Styx

Name: Styx

Age: Mid-twenties to early thirties. His exact age is only known by a few, and one of those few doesn’t include himself.

Race: Mutated Reptilian Vampire

Sex: Male

Hair: His hair is very black; long and spiky. It reaches just below his ear line; his bangs falling randomly over his eyes. Despite being rather rugged, his hair is usually quite kempt. Although he doesn’t tend to it much, and it seems to flow all over the place, it still has a certain quality of neatness to it.

Eyes: Beneath his reflective sunglasses, his eyes are a bright reptilian yellow. There are no whites to his eyes. They're just solid yellow globes with rippled, black slits for pupils.

Weight: Styx weighs over 210 pounds. He’s mostly muscle and scales. If you were to include all of his weapons and accessories, he’d weigh over 470 pounds.

Height: 6 feet 11 inches.

Theme Music:
Unrelenting Bloodlust
Way More than a Vampire

Weapons:

Bones
Bones is a monstrous sword, a blade most wouldn’t even classify as a sword. It’s almost exactly as long as Styx is tall, roughly 7 feet from pommel to tip. The hilt itself is about two feet. It’s built for holding with two hands, but is also made to be thrown. Very few could properly wield such a massive hunk of metal. It weighs just over 500 pounds.

The blade is made to look like it was forged out of human bones, when it obviously isn’t. It has a blunt edge, not even sharp enough to cut cheese. The edge looks like linked femurs that follow the contour of the blade, making a bizarre round tip, and then returning to the guard. The guard only comes out one inch on each side of the blade, but it’s barely ever needed to protect Styx’s hands. The pommel of the blade looks like a human skull missing the jaw. A small ivory spike extends through the bottom of the crude sculpture, stained red with blood. The blade is about two inches thick, made entirely out of a dense material known as adamantium, a rare substance harvested from asteroids that is extremely hard, more so than titanium or diamond. The bone-like edges of the blade are three inches thick, rising over the edge of the sword slightly. The steel is 20 inches wide, strong and thick enough to be used as an effective shield.

The bone-shaped edge has a built in shield generator. There’s a small button under the guard that toggles this on or off. When something makes contact with any part of the blade, save the hilt and pommel, the shield repels it. The force field is strong enough to repel nearly any energy, electrical, magical, magnetic, or physical force. Each strike Styx lands with this blade generates an added kick that knocks things back with twice his normal strength. The shield can only be activated for three seconds at a time. After it burns out, it takes three more seconds for it to fully recharge. It relies on self-regenerating technology. The technology is new and strange. No one quite knows where the means to create a self-replenishing generator came from, or who made it, but it’s starting to become popular in some parts of the solar system, despite its rather large price tag.

Bones is attached to Styx’s back when not in use. It fits in a sheath made up of titanium straps, custom-made specifically for this behemoth of a cleaver. Styx wears two titanium chains that cross his chest, designed to hold the sheath to his back. He also has a titanium guard beneath his clothes lining the chain, originally designed to keep the weight of the sword from pulling the chains through his skin, but the metal band isn't necessarily needed anymore due to his impenetrable scales. This guard leads from his right shoulder, to the left side of his waist.

Machete
In the case that Styx needs a sharper weapon; his machete is sheathed on his lower back. It’s nothing special, it merely being made out of steel. It’s short and broad, but razor sharp. Styx is thinking about customizing its appearance, but he hasn’t found the time to work out a good design for it yet. He usually uses this sword before resorting to Bones, seeing how it’s shorter and not as powerful. After all, he needs to give his enemies a fighting chance.

Morbid
Morbid is a minigun, to put it simply. Morbid, however, doesn’t require ammo, but instead fires concentrated ion shells made up entirely of energy. They act, look, and sound like real bullets, but do far more damage with each impact.

Morbid is merely a prototype in the works, but so far there haven’t been any bugs. It runs off the same kind of self-regenerating generator the shield in Bones does. It can fire for 20 seconds before it overheats at a rate of 10,000 rounds per minute. When it overheats, it takes 10 minutes for it to cool off again, so he tries not to let that happen. It weighs 50 pounds, but Styx wields it as if it weighs nothing. When not in use, it’s slung over his left shoulder.

Morbid has gone highly unused by Styx. He's considered discarding it, but it still holds a certain sentimental value for him. Sometimes he doesn't even go into battle with it.

