Soul Killer's message to [REDACTED] on the unique interactions between two individuals possessing Implants sourced from the same MAL

I've had two successful experiments in emulating a phenomenon I've called… Resonance. The first was aiding the development of Kensuke's children, Princesses Hex-Blood and Heart Seeker. One with the ability to imitate and mimic mutations, while the other… her BUG has made her the perfect copycat of entire personalities. At first, they showed no proper ability to enhance or manipulate the other's abilities — that is, until Hex-Blood's untimely demise.

Who knew you could wear an effective corpse as a suit? At times, I wonder if it would just be better to have killed Hex-Blood properly, but what can I say? Kensuke is sentimental; he is their father, after all. It's an extraordinary phenomenon, convincing an Implant that its host is still alive by using its twin… if only Kensuke hadn't left me for that conniving child he had engaged as his heir.

As for Topaz and Quartz, I fear that my loss of them to Emizren has resulted in the obfuscation of many more worthwhile discoveries that could have been made. Biological twins, both gifted powers from a hand-crafted Carrion MALformed. Fascinating discoveries were made just in its creation, such as the natural… rejection possessed by MALformed wielding antithetical Source-Shards. Containment and Release. You would think the opposite? However, it appears that mere Fragments do not have the capability to combine; only the Shards they are sourced from.

One whose presence draws Aether out to the world, and another whose soul sucks it in — erasing the ability for others to perceive them. Together, they've shown the potential to achieve a balance, but I never sought to balance them… no, the most worthwhile results never come as a product of order. But entropy.

It's a shame I couldn't keep Ulrich for longer; I surely would have loved to have taken Dreadwire to further experiment with their potential symbiosis.

But I understand, he's not mine to take, he's hers. She who whistles to the Dogs. But I will have her return to me, I will not let Skeleton take her.

October 14th

1:28 AM

Ripley

She bet we'd… what did she bet we'd do? I glanced as she paused, she was going to say something, but now I had no idea what? There were many things we could do; we could fight, team up, or talk things through over dinner together.

Actually, no. Elsa would kill me if I did the last one.

Opening the door to the workshop, I decided to distract myself by quickly removing the remaining Arachnodyne from my back. I walked forward, but she stood still at the entrance. Right… There were a lot of people missing limbs here.

"Uh, these are all Dogwhistler's victims, we're removing their Shardware and Implant to keep them away from her." I hurried out.

Diana strode deeper in, taking wide glances at the surrounding machinery and bodies around her. Then she spoke, and it wasn't what I expected. "It's… incredible. All along I thought we were just ignoring them."

"Oh." I turned to where my other three Arachne limbs were laid, and I was very much uncomfortable having a Special Intelligence Investigator look at all of this very illegal stuff. How was Maiden okay with this?

In a second, I unhooked my body armor's restraints and laid it down on the table as I set my Arachnodyne to detach. It didn't work. Right, Maiden had somehow fried the limb's circuitry with that weird electromagnetic laser. I needed to remove it manually. Typically, the other Arachnodyne limbs were nimble enough to self-operate, or I had my mother or Mirage help me out, but… my metal arms were a bit too big to reach back for the clamps.

"Diana, uh… You mind helping me detach this?" I said as I slid my undershirt off, thank the Founders it was made of Reactive Weave so I didn't need to put a hole through to get it off.

She took a weary look at me, a flash of disgust crossing her face before she shook her head and approached me from behind. This was far from a situation I wanted - an Investigator looking at Dreadwire's machinery. Still, I'd rather have her than the scorn of interrupting Maiden right now while she was handling Missy.

There was history and drama there, something that screamed danger to me.

I pointed towards a few tiny clamps holding the containment unit of my Arachnodyne in place, and then her fingers glanced at the skin of my back.

They felt… hot. Blazing. I could feel an incredible inferno storming within her flesh and invoking me into action. And I knew she felt something too, because she pulled her hand back.

———

Diana

Detach… his Arachne? Founder, I hoped this wasn't just an excuse for him to have me touch his back. He slid his undershirt off, which strangely glided around the arachnid limb poking out to reveal the more extensive underworking of his Arachnid limb. From what I saw, it was a thick plating embedded in his musculature that housed the actual limb; two were located below his scapulae, and another two were located below his ribs. How did he manage to fit all of that into such a confined space?

