Chapter 342 - 7-9

CHAPTER 07

I dragged myself back to my cell after that little escapade with Dr. Ernst… That psychopath.

I looked at my hands, still shaking from whatever effect from the solution I drank had. Unfortunately, I was able to provide him with another branch of torture… Discomfort.

I dreaded what he'd do to me once he was done with his research.

Looking on the bright side, I got one solid on that fucker Olav. Pretty sure one of his eyes were gone from my second punch, probably should have aimed for his nuts. Bah! Plans for next time.

It was really really tempting to kill him right there, but I knew if I had killed him right then, or even if I could, my situation would've bungee jumped all the way to game over and then bounce back to doomsville. And that was not a level I was keen on playing anytime soon.

As far as my livelihood here went, Olav was my warden for all intent and purposes. The sick old man gets a hard-on every time he tortures me… Literally. I don't know how many times I cried from one of his 'game time'. It was sickening.

There was this one time he wanted to see if my foot could touch the back of my head, and while I was trained every day, I wasn't a gymnast. To my horror he broke my leg when he found out it couldn't touch my head and laughed at my agony saying it made a wonderful art…Magnificent work Leonardo, bravo!

Hopefully I won't see him for some time, and that was assuming Hydra hadn't found out the key to healing potions from my blood, which would be catastrophic by the way. It would pretty much fuck up this earth's version of the Marvel-verse.

I hope my next warden was nicer, haha. Now that's a joke if I've heard one recently, which I haven't apparently.

Not everything was bad about my treatment from Olav… Ok who am I kidding, It was 99% bad with the miniscule 1% being me having a better grasp of my mutant abilities.

It's being at least three months since I was abducted, which sucks major because I missed out on my favorite holiday of the year, New Year, while also spending my New Year as an abducted/experimented mutant.

The days now were bland, lacking colors except the occasional dash of red here and there, but apart from that, everything else was stale.

The torture becoming a norm.

The fights and broken bones an habitual occurrence.

Everything else becoming a predictable line.

Every day looking forward to the anguished and agonizing pain from either the mad doctor or Olav, bringing it to a symmetry of predictions. The pain expectable, sometimes exceeding perceived limit, the jeering continual, the collective apathy adapted.

Sure I did feel bad, depression and fear a marring constant, but before hours passed I'd collect myself and compare the pain to the unforgettables of my past tortures, finding solace in its lacking brutality or resignation in its advancement. And like that, I had nothing new to expect, counting down the minutes until I was thrown back into my cell.

Make no mistake, I was thankful for the predictability. Predictable means adaptable, change means unknown and in this kind of environment, the unknown was what I dreaded most.

But with the stunt I pulled today, change was inevitable. Sigh.

Speaking of change, my abilities had some, nothing monumental though.

My healing factor sped up, but I found out that critical organs healed slower compared to the rest of my body. Much slower.

Olav, one time shot me in my spine and that took me over 4 hours to heal. Thankfully he never went for the heart,

I knew there was no healing from that… Hopefully yet.

Getting shot a few more times made it known that I could apparently heal from bullet wound, taking at most thirty minutes for an AP round. A normal bullet wound took me half the time to heal as long as it didn't pierce through, so that was a plus.

Overall, most wounds in my body took less than an hour to heal, except the truly critical ones, like to the livers or kidneys – or recently tested, the spine. An headshot was still a guaranteed lights out so no surprises there, one to the heart was something that wasn't actually tested maybe for fear of my death so I'm at least thankful for that.

Apart from my healing, my physical strength also saw an increased improvement. While I couldn't carry a car yet, I could lift one with my current strength, though no one knew that tidbit.

I tried seeing my limit once in the gym on one of those rare moments where no one was present, including Olav, and padded the pole with weights. While an average SUV weighed around 3,000 – 5,000kg,I was able to lift over half that weight at 2,500kg.

It was both shocking and exhilarating finding that out, and since then, I found my physical strength was increasing at an incredibly slow and steady pace.

As for my speed, well I think I could give Usian Bolt a run for his fastest 100m record. All in all, I was already a super soldier and that was a thought that made me feel weird to this day.

It was weird because all it took was three-something months to go from a normal human to a low level super soldier without any serum.

There was once an idea of me undergoing their super soldier experiment but it was denied on the grounds that it would be detrimental as it was already a given possibility that I could reach super soldier level on my own which was further merited with results from my experiments and coupled with the fact that I could also survive extreme temperatures further cemented this decision. This was one of the few things I was most thankful for since I came here.

Apart from my physique developments, there was something that I suspected about me that the doctors in charge of my experiments somehow, and thankfully, neglected.

I was getting smarter.

Nowhere near Einstein, Newton or Faradays level but miniscule enough for only me to observe it.

This was something I found off chance due to Dr. Ernst and the other scientists working gleefully with open mouths. While most of the terms they used in front of me was mostly lost on me, somehow I was able to figure out some of the things there were talking about after so long.

Sometimes the answers would come to me when I was back in my cell or at a seemingly random time with no reason other than a stray thought on the topic. And this was saying something since I didn't know jackshit about any of it despite having a degree in Biology.

This brought me back to what my mutant ability was. They were a few synonymous occurrences with some characters that I remembered from comics and shows from my childhood but they were mostly fuzzy. Growing with every physical exertion and somehow getting smarter from perceived information, it was as if my full body in correspondence was…

Adapting.

A hyped up characteristic of every living being. Natural selection of Darwin.

The ability to conform to the mental and physical need for evolution.

This was phenomenal… The applications of such a discovery would be immence… What am I saying?

This was another thing I found out.

Apparently my brain has developed a very mild science fetish. Although not noticeable, my thoughts, without a particular focus or letting it run free, would mostly likely geek out in the realms of my limited knowledge.

Most times it was annoying, but other times, it serves as a new form of constructive thinking. It didn't matter much because none of this would make me pick up another science textbook again in this life even if this ability was almost limitless in it utility.

These were the observations I had on my abilities in these three months, no doubt Hydra had more detailed explanations since I was comically their new guinea pig.

Hopefully they haven't found out about my budding intellect which would spell all kinds of crap that my low IQ couldn't comprehend.

Having complete access, even if I didn't know how much, to my X-gene to further whatever sick goal they had was already bad. Finding out that I was growing just by listening to their conversations was like giving Hydra a guidebook on 'How to Fuck the World In 2 Steps'.

Nothing good would come out of that.

I wouldn't find it surprising if they tore open my skull to take out my brains just to study it.

This further cemented my desire to escape but presently, that was nothing more than wishful thinking. I couldn't even make it pass this floor before I would be riddled with lead. All I could do was bid my time, get stronger and wait for a chance to hightail it out of here. But all in due time.

At least tomorrow can't be any worse… Right?

…..

What is this? What is the meaning of this?

No… No… No! This can't be happening!

What have I done? 

My thoughts were in disarray as I stared at the bloodied gagged man in front of me, tied to a chair.

Snort and tears marred his face, depicting the torture he had gone through.

He just sat there, no ounce of strength in him, with resigned eyes, as he looked towards me.

Under his gaze, I stood transfixed to the ground, unable to comprehend what had happened.

"I-039, take his life."

A simple command. No fanfare or explanation.

I couldn't come to terms with it as I stared at the slit throat of the man whose life I just took.

My brain was fuzzy as my stomach churned at the sight and memory of what I've just done.

"I-039, take his life."

It was the only thing that was said to me as I was led out of my cell this morning.

The order was given remotely by speakers, with a camera hung on the wall to no doubt witness it.

"I-039, take his life."

The command wasn't repeated, only stated once, but somehow, I found it replaying inside my head every second.

When I first saw him, the look of fear and realization in his eyes were what clued me in on what was happening, or going to happen.

At that moment, a part of me knew what was going to happen, the inevitability of the conundrum I was faced with, but my brain refused to comprehend it.

