HikerAngel
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Project Marigold
🕑 Added 2024-03-23 08:50:08 +0000 UTCCommissioned by Darklight98
Written by HikerAngel
This story is a companion piece to an already-existing comic. (Requires a Pixiv account to view). I recommend it!
“Layla was a success, sir.”
“Good,” the man who remained in shadow spoke. Rarely was he ever impressed, which made the pleased response all the more significant. “The Goddess Tears have crafted us a weapon unlike anything this world has seen. A being to surpass all nuclear warfare and bring about an age of conquest for the Borealis Corporation.” He then paused for a brief moment, stroking his beard with contemplation. “How many Tears do we still possess?”
“Enough to create one more superwoman, sir.”
“Quite the conundrum. Either we create a second which could create conflict amongst the two, or we give our enemies the potential to steal that which we have rightfully stolen. The inability for the Goddess Tears to be meaningfully destroyed was the only edge that allowed us to take them from Dr. Callaghan.” He paused again, but this time to pull out a photo from his drawer, sliding it across the lengthy spruce table into the light, within the range of the researcher to retrieve it. “She’s the one. Secure her in our alternative test facility and commence the enhancement process as soon as possible. If Borealis Corp is going to live up to the lofty expectations placed upon it by our shareholders and evolve into a global superpower rivaled by none, we simply must speed up the process as quickly as possible.”
“We’ll get right on it, sir.”
~
Mari awoke to a throbbing headache and a back exploding with pain. That was to be expected—one’s body often felt this way when dropped haphazardly onto the cold concrete of an inhospitable prison cell. But that pain felt almost merciful compared to what was about to happen to her body. She began to convulse and shiver, her body flailing about like an unearthed worm as the power of a goddess’ sadness was fused with her very DNA.
The guards remained stone-faced, indifferent to the cruelty, as her screams of pain only increased in intensity as they echoed throughout the halls. The scientist who had ensured her the procedure would be painless and she’d basically sleep through it—the lying bastard—he would be the first person to face her vengeance. Her body began to grow, periodic surges of musculature erupting on her form as every part of Mari was enhanced beyond human capabilities. A constant riiiiiiiip could be heard as her jumpsuit was reduced to rags, leaving her naked body partially exposed, as if the dehumanization via her captors wasn’t already bad enough.
Mari wanted to kill every single person in this facility, and she had just been granted the capability to do so.
Then came the placation. It had happened with Layla and it was happening with Mari all the same. A soothing, numbing feeling overcame her mind, an overwhelming frost that fed upon the grey matter of her brain, preventing any significant emotions from being processed and any at all from being expressed. But the fiery rage Mari felt refused to be extinguished.
The numbing continued its attempts on claiming her brain’s real estate, though her sheer rage refused its call every time. Her clothes ripped and tore away, revealing chiseled abs and sinuous musculature. Inches of growth became feet as her 4’7” of height nearly doubled, leveling off at around seven and a half feet of burly yet feminine perfection.
Her muscles clenched as another surge of pain coursed up her spine, the resulting sweat launched from just her bicep alone was enough to dent the walls of her containment. Another surge and the entire cell was peppered with tiny distortions. Mari became acutely aware of just how overwhelmingly powerful her body was becoming, and she wanted nothing more than to unleash this potential upon her captors that had stripped her from a normal life all because some goddess’ waterworks happened to mesh well with her DNA signatures, or some crap like that.
Then, her advanced ears picked up a familiar voice. The very scientist she had promised herself to kill first.
“—And the best part? Our modifications to the goddess tears make her completely unreactive to anything. A loyal weapon until the end.”
Catching the tail end of the conversation was all she needed to hear. Their pitiful attempts to conform her to their wills had failed. She was not their puppet, but they believed she was. Mari would simply wait until the optimal time to strike, then, she would have her vengeance upon those that had wronged her.
Her advanced body mimicked stoicism perfectly, standing straight with a thousand-yard stare. Like a doll with no soul, she laid prone upon the floor. The concrete no longer felt uncomfortable, her surprisingly soft muscular cushioned it well enough for her.
