Chapter 7 - 7 - The Institute

"You are now known as Subject AM-003! Let me be the first to welcome you to the Institute!"

These words continued to echo inside Lucien's mind for days, as he went through a variety of experiments.

Almost five years have passed since that day when he was introduced to the demoness known as Doctor Frida Antschen. As the name suggests she wasn't born in the United States, but as he learned from her during the years, she had migrated from a relatively small city called Eisenstadt. Eisenstadt was a moderately sized city in Austria, a country situated in the middle of Europe.

She wasn't a noble by birth or the child of rich parents. She wasn't arrogant or wicked by nature. No. Her personality was shaped through the threads of fate.

When she was just a child, she was the witness of the supernatural. She saw it with her own eyes, as one of his classmates, during a hostage situation, spontaneously combusted, bursting into a brightly smoldering human torchlight and destroying the terrorists. To her the burning ember, the flaming human boy was beautiful. Seemingly the flames had no effect on his skin, nor on his body. He had complete control over its violent characteristics.

He could propel himself forward, crashing into the nearest terrorist, engulfing the brute with his flames. As the much taller, stronger adult man desperately cried, trying to quell the unquenchable blaze, the boy raised his hands towards the second masked terrorist.

Before the man could pull the trigger on his machine gun, another incredible sight happened that forever set the path Frida would walk from that day onwards. A circular shape made out of flames formed from his palm, creating a ball of fire, a little miniaturized version of the very Sun, the Star that spewed the warmth of life towards our planet. The little fireball rapidly grew in size, eventually reaching the size of a baseball before it detached from its human master and rocketed towards the second man, the armed terrorist.

Upon contact, a violent explosion erupted, releasing a powerful shockwave in the air, flinging the man like a lifeless doll back in the air. His death was swift and painless, from Frida's memories, he probably died upon impact.

During the experiments, Frida often mused to him, wondering what could have been that man's last scene to witness? Was it the approaching ball of fire? Or perhaps, the bright blinding light that ensued when the magical ball exploded? Did he feel any pain, or did he die a painless death?

Many questions were forever left unanswered. Many ideas she theorized during the course of years.

Unfortunately, or maybe luckily Frida never got to the end of her origin story. After that, she usually skipped a couple of years, when she doctored in Cellular and Molecular Biology, with a keen interest in surpassing our own limits.

She said that a visionary by the name of a particular Mr. Jacobson saw the potential in her and offered her a chance to visualize her dreams and ideas.

From then on, it was only a couple of weeks when she packed her belongings, left her hometown, and migrated to the good old U. S. of A.

During the years as Lucien was relentlessly tortured, experimented on with various chemicals, or when he was just being subjected to a wide variety of sources of pain she often sighed about her God, the wonderful Mr. Jacobson.

From her description, he was the perfect man. A visionary, a seer, a human with a miraculous mind. The hope for humanity. The guide towards the next step. There were many titles she gave him. It was clear that she was deeply infatuated with the person, the owner of this prison that they simply called 'The Institute'.

Lucien never really got to know the true reason behind waking up in this place. The only thing he was told after that fated first day was that he has supposedly caused something that caught the interest of Mr. Jacobson and was then carried here to be under the 'care' of this demoness.

He also learned that he isn't the only resident of this place. There were 7 others with him, all living in their separate cells, probably subjected to the same torture than himself. 7 other souls living the very same torture, the same injustice as him. Do they suffer the same as him? Are they keep on surviving, keep striving forward, so that one day they can regain their oh so sweet revenge on these monsters wearing human skin.

Today should be 2018, the summer has already blown its last breezes and the year now embarked on its last venture before the holiday season. Autumn, the season of passing, the transition from the warm summer afternoons to the cold winter mornings.

This morning marked the last month before Lucien's 18th Birthday, the 4th of October. In local folklore the first half of this month was referred to as the 'Indian Summer', the second coming, the last taste of what you had, and to get ready for the chilly nights that would soon be upon us all.

As the time hit 6, by clockwork the metal door to the so-called C-Cell or Containment Cell slid to the side, revealing the already gleefully smiling Dr. Frida Antschen at the other side. With her trusty tablet in her arms, she stepped inside the room, and greeted her favorite little patient, just like every other morning.

"Good Morning 03! Did you have a good sleep?" She asked with a wide grin-like smile on her bespectacled face.

The subject of her vision, a tall and thin figure of a short, black-haired boy could be seen sitting in the far corner of the room. His legs pulled closed he had planted his face in the cavity formed by his arms and knees.

By now, he was used to the fake smiles, the dishonest tone, and the lies of this monster. Every day, like clockwork, she would come with the dawn to carry out the next day's tests and experiments. Take some blood, some skin tissue, sometimes even more.

What they found to be the strangest was that every time they took some sample, by the next day, there would be no sign of the incision. The damage would be healed up perfectly. The missing skin, meat, or bone tissue would be regenerated by Lucien's enigmatic body.

Further 'experiments' also showed that no matter the damage, Lucien would be perfectly fine and healthy by the next day. Still, there was no progress made in the past almost 5 years which have started to take its toll on the usually calm mask of Dr. Frida.

Seeing that once again, she was ignored by the little cretin, Dr. Frida snorted with an annoyed expression on her face.

"Oh, let me tell you 03, you should have acted better. By the afternoon, you will really regret your morning attitude. That I am certain of. Oh well, let me explain to you what is on today's agenda."

With that, her usual smile returned to her face. She took a glance at the screen of her tablet, before continuing with her previous glee.

"Today, we are going to start Phase 2 in testing. So far, whilst we have witnessed the miraculous, unique traits of your physique, we have yet to dive deeper, and explore the limits of what you are capable of."

She stopped, taking a quick peek, hoping to get some reaction out of the boy. To her great annoyance, the boy didn't even budge, continuing to ignore her existence. Seeing the boy's response, or actually, the lack thereof, she scoffed, continuing in a more rigid, colder tone.

"Today we are going to increase the level of your tests, and with that, we are going to need much larger samples as well."

Snapping her fingers, two armed guards stepped into the room. These enforcers, armed with electric batons and uniquely designed pistols, were a special task force responsible for security in the entire institute. They were not your ordinary security company, they were elite soldiers handpicked by Mr. Jacobson from several countries, not just the US after careful screening.

They wore black leather attire atop a full-body skintight black suit, with a similar black faceless reinforced plastic mask hiding their faces. Not one inch of their figures was left uncovered, even the back of their heads was covered with the dark skinsuit. On their chest, they all wore the logo of the Institute, the vague shape of the building crossed over by a bolt of lightning alongside their military-standard ranking.

They were silent, effective soldiers, the Death Squad of Mr. Jacobson.

Swiftly, upon her calling, the two guards stationed at the door came in, and by grabbing Lucien's arms, they pulled him up from the ground. As they brought the boy in front of Dr. Frida, they grabbed the boy's head and raised it to match the woman's manic gaze.

She leaned into his right ear and sensually whispered the words.

"Tell me, 03... No, tell me, Lucien! Which part of you will you offer to science today?"

Without waiting for an answer, she pulled back. Letting out a cheery giggle that caused shivers to spread down Lucien's back.

The demoness was already gleeful, already expectant of what's to come today.