"And here we are? Impressive, no?" Dr. Thompson asked, eyeing me amusedly as I stood there and gaped at the so-called 'Test Grounds', as he had hinted at earlier during our tour. The place was... Well.
It was definitely something else.
"Are those robot ninjas?" I asked, morbidly curious as I stared at the gleaming, black robots currently trying their best to butcher each other. Dr. Thompson gave a bark of laughter at that before correcting me.
"Hah, no. That's just the designer being a dweeb. They're the... Well, I'd say security forces, but they're not reliable enough for that. We mostly use them as punching bags for our prospective testers!" He happily explained. I glanced at him with a raised eyebrow before focusing back on the fight, watching as they dueled with swords of all things.
"Isn't this a bit... expensive?" I asked, cringing at the mere thought of how much money was being thrown away for mere tests. It felt... Well, I know I shouldn't judge, but that kind of money could really help the impoverished of Gotham.
"Not as much as you'd think. We've got the tech to make these things rather cheaply, and the materials used to make them aren't exactly top-notch. Trust me, they look way more impressive than they really are." He admitted with a grimace before gently pushing me along. "Now, let's go see my fellow eggheads so that we can get started."
I didn't resist, allowing him to drag me along with him, content in taking in the sights of this place.
It was surprisingly empty, for one. While I did spot a few people in lab coats running around and doing errands, they were quite sparse, and most of them looked as though they'd drank a cup or two too many of coffee rather than sleeping, judging from the bags I could spot under their eyes.
"And here we are. Just let me do this..." Dr. Thompson said as he put his face in front of a scanner, only retreating after it made a happy little 'ding' sound. "There we go. Oh, just so you know, this whole area is technically off-limits for you, since this is where the real science is done. So, unless escorted or purposely invited, remember not to come here. 'Aight?" He asked, giving me a meaningful glance.
I just shrugged a bit and nodded, feeling extremely jittery. The excitement of finally getting to do something with my powers was almost suffocating, and I was practically bouncing on my feet by the time we were greeted by a cahoot of eggheads of all colors, sizes, and genders.
I just kind of awkwardly stood there, staring at the strange sight in front of me before I was loudly and proudly announced to the group by Dr. Thompson.
"Hello everyone! This here is Hannah Fischer, the newest super around the block. Now, I trust that you've all gone over the reports, and if you haven't..." Dr. Thompson trailed off, his cheery smile scaring a few of the people in front of me into cringing. "Well... I'm sure Tom will appreciate the extra help for the next week." He said, clasping his hands together.
I felt rather awkward standing there, feeling like an absolute outsider as the good doctor talked to them as though they were old friends. Which, they probably were. My awkwardness only increased when he put his hand on my shoulder, giving me a reassuring squeeze before continuing his impromptu speech.
"But enough about that! Get to work, everybody. Let's get this finished before the night shift guards come to yell at us again for being too loud." His words were met with a resounding cheer as the mass of bodies quickly cleared out.
I tugged slightly at Dr. Thompson's sleeve to grab his attention. "Uh, who's Tom?" I asked, "Also, do we really need this many people for this?" My anxiety must have shown because he just cracked a smile at me.
"Tom's the head janitor. He's a nice guy, but he's also a serious slave driver." He shivered slightly at some unseen memory. "And as for your second question, no. We don't. Most of those guys," He pointed at a group of scientists huddling over a seriously expensive-looking screen, "Are here to review the information we gather. We also have a lot of interns and students with us today. They're all really excited at the chance to observe a real metahuman."
"Oh... I hope I won't disappoint, then." I joked slightly even as I felt a sense of tension build within me. I... I really didn't want to disappoint them, but the small sense of dread coiling inside me made me very nervous at the thought. What if I failed?
"Heh, don't worry about it. Now, let's go get some blood drawn, shall we?" He didn't waste any time, quickly leading me over to one of the stations.
For the next twenty minutes, I spent most of my time being poked and prodded in all sorts of embarrassing and uncomfortable ways. I didn't really complain at most of the things they asked me to do, from the X-ray scan to the saliva sampling, but I drew the line when they asked me to provide a urine sample.
Finally, though, we got to the actually interesting part.
"I think the majority of my powers revolve around my transformation," I admitted. "I'm... I'm still not sure how to do it. There's this pressure inside of me, building and building, constantly. And yet, I don't know how to trigger it, if I even can consciously." I explained to the group huddled in front of me.