Pain and Panic
Pain and Panic, named after the annoying creatures in the Disney movie, Hercules, are dual pistols. Styx particularly enjoyed watching the movie that they salvaged from an ancient mall, so he only thought it would be fitting to dub these two weapons as his un-loyal sidekicks. They’re customized to hell, not matching the descriptions of any guns made before them, but they’re his babies.

- Appearance
Pain’s main color is black. The hammer, trigger, and safety toggles are painted red, as well as parts of the grip and handle. Pain has the intricate design of a hulking demon sprawled across its exterior, artistically working its way from the handle to the barrel, which is surrounded by the beast’s mouth.

Panic’s color scheme is similar to Pain’s. The primary color is black, but the various other parts are painted blue. Instead of the design of a demonic form, the appearance is more of a snake with legs. The legs look crippled and wrap themselves around the handle, but the body slithers around the body of the weapon where its mouth surrounds the barrel, fangs jutting forward.

- Ammo

Styx usually carries six magazines at a time, three on each side of his belt. Each magazine holds 18 9mm armor piercing bullets. These bullets have a narrow, hard tip that penetrates most armored surfaces. Styx usually paints designs on them when he’s bored, usually red, sometimes with his own blood when at a lack of paint. He’s been known to poison them from time to time, given he has access to the right chemicals, but it’s not something he does too often.

Mechanical Leg
After being gifted with vampirism, Styx no longer required this leg, a new limb growing in its place. Though he wished he could have kept it, his rapid regenerative abilities disallowed any mechanical parts to remain attached to him. He’s still looking for a way to attach it, but for now it’s slung over his shoulder next to Morbid.

Not having a particular name, this leg is not made up of flesh and bone. Originally attached to his knee, this thing was once welded to his body when his real one was lost during the many tests and mutations he endured. They offered to clone his leg and reattach it, but Styx said he’d personally be happy with a mechanical one. He didn’t want to forget the horrible tests they performed on him; he wanted something to help his memory. He wanted to remember everything, so when he had the chance, he’d kill them all without hesitation. Now that the leg’s no longer attached to him, he gets very frustrated that the symbolic artistic qualities of keeping the leg are vanishing.

The leg weighs about 20 pounds, the different parts made out of various materials, some adamantium, but the exterior mostly of titanium. Instead of forming a foot at the end of the leg, it ends in a sharp point that can be used as a weapon. Styx’s leg is connected through his nervous system, so a mere thought can rotate the sharp point in such a way where the tip of his leg bends down and backward so it forms a flat surface. This allows him to walk on sensitive surfaces without the sharp tip tearing through them. However, because it’s no longer attached to him, this thing’s just a piece of useless metal. Regardless, his neural connection with it remains intact.

The leg itself is a little flat, forming a sort of armor in front of the real purpose the leg holds: Protecting the weapons behind it. Just like the sharp tip on this leg, his weapons are fired by simple thought.

-The Corpser
The Corpser got its name for how it tends to toss corpses across the battlefield without tearing them to pieces. Styx uses its massive knock back effect as a form of transportation just as much as an actual weapon.

The Corpser is located on the back of his mechanical leg, the larger of the two barrels. It launches a purple sphere of energy that knocks things back great distances. When hitting human flesh, it doesn’t tear through it, but instead simply forces it through the air with a powerful shockwave. However, if the Corpser lands a direct hit on someone’s head, the sudden blow could snap their neck or jar their brain. At pointblank range, the Corpser has torn through flesh before, so it’d be wise not to stand pointblank range in front of the corpser’s barrel.

Styx used to use the Corpser to launch himself across the sky. When it’s fired at the ground, it propels himself off the ground and through the sky at great speeds. It’s definitely not like flying, but more like jumping, followed by falling with style. The Corpser can be charged of a short period of time to release a greater, more powerful blast.

The Corpser runs off of self-regenerating technology, so doesn’t require ammo or new charges.

-The Soul Ripper
The Soul Ripper is another gun located on Styx’s mechanical leg. It’s an automatic weapon that fires out the bottom of his leg, just like the Corpser. It’s an odd place for a gun to be, but Styx usually only uses it in short bursts when kicking. Now, however, it’s a last resort weapon he uses as a rifle when his other guns aren’t usable at the moment.

It fires energy based bolts, but requires charges to work effectively. Each charge holds enough power to fire 50 bolts. The bolts themselves can pierce flesh and kill easily, but can’t pass through metallic objects. This makes shooting at armor useless. The weapon fires at 5 bolts a second.

