Teleportation systems are used in a wide range of scales with interlinked closed systems. Inner-building teleportation systems, known as Jump Pads or Blink Pads, to transition between levels have been known to be used for security or safety purposes. These systems are required to be equipped with several methods of identification and warning. Warning lights and sides, intensionally identifiable humming, and noticeable magical emissions in the space are all intensionally built into all legal systems. This is because they can go completely unnoticed until triggered. This is what makes teleportation traps so insidious. This also causes hidden teleportation systems to be a staple in many genres of pop culture.
Teleportation is also a known method of capturing people and creatures using small devices known as Jump Tags or Blink Tags. These tags are tied to Capture Cells, enclosed spaces within a constant energy field with no doors or seals.
Both of these methods of transport/capture are only effective within a limited range. The teleportation devices for sending and receiving must be keyed and coded with each other.
“You catch everything I dropped on the automated defenses?” Skitter asked while I crawled up the chute one step at a time.
“Yeah-” I grunted, my voice slightly distorted by the mask I wore to protect from the fumes of the acid pit ten feet below me. “Hidden auto-turrets, laser grids, razor-line net launchers, flamethrowers, disintegration fields, pit traps, blade launcher traps, electrocution field generators.” With each listed threat, I took a step up the shaft wall and gave another grunt. “I miss anything?”
“Not that’s listed in the building systems on the records I’m looking at. But there’s more I should inform of about than the traps.”
“Oh-yeah?” I growled the question.
“Well, for one, the first twenty floors above the ground is a hospital. The Evea Elixium Sanctum. Above the hospital are ten floors of storage. Above that are sixty floors of offices, then another sixty floors of employee housing. The next forty-five floors above that are product production. That’s where they make their commercial medications, medical equipment, and over-the-counter first-aid supplies. The top five floors are for the corp-rat lord offices and meeting areas. It’s at the top where the party is booked.”
“I don’t even want to think of counting, let alone climbing, all the stairs to get there.” I shivered at the idea of how my legs would feel after a climb like that. “The elevators could take me all the way up there, right? Do the subfloor elevators lead to the hospital?”
“Yes?” Skitter asked as much as answered. “I’d assume that’s how they get their people test subjects from hospital to hell hole. What are you scheming?”
“We already know that the freight elevator reaches from ground to roof.” There was a pause in my explanation for me to focus on my breathing as I reached the ceiling of the chute. “They’d also need to reach the storage floors to drop off incoming equipment and-” another grunt slipped out as I adjusted my grip on the cable and my foothold on the wall to allow for a better angle. “-supplies. You said storage is just above the hospital. What if I sneak into the hospital as a patient or janitor just long enough to jump from the subfloor elevator to the freight elevator?”
Skitter was silent for several moments as I inspected a sealed shafted door just across from me. When the hacker answered, he sounded contemplative. “That might work. But I doubt you’ve got any way to keep all that gear with you if you want to look like a patient.”
“You do-” I strained to reach across the shaft with my whole body “-have a point.” My fingers brushed against the hatch with no handle and I growled in irritation. “I’ll just have to ask Khar.” I threw out another snatch at the hatch, to no avail. “Speaking of, I think I’ll need to let you go.”
“Hope your gamble pays off.” were Skitter’s last words before cutting the call.
I pulled myself back against my mounted wall as I sent out a therra-call to Kharmor. He picked up after the first ring with “Trouble?” his tone was on edge, but not nervous.
“Kinda.” I bashfully admitted. “Can you pop the trash disposal chute for me, please? I’ve found myself in a… predicament.”
“How on Anogwin did you get back there?” The surprise was clear in his voice.
“Oh, you know. The normal way. By clawing my way up a shaft over a pit of acid.” I spoke casually, as if the act was simply an everyday occurrence.
“Ives’… You are insane.” Kharmor sounded like he should’ve expected this kind of occurrence. “So that’s how you bypassed the security?”
“Yes. Now open the damned hatch!” I snapped, quickly followed with a hurried “…Please.”
“I got you. Keep your trousers on.”
A few seconds later, the door across from me swung in and down. The opening was filled with an irritating beam of light around a stout shadow, reaching out a hand in offer.
After my bag and my person had fallen through the door, I inspected the local area with a nervous eye. I stood at the end of a soft-lit hallway lined with security doors on either side. Each of the doors bore labels such as ‘Building Generator Housing & Operations’ and ‘Master Server Bay’.
Kharmor gave me a sour look of discomfort before covering his nose as he took a single step back. “You stink like a chemical dump, Ives.”
In response, I peeled off my mask and gave my shirt a long stiff. Sure enough, I wreaked like a chemical-waste spill into a sulfur pit. Whether or not that was better than stinking of sewage, I hadn’t decided.
I looked back to Kharmor as I asked, “Get everything in place?”
“Sure did.” Khar confirmed.
“Disruptors on the generators?”
“Yep.”
“Signal jammer in the comms hub? “
“Yeah.”
“Scrambler in the Auto Defenses Master Control?”
“Of course.” It was obvious Kharmor was starting to get irritated with my pestering. He gave me a telling look as he adjusted the shoulder strap of the gear bag he had entered with.
“And the camera feeds?” I gently pressed. Everything needed to be in place before the show started. I wasn’t about to take any unnecessary gambles if I could help it.
“Ives’.” Kharmor said my name with weight and emphasis. “Calm down.” he said more softly. “Show a bit of faith for the rest of the team.” Khar turned and started down the hall, waving a hand for me to follow. “None of our squad are screw-ups. Don’t try shouldering everything on your own, you loon.”
I didn’t respond to his observations, feeling a bit abashed for my worrying. Instead, I followed behind the Half-Dwarf while I called Ferris to check on his progress. When the call was picked up, I immediately asked, “You and Zynna find the formulas?”
“Uh. Yeah. We found them. But Iver… you’re going to want to come here and see this for yourself.” Ferris spoke in a tone both disturbed and distant. If his words caused me to worry, his tone almost drove me to panic.
“See what for myself?” I pressed.
“Just come to Lab 3342 on the eleventh subfloor. I can’t even put this into words.”
