A/N:Hey guys, this chapter is a milestone in a way for me. Some of you may have felt that Chapter 18 - Homo Liberatur seemed like the end of an arc, and in that case you would be correct. It was the official end of Arc 1, which I have mapped out as the introduction. This book will include two more similarly sized arcs, and we'll have to see from there.

This chapter is the beginning of Arc 2 - Archon Industries, ch. 19 being the transition. To all the sci-fi enthusiasts, we'll finally be diving into some of the more interesting emerging tech :D

Last note. I'm adding a donation button later, not in an effort to put stress on you guys or as an attempt to "hide behind a paywall" as I've seen that sentence bandied around lately, but rather as a way for those of you who wish to donate to have a way to do so. I'll be honest, I'm like many other authors on this site in the fact that I am a broke college student. Any contributions will be greatly appreciated and will serve to ensure that my attention is on Archon whenever possible. If it reaches a certain threshold, I will start to seriously consider a system of sponsored chapters.

Thanks, and be sure to rate/review/comment if you haven't already! Archon could always use some more voting love!

-BC

Victor felt like he’d just gone through one of the trippiest dreams ever; the subconscious desire to recall it proved to be an inherently poor choice. Grasping at the dream was like trying to clutch tendrils of smoke as they left a fire, streaming off into oblivion. Perhaps he would get another chance one day because just then, that same telltale timeless feeling one has when they cross over from sleep and back to reality struck him.

There was a striking set of differences this time around.

A fraction of a second after he woke up, he was focused. His mind organized itself and connected with all of the muscle tissue and nerves within the body almost immediately. There was no transition phase, no grogginess that latched onto his mind like how a mire grips at the boots. He was clear with a kind of clarity that surpassed anything he’d ever felt before. Snapping his eyes open like he’d only closed them for a moment to blink, he took in a room that was familiar, yet alien.

Colors were more vivid and he saw the heat that was roiling around him like a raging sea.

He’d seen the effect that colored smoke makes at concerts. He’d seen when the light streamed through fog in the early morning, making the condensed water molecules that were visible to the naked eye take on the hues of a Sunrise. Here though, it was a completely different sensation. Air itself was given substance by the heat, emblazoned in a ghostly, fiery red. It did not obstruct his vision. Instead, it was just like another fact of life had been revealed to him, joining the other types of stimuli he was used to receiving.

It all felt a bit surreal.

With a thought, he recalled the memory of the few minutes before he went through the serum and the scene played like a movie. Not only that, there was a slight time dilation between what he used to replay the memory versus when he came out. How could he possibly tell? It was like every lesson in mathematics had been organized and arranged for his express use along with the acute calibration of his senses.

There have been cases in humans where someone has had an especially impressive affinity for keeping time with their “internal clock”, but since his mind can perfectly recall information now, he was able to bring forth the unit from experience and apply it in sync with reality. In fact, it didn’t even register as a task to his brain... like it was beneath it. In the hierarchy of thought, his mind no longer considered such things as hard or complex.

Raising a hand slowly, he rotated and flipped it back and forth, fixated on the roiling heat and watching as it propagated into the epidermis. Turning inward, he felt more than saw the heat being shuttled to a new area within his sternum, nestled in between his lungs. What truly fascinated him, and what he hadn’t had the chance to ask Bearcat about before the procedure, was the usage and conversion of the heat energy in the cellular metabolic process.

Unfortunately, he was not familiar enough with his body yet, so he’d need to seek some hints from Bearcat on how he navigates the processes. Most things were intuitive, but for core functions like this that were alien to his knowledge of biology and anatomy, he was functionally blind until he acclimated.

Tightening his hand into a fist, a surge of power accompanied the motion, bringing along with it an immense, invincible feeling of strength. Indomitable in nature, a vast river of heat flooded through his veins towards his clenched fingers, warming the vessels and making the dark tone of his skin a reddish hue. Letting the tension fade, he went through his muscles one by one and flexed, feeling the destructive potential housed within. This would take some getting used to.

