It was just past dawn the day after the Jenzaya Extinction occurred. Jenzaya District was ruined, crumbled to pieces overtop the countless corpses buried beneath the rubble. The most cataclysmic event known to mankind in the modern era of the Cardinal Nexus had occurred, with a thousand deaths at the hands of an unknown power. The rumblings were loud enough for the Overseers underground to hear, so a member of A.X.A. took to the surface to check what'd happened.
Overseer Chamuel was making his return to the surface for the first time in nearly four years.
"I've detected something unusual, Michael." Chamuel was in contact with Overseer Michael through an ear-piece. He lurked through the destruction of Jenzaya District in the shadows, making sure not to be spotted by anyone in his Overseer suit. That's when he'd felt his All-Knowing-Vision tingle. Something was tugging at his third eye from beneath the debris of a fallen hospital.
"Check it out then. Maybe it'll give us a clue as to what happened there," Michael told him.
Knowing he'd have to use his suit's strength to unravel the debris, Chamuel engaged his All-Knowing-Vision to detect if any witnesses were in the area.
Nothing. It was cold quiet. Only the whispers of the dead could be heard. Chamuel spread his wings apart and began digging through the debris with them. Rocks and cement flew everywhere as he made a narrow path towards the disturbance he could detect in the ruins. Finally, something caught his eye. A dismembered arm was flattened underneath a large chunk of rubble, and Chamuel could sense that this belonged to what he was looking for. He continued to dig further, coming across even more dismembered limbs; a burly torso, the squashed corpse of a young girl in a hospital bed, the broken bodies of an elderly couple that held onto each other as they were crushed, and finally, the corpse Chamuel had been looking for. It was a young male with a completely mangled body, missing a right arm—the one he'd seen just earlier.
"I found what I was looking for." Chamuel activated his All-Knowing-Vision.
"What is it?"
"It's a man, but his brain… His brain contains advanced technology in it."
Michael was semi-intrigued. "Is he alive?"
"No. His body's been crushed under debris, but his brain remains intact."
"What's so special about his brain?"
"I told you, it has technology in it. Neuro-cybernetic technology. Even if the man himself is dead, the tech in his brain is still working. It's still computing." Chamuel took a closer look with his third eye. "The mechanic seems to be a booster for his brain's instincts, as well as thought processes and calculations. Whoever performed this surgery on him did it with the goal to enhance his reaction time and thinking time."
"Sounds like a super soldier…"
Chamuel snickered. "You must be thinking what I'm thinking then."
Michael didn't respond.
"With A.X.A.'s technology we can enhance this even further. We can build—"
"A new super soldier." Michael interrupted him.
"Exactly."
"Take him back to the facility immediately. The destruction in Jenzaya District can wait."
{ LATER AT THE A.X.A. FACILITY }
Overseer Chamuel, Michael, Uriel, and Azrael, had all just gathered around the male's corpse at an autopsy table in the Garden. An Angel took multiple blood samples from the corpse and ran DNA tests on each of them. The Overseers watched the screen as it lit up with the results from each DNA test, where all of the results recognized the corpse as the same individual.
{ DNA MATCH: JASPER GARRISON }
"Wait, I know who that is!" Uriel exclaimed.
Chamuel was stunned. "What? How? Who is this individual?"
"Harrison, my colleague, appointed him the leader of Squad Zero back at the Cardinal Nexus. He was one of the Seven Virtues."
"Hm… So you're telling me the Cardinal Nexus implemented this neuro-cybernetic technology in his brain?"
Uriel nodded. "Their tech has evolved drastically in the last century."
"It will still never rival the technology provided by MONA," Michael said. "That's why we'll enhance it further with our own science."
"Enhance it? How so?" Azrael asked.
"We'll reprogram his brain to work under our control, simply through some adjustments of the cybernetic technology left in there by the Nexus. If it weren't for that, this idea wouldn't be possible," Chamuel explained.
"But how can we make his body move if he's dead?"
"All you need is a working-brain to make the body function, Azrael. There doesn't need to be life inside, but rather, a mechanism. The brain is that mechanism, which will allow his body to move."
