Maximum Overdrive

Suit rebooting.

…

Reboot successful.

Analysing virus.

…

Completed.

Comparing to known databases.

…

No matches found.

Analysing breakdown of virus in deep tissue layers.

…

Completed.

Synthesising antidote.

…

Completed. Administering vaccination.

Wake up Exodus!

        Malachi woke with a jump, only to find a couple of things in his present situation: He was restrained but since his suit had completely rebooted, he wouldn’t have issues escaping again; but what stopped him was Twi’s figure, still in dress, also restrained directly across from him. The next thing was that he noticed they appeared to be in one of the old Project Genesis labs, which he knew was impossible since the area should still be brimming with radiation.

Engaging the night vision built directly into his eyes, Malachi took a look around, trying to find anything that would indicate their where-abouts. Finding nothing but a suit cradle, a rolling cart with a laptop connected to said cradle, and a couple of miscellaneous pressurized canisters beside the large double doors, Malachi turned his attention back to Twilight.

        “Twi. Wake up.” Malachi heard some grumbling and groaning, but eventually Malachi watched Twi’s head lift and shake out her drug induced sleep. “Are you alright?” Twi answered with more groaning. “Before you try and ask, I think we’re at a hidden Project Genesis lab. I don’t know why but the police must’ve called the army when they saw the hole in the mugger’s gut I put in him when he attacked us. I don’t know what they’re going to want but it’s very likely they’ll try to skin me and chemically wipe your memories.” Some more groans, albeit more anxious in tone, were the only other sounds heard for at least fifteen minutes.

        Soon enough the room the two of them were in became awash in blinding medical lights, forcing Malachi to switch off his night vision before his retinas burned out. Two lab techs walked in; one pushing a cart of rather large surgical knives, knives he’d become accustomed to back in the day, approaching Twi and the other approaching Malachi, no, Exodus with a rather bulky manilla folder. Not many features could be noticed since both techs, likely pegasi stallions by their body size and wings, were both head to hoof in surgical attire, masks and everything.

        “So Exodus, or should I call you Malachi? That is what you call yourself now isn’t it?” The male asked with a cocky voice.

        “It’s Exodus. Malachi is a name I chose in order to survive as a civilian. It means nothing to me.” Exodus replied in a low, almost threatening voice.

        “Ohh, scary voices, I like it. Means you’ve still got the killer intent that was imprinted into you in your early years. So if Malachi is a name you have no care for, does that mean you have no cares about anything as always?”

        “Yes.” Exodus replied flatly.

        “Oh good. Then that means you don’t care what we do to that girl over there?” The man asked, his jaw suggesting a cruel smile, teeth and everything.

Exodus looked over the tech’s shoulder and saw that the other one was looking at him with a large scalpel pressed against Twi’s throat; Exodus’ glowing red arm shot out at that moment, gripping the closer tech’s throat in his own hand.

“So you do care; how sweet. How about you let me go and my friend won’t sever her jugular and let her bleed out?” The man suggested, still continuing with that cocky voice of his. Exodus thought about it for a second then slowly released his grasp on the man’s trachea. “Good man. Now how about we ensure your compliance?” Exodus looked back over the tech’s shoulder just as Twi got stabbed in the neck with a needle and injected with a murky red liquid.

        “What did you do to her?” Exodus asked as calm as ever, yet he could feel his killer instincts rising up behind his eyes for the first time in years.

        “Relax,” The tech placed his hand on Exodus’ shoulder in a mock attempt of reassurance. “We’re not going to molest her or anything. No, no no no. That would be wrong. It was only a small explosive device.” Exodus could almost literally swim in the sarcasm dripping off this man’s lips as the man looked away for a second, placing his free hand on his chest, but not removing his hand from Exodus’ shoulder; feigning insult before turning back suddenly and whispering into Exodus’ ear, “You’ll do that for us.

“You see, the people I work for decided to resurrect the Project Genesis, although since we’re officially starting with you, it’ll be the Exodus Project again. So no, we’re not gonna skin you, we’re gonna suit her instead. And you get to put her in the Deep Tissue Layers suit.”

        “And why would I do that?” Exodus asked, teeth starting to grate, fist ready to strike out and snap the man’s neck.

        “Because if you don't, we’ll detonate the tiny charge that is in her neck. It’s only a blast cap, but it’ll do the trick. Quite messy really.” Both men looked down at the strengthened hand pointed directly at the tech’s stomach, then watched as Exodus lowered his hand again.