Just by his own conservative estimates, and disregarding the supplementary heat energy, it was easily 400% of his maximum before the ‘upgrade’. Truly, Bearcat had used the word appropriately, because this was nothing short of an “out with the old, in with the new” kind of scenario. He reckoned that he could take an entire bar in a fight and come away from it without even a bruise.

Even better, he’d only put on 9.8 lbs. of muscle. Well, I won’t need a scale now. Being able to precisely measure things like this is pretty handy. In any case, he was already a pretty lean guy, adding on near 10 pounds of muscle filled him out a good bit. It’s no wonder that Adrian looks the way he does.

Finally forcing himself to rip his attention away from the unspeakable gains he was discovering, he looked up and took in the state of the room at a glance. Victor frowned. He closed his eyes again before inevitably reopening them a moment later. He thought he must be hallucinating.

Heather was peering around with an icy expression and caught his eye for a moment before smirking and then looking back towards Bearcat. Maybe it wasn’t icy per se, because the silvery white hair could probably be affecting his perception of her. Yeah, that was definitely it. Or, it could be the fact that her eyes were now a pale, icy blue that periodically emanated electricity like Adrian’s to match the whole snow queen thing she had going on.

Any way you looked it though, Heather was fucking hot. She was still petite but looked like she’d gained the female equivalent of muscle mass that he’d gained. Her soft skin wasn’t overly pale, but she did share with Adrian that same type of Northern complexion that one might expect of someone well used to wearing lots of clothes. She looked like a proud ice amazonian that could break you in half if such a thing were possible...and if she was a foot over 5’2”, which she was not.

Back in school, he’d initially had a thing for her, but it didn’t pan out for various reasons. Gradually, over time, they finally settled into this really solid friendship. Looking at her now though, he was a bit envious of Bearcat since he was the one she had her eye on. But then again...His eyes travelled over to Bearcat who was talking softly to Nova. He had an idea what was going on, but he didn’t want to poke his nose in where it didn’t belong. Yet.

Peter was already out of his restraints and was leaning forward in his chair, his head rested on his hands while he looked around as well. If there was a scary award, he’d take it in a landslide. He looked like a tank. While Victor gained around 10 lbs, it was obvious that Pete had gained in the neighborhood of 40. Why the difference? He didn’t know, but that wasn’t what really scared him as he looked over at his friend. It was the eyes. There was this sense of bloodlust that seemed to naturally radiated from the irises that had turned an unnatural red.

It reminded him of Bearcat’s when he was particularly pissed about something...He cut his eyes toward his friend for a second before looking back. On top of the bloodlust, there seemed to be a sense of abject boredom, like he now knew what he should be doing, and it wasn’t found within the room.

Looking over to his right, Rich was there in all of his hairy, bearded glory. In fact, it looked like his scruff had gained some considerable length. His brown eyes that had likewise been electrified were looking towards the others with the same curiosity that Victor himself was feeling. The guy also filled out like a barrel; he was muscular as hell.

Leaning in, Victor got Rich’s attention with a nod and said, “Oi, Gimli. When’d you get here? I thought you were over in Moria banging all of the dwarven lasses.”

Rich threw back a good-natured smile. “You know I go for the elvish girls man. Which, I have to ask, is your sister single? Because judging by those ears of yours, she might fall within my strike zone!”

Victor froze and then tried to lift his hand quickly to feel his ears, but couldn’t go very far because of the restraints. Every way he tried, he couldn’t manage to get the things undone. They were obviously made with their new strength in mind.

Rich leaned over again. “Bro, you bring a whole new meaning to the words ‘Dark Elf’!” He threw his head back and laughed uproariously.

