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14 and 15: The Final Human +; Epilogue
Topic Started: Oct 31 2011, 09:34 PM (182 Views)
Razo Krieger
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The Cult of Personality
June 28th, UC 0086, 9:00AM.

It had been several years now since the end of the One Year War. The CRADLE had suffered its defeat at Side 3, and both sides had taken a heavy beating. The ORCA interpretation of "Project Nova" had failed. Not only had it not killed any of the Federation leadership, but it cost them two of their new comrades and the defection of their Human + 12, Sin Cara. Now, 7 years later, the ORCA leadership had met up once again. Thermidor, Arisawa, Richtofen, and the old man, Hideo Kojima, were all sat around in chairs around a table. Several documents and items were spread around the table. "...Well, now that Project Nova has failed utterly, we're almost back at phase 1. General Maxamillian, what have you done in the last 7 years? Time is starting to take its toll on this old body of mine..." Hideo groaned to himself. Arisawa and Richtofen looked at him with a high respect, as the man who brought everyone together. Thermidor, however, resented the very prescence of the man. He was not a military leader, but threw his weight around like he was greater than god.

"Well for a start, you can shut your damn mouth about Project Nova. I'll have you all know that Sin Cara's involvement has actually brought us closer to the Federation itself. As ironic as it might seem, the Federation has asked us to build them their weapons and Mobile Suits for them. I've already arranged for a quarter of our strength to be applied to building their every whim and desire!" Thermidor proudly sat back in his chair with a smug smile. The others around him looked at him with a confused expression. Of them, only Richtofen was daring enough to question the absolute military leader. "Um...Herr General? How is being their lapdogs actually going to help us overthrow them...?" Richtofen was unsure how being assigned to building GM's nd whatever junk would come after it would be of any use to them. Thermidor simply smiled and pulled out the schematics for the GM handed down from the Federation themselves.

"Unfortunately for the Federation, they're the ones ensuring their own destruction. By putting us in their lap we'll be ready to strike at them when necessary. Also, if they keep pulling stunts like this and handing us their MS designs, we'll have no problem knowing where their weak points are. I've already assigned Ensign Berlioz's engineering team to work on several new types of MS, to replace the four we lost during the One Year War." Thermidor's smirk became wider with each announcement. This wasn't the type of result he expected, but it was certainly better than failing outright. "Also, we're in the phases of testing new methods of Human + creation..." Thermidor pulled out a small bottle from his black jacket and shook it. Inside were a few red and black pills, not any different in appearance from ones prescribed by doctors. "I had the idea of testing it on this old man here, but I'd decided his...inferior human system would only break its effects..." Thermidor mocked Hideo at every chance he could. Before he could continue speaking, the distinct three way sliding doors opened up. Someone on the other side was listening in when he shouldn't have.

"What are its effects...?" Berlioz asked Thermidor a plain question. After his friend Rain Meyers got herself killed, Berlioz's morale was greatly lowered since that event. Every day since then he'd wanted to avenge her death through becoming a pilot, unaware that her killer was stood right in front of her. Of course, even Arisawa was unaware of that fact.

"Ho....Since you cared to ask, I'll tell you. The Human + pill enhances the human body by triggering a rapid re-growth and strengthening. Muscles, bones, reflexes, eyesight, hearing, all are enhanced beyond human levels. Unfortunately Richtofen's test subjects have all been killed...rather messily. We require someone under the age of 30 to be able to resist the painful effects it has of the body essentially rebuilding itself...." Thermidor picked out a pill and looked right at it as if it was an icon, and then at Berlioz. At the age of 27, he would be an ideal test subject to use the pill on. With only two pills left in the bottle, Thermidor threw it at Berlioz to catch. One of them was for himself, the other, he did not really care about.

