from the heavens above, tears the angels cried for the devastated world below. A world that was masked in complete darkness and mechanics. Very little was man made these days, more so made by cybernetics anymore.

That included humans.

The streets were filled with humans, both organic and cybernetic. A mix of the traditional lifestyle that people were accustomed to since the past, then there was the lifestyle many had come to live in today's world, in the present day. A society blended together of both biological beings and cybernetics to create a world that would one day collapse all together from the lack of acceptance within it. A fate that no one would be able to stop from happening no matter how hard they tried to do so.

That wasn't the only thing that was lurking within the city of Babylonia. A city that sat on the edge of a star cluster billions of miles from the planet Earth.

As Azra stood in the middle of the crowded streets, his hood pulled up over his head, his eyes were trained on the ceremony procession that was currently happening not even a block away. People gathered to watch their new ruler take the throne and promise them a new and better era. A better era where they could live freely and without the resentment and disputes that they were already living with. Their future leader wasn't fooling anyone, not even Azra himself with these promises.

Watching the man who had been elected as their ruler climb the stone steps up to the castle above, it was obvious how different he was from the biological humans and cybernetics. He walked with his head held as high as he could get it, too proud for his own good. It was, however, his physique that screamed abnormal.

Shoulders and arms that were far too wide and large for any physical being to live with. He looked as if he would be able to smash a vehicle or stone wall with one fell swoop of his fist. The man was already abnormally tall, ranging close to seven feet, possibly eight if his estimations were correct. He was like a giant with the body that any bodybuilder on Earth would dream about having. No one on Babylonia, let alone their star planet, had a body like that. There were no needs for bodybuilders, not since the cybernetic beings were first produced. Azra knew what was going on, why the man had a god-like perfection to his appearance.

He himself was very similar to their ruler, but he was also very different at the same time.

Thanks to a secret in bio-engineering, scientists had learned to twist and mold the human genome to how they saw fit. While grown in an artificial womb, a child meant to be born with illnesses could be cured far before birth. The weak could be given strength and the blind could be given the sight they were meant to be born with.

What if the same idea was used on a perfectly healthy fetus?

Azra could vouch for what happens when a perfectly healthy child's genome is altered to fit the mold scientists had created.

He was of normal height, standing no taller than the average five foot eight. He was of average build, not muscular or bulky, but slender and fit. That was where everything deviated from the norm. His eyes were an icy grey, his hair matching his icy grey orbs. Azra's features were of pure perfection, able to pass as both male or female with the androgyny in his features. Both his hearing and eyesight were far better than the average humans. It even rivaled that of the cybernetic vision. He was faster and more agile, able to slip through crowds with the greatest of ease. Stamina was off the charts and he was able to jump higher than a normal biological human.

He was far superior, but you wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at him. He, like their bulked out ruler, were a byproduct of bio-engineering at its best. Like any new discovery there was always some form of set back, however. What those setbacks were, it all depended on the person. Even then, no one could determine what those setbacks were actually going to be.