The facility was larger than Harper had originally thought. It extended upwards almost seventeen stories before grinding to a halt. The first few floors dealt with the ground work; mostly military and the general leaders of this large group of people. Their jobs were to secure the unregistered technology by any means necessary. The next few were practically overflowing with computers and tracking equipment. The workers there had the boring job of actually locating anything of interest.

The other levels were completely different. They were for practical research. That meant actually handling these potentially dangerous tools...breaking them down and studying every last detail. Harper watched through curious eyes as they lugged large carts of alien metal and weaponry around. It was difficult not to swipe one for her own research.

The higher they climbed, the more intensive the experiments became. On the sixteenth floor they were proceeding with human trials. They selected a few volunteers, all amputees, and attempted to fit various examples of alien technology onto their bodies; to replace what they had lost. The limbs made from fairly basic or humanly comprehensible materials were moderately successful, but as soon as they tried to use something that was even a quarter of Victor's complexity...well, it didn't end well. The screaming still rang in Harper's ears.

Upon entering the seventeenth floor, Harper had been asked to remove her chassis. Primarily because it contained sensitive equipment and top secret research. They couldn't risk any of it leaking out, and Harper's model Val (though not made for hacking like Athena) still had the ability to do that.

The metal chest split open, and folded in on itself to reveal the relatively small woman. She stepped out, ignoring the stare that Bobby was directing towards her, and sauntered into the elevator. Wordlessly, Bobby pressed the button with an oddly designed '6' and the doors closed. He reached into his pocket, taking out a carton of cigarettes and offered her one.

"You a smoker?" He finally asked after several seconds passed without so much as a reaction from Harper.

The woman's shoulders slumped, and with a sigh, she took one of the cancer sticks from its packaging. She hadn't thought about these things in years. "I used to be."

Not even bothering to address this clear oxymoron, Bobby leaned over with a lighter in hand and grazed the bright flame against the end of her cigarette. It lit up almost immediately and greyed streams of smoke began circling into the air. Harper brought the tab to her lips and drew in, long and deep. The ashy taste of tobacco scratched against her tongue; foul but strangely satisfying. It was certainly enough to remind her how addicted she had once been to them.

Before the elevator could become filled with this blinding smoke the doors opened. Bobby was the first to step out, attempting to lead the way for Harper who didn't seem to be following him. When he glanced over his shoulder he saw the woman leaning against a nearby wall, cigarette hanging from her mouth and hands massaging the temple on either side of her forehead. She looked sick. Very sick.

"Something wrong, Specialist?" Bobby asked, his blue eyes piercing through the dim corridor.

Harper swallowed the bile that threatened to claw through her throat and inhaled sharply. It took a few seconds but she managed to regain her composure. She'd been feeling like this a lot lately. It was one of the many perks of having your body start to attack itself.

"No." Harper managed to say in a somewhat steady voice, straightening herself up again and walking over to the cybernetically augmented man. She took another puff of her cigarette. "Let's keep going."

Bobby planted his only organic hand into the shallow pocket of his pants and analysed Harper suspiciously. It was apparent that something was amiss, but as long as it didn't compromise his mission, he didn't much care. With a huff of exasperation, he continued walking forward with Harper trailing closely behind. This floor was much dimmer than the rest, and instead of having rooms cut off from the main hallway, it sported long lines of steel glass windows that allowed a small view into each area.

The first room was simply full of massive machinery, all connected to one computer. Harper could only assume that it controlled most of the newly built tech; including the electromagnet holding Victor in place. The next few housed, primarily, the very limited amount of alien tech still attached to a living organism. Harper stopped in front of one.

A creature unlike any she had ever seen was strapped to a table made of reinforced titanium. It had green tinged skin and wings that hung limply on its back, much like what she'd heard a Parademon to look like. There were people surrounding the screeching monster. One was taking notes on their laptop, whilst the other cut open it's abdomen with a massive laser. It screamed, but didn't die. That's when Harper realised that there were an array of pipes and tubes that were feeding into its flesh...keeping it alive as it's body was torn in half.

"Don't you think that's a little excessive?" Harper said, trying not to sound too disturbed by the cries of pain that creature was making. She had seen worse. Much worse...but on this particular day it seemed to disturb her more than most.

"I assure you it's completely necessary. We made a breakthrough recently that showed Apokoliptian technology reacting differently depending on its host's status." Bobby explained with a clear, unwavering voice. "If they're dead, it starts shutting down too. If we want to study it the subject has to be alive."

Harper chewed on her bottom lip, then took another draw of her cigarette to calm her nerves. It didn't work. "And you're planning on doing this with Victor, I assume?"

Bobby didn't hesitate to respond "We don't have much choice. This is the only way to get a reading on his technology. Does that bother you?"