"How about this. You try that pill, and find someone, anyone else to use it on. And I will give you the rank of Commander, your own battleship, and your own squad to use at your whim for any future wars that appear. How about it, Commander Rayleonard...?" Thermidor's offer was tempting. Berlioz knew that with an enhanced body he would easily be able to surpass most MS ace at what they did best, as well as direct his own operations against the Federation whenever he liked. "Fine. But remember I'm only doing this for Rain's sake...!" Berlioz begrudgingly took the pills and left the meeting. Although he respected Thermidor as a leader, sometimes his tactics and lack of concern for his men came across as unusual, somewhat like a tyrant.

"Hmph...You're trusting a mere boy with those pills? Do we even have a battleship to spare him?!" Hideo angrily shouted, shaking about in his chair. Most of ORCA's funding was coming from this one billionaire stuck in a wheelchair. "Of course we do you miserable old man... Any man, mere human or not, would take the time to build his strength between wars....!" Thermidor disregarded Hideo's comments as mere nonsense. He could make two decisions, go along with Thermidor's plans or sit in his wheelchair and whine. Neither of them were going to stop Thermidor so it wouldn't matter to him.
Edited by Razo Krieger, Oct 31 2011, 09:40 PM.
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Razo Krieger
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The Cult of Personality
Hull, Britain, 2 days later...

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Two days after being told to test a the pills on himself, Berlioz's life felt completely different. His blonde hair had now been forcefully turned into a stark white. He'd gained a few inches in height and his muscles felt more like that of a bodybuilder. Although his physical build seemed to barely change, the effects of the drugs definitely seemed to have regressed his physical age back to that of a man in his 20's. No longer wearing a standard uniform, Berlioz's attire now consisted of a long, blue-purple coat with the his custom insignia sewn into both shoulders, a red zip-up hoodie/vest underneath this coat, a navy muscle-shirt beneath that, and a pair of blue jeans., with a black leather sleeve covering his right arm, which still felt intense pain from the effects of the pill. Nobody would notice it under such a large sleeve. As Berlioz was getting ready to go scouting out for a second Human + at night, a bang from the door rung out through his apartment. "Hmm....Someone calling round at this time....?" Berlioz picked up his new revolver and put it in the holster and answered the door.

"Commander Rayleonard? You wanted me to call round at Nine 'o Clock?" A certain red haired woman, now 30 years old, stood before Berlioz. Lilium Wolcott, the would-have-been boyfriend of the deceased Xanavi Krieger. The 7 years without her best friend had its toll on Lilium. No longer the young girl that gave occasional advice and support to Xanavi, Lilium had become much more snarky and serious over the years, and had taken to smoking to try and relieve the pain. "Huh...? Oh right, I almost forgot you were tagging along with me tonight..." Berlioz awkwardly laughed to himself and scratched his head. He hurriedly pushed Lilium out of the doorway so he could lock the door up behind him.

"So...Do we have any idea of where we should be looking for a suitable candidate...?" Berlioz asked Lilium. It was the first night he was going out searching for a Human + ally. His main squad was already built up, all he needed was to fulfill the last part of Thermidor's deal. "I know a guy. I've been trailing him for a while, and he seems like a pretty suitable guy too. Only problem is, he lives in Sheffield and it's gonna take a bit of time to get there..." Lilium shrugged her shoulders and unlocked her car. Berlioz simply shook his head at the distance he'd have to travel, but he would take any possible candidates at the first chance he'd get. Both of them got in the car, Berlioz in the passenger seat, Lilium as the driver.
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Razo Krieger
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The Cult of Personality
Sheffield, 11:00PM

Around 45 minutes later, Lilium and Berlioz were starting to make their way into Sheffield. The old city was still a major part of Britains steelworks industries, and was rife with people going out to get drunk and party. The two of them were still a mile or two away from where their target was hanging out, as he too was out at this time, but only for the former. "By the way, what do we know about this guy...? So far you haven't told me anything about him..." Berlioz nervously asked. It was only now that his suspicions about Lilium's idea were coming to light. He trusted her, but not on the scale of a good friend.

