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Officer Zero Case File #4: The Siren's Chorus (story)
🕑 Added 2024-09-27 14:42:59 +0000 UTCLittle Note: I WAS intending to make one of the info sheets like I have for other characters for Chorus, but something I need for it is inaccessible right now, it seems it will have to wait. Shame, I was looking forwards to designing her *shrugs*
This is a very short story continuing on from and bringing together two separate stories here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/officer-zero-2-82195176
and
https://www.patreon.com/posts/officer-zero-3-83232929
Small note, I guess: I've altered one character's name to fit with the story I have decided to go with, Lesion changed to Legion for future story reasons I didn't foresee.
Story pasted below AND attached at the bottom.
__________
On a normal night, the sight of a luxury liner looming through the fog and bearing rudderless towards New North City's great eastern docks would cause widespread panic. This is no such night.
Panic already reigns from an entirely different source to that of the massive vessel's impending beaching. In place of panic, an air of curiosity and confusion befalls the real cause of the great shipyard's woes as 50'000 gross tonnes bear down on her.
'A desperation measure?' A pure white, living mass of otherworldly rubber ponders as she watches the hulking vessel approach.
'Or perhaps out of control?' Another, identical figure responds to herself.
'Either way, it seems as if a shipment of cattle has finally arrived!' A third version of the same extra-terrestrial concludes.
A fourth copy tussles with a helpless earthling behind them, smothering the panicking dock hand to create another of her kind.
'And here it seemed as if coming ashore in the dead of night would leave me starved of prey...' She wonders out loud and calmly begins walking towards the probable landing point of the looming ocean liner.
The unstoppable ship doesn't even slow down as it scythes through the deep dockside waters. Inevitably, like a thunderstorm unleashing its wrath all at once, the colossal boat strikes land bringing fire and destruction to the shores of New North City.
'Such impressive engineering!' The now jogging living rubber entities say amidst the ensuing chaos.
'Imagine scuppering such a-' In unison they stop, skidding to a halt as something entirely non-artificial flies from the ship amidst the ongoing devastation.
A tall, slender and feminine silhouette twists and flips through the air with an elegance unbefitting a body thrown from a disastrous crash.
Sapphire pocks of light bounce from what seems to be armour cladding the figure who lands artfully barely ten feet from the collection of aliens.
'All according to plan...' The being from the deepest reaches of the ocean announces with a voice so seductive the air almost curls around her words.
'And you-' The siren lifts her head to see the audience she'd aimed at from afar only to tilt her head in curiosity. '-are exactly who I am looking for it seems!' She states confidently.
'Curious.' All of the faceless white figures before her state with unsettling unity and lean a little closer to observe the siren.
'This is not a human.' One of them concludes as the oceanic predator rises and thrusts out her chest to appear both intimidating and regal.
'It has fins.' Another Chorus speaks, her voice identical to the first.
'And scales.' The impressive, but unnerving display continues from the invisible lips of a third.
'~HMPH!~ Seems she was right!' The creature recently known as “Simona Van der Zee” responds with a sneer. 'The humans are not the only plague upon the land!'
From where she's standing, the clear caution on the part of these beings is a positive: they know nothing about her, but she knows everything about them... or rather her.
'What are you, earthling?' Chorus asks as her now five-strong squad begin to slowly fan out around this odd entity.
'You bear the bipedal form of the humans and yet your physiological similarities end there.' Another comments about the sea creature, seemingly dissecting her with their eyes in highly scientific fashion.
'And who is this “she” you refer to?!' The white extraterrestrial demands with a thick German accent.
PSSSSSHHHH! A beam of steaming hot water cuts through the air and on through the alien furthest to the left; the air hisses from the heat as the living latex creature splits apart like clay sliced down the middle!
The other four figures train their sight on the siren's pursed lips, the origin of the dangerous jet of water. Chorus' other body staggers and twists herself back together like nothing had even happened.
'Enough questions!' The siren insists forcefully and intimidatingly.
Even for these space-women - filled to the brim with the collective memories of countless dangerous enemies - this being seems unnaturally hazardous!
'Very well.' A different Chorus speaks, drawing “Simona's” gaze. 'Perhaps you are more dangerous than I suspected.'
'~Gooood giiiirls.~' She responds by singing two simple chords and senses how the latex creatures ripple and jiggle in response, frozen where they stand.
They have no faces to express their actual emotions, but from what she's seen they don't seem the types to appreciate music.
'Beautiful!' Chorus responds, shattering that impression instantly.
'What breathtaking artistry!' Another version of her adds, the alien's voice trembling as if the siren's tone has hit home how it would for mortal man.
'Well at least you appreciate something beautiful. Allow me to enlighten you on what your future holds, then...' The sea creature splays her fingers and brings the water she ejected to life, making it dance through the air around her.
