Chapter 15: Synthesis Breakthrough
POV: Marc Wayne
The encrypted files Miranda had provided read like a recipe for playing god, and Marc discovered with growing fascination and horror that he had all the ingredients needed to start cooking with DNA itself.
The synthesis tutorial unfolded across his enhanced vision like a digital grimoire, each page revealing capabilities that made his current genetic modifications seem primitive by comparison. The IDA System wasn't just designed to collect alien genetics—it was engineered to evolve them, improve them, combine them into abilities that had never existed in nature.
[SYNTHESIS PROTOCOLS UNLOCKED]
[GENE MERGER INTERFACE ACTIVE]
[ANALYZING CURRENT INVENTORY...]
[COMPATIBLE MATERIALS DETECTED]
Marc's database revealed the disturbing bounty of his recent activities: three separate copies of Varren Predator Instinct, acquired through encounters that had become increasingly routine. The System displayed his options with clinical precision:
[SYNTHESIS AVAILABLE:]
[3x VARREN PREDATOR INSTINCT (COMMON) → VARREN ALPHA INSTINCT (UNCOMMON)]
[SUCCESS RATE: 95%]
[COST: 5,000 CREDITS]
[PROCESS TIME: 4 HOURS]
[WARNING: IRREVERSIBLE BIOLOGICAL MODIFICATION]
Marc stared at the interface, feeling the weight of choice settling around him like a closing trap. This wasn't passive adaptation or survival-driven evolution—this was deliberate acceleration beyond humanity, using science to become something that had never existed.
"I'm about to deliberately evolve myself," he realized with crystalline clarity. "Not because I have to, not because circumstances demand it, but because I can. Because I want the power."
The honesty of that assessment was disturbing. He wasn't just trying to survive anymore—he was actively pursuing capabilities that would make him more effective, more dangerous, more alien. Each gene he integrated took him further from the software engineer who'd died in a Seattle car accident.
[USER STRESS LEVELS: ELEVATED]
[EXISTENTIAL CRISIS DETECTED]
[RECOMMENDATION: ACCEPT INEVITABILITY OF CHANGE OR STAGNATE AND DIE]
"Helpful," Marc muttered at his System's characteristic bluntness.
[ALTERNATIVE RECOMMENDATION: EMBRACE EVOLUTION AS SURVIVAL MECHANISM]
[ANALYSIS: USER BASELINE HUMAN CAPABILITIES INSUFFICIENT FOR PROJECTED THREATS]
[ADAPTATION OR EXTINCTION: CHOOSE]
The System's logic was inescapable. The enemies he faced—Cerberus, the Collectors, eventually the Reapers themselves—wouldn't be impressed by his commitment to genetic purity. They would kill him efficiently and move on to other targets.
Marc committed to the synthesis.
The moment his mental confirmation registered, his body began changing in ways that felt fundamentally wrong. Not painful—the System's modifications rarely caused actual pain—but deeply disturbing on a cellular level, like feeling his bones shift or his blood change composition in real-time.
His muscles contracted and released in rhythmic waves as genetic templates rewrote themselves according to alien patterns. His nervous system sparked with new connections forming between neurons that had never communicated before. Even his eyes began reflecting light differently as enhanced predator instincts integrated with human consciousness.
"This is what it feels like to stop being human," Marc thought as his body convulsed through adaptations that turned minutes into hours. "This is the price of power."
Anto stayed with him throughout the process, his usual stoic demeanor cracking into genuine concern as he watched his friend transform into something increasingly alien. The Turian's military training had exposed him to many horrors, but voluntary biological evolution was outside his experience.
"Your eyes," Anto observed during one of Marc's brief moments of stability. "They're changing. More reflective. Predatory."
Marc could feel the changes as they occurred—enhanced visual acuity, improved pattern recognition, instinctual understanding of pack dynamics and territorial behavior. The Varren Alpha Instinct wasn't just giving him tracking abilities; it was rewriting his fundamental approach to social interactions.
When the four hours finally ended, Marc found himself looking at the world through new sensory filters. Every movement in his peripheral vision registered as potential threat or prey. Scent trails became visible as faint overlays across his enhanced vision. Most significantly, he could sense the emotional states of nearby individuals through subtle behavioral cues he'd never consciously noticed.
[SYNTHESIS COMPLETE]
[VARREN ALPHA INSTINCT (UNCOMMON) INTEGRATED]
[NEW ABILITIES UNLOCKED:]
[ENHANCED TRACKING: DETECT CONCEALED ENEMIES AT 3X RANGE]
[PACK COORDINATION: ALLIES RECEIVE +25% COMBAT EFFECTIVENESS]
[TARGET MARKING: DESIGNATE PRIORITY TARGETS FOR ALLIES]
The target marking ability intrigued Marc most. He tested it by focusing on various containers around the room, mentally flagging them as priority targets. Immediately, Kreek—who'd been waiting nervously outside—burst through the door and began examining the exact objects Marc had designated.
