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Genres:
Apocalypse | LGBT+ | Romance | Drama | Survival | Experiments | Future-Wasteland
Introduction:
"Are you sure this isn't Mother Nature's way of punishing us? We've been taking her kind hands for granted for eons."
-Mr. Belleville, Former Squad Leader of The Dragons
The year is 3000 CE, and the world you know is gone. The lands you once adored became a battlefield. No longer did untouched vegetation thrive within Earth's soil. Time passed, yet the remains of machines, men, and mutant beasts remained in the infertile fields. No one dared to move such objects, not wanting to be contaminated by whatever disease was left. The plague created by man has defiled nature. Trees that once released oxygen have become poisonous toxins to the human lungs. The only ones able to withstand such toxic gases were the mutated beasts and humans, going beyond the path of their instincts. The flowers you once admired have developed into sentient beings, craving the taste of meat and blood. No more is freshwater drinkable without the aid of purifiers. The aquatic environment was formerly a wonderous site, but now, the waters are a death zone, especially the vast open sea. As for the skies, the birds that chirp their heavenly songs now caw with a bloodthirsty rage. Man-eating birds patrol the skies for aircrafts to knock down or snatch unaware humans below.
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"How will the rest of humanity survive in such circumstances!?! The human population is on the decline!"
-Mrs. Ambrose, Money Lender to TCOMP
How did this chaos start in the first place? Well, let's go back to 100 years before the aftermath. A mysterious mutation was developing quickly in the animal population and appeared to target herbivores, yet there were no notable changes to said animal. Correction, there was no transformation on the surface level. Underneath, the mutation was thriving and transitioning the way the animal behaves by altering its nervous system. Gradually, it attacks the brain to have complete control of the body. Once those two are under its control, it beings the mutation process by modifying the DNA of the creature. With these stages, the animal's diet would change, along with its preference. The first seen case started in Texas when researchers noticed a buck devouring the flesh of a deceased one during the mating season. The researchers recorded this incident before ordering the Wildlife Comity to euthanize the deer. Permitting the government scientists can run tests on it once the process is over.
With the mission given to them, two hunters went off to find the deranged buck to kill it. Only for them to be the ones hunted by their supposed prey. After the incident between the two hunters, the government ordered a task force to find the buck and exterminate it. They were successful after two days passed, with casualties, of course. Five scientists tested the buck's body, collecting samples and studying it thoroughly. The five scientists named the mutation Doxia-1. While running tests on it, the mutation started to evolve due to a person's grave mistake. Steadily, it was able to infest the human body after a scientist accidentally cut herself on a shattered beaker and poorly tended to her wound before coming into contact with it.
As you might've guessed, the mutation ran rabid throughout the facility and soon breached the small headquarters to the outside world. Doxia-1 unknowingly corrupted millions of the human population from around the world. The remaining humans battled against those infected with Doxia-1, leading to the almost extinction of both sides. With great reluctance, the humans pulled back from the battle to focus on restoring the population after 5-years of war. Forming three new capitals within three states: Cronio is the newfound capital of Missouri and focuses on sustaining food for the remaining humans. Godon is the new capital of the state of Washington, and its primary focus is on saving the economy. Lastly, Sloxsas is the altered capital of Texas, and they handle the military.
To transport supplies and troops to the other states, they created train tracks that traveled through all three states, but the transportation would last days. In addition, mutated creatures are lured to the loud noises of the trains and would attack them. The train is the only decent option for transporting goods, yet it's always a gamble.
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"Tell me this, little one. Are you eager to make this sacrifice for the shake of humanity?"
-Dr. Lockhart, 2nd Lead Scientist of TCOMP
Now, how can humans fight against their evolved enemies? How would humans remain safe from the cruel world? For the answer to both, the creation of TCOMP, with its full name Test Center Of Mutating Pathology, came in. Who created this program? It's all thanks to Dr. Herington, who retrieved the Doxia-1 samples from the destroyed facility and battled against it to assume control of the mutation. The battle between the disease and human scientists took years before it was enough for it to coexist with the human body instead of fighting it. During the event, they injected each new sub-Doxia strand into adult humans, but the sub-Doxia strands refused the merging and killed the hosts. Stunned by such a result, this sub-Doxia killed them and hadn't infected them like the original Doxia-1. A theory about this found evidence: since the adult human body has a complete immune system, the sub-Doxia didn't have enough time to adapt to the human body. Defensively, sub-Doxia flicked a kill switch because it doesn't have the original defense mechanisms as Doxia-1 and perverse itself from the combatant immune system, which was to assume complete control of the body.
They knew they were getting closer to accomplishing their goals. So, they focused on a different test subject.
Children.
They brought parentless children to the facility and injected the disease into their system. In positive results, the sub-mutation has infused itself with the DNA of the children while leaving the nervous system and brain alone. When the experiment became a success, they named it Vertio. Although there were some written cases that a child showed high emotions of anger, the Verito will spread into their nervous system and brain. This action triggered the child to have an enhanced body of sorts, a strength beyond human and speed that's off the charts. Sadly, the child passed away after an hour after this event. The scientists learned after the incident. Expressing high emotions can activate the Verito invasion instincts.
