“Holy shit, what happened to this guy?”

  “Mr. White, you know that we record everything that happens here. Please watch your language.”

  A woman that appeared to be in her mid to late thirties wearing a lab coat and a pair of horn-rimmed glasses walked alongside a gurney transporting SnakeBite’s remains. She made a few notes on a clipboard before handing it over to the young Mr. White.

  “Please put him in one of the closer facilities in the Morgue, Dr. Jackson is on call tonight, so I will be having him head down shortly to complete the initial collections. Page me the moment he has arrived,” She ordered, staring the man who was barely out of childhood down before he nodded.

  “Yes Mrs. Owens, of course,” Mr. White said, taking the gurney from the two orderlies that had wheeled it in and pushing it further into the secure facility.

  Maria Owens watched as the fresh faced recruit pushed the recently deceased Augment away and felt her lip curl slightly in disgust. She had applied to and joined the Strategic Headquarters for Augment Development and Evaluation when the department had first split off from the NSA, yet she still found herself sick to her stomach whenever she had to see one of the Augments sent off for autopsy. She much rather preferred when she could send them off to Containment rather than the Morgue.

  It had taken Maria nine years to rise from a data engineer up to her position managing Augment Intake, but she had known if she wanted to rise further or to be considered for the teams responsible for the enhanced equipment, she needed to show more initiative. When a call went out looking for nondescript staff members looking for actual field experience, Maria thought she had found the right path.

  After the evening she'd had though, she was starting to question if she wanted to move higher than she already was. She certainly hadn’t expected to spend the better part of two days having to bag and sort illicit materials for a gang and it made her positive that she wasn’t going to be looking for Field Work assignments again. Seeing the Vipers transform up close was going to give her nightmares for weeks, not to mention she could still feel the panic in her chest at the idea of being caught in the middle of yet another fight. All in all, she had a sudden newfound respect for the agents that didn’t just volunteer to investigate the Augments more closely, but put themselves right in harm's way over and over just to further the department's understanding of them.

  She was just about to head up a hallway toward her office when a young woman with her hair pulled back into a tight bun and wearing a blouse and skirt combo that was far too green came speed walking her way from the opposite direction. Although the young woman had only been hired a few days earlier, Geraldine’s quick and precise handling of her boss’s needs were already becoming common gossip within the building.

  “Mrs. Owens, I’m sorry to disturb you, I know you’re busy handling the receipt of Augment 07-CH-NY but Dr. Merens asked me to come get you. He wants to speak with you,” The girl said. Although she had been rushing toward Maria, she didn’t even seem remotely out of breath.

  Coming from any of the other department heads, having a secretary deliver a message instead of utilizing the paging system would have been odd, but Maria had been around long enough to be familiar with the doctor’s quirks. Sure, he had been the one to implement the relatively archaic devices in the first place, but it was common knowledge that he also refused to utilize one himself.

  “Really? He’s still here at this time of night?” Maria asked, looking at her watch. It was just past 2:30 in the morning and while she was used to working in the early hours, normally she was the only manager in the facility.

  “Yes. He is apparently interested in the collected data from your team monitoring Augment 10-HK-NY.”

  Maria opened her mouth to argue that all of that footage had already been uploaded to the main server when she stopped herself. She looked up at one of the many cameras that monitored the facility before looking back at Dr. Meren’s young secretary. “Okay, thank you Geraldine, please let Dr. Merens know I’ll be there in a few minutes, I just need to grab my notebook from my office.”

  She watched as Geraldine hurried off before looking back toward her office. While she had certainly been looking forward to taking a quick nap on her couch, if Dr. Merens wanted to speak with her now, then she was going to need to speak with him now. Maria hurried to her office, gathering the notebook she had set aside after being called to Deliveries for the latest subject.

  As promised, only a few minutes later she arrived at Dr. Merens office, walking past Geraldine’s empty desk and pushing the slightly ajar door open.

