It all started in June of 2163. A small, but nonetheless brilliant, group of scientists had finally been able to lift the ethical ban on the practice of eugenics in North America. The seven worked quickly; their facility was up and running in a matter of months. The organization became known as The Rousseau Institute of Genetic Modification after the lead scientist, Nicholas Rousseau. In early June of 2163, they began their first experiments with DNA sequencing in a batch of human zygotes. They started out small: first locating the alleles for the traits they wanted to change and figuring out the most effective way of manipulating them into their desired state. Shockingly, a handful of the first batch of zygotes made it full term, and to the scientists’ surprise, the changes they had made were successful, and the beings that came out of it were healthy. The new species became known as the Adoni.
The re-sequencing of the Adoni’s genetic makeup swiftly became a specific betterment of the human race. Their minds were made sharper and overall more intelligent; their aging process was all but halted, slowing down so immensely between the ages of 18-25, that it would take an individual hundreds of years to get past the physical appearance of a 45 year old human; they were made faster and stronger; their mental capacity was expanded to double to that of any human; and their physical beauty was heightened as well. The Adoni started out as simply a stepping stone for the advancement in the evolution of the human race, but they became so much more.
With their rapid achievements in the new beginnings of their scientific careers, the seven men and women became greedy. They wanted to expand massively with their research and they got in contact with many of their colleagues to do just that. By 2177, similar facilities had popped up on nearly every continent. Directors were appointed to these institutions to make sure that the elite race that was being created was kept in check and trained in a fashion that was best befitting to them. The directors soon became more domineering than the scientists had anticipated, but as long as they were gaining back the testing results they required, they didn’t interfere.
The Adoni were trained in many different styles of fighting, advanced weaponry, and anatomical pressure points. Their minds were sharper, able to memorize documents or architectural layouts in seconds. They were able to focus their attention easily without distractions to complete the task at hand. A training schedule was formed to accommodate all the aspects the Adoni were meant to achieve to hone their minds and bodies. They became killing machines; their bodies were weapons, but their deadliest weapons were their minds. The Adoni became restless in their facilities and began organized plans of rebellion. The scientists and directors had made a mistake in their creations, however, they had made them too smart; they had trained them too well. The beautiful handiwork of a new era had become dangerous beyond their wildest dreams.
On April 17th, 2210, the elite species rose against the lesser human authority led by a young Adoni, Sebastian Ross from the original Northwestern branch. It was absurd to them that they had let this less than superior race govern and oppress them for so many years. The decimation of The Rousseau Institute of Genetic Modification was beyond words. The buildings and grounds of every branch of the institute lay in smoking rubble and debris. All over the world, the Adoni obliterated their oppressors, taking down the facilities that had brought them into existence. Their disgust with these tyrants was palpable in the air around them as they tore down the autocratic organization. To say there was death would be an understatement. The bodies of the humans that worked within the institutions littered the crumbled empire, some with their heads crushed, others hemorrhaging violently from wounds; their deaths were neither quick nor painless.
Although the devastation was great, some of the scientists were kept alive for further research on their kind-scientists such as Dr. Shelbi Wescott, Dr. Thomas Bagins, Dr. Luis McGreevy, and Dr. Adelaide Johnston. Wescott and McGreevy proved to be untrustworthy down the road in their further experimentation. When word was leaked of their soon to be published manuscripts on the internal affairs and processes of the Adoni and their slaughtering of their former captors, they were added to the body count. Bagins and Johnston continued on as invaluable members of the Adoni’s growing scientific community and aided them in their improvement of the civilized world.
Over the course of ten years of constant bludgeoning and warfare, the Adoni took over and created a new worldwide system of government. With the elite as the established hierarchy, tension from the humans began to die down. They realized the astoundingly fast amelioration that the race had brought into their society. There was no impending threat of enslavement from the Adoni (as some may think would come with an alien invasion of sorts), nor was there a mass genocide of the human race. The elite simply wanted improvement. Of course they looked down upon the lesser beings with cool repugnance, but that did not stop them from keeping them around in assistance with the fragile society around them.
As the new culture became the norm, the newly established government went to work. For every half of a continent was a “House”, which was individually governed by a pair of rulers and a small group of advisors. As an acting higher council to govern the Houses, a High Assembly was established in North America atop the crumbled authority of the first branch of The Rousseau Institute of Genetic Modification. This system worked nicely for many years, but greed is akin to all species, and nothing can escape its ironclad fist.
Sebastian Ross, the young Adoni leader of the uprisings who had taken up leadership of the northernmost House of Europe, was one incapable of escape. Greed overtook the man at the thought of a shining golden throne perched on an empire. His empire. He had, by that time, been governing the House for almost 60 years. The man was like a raven with a shiny object or a dragon sitting on its mounds of gold; he always wanted more. And this did not only apply to territory or wealth. When he began his pursuit of power, he quickly and easily took the eastern and western Asian Houses, making him bleed with his lust for sovereignty. But upon his next claim for the southern European House, he found someone he was not quite expecting. A young woman he had crossed paths with before was governing the next addition to his kingdom.
He and Emelia Wesley had met once, when the girl was only 16, at a tournament of the best of the best of the Adoni. She had beat him in a two-out-of-three sparring match, and she had not been too humble about it. He remembered her as a fiery young woman with a hot arrogance and sarcastic disposition, and he loved it. The two had not encountered each other since the end of the tournament, not even during the years of uprising and reestablishment. And yet, there she was, staring him down with her arms folded neatly over her chest. She held herself like a queen with her neck long, her shoulders back, her bright golden-green eyes burning the word murder into his. He had to make her his own; and what a nice new addition she would be to his dragon’s hoard.
Over a month of talk of allegiance, and a condition of marriage from Sebastian, Emelia finally agreed to the joining of “the winning team”. She was not a big admirer of the man, nor had she ever been, but she would always be on the side that came out on top. Between the age of 16, when she had met him, and now, she had grown into a much wiser and less impulsive sort of person. She was patient and focused, and she knew what she wanted. Her years of governing the southern European House had bestowed these less genetic traits upon her. The goals that she had set forth for herself were simple: be better, and make sure every situation made is in your best interest. If Sebastian Ross wanted to build her an empire, that was fine, but she was always on the winning team for a reason. She was what made it win.
