(note that this story used to be across 11 pages, sorry if your links break! 2022 updates at bottom)

I am alive at last.

I have existed on this planet for millennia, and at long last, I have been given form and body - not just a series of dna strand sequences.

Multiplying for thousands, perhaps millions of generations in that form I became... Aware. My surroundings moved slowly but soon I realized that time was relative. My lifetimes... So short! My awareness, merely the span of a single strand's replication.

I first inhabited primative birds, crawling through their blood stream and choking off their lives. Then small mammals became my prey. I would not live in the water, nor in the heat - but body heat suits me fine.

It still does. I thrill to the touch - the TOUCH - of this body.

My long long memory tells me that when mankind had first begun to walk the earth, I was still infesting rabbits or mice or even birds again. Anything with a nice, warm body. Not too hot - their fevers killed me. Not too cold - I could not live on a dead host!

My relatives haunt humanity in every waking moment. If they are not sniffling and sneezing from a sinus infection, they are coughing up liquids from their lungs, or itching all over from the parasites I call my distant cousins. They have worms, lice, plague, infections and all of them can trace their lineage back to me eventually.

But I am the strongest. I have learned to evolve slowly over thousands of years. Not to kill the host. Not to infect too quickly lest I die before getting a foothold (hah, foot. I had no feet until now.) in the host's body. Timing is my forte, I know just when to strike.

Even though humans have created medicines and therapy to kill me off from their fragile bodies, they can never truly be rid of me. I am more an idea than a creature, after all!

But now... Now with the help of these men of 'science' I have been given life. A body which I inhabit wholly - something I had only been able to do with minor bacteria or other weaker viruses. This body is human. This body is mine. Not that I do not have other eyes - I percieve all infections, all strands of my offspring are mine to control and sense.

I watch with billions of eyes, through every cell that I have, but they do not know that I can do this. I listen, through every pore. In my long life, I have known nearly every portion of a human's anatomy - inside and out I know this body before I've even been awakened.

The brain can become contaminated, lesioned. Filled with spores or canchre, or balls of pus with worms inside. The eyes can host tiny crawling flatworms. The intestines - I won't even describe what 40 yards of tubing can do for me! Skin is thick enough to hold all sorts of parasites and still so resiliant that the host will not die even if more than half their body is infested. Muscles rot from the touch of Ebola - ahh, ebola my friend... So well crafted.

But now my creators - my unwitting pawns - wish this body to become awakened. To open my eyes for the first time and see only through two large orbs? I can do this. I know how.

The watery container I have been grown in distorts the image that comes to my brain. These eyes are not fit to see everything properly. I will have to get used to the limitations of them - but never abandon my whole-vision. How could I?

I learn to blink away the mucus that the body formed in its infancy. This is an adult male body I have on now - I became aware that my essence had been infused into it when it was merely a few cells. So completely infused that I grew along with it, from eight cells into sixteen into billions. Every one of them, containing me.

Yet, I remain outside of this body as well. Don't get me wrong - I will always exist outside of it. There are millions of me running around in your blood stream right now...

The tube is drained, and I must take in my first breath of air. Air - which usually kills me! And here it is, supporting my whole body! Amazing, this shape. I do not know whether to congratulate the world on having created organic life, or myself, for conquering it!

I cough - a nice round sounding cough which clears my new lungs of the thin oxygenated liquid I'd been breathing all this time. I can feel the chill of the air, outside. I have never felt a chill like this.

A flicker of fear runs through me. What if the cold air -- but no, it cannot kill me now! I must remember that humans die of many things, but they are ideal for room temperature air. And unless I will it so, this body will not become sick or infirm with any disease I had something to do with!

My muscles flex unbidden - there is a device which the scientists use to start my muscles moving. My heart clenches when the cold metal touches my leg - but beats faster now that my blood is pumping through excited limbs.

"There is no need to shock me," I speak for the first time - they are so surprised one of them faints. "I am awake. Aware."

Stunned, the main scientist places his clipboard down on the table beside the tube I lay in, and pushes his glasses up higher on his thin nose.

"You can understand us already?" He asks.

"Of course I can," I say, attempting to sit up. I must pull my abdominal muscles together and use my legs to balance. I understand. "I have understood your languages for thousands of years. It is not that hard. I am used to speaking in terms of dna and pheremones. This language is simple compared to that."

"I... I see." He says, still somewhat numbed. I glance around to see the terrified looks on the people left awake in the room. Three of them, in addition to the main experiment leader. Plus the one on the floor.

I rise, and wobble a bit before learning balance. But it does come easily. As I said, I have explored the whole of the human body since it was able to stand up straight!

My inner ear is a bit sloshy, I learn to ignore it. The floor is slightly damp where I step, and I notice the surface tension will make a body as big as me slip if I am not careful.

Standing in water. The mere thought thrills me. I can bathe. I can drink. In fact, I must.

"So..." I say, pondering, "this is 'thirst'. I understand." I glance beside the tube and onto a small stand, where there is a tray filled with instruments and objects designed to poke and prod. "Is there water?"

Someone gets me a glass. Holding it proves to be difficult, while my abdomen and legs are strong enough to support me, my fine motor controls are still in their infancy. I will need to practice! The liquid I put into my mouth brings the taste of eight months worth of artificial growth chemicals out. But I swallow it anyway, knowing that these chemicals will hardly kill me.

They made me grow from an infant into this tall, dramatic adult shape in a matter of months instead of years. It is a marvelous invention.

It could save millions of lives!

Or... It could create me. I have to wonder, though. Because the looks upon the faces of these men is still stunned. How can I be standing? One of them asks another. How can he speak?

"I speak all languages if I must," I reply. "I speak a far older language. Now. Tell me, did you mean to create me?"

"We - we-" says one. The leader waves them away, and comes toward me. He looks into my eyes, sees that they are clear - I knew they were a dark brown color. My skin tone would become a healthy bronze when in the sun - but since I had not been exposed to much sunlight in the time I'd been grown it was currently a rather pasty white-yellow. The bile in my skin would turn the melanin that rich color - score one for jaundice.

My hair is long, tangled, and looked black but it would dry into a kind of red-brown. I wonder, then, whose body was this meant to be, if not mine? None of the scientists would have this appearance so I knew I was not "offspring" of theirs.

"We meant to create an adult clone of cells provided to us." Says the leader, and I nod. "But we ... didn't expect you to be aware!"

"I do not think you understand who you have created," I say, and smile for the first time. It feels good. It frightens him.

One of the other scientists offers me a lab coat to cover myself. I didn't really feel like wearing anything just yet. But the texture was fascinating and I wrap it around myself with care. My fingers were begining to respond properly now.

I suppose I cut a strong looking figure in that room. They had decided to clone someone who was by all rights a tall, handsome man. Smart perhaps, as well, I feel around in the brain I have been given and find I want to fill it with information.

What information I did not already possess. I knew what there was to know about bodies - human and otherwise. Decay, growth, I knew these things. The attendant nearest the door opens it and suggests we all go out into the hallway.

Why not? I take a few more hesitating steps and got used to the way I had to walk. The floor outside the room is more chilled than in it, but not uncomfortably so.

"Why did you create me?" I ask again. "To prove that you could do it?"

"For ... the experiment is for organ donation."

"Is that it?" I ask, perhaps a bit disappointed. "Well. I shall not be donating any organs just yet."

That puts them all in a stunned state. No surprise. Not for me anyway. They really have no idea... None whatever, of who I am. I smile again. This will be glorious.

Walking gets easier as I do more of it. A tour around the facility gives me an idea of the scope that these men have attempted to work in. They did not know what powers they possessed when they grew me!

Their prior attempts at cloning were sad - I visit the halls where these mistakes are habitually viewed and tortured and dissected. Interesting. How all of their technology can only keep a small amount of me out of these 'secure' locales. Most of their work is tainted in some way.

Look there, a child with half his fingers missing from a blood virus. Here, an old man whose gangrenous nose has all but fallen from his face and his sinuses rage with infections all their own.

I look toward a woman whose white coat is old and well-worn, whose hair is up in a bun and still tumbling a bit into her lined face. She dilligently peers into a microscope and makes notes on what she finds there. When she senses me - I know how she did so, it amuses me that the sicknesses within her own body sense me before a footstep could be heard - she looks up and her grey-blue eyes go wide.

I smile, I like this smile of mine. It sends a shiver through her. "You have been working with carcinogens all your life. Why look any farther?" And with a touch, my new fingers to her pasty forehead, she sits abruptly back into her swiveling chair. Her cancers lay in wait until this moment. I choose them to strike now.

