Artificial 7: Genesis Requiem

Chapter 44: Motive

(Artwork is done by AI. It's Weissal, Genesis's brother and subordinate.)

Caleb's POV:

So we're having a normal day with Miss Morgan and Miss Belladonna.
My sisters were sparring with Nero and Akiza,
and Miss Morgan was helping Natalie out with her home school education that the Pope gave her.
After dinner,
the sky got really dark,
and the weather forecast called for a possible thunderstorm.
There was no rain yet,
but the thunder got really loud.

A few hours later,
my sister Selena turned Galactic Rangers off and turned it back to the news for a update in the weather only for the both of us to see the city of London going up in smoke from mechs and Exorcist killing other Exorcist and civilians!
I started to shake,
scared of the outside,
because we live in London!
That, and also cousin Anton,
went to the mall two hours ago with Miss Selena, Morgan,
and Belladonna's permission.
I'm so scared for us and for him.

A few hours later,
Miss Morgan reassured me that everything would be ok and that Miss Belladonna had a barrier protecting the mansion.
That was over three hours ago,
and the chaos finally made its way to the courtyard!
Men with red trench coats with guns, swords, mechs,
and Exorcist inside these mech suits started attacing Miss Morgan and Miss Belladonna.

My sisters and brothers watched from one of the many balcony windows as Miss Morgan sprouted Succubus claws from her fingernails that were ridiculously large that she sliced and diced mechs,
the men in red trench coats and the mech suits into pieces while Miss Belladonna used magic of all elements to kill the enemies.
Natalie squealed at the carnage and hid in front of the couch,
and since everyone was occupied watching the carnage unfold,
I decided to sit with her,
letting her cry into me.
The poor thing.

I'm scared, too,
but I also know I have my dad's raw power coursing through my veins,
so I have to step up as a man.
As a son of Chase.
My mind begins to go crazy as I picture all these different horrible outcomes where my sisters and brothers die.
I grit my teeth as my dragon fangs begin to emerge,
and I could feel my skin start to harden as my scales became visible on my arms and cheeks.

Bright, golden scales.
Nero and Akiza noticed I wasn't at the window with them,
so he picked up Jackson and handed him to me while they went back to looking out the window. "My moms are so awesome!!!"
Jackson said to me.
Minutes passed.
Gunfire would go quiet for a few minutes,
then start back up again.

Narration: Weissal led a charge of mech, mech suits,
and Genesis clones against Belladonna and Morgan,
while in the city,
Gram and Elias were catching up to Weissal.
Meanwhile, with Genesis.
He positioned several clones around Big Ben that kept giving Ingrid more summoner's stones to use while AJ summoned Future Caleb to protect Ingrid.

Once her job was done,
Genesis ordered her to come switch with him on the ground below.
"He won't shut up about some mech that could kill Miss Mendez's Demons, so I'm going back to the science division to turn on his mech and get him his controller!" AJ grabs Futaba and makes a break for their randevu point,
while the real Genesis bolts towards the science division.
All while Selena is using a small fraction of the twin's power to kill the giant summons.
Ingrid notices and sends Future Caleb after Selena then molds her cyborg hand into a sniper,
taking aim and waiting to pull the trigger.

Chase comes out to stop Future Caleb from charging at Selena,
and Selena splits the sniper round in half from a street away just off her well honed battle instincts.
Selena gives chase,
and Future Caleb fights against Chase against his will,
begging Chase to end him so that he can repent for killing his sisters and father in his timeline.
"Alright. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you as a father in your timeline, but I'll clear that mistake and do better with my Caleb."

Future Caleb tosses his mask off and engages in a sword fight against Chase. Raikiri Rajinto against Future Caleb's odachi.
The two fought for a mere few minutes, but to them,
this was both a happy moment and the saddest moment of their lives.
Future Caleb got the closure he wanted, and Chase got to fight a warrior version of his son despite the fact he did some unforgivable things.

