"Was that button supposed to do something? Cause I didn't see any-" Dylo was then cut off by jolting shake of the ground beneath them. He fell backwards, landing right on his posterior as Kai laughed at him.
The floors opened up like elevator doors, with things like punching bags, targets and sparring mats emerging from the darkness within. Other equipment such as bench press stations and treadmills were also present.
"This area was previously used to train our agents, to ensure that they'd be ready for anything. But now, since you've arrived, we had to reconfigure and redesign everything to withstand your extraordinary capabilities." Dr. Matthews stated. "So, we have no time to waste, my friends! Let's get started."
Kai immediately began heading over to the bench press, starting off with 1 ton. After benching that amount with ease, he decided to add another ton to the barbell. And after benching that with some difficulty, he cockily smiled to himself, intending to increase the weight to a maximum of 7 tons.
He knew that it was logical to simply work his way up, but he didn't have time for that. He had to hone his abilities to their maximum potential if he really wanted to take down Ajax.
He desperately yearned for a rematch between the two of them.
The boy's armored suit fitted him perfectly as his corded muscles rippled. He'd rolled the sleeves up so he wouldn't get too hot. He felt the numb sensation of his clammy, callus-ridden hands grasped the cold titanium bar. Bullets of sweat poured down from his hair into his eyes, slightly stinging them as he blinked rapidly.
Bianca gawked at the boy's toned physique as his muscles flexed, looking as if they'd soon burst through his skin. Every vein bulged through his bulletproof exterior. The girl wanted to look inconspicuous, but her eyes were magnetized to his immaculate musculature.
He grit his teeth as his muscle fibers contracted with immeasurable force. Tensing up, he was pleased as he watched the bar slowly rise from his chest, eventually feeling his joints lock as his aching arms ceased motion. The seams of his suit emitted a red, lustrous glow.
The young man smiled to himself as he realized just how strong he was. While 7,000 pounds was definitely a great deal heavier than it had seemed, he bet that if his car had been there, he could've benched it with slight difficulty.
But now wasn't the time to get a big head. His main objective was to defeat Ajax, and nothing could distract him from it. He couldn't let anymore people die by his hands.
Dylo traversed the supercharged treadmill, his body blurring as he moved at a jogging pace of about 300 miles per hour. But that wasn't enough. It never was.
He hated running, because it made him think of his parents, but he attempted to use their deaths as motivation. After all, he needed to get faster if they were going to fight that Ajax guy.
Speeding up, he eventually reached 600 miles per hour, his limit.
Slowing down and eventually stopping, he got off the treadmill, exhausted as the yellow glow of his seams faded. "You know, you almost went supersonic there, Dylo." Dr. Matthews said as he loomed over him. "You do know what supersonic means, right?"
"Oh yeah, 'course I do, doc. Isn't it that fast food place?" Replied Dylo, now on his knees and panting.
"Um, no." Matthews replied.
"Oh. Then enlighten me." Dylo panted in between heavy breaths.
Dr. Matthews continued anyways. "You've barely scratched the surface of your powers. Remember when I told you that you were the only one that was affected in both a physical way, and psychological way? What I was referring to is your accelerated perception."
"My what?" Dylo replied, still short of breath. He still didn't understand a word that Matthews was saying to him. He didn't expect to be hearing such gigantic words at the moment. Being a superhero was supposed to be fun.
"Your accelerated perception is triggered when you focus so much that you enter a mental state of incredible speed. Now, in this state, your body and mind moves so fast, that time seems to slow down. Moving thousands of miles per hour, you'd be able to view time as if it had been moving in molasses." Dr. Matthews explained.
"Cool story, bro." Dylo replied, jumping back on the treadmill. Anything that had to do with focusing clearly wasn't for him. "But I've got all the speed I need right here."
"Well, if you say so." Matthews answered, walking over to Adam, who was practicing his mind-reading abilities on Kai and Bianca.
"Doing pretty well with the telepathic abilities, eh?" Adam's intense focus was broken by Matthews' sudden appearance. "Uh, yeah. I think I'm getting the hang of 'em." He answered. "I got something to show you-"
He was cut off by Matthews. "Nope, not now, Adam. I have something to show you. Follow me."
As Adam followed Dr. Matthews over to a new station, he looked down at the small, metal cube on one of the mats. "What's this?" Adam asked.
