Series: Dragon Ball Z
Author: Asuka Kureru
Warnings: Violence? Allusions to disturbing subjects.
The beginnings of the Saiyajin race…
~~~~~~~~~
The doctor wiped his brow and stretched his back. He had been so interested by the reactions he was observing that he had stayed bent over his little experiment long enough to begin to get cramps. It would not do to have his scalpel cut through something too frail, although his subject was as a whole anything but. He let his eyes wander through the red-tinted glass, on the laboratory on the other side. There were other scientists there, walking in the alleys, taking notes, working through experiments of their own. There were around a hundred of cages of this strongest metal the best scientists of their planet had created.
The creatures inside, as a whole, all looked the same for the scientist, except some of the most remarkable ones, like this big, bulky, ferocious male, codenamed To. Mt. O. for his specific combination of genes, O. being the code for muscle development, the ones making him special amongst the others, easily recognizable by his scars all over and his nearly black tail, or this sly and sneaky Le. Tt. C. who never looked at you in the face, and ranked first on psychic abilities tests, or the small but surprisingly vicious Ve. Gt. A. with his strange, flame-like mane; this one was one of the specimens tagged the most dangerous, having killed quite a lot of orderlies and doctors who had misjudged the quantity of sedatives to administrate, sure that they would kill it if they were to give it any more. The specimen code-named Dh. Ly. A., A. standing for the "intelligence" gene, one that few of the subjects possessed, sometimes nicknamed Dahlia by some of the orderlies, was one of only two female in the cages lined against the wall of the laboratory, and so, she was considered slightly more precious than all of the other experiences. The scientists didn't know why, when they always carefully chose an equal number of XX and XY chromosome genotypes, only about one female for thirty males ever survived.
This batch had had another female, too, at the beginning, but it hadn't survived the testing. It had been so weak anyway that the scientists hadn't seen fit to keep it. They were trying to find the perfect weapon, the perfect soldier. A being only slightly stronger than their own race was of no interest, and they didn't want to risk it passing down its faulty genes to the next generation, even if having a living carrier for the babies for the first months, before taking them out for altering, was much easier to manage.
The other males were being kept in different cages, with spaces between them, because, and it was the same for all groups, if the doctors put the cages against one another and the prisoners were able to reach through, they would find a few dead specimens when coming in the next morning. It was the most serious problem with their own prototype version of this new race of soldiers. They were so aggressive with each other it was a wonder how anyone could, one day, train them enough to work together, even if someone did manage to train even one to obey. But for the moment, the problem wasn't on training, it was on creating. As for the actual education, well, it was not the scientists' concern anyway, so what if it couldn't be done? They hadn't been handled young enough, that was all.
…Although cubs were known to be born with fangs already, and to use them on anyone who bore a scent they didn't like, for a reason or another. They were vicious, those cubs, able to crawl within five hours and to bite down hard enough to stay hanging even with twice their weight hanging off them. Actually the team didn't know that because of actual testing, but because of an orderly who had put by accident a hand in the middle of a newborn litter, only to get it out with one little spawn chewing through his wrist and two other babies gnawing at their brother's legs.
That was another strange thing with them. They were born by litters, it was easier that way, plus it was a natural trait of the species they had been based on for reproduction to be at least three or four by pregnancy, sometimes up to seven or eight if let to natural tendencies, but they couldn't even stay in the same damn basket. You let them alone for two hours, even when they had just come out of the incubator and still had their eyes nearly shut and weren't even able to crawl, and when you were back you were bound to find one of the cubs sound asleep, hugging its knees and suckling at its tail, covered in blood, on top of a pile of gutted or throatless small bodies. They had tried to create born killers. They had succeeded. Better than they had hoped.
It was funny, how those cubs were born so tiny, but already able to be so aggressive.