When I was brought to his front, he shook in his seat with whatever strength he could muster, which wasn't much, as he struggled vainly to escape the dooming fate we both knew was coming. The pleading in his eyes were clear, leaving a lump in my throat as I tried to swallow whatever was in my mouth.

The moment my brain started coming to understanding our current scenario, the voice boomed through the speakers.

"I-039, take his life."

Words I couldn't apprehend echoed through my eardrums, akin to the words of a customer telling the butcher to kill the game he bought, lacking empathy as it jolted my brain to an abrupt realization.

I stood, rooted to the floor, as I looked at the man's face once more, beaten to a pulp that his features wasn't even recognizable. There was no sharp cut on his visible body that I could find, meaning the bruises and tears on his skin was done by blunt force to maximize the pain.

*Sobbing*

I was brought out of my thoughts by the sound of the man's sob as his dried tears started overflowing once more.

Every hic, every teardrop, every choke grating on my heart as I found myself tearing at the sight before me.

What else? What else would they make me do? 

At that thought I was tempted to just let it all out at the guard who brought me in, standing alone by the door.

The thought blazed through me igniting every nerve in my body as they screamed in accordance against this inhumane act. Heeding their cries I turned to the guard as I…

-"Mr. St. Cross, from what I've heard, you've been refusing our offer… And while it is admirable and mildly amusing, it seems you were under the impression that you had a choice. While you would have spent the remains of your miserable life living as a mediocre amongst countless others, with us you actually have the chance to stand for something greater than yourself. So believe me when I say that even if it takes us breaking every single appendage in your body, you WILL fold. Am I understood?"-

I froze as I remembered what that man told me when I first arrived, before the training and the experiments started. I wanted to repudiate any feeling of compliance I had, but my body froze on its own.

My body turned back to face the man as I screamed in my head, commanding control, but it refused to budge as it stared at the man with dried tears in its eyes.

I didn't know how long we exchanged gazes, but I couldn't get back in control of my body, while the man looked on with resignation in his eyes as his spasm stopped and his muscles relaxed.

As both our eyes met each other in a silent conversation, I went forward, towards him, as I picked a knife sitting alongside a gun atop a table by the side not knowing why I went for that choice.

As I walked towards him, I couldn't help but notice the fact that my mind was calm… Too calm in fact that everything seemed to fall into place in a swift synchrony.

Reaching the man, we exchanged a last gaze as I brought up the knife to his throat, and in a swift motion, slid it across.

Blood splattered out onto my face as I held his dying gaze, coming to a realization that I was stuck in here. No matter what I did or how hard I trained, I was still stuck here, in their hands – Hydra.

My brain processed everything slowly, every drip of blood burned into my memory, the fading light of life in his eyes forever dyed in my brain.

"Congratulations. Draugr!"

"Hail Hydra!"

"Hail Hydra!"

I heard words in the background but I couldn't make out what they were saying as I burned the dying visage of the man I killed to memory.

I didn't care if he was a heinous criminal or the most humblest of humans… No I didn't care.

But for the fact of what they made me do, Hydra would burn.

I was in a world where mortals could kill gods with nothing more than a gene or a couple of stones.

This was my first vow ever made in both lives, that I staked my life on… And it would be the last.

No more…

After that day, both my training and experiment time changed. My training was kicked up two notches with firearms and weapons mastery added to it, while the experiments was no longer frequent.

If it were before, I would be ecstatic but now, I couldn't find it in myself to care.

The days were no longer stale, they were filled with activities but I couldn't help but feel colder. Every bullet I fired while improving my aim, every swing of the daggers in my hands complimented this feeling, leading to the obvious conclusion: I took a life.

No matter how I tried to view it as necessary for my survival, the fact remains that I still took a life, and the way it seemed, it wouldn't be my last.

These thoughts ran through my head as I rolled to the floor to avoid the marker lights from the moving wooden targets, as I aimed my sights and with a simple flex of a finger, bang, straight to the head, without a pause, ignoring the recoil, I refocused on the two targets – one up a flight of stairs and the other beside my downed target, as I fired in quick succession taking them both down.

The cold steel in my hand, as I ran towards the next checkpoint, complimented my feelings in a sick way.

The monochromic image from my eyes that was transmitted to my brain was the perfect match for the frigid feeling I felt. Black, white and cold, was all I saw and felt these past few days.

I'm sure even the expression on my face complimented what I was feeling. Ever since that day, the memories of that man's lifeless eyes flashed through my mind every time I took a shot or swung a blade, not haunting me… No. It was more like a reminder of the promise I made.

Except for my changed routine, not much changed about me. No that wasn't right, something did change.

My mind.

I couldn't tell before, but a few days after the event, I realized what changed.

I was becoming frigid and monochromic.

The moment I realized that, all the trauma and gut wrenching feeling came crashing down on me like a torrential wave.

Somehow my mind had acted on its own and kept the trauma and whatever feelings I had – negative or positive, repressed. It prevented me from having a mental breakdown at that moment and stopped any kind of trauma I would have experienced from affecting me, putting me in a monochromic world of black and white.

The moment I realized this, the colors came back as I threw out whatever food I've eaten for the past few days from my stomach.

I realized what I'd being doing for the past few days as I trained under the Hydra instructors' command like a doll. An unfeeling machine.

My stomach retched as I remembered how I acted and followed their every command, coming to the realization that if they'd ordered me to kill someone else, I would've without any qualms.

My gut clenched as I shivered all the way to my toes at the implication of what that implied – I lost my free will.

My breathe seized at that thought as I shuddered at the phantom coldness that washed through me.

That night I couldn't think straight as I dreaded what that meant and how I would cope with the next day.

The next night came when I returned to my cell and left whatever that trance I was in. The memories came back alongside the sickening feeling inside me as I tried to understand what it was.

Thinking through the night didn't bear me any fruit as I let myself sleep with lesser caution to waking up once more in that state.

The next day was however different, I could feel my consciousness even when I was in that trance-like state but my feelings and emotions were dull. It was weird that I could tell that this wasn't truly me as I underwent my training without any fanfare. With a slight consciousness, I was able to take in whatever I did rather than act autonomous. I did act autonomous but my mind could finally experience it in real time rather than a clear memory.

I was expecting to feel disgust or at least apprehension when I held the gun but was surprised when I didn't feel anything. The experience was both trippy and confusing.

Knowing how you were supposed to do or feel something in a specific scenario while watching your body act in its own while watching from a back seat was a… Unique experience.

I still had full control over my body, but there was now a autonomous path it could follow on its own with my full intellect with absolute precision.

It was just like programming a machine, and it was.

Programming.

That was it.

I was able to figure it out that night after I willed my main-consciousness back to the wheels. The reason why my body operated on its own was because it was programmed to.

By who? My subconscious.

In other to deal with the trauma of taking a life, my subconscious acted on its own and when my mental defense was down, it took over fully and laid out the instructions to follow it believed would be optimal to go through my trauma. The days I spent without my active consciousness were all part of its guidelines.

I was able to know all this because it was what 'I' did.

After that understanding, I was able to slip back into that trance after a few hours of trying. Once I got in and knew how it felt, I was able to get in easier albeit after almost ten minutes.

I was not programmer in my previous life but I knew what programming meant. A series of pre-ordained courses or pathways followed strictly towards a certain objective.

With this I was able to understand my brain more to a new degree.

I tried giving my brain, or more importantly my subconscious, a few tasks to solve like how to create an atomic bomb from scratch and how to create a light saber in prison… And came up blank, which in hindsight was obvious, since I didn't know or haven't learned how to do those things as my subconscious was still my subconscious and since I didn't know those things, there was no way for my subconscious to run a precise task without the knowledge.

If I had known this would happen I would have searched these kind of videos on YouTube in my previous life – that website had all kinds of knowledge you never knew existed. From simple life hacks to shit that don't make sense like 'how to die in two minutes and gain foresight'.

Since I confirmed that in order for my subconscious to run a precise objective, the knowledge or at least the essence of it was needed, I moved on towards something feasible that would let me test its precision.

