Project Demi-God

Chapter 5: Collapse

You wake, yet it remains dark. You're conscious, yet nothing can be seen. You are alive, yet everything feels dead.

You take the blanket off your head. Thankfully nobody saw that... At least nobody in this dimension...

Today was one of the scheduled tests, being head of security meant you had to be there to watch over the solver drones lest the humans get pissy. Fortunately the solver drones weren't dumb enough most times to try anything with you around considering a past... Incident... Put simply it took the solver drone a month to be functional again and even then it was still glitchy.

Today's subject of research was Zinc, who unfortunately for him had shown signs of a solver mutation unlike the others. His solver strand manifested in a 'spider-like' way according to the research staff and as such was quite the object of interest right now. Personally, you liked Zinc, he was pretty fun to hang around with when the staff left him alone to relax rather than watching him constantly.

You left your room making your way through the seemingly endless hallways, (they reminded you of a certain dimension with damp walls and fluorescent lights that went on forever) eventually you made it to the room the 'testing' would be done in. The room wasn't anything really special, there was the main observation deck which had bullet proof glass and below was the test chamber where Zinc would be put during the test, hopefully the researchers wouldn't be too brutal, if it got to the point Zinc would rather you decommission him than continue the testing you'd know it was bad. You'd prefer not have to decommission him but you had to keep appearances in front of the humans, if an incident occurred and you remained idle the humans would grow suspicious with Asimov's Law not outright killing you, it was a mystery why it didn't affect Solver drones but that could be explained by the Solver itself being part of them considering how unpredictable the it was.

Within the room was a group of about a dozen different researchers as well as a couple Sentinels, according to the humans they were supposed to act as the site security before you showed up but now they were kinda just there to make the humans feel safe. Oddly enough the Sentinels seemed wary of you, which was weird considering they had low Intelligence and worked on a hive mind, they shouldn't even be able to understand fear since they're made to destroy even the largest of drones, perhaps it would be a subject of your own study at some point?

After a while of waiting the chamber below opened and in walked Zinc along with a human and sentinel escort, he was strapped to a gurney at the center of the room and the human left in what appeared to be a panicked rush. The door to the room latched shut effectively trapping Zinc within and then the 'tests' started.

The tests in question mostly consisted of poking and prodding the current subject with mechanical arms, Zinc was no exception. Some of the arms were equipped with scalpels and other sharp objects that the researchers used to cut open the current subject, others had claws equipped to grab components. Annoyingly, Zinc having a different mutation meant being picked to pieces, which was not fun to watch.

After what felt like hours the humans finished ripping Zinc to pieces and he was dragged back to his room in shambles, the humans proceeded to discuss what little they learned from the dissection and you decided to take your leave, not like they'd notice or care since they weren't 'in danger'. Your walk led to you ending up outside Zinc's room which unsurprisingly was unguarded at the moment. Seriously, the humans fear for their lives yet leave the solver drones unguarded when they're most likely to attack? It's like they wanted to end up destroyed.

You couldn't complain of course since it gave you an easy entrance into the room which you didn't hesitate to use. The room was dark, almost pitch black, the light being extremely dimmed down no doubt caused by Zinc being weakened and the solver preferring a dark environment. In the middle of the room laid the bundle that was what remained of Zinc after the dissection in a bloody oily heap of metal, honestly it was odd that the humans paid no mind to the blood aspect of the solver drones but that was a whole different subject of research. Perhaps a mental effect from the solver?