Lore

Xylia was not always the tall super soldier she’s always been. Her childhood was an easy one, a family very involved in the military, her mother was never home often and her father, much older, had retired from services shortly after Xylia was born. He cared for her like a single father, mother coming to visit when she could, but Xylia wasn’t troubled by this. He showed her dirtbikes, rock climbing, baseball… She was quite the little athlete. Her life was far from lonely though, her second cousin Wisteria was more like a sister, often staying over every weekend and even going to the same school as Xylia. Who needs friends when she has Wisteria?

Shortly into her mid teens, Wisteria had convinced Hazard to come with her to a surgery she’d convinced her mother to let her undergo, as she was 16 and was allowed to decide these things for herself. There was a facility under the name Anim-Ritudo, growing to fame for its cosmetic surgeries. The world long since has been familiar with cosmetic procedures to gain silicone horns on the forehead or cutting ears to shape them into elf ears, hell, even whiskers have been attached to human bodies. Now, it was time for true transformations with dreams people have always wanted to achieve. Ever wanted cat ears? It was finally possible, same goes for those who want wings, tails, claws, you name it. Whatever cosmetic choice you wanted, you got, and it was growing; FAST. Your average stranger on the street could have bunny ears these days, business was booming, and Wisteria dreamed of getting in on the action.

Wisteria was much more of a fashion guru than Xylia, looking up to models and idols, and her dream was to have horns just like her idols. Xylia agreed to come, she wanted to be there for her friend, surgery is surgery after all. It’s always going to be scary no matter the procedure. Shortly into Wisteria’s operation, Xylia sat in the chairs outside the room, scrolling away on her phone.

“That company's pitch finally got approved, I’m not sure how I feel about these things being used genetically however… that wasn’t our CEOs goal.”

A voice nearby had Xylia lifting her eyes from her screen, now eavesdropping. Any major face in a company has dirt, she wanted to get in on this, who doesn’t? It was two nurses down the hall talking, coffees in hand, clearly on break. They continued their conversation, Xylia kept her head down, white curly locks falling into her face…throughout her listening, she had learned a smaller company associated with the military had been accepted into a sort of branch of the Anim-Ritudo company. Both benefit from it, funding one another… The nurses seem on edge, they’re not too keen about their animal cosmetics and soldier gene splicing bullshit being intertwined…

But Xylia didn’t care. She was interested. Her thoughts were cut short when a doctor waved her to come inside to see her friend; horn application successful, Wisteria looked amazing.

Several months after this encounter, Xylia had managed to figure out the company and its specialties. It was originally an underground enhancement facility for the military, super soldier type experiments. The name was Actiuz in its years, but now under the cosmetic company, the name shifted to Animaug. Soldiers have been released from the facility, sent off to do whatever, with early enhancements; they were taking a step into the unknown with enhancement with animal genes. The dream was to have people who could have the scent of a wolf, the reflexes of a cat, the durability of a bull, that was the long term goal; to help soldiers have an upperhand. Xylia wanted in on it. Her family was very military orientated, she wanted to join the forces too, but enhancements sounded like too good of an opportunity.

From 15 to 18, Xylia spent her whole time in this facility, training and undergoing tests. She was known as Subject 14, booked under Maug Tests V.2, quote on quote ‘The Success’. She wasn’t aware of the dark past of previous soldiers undergoing what she had, She wasn’t aware of a V.1 to these things, she was naive and innocent. She was only doing what she dreamed of; being the best goddamn soldier she could ever be. Her family would be proud, although she never saw them much during her Animaug years, having dropped out of school and purely focusing on being the perfect soldier.

With success came pain and endurance. Hazard had new abilities, sharper reflexes and hearing, she could see at night perfectly and her balance was acute. She had already been a tall teen, but she grew far more in these tests, upon request. With all these pros, the cons were there, but not enough to stop her from continuing. Reactions to the medicines and genes had scarred the right side of her face, discolored and coarse from repeated reactions. Her teeth had grown sharp, nails longer, a loud ring of tinnitus that comes and goes within different atmospheres. She’s grown hungrier too, her body craving far more nutrients with her sudden muscle and size.

