Part 3
#
General Robert Allen slumped in the corner, unconscious, and Angel paid him no further heed. He had learned everything the General knew about the Initiative and the so-called 314 project. He had also told Angel that the Initiative surveillance system had maintained a live feed of the experiment's proceedings until the explosion had knocked out the cameras.
They had the entire thing on file.
Angel waited for the General's computer to boot up, all the while thinking. Anne, the artificial intelligence in Buffy's head, had told them that Walsh had liked to play things close to her chest. She had told them that the higher-ups in the military probably didn't have a clue what Walsh was doing on a day-to-day basis.
That didn't go together with a live-feed of all the experiments, did it? There was, of course, the possibility that Walsh hadn't known about it, that her superiors had spied on her without her knowledge, but nothing Allen had said suggested anything like that. So either Anne had simply been wrong or ...
The computer flared to life in front of him and Angel called up the files Allen had told him about. They were neatly ordered by date, location, and designation of the experiment. Angel almost smiled as he saw one designated 'Subject: Hostile 17'. That had to be the one where they had put the chip into Spike's brain. Angel decided to take that one along as well so he could watch it later.
Finally he found the files he had been looking for. The 314 experiment. There were quite a few of them and Angel opened the first one.
Design specs for the Adam One android, records of Walsh's building him. Angel skimmed across her notes, interested, but without the time necessary to study them properly. He briefly focused on the metal the android had been forged out of.
Promethean Metal, Walsh had called it. Apparently a steel variant forged from cold iron, several more exotic metals, and something Walsh designated the 'Skin of Proteus'.
Proteus, Angel mused. Greek mythology. Son of Oceanus and Antibe, God of 300 Changes. Legends described how Proteus could change his countenance at will and produced the seemings the Gods of Olympus used when they walked the Earth.
Angel had never met a Greek God, generally dismissing them as myth. Yet he couldn't discount the possibility that the legends had some basis in truth. If that was true, then the properties built into this 'Promethean Metal' could be astounding.
He shook his head. Time to delve further into that at a latter date. He saved all the files on disk, skimming ahead to the ones he was really looking for.
Live feed from the experiment. Pictures of what they did to Buffy. Angel opened the first video file and leaned back to watch.
#
"Truly a magnificent specimen," Walsh said, looking at the girl tied to the operating table in front of her. A smile crossed her lips. She could tell some of the soldiers and scientists helping her had hoped to catch a glimpse of nude Slayer during the proceedings, but Walsh wasn't interested in the girl's body and she didn't want to distract the male help.
"The PaDEC is at full readiness, professor," one of her assistants announced. The pan-dimensional energy converter she had built to harness the mystical energies of Sunnydale's dimensional nexus. Her greatest achievement.
At least until Adam One would awaken.
"Activate the core tap," she told him, then turned toward the young woman standing beside the unconscious Slayer. "You have everything you need?"
"Of course," Colleen Wing said. "I have spent weeks preparing for this. I was ready days ago."
Walsh didn't much care for the witch's attitude, but she was the best mage the government had in its employ. Walsh had seen her files and knew that she had all the necessary skills. And if she wasn't the most pleasant person, well, Walsh knew that she herself wasn't considered the most social of people either.
"Power levels optimal," the assistant guiding the PaDEC told her.
The machines around the laboratory started humming as power was pumped into them. A crimson glare filled the laboratory pit and a tingle of excitement made its way down Walsh's spine. So much power gathered here, all under her control, soon to give birth to the most powerful creature ever to walk the Earth.
"Begin phase one," Walsh ordered the scientists and the witch.
Colleen Wing began to chant, even as the crimson glow began to surround the crimson form of Adam One. Walsh watched her greatest creation as power poured into it, filling it to the breaking point. This would be her finest hour.
A scream pierced the hushed silence of the lab and Walsh saw that the Slayer had come awake. That was a bit of a surprise, the chemicals they had pumped into her should have kept her out for days. There was that same crimson light surrounding her body and she screamed.
Walsh shrugged. Awake or asleep, it didn't make much of a difference now.
Wing touched the Slayer's forehead with one hand, magical power glowing at her fingertips, her other hand reaching out to Adam One. The Slayer's scream intensified even as the wires connecting her to the android start to hum. Technology was at work, digitizing the physically manifest parts of the mind that would become the blueprint for Adam One. At the same time magic was flowing between them, taking those parts that science could not yet grasp. Instincts. Mystical senses. Everything that made the Slayer the greatest of supernatural warriors.
