In spite of all the times that I’d come to visit the science complex, there were certain things that always inspired a particular sense of wonder. Specifically, after moving through the various checkpoints, the view afforded was simply incredible. The lobby was a well guarded, concave room that was clad in pale metallic plates, each in the shape of a diamond that protruded slightly from the wall. At the zenith of each protruding piece, I could see a small crystalline structure, one that I knew was constantly scanning and monitoring us from every angle. We weren’t the only ones, either, considering the laboratory main entrypoint could accommodate nearly four hundred people without any major issue.

Just the appearance of the onyx shards wasn’t what wowed me, but the fact that each one also doubled as a variable pulse emitter did. They were effectively lasers with varying functions, which meant that any kind of frontal assault might well be doomed before it ever started. The building behind the defenses was nothing to scoff at either. It was a compound of super-concrete that now made up the bulk of our major industrial complexes. Our buildings could withstand extreme concussive force, temperatures, and were even highly resistant to radiation in its varying forms. The fact that every building was constructed from this stuff was why New Damond could truly be called a fortress city.

Currently, there were only a handful of people moving through the checkpoint, letting us move through one of the sections quickly.

“Slow day,” Daniel commented, “Wonder why?”

I looked around, shrugging, “I don’t see any interns today-” I paused a half-step as I realized another more odd thing “-or any Tier One employees…”

Daniel quirked an eyebrow, “Do you know all of the Tier One’s?”

I shook my head amusedly, “Not directly, I just keep tabs on who should and shouldn’t be in a place.”

He chuckled at that, “Wonder what’s up.”

The individual at the checkpoint saw us coming, a middle aged man who I’d seen working here for quite some time by now.

“How you doin’?” Daniel greeted politely, but casually, “It’s pretty quiet in here today.”

The man nodded to the both of us in greeting, “Good, you two?” He asked as he pressed a button, a scanner working over the both of us to confirm who we were. The system pinged a single clear note followed by a double note when it swept over me. The attendant glanced to the screen beside him before turning back to us with a cordial smile and finally answering Daniel’s question, “It is, isn’t it? Security has determined that anyone below Tier Two should stay out of the primary lab complex for today.”

Curiosity piqued, I asked, “What’s going on?”

He shrugged helplessly, “I’m afraid that’s over my paygrade, Reaper. You might check with the Operations Director?”

I nodded as he pressed his hand against a screen next to him. A moment later the meter thick doors in front of us spun open so smoothly and silently that had I not known it’d been there, I wouldn’t have expected such a thick door to bar the way.

“Have a good one,” Daniel called back over his shoulder as the man bid us farewell.

The pair of us were greeted by the main thoroughfare, a wide, open structure that split off into several hallways, each one a contained unit that could house anywhere between a hundred smaller laboratory units, or be modulated to accommodate larger projects. In the center of the room, what looked to be three meter thick glass dominated the central space, giving a peek into the lower levels. Contrary to appearances, the material wasn’t glass at all, but a transparent metal that had been developed with some inspiration from our work alongside Basilisk. But what truly drew the eye in the white and black facility were the uniform beams of energy that gently ebbed in the space over our heads. Six such beams, two meters in diameter, adorned the ceiling and were contained with powerful magnetic fields. The plasma, as it were, was a brilliant ruby red color, looking more like liquid crystal than anything else. Cascades of fractal-shaped light shimmered across the floor below, subtly illuminating everything beneath it.

“You know, it just occurs to me, but isn’t plasma, like, super hot?” Daniel frowned upwards at the beams.

I laughed, “Incredibly.”

“That… That is plasma, right?” Daniel looked at me in confusion.

“Yup.” I nodded, before walking towards the elevator to our right.

“Right. Okay then.” He collected himself and returned to flank me, “Why aren’t we all roasting then?”

“I’d imagine a containment field of some sort.” I stated as we entered the elevator.

“You’d imagine?” My best friend turned to look at me, “You don’t… know?”

I shrugged, “Probably magnetics. Just because it exists in the city doesn’t mean I know everything about it automatically.”

As Daniel pressed the button to go to the lower levels, a sweeping scan took place in the elevator, confirming we had clearance. “But couldn’t you just google-brain it?”

I winced at the description, “Yeah, but just because I could doesn’t mean I want to do it every time. What would it be like for you if every time you got distracted you immediately went down the rabbit-hole to search up everything about that source, and then the next? You’d never get anything done.”

He had a thoughtful look on his face as he considered that. Just before we reached the floor in question, he nodded, “Yeah, fair enough.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You know, if it was the old world you’d probably spend your time watching po-” whatever Daniel was about to say cut off as the elevator door opened. He swayed on his feet dangerously, as though someone had just shoved him.

“Whoa, you okay?” I reached out to stabilize him while he held his head in his hand with a grimace.

“Holy fuck, my head. What just hit me?” He frowned, still bearing a grimace and glancing around the elevator with confusion.

I blinked, “Nothing hit you, you just suddenly-” the next moment Daniel stiffened, his confusion growing dramatically.

“Why the hell do I taste raspberries!?” Daniel’s bewilderment grew.

The both of us turned at the same time to the labs themselves, basement level six, home to some of our more innovative scientists.