"It's a cube." Matthews answered.
"Well I can see that." Adam grunted, triggering a sly chuckle from the doctor.
"What I want you to do, Adam," Matthews continued, "is to move that cube with your mind."
"Um, I don't think I can-"
"I told you before that reading minds wasn't all you were capable of. Did you believe me then?" Matthews asked.
"Yeah, but-"
"Then believe me now, and do it."
Breathing a heavy sigh, Adam placed one hand on his head, as it helped him focus when using his telepathic powers. Extending one hand out towards the cube, he took a deep breath as he tried lifting it off of the ground using every inch of his mental strength.
It didn't budge, not in the slightest.
"Is this really necessary?" Adam asked, trying to reason with the doctor, but that was impossible.
"Keep trying, until you get it. And try not to get distracted." He said, walking away from Adam's station, hearing the boy's livid sigh in the background.
Elsewhere, at Amber's station, she was slowly trying to teach herself how to form a beam of ice again, like she'd previously done in the lounge about an hour ago.
As she extended her arm towards the target, a thick layer of frost began to emulate from her hands. A cloud of icy fog stemmed from her fingers as something began forming an object of some sort.
But it wasn't the ice beam Amber longed for-it was a ball.
A snowball.
As Amber threw the snowball down in frustration, Dr. Matthews arrived at her training station.
"Having difficulty, are we?" Asked the Doctor as he looked around at all of the others.
"Guess you could say that." Amber answered, sighing in frustration as she pushed her hair out of her face. "How am I supposed to control these-ice powers?"
"I actually prefer the term Cryokinesis." The doctor stated as he walked past Amber, looking at her gloves. "Contrary to popular belief, your powers are one of the easier ones to master. You just need to learn to focus, and use the tools provided to you."
"Tools?" She asked, "What tools?"
"Your bio-suit." The doctor answered, gesturing to the wide circles on the palms of Amber's gloves.
"Your bio-suit absorbs the thermal energy from the environment around you, and stores it in the white seams and gloves. When you activate your cryokinetic abilities, the circles on the gloves convert that stored thermal energy into cryokinetic energy. Which, in turn, enhances your powers." Matthews explained. "Just clap your hands together, and then try to generate a beam of ice."
Amber did what the doctor said, clapping her hands together as she saw the seams on her gloves emit a white glow. Activating her cryokinetic abilities, she then extended both of her arms forward, as a beam of ice swiftly emerging from her palms and hitting the target.
"Cool." Amber gasped, shocked at her bio-suit's capabilities.
The doctor flashed Amber a smile as he made his way over to Leo's station.
Now, Leo was the only one out of the 7 of them who had already partially mastered his abilities. He'd always been a quick learner in the classroom.
Slightly more advanced than Amber and Troy, he could already generate a solid beam of electricity on command. But of course, that wasn't enough for Dr. Matthews.
"Leo, your bio-suit possesses the ability to siphon electricity from any power source, and covert it into blasts. Now, I want you to try that on that lightbulb up there." Dr. Matthews pointed to the lightbulb on the reflective, metal ceiling.
"Alright." Leo said as he slowly extended his hand in an underhand position, his gloved palm facing upright. He took a few deep breaths as his hands began to vibrate.
After about 5 lengthy, uneventful seconds, frolicking bolts of lightning began to stem from the small, dim light source as it began to briskly shudder.
Leo's eyes widened as he witnessed the lightbulb rupture and break, robust strings of thunderbolts flowing directly into the blue, glowing seams of his glove.
He manipulated the high-voltage current flowing between his fingers as he twisted and turned them.
"Now, Leo, what I want you to do is form a ball of electricity, and hit that target."
"On it." Leo said as he slowly put his hands together, slowly generating an orb of bright lightning. His hands began to vibrate as he readied himself to propel the ball straight towards the target. As he threw the orb of electricity, he watched as it flew through the air and struck the target, obliterating it.
"Amazing, Leo." Matthews said, smiling. "How did you learn to control your abilities so fast?"
"Comic books and Dragon Ball Z." Leo replied.
In the corner of the room, Troy was still struggling to control his pyrokinetic abilities, as he groaned at the increasing heat of the surrounding flames.
"Troy, focus like you did before in the lounge." Matthews said.