Victor shot him a look over the black joke, but before he could say anything they both heard a roar come from their left. Looking over, They saw a wide-eyed Sergio nearly frothing at the mouth as he tried to get out of his restraints, yelling at Bearcat to let him out. Wait, that was in Spanish. Victor thought back and realized that he now had a good understanding of the language solely thanks to listening to Sergio talk to other people on the fly.

Adopting a mock horrified expression, Victor turned back to Rich. “Yo se español!”

Rich thought for a moment and then started nodding while terrified as well. “Yo tambien!”

Bearcat walked towards the raging Sergio and Victor heard him exclaim, “Sweet Jesus, what did you put in the Jamba Juice, Raide?!”

The A.I. appeared on the wall, throwing up a CGI’ed movie theater that was devoid of other people save himself. He sat down in the very center of the back row where he kicked back with a massive, impossibly large thing of popcorn. Taking a sip from his collector’s edition coke cup, he merely pointed at the off camera screen that you’d expect in a movie theater while applying more salt on top of the bowl.

Adjusting angles, another version Raide appeared that was clad in gentleman’s attire, polishing a crystal clear glass behind a bar counter. Finishing up the shine, he mixed a drink and slid it across the bartop to the camera and gave a wink. “Shaken, not stirred. I call it….Cocktail du Raide…” The camera zoomed in for effect and the background went out of focus as the name was displayed in script beside the martini.

Back in the medical room, they all went silent. Adrian leaned back, looking at the A.I. weirdly before inevitably and suddenly turning back towards Sergio. “So, anyways, everyone had a rough few hours, okay? The restraints were to make sure you didn’t fall out of your chair, nothing more.”

Raide sat up from his lazy position in theater seat and yelled at them, “Oh, please! That was a beautifully imagined commercial!”

Adrian sighed and turned to him, saying exasperatedly, “That was pure theft! You mashed together a Stella Artois commercial with a line from James Bond followed by your own craptastic name!”

“Ah, damn. You’re right.” Raide pointed his finger contemplatively before dropping it to only raise it again and scratch his chin. “I was sure I made an original that time.”

Sergio’s voice drew their attention again, but it sounded overly calm, like he was barely suppressing the desire to yell. “Bearcat, the restraints... please.”

Bearcat pretended to be apologetic and threw a look at everyone else as he undid Serg’s straps. Once undone, his friend leapt from the chair as if he was afraid it would reach out at him to lock him back into place. Adrian adopted a thoughtful expression and turned to Raide as he undid everyone else’s. “Note that the serum doesn’t have an apparent effect on preexisting phobias.”

“Noted and archived.”

Bearcat clapped his hands. “Alright! Gather round children, we’ll be taking account of all the changes you lot experienced and going over some ground rules.” Watching the seven of them come over to him, his expression got contemplative, and Victor noticed that most of the others kept throwing him some weird looks. Remembering about the ears, his hands shot up and felt a rising tip that was indicative of elves. Oh shit…

A weird feeling rushed up into the pit of his stomach, bubbling there while he thought about the ears. Truth be told, Victor was the type to always play Elven characters in games if he was given the option. Maybe it was a feeling inspired by watching Lord of the Rings when he saw it for the first time, but he thought that their way of combat was just badass. Not to mention, they were suave as fuck. The idea of warriors and scholars training for centuries or millennia made him feel this sense of awe at what they would be able to do.

Here and now, though…

He traced the edges of his left ear while ruminating over all the possible things he’d have to deal with in the future. Not to mention the eyes, since it seemed everyone had also gotten Adrian’s freaky lightning irises, just the ears alone are enough to draw people’s eyes when he went out. He could masquerade as a cosplayer, but that would get old quickly. He sighed to himself. A quick look around told him that Heather, Nova, himself, and Peter appeared the most abnormal among the group. Inori, Rich, Bearcat, and Sergio were relatively tame. They didn’t have any outrageous physical qualities that would draw attention beyond the ubiquitous eyes.

