Prologue(edit/rework)
2066, Location unknown.
"Bleh, Monday, am I right? I mean, we don't really have weekends. Which makes them all that more infuriating- You know what… instead of helping the Japanese in the war we should be fighting against Mondays!" A man in a lab coat yelled across the table at another man, who was adamantly agreeing with him between bites of his sandwich.
Of course, neither of them really meant this.
"Overtime is a real issue. Oh! And don't even get me started on Hazard pay, have you seen what's going on in lab four?" The man asked.
"mhm," The sandwich man said as he continued his much-needed lunch.
"As you know, war times call for technological advancement. And if we still had to go through the regular channels most if not all the experiments here would be shut down and destroyed in an instant," The man with the sandwich added.
"Huff, I know! It really makes me question our effectiveness in this field, can we really call ourselves scientists who help people if all our experiments harm them?"
"Don't forget that our discovery of Radigrades helped the entire war effort. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of people benefited from that."
"Yea, I'm just really stressed and can't think straight. I haven't seen the sun in months, let alone my family" The irate scientist began to calm down as he grabbed a sandwich out of the fridge.
"We are extremely lucky to be in the position we find ourselves in. with the amount of rock and concrete above our heads nobody can touch us without directly coming here, that is if they even find this facility." The man finished up the small remaining pieces of his sandwich as the other man began to unwrap his.
"Yea but similarly, China, Russia, and North Korea probably have people in the exact same position we are."
"Sometimes I wish we still had our nukes so we could just blast this planet to oblivion and be done with it."
"Well, that's why we're here isn't it? Running experiments on the new superhumans to increase our country's combat effectiveness,"
"You know the experiment I worked on yesterday was based on something I read in a sci-fi book, and it makes me uncomfortable. We are awfully close to just scrapping everything we thought we once knew about physics and just writing a whole new set of laws"
"That would suck…"
"Anyway, have you seen the new super units they implemented? I heard one of them could take care of a squadron all by themselves."
"I think I remember seeing something like that on the news. I doubt it will take any longer for the enemy to do the same. In turn just bringing us right back to a stalemate"
"It's really a shame though that our ancestor's technology is being so violently criticized with our new information,"
"You could say that again."
"…" The two sat in silence as they enjoyed the few minutes remaining on their break.
"I need to get going, it was nice talking to you. I got to head to lab 13," The man got up, leaving the other to finish his lunch.
"Yea, cya man"
He left through a central door that had the words 'lounge' on them.
Walking down the hall he passed by various rooms with one-way ballistics glass, muffled screams emanated from each of the rooms.
The unlocking of doors echoed in the white halls as the man used his keycard to open several bulkheads.
As he entered a large central room his eyes fell on numerous cradles, each one holding a small infant. A couple of nurses walked around this area, observing, and taking notes.
A few started crying in response to the loud door.
He tensed up at the sound.
Not wanting to cause the nurses any trouble, he walked over to the crying children and tried to quiet them down,
"Sh sh sh, it's okay. You'll see your parents soon enough," The man consoled a set of twins while he rocked their cradle.
Having twins for an experiment on superpowers was understandable, two test subjects with virtually the same genetic code put into the same test as a control variable was-
No, he shouldn't think of them this way. They were still humans and not guinea pigs for the government to test on.
Even if the scientist had no choice in the matter, he still felt responsible for the kids.
Or maybe that was it, not being able to help them just made him feel worse.
He continued down the large room, passing through yet another airlock and down a short hall until he found himself in an area bustling with people.
A group of scientists huddled over a small glowing machine pieced together with metal, bolts, and ballistic glass while hoses and wires carpeted the room.
"Arg, damn it! This will be the- i stopped counting a while ago time that we are trying this. Why should we even continue?" One of the people in the control room argued with another.
"Yes! Of course we do! The implications of this discovery's success could change humanity forever" Another rebutted.
The original scientist walked through the room as he observed his work,
On one side of a large tube, a woman was strapped into a chair unconscious. Her hands pointed into the long tube as machines whirred around her.
