The speech followed soon afterwards. The Subjects had been hustled out of their quarters and down a series of passageways, eventually emerging out into a rather grand antechamber. The glass ceiling soared high above, a crystal clear sky shining through. The chamber was lined with white chairs that matched the floor and walls. A raised platform had stood at the head, a podium atop it. The subjects had been corralled into the white seats as a woman stepped out onto the stage. She had platinum blonde hair that was pulled into a tight bun, and her pale blue eyes flashed with cool intellect. The warm smile on her face did not reach her eyes.
"Welcome," she smiled, her voice reverberating through the chamber, "As I am sure you are all very confused right now and while I will explain everything shortly, I must first say how truly honored I am to finally meet you all."
Her words met no response and she continued without missing a beat.
"To cut to the chase, you are the five surviving products of Project DOMINION. Nearly two-hundred years ago, humanity pushed itself to the brink of extinction. Our lust and our greed lead to us depleting and ravaging our great Earth of its natural resources and we plunged the world into disarray. Our efforts to reproduce the resources we once had, as well as to take what we lacked from each other, resulted in the virtual destruction of our world. The survivors of this conflict, founded this grand city we now reside in atop our saving grace; a well-spring with the capacity to fuel our race forward and allow us to survive. This city rests on the only reserve of a substance we call ichor; a miracle substance serving as the single greatest power source that we as a species have ever known. However, the organization I represent fears for our metropolis. Oftentimes history repeats itself and it is our concern that our last sanctuary of Eden may collapse just as society did all of those many years ago."
She paused, her eyes studying their faces. When her gaze turned to Subject: 28, he was filled with unease. Her piercing eyes bore into him, the hungry eyes of a predator. And then it was gone, her eyes had moved on and it felt as though a weight had been lifted from his chest.
"And so," She continued, "we looked for inspiration, for a solution to this dilemma. That solution is you, Project Dominion. The goal of Project Dominion was to create the optimal humans and to prepare and task them with guiding humanity to a brighter future. You are our future, our salvation, free of human flaws. You are something much greater, and your greatness will shine on a brighter tomorrow."
All around them, the figures applauded her words as they sat awkwardly, not quite understanding. Subject: 78 raised her hand slowly, unsurely, into the air. The woman smiled her warm smile and nodded towards 78 encouragingly.
"Whe-" She formulated her words slowly, carefully, they felt clumsy on her tongue, "Where did we co-come from?"
The woman's smile did not falter for a moment.
"You are perfect in every way, in order to achieve this we grew you from scratch in our most advanced lab. During your growth we would transmit information into your developing brains, allowing you to emerge as fully functioning, if not a little shy, men and women. Physically you are all around eighteen years old, however in actuality you were all grown over the course of six months."
She spoke so casually of their creation, as one would speak of the weather or their plans for the day.
"Now, I'm sure many of you still have questions. I will be happy to answer them for you at a later date. Just tell one of our esteemed security officers that you need to see Vice President Maxwell and they will escort you straight to my office. In the meantime, however, I must turn you over to our very own Mr. Rinzlo who will be overseeing your training and preparation for the most part. I wish you all a good day and as of now the future is bright!"
Another round of applause accented her departure and the subjects were told to stand. They did as they were bade and turned to face Rinzlo, the silver-armed man. He looked them up and down once with his piercing eyes before turning to one of the armored security officers.
"Escort them back to their chambers until I'm ready for them," he growled in his low, gravely voice.
The security officers closed rank around the subjects and they were once more marched off through the white halls and corralled into their room. At this point Subject: 82 was starting to stir and 78 tried to explain the situation as best she could to him. He did not respond, but merely sat on his cot and stared daggers at the floor. They waited for what seemed like ages before the officers came for them again.
This time they were led into a gym of some sort. Set up around them was equipment of all sorts; weights, machines, treadmills and in the center of the large space was a raised, padded platform where Rinzlow waited for them. He wore a tight fit black shirt and pants, one long sleeve covering his right arm while the silver one remained exposed. They could see that he was well muscled, not bulky but rather slim and strong.
The group apprehensively stepped up onto the mat before him.
"Here I will begin your training," his voice was commanding, "We will test the limits of your strength, endurance and skill. Additionally we will begin conditioning you to utilize your abilities to the fullest and to survive in the outside world. And in a secondary facility we will test your mental aptitude and capabilities. The president says that you transcend humanity, let's see if that rings true."