#mind-control rays | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year ago

Text

Conspiratorialism and the epistemological crisis

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me next weekend (Mar 30/31) in ANAHEIM at WONDERCON, then in Boston with Randall "XKCD" Munroe! (Apr 11), then Providence (Apr 12), and beyond!

Last year, Ed Pierson was supposed to fly from Seattle to New Jersey on Alaska Airlines. He boarded his flight, but then he had an urgent discussion with the flight attendant, explaining that as a former senior Boeing engineer, he'd specifically requested that flight because the aircraft wasn't a 737 Max:

https://www.cnn.com/travel/boeing-737-max-passenger-boycott/index.html

But for operational reasons, Alaska had switched out the equipment on the flight and there he was on a 737 Max, about to travel cross-continent, and he didn't feel safe doing so. He demanded to be let off the flight. His bags were offloaded and he walked back up the jetbridge after telling the spooked flight attendant, "I can’t go into detail right now, but I wasn’t planning on flying the Max, and I want to get off the plane."

Boeing, of course, is a flying disaster that was years in the making. Its planes have been falling out of the sky since 2019. Floods of whistleblowers have come forward to say its aircraft are unsafe. Pierson's not the only Boeing employee to state – both on and off the record – that he wouldn't fly on a specific model of Boeing aircraft, or, in some cases any recent Boeing aircraft:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/22/anything-that-cant-go-on-forever/#will-eventually-stop

And yet, for years, Boeing's regulators have allowed the company to keep turning out planes that keep turning out lemons. This is a pretty frightening situation, to say the least. I'm not an aerospace engineer, I'm not an aircraft safety inspector, but every time I book a flight, I have to make a decision about whether to trust Boeing's assurances that I can safely board one of its planes without dying.

In an ideal world, I wouldn't even have to think about this. I'd be able to trust that publicly accountable regulators were on the job, making sure that airplanes were airworthy. "Caveat emptor" is no way to run a civilian aviation system.

But even though I don't have the specialized expertise needed to assess the airworthiness of Boeing planes, I do have the much more general expertise needed to assess the trustworthiness of Boeing's regulator. The FAA has spent years deferring to Boeing, allowing it to self-certify that its aircraft were safe. Even when these assurances led to the death of hundreds of people, the FAA continued to allow Boeing to mark its own homework:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8oCilY4szc

What's more, the FAA boss who presided over those hundreds of deaths was an ex-Boeing lobbyist, whom Trump subsequently appointed to run Boeing's oversight. He's not the only ex-insider who ended up a regulator, and there's plenty of ex-regulators now on Boeing's payroll:

https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/boeing-debacle-shows-need-to-investigate-trump-era-corruption/

You don't have to be an aviation expert to understand that companies have conflicts of interest when it comes to certifying their own products. "Market forces" aren't going to keep Boeing from shipping defective products, because the company's top brass are more worried about cashing out with this quarter's massive stock buybacks than they are about their successors' ability to manage the PR storm or Congressional hearings after their greed kills hundreds and hundreds of people.

You also don't have to be an aviation expert to understand that these conflicts persist even when a Boeing insider leaves the company to work for its regulators, or vice-versa. A regulator who anticipates a giant signing bonus from Boeing after their term in office, or a an ex-Boeing exec who holds millions in Boeing stock has an irreconcilable conflict of interest that will make it very hard – perhaps impossible – for them to hold the company to account when it trades safety for profit.

It's not just Boeing customers who feel justifiably anxious about trusting a system with such obvious conflicts of interest: Boeing's own executives, lobbyists and lawyers also refuse to participate in similarly flawed systems of oversight and conflict resolution. If Boeing was sued by its shareholders and the judge was also a pissed off Boeing shareholder, they would demand a recusal. If Boeing was looking for outside counsel to represent it in a liability suit brought by the family of one of its murder victims, they wouldn't hire the firm that was suing them – not even if that firm promised to be fair. If a Boeing executive's spouse sued for divorce, that exec wouldn't use the same lawyer as their soon-to-be-ex.

Sure, it takes specialized knowledge and training to be a lawyer, a judge, or an aircraft safety inspector. But anyone can look at the system those experts work in and spot its glaring defects. In other words, while acquiring expertise is hard, it's much easier to spot weaknesses in the process by which that expertise affects the world around us.

And therein lies the problem: aviation isn't the only technically complex, potentially lethal, and utterly, obviously untrustworthy system we all have to navigate. How about the building safety codes that governed the structure you're in right now? Plenty of people have blithely assumed that structural engineers carefully designed those standards, and that these standards were diligently upheld, only to discover in tragic, ghastly ways that this was wrong:

https://www.bbc.com/news/64568826

There are dozens – hundreds! – of life-or-death, highly technical questions you have to resolve every day just to survive. Should you trust the antilock braking firmware in your car? How about the food hygiene rules in the factories that produced the food in your shopping cart? Or the kitchen that made the pizza that was just delivered? Is your kid's school teaching them well, or will they grow up to be ignoramuses and thus economic roadkill?

Hell, even if I never get into another Boeing aircraft, I live in the approach path for Burbank airport, where Southwest lands 50+ Boeing flights every day. How can I be sure that the next Boeing 737 Max that falls out of the sky won't land on my roof?

This is the epistemological crisis we're living through today. Epistemology is the process by which we know things. The whole point of a transparent, democratically accountable process for expert technical deliberation is to resolve the epistemological challenge of making good choices about all of these life-or-death questions. Even the smartest person among us can't learn to evaluate all those questions, but we can all look at the process by which these questions are answered and draw conclusions about its soundness.

Is the process public? Are the people in charge of it forthright? Do they have conflicts of interest, and, if so, do they sit out any decision that gives even the appearance of impropriety? If new evidence comes to light – like, say, a horrific disaster – is there a way to re-open the process and change the rules?

The actual technical details might be a black box for us, opaque and indecipherable. But the box itself can be easily observed: is it made of sturdy material? Does it have sharp corners and clean lines? Or is it flimsy, irregular and torn? We don't have to know anything about the box's contents to conclude that we don't trust the box.

For example: we may not be experts in chemical engineering or water safety, but we can tell when a regulator is on the ball on these issues. Back in 2019, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection sought comment on its water safety regs. Dow Chemical – the largest corporation in the state's largest industry – filed comments arguing that WV should have lower standards for chemical contamination in its drinking water.

Now, I'm perfectly prepared to believe that there are safe levels of chemical runoff in the water supply. There's a lot of water in the water supply, after all, and "the dose makes the poison." What's more, I use the products whose manufacture results in that chemical waste. I want them to be made safely, but I do want them to be made – for one thing, the next time I have surgery, I want the anesthesiologist to start an IV with fresh, sterile plastic tubing.

And I'm not a chemist, let alone a water chemist. Neither am I a toxicologist. There are aspects of this debate I am totally unqualified to assess. Nevertheless, I think the WV process was a bad one, and here's why:

https://www.wvma.com/press/wvma-news/4244-wvma-statement-on-human-health-criteria-development

That's Dow's comment to the regulator (as proffered by its mouthpiece, the WV Manufacturers' Association, which it dominates). In that comment, Dow argues that West Virginians safely can absorb more poison than other Americans, because the people of West Virginia are fatter than other Americans, and so they have more tissue and thus a better ratio of poison to person than the typical American. But they don't stop there! They also say that West Virginians don't drink as much water as their out-of-state cousins, preferring to drink beer instead, so even if their water is more toxic, they'll be drinking less of it:

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/03/14/the-real-elitists-looking-down-on-trump-voters/

Even without any expertise in toxicology or water chemistry, I can tell that these are bullshit answers. The fact that the WV regulator accepted these comments tells me that they're not a good regulator. I was in WV last year to give a talk, and I didn't drink the tap water.