"I don't know if you remember correctly, old man, but the last time I "focused," I burned down the room." Troy replied in frustration.
"Because you panicked." The doctor said as he walked towards Troy with his hands clasped behind his back. "Try not to do that this time."
Troy groaned in frustration as he attempted to control his emotions to extinguish the roaring flames. He put his arms over the flames, trying to conjure up a fireball like he had in the chamber, but it just wouldn't work.
"Troy, remember you have to-"
"Focus!?" Troy yelled. "I've been doing that this entire time, and nothing's worked! I'm starting to think you might just be full of shit!"
As Troy threw his hands up in frustration, a giant fireball was launched upwards in the air towards the ceiling, incinerating one of the pipes. Troy looked up at the flame, shocked and dumbfounded.
"You were saying?" Matthews teased as he walked away, hearing Troy curse under his breath behind him.
He walked over to where Agent Owens and Bianca were. "Bianca," Owens began, "try creating a simple force field."
Bianca slowly opened up her hands as the purple seams of her bio-suit lit up, releasing what seemed to be a purple sphere of solid energy. It slowly expanded, until Bianca herself was completely submerged inside of it. Her hands shook, her entire body trembling in amazement as the energy shield was created.
"What the hell is that thing?" Asked Dylo, being blinded by the bright purple light from afar.
"Bianca's finally unlocked her powers." Kai said, shielding his eyes from the intense glare. "Looks like some kinda force field or something." Judging by the girl's strained facial expression, it took a lot of mental focus and concentration too keep it up.
Amber wasn't surprised. Bianca used her own vicious attitude to deflect the truth-that no one actually liked her. She thought it was all too fitting that she'd have a power that directly corresponded to her personality.
"Excellent." Callan praised Bianca as she kept the force field stable. "See how long you can hold it up. Dr. Matthews and I'll be right back."
Dr. Matthews caught up to Director Callan as they walked into an elevator, with the doors slowly closing behind them.
"They're getting better at using their powers." Callan stated with glee.
"Yes," the doctor agreed, "I just hope that they'll be enough to stop it."
"Stop....what?" asked Callan with uncertainty.
"The Expansion." The doctor replied, as the elevator descended to the facility's lowest level, it's doors slowly opening.
"Eliott," Callan began, chuckling, "Primus shut down Project Expansion years ago. It's been completely inactive ever since. And even if it were active, I wouldn't send those kids out on the field like that."
"Until a few months ago." Matthews continued as he walked into the dark, abandoned hallway with his boss following him. He pulled a keychain out of his pocket and selected a blue key, sticking it into the lock. "I uncovered something-peculiar-about Elias' experiments."
He unlocked the door and flicked on the light switch, triggering a flicker from the dim, half-dead lightbulbs. "You see, Elijah," he began as he turned on one of the faulty computers in the room, "I don't think Project Expansion was ever fully inactive."
"What are you trying to say?" Callan asked.
"I'm saying that Elias never truly stopped experimenting on his soldiers in order to give them superhuman abilities." He pulled up a screen with a a live camera feed.
"What's the source?" asked Elijah, slowly growing nervous.
"Elias' base in Arizona. Now watch this." The doctor answered.
The feed showed a man in a black uniform enter some kind of tube-like chamber. The audio was nearly nonexistent, but Elijah was able to make out some kind of scream, presumably coming from the soldier. The chamber the man was in then erupted in flames, exploding not long after.
"Oh my god. What's he trying to accomplish here?" Callan asked as he gazed upon the man's dead, burnt body.
"My best guess, is that he's trying revive Project Expansion." The doctor looked at the screen, his facial expression an amalgamation of anger, fear, and nervousness.
"One thing's for certain:" he continued, " We absolutely cannot let Elias or any other Primus soldier know of our supply of Genodium. I've evenly distributed it between all four of Genesis Industries' facilities."
The doctor firmly placed his hands on the director's shoulders, trembling with fear, and sweat pouring down his face like it had been raining.
"Elijah, if Elias gets his hands on even an inch of that Genodium, it'll be the end......for all of us. Do you understand?"
Callan was much too shocked and scared to say anything, still dramatized about that corpse he'd witnessed on the screen.
"Do you understand?" The doctor asked, his voice coated with fear.
"Of course I do." Callan nervously answered, his voice stuttering out of horror. "Now, come on. It's about time we told them what's really been going on."