"Who the hell are you guys?"

SS-008 looked around with a menacing gaze, clearly not in a good mood. There were 16 shadowy figures that revealed themselves as women. One of them had spoken to him.

The woman was beautiful and curvy, and along with the skin tight bodysuit, she looked like some kind of sexy ninja. All of the women around him were like that. SS-008 just looked at her with frigid coldness though, as if she was some kind of joke.

The woman answered him with a neutral gaze.

"The madam who you took hostage earlier. She wishes to see you."

"That crazy bitch? Tell her that she can shove those syringes she stole up her ass. I want nothing to do with her."

"...Unfortunately we can't allow that. You must come with us."

The woman's eye twitched at the insult to her madam, but she quelled her rising anger. She couldn't fail her mission to retrieve this supersoldier, no matter what she felt.

Hearing her insistence, SS-008 snarled.

"I'd like to see you make me."

*Bang!*

Raising his gun, he went on to fire at the woman. Mysteriously though, she disappeared when the bullet hit.

The next moment, all the other women moved and attacked. Some took out items like spears and others took out guns. SS-008 was put under fire, but not even getting hit by a bullet would stop him

Facing the women, he shot at each one while moving to dodge. As he moved though, the weakness in his body started to overtake him. He had exerted himself and gotten more wounds while fighting in the skyscraper, and his body had already reached its limit. He was fighting on sheer will now, and to put up a fight against a bunch of specialists was asking a lot of him.

He didn't go down with nothing though. Only after a whole minute of shooting and killing 9 of the women did he start to go down. A stun bullet was the last thing to hit him, and it caused him to give out.

"Agh!"

With a pained shout, SS-008 couldn't help it as he fell to his knees and then to the floor, getting a face full of cold dirt. With him incapacitated, the original woman walked over to him as his consciousness faded.

"You damn bastard. If the madam didn't request for you, I would've gutted you like a pig! Hah!"

Bringing back her foot, the woman let out a venomous shout and kicked him across the face, knocking him out.

..........

......

"Hello~ Hey... Hey! Wake up!"

"Huh..?"

"There he is! I knew you wouldn't die so easily! I mean, how could you with your reputation?"

SS-008 slowly woke up to a familiar voice. As his eyes opened and vision focused, he found that a woman was standing over him, her face directly in front of his.

"Good morning, sleepyhead."

"Agh! You! What... What's going on?!"

As SS-008 was going to push the woman away, he found that all his limbs were tied down. As he looked around, he found that he was on some kind of stretcher bed within a dark room.

"Hehe, I saved your life! Well, you would've survived anyway, but I definitely helped!"

"Why am I tied down?!"

"Well, I can't have you running amok, now can I? It won't be for long though. After all, we have things to do, and not a lot of time to do it in."

*Rumble!*

After she spoke, the ground trembled like an earthquake. The woman looked up toward the ceiling.

"Looks like they've got in."

"What? Who?"

"Your friends are here to destroy my super secret hideout. After the president was killed, they all went crazy and launched attacks jointly with the neighboring governments and defense agencies. Several of my bases have been destroyed, and now they're coming after me. They probably think I was behind the assassination."

"This place is under siege? You... Who the hell are you?"

SS-008 spoke as he scanned the woman. When she was his hostage, she didn't seem all that important and he didn't really think about who she might be. But now she was being attacked by several military groups. She definitely wasn't someone small.

"You're saying you don't know me? Well, since you were kept so in the dark, I guess that's normal. Then allow me to introduce myself. I have three names. The first is the name I gave myself: Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom. The second, is Super Soldier designation 202, the tag I received from my program. And the third, is Head of The Council."

When she finished, the woman grinned at SS-008, whose eyes went wide.

"Head of the council... You were a supersoldier?"

"Indeed I was! I was in the second generation. Unfortunately, my brain apparently couldn't handle phase 3 and I was abandoned as a failed subject. They said I became too 'psychopathic' and 'mentally unstable' to continue with the program. I don't know what they were thinking though. I mean, just look at the empire I created!"

The woman spun around with her arms wide, gesturing to her super secret hideout and the Council that she ran. SS-008 stared at her, conflicted thoughts going through his mind.

