Abby sits back down on her bed. She pats a spot beside her, beckoning James over to sit with her. He obliges; this is obviously going to take a while.

“So, obviously I’ve been keeping something from you,” she begins.

“I’ll say.”

“Well, don’t go acting like I’m a dirty liar! I intended to tell you, eventually. We just got caught up in that chase and… anyways, this used to be an abandoned hospital, when a married couple purchased and renovated it. They were in charge of a big corporation called Hillside Laboratories, but it was shut down for ‘health violations.’ Before the company went under, they were working on a series of formulas to inject into people.”

“What kind of formulas?”

“You know Captain America? It’s kind of like that. The US government was funding the company to create a super soldier formula for use in the military, but they shut it down after it was discovered that the company began testing the formulas immediately, without getting approval from the FDA.”

“So, they made super soldier drugs, and got shut down. What’s that got to do with this place?”

“Well, the Co-Founders of the company didn’t give up so easily. They had been developing multiple versions of the formula without the government's knowledge, and planned to use them to take over the nation once the formulas were complete. They just needed funding from the government, so they pretended to have good intentions. After they were shut down however, the Co-Founders decided to purchase this property and continue to develop the formulas in secret. They also were working on a process through which to brainwash people so that they would follow orders once injected with the formula.”

“That’s why there’s so many beds here? These are all people being tested on with the formulas?”

“Not exactly. Almost all of the formulas are fully developed. This isn’t where they test them, because they don’t need testing. This is where they condition people to follow orders once they’ve been injected.” This is a lot of information to take in. James takes a moment to think about things.

“Well, then shouldn’t we wake everyone here up? Get them out before they become mindless soldiers of these Co-Founders?”

“It’s not that simple. You can’t just wake people from conditioning. It’s a deep state of sleep that takes a while to wake up from.”

“Well then how did I wake up? Have I been brainwashed already?”

“Considering how you ran away from those lab coat guys, I would bet on no.”

James breathes a sigh of relief. “Okay, well do you know what these formulas are designed to do?”

“There are five of them. Each one enhances the vision of the person injected with it. One of the variations of the formula enhances a person’s movement speed. Another enhances overall agility, including speed, as well as things like weaving through a group of people. The third type merely enhances a person’s physical strength, and the fourth does the same, only more so.”

“And the fifth?”

“The fifth is like a jack of all trades. It enhances speed and strength to some extent, as well as overall agility; just not as much as the others that specialize in one or the other. It also has a unique characteristic that allows a person to jump extremely high, and make very sharp turns.”

“Do these formulas have names?”

“The strength one is called the Pawn formula. The speed formula is called the Rook formula, and the agility one is the Bishop formula.”

“Like the chess pieces?”

“Yes. Also, one of the Co-Founders was the only one injected with the super strength formula. He goes by “The King.” The other, known as “The Queen,” was injected with both the Rook and Bishop formulas.” James smiles to himself. This really is like chess. It also explains why he kept getting called “pawn” before.

“The final formula that grants enhanced jumping, among other things, is called the Knight formula. That one is the most experimental.” James figured this was the case. The Knight formula sounded interesting to him. After all, the knight is the only piece that can single-handedly take down the queen in chess. Perhaps such an advantage was present here too.

“One last question. How exactly do you know all of this?” Abby shifts uncomfortably once again. She was afraid he would ask this.

“Because,” she says, “the King and Queen are my parents.”