Now that he thought about it though, all of the girls looked really different. It wasn’t just because of the weird silvery white hair on Heather’s part or Nova’s sudden dichromatic eye mutation, all of the girls seemed to glow now. All of the girls were pretty before, though he only thought Heather was worthy of the word beautiful, but they all now looked like they’d “ranked up” in terms of appearance. He was stunned. Now, Heather was just otherworldly.

Thinking back, he recalled up a picture of Inori before the upgrade since she was the normal looking one in the bunch now; he figured she would be the best comparison. Retreating into the mind palace that Adrian had helped them structure two months ago, and which he had practiced on since then, he placed a stilled image of Inori beside an open window into his normal vision. The difference was night and day.

Practically every biological thing a girl can worry about seemed to have been taken care of, even the inane things. Eyelashes were longer and fuller, the tone and moisture contained in the skin gave her cheeks a soft rosy glow that now radiated energy, along with a sort of youthful charm that was indicative of her ancestral heritage. There was something strange going on though.

Victor’s eyes squinted for a moment before opening them wide again in surprise. That was it, she looked very similar to how she preferred to have her makeup. Except, now she wasn’t wearing any, all probably burnt away by the inferno they were still standing in. But how could her facial features have adapted to her preferences? He cut his eyes towards Raide, understanding flashing across his brain as soon as he thought the question.

Raide mapped their preferences and copied over the changes into their genetic code. That was the only answer that made sense. But really, isn’t that terrifying? To have such an acute control over DNA coding was monstrous in and of itself. A grimace flashed across his face. Doesn’t that mean that he could have had something to do with these ears?

Dissatisfaction spread through him, making his blood run somewhat cold before he inevitably shook his head. It wasn’t possible. Bearcat valued secrecy right now more than anything, so by definition Raide’s valuations and changes should reflect that. Seeing Heather’s hair again, it became obvious to him that there was some aspect of the genetic manipulation process that Raide and Bearcat did not have complete control over yet. It was suspicious that the changes fit such fantasy-like concepts, but that would be something that he himself could address in the future.

In the half moment that he thought all of this, Victor decided to put it all from his mind and turned back to Bearcat who was just about to start talking. He looked confident, despite the weirdness of the situation. Perhaps he has a way to deal with all of this, he mused. Faith surged through his chest thinking about all that they’d already accomplished and been through. Surely, he thought, BC had some way to deal with all this.

***

Adrian was sweating internally.

Weird, silvery hair he could deal with - who hasn’t heard of hair dye? If that was even necessary. He looked at Heather’s calm and collected expression and thought the new look suited her. Almost a little too well. Nova’s eyes he could deal with as well because he already had a plan for the nano-contact design and her hair’s luminescence wasn’t a problem because someone really wouldn’t notice unless they were in a pitch dark environment.

Hell, he was even proud of the fact that the girls all got suspiciously more beautiful. The guys all looked more handsome as well, like the flaws they had before had been reduced somewhat. It wasn’t to the degree that everyone had turned androgynous or anything. It was like everyone’s physical qualities had been sharpened and perfected, each in their own unique way.

What he could not deal with though, was Victor’s ears. They were a medium to long length if you judged by fictional species that had elongated ears. He had to fight down the urge to call him Spock as a joke. Since his friend was black, he also had the “Dark Elf” reference flash through his mind, but he knew Victor’s temper better than most, so he wasn’t about to mess with him like he’d heard Rich do. That fucking idiot.

It seemed that that part of his best friend had remained in all its glory. The ability to not give a fuck about anything, that is.

Sighing, he decided that he’d talk with Raide about it later when they were alone again. For now, he had a lot of administrative things to take care of. Slowing down his thoughts to reach normal speed again, he ended his brief pause.

“While I wish you could all just go home for some rest, it appears that is no longer is an option. Judging by everyone’s highly unexpected changes, everyone is going to have to remain here. This is just as well, since you all have apartments, but I realize that will create complications for your lives outside of Archon Industries, so I want you to first take care of whatever you need to in order to ensure you can stay here.”