"But his body… I mean look at it, it's completely mangled. I say we dispose of it," Uriel suggested. "We can insert the brain into another vessel of some sort."
"It'll be too much work." Chamuel looked through his All-Knowing-Vision. "His nerves are already somewhat aligned, if not, disproportionate. Let the Angels perform some correction surgery for realignment, and then we can provide his body a suit that'll support the injuries. He doesn't need to be in perfect condition. He is, after all, dead. We just need his function."
Uriel sighed. "Whatever, three-eyes… You can see shit that I can't so you make the call."
"Then so be it. You're in charge of this individual, Chamuel."
"Thank you, Michael."
For the rest of that day, Chamuel spent his time pin-pointing all the spots in Jasper's body that needed correctional alignment surgery to ensure maximum nerve communication. The next day, Chamuel developed a suit for the body that would support its irreversible injuries, as well as a prosthetic replacement for his missing right arm. The suit consisted of black carbon-fiber bands that wrapped around his limbs tightly, keeping his body held together. Knowing that Jasper was previously a Virtue, Chamuel didn't want his new body to be recognized in any scenario. So he created a mask that would keep his identity contained, consisting too of black bands that wrapped around his face, leaving just one eye in the open. Only his left eye was untouched, while the other was shredded in Jenzaya's destruction. Chamuel decided to cover his one eye with a thin lens that changed color according to command. By default, Chamuel left the eye green. But it would turn blue whenever his brain's newly upgraded cybernetic function was activated. He'd programmed it so that whenever Jasper's eye turned blue, his reaction instincts were on an inhuman level. Chamuel described it to be the ace in the sleeve.
After a few days had passed, the prototype test for Jasper's reprogrammed body was ready. Chamuel handed him a beam he'd found on his body at Jenzaya's Extinction, unknowing of its capabilities. "He had this holstered on his body when I'd found him, and it was completely untouched in the destruction," Chamuel told Michael.
"Maybe it's a weapon of some sort?"
"Not sure. We'll see. Let's run the trials." Chamuel left the testing chamber and joined Michael in the observation room, where he spoke into the intercom. "Five Angels and five Seraphim, please." Following the order, five Angels and five Seraphim entered the chamber and began bolting towards Jasper. Chamuel then hit 'enter' on his terminal, permanently uploading his code to Jasper's brain.
{ ACTIVATED }
Jasper's eye turned blue.
"It worked…?"
The Angels and Seraphim attacked from all directions in unison. The attack looked unavoidable.
SWOOSH—!!!
In the blink of an eye, only Jasper's apparition was left behind, and the Angels and Seraphim all knocked into each other. Jasper appeared behind the ambush.
"Primary form: Akimbo." Jasper unexpectedly spoke. He pulled out his beam and unsheathed two blades from within. The Angels and Seraphim noticed that he was behind them and began their second onslaught towards him.
"Secondary form: Akimbo Amplified." Jasper's dual-blades were suddenly imbued with a plasmic blue. As the Angels and Seraphim were soon to make contact, Jasper said one final thing:
"Tertiary form: Razor Revolution."
Secondary blades popped-out from beneath each blade, making each of Jasper's swords double-edged. He rotated his blades with incredible speed that his hands looked like propellors, and he swung them around, slicing through the Angels and Seraphim as they came flying towards him. Blood splattered across the chamber, even staining the observation window from where Chamuel and Michael watched.
"That weapon…" Michael was greatly intruiged. "It's completely slaughtering them…"
"I didn't know it had that sort of capability… But even more surprising is how he's able to recall how to use it when he's dead…? A dead man can't retain memories, can they…?" Chamuel activated his All-Knowing-Vision. That's when he saw it. The fact struck Chamuel as incredible. "Hold on… He isn't using those blades off of memory."
"Then what is it?" Michael asked.
"His body moves off of pure muscle-memory alone."
Michael watched in awe as a new super-soldier was born right before his very eyes.
"His brain recognizes the weapon. It instigates a feeling of familiarity for his muscles, and his body moves accordingly. It's like a key to a mechanical machine."
Chamuel smiled greatly.
"What an absolute success."