Those two lines had me in a cocktail of feelings. Part of me was worried about what could have Ferris in such a state. But in only slightly less measure, I was ticked off with Skitter for either not knowing about the eleventh subfloor, or he had lied to me. But first, before anything else, I needed to figure out how to go down one floor. And I doubted the elevators would just have easy access to a hidden floor.
“Trouble?” Kharmor enquired as we closed in on the elevators.
“Not sure. Ferris is one floor down and says I need to see… something.” I grumbled in annoyance before I asked, “Any idea how to get down to the floor that shouldn’t exist? I’m pretty sure that the metal box wouldn’t just have a ‘Secret Illegal Laboratory’ button.”
Khar grunted a ‘that’s interesting’ fashion. “Well, that answers one of my own questions.”
I gave the Facet Vein a quizzical look, and he answered without any additional prompting. “I spent some time studying the generators and linked power distribution systems. While under the hood, I noticed that there’s an independent power generator with only two lines sending power straight down. After what you just said, it’s clear that either that concealed floor needs far more power than standard, or there’s a second clandestine level below the first.”
I gave Khar a blended expression between irritation and curiosity, and when I spoke, the tone matched. “While that is fascinating, you didn’t answer my question about getting down there.”
“Don’t get your tail in a knot.” Kharmor chided and teased. “When I rode a car down here, I did notice something. The cars, or at least the one I used, were installed with a hidden teleportation system.”
“You simply just found and identified a concealed system that shouldn’t be noticeable, at all, until active.” I scoffed with a false casual air. “Is this a Facet Vein thing?”
“Is it not a normal Mage thing?” He gave me a perplexed look as we reached the elevator lobby.
“Yeah, no.” I stated, my words and expression colored with irritated amusement. “Hidden teleporters are a common mystery story staple for a reason. The power crystals in them are easily shielded from the large majority of methods of inspection, magical or mundane. That is, other than when the system is primed or active, but that’s only for a few moments.”
Kharmor let out an acknowledging huff. “I always thought that was just a fiction thing to keep the stories engaging. So, yeah, I guess it is a Facet Vein thing. I can sense any myst crystals within a limited range. If I’m close enough, I can even tell you what elements. But, to answer your question about getting down there, I could remotely trigger the system. Though, wouldn’t it just be easier to have Zynna come get you? Their seals did get Zy and Fer down there.”
After chewing on my cheek for a second in thought, I gave Kharmor a weary, yet wary, look before speaking. “I would rather not if I can help it. The way Ferris sounded… disturbed and upset. It’s got my teeth on edge. Besides, I’d bet clat that the teleportation systems in those boxes are monitored. If Zynna came to usher me down, it would be logged. Likely alongside whatever profile she/he is paired to. Meaning she’d/he’d get flagged.” By this point, I had thumbed the elevator call button and the doors opened.
Kharmor gave me a perplexed look with something more I couldn’t quite read. “But… wouldn’t that trigger flags, too?”
I stepped inside the box and turned to explain while Khar followed suit. “Well yes. But it wouldn’t have any ID tied to the flag. Meaning that if you call the security desk and tell them there was a power fluctuation while you were tuning the generators, they’ll likely drop it and move on.”
“I see you using your lobs for something past stressing or complaining.” Kharmor teased.
“Oh shut it, you. Now, if you could please jumpstart the system.”
——————————————————————————————————————
As always, teleportation was not something that agreed with me. There was a flash of light, then falling through another tunnel of stars while I was treated like a dimensionally loose piece of rubber. Then I was retching on my hands and knees in a hallway. The corridor looked similar to the one I had just left from the floor above, only in much better condition.
I stumbled down the hall, reading the hologram signs displaying lab room numbers and project codenames. I found the hologram label reading ‘Laboratory 3342’ beside a pair of reinforced security doors. Instead of knocking or calling Ferris back, I sent him a text, preferring to avoid making unnecessary sounds.
After a few seconds, I heard a door behind the security doors open, and Ferris granted me access. Ferris led me through a man trap door system and into a large room full of science and magic equipment. The space was practically overflowing with the scent of sterilizing chemicals, causing my eyes to brim with unshed tears of discomfort while my nose hairs curled.
I looked to Ferris to ask him what was so important to threaten to derail the plan, but I came up short when I noticed his face. His normally bronzed skin was drained of color, as if he had been attacked by a vampire. His gaze was distant and haunted.
“Fer’. What’s wrong?”
“We found live test subjects. It’s worse than we thought. Much worse.”
“Where are the test subjects?” I asked.
Ferris pointed to a door across the room without looking at it. “If you need me, I’ll be with Zynna in the data room.” Without waiting for my response, Ferris hurriedly walked to another door, passing through and shutting it with nervous energy.
“I’m not going to like this, am I?” I asked the empty room. With no answer coming to my question, I moved to the door Ferris had indicated. Passing through the doorway, I found myself standing in a dead-end hall lined with holding cells. The walls of each cell were Static Kinetic Shields.
The first thing I noticed were the cells themselves. Each was a perfect cube of nine feet, with walls, floor, and ceiling formed from a single Static Kinetic Shield projected from devices at the corners of the energy cube. They were Capture Cells.
Each cell held what once were people, but not anymore. There were dozens of these Capture Cells, and each one I glanced in was occupied. Every cell along the walls also displayed a hologram label, list of details, and charts reading the information of each occupant. I quickly realized that the energy walls of each capture cell functioned similarly to one-way glass. I could see in, but the subjects couldn’t see out.
Every occupant I saw was deformed, and the further down the hall I went, the more nightmares I collected.
The first dozen cells held victims marred with asymmetric growth masses of inflated muscle and tissue. One victim displayed a bulbous bicep the size of a sports ball in one arm, while the same muscle on the opposite arm remained in natural proportions. Another victim’s lower lip and right cheek were so enlarged that I would’ve thought that a whole nest of particularly venomous wasps had stung him. These men and women were in varying states of despair, rage, or desperation. Some sobbed in a corner or their space. Others screamed at seemingly nothing.
I checked the notes and readings of a few of the test subjects, chosen at random. There were no names, only serial numbers used to identify each victim. Below each subject’s serial number, were details on their physical state when they started the process and compared them to their current physical state. Below the state comparison were notes on how many doses of a formula the individual had been subjected to and what results arose.
