Chapter 21: Lasers 'a' Plenty

As Marcus began to walk through the door that was leading out of the Research Room, he spotted by a blinking camera; staring at him on the wall in the far corner of the balcony area. He looked at up with both confusion and seriousness on his face. The camera looked back at him; emotionless and cold with feelings. Marcus walked forward and back into the steel corridor with the glass mirrors covering the side walls.

Just as Marcus had made it about half way into the corridor, both steel doors at either end swung shut and locked themselves.

"What the hell!" Marcus spoke; rushing towards the far end door to try to open it, but couldn't. "Dam it! The security computer systems must have locked me in." He turned back round. "Liam, Daniel. Come in, can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear Marcus!"

"I'm in a bit of a situation here."

"Yeh we know, we can see. It looks like the main computer systems have initiated the top level locks on both doors. You won't be able to open them."

"But you can, right?"

"Yeh, it'll take some time, but we should be able to hack into the security codes and unlock the door you need to go through."

"Alright, let me know when you're done." But just as Marcus was about to turn off his D.C. and turn back round, there was a quick and sudden start of buzzing sounds that Marcus did not like the sound of. He turned back round and just as he expected, out of the sides of the wall appeared a dozen or so bright, thick red lasers; as hot as the sun that were about to start moving…..fast. "Oh you've got to be f---ing kidding me!" Marcus spoke "LIAM, DANIEL, HURRY WITH THOSE SECURITY CODES, NOW!"

The first laser rushed down the corridor at a low level and Marcus easily managed to jump over it; at which the laser de-activated itself and disappeared. The second laser came rushing down; however this one was at a higher height. Marcus bent his body down to avoid it and the second laser disappeared too.

But then, two more lasers came rushing at the same time; one at knee level, the other at shoulder level.
"S---, looks like it's time to use some acrobatic moves!" And within a few seconds, Marcus jumped horizontally through the gap in-between the two lasers; making his body completely flat and straight and narrowly avoided being hit and seriously injured by the lasers. Flipping back up onto his feet upon landing, he looked back at the other lasers that were about to rush towards him too.

Suddenly, instead of them all separately charging towards him, every laser rushed forward together.

"Oh give me a f---ing break for Christ's sake!" And just as the lasers were near him, Marcus pulled off the near impossible by back flipping in mid-air and flipping through the air; avoiding all contact with the lasers which was then followed by him front-flipping forwards to get through a tight gap in the middle of all those lasers. Somehow, Marcus had avoided all the lasers which by now had disappeared. Marcus rushed over to the exit door to try and unlock it, but it was to no avail.

"Guys, anywhere near it?"

"Nearly Marcus, Liam's just hacked into the security database and he just searching now for the unlocking mechanism codes."

"Alright, that's good."

"Oh and by the way, nice moves back there, never knew you could do that."

"What! You mean you saw all that?"

"Yeh, we saw your thermal image moving through the corridor on the map. Remind me to ask you to teach me that once all this is over."

Marcus smiled and laughed softly. "Yeh sure, whatever!" But his smile quickly disappeared off his face as Marcus' attention was snatched away and beamed straight at all the lasers that had appeared again. They were ready to try to strike Marcus one more time; all together at the same time.

"Great, not this again!"

The lasers rushed down the corridor. Marcus couldn't see an opening or gap in-between the lasers, so he was left with only one manoeuvre. Marcus turned back round and just as he heard the buzzing of the lasers directly behind him, he pulled off another impressive trick and ran up the corridor wall; jumping back and back-flipping off the wall to end up behind the lasers.

But just as Marcus had thought the lasers had disappeared for good, they appeared once more time, but this time, they were linked together; in the form of a chequered multi-laser. Marcus knew it was impossible to get through it since the square holes were too tiny for him to pass through. He started rushing down the corridor in order to avoid getting hit by the combined lasers. But he soon came to the end of the corridor by one of the doors. Turning back round and leaning against the door, he quickly got his D.C. back out and started yelling into it.

"Hurry up! These lasers are gunna slice me into pieces if yer' don't do sumin quick! HURRY!" Marcus shouted with a worried look on his face.

"Come on bro! COME ON! He's gunna die if you don't find it soon! COME ON, HURRY UP!"

"Yelling at me IS NOT HELPING!" Liam replied; hitting away at the keyboard buttons; desperately searching for that security de-activation code.

"COME ON GUYS, THIS THING'S RIGHT NEAR ME!"

"COME ON LIAM!"

"Alright, I found it!" Liam pressed down on the Enter key and a huge buzz of gripping tension flooded the surroundings both outside and inside.

Liam and Daniel froze as they waited to see if they had stopped the lasers in time……or not. Back in the metal corridor, Marcus was gripping and leaning right back on the wall; scrunching up his eyes and gritting his teeth; thinking he was going to die. But slowly he opened his eyes to see that the lasers had stopped only a few centimetres away from touching him.

"Errrrr, Marcus……you……there?"