It's totally reasonable for non-experts to reject the conclusions of experts when the process by which those experts resolve their disagreements is obviously corrupt and irredeemably flawed. But some refusals carry higher costs – both for the refuseniks and the people around them – than my switching to bottled water when I was in Charleston.

Take vaccine denial (or "hesitancy"). Many people greeted the advent of an extremely rapid, high-tech covid vaccine with dread and mistrust. They argued that the pharma industry was dominated by corrupt, greedy corporations that routinely put their profits ahead of the public's safety, and that regulators, in Big Pharma's pocket, let them get away with mass murder.

The thing is, all that is true. Look, I've had five covid vaccinations, but not because I trust the pharma industry. I've had direct experience of how pharma sacrifices safety on greed's altar, and narrowly avoided harm myself. I have had chronic pain problems my whole life, and they've gotten worse every year. When my daughter was on the way, I decided this was going to get in the way of my ability to parent – I wanted to be able to carry her for long stretches! – and so I started aggressively pursuing the pain treatments I'd given up on many years before.

My journey led me to many specialists – physios, dieticians, rehab specialists, neurologists, surgeons – and I tried many, many therapies. Luckily, my wife had private insurance – we were in the UK then – and I could go to just about any doctor that seemed promising. That's how I found myself in the offices of a Harley Street quack, a prominent pain specialist, who had great news for me: it turned out that opioids were way safer than had previously been thought, and I could just take opioids every day and night for the rest of my life without any serious risk of addiction. It would be fine.

This sounded wrong to me. I'd lost several friends to overdoses, and watched others spiral into miserable lives as they struggled with addiction. So I "did my own research." Despite not having a background in chemistry, biology, neurology or pharmacology, I struggled through papers and read commentary and came to the conclusion that opioids weren't safe at all. Rather, corrupt billionaire pharma owners like the Sackler family had colluded with their regulators to risk the lives of millions by pushing falsified research that was finding publication in some of the most respected, peer-reviewed journals in the world.

I became an opioid denier, in other words.

I decided, based on my own research, that the experts were wrong, and that they were wrong for corrupt reasons, and that I couldn't trust their advice.

When anti-vaxxers decried the covid vaccines, they said things that were – in form at least – indistinguishable from the things I'd been saying 15 years earlier, when I decided to ignore my doctor's advice and throw away my medication on the grounds that it would probably harm me.

For me, faith in vaccines didn't come from a broad, newfound trust in the pharmaceutical system: rather, I judged that there was so much scrutiny on these new medications that it would overwhelm even pharma's ability to corruptly continue to sell a medication that they secretly knew to be harmful, as they'd done so many times before:

https://www.npr.org/2007/11/10/5470430/timeline-the-rise-and-fall-of-vioxx

But many of my peers had a different take on anti-vaxxers: for these friends and colleagues, anti-vaxxers were being foolish. Surprisingly, these people I'd long felt myself in broad agreement with began to defend the pharmaceutical system and its regulators. Once they saw that anti-vaxx was a wedge issue championed by right-wing culture war shitheads, they became not just pro-vaccine, but pro-pharma.

There's a name for this phenomenon: "schismogenesis." That's when you decide how you feel about an issue based on who supports it. Think of self-described "progressives" who became cheerleaders for the America's cruel, ruthless and lawless "intelligence community" when it seemed that US spooks were bent on Trump's ouster:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/18/schizmogenesis/

The fact that the FBI didn't like Trump didn't make them allies of progressive causes. This was and is the same entity that (among other things) tried to blackmail Martin Luther King, Jr into killing himself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93King_suicide_letter

But schismogenesis isn't merely a reactionary way of flip-flopping on issues based on reflexive enmity. It's actually a reasonable epistemological tactic: in a world where there are more issues you need to be clear on than you can possibly inform yourself about, you need some shortcuts. One shortcut – a shortcut that's failing – is to say, "Well, I'll provisionally believe whatever the expert system tells me is true." Another shortcut is, "I will provisionally disbelieve in whatever the people I know to act in bad faith are saying is true." That is, "schismogenesis."

Schismogenesis isn't a great tactic. It would be far better if we had a set of institutions we could all largely trust – if the black boxes where expert debate took place were sturdy, rectilinear and sharp-cornered.

But they're not. They're just not. Our regulatory process sucks. Corporate concentration makes it trivial for cartels to capture their regulators and steer them to conclusions that benefit corporate shareholders even if that means visiting enormous harm – even mass death – on the public:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

No one hates Big Tech more than I do, but many of my co-belligerents in the war on Big Tech believe that the rise of conspiratorialism can be laid at tech platforms' feet. They say that Big Tech boasts of how good they are at algorithmically manipulating our beliefs, and attribute Qanons, flat earthers, and other outlandish conspiratorial cults to the misuse off those algorithms.

"We built a Big Data mind-control ray" is one of those extraordinary claims that requires extraordinary evidence. But the evidence for Big Tech's persuasion machines is very poor: mostly, it consists of tech platforms' own boasts to potential investors and customers for their advertising products. "We can change peoples' minds" has long been the boast of advertising companies, and it's clear that they can change the minds of customers for advertising.

Think of department store mogul John Wanamaker, who famously said "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." Today – thanks to commercial surveillance – we know that the true proportion of wasted advertising spending is more like 99.9%. Advertising agencies may be really good at convincing John Wanamaker and his successors, through prolonged, personal, intense selling – but that doesn't mean they're able to sell so efficiently to the rest of us with mass banner ads or spambots:

http://pluralistic.net/HowToDestroySurveillanceCapitalism

In other words, the fact that Facebook claims it is really good at persuasion doesn't mean that it's true. Just like the AI companies who claim their chatbots can do your job: they are much better at convincing your boss (who is insatiably horny for firing workers) than they are at actually producing an algorithm that can replace you. What's more, their profitability relies far more on convincing a rich, credulous business executive that their product works than it does on actually delivering a working product.

Now, I do think that Facebook and other tech giants play an important role in the rise of conspiratorial beliefs. However, that role isn't using algorithms to persuade people to mistrust our institutions. Rather Big Tech – like other corporate cartels – has so corrupted our regulatory system that they make trusting our institutions irrational.

Think of federal privacy law. The last time the US got a new federal consumer privacy law was in 1988, when Congress passed the Video Privacy Protection Act, a law that prohibits video store clerks from leaking your VHS rental history:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/07/why-vppa-protects-youtube-and-viacom-employees

It's been a minute. There are very obvious privacy concerns haunting Americans, related to those tech giants, and yet the closest Congress can come to doing something about it is to attempt the forced sale of the sole Chinese tech giant with a US footprint to a US company, to ensure that its rampant privacy violations are conducted by our fellow Americans, and to force Chinese spies to buy their surveillance data on millions of Americans in the lawless, reckless swamp of US data-brokerages:

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/14/1238435508/tiktok-ban-bill-congress-china

For millions of Americans – especially younger Americans – the failure to pass (or even introduce!) a federal privacy law proves that our institutions can't be trusted. They're right:

https://www.tiktok.com/@pearlmania500/video/7345961470548512043

Occam's Razor cautions us to seek the simplest explanation for the phenomena we see in the world around us. There's a much simpler explanation for why people believe conspiracy theories they encounter online than the idea that the one time Facebook is telling the truth is when they're boasting about how well their products work – especially given the undeniable fact that everyone else who ever claimed to have perfected mind-control was a fantasist or a liar, from Rasputin to MK-ULTRA to pick-up artists.