The farther down the hall I walked, the more malformed the subjects I passed were. I also noticed something as I started to encounter the older test subjects. The longer someone had survived this nightmarish process, the more mutations. More and more split skin and exposed muscles. But the more mutated the subject, the less sapient and more animalistic they acted. It seemed that surviving the process regressed the mental capacity of the test subjects.
When I started encountering subjects that had entered the second phase of the process, I only grew more disturbed. With the addition of the second formula, those affected had their inflated muscle masses reduced, gradually, back down to almost normal proportions. That would have been a relief if it weren’t for the other effects of Formula Two. Almost all the test subjects that were in the second phase had their skin over any dense muscle groups split. From those wounds, I saw that the muscle tissue was shifting to… something else. Muscles, tendons, sinew, and bone were being shifted to similar material, if not the same material. The material underneath was almost metal, almost fabric, almost flesh, but not fully any one of these. These strange materials developed in seemingly random colors but held to a similar pallet per each individual. Here was a shifted arm that was the color of concrete, there was an exposed pectoral that was the color of copper. I could find so set a pattern from the changes of one subject to another, beyond that of the strange material their bodies were shifting into.
This development was concerning enough. That concern escalated to a disturbed near-panic when I saw the test subjects that had survived into late Phase Two. Their skin began to fall from their body in rotting tatters. The gaps in the decaying membrane showed what looked like armor plates and other unidentifiable changes.
The mental changes continued deeper into this malevolent second phase. The subjects, only just starting the second stage of changes didn’t act animalistic. Instead, early in this stage, they were rabid, rampaging monsters who doubtlessly would kill anything they could find. This was an upsetting realization, but I continued my inspections.
The test subjects that were massively changed by Phase Two simply stood in the center of their cells, like automatons awaiting activation. Their eyes were soullessly blank or simply altogether missing, rotted from their skull. But this nightmarish development in their state caused no distress or discomfort. They merely stood there, barely breathing, if they were breathing at all.
I reached the end of the hall. I couldn’t even call the subjects in these cells Sophic Species anymore. They seemed more alien than person. As I scrutinized the notes on one of the last subjects, the one in the cell next door collapsed to the floor, convulsing. I hurried over, franticly trying to think of some way to help, even despite knowing their state. The vital sign readings on the wall were flashing red and displaying what I could only call abnormal numbers. The thing I could no longer call a person fell limp before I could even look for a way to open the cell.
I stared at the corpse with a whirlpool of mixed feelings. Should I have tried harder to save them? Was death a sweet end to whatever nightmare they were living in? Should I kill the others? It would stop their suffering and cripple any studies the corporation was making. Could they be changed back instead? Was there some way to revert the alterations? Even if I could reverse the physical changes somehow, what about the mental de-evolution? Would they simply stay as raging monsters or motionless flesh machines? What should I do?
I was startled out of my mental spiral when a buzzer sounded in the hall. I recoiled from the cell I had been looking into, panicking as I thought I had triggered an alarm somehow. However, the buzzer stopped, and the cell with the dead test subject lowered through the floor, and the row moved to fill the gap. It was an automated corpse disposal system. Most likely, the cell would be moved to another lab for the corpse to be dissected before disposal.
With my inspection of the space complete, I power-walked to the exit. The only thing stopping me from sprinting was the strictly conditioned part of my mind that told me not to burst through doors screaming in a mega-sky scraper full of enemies, even if I had ten floors between me and the ground floor. As I reached the door, I off-handedly noticed that the first cell on the side that disposed of the corpse was empty, with a label that simply read ‘Vacant’.
I found Zynna and Ferris in the other room, attached to the main laboratory space. The room was slightly smaller than the main lab, and computer terminals occupied every inch of space against the walls. The other two stood over a single holo-display screen. Zynna, still appearing as the High Elf lab worker, piloted the device via hand motions and holo-keyboard while Ferris read over her shoulder.
“You find the data we need to wipe?” I asked as I approached, trying and mostly succeeding to sound stable and unphased by the previous discovery.
“Yeah.” Zynna said. “We have all the notes on every test subject they’ve run through this torture chamber. All of them have died and are labeled ‘Incomplete Subject’, whatever that means.”
I stepped on the other side of the Copkin and inspected the screen he was reading. “What have you found about this stuff? I want to know what they are doing to these poor bastards.”
“Let me pull up the Master Notes document.” Zynna made a few taps, and a new document appeared on the display. I read it carefully.
-Muscle and soft tissue expansion mutation: standard result with no exceptions. Mutations are multiplicative.
-Subjects’ sense of pain is greatly reduced, and aggression is heightened with each application.
-Subject’s metabolism is massively accelerated. (Subjects require feeding every four hours to maintain an optimal state. Will die of starvation after a two-day period with less than 12 meals)
-Subjects express preternatural strength and speed after three doses. Results are further amplified with additional dose applications.
Note: All attempts and more frequent doses have resulted in failure. Set dose count limit to 12 doses over 24 days.
-Soft tissues converted to HiTenE ComMat (High-Tensile Elastic Compound Material) Type 1 -> Type 7
-Cortical Bone converted to Cortical Steel
-Bone Marrow converted to SoR Cell(Semi-organic Repair Cell) replicators
-Skin converted to HiTenE ComMat Type 8, Type 9, and Type 10
-Organ Adaptation Process begins
Note: Stage 2 leaves subjects in an unstable, partly shifted state. Maximum material conversion of a subject’s body has been 46%. Starting at 23%-26% conversion, subjects’ begin to become more docile. At approximately 25%-29% conversion, subjects stop normal motor functions. Upon reaching 37%-40% conversion, subjects’ body begins failing standard functions. Digestive system begins shutting down, resulting in likely expiration by malnutrition. Brain function almost completely stops, rendering subjects into a near-coma-like-state. If the subject has not expired from other causes, they will expire upon reaching 47% conversion, from severe BMCS (Body Material Conversion Shock). We need the Stage 3 formula and methods to finish the conversion.
Deceased Subject Autopsy Notes
-Subjects begin developing unique Epidermis, tissue, and bone pigments with slight mutative growths in localized regions across the body. Have yet to determine pattern to mutative growth development or placement.