  “-and then first thing tomorrow if you could pick up my dry cleaning, I have a meeting with the board and I’d like to wear my good suit,” Dr. Merens said, sitting on the edge of his desk. He had a hand resting under his chin as he seemed to be deep in thought. “I think that’s everything I need from you for now Geri, please return to standby in case there’s anything further I’ll need.”

  “Of course sir, I’ll be in my quarters,” Geraldine said, beaming with an almost nauseating amount of admiration toward Dr. Merens. He gave her wide, impossibly bright smile before she turned and started for the door only stopping before bowing just slightly to Maria and saying, “Excuse me.”

  Geraldine exited the room, pulling the door shut behind her. As Maria turned her attention back to Dr. Merens, he had already circled back toward the sleek black chair that sat behind a desk absolutely cluttered with paperwork. Maria always found it fascinating that a man that was so well spoken was so bafflingly disorganized when it came to his years of research. And that wasn't even mentioning just how disheveled the short doctor was, not that she'd actually mention that to him.

  “So… Mrs. Owens, you did some field work this evening?” Dr. Merens questioned, leaning back in his chair and steepling his fingers, using his clasped hands to point toward the chair on the opposite end of his desk. Maria didn't hesitate as she moved to the chair and took a seat. “You’ve been in Intake for the better part of five years now, can I ask what inspired the change?”

  “I-” She started, feeling her hands grip onto her notebook before she swallowed. “Sorry Dr. Merens, I thought that Geraldine had mentioned you wanted to speak with me about 10-HK-NY?”

  “You can call him Loophole, our classification system really is a bit of a mouthful,” He said with a brief smile. “I apologize for the deception, I had asked Geri to fetch you and just gave her the first reason that came to mind, but I am always fascinated when our staff members make large role shifts."

  “Umm, okay…” Maria said hesitantly, unsure where he was going with this. “Well Dr. Merens, there was an open recruitment for Field Work and-”

  “No, no, not that. I know how you got a role on the field team. I’m more curious why the change from Augment Intake to Field Work. Those are two very different specialties, wouldn’t you agree?” He asked, once again smiling at her.

  “Yes… sorry. I was looking to expand my resume for higher advancement. I'm not quite sure the department name, but I was considering applying for the Testing Teams?”

  “The testing teams?” Dr. Merens asked with a bit of curious amusement in his expression. “Is there an area of expertise that you have yet to disclose to us?”

  “Pardon sir?” Maria asked, feeling a sudden nervousness in the pit of her stomach as she slipped into formalities.

  “My apologies. I meant to ask if you were an engineer or scientist. If you have experience there, we are always looking to expand the team responsible for performing tests on the Augments we recover. Developing a way to produce artificial versions of the Augment’s powers has eluded us for quite some time now.”

  Maria shook her head with an awkward laugh. “Oh, no, that's my fault, I’m sorry. I didn’t really know what the name of the department is since it’s restricted information. I meant the teams that participated in testing the equipment developed by us for our Field Agents… I've heard rumor that you have to be a part of that group to even be considered for trial runs of our artificial variants and well… if we did successfully create them… wouldn’t you want to be first on the list to get super powers?”

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  Dr. Merens stared at her for a minute, letting her words hang in the air as if he was deciding just how he wanted to react before his head fell backwards and he let out a boisterous laugh. Maria actually jumped before he finally settled down and reached up to wipe the corner of his eyes.

  “Well you’re certainly not wrong, I think many of us have dreamed of having super powers of our own,” Dr. Merens said as he settled down. “Do you know just what we generally believe is necessary for a good technology tester for our Quality Assurance department?”

  “The ability to find design flaws that limit active use?” Maria offered, though it came out as a question instead of the confidence she had meant to portray.

  “While that is certainly helpful, that’s not the most important thing. It’s guts,” Dr. Merens explained. “Generally speaking, the members of our Quality Assurance division are also members of our Field Work division. So if that’s your goal, taking on more Field Work assignments would certainly be the path you’d want to take.”