I started with math formulas I remembered and gave myself some assessment.

It wasn't even up to five seconds after I started that a random answer popped up in my head. Writing down the answer, I solved the question mentally and manually for three minutes before I arrived at the same answer.

Taking a deep breathe and forcing down any bubbling excitement, I amped up the equations to what I could remember from my previous lives and thought up four different advanced math questions and two from advanced mechanics and began solving. It wasn't more than five seconds that six different answers came to my head but I waved them aside and started solving... Which turned out to be a bad idea as I spent over an hour on those questions, not to mention the two answers I got for the mechanics were wrong from what I felt.

I knew my brain was getting smarter but not this smart. With the scientists, I gained an understanding of what they were talking about, a miniscule part however, but that was more akin to knowledge and understanding rather than advanced calculations.

It was like taking super memory and merging it with an advanced calculator. It was exciting if I was being honest.

After a few calculations and trying to remember shit from my history classes which I now remembered, I gave the last test to my brain to cinch this discovery.

It was both precise calculations and obscure memory.

I ordered my brain to wake me up tomorrow, an hour before I woke up today.

With that I laid on the wood I came to acknowledge as my bed and cleared my mind, which was already clearer than it ever was, and left my self to the creeping slumber.

…

I woke up the next morning not knowing where the time was since there was no clock inside my cell and wondered if what I did last night before my sleep would work.

While I didn't know the time I woke up yesterday, when I did there was already my portion of food at the gates of my cell, but today there wasn't. That alone wasn't enough for me to tell if it worked, but I knew that after 45 minutes of when the food was delivered was when I started my routines. It has been like that since the days of Olav.

Speaking of Olav, I haven't met him ever since then. Not that I minded.

So I waited for quite a while before I saw the guard bringing my food and made another command for me to remember or be alerted 45 minutes from now with an estimation error of 5 more minutes.

The guard drop my food without even a word to me, which I appreciated, and turned back to leave as I took the somewhat large measure of food they gave me and wolfed it down. After that I waited, contemplating how I would remember if it was time.

I sat there for a while and let my thoughts wander through what I've experienced since I was brought here; the beating, the threats, the bed, Olav(he was an experience of his own), the training, the growth, the tortures, the experiments, the death.

I cried during all of those experiences except the last one. I shed a few tears but I didn't cry. More like I couldn't.

Looking back at it now, was that also my subconscious' doing? I still remembered how I slit his throat in an unnerving calm that day as I watched the light of life slowly leaving his eyes. Remembering it now, it must have being my subconscious influencing me as soon as the order was given.

It was what stopped me from protesting as I knew they wouldn't listen – a useless endeavor.

It stopped me from rushing the guard positioned at the door – a reckless action.

It was also what stopped me from mentally breaking down – an optimal solution.

It kept my main consciousness at bay since it was already traumatized and devised a way to let those emotions filter out while at the same time acting to prolong our lives.

It truly saved me these past me days… Or rather I saved me these past few days.

God it was so confusing-

Now.

The moment that abrupt thought came to my head, I looked towards the hallway and held my gaze there as I waited.

The estimated five minutes began as I waited to see if this was a limit to my brains' calculating prowess. I counted over a minute before the the faint steps of my guard came to my ears and his visage appeared in my sights and I couldn't resist the small upwards tugging at the side of my lips.

Seeing my little experiment bear excellent results, I was ecstatic. I wonder if this was how Dr. Ernst and those other scientists felt when they made a discovery with my body parts… And that is a thought I want to forget.

Before he came to up to my gates, I willed myself into the trance as my blank expression returned and any emotional tell disappeared from my form.

Different from the other times during the trance, this time I was fully aware of everything but with my emotional quotient lowered. I felt I could tweak it however I wanted but I just left all of them lowered, giving me the perfect blank look.

I followed the guard to the training grounds. When we got there, I was lead to the gym for a warmup before I left for the firing range.

My physique currently was definitely buff. Not a lean swimmers and definitely not a bodybuilding enthusiast. I had a very super soldier-risqué physique on me and it looked good.

After a brief workout, I left for the firing range as I tested different guns, getting an over 80% accuracy.

This was what I was waiting for, firearms mastery. It was something I needed, since I had a feeling Hydra would be sending me out to the fields to do whatever dirty work they wanted done.

I focused on the moving targets, my brain running at whatever capacity it had, calculating the most optimal time and movement needed to bring down my targets.

I missed some however, making me understand that my body sometimes lag in response to my brain which was somehow understandable. But this was inconsequential as I recently started working in sync with it.

All I needed to time, time to grow.

Time to get stronger.

Time to adapt.

CHAPTER 08

Bang! Bang! Bang!

With three consecutive shots, the crashing sounds of wood against the ground resounded in the now quiet training ground as smoke and the faint scent of gun powder wafted through the air.

Only the soft heaving sound of a man could be heard for those with acute auditory senses.

The man walked back to the door of the training ground he was in with a gun hanging down his hands, with another at his back and one strapped to his sides.

He was dressed in an all-black military combat gear, matched with black boots, sporting heavy muscle mass depicting intense training and a clean-cut beard with a low-cut. He had a stern image that made it hard for people to feel comfortable around him which alighted to his cold eyes and rigid demeanor.

He walked out of the room without looking at any of the guards or saying anything. He only stopped to give his weapons and walked away not even sparing the spooked guard another glance.

With the way he was sweating, it could be seen that this training took a lot out of him, making the guards giving him a wild berth… Or maybe it was the blood covering his entire get-up.

Unlike other types of training, this one was way different because of two reasons.

The time and the nature of the training.

Three hours.

Three hours of constant gun-fire and acute focus under return fire.

With real guns, recalibrated motion sensors and moving targets.

Three hours.

32 bullet wounds.

150 moving targets.

1.5x motion sensors with 2.5x reflex time.

This was the hardest training he's ever done. He was glad they weren't programmed for headshots, although he didn't show it.

30 targets with AP rounds. Now those were a bitch to dodge. They were the cause of most of his wounds since he just couldn't hide from them and had to always be on motion and take them out first before he could focus on the others.

This wasn't a normal training because of it nature. It was also a form of graduation to showcase his skills to whoever was watching.

A test of might in order for allow him into the world.

He was their perfect weapon, surpassing even the Winter Soldier in everything else except strength and speed.

What he lacked in those areas, he made up for precision and deadliness… Or undeadliness.

With him they would once again enter into the stage of world power with the perfect army, taking it by surprise.

What mutants? How many could boast of true nuclear abilities. They were fearsome yes, but that percentage was in the 0.001 percentile of their more lesser population.

Ever since their momentary defeat at the hands of that 'Man', a shameful point of their past, they retreated back into the dredges of the Earth as they were hunted down relentlessly by the Allied Nations.

While they recovered from their wounds, growing more stronger like from the myth, the ignorant world celebrated a false victory.

Foolish enough they were to even believe that they were killed off, that travesty alone was proof that they alone were fit to rule.

They alone could never be killed, cut off a head and two more shall grow in its place. More ferocious. More cunning.

They learned from their setback.

Instead of attacking from the front, exposing themselves to the world, they did the opposite. Slowly, they infiltrated into the heart of their once enemies over time, bidding it and waiting for the call to strike. But not now.

This time they won't leave anything to chance, a thorough takeover; the military, the government, the civils, everything would be theirs soon.

And now, they have got the perfect soldier – The Draugr. A nigh-undying warrior. Even if he could still be killed, his potential was matchless, and he was still growing.

His strength and speed was lower than that of their Ultimate Soldier, The Winter Soldier, even his fighting skills was below that of the Winter Soldier but what made him more dangerous was his precision, accuracy and his ability to heal from even the most lethal of wounds bar sure-kill ones like to the brain and the heart.

Even critical wounds to the heart could be healed, as long he had breathe and it didn't outright completely destroy his heart.

All in due time.

Patience was a virtue of the victor, and they had a lot of it for they had long been patient.