In the end,
Future Caleb whacks Chase over the head with his odachi but is stabbed in the chest by Chase's Raikiri Rajinto. Chase has mild blood flowing down his forehead,
down the side of his nose and mouth, while Future Caleb's insides were electrocuted.
Future Caleb smiles at his father,
then falls onto his knees and falls over. His body begins to fade as it reverts back into a summoner's stone,
which Chase proceeds to crush under his shoes.

Chase's soft smile drops as he could faintly feel the sands of Purgatory take Future Caleb's soul.
With Genesis,
he's going through everything until he finds a remote like device with a symbol on it.
He pushed the button,
and the hanger dropped a red mech with a glowing green eye.
It had a black chest but red limbs.
It also had thrusters in the legs, shoulders,
and wings.

It unholsters the axe magnetized to its thigh,
and a plasma beam makes the blade, then on the left arm,
it yanks a large kite shield with the same symbol on the mech.
"Target data uploaded. Target data received. Searching all cameras in the cities for the target."
The mech says as Genesis backs off, inspects the cloning machine only to see it destroyed and crushed.
"Great, no more respawn points in London."

Genesis books it out of London HQ as the mech successfully finds Chase's location and flies through the ceilings with its jet thrusters.
Back with Selena.
She was having a shootout with Ingrid as they used the cars and buildings to their surroundings,
and here and there,
Ingrid molded her free arm into a sword gauntlet and engaged in a sword fight here and there.

Selena drew blood more than Ingrid did, but her robotic skeleton made it super hard for Selena to destroy,
let alone cut through.
Ingrid uses her cyborg strength to throw Selena into a car from their sword bind and then shot Selena's sword out of her hand.
Selena calls upon Sora's ice to shoot out of the ground,
providing cover from Ingrid's bullets. Ingrid molded her gun arm back into a normal metal arm and ran around the corner at the same time as Selena, causing them to grapple and try to push the other back.

Both fired their guns,
but their hands were aimed upward due to all the grappling.
The two let go of each other's guns and leaped away from each other,
and then Sora warned Selena about Genesis with a lever action shotgun taking aim.
Selena leaped onto the sidewalk when Genesis shot the car's engine.
"Go help, Miss Carter! I'll handel Miss Mendez!"

Ingrid nods and runs away while Selena gets a good look at Genesis.
Even though it's a clone,
that clone was reaching its life expectancy.
On average,
a good clone survives up to 3 months.
On a bad clone,
1 month due to being killed by outside means.

Selena notices Genesis looks middle-aged if not slightly younger than that with pure grey hair and not his bright scarlet hair.
"I see the stress of failure isn't doing wonders for you, old friend."
Selena grabs her sword with her gun still aimed at Genesis, and they walk circles around each other.
"Yes, well desperate times call for desperate measures."

Genesis summons Excalibur in his left hand while keeping his gun aimed at Selena.
"So you're desperate for something friend, what are you so desperate to have?"
Selena asked as they carefully walked circles around each other.
"A means to stop or slow down my Cellular Acceleration. Though this body is merely a clone, my real body is being preserved somewhere, and it's reaching its life expectancy."
Selena looks mildly annoyed to that answer.

"And your plan to cure or slow down this Cellular Acceleration is by mass genocide... Seriously?"
Genesis softly smiles but barely. "Heavens no. I just needed a large-scale distraction so that I could grab Mister Futaba."
Selena looks confused for a moment as she tries to remember who that is.

"The crazy scientist guy with green shades and lab coat?"
She replied,
and Genesis points Excalibur at her. "That's the one! He talks nonstop about some robot he built to kill your twin Demons. He is a real narcissist driven by his ego."
The two stop and face each other.

"And nothing he builds will ever kill them."
Genesis nods.
"Agreed, but on the off chance it gets the job done, I'll take it. Keeping expectations low. I'll give it about five seconds before it-"
Genesis gets cut off by an explosion. "Never mind, it took less than I thought. Now then, sorry to have to do this, but I have a mad scientist to escort."
Genesis fires his gun,
and the fight was on.