“Major-General Sirus, we’re so happy to finally have an officer of your calibre here at Mount Laogai. Given the vast amount of resources the military give us we have been, to be honest, surprised at the lack of high-ranks that have visited.” Admitted a tall older man with balding grey hair and deep blue eyes. He was wearing what appeared to be a mix of lab gear and officer garb, which married with his excellent composure made him look smart and clearly identified him as an authoritative figure in that setting.
Major-General Sirus was a large heavily tanned man in his late fifties. Whilst multiple face scars suggested that he had seen a lot of combat, he was fairly young looking and fit for his age. He had short cropped black hair that matched his dark eyes and a cleanly shaven face. Beneath his smart officer wear you could see his large heavily defined muscles that ironically seemed to dwarf those that his body guards had. He stood forward and firmly shook the Dr’s hand, “Thank you Doctor Wolf-Meyer. With all that’s been going on recently I’m afraid we’ve just lacked the time. Besides, we are all confident in your ability to run this facility. Now, let’s get straight to business.”
“Of course” smiled Wolf-Meyer, who began leading them down a series of heavily guarded underground corridors. Sirus seemed impressed by the sheer amount of security present, but from what he had been told the facility definitely needed it. After passing through multiple checkpoints the small group found their way to a series of fortified windows, each with a heavily restricted person on the other side. “Here we have prepared for you some of our most promising ventures! These hosts have abilities which we believe, once understood and harnessed, will make our soldiers... unstoppable!” The passion in his voice was almost scary, and the whites of his eyes and teeth were exaggerated by his manic expression.
“Hmm… but I’m right to say that you haven’t as yet managed to yield many practical results?” asked Sirus, seemingly unimpressed by the little show “What exactly do you wish to gain from each of these hosts then?”
Wolf-Meyer licked his lips at the question and gestured Sirus to the first subject, “Here we have angry little Deekin. His abilities grant him massive increases in strength and speed; a rather common ability in Sovereign from what I hear. We’ve learned a lot about how is powers work and the processes his body seems to make, and we now are close to replicating the chemical properties that are produced. There is still a spiritual aspect that we still cannot begin to fathom, but we believe that we are close to designing a steroid that will allow our soldiers to replicate the effects for a short period of time.
“Admirable I must admit. But still far from being impressive.” Sirus replied, giving the strung of piece of meat a cold stare. Wolf-Meyer seemed to twitch at the Major-General’s dismissal of his work and quickly prompted him onto the next subject.
“Here we have-”
“Brigadier Garrus. I’m well aware of him Doctor. He has the ability to ‘spectate’ people at whim, with certain limitations. Are you trying to reproduce his abilities as well?” interrupted Sirus.
“Not a Brigadier anymore of course, he lost that title when he betrayed the military.” Smirked Wolf-Meyer, “No, his ability is, for now, something that is entirely beyond our capabilities to understand or replicate. We’ve instead focused on forcing his compliance and strengthening his ability. At first we tried the simpler things like torture and drugs, but his training made him resilient. Then we threatened to kill his family, which did make him compliant, yet he was unable to find the target that we assigned to him. After their demise he refused to cooperate entirely.”
“You killed Mary?” Sirus’ face dropped.
“And the children. Fortunately we have resolved that little problem! He was the first of our subject to be fitted with a Compliance-Collar. It makes him completely docile. If it works on him then we can make it work on anyone! The only problem at the moment is that each collar has to be tailored to the individual and can take some time to manufacture. They aren’t too hard to break either.” At those last words a nearby assistant stepped forward with a collar, dropped it on the floor and merely begun to break it underfoot. “Now, shall we move on?”
Dr. Wolf-Meyer went on to showcase a few more of his projects before leading the Major-General around various sections of the facility. The tour included the labs, the security centre and finally a tour of the ultra-security depths. The group had to take an elevator down some distance before proceeding down a series of reinforced concrete corridors, each one lined with vents which the Dr explained could release various substances depending on the threat at large. “What exactly do you keep down here then Dr?” asked Sirus, who was growing ever more curious about the mysterious section.
“Down here we keep the most dangerous of our hosts. Many of which pose too much of a threat to experiment on.” Wolf-Meyer answered, his attitude now more serious than before.
“Then what purpose do they serve? Surely it would be better to neutralise such threats?” Sirus raised an eyebrow at the reinforced door that they approached. Wolf-Meyer didn’t reply immediately, suddenly preoccupied with passing the security measures. He was forced to undergo a blood test, retina scan, handprint scan and a voice scan before the multi-layered door begun grinding open. When the final layer opened the group was met with an unexpected sight: a giant glass wall behind which was filled with frozen water. Inside the room was an array of computers that showed various observations, and scientists milled around clearly pretending to busier than they were.
“These hosts have provided us with valuable information through simple observation. Take our esteemed guest here” Wolf-Meyer walked up to the glass and raised his hand at the figure held within, “Subject Zero, the first ever recorded Phantom.”
“Phantom?” Sirus involuntary tensed up, his hand dropping to the hilt of sword.
“Yes. Subject Zero here was the recorded case of Kage completely taking control of his host. We believe it was because of a combination of factors, including the Onikages’ strength as well as the weakened emotional and physical state of the host when we received him. We’ve learned a lot about the reasons Kage’s pick their hosts; Subject Zero as well subsequent subjects have shown that contrary to initial beliefs, some Kages chose their hosts for certain traits rather than simply out of desperation. But most importantly we’ve learned that once a host becomes a Phantom that they become significantly more powerful.”
“What have you learned about the Kage itself?” asked Sirus.
“Only that he calls himself Cronus…”