"Well, for a start he's in his 20's, so he'll survive the procedure. He's also a wannabe mercenary in his spare time. Recently that's become less and less though. See, he likes to get drunk, and I don't mean the standard poor driving, shit walking and crazy smile. I'm meaning he'll get so drunk he'll vomit over a girls breasts and likely find it attractive....'Scuse me...." Lilium let go of the steering wheel at the lights and zipped up her large brown jacket upon realising what she just said. He's usually drinking around this time. Some place called the Escapade. He's got his own seat at the bar there. Shouldn't be hard to find." Lilium explained further. Eventually, the two pulled up outside a nightclub with the specified name in bright red letters. Lilium knows the place would be rowdy at this point, and thus brought the precaution of a set of brass knuckles. "Here we are then...I'll keep him distracted while you spike his drink. If you've got anything to defend yourself with, bring it with you." Lilium stepped out of the car and went in first. Berlioz sat there for a moment, awkwardly looking at his revolver. While a gun is an excellent defensive tool. In a building full of unarmed and possibly drunk party-goers, it was far too excessive.

Bright beams of different coloured lights filled the room that the two entered. Being a stark contrast from the wars they had seen, people here did not care about the war. Almost everybody here was accompanied by someone else. British culture pretty much dictated "If you're alone, you're a freak" So nobody dared to come in here alone. Except for one young man in the corner next to the bar. stands at around 6 feet, lean and with a face more like classic Dante's. His hair was black and his eye color seemed to be a darker grey or silver. His attire consists of a black leather hooded jacket with red lining on the inside that hangs down to his knees, with the British Union flag sewn on the left arm, a white A-shirt, black fingerless gloves, black faded jeans, black military boots, and two necklaces. The jacket only served to hide his thin build. Compared to several of the men in the club, he was practically a twig. Lilium walked over in front of his view, taking one of the stools to sit down on. Several beer and whiskey glasses were stacked on top of each other in a pyramid shape, a good hint that the young man had been drinking heavily.

"Hey, that sort of shit isn't good for your liver, y'know..." Lilium awkwardly tried to start up a conversation with him. His focus wandered around the room, unsure of where her voice came from. From his perspective, Lilium wasn't even sitting on a stool, but instead stood up on the bar itself. "Oh yeah...I'm...I'm not really giving a crap about that anymore...Heh heh...." The young man looked up at the ceiling as he was talking. He was clearly too drunk to even understand what was going on around him. "Hey. Think it might be for the best if you gave this guy a ride home. The kids got dedication but he's probably gonna hurt himself if he goes out on his own...." Berlioz raised his voice so Lilium could hear him over the loud music. While the young man was still looking up at the ceiling, Berlioz took the chance to drop the pill into the last bit of beer in the young mans glass. Immediately after it dissolved, Lilium got up off her stool and picked the man off his seat. "Alright, c'mon you big sloppy git, you're just going to get yourself run down by a van or something if you keep drinking like this!" Berlioz helped her pick the man up by his shoulders after he dejectedly drank up the last of the beer, and thus the dissolved pill, and carried him out of the nightclub. Directly across the road, there was a cheap hotel running late into the night for people to stay after a night on the town. Without any further thought, the young man was carried over to the hotel and simply dumped on a bed in a room on the bottom floor.
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Razo Krieger
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The Cult of Personality
"Alright, it's going to take about a day or two for the drug to alter his body. Hopefully, it will make him resistant to alcohol as well. I haven't been able to get myself drunk since I took that drug anyways. In fact I could probably substitute water for whiskey and still not be drunk now!" Berlioz jokingly stated as they were going back to the car. Neither of them had arranged their own accommodation in the city and thus would simply sleep in the front and back seats of the cars. Although Lilium had successfully got the man to effectively take the Human + drug, there was still one thing she was enjoying more. "By the way...Since this guys evidently going to end up working with us...What's his name...?" Berlioz asked Lilium with no confidence whatsoever. If the man was an obvious criminal in Britain, then the chances would be Berlioz would simply shoot him and stop a superpowered criminal running around. But it was obvious from Lilium's triumphant grin that she, at least had found exactly who she was after.