"Yeh, what took yer' so long?" Marcus sarcastically asked; at which point Liam and Daniel breathed a huge sigh of relief. The lasers disappeared and Marcus slowly walked back up to the other door. As it automatically opened near him, Marcus continued his mission and made his way back down one of the other corridors and down towards the main core of the underground area of the MI6 headquarters.

Meanwhile, in a large white bright room somewhere in another lower basement level in the headquarters, Stan lay on a nearly horizontally flat cold table. He was still wearing nothing apart from the white boxer shorts that the machine gave him while he was asleep. But at last, after so long asleep, Stan was beginning to wake up. He shook his head and longish short black hair to the sides slightly and stretched his arms as he began to open his eyes to the sight of a bright and light-filled room with a table in the middle of it; the same table that he was now sitting on.

He began to scratch his side, but his fingers soon scratched against something rough on his torso. As he looked down at himself, he noticed a long line of stitches going across the lower half on the right side of his chest and then crossing just onto his stomach area. He had no idea why he had stitches across his body, but it looked as if his body had been opened up for some reason.

"W-where the hell am I?" Stan spoke. "Oh god, am I in that stupid dream again or sumin? Probably not, this stupid table's here. Wait a minute, if I'm awake and this isn't a dream, then that means………hey wait, where the hell am I anyway!"

At which point, a grey steel door at the far end began to open. Stan looked at it; not knowing what to expect. It was at this point that he realised that his feet had been cuffed with chains to the table; something which quite annoyed him, considering he had no idea where he was or what was going on.

"Ah, I see you're awake Stan……good, did you enjoy your sleep?" A man in a long white over-coat and doctor-like clothes said as he walked through the door and up towards Stan.

"Who are you? Where am I! What's going on here?"

"Shhhh."

"Don't shush me, I'm asking a question here."

"Shhhhh."

"I just……"

"Shhhh"

"I just….."

"Shhhhhh"

"I"

"Shhhhh"

"………………I ju…"

"Shhhhh"

"Stop f---ing shushing me!"

"Very well, I didn't want to use this, but I guess it's the only way to get you to be responsive." The man pulled out a syringe full of a colourless liquid and quickly injected it into Stan's arm; much to the dislike of Stan. Stan started to feel slightly light-headed and he lay back down on the table; not knowing what kind of liquid this guy had just injected into his body. "Now then Stan, I'm going to ask you a few questions and I want you to answer them truthfully, alright?"

"Ehhhhhhhhh!" Stan murmured as he still felt the dizziness effect.

"Are you feeling any forms of sickness feelings inside you."

"Ehhhhhhhh……no…ehhhhhh!"

"Alright……have you eaten any forms of strange substances in the past year that may have been different in any way?"

"Ehhhhhh……what do I look like, a f---ing stunt guy or sumin, no!"

The questions continued on. However unaware to Stan, the same thing was going on in the other three exactly identical rooms; that were positioned right next to one another next to the room that Stan was in. And just like Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman had been injected with that liquid stuff after expressing just how annoyed and pissed off they were about the fact that they all didn't know what the hell was going on.

About half an hour later back at the other area of the basement area, Marcus had found himself having to crawl through a ventilation shaft in order to get to the next basement level of the underground area of the headquarters.

"Bloody hell, I can't believe I'm doing this. I feel like some sort of thief doing this."

"Alright Marcus, it's the next vent panel on the right, that should take you to a flight of stairs that'll lead you to Basement Level 2."

"Cheers guys!"

"Oh and one more thing, all lights have been turned off in the lower regions of this level, so it looks like you'll have to use those thermal-imaging specs you brought with yer' to see where yer' going. That and both the infra-red and x-ray goggles too."

"Alright guys." Marcus spoke as he carefully removed the vent panel off the wall and carefully dropped down into a dim lit corridor which took Marcus to a back-and-forth flight of stairs. Marcus got his gun back out and moved his thermo specs over his eyes; turning them on to see where he was going. All he saw now was purple, black and a few odd areas of bright colour, but it was enough to allow him to see where he was stepping and where he was going.

His footsteps echoed through the empty multiple level corridors as Marcus walked slowly across the metallic floor and down the stairs. As he started to walk through the Basement Level 2 part of the corridor, he noticed doors either side of the corridor that lead off to different rooms. For some odd reason, Marcus had seen these doors before, but wasn't sure when. As he reached the end of the corridor and up towards another main door, he turned off his specs, lifted them up and turned on his torch; shining it on the door's area name label.

"That's it……that's why I remember this place well. This was where it all happened…this is where they did all those things to me." As Marcus slowly opened the big steel door he walked through into a much lighter corridor filled with strange glass tanks and research equipment. Marcus' mind had become flooded with memories that he wishes he could have forgotten, for on the label on the big steel door was written: 'Research & Experimentation Sector'.

As Marcus began to walk through what seemed like a huge room, he would now and again look at the glass containers and capsules that scattered the sides of the room. Full of different-coloured liquids; of which were both thin and dense, they gave off a weird glow and buzzed with a strange noise that you would expect to hear in normal scientific research centres. As he left the dimness of the room, he began to walk through a multiple selection of smaller rooms and experimentation rooms. But it wasn't long before the sight of past equipment had frozen him in his tracks.

