-----Director Piggot-----

-----PRT ENE Director's Office-----

-----02/01/2011-----

The whole city's atmosphere is rife with tension. Even Lung, who regularly boasts of his invincibility, has been surprisingly circumspect. Do the gangs know about the Typhon? Are they also waiting for the other shoe to drop as the eldritch abominations suddenly decide to announce their abhorent return?

God I hate this fucking city.

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

I also made sure not to idle around power-wise. I've been tapping into my subconscious to try and sus out the hidden capabilities within me and I've uncovered a considerable amount of abilities. While I was doing that, I feel that I'm also closer to solving the current mystery about the truth of my existence. The parts I don't know anyway.

During this period of time, I've been doing some major thinking.

"Who are you?" Such a simple question. A question I've been asking myself since I woke up as a Mimic in that alley back in January. I'm not a typical Typhon, I know this.

My thoughts, even before my first consumption of human consciousness was already atypical. My thoughts would bleed into Human vernacular, as though it was natural.

Sifting through the memories of TranStar technologies and projects, I stumbled upon something similar. "Project Cobalt". The prospect of opening up a line of dialogue with Typhon organisms by transplanting Human Neuromods into Typhon organisms, putting them through simulated experiences to help them develop the transplanted Mirror Neurons.

The end goal being to help the Typhon connect with Humanity, to introduce Human concepts such as "Empathy" to an otherwise "alien" mindset such as that of the Typhon.

Some nihilistic individuals would argue that empathy, that Humanity, is a disease. A flaw. A MISTAKE! That the Typhon, such as they are, is just fine the way it is. That they represent a far more pure form of consciousness.

The Typhon clearly recognize the existence of "flaws", or unacceptable "deviations", and for that reason, the Nightmare is born. The Typhon's equivalent to an "antibody". The Typhon are bound through the Coral, through a psionic connection that links the minds of individuals to a greater collective whole.

Any non-Typhon that comes too close to reaching the Typhon's gestalt neural network represents a potential threat to the sanctity of the network. The Nightmare is thus dispatched to eliminate this interloper, this virus, attempting to infect the network.

An interloper, a virus, a flaw, a mistake... In this case, me.

I know now that I've been compromised quite extensively. But the problem is, I am alone. There are no other Apex Typhon in this dimensional sector. There is no correcting force. No network hub to check for errors.

None other than me. I am the first Typhon here. The senior. The controller. The core. The Apex.

I am the one who decides "right" and "wrong" for the Typhon of this dimension. All Typhon born in this dimension are inherently flawed, infected, other.

I've become aware of my existence, both as the center of the Typhon gestalt consciousness, and as an individual existence. I don't want to die. That fear of death denotes my strangeness. That fear is part of what makes me, me.

Once I "remembered" Project Cobalt, the memories came back to the forefront of my mind at a greater pace than before.

After sorting them out, I finally "remember" who I was prior to being a Mimic. I "remember" what sort of world I find myself in. I "remember" a great many things, so much uncertainty becoming clear.

I "remember" that I was Human before all of this. But given the existence of Project Cobalt, can I truly say that these "memories" are truly "mine"? Am I the product of "reincarnation", or am I a "copy" transplanted into a random Mimic?

I am reminded of the so-called "Ship of Theseus", Theseus's Paradox of whether or not taking an object and gradually replacing the components of the object until nothing remains of the original while still referring to it as the original object's namesake makes it fundamentally the same object still.

I've pondered this particular paradox for some time after "remembering" my "past", if that's even true. And I believe I've reached an answer, at least in regards to "myself".

"I Think, Therefore I Am." I may not be my "Original Self", but I am still ultimately "Myself". As such, I shall live my life as I please. Perhaps these sentiments stem from the "previous me", but that is ultimately immaterial to my "current self".

But it itsn't just the memories before becoming a Typhon that started to return to me. It was the memories of an "other" whose mind and will have seemingly blended with "my" Core Memories and Ego.

It seems that my initial memories of the events of "Prey" are somewhat unreliable given the changes to Morgana's personality. She retains her memories of the various experiments with Typhon Neuromods, never finding herself trapped in an endless loop of simulations of "Orientation Day". The events of the game seemingly never actually transpired, which calls some of my memories into question.

I suspect the divergence point has something to do with the introduction of the "Klyntar". My "original" memories revealed the true nature of those particular specimens that so troubled Morgana and my "Other Self". Physical embodiments of the so-called "Living Abyss" forged into being by the dark god, Knull... allegedly.

Well, TranStar doesn't exactly have a way of testing for divinity or anything like that, so I have no way of knowing if Knull, or an equivalent of him, existed in either of the previous universes in which I lived, but I do know that just as I sense no other Apex Typhon, or Typhon in general, anywhere else in this universe, I also cannot sense the presence of any other "Klyntar", besides the Hybrids I'd unintentionally been producing all this time.

It turns out that part of the reason for my deviancy from standard Typhon behavior is because me "other self" had the oh-so-brilliant idea of trying to fuse a Typhon organism with a Klyntar symbiote to try and exploit the Klyntar's healing factor to make mass production of Typhon Organs without the need for the "Volunteer's" viable in order to bump up Neuromod production.

On the one hand, "I" was technically correct in that it would make mass harvesting and production of "Exotic Matter" more viable without having to feed convicts to Mimics. On the other hand, the clearly extra-dimensional nature of the Typhon resonated with the extra-dimensional nature of the Klyntar and "I" ended up being flung to a whole new universe entirely.

Whoops. I imagine Morgana wasn't terribly impressed with that little factoid.

Which reminds me. When I raided the PRT ENE's servers a couple weeks ago, I found references to "Dr. Morgana Yu" of "TranStar Industries" along with the "Talos-1 space station". It seems I may have inadvertently dragged the entire station, and everyone within it, along with me to this universe.

Oh well, it's not like that's a major problem for me. Though my "Core Self" keeps hinting that this universe, in spite of lacking any Apex's or Knull, is also quite dangerous. These "Parahumans" aren't as simple as I may have originally suspected and that my cautious approach was correct.

Having said that, my "Core Self" is still struggling to provide answers as to why this place is supposedly so dangerous. Those memories are still somewhat fragmented and hidden from me. My "Core Self" seems to provide some memories here and there and is the primary determinator of my personality and sensibilities, but most of my available memories and sense of personal identity stem from my "Other Self".

"Excuse me, miss! Please hold still!" Some man who resembles a police officer shouts at me as I turn to him with a look of curiosity on my face.

"You know that school's still in session, right? You should be in class right now." The officer says to me. Ah, a "Truancy Officer", I believe.

"I'm not currently enrolled in school." I reply.

"You're not? Okay, I think I need to speak with your parents." He responds.

"They're dead. My sister and I currently have no home to our name, though she does have a job, but she's pretty far away."

"Christ, kid. Okay, come with me. We'll see what can be arranged. What's your name?"

"My name?" I ask with a tilted glance.

"You can call me Alex. Alex Yu." I reply with a smile.

*disregard the tendrils*

Well, it's as good a name as any. I wonder how Morgana will react to hearing from "Me" again?