-All subjects have expired from stress on any remaining vital systems not converted during Stage 2. Might be fixed if the process is sped up rapidly enough to minimize prolonged stress. Will need to be careful to not force shift too rapidly to prevent conversion shock.
-Because of the material conversion, the carbon content of the cadavers is elevated several-fold. This has, in-part, caused the cadavers to become much more resilient. Changes to the Emergency Incinerator have been made to compensate for this durability.
Note to be forwarded to Lab Techs Noah McClane and Mathew Stew:
The cadavers are producing significantly more ash when cremated than is standard. The ash has been clogging the Flame Emission Jets as soon as any body reaches 95% breakdown. Cleaning those jets is your current role. Be sure to wait for the furnace chamber to cool and dump before you crawl in. I doubt that I need to remind what the incinerator dumps into. We don’t need any more acid-related deaths this year.
*************
I read each line with careful scrutiny for anything critical. Unfortunately, almost everything that looked to be a key component in the process was a foreign language to me. The lines of substance code labels were total gibberish to me. They likely needed to be cross-referenced with a database for the normal names. Even overlooking the substance codes like STE:22AV and MC-CC:HTECM-whatever, there were still several terms I didn’t recognize. Cy-Cells, SoR Cells, HiTenE ComMat?
While the note-writer did leave the full name of several of these terms, they sounded closer to cybernetic terminology than anything relating to drugs or mutations. What I did understand was that the process was changing the victims into something not totally organic and it was killing them.
I straightened up from reading the display and took a slow breath before saying, “I don’t like this. Not a single bit.”
“We should kill them.” Ferris fumed.
I gave him a tired but questioning look with a single arched brow. “Them who? Them: The Scientists and Mystgenists? Them: The Test victims? Them: The Corp-rat Officers at the party above?”
“All of the above?” He half asked/half answered in a tone dripping with anger, emotional exhaustion, and toxic sarcasm. Paired with this half answer, Ferris gave a broad sweep of one hand as if gesturing to all the absent targets he was mockingly asking to murder.
I was just about to tell Ferris that his request wouldn’t exactly be easy and would throw our current plan right off the roof of the mega-sky scraper. I was interrupted by Nennel calling me.
“Hey, Ives’, the guests are arriving, and I think we’re going to need to change the plan given how they’re outfitted.” I could hear the nervous edge in Nel’s words. Her tense tone was almost enough to throw me over the edge into a fit of lashing anger.
Instead, I hissed a few curses, stomped my feet as I paced back and forth a few times while I thought, then moved on. “I’ll be right up.” I told Nennel. With a flick of my hand, I killed the call.
“Trouble?” Ferris asked.
“Reworking the plan on the fly because at least one preverbal fire popped up, but I expect more.” I turned to Zynna. “The Capture Cells have an installed teleportation, right? That should be how they get subjects in and out of the cells.”
“Let me check.” Zynna said as he traversed the computer's internal data space. He leaned back with a low whistle of surprise before she said, “Yeah, the cells have teleportation triangulation systems installed. How did you know?”
“Because, Capture Cells are designed to never shut down unless damaged. In order to move someone into or out of one of those cells requires teleportation.” I turned to Ferris, “Fer, can you find the tags for the cells?” Then I turned back to Zynna. “You looked at the building systems diagrams. This lab has an independent powerline, correct?”
“Yes?” Zynna gave me a worried look.
“Can you check to see if the floor below us is an autopsy space?”
The Copkin’s expression morphed from worry to paranoia at my question, but he did as I asked. “First, how did you know there was another floor below ours? Second, how did you know it was an autopsy space? And most importantly, what, in the mouth of madness, are you thinking?” Zynna asked.
I answered Zynnas chain of questions with an amused air, I didn’t truly feel. “Well, A: Khar mentioned there were two power lines leading down. Which is also why I had to check to make sure this lab specifically was on independent power. Two, I just witnessed a cell in the other room containing a fresh corpse descend to the floor below. And thrice…” I gave both Zynna and Ferris a malicious smirk, “Trouble. I’ll give you details closer to the fireworks. Right now, what you need to know is to stay here, at or near this computer terminal.”
“And me?” Ferris asked as he walked back to me with a small blink tag in one hand and on display.
“You’re going to help me.” I said, while I pulled up my map of the building and started plotting.
“We’re gonna put out those fires you mentioned?”
“Not exactly.” I gave Ferris a malicious grin. “Where are the rest of the tags?”
Ferris simply pointed a strong box mounted to a nearby wall while giving me a quizzical look. I moved to collect a fistful of specific tags as I gave my cryptic answer. “We’re going to start a few fires of our own.”
A few seconds later, the door across from me swung in and down. The opening was filled with an irritating beam of light around a stout shadow, reaching out a hand in offer.
After my bag and my person had fallen through the door, I inspected the local area with a nervous eye. I stood at the end of a soft-lit hallway lined with security doors on either side. Each of the doors bore labels such as ‘Building Generator Housing & Operations’ and ‘Master Server Bay’.
Kharmor gave me a sour look of discomfort before covering his nose as he took a single step back. “You stink like a chemical dump, Ives.”
In response, I peeled off my mask and gave my shirt a long stiff. Sure enough, I wreaked like a chemical-waste spill into a sulfur pit. Whether or not that was better than stinking of sewage, I hadn’t decided.
I looked back to Kharmor as I asked, “Get everything in place?”
“Sure did.” Khar confirmed.
“Disruptors on the generators?”
“Yep.”
“Signal jammer in the comms hub? “
“Yeah.”
“Scrambler in the Auto Defenses Master Control?”
“Of course.” It was obvious Kharmor was starting to get irritated with my pestering. He gave me a telling look as he adjusted the shoulder strap of the gear bag he had entered with.
“And the camera feeds?” I gently pressed. Everything needed to be in place before the show started. I wasn’t about to take any unnecessary gambles if I could help it.
“Ives’.” Kharmor said my name with weight and emphasis. “Calm down.” he said more softly. “Show a bit of faith for the rest of the team.” Khar turned and started down the hall, waving a hand for me to follow. “None of our squad are screw-ups. Don’t try shouldering everything on your own, you loon.”
