August 23rd 2552-
Over the last month or so, Micheal had put up with ONI. This was the last straw. They couldn't save one girl, so how the hell did they expect to save a whole planet! He winced as he got up. He saw that he was still wearing a hospital gown with black socks. He decided that it was finally time to blow this joint! He wished he could have literally blew the place, but he sadly had no explosives...besides, it wouldn't make him anymore human. He'd do just about anything for revenge...except get on their level. But first, he'd have to figure out how to escape this prison.
Micheal balanced the pain on his torso by shifting his weight on his hands as he sat up. He reached behind him; and made sure to grab Lindsay's last words to him. He kept it clutched in his right hand as his body clenched at the familiar but unusual feeling of stretching out. He leaned against the side of the bed as he stood up, the pain burning all over his body. He made a backwards hissing sound as he sucked in from the pain shooting all over him; it was as if someone had ripped off tape off of all his body and then dumped steaming water all over him.
Micheal slowly but surly made his way to the exit. No guards were post in the vicinity; that was weird. He immediately knew what was happening. They knew he was trying to sneak out. He'd have to out smart them then; take a route that wasn't expected. Each step he took was careful and small; the significance large. It slowed him down, but it prevented the chances of him stretching something out too much. On his own...he'd take too long. He wondered where his team was.
Micheal knew where to go. He was going to go to the comms center to contact his team. Once he got a hold of them though, it was obviously going to be connected to the out-logs so they'd have to be swift with their pick up, if even possible. If not, and Micheal was caught, he could get tried for restricted access to classified information. They already knew Micheal had no motive for getting into that, but with the current situation, the UNSC/ONI could not risk a thing. He could be punished by death by something like that. But that was a risk he was willing to take. He'd give himself a bullet to his temple before being forced to stay here...it was their faults she was gone! And they were going to pay!
Micheal made it out of the infirmary. He supported himself as he limped against the wall, but for some reason, he felt the pain miraculously disappear. He tested it by letting go of the wall. It was normal. What the hell did ONI do to him? Wait. What day was it? Maybe it was just him getting used to walking again. It was possible he was in a short term coma. The thought shook him to his core.
The lighting outside of the room; in the hallway, was dimmed. Something was up. It was never dark in an ONI hospital. He visibly shuttered, wondering what kind of shit he was about to get into. He breathed out, taking everything in as he made his way down the hall. It was a regular hall, like any other hospital. But something about it automatically made it eerie...ONI styled. And it wasn't because the lights were off. Micheal made it all the way down the hall and to the double doors right before the staircase that lead upwards...or not, he thought as he read the floor level: -53. What? They were in an asteroid! How were they this deep?
He saw an info-pad tacked against the wall before the doors. He turned it on, and he saw the date. Almost a month after he was last awake! That wasn't good. He shook his head as if that would clear his vision, but it didn't help anything. He opened the doors, and found something useful: an elevator. The small landing he was in was square with the stairs to his left leading up. He was at the very bottom of the facility; because there were no stairs leading down. The small white room was well lit...that was strange. The green illumination on the up arrow of the elevator proved that it was operable.
He tapped the up arrow, or he thought he did, but the green light went out. He got light headed...what had just happened? He saw a crack where his finger had tapped the arrow. He'd never had this strength before! He could've sworn he had only tapped it, and not slammed it with all his strength. The marble engravings that held the holographic touch-sensitive response "buttons" were cracked and since they weren't buttons...the only place he could have cracked was the marble. He looked at his hands and realized...he wasn't Micheal! He was someone else. His muscles were too large and they started to burn when he wasn't moving. He waved his hands to get the feeling back. ONI...the bastards! What had those monsters done to him!
He heard a ding and he realized the elevator was still working. It'd be silly to think otherwise but for some reason he'd convinced himself that he broke it when he broke the up arrow. The doors slid open, and he saw something that made him regurgitate. The back of the moderately lit elevator was a mirror...and what he saw staring back at him wasn't the Micheal that he knew all his life. Everything on him was awkwardly stretched out. He had grown at least a foot. Seeing himself and what ONI had done to him made him realize what kind of hospital this was...and he didn't want to be here. Ever! He closed his eyes as he entered the elevator. The dizziness he felt earlier was now gone. Micheal figured out that it was a side affect from his new abilities. Why the halls were dimmed...why this elevator was normally lit. It wasn't. This elevator was at the lowest lighting for a human to see only outlines of something. He...he was genetically altered. He was now a Spartan.