Maybe people believe in conspiracy theories because they have hundreds of life-or-death decisions to make every day, and the institutions that are supposed to make that possible keep proving that they can't be trusted. Nevertheless, those decisions have to be made, and so something needs to fill the epistemological void left by the manifest unsoundness of the black box where the decisions get made.

For many people – millions – the thing that fills the black box is conspiracy fantasies. It's true that tech makes finding these conspiracy fantasies easier than ever, and it's true that tech makes forming communities of conspiratorial belief easier, too. But the vulnerability to conspiratorialism that algorithms identify and target people based on isn't a function of Big Data. It's a function of corruption – of life in a world in which real conspiracies (to steal your wages, or let rich people escape the consequences of their crimes, or sacrifice your safety to protect large firms' profits) are everywhere.

Progressives – which is to say, the coalition of liberals and leftists, in which liberals are the senior partners and spokespeople who control the Overton Window – used to identify and decry these conspiracies. But as right wing "populists" declared their opposition to these conspiracies – when Trump damned free trade and the mainstream media as tools of the ruling class – progressives leaned into schismogenesis and declared their vocal support for these old enemies of progress.

This is the crux of Naomi Klein's brilliant 2023 book Doppelganger: that as the progressive coalition started supporting these unworthy and broken institutions, the right spun up "mirror world" versions of their critique, distorted versions that focus on scapegoating vulnerable groups rather than fighting unworthy institutions:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine

This is a long tradition in politics: hundreds of years ago, some leftists branded antisemitism "the socialism of fools." Rather than condemning the system's embrace of the finance sector and its wealthy beneficiaries, anti-semites blame a disfavored group of people – people who are just as likely as anyone to suffer under the system:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_is_the_socialism_of_fools

It's an ugly, shallow, cartoon version of socialism's measured and comprehensive analysis of how the class system actually works and why it's so harmful to everyone except a tiny elite. Literally cartoonish: the shadow-world version of socialism co-opts and simplifies the iconography of class struggle. And schismogenesis – "if the right likes this, I don't" – sends "progressive" scolds after anyone who dares to criticize finance as the crux of our world's problems as popularizing "antisemetic dog-whistles."

This is the problem with "horseshoe theory" – the idea that the far right and the far left bend all the way around to meet each other:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/26/horsehoe-crab/#substantive-disagreement

When the right criticizes pharma companies, they tell us to "do our own research" (e.g. ignore the systemic problems of people being forced to work under dangerous conditions during a pandemic while individually assessing conflicting claims about vaccine safety, ideally landing on buying "supplements" from a grifter). When the left criticizes pharma, it's to argue for universal access to medicine and vigorous public oversight of pharma companies. These aren't the same thing:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/25/the-other-shoe-drops/#quid-pro-quo

Long before opportunistic right wing politicians realized they could get mileage out of pointing at the terrifying epistemological crisis of trying to make good choices in an age of institutions that can't be trusted, the left was sounding the alarm. Conspiratorialism – the fracturing of our shared reality – is a serious problem, weakening our ability to respond effectively to endless disasters of the polycrisis.

But by blaming the problem of conspiratorialism on the credulity of believers (rather than the deserved disrepute of the institutions they have lost faith in) we adopt the logic of the right: "conspiratorialism is a problem of individuals believing wrong things," rather than "a system that makes wrong explanations credible – and a schismogenic insistence that these institutions are sound and trustworthy."

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/25/black-boxes/#when-you-know-you-know

Image: Nuclear Regulatory Commission (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/nrcgov/15993154185/

meanwell-packaging.co.uk https://www.flickr.com/photos/195311218@N08/52159853896

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

#pluralistic #conspiratorialism #epistemology #epistemological crisis #mind control rays #opioid denial #vaccine denial #regulatory capture #boeing #corruption #inequality #monopoly #apple #dma #eu

298 notes · View notes

huffle-dork · 11 months ago

Text

Glitch into the Hufflverse Chapter 8: Darker Seas

Read Swapboys | Read Crystal’s AUs | Read Septnautical | Darker Seas AU

Read SITCV | Read SATCV | GITHV Masterpost

When they’re dumped out- they find themselves still underwater? What?

In fact… it’s not that it’s just underwater… they’re back by the Ocean’s Arms base. But… why does it look like it’s been abandoned?

There’s broken windows and crushed sides of it- looking like several kinds of creatures tried to break in.

What the hell?

Alt shakes himself out and then blinks in confusion. “…what?? We’re back- huh??!”

Bro swims upwards and gapes at the destroyed base. “H-How long were we down there…? Was that e-even a rift…?”

"H-huh?" Jackie looks around. "This--this is the same place, right? But it's... different? Why is the base all ruined?"

"The base is ruined?!" Schneep gasps.

Looks like it's been ruined for a while, too, JJ says.

After a moment, Jackie hesitantly swims closer. "It's definitely the same... what happened?"

"Perhaps... we are in a slightly different version of that world?" Schneep says. "In the same way the three of us are from slightly different versions of a city called Mirygale."

“I mean… m-maybe?” Alt says nervously. “That… did happen to us the first time we encountered the rifts…”

“…I can’t believe… there were so many people in this base… Danan and Zara and Jack- those kids… w-what happened to them…?” Bro whispers, looking at the base sadly.

Suddenly, something lashes out from the creepvines surrounding them and tackles JJ to the sea floor. A cloud of sand obscures them for a beat before the sand clears and JJ is being pinned to the ground by a familiar pair of blue claws. Marvin is pinning him to the ground but… there’s a horrible white mask strapped to the lower part of his face. …not even that- it looks like it’s been stuck into his skin by his jaw. His cat one is nowhere to be seen- and the absence of it exposes a second pair of eyes under his normal ones- all 4 glowing a bright terrifying pink.

Something crackles to life in the water- and they realize it’s a radio strapped to Marvin’s neck on some kind of collar. A robotic distorted version of his voice drones out. “Unidentified hybrid secured. State your designation number and base of origin.”

JJ gasps, horrified, frozen and feeling sick at what he sees. He shakes his head dully, trying to sign but unable to with his hands pinned. "I don't—u-understan—" He coughs as pain wracks his throat.

Schneep spins around. "Marvin?!"

"Hey! Wh-what the hell?!" Jackie immediately charges at this new, masked Marvin.

The masked Marvin’s head snaps up and then sends a projectile warp towards Jackie, throwing him off course as the water swirls him in a confusing direction.

Alt gasps, “M-Marvin what are you-?!”

“Let JJ go!” Bro growls.

Marvin floats up and keeps one of his tails pressing down on JJ’s throat. He slowly turns to eye the rest of the group before the robotic voice says. “Detecting a total of 5 unidentified hybrid life forms. Sending out call to other agents for capturing procedure.”

“C-Capturing procedure?!” Alt whispers in fear, floating back as electricity courses down his tail.

“Do not resist. All hybrids were made to serve Alterra. All hybrids will be assimilated or eliminated.” Marvin says, turning his inhuman eyes to look straight at Alt. Alt feels like he can’t breathe.

JJ chokes, grabbing at Marvin's tail and trying to push it away, his own tail flailing wildly. Not there! Not there! The pain from his outburst of words is just increasing with the pressure.

