Hope Lara

After a few hours of the surgery and research, Lara woke up and looked around at the right and left sides of her and saw that they were rejoicing with happiness as the surgery was a success. Lara was asleep because she had anaesthesia injected into her body.

One of the Assistants noticed that Lara was awake and rushed towards her and said, "Lara! try not to move, you are still in the effects of the anaesthesia", Lara didn't understand what she meant.

When Lara tried to move a bit she couldn't budge an inch and then she looked down at her body and saw that it was cut into 3 parts her head with the neck, her body, and her legs. She was traumatized and started crying, looking at herself like that and feeling no pain.

Takashi then rushed into the laboratory after he heard Lara crying out loud. Martin wasn't there inside the lab since he had left the room just after the surgery to check on something else. Takashi said, "Lara, you will be okay! Your cells are regenerative ones. Martin won't hurt you, He is your Father after all"

Lara calmed down after Takashi told her that. Takashi then asked, "Where is Master Martin now?"

Cora said, "Master and Mark went to the rooftop they said they had an urgent mission handed by the UA on the mainland to escort some of the survivors", Takashi was pissed off hearing that and said, "Enough of that! I get it that is for a greater cause", none of them replied to that understanding the pain after they had noticed Lara silently crying. The Laboratory then went quiet, as Takashi was about to leave the Lab he looked back at Lara's body and saw that her body was fixing itself back.

Takashi was glad to see that she was back together but then he thought that this was just the beginning of their experiments on Lara. Takashi left the lab in tears. After he left the removed Cora followed him and waited till they were far off from the lab and then she tapped on Takashi's shoulder and said, "Hey! Takashi"

Takashi looked back and saw Cora behind him, He got whacked on the face hard. Takashi was still in tears at this point and after the slap to the front, it was painful but not as painful as Lara's situation. Takashi didn't say anything and just took the slap.

Cora said, "You think you are the only one worrying about her?... but you are wrong!"

Takashi knew that the others were also there for Lara when she needed any of their help. Takashi asked, "What was more urgent, his daughter or the mission? He told us to consider her as his own daughter and this is how he treats her, this is not fair if you think about Lara having to go through this phase"

Cora replied, "Takashi you are talking about our Master like that you should know. You should remember what all he has done for us. He took us in when others wouldn't want people like us, they called us "talentless" and then Master came and took us all in taught us different language and also gave us a choice to continue with him or leave... you should know you were the one who decided to be a part of this"

Takashi said, "I wanted to follow him and protect him for the person he was then, now it is different"

Cora said, "People change when they want and you can't be selfish about it"

Takashi just left there and Cora stood there knowing too well that he would not listen.

The place where Martin conducted his experiments was on the topmost floor of the Pieces, It was called the 67th floor or The "True" Hexagon. The Hexagon that Alexa and the others had to stay in for a while was a copy model made from it but everything init was different from the original.

The 67th floor had 6 Pieces like the other one. The 1st Piece was the Dormitory with 4 levels, the bottommost level had 9 rooms with 2 beds in each, the second level had 8 rooms also with 2 beds in each, the third level had 3 rooms with 1 bed that was a king-sized bed and the topmost level had 2 rooms which were the Viceroy's and the Overseer's quarters. It was big enough for them to be called a personal experimental laboratory.

Takashi's room was on the 2nd level 5th room, he was thinking of entering the Overseer's quarters since there were no keys to any of their rooms So he felt the Overseer wouldn't have a key. He knew that the others wouldn't be leaving the lab right now or anytime soon.

At the time, Takashi was 21 years old and the rest of the people who followed Martin were 5 or more years older than him, So it was hard for him since he had no one to talk to. Lara used to always come to Takashi's room since she was just 5 years old to play with him since she also had no one her age to be around with. Martin used always to be busy with his experiments and so were the other adults. One day she went over to the dormitory and opened all the doors till she came across Takashi's door and saw him sitting with his hands folded around his legs and crying in pain. Lara rushed over and hugged him from his back, Takashi saw Lara while he turned his head around and was confused about what she was doing in the dorm. Takashi turned around and held Lara by her arm and asked, "What are you doing here, Lara?"