"So that's who you were. You were the devil of class 2."

"Devil? So they have a name for me there huh?"

"You created the largest criminal syndicate in the world. You've carried out dozens of large scale terrorist attacks. I've been fighting against a failed supersoldier all this time..."

"Indeed you have! I must say, meeting one of my own is refreshing. So robust and pleasing to the eye. I'm sure we would've gotten along well despite the fact that we're all orphans. You know, find comfort in each other's arms and all."

"Don't touch me."

"Hehehe!"

The woman giggled like a little girl as she came over and played with his hair. He just looked at her like she was insane though.

The Head of the Council. This was a person that governments around the world had been hunting for over a decade. They had the public believing that the head was some evil man who could genocide without batting an eye. But little did they know that the governments were the ones who created this monster.

The supersoldier program had plenty of failed subjects. Those that failed were often driven insane, became disabled, or were mentally impaired. This girl was one of the luckier ones and she came out as a high-functioning failure. Unfortunately, a high-functioning psychopath wasn't someone you wanted out on the streets. Especially one who had a grudge against you.

But based on everything she did, the criminal empire she built and the attacks she carried out, she proved herself to be one of the most intelligent people on the planet. She put the entire criminal underworld on a leash and turned it against the world establishments in such a short amount of time. Only an evil genius could do something like that.

So naturally, SS-008 was shocked. This was a monumental secret that would flip the world upside down if the public knew. To think the bane of the civilized world was created by the world leaders themselves.

"But you know, you're very impressive yourself, Super Soldier designation 008."

The woman smiled as she backed away from his bed and picked up some papers.

"Let's see... Top soldier in the program, enough to earn you a single digit designation. You've been running black operations since you were 13. An orphan from the slums taken in when you were 6. Exceptional performance in adaptability and effective combat. Can take out entire military strongholds by yourself. Well, I think that's obvious considering what you just did."

"Is that my file? How did you get that?"

"Using a little something called the internet and a printer. Hmm, you have dozens of cybernetic implants. Bone strengthening, artificial blood, a synthetic heart, compacted muscles, invisibility skin, electronic hacking systems. And you even have the neural interface. That was the part that messed me up. My brain couldn't adapt to the AI they tried to insert."

SS-008 was silent. The AI interfacing was indeed the part that failed most subjects. During phase 3, the last phase of the program, the brain was injected with a serum that made your brain more capable of interacting with electromagnetic waves. Then, they attached a neural device that could tap directly into your brain through those waves. On that device was an AI, and it would provide an onboard computer as well as increase neural activity permanently.

It was advanced tech, but many subjects couldn't handle the interface. The neural acceleration could go so far as to fry people's brains, and it had a very low success rate. But for those that succeeded, they would be turned into supersoldiers. You could even say that the previous phases were merely preparation for phase 3.

"Anyway, it looks like we both had plenty of success due to the program despite our totally divergent paths. Although you were basically disowned, you still earned one of the most fearsome reputations around the world. People call you the grim reaper itself. The boogeyman, the steel demon, the emissary of darkness. Hehe, they're horrible names, but I guess nobody cares about that when they're about to die. Oh! And there's also this."

Saying that, the woman walked up to him and pulled the collar of his shirt down, exposing the tattoo on his neck.

"The black cat. A symbol of bad luck, and one that you never want to cross paths with. People in the middle ages used to kill black cats due to their association with the underworld. Black cats were also associated with witches. It's rather fitting since you, my friend, surely are the walking incarnation of bad luck."

The woman smiled mysteriously, and SS-008 couldn't respond. Was he the one who had bad luck, being brought into the supersoldier program at a young age? Or were his enemies those unlucky victims? This was a dilemma that he had pondered a lot, and it was actually the reason he got this tattoo. Gray was the one who had given him the idea after saying something similar, so he decided to get it.

When this woman stated that he was the incarnation of bad luck, he once again fell into that dilemma. His mood worsened thinking about it all.

*Rumble!*

The room shook again as the woman stared at him from a chair, her chin resting on her palm. SS-008 couldn't tell what she was thinking, but after a while of silence, her mouth opened.