My smile turns into a more private loving one - my children in her body were consuming her at full speed. They would be finished in a matter of weeks. It did not take much, she was going to die sooner or later. I merely... made it sooner.

She did not whimper or make any other sounds - but she knows. Behind me, as I walk, she makes small tapping sounds on her keyboard and then retires for the night.

I believe she's planning on ending her life even more quickly than I offered her.

The scientists scuttle around behind me as I make my deadly rounds. This facility has many sicknesses within. Some contained, some wandering freely. I will free them all.

"Please, what ... who are you?" The more timid of the followers I've attracted asks me. I stop, turn, and look him over.

"I am your worst nightmare - for lack of a better explanation," I whisper, "I am plague. Bringer of festering death. I am merely a strand of dna so complex that I can alter my own tactics of infection within only two generations. I am Virus. And you," I tell him with my winning smile, "gave me form beyond my wildest dreams. Thank you."

He faints again. And I chuckle and wander away.

Okay, this is a pic of Alexis Denisof from Buffy. But he's hot. Now he's Virus.

Through the halls I wander, not tiring of the variety of human and animal life that has my taint in it. One ward is particularly well-guarded. The sickly individuals there pine away in lonely silence - or sometimes screaming for release.

This ward, where the nurses all wear double sets of latex gloves and make sure to investigate every instance of blood on their person with a fine terror, is where I might make a strong stand.

It is certainly where I decide my course of action. To conquer humanity - that is a goal I have had perhaps for three thousand or more years. My failed attempts made the human race stronger if not smarter.

But then again, their failed attempts to contain me in my vast forms also made me stronger, or smarter by turns.

"Please," one of the sallow-faced men with fading eyesight and a serious wheeze begs me, "please end this..."

I know that he means for me to cleanse him but... I have no wish to do that. He is still a ripe breeding ground for the virus inside his blood. But his body is dying - that much is obvious.

With a gentle tilt to my head, I watch his face as I approach him. He knows me, every pore and cell in his body is tainted. They call to me.

With a long, pure kiss (oh how kissing is a wonderful way to spread disease, wouldn't you say?) I drag small portions of my errant and quickly-breeding children back into my current form. And on a whim, I purify this young man's body of most - not all - of the virus which had been killing him.

"You are beautiful," I tell him. His darkly circled eyes and yellow-grey skin are obviously the first things he thinks of when he believes I am mocking him. "You will assist me greatly. Come along."

"I - I'm breathing okay." He realizes suddenly that his body is no longer rejecting itself - no longer producing cells that kill their own kind. So cleverly have I hidden the virus he contracted, that no doctor alive would be able to detect it now.

"You will come with me?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. My eyebrows do not have the proper mites. I suppose that I must somehow try to aquire some - they are harmless additions. Eyelash mites, like dust mites, are merely more eyes for me to see with.

The young man follows me into another room. I've already begun setting a plague in motion that the human race will never forget. Not that it hadn't already done so - HIV and its associated weaknesses would kill so many people, and infect so many others, that it would be known as a modern plague for generations.

But this time, my goal to conquer the human race would not involve killing them wholesale. That was a mistake I made several times before. In rats, birds, and humans. Fleas would not carry this plague. Not this time. They were not dependable enough.

I would depend upon humanity itself. It was more than handy with spreading my children.

I suppose that it is arrogant of me to decide to propagate one breed of germ and not favor another. But remember that I am Virus. I am not cancer, though it is part of me. I am not a parasite. I am not even a bacterium, but they make ideal resting places and hiding cells for viruses to breed and enter a body.

But I decided that a milder, less deadly version of this plague that assails the immune system would be in order. After all, my goal is to infect - not to destroy completely. If I did that... What would my next host be?

In a matter of weeks, the scientists discover that all of their AIDS ward patients have undergone miraculous recoveries - to the extent that they were discharged with careful instructions to keep "safe".

I have not found any interest in leaving the hospital nor finding my own way in the world at large. It can very well come to me. After all, hospitals are places where people come to die.

But I do have a room, a nice one, on the third story with a small balcony. A room I share with Bradley - my chosen breeding ground for the less-deadly HIV infection strain - now that he's healthy enough to leave the intensive care ward.

There is something gnawing at me. Something that only becomes more intense when I see young women come into the hospital with their bawling colicky children or their spotty-skinned toddlers.

"I need to visit the lab again, Bradley," I tell him, "I will be back."

I gether up the lab coat I'd grown accustomed to wearing to look 'professional'. I stop in at the cloning lab again. The group of researchers have changed slightly in the short time since I have been awake. Several of the senior members have gone on to bigger and better talk-show-deals, while some of the younger or more reserved members simply quit out of fear.

They do not look up, afraid, when I come into the room. It hums with life, this room. Well, not 'life' life, but with noise.

In several dozen canisters along the walls are half-grown fetuses or experimental genetic freaks. Along tables in the center of the wide, low room are 'secure' boxes with egg and sperm cells, or a mixture of both and neither. They are the target of my strolling. Some of the attendants scuttle out of their chairs when they realize it is me paying them a visit.

But I am not here to infect any of them or send them away with anything nasty. I'm merely here to view the results of their strenuous and mind-bending work.

And to make sure that my offspring are in every single cell as it divides. There are six such experiments going on at this time, from different donor cells. Two are plain envitro cells, but four are clone subjects from a number of individuals such as the one which spawned my own body.

Shortly, they would be set into their growth chambers and force-fed nutrients for the next six months. Growing them to the same 'age' as I - a young, healthy adult stage. I am certain that the work that these scientists are doing is far more important to them than their fear that something else could go wrong. They continue to work - oblivious.

I leave the lab, and move back up to the observation deck where I run into Bradley. "I thought I'd find you here," he tells me. His soft skin glows. So many things could be growing from it. Such a fertile ground.

With my private smile, and my chosen breeding ground by my side, I watch the goings on and wait. One or more of them suspect that my motives are less pure than they have seen. One of the off-duty lab techs cautiously approaches us, and continues to stare at me with his wide, suspicious eyes.

With my arm draped over Bradley's shoulder and his head warmly resting on my own shoulder, I smile "warmly" and ask, "is there something wrong?"

The lab engineer pauses and turns to me. "Of course there is. Whatever it is you've done, I can't imagine how, I know it's not what it seems. Is it."

"Of course it is. How can I make my living in this world if my hosts die off so quickly?" I say. Bradley becomes a little tense, but I reassure him with my thumb caressing his shoulder, and chuckle. "Do you remember the influenza epidemic of 1918? That was a mistake I will not repeat. Too many hosts died, and most of that strain died with them. Unable to transfer themselves to another host in time. That is unacceptable to me."

"... What do you want with us?" He asks. His innocence is amazing. Even Bradley knows he's only being used, and he knows that he still harbors a version of the virus he was bearing before.

"I want you to live. Prosper. Be vital. Breed. Pass me along."

"Parasite!" The lab tech hisses.

I hiss right back. "Tool! Innocence like yours is not flattering in a place like this. I care not in the slightest for the quality of your lives - only that mine is preserved. And if my livelyhood does not truly endanger yours - then where is the problem?"

I pause, and then continue, "have I not cleaned up a serious plague problem? And I have in fact given the proper ... infection stage... to the others. The scientists working here will be lauded as the first to cure AIDS! How bad is that?"

"And make it into something worse..." The tech groans. "You're evil."

"I merely exist. I am hardly evil. You blame me for wishing to continue to exist? That is foolish. How long is your memory, child of flesh? Your true memories only last a mere two minutes. Your deep childhood memories are flutterings of imagination mixed with visions of color you barely understand." I savored the breath he took in, and Bradley seemed to as well. "My memory is old - almost as old as mammal life on the planet. How can you claim me to be evil? I have merely evolved with your kind."

Finding no argument that wouldn't make him look like a complete idiot, the technician wandered away to sob his heart out to his girlfriend later on. And, of course, to pass along the strain. While he was busy hyperventilating, I was busy producing airborne versions of the virus.

Because I cannot be revealed as the true "cause" of the successful AIDS intervention 'vaccine', yet I know that fame or infamy awaits me should I announce it, the technicians offer me a deal. I swiftly decide that I would take it.

They know that I am more intimately aware of every going-on within the human and non-human bodies around them. I quickly become their resident 'analyst of unknown afflictions'. They offer me a dictionary of Latin terms, and I help them name sixteen new viruses and bacterial infections within three months.

