Altered Ch. 08 Pt. 02

'So that's where Mike comes in?' I asked.

'Yes, the subject 'Mike' was Nigel's first successful attempt at an Ataru 'stud'. Before Mike, he tried everything from gene editing nanobots to a virus that would genetically edit its host, but all were either failures or highly dangerous. Our research stumbled on a method that allowed the implantation of bionics into its host... and I think you know what happened from there.

'Mike had the ability to not only impregnate even the most infertile of human, but his offspring had stronger Ataru traits. As a matter of fact, his offspring seem to not only have stronger psychic abilities but more of them... Much like the earlier hybrids.'

'How do you know this? I thought he escaped captivity'

'He did - but not before he produced children for us to study. I don't even think he knows about his children.'

'Where are they?'

'They are here. Two floors down,' she answered.

'I see, so Mike was the missing puzzle piece that Nigel needed to take his plan to the next step - only - he didn't count on me mucking up the works...' I observed.

'Yes. During the chaos - when you exposed the Illuminati - the failed virus that your father created to make humans into Ataru was sold off by an ambitious traitor. The virus failed to change its host into Ataru, instead simply mutated their eggs and sperm. Someone must have had the bright idea that it could be used as a weapon. We don't know which terrorist group set off the virus, but it was easy to pass the blame on the OEC, after all, with their Nazi like tendencies... who wouldn't believe they did it?'

***

As we went from cell to cell reviewing each experiment, I noticed a pattern.

'None of these creatures could even pass as humanoid, much less human.'

'This floor doesn't contain the dangerous subjects but we study even the ones that seem worthless. We have to 'grow' each subject to maturity to see if they have any viable traits. So, it takes years...'

Communicating within the same brain is exponentially faster than communicating through mouth to ear. Most of this conversation happened between breaths as Dr. Rambeau continued showing her colleague around as if nothing was amiss.

After seeing all sorts of creatures of all shapes and sizes, varying from a CHUD, to a Sleestak, to a blob. All of which were either virtually braindead or functionally useless.

Soon we moved down a floor, where the security increased. There were two guards per cell, here and all were on alert.

"This floor is where we keep the most dangerous creatures alive... humans! ... And Ataru hybrids... to be fair, we consider them in the same league," she said, both informing Dr. Tanner and myself at the same time.

'Nigel is being kept on his own floor...'

'You think Nigel, is more dangerous than me?' I asked incredulously.

'No, but securing you was kind of a surprise. We weren't prepared for you. But even now they are working on housing you properly.'

'You said, you have some of Mike's children here, what about MY children?' I asked suddenly.

'We have three of your children secured, two from the one you know as Anya, and one from the one named Tanya... Tanya had two children, and kept one of them... Although you might be interested to know that Tanya is not the Tanya you once knew.'

'Yes, I know that someone has been messing with her mind. What did you do to her?'

'WE did nothing to her, per-se. You may remember that when we sent our operatives to capture you in Mexico, one of them was a puppet master that could control other people's bodies.'

'Yeah, I remember, I nicknamed her Cruella...'

'Well, as you know, puppet masters cannot normally interfere with memories and can only control motor functions... But apparently when Cruella died, she was able to transfer her consciousness into Tanya's mind - much like you have mine except not as dominant. At first, she was a still small voice in Tanya's head, but Cruella's will soon grew until she eventually took full control over Tanya's body and mind.'

'There's no way she had enough time to do a full mind to mind transfer,' I said.

'You may be right, but she did know enough to give us access codes and although most of her memories are Tanya's, it's Cruella's psychotic personality that is leading her now. Cruella no longer has her special abilities in Tanya's body but she did take with her most of her training and the Illuminati are using her as a special agent. They especially value her as future leverage against you...'

Normally I would feel some sort of anger, but in Dr. Rambeau I felt very little emotion. Dr. Rambeau was a sociopath and I only felt what she felt - very little. I knew however that once the ramifications of this hit me, once my consciousness was back in my feeling body, I would probably go berserk.

