The Lives of Two 19 Year Old S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents

Chapter 24 - Experimentation

When I woke up, I was laying on a bed in a concrete room that looked like a prison cell. It had nothing in it except the bed, a small barred window and a thick metal door.

I assessed my condition. I was still wearing my catsuit but everything else was gone. My earpiece, my watch, my belt and even my hair band. I lifted my hand up to my head and felt where the supersoldier had hit me. My head felt sticky and when I brought my hand down, it was covered in blood but, dispite my injury I felt no pain which confused me.

I stood up and immediately noticed that something about me was different from before. I walked the short distance to the door and listened closely. I could hear four people outside.

"Hey," I shouted as I banged on the door. "I need to use the toilet."

It was the best plan I had at short notice.

"Face the opposite wall and put your palms flat on the wall," replied a woman.

I did as she said and a moment later the four soldiers entered. Three men and one woman. Two of them grabbed my wrists and handcuffed them in front of me. The handcuffs were super strong and looked like something they would use on Captain America.

Two of the men grabbed my arms and began to lead me down the corridor while the other man and the woman walked in front of me.

"Who are you?" I asked the men. "What did they do to me? Did they do it to you too?"

No one answered me. None of them even looked at me. I could tell they were all supersoldiers but something seemed off with the way they acted. I recalled the supersoldiers' actions when Chloe and I arrived. Their actions seemed too precise, almost robotic.

We arrived at the bathroom. The woman led me in and the men waited outside. Once we were inside she took off my handcuffs and stood at the door. She watched me closely as I unzipped my catsuit and peeled it off.

"Could you at least turn around?" I asked her.

She didn't respond. I knew they'd already experimented on me. I was obviously stronger or the super strong handcuffs wouldn't be necessary. I finished my business and washed my hands. The woman immediately grabbed me and called in the others to help handcuff me again even though I cooperated. They started walking me back to the cell but one of them got a message in their earpiece telling them to "bring subject 434 to lab 7".

When we got there they shoved me inside and locked me in even though there was no one in there. The door had no windows so I quickly looked around. I probably didn't have much time. There was laptop on one side that was already logged in so I clicked around to see what I could find. I found out that in the four and a half hours that I'd been here they had already put me through "Phase 1" out of three. Phase 1 was the physical enhancements, phase 2, mental and phase 3 locks it all in, enhances it and delivers mind control. Which explained the soldiers' behavior. It said that without the third phase the enhancements would fade away in a few months.

I quickly grabbed a memory stick which was helpfully sitting beside the laptop, plugged it in and started to copy the computer's data onto it. When it was at 78% I heard footsteps down the corridor. I willed the transfer to go faster. As soon as it reached 100%, I pulled it out, stuck it in my bra and walked over to the the other side of the room, just as Skilenski walked through the door.

"Hello, subject 434," he said with a smile. "Today I will be delivering you phase 2. You see we need you conscious for this part so if you could kindly take a seat on the bed, we'll begin."

I did as he said.

"What are you doing to me?" I asked him. "Why? What do you want?"

"Well you see," he responded. "I want to start a war. And for a war, you need soldiers, so I'm creating some of my own. Mind controlled so they'll be loyal and enhanced so they'll have an almost unfair advantage over any opponent."

"Mind controlled?" I asked in fake surprise. "None of your soldiers can think for themselves?"

"Well, I have a special few that aren't fully controlled."

"Like the one that knocked me out."

"Yes, Bronco, he was one of the first, before I developed the mind control."

As he spoke he pushed me into a laying down position and strapped my wrists and ankles down.

"So you're enhanced then," I asked, trying to buy time, though I didn't know what for. It's not like I was getting out of there any time soon with Skilenski and at least four guards to get through.

"Yes, I made myself the strongest so that if any of my soldiers disobeyed me, I could take them down."

"How many are there?"

"Patients 1 through 76 all died and 44 died after that so I have around 350. Soon to be 351."

He inserted a needle into my arm and connected it to a machine. Then, he typed a few things on the computer and a purple liquid started going through the tube. It reached the needle and I was suddenly in agony. My brain felt like it was being stabbed with a million needles while set on fire. I screamed in pain. I could barely breathe.

"Now, that's what I was to hear," said Skilenski. "The sound of progress."