But she was happy. She was on the cusp of perfection, aside from the small drawbacks. She didn’t care about some scarring on the right side of her face that spread to her shoulders, looks weren’t her goal, even as a child. She was strong, she was fast, and she was ready to show what she could do. She hit 18 years old, she could be a part of the military now, and things were like paradise for her. Although she rarely got to see her parents and Wisteria, she’d grown to accept that, she’d be gone for months at a time in the army anyways. This was it, this was her dream, she made it.

Things soon collapsed after a year of her journey outside the facility and in the field. It wasn’t sudden, it was progressive. The CEO of Animaug changed for the 3rd time, and this was by far the worst of them. They weren’t new, no, all the CEO’s who replaced the first were in the company since the start. Xylia, who was aware of these hints of failed tests, finally had a glimpse into what truly went on in Actiuz before her arrival, and even issues that had been going on since she’d been there. Failed experiments, forced experiments, people being altered in ways they were unaware of. Different mixes of animals, genes, etc. to perfect the best chimera of a soldier. Hazard was lucky, her tests were smooth, perfected. Cat genes weren’t unknown, they were commonly sought after. It was people with things like frogs, horses, even insects facing the repercussions of an unperfected science. They were tricked into thinking it was just a test, not a life sentence. Shoved into units only to fall sick weeks later due to the imperfection of the genes, their bodies attacking themselves… and thus, with all the whistleblowers, the company began to scramble for money. They weren’t in the red, not by any means, but it was coming to light what was happening…and more people started escaping their tests.

It was falling apart and it was using those who weren’t in shambles from testing as a crutch.

Xylia was quick to try and pull the plug on her involvement there, but they wouldn’t let her depart. It wasn’t that simple, she was part of their company, she was almost the Perfect Soldier, along with many in the V.2 tests, they were practically unscathed. They were the prime research material for V.3 batch, the polished soldiers with solid gene mutations. But Xylia wanted nothing to do with Animaug any further. They could’ve done this to Wisteria, taken her cosmetic surgery to a different turn, there were many tricked into thinking what could be a dream was merely a trap into warfare.

And with that, she vanished. Xylia went off the grid, fleeing from an unit exercise in another city, tearing off into the night with a shitty motorcycle one of the Sergeants had and her DSR-50. She couldn’t come back to society, she was considered an experiment, a danger. Rumors of those trying to run from the company were treated like infected animals, captured and put to god knows where, telling the media they were hazardous and couldn’t be in the public for undistinguished reasons. The dream of Animaug was twisted in the hands of corrupt CEOs, who want power and fame, not bettering the performance of the soldiers in the military.

She swore to never show her face, while her height was peculiar, as well as the ears, it wasn’t uncommon anymore. Enhancements were normal among society, just like Wisteria’s horns, it’s just another form of self expression. Xylia concealed her identity, dying her hair dark brown in a crummy motel a night later, choosing to mask her face with the motorcycle helmet to hide the scarring on her face - it would be a dead giveaway if anyone of the company ever saw her as she fled the state. Her home was the vast world, her family was forgotten and her dream was shattered. She was a failure to the government and a hazard to the company’s image…

Xylia looked at the distant lights of the final city from atop a building just outside of city limits, wind tugging at her curly hair. She sighed, grasping the caution tape that fluttered in the wind, long forgotten up here under an overhang, from a construction zone unfinished… She pulled it free from the rebar it wrapped around, holding it out in her hands, staring down at it. Slowly, she began to wrap it around her face, concealing her features, that scar that would forever brand her as an Animaug soldier.

Xylia pulled the helmet on, flipping the visor down, and turned to leave the roof. She’s free to do whatever she wants, she reminded herself. She gripped her worn out DSR-50 and pushed open the fire exit door, descending down the stairs. The company was after her now, she couldn’t sit put for long. Why, you ask?

Well, she was now nationally categorized as a hazard to society; she accepted it.