And uh… I tried not to stare too much. The musculature around the Arachne was… extensive. Whether it was cybernetic or not, it was well-made in both aesthetics and functionality. He pointed towards a few clamps with those sharp claws, and I nodded along before reaching to remove the first one.

Touching the metal and skin, I felt a coolness—a steady, calming current that washed away the ache within me. I noticed my touch lingering a bit too long, so I pulled away, and immediately the sensation stopped, much to my confusion.

The pain returned, and I was shaking slightly from the fatigue. It was the fatigue, I told myself.

Coughing, I asked him to reinstruct me, and he did so with a strain in his voice. Did he feel something too?

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Returning my fingers to him, I tried to make only contact with the metal. But even that sent a rush of serenity through me. Serenity? No, no… that was hardly what I was feeling. I just calmed myself down, which was remarkably easy due to this… sensation.

I got the first clamp off, but the plating hardly moved. I spoke, my voice remarkably easy and almost song-like. "How many more to go?"

His voice, on the other hand, had a festering edge to it, as if he were berating me for going too slowly. "Nineteen."

It… struck into me more like an order than a request, yet I didn't mind it. Typically, I would have said something dismissive, but instead, I had the idea to say this with a smile and a roll of my eyes. "Whatever you say, Rippy."

———

Ripley

Rippy? She was calling me Rippy? We weren't that close, unless she meant it sarcastically. And what was with this heat? I felt like jumping around all over the place, doing anything other than standing still. My hands started fidgeting.

——

Diana

His hands were fidgeting, the metal curling up and down, and then even his legs began to shake. I just giggled at the motion as I calmly took my time unhooking a second clamp; it was as if he were a child standing uncomfortably as his mother buttoned his shirt or something.

On second thought… why was I letting myself get this comfortable with a criminal? A coworker at best.

That's it, I was channeling the Fire Tendency.

———

Ripley

She was giggling now? God, what was she thinking, that I was some stupid child too impatient to stand still while-

I cut that thought. Fuck this! I'm channeling the Water Tendency.

———

Diana and Ripley

Unbeknownst to each other, their roles reversed. Diana was burning as her Energy swirled across her body, while Ripley let a soothing wave flow through his nerves.

Then, they spoke at the same time.

"Will you fucking stand still! I can't take these off if you're shaking!"

"Take your time, DJ."

…

"Did you just call me DJ?!"

"Diana Jones, you like being known as that, right?"

"Yeah, but not DJ!"

"DJs are cool though?"

"Maybe to you, I'm an adult."

"They make cool music, what more could you want?"

"Someone actually productive to society!"

Diana ended up ripping the third clamp off, and Ripley just shrugged. "Eh, I'll need to repair the rest either way."

Diana snorted. "Cool, can I just rip the rest of the seventeen off, then?"

"I… would recommend against that, unless you intend to tear off some flesh as well accidentally," Ripley warned.

She scoffed in return. "Fine, fine. You want me to do this the right way, then lie down somewhere! It's hard to do this when you're standing up."

"Uh… all the beds are kind of taken." Ripley glanced around the room.

Diana sighed. "Then get on the fucking floor, jackass."

Ripley looked down, then smirked. "I see you don't exactly have an off-switch for your cop routine. Want my hands behind my head as well?"

Diana lifted her leg and lightly kicked the back of his knee. She sensed that he was holding back the tension since he very gently let go of his weight and got into position. Lying flat on his stomach, Diana sighed with a heavy breath as she leaned down and began removing some of the other clamps… but leaning down wasn't very comfortable.

And there wasn't enough of that soothing… sensation, but she wasn't going to admit that.

"You're going to shut up, and not tell anyone about this, okay?" Diana abruptly sat down on his back, giving her a much better angle to work with.

Ripley answered with ease. "My lips are sealed tight."

And so, Diana continued plucking one clamp after the other. However, this new position meant that the flow of their Warp Energy had many more… areas of contact to flow through.

And so their roles reversed once more.

