On planet Xenomorph 1, Ringo's clone was trying to understand his new ability.
Two black horned beetles with shiny carapaces were in his hands, they were as big as his hands, but the beetles were fast asleep due to his Nightmare ability. Ringo was trying to understand the limits of this fusion ability, so he chose these two weak beings, the base of the food chain on this planet, basically food for Xenomorphs.
By placing the Beetles together, Ringo activated his ability.
Before his astonished eyes, the beetles' carapaces seemed to take on a gelatinous texture, sticking together. Ringo froze as soon as he saw this, his concentration breaking, and the beetles that were in the process of fusing seemed to awaken, letting out squeaks of pain.
They fought against this strange form before ultimately dying due to organ failure, as their organs could not withstand this bizarre shape.
Ringo didn't move, staring at the strange creature on his workbench.
He froze because he hadn't expected this, he thought his ability was connected to souls and he was ready to try merging the souls of the two beetles. At most, the new soul could merge with one of the bodies, but... the two bodies began to merge directly!
Ringo swallowed hard, curious and apprehensive, he discarded the mutant carcass and picked up two other beetles.
This time he didn't freeze, as soon as the beetles began to fuse, he didn't try to control the process, simply throwing energy at them and watching what happened.
The beetles continued sleeping, as if they didn't feel the process, his evolutionary energy probably doing the work of "anesthesia".
Without his control, everything was done based on "best possible" scenarios.
Not for Ringo himself, but for the Beetle itself, it was purely genetic selection, but both beetles were of the same species, so when it was all over, what Ringo saw was just a beetle of the same type, but bigger, with a harder carapace and other minor advantages.
Ringo ignored the outward appearance and observed the soul with its Nightmare power, the soul had grown stronger, that was a fact, but perhaps due to the creature's low level of awareness, there hadn't been any major changes.
Beetles of the same species, basically at the same life stage with similar consciousness, resulted in practically an overall improvement.
Ringo watched Beetle as he let him wake up. Beetle seemed a little strange in his new body, not because the body was actually different, just that it was bigger, so he wasn't used to it.
It's like putting a child in an adult's body, the child wouldn't have the coordination to walk around freely and would need to adapt.
Ringo paused thoughtfully for a moment before leaving, this time bringing back a creature that looked like a hairless rabbit, but plumper and with thicker fur. He took the same beetle and put it to sleep. This time he repeated the process, without trying to influence the evolutionary direction, but his nightmare energy focused on the souls of both, simply analyzing the process.
This time, even without him editing anything, the process was much slower.
First came the body. The bodies of the rabbit and the beetle slowly merged, Ringo watched as the new creature emerged from a strange, gelatinous mass of flesh.
The result could give someone nightmares, it looked more like a rabbit, but it had six legs, the hind ones were thicker, and a layer of black chitin covered its body, with enough space for quick movements.
Its mouth resembled that of a beetle, with appendages for pulling in food and a mouth full of serrated teeth, its eyes had grown larger and had an extra layer over them, its rabbit ears had disappeared, leaving only two holes on the sides of its head hidden by the carapace.
Sharp claws protruded from its fingers, and its bushy tail had vanished.
Ringo watched the creature for a moment, but the process wasn't over, after the body merged, it was the soul's turn.
This time it was much more complicated. The beetle in question was omnivorous, able to eat both meat and vegetables, but the rabbit was purely herbivorous. In the end, they remained omnivorous, but their lifestyles also changed. The rabbit was used to hiding in burrows while the beetle camouflaged itself in the vegetation. In the end, the new creature preferred burrows...
With each choice, not only did the soul change, but also the animal's brain, adjusting to the choices on a genetic level, it was incredibly strange to witness.
It took a few minutes, each selection being made at high speed, luckily the compatibility of the souls wasn't too bad, so in the end everything worked out without major setbacks.
When the new creature awoke, it tried to jump, but tripped over new legs that had appeared out of nowhere. Ringo realized that its act of jumping away indicated that the rabbit's movement habits had been selected.
The rabbit/beetle panicked and kept trying to move, jumping and struggling all over the place. Ringo just watched for a while before activating his evolutionary dominance and helping the rabbit adapt to its new form.
It worked, within minutes the rabbit/beetle calmed down, acting as if it had had that form its entire life.
Ringo took a deep breath. This little guy was just created randomly, but he really was a new creature. If he created another one, it could even reproduce.
Curiously, the creature remained a mammal, which surprised him a little, but not too much.
Shaking his head, Ringo had no interest in this new species that was basically created out of thin air in a random experiment, there was no real use for it beyond its strangeness, so he simply dismissed it, instead going out again and returning moments later with two other people.
One alien had so many wrinkles that it wasn't even possible to see its eyes and mouth, and another looked like a human, except for its red skin.
Galactic pirates who attacked his planet served as guinea pigs or a food source for the xenomorphs, unfortunately, these two were too weak to serve as food, only Grade E, so he kept them as guinea pigs.
Thus, these would be the next unlucky ones to help him understand his ability.