Lance was doing his best to hide his nerves. Both so the boss wouldn’t know that he was afraid of this place and so that their hosts wouldn’t look down on them.
Lance only hoped he would get powers. If he could get powers, he could become second in command or maybe lead his own gang one day.
Supposedly not everyone could develop powers, and if he could be one of them, Lance would rise through the ranks.
Even if the meeting place didn’t exactly inspire confidence. All the factions in and around the city were meeting in a shitty warehouse. The only information available was that they would be transported safely after everyone’s arrived.
And officially, only the boss was allowed to carry weapons.
Lance had been given strict instructions to politely ignore that order and bring at least once concealed weapon with him.
Wouldn’t do to have someone else choose to ignore the rule and the entire crew gets iced.
Once all the major players in the state were there, Lance could feel his own tension rising. It was as if they’re being trusted to just figure it all out on their own.
Even without intending to, a hand slipped into his jacket where the concealed weapon was hiding just to make sure it’s there.
The lights flickered rapidly as the world spun.
Lance dropped to a crouch, looking around to see what’s going on.
On a platform that had not been there before the light show stood four people. A military-looking man with various weapons strapped to his body in various locations as he smoked, a green lady in a lab coat, a woman in a sexy nurse cosplay, and the final person seemed to be more fabric than person, with a pair of aviator goggles poking out from underneath the face mask.
The one thing Lance could tell was that they were strong.
“Attention, general scum of the earth,” the doctor said, striding forward. For a moment, Lance met her eyes and instantly felt sick to his stomach and looked away.
Whatever that lady was, she was not someone to look in the eye.
At that thought, he realized that he’d been looking at what was most likely a quartet of supers.
“Tonight is going to be split into two parts. One far more interactive than the other. After we’ve finished testing your men for the proper potential, we’ll begin the auction of our prepared selection,” she said before stepping back.
“If any of you cross us, we will crush you.” The weapon-toting man said, standing forward, red energy flickering around his form. “We want this to go well for you all. But I won’t tolerate disruptions.”
Nobody stepped forward, so Lance looked to the boss for some kind of directive.
“If you’ll follow me, we will start individually testing you all to see if you have the potential for powers either latent or dormant,” the woman in the flattering cosplay said, motioning to the door.
Lance glanced at the boss, who nodded his assent. While the auction to buy some supers is the big ticket, if at least some of the crew got powers, it meant they could spend the money on the big-ticket supers instead of just picking up the dregs.
Lance noted that the only people not moving to get scanned were the various leaders of the group.
Which was odd, you would think that everyone would take the chance to try and become super? Could it be ?part of the deal that was struck that denied them?
Lance made a promise to himself to try and filch a scanner and whatever they’re using to give powers to people. What would be worth more to the boss than bringing him the potential to realize his own abilities?
Entering the testing chamber, Lance watched in wonder as the cosplayer seemed to duplicate herself until everyone being tested had their own attendant who led them to various changing stalls.
Lance followed the pretty woman to the stall, taking a seat in the one chair as she pulled out some kind of syringe that had a glowing pink liquid in it.
“This is going to hurt a lot,” she said before jabbing it into Lance’s chest, and the liquid plunged into his veins.
Lance immediately fell to the ground, writhing in pain as the nurse cosplayer clicked her tongue as she wrote something down. “See, we know you all are going to try and use us. So we’re giving everyone a little bit of a primer before the actual test,” she said, crouching down and fussing with Lance’s hair.
Lance gurgled in pain but didn’t have the power to make a sound beyond that.
“Your hair reminds me of someone. If you came with me, I could redo the buried alive experiment. I could finally see what it actually does,” she said, fluffing the hair in question.
A loud thwump filled the air, and the rattling of chairs echoed.
“Darn. Someone already tried to stab me. That’s not very nice.” She complained standing up. “You’re not going to try to stab me, right? You’re going to continue to be good?”
Lance’s convulsions died down, leaving him panting on the floor. “You’re crazy,” he rasped.
“Not crazy methodical. No more traitors.” She said, patting Lance on the cheek. “Now, would you like to stay on the floor, or would you want to get back into the chair before I test to see if you’re special?”
“I ain’t moving,” Lance said, definitely resisting the urge to spit at this lady. He’d seen her duplicate who knew what else the psycho could do.
She left him the offer not to move, so it’s not like he’s actually trying to cross her by saying that he’s going to stay sitting.
“That’s alright!” She cheered, plopping down on top of Lance and sticking a normal-sized needle into his arm, drawing some blood. “We’re going to run this through our machine, which will test to see if you have the potential. If you do, we’ll hook you up with the good stuff, and your boss can decide how he wants to do this.”
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Lance gave a small nod, trying not to get distracted by the gorgeous woman on top of him and stay focused on the fact that she’s absolutely batshit insane.
After another long, uncomfortable moment, the device made a chirping sound that instantly drew the crazy girl’s attention, where she started to grin happily.
“Do I have powers?” Lance asked, hope brimming in his voice.
“You do, and you won’t have to stay super long, which is always a great bonus. With just a little bit of a jump start and some stimulus, we’ll be able to get you to realize your potential and give you powers,” she said, getting off of Lance and moving to a small desk and grabbing something he can’t see.
“What kind of stimulus are you thinking about?” Lance asked, not sure about how he’s supposed to feel about a condition like that.
“Well, it’s going to be up to your boss to decide what kind of stimuli he’s going to expose you to. After all, this is his gift; we wouldn’t presume to know what he wants.” She said, holding another glowing syringe; this one was a burning orange color. “Don’t worry. For those like us, it’s really safe. Mostly,” she cheered.
“What kind of stimuli gave you powers?” Lance asked, forcing himself up into a sitting position.