Jackie tumbles head over tail for a while before recovering. "What the fuck is this place?!" He cries out. "Did they make him a fucking robot?!"

Schneep tries to attack next, leaping out of sight and reappearing behind Marvin, trying to grab him.

Marvin tries to dodge but Schneep grabs him and pulls him off JJ. There’s no emotion on Marvin’s face but a warp gate opens up behind him, making the water swirl around them and cause a type of pull. Something big with sharp teeth lashes out of the warp gate and drives Schneep into the sand, snapping its jaws.

Alt is spiraling- it’s like Marvin got brainwashed! He can’t stop the panic that’s gripping his heart. He’s frozen in place.

JJ immediately gets up and swims away as soon as Schneep gets Marvin off him. He looks at Alt panicking, and swims over. Alt! Wake up! We have to get out of here! He shakes him a little by the shoulders.

Bro yells as the thing attacks Schneep and tackles it off him. He then is a bit surprised- this fish looks just like his tail!

Schneep cries out, pain bursting in his shoulder as the creature bites down—and then Bro appears to help. He gets up, breathing heavily. What the hell was that?! He reaches for the damage, feeling it out, wincing as he assesses it. The bite probably could have been much deeper—he got lucky.

Something else darts out of that gate though with crazy speeds and tries to tackle Jackie to the ground… another familiar face- but he looks so different he’s almost unrecognizable, except for his signature stalker tail. Henrik growls ferally with sharp teeth protruding from his mouth and blazing yellow slitted eyes. He doesn’t have his goggles on- making the scar on his nose even more pronounced.

Jackie dodges the attack, doing some strange spiral motion that keeps him completely safe but causes him to drop the bag with all their clothes inside. He looks back at who attacked him and gasps. "H-Henrik?! You too?!" He swims over to Schneep, protecting him from this other Henrik's feral gaze while he recovers.

Henrik snaps his teeth at them ferally and growls deep, no recognition in his eyes. Just deep primal animal hunger. He screeches and dives towards Jackie and Schneep.

Jackie dives forward, intercepting Henrik's course. He successfully protects Schneep but gets tackled himself, landing hard against the ground. "Snap out of it!" Jackie growls. "If you can't—I won't be responsible!" His mandibles snap at the sides as he tries to push Henrik away.

Henrik just roars and digs claws into Jackie’s arms- wait claws? He never had those before! In fact the way Henrik acted before… you’d hardly know he was a predator. It’s like his most suppressed traits have been brought forth.

Two more figures come out of the wrap gate before it fizzles into bubbles. There’s a sharp whistle and the boneshark Bro has pinned roars and headbutts him to get him off. Bro yells and tears back, blinking spots out of his eyes. It swims back over to where the portal disappeared, looping around familiar black and white tentacles. Jamie floats there- the same awful white mask that’s on Marvin’s face also stapled on his. His eyes also shine with a sickly yellow light. A corrupted robotic version of his voice sounds out as he pets the Boneshark’s head. “Support RL-006. Incapacitate the targets.”

The other form next to them then lashes out in a burst of speed and tries to barrel into JJ and Alt, mandibles striking out to try to pin them to the ground.

Alt takes a second to register JJ is there but by the time he gets his senses back it’s too late- he yells and tries to warn JJ and push him out of the way only for Mandibles to skewer him in the shoulder and part of his tail. He screams bloody murder. Reaper Jackie giggles with sharp teeth as he leans in by Alt, his pure black eyes unnerving him to his core. “You smell tasty already~!” He laughs.

“ALT!” Bro screams trying to get over to him. But Marvin grabs him by the wrist and digs claws into his skin. “Do not resist. Capture is inevitable.”

The boneshark zips after mer-Jackie and tackles JJ to the ground, trying to bite at his face.

JJ spins through the water, only to get pinned by this shark. He quickly conjures a shield in front of his head, protecting it. He tries to look at Alt, catching sight of this other version of reaper Jackie. No! He has to help! Concentrating, he tries pushing the shield outward to send the boneshark away. The shield manages to push back the boneshark as it screeches and freaks out.

Schneep snaps his head up, hearing and sensing all the commotion. What does he do?! Where does he go?! Alt—Alt screamed, he's clearly hurt. He pushes through the pain and leaps over towards reaper Jackie, attacking from behind like he did with Marvin.

Reaper Jackie snaps his head towards Schneep and lashes out his claws to scrape across his face. Alt takes the second of the reapers focus being drawn away to concentrate then send a blast of electricity into him. Reaper Jackie roars in pain- and for a second you can see a bit of blue eyes peek out. Then he rockets back and spins back to growl towards Alt and Schneep. The pain is a lot for Alt and he slumps to the sand, holding his shoulder and biting back a whimper as his vision spins.

Bro yells and tries to get out of Marvin’s grip but he’s really really strong. “L-Let me go! Alt’s hurt!” He tries to beg.

Marvin slowly turns towards Jamie and nods. Jamie pulls out a metal pair of shackles and clamps it onto one of Bro’s arms then tugs the other behind his back as Marvin drops him. As soon as they’re completely snapped on his wrists, an electric shock goes through them and Bro screams until he’s shocked into unconsciousness, his eyes rolling up into his head.

“1 out of 5 targets captured.” Jamie and Marvin say at the same time.

“CHASE!” Alt screams.

JJ gets up, breathing heavily, and looks around. Alt and Schneep are injured! He rushes over to them, grabbing Schneep as he backs up through the water, and starts to conjure a spherical shield around them. Before it fully closes he reaches out for Alt, intending to grab him and pull him into the bubble. But then he stops, distracted by Bro's screams. He looks towards him as Jamie and Marvin speak in eerie unison. Schneep shudders at the sound of it.

Reaper Jackie snarls and lunges forward, grabbing Alt by his mandibles. Alt cries out and tries to find some way out of this but then Jamie rockets down and clamps cuffs on Alt too.

“Say night night~!” Reaper Jackie giggles madly.

Alt jolts and screams, his tail lashing out and striking wildly with extra electricity but then he slumps completely into the sand too. Once he does the reaper lets him go.

“2 out of 5 targets captured.”

JJ lunges for Alt, but he's too slow. And now that they're so close to enemies—because it's clear that they are enemies—he quickly closes the shield around him and Schneep, making it smaller so he can conserve magic, forcing him and Schneep up next to each other. What are they supposed to do?! These other hybrids—he doesn't feel right hurting them.

Jackie looks down at Henrik's hands in surprise and annoyance. Then he grits his teeth. "Let—go—of—me!" He shouts. The mandibles snap out, clamping onto Henrik's sides in turn as Jackie struggles to escape the pin.

Henrik doesn’t flinch at all as Jackie’s mandible clamps onto his side and just holds him there, snarling. Marvin then warps over and tries to grab Jackie’s wrist to put a shackle on.

Jackie's eyes widen. "No! Fuck off!" He flails widly, managing to pull his wrist free and punch Marvin right in the mask. He has to get out of here! He can't let himself be caught again!

Marvin’s eyes flicker a bit as the mask is punched, showing a hint of his eyes. For a brief second- he looks scared. But, that moment fades quickly as Reaper Jackie yells out and tackles Jackie into the sand on his stomach. Allowing Marvin to slip the shackles onto both of Jackie’s wrists. He has only a brief second before the shocking starts-

Jackie's eyes widen. There's no time left! His head whips over to JJ and Schneep. "Guys! Run!" Then he cries out as the electricity courses through his body. "R-run!" It takes a bit longer than expected, but it still sends him to unconsciousness after a few seconds.

