Maryland Institute, Annapolis 39 years ago
A young man named Ed Gold stands in an elevator leading to a sub basement. The doors open to a middle aged man named Steve Williams, with an apathetic look on his face, "You Gold?" Ed nods as he exits the elevator. Steve waves him on, "Welcome to Stalker section." Ed looks nervous,"Stalker section?" Steve rolls his eyes," They're Dr. Essex's personal mutant hunters, Ferrum's Hunter class soldiers don't generally bring enough of them back to get a decent genetic sample. Our job is to make sure they develop properly."
Steve walks him over to a massive row of man sized tubes filled with liquid, each holding an infant sized creature,"This is where you'll be working, its division 8, we just call them Creeds. We got one just about ready to come out, Series 3 number 7. You'll pull him out, implant his control chip and take him to the nursery. Make sure to wear the protective gear, these bastards tend to bite. I've seen them take out eyes before."
Ed quickly pulls on the gear as the liquid drains from the tube in front of him as Steve steps back. The new born Creed leapt from the tube knocking Ed down as a few others in protective gear came up laughing as they shot a net gun at the creature. Steve helps him up chuckling,"Sorry, man just a little joke. You won't be expected to get them out alone."
Ed dusts himself off as the others throw the Creed on a table, Steve picks up a small gun like device and shows Ed how to use it to implant the chips. After its activated the creature becomes docile as Ed pushes the table toward the Creed nursery with Steve following.
They enter a large room with various cages with many Creeds at different stages of development as Steve speaks,"They take 4 years to reach adulthood, they'll never get very smart but we give them some education so they'll know how to disarm opposition and take down those who may be more powerful than they are."
Steve leads Ed back out after dropping off the infant,"The rules are simple, don't get to close to them, those chips malfunction and they'll kill you without a moment's hesitation. Don't talk about any thing you see here to anyone outside the institute ever, under any circumstances. And above all else don't piss off Dr. Essex, he'll do worse than kill you."
Ed nervously looks up, "How was you're first week here?" Steve looks him in the eye,"It was the most horrifying 5 days of my life, but you get used to it eventually."
4 years later
Steve and Ed are inspecting a group of newly matured Creeds," Series 5 # 1 step forward." As Steve calls them up Ed checks them,"Height 7'2", Weight 330 lbs." "Series 3 #7 step forward. " "Height 7 even, Weight 315 lbs." "Series 2 #6 step forward..........."
Later
The group of Creeds stand awaiting orders, A large man with pale skin and an angry look on his face looked over them. His name is Lash.
He turns his back to them, "I'll be leading you animals on a mission. The doctor has decided to decommission Raven division, a group of them managed to escape termination. It's our job to track them down and finish them off, they're shape shifters so don't trust your eyes. You've been given a sample to get acquainted with their scent."
7 took it in but also took a long look at the hunk of flesh he was handed and noted a few details and even began extrapolating some physical traits before he was ordered to pass it on.
Several days later
7 was perched on a tree limb as were the rest of his group watching this particular path. A human looking man walked past barefoot, his scent was completely masked confusing the other Creeds but 7 noticed that his foot falls sounded different from the other humans that had walked by. He gave Lash the signal, he looked to the other Creeds to confirm but the rest had a baffled look. 7 sighed and pulled his knife hurling it into the man who instantly fell dead an changed to a blue skinned female.
Lash shook his head, "At least one of you is useful."
A week later
7 found himself alone with a Raven cornered in an abandoned building. Behind her was a Blue skinned child sobbing. The older Raven gave him a defiant look,"You got me, Okay. Just let her go." He stepped forward and the older one lost her nerve. He then stabbed her and looked down on the child. She curled up in the corner as he came closer. He found himself unable to kill her so he stepped back and told her,"Run away." The rest of the group arrived after the child had disappeared into the forest.
One of them pointed out they smelled another Raven aside from the one 7 had killed but he told them, "A krang dragged her off."
34 and a half years later
Dr. Essex personally selected a Creed with a remarkable success record for an important mission to track down the powerful psychic who was in charge of the spider resistance and attempt to acquire a genetic sample. He crouched down beside the doctor as the looked on a young member of the Spider resistance as he watched something on an antique lap top computer.
(this is continued in Hardy and Creed part 1)
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