Chapter 2. This one happens to be a flashback character focus switch.
Memories wafted, conversations went in and out, but one event seemed burned into his dream. The one memory he wished he could forget. Peninnah Westhoff came out of the office and sighed. Her long blond hair was held back in a French braid and the shadows under her green eyes undermined her energetic smile. She looked to be no older than fifteen, and yet she wore a clearance badge marked level five. Level five was restricted to more than half of the company's employees. In fact only about twenty percent knew what level five even meant. "I take it you've come for an opportunity to get an interview?" She asked.
The man and woman nodded. They were dressed like any anchor woman and camera man in the country, it hadn't been hard to determine their intentions. "Of course. We're all curious to see what Bioshock Industries is working on." She gave the younger woman a hearty smile.
Pen, as her close colleagues called her smirked. "I'm afraid I can't tell you anything more about our upcoming projects. Bioshock keeps a tight cork on it's information. Our computers aren't even hooked up to the grid. Our entire database is independent of the worldwide system." She winked as though she were giving away some secret. Pen continued down the blue steel hall passing other researchers as she went.
"Not even a little teaser?" The news woman asked. She was in her thirties, dark hair, light eyes, big lips, and a puppy dog pout that Pen disdained.
"Lara, please. I can't tell you more about cyborg technology than I already have. Bionic and cybernetic development remains classified and I can't release info to the press. In two months we make an announcement on whether or not cybernetics will be offered to the general populace, but for now it remains strictly for government use. Military and Law Enforcement require it the most."
"Don't you know the public can't wait two more months? They want to hear something encouraging. Cybernetics may just be the way to save lives from disease so why must it be kept secret?" Lara asked not discouraged to keep asking questions. Pen knew the camera was filming and this was the interview now.
"We keep it a secret because, and this was released to the media six months ago, the data we have is dangerous in the wrong hands. Cybernetics are not toys, they are tools. And we are very aware that a foolish man can put an entire city to waste by toying around with something far too dangerous and complicated for him. I'm not saying the whole world won't get what we're doing. But there are those that we are protecting the world from. Those who intend to abuse the power our research has to offer. Six years ago I joined the team on the first trials of cybernetic enhancements. I saw firsthand the horror that comes of misplaced ideas. There is nothing worse than seeing what you want to use for the greater good, be used for unspeakable evil."
Lara was quiet for a minute and Pen realized it was because she was obviously getting upset. "If you'll excuse me I do have work to get done." Pen said opening an elevator with her pass and climbing inside. The pad scanned her finger matrix and a green light overhead came on.
Pen sighed with relief when the steel doors closed. She still got too emotional about that part, but then what could she say, her family had suffered their mistakes with science.
The elevator came to a stop on the level five section, the topmost floors of the Bioshock building. Which was a monument of steel and glass to scientific progress. It towered above the city like a standard announcing that this town was to be the center of modern science. She walked straight for the operating room.
The room had no windows and DNA locks on the only door in and out. The room was a soft white color, the overhead lights were low so as not to cause initial shock upon an awakening patient. And it smelled like disinfectant and freshly welded metal.
Inside on the table was a familiar man. He was tall and lean, but with broad strong shoulders and a gentle but handsome face. "How is he?" Pen asked the team already at work.
"Trent is in stable condition. We're just replacing the last of the fried circuitry now."
Pen nodded. "Good. What debris were you able to recover?"
"The forensics left it over there." Pen looked where the hand pointed. Her eyes zeroed in on a torn scarf. It was a deep scarlet red. Pen closed her eyes forcing the memories out of her train of thought.
"No." She whispered. "He won't hurt me again." she added. But the agony of her parents' voices rang in her ears like the peals of a bell rung on Sunday morning. She sat down and looked at Trent. His body, so much of which had been replaced with cybernetic and bionic prosthetics, was like a puzzle maze of flesh and metal. Lungs resided within a metal chamber that protected them, along with the other organs they'd managed to salvage.
His heart was gone. And with organ transplants shut down due to black markets there had been no way to replace it with an organic one. A false heart resided in his chest in the proper spot, it was the key to their cybernetic work with him.
His arms were prosthetic, his legs as well, his limbs equipped with an astonishing array of devices that provided super human abilities. His hands were some of the most complex devises known to man. They were equipped with a variety of weapons and every day tools.
Pen had only had a recent hand in his work, now that she was old enough to officially work on the project. But she'd been involved from a very early age, Trent was after all her uncle and sole living relative.
Trent had come in well after midnight that morning, and the work of repairing the damage Cranston did had begun. Cranston had been their one mistake. They'd given a man power, and he'd abused it royally.
Tex Cranston was Trent's half brother and had once been a good friend. But Tex had found he wanted to do more with his newfound power than continue to help protect the world. And when Trent's sister (Tex's half-sister) Marian had seen him the last time he'd gone berserk. No one knew why, except for Trent who had been present, but he wouldn't say anything to anyone about the incident. And he had also taken it upon himself to avenge Marian, and her husband's deaths himself. With the help of Pen of course. She deserved to help.