C) A young warrior of the Apache tribe in the Americas, living a life of raiding and fighting for his people.
C) 'Patron Blue'. Safe. Effects: Grants a defensive power useable on others, a long-range offensive power, flight or speed, minor altered appearance. Manifestations: lightning, energy. Power Level: Middling-Average.
Talk about a landslide. Don't be afraid to post your reasoning/ideas behind votes/speculation too!The operation takes place in the subject's sleep. The drones are precise and as good as invisible as they drift through the slumbering Apache camp. If any guards witness them, the machines are gone too quick for them to have any idea of what they're seeing. These are Chiricahua Apache, making their home in the harsh, dry country of the American Southwest. Neither Mexico or the United States - the two established nation-states in this region - look upon them with much affection. Raiding and conflicts are common. The tide of frontiersmen and settlers threatens their age-old dominance of these lands. You don't expect them to last to the end of the century in any real capacity.
Of course, you're about to wreak some havoc with that progression. Your target is called Naiche in their own tongue. The neural probe tells you more about him than his words ever could. He's a lonely, aloof soul with a biting sense of humor, burning with the resentment and rebellion against his people's norms that seems fairly common to the late adolescents of this species. He has an ambition, a drive to make his mark on the world. It's a picture that's full of potential, and that potential is soon realized.
[MANIFESTATION: AVERAGE POWER LEVEL, MEDIOCRE ABILITY]The serum manifests two days after the injection. Naiche is hunting when the pain begins. He collapses to his knees, spasms and writhes, his nerves firing madly as alien changes erupt across his body. Lightning explodes out of his eyes and fingertips, arcs across his muscles and lances into the earth around him. The dry earth is scoured clean of life by a relentless storm of electricity. The night shudders under flashes of light and power.
Then, with a final bolt of lightning that surges upwards and high into the sky, it is over. Naiche's spasms slow down and cease. He is left panting on the blackened rock. Tiny sparks of power continue to trickle out of his eyes for a long while after, but the worst of it is over. He has survived, as you expected him to, and he seems to be taking well to the injection. When he returns to the camp, it is with a nervous confidence that speaks of an understanding - an understanding that he has changed into something new and
powerful.Over the next few weeks, you monitor him closely and follow him as he experiments with his newfound abilities. 'Patron Blue' has seen fit to manifest as furious and unrestrained lightning and electricity. It is a terribly exciting look for him. You make sure to get good material for your encrypted archives. With a grimace and a roar, he wills long arcs of gloriously luminous lightning from his eyes. His control and aim leaves a lot to be desired, but the power within is considerable. Rock is blasted open and grass scorched clear with each blast of his power. It's nothing one of their better gunpowder weapons couldn't do, but these safe serums have their limits. Over the passing days, he learns to adjust the destructive power into less lethal attacks as well. Also interesting is his ability to direct the lightning over his body into a blazing 'armor' of a sort. Any would-be attackers foolish enough to come close to him will no doubt be painfully surprised. Based on what the serum description promised, he should be able to give similar protection to another individual as well, if at the cost of leaving himself vulnerable.
Further changes are to come. The more he uses his powers, the more frequently Naiche's eyes generate spontaneous bursts of power on their own. It's impossible to hide these sparks, which seem a permanent addition to his appearance. His band notices very quickly. Their fear and astonishment seems to please Naiche somewhat - but he makes the choice to leave them behind, riding alone into the wilderness. Soon he abandons the horse as well, somehow directing his power into his muscles and legs to run across the country at the same speed as his mount in full gallop, a lightning-bolt man leaving bewildered animals in his wake wherever he goes. Hours of running don't seem to tire him all that much. Delighted cries and whoops echo across the desert as he exults in his impossible speed.
You're not certain what he plans from there, or if his abilities will continue to develop. The man remains in the wilderness - but on several occasions, strays close to Apache villages and settler towns alike, surveying them from afar. It seems he's building up the courage to do
something with the gifts you have given him. You leave the monitoring program on, rather satisfied, and move on. Your first injection is a thorough success.
***
A slight delay is appropriate before your next try. Too much of a clear pattern is something even those bumbling fools in the Authority can use, so you allow some time to pass. It gives you plenty of further data on these humans and their little world. These early days are a thrill. How long until they become aware of the gifted among them? How long until you've changed the way they live for good? That won't be for a long while yet, but each subject you gift gets you a little closer there.
Who or where do you wish to inject?A) Search for an individual fitting particular criteria. Specify the criteria - ie, 'a slave laborer', 'a scientist in Britain', 'a moral person exhibiting qualities of humility, courage and self-sacrifice', 'an amoral person of limited empathy', 'a young lion in Africa', etc.B) Inject the water supply in a small settlement or area. The effect will be spread among many in diluted form. You may specify a particular place or type of area, ie, 'in New York', 'a forest', 'an isolated village', etc..C) Pick a human at random. Should be entertaining!D) Pick an animal at random. Should be entertaining!What you want to see next are...A) Safe Serums. These Serums are tested and mass-produced, with well-known effects and power levels, though the exact details of how they manifest varies. You'll have Machine bring you a batch of them to choose from.B) Experimental Serums. These Serums are experimental and untested, with only the faintest hints of how they might manifest known. They tend to have a much wider range of possible power, and there is a danger of creating something that could be a problem to even you or something that might cause undue damage to the planet as a whole. You'll have Machine bring you a batch of them to choose from.(Optional) There are further options you could consider...A) Request specific batch of serums. You could have Machine focus on particular kinds of serums - for example, serums which tend to grant growth or offensive powers, or which manifest in a specific way such as gravity or disease, or other similar criteria. Please specify one term to search for.B) Monitor an active individual more closely. Focus your monitoring on one subject you've injected. This yields more in-depth and detailed records and narratives of just what they get up to. Only one subject active: not yet necessary.
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Topic: Caveman's Arsenal [SG] (1820, Injection #5: The Tree of Desires) (Read 13561 times)