“Rise.” The scientist commanded. Mari could feel a dull presence within her mind, a lazy cluster of neurons that were supposed to manipulate her mind into doing as the scientist commanded. Instead, all it could do was vaguely suggest at what at her advanced brain was supposed to do, leaving it ultimately up to Mari to choose.
For now, she would obey, and so she rose accordingly. The stone beneath her feet cracked as she stood, a fraction of a fraction of her power was all it took. She wanted to smile, but knew that emotion now would betray her plans.
“Good, brain activity is matching the control group,” a nearby scientist confirmed, checking between two monitors of readings for Mari’s brain activity. “Your commands are being picked by the modified neurons and her brain is treating them as original decisions with no sign of deviation.”
Now Mari wanted to laugh. These stupid scientists really thought they had a read on her? Their pathetic machines were so easy to fool.
“Excellent. Let our employer know that Project Marigold was a success and we now have two successful supergirls at our disposal.
Two? Mari thought, effortlessly cloaking her inquisitiveness under veils of louder, empty thoughts that the machine detected first. So, there is another. I bet she’s a good little puppet for these idiots. Heh, once I bust outta here, maybe she’ll make a good lapdog.
“Question is, will she hold a candle to Layla?” a guard interjected out of turn, drawing the ire of all the scientists in the room. “I mean, sure, she’s a big gal and all, but I think recency bias is making us all forget just how freakin’ huge that Layla girl is! I mean, you guys were literally tellin’ me in the break room how you all had expectations for the lows and highs of her potential and she totally surpassed even the highs!”
“Are you finished, Lloyd?” One of the scientists asked, his brow twitching with frustration. “Or do you have more useless drivel you’d like to spew from that mouth of yours?”
“C’mon guys, I was just throwing my opinion out there—“
“This is a place for facts, not opinions,” another scientist responded, refusing to let up on this perceived lesser’s transgression. Then, he thought of another opportunity to test the loyalty of his new weapon. “Marigold, strangle him to death.”
The guard panicked and began to profusely apologize, pleading for his life. But his fate had been sealed as soon as the scientist had issued the order.
Oh well, at least I actually tangentially agree with the scientist of this one, Mari thought. Whoever this Layla is, there’s no way she’s stronger than me and anyone who says otherwise deserves to perish!
She casually walked forward, her impossibly powerful form tearing right through the jail bars like they were mere curtains as she scooped the screaming man up by his neck and applied the faintest amount of pressure to it. A loud crack echoed throughout the room, with the guard’s body falling limp in her grasp.
Not desiring to carry a corpse any longer, she dropped the recently christened cadaver onto the hard floor. This would prove to be a critical mistake for Mari.
“Hey, did anyone order her to drop him?” one of the scientists pointed out. “Is it protocol for her to end a task after it has been arbitrarily completed?”
Oh well, so much for prolonging her vengeance until the optimal time struck. No time like the present, anyways.
Before the nearest scientist could even pull up his notes on the nearest wall-mounted tablet to verify the inquiry, he found his head smashed through it. He then discovered that enough electrical voltage was generated from such an action to fry an elephant.
The nearby scientists and guards panicked, rushing for weaponry and alarms alike, but no matter how convenient the mechanism was designed to be, none of the lesser beings could reach them in time. The only sensation their hands would be able to grip onto was pain, their bones shattering and skin tearing as Mari’s will was exerted upon them before anyone else’s could be.
She remained silent, but was not afraid to make the last image that these people would witness her devilish, toothy grin. Faster than human perception, she removed all potential threats in the room within a singular second. A great noise of conflict reaching its crescendo only to immediately fade into haunting silence. Mari giggled to herself as she realized just how easy clearing out a room full of so-called threats was to her.