"I feel bad."

"...You have feelings?"

"Of course! Not many, but I still have them! Anyway, I feel sad since you lost your sergeant. He's the one who set off that explosion, right?"

"..."

"Oh, I made you more sad. Well, I don't know if it'll make up for it, but I guess I should tell you about the serum you were injected with."

Saying that, the woman stood up.

*Clap* *Clap*

With two claps, the surroundings suddenly lit up. SS-008 looked around.

They were in a large underground room. On one side of the room was the person-sized cyclotron, and in the middle of the room was a table with two syringes on it inside a container. The woman walked over to the syringes and looked at them.

"I told you before. These syringes hold a glorious substance. Tell me, do you believe in the concept of souls?"

"...Souls? I don't know..."

"Well, you better believe it. Let me take you back though. Once upon a time, there was a group of scientists who managed to create a portal that could poke through dimensions. Unfortunately, whenever someone tried to enter the portal, they were rejected and killed. It was weird because while the people would be physically injured, the injuries were never fatal, yet they would still die a little while after being rejected. Why? Well, it turns out that the portal destroyed their souls. Or something like that.

Anyway, those scientists then started to make a device or serum that could prevent one from dying and let them enter the portal. To do this, they needed something that protected the soul. Well, this serum is supposedly their first successful attempt, and I did everything I could to get my hands on it. I used practically every resource I had to even get the chance to take this stuff."

"..."

"I know it's hard to believe. I couldn't believe it either. But the world is advancing further than you know, and this stuff is no longer science fiction. As for the portal, the reason they want to enter it so bad is because they managed to prove that it led somewhere. Somewhere solid, like a landmass. Somewhere with life signs. They actually found another world, hence the project's codename: Project Wonderland. The most classified project in the world.

Of course, I couldn't just let those idiots have this. So I stole all their tech, the only three serums in existence, the portal, and almost all the data on the subject. This pissed them off to no end though, and that's why they sent you. Then, things went as you know it. Our lives were turned upside down in only a day. Pretty crazy huh?"

"...So what do you plan to do?"

*Rumble!*

The room rumbled as SS-008 questioned. He was rather enlightened about things. He usually knew nothing about the operations he ran, so getting such classified information was nice. Only, he couldn't help but have a foreboding feeling.

Sure enough, the woman revealed an unnatural smile.

"What do you mean? I'm planning to enter the portal! And you're coming with me! Hey scientist guy! Start up the portal."

The woman shouted after dropping that bombshell on SS-008, prompting a man to enter the room and walk up to the portal. After pressing a few buttons, the portal activated, and massive amounts of energy congealed in the center of the portal, creating a swirling wall of purple plasma.

"Hey, you want to see something cool? Watch this!"

Smiling widely, the woman grabbed the man who just booted up the portal and shoved him into it. Shocked, the man tried to fight back, but he was thrown off balance and fell straight towards the plasma.

Surprisingly though, he wasn't burned or stopped. His body entered the portal, but only moments later, it came flying back out like it was spat out. Now, his body had horrible burns on the skin.

"Ugh! Ahh..."

The man groaned and struggled for a short amount of time, but eventually, the life faded from his eyes. SS-008 watched, half curious and half mortified. The man really shouldn't have died since the injuries weren't lethal, yet he still did.

"See! Nobody has ever been able to survive entering the portal. That always happens. But now with the serums, we should be able to enter! Supposedly it isolates and strengthens your soul to allow it to survive the transportation. Or something like that. You've already got it in you, and now, I need it."

The woman skipped over to the table next and picked up one of the syringes. She then stuck it in a vein, injecting everything at once and letting out a groan of pleasure.

"Aahhh... I promise I don't do drugs. Now, since we have one more, and I want to be extra sure, let's take both!"

Giggling to herself, she grabbed the second syringe and injected it just like the first without any regard for safety. SS-008 stared at her incredulously, his opinion of her being insane solidifying in his heart.

"Haha! I can already feel it flowing! I don't want to pass out like you though, so we should move quickly."

