Editing The Morrígan (section)

===Post-[[Slaughterhouse Nine]]===
After [[Fenrir's_Chosen|remnants]] of the [[Empire Eighty-Eight]] destroyed his lab,<ref name="19.x e1">“I’m still not sure about this, given our history,” Rey said.  He accepted the invitation into the front hallway of the house, carefully removed his shoes and set them on the tray to the right of the door.<br><br>“I’ve given you my word that you’ll be safe, provided you cooperate.”<br><br>“Damn Nazis,” Rey said.  “My whole lab, gone.”<br>[...]<br>“The individuals in question are Menja, Stormtiger, Cricket, Rune, Othala, Niflheim and Muspelheim.  I’ll see you have all available records.  Best to enter any confrontation with your eyes wide open.”<br>[...]<br>The computer was fast.  Rey started to empty his pockets and smooth out the papers with the few blueprints he’d been able to salvage when the white supremacists had come storming through his old lab, and the computer was already idling at the desktop screen by the time he’d finished. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> [[Blasto]] agreed to [[Accord]]'s deal<ref name="19.x e2">“No,” Accord said.  “Truth be told, I fear you could never meet my standards, and I’m going to do my level best to ignore the fact that you exist.  You’ll want to keep to the areas I designate and use the back ways out of the building, so that I never see you.”<br><br>“You’re not going to imprison me, are you?”<br><br>“No.  This is a business transaction.  I will give you the opportunity to get back on your feet, you will do what you can to eliminate our mutual enemies, being careful to avoid any damage or criminal activity within my territory, and in exchange, you will give me half your territory when all of this is over.  Following such an event, I hope we can avoid any further aggression between us for the future.”<br><br>“Sure,” Rey said. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> and was permitted to use a fully equipped laboratory<ref name="19.x e3">“Here.  Into the basement,” Accord said.<br><br>Accord led the way, and Rey hesitantly followed.<br><br>The basement was expansive.  There were no walls – only pillars.  The floor was concrete covered in a no-slip perforated rubber mat, the various desks were stainless steel, each on wheels that could be locked in place.  Each desk, in turn, had glass cabinets or drawers.  As far as Rey could see, they were fully stocked. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref><ref name="19.x e4" /><ref name="19.x e5">A glance told him that everything would be here.  There were neatly ordered bins of chemicals, tools laid out in neat rows.  Everything was pristine.  The cages on the other end of the room with the captive animals, even, were clean, with none of the animal scent or vague smell of waste that accompanied such.  There were troughs filled with rich smelling earth, thoroughly mixed and free of clumps.<br>[...]<br>Faced with this laboratory, he felt small, insignificant.  He knew he would soil it, that things would break as he used them.  It was ''wrong''. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> and various samples of highly classified material.<ref name="19.x e6">“It will.  Now, I’d like you to know that I recently acquired some samples and records.  I’d intended to hold on to them as a bargaining chip at a critical moment, or something I might offer you as incentive to leave this city.”<br><br>“What are you talking about?”<br><br>“You’ll find them in the far corner of the room.  The computer contains the database and the attached machine arm will withdraw any samples on request.”<br>[...]<br>Rey nodded.  He was already heading to the computers, to find what Accord would feel was so powerful or valuable that Rey would leave the city to get his hands on it. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref><ref>He backed out of Chevalier’s data until he was at the original screen.  He checked the samples Accord had provided him with.<br>
:Select sub-database:
:A)  PRT (Protectorate, Wards) samples
:B) Non-PRT (evidence database) samples
:C) Misc samples
Further investigation revealed the full truth.  Accord had gotten his hands on a database of DNA from countless members of the Protectorate and the Wards, as well as scraps of material from certain powers, where traces remained behind. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref><ref>He selected C, expecting little.  His eyes widened.<br><br>Many were samples from lifeforms that various tinkers and masters had created.  His own were in there.  That wasn’t the surprising fact.<br><br>He selected the last option on the list.  To the right of the computer, in a hermetically sealed case, a robotic arm extended and deposited a microscopic sample on a slide.<br><br>A fragment, so small as to be nearly impossible to see, of one of the Simurgh’s feathers. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref><ref>Was it just the feather?  Was it dead tissue, on par with the keratin of fingernails or hair?  He used the computer to access a sample of Leviathan’s ‘blood’, and let the hands handle the arrangement of preparing the slide.  Being liquid, the blood was easier than the feather.<br>[...]<br>There were more tissues.  Flesh.  More blood.  Hair.  Damaged tissues and intact ones.  He went through each. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> Believing he could create a game-changer via [[Endbringer]] tissues,<ref name="19.x eGameChanger">If it was even half as powerful as the real Simurgh… well, this would be a game-changer.<br><br>And Accord had to know that.  Had to be aware that Rey would be working with the Endbringer tissues on this level. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> Blasto started working on a megaproject to replicate an Endbringer.<ref>“Okay.  So what’s today’s project?”<br><br>“Oh, I’ll have a ''dozen'' projects in the work before I let myself go to sleep.  But the big one is that I want to replicate an Endbringer.” - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> Note that this project was effectively doomed from the start: Accord always planned on framing Blasto and would never have allowed him to finish the Morrígan. If the [[Skirmish in Boston]] never occurred, he would have notified authorities so that they would catch Blasto red-handed with classified materials and an incomplete project.<ref name="19.x c1">'''Reveen:''' Well, atleast we dodged the attack of the Endbringer clones bullet. If you really wanted to end the world… that’d do it. I really hope Accord’s dead, that amount of crazystupid concentrated in one person is almost as dangerous as the nine.<br><br>'''wildbow:''' In Accord’s defense, he was planning on framing Blasto, and not letting the tinker get to the point where he really finished a dangerous project; let him start working, get caught up in things, and then disappear, leaving a message for the heroes so they can stumble on the guy with piles of classified material and a possible Endbringer-in progress (note how the place is nice, but it’s not Accord’s real headquarters, as they were described in the last chapter of Migration).<br><br>I was going to have something like that in there, but couldn’t find a place for it at the end that wouldn’t kill the tempo. - Comment by Wildbow on [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref><ref>“No need,” Rey said.  “I suspect he already knows.  He ''gave'' me these samples, no doubt with the idea that I’d use it.”<br><br>“And you can’t even control it?  Or ''he'' can’t control it?  It doesn’t sound like him,” Citrine said.<br><br>Rey paused.  It ''didn’t'' sound like Accord.  Was there another explanation?<br>[...]<br>But it still seemed too reckless for the perfectionist.  Was Accord that eager to kill the white supremacists?  Or was there another plan in the works? - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref>