…

[ELSEWHERE]

In a dark room, faces alighted on screens could be seen. Each with a file in front of them as the perused the data in it.

"You think he's ready?" One of the faces asked, referring to no one in particular.

"Yes. The tests were all passed spectacularly. All in record time I might add." Another replied. A familiar face.

"So it would seem. What of his faculties? Any relapses like the other?" Asked a female voice this time.

"No one so far. I think we have his ability to thank for that. Ever since he committed the act, I think his mental defenses fell, possibly due to trauma. It isn't that rare with new subjects who are subjected to their first kill." Answered a man this time. He was dressed in a doctor's coat with wrinkly features, seemingly the oldest out of them.

"So he was subjected to conditioning during that moment?" Came an inquiry from another man with an Eastern accent.

"Yes. He first fought against it, but due to regular procession, his brain adapted to it. Quite an irony it was." The doctor reply with a low chuckle.

"What of his response time? Any sign of self control?" Another question followed immediately after. This one however elicited a moment of silence.

"His response is… Mechanical, for lack of a more apt word." Replied the doctor with a smidge of uncertainty in his voice, but it was pick on by the others in the conference.

"You don't sound too sure. Need I remind you that this operation was approved on the grounds of assurance. So do tell us the problem." Questioned a man with a clear American accent this time, sounding not too pleased, something that was shared by the other members.

With that query, the other faces lined a focus on the doctor's screen.

Despite being under scrutiny, the doctor remained unfazed as he answered them. "I said mechanical because his behavior follows an almost systematic pattern." He said.

Seeing as they still didn't understand, he clarified.

"We had the mutant who found him-"

"The girl who can read frequencies?"

Taking a short pause at the interruption, he leveled an annoyed glare at his interjector and continued.

"Yes the girl who can read frequencies. We had her read his frequency when he was inactive and she found out that his frequency was almost 'mechanical' in nature, meaning that all his actions were systematical, aligned. Almost pre-ordained." He explained.

"So… What does that mean exactly?" Came the all too prompt question.

This time with a more laid back stare and a more unimpressed look, he answered with a deep sigh.

"It means-", he looked at them one more and strung out the words, "-that he's acting basely on instincts. But different from instinct, he responds intelligently to stimuli. She said his brain waves were constantly active, every time, but that they were somehow dulled, and it was with this dull state that he responds to stimuli." He finished and looked at the others with the same look he had since the starting of the meeting.

"So he's not braindead like the Winter Soldier. Won't this be a problem? What happens when something jolts these dull brainwaves then?" Asked the female member this time.

"Thanks for the trauma he suffered, we were able to weld our authority with his active brainwaves when they were in disarray, so while he can respond with low brainwaves, our 'orders' are what triggers his active brainwaves. Of which we have two members who can order him directly among us." He finished with a tone of finality.

"So we have nothing to worry about then." One of them asked, but making it sound like a statement.

The doctor, to this didn't even deign a reply as he continued staring with an impassive gaze that spoke 'try me'.

Seeing as no answer was forthcoming, the questioner relaxed back in his seat as the virtual room fell into silence.

"Do we put him in a strike unit, or make him go solo? Personally I suggest we give him a team to see how he works with others, if he will defer to a referred authority or otherwise."

With that suggestion, everyone present gained a serious and pensive expression, displaying the gravity of the suggestion.

This was a soldier with immense value, one with vast potential since the advent of the War Hero. This required heavy thinking on it, comparing the risk to the turnout, weighing the gain to the loss.

"I suggest we put him in a unit of some of our best tactical soldiers to review his ability to defer to others and also his ability to lead. If he could perform automatically on his own and if he can make decisions that align with his goal." The man with the Eastern accent presented his opinions as the conference once again became silence in thoughts.

"With the world still in a state of panic and vigilance due to the attack last year, this is our best chance to eliminate some our high ranking targets as it'll give us the perfect cover. Sending him in with a strike team will be more sufficient." The lady reasoned.

"I support this idea. Making him go solo will depend on the result of his tasks." Another supported.

They waited a while for any opposition, or any other suggestion. Seeing no other reviews, the man with the clear American accent spoke.

"Since there are no other given opinions, the Draugr will be sorted into a temporary team of some of our best strikers where his work autonomy will be tested. This meeting is adjourned." Came the voice of finality.

"Hail Hydra!"

"Hail Hydra!"

"Hail Hydra!"

Like that, the room of screens once again went dark as all the users went offline, no doubt to peruse their given files to see what kind of benefits they could glean from it.

A coalition of some of the worlds reputable figures, gathered together with a grand plan while the world continues with its ignorance.

If the world were to know of such a gathering, another war will wreck the planet like that never before witnessed.

Ignorance truly was bliss.

…

[Draul St. Cross POV] 

These past few months were quite eventful. Not in events but in experience.

I don't even remember how long I've I been here. I stopped counting after the 10th month.

…

…

13 months, six days.

*Sigh* If there was a downside to having a super memory, it was doing a double-take at whatever you say.

Your brain picks up on any discrepancies as long as there is an intent, and forwards an acute suggestion.

I've been trying for a while now to get my subconscious bemy… subconscious and I've had a little progress.

It wasn't always like this. I used to be able to control my main consciousness and had a certain degree over my subconscious, able to switch between them at will and able to suppress either to any levels but things started getting out of hand when Hydra started their brainwashing.

Normally, from what I'd gathered due to my little experiments with my brain, I should have being able to cancel their influence on my brain with either an already given order or a full overwrite targeted at their command.

It worked for a while, with me deleting every instruction implanted inside my brain, but then it started getting harder to delete or overwrite their commands and that got me brainstorming whatever 'Mind over matter' exercise and meditation guide I could recall.

Meditation was said to help make a more stable connection with the subconscious and that's what I did.

As someone who already had a direct link to his subconscious, meditation really proved helpful. With it I was able to do something similar to what Hydra did, but on a lower scale

Due to constant brainwashing, I found out that my brain was adapting the brainwashing signals… not adapting to.

While it still provided me resistance to the brainwashing, the constant act of it was wearing said resistance down making it register easier with my brainwaves.

With regular meditation, I was able to feel clearly the implanted orders and that was when I came up with an idea that I immediately implemented.

There was no program that couldn't be infected with a virus, rather the program was more sophisticated that the virus couldn't infect it.

Applying the same logic to my brain, I figured that my mental defense was lacking in sophistication, making their tampering stick no matter how many times I overwrote it.

Hydra's method of implanting suggestions was a series of direct attack after numerous probing. Simple.

So since erasing their suggestions was no longer feasible in the long run, I did the most dangerous thing I've ever done to myself – a full mental shutdown.

Like the age-old custom of rebooting your computer once it starts misbehaving or lagging, I attempted the same with the human body's most delicate organ – the brain… My brain.

With the mental shutdown, my body immediately fell asleep as my brain activity ran on intense Theta waves.

I didn't know what I was expecting in my inner mind, or whatever it was, to look like, accepting of everything I would find there. But this wasn't even in any realm of possible expectations.

Nothing.

It wasn't darkness.

It wasn't light.

It was just nothing

For some reason I couldn't even get an image of where I was. It was like that state of transition between dreaming and waking up – the part where we can't recall how the dream started or what was in between. The blank memory.

For some reason I couldn't remember what I was seeing at moment time, or if I was even seeing something.

It was like that saying that 3-dimensional beings couldn't comprehend or experience 4-dimensional aspects, but they can be felt.

So with whatever visual I had rendered void, I started with the reckless plan I came up with, based on nothingness but my conjectures.

It was all or out.

I couldn't tell how long I wandered inside this state of nothingness because my internal clock wasn't working at all.

My perception of time was warped to the point that ten seconds felt way too long. I once tried counting up to ten seconds but had to stop at three because somehow it took way too long to get to the next number, with the time intervals increasing at every second I counted.

