"Captain Barker…no wonder I felt dumber…" I drawled as I looked up at the man. Barker sneered at me then back handed across my face and busted my lip.
"Can't believe it's actually you. Long time no see you splicer piece of trash!" Barker growled. I licked my lip where he busted it and had to actively control my mana to keep it from healing instantly.
"You still hit like a bitch." I said as I looked back up at him. "You think a man that was able to raise to the rank of Captain would be able to at least hot like a man, but then again your promotion was earn based off how well you could kiss General Justice's ass."
Hearing a snicker from someone behind me was the first indication that someone else was in the room for me. I glanced around and saw that I was in a office of sorts. Besides Barker Karen/Iris was also in the room with me standing slightly behind me as well as two scientists that I didn't know.
Barker looked back at one scientist and glared at him. She meekly covered her mouth and looked away. Barker returned his attention back to me. He grabbed me by the hair and slammed my face into the ground before stomping on it repeatedly.
"You think you're so fucking funny you piece of shit! Seems like you forgot your fucking place!" He snarled. "All those years of having to endure your splicer stink because we needed you to control the ascended! You should have died years ago!'
He continued to assault me, not just kicking my head but also attacking my legs and back and kicking my sides. Since I was still tied up I couldn't do much in the way of defend myself.
"Barker, while the company does have a hit out on him I'd rather he stay alive…at least for a little bit." Iris said. Barker stopped and looked at Iris with a confused look. "You're aware of my current project and the samples we've been collecting from that child. We could get far more samples from him and wouldn't have to be as delicate about collecting them either."
Baker smiled devilishly then glanced down at me. I had a bad feeling all of a sudden, though honestly I knew that was mostly from past trauma. Barker was a captain on the military base I was kept at for two years while caring for the ascended Thrad. While absolutely nobody liked me at the base; save Haws, Louie, Angie, and KC; he took that distain and hatred to the next level. Going more than out of his way to try and make my life a living hell.
Something he really couldn't do since at the time I was necessary to keep the ascended in line. That didn't stop him however from taking cheap shots at me when my handlers weren't looking, which was all the time.
"Child? What Child?" I asked, pretending that I didn't really know. Barker smiled again, looking down at me with smug superiority and knowing.
"You'll find out soon enough…." He said then kicked me in the face one last time. "Guards!"
I heard a door open behind me and rolled onto my back to look behind me and saw two guards walking towards me with rifles slung over their shoulders.
'Oh fuck…' I thought. The two guards stopped just short of Iris and saluted Barker.
"Take this splicer down to section five! Put him with subject alpha!" Barker ordered. The two guards nodded then reached down and grabbed me. Seeing that my feet were tied still they cut the rope on my legs then hauled me to my feet. "One more think…ITS COMMANDER BARKER NOW!"
Barker punched me in the stomach and I gasped and sucked in several breathes before looking up a Barker with a defiant smile.
"Finally got a promotion. How far did you shove your face up old bastard Justice ass before he gave you this promotion?" I asked. Barker snarled and hit me so hard I nearly blacked out.
"GET THE SHITBAG OUT OF HERE!"
The two guards quickly dragged me out of the room and into a long hall. I didn't try to stand or resist, they were taking me exactly where I wanted to go.
I quickly found him thanks to Bone-lasher's vision. He was still on the second level on the opposite end of the floor as Barker's office. I also found Louie and Angie, they were on the second level as well, though more to the middle of the level, where mostly of the activity was.
There were several moments of silence which I guessed was because Louie was explaining everything to Angie. During that silence the elevator I was on with the guards stopped on the fourth level. Unlike the floor before this one was swarming with people, mostly security staff but there were a few people walking around that looked more like handlers.
I replied.
The two guards dragged me aggressively off the elevator and through the floor. We went down a long hallway that had one side had a long window pane to see out onto the rest of the floor. The hallway was elevated from the floor outside the glass, on the floor below I could see several staging areas that looked like the hybrid of a laboratory and containment area. There were evos caged up and chained inside cages with a armed handler nearby. In the small laboratory next to the cage a scientist was taking DNA samples from the evo and conducting experiments. I saw several modified thrads among the evos being experimented on as well as several I gad never seen before.
Louie groaned with a shiver.
The guards dragging me suddenly stopped in the center of the hallway. One slid a panel up from the wall, reveling a small keyhole. He took a key off his belt and put it in the hole and turned the key. There was a sudden hiss of steam as the wall in front of us slid to the side, revealing another elevator.
They started down the hallway when bright yellow and red emergency lights started flashing all over the hall and a loud siren went off.
"Warning! Containment breech! Warning! Containment breech!" A voice echoed over loudspeakers.
'Fuck….that means it's in a place that not everybody needs to know about!' I thought.
My vision blurred as I borrowed Bone-lasher's electromagnetic vision and focused down to the floor below us. Now that I was closer to the fifth level I could see it clearly. The floor was much smaller than all the other levels, it was basically the size of a one bedroom house. There were three rooms connected to a central room that an elevator sat in the center of it.
There was a containment breech alright, there were several larger than normal thrads running amok through the northern most room, killing security staff and handlers in a monstrous frenzy. The room had gone down on lockdown and giant blast doors blocked access to the rest of the floor. To the south was another room, that was more like a little nursery, I could see KC inside with four armed guards surrounding him, guns pointed at the door.
Bolts of lightning shot from my body and struck both of the guards knocking them away from me and sending them flying several feet. I switched to burn attribute mana and channeled it into my hands and burned off the ropes that tied me up.
There was a tense moment of silence while I stepped onto the elevator platform and pressed the button to descend.
I declared as the elevator descended. My magi-tech gun glowing bright red with the fire element mana I poured into it.