  “Oh… That… I guess that might slow me down… I didn’t exactly like my first experience,” She explained, for some reason feeling embarrassed as she did so. “Can I ask why there is overlap? I’ve met with some of our Field Agents; I can’t say I can see many of them testing such delicate equipment.”

  “Before I answer your question, could you answer one of mine first?” Dr. Merens asked, sitting forward and resting his chin on his hands. “What is driving your desire to be on this specific team?”

  Maria hesitated for a moment before she found her resolve. “I think it’s where I’d best be suited. I was married right out of High School and had my daughter not long after that. I was a stay at home mom and never was able to get a real education, but I loved to try to tinker with things… Then the Augments came along. My daughter was endlessly fascinated by them. She always wanted to watch the news whenever Calypso made an appearance… I swear she had a poster of her on her wall even before Augment merch took over the world.”

  Dr. Merens watched her carefully as she spoke, not even moving to interrupt as Maria stopped and stared at her notebook for nearly a minute.

  “We had been on a family trip to Niagara Falls when The First showed up… Nydia was so excited… she wanted to get closer and dragged Henry, my husband that is, closer to try and see him,” Maria finally continued, missing as Dr. Merens’ eye twitched ever so slightly at the mention of The First. “And then another Augment showed up… He was an electric-based Augment that went by Jumpstart and he began to fight with The First… He electrocuted the entire waterfall at one point and there were attacks being thrown everywhere.... By the time I tried to get to where Nydia and Henry had run off to..."

  Tears had started to run down Maria’s face as she found herself unable to actually finish her story. She reached up to wipe them away only to find Dr. Merens holding out a tissue box toward her.

  “I want to test the equipment we are making that will protect normal people from those with so much more strength than us… I know people say I could go back to college but it just wasn’t the path I took… I can’t bring my family back, but I can do what I can to protect the families of others just like me, and if being on this team is a precursor to being selected when we create our own version… well then I want to be on it so that I can eventually have the power to really protect people.”

  “You know, many of the members of this department have lost family or friends to the Augments. Even the ones that call themselves heroes have been responsible for so much death and destruction in the world,” Dr. Merens explained as Maria took a moment to compose herself. “The reason that there is overlap between the Field Work and Quality Assurance teams is because of the inherent danger that comes with testing weapons and defensive equipment meant to thwart Augments. We have lost more than a few people to malfunction. So I have to ask, knowing the dangers that come with this team, is it still something you’d be interested in?”

  “Yes… yes it is,” She said, this time with practically no hesitation and Dr. Meren’s lip pulled up in a smile.

  “Well then you’re in luck, I actually have one of our recent developments here that I’ve been looking for an opportunity to properly test,” He said, reaching down into a drawer on the side of his desk without looking.

  A moment later he placed a medium sized box that was strikingly similar to a jewelry box on the table and opened it to reveal what Maria first thought was a bulky looking bracelet but determined was far too big for even the largest of arms. She found herself leaning forward to try to get a better look at it, noticing the sleek silver device seemed to be blinking from one side.

  “What is it?” She asked, looking back up at him.

  “We haven’t quite chosen a name for it, but it’s meant to provide clearer information between members of our Field Work division when dealing with the Augments. We have some preliminary test files we’d like to attempt to deliver using this,” Dr. Merens explained before gesturing toward it with one hand and then pointing toward his neck with the other. “Hopefully we can alter the design to be worn as an earpiece instead, but for now you wear it like you’d wear a choker. I'd like you to put it on so that we can test if the information is unobscured.”

  “Well... That doesn’t exactly sound like it’s going to blow up in my hands,” Maria said with a hesitant laugh before she reached out, stopping only for a moment, “Is.. Shouldn’t I be read into the restricted information on this?”

  Dr. Merens let out another laugh. “Mrs. Owens, I’m the head of this department, I think if I am offering you the opportunity, you can assume you have permission.”