"Oh, his name? Well Berlioz. The guys name is Razo. Razo Krieger..." Lilium smiled when she gave out the name. She'd planned for Xanavi Krieger's little brother to work alongside her. To her, this was all part of her own bigger picture. Use a Human + enhanced Krieger to take out her best friends murderer, then destroy the people who betrayed him in the first place to get in league with the Federation. Berlioz was livid. He was one of the people in ORCA who had no idea about their own "Project Nova" and thus believed Xanavi simply went on a killing spree with Nova-6 for no good reason. "Oh for fuck sake Lilium! Why the fuck did you have to go and pick a god damn Krieger?! Bad enough about Xanavi going nuts and gassing Jaburo, but getting one who's gonna try and drink himself to death is just fucking stupid!!" Berlioz shouted at the top of his voice. Passerby could hear him shouting at her from outside. "And to think that I chose you to be the god damn Captain of my battleship! FUCK!!!!!" Berlioz took a deep sigh and got out of the car, and then climbed by into the back seats. "Whatever. I'm going to sleep. We'll have to see if your stupid decision actually pays off..." Berlioz shut his eyes and tried to bury his frustration and having to work with a Krieger. Lilium on the other hand, had a big grin on her face as she relaxed back against her drivers seat. "Heh...Xanavi...I found your little brother for you. I hope you can watch what he's going to do...." Lilium muttered to herself and went to sleep.

In the hotel room, Razo was writhing in pain on his bed. His entire skeleton felt like it was trying to grow out of the flesh and muscles. "God fucking damnit!! What the fuck is up with me tonight?!?!" Razo shouted out and stretched his arm out, trying to reach from something to grab onto to pull himself up. But there was nothing there. Every second, he felt his consciousness fading away. This was the exact same feeling Berlioz had when he used the Human + pill on himself. His veins bulged out through his skin more as he writhed around. Eventually, Razo's body simply stopped moving. His heart was pumping blood around faster than any adrenaline rush would provide. His eyes simply closed as he passed out from the immense pain, feeling like his entire body would rip itself to pieces by growing from the inside...
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Razo Krieger
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The Cult of Personality
Sheffield, 11:55 AM

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Morning came so soon for Razo Krieger. He'd gone to sleep feeling like his bones were going to grow out of his skin. Now he'd woken up feeling like he'd been stretched out over and over again. His entire body felt out of place from how it was yesterday. "Ugh....Jesus wept....What the hell did I do last night...?" Razo angrily muttered to himself and pulled himself up from his bed. His white shirt had ripped from his Human + enhancements growing out of it and thus fell to the ground when he got up. "Hmm...Shirt's ripped? God damnit now I'm gonna end up forking out for a new one..." Razo muttered to himself and staggered over to the bathroom. He hung his face over the sink and ran the taps, scooping cold water into his face until he felt fully awake. He stood up straight and gazed right into the mirror, expecting his scruffy black hair to be hanging in front of his eyes. However, something was seriously wrong today.

"Hey...wait a moment...." Razo muttered to himself and rubbed his eyes. His black hair had been "dyed" overnight. Though the door to his room was open so somebody could have dyed it while he was asleep. However, there was no hair dye lying around anywhere. Furthermore, his once silver eyes had also turned a deep red. Razo was enraged, but also extreme confused at how drinking himself silly turned changed his hair, eyes and build. "Just....What the flying fuck did I do last night?!?!" Razo angrily shouted out and stormed out of his hotel room, intending to try and drink his troubles away again. As he was going over the road, Berlioz opened an eyelid and took a good look at Razo. A small smirk went over his face. "Oh he's going to try and drink the problem away again...Not very smart of him but it's better of him to learn right away..." Berlioz muttered to himself stretched his arms out.