“Well, I was quartered, and that turned into duplicating.” She said with a happy smile. “But it really depends on the person. Sometimes your own latent potential is very strong with what power will show up. Other times it responds directly to the thing trying to kill you.”
“Kill me?” Lance squeaked.
“I mean only a little bit. We can’t have you die without getting powers; otherwise, we’re going to have to pay your boss silly,” she said, wrapping her free hand around Lance’s arm and picking him up to a standing position.
“I’m not sure if I can survive a little bit of dying,” Lance said quietly.
“Then ask your boss to pick a method that’ll only scare you mostly instead of almost killing you.”
Lance nodded at that. Hopefully, his boss wouldn’t want to kill him. Lance couldn’t think of anything he’d done that would make the boss want to hurt him.
At least he hoped?
Andromeda led Lance out of the room, waving to the other Andromedas who were leading people in various directions of the makeshift compound.
“You’re in luck.” Andromeda prattled on. “You’re the first of your group to be designated as one of the ideal candidates. A few of them have failed, and the remaining are either still being processed or will need to go through a worse experience to get powers.”
“Worst experience?” Lance asked as he tried to memorize the route they’re taking. They must have moved the boss while he was thrashing on the floor.
That’s good. It means the others won’t know Lance is special. A card he could use to spring one hell of a surprise on their enemies.
At that thought, Lance whipped his head around, trying to catch sight of the other people being moved around so that he could relay who were the ones that would be gaining powers.
It’d be worth so much more if he could tell the boss the new supers and the powers everyone else was going to have, but just seeing who they are should be ?good enough.
“And here we are!” Andromeda sings as they stop in front of a door. “After you’re done, I’m going to want to take a moment to analyze your abilities, but at least for this part, it’ll be private,” she said before jabbing another syringe into Lance’s arm.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“That’s the primer; there will be the drinks that’ll activate it. Wait about a minute after drinking before you start to get powers.” Andromeda warns. “Now go in and become a supervillain!”
Lance stared at Andromeda for a second, trying to decide if he thought he could pilfer what he wanted from her.
If she’s the clone, is all the stuff she used on him duplicates too that’ll disappear one day? What if all she needed to get rid of his powers was to kill this clone?
That didn’t make sense. He saw this clone pick stuff out of the testing room he had been in.
More than that, she left the extra stuff back there so he couldn’t get it off of her even if he wanted to.
“Thank you,” Lance said before swinging the metal door open and quickly retreating inside before she could say anything.
The slam of the door closing almost made Lance jump, but after all the needles his reflexes were already a little frayed.
“Lance, right?” The boss said, looking at Lance with a predator’s smile. “You here for what I think you are?”
Lance nods as he grabs one of the glowing cyan bottles, chugging it in a single go. “I’m ready, boss.” He said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Enough of that. You aren’t ready. I was told the rules same as you. We need you to be fully activated so we have a minute, boy.” The boss said, standing up and walking over. “So, do you know how this is going to work?”
Lance swallows slowly, the taste in his mouth nearly electric as he feels something coursing through him. “The crazy lady said I needed to die a little.”
“Not entirely wrong.” The boss said, making a follow-me motion before walking farther into the room.
As Lance followed him, he realized that this room was full of stuff significantly scarier than what he had noticed the first time.
The relief at seeing the boss and the wonder of seeing the glowing blue vials that’d turn him into a super more than distracted him from all the torture devices in the room.
“Are you going to use them on me, boss?” Lance asked, shying away from the water tank as they walked by it. The idea of being drowned has been a favorite of his nightmares for decades, and Lance has no interest in making it real.
“No, you’re just the first one. I was planning on going with a significantly simpler method.” The boss said, patting his hip. “They also said folks like you would be here sooner. Those with actual potential need significantly less before whatever magic super juice in your veins takes over.”
“Right?”
“The real fun is those that can become supers but need to be warped for it. They need a lot more help, and that’s what all of this stuff is for. Though I have to be careful in what I choose, you see?” he asked, picking up a knife and testing the edge.
“Because you don’t need the bigger guns, I’m going to be a bit tamer. I was told the abilities you could get depend entirely on what happens to you,” the boss said, stopping before a table with multiple guns on it.
“I want to be strong enough to keep the family safe. And to fight against our enemies,” Lance said instantly.
Loyalty was about all Lance had to offer, and he had that in spades. The family helped him, and he’ll spend the rest of his life repaying that debt.
“I wonder what would give you the strength to do that,” the boss mused, grabbing one of the guns on the table.
At that moment, Lance considered whether this was really the greatest course of action in all of this, but it could be a little bit late about that.
“I’m not sure, sir.”
“Sorry, boy.” The boss said, aiming a gun at Lance’s head. “It’s just the price of doing business.”
Lance nodded, refusing to take his eyes off the gun. They said he should develop powers. All you need is a bit of stimulus.
No better stimulus than being threatened with having a bullet shot through your skull. The scientists said it would give powers based on what happened.
Being indestructible was definitely a good choice for that. How many people could stop him if a bullet to the head just bounced off?
Lance’s head rocked back as the bullet slammed into his forehead. Lance expanded ever so slightly, his skin turning metallic. “Boss?” He asked, his voice sounding like metal gears grinding against each other.
The boss holstered the gun. “We can work with this, Lance. How would you feel about becoming one of my hands?”
Lance looked down at his metal hands, trying to decide if he’s strong enough to kill the boss and take over for himself.
The boss had done too much for him to betray him over something as small as a bullet to the head. After all, because of it, he had superpowers now.
Lance breathed slowly, focusing on the sensation of his own skin, and slowly he shrunk back to normal size, no longer metallic.
“We have to see what else we can purchase, boss,” Lance said, shaking his hand. “After all, if we can get the diamonds, we might be able to take over the city properly.”
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