Predator 4/7

Length: medium

Brief summary of the fourth year of life of the OgIT experimental subject.
The creature reacted very well to periods of sensory deprivation, but since he hasn’t developed any new adaptation systems we have decided to shift our attention to other issues.
We noticed that by seeing a dancer perform a pirouette in a film, the creature was able to replicate those exact moves to perfection without the need for an instructor.
Intrigued by this we put him in front of several dance videos, and we noticed that he has no problem copying perfectly the moves he sees on the screen.
Over the course of the year we exposed the creature to the vision of many sports, and the result was exceptional. His control of the body exceeds any expectations the company had anticipated, but seeing it in action I had a little doubt.
I subjected the creature to a small test to assess his level of understanding of the movements he does, and asked him to do a somersault. He performed it. So I asked him to do a different somersault, one he had never seen but that would allow him to overcome a simple obstacle. He failed to do it.
This confirmed my suspicions.
The creature does not understand the meaning or function of the movements he makes, he merely imitates them exactly as he imitated our words when he still could not speak. The somersaults he did were not his, he had simply copied them.
The creature is capable of walking, running and jumping independently and personally though. For years we have made him move on unstable and mobile platforms, for years he is in a state of almost constant movement, so in reality he can create movements independently … we just have to push him to do so.
I then created a series of new exercises to subject him to, exercises that in order to be completed correctly must necessarily include movements that he has never seen done, such as somersaults a little longer or slightly more creative jumps. Failing such exercises leads to the removal of the sense of taste for a few hours, which terrified him, much more than the nightmares in which we trapped him before.
In the long run these exercises have improved his level of understanding regarding the use of the human body, and once he improved in this we returned to focus our attention on sports, especially combat ones..
The first phase was very easy. I showed him all the fighting techniques designed by the sapiens thanks to the help of various instructors and masters, and by just looking at them he was able to repeat their moves perfectly by the end of the day.
We started with punches and kicks, then moved on to flying kicks, knees, elbows, butt heads, takedowns and submissions. As said it barely took a day to teach him all this stuff, the creature learns really fast, he just needs to see to know.
The second phase was much more difficult than the first though. He knew how to kick, but he didn’t know when to do it. He knew how to give uppercuts, but he didn’t know when or why to chain the blows. He possessed the technique, but he lacked all the rest.
I made him perform dozens of fights with his instructors, but he wasn’t really fighting, he was just following a “script”. I need to make him fight for real though, I need to make him use his instinct, his creativity and intuition, and I think I know how. For next year I have many nice surprises in store for him.
I’ve put off this topic until next year because his third pair of limbs has finally come into operation: the wings have opened, and the creature can finally use them. It took him four years to develop, but he is now able to pull them out of his back on command.
There is a small problem of course: he doesn’t know how to use them.
Let’s go in order though.
As soon as I was able, I had them analyzed. They are wings similar to those of the beetles, and they are very fragile at first sight but decidedly sharp at the edges. The wings are kept folded under the shoulder blades, which for most of the time seem attached to the body but actually have a lid-like opening. This opening looks like a line drawn with a pencil when closed, like a light tattoo or an almost imperceptible scar.
The wings have sharp and cutting edges as already mentioned, made of a very light metal alloy (probably the composition of the edges of the wings changes according to the diet of the creature).
The ribs of the wings are very robust, and the creature seems very sensitive to the latter, so much so that he is visibly nervous during inspections: he hates when someone touches it, only the elderly caregiver, his favorite, can do it.
We spent most of the last months of the year looking for a way to teach him to use wings. Right now he is able to slam them, but not hard enough to take flight. We’ve also subjected him to the vision of countless flying insects, but it doesn’t seem to help him that much.
It is also true that double sensory deprivation negatively impacted his learning time. The triple one was planned for next year, but considering the creature’s exceptional nature, I decided to stop the sensory exercises here.
From next year we will begin to focus mainly on the use of wings and the exploitation of the body to go hunting. We only have five years before the delivery, so we can’t slow down.
We have to go fast.