Just another everyday report to come across your desk, eh Councilmen?

To:
Chairmen Lucian Sparrow
From:
Head Researcher Mary Lynn, Department of Non Human Studies.


Dear Chairmen Sparrow,

This letter is to inform you about the progress of specimen C 001, The Wretched Egg. It is about time for your annual inspection of specimen C 001. The members of Project Diva are looking forward to your visit to the labs. As you know we have recently been testing sample of specimen C 001s blood on humans. The results are very exciting so far. We have witnessed a 10% chance for what we are calling Zooanthropy among the inmates we have tested. These 10% have shown that beginning of resembling specimen C 000, Saya. The most common effect is an enlarging of the bicep muscles in test subjects, as well as a transformation for the arms into ones that match the arms of specimen C 000. Sadly we must report no test subjects has survived these early Zooanthropy, and so we have yet to see a full change from a human into a Chiropteran. On an interesting note we have noticed that introducing a direct blood sample from specimen 001 into the subject will cause their blood to crystalize. A sample has been sent to you with this letter. We have saved the bodies of the subjects for you to see first hand upon your visit to the lab.

Secondly we are proud to report that specimen C 001 has made great strides in her reading and language lessons. We are sure she looks forward to seeing you again at this years inspection. On a side note we have taken the liberty to upgrade her usual restraints. She was able to use the chains to cut herself, and we had an incident about 2 weeks back when she used her blood to attack Researcher Masagi.

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The letter sat in an unmarked white envelope on the desk of the Chairmen of the Mage Council. It was his monthly update on Project Diva, also known as The Wretched Egg. A messenger from the labs had brought it by in a cluster of other messages earlier that day.

Outside the sun was high in the sky. It was almost 1 in the after noon on the warm autumn day. A breeze kicked up every so often, causing the trees outside to sway under its force. The trees themselves were nearly bare, leaves of brown and orange hanging onto the branches.

Along with the letter sat an item in an unmarked manila envelope labeled to the Chairmen. Inside lay what would appear to be a solid red ruby, an ordinary stone found in several places in Fiore. The truth of what the item was rested in the letter. It was blood from an inmate who had been sent to Project Diva. It had been turned to crystal after being exposed to Diva's blood only after he began to transform into...something. The chairman would have to see the actual bodies of the test subjects on his inspection.

Researcher Ken Masagi sat at his large mahogany desk in his otherwise non descript office. The office was a simple 20x10 foot space located in the administrative area of the department, well away from the groans and bangs of most of the test subjects. His desk was an absolute mess at the moment. Papers and reports were scattered all across the top, almost as if his massive inbox had grown so tall that is collapsed itself in an avalanche of research paper work.

He sighed a bit as he crewed on the filter of the cigarette he was smoking. His short black hair was an oily mess. He had not had time for a proper shower in days in seemed. His green eyes were covered by his black framed round rimmed glasses that slid down his nose ever so slightly. He moved his left hand up to his glasses without thinking, using his index finger to push them back up to their proper place. Cigarette smoke curled up around his face, dispersing around his head as the end of the cigarette burned a bright orange.

He was reading over papers detailing the various deaths of inmates that had been infected with the Chiropteran blood. Out of 100 prisoners that had been granted to them, an amazing number that had at the time blown their minds, only 10 had shown any visual signs of Zooanthropy. Even worse non of them had made in past maybe 20% of a full change from man into beast. They needed to figure out a way to distill the blood into its purest form, weeding out everything but the exact...whatever it was they needed to make a successful subject.

Suddenly a knock came from the closed wooden door to his office. He sat back in his chair, taking up a rather cool demeanor as he said ''Enter...''. The man who entered wore a white lab coat. Masagi did not recognize him.

What is it? I am very busy.

He turned his green eyes back down to the paper he had been studying. Had the Ogre not been eating again? The research team on that damn thing thought ever time the thing sneezed it was cause for alarm.

The...the Chairmen...Chairmen Sparrow is here. He is asking for Head Researcher Lynn.

Masagi was nearly floored by the statement. He had not expected the Chairmen to come so soon. Nobody had. Head Researcher Lynn was away securing blood shipments from the usual donors. If he was asking for her then it meant he was here to see Project Diva, and at the moment he was the highest ranking researcher on the project.

Fucking hell!

He yelled as he stood up from his seat. He quickly pulled his white lab coat from its the rack he had placed it on earlier. He turned to a mirror that sat on the right wall of his office. With his hands he began to try to smooth out the frizzled look of his black hair. He had never personally met the chairmen before, and he looked horrible for what was to be their first meeting.

After a moment he exited his office, following the man down a corridor and into the darkness of the main area. He always hated this area. Several creatures were kept behind clear cells, their groans and noises echoing around the area. They tended to disgust him.

Chairmen Sparrow! It is so nice to meet you! I am Researcher Masagi. Head Researcher Lynn is away at the moment. We had not been expecting you to come so soon!

He had a wide grin on his face, a row of slightly unbrushed teeth exposed under his lips. He reached out to offer his right hand to the Chairmen.

