The Fall of the Society

Chapter 14: Deprived Research

A massively expansive laboratory spread out in front of him. Portions of it were basked in darkness, hiding its secrets in the shadows. The wall directly to his left was lined with large containment units that were not lit up. In front of the cages was a long line of computers, most likely for data entry while observing whatever it was that the units possessed. Casting a glance up and down the hallway, he removed the card shaped device from the panel and stowed it back inside his pocket, before stepping quietly into the room. On the right side of the room was various tables with a wide variety of tools laid out next to them, giving it the appearance of a massive surgery bay. In the middle of the area was a large room that appeared to be a sterile testing room, for experiments that needed the extra layer of precaution. The next thing to catch his eye was the less than inviting shelves in the middle and toward the back wall of the room, covered in specimen jars, all full of a dull brown liquid with varying shapes inside.
The door slid closed behind him leaving him in complete silence other than the low hum of the florescent light bulbs. Moving to his left, he grabbed the mouse of one of the computers and began starting up the machine. He was quite surprised to find that he did not need a password to access the workstation and he was soon browsing through different files. Reaching into the left-hand side of his jacket, he removed two objects that were the size and shape of pen drives. Placing the first one into the USB port, he pressed a button on it and the screen when dark before coming back up and a small dial appeared on the monitor. The dial disappeared and he plugged the second device into the back of the first one and a loading bar materialized on the screen, which began to fill slowly.
Maneuvering the mouse pointer around the screen he selected containment unit one, turning on the lights. What appeared inside the cage when the light hit it was grotesque and horrifying, but what was worse was the look of pure terror in its small beady blue eyes. A small ping sound drew his attention back to the computer and he clicked the mouse button on the end of the now full bar and the monitor began to flip through different files as they were all copied and compiled onto the device. Walking forward he stopped a foot away from the glass and looked harder at the creature that was resting there, he had never seen anything quite like this before. It was huddled into the back corner of the room, shielding its small eyes from the light. Its form looked as though it was originally humanoid but had become much different even though the base form was still visible.
As he studied the creature, he could not find any other features that would suggest it was once human. For the first time it seemed to notice him standing there and locked eyes with him. After a moment the thing began to move slightly, noticeable pain on its face with every move. Its skin was gray and looked oily and oozed what appeared to be pink grease as it slithered and walked across its enclosure. Sid placed his open palm softly onto the glass and waited while the creature stared at his hand. Slowly as if trying to figure out if he was dangerous or not, the creature raised a slimy tentacle that protruded oddly from what he imagined was a shoulder. The appendage looked out of place and ill-fitting compared to the rest of its body. Two stubby legs stuck out the back, which it used to slide itself when moving, but it also used its long front arms to propel it forward. The tentacle wiggled in the air for a moment before coming to rest on the other side of the glass from his hand. It continued moving as if trying to match the shape leaving pink oily streaks but looked frustrated when it was unable to do so. When it finally gave up on trying to mimic the shape, it began waving its tentacles around in front of it, as if trying to relay some sort of message to him. Each movement was accompanied by a grimace of pain. The creature's blue eyes were full of innocents and misery. Finally giving up on its charades, it turned and slumped back to its corner, facing the wall. There was a constant quiver across its oily body as it breathed.
Sid felt nothing but sadness for the monstrosity, it had no say in its creation or its existence. An imprisoned life of pain and misery, likely being the subject of daily test, was not really a life at all. He returned to the monitor and sat in front of it. Quickly clicking in and out of files, he found a master control panel that allowed him to turn on the lights of every one of the containment units. Standing, he quickly turned and walked down the line of cages, each containing some form of creature in it, sporting a wide range of mutations. All sported the same gray oily skin and base humanoid form. After the first, none of the others seemed to be concerned with paying him any attention as he walked down the line of containment units.
Returning up the line he sat at the first computer and noticing that his download was complete, removed the second device and placed it back in his inside pocket. He then began moving between screens again and found one of the things he was looking for, a page that contained the vitals of the creatures. Their heart rates were very high, much higher than a human, and their breathing was jagged, likely due to being in constant pain. The next file he opened was titled Test Subject 745, with a tag of Dr. Olead. It went into detail about how the creature was created by splicing multiple types of DNA into the stem cells of humans that were born with powers. Each individual test would have an added component to see what the different reactions would manifest. They would then put them through a series of test involving different types of painful and pleasant stimuli to see if they could force new mutations, hoping to manifest hybrid powers. So that is what they were currently aiming for at this facility, the creation of new powers, but why. What was their end game?
He moved on to the next file and came across a section titled Boost, with the tag of Dr. Silmot. It described that they had developed a technique that would allow the boost of a current hero's power, but it could have detrimental psychological side effects, some leading to a brain-dead status, others becoming wildly mad and violent. After the first round of trials they found a DNA marker that allowed them to identify heroes that would be compatible with the test, leading to a much higher success rate. The name of the compound they used had been redacted from this particular file.
At this point he cut himself off. If he wanted, he could have spent the entire week sitting and sifting through the data that the Society had collected. Unfortunately, that would have to wait as he had a large amount of the facility left to search. Flicking a switch on his remaining device pulled up a toggle screen and he began punching in commands, another bar appeared on the screen and began filling. Switching out of the screen he found a new file that was labeled Containment Unit Master Control. Opening it he found exactly what he was looking for, a list of options of actions available. Staring at the creatures for another moment, he punched in the first command, Ctrl+G+Enter. A light gas started blowing into the enclosures, causing some of the creatures to lay down, others to fall over. Once they were all asleep, he began looking for another code, finally finding it. Quickly he pressed Ctrl+6+Enter and a very thick black gas began dispersing into the cages, and one by one the vitals on the screen began to flatline. Selecting another option on the list a box appeared on the screen, "Do you wish to enact Purge Protocol?" He typed yes into the box, fire burst from every side of the containment units as a steel protective screen slid into place between the inside of the cage and the glass, hiding the events from sight.
He turned the lights in the units off, just in case the barriers retracted while he was working and selected a program from his device labeled "Cleanse", downloading it onto the computer. As soon as it was ready, he hit Enter and a bar appeared on the screen as files behind it flashed and disappeared as they were deleted. He stared at the computer while all this was happening, just waiting for it to be finished. The level of anger he was now feeling was rising, he hated when people caused undue suffering on anyone or anything but was not surprised about the lack of empathy that the Society showed. He would have to bury the feeling, the mission was more important, the mission is how he would get justice for those the Society had wronged. It took a while longer, in which he sat in silent revere, but the computer's hard drives were finally wiped clean. If the Society was to ever recover these devices, they would not be able to restore any of the data.
A new prompt came up on the computer from the Cleanse program once the files were gone. He typed three hundred into the box and a timer with five minutes on it popped onto the monitor. The screen around the box went black and the keyboard became unresponsive as he stood and moved away from the station. A smile crossed his face, the laboratories own safety systems were about to destroy everything within it.