'I am a siren. The last of my kind... And my purpose on land is to take vengeance against all of humankind for what they've done to me and to the Earth!' The scale-bound beauty confidently explains, posing provocatively to let light shimmer over her scales.
'You seek to take my prey?' One Chorus asks while her other heads watch the trail of water swimming through the air, swerving around the nearest alien.
Even as she turns to look at the one who spoke, the earthling spots movement to her right. One of the seemingly solid (if slippery) white rubber creatures becomes liquid and wraps around her own water tendril as if trying to contain it.
'No...' The siren smirks and with a thought energises the water particles, blowing them and the spiralling white rubber creature apart in a white hot burst of steam!
'-I wish to take you!' Before the surprise of their fifth form's explosive demise can even set in, the remaining members of the Chorus spring back with elastic flexibility, dodging sudden supersonic bullets of water launched from the sea!
'Then you can have more of me than you can handle!' In unison, all of one mind, the latex aliens recover and circle back towards their enemy as streams of squirming, prehensile white rubber!
'Give yourself and your power to the hive!' The amorphous alien assailant shouts as she narrowly misses the suddenly airborne aquatic humanoid.
'Give myself to the hive? Surrender to the collective? Hah!' She confidently boasts and throws her palms out to launch another boiling gout of water down at the now smudged mass of alien cells.
'I'm not one for conformity and you're just a-' She watches the white rubber part around her attack, dodging most of it despite a yelp of obvious pain. '-leaderless army?' Her insult become a question out of surprise.
The highly flexible alien beings, now mushed together into one swirling maelstrom of feelers flail towards her once more, spreading to attack from all sides in mid-air!
The siren defends herself within a shield of water, circling her at jet washer-like speeds that deflect everything- 'Huh?' Almost everything...
She feels the unmistakable grab of this strange creature on her shin and an instant later the liquid latex tugs her back to earth!
'You will be mine!' Chorus insists, 'Your powers will belong to the hive!'
The predator from the ocean wrestles back control, nailing the landing and rolling away; as fast as the eye can see, she snags the semi-solid tendril binding her ankle and yanks the sticky substance away to another yelp of pain, her leg hissing with steaming heat to burn Chorus off!
'I beg to differ, darling!' The siren grins, swinging her arm over her head like she's wielding a whip to launch the white rubber thing into a nearby building.
'In fact I think I have a better idea...' The vicious, razor-sharp teeth of the siren glint in the light as boiling hot water from her palm incinerates the leftover Chorus DNA stuck to her.
'Everything she said was true: a leaderless army and a leader with no army are a match made in heaven!' She watches Chorus completely ignore the collision with the wall by simply liquefying and reforming into numerous forms once more.
'I am not a leaderless army!' The thing from beyond the stars snarls, quite out of character from her usual confident and analytic demeanour. 'GRAAAH! You infuriate me like nobody has before, siren!'
She pounces all at once, each version of the shapeless entity ejecting long, vicious spikes as they fly in a wild, flailing assault.
'I imagine I do!' The sea-born foe almost laughs in the face of the wild assault, displaying her own flexibility to dodge each incoming spear while backing away. '-but such a tactless assault doesn't speak to a well drilled army!'
She oozes confidence, but despite being rather comfortable dodging these attacks, she has every intention of finishing this quickly and exploring what was promised to her.
Playing with her water control and sheer physical attributes is little more than sparring, child's play next to the oceanic predator's one true weapon, the weapon she already knows will prove unavoidable!
'~Giiiive yoooourseeeelf~' She sings as she lands a safe distance back from the flailing alien.
'What?! You choose now to sing?!' Chorus snarls, blades and spikes whipping around in a violent flurry that would be deadly to any normal being; the siren continues to dodge!
'~Tooo meeeee~' She sings on, simply focusing on defence as she does, the white liquid entity visually upset as her already chaotic form seems to bubble and writhe.
'No... no...' Chorus tries to resist, landing and reforming in multiple forms that stagger forwards, still swinging weapon-tipped tentacles wildly around.
'~aaand I'll giiive yooooou~' Chorus' resistance fades, one copy smushing her own head as if trying to squeeze the song out of her ears! '~a neeeew and truuuue wooorth,~'
One by one, the otherwise unstoppable white rubber entities fall to their knees, each trying in their own way to shut it out.
'~Myyy miiind in yooour booody~' The siren sings on, her enemy now all but pacified, rooted to the floor as her hypnotic song courses through her forms.
Chorus' forms begin to falter, her ability to resist completely undone as the five forms of slick white living latex dribble down to the ground; one by one they become like puddles even as the songstress squats down before the nearest one.
'~Myyy desiiire in yooour heaart~' She continues making up the words as she goes, the intent mere set dressing with her notes as the weapons.
She scoops up the gloopy chin of Chorus and tilts her head up, this one maintaining her form as the earthling takes more and more control of her helpless foe.