Lara didn't say anything but stared into his eyes, smiled, and hugged him even tighter. Takashi didn't pushed her back but hugged her back to see how it felt and it felt good to him, So, he started to tear down and then Lara also joined in seeing him tear down. After that, they both started to hang out together to keep each other company.

Lara stayed on the 68th floor which was specially made for her needs.

Takashi grew up to become a top-notch martial artist, he got assigned to become Lara's personal bodyguard but was under the control of the Overseer.

Then finally the day came when Lara disobeyed Martin's order to head to the Lab. Lara is 14 years old in the present year, this all took place on the 67th floor at the time when Alexa and others were in the Bird Sanctuary.

Lara after she heard Martin's order from Cora who had come into Lara's room tell her tried to hold onto Lara's hand but Lara pushed Cora's hand off her and said, "I have legs to move on my own, So, I will go there myself!" After Lara told her that, Cora was surprised that she had changed her behaviour. She had to leave the room since Lara wanted to be alone.

Lara was not considered a human among the adults except for Takashi, Martin and Mark. Since she was a child Lara felt like an experiment to them. Mark respected Martin's decision to take the child on and be there when she wanted them. Takashi was different, at the time of her birth inside the pod he also considered her as an experiment since he was a child and believed whatever the adults felt was right was right for him. As he grew up Martin noticed that Takashi and Lara have been hanging out with each other often in either room. And so when he was 22 years old he assigned Takashi to be guarding Lara at his orders.

After Martin told Takashi to guard Lara, he remembered the past when he went into the Overseer's Quarters. In there he saw 3 big tubes in it a humanoid connected with a mask connected via a pipe to help them breathe through. Takashi didn't expect to see anything like this. The Humanoids in the tubes had hands but no fingers on either side. The same also for the feet which had no toes. As he went closer to check on the humanoids he saw the desk close to the tubes had some files on it. Takashi went over to check what was written in it. Whatever Takashi read from it he wished he hadn't even gotten into the room ever again. Before Takashi left the lab being assigned to guard Lara, Martin said, "Before you leave I wanted to ask", Takashi stopped and looked back towards The Overseer and asked, "What is it, Master?"

Martin asked, "How much of it did you see?"

Takashi was confused about what was he talking about. Martin continued, "The Document you read that day was a mission that was assigned by the Westuroians. It was during the beginning stage of the war, 5 years back in 2045, A Scientist named Jonal Boldin made me his apprentice since I was a prodigy and that I wanted to gain some experience under my belt I joined him. At first, I trusted him a lot that I respected him to be the greatest Scientist in my books but later that year WW3 between USA and Russia came to a close as no one won it and the Westurioans took advantage and ruled over the world"

In 2045 March that was the time when Martin was appointed as Jonal's Assistant. The war had just started. The thing about the War of Westuroy and the Union Alliance happened 2 times because the war had gone on a long time and both sides decided to call it a truce[the truce happened in 2055]. The truce had only lasted for 2 years because Westuroians broke the truce and attacked UA when they were at peace.

After Takashi heard the reason, he calmed down and knelt down and said, "I am sorry Master to have doubted you. The promise that I Have made to you I will fulfil it by giving my life"

Martin then smiled. Suddenly the whole block started to shake. Martin and Takashi were in the Laboratory alone. Martin went over to his desk to check on the camera what was going around. He saw that 2 of the creatures from Martin's room were released.

Martin said, "Oh! No... No... No! This can't be happening. Who could have done this? I can't think about that now either way. Takashi could you go out there and try helping out all that you can and send them here"

Takashi didn't understand what was happening and he wanted to see what Martin had seen. Still, he had to rush out to check on the others before that Martin stopped him saying, "Wait! before you go... I am going to...", he then went over to pick up a syringe and a drug and then he continued, "I am about to inject a drug that I have tested before. It is to enhance your mental ability... you will understand after it affects you and then you will know your potential to the fullest", Takashi believed whatever Martin was saying and went for it and got injected with it. Takashi didn't feel anything strange at first but when he saw Martin's punch approaching him slowly in his gut, he understood the drug had taken its effects on him already.

