FSE

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Experiment 009, a synthetic life form, created and raised in a lab. His whole life has been education, testing, and carefully controlled play/social interaction. The project involved far, far too many variables to isolate and test any single one. The goal had to be refined from "how does this effect X" to "can we create, and raise to maturity, a life form which has no true parent?" They could only create, do their best, and collect the data to compare against regular people.

Nine became somewhat of a second.. third... or fourth kid to most of the researchers as he was raised. By all accounts, everything was normal. He had the normal curiosities about where he came from. He had mostly the same aspirations. He wanted to be the single biggest success he could be. Pleasing his 'parents' meant being successful, getting them a nobel prize. Maybe getting himself a nobel prize later, just to show how great he was. Every day, there was that pressure to be perfect. And there was skyrocketing demands to struggle against.

By the end of his teenage years, it had become too much. He snapped and the timing couldn't have been worse. He'd fought with the scientists that night, typical teenage angst, but.. it was something a bit more. His life had been different. He was 19 now, they should let him out into the world. Their grand experiment was over. They couldn't own him, couldn't keep him forever. They weren't the boss of him.

That night, he hit a sort of second puberty. It was something the scientists had never heard of, couldn't hope to predict or account for. The DNA they engineered... It was more advanced than they thought. It had advanced itself, evolved. Over the years, Nine had passively absorbed something ethereal from all those around him. The humans grew a little smaller, a little weaker, mere millimeters in his presence over years. His body was consuming them. He consumed their mass. He consumed their intellect. He consumed their futures.

There were bright timelines, where they would grow old and happy, heroes of science, the shoulders of giants who's work established core principles of science itself. Those timelines were gone by the time their experimental fox was five. The only difference was how far down the line their timelines turned dark now. They had evaded all the timelines where it became dark before he finished growing up, but... that bill was coming due. They couldn't postpone it any longer.

In his room, Nines experienced a growth spurt over night. He rose from his mere five foot self, a design choice that would ensure he never became a hazard to the scientists.. and now topped out at just over eight feet. All the things he had taken from them, it fueled the changes inside him, his DNA evolving from everything he took. Until today, when he broke through the threshold of becoming something more.

That morning, Nine bonked his head on the door leaving his room. His clothes no longer fit. Now, whatever he had on hand only served to highlight his immense size. His boxers and shorts were more like panties and short-shorts at this size. They showed off his midsection and a powerful bulge there. His shirts, stretched to their limit, were barely a crop top, and left his arms, belly, completely exposed. There was no fitting his sneakers any more.

He was there to greet the first researcher into the lab, Dr. Lisa. She had been looking at her paper when she walked in, a cup of coffee tucked into her fingers under it. When she looked up and saw the towering vulpine, she dropped both. "N-nine!?" she forced out, "w-what, how?" She began to breathe a little harder and stepped back.

"I.. I don't know!" Nine said, then stumbled back, he was hit by the Hunger. It was something he'd never imagined before, like a machine experiencing pain for the first time. He had been hungry before, but this was different. This cut into his soul, and he had to fix it. It just, it wasn't hunger in the traditional sense. His stomach was fine, but he needed something more.

"What are you doing?" Fear crept into Lisa's voice. She felt a tingle sweeping through her limbs.

There was a flash of sadness in Nine's eyes, he couldn't stop himself. What's worse, he didn't want to stop himself. Particle by particle, and timeline by timeline, Lisa was disappearing. A dull glow came to Nine as he sucked her in. His first victim. She would become apart of him and he would becoming something more. Her entire essence dissolved and rushed towards him. She had been like a mother to him, she should understand. This would make her creation stronger. His body swelled a few inches further.

Still, the hunger was there, he could barely fight it.

More scientists funneled in, they were shocked, like finding a monster in the closet. Each of them thought they were the first. They thought they could warn everybody. The pain of losing them faded with each person Nine took. They looked less like people and more like ants. Numerous, almost uncountable, and meant to feed their predator.

