–Somewhere in Siberia, Jan. 10, 3:58 AM–
In the world, there are few completely inhospitable places. However, Siberian winters made living on the moon for any length of time seem warm and cuddly by comparison. Oddly enough, as if the weather was not vicious enough, installations had been fabricated for the storage of even worse elements. One such location was not much more than a massive, squat concrete structure, looking much like a giant cinder block that had been jammed, vertically, into the permafrost. Surrounding the main building, a half-dozen Quonset huts, made of corrugated metal, and likely not affording any protection from the biting winds acted as storage sheds or barracks.
A dozen guard towers, each outfitted with machine guns and searchlights, dotted the area, looking like hostile, spindly mushrooms festooned with icicles. The prison had been completed less than six months ago. Arguably impossible to escape from, the location and the weather added to the lethality of the hulking building.
The prison was double maximum security, designed for the worst of the worst. Mass murderers. Psychopathic slaughterers. Political enemies. Assassins. The only thing the prison did not have was a deposed ruler. However, inside the structure, there was one cell that was guarded more heavily than any other. The walls were triple-thick reinforced concrete. Impossible to destroy without bringing the roof down upon the prisoner. The only door into the cell was ten inches thick, made of a steel-molybdenum alloy that was almost as difficult to destroy as Durallex.
Three guard stations were all within twenty feet of the door, and each and every guard was trained in the use of the deadliest weapons available to them. The cell was occupied.
Four guards stood around the door of the cell, each and every one looking nervous. Justifiably so, as they had been forced to pull the cell occupant off of the interrogator less than twenty minutes ago. The interrogator would no longer be capable of speaking, much less eating anything without the assistance of a straw, and the prisoner was not in a forthcoming mood about motive after being soundly beaten with stun batons.
The only thing that interrupted the dull white of the walls was a small window, and that had been crosshatched with inch-thick steel bars, rendering the window almost impossible to enter or exit, barring the rare insect. One of the guards, a stocky man holding a Dragunov sniper rifle, was standing by the window, looking at the searchlights playing across the grounds of the prison. However, when a dull, flat crack echoed over the area, and a guard tower collapsed in a billowing blaze of fire and death, he had his rifle up instantly, and, with the muzzle poking out of a gap in the bars, the guard was ready and willing to open fire on any target of opportunity.
The guard saw something moving, and, almost as quickly, he fired, missing his target by less than a foot. The target disappeared, melting into the shadows, but reappeared less than five seconds later, carrying something on its shoulder. The guard instantly screamed at his companions to get down, just as he also dropped flat.
Two seconds later, the window exploded inwards, blasting the upper half of the room with shards of steel, warped and twisted into jagged blades. One guard, having failed to move quickly enough, caught the brunt of the shrapnel with his head and shoulders. In less than a second, the guard’s head had been splattered over the wall, studded with the warped chunks of metal that had killed him. The corpse, mangled beyond recognition, slumped to the floor and twitched for a few moments, though none of the other guards noticed.
The guard who had first called for the others to duck stood up the fastest, and was surprised to see that nothing was left of the outer compound. All the guard towers he could see were blazing ruins, and the three visible Quonset huts looked like they had been torn apart by a series of localized tornadoes. The area was silent, except for the howling winds that tore around the prison like groups of angry dogs. Faintly, a different sound began, worrying the guard. The noise grew in volume and intensity over the course of a minute, then stopped. The guard, now genuinely worried, backed away from the window, which sealed his fate.
If he had stood at the window for a few seconds more, he would have heard the distinctive ‘ping’ of a grenade’s arming lever flipping away from the explosive device. However, due to his motion, he did not hear the faint noise. The only clue that appeared was when the grenade was neatly lobbed into the room through the twisted ruin of the window, and, just as the three living guards heard the clunk of the grenade hitting the floor, the small explosive device did as it was designed to.
The room was literally painted red from the chunks of human that were splattered everywhere due to the grenade’s powerful blast, and nothing remained of the four guards that was larger than a finger. The source of the grenade, having listened for any suspicious noises, swiftly clambered up to the damaged window frame, where the damaged lighting in the room played over the person’s form. Climbing claws were attached to the person’s hands, and the person was just small enough to squeeze into the room through the hole that had once been a reinforced window.