Three spare charges are strapped on the back of Styx’s mechanical leg. The Soul Ripper can be removed from the leg, but it takes a little while to do so. When it’s removed, it fires the same way it usually does, only it uses a trigger instead of being fired by thought. However, Styx doesn’t need to remove it anymore due to the leg itself portable enough to hold as a regular weapon.

Armor:

Styx's entire body is completely covered in nearly indestructible scales. Before he went through the transformation, he had artificially built adamantium scales welded beneath the skin on his arms. When his body transformed into a reptile, the adamantium had somehow broken down and spread through his entire body. Now, all of his scales are coated with the hard metal. They are nearly indestructible, only the most powerful of attacks able to break through them.

The adamantium that initially formed the scales on his arms wasn't ordinary. In fact, Styx was never entirely sure if it was adamantium or not, rather than it was just as durable as the material. It was organic in nature and had the ability to regrow if damaged. Whenever Styx loses his scales, if by whatever impossible means, they can regrow rather rapidly, as is the nature of his enhanced regenerative ability.

Items of Note:

Stimulants
The stimulants are referred to by Styx as his “Stims” or “Meds”. These little disposable syringes hold a powerful chemical that regenerates torn tissue, purges diseases, and builds immunities in a matter of seconds. It also boosts adrenalin, temporarily doubles physical strength, and feels really good.

The main reason he originally used these to inject himself with was to maintain his muscles' capabilities. They prevented them from wearing themselves out, building them up over time, allowing for him to infinitely increase his strength without a limit to hold him back. He no longer requires them anymore, but they still have a significant effect on him. When injected into his bloodstream, all of his abilities are doubled.

Styx no longer wants to resort to them. He discovered that he becomes much less aware of his actions when he's injected. The more of the stimulant he has flowing through his body, the less control of himself he has. He discovered this when he took five of the syringes at once while fighting a most powerful enemy. Since then, the stimulants have had an addicting effect on Styx, one he's trying to rid himself of.

Now he only carries one syringe on him at any given time. Even then, he hates to use it as it doesn't feel like his own strength to him, but his body still always seems desperate for another dose. If pushed, he will easily give in to using it.

His scales are also too hard for the syringes to penetrate. If he tries to force them, they break. He has to inject the needle directly into one of his eyes for it to work. This causes that eye to turn red for the duration of the drug's effect.

Mp3 player
Upon looting an ancient mall for old-Earth relics, Styx found himself an ancient music device known as an mp3 player, multiple sets of headphones, and entire racks filled with CDs. Since Styx is a huge fan of doing things the old fashioned way, he began forming a taste for old-fashioned accessories. Back at the Edward, he spent time finding a way to link the music discs and player up to one of the on board computers. He used several other devices that he found in the mall, and eventually got the antiques synced with his computer. Stone disagreed strongly with his time-wasting antics, but Styx would simply ignore him and begin listening to his newly acquired soundtracks. He definitely preferred this old style of music compared to the current mellow sort of the modern day. He liked almost any and every song from the library of music he confiscated, not having much of a strict taste. However, he usually prefers fast paced, louder songs, usually of the heavy metal or dance genre.

Styx doesn’t like using ear buds, but usually has a larger set of headphones that won’t fall out so easily. He’s known to listen to music while fighting, but only if he’s very confident in his own success. He usually does it just to express his own confidence in victory.

Moxie
Moxie is one of the only carbonated beverages still produced where Styx came from. He was notorious for stocking up on large amounts of it at a time. This annoyed Stone quite a bit, who didn't quite care for the drink.

Styx always carries at least one can of Moxie with him at any given moment


Skills/Magic:

Quake
Through sheer strength Styx can cause the earth to shake. Whether by means of a powerful stomp or by stabbing his blade into the ground, the sheer force he emits shakes the earth around him for a few seconds. This often throws his enemies off balance, commonly throwing them to the ground. The floor will often crack apart and threaten to snag his enemies' feet from time to time. This is a very simple attack for him to perform, yet deadly when used at the right moment.

Air Slash
By means of speed and strength, Styx can quickly swipe his blade through the air and create a rift of wind that propels through the air toward his target. When using Bones, the air slash is thicker and often crashes into his victim and knocks them to the ground. When he uses his machete, it's a thinner wave, but it can cut through trees with ease.

Air slash has become a common ranged attack for Styx. He will use it even more than his pistols, mostly because his pistols are more novelty items than anything.