"Interesting..." One of them, Dr. Tiger, as he'd introduced himself, murmured. "You said that you started transforming when you decided to turn around and fight, yes?" He asked. At my confirming nod, he continued. "So maybe that's the trigger. We'll have to test that out later!" He exclaimed eagerly, and I couldn't help but feel just as excited as he was.
"Yes, yes. All things in due time. Now, everyone, stand back a bit." Dr. Thompson interrupted. "Alright, Hannah. Put your hand here... Good, good. Now, can you activate your pyrokinesis?" He asked, voice calm but I could see it on his face that he was looking forward to it.
Moment of truth. Don't abandon me now, powers. I exhaled slightly and pushed.
Fire blossomed around my hand, red and hot. And yet, it didn't bother me. It felt like a mixture between a puppy and a mindless puppet, eager to serve and yet so intrinsically connected to my will.
It was a strange feeling, and also extremely intoxicating.
"Around 1300 degrees... Oxygen consumption normal..." I heard the eggheads murmur behind me as they started doing their thing. I ignored them, too caught up in what I was doing.
I willed the fire to move, and it did, slightly. It felt... clumsy. Like I wasn't yet ready to fully wield its power. And yet, I also knew that this paltry amount of fire was nothing compared to what I could do, even as I was now.
I was broken out of my trance by Dr. Thompson calling my name. "Hannah? Are you alright?" He asked, worried. I turned to face him and the rest of the eggheads, the smile on my face feeling wider and more honest than it had been ever since I'd come into this impossible world.
"Yup. Can we get a move on the rest of the stuff? I want to smash some robots!"
My wish was quickly granted. In the end, after pestering them to just let me go at it, they decided that the rest of the 'boring stuff' could wait for another day, and I was quickly ushered into one of the testing rooms, one very similar to the one I'd seen before.
I reached down and gently ran my hand over the marble-like texture of the floor beneath me. I don't know why I did it, but... The feeling of solid ground beneath me made this seem all the more real.
I'm about to fight robots, I realized. I could get hurt, or worse. It was rather clear to me that the scientists, while their hearts were in the right places, seemed a bit... disconnected from reality. I had doubts about whether they cared enough to bother with safety regulations or things like that.
And yet... All I could feel was eagerness. My power thrummed beneath my skin as the speakers came to life and the wall on the other side of the room opened up, several black-robed ninja robots stalking out with crisp steps, their metallic faces expressionless.
"Alright, Ms. Fischer. Our goal here is to test whether your transformation will activate, but while you do that, try and see if you can find anything else to your powers. If you wish for the test to end, just yell out stop and we'll shut down the robots. Ready? GO!"
And with that, the robots surged forward, blades held lightly in their hands. I charged forward as well, my entire world narrowing down to these four enemies.
My power erupted, pure anger and power flowing through me. When I was only ten meters away from the robots, I stomped on the ground, arresting my momentum before throwing both arms forward, willing my fire to come to life.
And come to life it did, as two cones of fire shot out from my hands, both almost a foot wide. One of the flames was dodged by the robots, but the other one scored a glancing hit and singed the center-left one's side.
And then, they were upon me. My inexperience with fighting was obvious as I clumsily dodged their coordinated attacks, blades flashing one after the other as they prevented me from retaliating.
I was faster, but they had the advantage of numbers and programming far superior to my non-existent martial skill. Thus, it wasn't surprisingly when one of them scored a rather deep hit, carving through my shoulder rather harshly.
I bit down on a cry and instead focused on the fight. With a snarl of pure fury, I called my flames to me, and they answered, detonating around me in an explosion of fire and fury.
The robots were pushed back, and I instinctively reached out to grab my shoulder. I could feel my flesh shifting and knitting itself, the wound that would have once been a grievous thing, requiring weeks if not months of tedious recovery, healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Are you alright, Ms. Fischer?" The speaker blared out. I glanced at where the sound came from in irritation, snarling out a loud 'yeah' that came out as more of a 'yesh' due to the shifting in my jaws.
It should've felt freaky, but instead, I felt powerful. Evidently having been the go-ahead, the robots charged at me once more, but this time, I was ready.
Already, they looked shorter than they'd been before. I stole a glance at my hands, and sure enough, they'd already transformed into claws. Scales were starting to cover them, and I could feel that the same was happening on the rest of my body, the process hidden underneath clothes that suddenly felt too tight in places and absent in others.
