Doctor Hans laid down the bloody scalpel he was holding the entire time on a stand beside him. Looking at the open body in front of him, he frowned and waved his hand, and a guard pushed the bed that held what was left of the lab rat out of the room.

The doctor sighed, not because he just ended a life but because his life was endangered. After four dead mutants and nearly two hours, he was starting to doubt whether or not he could truly accomplish what the good general wanted him to achieve.

Whatever the source of power was for these mutants, they weren’t merely dormant when they were separated from their host, which was what he thought when the samples turned out to be normal. The truth was, even when he directly examined the living samples, he couldn’t find anything special. He found that out the hard way.

The man smashed his fist into the stand angrily. He knew there was nothing he could do. The mutant power came from a god, and a mere mortal like him had no chance of deciphering it, but he also knew what would happen if he told the general he couldn’t do it. The man could make him. He could also destroy him.

“Bring me another.” He said coldly into his Bluetooth as he did for the past several times.

A minute later a guard pushed a completely restrained mutant inside.

It was Alia.

The girl was held tightly to the bed via several leather restraints. She was struggling, but she couldn’t break free. The guard stepped out of the room.

Hans washed the scalpel over a fountain. Red blood mixed with the transparent water, formed a pink liquid, and slid down the sink. He was doing the process slowly, thinking about anything that could help him in the process. This only made the other participant of the experiment as nervous as possible. It was one thing to die quickly. It was another to look at your killer slowly ready the instrument of your demise.

Alia was beyond desperate. She scanned the room. There were three people in the lab. The doctor. A young man in his twenties in a white coat that seemed like the doctor’s assistant. An armed guard. She tried to contact the power within her, but as soon as the first spark appeared the guard saw it. He pressed a button on his watch without any hesitation, and Alia was left shaking in pain. It took all her might to stop herself from screaming.

The guard seemed delighted to see Alia’s pained expression. He didn’t stop until the doctor finished cleaning his tool and walked to the lab rat. When the electrocution stopped, Alia was once again soaked wet.

“I’m going to kill you.” She whispered as Hans stood next to her with a scalpel in his hand.

Doctor Hans smirked. “The last person that said that to me died screaming. It wasn’t a pretty sight.” He was already pretty pissed off by the lack of progress on the experiments, and he had to let off some steam. He smirked in bloodthirst as he moved forward with the sharp tool and put it on Alia’s chest. He had done this countless times before, and he wasn’t afraid to admit he was starting to enjoy it.

He was about to push the knife down when an explosion suddenly came off in the compound. All three men shook drastically. Hans had to hold onto the bed Alia was on to keep himself from falling.

“What the hell was that?” He pulled his scalpel back.

One and a half hour ago.

A bloodstained SUV reached the gate of the compound. Under the order of General Howe, the compound was put under maximum security. The gate was especially so. Fifty men were positioned at the gate alone. Four machine gun posts oversaw everything and everyone that went in or out. A roadblock capable of stopping anything that wasn’t a tank blocked the path.

Jean stopped the SUV in front of the roadblock. A man walked up to her while dozens of his comrades stood back with their weapons ready to fire. The occupant of the vehicle gunning their way through the guards with the element of surprise and a few automatic weapons was a scene only seen in movies. Anyone that tried a similar thing in reality would find themselves ravaged by a tidal wave of ammunition.

“Please show your credentials, madam.” The man was a guard, judging from the black armband. Jean learned from Courtney’s memory that the guards were the elite forces that backed General Howe up. They were the sword of the general and were willing to put down any opposition for him, whether they were from outside or from within. As a result, they had more rights than the ordinary soldiers. The fact that they were the ones patrolling the gate was interesting.

Jean didn’t let her thoughts slow down her action. She held her hand out. In reality, it was empty, but from the point of view of both the guard and Paul she was holding a license.

“Welcome back, lieutenant.” The guard checked the credential and decided it was decent. Captain Riley was a lieutenant. This was a familiar title to Jean.

“Thank you, sergeant.” Jean was as polite as ever.

The guard sergeant waved his hand, and the rest of the guards moved theroadblockk aside. Jean brought the SUV into the base and toward the parking lot. As she was doing so, she spoke to the man beside him.

“You know the drill. You have to do this alone.” Jean saw the anger on Paul’s face. ”Of course, I will make sure your sister lives. After all, I stay true to my deal. I just want to see what you’re capable of. Even if you fail I will save both of you, but it will be to your best interest if you do the best you can.”

“And you?”

“Well, I will play the part of lieutenant Courtney Riley until your mission is complete. As soon as your mission is complete, or if you mission failed, all you have to do is give me a call, and I will come in and save the day.” Jean explained as she parked the SUV. “Good luck.” She tapped Paul’s forehead with her index finger before leaving the vehicle and walking toward the command center of the compound.

Paul laid back in the leather seat for a few seconds. A foreign wave of information was just passed into his head. It was everything he would need to know about the compound to complete an infiltration mission.

At her power level, Jean could do some memory insertion with her xel’naga power. However, it was in no way similar to the memory insertion the Supreme One did to voyagers. For one thing, voyagers weren’t defenseless teenagers. They were highly enhanced, battle hardened combatants. Even so, the Supreme One could add things into their minds whenever they needed to without the voyager’s approval. Furthermore, the best Jean could do was pass some basic memories. If she tried to give Paul the memory of the entire life of a person, like what she received when she worked with the female captain, the teenager’s mind wouldn’t be able to handle the new info. The most likely case would be that he would go mad. In comparison, the Supreme One, with technology enough to insert memory into a normal human being and leave no negative impact at all, was much more superior.

After processing the memory, Paul quietly checked his weaponry before leaving the SUV.

He had a girl to save.