Regeneration
All wounds Styx receives regenerate. Anything from minor scratches to lost limbs regrow in seconds. The more Styx is damaged, however, the longer it takes for his wounds to heal. A scratch at full health heals instantly, but a gash near death could take a few minutes, and only after the more serious wounds heal.

Barrier Breaker
Styx has the power to break through energy barriers using brute strength. His physical power is so immense that it often surpasses the mystical energies that generate spiritual structures. Only the strongest barriers are immune to this technique. The stronger the barrier, the more strength he has to put behind each hit, but even shields that were previously thought to be unbreakable will begin to wane under his constant barrage. Whether this is something brought about by his sheer strength or has something to do with his vampiric powers is unknown.

Vampiric Bite
After Styx drinks his fill of blood, his strengths and senses are temporarily boosted nearly twice of what they were previously.

Some unpredictable side effects came about from Styx's reptilian transformation. If creature he feeds off of has extraordinary physical attributes, their DNA will attempt to fuse with his own. If it strengthens him, he gains a portion of those strengths. If it hinders him, his Vampiric Immunity will purge the negative effects before they do any damage. The more he drinks from them and the higher the benefit, the more of their power he copies onto himself. This mostly account for physical abilities, but mystical powers tied directly to the victim's physical body may also be replicated in some form.

Vampiric Immunity
Being a vampire, Styx is naturally immune to disease and poison. If a foreign virus enters his bloodstream that threatens to harm him, it is purged immediately and his body completely rejects it.

Strengths:

Powerful, Immortal, Indestructible.

After being gifted with vampirism at the hands of Knives Eclipses, Styx became nigh unstoppable.

After being gifted with reptilian DNA after drinking the blood of the mighty lizard warrior known as Tuariv, Styx has become nigh invincible.

His primary advantage most certainly lies within his physical strength. His strength is seemingly limitless, blowing all previously conceivable ideas of what true physical strength could possibly be out the window. He’s gone through multiple genetic and cybernetic alterations, mainly to his muscles and senses. He's become a vampire, further increasing his strength and agility. But now, after all he's been through, he's transformed into a reptilian monster, his physical power soaring through the roof. Words cannot describe his full potential.

Beyond just gaining additional strength, when Styx's body transformed into that of a reptilian, his senses were also greatly increased. His sense of sight, smell, touch, and hearing have been optimized to their full potential. He can now adjust his senses so they're finely tuned to how he needs them to be. He can make it so he feels virtually nothing, or so he senses the breathing of every living being within a mile radius. He can completely deafen his ears, or tune them to pick up the subtle thump of a distant heartbeat. He can see clear as day in pitch blackness, but just as clearly when faced with a blinding light.

Apart from his strength and senses, his physical speed is ungodly. Combined with his keen eyes, he can casually move past the speed of sound, able to keep track of everything without the slightest bit of trouble. When determined, he can move far faster.

Using his massive blade, Bones, he is quite the force to be reckoned with. Although Bones has a dull, blunt edge, he can cleave through rows of people with one swipe by sheer force. Despite Bones’ massive weight, Styx can wield it as if it were air. If he so chooses, he can fight with the weapon in one hand, just as easily as his machete. Because of his monumental strength and control, Styx rarely wields Bones with two hands.

Nearly all of his sword fights end with the first strike. If by some miracle his enemy manages to block his attack, their blade is always knocked free from their hands, if not disintegrated; all this while Styx keeps his ever menacing smirk.

His hand-to-hand combat is just as deadly as anything. His massive strength can break through any hold or any block. A single punch would kill an ordinary human. If he’s not pulling his punches, his fists will quite literally vaporize his victims.

Although Styx is extremely strong, it doesn’t mean he’s a dumb brute. In fact, he’s quite intelligent. He used to run a ship with a true genius, Edward Stone. Stone’s strategic prowess and knowledge show up in his daily living, so Styx often learns a lot from him. He’s not nearly as intelligent or quick thinking as he, but Styx still isn’t one to be underestimated. Having such a mastermind as an ally tends to rub off on you, regardless of if you want it to or not.

The laws of physics have been twisted by this monster: Once human, now something completely different. He is constantly getting stronger and will never stop.

Weakness:
Styx’s main weakness is the blatant fact that he is extremely overconfident and self-centered. He can easily kill people, so when entering any fight the possibility of losing never even crosses his mind, even when he has failed in the past. He begins a fight with a toothy grin, and leaves the fight with a toothy grin. He’s victorious even in defeat, knowing he’s become stronger from the experience.

