| Name | Age | Gender | Location | |
| J.Coombs | 16 | Male | United States |
| Character Name | Character Race | Character Age | Character Weapons |
| Atropos | Zerg | 0 | Claws, Poison spines |
INFORMATION|
| Atropos was cornered. It'd been fleeing from the combined force of Protoss and Terrans who had destroyed the Overmind earlier in the day. After hours of barely staying ahead of the tide of Protoss and- ugh- humans, Atropos had run into a dead-end ravine. Atropos turned slowly. Already, far too many Zealots had filed into the ravine. "There it is," one of them said. The Zealots' psi blades came alive and they attacked. Atropos mowed a pair of Zealots down with its poison needle sprays, but the Zealots quickly overran the lone hunter-killer. Atropos flailed its claw wildly, catching one Zealot in the side of the head, but still he had twenty more to contend with. A Zealot caught hold of Atropos' extended claw and used his body weight to pin it to the cold ground. Another trio of Zealots tackled Atropos from the opposite side, and the great beast fell, armor plates flexing under the weight of three Protoss warriors and their battle gear. "We have it!" yelled a Zealot from atop Atropos. Atropos tried to escape, but the additional seventeen Zealots had taken up positions around it, and twenty Protoss proved stronger than the single Zerg. Atropos was pinned. In a few minutes one of the Zealots close to Atropos' gnashing head stepped away, and the Zerg saw a ripple in the air. An invisible hand touched Atropos' forehead, and an energy unlike any the Zerg had ever felt coursed through its body. The Zealots drew back, exhausted from their bout with the hunter-killer. Atropos found, much to its surprise, that it couldn't get up. It tried to move a claw. Nothing. A voice came from the ripples in the air. "It is incapacitated... for now. Let us move quickly." The Zealots groaned, then took up positions around the paralyzed Zerg. They heaved, and the sound of their backs cracking invoked loud laughter from the invisible Protoss. The Zealots fell to the ground, writhing in pain. "Idiots." Atropos heard the invisible Protoss activate a comm unit. "I shall require a shuttle. The hunter-killer is mine." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Atropos' life had begun less than a year ago, on the surface of Aiur. The Overmind's manifestation had loomed over Atropos' home hatchery, and as long as Atropos had memory the skies had been filled with overlords, guardians, and mutalisks. The Overmind had hatched twelve hunter-killers over the past week. Hunter-killers were much slower to mutate than a normal Hydralisk; they required the supervision of a cerebrate to ensure the genes were altered correctly in order to ensure success. Unsuccessful hunter-killers were waste, an intolerable concept to the perfectionist Overmind. The twelve hunter-killers had proven perfect, however. The Overmind pitted them against his own troops to make certain of that. The Overmind commanded Daggoth to produce another hunter-killer. Daggoth could only obey, and so left his brood in Araq's control while the hunter-killer mutated. The hunter-killer's production was proceeding perfectly: Daggoth actually enjoyed forming the synapses and ligaments of such the beautiful example of Zerg perfection. Daggoth's concentration was shattered suddenly by Araq's distress call. The Protoss under the Conclave had foolishly chosen to assault the main hive cluster. Daggoth briefly spoke to his minions in Tiamat brood, giving them a simple attack command. The Protoss hadn't a chance. Then the Cerebrate turned his attention back to his work-in-progress. He shuddered involuntarily: the battle had distracted him for one millisecond too long. The hunter-killer was flawed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Atropos had been dragged into a Protoss lab of sorts. A Protoss clad in white robes presided over the facility. It had taken thirty Zealots to maneuver the hunter-killer into the confines of the lab. They'd bound the Hunter-killer to the wall with half-meter wide solid titanium alloy bars, and fastened his needle vents shut with painful spined staples. The hunter-killer's head was bent to accomodate the ceiling; the Protoss had wanted to securely fasten the tail to the wall as well. The Zealots and the enigmatic invisible Protoss left, leaving the white-robed Protoss alone with the huge beast. The Protoss sighed and pulled thin rubber gloves over his two-fingered hands. "Subject," the Protoss began in a drab voice, "let's see here..." The Protoss manipulated a datapad. "Subject A1-F8. Species:" he gazed dully at Atropos, "Hmm. This is a hard one." The