        “Fine.” was the single syllable answer that seemed to make the two men happy, plus whoever else was likely watching.

***

        Twi watched on in horror, barely able to keep up to what the men were talking about. The little spot in her neck where the needle was inserted ached; a gentle throbbing pain that kept her mind slightly fuzzy. She wished she could rub at it, do anything to get at the least the pain to stop, but the more she tugged on her bindings, the more it felt like they were tightening and given the tech standing beside her, she thought that was probably for the better to stay still.

She knew she’d missed part of the deal when Malachi had responded with a low “fine,” and they seemed to drop whatever it was they were talking about, but what it was she had missed, her mind could only race to try and find an answer that would fit.

Were they going to kill her? Strip her of her memories and identity, then dump her somewhere, forgotten and alone? Tears began forming and she tried to focus her attention on Malachi, something in the blinding white of the room to keep her head from spinning.

“Malachi? What’s going on?” She asked, her voice shaking. Her stomach was doing flips now, going faster and faster the more she panicked. Whatever happened to that fancy suit of Malachi’s? Why was it not working? She didn’t know for sure, but she figured he could’ve broken out, could’ve done something by now.

He did say he cared for nothing, and although that wasn’t a comfort for her, she was alright with it. This was wrong in every sense of the word.

She was going to lose everything. Her friends, her family… If these people really were who they said they were, she doubted she was going to get out of this completely fine. Something horrible was bound to happen to her.

Dammit, out of all the people, why the fuck did Sunset have to pick him!? Her breathing grew shallow, and the tears started rolling slowly, but she kept her stare on Malachi, not having the courage to look the other men in the eye. She didn’t care about them. Their faces were not ones that she wanted to know, especially if this was one of her last moments.

“Dammit, tell me what’s going on!” She shouted, feeling ignored, like she didn’t even matter to them. She didn’t know what their intentions were, but she was not just something in the background, something to be talked about but never talked to. “You owe me that much! I never asked to be part of this!”

***

        Rather than answer the distressed woman, Exodus was simply released and handed a briefcase-like box. At that point both technicians and their tools vacated the vicinity and the door locked shut. The cocky man from earlier came on over the intercoms, “Exodus, would you kindly release the restraints on the poor girl and have her put on the skin suit?”

Exodus begrudgingly complied, breaking himself out of his own restraints and made his way to Twi, before removing the straps binding her.

        “Sorry for putting you through this, but I need you to strip down and put this on.” Exodus handed the terrified girl the box and stepped back. Turning around, Exodus waited patiently, knowing what to come would be much worse than what she was experiencing now.

***

She was ignored once more, the techs doing nothing more than giving Malachi a box before they left, and her heart sank once more as she heard the door slam shut, then the lock fall into place.

She shook her head, forcing the tears to stop and sniffled lightly, feeling like she was nothing more but a pawn in some evil plan. The techs weren’t gone for long, and she only listened half-heartedly to whatever they were saying over the intercom. It didn’t matter anyways, whether she listened or didn’t.

They weren’t going to listen to her. Her opinion didn’t matter. They weren’t going to explain to her why this was happening, they were just going to do it anyway and if she was upset about it, then she was going to be upset about it.

However, her eyes remained on Malachi, watching as he broke out of his bindings, then headed over to do the same for her. “Oh, now you break out.” She spit, venom dripping off her words as she turned away, wiping her face dry. What a fucking awful night.

First day of freedom and she finds herself a guy who seems nice, but is actually an experiment broken out and then boom, next thing she knows, she’s on the roof and then all tied up. Seemed a lot like the hostel movies if you had to ask her, except instead of the men being lured it was her.

Then Malachi spoke again, and she could have sworn that her heart stopped. He needed her to… Strip? Her eyes grew wide, her eyebrows furrowed together, and her head snapped over to look back at the man. “You want me to what?” For a brief second, a reminder flashed in her mind about the charge sitting in her neck, ready to blow at the slightest sign, but she didn’t care. She would rather die here then bend to these freaks’ wishes.

“You must be out of your fucking mind if you think for a second that I’m doing that,” She said, laughing bitterly. Her hooves clicked angrily as she walked around to face Malachi again, only to shove the box back at him, not caring if he grabbed it or let it fall. “Go find another chick to lure in here. Kill me if you have to, but I am not fucking doing that.”

