Percival as it called itself was an AI constructed by Johann. It was a type of emotional and intellectual assistance bot. Meant to meet anyone who was experiencing extreme duress as to calm them before releasing them into the general population.
My thoughts were that it was probably an overwatch protocol. For common jargon it's like a watch dog. Keeps tabs on people to make sure they aren't cracking when they shouldn't be.
I began questioning Percival in depth. Where was Johann? Why did he unleash BL00D when it was obviously created as a weapon and used without thought? What happened to my body? I had a list miles long about what caused humans to leave earth and why.
Unfortunately I was to get none of them answered. "Unfortunately sir there are no answers to your questions besides asking the maker himself. But alas noone has seen Sir Johann in Decades. So in order to get your answers you'll have to find him yourself." His robotic butleristic voice echoed out. I sighed in exasperation at the thought of having to find someone I had never met in a sea of people who all possibly look identical. Considering I look this way now who is to say he wasn't the same.
Percival soon changed the topic for me.
"Now Sir if you will follow me we must make sure you are oriented and sinc'd with your frame." The door opened once more and he floated out like a ugly robotic fairy. ( Damn... My luck must be pretty bad... but... at least I'm not completely gone.)I thought as I considered everything.
I followed Percival down a circular hallway to a door that was once again a hexagon. " Percival... if I may ask... what's with all the hexagons?" I asked pointing at the door.
"Sir Johann saw perfection in the hexagon and made it a point to make it so our entire system ran on them. According to medical records he was once diagnosed with OCD if my memory bank serves." He said.
I nodded slowly as the door opened and he floated through. As I stepped into the room I felt like I... blurred for a moment. It was oddly like being in 3 frames in a computer simultaneously. "Holy! Percival! Grab him before he glitches further!" A voice sounded.
The lilt it had to the accent said Scottish but I couldn't be sure. I felt like I was stuck. Stuck in three moments at once. I felt pressure on both my arms as I was quickly laid on a table and a tesla coil type machine was pressed to my chest. A pulse of energy was sent through my system. Instantly the triple frames vanished and I was myself again.
I shook a little as I found I could breath. I looked around and found the person who had spoken. It was a bird headed man with a book in his hands. His break was curved slightly and he looked slightly like a black crane. "Thoooth." I said as my speach slightly slurred as my tongue was catching up from the jolt.
"Correct! Or at least partially. The names Winston actually. But most people call me T. Not Mr T. Just T. I'm what passes for mental and physical tech support in the beginner area. Pleasure to meet you." He held out his hand and I took it slowly. He nodded and his body changed into what I looked like. Though his features showed a bird mask over the upper half of his face. It's eyes held gold irises that seemed to pierce whatever they looked at.
"I know the bird head is a bit much. Unless your using your abilities noone is supposed to change in the safe area." My eyebrows wrinkled a little at his mention of powers. "Powers? What powers? You can't possibly mean that we can all do what you just did?" I gestured toward where he was seated previously.
His left hand slapped into my back as he popped up next to me. "Indeed we can. All of us. Some shapeshift into great gods while others shift into fairies and the like. Johann apparently made it that way to make things more pleasant." He took a few steps back up behind the desk and expanded.
His face folded out and his body inflated back into the image of Thoth. He made small gestures with his hands where a book and quill suddenly appeared seeming from nowhere. "If you sit down there we'll get ya started ey." I nodded a little as he pointed with his Beak toward a large chair that was 4 times my current size.
I stepped out of the bed I where I was sitting and approached the chair. "Up you go. It ain't gonna bite you." Tsaid lightly as he waited with his book in hand.
I gulped as I reached up to hoist myself into the seat. I placed my arms on the armrests with my head back as Thoth began to type on his computer. A helmet lowered onto my head and I felt a strange buzz flow through me. "Now just relax. I'll be running some diagnostics. Nothing serious. And then you'll the system will fit you with the most comparable battleform. Nothing nasty or painful." He said as he typed.
"Vitals are normal and his mental sea has sinc'd really well with his body. Now's the best time to do his battleform check." Winstons voice rang out to Percival.
"Very good." Percival replied
"This might tingle" I heard Winston say before a jolt ran through me and things got real. I saw images. Hundred of thousands. Death and Revival, Pestilence and Curing, Starvation and Feasting. Thousands of images of the Starved, Fat, Dying, Healthy, Leprous, and Clean. It felt like decades passing in seconds. I felt every image. I was every image. I even saw the images of what I experienced in the ship.
And I felt something. Whatever was coming was big. I felt it coming out from deep within. Like suppressed rage that bursts forth unexpectedly. I felt it. And it was glorious!
The energy that crackled through me as I grew was like being in a power generator without fear of dying. My legs lengthened and shifted. They became thicker and covered in fur like a dog. My color was as black as the void in space. My chest expanded and became more barrel chested. My ribs still stuck out as my torso extended so my original 5 feet became 8.
Ears sprouted out of the top of my head as my mouth extended into a canine muzzle. I grew visible eyes that I could sense and see the room in a better way. My nose could smell Winston who smelled like oiled metal and dust. I smelled Percival who smelled like household cleaners and laundry detergent. I could smell the burning electricity. Nothing could escape my vision or my newfound sense of smell.
My arms inflated and elongated. They weren't covered in muscle but looked more mummified. Long dark claws burst from where the ends of my fingers were.
Clothes even began to form on my new form. Pale Bandages raced across every exposed piece of bone and skin with exception to my face. An Egyptian style brass colored necklace stretched across the upper part of my chest in a crescent arc. My hips were suddenly gird with a loincloth made of silk and had brass woven in the fibers. A copper headpiece adorned my head and narrowed to sit between my eyes.
