In the Thorne family’s research lab, the room temperature was kept at a constant zero degrees to better preserve certain research findings. This required extremely high-powered climate control equipment and precision instruments to maintain the lab’s humidity and temperature at the required levels.
Therefore, the Thorne family’s lab had the highest daily power consumption of any facility on the base.
Five carried Cynthia Grant into the lab.
Strangely, Cynthia Grant, whose skin had taken on a plant-like hue just moments before, began to gradually return to normal after she entered the lab.
A researcher in a white lab coat, holding a tray of injection equipment, approached Five and Cynthia Grant.
"What do you think you’re doing?"
"I’m here to draw a blood sample."
Five’s brow furrowed as he stared at the syringe, which was thicker than Cynthia’s arm. "Hold on! A needle that big? That’s not right. She’s alive, and you’re just taking a sample. Are you trying to kill her?"
The researcher in the white coat gave Five a speechless look, then immediately conferred with two nearby colleagues.
"Hey, I can hear you! You want to take her somewhere else to draw her blood? Don’t even think about it. We made an agreement with your Thorne family. All research involving Cynthia Grant is to be conducted right under our noses.
Anything that puts her life at risk is strictly forbidden."
The researchers were ordinary people with no superpowers. They were helpless against Five, who was both a special forces soldier and a superpower user. So, one of them immediately contacted the director of the Thorne family’s lab.
Meanwhile, in an isolation room deep inside the lab, stood two enormous cages. Their metal bars were threaded with wires. Touching them would deliver an electric shock that caused total paralysis. It would make one collapse, but it wasn’t lethal.
Each of the two cages held a person.
One contained an elderly man of about sixty; the other, a young man in his early twenties.
If Flora Bloom were here, she might not have recognized them right away. In the three months since they had parted ways with her, their once-healthy bodies had become emaciated, their skin withered. Back then, the old man, though advanced in years, had only a few streaks of white in his hair. But now, his head was completely white, making him look incredibly ancient.
As for the young man, he wore only a pair of shorts. His bare torso was covered in a dense pattern of needle marks and bruises. His pallor, a result of chronic blood loss, made him look exhausted and miserable.
These two were none other than Flora Bloom’s former classmate, Mervin Warren, and the expert professor from Varden Village, Micah.
The cages were electrified not only to keep the prisoners away from the bars, but they also generated a special magnetic field, seemingly designed specifically to prevent their escape.
"Mervin, my boy, I’m the one who doomed you and your family! If it wasn’t for me, they never would have captured you."
"Professor Lawson, you don’t have to say that. This was just my fate. The only one to blame is me, for being too young and too quick to trust. If I had another chance, I would never have been so stupid as to believe that bastard!"
"Now we’re trapped in these iron cages with no way out. I’m an old man. If I die, I die. But you’re still so young!"
"..." Mervin Warren remained silent, his face etched with grief, his eyes filled with grim resolve. ’What was there left to hope for? His family was dead. He alone had survived, only to endure this inhuman torment.’
Suddenly, a face appeared in his mind—stunning, yet youthful. Delicate, exquisite, and utterly beautiful. ’If she were here,’ he thought, ’would things be different?’
’If only I hadn’t been in such a hurry to return to Argent back then. If I had just stayed by her side, maybe things would have turned out completely different.’
Mervin Warren’s body began to flicker in and out of existence inside the cage. He felt as if his breathing was about to stop. But in the midst of phasing, an electric current shot from the perimeter of the cage, jolting his body and forcing it to solidify back inside.
"Heh... If I can get out, I swear I’ll get you out with me! My family is gone. You’re the only one I know here now."
Every time Micah saw Mervin Warren in this state, so dejected that he no longer seemed to want to live, tears would stream down the old man’s face.
To prevent the professor from being bled and studied by those crazed researchers, Mervin Warren had revealed himself as a user of a rare superpower. He had taken Micah’s place, to be experimented on like an animal with no rights or autonomy, subjected to all manner of tests.
Suddenly, the lights in their isolation cell plunged into darkness. Not only that, but the electric hum from their cages also died out.
The wires had lost power. When Mervin Warren touched one, there was only a faint FZZT. A look of delight crossed his face. With a sharp tug, he ripped all the wires apart.
The man who had been inside the cage moments before suddenly vanished, reappearing an instant later outside of it.
"I... I’m out?" He had awakened a teleportation superpower, but by the time he’d realized it, his power was only at level one, and he had already been captured by the Thorne family for research.
Mervin Warren yanked the large lock off Micah’s cage, opened the door, and helped the professor out.
Both of them were superpower users, so theoretically, they should have been in excellent physical condition. However, they had been imprisoned for a long time, deprived of adequate food, clothing, and even water. While Mervin Warren had shielded Micah from the suffering of the experiments, Micah was old, and the long-term confinement had taken its toll on his body.
"Sigh... You go. Get as far away as you can! Don’t worry about me. If an old man like me dies, I die. I’m worthless to them."
Suddenly, Mervin Warren gripped the lock on the outside of Micah’s cage. Squeezing it hard, he pulled with both hands until the lock’s core was forcibly ripped out, and the body snapped with a sharp CRACK.
"Professor Lawson, we have to find a way to leave. The power just went out, so something must’ve happened. These people have been secretly kidnapping superpower users for their research. They were bound to mess with the wrong person sooner or later. I’d say this is it—they’re finally getting some payback!"
When the power went out, everyone in the lab began to panic. The researcher who had been about to draw Cynthia Grant’s blood, along with the other scientists in their white coats, all rushed out nervously to check the wiring.
But after trying for some time, they found they couldn’t contact the outside world. A powerful magnetic field seemed to be jamming all signals, making it impossible to send any messages.
Five watched the panicked crowd run around before patting Cynthia Grant’s cheek. He saw she was still unconscious.
’Looks like the Boss and the others are making their move!’
At that moment, Flora Bloom and Lex Cross were enveloped in black energy. They seemed to melt into the deepest darkness, able to vanish before everyone’s eyes without needing to rely on refracting light or hiding in shadows.
"Boss, I found the antidote!" The Crown Prince handed her a vial of pale-yellow liquid, which Flora Bloom immediately stored in her space.
"You guys get Cynthia Grant out of here. I’m going to find the entrance to the basement!" Flora Bloom said as she began searching for a switch or doorway.
With the power cut, the lab’s zero-degree temperature could no longer be maintained. Many of the machines lost power and began blaring alarms. The researchers ran about in chaos, but still, no one came to deal with the emergency.