31st October, 2064

Portland, West Coast Autonomous Administration Zone

[The working laboratory of Sara Sierra looks less like a modern research facility, and more like something out of an early 20th-century B-Movie. Flasks filled with various colored mixtures bubble on hot plates for unknown purposes, sparks jump back and forth between two prongs of a vacuum-sealed conductor and a large operating table dominates the center of the room. There is a white sheet draped over the carcass of the M-Beast laying face down on the table, but it is too small to cover the entire monster, leaving the tip of its snout and the bottom half of its hind legs exposed.

Despite having seen several pictures of Sara Sierra, I do not recognize her when she enters the lab and offers me a freshly brewed cup of coffee. She not only looks younger than I do, despite being chronologically in her late 80's, but is dressed head to toe in a 'Bride of Frankenstein' costume, complete with enormous white-streaked hair.

I mistake her for an unprofessional intern, but am quickly disabused of this notion.]

So. What makes an M-Beast different from a normal terrestrial animal. That was the question you are here to ask me, was it not?

I'm sorry?

In our sending exchange? You said you wanted to start with a layman explanation of what makes an M-Beast unnatural, which is a very imprecise term, by the way, then move on to structural changes caused by awakening, Modern TDE usage, really it was a fairly long list of things you wanted to pick my brain about.

Ms. Sierra?

Sara, please.

I am very sorry, you just... [Her smile is sickeningly sweet as I study her face, trying to find the researcher I had been corresponding with in features that I did not recognize.] this isn't some sort of prank?

Well, the lab is. Or, the decorations, anyway. Thought it would add to the mystique, make me look real 'mad scientist' as the reputation suggests. But if you are asking about the physical alterations, no. Not a prank, just a combination of Awakened abilities and extra-judicious rejuvenation treatments.

Oh my goodness. I am so sorry. I didn't-

You are ruining the fun and wasting my time. Neither of these traits is endearing. Come on.

[Without another word she moves to the center of the room and pulls the sheet away with a dramatic flourish. I am surprised to realize that I recognize this specific species of M-Beast.]

Is that...

Saint-Germain-en-Laye Anomalous Intruder Type-1. Yes, it is. I would say that I have been saving it for a special occasion, but the truth is that this one was just discovered in storage in an old military depot in Nevada. Over forty years old and still as fresh as the day they killed it. Do you know why that is?

Because it was in a bio-hazardous containment device for the last forty years?

I... hmm. Well, that is not the answer I was thinking of, but I suppose you could be considered technically correct. Which is the best kind of correct. Unfortunately, you have completely thrown me off my stride, we will circle back to this.

Oh, and wipe that smile off your face.

I'll try my best.

So. Why M-Beast? And before you answer, do understand that I will kick you out the door if you answer magical, mysterious, or murder.

Mélanger. To mix together. Because the first ones looked like. Well, like that.

Like someone took a rummage through the bargain bin of human disgust and nightmares, then made a twisted Mr. Potatohead out of what they found.

Not quite how I'd have put it. But yeah.

As far as terrible names the media stuck us with, it works. A mixed beast. Insectoid features, mammalian features, reptilian features. No clear species, and enough variation between the three types observed in that incident that I would argue each would have to be a different genus as well. Not that there are any sexual characteristics to speak of that would suggest these things breed in a traditional sense. We nailed down that horrifying concept rather early. Small miracles and all that.

Yet despite having traits of distinctly different species, is there anything here that looks truly alien to you? No. Which does suggest some sort of earthly origin, or connection. Either earth has naturally produced every possible variation, or this Mélanger is what it sounds like, a mixture of existing species.

We already know that, though. Low-intensity gates produce M-Beasts that are either some enhanced version of local fauna or a cobbled-together nightmare, while stronger gates-

Yes, yes, that is where you get your truly abnormal designs, your eldritch horrors, your mythical beasts and abhumans.

[Sierra takes a moment to pout.]

I was trying to bring you back to the moment. To let you know what it was like when we had the first of these on our table and were trying to puzzle out just what it was that we were looking at. Trying to discern knowledge from twisted form. That is the point of your work, is it not? To put your reader in my shoes in order to gain a real sense of history?

Good. Then shut up and roleplay with Lady Frankenstein.

The bride of-

I know who I am dressed as thank you very much. I am just unmarried.

Now, without cheating with 'future' knowledge, what can you deduce from this specimen?

[I take my time before answering, giving serious thought to the question.] That it wasn't designed.

And what makes you think that?

The leg.

[I draw her attention to the middle of its three left limbs. Unlike its counterpart, this limb is vestigial, too short to reach the ground while upright and too weak to carry the bulk of the creature.]

We know from on-the-ground reports that the M-Beast doesn't eat what it kills, it just kills. Form follows function, if you're going to design a biological killing machine, there is no reason to give it a bum leg. Or any of the other various flaws that we saw. As you said, they look like a grab bag. Slapdash, thrown together from whatever parts were laying around.