After that absolutely confusing experience, I once again tried counting the numbers and this time it didn't even take more than a few seconds before I found myself counting over 6 thousand.

With that experience, I stopped trying to perceive the passing time with my mental clock.

I then tried to feel anything, my subconscious, since my sight and perception was gone.

With the basic meditation method of breathing in and out, and I'm absolutely sure I can't breathe, I emulated the feeling as I tried to open whatever signal I could find.

Like that, I continued and persisted in that state of pseudo-existence as I tried to remember the familiar feeling of my subconscious.

After an unknown amount of trying to connect with something, anything, I felt a feedback.

Instantly concentrating on the feedback I felt, I tried reaching out to it in anyway I could, either by sensing it, commanding it or trying to seek it, I tried whatever I could but none worked.

Trying with the same approach again, I came up empty. So since that didn't work, I just stopped everything I was doing.

I didn't try to reach out to it, I didn't try to feel for it nor did I think about it.

The moment I seized all my actions, I was hit with a bigger feedback than the previous one but I stopped myself from doing anything.

The more I waited, the more feedbacks I received and with the more feedbacks I received, the more I started feeling something familiar but the feeling was still minute.

So with that I waited, silently receiving all the feedbacks as the familiar feeling became more and more pronounced. It became more pronounced to the point that I was tempted to reach out to it but I held myself back since by now the feedbacks were erratic, building up for something.

All of this was an entirely new experience for me. The brainwaves feedback, my pseudo-existent state, my expanding senses. Everything was novel.

The more I waited, the more the feedbacks increased exponentially that I didn't even noticed when I started sending out my own feedback in tandem to the incoming ones.

Letting myself drown in both wavelengths, I succumbed to both energies and the moment I did everything stopped.

The moment it stopped, I was brought back to focus.

While I still couldn't understand where I was, I knew something was different. Taking a deep breath, slowly, I tried reaching for the nonexistent wavelengths by trying to feel them out and the moment I did, I was left flabbergasted.

A cascade of flashing colors.

While I still couldn't see, somehow I was able to tell what happened by actually feeling it. To verify my thoughts, I reached once again for it and once more my mind was filled with the colors.

Seeing that I could now reach for the wavelengths without them retreating, I tried reaching for my subconscious and the moment I felt it, a wave of nausea hit me and before I could re-orientate myself I was pulled somewhere.

Somewhere deep from what I felt and given that I couldn't see or understand anything here and drawing a blank, the pull felt more terrifying as panic started settling in.

In a moment that felt indefinite, the pull dragged me somewhere as I came to an abrupt stop. The place I was dragged to was different than where I formerly was. It felt deep, intense and heavy.

Fearing for any other unwanted mishap, I didn't try to feel wherever I was. I just stood still for quite a while waiting for any other event to pass by, but after some time nothing else happened except for the heavy atmosphere of wherever my current location was.

Seeing nothing happening, I tossed aside my fears and since I was here for a reason and also not being able to tell how much time had passed since my immersion, I braced myself tried to focus on the reason that brought me here.

Spreading my new senses out little by little, I started feeling the space around me as the intense sensation I kept feeling washed all over me. Feeling no reactions, the ones I could feel anyway, from the surrounding area, I probed further trying to get at least an image or understanding of where I was and what was happening.

The things I felt in here was different from what I felt outside. First of all, the colors were a little dull and erratic compared to the ones I felt before coming here.

Secondly, despite the somewhat tense presence, this place felt like it melded with me somehow, like how right taking a swim inside a pool on a hot day felt. Despite the temperature of the water, it was always comforting – that was how I felt here.

Taking a step further, I felt deeper into where I was while also watching how the colors reacted to my probing. The more I felt, the more the colors reacted strangely to me, as if correcting me and outlining how to feel it more accurately. Since it showed me how to feel it better and allowed to me to continue my probing, I pushed in deeper as the colors painted me an efficient path to take.

Following the colors, I felt in deeper and deeper until I sensed something that felt for lack of a more apt word, centralized.

The moment my senses brushed against whatever that thing was, I recognized what it was.

My subconscious.

It just stayed there while sending out its dull colors.

The moment I knew what and where I was, most of my apprehension dissolved and immediately the colors became less erratic as if responding to my mental state.

Reaching my subconscious and wanting to feel what it was like if I went deeper, the moment I tried to probe inside the centralized consciousness my perspective changed immediately, as if I was back in the drivers seat while all this time I had been sitting in the backseat expecting the car to move.

The moment I connected with my subconscious, I gained an understanding of all what I've felt.

First was what I was.

With the connection to my subconscious, I was able to identify myself as something resembling a bunch of active frequencies meshed together, which was what allowed me come in contact with those lights and also knew what those lights meant.

They were my brainwaves. I felt them as they traveled through multitudes of nerve-like branches, illuminating it in a cacophony of hues reminiscent of that of an aurora.

And the moment I knew that, I knew how to go about with my homework.

The brainwaves were the keys, both figuratively and literally.

Akin to a computer system with a programming application already set up, my subconscious functioned as an already written biological natural program – a base so to speak, while the brainwaves were the figurative keys to both inputting and improving upon existing commands while my main consciousness was the programmer giving tasks to my subconscious with preset guidelines.

While this utility of consciousness was amazing, it was also terrifying. While my subconscious mind was a force to reckon with, presumably surpassing the limits of a humans and vast majority of its mutant counterpart, it was also very vulnerable, especially to me.

I wasn't a practitioner of the Neural study branch of science, so attempting to experiment on my brain, and most importantly my subconscious mind, was a foolhardy choice but was also the only avenue exploitable by me. It was a choice I had to make regardless, either that or allowing Hydra to fully dominate my mind thanks to my lacking mental defense.

The risks didn't end there either.

Because of my lacking degree of expertise in Neuroscience, which also translates to nothing, I had to first try and understand as much as possible about my brain giving that I would be using only five types of brainwaves to practically rewrite myself.

And also because of the lack of any kind of reference, I had to take immense care in order not to erase a part of myself emotionally wise and also not to render any part of my body invalid.

There was a lot riding on this crazy endeavor that even the possibility of failure was highly disastrous mostly to myself since not only could I personally destroy my own biological neural code, erasing what essentially made me me, but also the fact that I would then be Hydra's perfect puppet or worst go on a rampage due to me, quite possibly, erasing an aspect function of rationality from my brain.

I had to learn. Not the science of it, I couldn't anyway, but the common function of the waves and how they react to commands and interpret them before sending the information of it down the nerves.

This was an undertaking I ventured into even when knowing the minor possibility of success.

The stakes were very high with me betting all my chips while my opponents weren't even aware of our little game of domination. But even that didn't instill me with the amount of confidence I required.

In the face of these overwhelming odds, I was somewhat thankful to Dr. Ernst and his ragtag bunch of morally deranged scientists that I was able to at least learn the different types of brainwaves and also a substantial knowledge of the parts of the brain and their functions.

Time to start.

First of all, the frontal lobes; governing personality and decision making, making it the perfect base to start from.

The moment I decided on a course of action, intense gamma waves flashed out, flowing through the centralized consciousness. Since I was already here, might as well grit my teeth and go through with it.

Probing the gamma waves and familiarizing myself with its feel, I attempted reaching out to it as it continued flashing through the mental field. I tried yanking it with my senses, but it just passed through unfazed. This repeated countless times before I gave up and tried connecting to the other brainwaves to test my control over them but the gamma activity kept disrupting the connection.

Seeing as how I couldn't get to the other brainwaves without first gaining control of the gamma waves, I relented in my attempt at it.

Digging whatever I could from my memories, gamma waves were the fastest and were also connected with higher levels of consciousness.

Which in other words meant that whatever I wanted to do with my subconscious mind, gamma waves were a must if not, any improvement on my mind will lack the deeper connection to my high level subconscious theoretically resulting in an asynchrony between the nerves and what ever organ it was connected with, resulting in lag and ultimately organ failure, which gave me an idea.