Until today, at least.
The humming died, the chanting fell silent.
"Begin phase two," Walsh ordered
#
Angel paused the recording, needing a break. Seeing her like this, suffering, was almost more than he could bear. Knowing that he hadn't been there to help her, to protect her ...
He shook his head. All this was in the past. Buffy was alive, she had survived this ordeal. And he had to watch it to the end if he wanted to help her find out what had happened to her on that day. All these people who had hurt her were dead now. They had paid for their deeds in full.
With a sigh Angel clicked play once more.
#
"We're having a problem with the core tap," someone yelled at Walsh as the humming of the machines, filled with the power of the nexus, grew a lot louder than it should have been.
"Stabilize," Walsh screamed, running toward her console. Nothing could go wrong! Not now! This was what she had worked for all these years. It was her crowning achievement, her moment of glory. Nothing must go wrong!
Seeing her readings, Walsh knew that something had. Something major.
"Shut down! Go to emergency shutdown!"
#
The cameras were momentarily blinded by the light of the explosion. After a minute or so one of them went back up, showing a lot of static, but still transmitting things from inside the Initiative base. Angel saw burning people, running around in searing pain. He heard screams, terrified screams.
A part of himself he was not proud of almost smiled as he saw Walsh's form on fire, crumbling to the ground. He quickly dragged his eyes away from her and tried to find Buffy in the inferno the camera showed him.
Angel watched as the crimson form of Adam One started moving, making its way out of the wreckage it had been buried in. A part of him remembered all the things the android was supposedly capable of and how dangerous it could be if it had really gotten out, but Allen had already told him all about that before he watched the video, so it didn't faze him much.
It was the other thing he saw that made his blood freeze.
Five minutes later Angel was out of the military base, all the records safely on disk in his coat pocket, but forgotten for the moment. The only thing he knew was that he had to get to Sunnydale as quickly as possible.
"My God," he mumbled to himself as he sped towards his car, fumbling for his cell phone at the same time. "My God!"
TO BE CONTINUED
#
General Robert Allen slumped in the corner, unconscious, and Angel paid him no further heed. He had learned everything the General knew about the Initiative and the so-called 314 project. He had also told Angel that the Initiative surveillance system had maintained a live feed of the experiment's proceedings until the explosion had knocked out the cameras.
They had the entire thing on file.
Angel waited for the General's computer to boot up, all the while thinking. Anne, the artificial intelligence in Buffy's head, had told them that Walsh had liked to play things close to her chest. She had told them that the higher-ups in the military probably didn't have a clue what Walsh was doing on a day-to-day basis.
That didn't go together with a live-feed of all the experiments, did it? There was, of course, the possibility that Walsh hadn't known about it, that her superiors had spied on her without her knowledge, but nothing Allen had said suggested anything like that. So either Anne had simply been wrong or ...
The computer flared to life in front of him and Angel called up the files Allen had told him about. They were neatly ordered by date, location, and designation of the experiment. Angel almost smiled as he saw one designated 'Subject: Hostile 17'. That had to be the one where they had put the chip into Spike's brain. Angel decided to take that one along as well so he could watch it later.
Finally he found the files he had been looking for. The 314 experiment. There were quite a few of them and Angel opened the first one.
Design specs for the Adam One android, records of Walsh's building him. Angel skimmed across her notes, interested, but without the time necessary to study them properly. He briefly focused on the metal the android had been forged out of.
Promethean Metal, Walsh had called it. Apparently a steel variant forged from cold iron, several more exotic metals, and something Walsh designated the 'Skin of Proteus'.
Proteus, Angel mused. Greek mythology. Son of Oceanus and Antibe, God of 300 Changes. Legends described how Proteus could change his countenance at will and produced the seemings the Gods of Olympus used when they walked the Earth.
Angel had never met a Greek God, generally dismissing them as myth. Yet he couldn't discount the possibility that the legends had some basis in truth. If that was true, then the properties built into this 'Promethean Metal' could be astounding.
He shook his head. Time to delve further into that at a latter date. He saved all the files on disk, skimming ahead to the ones he was really looking for.
Live feed from the experiment. Pictures of what they did to Buffy. Angel opened the first video file and leaned back to watch.