“Guess we’re about to find out.” I said blithely, but internally I couldn’t help but to be worried. Whatever it was, I didn’t feel any of it, while Daniel did. We moved forward at a quick hustle, Daniel leading the way in an attempt to avoid whatever was going on.

Whatever it was, it didn’t have an effect on me, meaning that we could very well be looking at something psychic. I knew that Daniel was thinking the same thing, given the rictus of a grimace that still adorned his face. I hoped that the team had taken adequate precautions, but I didn’t personally know what those precautions would be, let alone how they were doing this in the first place.

“-ahead and make a note on that. Frequency… Raspberry,” we could hear the voice that belonged to one of our pillars for science, Dr. Ross, call out, “Yaga, how’d that taste for you?”

“Raspberry.” The pseudo biotic stated almost giddily, “That supports our hypothesis that psychic abilities seem to be unified.”

“Ah, I wouldn’t go that far,” I heard Terry’s familiar voice ring out, “You are part human, after all. We can’t draw that conclusion around too hastily.”

I could almost see Yaga deflate at that based off of his voice, “Ah, yes, of course. That’s true. If only we had an intelligent biotic instead of this one.”

We entered the large room from the main hallway, devoid of any other people or projects to speak of. The large chamber bore countless apparatus that I couldn’t divine the form or function of, beyond potentially acting as sensors. There were a collection of no more than a dozen people in the room, Terry, Yaga, Dr. Ross, and Rachel - Domino’s old team member likewise seemed to be scowling at her PDA - among them.

What I focused on beyond all of that was the cage in the room, a construction that was more rounded than any of a more common type, preventing the thing within it from getting any purchase on the bars with its jaws. The blackened, shimmering flesh of the first biotic type that I’d ever seen rippled as the wolf attempted to scrabble against the bars. A device was clasped around its head, preventing it from opening its mouth, and also encasing the rest of its head in a two-part contraption.

My fists clenched tightly for a moment with barely controlled fury, accompanied by a violent shudder that ran through my body in a heartbeat. I recognized it for what it was, and quickly began suppressing the sensations with a curse on my lips. Rapidly I overtook the sensation, relieved that I didn’t lose this match.

But not before Daniel noticed, “Matt? You okay?”

“It’s nothing.” I responded curtly, still riding the cold rage that bubbled in my stomach.

For a second I was afraid that Daniel would push, but luckily he seemed to decide differently. “Alright… Just lemme know if you, uh, need anything.”

With a nod I stepped forward, stiffly trying to work my body out of battle-mode before I did or said anything I would regret.

This was something that I’d begun to experience as time went on, and I knew that it originated within my own mind. One moment I would be calm and collected, and the next I would feel an overriding will for violence and rage. I also knew that the trigger was the presence of biotics. The first time it had happened was in South America, and for several hours I’d afflicted excessive wanton violence on biotics, literally tearing some of them apart with my own hands.

Since then, I had lost control only a handful of times.

I didn’t think that would be a problem in my own city.

Fury welled inside me at that thought before I tamped down on it with a cold, logical fist. These were labs, and I already knew that they, from time to time, would capture a live biotic for testing.

“So,” I began, feeling confident that I’d gotten enough of a handle on my anger as everyone turned to me. Just before I made the mistake of looking at the biotic again, the rage ramping up instantly, “What exactly the fuck is going on here?”

‘Guess not.’ I cringed at the surprise on the researchers' faces. For several seconds none of them moved, and even the wolf seemed to cease action, instead staring blankly at me.

Terry cleared his throat, “Told you we should have called him first.”

“Not the time,” Rachel murmured, shooting the man a warning glance before she turned back to me.

“We’re, uh, just performing some science here, boss,” Terry continued on, “nothing to probably be worked up about.”

Dr. Ross scoffed, “It’s admittedly fringe science at best, but we’re taking the necessary precautions. See, the biotic is perfectly-” at that moment the wolf decided now would be a good time to rail against the walls of the cage, albeit ineffectually, “-uh, perfectly secure.”

Yaga stepped forward then, “We have a proof of concept for the use of psychic abilities, more than just what Mr. Strauss demonstrates, and the other psions that we’ve managed to cultivate. It’s a whole new field of science, and we-”

“Alright, arlight,” I stopped him before I took a deep breath and exhaled, reigning control back in, “It’s fine, I’m just wary of this…” I gestured generally toward the biotic once more, but only for a moment.

The team glanced to each other soberly for a few moments before Daniel nodded, his hand resting on my shoulder. “Hey, I get that, nobody likes these things. They’re damn ugly,” he joked warily, “But, I mean, we gotta do what we gotta do, right?”

I realized that Terry and Rachel bore similarly grave expressions. I felt a bead of guilt at that, but I couldn’t bring myself to apologize for my response.

With a deep breath, I asked, “So, what are you actually doing here, then?”

Terry answered, “We’re creating a psychic field emitter… thing.” He shrugged helplessly, “We’re trying to figure out how psychic crap works.”

“This is a crossroads for a major scientific breakthrough,” Yaga passionately gestured to the orb-like device set atop the computer system, “I can feel it. Who knows what we can manage to do? What if we can completely control biotics? We’d never need to fight them again, we could walk them like lemmings into a meat grinder.”

Dr. Ross winced at that description, “Yaga, I know you’re not fully a biotic, but that just sounds… awful.”