Another weakness, though by some might be considered strength, is that Styx doesn’t get scared of anything. While this gives him immense bravery, he also doesn’t know when to run when he should. He intentionally lets very powerful attacks occasionally hit him just to show how he can take it.

Styx likes to rush things into battle. He enjoys getting to the action as soon as he can, and then draw that action out for as long as possible. This causes him to occasionally skip the vital process of scanning his enemy for weaknesses and strengths, sprinting forward for the first attack. And as soon as the attack begins, unless he’s in a mood to be done with it quickly, he likes to make the thrill of combat last for as long as his victim will allow.

Styx is the epitome of greed. He cares first for himself, and only for himself. This makes him hard to deal with, but much easier to hate. He thinks of himself as invincible. He wouldn't for a moment turn down the rank of a god.

Finally, and most importantly, Styx's only chink in his armor is his eyes. While they do repair themselves after getting damaged, they're the only soft spot on his entire body. He experiences increased pain whenever they're damaged and can easily lose his focus when they're being repaired, but hitting such a small target on such a quick moving behemoth is no small feat.

Appearance:
His body is all muscle and bones. His mannerisms and simple gestures expose his insanity and greedy mindset, yet still he maintains an odd sense of charm. His arms hang weakly at his side, giving him the look of helplessness, though it wouldn't take a fool to see his otherworldly strength.

Styx has razor sharp fangs surrounded by razor sharp teeth. His jagged scales cover his entire body. His hair is somewhat loose, yet it retains its shape. It reaches just below his ears in length, though is usually spiked up above his head.

Although his teeth may be frightening and his eyes may be haunting, his most interesting feature would be the black tattoos running down both of his arms. They are identical marks starting from his shoulders, then running down to the back of his hands in a perfect line. The primary column has rows of small stitch-like lines cross it all the way down. These tattoos were once scars Styx received when he was first experimented on. He had them tattoed onto his skin, but when his reptilian nature took over the had begun to fade. Now he has to constantly trace them again for them to keep their shape.



Personality:

Styx is a complicated person, but wouldn’t seem so by first impression.

He’s usually quite outgoing, but is quiet when something is troubling him. When not actively engaged in conversation, he’s usually deep in thought.

Styx rarely ever denies a good challenge when coming from a formidable opponent. Whenever he's challenged, he’ll rarely decline. He’ll most definitely decline, though, if he sees the person as far too weak to even bother with. He’ll also decline if he’s busy at the moment, but only when he sees that the business at hand is far superior to whatever he’s being challenged with.

Styx is very self-centered. He has very low moral standards. As long as he benefits from it in the end, he simply doesn't care. Almost everything he does is for self gain, rarely going out of his way to help someone without a good reason. If he does end up helping someone, it would most likely be by accident, or if he was paid to do so. Styx’s conceded self shows through most of his actions. Just the way he carries himself boasts “you’re scum in my eyes.” He only has true respect for two individuals: Knives Eclipses, the woman who killed him, and Tuariv, the monster who bested him. While he respects Edward Stone in his own right, he thinks of him more as a logical superior and nothing else.

Styx is very sarcastic. He’s outgoing and can, on occasion, actually be funny. To some he may even be considered pleasurable company for a short time, but only before his true colors show. He's nothing but a creep and a power-hungry maniac in the end.

When fighting, Styx is almost always overconfident. When starting a battle, he bears his sharp teeth with a conceded smirk. When the battle is over, regardless of victory or defeat, he smirks again. He wins even in loss, for defeat only makes him stronger. As he found out, quite ironically, even death strengthened him.

Styx is obsessed with violence, overall. He enjoys the art of killing, but won’t kill without a good reason. However, good reason to him includes, “I just felt like it.”

When Styx had transformed into his reptilian form after drinking from Tuariv's blood, he found a more disturbed side of himself that he didn't have full control of. At times, especially when feeling angry or excited, Styx has less control of his actions than he usually does. He becomes more animalistc and violent. He hates this aspect about he new power, even more than the power itself. Because of this, he's keeping his eye out for Tuariv. The next time he sees him he's going to kill.

Biography:

Styx was most likely born on Mars, where most humans were born. The sprawling metropolis was the highest of heights one could reach in such a deteriorating existence, at least for the average human, but this orphan of a boy grew up to be a struggling artist. His real name wasn't Styx, of course, but no one remembers his real name. Whatever happened to him in his early years are completely forgotten. His first memories, shortly after his adulthood had just begun, were ones of torment and violence. Subliminally, forcefully, unrelentingly he was exposed to art of killing.