Initially, [[Blasto]] tried splicing a seed with some of [[the Simurgh]]'s feathers; however, the emerging lifeform was not viable.<ref>He scraped off a bit of his seed, then added water and the catalysts to splice it with some of the Simurgh’s feather.  Sure enough, it started to grow.  Each end of the scraping formed into buds, and the buds started to form into basic, foetal shapes, one quadruped, one vaguely humanoid.<br><br>But neither ''lived''.<br><br>The weaker tissue was easier to work with.  Assuming it was deriving patterns from the crystals, insofar as the crystals could create or support life, he could use that to work out the peculiarities of how the Endbringers were able to sustain themselves.<br><br>No vascular system, no sign of emergent organs.<br><br>Of course the emerging lifeform wasn’t viable.  It wasn’t capable of life in the first place. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> He then tried to sustain the [[Endbringer]] tissue with other living tissues; he spliced a seed with a sample of [[Myrddin]]'s brain tissue<ref name="19.x eAwareness" /> and fragments of the Simurgh's feather.<ref name="19.x eInitial">He’d have to take another route.  He withdrew a sample of Myrddin’s tissue, then started splicing it with one seed and the ruined fragments of the Simurgh’s feather.<br><br>It was lunacy, tampering with Endbringer-related materials, but he couldn’t shake the idea that he was on to something.  He’d sustain the Endbringer tissues with other living tissue that could feed it energy or nutrients.  His seeds would bridge the gap.  It would take ten or fifteen minutes before he saw any real results.  There was other work to do in the meantime. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> After placing this seed in a glass tube containing a high-nutrient solution, it started forming two bodies. He killed the one with wings rather than legs; the survivor had four arms but two that resembled wings.<ref name="19.x eFirstTwo">He walked over to the glass tube where the Simurgh-Myrddin-plant hybrid was in the works.  One had wings rather than legs.  He directed a laser to kill it.  The other had four arms, but two resembled wings.  It would work. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> Once this survivor split into three developing fetal forms via an electric charge to reset the life cycle, Blasto then killed unwanted offshoots to get the results he wanted.<ref>He conducted a charge through the fluid to reset the life cycle.  It would split in two or three, and he’d kill the remainder.<br>[...]<br>Beautiful.  He studied the three foetal forms that were developing inside, killed two, narrowing down the results he wanted.  Like pruning branches.<br>[...]<br>With a quick glance, he assessed and executed [...] one derivative of the Morrígan. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> After resetting the life cycle with the chosen survivor, it started to resemble the Simurgh; however, it was hermaphroditic, had flesh more translucent than white, and had brown-black feathers and hair.<ref name="19.x eMidProgress">Electrical charges restarted the gestation process.<br><br>The thing was starting to resemble the Simurgh, though both feathers and hair were brown-black in color, it was hermaphroditic and the flesh was more translucent than white.  Veins stood out. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> Once this survivor split in half to start forming anew,<ref name="19.x eSplit">Rey studied it while the thing cracked in the middle, the individual halves separating with a thread of flesh between them.  Each of the halves began dissolving and forming anew. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> Blasto estimated that it would be at least a day before he had a fully grown creation.<ref>It would be at least a day before the Morrígan was fully grown.  He had that long to think of an answer. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> He then watched the results and saw a survivor forming two arms, two legs, and vestigial wings. After letting it develop until it was biologically around two months old, Blasto killed the offshoots and repeated the above process, picking through results to fine-tune internal changes.<ref name="19.x eBetterVer" /> 