Feeling the gamma waves once more and observing its excited movements, I decided to do the very thing they did to bring me here – making a pathway for the waves to follow.

Focusing all my attention on the erratic wave, I gave it a light probe to get a reaction from it and then focused on making a path leading halfway to the frontal lobes which was a part of the cerebrum which controls, initiate and coordinate movements and temperature.

Other parts of the cerebrum enabled judgment and critical thinking, emotions, rational thinking and also partially extends to the five major sense organs of the human body which overall made it the most difficult part of this operation and the most important.

Aligning my thoughts together, I focused once more on the troublesome wave as I directed the pathway I had made together with my probe and waited for the neural fish to take the bait.

I watched as the gamma waves increased once more in activity as I gave it another light probe along with the pathway before it started moving through the I pathway created but breaking out of it almost immediately.

Suppressing my budding frustration, I created another pathway while this time focusing hard on it to make sure it didn't break like before but it still proved useless, because while it was strong, it lacked fluidity unlike the pathway they made for me to my subconscious.

Seeing the flashes of gamma waves bouncing out of my pathway, I came to the understanding that using a dominant approach against what was clearly the most dominant amongst all other brainwaves was no different from two bulls clashing. They was bound to be rebellion and mutual damage.

Arriving at that conclusion, I went for a softer approach, making the pathway as large as I could handle without losing the essential control and waited as the intense wave kept flashing across my senses.

Paying the rapidly moving erratic wave no mind, I kept light-probing it but this time without my pathway.

I continued doing it till it began moving towards the pathway on its own. Even with it inching ever closer to the pathway, I paid it less mind. The pathway was already fixed to the destination I wanted it at so there was no need to expend any more energy apart from what I was using to maintain it.

I watched as it danced around the pathway, increasing ever so rapidly in its movement and intensity and then, in a short burst of hues, it flashed along the pathway as it arrived at the destination I marked.

Watching the troublesome wave finally held in a position, I turned my senses towards the other waves and noticed how they all had different intensity from the others. The feelings they gave were unique, each to their own.

With the gamma waves taken care of, I focused on the remaining ones; the beta, alpha, theta and delta waves.

Oh help me Lord!

CHAPTER 09

I underestimated these brainwaves severely. Something I realized too late.

In my defense, it wasn't really my fault as my understanding of the brain works was next to null before this. While I knew the identities and functions of them, I forgot to account for how they influenced each other.

After I got the gamma waves, the next wave I could feel was likely the delta waves, and that was where it started getting more difficult.

While gamma waves dealt with elevated consciousness, delta waves were produced during deep sleep or meditation. Normally these two waves could complement each other but unfortunately, I was the one controlling the waves manually. Meaning I had to find their matching frequencies.

What made it all the more harder was that I couldn't direct multiple waves at once. The gamma waves on its own was almost impossible to control.

The waves were all erratic, exponentially increasing their difficulty in control.

No matter how I tried, I just wasn't able to direct more than two brainwaves at any given moment. The more I tried, the more I became frustrated, and the more I became frustrated, the more I entertained the idea of giving up.

And I did.

Clearly, this method wasn't working and I'll have to find another way.

Cutting off the pathway I created, I tried feeling for anything else. Anything that would provide an alternative.

I spread out my senses, not knowing what I was looking for, as I continued to search.

…

Argh!

This time discrepancy was really messing with me full time. How long have I spent in here? This was a reoccurring thought that I always asked myself.

Personally, I don't think I've spent that long in here considering the usual blackouts I have. It was just the feeling I got from those times that constantly plagued me.

Sometimes I would go back to trying to connect the brainwaves, but like always, it just didn't work. It was during one of those times that I was made known to another glaring issue for concern – I couldn't wake up.

I wasn't able to figure this out on time mostly due to my inaccurate mental clock. When I found this out, I tried ejecting myself out but nothing happened.

I couldn't have known something like this was going to happen. But thinking about it now, it was a possibility.

The reason for this being my main consciousness was dragged down to subconscious level together with my subconscious mind. With me in the depths of my innermost mind, there was nothing to act as an anchor to pull me back up and coupled with the fact that I gave myself a full mental shutdown, there was no one to instruct my subconscious nor could it instruct itself since I basically suppressed its overall activity.

I truly didn't think this through because of my panic and desperation.

Right now my senses was always constantly active, becoming something of a second nature to me, giving me a background image of a tree of light spread far and wide.

I stopped moving around a while back, or was that some minutes ago? At this point, the novelty had long ran out leaving only annoyance.

I was contemplating what I would do next, since my main consciousness was always active, when I felt something.

Now, I've felt a lot things since my time here, ranging from brainwaves to dead frequencies and other behaviors of the waves, but this was different. Slightly different in fact that I would have missed it if I wasn't familiar with my brainwaves' behavioral pattern.

This however, was different. Almost foreign in nature even.

I watched as this new frequency moved towards my frontal lobe and started doing something that shocked me.

It started merging with my other brainwaves as they suddenly became erratic while it melded itself into the colored nerves that represented the part that controlled my thoughts and memories.

The moment I saw that, I knew something was going wrong, horribly so.

I moved at the fastest I could go, which considering I was an electrical impulse/frequency, arrived in an instant and saw how my brainwaves tried to fight it back but it melded ever so slowly with my subconscious.

Not liking what was happening, I acted immediately and launched myself at the invading frequency. It melding more with my subconscious was already bad and having my subconscious activity while at its lowest attacked, was the worst scenario possible.

Seeing as my brainwaves were slowing down its attack, although slightly, I attacked it from behind with all the force I could muster.

I tried to disrupt its frequency as much as I could by encompassing it with mine and bombarding it with a barrage of probes as it was the only way I knew how to influence anything here.

Thankfully, as it was a slowly infecting frequency, I was able to cover it in its entirety before I started with an attack of my own.

The frequency was easily destroyed between my minds defense and my attack after a while. During our little bout, I figured out where that frequency came from – Hydra. I was able to feel what was similar to my own subconscious mind every time I gave it a directive and considering it was them, they would no doubt be another.

Also, seeing how that frequency attacked gave me an idea I wanted to try implementing the next time it came. All I needed to do now was wait, but given where I am that could either be the next moment or a long treacherous wait.

Another thing that came to mind and was quite troubling was how I would have missed that frequency entirely if not for the level of familiarity I had from spending however long it was I spent here, which also meant that I had being ignorant of that frequency the entire time.

They had been past attacks on my subconscious during my whole time here, but since I wasn't able to sense the small differences, they had being successful. I noticed how my subconscious was only trying to defend semi-actively which meant it was adapting with the frequency and that didn't bode well with me at all.

This made it all the more crucial to do whatever I could, and since it was the only way I had a chance to wake myself up, it was doubly so.

So I waited.

…

The next attack was sooner than I expected, not that I was surprised.

This time, the moment I sensed the frequency, I intercepted it before it got to its target location since I wouldn't be able to do what I wanted as efficiently as I could if it did.

The moment I got inside its range, as if on reflex, it tried to latch onto me which I allowed.

Since I couldn't access my subconscious directly despite all of my efforts, I decided to try this. Watching the previous struggle between this frequency and my mental defense, I concluded that if not for my attacks, eventually this frequency would've won and found its way around my mind even if not whole, as my mental defense did destroy part of it.

With that train of thought, I came up with this not-so brilliant plan of mine which consisted of me implanting my main consciousness inside this frequency making it the ultimate shield or means of getting inside my subconscious. Simplified, I was hiking a free ride home.

I wonder when I started becoming this suicidal…. Right! It was when Hydra decided to do their yearly good deed and 'recruited' me. Looking back at it now, I really did change and a drastic one at that too. So much for wishing for a mundane life. Maybe after this whole Hydra arc I can finally have it.

Pushing these flag-raising thoughts out of my head, I focused on what could possibly be my most stupid or brilliant idea ever. This was the most riskiest endeavor I've ever engaged in, that the only thing that could come in close second was the act of me shutting down my mental faculties and jumping into it without so much as a thought of caution.

