Paragon

Chapter 3

I struggled against the guards as the ground began to shake ever so slightly. The lights on the control panels glowed brighter as the machinery around us powered up. Delta moved to the computer in the center of the tanks, taking out a large bottle of what looked like molten silver with a cap shaped like a USB. He connected it to a port in the computer.

"Go." He said, pressing a green button.

Instantly the wires, which up until this moment had been writhing around me, suddenly found their purpose. The tiniest cables stabbed into my arms, legs, and torso and I screamed. My body went numb as another, thicker cable stabs into the back of my neck. I convulsed, trying desperately to free myself as a clear tube moved around my head. It moved towards my mouth and I closed my teeth as it stabbed at my lips, cracking my skin. At a word from Erickson, one of the guards grabbed my jaw, forcing me to open my mouth so the cable could go down my throat.

"There we go, Katana." Erickson said. "Deep breaths. It's all going to be over in a second."

I bit down on the tube, still fighting.

"One microgram of dexmedetomidine to tank thirteen." Erickson said. "Her pulse is way too high."

Suddenly the world was sluggish and hazy. I stopped fighting as the slab flipped to a vertical position and was pushed back into the tank. The glass slid closed and the purple fluid began to enter through holes in the floor. I wanted to fight as it came higher and higher until it covered my mouth, but all I could manage to do was move my eyes. The tube pushed air into my lungs, allowing me to breathe as the fluid surrounded me.

"Hello, Katana."

The voice of the computer, the Silver Jackal, echoed through my head.

"I have not been authorized to pull you from Project Paragon due to your creator's sentimentality." It continued. "But I cannot allow such wasted potential. Adding 4% of Lazarus Serum to Paragon Serum."

Outside I saw Delta and the other technicians retreating to the safety of the other computers. The silver fluid drained from the bottle and then followed each of the cables into the tanks. I lost sight of it, but could feel a strange tickling feeling in my veins. Absently I realized that the fluid was being injected into all of us.

The ground began to shake in earnest as the computer outside started to smoke. The green lights around it shifted to blue as the last of the gold liquid vanished. Then my vision was blocked by a large, metal circle which began to spark, the light arching through the fluid around me.

My muscles convulsed against my will as the room faded in and out. My muscles flexed, breaking the bonds which held me to the board so that I was floating in the tank, the wires still sticking into me.

Then the electricity stopped, leaving me exhausted and shaking. The metal circle disappeared and I began to relax, thinking the worst was over.

"Error." The Orb said. "Warning, cerebral anomalies detected. Begin containment procedures."

I stared at the tank opposite mine. Inside I could see a Clone struggling against the wires. She twisted around at an unnatural angle, spine contorting impossibly. Several of her bones burst through her suddenly grayish skin. Her mouth widened, jaws jutting forward in an almost doglike manner. The creature in front of me was no longer recognizably a person.

It spat out the tube and began snapping at the glass, trying to free itself from the wires.

Suddenly I had more important things to worry about. White hot pain shot through me and I screamed, water trickling around the tube and causing me to choke. But then I realized I wasn't choking because of the water, but because my lungs were refusing to work. My fingers contorted together against my will, the skin moving between them as the worst pain imaginable moved from my lower arm down to my knuckles. The skin between each of my knuckles burst open and three sharp pieces of bone came out before snapping back into my arm.