Ripley bit his teeth. "Why on earth are you so heavy?!"

Diana, meanwhile, grew concerned. "Are you comfor- what the fuck did you just say?"

There were some things even the Water Tendency couldn't cool down, as Ripley would soon know.

———

Ripley

Getting off the cold ground, I rubbed my back. She didn't need to be that forceful! And how was I supposed to know she had metallic deposits through her skeleton? Cool as that was.

Shaking my head, I yanked the Arachnodyne limb off my back, now that all the clamps were unhooked, and placed it down with the rest of them. Then I dusted my hands and reached for my shirt, while turning towards her. "Tips for next time, don't send electric sparks down there, I have very sensitive nerve endings-"

She was staring at me, at my chest… at my glowing nipple.

———

Diana

Why was… that was an odd choice for a piece of Shardware. But it was so… bright? How did he stuff so much Shardware into every inch of his body in just four months?

"My eyes are up here." He poked my forehead. I was going to flinch back with something when I noticed that his face was pretty red, and he hurriedly put on his shirt.

"That's… it was just very…" I didn't know what to say.

"I've heard it all before." The glow steadily wore away from under his shirt. "Besides, it's your fault I even have it in the first place! You shot that damned Gold MAL-seed and it sprinkled its juices all over me!"

I folded my arms, offended. "I was saving your life! Would you have rather I didn't?"

"Well…" He chewed his lips. "I saved your life at Little Requiem!"

———

Ripley

Little Requiem… where her friend died. And now I just reminded her of it. Fucking great job, Ripley Donovick! Clenching my face, I reached for words to say something. "I um… sorry, I-"

"It's okay." She said, a thin line on her lips as I saw nothing but cruel reality etched in her gaze. "You… you did save my life. Thank you."

"Well…" I had to say something. "Thank you, too. I guess we'll just rotate around whose life needs saving every so often."

"Maybe we will…" She sighed. "Alright, we're done with your thing, now find me a shower… I can't believe you let me sit on you while I'm covered in dried…"

She stopped speaking, because we both contemplated the same thing. Why did I let her sit on me when she's soaked in blood? My mouth opened, and words slowly came across. "Yeah, I think Maiden's right. I'll take a shower too."

As we began to leave, I couldn't help but notice Starlight and Seraphim in their holographic forms floating by the console. Starlight was lifting her tiny arm to cover the giant eye's pupil, but she barely covered a fifth of it.

"I do not want to see anything like that, ever… again! I had no idea what was going to happen next!"

"Nothing was going to happen!" I stammered, before looking at Seraphim. "Uh, is covering her eye actually doing anything?"

"No, that was for my sake of mind. Having a giant eye stare at you two was… disturbing." She shivered.

"Starlight…" I smacked my lips. "Be a dear and delete any and all footage from when we entered the room."

"Uh… will Maiden like that?"

"It's not Maiden who I'm scared of." I didn't want any chance of Elsa somehow hacking her way into that footage.

As we found our way upstairs, we passed by a shouting match that Maiden was winning. It involved a line saying, "This is why I broke up with you, you still can't let go of your past!"

We decided not to get into that drama. Heading up the staircase, Diana suddenly stopped. "Oh… fuck, I might also need to make some last minute adjustments to my appearance. Knowing the media, the Net will find out I was at a homeless shelter and then I'll get all sorts of tabloid articles about it."

"Oh… you going to dye your hair or something?" I joked.

Then her hair turned black, its curls straightened, and her skin turned a stone gray, as sharp fangs extended from both canines. I took a wary step away.

Finally, her eyes. Silver no more, they darkened and turned a vibrant red like fresh arterial blood. Not to mention, she was already covered in blood, and it only added to her fearsome identity. "So… when the fuck could you turn into a vampire, Diana?"

"Name's not Diana when I'm like this." Even her voice felt changed, delicate but as sharp as those fangs. "It's Lilian Rose. Now keep this a secret… Donovick."

A razor-sharp smile flashed my way, her image dressed in danger, and yet she remained just as captivating before turning away.

And so, Diana, or Lilian Rose, made her way to the showers, not even taking a glance back at me.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.