I felt a brief flash of embarrassment when I realized my clothes were on fire, with most of them falling apart at that very moment. However, said embarrassment was overshadowed by the desire to crush these robots who dared challenge me.
I leaped forward, clearing the space between us in less than a second. The robots automatically tried to surround me once again, but this time, I was ready.
I swept out with my arm, knocking two of them away and sending them sailing off, now with a rather significant dent on their chests where I'd hit them. Hearing the swooshing sound of a sword swinging just behind me, I ducked. The blow missed, and I retaliated by pushing myself backward as hard as I could, my back slamming into the metallic body of the robot.
It felt far more fragile than it should have been. The robot practically fell apart under my strike as we sailed in the air for a few seconds. I landed in a messy sprawl, but I didn't waste any time as I scrambled to my feet as fast as I could, only to pause for a moment as I felt my spine shift.
I hunched over slightly, letting out a low growl as something pushed out from my tailbone. The new limb formed incredibly fast, and as I idly swished it side to side, I admired just how... natural it felt.
I turned my full attention back to the fight. One of the robots was out for good, it's broken remains lying just to my side. Two of the others had taken a rather significant hit as well as the flame explosion, and while they could still fight, they looked as though the slightest blow would put them in the grave. The last one was the most functional, but I was confident I could crush it.
I had grown beyond these robots, that much I could tell. At the start, they'd matched me in height, but now, I loomed over them. Hell, my arms alone were thicker than their torsos.
The power coursing through me seemed to slow down and lessen when I realized this. It was still there, just much lesser than it had been before, with no challenge in front of me.
"'Ore!" I yelled. I frowned slightly before carefully articulating my next shout, finding it surprisingly difficult since my jaw felt different than what I was used to. "I need more. Need challenge, threat!"
My ears could now pick out a faint chatter emanating from behind one of the walls, and while the soundproofing nature of the room prevented me from truly listening in, it did sound as though there was a bit of a debate going on in there.
Thankfully, they obliged as I tore apart the robots with ease, my lacking skill more than made up for by sheer power. I gleefully wrestled the last robot to the ground before breathing down a massive stream of fire, turning it into molten slags within mere seconds.
I easily picked out the sound of the doors opening, so I was ready by the time my next opponents came into view: Six robots that looked much, much different than the ones I'd just been fighting.
For one, they matched me in height as I was now. For two, they had four arms, each hand topped by long, knife-like protrusions. Finally, although I had no proof of it just yet, I highly suspected their materials were different, and probably much more difficult to smash apart.
I was tempted for a second to simply charge in, but quickly abandoned that idea. While I'd been loving this fight, that didn't mean I wanted to get carved apart. My shoulder had healed by now, but it still throbbed a bit occasionally. It was a stark reminder not to get cocky.
I let out a shout that, with my changed voice box, sounded a lot more like a roar. Focusing, I unleashed a stream of fire that put my previous attempts to shame, the flames responding to my will so much more readily now, and with so much more power.
Nonetheless, the robots dodged it, moving at speeds that put their predecessors to shame. Moving as one, two rushed directly towards me, while the other four moved to flank me. The ground shook underneath their hooves, but all I could see was a worthy challenge.
I leaped forward right into the mist, trusting in my ever-increasing scales to defend me. Already, I could feel a second layer forming underneath the first one, and indeed, when my fist slammed into four cold and sharp blades held up to defend from my attack, they held, and the robot staggered back.
The same could not be said for the rest of me, as the other five robots took the opportunity to carve me up. I repeated my previous trick, exploding in a cascade of fire, but it did little to dissuade the five robots. I let out a scream of pain as I felt the blades carve through what little exposed flesh remained, and even occasionally piercing through my scales.
I lashed out with tail, claw, and fang, the white-hot anger coursing through me via my power doing little to impede my higher reasoning, but it definitely made me more vicious. The robots were tough, and their weapons were dangerous, but after I sent one of them skidding back with a slam of my tail, it became painfully obvious who held the physical advantage here.
Still, pure strength meant little if I could not leverage it correctly, and surrounded as I was and with so little knowledge of how to properly deal with such a situation, I was being herded like a deer before a pack of wolves. With a menacing growl, I decided to leap away, the floor cracking slightly under my feet as I sailed to the other side of the room.
I landed with a hard thud, grimacing slightly as my quickly healing body throbbed in complaint. The robots didn't chase, merely watching me. Mocking me.
My power roared even harder within me. Already, I'd grown taller than them, bigger, stronger. I waited for a few more seconds, giving my body the time it needed to, if not heal completely, at least patch up the damage done to me.