  Maria hesitated only a moment longer before nodding and reaching forward for the device and lifting it toward her. It was far lighter than she was expecting it to be and it opened easily with a simple clasp. To her surprise, it was actually a nearly perfect fit for her neck and she clasped it down, returning her hands to her side as she waited for it to do whatever it was going to do.

  “Is… is there some sort of on switch or command word I should use?” She asked after a few seconds passed without anything happening.

  “All of the Augments in the world are playing a massive game run by an Artificial Intelligence that calls itself Axio,” Dr. Merens said.

  “I… wait what?” Maria sputtered as her eyes went wide. “You can’t mean-”

  “Ah damnit, still an immediate Critical Threat… I guess I still haven’t calibrated it quite right,” Dr. Merens sighed as he leaned back into his chair and looked at Maria with a disappointed glare. “Ah that's a shame... you know, for what it’s worth, I do think you would have made an excellent Field Agent but I can't quite have a Critical Threat storming our facility. I tend to prefer to make sure our testers won't have anyone really asking too many questions.”

  “Wait wh-” She started to say before her pager began to spark, sending a sudden high powered jolt rushing through her system. Maria convulsed, collapsing to the floor and shaking until she fell as still as stone.

  Dr. Merens stood up from his chair, slowly walking around the desk as he shook his head in disappointment.

  “You know Geri, I really did think it was going to work this time,” He said as he reached up and pinched at the bridge of his nose.

  “I have suggested that you try to start with smaller bits of information, but you generally seem to think you know better than I do,” Geraldine’s voice seemed to come from nowhere as Dr. Merens leaned down and placed a hand on Maria’s lifeless form. There was a flash of light before she disappeared and Dr. Merens returned to his feet.

  “Seeing as I’m the one that developed the system that created the Personal A.I. seeds, yes, yes I do think I know better than you. Even if we haven’t gotten anywhere with providing more information to the department as a whole, I think we can call the testing of your Personal Vehicle a success. So far no one has been any the wiser at your appearance,” He said as he walked behind his desk toward a plain looking display case that sat directly behind it. He reached a hand up to the third shelf and slowly ran his hand along the underside before he found the switch that he needed.

  The display case pulled back into the wall leaving a glowing white portal in its place.

  “You’re in a far better mood than I was anticipating you being after losing one of your test subjects,” Geri said as Dr. Merens stepped through the portal and into a massive workshop. There were various pieces of technology sitting on every surface and he walked past all of them toward a simple looking computer with a single monitor.

  “There wasn’t much I could do about it. Axio’s recent evolution is troubling in its own right but I’m certainly not going to clue him in to the fact that I’ve established the entire department as a Dead Zone by stepping out of it to talk to him. The moment Axio started leading Loophole there, was the moment we were going to lose SnakeBite,” Dr. Merens said as he logged onto the computer, revealing camera footage from the room that SnakeBite had been held in. “I thought we’d be able to at least replace him with Loophole, but it seems he didn’t complete the last objective I had assigned him either, which itself is quite confusing. Make a note to remind me to complete an extensive study on his Personal Array after the Morgue is done with him.”

  “Note created. But I’m still wondering… why aren’t you more upset?”

  He slowly scrolled through the footage until he found Loophole looking down at the gun he had materialized and a smile slowly crept over his face.

  “Because while you simply can’t change the past, sometimes you get just the piece of evidence you can manipulate to get your way,” He said and leaned backwards into his chair. “I’m sure if I had a brother I probably would want revenge if I saw something like this, and I’m sure there’s plenty we could learn from Hydramental’s powerset.”

  Dr. Merens reached out, materializing a drink into his hand before taking a long chug from it.

  “It’s all about perspective Geri. If the others all want to start making their moves, I think it’s time I stop holding back so much,” He said, watching as Loophole lifted the gun up and silently pulled the trigger in the muted video. “For now, go ahead and start pulling Frigid Air and Gas Giant out of Cryo. I think it’s time to see if we can alter the formula that SnakeBite’s powerset taught us to be used for other powersets.”

  “Right away TechWarden.”

  Happy Wednesday!

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