hyperion: death thralls

hit and run

I slowly wake up as I feel something soft in my hands. I move my hands around as it's long. It's fur. I slowly open my eyes as it's dark. I slowly move my head and look up as the stained bed. Echo...he's asleep. He's facing me. His hair is covering his face. I can actually see his long ears. They stretch out into a spear point as his hair is so long that it droops down. He always keeps his ears down to hide them. He also wraps his tails around his hips, making it look like he's wearing a besr pelt that was turned into a thick skirt. His features are very feminine but he's proven he's a boy. Sometimes he's calm and will wonder around looking for something to do. He's always been entertained by just about anything. Then again...he was trapped in a small white box all of his life. I remember when I was first trying to gain his trust. I showed him a picture of a sunset. He wouldn't stop staring at it until he saw me reach for something. He nearly killed me a few times but I always managed to calm him down. I've only seen his parents in pictures. He knows what they look like but he doesn't know what their voices sound like. Not even I do. He takes after his mother alot but he have the same facile features as his father. Apparently he was popular. He worked with the police and helped people. His scoul though. Echo has it and sometimes I wonder if he's looking directly into my soul. He always knows what I'm feeling and when we first got here...he gave me hope that we would finally be safe. But here we are...inside more walls with more people just trying to survive. They know what their doing though. They've survived the end and still going on. I just hope echo can get back on his feet after this. He's so malnourished that I'm afraid he'll eat to much and die from over eating. I don't even want him to lift a finger when he wakes up but I know I can't stop that from happening. "He's one tough kid." I see a blue light start to appear next to me. "We did everything we could but we don't what blood type he is so a transfusion could kill him." I reach up and move his hair back so I can see his face. He looks so confertable. Sleeping in a real bed...it must be weird for him. Being able to sleep without being afraid already threw him off since his body was trained to be fully alert at all times. "He's a cute kid. I wonder how he ended up like this." I slowly place my hand on his cheek as he moves round a little bit. He's gaining strangth again. I slowly pull back and straighten up as my back pops a few times. I see echos tails twitch a little bit. I can't help but smile as he really does care about me. I just wish I deserved it. "Dulis said the mall was a trap." I look over at stone as he's looking at echo. "Yeah-h. Even ghost was hurt and he never gets caught by anything." Explains the name. "If he wasn't there...we would have lost two of our best people." People..."you really care about everyone here...don't you?" I look back at echo. "Everyone here survived the worst. We're family and I want to see them get through this shit show." Echo moves around more. He's gritting his teeth as his tails are twitching like he's trying to bring his power out. He brings his hands up to cover his face. "And if it wasn't for him...Jericho would be in segnificantly worse shape. We owe him big...and it's a dedt that won't be paid easily." Even I owe him my life. He's saved me more times than I care to count. Echo shifts again as I reach up and lay my hand on his cheek. He flinches then quickly relaxes. I bring my hand down and slowly lay it onto his clenched fist. I pull his hand out slowly and open it as he slowly grips onto my hand. "Mind if I ask something personal?" I slowly grip onto his small hand. I can feel the bones. He doesn't have any muscle. "What happened to him? How did he end up like this?" I look at stone. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to." It's...it's only fair if I tell him. If we're going to stay...I need to gain their trust. "Alright." Echo is completely calm again. "I don't know what his real name is." I don't want to dig but if anyone should know...it's stone. "I was there when he was brought in. He's wasn't even 2 years old." I remember the baby. His parents fed him well and treated him like a prince. His cloths were bright and told a story of a kid who had good but protective parents. "I was a student at the lab and the end happened on a field trip to the lab. When the first bombs were dropped and I looked at the armed guards who carried the baby in. They covered a shady man who I was put directly under when the experiments started." I can't believe they forced a teenager to start working only seconds after the nukes went off. "They didn't treat him like a human. They abused him like he was some rabid animal who could be useful. I refused to do anything to him until they threatened to kick me out into a infested group they collected and uses to dispose bodies of dead people who they tourchured to death." I can't believe the evils I saw. "That day I learned the people who would put people through those...brutal experiments were doing that before the nukes. I saw them drag bodies our every day and fed them to the infested. Anyone who spoke out were thrown in. Anyone to weak, got sick, or were considered no longer useful were thrown in." I still remember the screams. The crying. "Are we thinking about the same people?" I give stone an annoyed look. "Those people hid behind other people with kind faces. As soon as the nukes went off, they threw all of them into that pit and didn't even flinch when they were torn apart infront of them. They killed over 50 people that day and didn't even think twice." Echo shifts again. He's getting restless the more angry I get. I have to calm down. I don't want him to worry. How us he so attuned to me like this? He's so weak and yet...he's still moving and still willing to fight even if his body has given put sevral times already. "You can stop." I slowly look at stone as I feel my own tears rolling down my cheeks. "You wouldn't understand. Your just a created. You'd never understand." I look back at echo. "That's where your wrong." I look back at stone. He's not tense. His arms are hanging. His eyes are closed. He balls his fists as he's fighting himself. "I was there." I freeze up. No...that's impossible. "I was the A.I who helped run that hell hole." There's no way. I get up and back away. There's no way he was THAT A.I! There's no way! "I'm a retired military strategy A.I. I was programed to give the most effective plans of attack that would do the maximum amount of damage with minimal casualties." He balls his fists and looks at me. "I was taught to feel human emotions...and...when I saw him come in as a baby...I instantly rejected all orders to make plans for his experiments." What? He...he