“3 out of 5 targets captured.” Jamie drones once Jackie falls unconscious.

JJ covers his mouth in horror. Schneep flinches at the sound of Jackie's cries. He grabs onto JJ. "H-he said to get out of here, so we're getting out of here!"

We can't leave them! JJ protests.

"I don't think we have a choice!" He can feel the hybrids closing in on their little bubble. If they leave anything behind he can grab it later. For now, Jackie said to run, and so they're going to. He holds tight to JJ and leaps, taking them both out of sight.

Marvin looks out at where Schneep and JJ disappeared. “…remaining targets have left scanning area. Unidentified power detected. Sending Agents RL-006 and SH-003 for collection.” He turns towards Reaper Jackie and Henrik and growls. “Find them before the rebels do.”

Henrik and Jackie snarl in response, Jackie’s eyes briefly flashing yellow before they both dash through the kelp to start looking around.

Marvin grabs Jackie and tosses him over his shoulder- then swims over to grab Bro. Jamie grabs Alt. Another warp gate is opened as Marvin drones. “HQ: 3 targets ready for assimilation.” And then they all swim into the purple blue water and disappear from sight.

=========

Schneep and JJ appear a bit farther past the kelp forest and towards the safe shallows. They can hear the familiar roars and snarls of Reaper Jackie and Henrik hot on their tails.

J shudders at the feeling of Schneep's transportation—it makes him nauseous. Why?! he asks Schneep.

Then, something grabs them from a nearby cave and drags them inside. Clawed hands grab their faces and cover their mouths as a gravelly voice whispers. “Don’t make a sound and they won’t look here…”

Schneep immediately cries out and starts struggling against the hand, but JJ doesn't. He's still thrown off by Schneep's leaping them through space. And besides, his throat hurts too much to talk even if he could. He grabs onto Schneep's arm and makes a muffled shushing sound, then looks back at who dragged them into here.

The dark green hair and blue and green eyes with black sclera give it away. It’s Anti. But, he’s… different too. He doesn’t have that big spiral of a scar on his face anymore. He doesn’t look down at JJ just pulls Schneep more into the dark with him and presses down harder on his mouth.

Right outside the opening of the cave, there’s the flicker of a blue reaper tail- and a loud roar that makes the cavern walls shake and rattle, bits of sand and rock falling on them. The two of them can feel Anti’s hands trembling.

Then, a giggle, followed by a sing-songy gravely voice. “Come out come out, little fishes~! We just wanna play!!!” The words sound friendly enough but the threat lingers behind his growled words.

Schneep immediately freezes and stops struggling. His head turns towards JJ's direction, eyes flicking wildly.

JJ takes off the robotic gloves—the robot fish didn't get pulled along when Schneep leapt, but just in case—and signs, Schneep, it's Anti.

Schneep nods as JJ's sign-voice echoes in his head. Now that he's concentrating, he can sense Anti's soul.

We're in a cave, we need to be quiet, JJ says.

And Schneep nods again, a bit irritated. He wasn't going to make noise after hearing that roar.

There’s a couple more tense beats and another frustrated roar before Jackie’s tail kicks off bubbles and rockets away- his roar echoing farther down the landscape.

Anti finally drops his hands and backs up curling in as small as he can in the cave. He eyes them suspiciously, though he seems on edge and a bit scared as his tails seem to quiver. “…who are you guys? I-I thought you might be one of t-the botched hybrids they send out to train these guys but… y-you all just appeared out of nowhere… a-and not like M-Mar… WH-5 does…”

"It is a long story..." Schneep says slowly. "Were you watching us? Did you see that--that whole fight? Or just the two of us?"

“… I was… in the area. I was coming to see then.. then they came and…” Anti looks away, holding his hands to his chest.

Schneep turns towards JJ. "Ah, do you need help speaking?"

JJ nods. The robot didn't come along.

"Right. Ah, one second, A—one second." Schneep started to call Anti by his name, but decides that'll probably freak him out too much. "I am going to do something that seems impossible." He reaches out to the side with both hands and pulls back the little fish robot JJ got in the last world. He hands it to JJ, then reaches out and grabs the bag with all of their clothes as well.

JJ puts the gloves on and starts speaking, the robot translating. My name is JJ, and this is Schneep. We're from somewhere far away... and we have strange abilities.

Alt balks as Schneep pulls stuff out of nowhere and he hits the back of the cave in his attempt to get farther away. “W-What the hell?! How- how did-“ He blinks slowly at JJ and settles back down into the sand. He narrows his eyes and hunches himself up defensively. He doesn’t seem to care too much for JJ’s name but looking over and hearing JJ call him Schneep- his eyes widen and turn he snarls and tries to tackle Schneep to the ground. “I-I knew it! You’re one of those sick clones they send out to-to try to lure me in too! Y-You sick fuck-! Im gonna send you back to fucking Alterra in pieces!”

Schneep yelps and leaps out of the way just as Anti makes contact, reappearing next to JJ, who quickly conjures up a shield. "No no no no, w-we are not! W-we don't know anything about these clones!"

JJ shakes his head. We're not with the company! I promise! We came here with three other friends by accident!

"Y-yes, and our friends were captured!" Schneep adds. "We—I-I am guessing that whatever clones you're talking about... wouldn't be taken like that?"

Anti snarls and turns to look back at the others and stops when he sees the shield. His eyes widen and he scoots back. "...c-clones wouldn't be able to do that... h-how are you doing that?!" At hearing about their friends Anti looks away and grits his teeth, but there's pain in his eyes. "... I-I dunno how you guys got here o-or how you're hybrids... but if you all have powers like that...? ...I'm sorry... I-I don't think you're getting your friends back."

"Wh-what? No—no that cannot be—w-we are not going to just—" Schneep stammers.

JJ blinks. Not all of us have magic... that's what this power of mine is called. But all of us have abilities of some kind. Well, except for one of them, one named Jackie.

"What do you mean by that?!" Schneep demands, swimming closer to the shield separating them. "A-are you saying—what are they going to do to them?!" He has a feeling, but... he doesn't want to acknowledge it. He doesn't want to.

Anti can’t look at them as he hugs himself and curls his tails close to his chest. “…if they have useful powers… they’re gonna turn them I..into weapons… a-any hybrids left that are useless are… are hunted down and destroyed.”

JJ and Schneep stare at him in horror. We... we can't let that happen! JJ says, shaking his head furiously. He looks at Schneep. We have to do something about this!

"If we do, we are going to have to be very careful about it," Schneep says. "We cannot get caught as well. A-and turned into—" He shudders. "We—we have to find where they took them. There has to be a main base of operations. Then—then we plan around that, a-around the defenses and such."

We can't waste too much time looking for it! They could be doing that right now! JJ looks at Anti. What's your name? He asks despite already knowing the answer—it's just polite. Do you know anything that could help us?

“…Anti.” He says quietly and then digs his claws into his shoulders. “…they’re probably already down in HQ… i-in the lava zone… I… I know where it is. But its defense is…” He shakes his head and whispers with a bit of choked up voice. “…I’m sorry I… t-there’s nothing that can be done… when Alterra wants something… they get it. I-I’ve only survived this long on sheer luck… and… and a group of humans but I… I don’t know if they can help you. …not with this.”

Schneep and JJ look at each other—or, JJ looks at Schneep, and Schneep turns to face him. "A group of humans...?" Schneep repeats slowly.