What if that was the best the designer could do? What if the proverbial mold was broken and they were just churning out what they could?

Hmm.

[She watched me ponder the question before jumping in.] A better answer would be that it likely was not designed. Just from looking at it, I would say that would be impossible to prove. The key is to narrow down the inconsistencies. The process might be flawed, but why so many odd exclusions and inclusions. If you are creating something to kill humans, why give it a mouth it doesn't need while excluding the eyes that it does. Why six limbs at all, and spaced parallel rather than staggered like an insect. It is a design that at once would not have evolved, but makes no sense as something intentional.

Almost like the gate just took traits from nearby species and mashed them together without thinking.

A bit of cheating in that deduction, but that is where I ended up at the time. As I said, of all the terrible names we could have been stuck with M-Beast was surprisingly accurate for the originals, if totally useless as a catch-all for gate-spawned fauna.

So. Tell me, why is it dead? No cheating.

Saying 'because it got shot' isn't the right answer is it? Well, there is only the one obviously visible gaping wound, so we'd start there. Even though we both know there are two other wounds that must have healed over.

[The Doctor shushed me on that last point before responding.]

Correct. When we investigate the wound, there are no vital structures that appear to be damaged. No major blood vessels, no damaged organs. Given the size of the hole, which for posterity is about the size of my head, positioned at the nape of the neck, we could reasonably assume something was blown apart or removed by a previous researcher.

[Dr. Sierra carves into the M-Beast's thick hide with a gleaming scalpel as she speaks. It is clear from her practiced motions that this sort of procedure has become rote. I suspect she could do it with her eyes closed.]

When we autopsied our first M-Beast, we spent considerable time trying to find a non-invasive scan that could get us meaningful results. X-rays and MRIs returned only burned-out images, but eventually, we found a slightly stronger veterinary ultrasound that was able to get us some meaningful results, which was how we found... these.

[Without so much as a glove, Dr. Sierra reaches nearly elbow deep into the M-Beast's carcass and returns with a fist-sized gray crystal. The blood on her arm and costume quickly evaporates into smoke that smells like a newly burnt-out match, leaving no trace that it was ever there. No longer covered in bodily fluids, the damage to the crystal is evident, right down to the 7.62mm round embedded in its side.]

They were almost all damaged like this, of course. This was long before we had any way of killing an M-Beast without attacking the TDEs directly. On a very rare occasion, the element might be blown clear of the body without damage, but I still shudder at the idea that some GI went home with a 'cool rock' he found in Paris while we were stuck trying to make sense of these shattered elements.

Who coined the name?

Much as I long to take credit, it was Dr. Singh who decided on Trans-Dimensional Element. I wanted, and still prefer Trans-Newtonian, given that Newtonian physics need not apply, but we had just learned about the gate in South Africa, and the dimensional aspect, so it seemed only fitting.

Now, seeing this, why is it dead?

Because we struck its vitals?

Did you even take a TDE Biology class? Tsk.

You are right in a vulgar sense in that these are vital to the M-Beast, but they aren't vital in the way your heart or your lungs are in a biological sense. The M-Beast does not have vitals. It has blood, muscle, teeth, some sensory organs. But most of these are vestigial to the creatures it pulled from. Some M-Beasts, particularly the more stable variants found in higher intensity gates do have actual physiology, to the point that they can sometimes even exist for a time with their TDEs removed, but for the low-intensity St. Germain strain, the TDEs fundamentally is the M-Beast. Remove, or destroy them and... voila.

[As the doctor pulls the remaining TDE free of the body, the hulking mass of the M-Beast begins to rapidly decompose into the same sulfurous smelling smoke. I cough slightly and have to step away from the table, but she seems entirely unperturbed.]

This brings us full circle to my earlier question. Why has it not decomposed?

[I once again considered the question]

The body is just manifested by the energy of the TDEs. Anything that gets separated from it, like the blood, instantly decomposes.

Not decomposes. Disintegrates maybe, though I am not sure even that is the right word. It ceases to be, at least in our physical reality.

So anything trying to eat the corpse of an M-Beast can eat and eat, but it'll just starve.

Exactly.

When the TNE cores are undamaged, they constantly upkeep and provide energy to the body they have created, returning it to an undamaged form as quickly as their output can allow. Damage or destroy one or two on a beast like this one and its strength, mobility, stamina, and regeneration rate all drastically slow. Damage all three and the body is non-functional. Remove or destroy all three, and there is nothing keeping the matter together at all.

You look like your head hurts.

Slightly. We did cover this in Crèche, but it was around this point where I started going cross-eyed. I understand 'the monster has weak points', but TDE physics...

Don't worry, we'll end this particular lesson here. It is lunchtime anyways. And after that, we can talk about Awakenings.