Between Walls of Steel

[Centurion]

“And you want me to just, what, look the other way!?”

Centurion, fully encased in his silver regalia, slammed his palms down on the table of Initiative's War Room. Sparks of orange energy jumped up from the impact, fuzzing out the 3D projection of a large facility deep within the South American jungle. Across from the hero stood Captain Bethany Lang, dressed in fatigues and a sharp holster, the Initiative logo emblazoned on her shoulder. Her close-cropped black hair framed a stern face and fierce, almond-shaped eyes. Beside her stood government liaison Nathan Barrow, dressed much more business than his commanding officer. His bald head, dark skin, and smooth features were a stark contrast to the much harsher Captain. Cade glared at Lang with venom, challenging her steely gaze.

“Yes.” Captain Lang remained stoic, despite her compatriot’s agitation.

“WHAT is WRONG with you people!?!?”

Agent Barrow opened his mouth to speak, but Safeguard interjected. “Centurion, this is only step one. I sincerely doubt this is the extent of Captain Lang’s machinations.” Despite the sound reason in his words, Safeguard failed in his attempt to calm Centurion. He lowered his voice, speaking with a forced compassion he was still getting used to. “Take a break. Let me handle the preparations.”

Cade glared at the cobalt-clad hero, Safeguard’s eyes serious and expressionless behind his translucent visor. Reluctantly, Centurion scoffed and turned away from the table, shaking his head in disbelief. Safeguard allowed his friend to vent quietly in the corner and took over the briefing.

“I’ll keep him in line. Other than the civilian Chimeras being detained within Daedalus’ laboratory and the unidentified Biomass he’s harvesting to engineer such genetic anomalies, what other variables should I be made aware of?”

Barrow glanced at Lang, his brow knitting with concern. Lang showed no reaction, her expression remaining calm. The agent accepted his captain’s silence as permission and spoke.

“Kids. Daedalus seems convinced that the unfinished development of children will allow for an easier manipulation of the human genome.” Barrow rattled off the complex jargon uncomfortably, obviously disturbed by the thought.

“Children.” Safeguard confirmed flatly. “Chimera children.”

Lang blinked. “Yes.”

The idea of children, taken from their homes and used like guinea pigs by a man like Daedalus was almost too much to bear. Chimeras were never pretty, usually twisted beyond recognition, their very humanity stripped away. Safeguard had already seen too many to expect any less. It had been wise for Lang to wait until Centurion was away to mention this.

Safeguard sighed, letting his head drop. “I will speak to Centurion. However, do not expect me to continue justifying your bureaucracy to him. He’s right, we should be taking action. THis is the closest we have gotten to Daedalus in months.”

“There’s rationale to this, Safeguard. You know that more than any of us.”

Reluctantly, the hero nodded. “That does little to clear my conscience, Captain Lang.”

“Just trust the system,” Barrow said. “The brass knows what it’s doing.”

---

“Toby, vitals?”

“Steady, Dr. Thomas.” The medical droid’s thin fingers adjusted settings in the many machines hooked up to the young Centurion. “His responses to the neural stimulation has been surprisingly stable.”

“Excellent. Keep the sedative steady, but increase the impulse stimulation. I want to see how far we can push his body until that suit feels a need to introduce itself.”

“Yes, Doctor.” The droid rotated a dial, eliciting painful twitches from the young man on the table.

His eyes darted left and right beneath their lids, the hero mouthing incoherently as his brain dredged up any memory to keep him sane. His muscles tensed, the warmth of the Apparatus building. Without release, his heart rate increased. Dr. Thomas noted this change with a subtle nod. Deadened by the sedative, the Apparatus continued to slam itself against the mental barrier the chemicals and machines produced in Cade’s brain.

Flashes of the Initiative facility in Washington, his ship, and his friends wormed their way into his dreams. Broken pieces flowed together like a puzzle, every moment becoming clearer and clearer until he could hear and see and feel every second of his past mistakes. The ship got closer, the words more comprehensible. Cade felt like he was losing his mind, or, he would have if he was awake.

---

The ride in Centurion’s ship, the Atlaas, was mostly quiet. Engines hummed, diodes flashed, and metal settled with a tense whisper. Cade remained lost in his own frustration while his companion focused on preparing the surveillance material that Captain Lang had issued them. Eventually, beyond frustrated, Cade tore off his helm. He ripped at the mesh, the nanomachines unbinding and falling away like cloth before blinking out of existence and allowing him to breath the cool air of the Atlaas.

“This is a load of crap!”

Safeguard was startled out of his preparations. “Excuse me?”