"How was your lunch?" A lab assistant asked.
"Fine." The original scientist said. Clearly enraptured in his own world of thought.
"We only have a few more light-related supers left so are you sure that it will work this time?"
"…it really is unfortunate that they expire each time, but yes. I'm fairly certain" he said.
"If my calculations are correct, and they are, along with your mechanical implications, it should go smoothly this time around," A man wearing a grey lab coat said with a boastful tone.
"This variant of light powers should be the best fit for the job too." He added.
"Alright well, I'm ready when you are"
The man in grey waved his hand in the air at the control room to get their attention then gave a thumbs up.
"Let us commence test number twenty-six," The arrogant man said.
Large syringes pierced the super's flesh,
"Implementation of Radigrade one complete, Confirming two." The man in the grey coat said as he started reading off a tablet.
"Two confirmed, three." A random scientist said.
"Three confirmed" Another announced.
"All three Radigrades successfully implanted, waiting for power results-"
"Power tripled; we now have twenty seconds until self-disintegration"
A spinning sound could be heard from the long cylindrical tube-like machine.
"Collider accelerating- 50%...75%..."
"Third phase is ago."
A smaller needle sunk deep into the subject's neck as warm blue liquid traveled into her.
This stimulant finally woke her up as she began to scream.
Light began to emit from her torso, traveling up through her arms and into her hands.
A large white beam shot from her hands and into the tube as her skin started to bubble.
"Mass launched! Patient approaching break down phase"
White light illuminated the room as the mass passed the viewing port, racing around the circular track.
The strobe continued until the light was moving so fast that the viewing port seemed completely engulfed in white.
"End phase of the patient,"
At this point, the woman's face was barely recognizable as her body simultaneously boiled and disintegrated. Her voice was nothing but a minute gurgling now.
The screens in the room turned green signifying the confirmation of their success.
"We did it, the sensors say it was a success," said the man in grey, dropping the previous boastful tone in utter disbelief.
The room erupted in applause as the occupants hugged each other in excitement. Their many months of working on this project finally paid off.
Unfortunately, nobody had noticed that the light level continued to rise in intensity, getting brighter at an alarming pace.
The few seconds of bliss were over as a large red warning light turned on.
Alarms started to resound through the control room, as the large array of gauges and lights all went off at the same time.
It only took a few seconds before the men in the room could figure out what was going on.
"We've reached the breaking point. Code Blue!"
"Faster than light achieved! We need to stop it before it becomes runaway!" the man in the control room yelled.
"But that's not possible, how are we still seeing light from the port?" A second scientist said in a low but shaky voice.
"Stop thinking and just shut it down, it's highly unstable!" Yelled the first scientist.
Suddenly a blinding light shone through the viewing port causing the whole room to recoil in pain.
A scientist dove towards the kill switch as his hand slammed down on it.
Luckily, they had made it on time, if they hadn't-who knows what kind of fantasy they could have unleashed on this earth.
The room started to shake as the kill switch was flipped. Dust flew around as everyone held their breath.
Once the machine slowed to a manageable speed everyone let out a sigh, not even they knew if their sighs were in disappointment or relief.
The room deflated into an argument about what went wrong.
The original scientist was disappointed, realizing they would need yet another sacrifice.
"Aww come on guys, it was a success… rejoice!" Announced the arrogant scientist.
"I just need to change a few variables to make it stable. It will work next time."
"This should a joyous occasion, we both succeeded in making hard light and broke the eternal speed barrier." He added.
"I think we all understand, we're just disappointed we need to continue when we were practically done." The control man said.
***
Even though they searched for the variable that had caused this event, it was never found.
The unknown particle had managed to escape its cylindrical confines, riding the blinding light like a wave.
Fortunately, it didn't make it far. A stray Radigrade feeding off the active radiation of the machine had mistakenly identified the particle as food.
This particle was a tachyon.
Because of this, the Radigrade felt full. Deciding to instead search for a more permanent home; it easily found one in the next room over.
What met its hazy vision was a set of black-haired twins.