'I need to take control of my body and destroy this hell hole,' I thought, forgetting that my thoughts were shared.

'If you do, you need to realize that we have many layers of security in place in case a level orange or red threat escapes. Besides all of the psychics and specialized troops we have in place, the whole complex is set with plastic explosives and the thousands of lbs. of rock are set to come down on everyone and everything as a fail-safe. You will not only kill everyone in here but all of the knowledge will be lost, also.'

'Plastique has to be set off with an electric charge. Would an EMP take out the detonators?'

'Yes, I imagine so... only where are you going to get an EMP?'

My astral form rose out of her body, leaving a copy of my consciousness in her head. I now had a psionic link to her and could sync up with my conscious copy and get updates once I was awakened. She would forever be controlled by my will, unless a very powerful psychic discovered my presence and attempted to remove my copied consciousness from her mind. My plan was to remove my copies once I freed myself.

Looking back, I can't justify what I did next... at least not morally. The thing was, while in the mind of a sociopath and while existing in astral form, I felt no guilt and only had logic to make my decisions. I didn't consider what was right or wrong. I had to rescue my children and destroy this base without killing everyone in it, that was my objective and all I needed to solve. I couldn't escape from my cell without setting off the self-destruct sequence. But if I controlled the key people in the base that could set off the proverbial self-destruct button then I could not only save my children but everyone else would have a chance too. I didn't consider that destroying someone's mind was just as bad as killing them, it was a means to an end.

I didn't need to take over everyone's minds because not everyone was privy to the self-destruct. All it would take was one spy or vindictive employee and boom the whole place would come crumbling down, literally.

My astral form dove down and as I suspected the PND did nothing to stop my astral form from invading the guard's minds. It did however keep me from leaving their mind, so I simply took it off after I wrestled control of his mind. Then I moved on to the guard next to him who looked surprised that I (as the guard) had the audacity to take off the PND. It didn't last long though because I quickly left the first guard and invaded the next. As I invaded mind after mind, I left a copy of my consciousness and a limited set of my memories, enough to guarantee that my will was in control and not their own.

As one of the guards with access to my floor, I took the elevator back to my floor and started the process of taking control of each mind in it. I had to stay wary of the psychics because they might be strong enough to destroy my astral form. It wouldn't kill me but it would take me days to astral project again. Luckily the psychics all had special arm bands to identify themselves, so avoiding them was easy.

After taking control of approximately fifty minds, my ability to take control seemed to wane. I would need to rejoin my body to "recharge". The last guy I took over, took me a good twenty minutes and a battle of wills before I wrested control from him. This guy was the head technician however and had knowledge of the computer programs that controlled the cameras and other sensors used throughout the building.

Tony Jezelnik was his name, and after reviewing all that he knew I got access to his terminal and quickly put all the cameras on loops. The sensors on my body were put in a feedback loop and started going haywire.

'That'll buy you a couple of hours, anything more is risky,' Tony sent.

One of my puppets was a woman guarding me and I had her pull the IV out of my arm. With Tony's tweaks, all of the sensors stopped working and Tony got it so no one remotely monitoring would notice that my body was slowly regaining consciousness.

My astral form rejoined my body and I suddenly felt extreme pain, then extreme sexual stimulation. I forgot just what a burden it was to be turned on so extremely. The shock of going from having no sexual desire to being extremely turned on had me hard as a rock, I was ready to blow and had to quickly delve into my mantra and gain control once more.

A technician quickly swarmed into the room and freed me. One of the male guards stripped down and swapped clothes with me as I assumed his face. The guard was then strapped to the cross and hooked to the sensors. The drugs were adjusted to his level, and the sensor's parameters were tweaked to look like they were monitoring me. He was also hooded, which was a normal procedure they performed on prisoners to keep them calm.

I removed the copy of myself from his unconscious mind. When he woke up, he would be himself again, if the Illuminati let him live that is.