But the appearance wasn't all. I felt alive! I had so much energy I felt like I could scream. So I opened my mouth and what came out was a bellowed roar. The roar echoed through the chamber as though a caged beast had been unleashed.
I saw movement and my eyes darted to it only to realize it was Winston who was shaking. I realized what I had done and sheepishly hung my head. My ears flattened to the side in shame.
Percival floated there completely unfazed. "Sir Winston. What was the results?" He said snapping Winston out of his feae.
Winston quickly looked at the book he was holding flipping through to a glowing gold page. He began reading from it before paling slightly and coughing.
"H-he's a greater god. But lower class. Forgotten like myself. A-anubis. Lord of the Dead. Harbinger of death or healer of life. Reaper of the damned and judge of the scales. Reader of the hearts of men." He stammered out in a shakey voice.
"Very well then. Now Sir. Sil. If you would kindly step down we can take you to the armory to choose your most suitable weapons." I nodded as the cap rose off my head and I stood. I wobbled. My balance was off again. I slowly leaned against a counter and sheepishly followed Percival back out the door.
"Damned Percival... Cant even warn me when someone like that is comin in." Winston cursed after they left. He sat back down and continued reading the gold page intrigued by its contents.
Meanwhile I was sliding down the hallway wall till I could grasp how to balance properly.
It didn't take too long to get to the armory. Another hexagon door. Except it was red this time. Percival pushed it and it slid upwards revealing a large collection of neatly stacked weapons. "In here you'll find the weapon most suited to your body. Most have a hard time but you might find it easier due to death gods having so few compatible weapons." He said cordially. I nodded my silent understanding as I slowly moved into the room.
I began to examine everything with care. I saw a old Celtic looking hammer with a tree carved on it. A roman spear and shield. Soon I found the area I was looking for. Egyptian. I didn't know alot about Anubis. I had no idea what type of weapon would be used by him... A scythe maybe?
I ventured to look across the shelves but found nothing. I began to be disheartened until I felt a strange rattle inside my arms under the bandages. I raised both of them up and the bandages writhed against whatever was underneath. Suddenly two chains shot out. They were dark and seemingly covered in rust. Their ends were busted off but screamed deadly to me. Spikes ran down the sides of the chains all the way into my bandages. They writhed unnaturally and I felt them pulling me in a direction.
"Interesting." Percival said as he pulled out a note book from a chest compartment and jotted something down before placing it back in a quick manner. I didn't notice as I was being hauled toward a rusty pile of weapons.
The chains snaked downwards into the pile and hauled me with them. With a crash weapons went left and right. I tumbled through the pile in confusion. I felt like I was a kid trying to hold a pig. Except the pig was too big for me and has places to go and it was taking me with it.
Eventually the pull lessened till I felt the chains shift slightly followed by the sound of two clicks. A confused expression crossed my face as I pulled the chains. They were slightly heavier now. As I pulled some of the pile came with them tumbling away from what I was pulling. What I pulled out shocked me.
Two double sided sickle-like blades covered in hooks and having three different sizes running down to where the chains connected. They were black, rusty, but deadly looking all the same. The strangest thing was that I could feel them. Like muscles in your hands when they twitch or itch. I tried to move them and the pieces shifted. The blades could actually fold out of the center metal piece like a Swiss army knife.
They folded in and out at my will. It felt odd. like flexing a muscle I didn't know I had. But I still felt something was off. "Percival... How many weapons is one allowed to take?" I asked the robot. "Up to four sir. But only the compatable ones will allow you to leave with them."
( Compatible? He must mean that my body has to be able to use them.) I thought as I continued looking around. I actually found a strange shelf with what seemed to be nick knacks. On it was a feather that seemed to glow with an eerie white light.
As I approached it actually glittered and spun on the shelf like it was fighting to get to me. I gently picked it up and the feather dimmed a little. (Where do I put this thing?) I thought. My forehead felt warm as I held it. So just for the sake of being a little funny I put the feather behind my head and did a little Indian jig. Realizing Percival was watching I sheepishly held it in front of my face.
The feather suddenly jumped from my hand and stuck its quill end into my forehead. I tried pulling it out but it refused to budge. I eventually left it here and unbeknownst to me it folded down against my forehead and melded into my head plate till it just seemed like a normal engraved head piece with a feather on it.
I found one last thing before leaving too. A set of scales. The old style scales. With the discs for putting different things on them to figure out weight. It had a crocodile for a base with an image of anubis standing there with his arms outstretched holding the discs by metal wires that stretched downward.
I picked it up and it warmed in my hand. "Been waiting a long time for someone to take that piece." I heard a feminine voice from over my shoulder. I turned and saw someone beside Percival. She was a white figure. Like me before the my battle form awoke. "Who are you?" I asked nervously. A light giggle came out of her. "I might answer your question if you can find me again. Take care of him Percival. He has alot to learn." She said patting his shoulder and leaving.
I continued to hold the scales. I had no idea what to do with it. Percival actually motioned for me to come over. I walked over and he held the statue gently moving it over my left shoulder. The statue shrank and flattened till it was like a fake tattoo kids play with. He slapped it onto my shoulder and a heat travelled through me. I looked down and saw a red glow emanating from my shoulder around a newly formed tattoo of scales.
( This really isn't Kansas anymore Dorothy.) I thought as I felt the warmth leak out of the image. Percival dusted my shoulders lightly and gestured down the hall. "We must continue onward sir." I sighed as I stepped out of the armory hearing the door close behind me with a hiss.