The last to arrive was Dr. Lisa's husband. Dr. Mark, and today he had his son with him, Chase. Chase was a year older than Nine and already deep into college. He was undecided on his future, he had taken out the general eds and his dad was pushing him to be a scientist. A 'bring your kid to work day' would give him some idea of what kind of future he could have. He was in some sense, a brother for Nine, but.. there was resentment. Chase had every inch of freedom Nine never did. Chase had never suffered the hours of boredom the lab imposed on Nine. Chase had Christmas from day one, Nine didn't get his first present til' he was ten.

What was more, Nine had learned there were flavors of human. His now fifteen foot tall form knew who would make him grow the most. The older researchers, those who had been with the project longest, had been little more than snacks. The newest researchers, they had been divinely sweet treats that made him surge in height and power. In all his time here, he had never really taken much from Chase, only a little of his height. His future, his potential, was bright and appetizing. His existence was appetizing.

Mark quickly pulled Chase behind him, upon seeing the fox sitting there, his head hitting the ceiling, even sitting down. There was really only one way out of here now, through the building. "Nine! What are you doing!?" he called him.

"I'm hungry," Nine said, then closed in a little.

Mark looked back to Chase, shoving him towards the door, "RUN! Run son!" But that future was already gone.

Chase turned to the door and stumbled. He fell, it cost him precious seconds, seconds he didn't have. Nine closed in and picked him up, smiling at the ease with which henow held the doll-like figure. "Hello there, dear brother," he said, the hunger grew worse now that he was holding him. He couldn't help himself. Slowly, the figure in his hand began to whither.

"Please! No!" Mark cried up, "Take me instead!" He rushed towards the fox and tried to pry that hand open. Mark could never do more than ever so slightly dimple down the pad at the end of his fingers.

Nine smiled down at him, "but he tastes better," he said, his hand gently carressing Chase's head, holding him as the human slipped into unconciousness. Whatever dark timelines were left, they had collapsed down to one before the doctor had ever said a word. Their fates were sealed. "He's so much... sweeter than Lisa."

Mark froze, a look of horror dawning on his face. Sickness, fear, sadness... a hurricane of despair whipping inside him. His eyes darted around the lab. Lisa was always the first in. And Tim, Tom, Lloyd, Anna, Jane. They should all be here. Nine shoudl've been in the gym for their standard assessment by now. There should be three or four people fawning over his data then and there.

"Where is everyone!?" the doctor demanded, his voice shaking with fear. He already knew the answer.

"They're right here," the fox said, "a part of me now." His body began to glow, the doctor pounded at his fist as Chase's body began to dissolve in his grip.

Mark scrambled, in a fit of adrenaline, he ripped a metal stand pipe clean off the wall. Water rushed out, soaking him and sprinkling Nine's tails. It was all he could do, wedging it in the fox's finger and prying up. he'd do it one of a time if he had to. He'd break every bone if he had to. He couldn't let this just.. happen. Tears streamed down hsi cheeks as he cried out, "hold on boy!"

Seconds passed and Nine's fingers opened. There was no sign of the promising college boy. Mark stumbled back, he couldn't help it. He upchucked on the floor, falling to his knees in tears.

"Don't be sad doctor, you still have one successful son left," Nine said, "I'm all you need."

Minutes passed before the doctor could force himself up. A numbness filled him, depression, fear, anger. The human brain couldn't process every feeling at once. There was only one thing left to him. He needed to kill his creation. Without turning his back, he moved towards a cabinet against the wall. They actually did have guns here, in case something were to go violently wrong with Nine. The assumption was always that there'd be a break down, a neurological short, a wild instinct to attack. They expected he'd start a fight, bite someone, and one of them would calmly carry out an execution on the spot.