You are here for Project Diva yes? We have a lot of things to show you. If you will follow me I can show you the...well we call them the successful failures. You can see for yourself the first stages of Chiropteran Zooanthropy!

Slowly a small spark of insanity would pass through his emerald green eyes. He had his back turned to the Chairmen, the back of his white lab coat rustling as he walked forward, leading the man to where he wanted to be. He hair was done up in a greasy fohawk, his jet black hair shining slightly in the lights.

Suddenly he stopped and snapped the fingers of his left hand. Suddenly two knights dressed in black uniforms stepped up from some shadow behind the two men. These black colored knights would reach out their gloved hands and take the shoulder of the two Rune Knights who were escorting the Chairmen. One was a young man, probably just out of the academy. This was probably the first time he had ever had a job more important then guarding a vase or something. The other was a stern, gruff older gentlemen with a gnarled black beard. He was probably a pretty senior officer among the lower tier of the knights, maybe a father figure to young ones like the other one.

Sorry Sir Chairmen, I got a little excited and let a certain secret projects name be spoken aloud among people without security clearance to hear such things. Do not worry...your escorts here will be taken care of.

The black uniformed knights led the escorting knights away from the Chairmen. They stood behind the regular knights, forcing them away. Unknown to the Chairmen an evil grin lightly tugged at Masagi's lips. He had purposely let certain top secret information slip during his introduction. The level of information he had spoken in front of those two meant that the departments security would have to kill the two Ruin Knights.

His body shook just a little as he thought about it. The young kid would have his life snuffed out so suddenly, and by people he may be seeing as allies. His father had probably been such a loyal and brave knight, having that boy train daily in order to join the organization. The their was the older gent. Masagi so hoped he had young children at home. Children who would cry so many sweetly bitter tears into their mothers bosom. He could hear it now ''Wheres daddy? why wont he come home?''

Masagi turned his head to the Chairmen and smiled lightly, moving his right hand up to push his glasses back up his nose.

A little chilly down here hmm?

The two men would find themselves standing in front of a grey metal door with the words ''SECURITY LEVEL A'' stamped on it in red. To the left of the door was a key card reader. Masagi lifted up the ID badge that was clipped to his white lab coat. He swept the card down the reader causing a light beep as the red colored words on the door turned green. The door suddenly shot upwards into the ceiling with a loud woosh of air.

He turned to the left as he entered the secure area, leading the Chairmen a long distance down the grey metal walls. He suddenly stopped at another security door located to the right side of the hall. This door had the words ''PD Specimen'' in red letters. Once again Masagi used his key card to cause the door to open.

Welcome Chairmen to the current results of the Project Diva research!

Behind sound proof glass sat 20 different operating rooms, apparently fully stocked with the most modern medical and surgery tools that the department could afford. In ten of the rooms sat horribly mutilated corpses, each with a different stage of early Zooanthropy. On the door leading into each of the occupied rooms were files containing the medical information about the corpse.

Here he have the successful failures. All these men were at peak physical condition when they were selected for the project. These are only 10 of the 100 selected...the rest were total failures.



Masagi allowed his words to trail off as he pulled a file from one of the doors. He opened the manila envelope to reveal the picture of a young man in his late twenties. His name, according to the file attached to the picture was Dan Ignazo.

We injected each subject with 10CC of D837, which is a very special chemical compound made from a concentrated form of its blood.

He lead the Chairmen down the corridor of rooms, allowing him to look at the mutated body parts of each of the subjects. Some had heads that appeared to be turning into long, snouts similar to wolves maybe. Their skin colored had turned leathery and brown, the same coloring as seen on bats. Others had arms that had become grossly large, as if someone had pumped each individual muscle of it with tons of air. The skin of the arm of one of them looked like it had been exploded open, torn muscle exposed from the body.

As you can see the transformation seems to happen either to quickly or to slowly for the human body. We do not know the proper timeline for successful transformation. In most of these specimen the heart simply exploded which was the actual cause of death. In this last one...

He stopped at the 10th and last occupied room. The body inside was much like the ones in the other rooms, its face enlarged into a snout like mouth. The arms ripped open with exposed muscles. The difference was that this one was apparently made of stone, its body was grey and cracked. From the cracks sparkles of a red stone cold be seen. If the chairmen looked to the right side of the creature he could see that it had been broken off, allowing him to see the beautiful ruby red crystal that seemed to make up the interior of the stone form.

We tried to introduce a second injection of the chemical into this one during transformation. The second the chemical made contact with the subjects blood their skin began to turn into the stone material you see here. We can only assume that the chemical can not only be used to create a monster, but also destroy it. Very interesting if you ask me.

He turned to the chairmen with that same big grin on his greasy face. He looked like a school boy about to tell a big secret.

Are you ready to see it Chairmen?

Soon would be his chance to talk to the chairmen about what he had been planning since the moment he smashed the skull of Head Researcher Lynn. This chairmen was responsible for everything that went on in the labs of the department. He was not the bleeding heart that Lynn was. When she was head researcher...and untill he could convince the chairmen to promote him while the Head Researcher was away...he could not perform the test he really want to. It was so infuriating when bleeding hearts held back the advancement of science.