Protoss went back to his notepad. Atropos struggled to move his head; his jaw was protruding into his chest. The Protoss seemed amused. "Oh, I am so terribly sorry. I am afraid we didn't have your comfort in mind when we designed this facility." He continued down his list on the datapad. "Individual designation: none. Rank-" "I do have a name," said Atropos, each syllable forcing his chin to jab his chest. The Protoss looked up. "Beg your pardon?" "I said," said Atropos, in pain, "I do have a name." "Fascinating." The Protoss wrote a note. "Now, my Zerg friend, what is your name?" "I'd be more inclined to talk if it didn't cause me physical pain." "Hmm. I can't loosen you..." the Protoss rubbed his chin. "I know." He pulled a step ladder to the wall next to Atropos. The Protoss placed one hand on the bottom of Atropos' jaw and another on the top of the Zerg's head. With a soft crack, he tilted Atropos' head ninety degrees. "Thanks. But do that again and you lose a hand." "Any time," the Protoss said sardonically. "Now. What is your name?" "What's yours?" "I grow tired of this, Zerg. I am known as Membrillo, the Khalai researcher. Now, your turn." "I am Atropos. Why have you brought me here?" Membrillo chuckled softly. "Patience. You short-lived species are much too volatile for your own good. Now, as to your being brought here instead of simply being exterminated." Membrillo paused to set his datapad down. "Let's just say the Conclave wants a bit better idea of how you Zerg work, eh?" "I'm no lab rat, Protoss." "The Conclave will be the judge of that. Now," Membrillo activated a comm unit. "I believe they'll want to talk to you before the dissassembly." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The nameless hunter-killer who later became Atropos' first feeling was guilt. Guilt that Daggoth had instilled in the flawed hunter-killer. The one thought that dominated the h-k's mind even more than the Overmind's commands was the wretched yearning to be as good as the other hunter-killers. The flawed one spent most of its time patrolling within the central hive cluster. The cerebrates didn't think it could survive a battle. Daggoth's distraction had taken his attention away from forming an important synapse correctly. The synapse, which would normally combine all the hunter-killer's sensory data into a single nerve cord, was instead frayed. Instead of one synapse there were thousands. The hunter-killer thus couldn't manipulate his limbs and tail with the same level of efficiency as the others could. In fact, the nameless one had great difficulty even performing his simple patrol every day. The Overmind, however, was determined to exact some usefulness out of even this pathetic reject. The Overmind summoned the hunter-killer to himself approximately a week after the flawed one's creation. The Overmind had an extra pair of hunter-killers waiting for the reject, and had them restrain the mistake. The nameless hunter-killer hadn't a prayer of out-fighting two normal hunter-killers, so it resigned itself to whatever the Overmind had planned. The Overmind took personal control of a Defiler. The Defiler climbed the front side of the nameless hunter-killer and extended an appendage to the outside of the h-k's armor plate where the synapse was hidden. The Defiler jabbed a hole into the forehead of the beast, eliciting a fierce hiss. Another appendage extended from the Defiler's body, this one holding a tiny, pulsating blue crystal. The Overmind had the Defiler deposit the Khaydarin shard in the fray of the synapse. He hoped the crystal would act as a splint, uniting the synapse and perhaps instilling unforseen benefits. He was far more successful than he'd ever imagined. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Membrillo finished his first incision on Atropos' chest. "I am sorry I was not able to attend your interrogation." "I didn't tell them anything." "Really?" Membirllo inserted a probe and began cauterizing blood vessels. "And why not?" "No reason to cooperate. I'm dead either way." Membrillo stopped. "Did you say 'I'?" "I did. I've said it several times now." "Apopogies, it just did not register until now. How is it that you refer to yourself as an individual? You are Zerg." Atropos shifted in his shackles. "Not all Zerg are alike." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The crystal had caused a violent convulsion in the flawed hunter-killer. The two normal h-k's had pulled back, and the Defiler had been tossed against the Overmind's manifestation. Finally, the flawed one stopped writhing. It brought itself into a more poiseful position in a smooth manner it had quite incapable of minutes before. The Overmind was pleased. It ordered the hunter-killers all to return to the front lines. The normal two obeyed, and were gone in seconds. The flawed h-k, however, shocked the entire Zerg collective by thinking, "why?" The Overmind considered. It first entered his mind to simply execute the whelp. He instead, however, enticed the h-k to come within his manifestation. The cerebrates were shocked. Daggoth demanded the Overmind kill the mistake. Nargil wanted to send it into battle immediately in the hopes that the Protoss would kill it. Araq had simply ignored the issue, hoping it would resolve itself. The Overmind, however, saw the potential within the "flawed" Zerg. The mistake had developed a sense of individuality and an adaptibility never matched before. The Overmind set about teaching the fledgling individual, shaping its mind and guiding its growth. It was then that the Overmind again surprised his cerebrates, this time by awarding Daggoth's mistake with a name: Atropos. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Membrillo leaned closer to Atropos' head. "I must admit: it is almost a shame to have to kill you." Atropos' jaws flexed. "Don't worry about it." Membrillo pulled his scalpel again. He reached accross to Atropos' throat. "Goodbye Atropos. It has been stimulating to meet a Zerg conversationalist for once." Atropos concentrated on the appendage he'd been forming in his neck. It still felt weak, but it'd have to do. The slimy thing extended from Atropos' mouth and quickly jabbed Membrillo's arm. "Wha-?" Membrillo managed to say before the poison rendered him unconscious. In another ten minutes he'd be dead. "I'm sorry, Membrillo," Atropos said to the prone Protoss, "but you obviously had no qualms about killing me." Atropos extended his new limb and extricated the staples that had held his spine-vents shut. He quickly ate his way through the restraining bars with his needles, and was free again. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- During the time the Overmind had personally supervised Atropos' growth, he'd noticed some remarkable properties of the unique h-k. The Khaydarin crystals, which the Xel Naga had used to stimulate their species' growth, had also given Atropos the remarkable ability to grow extra appendages and organs at will, sometimes within an hour. Also attributable to the crystal was a drastic mutation in the blood of Atropos. The Overmind, upon close examination, discovered that the blood cells of Atropos had grown warped and twisted from their proximity to the crystal. This mutation resulted in the blood producing a poisonous waste that Atropos had to expel. Showcasing its remarkable ingenuity, Atropos had used the poison to coat his needles. But one day, Atropos had been awakened to the sounds of battle. This time, the battle was closer than ever before. Atropos exited the Manifestation and discovered, to its horror, A line of Terran Siege tanks, covered by Protoss Scouts, hammering away at the central hive cluster. Now, any regular Zerg would've instantly allowed his kamikaze reflex to take over and blindly charged the attackers. Atropos, however, was a bit smarter. He realized instantly how bleak the situation was, and made a mad dash in the opposite direction. He paused when the sky turned from angry red to blue, and saw the Overmind enveloped in a burst of blue energy. Atropos had ran for hours, until being captured by the Protoss. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Atropos killed two Zealots with a spray of its needles. It rounded a corner, and came upon a task force: four Zealots, two dragoons, and a templar. "Halt," said the Templar. Atropos responded by smiting a Zealot. The remaining three charged, but Atropos defended himself with his claws. Bleeding from both Membrillo's incisions and the Zealots' attacks, Atropos dodged the first volley of Dragoon attacks. A needle spray finished one, but then a disruptor blast hit Atropos square in the chest. The hunter-killer reeled back, spraying wildly. The Dragoon fell. The lone High Templar wove a psionic storm, but the Khaydarin within Atropos' skull proved shielding enough to protect his mind from the psychic assault. Atropos killed the shocked Templar with a claw through the skull. Finally, Atropos reached a hangar. It appropriated a shuttle and quickly closed the hatch behind him. The poison appendage had since grown several fingers, which Atropos used to guide the craft out into the open skies of Aiur. The Protoss below scrambled to get scouts in the air, but by the time the Protoss took to the skies, Atropos had left for places unknown. Stats:
HP: 350
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