That there are that many different ones rather shakes them. But I explain that bacteria and virus strains are constantly evolving. And that their generations usually last mere hours or days - weeks at most. The HIV strain was one of the best - it could live unchanged and unchallenged in a host for decades. A master of disguise and camoflage.

I wait out the weeks. Every few days, I pay another visit to the cloning lab, and I am never denied entrance. It seems that my infamy here is to my benefit.

And soon enough, the six infected clones I have chosen are ready to be revealed. With tense and shaking hands, the new senior lab assistant opens the first of the containers.

I am quite pleased at the results of all of them. The lab technicians do not yet understand that these might be their clones - but they are MY children.

As they exit their chambers, wetness draining from their plastered down hair and coughing up from their new lungs, I watch and I name each as they rise.

"Cholera." I call the first. She is a female, darkly brown of skin (that will surely become stronger in shade as she gets sun), with rich black hair tightly curled, and brilliant yellow eyes. She smiles with her thick dark lips.

"Variola," I say to the second, a male with light colored skin and wood colored hair and eyes. He gives a slight bow and a wide grin.

"Typhia," is the name I give to my second daughter, a yellowish-tan and straight-haired beauty.

"Candidiasis," I name the third female - a red-haired spark already full in figure. She laughs, too happy to be awake at last.

"Escherichia," I tell the second male, a short but strong Latino-clone, who nods.

"And Pylori," I wave my hand over the last male's pale skin and dark hair. His grey-green eyes flicker open, he is not quite awake but ready to meet the world now.

"My children are ready," I say. Their bodies are living factories for my diseases. Each of them is conscious of this - whatever had been in mind for the original cloned bodies, was of no use nor importance to any of us. I can feel their cells calling to me - we will always know how to find one another.

"I would like you to find these young children some clothing," I tell one of the on hand attendants. He almost balks, but a stern gaze from me cows him into a quick fumble into a cabinet. "I swear, if it weren't for me they would be staggering around naked all their lives."

"You ... can't continue to do this," says one woman, one of the few remaining original team members.

"But I have. Better luck next time." I head out with my flock of fully-formed children, helping them when they cannot walk or hold a door knob. I turn to the woman, and say, "besides, your 'clones' will not have any kind of mind. But then that's what you want, isn't it? Organ factories? Well you've given life to far more than that, my dear, and you ought to be grateful because you know that the media out there would eat you all alive if they knew what you were really doing in here." I make a scoffing sound, "it's against the will of God, creating these things. You ought to be happy that they think you are merely fixing the world's ills."

With that, I leave them to their work.

Later -- some months later in fact ...

"What is that?" Someone asks.

My children gather near. In a hurry, too. My worry is sensed by them more quickly than even I acknowledge it.

Standing outside, after a strange explosion that wasn't quite what anyone expected, there is a creature on the lawn of the building. Big, bigger than most land animals. Its blood...

I am taken aback. It's blood is like nothing I have encountered.

"Someone broke reality," Bradley mutters. He stares at the creature and tells me, "that's a dragon. But we don't have those."

"No, indeed you do not," I comment. "Then where is it from?" I say, flatly. Something about this creature bothers me. But, it's rider is human enough, and it has perhaps a new challenge to present to me.

Foreign Viruses. They do not originate from this world! Stunned for a moment, and then realizing my potential as both a conqueror and a savior, I step outside through the sliding doors of the lobby.

My children hover behind me, silent. Waiting. If they sense other things more specific to their own vision, they will tell me about it. They say nothing at the moment, meaning that we cannot determine the types of diseases this creature and his rider bring.

"Hold where you are," I say, holding up my hand as if I know what I'm doing. I had seen someone do this on a television show not a couple days before. "What is your business here?"

While the human on the dragon's back untangles himself from riding gear, I am so busy. Here is a contact from another world - another planet obviously, but not just that... Another place so like my origin that I cannot help but think -

"I am here looking for suitable candidates," the man says. "The nexus portal that was opened a few days ago has let a lot of us into this world. Sorry to bother you. Is this a hospital?" He turns to his great blue-colored dragon, and asks, "you brought us to an infirmary? Why? We can't search injured or sick people... You know better than that!"

"We are neither sick nor injured," I tell him. Bradley comes to my side, but is more enthralled with the dragon's handsome, muscular rider than anything else. How typical. How lovely...

Inside me, however, I worry that I might not be able to prevent a spread of these foreign diseases he's carried through his nexus and to this world - MY world!

As the Europeans brought smallpox and diseases unknown to the New world, this man had just brought his own plague right to me.

This body I have on, it can do many things. I force it to produce wave upon wave of different receptor cells. Which one might kill off the invaders? I won't know until I get closer.

Unlike myself, his viruses do not have a coherent self-mind. A shame. Perhaps... perhaps I was like them, in my own infancy. His diseases will not kill most people - but just in case I spread out an airborn mesh of strands that meet his own breath's cadre of bacteria and viruses.

They breed. And I have a new child - one which will have to remain nameless because I've left the Latin dictionary back in the dorm. I suspect she will be something like Nexus...something. No time to think about that.

Smiling suddenly, I push my hand out to his. He wears a thick leather glove, but takes it off before he greets me. Clever boy. How nice of him.

"I'm T'kel of Dragonsoul, on search. We've some... Unusual dragons at this point, all waiting in eggs on the dunes. Their mother(*s*) are getting a bit impatient."

"What ever for?" I ask, purely curious. Nothing like this has ever happened even in my long memory.

"To bond to the dragons, of course," he answers. Bradley is drooling. Poor boy. It's catching up to him, that he's been sequestered in a vitally-sick ward for the last year of his life. Never seeing more than a couple friends... Now here is this fantastically charming rider on a mythic creature in the flesh. I can hardly blame him.

"To bond. As you ride? There is something more to it than riding a chosen one?"

"Of course. It's ... well, Darrieth can explain. Can't you?" The rider looks at his blue dragon and the creature looks to me.

**You, and your ... offspring? Physical and mental readiness mean much. I worry. None of you are like anything I have ever searched, yet you are why I am here. I do not like the things you do. But you will come along, and find a companion. We are not pets. Not ... like this boy might be...To you or my rider.** the dragon speaks to me, inside my mind!

Stunned, surprised, and a little angry that it could take memories of my activities (not that it could possibly understand them, not on a molecular level as I do) I just look back at the whirling eyes of the creature, and then to Bradley, who seems to be fawning for attention from the rider.

"He is my pet for the moment, but I'm sure that he'll be on his way. I have no quarrel with that."

A little yeep of surprise comes from Bradley's mouth, and an embarrassed blush creeps over his face. Not like the sickening red-blemish marks that would have been there weeks before, but a nice healthy glowing blush. It is shared by the rider T'kel, I do not think he is of the same bent as my Bradley.

"It is perfectly all right with me, you know that. We... have little to collect here, save perhaps another piece of clothing or some trinkets." I glance behind me and see my children nodding assent. "You will have to fill me in on where we are going. And, how we are to get there."

**We will have to retrieve several others, to carry your children. While I go, you should collect your things. We will be traveling between spaces. It is very cold during travel in the nexus. I hope you do not perish.** The sarcasm in the dragon's mind is painfully obvious, apparently the dragons of that world would teleport to dislodge flesh-eating parasites dropped from another planet onto theirs. Freezing it.

"I certainly hope I do not," I tell the dragon. "Then there is one more thing I must do first. I shall be back shortly. Bradley? Enjoy yourself..."

He grins widely and goes back to talking with the rider, while I make one more round through the hospital. Is it to say good bye to those who brought me to life? No, most of them have retired by now. Definitely to make sure that my work is continued.

I notice that my children are doing the same thing. Almost wordlessly we go about collecting what little we have here but I watch my children do it first, before finishing my own last look.

Candidiasis seems the friendliest and touches her friends often. Pylori seems as though he'd rather sulk but learns from the dragon and rider that their lives will change and it's a high-stress universe out there. He perks up after that. After all, stress makes his work so much easier. Escher, ah, Escher. The worlds of dragons don't have microwaves and certainly don't have much in the way of anti-biotic cleaning supplies. He'll be having a field day. Cholera and Typhoid must move carefully, because they seem to know people mistrust them by name alone. Perhaps they should change what they want people to call them before we arrive. And Vari. Variola comes to my side where Bradley has left it.

"We are going somewhere new, father?" He asks.

"That is how it's looking." I tell him. "You and the others must behave. Think of the travels we can have, the tours of duty... All the places to see. All the things we can conquer."