So Chairmen...how about? Want to see your little Diva?

With that he gestured his head slightly to the area behind him. Down at the end of the corridor, some 20 feet past the last of the surgical rooms sat what looked like a plain white wall. It would take great eyes to see the small key card reader that was disguised as a crack between two grey stone blocks.

With a wide grin Masagi turned towards to wall that contained the secret keycard reader, nestled between what appeared to be two grey stones that made up the wall. He inserted the card into the slot. A loud hiss of steam could be heard as the entirety of the labs stone wall moved to the right, revealing the interior of an elevator.

Shall we then?

The inside of the elevator was plain white, illuminated by two florescent lights in the ceiling of the hidden compartment. They hummed softly as the two would step inside for a trip down into the depths where only a handful could ever reach. The elevator trip seemed to last for an eternity as it plunged downward, the only feeling being that of a slow, controlled descent.

Eventually the elevator stopped, a set of doors opening into a hallway. The soft hum of florescent lights were the only sound as they would step out of the elevator and into the white hallway. On each side of them lay a door, The one on the left was labeled ''Medical Bay'', the one of the right ''Classroom''.

Masagi nodded towards the Classroom door.

That is where we use to keep it. We have upgraded the security since your last inspection. I think you will find it much more suited to such a beast as Diva.

He walked down to the end of the hallway. Another keycard reader sat to the right side, which Masagi quickly ran his card though. Silently the door opened, sliding up into the ceiling.

Before the two man sat what would appear to be a void of nothingness. An inky black darkness that could only be from times unknown. Looking into it one may feel as if nothing had ever existed. As Masagi walked into the room lights from corners unknown came on with loud mechanical buzzes that were deafening in the once silent room.


Before them rested a massive nest of gears, tubes and other machine parts he did not even know about, all covered behind a wall of sound proof extra tough glass. They took up nearly the entirety of the massive room. The gears slowly turned, thousands of them of various sizes. Some of them were maybe 30 feet tall, connecting to a massive series of other gears. A tube in this massive maze of machinery suddenly blasted out a white jet of super heated steam, causing the glass on the left side of the room to fog up. The fog from the steam would soon be erased by the freezing cold air that surrounded the gears, cogs and tubes, carried by a system of untold numbers of ventilation shafts and fans.

In front of them stood something that looked very out of place. It was a massive system of computer hardware, all connecting to a set of control panels that sat in front of the machine. This computer system was circular, surrounding a massive metallic circle in the middle of the room. It had a slight crack in the middle of it, revealing that this metallic circle was able to be opened possibly by the control panel that sat so close by

Several monitors sat in front of a black leather chair that was bolted tight to the see through floor. Masagi approached the seat and sat on the chair, swiveling it to the right as he faced this row of monitors. Sweat dripped down from his brow. He moved his right hand to his face, using his index finger to push his black rim glasses back up his nose to their proper position. He then brought both his hands together in front of him, interlacing each finger neatly as he placed pressure on them, cracking them with a loud Creeeeeck.

This Chairmen, is the Mother Goose System. The first and last cage needed to house a monster such as....her...

Masagi seemed to choke on the word her, as if it physically hurt him to do so. He turned his attention to the monitors as he began to explain them to the Chairmen.

This one shows its life signs....

He gestured towards the right most monitor. The screen was an organized mess of medical data. Heartbeat, blood pressure, brainwave scans...etc. All displayed before them.

This one here shows the systems status....

He gestures to the middle monitor. Several words ran across the screen, all followed by the word ''Active''.

And last....we have the release system...

He turned his attention to the left most monitor. His fingers slid over the keyboard attached to it as he entered in a password.

The metallic lid in the center of the room made a loud click as the 20 inch concrete reinforced steel doors of the slide began to open, withdrawing into the floor. From the depths of the gears and cogs of the machine a glass tube began to rise into the room, steam hissing out as it did so. Within a minute the cage containing Diva stood before them.

The outside of the object that had risen from the floor was a glass tube. A giant metal claw was attached to the top of the tube, ready to lift it from its place to allow access to the creature. A giant crucifix like object stood in the center of the tube, standing on a metal flooring. It was hard to describe this final set of containment objects that held the creature in place. it was like a metallic armor that covered its entire body, obscured by a tattered blue blanket that was attached and wrapped around it. Only its mouth was shown, its eyes hidden under a thick metal blinding mask attached to a helmet. Their were no ear holes.

The arms of the creature was outstretched in a T shape. Several giant magnet like objects stuck out along each arm, their ends held inside a metal wall that the creature was stood up against. Her legs were also held in place by these magnet looking objects, as well as her neck, chest and waist.

Here....she....is Chairmen. Diva the Chiropteran Queen. The Wretched Egg!

A look of insanity passed across his eyes in that moment. Perhaps the Chairmen would notice, perhaps not. What was noticeable was how proud he seemed to be of the security system before them.