I didn’t respond to his observations, feeling a bit abashed for my worrying. Instead, I followed behind the Half-Dwarf while I called Ferris to check on his progress. When the call was picked up, I immediately asked, “You and Zynna find the formulas?”
“Uh. Yeah. We found them. But Iver… you’re going to want to come here and see this for yourself.” Ferris spoke in a tone both disturbed and distant. If his words caused me to worry, his tone almost drove me to panic.
“See what for myself?” I pressed.
“Just come to Lab 3342 on the eleventh subfloor. I can’t even put this into words.”
Those two lines had me in a cocktail of feelings. Part of me was worried about what could have Ferris in such a state. But in only slightly less measure, I was ticked off with Skitter for either not knowing about the eleventh subfloor, or he had lied to me. But first, before anything else, I needed to figure out how to go down one floor. And I doubted the elevators would just have easy access to a hidden floor.
“Trouble?” Kharmor enquired as we closed in on the elevators.
“Not sure. Ferris is one floor down and says I need to see… something.” I grumbled in annoyance before I asked, “Any idea how to get down to the floor that shouldn’t exist? I’m pretty sure that the metal box wouldn’t just have a ‘Secret Illegal Laboratory’ button.”
Khar grunted a ‘that’s interesting’ fashion. “Well, that answers one of my own questions.”
I gave the Facet Vein a quizzical look, and he answered without any additional prompting. “I spent some time studying the generators and linked power distribution systems. While under the hood, I noticed that there’s an independent power generator with only two lines sending power straight down. After what you just said, it’s clear that either that concealed floor needs far more power than standard, or there’s a second clandestine level below the first.”
I gave Khar a blended expression between irritation and curiosity, and when I spoke, the tone matched. “While that is fascinating, you didn’t answer my question about getting down there.”
“Don’t get your tail in a knot.” Kharmor chided and teased. “When I rode a car down here, I did notice something. The cars, or at least the one I used, were installed with a hidden teleportation system.”
“You simply just found and identified a concealed system that shouldn’t be noticeable, at all, until active.” I scoffed with a false casual air. “Is this a Facet Vein thing?”
“Is it not a normal Mage thing?” He gave me a perplexed look as we reached the elevator lobby.
“Yeah, no.” I stated, my words and expression colored with irritated amusement. “Hidden teleporters are a common mystery story staple for a reason. The power crystals in them are easily shielded from the large majority of methods of inspection, magical or mundane. That is, other than when the system is primed or active, but that’s only for a few moments.”
Kharmor let out an acknowledging huff. “I always thought that was just a fiction thing to keep the stories engaging. So, yeah, I guess it is a Facet Vein thing. I can sense any myst crystals within a limited range. If I’m close enough, I can even tell you what elements. But, to answer your question about getting down there, I could remotely trigger the system. Though, wouldn’t it just be easier to have Zynna come get you? Their seals did get Zy and Fer down there.”
After chewing on my cheek for a second in thought, I gave Kharmor a weary, yet wary, look before speaking. “I would rather not if I can help it. The way Ferris sounded… disturbed and upset. It’s got my teeth on edge. Besides, I’d bet clat that the teleportation systems in those boxes are monitored. If Zynna came to usher me down, it would be logged. Likely alongside whatever profile she/he is paired to. Meaning she’d/he’d get flagged.” By this point, I had thumbed the elevator call button and the doors opened.
Kharmor gave me a perplexed look with something more I couldn’t quite read. “But… wouldn’t that trigger flags, too?”
I stepped inside the box and turned to explain while Khar followed suit. “Well yes. But it wouldn’t have any ID tied to the flag. Meaning that if you call the security desk and tell them there was a power fluctuation while you were tuning the generators, they’ll likely drop it and move on.”
“I see you using your lobs for something past stressing or complaining.” Kharmor teased.
“Oh shut it, you. Now, if you could please jumpstart the system.”
As always, teleportation was not something that agreed with me. There was a flash of light, then falling through another tunnel of stars while I was treated like a dimensionally loose piece of rubber. Then I was retching on my hands and knees in a hallway. The corridor looked similar to the one I had just left from the floor above, only in much better condition.
I stumbled down the hall, reading the hologram signs displaying lab room numbers and project codenames. I found the hologram label reading ‘Laboratory 3342’ beside a pair of reinforced security doors. Instead of knocking or calling Ferris back, I sent him a text, preferring to avoid making unnecessary sounds.
After a few seconds, I heard a door behind the security doors open, and Ferris granted me access. Ferris led me through a man trap door system and into a large room full of science and magic equipment. The space was practically overflowing with the scent of sterilizing chemicals, causing my eyes to brim with unshed tears of discomfort while my nose hairs curled.
I looked to Ferris to ask him what was so important to threaten to derail the plan, but I came up short when I noticed his face. His normally bronzed skin was drained of color, as if he had been attacked by a vampire. His gaze was distant and haunted.
“Fer’. What’s wrong?”
“We found live test subjects. It’s worse than we thought. Much worse.”
“Where are the test subjects?” I asked.
Ferris pointed to a door across the room without looking at it. “If you need me, I’ll be with Zynna in the data room.” Without waiting for my response, Ferris hurriedly walked to another door, passing through and shutting it with nervous energy.
“I’m not going to like this, am I?” I asked the empty room. With no answer coming to my question, I moved to the door Ferris had indicated. Passing through the doorway, I found myself standing in a dead-end hall lined with holding cells. The walls of each cell were Static Kinetic Shields.
The first thing I noticed were the cells themselves. Each was a perfect cube of nine feet, with walls, floor, and ceiling formed from a single Static Kinetic Shield projected from devices at the corners of the energy cube. They were Capture Cells.
Each cell held what once were people, but not anymore. There were dozens of these Capture Cells, and each one I glanced in was occupied. Every cell along the walls also displayed a hologram label, list of details, and charts reading the information of each occupant. I quickly realized that the energy walls of each capture cell functioned similarly to one-way glass. I could see in, but the subjects couldn’t see out.
Every occupant I saw was deformed, and the further down the hall I went, the more nightmares I collected.