Well, they were lucky those beasts weren't working together, because it could have been tricky manipulating them in this case. Though the batch where Dhalia was did seem to begin to work a hierarchy system lately, with, surprisingly, the relatively small Ve Gt A as the top male. Maybe it was because of the new addition of genes in this group, from a rather hierarchic species they had found on Earth. Not the most common variety, those pathetically weak ningen; but one species which was so alike them, genetically speaking, that it was able to crossbreed with ningen and to live amongst them mostly unnoticed, but which had a strange resilience and strength for a species born on such a low-gravity planet, and above all a nearly miraculous healing ability the likes they had never found anywhere in any other species. It was very useful, and a trait their soldiers would definitely need.
They were working on improving even more this ability, and if they looked at those specimens who grew back cut out tails and survived open and untreated wounds without even an infection, they were succeeding here too. By the way, he wondered if this specimen would one day grow back its ear, or its tongue. Bah, it didn't need them anyway. After all, they didn't really speak, just produced those strange, nearly articulated grunts which, by some of the newest and most naive orderlies were often mistaken for a sort of language.
As if they had intelligence enough to invent a language. Anyway, one couldn't express anything if one couldn't hiss, and they didn't hiss, they growled, howled, grunted and roared. Cackled like monkeys, too… which wasn't too far off.
It was fun, the subjects to their experiences did seem to become a little bit stronger every time they were tested or operated upon. This particular genetic cocktail seemed to be full of welcome surprises… All those different genes melting and sometimes creating totally new sets of genes and codes, always stronger and more useful than just the sum of the basic components, it was fascinating. There were some of the best geneticists their species had to offer in this team, and even they didn't know what those strange canine-like chromosomes had been supposed to do in the Ningen-like race, or how and why it had been replaced in the new version by simian-like chromosomes, although similar-looking as for the way they fit in the genetic make-up.
The crew working with this particular batch was proud, because amongst all of the scientists working on this rather pressing command, a soldier able to protect them against all aliens wanting to attack them to steal their technology, they were the ones who, so far, were the nearest to succeeding.
On the first day of the Year of the Full Moon, they would present their finest subjects to their World president and win the contest held at the Protection Convention, on the Capitol's Grand Place. The President himself would, amongst all of the experiments, recognize their creatures as the unchallenged best amongst all.
Why, even their physical appearance was well-thought! Unlike the monkeys they were based upon, they were mostly furless, which would make their maintenance easier. Their senses were keen, especially their sense of smell and their eyesight, which could catch the fastest movement, their black eyes adapting to darkness almost instantaneously, and if they weren't all saddled with Ki-suppressors, they would have escaped long ago, because they sparkled with it, an inborn ability to manipulate it effortlessly, without even having to concentrate. Who had ever heard about a natural-born species stumbling upon Ki techniques by accident?
Their tail, while a weakness sometimes, gave them an additional limb that was surprisingly precise and could grab an enemy in battle strongly enough to immobilize it. Most of the species out there did not have a tail, and the ones who did, had one that was big enough to be noticeable at once, like the Aizu-jin, whose tail was long, thick and overly muscular, and nearly as heavy as the rest of the body; the slim, unassuming appendage could be an element of surprise.
But the best asset was still the healing ability coming from that nearly-ningen species.
They had everything on their side to win. They would win against all of the others. The first evening of the Year of the Full Moon, this special day only happening once in every 45 years, would see their success. And the Tsufuru-jin would bask in the glory of being the unchallenged most technologically advanced species in the whole universe, and would be able to grow even more respected and adored, protected by their marvelously dangerous creations to continue without fear to grow more intelligent, to become geniuses amongst geniuses. And the crew, like the entire population, would know that amongst all the geniuses their race produced, their team were the most intelligent of all.
Humming softly with pride, the doctor went back to his biopsy, noticing without caring the black eyes blazing with fury of the specimen he was currently dissecting alive. If they had been able to feel evolved emotions, he would have called that vengeful hate, but it was just animal fury at being threatened, nothing more.
What was this Earthling species called already?
Ah, yes.
A werewolf.
~~~~~~~~~
Yes I KNOW that I am obsessed with werewolves. Sue me -__-
This is my first DB fic ever, even if I loved the show to death. Feedback please?