Landing silently in the blood-covered room, the tiny figure moved to the immense, locked door inset into the wall opposite of the window. The door was twice the height of the person, standing ten feet tall, and looking like it would take half a ton of high explosives just to dent it.
The person didn’t have to touch the door however. Instead, she reached into a small belt pouch, pulling out an innocent-looking device that looked like a hacking device. The person, having seen what she needed just above her eye level, carefully inserted the device into the card-reader that would unlock the door, confident that the sniffer program would easily smash the encryption program being used. As she waited, the person whistled faintly, stopping only when the deadbolts holding the door shut unlocked with a resounding series of dull clanks.
The door swung open slowly, as if loath to release the lone subject that had been incarcerated for a mere four days. However, after the door had swung open to its stops, the cell that it opened into seemed to be completely empty. Dim, with very little light filtering into the small cell, there seemed to be only a cot and a partially enclosed privy in the small room. The person entered the cell, moving quietly and scanning every possible angle of attack. However, even her alertness didn’t prepare her for having a weight dropping onto her back with enough force to knock her to the floor.
The assailant moved quickly, flipping the intruder over onto her back and snapping her forearm up under the intruder’s jaw, choking off the smaller person’s air supply. The two people didn’t move for a second or two, looking at each other, followed by the intruder being released from the iron-hard grip that had nearly blipped her into unconsciousness. The intruder, having been partially recognised, quickly stripped off her balaclava, revealing a youthful face and blonde hair.
"Jeez, Sel. If this is the way you treat your friends, I’d hate to get on your bad side. C’mon, let’s get you out of here." Replacing her balaclava, the young woman helped her friend stand, then paused for a second as something was whispered to her. Stiffening slightly, she nodded, then tapped her left ear twice.
"Hang on. We’ll get you to the doc, so he can patch you up. You’ll be up and about before you know it."
The muttered response caused the blonde to laugh, then mutter something herself. The blonde’s clothes, once dark and baggy, lightened to an amber shade, then reshaped themselves, tightening to just short of skin-tight as well as thickening, creating a bodysuit made of trained metal. Less than a minute later, the two rooms were completely empty, except for the shattered weapons and remains of the four guards.
–Two Weeks Later, Undisclosed Location. 7:52 PM–
The medical centre was simple, to the point of being spartan. However, the world’s most advanced medical technology resided in the centre, and the best doctors in orthopaedics, microsurgery, and cybernetics all had standing contracts with the organization.
Currently, two people were under the centre’s care, and only one was serious. The lesser ‘victim’ had taken a bad fall during a wrestling match, and had broken his arm in four places. The other, more seriously injured person, however, was a virtual shopping list of injuries. Her personal doctor, a tall, slim man in his early sixties, was sitting in his office, reading the report on her final prognosis.
"Hmm... Ruptured spleen was removed, replaced with cloned copy. Severe lacerations stitched and disinfected. Damaged skeletal structure removed through original incision points, replaced with metallic alloys. Left eye completely unsalvageable, cloning attempt failed. Mechanical replacement successfully installed, and will be interfaced with organic tissue upon subject regaining consciousness. Well, she’s going to be extremely pissed off when she wakes up, and I doubt she’ll be anywhere near healthy for several months afterwards."
The doctor put the report on his desk, then stood up and walked out of his office, having decided to check on his patient. She was still unconscious, but the bruises raised by her ordeal had faded completely. The doctor paused at the side of the bed, automatically checking the woman’s pulse against his watch. He then smiled, smoothing some stray strands of hair away from the left side of her face, revealing the gauze bandage that covered the entire side of her head. Underneath the bandage, he knew, would be a long scar caused by the surgery to replace her ruined eye, as well as the black metal and glass unit that would act just like a real eye.
"Sleep well, Selina. You’re going to have a long road ahead of you, and it won’t be an easy one." The doctor straightened slightly after speaking, adjusting his tie before turning to leave. The doctor left the room, leaving Selina alone, and not noticing the faint frown that appeared on her face for a moment.