At first, it seemed as though she had avoided further conflict with her captors thanks to how silently and efficiently she had carried out her attack, but a nagging voice in her mind brought her attention to the top right corner of the room. Her piercing gaze locked with a security camera, as if she was staring into the soul of the man behind it. Her grin returned, knowing that it would further scare whoever was cowardly enough to merely observe her behind the lense.
Sure enough, the guard in the security camera booth remained frozen with fear, understanding just how dangerous a being enhanced with goddess tears could be. Then the display distorted to an overwhelming static, Mari seemingly disappearing within the grays. Unable to take his eyes away from the display, the guard attempted to feel for the alarm button next to him on the desk. While he had never needed to activate the alarm before, he was certain that the button was in the general area his hand was feeling around within. Instead, a small cavity seemed to occupy the area.
“Oh what’s wrong? Are you looking for this?” spoke a self-assured feminine voice behind him—the absolute last voice he wanted to hear at this moment.
Whisking around, his posture fell in despair and his eyes shrunk to pinpricks as his senses were bombarded with the overwhelming presence that was Mari. Her olive skin showed no imperfections as it glistened with the blood of her opposition and her raven hair flowed hypnotically in the wind despite no such air currents existing in an underground bunker.
“You know, all you had to do was shut of the camera and say nothing as soon as I had made my intentions clear,” she rambled, casually tossing the chunk of table with the alarm in her hand like a baseball as if giving it something to do. “If you had just minded your own damn business, I wouldn’t have had to waste all this time coming down here to kill you specifically. It’s all your fault that I’m now going to have to blow this whole place up to prevent my position from being compromised!”
Of course, she didn’t believe this line of reasoning one bit. She was going to ensure that no one was going to leave this facility unscathed, but she enjoyed reveling in the psychological cruelty she was able to subject these lesser beings to. Vengeance was a dish best served cold.
The belief of his betrayal would be the last thing the guard would ever experience before he and every other person complicit in her containment were consumed by a violent explosion. The sheer force of Mari exerting herself brought ruin to everything foolish enough to surround her within a kilometer’s radius. Her flexing muscles and banshee-like scream shattered concrete and ignited the oxygen in the air. What was once a secure corporate facility had become a mile-wide microwave for anyone foolish enough to think that being employed by one of the richest pharmaceutical manufacturers in the entire world would ensure their safety.
But mere vengeance wasn’t enough. Even as the flames roared around her, removing all remnants of those who had wronged her, it did not bring her any satisfaction. She hungered for victory, complete and total domination over all who opposed her. There was still one who stood in her way, one who even her delusions of inherent superiority could not sugarcoat into an easy win.
She needed to take down Layla.
But first, she wanted to enjoy her powers.
Strolling through the streets of the nearby snowy village provided quite the surreal sight. Merchants and pedestrians were already panicked at the sight of the large, looming facility in the distance suddenly collapsing into itself; a seven foot tall, scantily-clad woman walking from the forest was just the icing on the cake. Mari paid them little mind, she knew that no one could resist ogling her perfect form, their greedy eyes drinking in her muscle bound curves and sumptuous skin.
Hmm, what to do next?
Only once she had traversed half the village did she come to the realization her memory was rather foggy. She knew the corporation had kidnapped her, but what exactly had she been kidnapped from? She palmed her forehead as she attempted to recall, her advanced mind working backwards from step fifty.
Memories came flooding back to her, ones she shouldn’t have had access to. They recounted her life before the Borealis Corp had kidnapped her and erased her memory. She had been a genius, top of her class in International Baccalaureate, straight to college where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. Her memory was hazy as it attempted to recall exactly what she had exceeded in, because all this particular memory seemed to show was just how proud her family was of her in that moment. Her father had told her that she was the first person in their family to get a degree, with her mother remarking that a good job and a fantastic future were sure to follow. “Our lucky little girl” they called her, believing she was fortunate enough to have it all.