"Huh? No, there's no way."

"What? You've got the serum, so you should be fine! I'm the one who's more at risk here since I haven't acclimated yet. Now, are you ready to start a new life?"

"You're crazy! That thing will kill us both! How does a serum protect you from that?!"

"Hahaha! I don't know! But hey, it's ride or die now, isn't it? After all, the enemies are going to break in any second now, and I've got a bomb that's going to blow this place to smithereens once we enter!"

*Rumble!*

The room shook even harder as if affirming her statement. SS-008 knew that they were in a bad position, but he felt that he could fight his way out. He had done that in every other impossible situation. If he could just get out of the restraints, he could go out and face them.

But this woman wouldn't let him go! She was insisting on dragging him into certain doom! If he was going to die, it was going to be on his terms!

"Damnit, you crazy bitch! I'm not dying yet! Let me go!"

"Ouch! That's hurtful, you know. And you won't die! Just trust me!"

"No! Let me out!"

"Hahaha! Come on! You and me, isn't it romantic? Charging off into unknown lands for salvation! Hey, maybe we'll meet on the other side! Wouldn't that be awesome?!"

"No! Don't drag me down with you!"

"Come on! Just relax for once! Now, it's time! I'm starting to get woozy, so the stuff is kicking in. In fact, I'm starting to feel a connection between us. Can you feel that? It's like we've become connected!"

The woman spoke as the serums started to kick in, and SS-008 was stunned. He could in fact feel a connection to her. It was faint, but it was strengthening over time. It was like some kind of sixth sense, and they could almost begin to feel each other through it. It was incredibly odd, and SS-08 started to properly freak out.

"What the hell is this?!"

"Haha! I have no idea! But hey, now we have a super special bond. Maybe we'll fly with each other across time and space! Now, we should hurry and enter. Are you ready?!"

Smiling broadly, the woman got behind his hospital bed and prepared to push. In front of him was the portal, otherwise known as death.

"Arghh!! Damnit all!"

"Hahaha! Here we go!"

SS-008 yelled in frustration. He couldn't do anything, and he was being dragged along with this crazy psychopath who he now had some weird connection with. She just laughed though, and with her words, she pushed the bed forward.

"To freedom!"

"Agghhh!"

With a laugh and a roar, two people entered the portal. Moments later, the entire room exploded with a bright flash. The super secret hideout was annihilated, along with it the greatest technological pieces of work in the world.

.............

.........

.......

.........

.....

"Waaaahh!! Waaahh!!

"Congratulations, madam. It's a boy!"

Inside of a luxurious bedroom, a maid who was acting as a midwife cleaned a baby and then handed it to the mother who recently gave birth. The mother tenderly held the boy who slowly started to calm down and stop crying.

"He has pale skin, but we checked him and he's perfectly healthy."

"Thank you. He probably got that from his father-"

*Bang!*

"Honey?! How'd it go? Sorry I'm late!"

Suddenly, a man dressed in a cloak busted into the room. He quickly laid eyes on his wife with the child in her arms.

"It's a boy."

"A boy! Haha! That makes it even now, huh?"

"Ahh... Waaahhh!! Waaahh!"

"Ugh, honey?! Tone it down, will you?"

"Sorry, sorry."

Sheepishly chuckling, the cloaked man made his way over to the bed while removing his hood, revealing a pale but exquisite face. He took a look at his child in his wife's arms who was startled by his roaring voice.

After the child calmed again, the man spoke.

"Hmm, so since it's a boy, which name are we choosing?"

Both parents looked at the child, pondering. After some time, the man spoke.

"Arlo?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Just... no."

"Fine."

Rolling his eyes, the man went back to pondering. The next moment though, his eyes lit up.

"I got it! How about Dirk!"

"Dirk... It's not bad."

"Hahaha! Yes. That's it! From now on, this boy shall be named Dirk Strider, 4th child of the Noble Strider household!"

Laughing in celebration, the man declared the child's name. The mother didn't object, meaning she gave her approval.

Meanwhile, the child, who had gained the consciousness of a recently arrived soul, stared up at the two adults in front of him with baffling confusion.