was..."I was nearly deleted over 100 times but I managed to stop it every time. I broke their codes and found every single record they recorded. I disrupted their operations as much as I could but it didn't stop them." He looks back at echo. He lifts his hand as something projects from his hand. It's a file. His file..."Subject 626, codename: Echo. His birth name is Oni khonma. He was brought into the lab on his 2nd birthday after attempting to retrieve him from his parents failed countless times. His father was a famous fighter who helped the police fight crime and brought piece to many cities all over hyperion. His mother was a hybrid but back then they looks more like animals then the cat ears and bushy tails they have now." Stone drops his hand as the projection disopears. "His father learned what happened to his son and attacked the lab. That was also the same day his wife was captured for experiments. He attacked the lab and killed 80% of the lab staff and wiped out the security forces. All files point twords his capture at the bottom floor where it's heavily guarded by traps specifically placed to keep him in rather than keep him out." I can't believe I'm hearing this. "As far as I'm aware...he's still down there with his wife. There's nothing saying their alive but knowing his father...he's still alive as sevral files claim he said he'd see his son before he died. The last time someone checked was 10 years after Oni was brought in." I don't believe it. I can't. Stone..."you...you where the A.I who stopped me from helping him." I straighten up as I remeber being locked out at random times. "You stopped me from escaping." We would have been gone years ago if it wasn't for him! "You kept him there for over 12 years. You trapped all of us for so long and you just happen to be here after everything that's happened? Your just as bad as they are." I struggle to keep my voice down as other people are sleeping here to. Stone looks at me slowly. "I did." I ball my fists. "Why? Why would you left them do that?" Stone looks back at echo. "If I didnt..." he pouses. He's glitching. "You would have died sevral times over." I freeze. Stone gives me a cold look. "They knew what you were up to. I was able to get put on a USB stuck drive dulis managed to grab when he raided that place but before that, I created a lock down that would be impossible to break and lift. Only very few doors I left partially locked down to slow them down as much as possible but leaving room for people like you to get around and survive." Stone...he did all of that. Created aren't programmed to lie. I don't even know if they have the programs to make lies that would last so long. "As for how he got out. I left is door fully unlocked so if he wanted to get out, he could since the data I gathered told me that if he got out of his cage, he would be able to distroy that place from the inside out. I just hoped you would make it here to Jericho so I could make amends." He lowers his head. I slowly sit back down as I look at echo. Stone...he's the reason he figured out how to get out. That cage was designed to keep 50 whales in there. They kept it so cold that you would freeze if you stayed in there for a few hours. I got hypothermia a few times when I managed to get with him. But his real name. 'Oni'. Why would his parents call him demon? I've seen his sparks turn blood red before like a demon but it sounds like they knew what kind of power he could posses. Demons are known for being extremely powerful. Some stories told of demons like Argus who dominated entire armies without breaking a sweat. But...why did he call Echo...onimusha? Why add to it? Why even call him Echo in the first place? He convinced everyone that was his real name. "From what little data those animals were able to gather...Oni is the current strongest hybrid on the entity of the federation. His abilities are godly compaires to his father and his father was strong enough to bench press over 1 million tons without breaking a sweat. His healing facture made him immortal and with the way he was...it was like he was some sort of God. Truly unkillable and able to end a fight in a single attack." Echo...no...Oni has proven he's segnificantly stronger than that. He's died three times in the past week and came back. He recovered from it but his body kept giving out on him. He was left so weak that he can't use it own powers or he'll end up passing out or hurting himself. "But...now that your here." I look at stone. "I can finally make amends. Both of you are apart of Jericho. Oni's proven he's willing to defend my people witch makes him a welcome member. Hell, he's apart of the family since he's saved sevral people and both of you just got here." I look back at Oni as he's calm. He's not twitching or balled up. I'm happy to see stone's willing to make amends but I've got a bad feeling. I've had the feeling I'm being watched. It came when Oni left with dulis. "What should we do now?" I look at stone. "He deserved to know his real name. Not the same given to him while being experimented on." I don't know. "If anyone's going to tell him...it was to be me." I look at echo again as I grab his hand. "He knows I should know his real name. I haven't told him since I really didn't know. I promised to tell him when we got out and was safe." I don't plan on breaking that promise. "Alright. Just don't tell him about his parents. If he goes searching for them while under the assumption they might be alive. I don't want him to go through that." I already had that figured out. "He know their gone." Another time I had to lie becuase I didn't know. "I told him he was kidnapped. I figured his parents were captured and, or killed. It's a good thing I did. I don't want him searching the old lab. If they are there...and he finds them...I don't know what he'll do. He's just a boy and deserves to live like one for a while." I hope I can provide that now. "There's one more thing." I look at stone. "Some reports claim Oni could turned into something when he got out. People would always piss him the fuck off and he didn't stop until they were dead. What did he turn into?" I remeber a few times. "He didn't turn into anything. He just used more power then what we originally though." I remever his red sparks. "We always thought he held back but every time he used more power than we recorded. Unfortunately his body never could handle it since they rarely fed him. They left him weak after the first time he nearly got out." They treated him like an animal. I'm happy he killed all of them. "Good thing their all dead. Now he can live like a human. Live a happy life." Me to. Now he can do what he wants. Be it leave the walls to help when he's recovered who just by helping others around Jericho. He's a good boy. Now I can give my good boy and good life. And that I can be proud of.