There was surprisingly little blood on me despite the grievous cuts I'd received. I filed that away for later as I finally decided it was time, and once more charged into the fray, my entire body lighting on fire underneath my command.
Previously, my fire had failed to significantly harm the robots. Hinder, yes, but not truly harm. Now, however, the robots definitely looked warier as my flames gave way from orange to yellow.
I was larger than them, and that gave me a significant reach advantage. I used it well, playing smart and not allowing myself to repeat my most significant mistake so far: Allowing myself to get surrounded.
Whenever the robots tried to surround me, I'd leap away and re-engage from a more advantageous position, quickly learning that, despite their skill in battle and their significant toughness, the robots had terrible battle adaptability.
I fought ruthlessly, curtains of fire forming everywhere, trapping or repelling the robots as needed even as I smashed and clawed my way to victory. They were tough motherfuckers, my blows denting and carving through them while the heat caused their outsides to melt slightly, but still, they fought on.
It was futile, of course. Already, their blades failed to create more than sparks on my scales, while even a glancing blow of mine would outright send them flying.
I paused for a moment, once more detonating my fire in yet another explosion and forcing them away from me as I felt another shift before hunching forward. My neck came free of my shoulders, and I felt it lengthen, scales rising along with it and covering me in yet another layer, harder than the previous one. Two stumps rose out from my back as well, and I felt my jaw shift and change as it split into four parts.
With a grin that could easily be mistaken as a snarl, I once more rose up, my arms long enough to almost reach the ground as I glared at my opponents.
Already, I could see them faltering. They had frankly insane toughness, but despite that, with my ever-enhancing hearing, I could hear the groaning of joints and unstable fizzle of electricity as they started to give out, the damage done to them being too much.
Just as I was about to leap in and finish the job, however, the speakers blared to life. "Ms. Fischer, please stop. The fight is over."
I flinched minutely, the sound breaking me out of my tunnel vision. I gave a low growl, debating for a moment whether to ignore them and finish what I'd started, but reason won out in the end, and I reluctantly backed off, glaring at robots as they limped their way out of the room.
I took the opportunity to look around the area. It was... a mess, frankly. There were cracks and craters everywhere from where I'd landed or leaped from, and that was ignoring the scorch marks that were practically everywhere, growing worse and worse from place to place, almost as if recording my power rising and rising.
Speaking of power, now that I'd won and crushed all of my enemies, I could feel it leaving me. I allowed myself a moment of disappointment but nonetheless made no attempt to hold onto it, somehow knowing that it was futile.
Slowly, I shortened. I could feel my claws receding, my neck returning to its normal length, my scales vanishing underneath my skin. I don't know how long it took in total, but I'm fairly sure it took ten minutes for me to return to normal.
When the last of my scales vanished, I was feeling oddly... content. Like an itch that I didn't know I had had just been scratched. it wasn't gone, I could still feel it, but it definitely left me feeling with a sort of giddiness that made me smile goofily.
The doors to the room opened, the ones I'd entered from. Slowly, I got to my feet and headed over to it, moving almost on auto-pilot. The moment I was outside and back in the lab area, I was immediately confronted by a woman who wasted no time wrapping me in a large blanket.
I eyed it curiously for a moment before realizing my clothes had probably been turned to ash. I felt a small blush form on my cheeks, suddenly realizing I'd just given whatever observers that'd been watching a free show.
"Ah, Ms. Fischer! Good for you to join us!" Dr. Thompson said as he came strolling in. After giving a quick thank you to the woman who'd covered me up, he wasted no time leading me away.
"A truly wonderful show, I must say. Did you know, I was actually against you fighting the Termination Squad. They're one of the strongest prototypes we've got, although one of the less outright deadly." He chattered away even as stole glances at me. He frowned briefly, and I idly wondered why that was.
"Ms. Fischer?" He asked gently. I made a questioning 'hmm' sound even as I felt a yawn tear its way out of me.
"Ah... Nevermind. Here, come on. We'll talk about this tomorrow, you okay with that?" He asked. I absentmindedly nodded, dully realizing we'd stopped in front of an unfamiliar room.
"You're not the first person to crash here. Don't worry, the bed's suuuper comfortable, I promise. Trust me, I'd know." He winked at me before gently pushing me into the suddenly open room.
I took a few, staggering steps over to the bed, and the moment I hit it, I was already off to the dream world, dreams of glorious battles filling it.
