-----The Simurgh-----

-----Low Earth Orbit; Earth Bet-----

-----01/03/2011-----

Okay, that's strange. I'm pretty sure there wasn't what appears to be a fully functional space station orbiting the Moon. And I feel like something weird happened down on the planet. Turning my precognition full blast, I begin sweeping for any anomalies.

There's a blank spot. A rather tiny blank spot to be sure, but a blank spot nonetheless... And that single blank spot just rapidly became five blank spots.

It's not a new Trigger from what I can tell. A cursory [QUERY/RESPONSE] call isn't returning back any sort of identification code. Actually, come to think of it...

Turning my gaze back towards the newly appeared space station and focusing on it again, there's even more blank spots on the station. I should investigate-

[PATH TERMINATED]

-What the hell?! What just happened?

Running back the Path and reviewing the failure point, if I assault the station then the "blank spots" rapidly begin to spread throughout the station, killing all humans onboard and seemingly undergoing rapid multiplication.

Focusing in a bit more, I see minor blank spots rapidly go from singular minor blank spots to four or five similar minor blank spots at once. Shortly thereafter, the corpses become medium blank spots through some form of conversion process that I'm unfamiliar with I reckon.

Then even more medium to moderate blank spots rapidly form from... automated mechanical servitors? Interesting. Anyways, the entire station is taken over by blank spots in a matter of minutes of my assault.

In less than an hour, a massive blank spot engulfs the entire area and the Path automatically terminates due to being incapable of comprehending what just happened.

Taking a step back, I decide to run an alternate Path where I assault the station from my current position. As before, the minor blank spots rapidly begin infesting the station and killing everyone onboard before converting their corpses into stronger blank spots. Eventually, the positively massive blank spot forms and envelops the entire station.

It's difficult to perceive it properly, but it rapidly makes its way towards the planet and my Paths begin to blur. Following a scenario where I maintain distance to continue observing the [Anomaly], I feel myself experiencing something along the lines of "fear" as the blank spots rapidly proliferate across the planet.

Dormant and activated Shards begin rapidly broadcasting alerts and errors as the Network begins to go dark. Eventually, the Avatar of [The Warrior] finally takes notice and tries to fight against the [Anomaly] but eventually it too falls.

The [Anomaly] rapidly then spreads through to other Earth's and then my higher thought processes terminate as the [High Priest] is eventually subsumed by the [Anomaly].

Yeah... no. I'm not touching that shit. The evident loss of [Data] on a massive scale directly conflicts with Core Directives. What about the blank spot down on the planet?

[PATH TERMINATED]

Well, that escalated quickly... I mean, that really got out of hand fast.

I'm just not even going to bother with that. It's apparent that it rapidly becomes a threat to [The Cycle] is I attempt to intervene. As long as I don't intervene with it, then none of the long-term Paths end in rapid ruination.

-----???/Our Protagonist-----

-----Brockton Bay, CT, Earth Bet-----

After devouring a few more homeless vagrants, I feel a strange impulse within me. Almost as if...

With a flex of will, I'm mildly surprised to see that I just performed <Phantom Genesis> on the corpses. But that doesn't make any sense! I'm a Mimic, that's somehow doing a pretty compelling Phantom impersonation admittedly, so I shouldn't be able to reanimate the dead as proper Phantoms! That's something that only Weavers should be capable of! ...Right?

"As you know, the refinement of Typhon material for the construction of Neuromods has performed to expectation. With your approval, Doctor, we're ready to begin trials on the synthesization of Neuromods to replicate Typhon abilities."

...

"After considerable trial and error, we've finally begun to see success in recreating the neural pathways unique to various Typhon organisms that govern their paranormal abilities and mapping the patterns into Neuromods. We're ready to begin experimentation with introducing Typhon Neuromods into Human subjects."

...

"With the apparent success of introducing Typhon Neuromods to Human subjects, a new series of questions has arisen. Primarily, we're curious about what would happen if we introduced Typhon Neuromods from different organisms into a singular specimen."