Constantly under the unblinking eyes of scientists and computers, he was raised as a war experiment. One of many, he was set on course to be trained and transformed into the ultimate killing machine. Whatever he used to be was slowly deleted and new programming was installed into his brain. Of course, like any experiment, things didn't go according to plan.

There were two types of experiments he would be put through daily. Biological and Cybernetic mutations, and rigorous physical and endurance training. The lab experiments would always be tested on other subjects first before being applied to him, and the physical tests would always push him to the breaking point. With the lab experiments he felt confined and suffocated, but whenever a physical challenge presented itself he jumped at the chance to stretch his legs. At first he hated all of it, but after a decade of this constant abuse he had learned to thoroughly enjoy combat. One thing he never learned to like, however, was the fact that most of his abilities were the result of test tubes. Above all else, because these tests were against his will, he hated the people who were doing this to him. Even though he knew they were making him stronger, the vengeance festering in his heart was growing far quicker than his muscles.

The constant struggles he was placed under cost him not only one of his legs, but also his sanity. He began to question his existence; he wasn't sure which of his skills were conjured up in a beaker and which were brought about through his physical strength. He liked to imagine that the only reason he was still alive was because of his own willpower and determination, but the thought that those aspects themselves were forged in a lab could never escape him.

The loss of his leg brought focus to his internal struggle. A part of himself was literally, and figuratively, missing. He would have to make up for it. This resulted in a never ending pursuit to surpass what was expected of him. He knew if he broke all of their records, all of their expectations, he was surpassing their precious mutations. Maybe it would mean there was still humanity left in him, or at the very least free will.

His schedule was the same every week. Physical tests every day, continually getting harder after every lab test, which occurred once or twice a week. Only one day of each week did he ever get a vacation. It was then that he was allowed into a break room of sorts.

The break room was filled with a whole manner of things to occupy his attention: Books, art supplies, and sculpting materials. Most of his spare time was spent reading and painting. Greek mythology particularly captivated his interest. He would often paint while reading, his works often reflecting what the books contained. He was a speed reader, in part to his enhanced eyes. He would take in book after book until it was time for him to leave.

Eventually he hit a point where he was no longer advancing. Everything they threw at him was trivial. There were no advancements in training simply because his captors couldn't devise any more challenges that would push their precious subject to the limit. It was not long after this realization that he was to be moved to another facility.

They had him locked up tight and put into hibernation, but he woke from his sleep long before they reached their destination. He broke free from his constraints, quickly discovering a second passenger. He busted him free as well and the two of them fought their way through the ship, killing the entire crew. Not a single person survived, despite his new friend's determination on leaving one alive for questioning. He didn't care about that. He just wanted blood. It was the first time he'd ever killed someone, having fought nothing but machines up to this point. Years of repressed bloodlust showed itself, and he suddenly realized he loved to kill.

His new ally's name was Edward Stone. He was a little jealous that Stone could remember his own name. It was at this point he gave himself a name: Styx. It suited him well, there was no doubt. He intended to live up to the name, and Stone already could tell that he would.

Stone didn't go through the same tests Styx did. In fact, they were quite different. While Styx was a project meant to build the perfect weapon, Stone was built to be the perfect Strategist. His tests and mutations were much more mentally taxing than Styx's, which left Stone a scarred and almost perpetually pissed off individual.

They searched through the ship for any indication who their former masters were, but they found very little information on them. All they discovered was that they worked for Pandora, a highly respected corporation known for its scientific advancements.

The two managed to get the ship running, though it was a struggle with just the two of them. They had a bit of trouble landing, however, and crashed it into the side of planet Earth.

-------

Earth.

Once the home of all humans, the world was now nothing but a desert wasteland dotted with the occasional oasis. Long ago, the majority of the human race fled Earth. They’d used up most of their resources and knew that they would die if they didn’t relocate and begin colonizing other planets. Scientists claimed that there was a star system relatively close to Earth’s Solar System that bore multiple planets festering with life and resources. It was possible the human race could live another several billion years off of this one system. They spent their remaining time on Earth constructing a device built for galaxy-wide travel: The Subspace Drive.

The subspace drive was built, over a long period of time. They created special beacons that marked the spots where they would link special subspace portals together; creating a path to the distant stars, for light speed wasn’t fast enough. After this was constructed, a mighty ship known as Pangea was built. It was designed to hold two billion people, and it was the largest human structure ever created.