"There it is……the thing I dreaded for so long back then." He spoke as he walked up to the computer module of the device. He began reading the only data log that had been written in it.

"MI6 Log; 21/07/2004 – 16:17

The final stage of Kane-Bridge's experimentation process has finished. This Omega device was successful in infusing him with oxyrigodradite liquid by means of its metallic wire string systems. Final scans of Kane-Bridge have confirmed that the compounds and liquids are working to the maximum level. Kane-Bridge's strength, speed, skill and reaction levels are now at a higher and more reasonable level. With Delta Radiation particles in his body, we will be able to track him now whilst on his mission.

However most researchers have questioned why it was necessary to use this device on Kane-Bridge. After all, he does not possess any Core Unit inside him. Still, MI6 officials say it was important to do this since it would help us in seeing any possible outcomes or side-effects of the injected liquids and compounds. Now that we know that the Alpha phase has been a success, we can go ahead with using this once we have the four subject targets of America in our possession. This time, we will not make the same mistake as we did with the four Australians; our plan WILL go accordingly."

"Holy s---, they're gunna use this thing on the four boys. Bloody hell, I gotta find 'em before I'm too late!" But before Marcus could make his way out of the room, the door handle began to move. Expecting the obvious, Marcus quickly hid behind one of the room's pillars and carefully looked around its corner to see who was coming inside the room.

The door opened slowly and in stepped two MI6 officials dressed in both black and white clothes.

"So, I heard the four boys are awake now then?" The first official spoke.

"Yeh, MI6 thought it'd be necessary at this time. After all, they're doing that stupid question-asking thing in the four isolation rooms in the Level 3 Basement anyway."

"But does that mean they're going to begin the errrrrr you know, the next part or phase of this whole thing?"

"Probably, once they're done whatever they're doing, they'll probably take 'em to the theatre nearby and begin the operation on them."

"Operation! You mean………that operation?"

"Yeh, I know what you're thinking. I wouldn't do it as well. Carefully cutting open someone's body, putting something in and then closing it back up without killing 'em? Nah, I couldn't do that."

"Same here……so anyway, what are we in here for anyway?"

"The General told us to activate this device for when it's time for the boys to use it……just as that kid Kane-Bridge did about two years ago."

"Oh yeh." The official began smiling and laughing slightly. "Hey remember afterwards when Kane-Bridge was all like 'No, I don't want this to happen to me. What are you doing to me?' and we had to erase some of his memories during that time. God that was funny seeing that kid trying to run out and escape from us. Good thing his mother never knew anything about all this."

Marcus suddenly became so annoyed by what they were saying. He could remember all the things that they were talking about; all the pain and suffering he had to go through during those times and all the lies that MI6 were covering up.

"Hey, but didn't the doctors and medics say that the erasing process didn't fully work. Didn't they say sumin like that he'd eventually get his memories back or sumin?"

"NAH, how's that bloody possible! He's not super-human or anything, he's just a kid. Now come on, let's get this thing up and running before the General gets annoyed at us for wasting time." The two officials began turning on all the switches, levers and buttons on the huge machine and the device began to buzz.

Marcus knew what he had to do. He silently crept up on the two officials who still had their backs to him. Marcus pulled out a sleeping needle from out of his bag silently and suddenly shoved it in the first official's neck. He fell over and collapsed; at which point the other official turned round to see what had happened. But before he could pull out his gun, Marcus punched him a few times and caused him to fall down.

Marcus grabbed hold of him and pushed him against the room wall; with an angry look on his face and pointing a gun straight at his forehead.

"So, I'm just a kid am I? Well I dare yer' to say that to my face, oh wait I forgot, you already did just then."

"Please…Kane-Bridge, don't hurt me. I don't know anything please…"

"Shut up, I don't take s--- from guys like you. Now tell me…where are the four boys?"

"I don't know!" Marcus pulled back the trigger on his handgun. "Alright, alright, alright. They're in the four white isolation rooms on the next floor down."

"Tell me something I don't know. Where is it?"

"I don't know……it's somewhere within the centre of the level but I don't know where."

"What are you planning to do with the four boys with this device! Are you planning to turn them into the same thing that you turned me into! ARE YOU PLANNING TO CAUSE THEM JUST AS MUCH PAIN AND SUFFERING YOU CAUSED ME DURING THOSE MONTHS I WAS DOWN HERE, HUH!"

"I don't know…honestly. I'm just an official; I don't know any of this medical or research stuff. I'm just a standard MI6 official. Please, don't kill me, I BEG YOU, DON'T KILL ME!"

Marcus looked at him and threw him slightly across the room. He walked up to him.

"Just to make sure you don't go blabbing to everyone that I'm here to ruin your little plan……" Marcus injected a sleep needle into the second official's chest. With both of them out cold, Marcus walked out and closed the door behind him. "Right, now I have to find a way down to the next basement level. Maybe Liam and Daniel can help." He continued walking down and through the next few rooms.

Whatever was going on here, Marcus had a cold feeling inside him that told him that MI6 had something dark and sinister planned. But was Marcus right? And if not, what would MI6 be planning? There was only one way to find out.