M-Chronicles 2 : Mercy

**M-Chronicles 2 : Mercy**is a Story Arc of the the Exteria Multiverse. It takes place in Interra and follows the perspective of amnesiac girl Dancer. It is a sequel to M-Chronicles and is followed by M-Chronicles 3 : Redemption.

## Main Arc

### A Rude Awakening

A nameless girl wakes up among many others in a cold laboratory room. A scientist introducing himself as doctor Victor Smile appears in front of them and joyfully tells them to survive. Destructive machines and robots irrupt in the room, killing most people in the room. The girl mysteriously survives thanks to strange reflexes and abilities. She attempts to escape but is quickly sedated.

She awakens in a mechanical body suit, with a message from Smile labeling her as a successful test subject, **Class 1 Dancer**. She is told to advance in an underground city and train as a soldier, for a purpose yet unexplained. The woman now known as Dancer obeys silently, although she swears to kill Smile as soon as she can for his actions.

Dancer wanders in the town and faces strange monsters known as **Class 4** enemies. She also encounters women in grey body suits, known as inferior **Class 3** recruits. Dancer quickly faces several battles but is supported by another Class 1 fighter, Breaker. The stalwart woman explains to Dancer that all Class 2 must kill eachother to gain freedom and that Class 3 fighters attempt to kill their Class 2 counterparts to take their place. Breaker, however, refuses this angle and dreams of a way all Class 2 could unite.

### On the Edge of Killing

Dancer wanders, pondering her words. She finds danger, however, in the form of another Class 2, Slayer, a sadistic fighter who attempts to corner her and slowly kill her. Dancer mercilessly answers her challenge, and before serious damage can be done, Class 2 Fencer stops them, displaying supernatural abilities. Fencer, the de facto leader of the group, attempts to reason Slayer and desires to judge Dancer's potential before attempting to kill her.

Dancer also briefly encounters the aloof and strangely friendly Class 2 Sniper and the frightened yet unstable and incredibly powerful Berserker. Finally, she is chased by the last Class 2, the relentless and feral Hunter, to the edge of the domain. Still unable to choose how to fight for survival, she can't help but think killing all girls would save them from this horrible life and allow her to take revenge. But she still wavers.

As she goes back towards the other six Class 1, she is attacked by a lone Class 3. The young girl, lacking in conviction, drive to kill and power, is however no match for Dancer and is defeated. As Dancer is about to kill her, she begs for her life, and Dancer understands she is unable to take innocent lives that way. She allows the young girl to stay with her and even gives her a name, Friday. Dancer has chosen her path.

### Rise and Fight

Dancer risks her life talking to each Class 2 and manages to unite them all, using their influence and power to subjugate Class 3 warriors as well. They decide to unite and find a way to break through the stone walls. They fail, however as they overuse their powers trying to break out, they begin to hear voices and see visions of a man in white, trying to break through.

Dancer manages to obtain informations through the vague memories of Class 2 and Class 3 alike. She learns from them that Victor Smile belongs to a company called Golden Pharmaceutics, and attempts to create an army of supersoldiers in order to defend its leader Gilian Or and to eliminate a man called **Paragon**. Furthermore, she learns that Class 4 are individuals that were experimented upon just like her, but who failed to adapt. When she confronts an additional hologram of Smile, the doctor tells her they will soon understand the danger about Paragon.

A few hours later, while the girls discuss of an escape plan, the underground complex is breached by a powerful presence. The seven Class 2 encounter the man in white they have seen in their visions. The man introduces himself as **Class 1 Paragon**, the ultimate being. He tells the girls that they were born using his cells as an experiment, and demonstrates using his own powers to overpower the seven girls at once. But instead of killing him, he instead destroys the complex and allows them to escape, disappearing.

### Truth is Gold

Now free, but stranded in the middle of a destroyed complex, the Class 2 have no clue about either Paragon or Smile's whereabouts. They however have one more name - Gilian Or, the man they are supposed to protect. With thoughts of vengeance, they "borrow" a plane and fly towards Golden Pharmaceutics's headquarters, subduing a puzzled Gilian.

They however soon find out Gilian knows nothing about them, but as they speak with him, they soon begin to put the pieces into place and understand the truth. Gilian once allowed Smile to conduct his Paragon Project, using powerful cells known as M-Cells and implanting them in a human being. However, the test subject known as Paragon escaped and the project was considered a failure. Then Smile began another experiment with Gilian's authorization.

Gilian understand his authorization allowed Smile to conduct his horrible experiments on the girls, and apologizes, offering them everything he possesses to make up for it. Despite the physical and mental scars, as well as Slayer's sadistic streak, the girls forgive Gilian and offer to protect him, investigating Smile while going to Gilian's mansion.

### Grey and Grey Morality

Gilian helps the girls find Smile's laboratory, and they fly towards this seemingly final location, intending to end everything. However, what they find there is no longer a human. A difformed mass of flesh and bloody tendrils wearing a human face, barely able to speak and using a mechanical device to communicate, blind and in constant agony, the thing once known as Smile tells the girls that Paragon contaminated him, using his cells to torture him as a revenge for experimenting on him. A now broken Smile has thus organized everything to capture Paragon and find a cure.

As a last, desperate gambit, Smile sends a machine to inject Paragon's residual cells within Gilian, dooming him to the same fate and forcing the girls to seek Paragon in order to save Gilian. The seven Class 2 and Friday find help from alchemist Nao Strelian, who quickly stabilizes Gilian's state, and guides them towards the **Alchemists' Refuge**.

There, they confront Paragon. The super-soldier reveals the cells implanted within him were an imperfect match, resulting in him getting slowly insane and corrupted from Miasma. Seeking to be purified by drinking the planet's Anima, resulting in natural catastrophes, Paragon starts to absorb Anima before the girls confront him. They manage to defeat him once before the corruption within him grows, turning him into a gigantic, atrocious silver-scaled snake. But due to the party's efforts, the monster is defeated and falls into the well of Anima.

### A Lighter End

Paragon emerges from the spring of like, rejuvenated and freed from the corrupting influence. He thanks the eight girls before using his now purified powers to remove the affliction his cells caused to Gilian and Smile. Paragon then leaves to another mysterious destination.

The girls go back to Gilian who has survived the ordeals without aftereffects aside from a lock of silver hair. They then retrieve a now human again but broken Smile from his laboratory. Although forgiveness is hard when it comes to the individual who caused everything, Smile's genuine guilt, broken mind, and death wish make the girls and Gilian give him one last chance to redeem himself by working hard to make sure no one makes his mistakes again.

While Smile painstakingly attempts to revive the research branch of Gilian's society, the latter, still weakened by the ordeals, offers the girls to live with him in his mansion, looking for fragments of their ancient lives. The storm has ended, at least for now.

## Characters

* Berserker (Priscilla)
* Breaker (Cornelia)
* Dancer (Kiwi)
* Hunter (Ariane)
* Sniper (Ashe)
* Fencer (Sherry)
* Slayer (Marian)
* Friday
* Paragon
* Victor Smile
* Gilian Or
* Nao Strelian

## Trivia

* The seven main girls of the storyline have a rainbow motif : Berserker is Red, Breaker is Orange, Dancer is Yellow, Hunter is Green, Sniper is Blue, Fencer is Indigo, Slayer is Purple.