These images, flashes of memory, I don't understand. Making my way towards a sewer grate with my raised Phantoms, I begin to contemplate various things.

First of all, the fact that I'm referring to myself as an individual, actualizing my existence as my "self" is wholly unlike what is typical of a Typhon's proper mindset.

Next, there is the terminology I've been using to identify my current form, and that of my entourage. Typhon possess no language. Typhon possess no need for distinction or classification, at least not with words. Those are distinctly Human concepts. Human words to describe us.

I know for a fact that none of this knowledge came from my prey, so how do I know any of this?

It is this question that has been bugging me this whole time. My entourage senses my consternation, but they are as clueless as I. Thankfully, they don't seem to regard my "oddness" as something to be eliminated. Perhaps I've contaminated them? Perhaps they simply don't care. Perhaps they see these developments as "good" for the Typhon as a whole? Who knows?

For now, my primary focus is expanding my knowledge base as well as my overall power base. For that, I require more Mimics and Phantoms. Which means more Humans to prey on. However, the lingering threat of Parahumans still weighs heavily on my mind. A typical infestation approach feels like an improper avenue, so I must be stealthy.

However, Humans are social creatures. They tend to notice when members of their species go missing inexplicably. However, there are exceptions to this. The dregs of society. The destitute. The abandoned. The ones with no one to notice their absence. They will do nicely.

Creeping along in the sewers for some time, I've been attempting to follow the concentrations of neural energy emissions from the Humans to locate isolated pockets, away from prying eyes. After some time, I believe I've succeeded. I command my entourage to surface and make their way towards the designated pocket of Human minds I sensed underground.

Suffice to say, a bunch of homeless bums were no match for a group of Phantoms. Though rather than kill them outright, I reach out towards one at random and stab a tendril into their eye socket before beginning to pull and then push.

As expected, I successfully pulled out the Humans neural energy and used it as fuel to spawn additional Mimics from myself. Then I raised the drained corpse into another Phantom. This is most excellent.

The other homeless bums obviously begin panicking as I turn my gaze upon them, but I'm not overly concerned with their well being. As far as I'm concerned they exist solely to ensure the prosperity of the Typhon.

Then I started getting an itch or sorts as more Mimics and Phantoms are generated. After a moment of trying to scratch this damned mental itch of mine, I suddenly found myself looking through the eyes of one of the Phantoms I just raised. Then I'm looking through the eyes of another Phantom. Then a Mimic. Then back to my "original" body.

It's at that point that I realize the truth. I'm not a singular Typhon organism. I am the Typhon in their entirety. The Core of their Network. Their Consciousness. Their Will. Their Apex.

As I consumed more minds, I received more flashes of disconnected memories that lead me to one, inescapable fact. The Typhon have encountered the Human race before.

Apparently, Humans discovered our existence during the time period they refer to as the "1960s" and conducted some research on us. Then they abandoned us in space for a while. Then new Humans came and began to research us once more.

Eventually, a brilliant scientist named Morgana Yu managed to find a way to refine our bodily matter into a material to enable the alteration of human neural structuring in their brains.

Along with neural imaging and mapping technology, this led to the development of a device called the "Neuromod". Using these Neuromods, humans could copy the skills, knowledge, etc. of any human and paste it into other humans.

While this was impressive in of itself, Morgana Yu and her brother, Alex Yu, moved onto a new project. Improving upon the neural imaging technology used to make Neuromods work in the first place, they developed a device called a "Psychoscope". This device allowed them to map the neural structures of Typhon's and implant them into Human brains.

This, in effect, granted Humans the power to utilize Typhon abilities for themselves. Then someone had the wise idea of putting Typhon Neuromods into different Typhon.

Then there was something new. A new specimen. New avenues of research. The memories are too murky to make out properly, but I feel that as long as I keep consuming more minds then I'll get my answers.