Inori looked pretty worried and asked, “How long do we have to stay?” Seeing Adrian’s eyes flash in amusement, she smiled and went on, clarifying, “It’s not like it bothers me, but my parents haven’t been the same since the Envy thing, so…”

Ah, yes. There is that. Adrian looked her over and noticed the change in her demeanor. Normally, she’d be stammering or at a loss when she’s talking to me, but it looks like this upgrade gave her back her confidence. He smiled. “No worries, just tell them that you’re working over here and have been provided a sizable bonus to stay on site for the next month since we’re going to be going into full operation shortly. If they’re unconvinced, invite them to the grand opening a week from next Monday.”

Everyone’s eyes lit up in confusion. Adrian then remembered he hadn’t told them yet. Really, when he thought about it, he hadn’t told them much of anything since the Envy raid. Rubbing his hands together he sat down in chair and threw a look at Raide who was still sitting in his theater seat on the wall. Catching the glimpse, the A.I. cleared everything and started arranging projects on the wall. Everyone’s gaze, aside from Adrian, flitted to the wall in curiosity and gradually morphed into shock.

His fingers started drumming on the armrest while he thought. Abruptly, he stopped drumming and his hand slapped down forcefully. He started slowly, “Okay, let me first say this before we get into everything that will occupy your lives for the next several months and years. Now that you’ve all come through the upgrade, I expect a lot from you.” He looked over each of them. “I know it's not necessarily fair, but you all have lost a bit of your freedom by electing to be a part of this. This isn’t a normal job. You don’t get to jump ship. You’re part of a new species now, for God’s sake, so let me make one point irrevocably clear.”

He leaned towards them all and his expression darkened. “If any of you decide to try your hand and betray us, I will kill you.” Everyone’s eyes held a hint of fear as he looked over them.

“It is not something that I relish the thought of, so don’t test me. The liberatur’s existence is a secret, and if I feel that you’ve compromised our goals here, you’ll find that your newly elongated life on Earth will come to an abrupt and bitter end. Loyalty is something I value very highly…” His eyes raked over Heather for a moment in recollection before moving on, “So I expect discretion. You got me?”

Everyone nodded and glanced nervously at each other, noting in each other’s expressions that they too had seen Adrian’s eyes go back to his characteristic maroon just then. Heather was off to the side with a weird expression. Whatever it was she was thinking, no one there knew.

Switching gears suddenly, Adrian smiled in an attempt to dispel the awkward atmosphere. “Okay, now that the unpleasant piece of what I had to say has been said, we get to go over the last of the preliminary things before we get to the projects on the board.

“All of you are probably a bit uncomfortable with the new limits of your body, so we’re going to take the next three days as mandatory physical training. For those of you who aren’t going to be combat oriented, your regimens will be comparatively light, but don’t treat it too light as it’s a time for you to fully acclimate. This will include mental process management too, so I’ll be there with you to answer any questions you may have with regards to customizing your settings.

“Once the three days are done, or Raide and I are satisfied, you’ll finish the upgrade process by going through a full round of medical tests to ascertain your capabilities, including a full mock up of a stat table. This is just like what I’ve had the entire time as a way to gauge my rate of growth and how I stacked up against others.” The guys looked excited at this but the girls were nonplussed. “After that...we have project assignments.”

He grinned in anticipation and turned to the wall where the project titles were listed in descending order from closest to completion to the ones that were on the backburner for now. There was nothing that impressive about the visuals of the list, but the words it contained housed numerous ideas that belonged to various different industries. It was beyond ambitious to say that he wanted to achieve two of them in the near future, not to mention his intentions to pursue all of them.