Martin then said, "It can also be a pain if you use it a lot. Use it only when it is life-threatening because if you use it too much everything in your surrounding may seem slower than normal and that is not a good thing mentally"

Takashi bowed and said, "Before I go I have one last favour to ask of you, So, could I rely it upon you, Master?"

Martin replied, "Sure!", with a smile after seeing how politely he asked it of him.

Takashi then said continued, "The promise I made to protect Lara, I said I would keep it no more what, right? I want to add something else to it can I?"

Martin nodded and said, "Of Course, you can tell me!"

Takashi then said, "I want to protect her no matter what... even if she chooses to get away from here", Martin didn't look pleased hearing what Takashi had said but he kept on listening.

Takashi got up and started to leave the room as he reached the door he stopped and continued, "I feel she will soon realise that if she stays here you all would keep using her as a test subject to improve. And when she does I would help her get out of this hell hole", And then he left the room.

Martin just stood there thinking about what just happened there but he then thoughts, "Even if this doesn't look alright it still would go with what I have planned... I should probably call Mark!", And then he immediately tapped on his earplug on his ear and said, "Mark Titus" and the plug started to ring till Mark picked.

Mark said, "The situation is so dire out here do you have anything planned for this because this isn't supposed to happen!"

Martin said. "I know that! But... how could have this happened. Anyways I have sent Takashi with my specific instructions, you inform the others to go along with it. I have to check on something else", Mark understood what Martin was going to do there.

Mark then said, "I also feel the same having a traitor in our midst is impossible... unless it is...", Martin interrupted him and said, "I will check on it myself don't you dare interfere"

Martin tapped his earplug again to stop the call. And at the site where Mark was 8 of Martin's assistants were injured by debris falling on them 5 of them were minor injuries and 3 of them were severe in which 2 were still stuck under the debris but conscious and 1 of them had completely lost both their knees and was unconscious. They saw Takashi arriving at the scene and with him, there were 4 others. Now there are 13 people in the Hall. As Takashi reached them he asked, "Where is Cora?"

Mark said, "She wasn't with us. She and the others are in the dorms! Be careful that is where the mutants came from..."

Takashi started to move towards the Dormitory after he heard she was there but before he headed off there he stopped and asked, "What about Lara? Not in her room is she?"

Mark replied, "No, You are right she isn't... So, you know..."

Takashi didn't reply to it and headed off.

As he was on his path to the 1st Piece he saw a creature in his path and he recognized that he had seen it in Martin's room from the tubes. Takashi stopped there as he couldn't just leave it be there and let the others who were in the Hall to take care of it. The creature's back was facing Takashi and it looked human.

Takashi asked, "Who are you and What are you doing out here?"

The Creature turned in the direction that Takashi was. Now that Taskahi could see its face more carefully he felt terrified and fell to his knees just by looking at it with Fear of not how strong it could be but how horrific it looked since he felt the creature was a human.

The Creature was an early-staged Bit created from a corpse so also were the other 2. The bit in front of him was a male and the other 2 were females. The bit was bare naked without any covering, its body was just as it is for a human but the rest of it was different. Its hands and feet had no fingers or toes. It had a human head but an eye with only one socket in its forehead in the middle, its mouth wasn't a mouth anymore since it had only an upper jaw with it an HG in its neck.

Takashi then took only a step towards it as it reacted to it by changing its form.

The Bits Attack form was when its arms and legs widened more like a spider's coxas[legs] and the Bit screeched, "Kragghh!"

Takashi heard a ping through his earplug so he tapped on it and Martin said, "It is in its Attack form, So, STAY STILL don't make a move. The Creature reacts like a predator", Takashi looked back to see if anyone was around whilst standing still...