Victor Stone had resigned himself to the fact that he was completely alone in the world. He had comrades, but they were completely organic. He had people he'd consider calling 'friend', but they were organic as well. They had secret identities. They...
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The boom tube vanished behind them as they sauntered through a dimly lit corridor. The coordinates had taken them somewhere underground in the centre of New South Wales, Australia. The walls were lined with thick titanium reenforced concrete and each area was radiation shielded. It was like a bomb shelter...hand-built by someone that was extremely paranoid about the world outside.
Each footstep seemed to reverberate throughout the vicinity...even the rattling of Harper's wheelchair echoed back towards them. Victor had designed it for her mere hours after the operation. It was sleek and highly advanced, as far as wheelchair's went, and had been specifically built to help her in and out of her mechs. It would morph into a skeletal frame that would surround her once inside, primarily so that she could get out whenever she needed to; without having to return to her wheelchair's last location. It would always be with her, and she'd maintain her independence. Victor had made sure of it.
Still, Harper wasn't accustomed to steering one. She struggled to keep a straight line and kept mumbling to herself about connecting it's steering mechanics to her neural implant; so that she could move it with nothing but a thought.
"Where are we?" Bruce asked darkly, a caution in his tone that he didn't even try to hide. He had always been a paranoid man, and for good reason. There was little chance for anyone to take him off guard if he was always expecting the worst anyway.
"This is where I used to conduct most of my research." Harper answered so quickly that her words could be nothing but sincere. There simply hadn't been enough time between the question and the answer for her to construct a convincing lie.
As they continued forward the pathway started to widen until, finally, they reached an incredibly large room. From the very first moment they had all entered, their attention was captured by a stark white bed. Under the equally blinding covers was an old woman with a multitude of tubes running into her arms and neck. Some were to help her breathe, others injected her with a magnetic blue liquid.
Victor scanned her, and though the results were instantaneous, his human mind couldn't comprehend what his tech was trying to tell him. It didn't make sense. Instead of blindly trusting his scans, Victor heard himself ask "Who is that?"
Harper lingered closer to the wrinkled face and readjusted the ventilator mask onto her mouth. "She's me...or rather, the original me. My...progenitor."
Victor's cybernetic body froze in place for several seconds; as if his mind had stalled even the most intricate technology in its shock. Bruce, however, narrowed his eyes at the woman as if this were some elaborate prank. That idea quickly left when his gaze lingered to the many rows of large tubes behind them; each holding a gestating humanoid within.
"What are you talking about, Harper?" Victor pressed, though the answer was being screamed in the back of his head. Usually, he was such a logical person...but this time the information simply wasn't clicking together.
