[hr][h1][i][color=Dodgerblue]Lihua Vuhong[/color], Task Force RAVEN, & PR-1.[/i][/h1][hr]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n49L3RgGrpI[/youtube]

It was a strenuous effort, despite Helena's best protests to leave well enough alone, to transport PR-1 to the Questioning Room. He was coated from the neck down in containment foam that would be a task for even the strongest Super-System type to break, and had a power suppressant collar around his neck. Carried into the room via a special hauler. PR-1 was placed up against the interview table - with the Agents that hauled him in immediately leaving the room. Those Agents left the room to form the squad that was waiting outside the door should PR-1 attempt to escape. 

Lihua stepped up to the two-way mirror, and put her hand on her chin as she watched. She knew that they wouldn't let [i]her[/i] question it - and, given how angry she made it when she threatened it's research, it was probably for the best. All she had to do was stand and [i]watch[/i]....

Sitting across from the table was Adam Blackmore, adorned in standard NEST armor. It should be resistant to any electrical attacks by the superweapon. A telekinetic Agent in the other room popped the collar off, and Adam leaned into the table, neatly folding his hands on the table.

"Hello," Adam started off. "I am [i]Adam Blackmore[/i], and I will be conducting an interview with you today."

PR-1 sat there seemingly unresponsive, and did nothing in reaction the the collar being popped off. There was the sensation of consciousness slowly returning to him, but Adam's voice was little more than distant, blurry muttering to him. He felt a slight tingly warmth slowly filling up the cold cavity in his gut. His last memory was letting himself be entrapped in NEST's containment foam, and as they approached him with the collar... there was nothing after that.

He made a strange warbling metal sound as he muttered to himself, "makes perfect sense, really... shut off the powers and all my senses and processes go blank. Will take note of that in the future..."

Adam couldn't quite understand the mumbling. He perked up, and tried to listen, but ultimately, decided that wasn't relevant. "Can you tell me your name?" Adam asked.

"Hm?" Lihua mouthed the sound. "What did he say?"

"... Somethin' about how shutting down his powers does... ah, screw it, it turns his metal ass off." Leon said as he walked into the room. He faced Agent Vuhong, and threw a thumb behind him. "Sorry, taking a piss." Lihua only gave him a narrow look.

The moment Adam voice sung out, PR-1 felt its vibrations against his face as static began to run through his skin again, and his head jolted upward. "My [i]name?[/i]"

PR-1 made a high pitched squeak sound that could be interpreted as him scoffing, but it was typically hard to tell. "Now that's hardly worth anything to you, isn't it? Surely you'd rather know more about the [i]Hands of Science.[/i]"

"Just a formality." Adam calmly noted. Something was definitely off about PR-1. Adam wasn't trying to go straight to the questions about the Hands just yet - rather not tip him off. "If you would rather we cut to the chase, then can you tell me about the organization - the Hands of Science - you work for?"

"You simply surprise me." PR-1 responded. "The simulations were [i]much[/i] more straight to the point, but I suppose that is why the Fiend suppliers in Cuba would fall so easily."

Adam quietly grunted. Simulations...? He wondered what sort of preperations this thing went under before the Hands threw him at NEST. 

"Lost for words?" PR-1 asked. "Allow me to clear the air for you: the assault on the Changeling's perpetrators was only my [i]first[/i] assigned mission."

"And it will be your [i]last[/i]. NEST won't let you cause anymore damage." Adam confidently noted, raising an eyebrow. "Now, who gave you this "assignment"?"

"The Hands of Science."

"... Who specifically in that organization? Dr. Cross?" Adam asked - hoping to get more information of the Hands of Science's leader.

[i]First assigned mission...?[/i] Lihua thought on it for a second. He was implying [i]something[/i] but she didn't know what. Personally, a part of her thinks that they should melt down PR-1 immediately after this interview - but she's suspended, so her guidance doesn't matter.

"Can we lock this thing back up, already?" Helena broke Lihua's reverie, as she was anxiously leaning up against the wall with her arms crossed. "This thing creeps me the fuck out."

"In due time, Helena." Lihua said.