Raging, Cade gestured wildly. “This whole mission, it’s ridiculous! WHy send me to help with a surveillance mission? Why send either of us? And worse, for us to not be able to do anything, when we’ll be feet away from the bastard that created Mercier? No, no way!”

“Cade, Initiative clearly has stratagems in place reliant on our mission’s success.”

“That doesn’t make it okay! There are kids in that facility, Will! KIDS!”

Safeguard looked up from his calibrations, the expression behind his mask somber. “I am well aware.”

“Then we should be doing something, getting those people out! Not just… planting some bugs and leaving them to… to…” Cade sighed heavily, flopping down onto a seat.

“I know Cade.” Safeguard pulled on the membrane off his mask, the thick visor attached to anchor points on the cloth. His thick black hair flopped freely and Will rubbed his face. “But we need to remember that this is the agreement. We do things their way, and Initiative doesn’t interfere when we do things ours. It’s a mutually beneficial deal.”

Centurion didn’t respond, instead blinking as his mask reformed with a hum. The metal black out his vision for a split second before his HUD flared to life within the helm. He reveled in the isolation of his armor, mentally willing all outside stimulus to fade into oblivion. The armor quieted, no sounds from the ship penetrating the alien metal. Cade sat there, preparing himself to see hell. Images of innocent people, dragged from the streets and their homes, subjected to horrific and painful experiments, their bodies mutilated, danced in his mind. He tried to close his eyes to think of something else, but the images didn’t fade. For now he’d just store this anger, then take it out on Dr. Daedalus when they found him.

Centurion steeled in his heart to kill the man.

---

“He seems agitated, Doctor.” 2-1B observed.

“Good.” Dr. Thomas stroked his salt-and-pepper goatee, wrinkled brow creasing with interest. “And the suit?”

“It seems directly integrated with his emotional state, fluctuating in time with any responses of the amygdala. His Limbic system is quite active. I estimate that any further stimulus may activate the armor.”

“Can we increase the dosage without causing any lasting damage?”

“Physically, yes. However I am uncertain as to the extent of psychological trauma we could incur.”

“Do it, in small increments. I need him cognizant for the combat and reflex tests.”

“Yes, Doctor Thomas.”

The droid turned back to its station, twisting dials and sliding levers. Cade’s body spasmed more intensely than before. His muscles flexed painfully with the fresh influx of chemical and electrical stimuli. His eyelids twitched over rabid orbs, flitting to and fro in a frenzy. He pulled at his restraints, his previous lethargy overridden by unconscious adrenaline.

“I am detecting a severe jump in heart rate, breathing, and brain activity, Doctor,” 2-1B reported.

“Stabilize the dose, Toby.” Dr. Thomas “We’re so close!”

Toby obliged, gently adjusting the machines. Cade’s frantic twists calmed, his breathing slowed, and his memories cleared again. He returned to the ship, on that terrible day. The smells of the lab he was strapped in only heightened the strength of the memory

---

The ship landed silently, plated hull shimmering into invisibility as the grass bent to avoid the draft. Safeguard was on his feet and ready to move as soona s the metal parted to allow the heroes into the jungle surrounding their quarry. Centurion took a moment, still lost in thought within his armor. The blue hero glanced back from outside the ship.

“Centurion. We don’t have a lot of time for introspection.”

Cade nodded. “Yeah. Let’s do this.”

He stood up and hopped out of the ship, the opening flowing closed behind him. Centurion joined his comrade as they trekked through the underbrush. Safeguard could see, even without a visual bead on his friend’s expression, that Cade was still upset. It was uncomfortable for the man to see his friend in distress, with no knowledge on how to dispel it. He could recite most every obscure portion of the human brain, but of course it’s truly inner workings were a mystery. Despite the logic of maintaining a cool head on mission, Will couldn’t help but also feel upset by Centurion’s state of mind. Nonetheless, they walked in silence. It was nearly half an hour before Dr. Daedalus’ facility loomed behind the trees. Pushing aside shrubs and bushes, Centurion stared at the building with disgust. His helm’s HUD scanned the outer walls, but he could detect nothing outside.

Safeguard set to placing cameras and listening devices in small crevasses. Centurion stood watch, the projection of his suit’s readouts flitting from object to object and feeding him data. He couldn’t help but stare in at the images he had pinned to the side of his HUD. Everything Initiative had gathered on Dr. Daedalus glared at him like an open wound. There was a venom in every twisted word, every description of what the monster was known for. Now, manipulation and torture of children could be added to the list. As if Cade didn't have enough about the man to hate. Eventually, his angry silence was broken by the other hero with him.