***

        “And here we thought this would be easy. Well then miss…” Papers flipping in the background. “Twilight Sparkle, I think there's a couple of people here who’d like to say something.” The next sounds that came over the intercom were the sounds of Sunset crying and Flash freaking out. “Now, if you don’t want anything to happen to your little friends, I suggest you do what you're told. If you still don’t feel like it, then we can always go… ‘ask’ your parents their opinions.” the intercom cut out again, leaving Exodus with the box in his hands in the middle of the room.

***

        She looked around the room, glaring at the direction the voices were coming from. These people had obviously lost it if they thought she was doing this, but as stubborn as the young girl was, everything changed when she heard Sunset and Flash come over the intercom. Not only did they know her name, they knew her friends too. Was anything safe from these freaks?!

Twi looked at Malachi once more, then down at the box in his hands. God knew what was in there, what was going to happen to her even. Was she going to turn into what Malachi was, a person stripped of everything but basic personality, likes and dislikes, but with power beyond any unicorn? Or was she just expected to go along with it until they found she was unfit for the program and got rid of her? Whatever was in there…. Was better than Flash and Sunset going through anything even close to this.

“If I do this… You’ll let them go, right?” She asked, her eyes tearing up as she looked around the room again.

“No! Twi, you can’t!” Flash shouted from the other side of the intercom, and Sunset’s sobbing only got louder, and her heart sank again.

“Let them free, and I’ll stay.” She dropped her gaze to Malachi once more time, her shoulders falling in defeat. “Promise me.”

***

        “Very well. You do what we say, your friends go free. We’re waiting. Patiently I might add.” a bit of background chatter was heard over the intercom before it cut off again, Exodus now opening the box himself, keeping it turned towards her.

***

        The last noise Twi heard before the intercom cut off again was Sunset crying, but she couldn’t focus on that right now. At least she had gotten them to safety. Yeah, Twi was aware she might never see the light of day again, but if she could tell herself at night that Flash and Sunset were safe, that just might be enough to get her through whatever the hell they were going to do to her.

She sighed slowly and all out of options, she took out the contents of the box. The contents were chilly to the touch, almost like gelatine that had been left in the fridge and with her nose scrunched, she pulled the material out of the box. A plastic looking leotard-type thing unfolded itself, black in color, but it shone dark grey-silver if the light hit it right.

She frowned slightly, but sighed, knowing her bounds and what she had to do. “You look, and I won’t be the only woman in this room,” She glared at Malachi, then walked to the other side of the room, taking only a small comfort in Malachi’s back aimed to her. At least that was one less pair of eyes watching her. “Goddesses, Twi, what have you gotten yourself into?” She asked herself sadly, then shaking her head, begun to undress.

The leotard was as cold to wear as it had been to touch, and with the rest of her clothing discarded into a pile on the floor, she wrapped her arms around herself, containing any shivers that managed to seep out. Hopefully the suit would heat up soon, adjust to the temperature of her own body, but that was probably the least of her concerns right now. Turning back to face Malachi, she gritted her teeth. “There. Now what?”

***

        “Please have a seat in the cradle there. The worst part comes next, then after that it gets easier.” Exodus indicated the cradle in question, the back half of the full body suit already in place, ready to receive its new driver as the insides of it pulsed with light every few seconds, seemingly like a heartbeat.

***

Twi stiffened slightly, knowing that whatever happened in that chair would not be pleasant. She didn’t quite know what would happen but she wasn’t quite sure if she wanted to ask for the details before it happened, so instead of waiting and getting anxious, the woman carefully walked over to the chair and slowly took a seat. It looked like the back half of whatever Malachi had been wearing, looked a bit like a can that been cut directly down the middle with the first half nowhere in sight.

Eventually, she got the courage to lie back and it rolled her back slowly, and her heart took off at a thousand beats a minute. Whatever was going to happen was going to fucking suck, but at this point, she kind of had to. If it kept Flash and Sunset safe, then everything was going to be worth it.

She may never see them again, and she understood that well. After all, Malachi didn’t even have a family, a birth date.

The machine whirred, and slowly then all at once, the robotic arms unfolded themselves, towering above Twi’s head like monsters and she was nothing but an ant. She sighed nervously, finding the entire situation uncomfortable and nerve-wrecking. The waiting was the worst, but if she had even the slightest idea of what was going to happen to her next, the waiting probably would’ve been just fine with her.

