Pride's Origin

What We Are

    “Taliums? Taliums?! You’re telling me that you are part of a race with superpowers that lived alongside human beings since god knows when, and the name that you chose for yourselves is Taliums?! Really?! I don’t know what to believe, the story you just told me or the name you came up with.”

    In their living quarters upstairs above their lab, Makoto had heard from the girls what happened to them around two days ago and was reacting in a way that they had not expected.

    “I don’t get it, you just heard so many secrets that would turn this world upside down, and you’re hung up on the name, seriously?!”

    The younger sister Kura was shocked at Makoto’s thought process, to which he replied, “What can I say? I tend to focus on the important things in life” At this comment, Kura couldn’t help but roll her eyes while throwing her hands in the air surrendering “I give up, I tried!”

    “It’s not a name we made up, you fool! Like we just explained, after we sorted through and consolidated the knowledge we gained after the whole thing, it’s just what we know. We know that it’s what we are.” The older sister Rikona took on the role of educating Makoto after Kura’s earlier exasperation let her know that she couldn’t be bothered.

    Rikona continued shortly after saying, “and it’s not superpowers either, so get that out of your head.”

    Since the time that everything happened, the sisters spent their time understanding everything that they now knew, especially the blueprints they saw.

    They were also aware that the blueprints they saw were for the construction of something intrinsic to them. It couldn’t be built with things from this world, or to be more accurate, it couldn’t be built based on HOW things are built in this world, but through the mastery of a method not yet known to them.

    Soon after, Makoto went onto the other subject that caught his interest, “So you guys can make objects using your mind?”

    “Not exactly,” replied Kura, trying her hand at explaining to him again, “What will happen is that, when we reach a high enough level we can sort of convert the matter anywhere and use it to shape a sort of inherent construct.”

    At this point, Makoto began to understand. He finally commented, relaying a term that was thought to be delegated to science fiction.

    “This all seems pretty familiar to alchemy, I mean matter conversion basically means you’re knocking off or adding electrons and protons as you see fit to create whichever and whatever elements, damn! That’s literal matter conversion we’re talking about, where the hell’s my superpower!? I’d come up with something better than Taliums after all!”

    Hearing this, Rikona smiled and shook her head, while Kura facepalmed herself for even thinking of trying to explain anything to the ‘cancer in human form,’ sitting on the couch.

    “So what are you guys gonna do now? Are you gonna go public with this, and since your blood is different and all, what’s it gonna be called? I mean, a lot of the stuff you guys are just throwing out here is enough to send the world’s biological field into a frenzy.”

    Rikona started walking to the kitchen area to pour everyone some tea that she had left brewing. After she finished pouring for everyone, she carried the tray back to the living room and took a sip from her teacup before she set it back down.

    She savoured the flavour for a moment before choosing to respond. She then leaned back on the couch opposite his and crossed her legs as she stared at him for a beat.

    She really was the embodiment of beauty, since she wasn't planning to work in the lab today. She wore ripped jeans that stopped mid thigh, and a white shirt that was cut off to show her midriff. She wouldn’t dress like this in public, but since this was her home, she didn’t mind.

    “Honestly? Both me and Kura have no intention of revealing any of this, well at least for now. First off, we have no idea if this can be replicated in others, and even though it would give our research another significant breakthrough, the implications of these heightened abilities being granted to every human will surely cause more harm than good.” Rikona was letting Makoto know their new stance on the subject.

    “Hold up, why are you saying humans like that, what, are you not one yourself? And I thought the goal of your research was so that you could help make your fellow man better. If you’re no longer willing to help in that respect, then what’s the point of your research from this point onward?”

    He started to get slightly worried, “Are you guys sure there weren’t any side effects to the abilities you’ve obtained or awakened or something?” Makoto was understandably shocked by their radical change in thinking and ambition.

    After all, this was something they basically devoted their entire lives to. Many a night was spent drowning in research, traversing all venues that would bring their work to fruition.

    However, hearing his question, Kura was the one who spoke up, “Makoto look, and I want you to really listen this time. If two countries decided to go to war against each other, and take into consideration that world war 3 nearly happened between the US and Korea around a decade ago, so don’t think it too far-fetched. What do you think would be the outcome if we simply gave them bigger guns to shoot themselves with?”

    She paused for a moment, allowing the information to sink in, not expecting an answer from him, “They’d simply cause even more damage than they would be able to create on their own. This would be us handing them the keys to the realm of superhuman enhancement. Really, when this place stopped information from getting out when our work was making breakthroughs, we should have realised that something was up, but we didn’t think too much about it… until now. Exélixi has a goal, we have an idea as to what it is.”

    When mentioning the Exélixi, Kura’s expression slightly changed, “this would put them at the top of the pyramid as far as biological weaponry is concerned. So… how are we going to help humans, you ask? That’s simple, we’re going to keep them from getting their hands on more of us.”

    At this time Makoto opened his eyes wide in shock “There’s more of you, you found more!?”

    Kura just shrugged her shoulders as it was already evident, “No, but surely we’re not the only ones out there, but the rest are most likely lying low, or are unaware of what they are.”

    “Ah boy, c’mon guys, this is me you’re talking to here. Look, I love what you guys were doing and the goal behind it. Why is everything so different all of a sudden? I mean, it doesn’t even feel like I’m talking to Kura and Rikona right now.”

    At this, both Kura and Rikona stared at him before the older one chose to explain one more thing that they felt he would have to know.

    “Listen up, we’re only going to explain this particular part of it once. Now, you can think of this as a side effect if you’d like, but to us, it makes no difference. These abilities, as we said before, are caused by the brain being awoken to 100%. Now, this also requires a steady state of mind, which also feeds off of the strongest emotion…”

    “Which is?” Makoto couldn’t help asking after hearing the pause. He watched as Rikona closed her eyes while she took her tea and took a sip from it once more, enjoying both the aroma and the taste.

    After some time, she finally opened her eyes, and an invisible pressure slowly began to emanate from her.

    It wasn’t that strong as it was a bit new to her, but it was still suffocating to the average person, and Makoto felt that in spades being so close to her. Sweat even started to bead on his forehead.

    She opened her mouth, and the words that came out were not like her own. It was cold, dignified, lofty even.

    “PRIDE.”