Simon Lee was your average asian american teenager with black hair and eyes. His build was average, his intellect was average and his looks were average. There was nothing special about him at all which was strange when considering he had been kidnapped.
'Where are you taking me!" Simon yelled out, only to be clocked in the head with something hard.
In all his twelve years of life, Simon had never been hit this hard before. He felt dizzy and he was sure his head was bleeding now. He was afraid and the fact that his entire head was covered with some kind of cloth bag didn't help at all.
"Shut up before you get hit again!" Simon became silent after this as he quietly cried to himself.
"I feel bad for the kid." Simon heard.
"I have to do this for my family." Another Voice spoke.
Although no one had actually spoken, Simon had heard these voices. It was a special ability that he had never told anyone before, not even his parents. He had a power called telepathy, which meant he could hear or speak to others with his mind. Simon had even thought of becoming a superhero one day but after realizing how dangerous it was.
"We're here." A voice spoke out and dragged Simon out.
They held him tight and dragged him to a few minutes on rough dirty land before the ground became smooth. Simon knew for sure that they didn't bring him into this place because of his telepathy so why was he here.
"Bring him in with the others." Another Voice commanded.
Simon was dragged along before he was pushed into a room with his hands untied and the bag pulled off his face. Looking around, Simon found dozens of other kids his own age and younger in a white room. There was nothing but fear in the minds of the other kids and some were even quite hurt and still bleeding.
"What's happening?" Simon whispered before he read the kids minds.
The six to ten year old kids were crying to their parents in their mind, fearful of what might happen if they cried out loud. The older ones like Simon was also afraid but tried to look tough, failing at this quite a bit. The only one in this room who wasn't crying was a single pale girl who had short white hair and red eyes.
"Albinism?" Simon thought.
It was a condition where a person had pale skin, white hair and red eyes. It was a rare condition and Simon had never seen anyone with the actual trait. Walking over while rubbing his arms, Simon sat down beside her.
"Hey, do you know what's happening here?" Simon asked.
The girl was silent so Simon continued. "My name's Simon Lee, what's your name?"
The girl was silent, looking at the ground with a blank stare. Simon chuckled nervously at this before he started rubbing his hands together. The stress from the crying children and his telepathy activating by itself was making his head hurt. This usually only happened when a person was very emotionally disturbed, their thoughts would be powerful enough to enter his mind automatically.
Simon could control his ability if it was only one person, maybe even two but this was a room full of dozens. His mind was starting to hurt and his face began frowning as his hands wrapped his head.
"Are you.... ok?" The girl finally noticing Simon in pain asked.
Simon looked to her and smiled as best he could before speaking. "Never better. How about you?"
"I don't know." The girl said as she began staring at the ground again.
Simon looked at this and rubbed her head. "Don't worry, it'll be ok. I promise."
The girl stared at Simon before she turned away, only this time with a smile. "Thank you."
Simon smiled before he frowned once again, his head hurting even more now. He thought back to what he said and hoped it would be ok. He had tried to encourage the girl to have more hope but now that he thought about it, his words were probably more for him.
"Lily White…." The girl whispered quietly.
"What?" Simon asked.
"That's my name…. Lily White." The girl named Lily said.
Simon smiled at this. "Nice to meet you Lily."
The both of them smiled before the large doors opened up and out came a group of white lab coated scientists. They all had face masks on as they started having all of the kids walk with them. Simon glanced around as he looked at the building he was now in and he felt chills as everything was too blank.
Deciding to read the minds of the people in white lab coats, Simon entered their minds with difficulty. Simon was shocked at first, then his eyes widened as his face paled.focusing his mind to go deeper into their minds, he couldn't believe what they had done. The kids in the room weren't the first group of kids and now they were next.
The girl who was beside Simon found his nose to be bleeding so she tugged on his shirt and asked him. "What's wrong? Your nose is bleeding."
Simon quickly wiped his bleeding nose before he smiled as best he could. "Nothing, everything will be ok."
His hands were shaking as he looked everywhere to try and escape. The memories had shaken him up as blood and gore was everywhere. The scientists had no morals in them as what they did was inhuman. The suffering the other kids went through, they would have to go through them as well if they didn't escape.
"But how?" Simon thought.
The entire building was heavily guarded and the building was located in the middle of nowhere as not even the scientists knew where they were. Not even the guards as they were all blindfolded as well before being brought here. No one knew of where this facility was at as the vehicle was on autopilot.
"Luckily there's a week long wait period before we're strapped down." Simon thought.
A week of physical preparation, consisting of physical training and development. The scientists would be testing the children's bodies to their limits before the second stage. The second stage consisted of mental preparation, the mind wiping stage and after that was the last stage.
The third stage was the Demigod procedure, the stage where the fatality rate had been one hundred percent. No one had survived the third stage as this involved mentally downloading information into children's minds. Enhancing the children's bodies with a myriad of drugs to prep the children for the real serum. It was called the evolution serum and it was created to make human demigods, just like the project name.
As Simon was in thought, everyone entered another room that was filled with beds and table of clothes. One of the scientists, a woman with long black hair took off her face mask before he smiled widely.
Stepping in front of the children, her arms widened open as she spoke. "Welcome to the Demigod Project. I am called Nina and the Demigod Project is a mission built to accelerate human evolution to create superhuman warriors."
None of the children's understood what she had just said, all except for Simon. The woman frowned when this happened and Sol heard her thoughts. "Stupid children, I'd hoped for some good brains to program but it seems that this will be impossible. Oh well."