ProjectsCancer Cure - (All types)Stage 3 of 4...Prototyping85%A1X VTOL Aircraft v1.0Stage 3 of 4...Prototyping0%Carbon Nanotube application [PRIORITY 1]Stage 2 of 4...Researching50%Nanotech lenses [PRIORITY 1]Stage 2 of 4...Researching39%Core-based batteryStage 2 of 4...Researching30%Quantum Resonance CommunicationStage 2 of 4...Researching29%Personnel Suit v2.0Stage 2 of 4...Researching28%Synthetic MuscleStage 2 of 4...Researching28%Hydroponics - Growth AccelerantStage 2 of 4...Researching27%Neural UplinkStage 2 of 4...Researching26%Virtual Reality - Full Dive [STALLED]Stage 2 of 4...Researching26%Atmospheric Ion Pulse EngineStage 1 of 4...Conceptualization50%Orbital HammerStage 1 of 4...Conceptualization25%ValhallaStage 1 of 4...Conceptualization4%

Adrian looked over at Rich and caught a bit of drool leaking out of the corner of his bearded mouth like he was looking at a keg of his favorite brew. Coincidentally, he started speaking in a dreamy, croaky voice, “Gods, Bearcat, am I imagining things? This is the most beautiful list I’ve ever seen. It’s like Tesla himself came down from on high and carved it just for me. If there is such a thing as a King of the Lists, this one takes the prize.” The barrel of a man went on to wipe an actual tear from his eye.

Adrian rolled his eyes in response. This was just a taste of what they’d be doing. After all, this was just the technological advancement side…He hadn’t forgotten about the corruption still plaguing the government, nor had he forgotten those that he hadn’t finished ripping up from their roots. The ghosts of these pursuers and potential threats were always there at the edge of his mind, whispering words of aggression and igniting his bloodthirst.

He’d never let his friends see this concern of his though. His duty to them all included their protection. Not a soul on this green Earth would possess the ability to threaten them for long.

All he needed was time.

Adrian decided to cut off the admiration time. “Okay guys, wake up. Some of you probably have an idea of your assignment, but I’ll say it anyway.

“Victor, you’re lead project manager on the Cancer cure. Next week, we’re going hunting for lab technicians and doctors that fit my criteria so you can have extra hands to finish the prototype formula. This includes trials. After that, we’ll move the project from stage 3 to 4 and begin the Production phase which will encompass seeking approval from the FDA. I expect that you’ll have to work closely with their Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), but we’ll have already completed all of the proprietary portions of the synthesis, so we don’t have to worry too much about them. Just be reasonably secretive and come to me if they try and get pushy over it.”

Victor nodded, obviously excited. “You got it, ‘Cat. I’ll go ahead and spend my time in the evenings brushing up on my knowledge with Raide as well. Regarding what I’m missing, it’s like I’ve been painted a clear path in my mind on what to learn next, so it won’t take me too long to get to a satisfactory level.”

Adrian smiled in return. “Ah, good point. Everyone take note to spend your evenings with Raide as well at the computer terminal in your apartment. He’ll aid you in bringing your knowledge up to par.” Everyone spoke up in agreement, surprising him a bit over how willing they were to pile learning on top all the physical activity they’d have to do during the day. It seemed that their past tendencies to be lazy had almost been stripped from their desires. It was fascinating to watch because he wondered just what they’d be capable of when they put their full attention towards it?

He went on, “Heather, you’re on the A1X prototyping. We’ve already decided to borrow the production capabilities of a few unrelated companies, so the parts have been custom ordered and should arrive within the next few days. Raide has the schematics for you when you’re ready to begin.There’s not much else to be said here, but I do hope that you’ll brush up on your aeronautical engineering. It could prove useful.”

Heather seductively smiled and said quietly in a way that would make men’s hearts burn, “Of course. Anything you want, BC.” Her pale, icy eyes seemed to try and devour him. He wasn’t sure what had gotten into her in the last few minutes, but he was feeling like prey at the moment.