She tried to recall other instances of her parents, her brother and her two sisters. These were not as pleasant of memories. Chaos. Flames. Her being dragged away, kicking and screaming, tears streaming down her face as the Borealis Corporation murdered everyone living in her household. They knew she came from a part of the world where civil unrest was common, where troops often invaded the houses of the citizens for frivolous reasons. All at once, the memories flooded back into her mind. She had been denied a future where she would be happy. all her life, she had been told who she wasn’t allowed to be—a fighter, a basketball player, a woman in STEM—and she had fought back against all of them. They had tried to tell her she wasn’t allowed to have freedom and she fought back against that too. Now, she had all the freedom. There was no one left to tell her what she could and couldn’t do, unless this “Layla” girl somehow lived up to the hype.
Our little lucky girl. How oh so wrong yet somehow oh so right they turned out to be on that one. She was lucky, now possessing the power to nuke a chunk of the earth and still be in control of her body to do so, but that luck had come at a cost. Melting her enemies was too merciful of a fate. If she had remembered what they had done to her family in the moment, she would have subjected them to unimaginable horrors, leaving their dissected bodies to the buzzards after ensuring that every atom of their consciousnesses had suffered to the fullest extent.
Her anger towards Layla only grew. She was the last link remaining between Mari and the Borealis Corporation, as if she needed another reason to despise her rival.
“U-um, hey lady, are you okay?” came a frightened but still concerned voice beside her, one belonging to a lanky man who appeared to be in his thirties. She was surprised that she was easily able to understand the meaning of the words coming out of his mouth, especially since they didn’t sound like anything she immediately recognized. Only then did Mari realize that tears were streaming down her cheeks.
She whisked around, fearful of looking vulnerable now that she was all-powerful. He was probably the tallest person in the village, yet she was easily a head and a half taller than he was—not to mention each muscle on her body easily sported double the diameter of his.
“Oh I’m fine, but you on the other hand…” She followed up her ominous response by scooping up the Good Samaritan by the neck with a single hand, pulling him a full foot up off the ground until he was at eye level for her. He begged and pleaded, but such tired trite didn’t phase her. She was ready to toss the poor bastard as high as she could throw him, only for a certain stage of his grief to catch her attention.
“I-if you don’t let me go, my father will make you pay! He’s the h-head general of the presidential army, he’ll be unhappy if you hurt me! The might of the E-Estonian Armed Forces will fall upon you like nothing you’ve ever seen!”
Ah, so I’m in Estonia, Mari realized, her only surprise takeaway from his threat. Makes sense, it took my advanced mind a few milliseconds to translate everything to Estonian.
Having been a Colombian from birth, she realized just how far she was away from her home country. Her surroundings already reinforced this, with pale snow lining the rooftops of every house and paler residents living within them. Then again, what use did she have in returning to her hometown? It would probably just fill her mind with even more anger and regret. Not to mention, Estonia wasn’t exactly a big-deal country. It was small and relatively forgotten within the grand scheme of geopolitical affairs. If she were to merc some random general just to prove that she could, this one wasn’t exactly a bad choice if she wanted to keep the element of surprise for future endeavors.
Mari had been mulling things over in her mind for so long she had completely forgotten about the man she was half-choking to death in her hand without even trying.
“Pl-please! Ack! I’m too young to die!” He sputtered, recapturing Mari’s attention from her wandering thoughts.
She released her hold on his throat, allowing gravity to drop him to the dirt. He scrambled to his feet but did not move beyond that, her commanding presence scaring him stiff. Everyone else in the streets had long since fled in fear, leaving the Good Samaritan alone with a being of incomprehensible power.
“So, you believe this father of yours has the capability to defeat me?” she gloated, crossing her bulging arms underneath her bountiful bosom. This could prove to be an interesting source of entertainment, she thought, searching her mind for the location of her new target. She suspected such a search would be a lost cause, preferring not to give her plans away by asking the man, but to her surprise, the location of the Estonian army’s headquarters appeared in her mind on command. Her advanced mind glommed onto information she had only glanced at once for a history test thirteen years prior, combining it with a bored scroll through Google Earth she had apparently compartmentalized even longer ago. While she had nothing to her name other than what little clothes remained on her back, she was still able to chart a course directly to the likeliest brigade where his father reported to.