Having a fake me in the room was only designed to pass the smell test, but if it came to an audit the game would be up. I didn't care, I just needed enough time to get the children out and have a 'talk' with my father.

I called out for updates on their communication device which were a lot like walkie talkies in that they broadcast to all listening, except they also acted like cell phones with the ability to have one on one conversations rather than broadcasts. I had them start up a private channel that all my puppets could use to inform me of any new developments.

'Where are they?' I sent. I did not need to add a lot of descriptions, my copies already knew what I meant by 'they'.

Once one of my copies volunteered his knowledge, I probed his mind and instead of being given instructions on how to get there I was given a visual of where they were, almost like watching a YouTube video of where to go.

'How about him?' I sent.

'You'll have to do him last, as soon as any protocols are broken with him the front office will be informed. You might have ten or fifteen minutes before you need to clear out of there.'

My minions knew their number one objective was to disrupt the explosives but the psychics needed to be taken out. So, I went hunting. My job was made easy by the fact that I had a constant visual of one of my minions controlling the security cameras and a map app that showed where all the psychics were at any given time.

'Do we have non-lethal options?' I sent.

I was sent a slew of devices the technicians used to control their experiments and prisoners without killing them. The most effective one was a gun that acted like an instantaneous tranquilizer gun. Most tranquilizer darts take time to work, these ones didn't use drugs rather it was closer to a Taser than a tranquilizer in how it worked.

Everyone in the building had a microchip imbedded in the base of their skull, including the experiments. When shot by the device, the chip activated and put the being in a coma like state that lasts anywhere from a couple of hours to days. The chips were remotely controlled for all experiments but for staff you had to actually shoot them to activate the chip. The reason for this was that once again, any spy that hacked the system could take control over these chips and take down the lab, so the guns allowed them to take out a psychically controlled subject, but they'd have to be shot by security first.

Disguised as a guard, I used my speed to take out the three psychics on my floor before they could react and alert anyone. I quickly bound, blindfolded and gagged them.

I took the elevator down to the level that held the children and hunted the four psychics there and put them to sleep. Then I opened the door that held my children.

"My babies!" I cried, uncharacteristically showing outward emotion.

Anya's two babies were blonde twin girls and they looked identical, but who could tell at that age? Tanya's baby was obviously her's; he was lightly tanned with curly brown hair. I did not have time to savor our meeting, they needed to get to safety and I needed to confront my father and there was very little time before the Illuminati became aware of the mutiny.

"Take the tracking chips off of them and take them to the top floor. I'll meet you up there when I'm finished with father." Four of my minions removed all of the sensors and tracking chips from them. Then they carried them up to the top floor and waited for me.

I proceeded down the hallway to find Mike's children and I was surprised to find all nine of them playing in a room together. They varied in age from two to five years old and when I opened the door, they looked at me questioningly, I was breaking their routine and this worried them.

I saw them with my third eye, and I found that they were all Ataruian psychics and they were all communicating with each other silently.

'Come with me," I sent, 'I'll take you to your father!'

Most of the children didn't know what that meant. So, I sent them images of what a father is and what life was like outside of the lab. That turned them from fearful to curious. Then they became eager to see their father. I had more of my minion's remove any tracking chips then escort them to the others on the top floor.

I ordered my clones to come up with an escape plan while I confronted my father once and hopefully for all. I had every intention of killing him but I would need answers first.

As I waited for the elevator, one of my minions gave me an access card to the bottom floor. Once the elevator doors parted, I immediately shot both guards with the sleep gun.

I assumed the face of one of the door guards and took his name badge. I wasn't his same height and build but these guys were treated like trash and ignored for the most part so I doubted anyone would really notice such a detail.

I dragged their bodies to the elevator sending them up to a friendlier floor. I sent word for two of my clones to take their place.