"Everyone here will take off their clothes and wear the new ones. You then line up by the wall to get your new name, a code. After that, you pick your bunk and sleep for the night since tomorrow will be hell for you. If you struggle, you will be shot with a drug that inflicts massive amounts of pain. So please behave yourselves." The Woman named Nina said.
Children lined up and took off their clothes with the older ones looking reluctant to take off their clothes in front of the other sex. This was of course noticed by a few guards who raised their guns and fired the shots. The kids were hit and soon the fluid within was emptied. The kids who didn't want to undress pulled out the needle before they all fell onto the floor.
"Ahhh~"
Their screams were like sirens and Simon's eyes widened as he held his head in pain. This was the first time that he had actually felt another person's pain and it was immense. He felt like his body was hot and since there were about a couple dozen kids who were shot, Simon couldn't even begin to describe the pain. Unknown to him, what he was feeling was only a fraction of the true pain.
"Simon?" Lily said in wonder as to why Simon was shaking and sweating.
Simon hearing this barely managed to suppress his telepathy to only feel minimal amounts of pain forced a smile. "Thank you."
Simon knew, had he felt that pain for any longer, he would have been on the floor as well. After a few seconds, the kids were all knocked out and on the ground.
"Now that you kids know what will happen if you disobey, quickly wear these new clothes and get your new names." Nina said with a smile.
Every child quickly tore off their clothing and now everyone wore a white shirt and pants. There were no shoes and since the ground was made of tile, everyone had cold feet. Quickly shuffling to the naming station, Simon and Lily was soon asked to give their names and age.
Since Simon was first, he spoke. "Simon Lee, 12 years old."
The man in a lab coat looked at Simon and wrote something down on a sheet of paper before wrapping a metallic bracelet around Simon's wrist. It was silver in color and cold to touch with a red letter S and the numbers 0075 next to it.
"Your new name will be S-0075." The man said before moving onto Lily.
Simon looked at the bracelet for a while before he heard the man become angrier. "I said, what's your name and age!?"
Simon looked back to find the girl he had just met staring at the ground, her emotions not even fluctuating a single bit. This confused Sol before he noticed a guard raise his gun up, ready for fire at Lily.
Moving quickly, Simon ran up to her and pulled to aside with the shot barely missing her arm as it hit the floor. It shattered and soon most of the guards and scientists were looking over. Simon was frozen in fear while Lily was staring at Simon in wonder.
"What do you think you're doing?" The man in the lab coat asked with a frown.
"Uh, her name is Lily White. She's ten years old." The man frowned before scribbling some words on a sheet wrapping the metallic bracelet on Lily.
Simon sighed in relief before he heard a voice that made him freeze.. "Well well well. It looks like there's a kid who's pretty smart and quick minded after all."
Turning to face the woman, Simon motioned Lily to stay behind him before answering. "I guess."
"Well then kid, since you're pretty smart i'll give you two options for punishment for wasting my rare pain serum. One, have the girl be shot and suffer the pain or two, have yourself be shot." Her eyes were smiling as she asked Simon this.
Simon felt conflicted as he looked at Lily who was once again staring at the ground. She looked sad, more so than normal and peering into her mind, Simon found out why. Lily had lived her life all alone and bullied because of her condition. She had never had a single friend and her family called her a monster.
The first person who had actually talked to her normally was Simon and now that he was left with this choice, he heard her voice. "He's going to be just like the others."
Clenching his teeth, Simon looked back to the scientist named Nina. "I'll choose… Myself."
Lily had her eyes wide open along with the scientist who had proposed this option. The woman raised an eyebrow before smiling and adding another condition. "If you let out even a single squeal, then she'll still get hit with the shot."
Simon looked shocked before he felt a pinch on his shoulder. Pulling out the object, Simon found that it was the shot that had hit the other kids. He felt nothing at first but after the fluid within the shot spread all throughout his body, the pain hit him like a tsunami. Simon felt like screaming his lungs out, he wanted to let out everything he felt with a loud yell but he couldn't. He fell onto the floor with a thud and the woman pulled out her pocket watch.
"Simon!" Lily fell to her knees as she was shocked at what he had done, emotions she had never felt before sprouted from her chest.
Suffering through the pain that was a thousand times worse than earlier, Simon suffered silently clutching his chest. After the searing pain came the feeling of ants crawling through his veins and after that was a cold pain before everything exploded at once. He was feeling all three effects together including a shocking pain that pulsed through his body.
Nina who was holding onto her pocket watch looked on in awe as she commented. "It's amazing you haven't even let out a groan. No one has ever done this before, even veteran soldiers would spill every secret they had to stop the pain. Maybe this strain is too weak? Fire another one."
Lily tried to cover Simon but she was pulled away from Simon. Another shot sounded and Simon felt everything increase by a few times. Simon scratched into his chest with blood spilling from the wounds he inflicted on himself.
"Still awake huh, well this next one should take you out cold." The woman said before another one hit Simon.
With that third shot, Simon could feel his nerves burning, his heart pumping heavily and his muscles tensing. His mind was trying to shut down just like the woman said but Simon forcefully kept himself awake by using his telepathy.
The woman on the other hand had a smile as she looked down at Simon. "A perfect Specimen!"
Simon was perfect as he was mentally strong which was the most important factor besides being young. The first test had a passing rate of fifty percent, and the second passing rate was ten percent. The mind manipulating process was harsh and only the strong willed would survive but their memories would disappear.
Seconds passed, the minutes before an hour passed with Simon suffering. Everyone was in awe at the boy's willpower before Nina finally conceded. "Fine, you pass. For now."
After that, the world went black for Simon.