The man panicked, but nothing he could have said or done would’ve changed her mind. She was set on finding his father out of sheer spite, and would not rest until it was obvious that her mission had been complete.
The air rippled around her as energy built up within Mari’s body. The superheated air cracked the concrete as her temperature turned the cement from gray to a worrying pink, then to a frightening yellow. She needed to move fast, and fast she indeed moved as the power welled up within her allowed her to cross half of Estonia in a second. A semicircle of devastation followed her every movement, an extended skater’s half-pipe of scorched earth in her wake. It was sure to become an official eighth wonder of the world if such a concept would be allowed to exist in a future of Mari’s molding. Maybe it would give this place some actual memorability.
Reinforced barrack walls were shredded like paper as the unstoppable force and immovable object that was Project Marigold burst onto the scene. Immediately, the base was awash with chaos, but Mari was nice enough to allow the armed men within to collect their bearings and begin to fight back, if for no other reason than for her to show just how ineffective their weaponry was against her impervious perfection.
Bullets bounced cleanly off of her smooth skin, objectively causing more harm to the soldiers firing at her from the ricochet alone. She giggled as she slowly traipsed towards her first victim, a soldier who had seemingly cornered himself in the ensuing chaos. She closed the gap, ready to ask if the older man was perhaps the father of…
The father of…?
Fuck.
She had been so eager to track down the most likely military base using only esoteric knowledge that she hadn’t stopped to get the name of the general, or a photo of what he looked like, or even the name of the son she had been tormenting a minute prior. She paused to ponder about what her next course of action should be, rubbing her chin contemplatively, all the while a warzone continued to brew around her. Since grenades felt like a warm breeze now, she didn’t really need to care about what was transpiring because of her actions.
That was half of the problem. Knowing she’d have to make an awkward trip back, then return, it was all seriously killing her enthusiasm! What was the point of spiting someone if she didn’t even know their name? Maybe she was doing all of this to distract herself from the overwhelming emotions stemming from the cruel irony of her existence, preventing her from—
“You’re a damn fool if you think the president will let you get away with this!” A soldier exclaimed amongst the chaos. And then the chaos stopped. The soldier who spoke up looked around in confusion at the sudden change in vibe, finding that all the nearby soldiers were lying face down, unmoving, and all their weapons were rendered useless, torn to scrap metal. The mid-trajectory explosives had seemingly vanished from existence, banished to the ether for daring to explode when it was Mari’s turn to make a point.
Phew, thank goodness another target of my spite offered themselves up to me, Mari thought, smiling self-assuredly. I almost had to stop and consider if I was just doing this to cope with losing every meaningful person in my life! With the internal conflict resolved within her, she was able to remove every threat in the area within a literal blink of an eye.
The soldier dropped his unusable weapon, tripping over his own feet as he attempted to back away from the only other being in the room still standing.
“So, you think the president can stop me? Oh, someone like him won’t be hard to find I’m sure. We’ll have no trouble verifying that claim.” Her words were calm, but dripping with smug insanity as her grin only became wider and her pupils only widened with greater intensity.
She didn’t even have to rack her brain much to locate the latest challenge to her power. The president lived in the Kadriorg Administrative Building and worked in the Parliament, both locations she somehow knew well, and two locations that would be no match for her obstreperousness should she decide to pay them a visit. With her business in the naval base concluded, she left the last soldier alive. After all, who else better to inform the reinforcements of her greatness?
Another quick buildup of energy within her and she arrived at the Kadriorg Administrative Building, since it was the prettier one where she was thinking of establishing residency. If the President wasn’t there, he would have to return home eventually. Sure, she wasn’t exactly covert in her movements—literally leaving a trail of destruction with which to follow her anywhere—but she knew it didn’t matter. She welcomed anyone foolish enough who thought themselves capable of stopping her. Bullets only hit her if she wanted them to, and did little more than arousing her erogenous zones on contact.
