In a dark and dim corridor, Elijah Reid walked towards an elevator, the dusty corridor echoed with every step he took.

Pyrebomb sat on a chair beside the elevator, his lower left arm was covered in bandages, he stood up as Reid approached.

"Evening Reid, considering you've ended up here, I'm gonna assume your mission ended up as badly as mine did, you know you're trapped in this now, just like I am, they won't let you out anymore."

Reid nodded, "Miller wasn't it? They called you in too?" Pyrebomb nodded, "That's right, I tried to escape but the Bishops caught me, and here I am, I guess we're both screwed now."

The corridor echoed as a man dressed in all black approached the two, his voice was synthetic.

"Elijah Reid, Adrien Miller, The Bishops of Control wish to speak with you."

The masked man handed them a mobile phone, it was on speaker mode, two almost identical sounding voices rung through the phone, they were slightly synthesised to disguise their identity, they spoke the same words at the same time.

"Two Pawns failed their missions, for the first Pawn's mistake, we lost our "Saviour". For the second Pawn's mistake, we had to intervene... Your fates will be decided by our Queen... in person... pray that she's in a good mood."

The call abruptly cut off and the elevator doors ominously slid open.

"Guess this is it, was nice knowing you Reid." Pyrebomb looked at Reid.

Reid nodded and they both stepped into the elevator, the door creaked shut and it began it's descent into the abyss below.

After five minutes in complete silence, the elevator ground to an abrupt halt, the door slowly slid open into a dark room, as the two stepped out the door slid shut, the room was shrouded in complete darkness.

Suddenly, a light came on in front of them, the outline of a crown glowed a deep purple, followed shortly afterwards by the outline of two wings, both outlined with the same deep purple LEDs, one wing on each side of what looked to be the outline of a throne, faintly in view from the dim lights of the wings.

The outline of a young woman sat atop the throne, just barely visible due to the dim lights, however any distinguishing features were obscured by the darkness.

She crossed one leg over the other, she spoke with a voice that was a cold and angry tone, her speech patterns were extremely crude.

"Two Pawns 've come to visit, Adrien Miller 'n' Elijah Reid. Both failed their missions." She shook her head.

Pyrebomb stepped forward "Well, you see, Ranger Ranger was there and-"

"I didn't ask for excuses Adrien." Queen snapped back.

"Adrien, your job was easy, Awaken 'n' retrieve the Saviour... you managed the first part by accident, you let him get away though." She shook her head again.

"Miss Queen, Ranger Ranger was there so I couldn't-"

"ENOUGH, no more excuses Adrien, you're annoyin' me, Lemme rephrase. Fuck up again and my guys'll pay that wife of yours a visit, I know where she is Adrien."

Pyrebomb stepped back. "You dare hurt her, I swear I'll kill you, this isn't a game Queen-" Queen laughed "You want her alive when you get home, all you gotta do is succeed next time, it ain't hard, you just gotta be better, we don't want liabilities in our operation here."

Queen nodded in satisfaction and turned to face Reid.

"Elijah, you had to pick up where Adrien left off, get the Saviour back from the Hero Organisation, since they've been corruptin' him with their lies 'n' shit, you also had to get some information for us from the data bank, which you failed to do, in the end, we had to waste resources, savin' you, our other operative, and retrievin' the Saviour ourselves. Thanks to your incompetence the heroes now know about us... don't think I don't know about your treachery, I don't like traitors Elijah, understand?"

Reid stepped forward "Well Queen, you didn't exactly tell me which Hero Squadron I'd have to deal with, nor what their powers would be, so I had very little information to work with, and-"

"Shut up, I can't stand people who talk back, We didn't tell you which Squadron you'd be fightin' because we knew you'd bail if we did, considerin' you gave away info about us to the heroes, I'd say it was the right call since you turn traitor so easily."

She pointed at Reid, "Elijah, same deal as with Adrien, Your people are in Arhke Prison, I have men on the inside, I give the word 'n' they're all dead, last chance Elijah."

Reid nodded, "Yes Queen, I won't fail you again."

"Good, now for the other business."

She shifted in her throne and faced Pyrebomb.

"Adrien, you've got an extremely strong power, you can create explosives out of thin air, anywhere you can see, it's too bad you act like a cartoon supervillain when you're confronted, otherwise maybe somebody might actually respect you for once."

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

She turned to face Reid.

"Elijah, your power is strong and versatile, you could be great if only failure wasn't holdin' you down, least you didn't kill the hostage, that was somethin' you weren't allowed to do, no matter what, won't tell you why though, either way, if you don't wanna see your power "set free" then you'd best use it for somethin' productive, somethin' that won't end in failure."

A spotlight flickered on in front of her, it illuminated a chess board, on the board were several unusual pieces, the white side was designed to represent the Hero Organisation, except their king piece was tossed to the side of the board and painted gold.

The black side represented this mystery group, the queen piece was painted purple and surrounded by the other pieces, the king piece stood behind the queen, on a slightly raised platform.

Queen reached out and flicked two of the pawn pieces over.

"You're both on incredibly thin ice, get out before I change my mind about your second chance, you've pissed off the King so now I gotta make a report to him, it's a pain, I'll be in contact when your next job comes in."

The lights flick off and the room darkened once again, the elevator door slid open and the two of them stepped back into the elevator.

"Claude, hey Claude, wake up."