Clearing his throat by swallowing for a moment, he tore his gaze away from the siren and looked towards Inori. “Inori, you’ll be floating between a few projects, namely the A1X, the nanotech lenses, and the carbon nanotube research. You’ll preside over the carbon nanotube portion entirely like Victor and his cancer research, but the others you’ll be assisting. I’ll be hustling over the lenses, so just come and lend a hand when you have a chance.”

Rich snorted before mumbling quietly to himself, “What’s the company policy on handjobs at work?”

Adrian caught a smirk floating across Victor’s face as they both apparently caught the murmur. Judging by the twitching expressions on Heather and Nova’s faces, they’d caught it as well. Reaching over to the idiot standing right next to him, he cuffed him in the back of the head, hissing, “An IQ well over 300 and you still act like a teenager whose balls have just dropped.”

Picking up his voice, he tried to move on, “Rich you’re head of Engineering in general given your expertise.” He threw him a disgusted look. “You’ll be working with Heather on the A1X primarily, but also Raide on the pre-production of future tech projects that require material fabrication like carbon nanotube inclusion. If you have ideas, you and Inori will need to collaborate to institute its usage as a material. The other projects can wait for now. Raide is doing simulations based on other laboratories’ data.”

Not deigning to let Rich speak anymore, he turned to Sergio quickly. “You’re the face of Archon Industries, our spokesman. I’d like you to be learning from Raide about what relationships to form after the opening. Raide is going to let slip an email clue to the right reporter about the Cancer cure and point towards our opening. He’ll put just enough information in it to turn heads and make them take us seriously. You’ll need to be up to snuff on the knowledge surrounding the cure and also possible scenarios the press corp could put you through.” Sergio didn’t say anything, just nodding in reply.

Finally turning to Nova and Peter, he gave them a once over before asking, “You’re our two psuedo-free agents, any ideas on where you want to be?”

Nova warmly smiled and said, “I want to be head of Human Resources and also the Hydroponics Division.”

Adrian looked back at her in surprise, gazing at her thoughtfully. “That’s a long way from architecture,” he remarked.

“What can I say? It wasn’t my true calling.”

Adrian nodded, giving her a small smile in return. “Well okay then.” He turned to Peter. “And you?”

Peter towered over all of them at 6’3” now with the build of a barbarian. His red eyes once again drew the gazes of everyone as they looked up at him. He still looked bored, but his eyes glowed with a type of energy every time he looked at the wall with the list of projects. Something on it must have caught his eye.

He inevitably shrugged. “To be honest, I’m not that interested in being a part of the development process. I understand a lot more now about what we’re going to be doing here, so don’t get me wrong, I appreciate this side of things, but…”He looked over at the wall again. “I mostly want to be the one that uses some of this in combat, so I’m a bit at a loss what to do in the meantime.”

“No worries.” Adrian grinned. “How about this. We’ll send you out on assignment.”

Peter looked to be interested and asked in surprised, “What do you have in mind?”

“Frankly, I want a sleeper cell in the higher echelons of the military. Judging by your abilities, it wouldn’t take you long to learn and become the scariest soldier that’s ever lived. Can you imagine how much value the military would put on you?”

“Oh hell yeah!” Peter exclaimed. “Talk about right up my alley.”

Adrian smirked at him. “Just remember to keep a lid on everything you know and, of course, the true extent of your abilities. Playing super soldier is awesome, but become too super and the military will start poking at you to try and figure out why you’re so different. Keep it at a manageable and believable level,” he reminded.

Peter laughed heartily and semi-mockingly said, “Aye, Cap’n.”

Adrian shook his head and smiled, his attention suddenly drawn to Victor who was staring up at the project listing. Victor scratched one of his long ears and mused, “Almost all of these I’ve heard about before in some way or another. These last two though...” he pointed at Orbital Hammer and Valhalla. “Just what the hell are they?”

The corner’s of Adrian’s lips turned upwards in mischief, his eyes twinkling impishly as he looked at the glowing names, “That’s a secret.”