The days became months, and months a year, till finally, it was done.

“Kevin1, First Splash is green,” Lud hummed happily.

An esoteric line for sure, but kevin was easier said than trying to say its true name. The, karyotype, elastomer, valence, isomerase, nucleosome, didn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

In the test lab the newly grown pods shuddered, one pod glowing red, radiating so much heat the whole lab was sweating as their creation took its first breaths.

The pod split open, a tall spindly body dropping to the floor, pink new skin hardening into porcelain white sheets of enamel armor plating.

It stood up shakily, the barest line where its mouth was, the only feature on its glassy smooth face.

It did nothing at first, just stood there and breathed, gill slits aspirating mist that bled down its sides as it adapted to oxygen.

“How do you feel, Yuuki?”

She looked good in the skintight suit needed for interface. She also looked shaken, her hands jittery as she signed, “Good,” getting even closer to the kevin.

The kevin turned, looking at her, but stepping back as if it were afraid.

“Lud, these specs are absurd, I’ve never seen sync levels so strong. The link with it is at level six!”

“Level six!” The chart only went to seven.

“Yuuki, try to get closer, the readings are great,” Doc crowed.

Lud grabbed his tablet as it skittered towards him on tiny legs, antenna splaying out as it scanned the kevin.

Doc was right, level six was beyond amazing. The most powerful espers in the world ranged from level two to three and this thing was nearly off the chart.

Lud really wished Yuuki hadn’t won the coin toss to go first.

“What is she doing,” growled Lyshkov.

The new commander, he didn’t look impressed and made it abundantly clear they were prisoners here.

“She has to form a link.”

“That thing’s an esper. We never agreed to making esper’s, we wanted a weapon to fight back against your Westerner masters.”

“He wants a weapon,” Lud grabbed the mic, “Yuuki, now!”

The explosion that shook the lab must have been more than Lud could handle, waking up on his belly draped across a bleeding console.

“Doc?! Yuuki?!” Lud called.

“I’m here boy!”

Through the smoke and fire, the smell of burnt biotech mixed with the smell of Fascists. The smell of soot and wood made Lud want to choke.

As he stood though, he froze, there she was.

Merged into the mecha it took on a new form, it’s look more feminine than before, its fingers sheathed inside heavy claws, her legs digitigrade dropping her onto all fours.

The most startling was its weaponized unit, the mech’s face split in half, a speaker-like system surrounded by teeth and chitinous armour humming as she breathed heavily.

It was more than the projected effects from the small unit they had made as a test.

“She’s perfect,” Lyshkov whispered.

Lud hadn’t seen him at first, he’d honestly hoped he’d been killed in the blast.

But, here he stood.

“Yuuki, can you hear me?”

The creature turned towards him, the cranial plating sliding back into place hiding her mouth parts, as she stalked closer.