In his new form, he felt so...indescribable. The closest description would be awkward. As if he were trapped. There was no escape, and he knew it. ONI did too. Once again, ONI gets away with the impossible. If not for the circumstances, they'd all be immediately sentenced to death. With the Mortal Dictata acts, altering a human being, especially without their consent, was illegal. It was more that that...it was crazy...it was madness! He didn't know the process with Bon and Cali, but he now was one of them. They fought like they had purpose. He'd seen it. They cared for whoever did this to them. That lead him to believe that they were brainwashed. It had to have been done at an early age. Micheal felt a rage in him start to bubble as he started to put the pieces together.
Micheal tossed it aside for the moment, he'd have to figure it out later. For now, he'd find a way out. He walked to the internal up arrow. Some elevators were designed with a confirmation direction, so once in the elevator you'd have to push up again. Most of all the military sites were like that. Micheal slowly stretched out his hand, trying to be careful with his new strength. His arm was shaky, but finally, he tapped the touchpad. It would have been funny to watch if not for the circumstances. The elevator dinged again, the doors closing without a sound. The feeling of the elevator speeding up was...different. He could almost say it was absent, but he still felt his stomach toss. It was as if it had happened in slow motion. As the elevator went up, he thought about his last memory with Lindsay. It was the best night of his life...the night he proposed to her. He could remember every last detail, right down to the honeydew scented perfume she was wearing.
The elevator counted up, but it seemed too slow to him. This was going to take some getting used to. He sighed, and the elevator took an abrupt stop. The lights flashed on and then back off, and he got a piercing feeling in his head. He dropped to a knee, gripping his forehead as he closed his eyes to block any shape his brain struggled to process. The pain quickly subsided, and Micheal's head cleared almost as fast as the pain had hit him. He realized that ONI knew exactly where he was...that was them telling him that they still had power over him.
"Yeah, got it. Assholes," Micheal took a double take. Even his voice had changed, no matter how subtle. It still shook him even to the bones. The elevator continued it's assent at Micheal's verbal compliance. He waited for what seemed like forever until the elevator dinged one last time, the doors closing behind him as he exited it. The room he was in was like any other lobby: it was a waiting room with chairs and everything. The exit was in the middle of the two walls at the opposite end of him. The front desk; directly to the right of him, had a tacpad, no doubt with his new directives. Micheal walked over to it and picked it up. The file was already open.
It read: ONI eyes only//Micheal "Tango-One" Dean Sulfur is to be paired with Shultz "Tango-Two" Xavier Flaz and Tyron "Tango-Three" Almez Comme as Tango Team, a new Spartan experiment to combat the oncoming force known as The Covenant. Tango shall meet at the location their designated pilot will take them. They will go without resisting otherwise the security, also the designated pilot, may with acceptable reason restrain the subject. If further problems arise then the security will be forced to use an antibiotic that will forcibly make the subject unconscious long enough for the transition to the team's first meeting point. If the subject manages to fight the antibiotic and is still resistant, then physical actions are to be taken. The subject's designated pilot will be waiting outside of their facility. Good luck. // -Admiral Parongosky./End Transaction.
Micheal felt anger rush through him so fast he couldn't restrain himself. He used all his force and smashed the tacpad, breaking the desk underneath with it. Sparks flew from the pad as the electrons flowing through it lost circuit. The desk crumbled to dust, leaving an awkward edge around where he had just punched. His head tinged with pain again! He closed his eyes, the feeling subsiding immediately. He had finally caught the trend: the pain happened when his heart started an irregular pace of beats. Micheal knew it was going to be hell getting used to this. Not only did the pain happen when adrenaline was pumping, it also was hard to control how he reacted to things; making it impossible not to be exited in those situations.
He headed to the exit and knew to close as his eyes. He walked with his hands forward, not knowing what his surroundings were.
"Here!" A familiar female voice said. He headed in the direction, moving in a linear direction straight to the voice he knew to be Cali. After a few seconds of walking he heard a "Halt!" Micheal stopped, not daring to open his eyes.
"Guide me," Micheal asked.
"Column half left!" Straight forward," Cali obliged. Micheal knew that a column left was equal to ninety degrees, so he simply turned to what he felt was a forty five degree angle then went straight. He felt the ground suddenly angle, which he figured was the ramp of the Pelican. He felt it go straight again, and he slowly felt his way into a seat on the right side.
"You move like my grandmother. Hurry it up," Micheal heard Cali in the cockpit. What? Wasn't she just outside? She moved so quickly and silently that not even he could hear her even with his enhanced hearing. It scared him.
Micheal heard the bay doors shut, and not a second later the Pelican vertically lifted, and shot forward in high speed. Again, the flipping of his stomach was slowed. He slowly opened his eyes to see the inside of hell: The Pelican. He looked down at the only haven he had left...Lindsay. He knew they were off to a place even worse than hell, and he was ready!