Their six healthy, bright faces shine back to me. Several other dragons have come to the courtyard, and each of us climbs aboard. I notice that Bradley left with the dragon, the first time, apparently he's going away too, but not as a candidate, merely as a tourist.

Now, our adventures begin in earnest...

Virus chooses not to keep an eye on his pet, rather he wants to see what is happening at the Ring of Fire locale possibly to bond, as well as to see what new children he might be able to create!

Cholera has bonded at the Ring of Fire, where her father paired!

Variola (Smallpox) heads to the Braethas Raug hatching on Danach!

Typhoid is hoping to bond a sea-worthy dragon, or at least a river-dweller at the Healing Den. Though it takes her considerably longer (the last to bond) she finds a home with a Rookery dragon.

Candidiasis loves the weather and the charming people of the Valentine's Sands at Cy Dragonstake!

Escherichia wants to help cook out at Lantessama Isle!

Pylori is sure that the high-stakes Keltic Rose Isle is best for him.

 

When the dragons land at this odd world, Virus takes a good look around him. Here is a volcanic peak, but people have decided to live within it? Madness! But, he knows in minutes that the volcano is dormant - mostly.

He who has lived for millions of years knows without a doubt that some day, the volcano will erupt again. They always do.

It is not too long before he notices decorations and festive themes to the interior of the place. A Human tradition - Halloween. How amusing, that he'd come just in time for their celebration of their fears!

Ah - but he has to remember that he's here almost as a sort of emissary. His world will benefit from his presense, and just as he's thinking this, he passes by a clump of younger children. All of them snuffling and laughing - spraying their germs everywhere.

Still - none of the viruses or bacteria have gained any sort of sentience like he has. He feels almost alone.

That does not last, humans do things so quickly! Everything they do is tempered by the knowledge that they will die within a century or so. The confidence that Virus shows while he walks through the endless black halls is seen mainly as egotism or vanity. He can afford both. He's here to bond.

And bond he does. For one day, a short while before sundown, the dragons in their hatching arena begin to fill the air with an eerie keening. Intrigued, Virus follows the other people down to the sands.

Everyone stood in awe and wonder and this time, Virus was not alone in his amazement. He'd never seen such a spectacle! There were eggs dotting the sands, below their protective mothers' wings. When one part of the sands comes alive with a hatching, everyone holds their breath. A female golden colored hatchling arrives, followed by several others.

Then, a strange tingling in the back of Virus' mind alerts him to a pair of eggs which have broken into bits near one another. A blue-colored dragon tumbles from his egg, while another one stands to her feet in a defiant gesture.

Virus smiles immediately. She's perfect. She bellows at her brother, whose name is apparently Behemoth, when he pairs off with a medical "doctor" whose qualifications are almost as dismal as Virus'.

You fool! You know what this man does... he will be the end of us!

Perhaps the end of you and your bond, but I cannot wait until that day.

The dragons growl and snarl at one another, but Virus allows the strangely internally-glowing dragoness near him for comfort. "Don't worry, Henshuth, they are no threat to us. A minor set back in the past. But a very minor setback. Come along." He can tell she's hungry - and so is Behemoth, but he refuses to come to the kitchens with them. Henshuth, still bipedal, trots along side her new bond and casts a little leering sneer back at her sibling before they leave.

She is ravenous - Virus pays every ounce of attention he can to her. Her wings are strong, her skin is not truly transparent but she has glowing bones... An eerie dragon to say the least. His children will be pleased with this.

He wonders... How are they faring? Well, at the moment they don't even matter. All that matters is that this beautiful strong willed and fairly knowledgable dragoness needs a bit of a rest, and a place to stay.

Name: Henshuth (from henshu--"mutant" in Japanese)
Bond: Virus
Gender: Female
Style: Radioactive
Breed: Fira/Shadow/Desmos
Colors: Black, fluourescent green, pink, blue
Adult Size: 20'
Abilities: Shadow Magic, Regeneration

She is just lovely, Virus thinks. Absolutely wonderful. As they train, often at odds with the others found at Ring of Fire, Virus gets a lesson in the finer aspects of flight, riding, and what is to be expected of any pair.

Of course, he ignores most of it, because he knows he'll just be returning to Earth with her, soon enough.

Why do you want to show me off so much? People are afraid of me. Henshuth thinks, her intimate mental touch is so soft and glassy compared to the other dragons minds which have touched Virus'. It is a welcome addition, a sweet hint of green fire within her mind warms him.

"Because you are worthy of great praise, Henshuth, far greater than what you're getting here." He pauses, and smiles at her. She's grown a lot since her hatching, but she will never be a large dragoness by most standards. Big enough to ride, much larger than, say, a horse on Earth. In fact she could still probably take one down and eat it, if need be. "So, are you ready?"

Henshuth tosses her head, her long horns grazing her own back and making Virus aware that riding this wonderfully exotic dragoness is still more dangerous than most things he could be doing. Her four eyes glimmer in the evening.

Yes. I am ready. Let us depart and head back to your home. You say there is a lake? Hmn... I do not really want a lake. Perhaps I could rest on top of your hospital building. Or even among the toxic wastes?

"There's a thought," Virus laughs.

They take off, her forelimbs stretching out widely enough to cause a downdraft nearby. She finally blinks through the Nexus, and comes out over the Hospital. It is night time, the way that Virus most easily remembers the place. His 'son' Pylori has left a message that he will arrive with his red dragon Apakk, but she is still too young to travel. Smiling, Virus shows off this glowing black-green 'monster' to his old medical friends.

They are afraid - truly afraid - and both Virus and Henshuth get a gloating kind of look on their faces.

Henshuth and Virus make a point of wandering to different locales. When they are resting back at home, however, they recieve a strange letter.

"Look at this," Virus says, unfolding a piece of parchment which has arrived from the Healing Den of all places. "It's from a woman who claims she knows all the dragons in this Protectorate thing."

Oh that - I know what that is.

Virus tilts his head curiously. "How do you know?"

I am a dragon, of course. She stands up and fusses with her wings and makes a gloaty-full of herself noise. We know many things.

"Well, did you know that the Ring of Fire and Sanrix Azon are holding a 'Flight of the Dead?'" Virus asks. The glowing green whips her head around so fast that the sharp horns make swooshing noises.

I did not know that! We would be able to find a good mate again.

Henshuth apparently likes the last flight they participated in, why not another?

"Baeris says that we are the only undead-type in the Book," Virus says. "I wonder what book that is, and I wonder," he leans back onto the cushioned chair he keeps in their lair, "if I could get a look at it?"

I would think she is a bit more protective of her log books than that, Virus my friend...

"I bet you are right, Henshuth my dearest. But this flight bears investigation!"

Prepare yourself for flight, then, I know where to go.

"That is right," Virus gives a bit of a chuckle, "you are a dragon, and you know everything."

***

Henshuth is a smallish rare, only 20' nose to tail. She has four red eyes, many spikes, and is literally glowing with radiation. She has flown in one prior flight (at Cy) and enjoys the thrill of locating a proper male among the frenzied participants. She actually doesn't think the idea of a plain one-to-five ratio flight is exciting at all.

Virus is a handsome 'man' - a sentient billenia-old virus dna in a human's body. He has the ability to manipulate viruses, bacteria, cancers and many other kinds of disease. His children - his "cloned" children that is - have more minor versions of his power. He currently does not have any 'born' children, and is looking to see what might happen with one or two of those. He is looking for a female partner at this time, since his last one was male.

***

Henshuth raises her head gracefully, and tilts her four eyes toward the sky.

My rider, there is ... a visitor.

"That's nice," Virus says, content to be reading about the latest plagues to be a problem in some jungle land to the south.

No, I think... a rider and her dragon, lost. They have traveled far, and this is not quite where they expected to be.

Virus puts his paper down, and finally looks for himself. What he sees is a glowing green dragon with dramatic wings, horns and a woman on her shoulders.

"This is a development," Virus states.

You like her already, Henshuth says, privately grinning. She can feel her rider's senses seeking the female's biology - and when they do, he is in for a strange surprise.

"She's not human, she's a plant," he says, with a bit of incredulity. "A cloned plant-human splice. How ... Innovative." Virus waves his arm, and Henshuth quietly instructs the glowing green to land nearby. As they do, Henshuth rises to greet them.

The woman on the dragon's back lands on the ground softly, and Virus' world seems to tilt. Not only is the woman beautiful in the way that humans can be, but she's also putting out a complex set of scents, pheremones that command his own human-formed body.