But then again, desperate times call for desperate methods. Which has been my MO as of late.

Concentrating on the malicious frequency engaging me in a literal silent war, I started to prepare myself for my figurative dive into the deep.

Obviously I wouldn't allow it to just swallow me as that would mean death to me, mentally, since the subconscious mind works on intent from the main conscious, if my mind was swallowed by it without any kind of protection then my real body will become nothing more than a blank body of flesh, which wouldn't do anyone anything good, well except Hydra of course, but no one cares about Hydra so that's that.

If my main consciousness getting eaten would mean the mental expiration of the individual named Draul, then my subconscious going through the same thing wouldn't just leave me brain-dead or vegetative, no. Depending on what part was damaged, like let's say the part that controls the reflex of breathing or maybe the one that regulates the motion of blood flow? An attack on the human subconscious mind almost always result in death. That's why brainwashing always happen after the main consciousness has been weakened since it acts as some sort of mental defense to the other and occurs on the subconscious because rather than an attack, it is more like reconstructing the biological thumbnail of a particular part of the psyche.

How do I know all this? Well considering I've spent God-knows how long staring at it, attacking it, releasing my frustrations on it, talking with it and being the only thing I could feel in wherever this place was, the recently awakened budget-nerd part of me in its irritating curiosity started probing the hell out of my mind, trying to learn as much as I could since it was only right I knew how things operated around these parts of the me(?).

Those probes were what helped me in knowing the dos and don'ts that applied to my mind. It was also how I knew what part of me was being attacked, and the dangers it proposed.

Knowing these things helped me a lot in learning how to utilize the present state I was in, like learning how to move between nerve points faster and also how the other brainwaves vibrated in response to my actions. It completely changed how I experienced this place.

It was also what gave me the inspiration for enacting the crazy plan that led me to the present.

Now, considering that we were both mass of data collected into electrostatic waves, like everything else, vibrating at specific frequencies, it was possible for either of us to influence the other, heavily depending on intensity, broadband range AND level or range of autonomy.

If it came down to which of us could influence the other, mine would win anytime but that wasn't what I am aiming for.

Heavily influencing its frequency would mean overwriting most of its with that of mine, letting it oscillate and reverberate to the vibrational frequency of my specific broadband which I think, theoretically, my subconscious reverberates with, thereby identifying it and obstructing its advancements deeper into it's central point.

Such an action was the correct choice, as two autonomous consciousness shouldn't exist in the same place. This was the reason why the only way for my subconscious to actively control my body was if I allowed it to and will my main consciousness to backseat. Having the two consciousness on the same mental plane would make their frequencies collide and also disrupt and confuse their respective feedbacks resulting in them not being able to transmit their respective neural signals along the nerves, causing the brain to collapse on itself.

Yeah it sounds terrifying, I know.

Am I still going to do it? Of course.

Am I behaving too impulsive? Probably.

Does knowing all this change anything? No!

As I felt the prickly sensation on my consciousness from the Hydra's frequency, I sent out my own probes to obstruct them.

While the minds offensive abilities might be nonexistent, its defensive abilities and their utilities were entirely different. With every understanding and level of consciousness we achieve, our mental ability and capacity are increased in folds.

Simply put, I condensed all my frequencies and bunched them all up without letting the vibrations go out. After I did that, I felt the most uncomfortable sensation I've ever felt before throughout my senses.

I wanted to stop everything I was doing just to relieve myself from this constricting feeling that made me feel as if my intake of air was restricted and I was only allowed to breathe again for a few seconds once I started asphyxiating.

It was only the fact that after I did a brief scan of my waves and found that nothing was wrong with me, and also the reminder of Hydra's brainwashing, that made me stifle any impulsive reaction I was about to release.

With that done, I stopped the probes I was sending out to it as a form of defense and let it consume me while I protected myself in its sea of wavelengths and immediately got to work. I was running on a limited time-frame and also the fact that I was in its home territory where I was constantly being attacked from all sides made my situation more disadvantageous and made me hurry as I searched for it nucleus or its core.

The core or its centralized point, was where all its autonomous directives were housed, just like my subconscious. And also like my subconscious, if I could get in, I would be able to overwrite its code with my directives.

So with every part of my senses running at full capacity, I traced back every wavelength and frequency, pushing my senses in deeper as I faced more obstacles the further I went it.

With my main consciousness being superior to whatever program or command this was, it didn't take me too long before I came face to face with a constantly changing formless conflagration of colors that sent out pulses with every motion it took.

Looking at what I assumed to be it save folder, I immediately sent out my probes directly into it as I felt its record of directives flashing around me. Without missing a bit, I started reconfiguring everything I didn't want, and since this was something I used to do with my subconscious, I found it fairly easy.

After a few changes… ok after a thorough overhaul of directives while at the same time enduring the massive phantom itch that needed a rough scratch, I directed my new… ship(?) towards my subconscious region.

The moment I collided with my sub mind, I saw close up how some parts of my pirated host disintegrated upon coming into contact with my subconscious minds mental defense, while some part melded with it. I pushed in harder against the defense as more parts disintegrated and melded while some parts went through.

Capitalizing on that weak spot, I pressed on harder as more parts went in while some disintegrated rapidly. Without caring for the lost parts, I forced on and after a few moments of a stalemate which I won, I was able to finally break through after losing almost 70% percent of my camouflage.

With my first successful act since my ill-ventured dive, I stopped moving as he took in a moment to appreciate the wonderful feeling of euphoria I was constantly being bathed in.

After regaining my bearings, this time with caution, I ordered my first anti-virus program to send out probes as I went through all the information it was constantly receiving.

The moment the feedbacks came to me, I froze as the image of what could only be called a clear night sky with lights flashing around filled my senses.

Each light, I presume, controlling every part of my body in perfect autonomy.

Some of the lights were familiar, probably those I probed countless times when I was bored, while some I just couldn't feel. They pulsated tides of waves but I couldn't even feel them as if they weren't there.

I tried once more to get a read on them and with the result coming out empty, I brushed them aside for now while I focused on the ones I could feel.

From everything I've experienced thus far, I was able to understand the value of what I've just accomplished and I wasn't going to waste it. I would leave no mental loopholes to be exploited.

I guess spring-cleaning came early.

[Dr. Ernst POV]

Things have been rather interesting with his favorite test subject as of lately. Just when he thought he was close to understanding the requirements to be met before his abilities experience a qualitative increase.

He just couldn't phantom what train of thoughts someone had to have to not be able to understand the impossibility of what his abilities represented.

Even when he tried explaining to them, a futile endeavor, about the intricacies of the subject's gene the first question they put forth was if they would be able to improve upon their super soldier serum with it.

If it wasn't for his high tolerance and level-headedness, he probably would have cursed at them for the imbecilic fools they were.

The ability to adapt was a broad subject that its theories could branch out infinitely. What the boy was showcasing was but a tip of the evolutional iceberg.

He looked at the report in his hands as he perused through it. First of all was the rate of his physical improvement which was seen to have slowed down quite considerably which he expected to happen at some point.

While his physical strength wasn't that high, it did fall within his scope of expectance albeit on the lower end but that was inconsequential.

No what he was glad about was his resistance to extreme temperatures which saw an increase of approximately 17% above his own estimates.

This discovery opened more avenues to tests to be carried out: why did his resistance to extreme temperatures experience a massive increase as opposed to his physical strength? Was he more adaptable to external stimulus rather than internal stimulus? How does his healing ability respond and evolves in respect to these changes?

The more the subject grew, the more the questions increased. The more the questions increased, the more discoveries he made. And he was always happy when such questions came forth.

It was with these constant questions that increased his understanding of the subject's gene. As it turns out, there was a limit to how the subject could grow and his recent decline in physical growth only confirmed it for him.

His regenerative ability was still increasing but that was just in rate of how long it took as averse to regenerating critical organs, so there was not much progress there either.