The doctor unlocked the cabinet and withdrew a pistol. It was a very high caliber, guaranteed to put down a bear. Nine looked at it with curiosity, he knew what it was. It wasn't something of a concern to him any more. That pistol was as useless as a toothpick against Thanos.

Mark didn't give him time to say anything. No time to do anything. The gun barked. 8 rounds in the magazine. Seven bangs, his ears rang. Nine ate the bullets. He took their energy and their mass. It added another half inch to his form.

The massive vulpine leaned forward, approaching the doctor. "Now, now Dad, is that any way to act?" He reached a hand towards him. The doctor wouldn't let the fox take him as another snack. He backed against the wall and put the gun to his head.

"I will not feed you," the doctor said, then closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. The gun clicked, and nothing happened.

Maybe Nine had consumed the bullet. Maybe Nine had consumed the timelines where there were eight bullets, and the gun had only had seven in it. It didn't matter now. The doctor fell to his knees, arms dropping limply at his sides. The gun clattered to the tile floor as he began to cry, not for himself, but for his losses. He created this monster, and he couldn't save them. In the course of a single morning, Nine had taken everything from him.

"Oh, not everything," The fox corrected, "you still have the ground beneath you. For now." The fox wouldn't eat him yet, he could be useful. If he went on a rampage now, he'd have to fight the army, the cops... it was a fight he wasn't ready for. There was one timeline left in the doctor's future.

Mark would recruit new scientists, conduct interviews... and in every action, feed the fox with the potentials, the lives, the futures of every student and researcher he could bring in. They would never again consider an artificial life form. He thought that was the end. He could mourn, he could find a way to save the world, if only.. if only there were time.

Nine's hunger however, was too much for that. By the end of the week, he couldn't bear the trickle feeding the doctor offered. Four, five people were disappearing every day, lead to their doom by the doctor. And it wasn't enough. There was no negotiating. No waiting.

One morning a week later, Mark arrived at the lab to find no sign of the fox. He hadn't encountered a single soul on the way to work. No one at work. The news however, covered it all. A creature, massive and unstoppable, consuming everything in his path. Bullets, buildings, and people dissolved in his wake. The City of New York was already gone. Ships fired, planes bombed, artillery boomed, and it had no effect. He proceeded south, through Philadelphia, and towards the capitol. He'd mark over every inch of land until the world was devoid of everything.

Trapped in a bunker, a group of soldiers under DC made a hard decision. There was no escape. They needed their posts to defend so everyone else could escape. There was one option left on the table. The last stand. Final protective fire. They would order their comrades to fire on their own position. Somewhere, a hundred miles away, an alarm sounded and a speaker began to chirp out a coded message: Whiskey Sierra One Apha Seven Zero Zero Four Zulu Olympus. The signal to launch a nuke.

Fifteen minutes later, Mark watched the fireball from the window of his lab. A fireball fifteen miles wide engulfed a city. Flames hotter than the sun. Nothing could survive in that. The doctor fell to his knees, a mix of mourning and happiness. He despised Nine, but... he still had some love for him. He had raised him. The monster was gone, but so too was his creation. Although he couldn't save the world, at least someone had.

The rumble of the explosion began to die down. The flames drew inward. At the center, a fox-god consumed the power of the atom. His form began to glow as he rippled outward. Nothing mankind had would ever be more than a snack to him. Their greatest weapons weren't even enough to tickle. And soon, he would turn his eyes to the stars, and even the heavens above would be nothing more than a tiny treat to be devoured.

Mark looked on in awe, terror, and disbelief. He cursed the monster he had created, his fist banging on the window. He knew he had to be next, or at least, he would be gone soon. It was perhaps the sole bit of happiness left in him. His suffering would end.

At least, until a voice came to his mind. "Oh no, dear Doctor," it was Nine. "You are my witness, to my legacy, my creation, my beginning. I'm keeping you."

The doctor would suffer a fate worse than death. He would see the end of existence. He wouldn't get the blissful escape of the others. He was doomed to live.