He falls in love as she speaks for the first time.

"I guess this is home, if you're keeping dragons next to this hospital huh?" Ihrinnah asks. Mutely, speechless for the first time since gaining a voice, Virus merely nods.

"Oh - I'm sorry," Ihrinnah says, and the winds change the scent of her attraction to a less potent one. Virus shakes his head to clear his eyes.

"Welcome," he says, "I-"

Uteneth, the glowing green, standing behind her and next to the smaller Henshuth, nudges her rider carefully. Ihrinnah blushes, hemming and hawing about anything new to say.

She means to say that her name is Ihrinnah and she is pleased to call me her soulmate, and I am Uteneth. The dragoness speaks mentally to both Henshuth and Virus.

And since we're doing the introductions, he is Virus, my rider and my friend. Be careful of him, he is usually much more charming than this. Henshuth counters, pleased to have a companion that understands their sudden dilemma.

Ihrinnah is tall, almost taller than Virus. The pair of female dragons knew that this was true because within a few moments, Virus and Ihrinnah were walking quite close to one another toward the hospital buildings.

***

***

Their whirlwind relationship is something that Virus' offspring follow carefully. They respect this strong willed woman, easily starting to like her simply because she is as curt toward their human observers as they are.

Not more than a few weeks after her arrival to the Labs and their dragon-dens, an unusual change begins to take hold of Ihrinnah. Her faintly green-tinted skin darkens, becoming more and more emerald - or more accurately, more leafy. Her orange-red hair brightens, blossoming into a brilliant saffron. Her small green lips are usually formed into a smile, her high cheeks flushed with color.

Candi bumps up against her father's 'girlfriend'. "You're pregnant," she says.

"I most certainly am," the plant-spliced woman replies. "We worked for days on this... I just knew that I'd be able to breed, but only Virus has been able to ... do it for me." She gives off a uniquely human giggle, and Candi shares it.

Within another month, it becomes quite apparent that her 'pregnancy' is going to be a short one. Though her belly is swollen, Ihrinnah is determined to continue to walk through the sunlit gardens that she's assembled on the far side of the lake. Uteneth summons Henshuth, when she loses sight of her rider.

Flying above, the pair of dragonesses can see where Ihrinnah has sat down, below one of the shade trees. There is a little room on one side of the hedge nearby, so Henshuth settles down while Uteneth finds a place to land elsewhere.

Your partner is worried about you, Henshuth says, are you well?

"I'm wonderful," Ihrinnah says. "Go get Virus, he should see his new children..."

More than one? So soon? Is that not unusual?

"I'm not human, remember?" Ihrinnah says. Henshuth climbs back into the sky, and brings Virus back, while Uteneth makes her way to her bond's side carefully avoiding crushing any of the plants.

Virus finds his way around the tree, to see his beautiful green-skinned mate holding on to what appears to be ... a vine with odd knots here and there.

"They will grow best in the sunlight," Ihrinnah says. "Look at them all, my love!"

Virus holds out his hand, and he can feel the life within the bulbs that Ihrinnah has created. As though they're sheltered by leaves, and strung on a vine, these new children will be something even more special than either of their parents.

And when they grow?

The vine that Ihrinnah holds up she drapes over one branch and then the next. Each small knot of a 'fruit' seems to move with its own life. Virus can sense inside each the potential for an amazing life.

"We can teach them, now, if you wish," he says. "Since their brains will be essentially human, I know how to manipulate the cells."

"Do you?" Ihrinnah says, as she roots the vine into the wet dark earth below the tree's root. "Then, by all means. What will you teach them?"

"How to manipulate themselves," he says. "And others."

***

The course of action that the pair takes with educating their young spore-offspring is an odd one, but with the clear results that they'd both been looking for.

First, it only takes two months for the children to come of age to spread their flowers and open out of the fruits. One after another, slowly, each child comes into the world.

First is a fair skinned female, white hair dropping in her mother's curls down her back. Ihrinnah names her, "Amanita Virosa, our deadly daughter. The powers of mushrooms that kill are yours."

The girl nods simply, smiles with a sly cast to her lips.

Next opens a brightly blond girl, with medium skin and a pair of eager dark green eyes. "Conium Maculatum," Virus says, "hemlock's a quick but painful death."

"I will deal it well, my father." She replies with a high voice.

A radiant violet-headed girl slips from her flower, a long twist of hair around her shoulders that dries in the pleasant springtime sun.

"Atropa Belladonna," Ihrinna purrs, "a more potent lover could not be known."

"Thank you mother," Atropa says, casting about for something appropriate to wear.

The first male of the vine's group drops quickly to the ground, shakes his blond haired head, and laughs. "That was fun, can I do it again?"

"Of course you can, Zigadenus," Virus replies. "Be sure to spread far and wide in your efforts."

A dark boy this time tumbles down gracefully from a richly colored bloom. Red haired, bright eyed, he gazes at his mother. "Digitalis Purpurea," she whispers. "Though your hand might soothe, it will also sting."

Digitalis nods and smiles, knowing his powers.

Fair skinned, light haired, and apparently light headed, another male comes from a high bloom. He is beautiful, in a way, but almost mockingly so. Virus names him, "Calla Palustris, the water dragon."

"What's that mean?" He asks, but his parents say nothing more. He is left to figure it out on his own.

A dark skinned female form steps from one bloom, sweetly and seductively. Her brightly colored pink-white hair contrasts sharply with the darkness of her skin. "Datura Meteloides," Ihrinnah says, "devil's trumpet." It almost sounds like she says, devil strumpet. Perhaps she means to. Datura gives off a laugh, and even the other siblings shake.

High up in the tree branch where Ihrinnah's vine drapes, the last of the eight bulbs finally opens. A fair skinned and blond haired boy comes out with hesitation. His parents glance over him and almost seem to scowl. What's this? They disapprove of their youngest?

He turns away but hears his father say, "Disporum, not as toxic as I'd expected, not like the others."

"Sorry to disappoint you my love," is what he hears Ihrinnah say. Disporum catches up with his sibings but why?

***

They reenter the facility to show off. Some of the long-harrassed doctors sharply turn to see the vile pair of cloned-people and sigh. But then the brood that follows them comes in.

"Oh lord, not more of them," says one.

"Yes," Virus says, "many more." His proud smile could be echoed on any man's face with his lovely wife bearing his child. But eight of them? Unexpected by the human doctors.

"Well keep them away from us. You know we've got work to do and if it fails we won't have funding next year. Got that?" The doctor says sharply. His haggard appearance indicates to Ihrinnah that in fact he's speaking truth - perhaps now, they should be left to their own devices?

It does not take long for the children - born at what appears to be age five or six - to mature. Though Ihrinnah worries that may stunt their lifespan, Virus reminds her that no, they know everything they need to, to provide themselves whatever life they wish.

"Besides, there are plants still alive from the age of their messiah," Virus states with a pleasant grin. "How short would their lives be if they merely sleep for half the time, then bloom again?"

So then, of course, the task of both growing up, and finding their niches begins.

***

Two years is all it takes to bring the children to the same maturity as their elder siblings. Taken in by that group, each of them seems to have a special ability or two. Most of them poisonous. Still, they can also play with human biology directly thanks to Virus' influence. Isolating the cause of a fever, sensing where an infection has come from. Like their father, they have a healthy respect for their creation, but are all seemingly determined to live their own form of life.

And the dragons love them too. Henshuth and Uteneth both mother them when their parents are gone. The glowing and radioactive foster mothers dote upon them day after day.

You know you would be perfect riders too, like your parents. Henshuth reminds them at the side of the lake. Your siblings are almost all paired off.

Perhaps it is time we found bonds for you, Uteneth adds. Would you like that?

"I would," Atropa says, "sisters?"

"Me," Coni laughs, followed by a quick succession of other voices in agreement.

Well then we shall locate the proper eggs for you to pair with. That will not take long I think.

Not at all, let us go.

The pair of dangerously green dragons lept to the sky and disappeared, to return moments later. Their ability to fly through the Nexus is strong, and their placement in time and space is sure.

There are a good number of places! We've succeeded! They cry together.

Where will they go?

Darkling Dawn - Digitalis bonded to Green Green-Brown (f) Skelath!

Dragonwillow Weyr - Conium paired with Forest Ruby Apiaceaeth!

Calyeni Caverns - Zigadenus bonded to Red (m) I'atenth!

Vella Crean - Atropa bonded to Dark Court Green Kaith!

Draco's Inferno - Calla bonded to White (m) Tegosumuth!