Anything that could help would be good, JJ says. They both have the same suspicion. Perhaps the Ocean's Arms aren't entirely wiped out in this world, or at least, not as wiped out as the abandoned base would imply.

"Exactly." Schneep nods. "We are not just going to abandon them. We must try at least."

Anti, can you take us to these humans? JJ asks.

Anti seems hesitant. “…they can’t save your friends…” he says hollowly.

Schneep nods slowly. "Well... w-we have to try," he says slowly.

But then Anti sighs and goes to push over a rock at the back of the cave, which seems to lead to a smaller tunnel. “…but… yeah I guess. …yer the first hybrids I’ve met in a long time that are… actually close to how …they used to be.” He flicks his tails and shakes his head. He then gives them a look and disappears through the tunnel.

As the two of them follow, JJ says, So... those hybrids back there... you knew them. Well, they know that. But JJ doesn't want to freak Anti out by revealing that he and Schneep know all about his brothers. And... the company did that to them? I'm... so sorry.

Anti is quiet as he swims ahead of them. He almost acts like he didn’t hear JJ for a few beats before he whispers. “…they’re my brothers… were my brothers…” He’s quiet again for a couple more meters before he speaks up again. “…i-if there was a way to save your friends I’d… I’d tell you… but we have no idea. …it’s been… a year? Two? …honestly I’ve lost track… I’m just… trying to stay alive. …that’s what I tell myself that they would want… for me to keep going.”

Schneep nods. "I... I'm sure you're right, that they would want you to stay free and alive." He pauses. "I... I cannot promise that you'll get them back. But... there could be a way. A-a way for you to continue on. Maybe even a way to find them. I-I was in a space, once, where everything felt hopeless. But we got through it. I'm sure you will, too."

JJ nods in agreement. It was the same for me. Even if something seems so hopeless, there could be a way.

“…that’s a nice thought.” Anti says bitterly. Then he just continues on. Further down into the dark water of the tunnel- the water going from green to a dark blue.

=========

When Jackie, Alt and Bro open their eyes, they’re in an underwater lab. And unfortunately they’re all very well acquainted with the white sterile walls of a lab. And worst off, they’re strapped by their arms and tails to medical tables. Scanners and monitors are setting off around them, collecting information.

Alt feels the tug of the straps and starts to freak out, easily starting to hyperventilate as he tries to pull or get out of the binds- even trying to glitch but he seems to get shocked or some kind of reaction while trying that has him cringing and biting back a cry of pain.

Bro blearily opens his eyes to the sound of his brother’s panic and gasps, trying to pull at the metal binds as much as he can.

"Oh fucking hell—!" Jackie immediately starts to struggle. "Twice?! Fucking—what the fuck?!" He sounds angry, but he's really masking his fear with annoyance. His head darts around. "Y-you two! A-are you okay?! Other than—than the obvious."

Bro grunts and lays down his head when he doesn’t feel any give. “I..I’m okay… you okay J-Jackie? W-Where are the others…?”

"I-I'm fine," Jackie says. "I don't—I don't see the other two. I-I told them to run, th-they might've gotten away."

“Good good maybe they-“ Bro jumps in surprise and calls out, “Alt c-c’mon breathe!”

Alt is on the verge of panicked tears as he yells and struggles and pulls on the restraints. “I-I can’t go through this again! I-I can’t! What the fuck?! Fuck!!”

Jackie turns to look at Alt. "D-deep breaths, Alt! D-don't panic!" His voice breaks a little as he continues to fight against the restraints. He couldn't tell Alt to not panic—this was a panic-worthy situation!

“H-How?? How can I not panic right now?!” Alt screeches with tears flowing from his eyes as his tail tries to spark with electricity. “T-They’re gonna- gonna-!!”

There’s a window just slightly above them that suddenly has movement and what looks like a shock of blonde hair. A cool female voice laughs over the intercom. “Hello Gentleman… my~ isn’t this interesting? I don’t remember making specimens like you… where are you all from?”

Bro hears the voice and feels himself freeze instantly recognizing it. “…mum…?” He breathes with wide eyes.

Jackie glances at Bro. "Mom?" he repeats, confused. Wait. Don't tell him that—

The reaction is almost immediately drowned out by Alt yelling and thrashing against his binds. “f-fuck you!! Let us go!!”

Jackie snaps his attention back to the voice. "We're not going to tell you shit! Don't even try asking, you'll get nowhere!"

Bro looks freaked out of his mind, having a silent panic attack. He looks absolutely terrified.

The voice chuckles and sounds amused. “Oh… I really do love a challenge… it’s been boring around here lately~”

She leans further into the window to show her face. She’s a tall Caucasian woman with blonde curly hair pulled into a tight ponytail. She smirks cruelly and leans on her module.

“We can do this the easy or hard way, boys~! The easy way is you just share what’s happening here… since my agents already reported you all appearing out of nowhere. Orrr we can do it the hard painful way~!”

"Painful coercion gets you nowhere, you know!" Jackie shouts. "It's been scientifically proven!" Oh, the irony of him saying that. But he's going to take that as a good sign. He struggles some more. Then he looks over at Alt and Bro. The fear and panic evident on both their faces, "Y-you guys...?" He whispers. "A-are you...?" Are you okay? Stupid question. "I-I'm not going to talk to her but—you two—I-I wouldn't be... upset..." He shakes his head. "Not like they can do anything with it, anyway."

Alt looks angry- not at all phased by the look of this woman. Even if she looks… familiar. But Bro is petrified.

“I’m not gonna t-tell you shit!” Alt growls.

Bro looks over at Jackie and just shakes his head, curling up as tight as he can while strapped down.

The woman laughs, “Is that so? Because I’ve found it’s worked so very well for me~” She does hums in thought and taps the table. “However… I do have another method we can try…”

She’s quiet for a second before she sighs, “Oh- might as well. Less fun but.. a chance for it.” She grins and then clicks on her comm. “WH-5? Can you warp RR-01 into lab 12 please?”

There’s a beat and then a warp gate opens and the others recognize Chase swimming through. Though- his eyes shine with a sickly yellow light and he has slick black discs attached to his earlobes. He looks back towards the white suit in the window and smiles. “Yes, Dr. Demerci?”

Bro inhales sharply.

Jackie stiffens. "Ch—" No, this isn't his Chase! He has to remember that! It's not—even if it looks like him, it's not his friend relapsing again. But it is a Chase. It's someone being controlled. And that's still terrible. He feels sick just looking at this.

“RR-01 can you help me relax these new hybrids and run the Mesmer program for me?”

“Of course Dr. Demerci!” Chase says as he turns towards the others. He smirks at them and then closes his eyes and starts to sing a haunting melody that starts to weave and worm their way into their brains, trying to force them to relax.

"H-huh? Mesmer?" Jackie shakes his head. "N-no, I—you can't—!" He tries to cover his ears, but of course, with his arms strapped down he has to try and press his shoulders against his ears. He struggles for a moment, but... the song... what is that? It's like... he can't put words to it. So strange... so beautiful... His movement slows gradually. He can't help it. He wants to listen to this music...

The music is gorgeous and Chase’s voice is lovely. It doesn’t feel malicious at all. It almost feels like being home.

That false sense of security is what pulls Bro under, his fear falling off his face and being replaced with peaceful bliss.

Alt doesn’t fall for it though, he growls and tries to fight more- especially as he hears Demerci mention mesmers. That’s when screens starts to lower and pulse with beautiful flowing patterns of green blue and purple, like light dancing on top of waves. Alt tries to close his eyes but with both the song and the lights… his eyes start to glaze over really fast and he slumps.