""In due time" that thing will kick our ass." Helena scoffed at Lihua, earning a look of ire from the older woman. "... And it'll be on you."

"... Now you listen here-"

"Okay, okay, ladies." Leon stepped in between them, with his hands up. "Let's not tear up the whole building. Let's focus at the task at hand."

The two women crossed their arms, and faced away from each other.

"Hm... perhaps you were right. It would be easier for NEST to understand with context. If you would allow me - from the beginning?"

"Very well, you may proceed."

PR-1's chiding tone balanced out and sounded deeper as his voice grew serious. "PR-1 is my designation. I was born [i]Peter Brooke[/i]. Agent...?"

"Blackmore." Adam nodded his head. Peter Brooke... He was certain the boys in the other room would be searching up everything they can find on that name. It could be a start.

"[i]Doctor[/i] Peter Brooke." Peter said even louder, as if to address the people watching personally. As if to make it easier on them. He turned back to Adam. "Born in Maine."

Lihua's fingers went to her ear... in some attempt to press a button on a earpiece she didn't have. It was such a habit that she didn't notice. "Look up Peter Brooke immediately. Born in Maine."

Both Leon and Helena gave her a curious look.

"... You know you don't have an earpiece." Leon said, playfully laughing. "Suspended and everything. Hehe..." 

Lihua angrily growled at him.

"Alright, alright..." Leon pressed on his own earpiece. "Grue, can you look up a dude named Peter Brooke, says he's a doctor and born in Maine if that helps ya' narrow it down?"

"I can hear him, Leon." Dana rolled her eyes before she just went to work. She immediately searched through every database possible, until she found what they were looking for. She brought up the smile and looked up the file on Peter Brooke. "Peter Brooke. He's a Maine-born doctor that is a veteran that was honorably discharged after losing his arm in the service. He's a Pharmacologist, and Medical Engineer. Really good at what he does." 

"Alright, thanks, Grue." Leon turned to Lihua and repeated everything that Dana just said...

Adam nodded his head. "You're a veteran?" Adam was personally wondering how he managed to make the leap from a disabled Veteran to cutting down droves of NEST Agents.

"I came from a very poor family, you see." Peter explained. "So I was unable to directly enter the field of medicine, and I saw joining our nation's military as a viable option. I was deployed on Operation Desert Storm many years ago. Before ever entering the battleground, our truck hit a land mine. I lost my arm, and I was the only survivor of the wreckage."

Peter paused.
 
"That operation was twenty-five years ago, wasn't it? I was only twenty years old, then. Doesn't time just fly?"

"My God..." Lihua muttered to herself. It all made sense now. It's a Metahuman, [i]just like her[/i]. All that casual scoffing that it was just an aberrant... it was all wrong. Lihua's breath rate sped up a little bit. She was finally getting confirmation that she needed.

"... Need some water?" Leon said, handing a small paper cup full of water to her.

"That is very unfortunate..." Adam adjusted his glasses. "And when did you... manisfest?" He asked.

 Peter smiled. "We're getting there." He made a brief discharge of electricity, but there was something in the foam that blocked it from entering the air, or connecting him to the ground. For all intents and purposes, he was blinded and immobile. Only able to hear his questions, and see the faintest outline of Adam from the static in the air that emanated from his head.
 
 "After that fateful incident, I decided I might as well go back to school, and use what I can from the veteran's compensation. Except that never came. My already poor family put themselves into poverty trying to help me through school, despite all my pleas and begging. After earning my doctorate, I made and researched the development of medicine until my studies had shifted my aim toward stem cell research. As a regenerative stem cell doctor, I worked within Rockefeller University and coordinated with Planned Parenthood and other medical organizations until I conducted my work independently."

Fascinating. All of this was fascinating. He, for a moment, wondered about all the medical breakthroughs he has made - However, he knew that the second he affiliated himself with the hands, he used that knowledge for all the wrong reasons. "... And where do the Hands come in?"