However, since the ship could only hold two billion people, the rest of Earth’s population was forced to die on the slowly decaying Earth. The Pangea left behind its subspace portal so the rest of the human race could eventually join them, given they survived. However, the portal became inactive not long after their leave. Even if it did work, the resources to create a second Pangea simply no longer existed.

Despite the state of things, much of the human race stranded on Earth managed to survive. They suddenly came across means for simple Terraforming. The means behind its discovery were unknown, but they found it nonetheless. They used what Terraforming technology they had to attempt to keep parts of Earth alive, at least long enough for the means of planetary colonization to be set in place. Mars soon became inhabitable, even several rain forests formed. The atmosphere was changed entirely, some people nicknaming the planet “New Earth,” though the name Mars still remained. After Mars was successfully colonized, other moons and planets were colonized, as well as several orbital cities.

Earth was soon abandoned. It became home for criminals. Bandits, pirates, thieves, and murderers were all welcome. If you did something bad, you’d go to Earth for protection or damnation. What small authorities there were in the star system didn’t have enough power to hold the planet together, so remained a hellhole. Pirates mainly ruled the land and skies, hoarding Earth’s water to themselves.

Although Terraforming had means to hydrate water, it was a very expensive process. Water soon became a rare resource, being more valuable than gold. Ice crystals had to be harvested, as well as the occasional comet that swept by. Gold actually began losing its popularity, being replaced with the mineral adamantium, which was primarily harvested in the asteroid belt.

Those who didn’t have money for water would die, thus the life of a pirate became an appetizing idea for many.

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Styx and Stone worked in the deserts of Earth for a while, repairing the damaged ship they crashed there. Stone would visit nearby settlements on occasion to purchase books on repairing and building different models of ships, despite his hate of reading. He learned enough to know what needed repair and what needed replacing. Styx was around almost exclusively for heavy lifting. Whenever he could get away from the work, however, he'd seek out posted bounties to not only earn a little cash, but to satiate his thirst for blood.

It took several months, and several tries, but eventually they had the ship up and running again. Styx took his artistic liberties with the design. He removed all of the Pandora logos, replacing them with their own. He festooned the ship’s exterior with shark teeth, evil eyes, and skulls. Styx himself said it wasn't that artistic of a design, more like a giant sketchpad. It was also more of a joke encouraged Styx’s insane idea to file his teeth down to sharp points, which he soon fell through with.

Stone decided to name the ship after himself, simply known as The Edward, partly due to his egomania. Styx didn’t complain too much, although he personally wanted to call it the Mephistopheles.

Styx and Stone spent a great deal of time as pirates. They tried to find more information on the company Pandora, but they couldn’t find much about it. They’d attack various ships with designs resembling The Edward’s, but none were run under the company Pandora, at least as far as they could tell.

Considering Styx and Stone were two men piloting a many-hands vessel, their skill as pirates wasn’t all too successful. They actually soon became a laughing stock in the eyes of public. They would usually be forced to retreat from battle, or upon boarding a ship be forced to leave by other means. They were quite popular as being the worst pirates alive, even though they were never captured or killed.

There were two main victories Styx and Stone achieved as pirates. The first one was amazing. They managed to overrun a merchant vessel filled with titanium. They used the titanium to build many things, such as some of their guns and armor. They actually took the titanium to a gunsmith back on Earth. She forged their weapons for a small price, and they gleefully took their new prizes.

Their second main victory was against yet another merchant vessel, this one far exceeding amazing. The vessel was actually a high security, top secret shipment that was tipped off to Ed and Styx merely as a ploy to see if they’d die on this one. However, Ed’s superior mind thought through a plan to catch the ship at the moment it was weakest, having just left port before it even exited Mars’ atmosphere. It was a highly complicated heist, but they ended up stealing a large amount of prototype self-replenishing generators. They escaped with barely a scratch, for the ship hadn’t even had a chance to rendezvous with its security escort.

Upon fleeing the scene of their dangerous antics during their second successful job, they were marked and followed by two battle cruisers built of a design similar to The Edward’s. Clearly having no match against two ships, both fully manned, Styx and Stone had no choice but to flee.

They weren’t sure where they were running to, but they just had to get as far away from those two cruisers as fast as possible. They had a good feeling Pandora wanted their guinea pigs back, but they weren’t about to let that happen.

