Version Two

A picture taken from a discarded Sleepwalker Project lanyard.

> Wait... what if it was TWO soda cans?
>
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Version Two, formerly known as ~~Hayden Cheshyre~~, was the sister of Alaska Cheshyre and is to date the only "successful" prototype to come out of the Sleepwalker Program. After the Right Hand Laboratory collapsed and Alaska’s unstable mental condition caused him to be locked away, Hayden reluctantly took over the Program her brother had worked so hard on, continuing the work she hated, until the Emperor’s intent to militarise the Program prompted her to burn the thing to the ground and desert.

## Appearance

Version Two appears as a slim, fit woman with auburn eyes and long, messy red hair laced with yellow streaks and a fiery sheen. She wears a darkly crimson top with yellow highlights and a black base, along with a similar pair of trousers and maroon boots to match, finished off with a hot-rod red leather jacket, along with the occasional white bandages wrapped around her palm down to the elbow. Similar to Version One, along her back are an octave of blade-like appendages, except in her case they're translucent and intangible, manifestations of the last embers of her magic venting heat in order to maintain stability.

## Personality

In stark contrast to her competitor, Version Two was energetic, friendly and eager. She was often boisterous and overexcited, taking on missions with a refined coolness that juxtaposed Version One's calculated rage. Now, she's generally gruff and snarky, casually insulting people and not really paying attention to things. However, her casualness does not mean she is to be underestimated. She can wreak just as much havoc, if not more, than Version One, due to not being effectively a rabid animal on a leash.

## History

Hayden was once a witch of great skill, working alongside her brother in the Right Hand Plant as part of research into dimensional rifts for the Day of Unity. Hayden discovered that a substance she called “Dissonant Reality”, created by energies from incompatible systems reacting, was causing the rifts to become unstable and collapse on themselves without sustained power. By extracting this Dissonant Reality from the rift, it would remain open of its own volition, while the Dissonant Reality could be harnessed as a potent energy source, albeit a wholly unknown, highly volatile one.

Alaska, discovering this, developed the Sleepwalker Project thesis without Hayden’s knowledge and proposed it to her, which she vehemently rejected. Despite Hayden’s consistent warnings about the corrupting nature of Dissonant Reality, the Emperor greenlit the Sleepwalker Project and Alaska began his work, helped reluctantly by Hayden.

Due to the corrupted nature and origins of Dissonant Reality, most of the volunteers for the Sleepwalker Project were forced to madness. While the skills and memories did transfer, most subjects would use these skills to attempt to slaughter the scientists conducting the process.

Alaska persisted, growing more frenzied as he forced volunteers to enter the transferring process, then the scientists, then finally Hayden herself. Unlike the others, Hayden managed to survive the process intact, but would suffer from horrifically lucid nightmares for the rest of her life, eschewing all forms of physical or emotional intimacy beyond acquaintanceship.

Finally, one day Alaska demanded that Hayden open the rift providing Dissonant Reality to a larger radius, increasing production of the substance he so desperately required to continue testing. Hayden protested, and a fight broke out, resulting in damage to the Dissonance Processing Grid and the facility collapsing, completely destroying Alaska’s physical form.

Hayden would sacrifice the majority of her magic to bind Alaska’s soul to the mortal plane with a sanguine glyph circle, before constructing a chestplate in a vain attempt to marshal his now cursed wraith form into something more tangible.

Eventually the Sleepwalker Project would resume, melding Hayden and Alaska - now known only as Version One and Version Two - into their current forms. While Version One went completely insane from the testing, Version Two managed to barely retain their mental state and proved to be the only successful result of the Project… a living weapon.

More recently, she took over the Sleepwalker Project as its sole researcher, managing it until the Emperor expressed intent to militarise the whole thing. She left the Emperor’s Coven, and as a safety measure, enacted the Scorched Earth Protocol, burning the entire Project to the ground. Nobody knows where she is now.

## Abilities

Excelling in durability, endurance and versatility, Version Two is considered the perfected form of Version One, although she doesn’t consider herself that in the slightest. While not as logical and efficient as her counterpart, Version Two’s mastery of martial combat and her prowess with all forms of weaponry allow her to give and take relentless attacks with finesse and mastery.