To ensure that it doesn't happen again, they produced Haloban. A pill-formed medicine that would strike Verito if it goes on take over frenzy. Keep this information to your heart, as the pill doesn't get rid of it. Haloban only slows Verito down from conquering the body at an accelerated rate to give the host an extended time of living. Humans injected with Verito are called the First Generation Mutants, and now they're middle-aged adults.
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"Verito was a grand achievement for the human race. But, we need to keep evolving to retake what's ours."
-Dr. Herington, Head Scientist and Creator of TCOMP
With Verito proven a success, TCOMP started to formulate a new strand to make it even stronger. Trails and errors were higher than before with this new strand, with many of their subjects passing away due to them being incompatible with the strand. The scientists working on the new mutation were shocked at the high death rate, with the reason why left undiscovered. A year later, during the development, when one scientist brought to light that a few children were gradually evolving on their terms to combat Doxia-1. Extracting the new evolution from the children who have it, they combined it with their developing mutation to fix their errors and to make it compatible with those evolving. After 2-years, taking a total of 5 years to create this new mutation, they were finally successful and named this new stand Spasxia. Unlike Verito, Spasxia doesn't require Haloban to control but requires those with a stable mind and resolve to handle it. Those infected with Spasxia are known as Second Generation Mutants in TCOMP records.
Those with Spasxia are nicknamed Half-Muts and require a calm mind and strong willpower to overpower it. In addition, they need to be careful when using Spasxia on a single day. They can combat mutants by evolving parts of their bodies (wings, bladed limbs, tails, etc.) and maintaining their original instincts. However, if they were to lose control (losing control with high emotion or low willpower) or overuse their powers without taking a break, the mutation would spread and turn them into complete mutants, erasing what humanity they have left. You will notice this process when they develop odd cravings, their evolved parts aren't going away, or the white of their eyes gradually shifts to a black color. Once fully controlled, they've become enemies to mutants infected with Doxia-1 and their former members of TCOMP. What makes them scary is that they can still communicate verbally and have high intelligence, which means they're smart enough to lure humans with their voices to either spread the disease or devour them to sustain themselves. When someone is beginning to turn, someone needs to inject Aliclude quickly into their bodies to kill them.
To kill those infected with Spasxia, you need to kill it like any other Doxia-1 mutant, but the task would be difficult. Another option is to inject them with a tranq dart filled with Aliclude, a liquid that quickly kills the disease and turns them into goo.
Plot:
A new mutant has emerged and started to cause trouble within the terrible ecosystem. The mutant's arrival has led other mutants to move closer to human civilization, which is dangerous for the remaining humans living behind the walls in case they were to attack. Upon receiving such devasting news, TCOMP enlisted the Silver Skulls, a squad known for their experience and knowledge against Doxia-1 mutants, to find and gather evidence of this new mutant. They departed by armored truck, heading to the location of the new mutant that was last roaming around in, which was Nebraska. The journey took nearly two days to arrive, and the squadron was growing anxious about the mission.
When they reached the location, finding a half-eaten mutant in the middle of the woods, only to be ambushed and attacked by mutants seeking vengeance for their fallen kin. With this surprise, half of their supplies were either lost or damaged, causing the remaining members to flee into a ruined city. Lucky for them, they escaped the mutants, who were distracted by the fallen bodies. They hunkered down in a half-sunken apartment with a low abundance of supplies. They need to use their wits to maintain order, stealth to avoid detection from the mutants wandering the city, and scavenge for supplies to survive until help arrives, or they can retrieve their vehicle to head back to TCOMP headquarters.
The Silver Skulls didn't realize that when they arrived at the dead body of the mutant. Their communications got cut off from TCOMP headquarters by an unseen force. With this information, TCOMP assigned another squad to retrieve evidence since they believed the Silver Skulls were all deceased. They send off The Phantoms, they're new to the mutant-hunting part of it, but they've been through harsher training, unlike the other squads. They're the squad you hire if you want something done quickly and quietly, and quietly hinted to be TCOMP's favorite squad out there. The Phantoms took the same route to Nebraska and noticed the increase of mutants around the roads appearing agitated. With this issue, they had to travel cautiously, which slowed down immensely. The one-day trip nearly took two days, and the group was on edge by the behavior of the mutants. Finally, they arrived at the location the Silver Skulls were last heard from, following the tracks they left behind, and stumbled upon the scene where the ambush happened. The bodies from the other squad were discovered-some were eaten or dragged away, making the Phantoms believe they were all dead. So, they went off to what they guessed was the direction of the new mutant, heading towards the mountains and miles away from the city. In the mountainous region, the squad found a cave system and headed inside, discovering a facility not belonging to TCOMP and a nest of sorts.
When they tried to report their findings via radio, their communications were disabled. They tried to leave where they entered from, but it got barricaded by a web-like substance that was hard to cut. Now, they're wandering the caves and heading deeper into the ruined facility to find a way out. They're stalked by mutants hiding in the shadows who claimed the facility as their home.
Unbeknownst to both squads, the tunnel system leads to the ruined city. Would these two squads reunite and work together to stop the new mutant? How many people would survive to see the next day, or how many would remain humans without converting?
Fall 
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