“There we go… very good.” Demerci hums happily. “Now then, I’m gonna ask you some questions and well~ you’re free to try to fight all you want but… you’ll find it feels much better just to say it~!” She giggles.

“Now then… where are you all from? Who made you?”

"Where are we... from?" Jackie repeats absentmindedly. "It's... far away from here. Hard to explain. But we weren't made. I mean... technically... Didn't the magic make us? Or at least... turn us into this? But we weren't made like your hybrids were."

“I… I made us.” Alt whispers, “with my magic… but we’re… we’re human…” He laughs dazedly, “We could s-show you if we went on l-land…”

Demerci looks fascinated by this, “Magic…? Huh… interesting….” She looks like she doesn’t believe a word of this but she continues. “What are your designations?”

Bro laughs, “…that’s a big word…” When he laughs but doesn’t answer the question, Demerci presses something on her table and Bro gets shocked. He yells out and blinks in confusion before the Mesmer lights and song drags him back under. “Are you refusing to answer or do you just not have them?”

"We don't have them," Jackie says. "Unless you mean our names? I'm Jackie. Jackie Parker." He smiles a bit dazedly. "I-I chose it myself."

“Hm… names are fine then…” Demerci says.

“Alt.. Brody…” Alt whispers.

“C-Chase Brody…” Bro pants.

“Interesting…” Demerci muses. “Alright, let’s hear your abilities then?”

“I got super strength and stuff… think this fish body has good armor and shit…” Bro breathes with a dazed smile.

Alt’s eyes twitch and try to flicker before he mutters out, “I can… glitch… and use electricity and.. and electric magic…”

"I don't really have anything special," Jackie says slowly. "I'm strong, a-and I got these pinchers now, and the armored tail. But I think I'm durable."

“Oh that’s more than enough for us to use, dear…” Demerci chuckles. “Now… I can’t help but notice you look so similar to the other hybrids and even share their chosen names… even if we don’t use them. So… hm.. maybe you’re experiments from another company we can’t detect here… the only question is how they got McLoughlin’s DNA…” she then shrugs and grins, “no matter! This is an Alterra owned planet so- anything we find here we can keep~ but before we get started on that… do you boys know SD-004? He also goes by… Anti.”

Saying that name has Chase’s song faltering ever so slightly, his eyes flickering. Then, he gets back on track.

"I... guess?" Jackie says, frowning. "W-we haven't met him here. But... we know about him." He blinks, struggling for a bit, trying to sit up, but then the song brings him back under. "He... shoots fireballs and stuff, right?"

Demerci chuckles, “In a way.” She then frowns. “SD-4 has been a pain in our sides for too long… him and those rebels he’s somehow aligned himself with.” She then smiles sweetly and increases the brightness of the Mesmer screens.

“I need all of your help to reunite him with his family… we all miss him so terribly~ so… hybrids… will you help us?”

Alt answers almost immediately, “…yes.”

"Family?" Jackie repeats. Yes, the hybrids were all a family, weren't they? Why was Anti apart? They needed to be together. "S-sure."

Bro seems to struggle a bit, something trying to fire off in his foggy brain. “Y..yeah…”

The mesmer colors start to flash brighter and faster- words and phrases hidden inside them.

“Good. Very good. We need good weapons like you all on our side. We will give you all the purpose you deserve.” Demerci smiles.

You are a hybrid. Not a human. You are a Weapon. Obey. Do not resist . No free will. Let go. Forget. Serve Alterra.

The words flash over and over drilling them into their minds, starting to take away any thoughts of fighting against this. They were right, weren’t they? They’re only weapons… a means to the end. That’s all they’ve ever been.

Jackie blinks. For a moment, he struggles, but... it's so much easier to forget. All he's ever been good at is beating stuff up. Because... he was made for that. He was made for this. Yes, of course. Of course he was. How could he have thought otherwise? Even the memory of thinking he was anything else is fading. Serve Alterra. Serve Alterra.

Alt’s eyes glaze over rapidly as the words settle in. Serve Alterra… yeah… he wants to do that. He needs to.

Bro is trying to struggle, but it’s not getting him very far as his eyes get drawn back to the screen and fall back to the words. Spiraling down down into his emptying head. He starts to slump.

“You know… I thought it was strange to see a Chelicerate hybrid on this side… but then again they can survive in warmer waters. You are going to make the most fascinating study, Jackie Parker~” Demerci giggles. “Once your tasks are done… I’m gonna enjoy studying you.”

Now their monitors zone in and move closer to their faces, showing more personalized messages through the colors.

For Jackie: Chelicerate. Predator. Aggressive. Feral. Driven by instinct. Hunter. Powerful mandibles. Crush our enemies. No thoughts. You are not human. You are a weapon. Serve Alterra.

For Bro: Boneshark. Predator. Aggressive. Feral. Driven by instinct. Hunter. Powerful jaws. Armored defense. Incredible speed. No thoughts. You are not a human. You are a weapon. Serve Alterra.

For Alt: Ampeel. Predator. Aggressive. You will be our eyes and ears. Tactical. Find their weaknesses. Electric. Incapacitate. Capture targets. No thoughts but our objectives. You are not human. You are a weapon. Serve Alterra.

And as these words start to sink in and change their thoughts- something clicks from underneath them on the tables. And soon something round and sleek seems to clamp onto their ears. Like… gauges. It sets their bodies alight- feeling foreign and right at the same time as it emits waves of energy that seems to take control of their entire systems. Starting to rewrite them completely. The more the words and waves start to set in, the more the boys eyes start to… change. Reflecting different colors- closer to the species they embody. Not completely yet- but the shift is seen brewing at the surface.

“We won’t need those human names anymore- since you never were more than our tools, hybrids.” Demerci smirks.

“Now you are BS-008.” She says to Bro. He shudders and stiffens as a slight shock from the gauges cements this in his brain.

She looks to Jackie. “You are CE-009.” She commands- and a shock from the earrings make it so. It seems silly to think it was anything different.

And finally she looks to Alt. “And you are AE-010.” Alt’s body and tail ripple with electricity as he forgets his former name.

Something tickles at the back of Jackie's mind—some last struggle, a primal fear that spikes when the gauges are attached. He gasps for a moment... but then... then it... fades away...

CE-009's mandibles snap. He struggles a little against the bonds—and then looks towards the woman. She's Alterra. Serve Alterra. He blinks slowly. A noise echoes in the back of his throat, some sort of wordless screeching sound.

Demerci blinks in mild surprise then grins wickedly. “Impressive CE-009… usually we don’t get results like that until after memory deletion… you must not have had that big of a mind~” She giggles. “That’s perfect.”

She clicks more stuff on her table. Something else starts to snap onto the boys’ faces now- two suction cups that stick to either side of their foreheads. An arm makes sure to rip Bro’s hat off so it won’t get in the way.

“You’ve done so great for me, loves.” Demerci coos. “One final push and it’ll allll be over~ and you’ll be ready to serve Alterra like you were always meant to!”

She pushes a lever up- and electricity starts to fill their minds- their bodies. Alt, Jackie and Bro scream- the electricity and pain make them forget everything they knew before. Who they were. Where they’re from. Why they’re here. Their families, their friends. That they were ever anything more than Alterra’s tool. The electricity completely molds them into perfect Alteran weapons.

