Having a power that helped programming could be extremely useful, and at the same time extremely disappointing. Rachel could easily do the work of 20 programs without even breaking a sweat, so finding an overpaid job was easy. The thing was that her power wasn't anything special or unique

Her power could only make her work better and faster than others, but it wasn't something that only she could do. Her power wasn't cool like making black holes, flying or throwing laser from your eyes, it was something that anyone could archive with a little time. In the end, it was at the level where she could do in a day something that a normal person could archive in 20 or 30, nothing else. Some people even could archive the same level of programming without the use of powers, making her fell even more disappointed in her power

It caused some sort of inferiority complex compared to others powered. When someone praised how great her power was, she would put a fake smile while cursing the guy to death for reminding her of how pointless her power was, and she would complain to her family or friends from time to time about it

Part of the reasons she may have felt like that was because she got her powers at the age of 8, and when she reached 12, she could already program as effectively as a team of 20. At that age, you don't dream about getting a well-paid job, you dream about saving lives, going to space, or at least, doing something special or remarkable with your life. Getting your future secure it the last thing on your mind

So, when she was 16, a strange offer suddenly came. It was from a friend of hers, that also had a "thinker" power like her, and after hearing her complain about her powers he started talking about a group he belonged

He told her that his group was a collaboration of thinker powered, support powered and some really smart people looking for ways to give powers to people without accessing the 4th dimension. The idea was to use the knowledge of different thinkers and the powers of some of the supporters to grant abilities to normal people

As for why they need her, her programming skill would be useful to make different systems in the research facility, even if she wouldn't be contributing directly with granting the abilities herself

The idea interested her for obvious reasons. If it worked in normal people, she may be able to get a power herself, and finally have something cooler than being more efficient and effective than the average person

She agreed to meet some of the people in his group, and shortly after, she was also a member

After working 8 years with the group even thought there were thing she didn't like, she got used to the place over time

After joining the group, she was a little freak when she not only found known heroes in the group but also renown and wanted super villains also working there. Of course, there were also some like her that worked for private companies or independent and didn't belong to either the "good" guys or the "bad"guys, and some intelligent people without a power, but what surprised her more was how both heroes and villains worked together without a care and just pursuing new knowledge

Of course, there were some Divas, that made everything harder, but over time either the rest of the people got used to them, they calmed down or they simply got kick out with their memory erased as a precaution

But those divas weren't the real problem of the place. If she had to admit that something was almost a deal breaker for her to remain in the group was how they used little kids as ginny pigs for the experiments. She knew it was wrong to use kids for the testing, and some left the group because of it, but realistically speaking, it was the best choice for all

According to some of the people working there, including the "heroes", they were actually helping them. Almost all the kids they pick were sick kids, kids with lost limbs, future war soldiers, kids sold to debts that would end up in prostitution otherwise, orphan and street kids without a home or bright future, etc

Mots of this kids would end up dead or in a really bad environment if they didn't take them. On the other hand, thanks to being their ginny pigs, the kids would get food, clothes, decent education, and a cool super power

At least, that was what she told herself

Well, the other reason they only brought kids in that sort of situation was simply because they were cheap, and small kids were the best test subjects since they were in the process of growing up, making them more resilient to experiments, drugs and conditioning

She didn't like it, but she told herself that it was not only the best for them, but their "help" would be useful to the whole world in the future

And after 8 years, she got use to it. She didn't really care as much as before, and even when they did a questioning thing or two, she looked the other way since what they were doing was so important, and they invested so much in it would be a waste to lose it all

Usually, you could put the people in the facility in two groups, those with the same line of thinking than Rachel, and those that took advantage of the environment to do those questionable things from time to time

Well, there was also sometimes where everyone agreed that they went to far like when someone did the free pizza Friday as an April fools joke that went horribly wrong, but most of the time, some people could get away with doing a questionable thing or two from time to time

It wasn't perfect, but the research they were doing was really going forward. Even though most of the experiments did reduce the life span of the kids, the experiments most damaging to the body went from allowing the subject to live from 20 years in the worst cases to 40 years, and there was still room for improvement

As for the cyborg and chimera research, those could be considered a complete success so far. There wasn't too much of a reduction in their lifespan after going through the procedure, and even thought they had a high mortality rate during the operation, it went down from a 70% to a 20% chance of death for the chimera experiments, and from 50% to 10% in the Cyborg operation, with an increase according to the number of cyborg parts

And event though the danger leased, the strength of the kids actually improved over time, as they learned a better training environment and improved the quality of the different researchers

Everything was going "great" if you forget the fact that they lost 10-20% of the kids they brought, and 60-70% wouldn't live past 40...

But it was true that the research they were doing was really useful. If things kept going as they were going, in a few years or worst case a decade or two, they could make all this research public(omitting the illegal parts obviously)

Things were going in the right direction, with mortality going down, efficiency going up, and side effect slowly decreasing

As for Rechel, she didn't exactly knew all the thing they did, even though she knew not everything was morally correct, but she was happy in her believe that she was making the world a better place in the long run, and was happily working in a new software for the kids phones when she suddenly got a private message to one of her private channels

DP-are you there?-

DP was doctor pill, one of the "heroes" that worked in the group, and one of the senior members

RV-yep, everything alright?-

DP-We have to abandon the facility-

The statement made her hesitate for a second. Abandoning the facility would slow down everything they achieved so far for moths and even years depending on how it went

RV-Why?-

DP-Heroes found the location of our facility-

RV-s**t, do they know who is involve?-

DP- I don't think so, or they wouldn't have invited me in-

RV- what do we do then?-

DP- I asked someone else to deactivate the generators, forcing the system to use the backup generator, I need you to deactivate all the defenses and activate all the irrelevant electric appliances you can-

RV-why? that doesn't make any sense?-

DP-There is a safety device that activates when the power and defense are down and someone suddenly penetrates the facility without permission. It makes sure to erase all the data in the computers. That way it's important to make sure they are all on when it happens

RV-Won't it be a waste to lose all the research we have done so far?-

DP-Don't worry, I already have someone else retrieving all the data before everything is erased

RV-And the kids?-

DP- we can't take all of them, so we will take the most useful ones, and leave the rest to the heroes-

RV-Ok, count me in.How much time do I have?-

DP-2 or 3 hours at most-

RV-Then I should start working right now-

Even though most of the programs in the current facility were done by her and she worked faster and better than when she was 12, it was a big facility and she didn't have a lot of time, so every minute count

DP-Good luck-

RV-You too-

What Rechel didn't know, and doctor pill did, was that the "safety device" that activated under those conditions actually didn't just erased the data, but everything in the facility with it

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Note: The last of my apologize for the joke 3 release, now the normal wait of a chapter every 2-3 days =P

Next chapter will be also a side story, but I have4 side stories to chose from and I am not sure what to pick. We have Uncle Muscle story this past two years, the invasion from Angle perspective and DR pill perspective and Stalker past and circumstances. I am not sure if I should write the 4 now, or 2 now and 2 a few chapters later