Secrets
The hall was even more cold and bleak as Terra had remembered. It had been winter when she had last been here but even now, in the middle of summer, the walls emitted the same frigid temperatures as they had more then a year ago. This time Terra stopped at one of the doors lining the hall and looked inside. Each room had been cleared out almost completely, save a few strange looking parts that had been removed from larger pieces of machinery that where scattered about on the floors of each room. The workers had obviously been in a hurry to clear this place out; she wondered if they knew that she was coming. Terra stopped when she came to the final door, she became aware that her heart beet had increased and she was breathing heavily. The thought occurred to Terra that she might be frightened of what lay beyond the door. Her dedication must have been blocking that terror out, because she did not feel any fear.
She took one more step and the door automatically slid open. Directly in front of her sat the cloning vat, her place of birth, her mechanical whom. Her eyes narrowed as she stepped into the interior of the room, she regarded the tank with disgust and she swung wide as to avoid getting to close to it. Immediately after she had passed by the tank Terra noticed that the room was bigger then she had remembered, about three times actually. She examined the ceiling and found two hidden walls that had acted as barriers to block her from seeing whatever was hiding in the room with her last time, these walls now where retracted back up into their ceiling compartment and the rest of the room was visible. One of the newly exposed sections of the room was empty, what ever was there the workers had taken out on the helicopter. From the looks of it they must have had to make several trips or used multiple transports to take all this equipment from all these now hollow rooms. She must have just showed up as the last transport was preparing to leave, and a good thing to, the other side had not yet been touched. Large computer screens and multiple keyboards where suspended by long mechanical arms. There was a single office chair sitting in the center of all the equipment, like a hub to a large technical wheel. Terra thought for a moment, then sat down in the chair. Some sort of lever was activated by the sudden pressure on the chair, the two large hidden walls fell from the ceiling with fighting speed and cut her off from the rest of the outside world, then each of the screens simultaneously clicked on, with a small, single worded question printed on each of their large screens,
"Password?" Terra cursed under her breath, she had never known anything about computers let alone enough to hack into a top security government one. When she glanced around the room there didn't seem to be any other way out, so she scooted the chair closer to the keyboard and leaned to look at the screen closer.
She had no idea of what the password might be so she began to make random guesses. Monkey, incorrect, nachos, incorrect, type B, incorrect, Beast Boy, incorrect, Hunter, incorrect, Ann, incorrect, you fucking machine let me in, incorrect, Terra… their was a flurry small clicking sounds as the computer contemplated the information, then another word replaced the password entry panel. Excepted, Terra was stunned that it was in fact her name that had granted access to the hidden files, the machine clicked several more times then a young woman's voice rose from the speakers, "Greetings General Hunter what category do you wish to select." The screen changed and six selections appeared in the center of the screen.
1. The Organization
2. Torrent
3. Ann
4. Thousand Blades
5. Terra
6. Reborn
She placed the mouse pointer over the icon that had "the Organization" listed across its surface. Terra cursed again when yet another password question appeared, she clicked back to the list and tried the icon for Torrent. The screen changed and a picture of a younger but as always, smiling Torrent appeared on the largest screen. To the right of the photo was a long listing of characteristic related to the boy. All of witch Terra was already affiliated with. Ann had spent a considerably long time with the young wild boy so she at least knew as much as Hunter did about Torrent. Terra browsed lightly for a few more minute then clicked back. She clicked into Ann's section next. Another picture with a large box of text, this one however had another section beneath the text and photo. In large bold letters the words, OPERATION: CLEAN SLATE, read under the girls smiling school photo. Even further down the page was another long text block. The first part of the text was purely dedicated to explaining the inner workings of Ann's physic abilities, most of this part Terra was forced to skip over because of the amount of indiscernible technical phrases used in the explanation. Next came the history of how the operation came into being. The search for a compatible subject to power the project had been under way for nearly a decade, searching sects had been placed all over the world and in almost every major city. They finally found Ann near home, but before they could capture her she was snatched away by the organization's previous attempted project recruit, Torrent. After the wild boy had stolen her away, the organization had apparently looked for another like her to continue operation: Clean Slate but had turned up empty handed. They had gone after her but had been equally unsuccessful in recapturing Ann. The final part of operation: Clean Slate was just what Hunter had said it would be, the control and eventual destruction of all the gifted in the world. Terra smiled and was pleased in the fact that she had helped to foil that plan. Next she clicked on the section called Thousand Blades.
A photo of her assassin, Splice, appeared and a short explanation of each of his acquired abilities. Terra read this section carefully, not just because that this would be the boy who would be sent to kill her, but also because he seemed to have been created in a way similar to how she was brought into the world. She found herself wondering what the real color of his eyes might have been instead of the demonic black they had been transformed into. The same control that Splice had been forced under had been meant for her as well, and she would have been yet another addition to Hunter's mindless army. After observing the photo for several more moments she scrolled down the page. Beneath was a list of his genetically placed abilities.