"Huh? How long do you want to give him before we bring him in?" Lilium asked Berlioz. Unlike either of the two men, she'd woken up much earlier, and had even gone to read a newspaper to do something while waiting for Razo to get up. Berlioz took a look at his watch, exactly twelve 'o clock. For any normal person, it would only take a few pints before they started to get drunk, but this being a heavy drinker like Razo, he would notice that he wasn't getting anywhere near drunk and kicking back the beers like crazy. "I'll give him 30 minutes. Chances are by that time he's had about 18 pints and about as not-drunk as he was going in!" Berlioz laughed to himself and relaxed back into his seat. Lilium on the other hand, would not wait that long. "Oh fuck this, I can't be bothered waiting around for him now!" Lilium hastily got out of the car and followed Razo into the nightclub they were in the previous night not 1 minute after he went in.

"Oh my god...please tell me I haven't just seen this...." Lilium muttered to herself the instant she noticed Razo sat at the bar. Row after row of whiskey bottles, wine bottles, vodka bottles, scotch bottles, cider bottles and cans of beer. All of them had been downed within a minute of Razo entering the club again. And yet, for all of the 40 + bottles of alcohol he'd drunk, he still felt no different. "Damnit just how much have I gotten used to this stuff?" Razo awkwardly laughed and opened yet another whiskey bottle and downed it in one go. Disgusted, Lilium walked over to him again. She would not introduce herself to him, but only ask what she needed to.

"Where does your heart falter, Razo Krieger? You should be doing something like fighting for the sake of your own freedom! To continue existing as a symbol of hope, that is what it should mean for a fighter to-" Before Lilium could finish her sentence, Razo slammed down his bottle the instant she uttered his name and stared back at her with a death glare. "Let me just ask you a simple question, missy. What the hell are you talking about? And why are you sticking yourself in my face? 'Cause if there's not a damn good reason for this then by gum I might just pain the walls a new shade of red...!" Razo harshly threatened Lilium and began to leave.

"I...I wanted to recruit you for a regime change...." Lilium uttered two words that instantly caught Razo's attention. "A regime change? Which country's in the doghouse now....?" Razo dryly asked her in response. He had no idea that Lilium was trying to recruit him to take on a world government instead of just a local government. "Earth Federation..." Lilium stated to him. There was an odd moment of silence between the two. Before Razo decided to open his mouth to speak again. "What's your name...?"

"Lilium. Lilium Wolcott. I knew your brother quite well..." Lilium seemed ashamed at associating herself with someone the Federation and ORCA regarded as some sort of terrorist. After Project Nova's climax, the Federation had started to become even more strict and corrupt in their rule. Razo took a moment to consider his choice given all of the information he had. "Alright. I'll be happy to help you out there Wolcott." Razo offered a hand to pull Lilium up. He didn't know why he was accepting an offer for a regime change on a whim. Perhaps it was the bond he seemed to have felt with Lilium through Xanavi. Perhaps it was the desire to make a difference? Razo himself did not have the answer to why, only the answer to "Yes or No?" Lilium accepted her hand and walked outside with him.

"We're going to have to go back to Switzerland for a while before we actually get started with operations, mind you. We've got training to be doing." Lilium stated as they were getting into the car. Razo was slightly annoyed at the distance he'd have to travel, but it didn't bother him too much. "Training, huh? Why do I get the feeling we're going to be using Mobile Suits for this?" Razo asked Lilium as he was strapping himself in. "Because we, are. Lilium here's my captain for our main transport." Berlioz answered with a bored tone. He was still against the idea of letting a Krieger into his squad. Before Razo could ask who the hell this guy was, Lilium simply shook her head as an indication not to talk.

Unbeknownst to Razo Krieger, this would be the first major turning point in the young mercenary's life....
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