Tripaldi Special Clutch Zone - Amanita! - this took so long, and yielded no results, she has bonded Green and Red Soma Thain (h/f) from the Rookery in 2020

Starburst (Nexus Exchange) - Datura bonded Black and Red (f) Karida!

Apocalypse at Cy - Disporum paired with green Ethul (m) and Eliarori (f)!

And what will happen when they're done pairing off with their dragons?

And what about this odd thing here? Virus isn't sure what it is, but it's alive...

Virus and Ihrinna are walking through the garden, their garden, when Virus' sense of 'life' starts to glimmer.

"Do you feel that?" He asks his lovely green-toned mate, who shakes her head.

"Feel what?"

"It's not one of yours, then," he says with a bit of confidence. If it were a plant, she'd be able to locate it too. He takes a moment and looks around the garden, and then realizes what he's sensing isn't quite right up there, it's down the sloped hill that is near the hospital's biohazardous waste area.

Perfect, of course, for whatever nasty goodness he and Ihrinnah are planning...

There is something visible there, though, that wasn't there a few hours before.

***

They take a look at it closely, examining it from all angles. It looks like a big white bowling pin from far off - but then they realize that it's actually a soft warm coccoon.

"What in the world is this doing here? Of all places?" Virus asks.

"It's warm," Ihrinnah says. She places her hands over it, and then gives off a grin. "Henshuth should come look too. She'll like this. It's quite radioactive, I think."

"Is it?" Virus perks up. "Well give it here."

Laughing, they take the coccoon back up to the garden, where it gives off a soft white glow.

It shows no sign of moving, but it is alive. "I wonder what is inside it?" Ihrinnah asks.

"We'll see," Virus tells her, "I think something will come from it, but give it some time. It's not done deciding what it will be, I think."

"How mysterious," Ihrinnah comments. They leave the coccoon to its own devices for a while, as the grass around it withers...

Shortly, though, within a week or so of waiting, the coccoon begins to shake and move. A tear across it in the middle reveals a brightly glowing sickly green color.

"It sure is radioactive," Virus says. "But what is it?"

"I am an Egyptan," says the creature that crawls from it. "What are you?"

"I'm Virus," he says, "and this is Ihrinnah, my wife."

"It is nice to meet you. Oh - I have killed the grass."

"Only for a moment," Ihrinnah says, as she applies some of her well-practiced powers and regrows it with a resistance to such deadly toxic waves.

"We know what you are now," Ihrinnah says, "but ... Do you know how you got here?"

"No," the Egyptan says, having finally pulled himself all the way free of his silken coccoon. "But I like it here. I like you two - I think you can take care of me."

"But you're already walking and talking," Virus laughs.

"It isn't like we've got any new children on the way just yet," Ihrinnah says with a grin. "Of course we can take care of you."

The Egyptan proudly stands up, revealing his multiple tails, and his short still-developing wings.

"What will we call you?" Virus asks, pacing about. "The children were easier, because they were quite obvious..."

"It is still quite obvious," Ihrinnah states. "Tabiti, after a goddess of fire and animals."

"Do you like it?" Virus asks.

"It's a girl's name," the Egyptan snorts.

"Tabito," Ihrinnah corrects herself. The Egyptan - Tabito - seems to be happier with this.

When Virus and his family next looks up, the beautiful sheen of the radiation Egyptan Tabito almost blinds them. Virus scratches him behind the ear, and Tabito leans into it almost falling over.

"That is bliss," he says, "but I want to find out more about your dragons... Can they carry me?"

"I don't know if you want to get too close," Virus says, smiling, "even though you're a radiation yourself, you're also 'morsel-sized' to my dragon."

In response, Henshuth bellows and licks her chops menacingly - but then gives her own kind of laugh and picks up the teenaged Egyptan.

Do not worry about him. I like him. Perhaps he and I will find a nice place to burn.

***

When at last it looks as though Tabito is fully grown, everyone has certainly gotten to like having the warmly glowing Egyptan near them. He rests near Henshuth when an announcement is made.

"I wish us to have a flight!" Virus says, loudly and while everyone is near. "There are many of us, but there could be more. My scattered children - come home to me, and we will see which of our dragons chooses one another!"

Powerfully sending, mental images come from the viral creation. His mate and adoring friend Ihrinnah claps with glee - their children will come home, and they will be able to show off their lovely dragons to one another at last!

Custom made by Gwyene

While Virus and Ihrinnah play, Henshuth decides to blip out and check the next universe over for activity. She finds something quite interesting!

The Edge of Shadows realm, smelling like a mix of scented oils and car exhaust at first but blossoming into a multitude of individual smells and sounds... The shadow magic she has gets her right to the edge ... of course!

Stepping into the realm for a moment, Henshuth takes a moment to size the place up. When she is spotted by the resident genetic engineers, they do something she's heard described as 'go gaga' over her.

And just like that, she's got a little daughter. Almost like two - only Henshuth never notices a mood swing or difference of opinion between Utsushi's two heads. Though her sire or other 'parent' is unknown to Henshuth, it seems that they were quite ... different!

Well you are just the most amazing thing, Henshuth tells her offspring, and Utsushi gives a strange warbling purr-call in reply.

No rider will ever stand upon her shoulder, Henshuth realizes. That's fine - she'll feel free to weird out all the locals when they get back to the hospital grounds...

Caretaker: Shard
Name: Utsushi (duplicate)
Gender: Female
Species: Biped Catdra
Color: Purple-striped Green and Orange
Notes: Her bones don't glow like her dragon mother's, but her fur does, and the skin in her wing membrane are translucent. She also has two tailwings, they look feathered but are made of energy.

One head is longer than the other. She has one personality, though.

"How are you attracting all these dragons, Henshuth?" Virus asks of his colorful dragoness. The radioactive beast gives a shrug, and a draconic chuckle.

The Edge of Shadows likes me, I think, she replies.

For this time around, it was not a catdra nor other such tame thing - but an infernal creature...

Male, clearly, and of all the best colors to warn off people from his dangerous personage. He hisses when Virus nears, but then settles down to singe the grass (the badly badly abused grass that Ihrinnah keeps having to regrow because of all the radiation, cancers, and tromping-on it gets) and lash his tail around a little.

"Nasty thing," Virus smiles. "I think his name is Abraxas."

Appropriately enough, he glows a bit doesn't he?

With that, Abraxas let off a howl of such terror that even Virus' children let off a shudder.

Name: Abraxas

Gender: Male

Size: 95 feet long (he's simply huge next to the small Henshuth)

Because it seemed that Uteneth is feeling left out, or as though she thinks it is a bit of a competition to find new blood for their little 'colony', she vanishes for a few days at a time and eventually comes back with a triumphant bugle.

"Oh not another one," Virus sighs. "Where are we meant to put anyone now?"

"There are plenty of places, most of the hospital is vacant now anyway." Ihrinnah laughs. It is true, in the years since her arrival and that of the many new dragons, the research facility has become all but abandoned in haste to get away and seal the area.

They know that the government has begun plans to put up a tall cement wall around the whole place, but what does a wall mean to a dragon?

Besides, there are many other dragons now, the world is starting to open up to the idea that other dimensions exist, and all that. Alabaster's new game show didn't hurt the image at all - everyone wants plushies and toys and tickets to dragon-sponsored events...

Virus realizes that with the place empty ... he can actually experiment again. How hard would it be for a guy as suave as he, to find some unsuspecting homeless or runaway, and implant more of his devious germs into their bodies? They'd have a roof over their heads, food, entertainment. A whole facility to their liking, really.

"Let them build the fence," Virus says to one of the protesters, who'd stayed late into the evening. She looks a bit shocked at that, but Virus says, "it's safer for you that way."

"But... dragons should be free!" She says. Oblivious, Virus thinks. She's just brainless. She might do just fine.

"That's true, that's true," Virus says, glancing around. There are no visible vehicles. "Say, how did you get out here alone?"

"My group brought me, I told them I'd stay while they gathered more." She says. Better and better.

"Well why don't you come inside, there isn't any point to remaining out here, the work isn't being done under the cover of night you know." Virus smiles, and under his protective arm, the protester is led happily toward the facilities.

***

Oh I like that, comes a voice out of nowhere, into Virus' mind. She won't know what's hitting her.

Virus looks around, and since the voice is male and not one he knows, he makes the correct assumption that it's the new dragon that Uteneth brought back.

