OOC: Just so we're clear, Icy and I have definite plans for this murderer, so don't try and steal them from us, kay? /OOC
Beast followed Stig through the tunnels of the Main, trying to stay away from prying eyes, his advanced senses having picked up a familiar old scent and sending him into the bowels of the earth for the moment. Revenge or not, a confrontation with Tyr should be fought without innocent blood anywhere to be spilled.
As he thought about this old foe, a ghost of the past, the past returned to him. The truths behind his origins.
The technorganic cables that Hyperspace discovered (in 1947) could be used to amplify a human's abilities--they were not terrestrial in origin, and in fact were the chains and fetters spoken of in Norse legend, the bonds that held in bondage the god Loki and his bastard offspring Fenris-wolf. If touched, they would imbue a mortal with almost-godhood for a short time, the price insanity--no mortal can deal with deification without a gradual induction to it. Also, the cables destroyed damn near anything they touched. Something inside them reacted dangerously to contact with matter that wasn't a cable.
Hyperspace, not knowing the depths of danger they plumbed, recognized these cables as an awesome source of destructive energy that, if harnessed, could be a boon to the strength and impregnability of the United States' military might. And, this goal being what their creation was for, they seized the opportunity and committed what could quite possibly have been the most stupendous, most idiotic, most lucky move humanity has ever made.
They managed to render a portion of the cables inactive for a time, and stuck them in a container until the day came when more advanced technology allowed for analysis.
The cables were found wrapped about what appeared to be two coffin-shaped objects, huge and almost-impermeable. The scientists managed to open one, and found a large skeleton, with a few scraps of flesh hanging off it. They filed the stuff away for later examination, and eagerly tore into the advanced technology of the craft. The head scientist, one J. Robert Oppenheimer, almost had a heart atack when he discovered what appeared to be an object that could synthesize tissue. The misuse of this tool later led to events in the Main's world that now are lumped under their worst example, the Telepath Virus. More on that another time.
They now used the flesh they found on the body in the craft to 'clone' another human being; however, the DNA of the body having decayed quite far, they had to figure out a way to make it a full human being. Oppenheimer offered a scrap of skin from his arm, and they sat back to see if it worked. They were rewarded with a child, who was discovered to be abnormally aware of his surroundings. He later named himself 'Boy,' for lack of a better term. What no one knew, and what 'Boy' really felt they had no need to know, was that when the scientists had opened Loki's casket, Fenrir had felt it. He recognized what they were trying to do, but being shackled inside his own prison thanks to the gods, Tyr's hand burning his stomach as if warning him of his inevitable doom, he could do nothing to speed up the clumsy human process. The minute the child was made, he wrenched his soul from his body, attacked the wraithlike Disir hovering over it, and took the child as his own. And he grew up, quickly at first, but then slowing down to subnormal speeds once he hit an apparent age 17. He grew to appreciate Oppenheimer as a sort of father figure (the man cared for Boy as if he were his own son, his real sons having left him long ago), but never forgetting his real father lay in a pile of bones in a god-made coffin.
He watched as Hyperspace tried to unlock the secrets of the crafts, unwilling to help, still angry at these bastard progeny of Odin's loins. Of course, since all appearances made him seem to be one of said bastards, he pretended to know nothing about the cables and their prisoners, and instead just seemed withdrawn and antisocial.
Soon, Oppenheimer began to find out more and more about the cables, and the experiments he created with this knowledge began to get wilder and more dangerous. Boy/Fenrir decided he'd have to take a more active role, and slew some of the experiments in anger. It felt good to kill in this body. It felt good to kill, period. It had been far too long since he felt the blood of the gods run down his face.
However, he realized that he was no longer the aimless engine of destruction that Fenris-wolf had been. Fenrir had discovered humanity, and it wasn't as bad as Loki had said it was. Sure, idiotic, and needing of some 'rehabilitation' thanks to Odin's meddling, but on a whole it could be saved.
On that day, he decided he would set down Rules to govern himself and all other beings in existence, and he would never break them. However, those who did . . . would be punished by his blade. He felt Fenris-wolf's bloodlust once more, but he could not draw attention to himself. The code of Justice he had invented would be enough to provide him with the necesssary satiation. How fortunate the gods had already broken most of the rules, and oh! How fortunate Odin had broken ALL of them! He would enjoy cleaving that treacherous god in two . . .
So he lived from then on, through everything that happened.
Through . . . HER. He wondered whatever happened to her, as he walked through the dark, grimy tunnels of the Main. Hopefully, she had died. Of course, he thought to himself, Loki should have been dead. And he wasn't.
One day, computers were invented, not the original ones, thsoe slow calculators, but ones that were strong, robust enough enough that, given a few years, they could analyze a strand of DNA and show any corollaries to it.
So the scientists analyzed what little DNA existed inside the cables--they still held fascination for the men, despite so many grisly failures. To their surprise, they found bird, fish, bear, human, feline and plant DNA entwined together to create what, to the best of their knowledge, was the strongest, most durable substance in existence. Nothing could break it, unless it was cooled to a temperature of about -500 K.
Through means he still didn't understand, Fenrir saw these men create a baby, born with the ability to make these cables and grow them inside himself. Fenrir never understood why they'd want him--the new child of Oppenheimer, the obsession of an old man for one last grasp at truth--to have shackles.
Then, the newborn vanished from the lab shortly after, and Boy thought he understood. He had read his second father's logs, and he thought he knew what had happened to the boy. The loss of his greatest work broke the man, and Boy watched Oppenheimer continue his attempts, knowing the old man did so halfheartedly. He made another HER, but this time used the shackles, and succeeded.
Boy left shortly afterward, unable to bear the pain his 'father' was in. Six or seven years later, he learned the labs had burned down and slaughtered half a town in rage. When he calmed down enough to realize what he had done, he renamed himself 'Beast,' not deserving a human name any longer, and vanished.
He ran into Kitsune and instantly recognized the lost soul. He tried to kill him for running away, but discovered dead gods don't bring their new selves to full awareness at all (all in all, this wasn't that surprising--Kit may have inherited the Trickster's soul, but he didn't have his mind), and left Kitsune to live and wonder what the fuck just happened.
There were other times they had met, but Beast wasn't thinking about them any more.
He was thinking of gods and monsters . . .
OOC: Long involved backstory-stuffed post. Sorry, needed to explain how this whole thing worked so nobody misunderstood. /OOC
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