The first dozen cells held victims marred with asymmetric growth masses of inflated muscle and tissue. One victim displayed a bulbous bicep the size of a sports ball in one arm, while the same muscle on the opposite arm remained in natural proportions. Another victim’s lower lip and right cheek were so enlarged that I would’ve thought that a whole nest of particularly venomous wasps had stung him. These men and women were in varying states of despair, rage, or desperation. Some sobbed in a corner or their space. Others screamed at seemingly nothing.
I checked the notes and readings of a few of the test subjects, chosen at random. There were no names, only serial numbers used to identify each victim. Below each subject’s serial number, were details on their physical state when they started the process and compared them to their current physical state. Below the state comparison were notes on how many doses of a formula the individual had been subjected to and what results arose.
The farther down the hall I walked, the more malformed the subjects I passed were. I also noticed something as I started to encounter the older test subjects. The longer someone had survived this nightmarish process, the more mutations. More and more split skin and exposed muscles. But the more mutated the subject, the less sapient and more animalistic they acted. It seemed that surviving the process regressed the mental capacity of the test subjects.
When I started encountering subjects that had entered the second phase of the process, I only grew more disturbed. With the addition of the second formula, those affected had their inflated muscle masses reduced, gradually, back down to almost normal proportions. That would have been a relief if it weren’t for the other effects of Formula Two. Almost all the test subjects that were in the second phase had their skin over any dense muscle groups split. From those wounds, I saw that the muscle tissue was shifting to… something else. Muscles, tendons, sinew, and bone were being shifted to similar material, if not the same material. The material underneath was almost metal, almost fabric, almost flesh, but not fully any one of these. These strange materials developed in seemingly random colors but held to a similar pallet per each individual. Here was a shifted arm that was the color of concrete, there was an exposed pectoral that was the color of copper. I could find so set a pattern from the changes of one subject to another, beyond that of the strange material their bodies were shifting into.
This development was concerning enough. That concern escalated to a disturbed near-panic when I saw the test subjects that had survived into late Phase Two. Their skin began to fall from their body in rotting tatters. The gaps in the decaying membrane showed what looked like armor plates and other unidentifiable changes.
The mental changes continued deeper into this malevolent second phase. The subjects, only just starting the second stage of changes didn’t act animalistic. Instead, early in this stage, they were rabid, rampaging monsters who doubtlessly would kill anything they could find. This was an upsetting realization, but I continued my inspections.
The test subjects that were massively changed by Phase Two simply stood in the center of their cells, like automatons awaiting activation. Their eyes were soullessly blank or simply altogether missing, rotted from their skull. But this nightmarish development in their state caused no distress or discomfort. They merely stood there, barely breathing, if they were breathing at all.
I reached the end of the hall. I couldn’t even call the subjects in these cells Sophic Species anymore. They seemed more alien than person. As I scrutinized the notes on one of the last subjects, the one in the cell next door collapsed to the floor, convulsing. I hurried over, franticly trying to think of some way to help, even despite knowing their state. The vital sign readings on the wall were flashing red and displaying what I could only call abnormal numbers. The thing I could no longer call a person fell limp before I could even look for a way to open the cell.
I stared at the corpse with a whirlpool of mixed feelings. Should I have tried harder to save them? Was death a sweet end to whatever nightmare they were living in? Should I kill the others? It would stop their suffering and cripple any studies the corporation was making. Could they be changed back instead? Was there some way to revert the alterations? Even if I could reverse the physical changes somehow, what about the mental de-evolution? Would they simply stay as raging monsters or motionless flesh machines? What should I do?
I was startled out of my mental spiral when a buzzer sounded in the hall. I recoiled from the cell I had been looking into, panicking as I thought I had triggered an alarm somehow. However, the buzzer stopped, and the cell with the dead test subject lowered through the floor, and the row moved to fill the gap. It was an automated corpse disposal system. Most likely, the cell would be moved to another lab for the corpse to be dissected before disposal.
With my inspection of the space complete, I power-walked to the exit. The only thing stopping me from sprinting was the strictly conditioned part of my mind that told me not to burst through doors screaming in a mega-sky scraper full of enemies, even if I had ten floors between me and the ground floor. As I reached the door, I off-handedly noticed that the first cell on the side that disposed of the corpse was empty, with a label that simply read ‘Vacant’.
I found Zynna and Ferris in the other room, attached to the main laboratory space. The room was slightly smaller than the main lab, and computer terminals occupied every inch of space against the walls. The other two stood over a single holo-display screen. Zynna, still appearing as the High Elf lab worker, piloted the device via hand motions and holo-keyboard while Ferris read over her shoulder.
“You find the data we need to wipe?” I asked as I approached, trying and mostly succeeding to sound stable and unphased by the previous discovery.
“Yeah.” Zynna said. “We have all the notes on every test subject they’ve run through this torture chamber. All of them have died and are labeled ‘Incomplete Subject’, whatever that means.”
I stepped on the other side of the Copkin and inspected the screen he was reading. “What have you found about this stuff? I want to know what they are doing to these poor bastards.”
“Let me pull up the Master Notes document.” Zynna made a few taps, and a new document appeared on the display. I read it carefully.
-Muscle and soft tissue expansion mutation: standard result with no exceptions. Mutations are multiplicative.
-Subjects’ sense of pain is greatly reduced, and aggression is heightened with each application.
-Subject’s metabolism is massively accelerated. (Subjects require feeding every four hours to maintain an optimal state. Will die of starvation after a two-day period with less than 12 meals)
-Subjects express preternatural strength and speed after three doses. Results are further amplified with additional dose applications.
Note: All attempts and more frequent doses have resulted in failure. Set dose count limit to 12 doses over 24 days.
-Soft tissues converted to HiTenE ComMat (High-Tensile Elastic Compound Material) Type 1 -> Type 7
-Cortical Bone converted to Cortical Steel
-Bone Marrow converted to SoR Cell(Semi-organic Repair Cell) replicators
-Skin converted to HiTenE ComMat Type 8, Type 9, and Type 10
-Organ Adaptation Process begins
Note: Stage 2 leaves subjects in an unstable, partly shifted state. Maximum material conversion of a subject’s body has been 46%. Starting at 23%-26% conversion, subjects’ begin to become more docile. At approximately 25%-29% conversion, subjects stop normal motor functions. Upon reaching 37%-40% conversion, subjects’ body begins failing standard functions. Digestive system begins shutting down, resulting in likely expiration by malnutrition. Brain function almost completely stops, rendering subjects into a near-coma-like-state. If the subject has not expired from other causes, they will expire upon reaching 47% conversion, from severe BMCS (Body Material Conversion Shock). We need the Stage 3 formula and methods to finish the conversion.