### Fighting Style

Version Two is extremely agile, possibly more so than Version One. With her vents providing great mobility and an unconventional weapon, opponents will have to adapt quickly to be not caught off-guard, allowing Version Two to strike and disarm/disembowel the opponent. Contrary to Version One’s ambush style, Version Two prefers open fights and engagements, blood pounding and adrenaline in full swing. Unfortunately, these types of assignments have been in short supply for the majority of her service lifetime.

### Equipment

#### Whiplash

After she lost her right arm to Version One in their most recent confrontation, Version Two created a replacement brace that channels magic similar to Abomination magic practitioners. Appearing as a biomechanical, mint-green, three-clawed arm, the Whiplash can perform several functions, including acting as a grappling hook, a cannon, a shield and energy absorber similar to Version One’s Feedbacker, albeit less powerful. Due to its jack-of-all-trades nature, it’s naturally a master of none.

#### Lune & Soleil

Version Two wields a pair of serrated crescent-moon combat sickles, coloured sky blue (Lune) and sunset orange (Soleil). She tends to use these to hook an opponent's weapon and yank it away, disarming them and leaving them vulnerable to a flurry of jagged blows. The nature of the sickles means it’s incredibly difficult to predict where they cause wounds, which works to Version Two’s favour in combat. The sickles are tied to her wrists by string, allowing her to throw them and hook objects, although this can also be used to pull Version Two towards the opponent.

#### Model II-S Plating

Version Two’s shirt, trousers, jacket and boots are of a construction similar to modern-day body armour, making her relatively stab proof and (if guns ever came to the Boiling Isles) bulletproof. Crushing weapons will still be as effective as usual, and serrated slashing weapons have the potential to tear it. Of course, you can still stab her head, ankles… that one hand that didn’t get torn off by Version One... Point is, she's much more durable than Version One and can take a whole lotta punishment.

### Special Abilities

#### Regeneration Factor

Experimentation from the early days of the Sleepwalker Project resulted in Version Two manifesting a slight regeneration factor. This factor is only potent enough to heal minor scratches and (with time) medium gashes, any large-scale wounds or missing limbs stay damaged. Regeneration is passive but will not work while Version Two is unconscious.

#### Overheat Vents

Version Two's "wings" act as vents to control the small magical residue left in Version Two's bile sack. These vents also serve as pseudo-boosters, making her highly manoeuvrable and agile, able to change directions on a whim and even in midair. They also emit trace amounts of heat.

#### Parallel Processing

Version Two has an unnatural potency to her multitasking, being able to perfectly manage several complicated tasks at once, including fighting multiple opponents. She seems to be highly aware of her surroundings and can easily move to dodge attacks from behind or from other blind spots. However, managing too much at once can cause a short circuit/overheat in her brain, rendering her unconscious for a brief window.

#### Miscellaneous

As a previous researcher and engineer of the Sleepwalker Project, Version Two knows practically everything about it, her knowledge only trumped by that of her brother, who created the Project. She has a photographic memory, albeit a slow one.

Version Two also displays a knack for all things machinery, having constructed her Whiplash prosthetic by herself along with a few of the apparatuses used within the Sleepwalker Project.

## Weaknesses

Unlike Version One, Version Two is undoubtedly human, albeit a streamlined, genetically engineered, mechanically augmented killing machine of a human. She’s often blinded by emotions, particularly rage, and is susceptible to a whole host of things that Version One isn’t. She can be reckless, aggressive, delusional, paranoid, cynical, or all of them, simultaneously!

The Whiplash is a prototype device and often malfunctions, especially because Version Two keeps tinkering with it. With it out of commission, she’s one limb down and unable to use both of her sickles, effectively halving her offensive potential and defensive actions.

While Version Two does have an ENRAGED state, it appears to be dormant. Most likely those early experiments with Dissonant Reality trapped it in a permanent state of deactivation.

Outside of combat, she’s often snarky and extremely affected by alcohol or other substances of an addictive nature. Version Two/Hayden will react instinctively to any form of physical social interaction, usually hugging, with a punch. Usually a pretty violent one.

## Trivia

* Her design, aesthetic, relation to Version One and Whiplash were taken from ULTRAKILL and in particular the bossfights of V2, although in most cases this was name only.
* Version Two's theme is Versus/Duel.
* The portrait of Hayden/Version Two, and Version Two's design as a whole is inspired by (and in the portrait's case, from) art drawn by Wheeble#2252 on the New Blood Discord.