"After years of isolating myself from the world, focusing only on my work, I struck an impasse. A lack of funding and peer-review brought my research to a plateau. Even as a doctor, I had nearly bankrupted myself. My work is something... [i]precious[/i] to me. It is unfathomable an idea to let anyone tamper with it. Too risky. Unable to proceed, I hit a pit of despair. The Hands of Science contacted me one evening... before I had finally decided to... how does it go? [i]Eat a bullet?[/i]"

Adam uncomfortably cleared his throat. So, the Hands contacted him once he had no other options and [i]gave[/i] him an option. It seems to be a common way organizations like this get fresh meat. Just recruit the people desperate enough to do the unthinkable. 

"The choice I was given was easy." Peter mused. "I could proceed as I have been - a miserable one-armed wretch with no future. Or I could test their completed prototype serum - [i]PR-1[/i], or [i]prototype one[/i] - which [i]could[/i] either give back what I've lost, or kill me. I was fine with either result. As you can see, neither one of those happened."

A buzzing sounds similar to that of a sigh sounded from him. He tensed his body, and felt a little bit of give in the foam. He made no acknowledgement of it.

"So there was another option I had after I gained enough control of this... [i]power--[/i]" Peter spat the word power as though it were a joke, "--they'd freely provide me with funding and resources if I agreed to continue as their test subject..."

This means that the Hands might have the capacity to create [i]more[/i] Metahumans along the lines of Peter. The mere thought of a squad of them worried Adam. This just meant that they had to eliminate the Hands of Science before they could proceed any further in their research. Adam wondered how much information they'd actually be able to [i]glean[/i] from Peter. He seems to be so dedicated to the Hands, and his research, that he'd be fully willing to die for them. 

"...that alone did not get me to agree, however."

"Then what did...?" Adam asked.

"While, certainly, the proposition was tempting, I was too entranced by my depression and misery to give much care. My body was made of metal, and [i]any[/i] chances of regeneration was permanently out of the question. The disability [i]maddened[/i] me throughout my life and the serum had disillusioned me from my work. Neither was I happy with being a human experiment of two-bit mad scientists."

Peter's stiff upper lip curled into a smile.

"Society, in the end, is what did this to me. To keep the low down low while the high got higher. No circulation in the balance of [i]wealth[/i]. It was what forced me to take drastic measures to make a living. It was what damned me when I came home crippled and deserving of compensation, but never got it. They offered it as a chance at revenge. I couldn't ignore the logic of the proposition. It was weighed in my favor."

"Revenge wouldn't solve anything." Adam noted. It was exactly what he thought, Peter had no choice. Give up his passion, or... give up. Adam wished that there was more that could have been done to help him - but, like he said, society. Though, they were getting off track. This information tells much about Peter... but little of anything relevant of the Hands of Science, and what NEST can do to take them down. 

"We will do what we can to help you." Adam said.

"Oh, it's far too late for that." Peter mused. "My rage subsided in time. It's simply not in my nature to be angry or disdainful for very long - grudges exhaust me. I had found [i]new[/i] purpose in my research. I may not directly benefit from it myself, no, but I could advance the medical field's progress for the sake of others [i]like[/i] me. Those who had part of themselves taken away, people who had no choice. In the depths of their despair. I can guarantee you that there is no chance I would let [i]anybody[/i] do anything to slow me down or get in the way."

Adam narrowed his eyes. He had a sinking feeling that Peter is warning them of REAPER breaking him out - just as Maximilian theorized would happen. Well, that isn't going to happen. "If your research is so important to you, then why did you launch an attack - alone - on several squads of powerful and heavily skilled Agents...?" He asked, skeptically.

Peter leaned his head forward, quiet for a couple moments.

"Because you can't hold me down."

On cue, there was a sudden amalgamation of several electrical streams beneath the surface of the containment foam. The overhead lights were flickering from the sudden interference. He concentrated the field between his body and available arm. The foam bulged and cracked, before the overwhelming force of the magnetic repulsion forced the foam to burst. The sudden release of the magnetic field spread across the whole room, and repelled the table they were seated at away from him, and knocked Adam backwards. The entire room lit up in his eyes, and he could even see the electrical wires within the walls.

[i]'Don't these poor fools realize already? I can think a thousand times faster than they can. I've already accounted for hundreds of variables and counter-measures.'[/i]

"Now..." Peter muttered to himself. "Where is former director Miranda Caryl?"