Damage resistance, all but the most forceful of injuries will cause harm to this subject of project thousand blades.
Artificial training, the entire record of fighting techniques available to the US government is placed into the subject's memory.
Ocular enhancements, any form of light or ray, which is normally invisible to the human eye, can be detected by the subject's prototype improvements.
If Hunter could do this with genetics there was no doubt in Terra's mind that he had the ability to clone her, or anyone as a matter of fact. The sudden connection she felt with her assassin felt strange, but it was justified, they where both children of the same abomination of science. Terra returned to the menu.
Her site confirmed all the information the she already knew, both she and her sister Type B where the same person at one time, and like her Terra was meant to have become another servant like her malevolent sister. She didn't feel like reading over her painful history so she skipped the historical section, under that was a list of abilities, she knew each of them well, beneath that was updates on her current actions. Terra was apparently was doing a pretty good job on avoiding Hunter and his goons, because they had no idea of her whereabouts ever cense Torrent removed the tracking device from her hip. She clicked back to the icon list and selected the final category. She gasped and pushed away from the screen when a photo of Beast Boy appeared. He was unconscious (at least she hoped he was) and suspended in a large tube with wires similar to the one's she had been connected to when she awoke from this room attached to him. There was a paragraph to the right of the photo, it was shorter then the others.
Reborn's subject has been chosen to be the green changeling, his unstable genetic structure make it simpler to genetic tamper and alter his structure so more complex mutations will be possible. Unlike the project Thousand Blades, no additional DNA will be added, just alterations of the current structure. As in project Thousand Blades however the increase of damage resistance shall be put into place. His ability to change his form allowed him to heal himself and he survived the procedure. No mental control or tampering will be necessary; Hunter has an experimental form of control that he believes will work much better. Complete transformation of his physical structure will no longer be possible, only partial section of his body can be morphed, his head and basic torso must remain whole. He is no longer limited to the animal kingdom however; any type of transformation can mentally imagine will be within his reach. Strength, agility and speed have each nearly tripled in the short time that we have had to work with the subject. Strange black stripes have appeared on his skin, they slightly resemble those of a tiger or cheetah but are thicker and less numerous. We believe they might be similar to the designs that formed on the Thousand Blade subject's skin; witch marks a success on the damage resistance experiment. No physical mutations have been recorded or are projected to occur, his tolerance to the sedative however is growing at an exponential rate, and soon we will have to find another way to subdue his increasing aggression. Type B will not allow any more then a small fraction of drug to be used at one time. It is a challenge that my team and I shall rise to meet. The next report will be posted shortly.
Dr. Spencer, Hunter Labs Nevada
The horror grew and grew within Terra as she read deeper into the article. The though of her Beast Boy being experimented on by insane scientists filled her with a very explicit rage. Type B being present only fuelled the flames within her more. Hunters Labs Nevada had a link next to it, Terra clicked on it and a large satellite photo map appeared. A small blinking red dot marked each of the lab sites, one dot for where she sat, another in the mountains to the north, all alone and away from the others, then one where Beast Boy was sleeping, beyond the mountains and past the dry desert. She touched the screen where the dot steadily pulsed, as if she could feel Beast Boy was that much closer.
A sharp beeping noise began and one of the other smaller screens snapped on. The camera outside had been triggered by something moving just beyond the wall in front of her. It scanned the empty room for several seconds and Terra saw nothing, then Torrent stepped in and looked around the room with a confused look on his face, he scratched his head and his smile faded a little. Terra breathed out heavily, she found the release button and clicked it. The walls groaned heavily then began to retract into the ceiling. Torrent jumped slightly then crouched as if preparing for a fight. He saw Terra and calmed down. She smiled slightly and waved at Torrent,
"Hi Torrent, where's Ann. I gotta talk to you guys." He stood erect and his smile grew to it former intensity, then he jerked his head in the direction of the exit and began to walk back down the hall. Terra stood from the chair and started to follow Torrent down the hall. She stopped just before stepping up into the tool shed and turned back to look down the cold hall way. Torrent stopped as well and looked at her then cocked his head to one side in confutation of why she had stopped,
"One last thing." Terra raised her hand and the yellow aura from about them, Torrent took several extra steps backward. The earth rumbled and the metal walls creaked and cracked in response. Then in one moment of overwhelming force and sound the metal rooms and their hallway imploded in upon itself. Shards of rock and metal flew past Terra; she stood resolute as Torrent jumped out of the way to doge a particularly large splitter of metal. A sharp piece of shrapnel flew past her eye and left a small cut across her right cheek. The rumbling ceased and Terra dropped her hands to her side, and the lab was gone, nothing left but rubble and memories. Terra turned and walked past Torrent and out into the twilight.
Ann was sitting on the ground next to the helicopter with her knees tucked into her chest as she studied the sky. When Terra and Torrent emerged she stood and ran over to meet them.