Searching frantically for a way to escape, they stumbled through the hyperspace program. However, somehow the program became encrypted, probably an issue brought about through their repairs back on Earth. A different program popped up, written in a language neither Styx or Stone recognized. Rather confused through all the chaos, Stone activated the device and they were launched out into space, far faster than normal.

The ship ended up crashing in a forest on a planet that looked almost identical to earth, only how it looked more than a thousand years ago. They weren't sure what happened, or where they were, but were simply glad they weren't dead. They both got a kick out of how the trees had scraped the “Ed” off of “Edward” on their ship, resulting in the ship's name permanently being changed to “The Ward.” It suited the vessel, as its only two passengers were hopelessly insane anyway.

Styx left the ship to get a lay of the land, but never returned. Stone remained with the ship for as long as he could, but was also forced to leave after Styx never returned. He had to assume he was dead and moved on. Stone began the long progress of rebuilding the ship without his ally's help. This crash was far worse than the last, too. He'd be working on it for years, it would seem.

Styx had originally intended to return to the Ward, but was sidetracked after a series of events unfolded. He soon discovered the land they had found themselves in was anything but normal. Mythical beings, ones told in legend back home, were actually real on this world. He was only experiencing the beginning. Before long, he would discover that absolutely anything was possible.

***

Whether it was by pure coincidence or destiny, Styx’s random travels through the forest around the Ward’s crash site brought him to a lone figure that happened to cry out when he was near enough to hear. When he tracked the source down, it was a wounded woman. She apparently had lost her mind and was on the verge of insanity, or perhaps had already crossed that fine line. Regardless of her mental condition, she attacked. An intense, yet short, battle ensued. The two were locked in an epic struggle that ended quickly, resulting in Styx being pinned to the ground by chains constructed from the blood of the insane woman’s body.

Styx had never seen such magic, if it even were magic. The insane woman approached him in his weakened state and sunk her fangs into his neck, drinking deeply of his blood.

Styx was as good as dead then. He was ready to accept his fate, and he took it on with a fearless grin.

However, death did not take him. The insane woman, known as Knives Eclipses, had regained her sanity. When she’d drunk his veins dry, she looked him in the eye and realized his sheer lack of care for his own death. She offered him absolute power and immortality, instead of the inevitable death that he was faced with. He accepted without question and before long became a vampire.

The two soon grew close, into what many would consider love. It was completely out of character for Styx to care for anyone apart from himself, but she was much like himself, and yet so vastly different. She taught him how to control his powers, how to drink blood, and how to harness the dark energy within himself.

Even though the two were infatuated with each other, they parted ways. Styx's mind dwindled on the woman for a while, but it wasn't long before she drifted to the back of his mind. He would always think of himself first; he wouldn't have it any other way.

***

The next life changing encounter for Styx was with a mighty lizard-man known only as Tuariv. Styx had gone days without drinking blood and sank his teeth into the armored scales of the wrong victim. An epic battle quickly followed. It was within this battle Styx was enlightened to realize that he was not the strongest person on the planet.

The very earth shook when the two forces of nature duked it out. Trees fell, rocks split, and in the end Tuariv barely emerged victorious. Styx was winning, pounding the life out of the reptile when he finally tasted a sample of his blood. Tuariv's blood changed Styx forever, throwing him to the ground and transforming his body. The dragon's DNA mixed with his own and his entire body was covered with scales. His senses, his strength, they were all increased ten fold of what he was previously. However, Styx passed out before he could land a killing blow. Tuariv escaped with his life, but the vampire had the lizard's scent.

Styx had mixed feelings about his new strength. While he welcomed the power, he also hated it. He found the animalistic side of himself had grown much stronger and harder to control. His thinking wasn't always clear. Even so, this wasn't the reason he resented Tuariv for his transformation.

Styx had chosen vampirism when he encountered Knives. This new power was different. He didn't make the conscious choice for the transformation. While he did drink of Tuariv's blood, he did not realize what the results would be. He never chose to become what he was changed into. It was the same way how he hated the enhancements Pandora mutated him with: He charished the strength, he despised the benefactors.

From that day forward, Tuariv was a dead man. One more glorious battle would send the dragon to his grave.

Adventures:
In the Hands of Cowards (unofficially dropped)
Two Shades of Darkness (complete)
Something Witty (dropped)
I'll Make You Shiver (frozen)
Descent Unto Chaos (complete)
Transformation (complete)

I need to fight this guy some time. ^^

*Approvedeth*