A New Threat

We visited the research assistant/partner in Peterborough.

The first thing that came up - was that she said she'd been injected with a substance when 'shadows' overtook the lab. She described the attackers, and it was obvious that they were Methias' Shades. They are creatures artificailly created and controlled. They take the energy from the environment to exist, and so look completely black. They don't really have set forms, as the energy feild can change shape so they often do look like 'shadows' (thus the name). Except these shadows can kill. They do have a physical form. We used to use them, but they were abandoned many many years ago. I never really looked into why - it was when I was young. I think it involved the Shade's energy-absorbtion. If the Shade touched a living thing, it would absorb the energy of the lifeform and kill it. This wasn't an intentional feature by the creators of course, and so that's why I think they were decommissioned. Well it should have been. But Methias took it as an advantage, and took all the prototypes.

Getting back to the woman we visited. We were surprised that she was still alive after having contact with the Shades. Julian drew a sample of blood to try and find the substance injected. She told us that her partner had been attacked and injected at the same time. She was still thinking that there was an accident with one of the materials he was using which exploded and killed him. I decided it was best to let her keep thinking that - so we didn't confirm or deny that allegation.

Tharis contacted me, saying that he had managed to crack and veiw the code that we inputted. I was surprised to learn that it was actually a 'deactivate' code. He couldn't say much more, being unaware of the machinery it was programming, but he could identify the intruction to deactivat. So, the code that we took DEactivated the viral mechanisms. We had been operating on the assumption that the virus was inactive until receiving a signal to begin to collate and destroy. Now everything changed: the virus acted like a normal virus and only stopped when told. It was becoming more evident that we had to alert the human authorities.

We took all the information about the research that we could from her; our assumptions were correct in that they were microexplosive experts. Methias used their research to improve the explosive capability of his virus. It's obvious now that this has nothing to with destroying the internet. This is using a virus to destroy human civilisation.

Before we left, she started to feel sick. Julian stayed close by and analysed her. It just kept getting worse, and her skin changed the most interesting colour as is shook and warped like the ocean in a storm. I didn't know what to do other than watch. Alastor, who had gotten Tharis' message as well, began shouting to send the signal to stop the virus. Julian retorted that we didn't know the effects of that, or that she had been infected with a virus or the same virus, or that something else he began to say before Alastor cut him off. I thought he had raised good points, but I guess the time to think had been skipped since she was dying - and we still needed her to help locate the Shades. Alastor ran to the car and used the broadcaster.

There was a moment when we were all afraid we were going to be in the midst of an explosion. I had changed into my dragon form, covering Arthur and Julian from a potential blast. But nothing happened. We just stood, frozen, waiting. I looked around to the woman, whom lay still on the couch. Nothing moved, so we began to approach. I stayed dragon, despite damaging her house - I was a lot bigger than it was designed to hold. Upon closer inspection, it was evident that she had died. How? I didn't know. Julian is finishing his autopsy right now. Alastor padded back into the (ruined) lounge to see if it had worked.

We're all waiting on Julian's report to know what happened, and what effect the signal had on the virus - if any. It goes without saying that we had to get out of the place quickly - Methias would be arriving to claim his murder. But we had already interfered - we couldn't hide that fact. So we did what he was doing - we placed some of the explosive substances in her living room (yes, normal people would wonder why she had dangerous explosive material in her living room, but Methias has long since decreed that all human activity is stupid and below his interest) and placed some of her remains there. We then detonated the material.

These are the hard decisions. Having to desecrate a person's body to hide our involvement in Methias' plans. But ultimately it would benefit humanity. We didn't remove much tissue, really, and she had already died. That's how we justify it anyway. Doesn't change the fact it was greusome. I wondered how Arthur would take it, but he seemed curiously subdued. Like it was nothing new. I couldn't let my curiosity wander though. We have much larger things at hand.

We left, removing traces of ourselves, and waited. Arthur was happy to remain at a distance to observe Methias' reaction. Well I say happy, I should have said 'willing'. He hadn't been seen by Methias yet, so he would just come across as another human - the great benefit of being a naturally born human. As is obvious, we have the ability to detect genetically engineered life forms. There are clear signs that a body has been either created in a lab, or has had its genome created in a lab at some point. Arthur's human body had no involvement, so he would pass the test. Unfortunately the rest of us had to be long gone. It was just him. He's on his way back now.

I look forward to hearing from him.