Part 1: Backstreet Boys Back in Town

Our comeback to SyliconVille wasn’t one of the most cherished, although the idea of being in the very heart of the infamous city exited me a bit. What we found when we got there was nothing strange: even if everything looked frightening to me the others seemed quite at ease among the city ruins (although I believe that everyone of us felt the building tension in those streets). So much at ease that we soon came to think that our leader’s worries had been too harsh: we were wrong. The countermeasures we took in order to avoid the critters still littering the area were not enough when night came and soon some kind of Tyron flying beasts were on our tail looking for a fresh snack. Albeit the smell of some of us was hidden, that of others wasn’t and we were thus found. We barely escaped by hiding ourselves in the sewers (yeah! All right! Very smart move! But what else could we do?). Our travel to the underground labs we were looking for was difficult: we fought against giant maggots and similar horrors until we could get to the labs of the Fera Suprema project. The labs were submerged and we had to work really hard to lower the water level so that we could advance. However we soon ran into other monsters, among them a huge centipede that could turn invisible and discharge powerful electrical attacks (and since we were in the waters up to waist level, this was definitely not good). On top of all, we came to know that such monster was nothing less than the original body of Aileen Sommers which degenerated (or simply mutated) into that horrific form. Our health and our resources were much depleted by the fight but after defeating it, we could finally lay our hands on what was left on the Fera Suprema Database. By cross-referencing those data with our archives, we came to know that, as we suspected, the project wasn’t born in SyliconVille, but the labs were built to house specimens from the Project imported from other countries (like Italy for example) and that the specimen Aya, Colt and Max fought against was the Beast 002: from what we could understand this specimen was effectively immortal (which means that it was probably still lurking somewhere deep in SyliconVille…. Brrrrr.) and that it was developed by Simon Papashvili. Scouting the area we also found other clues such as the Italian address of one of the equip members and also the head researcher’s Name. From the data we collected, the Fera Suprema project was initiated with the intent of creating the perfect Zooanthrope, one who had no rival, but something went horribly wrong. We then decided that our job in the USA was over and that we were thus ready to leave for Italy to continue the investigation.

Part 2: O Sole Mio!

Italy was as I left it some years before, even Italians, after all, weren’t changed and this relieved me a lot. We began investigation by getting to the address of the deceased scientist; his widow was still living there. We found out that the scientist was living a double life: one was that of a dentist for children while the other (which was hidden even to his own wife) was that of mad scientist (???). Sneaking inside the house we could steal the archives and diaries of the doctor; in the back cover of his diary we could find a mysterious key that could not immediately link to anything we knew. After days of tedious examination of the documents, that we passed closed in an apartment bowed on the files, we could glean what we believed to be the names (probably the fake ones) that were used to name six children destined to become the Ferae. The scientist visited them regularly in his clinic. We also found out a use for the key: it opened a security box in a bank that we could easily detect. We retrieved the package stored therein and found inside it many videotapes; scanning them was not funny: it was children pornography material, in which the scientist abused the children. Looking at this material was painful and exhausting, but in the end we found something of value: a nearly overwritten cut of a Zooanthropic child inside a Tyron Italian Base. Studying the view that could be seen from the window depicted in the video, we could track a series of building that could suit the brief image we saw. One of these seemed however the most promising and we began surveillance on the building even inspecting a van that was delivering some unknown material; it was carrying nothing more than some glass container, but we decided to follow the track. In fact, we paid a visit to the company producing the containers and we came to know that one of the men delivering the cargo had some problems and had to be hospitalized in a psychiatric clinic (probably he discovered too much and Tyron disposed of him). We then traveled to the hospital to have a chat with the delivery man, but we couldn’t get anything from him beside some drooling nonsense, however, therein was also interned a man coming from the same city (and casually near the Tyron building); we wanted to speak with him clueless of what we would find: a Tyron Scientist gone mad! In his own twisted way, he carefully explained all the details about the Fera Suprema project, a failed and terminated experiment, at least for now…

Part 3: The Truth About Me

The Fera Suprema Project was about the creation a human host genetically engineered to host a spiritual bond with a supreme creature belonging to a place called Nexus, something like a parallel dimension that Tyron found out and from which they summoned the Fera Suprema, a spirit with such great powers that it could easily obliterate all lifeforms. No more than a splinter of such power was imbued inside each of the children, then, the child was “adopted” by a chosen family that would raise the child indoctrinating him with a preset “training program” devised to harness the wild will of the Beast. Each of the children was born under a different moon phase thing which should have influenced the kind of bond the Fera would establish and also the kind of powers that the bond would bring. After indoctrination was complete, but before the powers would begin to surface, Tyron would have extracted the children for a more specific and supernatural training, turning him into a slave for the company. With me all this failed: while trying to bring me back, my powers literally exploded and brought their extraction mission crushing down on their head. I came to know that they failed with the others too, although at different degrees and at different times, those they could “retire” could not fuse their spirit with that of the beast and sooner or later they were driven mad or destroyed by power of the Fera. The project thus resulted in a failure and was temporary closed only to be reopened when Cammy and Chun-Li threatened the SyliconVille project. Now the project should be in a stand-by phase waiting for all the missing experiments to be retrieved. The mad scientist also pointed the existence of a mysterious Specimen 00; such specimen was created in a latter phase of the project, when the failure of the previous methods was evident: they must have tried to correct their previous mistakes, but they got it all wrong once again and this time was a really big screw up and the specimen escaped their control. This was the final mistake made by the Italian section. Now there was only one thing left to do: rain destruction upon the Tyron installation we found out.

Part 4: Oh My God We Are Back Again!

Armed with what was left, we decided to break in, so we informed our co-ordinator that our decision was made and she decided to join us in our task. So we all prepared to enter and, after studying a plan, we set foot in our personal Hell. We made our entrance from Tyron’s own secret escape route but from that point on, things started to get messy. We faced wave after wave of Tyron defenders and each depleted more and more of our resources, both the physical and the psychological ones, but we hanged on and pressed the attack. In the end, to our greatest and sweetest surprise, a man with white hair came to give us a hand (and perhaps not only to let us survive the ordeal) and saved us at last minute from Svetlana’s trap who was waiting for us from a long time. With yet a greater surprise, we discovered that the base was housing nothing less than the Beast 004 barely contained in a gigantic crystal prison: it was one of the specimens gone mad… During our rush toward our objective we also came across Alice who was being taken away by a Tyron team; we killed her captors and reassured her with short but truthful words (“We are the good guys, follow us and we’ll take you out of here, later the explanations…). In the end we reached the Fera Suprema, a nearly physical manifestation of raw magical and spiritual energies always on the verge of breaking the containing structure in which Tyron encased it. Aya depleted her last energies to fight against the elite guards defending the central prison; she then entered her cocoon retiring from the action. Me, Voltz, and Alice began the fight against the Fera Suprema. Nobody could stand its powers, beside my own beast, but to call upon its powers I needed an higher understanding of my beast, or perhaps, only of myself. Willing to risk everything and to reach my Last Resort, I abandoned myself to her rage and launched the assault. While I was fighting the Beast 004 head-to-head, Voltz had to put all of his last energies in the attempt of tipping the scale of this titanic fight in our favour, while Alice was trying to keep Voltz alive with her healing powers. In the meanwhile, Lucifer was battling Svetlana some floors away. In the end the Beast 004 was killed and the base was blown up; moreover we all survived and we also added one new member to our ranks! I didn’t get to know anything about Svetlana until my trip to Japan, but, for now, all we had to do was just going back home.