ATLAS

ATLASRebirth

I opened my journal and began to write...

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She huffed as the camera displayed the large man in one of her clubs. He stood in front of a door she knew very well what it led to. He hesitated, though, prompting her to tilt her head to the side.

“Run a record check on him. Bring him in if everything fits.”

“Yes ma’am.”

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        Atlas woke up, the last thing he remembered being walking through a hallway, past the door at Club Damnation. His vision was hazy, looking around, trying to decipher where exactly he was at that moment. Corrupted sounds reaching his senses, voices, distorted.

        “Is everything ready?” a female voice asked. Atlas looked up, seeing a large medical machine, syringes, saws, drills, above him.

        “Begin now…” Atlas vision changed as the face of a pony looked down at him, red mane, yellow coat. “I’m sorry, Atlas.”

        He muttered something in response, only to be interrupted by an oxygen mask being placed over his mouth. His eyes widened as the pony left his field of vision. The machine above him whirred into life, coming down onto him. “Right arm, begin amputation.”

        Atlas’ senses fell silent, his view fading into darkness. When he was able to open his eyes once more, he groggily looked down at his body, finding a team of surgeons working on his open chest cavity. Pain, oh so much pain. He couldn’t scream, grunt, or anything like that. Both his arms were gone, replaced by metallic sockets. He examined his viscera, watching as the surgeons remove his lungs, hearts, and replaced them with cybernetic variants. His ribs, reinforced by metal and syntex. Further down, both his legs, the skin no longer there, the muscle replaced by more syntex. He briefly wondered what he was being turned into. Perhaps even more of a monster. His wanderings ended when one of the medics realized that he was awake, thus applying more anesthetics.

        He didn’t know how much time passed, but he woke up once more. Looked down at his chest, something else was being implanted. An energy core of some form, with a glimmering crystal inside of it. “He tried to move, alas, he could not. “Log number one hundred and thirty: assimilation of syntex fibers and reinforcements successful… I can’t believe how much this human can withstand… We’re beginning installation of the core, now.”

        Steadily, he watched as the new implant began to be installed into his chest. Was it even his chest anymore? He did not know. He did not want any of this. Why? He asked himself more questions before falling into unconsciousness again.

        He woke up with a searing pain across all of his body. His arms were still nonexistent. He screamed as loudly as he could, his new muscles tensing up. “Log number hundred and sixty five: installation of the core was hard, but manageable. His brain fought against the energy waves, but eventually gave up… Maybe it’s true, after all… The mind is weaker than the body.”

        “Beginning installation of ocular implants, now.”

        Atlas tried to break off of the surgical table he was strapped to, as the machinery above began to approach his eyes. “No anesthetics for this one… It’ll make it through.”

        He screamed as the searing pain of his eyes being removed struck him. For once, he wished he could just pass out, but he had been made to whistand pain. His vision faded away, feeling his the strange sense of air brushing against his open ocular cavities. Soon enough, two new eyes were forcefully implanted in the same holes. Cold, they were.

        “Good…confirm that subject is able to endure quite a lot. Pump his full of the nanite solution, now. The bots will do the rest from now on.”

        An emptiness within him began to be filled. He could not see, but he felt his three hearts working hard to pump a new form of blood into his body. “Hmph… DNA is beginning to change. Good. He’ll be the perfect mix of man and machine in no time.” The voice fell silent, then spoke up once more, “Unlock the dopamine receptors and install the arms. We’re almost done.

        Time passed, the pain diminishing. What began as sparks and random colours in his vision, soon began to adapt, showing him the world once again.

        “Good job, everyone… We just gave life to a monster.”