As they scream- their voices turn more feral and guttural. BS-008’s voice deepens and roars. AE-010 becomes more high pitched and crackles like static. Now their eyes fully change to their species’ own, glowing with unnatural alien light.

And then- it all stops. Their minds wiped, their purpose secured, the new hybrids fall to the beds, exhausted, panting but… complete. The monitors shut off and stow themselves away. The suction cups fall off- the restraints are removed. Demerci waves her arm at RR-001. “Thank you RR. You are dismissed.”

“Yes, Dr. Demerci.” RR-001 says and a warp gate opens to let him out.

Another arm pops out and goes to force a white mask like Marvin’s and Jamie’s—WH-5 and CH-7’s—onto AE’s face. It clamps around his jaw, inserted into the skin and he doesn’t even flinch. Another arm rips off his mask and replaces it with a collar with a speaker that goes around his neck.

“You can rest for now, hybrids… settle in and let me know when you’re ready.” Demerci smirks.

CE-9 turns over, shaking himself and blinking a new purple-and-white eye. He makes more of those screeching noises—quieter than the roars they can grow to be-- and tries swimming around the room. He goes in circles around, silent for the first little while, getting used to the environment. And then he starts to get restless. "I--I w-want—" His voice shakes a little—not with nerves or fear, but with that same sort of restlessness. "I--I n-need—prey." His head darts around, looking for anything he can tear apart. He swims across the room a couple times. "Where—where is it? Where is it? Something." He needs a target of some kind. He needs one. He looks at the other two in the room—but no, they're like him. They're for Alterra. He makes another sound and continues to swim circles around the room.

BS-8 shakes his head and slowly pushes himself up, looking dazed. Then, he starts to giggle a bit, feeling an unhinged bubble in his throat that he can’t calm down. He feels the itch too. The itch to fight- to tear into flesh and rip it apart. That’s what creatures like him are made to do right? He looks over at CE-9 and growls almost playfully, whipping his tail and sinking claws into the table he’s on.

AE-10 takes a while to process. His blood feels electric, his tail sparks and flickers with electricity. It’s hard to wake up his empty head and get it firing again. Then- like a computer starting up, he feels thoughts forming. Get the directive- start your mission. He sits up robotically then floats upwards, going to look at Demerci through the window. The radio on his neck crackles to life, a static robotic imitation of his voice coming out from the speaker. “Ready for orders, Dr. Demerci.”

CE-9 follows AE-10's gaze and swims up to the window as well. Orders? Prey? Where? Now?

BS-8 frowns as he’s ignored by CE-9 and whips his tail in an annoyed manner.

Demerci grins wide, “Excellent. And while I’m eager to get you all on SD-004’s trail… WH-005 told me there were other strange hybrids around. We need to capture them too… and why don’t we see what you boys are capable of, hm? I see some of you are already showing that bloodlust.. that’s good.”

She presses the comm on her console and says, “WH-5? Warp to the training tank please.”

A warp gate opens down at the bottom of the tank- into an aquarium filled with rocky terrain and bright flora.

“I’ll get you boys some nice prey to get you warmed up with hm?” Demerci giggles.

AE-10 nods and in a flash glitches down and into the warp gate. Demerci looks surprised by this- but then she watches him hungrily. Short terming warping? …that’s valuable.

BS-8 peeks up at seeing the warp gate and bares his fangs in a wide feral grin and rockets to get to the other side.

CE-9 whirls back around and charges right through the warp gate.

The warp gate closes behind them and they find themselves in a way larger tank with plenty of strategic places to hide and swim through. There’s a few whirls of gates opening and then- a river-prowler hybrid darts out and tries to attack CE-9.

CE-9 screeches—in surprise, at first, as the river prowler grabs onto him. And then louder, the sound growing into a disturbing roar. The mandibles on his back shoot out and grab onto the hybrid and his head darts forward, biting into its skin.

The hybrid looks young- younger than CE at least. It screeches in surprise and there’s a slight look of more human-like fear in its eyes as it’s grabbed in CE-9’s mandibles. They start to crush on its tail and it’s arm and then- the bite happens and he rips into its jugular. The river prowler screeches and thrashes as the orange hybrid blood clouds around it until it finally falls silent.

BS’s eyes sparkle with sadistic joy. He licks his lips and whacks the ground with his tail. “My turn… my turn…!”

A swarm of bonesharks are released next, each one going for one of the hybrids.

CE-9 is so focused on the dying prey that he doesn't notice the bonesharks until it's too late and one barrells right into him. He goes flipping through the water, letting go of the river prowler's body and slamming into the tank wall. Then he shakes his head and looks at the boneshark again. Armor—difficult. But not impossible. He screeches and charges headfirst at the boneshark in the same way it charged at him. The boneshark and CE-9 hit each other in the middle of the water, but CE-9 turns out to be slightly stronger, pushing the boneshark down into the ground. The mandibles shoot out again, holding it in place, and CE-9 starts prying at the armor looking a weakness where he can attack.

There! Behind the head and start of its armor- a fleshy bit of muscle most fish can’t get to. The boneshark shrieks and tries to wriggle free but then the mandibles start to crack and pry at its armor and it screams in pain. CE-9 darts forward, digging and clawing into the exposed flesh, snarling as he does so. Until, finally, the boneshark's pain is ended and it goes limp.

AE-10 tries to prepare himself for the prey coming towards him but it dives at his tail and drags him down. In surprise AE shocks it and they both tumble into the sand. Once he has his bearings, AE wraps his tail around the softer underbelly of the boneshark and tries to shock it.

BS-8 is overly eager and grins manically as the boneshark approaches him. Then it plows him over and chomps on his arm where he has no armor. BS screams in rage and then lashes out to try to claw it off him.

AE-10 seems to have a bit of difficulty but after enough tries fills the boneshark with so much electricity it shrieks and then burns bloom across its belly and it falls half-charred to the ground. AE-10 shakes himself off and away from the dead boneshark and looks down at it emotionlessly.

BS-8 and the boneshark struggle in a wrestling match against each other. But, BS knows this things weakness- he knows his kind. He pushes himself up onto the top of the boneshark and sinks his into its fleshy neck, ripping and tearing at flesh until the poor thing finally expires in a heap on the sand. BS-8 giggles and licks the blood off his face, his own blood pumping.

A clap is heard over that comm and an amused Demerci calls out, “Well done boys! Do we want another round or… are you ready to find your real prey?”

CE-9 backs up, breathing heavily. "Real prey?" he repeats, eyes going wide. "This tastes real enough." A smile flickers on his face and he glances at BS-8. "Right?" Then he looks back at the comm. "But yes. Yes yes yes."

“Hehehe yeah- tastes good-!” BS agrees. But then he spurs up and grins wide at the comm. “But, if you got better fights then yes!”

AE-10 nods. “We’re ready, Chief Demerci.”

Demerci chuckles. “Good. WH-005 will follow you and be on standby with his other agents should you need them. But this will be your chance to prove yourselves to Alterra. Capture SD-004 and any other strange hybrids you see.”

A ring of yellow flashes in AE-10’s eyes as he nods. “Yes, Chief Demerci.”

BS-8 grins wide, “Fuck yeah. Let’s get these guys~!”

CE-9 flicks his tail, giggling in a strange, scratchy way. "More prey. Let's go let's go!"

Demerci laughs. “Good luck then!“

A warp gate opens to the open ocean. AE-10 goes in through with BS-8 following close behind. CE-9 hurries after them, rushing forward.

Time to find the trail…

16 notes · View notes