“See anything?” Safeguard didn’t glance up from the device he was planting along a nearby tree.

“No. Not yet.”

Satisfied with his work, Will glanced back at his Hawaiian companion. “You don’t seem okay.”

“Hm?” Cade tried to shrug off the observation. “Fine, thanks.”

“Lying isn’t one of your finer skills, Cade.” Safeguard abandoned the remaining sensor and walked up to his friend. “And emotional expression isn’t one of mine. However…”

Will let the tone in his voice carry what his words could not. Cade drooped his head.

“It’s hard when you actually can’t do anything, Will.” Cade took a deep breath, his companion waiting patiently. “And these people… these kids. I could save them.”

“Yes. You could. But it would likely endanger them. There is no telling the repercussions Daedalus’ experimentation has ravaged on their bodies. For all intents and purposes, this facility might be the only reason they are still alive.”

Will instantly regretted his statement’s tactless realism. Thankfully, Centurion seemed unfazed.

“I’m going to tear this building down with my bare hands when this is over, Will.” A glimmer of bold orange lighting coursed from Centurion’s elbows to his palms as his hands tightened into fists. “Then I’m going to rip Daedalus apart.”

“No, you are not.” Will said quietly. “That’s not how we do things.”

“Sometimes I regret that.”

Safeguard was silent for a moment. He decided to go back to setting up the final sensor array, pointing the tiny dish at the laboratory across the clearing.

“What if they had found me first, Will?”

Glancing up from his work, Safeguard cocked his head. “I… don’t understand.”

“Initiative has already poked me full of holes, run tests.”

“Some at your own request; to test your limits,” Will observed.

“Still… All that time as a lab rat… and those are the good guys. God only knows what kind of crap Lang is keeping from us. What if she had found me first on that beach, before I learned to control the suit. Would I be another name in a dossier, locked away in some government facility and experimented on like an animal?”

Will was stunned back into silence. He focused on completing the alignment to his dish. After the minute it took to do so, he tried to answer.

“That’s a what if, Cade. Not a reality. These people, their situation is much different.”

“I know. But still. To someone like Daedalus, I’m just a science project. To someone like him I’m just… a test subject. A… A…”

“Yes, Cade?”

“I’m a weapon, Will.”

---

Just a weapon.

“Excuse me, Thomas?”

“Apologies, Warden. Just the machinations of an old man. I said that the armor is a weapon.”

Both men watched 2-1B adjust dials and monitor vital signs as Cade writhed madly on the table he was strapped to from behind a thick layer of bulletproof plexiglass. Warden Ellis was especially interested in Dr. Thomas’ theories.

“If it really is a weapon, I’m interested to know how it can be used to the advantage of the Empire. That goes doubly if it can be used in conjunction with the other confiscated tech from today’s… activities.”

“I am, as of yet, uncertain sir. However, this ‘armor’ seems to react directly to the user’s emotional state. At the moment, we are able to prevent the suit from fully activating through a combination of anesthetics and electrical inhibitors. However, as we push the subject further, the suit continues to attempt to use itself as a self-defence mechanism.” The Doctor took a breath, scratching his chin. “Were I to simplify it, this apparatus is the physical representation of the boy’s instinct, manifesting when needed and carrying out any and all physical tasks as the user deems fit.”

“And we can harness that?” The Warden narrowed his eyes at the pulses of orange energy just beneath Cade’s skin.

“Potentially, but I make no promises. After the psychological stress test, we still have the physical trials to run.”

“Speed it up, Thomas. I don’t have a  lot of time. The Emperor wants results.” Cade screamed, his back arched and the sound muffled through the glass, eliciting a hasty manipulation of dials from Toby. “And don’t kill him. Yet.”

“Of course, sir. This shall be my priority for the remainder of the week.”

Ellis nodded. “Refer to Dr. Walter for psychological assessment after these tests. The more we understand about this young man and how he uses this armor, the better.”

Dr. Thomas motioned to Toby, who raised the levels sharply. Cade cried out, his brain overwhelmed with stimulation. More memories bombarded his mind’s eye. The mutated forms of people swam around in the ocean of pain he was swept away in. The cries of children, the desperate begging of Chimeras for death, Daedalus’ laugh as he speared a boy with a long syringe. Tears poured out of Cade’s eyes, from both the physical pain of the tests and the terror of seeing innocence swept away. Warden Ellis turned away from the spastic boy and his mechanical tormentor and left the room. After all, he still had a riot to report.