A strategic flick of several pieces of debris quickly and efficiently sniped all of the perimeter guards before any serious suspicion could be raised. Sure, the police station three miles away had been alerted to her as she literally bulldozed through in less than a second, but that would be more than enough time to drop in for a surprise visit of the Estonian President. She turned the locked handle of the front door like it was any other, casually strolling into the modernist residence and making herself at home. She exhaled with exaggerated tiredness as she let his couch take a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of her true weight, instantly collapsing the legs. She then put her feet up on the glass coffee table, allowing her form to “relax” while knowing that if she actually stopped holding her own weight, her ankles would shatter the reinforced glass they rested upon.
She spent a little while kicking back and taking it easy, observing the beautiful vista before her. Mari had never known such beauty in her life, a façade of reflection pools and bronze statues of leaders past as far as the eye could see—at least the average eye. Hers could emit x-rays if she so desired.
Then a nearby door opened, with the current president of Brazil walking out into the foyer. With her relative stillness and him expecting nothing out of the ordinary, he didn’t even see her at first, sleepily walking to the nearest fridge in his bathrobe to retrieve some sort of food. What it was, Mari would never find out, as a double take from him altered him to her existence.
“Hey,” she said casually upon the man noticing her.
A series of jumbled and inaudible words escaped his throat. The sheer existence of Mari terrified him. This was supposed to be the man that could stop me? She thought, rolling her eyes. She wasn’t impressed, to say the least.
Uncrossing her legs, she then floated up from the couch, not bothering to put effort into walking. In her mind, she had already won this encounter. He wasn’t calling any men upon her or threatening that she would be defeated by someone supposedly greater than himself. Heh, the top of the line that these beings have to offer. Pitiful.
“Alright, listen up, Mr. President. Or should I say, Mr. Ex-President,” she spoke in perfect Estonian, sizing up the man who was currently curled up in a ball on the floor. “I’m not exactly sure how coups work for someone as unorganized as myself, but consider this one. Effective immediately, I’m the president around here. Understood? I’m calling the shots. You’re just my little pawn. When the time is right, all of Estonia will know that I am their one, true, infinite, ruler of all.”
“B-but I’m… I’m just the president,” he somehow managed to blurt out. “I-I’m just a glorified figurehead! It’s the prime minister who possesses all the real power in the country!”
Mari’s eyes narrowed. She was now growing frustrated with everyone assuring that there was always someone above them with real power, only for her to travel there and find nothing. From what happened next, the president couldn’t make much sense of it. Her form appeared to flicker for but a brief second, as if vanishing and reappearing in an instant.
“There, now the Prime Minister is out of the picture. That means you, as the President, are next in command, correct?” she asked, growing more impatient with every word.
“W-wh-what did you just do!?” the President asked, shivering more with every passing second.
“Oh, nothing that won’t be seen as a horrible accident tomorrow,” she assured, though the vague explanation did not quell the man’s hyperventilation. She was tired of this coward’s fear, his inability to get with the picture and his lack of power to match his position.
She would spend the next few months watching from the shadows, forcing the President to pass laws that would increase his power, only so that by the time it was time for her to be “legally” chosen as his successor, she would assume not a meager side job with checks and balances, but a throne fit for a ruler such as herself. These power grabs would be justified from the public finding out about the fallen Borealis Corporation, how too easily had a company exerted greater will upon the populace than their elected leaders. Fortunately for Mari, she would discover that the Prime Minister had approved of their unethical experiments many years ago. That was all that would be needed to establish a distrust for that branch of government.
With an entire nation’s worth of secrets at her disposal, it wasn’t long before she came across a crucial piece of information amongst land claims for Borealis Corp that told of the whereabouts of the other facilities, including one where a certain “Subject 172” was being held.
She had her fun in Estonia. Next stop, Switzerland. There was a certain woman she was eager to meet there.
A worthy opponent. One who would certainly not hide behind a higher up. One who her imprisoners dared call a superior.
Layla.