#
"Truly a magnificent specimen," Walsh said, looking at the girl tied to the operating table in front of her. A smile crossed her lips. She could tell some of the soldiers and scientists helping her had hoped to catch a glimpse of nude Slayer during the proceedings, but Walsh wasn't interested in the girl's body and she didn't want to distract the male help.
"The PaDEC is at full readiness, professor," one of her assistants announced. The pan-dimensional energy converter she had built to harness the mystical energies of Sunnydale's dimensional nexus. Her greatest achievement.
At least until Adam One would awaken.
"Activate the core tap," she told him, then turned toward the young woman standing beside the unconscious Slayer. "You have everything you need?"
"Of course," Colleen Wing said. "I have spent weeks preparing for this. I was ready days ago."
Walsh didn't much care for the witch's attitude, but she was the best mage the government had in its employ. Walsh had seen her files and knew that she had all the necessary skills. And if she wasn't the most pleasant person, well, Walsh knew that she herself wasn't considered the most social of people either.
"Power levels optimal," the assistant guiding the PaDEC told her.
The machines around the laboratory started humming as power was pumped into them. A crimson glare filled the laboratory pit and a tingle of excitement made its way down Walsh's spine. So much power gathered here, all under her control, soon to give birth to the most powerful creature ever to walk the Earth.
"Begin phase one," Walsh ordered the scientists and the witch.
Colleen Wing began to chant, even as the crimson glow began to surround the crimson form of Adam One. Walsh watched her greatest creation as power poured into it, filling it to the breaking point. This would be her finest hour.
A scream pierced the hushed silence of the lab and Walsh saw that the Slayer had come awake. That was a bit of a surprise, the chemicals they had pumped into her should have kept her out for days. There was that same crimson light surrounding her body and she screamed.
Walsh shrugged. Awake or asleep, it didn't make much of a difference now.
Wing touched the Slayer's forehead with one hand, magical power glowing at her fingertips, her other hand reaching out to Adam One. The Slayer's scream intensified even as the wires connecting her to the android start to hum. Technology was at work, digitizing the physically manifest parts of the mind that would become the blueprint for Adam One. At the same time magic was flowing between them, taking those parts that science could not yet grasp. Instincts. Mystical senses. Everything that made the Slayer the greatest of supernatural warriors.
Until today, at least.
The humming died, the chanting fell silent.
"Begin phase two," Walsh ordered
#
Angel paused the recording, needing a break. Seeing her like this, suffering, was almost more than he could bear. Knowing that he hadn't been there to help her, to protect her ...
He shook his head. All this was in the past. Buffy was alive, she had survived this ordeal. And he had to watch it to the end if he wanted to help her find out what had happened to her on that day. All these people who had hurt her were dead now. They had paid for their deeds in full.
With a sigh Angel clicked play once more.
#
"We're having a problem with the core tap," someone yelled at Walsh as the humming of the machines, filled with the power of the nexus, grew a lot louder than it should have been.
"Stabilize," Walsh screamed, running toward her console. Nothing could go wrong! Not now! This was what she had worked for all these years. It was her crowning achievement, her moment of glory. Nothing must go wrong!
Seeing her readings, Walsh knew that something had. Something major.
"Shut down! Go to emergency shutdown!"
#
The cameras were momentarily blinded by the light of the explosion. After a minute or so one of them went back up, showing a lot of static, but still transmitting things from inside the Initiative base. Angel saw burning people, running around in searing pain. He heard screams, terrified screams.
A part of himself he was not proud of almost smiled as he saw Walsh's form on fire, crumbling to the ground. He quickly dragged his eyes away from her and tried to find Buffy in the inferno the camera showed him.
Angel watched as the crimson form of Adam One started moving, making its way out of the wreckage it had been buried in. A part of him remembered all the things the android was supposedly capable of and how dangerous it could be if it had really gotten out, but Allen had already told him all about that before he watched the video, so it didn't faze him much.
It was the other thing he saw that made his blood freeze.
Five minutes later Angel was out of the military base, all the records safely on disk in his coat pocket, but forgotten for the moment. The only thing he knew was that he had to get to Sunnydale as quickly as possible.
"My God," he mumbled to himself as he sped towards his car, fumbling for his cell phone at the same time. "My God!"
TO BE CONTINUED