The bottom floor was almost a donut shape. There were a bunch of offices, barracks and monitoring stations along the 'donut' outside, there was one very large room on the inside 'hole' part of the donut. This room had walls made of four-inch-thick glass and was square about 100 meters on a side. In the very center of the room was another X-shaped cross apparatus similar to the one they had secured me to, and there was my 'father' strapped to it, looking haggard and worn. He was surrounded by flood lights and guards were circling him as if on patrol.

I could see that he was being observed by some more lab-coats. I had no idea of their purpose, whether they were medical personnel, scientists, psychiatrists, researchers or maybe just nurses. Interspersed throughout the room were psychics and powerful ones at that.

I made my way to the steel doored entrance guarded by six heavily armed military personnel, one of which was sitting at a table with a clipboard and a laptop. All six guards had a far off look in their eyes and with my third eye I saw they were being affected psychically.

"They are waiting on you sir!" The one at the desk said, dully.

I realized that the jig was up, but I was also confused. Were they leading me into a trap? Why not fight me in order to have me led into one? That would be easier.

"I think I'll stay out here for now. Open the doors," I demanded.

The doors could only be unlocked by two people simultaneously on either side of the double doors. They opened the doors and held them open.

From my vantage point I could see into the room, with my far sight I spied Nigel and he looked in bad shape. What surprised me wasn't that he was tortured, but that he was emaciated, and haggard like he'd been there for years.

Then it all started to make sense.

I looked around the room and strewn about were bodies of several lab-coats, a few psychics and quite a few soldiers. The soldiers doing the patrols I saw were psychics pretending to be patrolling wearing the stripped uniforms of some unconscious men strewn about.

"They used your distraction above to free me of my captors... these are my loyal followers," he said using his eyes to indicate the conscious people in the room. "They all infiltrated this facility over the years and have been waiting to free me."

The lab-coats and soldiers taking off their disguises.

'How long have you been here?' I asked, not moving into the room.

"They tell me I've been here for close to five years... not long after you threw me out of my home," he chuckled.

There were folding chairs set up facing Nigel and on them sat about twenty psychics. They all twisted their bodies around so they could look behind them at me, but none of them said a word.

"I came here to get some answers and..."

"To kill me, yeah I know. Don't worry son, I'm already dead, I've just been waiting for you. As soon as we got word that you were captured, I knew it was time to act," he said, waving his pinned hands and making a circle with his fingers, indicating the dead bodies and his infiltrators waiting on him.

"This doesn't make sense. If you've been here for years why does Dr. Rambeau believe you've just arrived?"

"The whole staff has had their memories altered. The higher ups don't want it getting out that the 'me' that set off the virus is not really me..."

"Let me get this straight. The Illuminati imprisoned you years ago and someone else has been running around as you this whole time?" I said, putting the pieces together.

"Yes, and..." he prompted.

As a kid, he used to test my intelligence by having me extrapolate as much from a given set of data as I could.

"Someone at the Illuminati obviously knows this and is using your imposter for their own means. This imposter has been able to fool not only thousands of followers but psychics, so he has to be a powerful psychic in his own right... not only that but he's likely a shapeshifter like me... Ergo, I'm going to guess that he is the insane escaped experiment like me... my brother."

I came to kill my father, but I had never murdered anyone before. I guess if you get technical, I did kill a few others out of a sense of vengeance but these were also directly threatening my family. Nigel was neither of these but he was akin to Mengele and he did inexcusable things but was he really a threat to me?

"Very good. But he's technically not your brother. His name is Guiles and he's a he/she, or more scientifically known as a chimera hermaphrodite. He's got the DNA of a male and a female and has both sets of genitalia. He can make himself look like either sex. I'm surprised it took you this long to work that out."

"I've been distracted, what can I say... I see you have your loyal subjects here... why aren't you escaping?"

"There'll be no escaping for me, if I am moved more than a few inches one way or the other my head will literally explode... Anyway, it's all providence don't you think? I deserve to die..." he said darkly.

"Even will all the king's horses and all the king's men?"