Chapter 20: The Plan Part 2

PriElec Amalgamated Multinational was one of the METASOCIETY’s top test facilities. The facility itself was known to be used for many experiments that are, or could possible be, illegal. Some of the experiments in this facility could be ranged from mutation to drugs for Super Soldiers to weapon detail. Although, the most common was their tests on recreating “Project GENESIS”.

All the METASOCIETY’s attempts on recreating “Project GENESIS” were known to be complete failures, but they never gave up. Winning the war was their priority.

“Are ya sure we should be doin’ this, Nixie?” Leif questioned as he peaked around the corner. Two heavy guards were walking the halls they needed to get through to hit the control room and laboratory floors.

“This is the only chance we got to see what the METASOCIETY is up to,” Phoenix answered, peaking around the corner also. “If we pass up this opportunity to figure out what our enemy wants, then Director Killian will have our heads.”

Leif chuckled lightly.

Phoenix watched as a the two guards walked down the hall, turning a corner and disappearing from view. Phoenix and Leif acted, making their way quickly, and quietly, down the hall to the emergency exit stairs. Phoenix opened the door.

“Wait,” Leif said, grabbing Phoenix’s arm before she stepped through the doorway.

Phoenix looked back to him as he motioned to the ceiling above them. Phoenix turned her head and saw that Leif was motioning toward a security camera that was turning, inspecting the down and up stairwells.

“Security cameras in the Emergency Exit Stairwells?” Phoenix whispered.

Leif smirked. “Maybe they had unwanted guests coming through here.” Leif chuckled again. “They’re most likely on every floor.”

Phoenix looked over her shoulder to the hall they just came down. “Well, we need to hurry and figure out another route, I can hear the guards coming again.”

Leif looked at Phoenix. “On the count of their we’re going to book it.”

Phoenix glared at Leif when he looked back to the security camera. “Book it? Are you insane? We’ll get found out!”

“One…” Leif whispered, smiling as he listened to Phoenix continue to tell him it was a bad idea. He knew what he was doing, but she just didn’t see that.

“Three!” Leif grabbed Phoenix’s hand and ran to the stairs leading to the next floor. The camera was just turning back to view the door they were looking through, but it had completely missed them.

Leif and Phoenix had managed to get up two flights of stairs before they came across another camera. They proceeded to do the same thing.

The two Commanders were now on the fifth floor of the nine floor complex. They managed to get by without getting seen, lucky for them. It seemed the guards did not really pay attention to their work, and generally just moseyed down the halls, staring into space. There were those very few guards that did their job properly, and Phoenix had to give them props doing such.

“Nixie, do you even know where you’re goin’?” Leif asked as they continued to walk down the hall, crouched.

“Sh!” Phoenix said, pushing Leif behind her. There was someone in the room they were trying to get to. Phoenix could hear the rummaging through the desks. Phoenix peeked into the room titled ‘Lab 14’, hoping to see anything that could lead her to know who was in the Lab on a supposed day off.

“Are you sure about this, Professor Gonzales?” a deep voice questioned.

Phoenix, and Leif, peeked through the crack in the door. Inside they could see a lean man with a brush cut standing in full attention to a short man in a white lab coat.

“GALACTIC is falling apart and I say this is our time to strike!” the man in the lab coat had said. This man, as stated by the brush cut man, was Professor Mark Gonzales. The man himself wasn’t well known through ExaTek as a threat, in fact the man was not known at all. This was Phoenix’s, and Leif’s, first time ever hearing the name and seeing the face.

“Using this we will be able to get the upper hand in this war!” the Professor continued.

“Professor Gonzales,” the lean gentleman said, “I would be very thankful if you didn’t tell me how to run this war. As I’ve told you many times before: I will not let my men become test subjects to your ‘ability enhancing’ drugs!”

This lean gentleman with the strict and asserting tone was Colonel Domenic Steiger, Colonel of only a small section of the METASOCIETY army. Phoenix knew this man from the many files she had written, and read, with his name included in them. She always pictured him as a human terminator, but instead he was more of a wrestler (if they were still around).

“Oh, Colonel Steiger,” Professor Gonzales said, laughing, “I didn’t call you here to try selling you something I know you have no intention of purchasing. Instead, I called you here for this…”

Professor Gonzales held up a small chip, making Phoenix wonder what the old professor was planning. A chip wasn’t so much of a discovery so much so that it could change who would win the war.

“A chip?” Steiger laughed. “Like I haven’t seen-”

“This, Colonel Steiger,” the crazed professor said, “is no ordinary chip. You see, this chip, if injected into the body, will be able to give the user the ability to control its victim.”

“That’s their secret weapon?” Leif whispered, giving a small laugh.

“Don’t underestimate them,” Phoenix whispered back, narrowing her eyes to see the chip more clearly, but from the place she and Leif were currently hiding, it was rather difficult to make out fully. “The METASOCIETY is much smarter than we think.”

Leif chuckled again. “You’re giving them too much credit.”

Phoenix looked back to Leif, seeming to be more serious then before. “I don’t give them enough credit. You shouldn’t doubt them.”

Leif frowned. “Nixie, I know your-”

Phoenix shushed Leif and focused her attention back to Professor Gonzales and Colonel Steiger.

“Are you sure this…’possession bug’ works?” Colonel Steiger said, narrowing his eyes to the Professor.

“Of course it works!” Professor Gonzales shouted angrily. “My little doll has already taken care of one of those pesky…Commanders from GALACTIC. I believe it was the Commander of Squad…oh let me see, which Squad was it… Oh, yes, Squad Seven.”

“Cole…” Leif mumbled, shocked.

Phoenix gritted her teeth and her hands clinched. One of her closest friends; a person she thought of as a brother; one of the very few people that knew her and accepted her, was now gone from her life. But it wasn’t just her life that he was gone from.

Colonel Steiger laughed loudly. “Commander Cole Chalet, that man has been a bigger pain in my a*s than the entire ExaTek corporation combined!” Colonel Steiger smirked. “So, who’s this doll that took care of this nuisance?”

Professor Gonzales chuckled. “Come here, Rat!”

Colonel Steiger turned around when he heard the heavy sound of boots hitting the floor in small steps. Steiger was soon seen smiling and gave an amused huff.

“He’s a bit scranny,” Colonel Steiger said, stepping aside, letting Phoenix and Leif see who this ‘Rat’ was.

Phoenix’s eyes immediately widened and she felt herself chocking up, trying to keep back tears she rarely ever felt. Leif was in the same situation, but he only managed to calm down when he looked away from the sight.

“Kaiden Volante reporting for duty, Colonel Steiger.”