"Pack-bond!" Kreek declared with obvious delight, his compound eyes bright with recognition. "Alpha-friend marks hunt-targets! Pack understands! Pack serves!"
Marc realized with sudden understanding that he'd accidentally established himself as a legitimate pack leader in Vorcha social hierarchy. The genetic modifications hadn't just enhanced his abilities—they'd fundamentally altered how entire species perceived him.
[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: PACK ALPHA]
[VORCHA FACTION RELATIONSHIP: FRIENDLY → PACK LOYALTY]
[WARNING: SOCIAL HIERARCHY CHANGES MAY HAVE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES]
That evening, as Omega's artificial night cycle dimmed the harsh industrial lighting, Marc studied his reflection in a grimy mirror. The changes were subtle but unmistakable—his eyes held a predatory gleam that hadn't been there before, and silver streaks were spreading through his hair where genetic integration was most active. He was healthier, stronger, faster than any human should be.
He was also less human than he'd been that morning.
Anto found him staring at his transformed reflection, the Turian's expression carrying the weight of someone who'd watched too many people change in ways that couldn't be undone.
"Still you in there, though," Anto said quietly. "Doesn't matter what they made your body do—you choose what you are."
The words hit Marc with unexpected force. Humanity wasn't just biology—it was choice, values, the decision to help others even when it cost you something. He'd been defining himself by what he was becoming rather than what he chose to do with those capabilities.
"I'm not becoming a monster," Marc realized. "I'm becoming a weapon. The question is what I aim myself at."
Later that night, using the encrypted channel Miranda had provided, Marc sent a simple message: "Used the synthesis data. Thank you. Why are you really helping me?"
Her response came hours later, delivered with the timestamp suggesting she'd been awake and thinking about the same questions that haunted him:
"Because someone should have helped me before I became what I am."
The honesty in that admission revealed more about Miranda Lawson than any intelligence file ever could. She understood the weight of being created rather than choosing your own path, the isolation of being perfect according to someone else's specifications.
[NEW COMBAT LOADOUT AVAILABLE:]
[BATARIAN FOUR-EYED VISION] [VARREN ALPHA INSTINCT]
[SYNERGY DETECTED: PREDATOR AWARENESS]
[EFFECTIVENESS: +67% THREAT DETECTION, +45% AMBUSH PREVENTION]
Marc activated the new combination and immediately felt the difference. His expanded visual field combined with predatory instincts to create awareness that bordered on supernatural. He could track multiple threats simultaneously, predict movement patterns through behavioral cues, and coordinate allies with tactical precision that hadn't existed an hour earlier.
[UNIQUE HYBRID DETECTED]
[USER CREATING NOVEL EVOLUTIONARY PATH]
[CLASSIFICATION: ADAPTIVE PREDATOR (PROTOTYPE)]
[ANALYSIS: NO COMPARABLE ORGANISM IN GALACTIC DATABASE]
The System's assessment was simultaneously thrilling and terrifying. Marc was becoming something the galaxy had never seen before—a human who fought with pack instincts, tracked like a predator, and coordinated tactical operations with alien precision. The combination of technologies and genetics was creating capabilities that transcended the sum of their parts.
But with each advancement, each new synthesis, each step beyond baseline humanity, Marc felt the weight of what he was sacrificing. The software engineer from Seattle was becoming a memory, replaced by something designed for violence and survival in a universe that offered neither peace nor mercy.
As he practiced target marking with Kreek's pack, watching the Vorcha respond to his mental designations with pack-bonded enthusiasm, Marc wondered whether evolution was a choice or an inevitability. Whether he was adapting to survive, or simply becoming addicted to the power that came with transcending human limitations.
The galaxy was moving toward crisis, and Marc was racing to become strong enough to matter when the moment arrived. But strength came with costs that couldn't be measured in credits or time—only in the growing distance between what he'd been and what he was becoming.
[GENE SYNTHESIS PROTOCOLS: UNLOCKED]
[PROGRESSION PATH: UNCOMMON → RARE SYNTHESIS AVAILABLE]
[NEXT MILESTONE: LEGENDARY GENE COMBINATIONS]
[WARNING: EACH SYNTHESIS INCREASES DEVIATION FROM BASELINE HUMANITY]
Marc dismissed the notifications and settled into his makeshift bed, feeling genetic modifications settling into his system like alien software finding its proper place in incompatible hardware. Tomorrow would bring new challenges, new opportunities to test his evolving capabilities against a universe that seemed determined to kill everything he cared about.
But tonight, for the first time since awakening in a Cerberus laboratory, Marc felt like he might actually be becoming strong enough to fight back.
Whether he'd still be human enough to remember why that mattered remained to be seen.
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