What did pique his interest mildly was how the subject learned how to fight that quickly. While it wasn't halfway up to the level of their top soldiers, it was still a massive improvement compared to what someone else would be able to learn in the same amount of time.

He suspected that the subject's brain itself was either reacting faster or it was getting smarter, that however opened up new possibilities. So with that in mind, he observed the subject and also read the report on his background.

As a 25 year old male, his information was nothing interesting, not that he doubt it would. As mundane as a humans life could get was how the subject lived, average in physical stature, graduated two years ago at the age of 23 with an all the more unimpressive second-class degree in Biology. While not much, he was able to learn a lot from this tidbit of information that helped narrowed his conjectures.

Considering that the mutant gene manifests itself during childhood or mostly during adolescence where both the brain and body experience a qualitative growth either randomly or due to high brain activity which could be caused by intense emotions, the fact that the subject was a decade past his mid-teens and also based on the fact that his academic records were subpar, it was more unlikely that his ability affected his IQ but it did affect his nerves and maybe the speed at which information travelled through it.

As much as it would have been most intriguing, it seemed that his abilities only affected his physical state as opposed to his mental state.

He looked once more at the information regarding the subject's recent physical evaluation training, nothing exceeding his estimations, as he recalled how the subject recent behavior.

Turns out letting him kill someone like that did more harm to his mental faculties than intended, but it worked in their favor all the less. He was surprised when the subject picked up the knife instead of the gun, well the cartridge was missing, but it still killed the amusement he would have had when the subject tried firing it only to find out that the gun was empty. Well you can't have them all.

Since that day the subject behaved rather out of it. He obeyed orders to the latter without so much as a hint of defiance which could be attributed to PTSD due to his recent action, but who was he to look a gift horse in the mouth. He immediately suggested that the subject undergo their mental conditioning therapy since this was the most opportuned time.

He did resist at first, the first few weeks at that, but as time went on he became acclimated to the treatment and responded positively with it. Maybe due to his trauma, the therapy had more positive results than any of their other patients which was another boon to them. Even he had to admit that this subject was the spitting image of an ideal soldier.

It has been over three months now since his first treatment and under heavy scrutiny he never once showed any signs of relapse.

When this was first reported, he was a little tense at first worried about whether this would affect the subject's response to data and basic intelligence. But after many intensive experiments and evaluations, he was glad that it wasn't so in the slightest but instead increased his ability to focus two-folds.

Without unnecessary emotions like panic, fear, desperation and uncertainty he was able to perform greater than ever, making him one of their most valuable assets.

All in all, this was his most interesting subject in recent years.

This brought him to another part of his research that wasn't as forthcoming.

Was is possible to extend part of his abilities, most likely his adaptability factor, to others? The most likely answer was yes.

This has been proven true for decades now but somehow his gene-code was different. Entirely different from the other mutant-gene codes he had observed, his was complicated.

Not in his structure, no. His gene structure was rather simple as compared to other mutants with rather powerful or complex abilities like those of the Omega classification with more complicated gene-code, his was rather simple.

It was how it worked that made it one of the most complex codes he'd ever seen. It was like wristwatch, simple with its structure and functions but it was its mechanisms that made it very delicate.

Still, none of this meant it couldn't be cracked. He had already made some progress with it but the results weren't substantial. He still couldn't figure out what caused him to be able to gain such resistance to physical stimuli. If he could figure this out, he would be able to replicate the gene in others even if to a lesser degree.

He put the report of the Draugr down as he picked another one up. This one however gave him a pensive look. The reason being it was a file that proposed the subject be sent into the world so that they could see how he acted on the field.

He could see how it was a perfectly reasonable proposition, but a part of him didn't want to be apart of his favorite test subject for too long but the sacrifices we make for the greater good…*sigh*

Well they had almost 2 months before he was sent out so that was a lot of time to unearth more questions and discoveries from the young man.

….

[Draul St. Cross POV]

Two things first:

1 - I'm never going back there.

2 - Never mess with your brain. Apparently the Walking Dead didn't stress that out enough.

The moment I woke up, finally, the vertigo that hit me had me tumbling in my bed for minutes as if I was falling from the sky. It was as if I drank a whole bottle of Irish ale after smoking weed.

After I landed from my fall, and quite literally at that, I saw myself in a different room. This one was an upgrade from the one I had before…. Hell it even had a bed… and PILLOWS.

What the hell happened when I was gone? Wait, how long was I even gone for?

I don't think Hydra would relocate me to a new room in few days, so quite some time had to have passed.

I looked around the room and couldn't help but be quite fascinated by it. It had light bulbs, two in fact and a fan. It even had a bathroom.

It was kinda small, but to me who had to lie on a piece of plank every day for the past year it looked like a presidential suite. No seriously, how many of Hydra's rooms could boast of a bed AND blankets? I was certainly moving up in the world.

Ending my sarcastic thoughts which were beginning to gain an outlook too dark for my tastes there, I tried to remember everything that happened to me for however long I was out and I started getting images.

The images came in sequences like a documentary and I had to lie on my bed for almost an hour for me to remember enough for me to piece together how long I was under.

6 months.

6 months of constant training and brainwashing before I could make it out.

I had no idea I took that long. I expected a few days and a week at most but not months. This further fueled my decision of not going back there.

All I can say is I was extremely lucky to get out. I'm not even sure if could even get in again… not any time soon anyway.

From the looks of it, I was going to be assigned a mission soon together with a team. At least this was progress as I would soon get out of this hell hole, even if I was been supervised.

As I laid on the bed, I tried to remember my time inside my head and the memory was… short. I mean, everything that happened to me there always pass in a flash every time I try to remember it as if it all happened in a single moment.

You know what, no more thoughts today. I'm very tired.

…

[2 days later]

Today was the day I was going on a mission and I was being lead to the team I was in. While I would have preferred to go solo, it wasn't my choice to make.

As I was led to the room that had 6 individuals in it – my team apparently, I couldn't help but wonder how long we would be out. I would give a penny for every second I spent outside this place.

I checked out the black-ops get-up we all wore and I had to admit that I really dug this outfit. Silently appreciating the outfit, I looked at the other occupants of this room. Apart from Dr. Ernst, I didn't know anybody here.

As soon as I finished looking at all of them, Dr. Ernst began.

"Agent Floch, I want you to meet the new member of your team, Mr. Cross, codenamed 'Draugr'."

"This him? For a myth he don't look much doc." The one named Floch spoke in a derisive tone, his displeasure all too clear.

"That may be true, but his value to the brass is higher than all of you combined."

"Tch." Seriously Dr. Ernst, is that anyway to promote team spirit? You just made me public enemy No. 1.

If it wasn't for my impassive state which now came natural to me even since my tangle inside my brain, I was sure the scowl that would have formed on my face would have shut Ernst's mouth.

I looked at Floch and nodded to him but the scowl on his face just deepened. Hey at least I tried.

"Good to see you are bonding already. Floch, the Draugr will be under your direct control." Ernst said as he looked at both me and Floch.

"Your mission is in Russia where you'll be briefed about your target." He ended.

"Why us though, can't the strike team in Russia handle this one?" Floch asked as the rest of us just listened.

"They lost a few members in their last mission and this target is high profile. That's all you'll get from me. You will all leave in thirty minutes." With that he picked up his files and left.

With that, the rest of the room focused on me.

"So robocop, what's your deal?" One of them with a tomahawk and looked Asian asked as he made his way around me.

Seeing as I had no reaction to his poor act of intimidation he just whistled as he came face to face with me.

"Looks like we got a tough one again. Hey boss, can I get the controls for this toy next time?... I think we can do… a whole lot of… plays" Another with a French accent cooed as he stripped me bare with his eyes.

Ok, first target acquired. I think he got the message from my stare as he let out an 'oops' while the others chuckled.

"OK people pack up. We've got 25 minutes and counting till take off. You can pick on Hercules here later."

Here's to hoping I don't blow my top and kill them before the target.