Deceased Subject Autopsy Notes
-Subjects begin developing unique Epidermis, tissue, and bone pigments with slight mutative growths in localized regions across the body. Have yet to determine pattern to mutative growth development or placement.
-All subjects have expired from stress on any remaining vital systems not converted during Stage 2. Might be fixed if the process is sped up rapidly enough to minimize prolonged stress. Will need to be careful to not force shift too rapidly to prevent conversion shock.
-Because of the material conversion, the carbon content of the cadavers is elevated several-fold. This has, in-part, caused the cadavers to become much more resilient. Changes to the Emergency Incinerator have been made to compensate for this durability.
Note to be forwarded to Lab Techs Noah McClane and Mathew Stew:
The cadavers are producing significantly more ash when cremated than is standard. The ash has been clogging the Flame Emission Jets as soon as any body reaches 95% breakdown. Cleaning those jets is your current role. Be sure to wait for the furnace chamber to cool and dump before you crawl in. I doubt that I need to remind what the incinerator dumps into. We don’t need any more acid-related deaths this year.
*************
I read each line with careful scrutiny for anything critical. Unfortunately, almost everything that looked to be a key component in the process was a foreign language to me. The lines of substance code labels were total gibberish to me. They likely needed to be cross-referenced with a database for the normal names. Even overlooking the substance codes like STE:22AV and MC-CC:HTECM-whatever, there were still several terms I didn’t recognize. Cy-Cells, SoR Cells, HiTenE ComMat?
While the note-writer did leave the full name of several of these terms, they sounded closer to cybernetic terminology than anything relating to drugs or mutations. What I did understand was that the process was changing the victims into something not totally organic and it was killing them.
I straightened up from reading the display and took a slow breath before saying, “I don’t like this. Not a single bit.”
“We should kill them.” Ferris fumed.
I gave him a tired but questioning look with a single arched brow. “Them who? Them: The Scientists and Mystgenists? Them: The Test victims? Them: The Corp-rat Officers at the party above?”
“All of the above?” He half asked/half answered in a tone dripping with anger, emotional exhaustion, and toxic sarcasm. Paired with this half answer, Ferris gave a broad sweep of one hand as if gesturing to all the absent targets he was mockingly asking to murder.
I was just about to tell Ferris that his request wouldn’t exactly be easy and would throw our current plan right off the roof of the mega-sky scraper. I was interrupted by Nennel calling me.
“Hey, Ives’, the guests are arriving, and I think we’re going to need to change the plan given how they’re outfitted.” I could hear the nervous edge in Nel’s words. Her tense tone was almost enough to throw me over the edge into a fit of lashing anger.
Instead, I hissed a few curses, stomped my feet as I paced back and forth a few times while I thought, then moved on. “I’ll be right up.” I told Nennel. With a flick of my hand, I killed the call.
“Trouble?” Ferris asked.
“Reworking the plan on the fly because at least one preverbal fire popped up, but I expect more.” I turned to Zynna. “The Capture Cells have an installed teleportation, right? That should be how they get subjects in and out of the cells.”
“Let me check.” Zynna said as he traversed the computer's internal data space. He leaned back with a low whistle of surprise before she said, “Yeah, the cells have teleportation triangulation systems installed. How did you know?”
“Because, Capture Cells are designed to never shut down unless damaged. In order to move someone into or out of one of those cells requires teleportation.” I turned to Ferris, “Fer, can you find the tags for the cells?” Then I turned back to Zynna. “You looked at the building systems diagrams. This lab has an independent powerline, correct?”
“Yes?” Zynna gave me a worried look.
“Can you check to see if the floor below us is an autopsy space?”
The Copkin’s expression morphed from worry to paranoia at my question, but he did as I asked. “First, how did you know there was another floor below ours? Second, how did you know it was an autopsy space? And most importantly, what, in the mouth of madness, are you thinking?” Zynna asked.
I answered Zynnas chain of questions with an amused air, I didn’t truly feel. “Well, A: Khar mentioned there were two power lines leading down. Which is also why I had to check to make sure this lab specifically was on independent power. Two, I just witnessed a cell in the other room containing a fresh corpse descend to the floor below. And thrice…” I gave both Zynna and Ferris a malicious smirk, “Trouble. I’ll give you details closer to the fireworks. Right now, what you need to know is to stay here, at or near this computer terminal.”
“And me?” Ferris asked as he walked back to me with a small blink tag in one hand and on display.
“You’re going to help me.” I said, while I pulled up my map of the building and started plotting.
“We’re gonna put out those fires you mentioned?”
“Not exactly.” I gave Ferris a malicious grin. “Where are the rest of the tags?”
Ferris simply pointed a strong box mounted to a nearby wall while giving me a quizzical look. I moved to collect a fistful of specific tags as I gave my cryptic answer. “We’re going to start a few fires of our own.”
I found Zynna and Ferris in the other room, attached to the main laboratory space. The room was slightly smaller than the main lab, and computer terminals occupied every inch of space against the walls. The other two stood over a single holo-display screen. Zynna, still appearing as the High Elf lab worker, piloted the device via hand motions and holo-keyboard while Ferris read over her shoulder.
“You find the data we need to wipe?” I asked as I approached, trying and mostly succeeding to sound stable and unphased by the previous discovery.
“Yeah.” Zynna said. “We have all the notes on every test subject they’ve run through this torture chamber. All of them have died and are labeled ‘Incomplete Subject’, whatever that means.”
I stepped on the other side of the Copkin and inspected the screen he was reading. “What have you found about this stuff? I want to know what they are doing to these poor bastards.”
“Let me pull up the Master Notes document.” Zynna made a few taps, and a new document appeared on the display. I read it carefully.
-Muscle and soft tissue expansion mutation: standard result with no exceptions. Mutations are multiplicative.
-Subjects’ sense of pain is greatly reduced, and aggression is heightened with each application.