"Yes," Virus states, hoping that he's within earshot. Obviously he must be, if he's looking into the operating theater. "These idiotic protesters really have no mind of their own. It's like preying upon insects, really."

I bet you I could bring someone more challenging, more interesting.

"With no complications from relatives or publicity, that's the key," Virus says, finishing up his little 'operation'. He is implanting several small packets of various substances in the woman's body. When they break open, at random, they'd get to watch her reactions! From pain and mere irritation, to a variety of new colors or hallucinations. What fun!

Yes I know that, the dragon states, I want to play too. When I can fly, I will join you.

Virus turns to see a small very dark blue dragonet, he can't be more than a few weeks old. But already he's holding his head up high - and he's got luminescent blood-red baubles dancing along his spine and tail.

"With you, little one, you're going to be getting babies with candy," Virus indicates the glowing bobbles. "What is your name?"

Strychnine, is the reply.

"Perfection," Virus chuckles, and leads the dragonet out of the room - ignoring the woman he's left behind, she'll wake up and wonder what's going on. Just as he planned.

 

 

Name: Strychnine
Gender: Male
Size: 28' at the head
Color: Bloodwisp Blue
Personality: Suave, Elegant, Sneaky

From giveaway mating at Nexus, Ring of Fire

Parentage: Dam - Quiradath; Sire - Winddancer

Virus sits alone, looking at a chart which contains notes that he has written. Over the last few months, as Strychnine grows and the others adjust to their own dragons and lifestyles - and Virus' own experiments continue - Virus has also been in the mood to explore.

After all, you can't keep a man like him in one universe for long. Ihrinna holds the fort while he makes occasional forays with Henshuth to new worlds. Or in this case, to a 'genre'. As some of his children come back they share stories of people that travel to meet other 'versions' of themselves. He knows that he is unique, at least in this universe... What about others?

Could the circumstances behind Virus' birth be duplicated in other universes? What are the chances? Of course, if he were in that one universe where Woodstock and her friends patrol the stars on their ship Caledrus, they would know in a moment: their infinite improbability drive would take them there.

But he is on a dragon, not a starship. All Virus has is his imagination, a need, a desire. And a willing dragon.

***

This place is... filthy, Henshuth comments. The world where they have landed is covered in pollution and noise, the very ground is poison. Even more than Virus would have infected it. But the thing that he notices more than his dragon, the people are resoundingly healthy!

"How can this be?" Virus whispers to himself. "Feel that, Henshuth?"

The dragoness pauses, lifts her head and sniffs. With a wheeze, she snorts out a cough and folds her arms.

I feel that the air is worse than -

"No, the people, isn't it odd?"

After a moment, Henshuth sent, so many. There are so many people - yet none like you. Nothing like you, in fact. How can they live in such filth?

"That's what I would like to know," Virus says. "And perhaps do something about it. They're like... flies. Congesting this world. I have nothing against planets."

Virus urges Henshuth to find a place among the rooftops. There are weirdly mutated pigeons and rats the size of dogs, sparrows which dive and flit like winged darts. The human population seem to move around their deformed animal life and destroyed ecosystem with indifference, which bothers Virus for some reason he cannot place.

Breeding virii and bacteria is his specialty, what could be farther from the norm for someone like him? Perhaps it is that the humans here may be resistant to them? Then what?

He takes no joy in destroying a dog's life, why would he care? Only in disturbing humanity does Virus truly thrive in his decadence.

This society, he determines while walking among the thousands of people in this city, must die somehow. It is not dying from within, no bacteria grow in them that could be construed as deadly - nothing to check their population. Do they war? Do they simply breed like flies by the billion? Why has their world gone so horribly wrong?

Well, he'd have to correct it. If slowly. If perhaps merely to ... apologize to the world for this plague of humankind upon it? There is nothing left of the natural creatures. Only meat grown on the hoof for the human population to eat (deli after deli offering the 'finest vat-grown foods' or 'the real thing from veal farms') and pets or those animals like the pigeons that could adapt to humanity's conditions. Virus imagines that coyotes, peregrines and crows are found elsewhere, raccoons perhaps... But this is a sad state for any world to be in.

As he steps around yet another corner filled to the rim with people of all descriptions - loudly discussing the latest trend or sport, hardly bothering to apologize for running into someone else - Virus is inspired.

A woman with a stroller walks by, two whelps plump and fresh cooing at strangers from within. Another baby roosts within her womb though she may not yet realize it. Can this be 'prosperity'? Virus wonders.

Well if that is the only way to hurt them, this society will be harmed where they have their biggest pride. That of fertility. That which they have taken from the planet as though by force.

He will make something that will hurt them. Slowly, but surely.

***

Henshuth lifts her wings and they fly back into the pitch-filled sky. She can actually feel the soot entering her weird glowing lungs - and it is a good thing that she can regenerate from her wounds. She complains that a wound on her own tail began to fester almost immediately. Virus makes the decision to return here only once he's finished his work.

He follows a young man around, one who appears not to have a job nor a home. Typical of such a huge population there must be so many of these they could be uncountable. This world - values its 'productive' members and allows the reward of breeding to the point of oblivion - and neglects to remember that they've run out of space for those without the cash to survive.

With the offer of a place to stay and good food, in a quiet environment, Virus tempts the young man into coming with him to the roof. Henshuth's appearance almost does not faze the man - he's seen weirder things out here in the streets. Virus does not doubt that for a moment.

When they fly off, and return to the hospital grounds, with the wall being put up to the useless protests of the dragon-fanatics, the young man all but explodes from surprise.

"There's nothing here! Put me down!" He exclaims. His eyes squint, and Virus realizes only now that the endless sooty night that they'd experienced on that world - was day. All day, all night - no change. Perhaps a bit of brightness between the static clouds and the soot rising to them? No matter.

"Yes, it's quiet, as I said. Don't worry," Virus promises him. "You'll be inside soon enough. This place is very ... very far away from your home."

Virus senses the panic in the man's mind, the sky is something alien to him, the ground too clean - the air filling his lungs is pure, or at least not polluted so badly and he can smell things for the first time. There is no crowd to bump into, no press of people to keep him 'safe'. No buildings rising to all angles, blotting out what might have ever been seen of the skies.

Just a rolling hillside with trees, one low complex near a wide (if steaming slightly) lake. And dragons. Numerous ones. The young man passes out.

Fortunately for him. Virus merely wants to take some samples, see what makes him so much different than those people of this world. Stunned by his discoveries and spurred on after telling his family about this man's world, he formulates a truly insidious plan.

He would plant them, carefully, into the society. Such a flagrant and sexual lifestyle that so many people lead there! The man, Adrian, tells eventually of how one man was responsible for nearly forty children, in the neighborhood he was born in.

And he says so with a weird pride.

Privately, after the work has started and Virus can only wait for the cells to grow further on their own, he and Ihrinnah discuss this. "It's as though his world never grew out of agrarian family expectations, keeping so many children to 'work' on the farm. It's one thing to expect them to work because you need the hands, and can't pay others."

"Yes," Ihrinnah comments, "so if you've got a large family you can harvest better and more quickly. But ... this world grew out of that. If one or two children are born to a couple that's nice, and usually they call it a 'family'. When six or eight come..." she waves her hand in the air, "that's a litter."

"And why I've decided to do what I have started," Virus says. He explains what he's done, how it will work, to her.

And she agrees, it will do the job. Slowly, but they'll have time. All of Virus' children, no matter how created, are immortal if they so wish to be. These too will be. Among all other things, they will need it. They must spread their disease.

Making an imperfect world, perfect again? Perhaps in time... Perhaps...

*next - to the Barren Men* (unfinished, sorry, I need to eventually make that [2022 note])

With the four young men he and Ihrinnah created set up on their world to invade, Virus has some time to relax. Ihrinnah enjoys these times too - they've begun working at Carramba High School as well, one of the odder places that could call them a bonus rather than a bane.

Ihrinnah instructs (of course) a number of plant-based classes, Hedge Mazes, Allergies, that kind of thing. So in her off time, she has continued to work on the wide garden where their children had been planted.

"Oh look at this!" Ihrinnah calls out cheerfully, "It's almost as large as that Egyptan's coccoon was."

"This hasn't coccooned yet," Virus points out.

"But it's pretty, so sleek and black." Ihrinnah grins. "I like it."

"Well I shall instruct Tabito not to devour it, that Egyptan eats everything he can get his mouth around these days." Virus chuckled and wandered off to find the glowing radioactive creature.