'~Wheeen yooou're miiiine~' She sings on, shivering slightly as she begins to feel what Chorus feels. '~I'll cleanse the whooole eeeeaaarth.~'
The song finishes and like a bubble being popped, the last solid elements of Chorus slop to the ground like lifeless paste. The siren smiles as she gently inhales, looking down on the defeated alien.
'See? Absolute, unquestioning surrender wasn't so difficult... Was it?' She smiles a slightly aching smile and pushes her influence into the lifeless goop.
She brings it to life with all the ease and natural flair she controls water with. The white pools of alien matter begin swimming together, sloshing into one big puddle beneath her feet.
'It might be selfish of me to push my pain upon you, strange entity, but you would do even more damage than the humans if I didn't.' The siren sighs, steeling herself to this sacrifice.
'This way at least...' She begins, but gasps slightly as she feels the warm and slick rubbery texture of the mind-wiped being slipping through the gaps in her scales down to her skin, '-you can be a part of the solution!'
She smiles to herself; that sounds good, but not as good as the slippery, skin-tight coating now crawling up her legs. It's soaking into her as she goes about melding herself with the unnatural, otherworldly thing; her will is already extended into this new rubbery form.
The victor feels freedom of movement beyond even her own ability to semi-liquefy, her mind a puddle that ebbs and flows. She feels her fluids like an extension of herself as she squeezes this alien liquid through her usually water-tight hide.
She understands Chorus' abilities, steeps herself in the genetic imperative of the alien conqueror and rewrites it to her own vengeful patterns of purpose. Her body sings with all the beauty of her own, hypnotic voice which rises over the quiet dockside as a passionate moan.
The scaly yet streamlined hands of the siren slather herself in the white liquid as if it were a lotion to protect herself from the pollution of the world around her; she rubs it into her every inch with an almost ferocious hunger.
Once she finally slides her new liquefied extension up over her face, the once pure guardian of the seas feels complete for the first time in a very long time.
For a few moments she stays in her low squat, caked in an alien icing that reverberates and ripples to her guttural, smothered moans. As she finally settles into the overwhelming sense of completeness, the scales apparent through Chorus' material polish themselves into a brilliant golden hue.
She knows she has become everything she shouldn't: a hybrid of the natural and the unnatural, she has surrendered what she was born to be in favour of something unnatural and pollutant.
It has to be this way, that much she can't argue with: she needs this! She seeks vengeance for all she has lost and this is what vengeance looks and feels like!
The amalgam of earthling and alien rises slowly, solid once more and tingling with potency like she's never known.
Her hand rises before her blinking golden eyes and with a thought her fingertips elongate into vicious, razor-sharp claws that can cut through steel like it's soft cheese. Just as easily, thanks to her new powers, these claws can absorb that same hardened metal!
She smiles in satisfaction, powerful and sensory satisfaction as her now alien-infused body tingles like there are a dozen hands caressing the underside of her skin. She tries not to react to them, but willingly reacts to the next touch she feels.
'So what do I call you?' A foreign voice asks over her shoulder, the voice belonging to the hands supportively laid upon her shoulders.
'Hmm... Misguided and malevolent though the alien part of me may once have been, the most perfect thing about her was her name... It suits me even more than it did her.' The siren nods as she half-turns to look back at the dark-haired woman behind her.
'Chorus it is.' The woman clad in skintight magical red rubber nods with a smile. 'Everything is as I said it would be, isn't it? Powerful... enriching... enchanting!'
'Not yet it isn't...' Chorus insists and shakes free only to turn and face her benefactor, looking the human woman in the eyes, '-I won't be satisfied until I have my revenge on humanity! Your assistance doesn't change anything, human!'
Chorus watches as brief shock becomes a confident smile, 'Call me Legion... You'll understand why with time. You'll see that there is still hope for humankind, I can and will prove that our goals ultimately align.'
'And how...' Chorus sneers at the mere idea of it, '-do you plan to prove to me that your species deserves to live after I have watched everything I cherish being destroyed by you for a millennia?!' The woman from the waves demands, fully aware that she's more dangerous now than ever before.
'By pointing you towards the source of your pain!' Lesion confidently counters, raising an open hand between them 'The dark heart of the pollution ravaging both your world and mine!' She tenses her fist with a growl.
'And who or what might that be?' Chorus asks with more than a little intrigue.
'You'll understand soon enough, but for now you can see for yourself the rot that's killing us all in the works of the one called Vega!'
'Vega...' Chorus looks through her alien skin at not one, not two, but three different signs etched with that word, all advertising different products.
'Yes... I'll see to this Vega, but you had better come up with a better answer than that if you want to stay my anger!' Chorus concludes and flashes her teeth before turning away.
'Wait!' The human woman's voice suddenly calls out from behind her, 'You can't beat her yet!' Legion exclaims with sincere concern, concern that bounces off the oblivious siren.
'No...?' Chorus asks as she storms away, fists clenched and teeth bared, 'Just watch me!'