The pain shot through her at a thousand miles an hour. Her spine was on fire, pinched and pinned in places she didn’t think would matter as the robotic arms worked overtop of her, placing pieces of goddesses-knows-what and lasing them in place.

Pain came from everywhere; burning, pinching, pulling… Everything happened all at once and she cried in pain, the tears rolling down the sides of her face. Fortunately, no sooner had it began, that the pain eventually dulled down into a sharp stabbing sensation, then slowly into a more relaxed pins and needles in her spine.

The final event of the process was when the mask itself descended down upon Twi, soon enveloping her head entirely, her purple hair the only sign of a human being having been in that space just moments before.

New driver detected.

Analyzing DNA signature…

…

Complete.

Compiling baseline medical statistics.

…

Complete.

Connecting to Crynet for immuno-boosters and stimulants.

Connecting…

…

Connected.

Administering immuno-boosters and stimulants to regulate biofunctions.

…

…

Completed.

Driver baseline medical statistics updated.

Begin suit/driver interface runtimes.

Running.

It was at this point that the suit began to forcibly interface with Twi’s body structure: her spinal cord, her cardiac systems, blood systems, her lungs, by injecting tiny nanite tendrils into said systems, until her system began to become co-dependant on the suit’s functions. It wasn’t the most painful experience Twi had been succumbed to, but it was pretty high up on her list.

Interface runtimes completed, preparing to enter standby mode.

Notice, training simulations are recommended for first time nano-suit driver's. Please see technician for training and reassignment.

***

Exodus approached Twi again till he was standing at her left, almost within arm's reach, watching her and waiting for something to happen. Eventually, something did happen, the cradle sat Twi back up and Exodus offered a hand to help stand her up.

Leaning in close, Exodus whispered, “Next steps will be the following. You’ll be taken to a training room to learn the functions of the suit and how to best use them, then to weapons training where you’ll choose your primary, secondary, and if you’d like, light-weight tertiary weapons and then you’ll be taken back to this cradle to fine tune your suit; get it set for immediate duty.

Once that is all completed, then Twilight Sparkle as you know her will be pronounced dead, and you’ll be given a new name. If you have a preference for a new title, tell me now and I'll see if I can persuade them to use it. After that, it will be likely that they’ll try to brand and leash us, then send us off to battle in the name of peace, glory, or whatever bullshit they try to sell us. I have other plans for that however.”

Before Exodus could pull his head away, Twi turned her head towards Exodus, whispering a single word before the two of them stood and faced the large double doors again. In stepped a single technician, the one who’d been talking to Exodus beforehand, and stood before the two of them.

“Well well, this has been an eventful afternoon hasn’t it? I’ll presume Exodus has given you a rundown on what happens next, so we’ll skip the pleasantries. Exodus.” Exodus snapped to attention. “You will oversee all of the new units training personally. We’ll be watching rather closely, see if you have what it takes to lead the suit’s side of the new project.

“And remember, we still have our finger on her trigger, so don’t fuck around.” Exodus responded with a salute, remaining silent despite military protocol demanding otherwise. No sooner that the technician left the room, the doors staying open this time, that Exodus once more leaned in quickly to tell Twi, “Don't worry about that explosive. The suit will have disarmed it during the medical statistics part of the boot-up. Just act like it’s still armed and you're afraid for your life.”

“I am afraid for my life!” Twi hissed back as the two began to make their way to the first training room, Exodus in the lead.

Exodus, without looking back replied, “That’s the spirit.”

***

        A short number of hours later, Exodus had fully trained the new driver, helped her pick out her weapons and was waiting for her to undergo the final stages of “initiation”, the death of Twilight Sparkle.

As the technician had suggested, Exodus was on the opposite side of the training programs the entire time, and now was the one on the opposite side of the keyboard from the now “deceased” Twi.

A few questions later, mainly how did she want to have “died”, where, when, etc, the final input boxes remained, “Codename”, and “Commanding Officer.” Having been notified of her preferred name, Exodus entered it in before moving on to the final box.

Now, Exodus knew well the name he was supposed to enter, but instead entered in only two words: Exodus Prime. Pressing enter before the technicians who were undoubtedly key logging him could respond, the new driver profile uploaded to the suit, finalizing everything. Both suits standing up, Exodus faced the new driver head on.

        “Welcome to the Exodus Project, Subject Midnight.”