After some time, [[Blasto]] had a final survivor with a [[Corona Pollentia]].<ref name="19.x eAwareness" /> However, while the Morrígan was biologically less than one month old,<ref name="19.x eAwareness" /> [[Bonesaw]] and [[Damsel of Distress]] entered the lab.<ref>“I know you!” she said.<br><br>“I know you too, Bonesaw,” he said.  Without breaking eye contact, he tapped a key on the computer, prompting a flood of nutrients into the Morrígan’s solution.<br>[...]<br>“My old lab wasn’t this good,” he said.  ''Make small talk''.  “Who’s that?”<br><br>“Damsel of Distress, with some modifications by yours truly.  Damsel for short.  Better at controlling her power now.” - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> Inside the high-nutrient solution, every two to three seconds will correspond to a week of growth; he believed the Morrígan would need to be at least four or five years of age before being capable of moving and acting.<ref name="19.x eYoung">If he let the Morrígan out now… Bonesaw was staring at the homunculus, and Damsel was focused on the TV…<br><br>But it would die if he let it go now.  It was too young.  Every two or three seconds it sat in the high-nutrient solution would be a week of growth.  He’d need it at least at four or five years of age before it was capable of moving and acting, and he’d still be depending on it having powers rather than a defunct corona pollentia. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> 

When [[Bonesaw]] later attacked him, he released his creation from its glass tube.<ref>Rey tried to kick her off, but that only served to let her get a grip on his other foot.  She began clawing her way up his legs.<br><br>He reached for the keyboard, pulled it down from the shelf it sat on.  It dangled above his head, and he pressed it against the wall, tapped the keys to open the tube that held the Morrígan.<br><br>He hadn’t drained the water, and the fluid began to flow onto the ground as the glass sank into the floor. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> Despite being biologically five or six years of age, it died and was not viable.<ref name="19.x eUnviable">The water finished pouring out, and the Morrígan took its first steps.  Five or six years old in apparent age, a vague replica of the Simurgh.  It would have some blend of her powers and Myrddin’s.<br>[...]<br>The Morrígan flopped to the ground.  Dead.  Dumb.  Not viable.<br><br>Just as the crystalline feather and Leviathan’s blood had been, it wasn’t capable of sustaining life.  A failed experiment. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref> After gathering DNA samples of various [[Slaughterhouse Nine]] members, Bonesaw controlled [[Blasto]]'s body to activate a mechanism that incinerated the Morrígan's dead body.<ref name="19.x eDestroyed">She stopped, and turned toward the Morrígan.  He could feel his blood run cold.<br><br>“Nah,” Bonesaw said.  “Even I’m not ''that'' crazy.”<br><br>She had him tap keys on the keyboard, and a laser fired from the top of the case that had held the Morrígan.  He couldn’t see, but he could smell the burning flesh. - [[Interlude 19.x]]</ref>

<!-- TO DO: Create Template:Appearance/Morrigan_Worm to use instead
==Trivia==
* Named after the celtic goddess, 
[[Wikipedia:Morrigan|Morrigan]], who comes in many forms in history and mythology.
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