Claude abruptly awoke in a darkened room which had metal walls and a single large doorway with a figure standing in it. Claude was tied to a chair, his Limiter was missing.

The figure approached him, a woman with blonde hair who wore a white lab coat and a black bodysuit with mechanical parts all over it, She also wore a strange respiratory mask which had a strange greenish liquid inside it, she wore black gloves and on her right hand she had a mechanical claw which had syringes cover each of her fingers.

"Hello there Claude, pardon the rude awakening but testing must begin, I'm glad we could retrieve you from the Hero Organisation, their lies can't corrupt you anymore."

Claude looked up at her "Who are you? Where am I?"

She chuckled, "Who am I? You can call me Viper, because of my venomous "fangs", oh but don't worry, I won't hurt you... unless you refuse to cooperate."

She looked down at the claw on her hand and smiled.

"As for where you are, that doesn't matter, what matters is that you're here, the perfect specimen with the power to shape the world." she nodded.

"What do you mean by that? Do you know my power?"

"Indeed I do Claude, it's a wonderful power, one strong enough to hold the fate of the world in the palm of your hand, if you learn how to master it anyway."

She chuckled "Let's begin the experiment."

Viper approached Claude and cut the ropes that bound him using her claw, she then helped him to stand.

"Play along with my little experiment and I'll give you a hint about your identity, as well as one of your memories, sound like a fair trade?"

Claude shrugged "I guess I can, within reason, what would you have me do?"

She looked at him directly and nodded "All you need to do is cooperate with me, I'm going to show you the potential of your power when truly unbound, unfortunately, I can't tell you right away who you used to be, my boss won't let me, because it'd overwhelm you so we'll take our time, we have more than enough time after all."

"Come Claude, we have much to do."

Viper guided Claude out of the room and down a dark metal corridor, the feint hum and buzz of machinery echoed around the facility.

They reached a metal bulkhead door which slid open with a loud hiss, inside was a gigantic open room, three levels all connected via metal staircases, cells with white padded interiors and clear see-through windows lined on the walls on all levels of the room, however all the cells were dimmed with some kind of mist that made it impossible to see what was inside.

"Welcome Claude, to the testing grounds, this special facility will help you realise the true extent of your power, using my creations, unfortunately they're all flawed, but you, you're so close to being perfect, with my help you can be."

"Perfect? what do you mean perfect?"

"The perfect being, one who's soul is strong enough to bring forth the true extent of their power, with a body strong enough to house that soul, true perfection, the pinnacle of human evolution, not bound by any handicaps such as Limiters."

She turned and faced Claude, her expression was a mix of excitement and disapproval.

"As you are now, you're imperfect, a mess, no good, as for my other imperfect experiments, well I'm gonna let you play with them for a bit, my boss asked me to give you a little nudge, you need to learn to use your power properly, that's all, let the tests begin!"

She clapped her hands together and several of the cells opened, burned and deformed humans of all ages stumbled out, they all had three digit numbers branded into their upper right arms.

Several had chunks of ice or rocks merged with their bodies, others had limbs or chunks of their bodies missing. They shakily moved towards Claude.

"Go ahead Claude, extend your arm out and focus, destroy them where they stand!... oh don't worry, they lost what remained of their sentience a long time ago if that makes you feel better."

Claude shook his head "That's not the issue here, you want me to kill another human?".

Viper shook her head frantically. "Human, oh no no no Claude, they're not human, not anymore, they're imperfections, stains, failed experiments, think of them as broken toys, they need to be disposed of, you're my little lab cleaner."

"Viper, I'm not killing anybody, that's non-negotiable." Claude stepped back.

"Awww, you're no fun Claude, the old you was a much better and more interesting person, he'd have indulged my little game... oh, nevermind that."

She laughed and then shrugged.

"Ah well, nothing for it, I'll just have to force it myself!"

She rushed up to Claude and plunged her claw into his back, the syringes began to inject their contents into his body.

Claude struggled as he fell to the ground. "What the hell did you inject into me!?"

Viper spoke calmly. "Oh, nothing too major, just a little "Motivation" to get your power to work, since you refuse to demonstrate it yourself."

Claude's body shook and he started to sweat "What is this!?"

"I just boosted your power output, just a tiny bit."

Claude's hand shook as it began to point at the approaching test subjects, Claude struggled to control it. "No... No!... you can't make me do this, stop!".

Viper chuckled "Sorry Claude, you're doing as I command, now kill!" she waved her hand and suddenly a loud bang sound rung out through the room, suddenly all of the test subjects stood before Claude all burst open, their bodies popped like balloons, fountains of blood spilled everywhere, the room was painted crimson.

Viper chuckled "There it is! The power to shape the world, I never thought I'd ever get to see it first-hand like this, it's beautiful!"

She looked at him with a determined gaze.

"The old Claude truly was an amazing man, so close to perfection. Now, one final test awaits you, you must fight two of my more perfected creations, good luck Claude."

A door opened and Viper left the room, she arrived a short while later at an observation area above the room, two larger cells opened, a young woman with stitches along her cheeks leading to her mouth on both sides wobbled and snarled at him, she licked her lips with a black tendril that protruded from her mouth where her tongue would've been, the other was a man covered in stitches and scars, his body moved almost like an animal as he approached Claude. "So, you're the one that the doctor mentioned" The woman hissed like a snake, and the man clenched his fist in preparation for battle.