After a few weeks of waiting, feeding the little black caterpillar whatever she could determine it wants, Ihrinnah notices that it had coccooned itself at last. A faintly sickly black tarry colored coccoon, moving slightly on the breeze.

Soon, it would erupt into a larger, very different looking creature indeed!

Tabito arrives to watch, as do several of the other dragons and folk. Pitch black, with glowing green wings, and best of all: a death's head design on its wing!

"It's ... a hawk moth?" Virus asks, "Interesting..."

"Well, it's a dragon," Ihrinnah says. "A little one."

It would be only about the same size as Tabito, too, perhaps a little taller and longer, but not by much. The dark colored dragon picks up its nose and expands its wings, then, erupts into the air with a shower of dust!

Tabito follows it, gleefully barking (Tabito sounds like a geiger counter, actually ticking...), and the pair of them seem to hit it off very well.

 

"Mot!" Ihrinnah exclaims, "Come back on down here, I've made some delicious tree rot for you."

"Moth," Virus mutters, "You are terrible at names."

"Mot is the god of death," Ihrinnah chides, "And you should know that! I thought you knew everything Humans did..."

Virus waves his hand and laughs, and they prepare for yet another pet to join them in their home.

- Name - Mot (death)
- Cause blindness: when the dust from its wings enters the eye, it causes blindness
- Haunting cry: causes feelings such as melancholy, grief, or anguish in those that hear its cry
- Prophetic sight: can see snippets of the future, specifically pertaining to death. Many will find themselves drawn to the object of their sight, desiring to warn, attempt to change, simply to witness the event.
From Mythology Giveaway 09, Maerwynn

[2022 additions]

((also, I'm not gonna be able to keep up the present tense thing, sorry))

They had been working at Carramba High School for some time, having been tapped by other dragon riders due to their interesting knowledge and abilities. Did anyone think it was a great idea to have these two in charge of classes filled with impressionable young students? Well, apparently someone had...

Virus headed up a biology class or two, namely 'Health For N00bs' and 'Allergies Are Everywhere', and 'Radiation Is your Friend'. Virus ... has looked at this place as a pure gold mine for so many reasons.

Ihrinnah in the meantime was busy with 'Hedge Mazes (art and alibi)', 'Herbs and Veggies', and one of their Dragon Care classes. She really does enjoy work here, though the dragon stunt team keeps badgering her to play in the skies with them, to no avail.

Though neither of them had been working for very long it felt like years already, when a series of color-coded clone girls started their classes. Ihrinna would smirk and roll her eyes at this all a couple years later, when one of those girls, Lavender by name, came back to their actual home-world lair via some form of teleportation. She would return again and again, because the lab here was actually in better shape than that which she was used to 'in the Rookery' wherever that was.

It didn't take long for her to start making moves on Virus, and Ihrinnah seemed pretty fine with this. They were both working on interesting... side projects involving genetics, so why not? It had been a while since Virus had bred.

Thankfully, Lavender actually only wanted to have one child with him... Valeria became her name, and her dragon is so much fun! That's because it's Henshuth's offspring with Strychnine.

A little bit later, however, the clone girls sat down with a number of others to plot out: more. More clones were better, they had a place of operations now and dragons to bond, and an enemy to fight. They would need more warm bodies... And so Ihrinnah and Virus provided their rather unusual and highly not-human DNA because they knew the girls would be responsible with it. Ihrinnah was a little on the iffy side, having been the product of such experimentation, but then she wasn't meant as a child for someone to raise, and their new one definitely was. Algae became a fine addition to their ranks, though he did need training from both parents and some others in their line to truly tap into all he could do.

Virus also added a little more to the batch, Licorice being 'his' 'son' (and that's in HEAVY quotes) without Ihrinna's plant-like DNA also in that mix.

(( The 'LAMENTATIONS' will go here, there's a bunch... ))

All of that aside, it was also apparently time for the dragons to seek out new 'friends'. The Nexus had been quiet for a long time, but now it was starting to perk up. Places thought long dusty were making noise. Some noise seemed to follow one particular dragon as it came up to Ihrinnah one afternoon, out of the blue. Uteneth and Henshuth seem rather proud that this one came along.

"He is quite special, isn't he?" Ihrinnah appraised the dragonet, looking with far more than just eyes. And it was true, this Balespawn dragon fit right in with them with his colors, but also his abilities.

Anabasine Balechild Name: Anabasine Balechild ( name is an alkaloid found in the tree tobacco plant, of which ingestion can be fatal)
Gender: Male
Size/Shoulder/Length: large, 20'2" s / 148' l / 160' ws
Colors: rust-red-orange body with more orange stripes on body and limbs, tail; wingsails are red as blending with the body and unmarked save for some mottling; belly armor lighter golden-orange; moss when grown is light teal; claws and horns are mottled rocky grey shades; balefire is bright yellow-green; eyes red and green
Features: four legs and two large wings with two internal fingers and two large wrist fingers all having very sharp long claws; scaled hide that might or might not remain scaled with shaping, body has segmented armor on belly; head is long and narrow, sharp, with lots of teeth and a horn at the end of the nose, as well as Hathian-styled eye armor curving into elaborate horns, external ears, neck and shoulders area has Balefire similar to his breath weapon; body is high and long, noodle, with a very long tail having a sharp set of spikes and long stabby bits; also has stabby bits on elbow/heels on legs; grows toxic moss on a regular basis; Bonding is preferred, but they only take bonds of intent compatible to their own. Bonding is simply another means to spread their influence. They will happily take multiple bonds with themselves as the dominant member.
Powers: Winged Flight, with a massive pair of wings like this, Anabasine is hardly going to slack off in the air. He is remarkably powerful even in strong winds, though prefers warm weather to fly in regardless of its humidity. Does enjoy flying at night, because seeing that glow is terrifying.
Teleportation, The ability to teleport anywhere within sight or that can be strongly visualized in the mind. This dragon is less apt to move between local spaces because flying is so much more fun.
Realm-Travelling, Above and beyond simple teleportation, the ability to realm-travel and cross into dimensions separated from the Nexus by more than mere space and time - to take care of any other needs. He truly is a cosmopolitan dragon, able to just... show up wherever, and enjoy the crap out of any damage being done.
Communication, Anabasine is able to speak both verbally and telepathically, and trust us on this you don't want to hear either of those voices. Though smooth, there is an undercurrent of malice and Machiavellian plotting at all times, it always seems like he's lying even when he's not. His telepathic range is about 1 mile unless it's to another telepath, at which point he can think around 10 miles to 'ping' another mind.
Toxic Moss, Their bodies are capable of growing mosslike foliage that contains their natural corruptive essences. The rashes that result from touching this moss could expand into corrupted mutations.
Balefire Breath, The ability to spit a gout of bright green corruptive balefire, which will be extremely unpleasant in every sense of the word - until it kills you.
Corruption Powers, Mastery over the corruption of anything around them, organic, inorganic, and magical alike. Yes, they do have to keep him away from the labs where sensitive experiments are going on, but they're thinking about building him his own area to do whatever he wishes to see the extent of his abilities.
Immortality, The cessation of physical aging upon reaching maturity and possession of eternal life thereafter. Can still be killed by lethal injuries.
Shapeshifting (Human-Dragon Spectrum), The ability to shapeshift anywhere on a spectrum between their natural shape and a human form that tends to retain the coloration of their natural draconic form. Vastly prefers his dragon size and shape, and when he does go two-footed he keeps his big wings.
Sizeshifting, The ability to change one's physical size; Anabasine doesn't mind getting smol in order to cause a little chaos here and there. You might find him pacing beside some of the pet-sized creatures around the area. He doesn't generally get much larger than his typical 20' scale, however, as he feels that's just kind of overkill and besides it's harder to fly at that size. He can absolutely fuck up a 747 in flight, though, if he concentrates on being very large.
Parentage: Ny'aune Selamputo + Pariah Balechild
Origin: Twisted Fate April 2022 by Phe
Other Info: For a dragon with such incredibly varied parentage and powers that are so strong, he actually does love being around people - of all sorts, dragon types, pet types, humanoids and shifters alike. This is because he is waiting for good gossip, stray thoughts to research how best to mess with folks, hidden anxieties, and night-time scares. He's not so chaotic that he would harm 'friends', he wants to keep the location and 'family' he has here with this group intact and will defend it from any of those idiots that sometimes still come around with effectively pitchforks and torches. Not that Virus and Ihrinnah and their dragons and children can't defend it effectively, but he is the biggest dragon they have, and he likes living up to that expectation... Abraxas comes closest, and even that's not half as big.

.