-Subject’s metabolism is massively accelerated. (Subjects require feeding every four hours to maintain an optimal state. Will die of starvation after a two-day period with less than 12 meals)
-Subjects express preternatural strength and speed after three doses. Results are further amplified with additional dose applications.
Note: All attempts and more frequent doses have resulted in failure. Set dose count limit to 12 doses over 24 days.
-Soft tissues converted to HiTenE ComMat (High-Tensile Elastic Compound Material) Type 1 -> Type 7
-Cortical Bone converted to Cortical Steel
-Bone Marrow converted to SoR Cell(Semi-organic Repair Cell) replicators
-Skin converted to HiTenE ComMat Type 8, Type 9, and Type 10
-Organ Adaptation Process begins
Note: Stage 2 leaves subjects in an unstable, partly shifted state. Maximum material conversion of a subject’s body has been 46%. Starting at 23%-26% conversion, subjects’ begin to become more docile. At approximately 25%-29% conversion, subjects stop normal motor functions. Upon reaching 37%-40% conversion, subjects’ body begins failing standard functions. Digestive system begins shutting down, resulting in likely expiration by malnutrition. Brain function almost completely stops, rendering subjects into a near-coma-like-state. If the subject has not expired from other causes, they will expire upon reaching 47% conversion, from severe BMCS (Body Material Conversion Shock). We need the Stage 3 formula and methods to finish the conversion.
Deceased Subject Autopsy Notes
-Subjects begin developing unique Epidermis, tissue, and bone pigments with slight mutative growths in localized regions across the body. Have yet to determine pattern to mutative growth development or placement.
-All subjects have expired from stress on any remaining vital systems not converted during Stage 2. Might be fixed if the process is sped up rapidly enough to minimize prolonged stress. Will need to be careful to not force shift too rapidly to prevent conversion shock.
-Because of the material conversion, the carbon content of the cadavers is elevated several-fold. This has, in-part, caused the cadavers to become much more resilient. Changes to the Emergency Incinerator have been made to compensate for this durability.
Note to be forwarded to Lab Techs Noah McClane and Mathew Stew:
The cadavers are producing significantly more ash when cremated than is standard. The ash has been clogging the Flame Emission Jets as soon as any body reaches 95% breakdown. Cleaning those jets is your current role. Be sure to wait for the furnace chamber to cool and dump before you crawl in. I doubt that I need to remind what the incinerator dumps into. We don’t need any more acid-related deaths this year.
*************
I read each line with careful scrutiny for anything critical. Unfortunately, almost everything that looked to be a key component in the process was a foreign language to me. The lines of substance code labels were total gibberish to me. They likely needed to be cross-referenced with a database for the normal names. Even overlooking the substance codes like STE:22AV and MC-CC:HTECM-whatever, there were still several terms I didn’t recognize. Cy-Cells, SoR Cells, HiTenE ComMat?
While the note-writer did leave the full name of several of these terms, they sounded closer to cybernetic terminology than anything relating to drugs or mutations. What I did understand was that the process was changing the victims into something not totally organic and it was killing them.
I straightened up from reading the display and took a slow breath before saying, “I don’t like this. Not a single bit.”
“We should kill them.” Ferris fumed.
I gave him a tired but questioning look with a single arched brow. “Them who? Them: The Scientists and Mystgenists? Them: The Test victims? Them: The Corp-rat Officers at the party above?”
“All of the above?” He half asked/half answered in a tone dripping with anger, emotional exhaustion, and toxic sarcasm. Paired with this half answer, Ferris gave a broad sweep of one hand as if gesturing to all the absent targets he was mockingly asking to murder.
I was just about to tell Ferris that his request wouldn’t exactly be easy and would throw our current plan right off the roof of the mega-sky scraper. I was interrupted by Nennel calling me.
“Hey, Ives’, the guests are arriving, and I think we’re going to need to change the plan given how they’re outfitted.” I could hear the nervous edge in Nel’s words. Her tense tone was almost enough to throw me over the edge into a fit of lashing anger.
Instead, I hissed a few curses, stomped my feet as I paced back and forth a few times while I thought, then moved on. “I’ll be right up.” I told Nennel. With a flick of my hand, I killed the call.
“Trouble?” Ferris asked.
“Reworking the plan on the fly because at least one preverbal fire popped up, but I expect more.” I turned to Zynna. “The Capture Cells have an installed teleportation, right? That should be how they get subjects in and out of the cells.”
“Let me check.” Zynna said as he traversed the computer's internal data space. He leaned back with a low whistle of surprise before she said, “Yeah, the cells have teleportation triangulation systems installed. How did you know?”
“Because, Capture Cells are designed to never shut down unless damaged. In order to move someone into or out of one of those cells requires teleportation.” I turned to Ferris, “Fer, can you find the tags for the cells?” Then I turned back to Zynna. “You looked at the building systems diagrams. This lab has an independent powerline, correct?”
“Yes?” Zynna gave me a worried look.
“Can you check to see if the floor below us is an autopsy space?”
The Copkin’s expression morphed from worry to paranoia at my question, but he did as I asked. “First, how did you know there was another floor below ours? Second, how did you know it was an autopsy space? And most importantly, what, in the mouth of madness, are you thinking?” Zynna asked.
I answered Zynnas chain of questions with an amused air, I didn’t truly feel. “Well, A: Khar mentioned there were two power lines leading down. Which is also why I had to check to make sure this lab specifically was on independent power. Two, I just witnessed a cell in the other room containing a fresh corpse descend to the floor below. And thrice…” I gave both Zynna and Ferris a malicious smirk, “Trouble. I’ll give you details closer to the fireworks. Right now, what you need to know is to stay here, at or near this computer terminal.”
“And me?” Ferris asked as he walked back to me with a small blink tag in one hand and on display.
“You’re going to help me.” I said, while I pulled up my map of the building and started plotting.
“We’re gonna put out those fires you mentioned?”
“Not exactly.” I gave Ferris a malicious grin. “Where are the rest of the tags?”
Ferris simply pointed a strong box mounted to a nearby wall while giving me a quizzical look. I moved to collect a fistful of specific tags as I gave my cryptic answer. “We’re going to start a few fires of our own.”
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