Yes. It did. The thought of him being awake and conscious as they stripped each limb from his body was almost painful. He didn't ask to be a cyborg, but he was paying for it anyway. Still, she had to remind herself that it was for the greater good. With so many people concerned with their own relationships and personal affairs, there had to be at least one person looking out for the general public; to choose the prospect of a better world over their own feelings. Harper was willing to be that person.

"It doesn't matter whether it does or doesn't bother me. If it needs to be done, then that's the end of the discussion."

Zirrozinski huffed in relative amusement. "A soldier through and through, huh?"

"If this is going to help the people that need it then, yeah, I suppose so."

"It'll do more than that." He said, as if these words were meant to be reassuring. "This technology could vastly improve our species. Imagine it. There'd be no death...no aging. We could ascend into something else. Something better."

This definitely grabbed Harper's attention, but not in the way Bobby had probably hoped. She had thought that this was about saving lives...helping people that needed it, but she had never considered that those good intentions could extend to something more. Something vile. They wanted everyone to be like Victor. Not just those that were desperate. They wanted a new order. A new race of superhumans. In that image she could see a version of her younger self; the woman that had once been obsessed with having power over death. She had long since learned that there were much worse things than everyone's eventual demise.

Zirrozinski's gaze wandered over to her, and now more than ever, she felt as if he was a predator analysing another feral animal; trying to figure out if she was prey or a fellow ravenous creature. Harper managed to keep her expression bereft of all emotion and nodded. "You paint a pretty picture."

"I'm glad you realise how important this research is." Bobby sounded sincere when he said this, or at least convinced that she believed in his vision. As soon as his state left her, though, Harper let out a quiet breathe of air. She had been holding it the entire time without even realising. "Your loyalty will be remembered when we finally perfect the process. You'll be one of the first to undergo the treatment. I'm sure you'll be glad to get rid of those suits."

Harper's lips twisted into a wry smile but she didn't respond. There was no reply that she could give to his delusions of grandeur. Instead, she concentrated all of her effort into her neural implant. That was the one thing that Bobby hadn't suspected when he asked her to keep Val on the last level; that she had less obvious means of interfering with their experiments. This chassis wasn't designed for advanced hacking...that was Athena's specialty, but that didn't mean that Val was useless in such situations.

Harper knew enough about Apokoliptian technology, through watching Victor, to deduct that these constant intrusions from the science team would be taking up much of its computational capacity. It would, hopefully, lead to a momentary gap in its software firewall. One that she could utilise.

It didn't take long for Val to pinpoint this opening that appeared once every five seconds and held itself open for a single attosecond before cycling shut again. It slipped a bugged data packet through the firewall's entry point, one designed to temporarily disable its key life support functions. Then the alien creature, and its technology, started violently convulsing. The scientists stuck in the room with it all jumped back in shock and fear.

"What's goin' on in there?!" Zirrozinski yelled over the frantic discussions of the scientists. They didn't answer. It was a miracle if they could even hear him over their own voices.

Knowing that any delay would risk the complete demolishment of this building, Harper squashed her cigarette into a nearby ashtray and hurried to the door, trying to pry it open. It didn't budge.

"And where the hell do you think you're going?" Bobby hissed again.

"Let me in there. I can help."

Bobby scoffed. "How could you possibly know anything about this?"

"That parademon's central power source is about to rupture. Those idiots must've nicked it with the tissue laser." Harper answered hastily. "Open this door, or we all die."

Though sceptical, Bobby obeyed. In one fluid movement he pressed his palm onto the ID scanner by the door, waited for a confirming chirp, and pushed the door open. Harper rushed in and immediately went for the terminal controlling the plasma cutting lasers that the scientists were using to slice open the parademon. She slapped a series of commands on the keyboard, overcharging the tissue laser's power cell.

"If that battery detonates with the parademon's life support at low integrity, it'll level this building." She explained.

Zirrozinski hurried over to the operating table and scowled at the shaking alien being. "Can you fix it?"

"I should be able to overheat the torch, turn it into a welding arc. Hopefully, if I seal the battery leak, it'll stabilise."

Harper worked away on the computer, adjusting the mechanical arm with precision. As she feigned these manoeuvres, she also sent neural signals to Val, commanding it to withdraw the virus that was actually causing the parademon's dangerous condition.

Finally, the power cell breach was melted shut. Harper faked a sigh of relief and announced "Okay...emissions are normalising."

In correspondence to her words, the creature stopped its seizures. There was an almost universal exhale of breath.

"Seems we owe you another debt, specialist." Zirrozinski stated with a tense smile.

"This technology is pretty unstable. Your people should be more careful in the future."

Bobby didn't get a chance to respond before a woman draped in a stark white laboratory coat rushed in. "Mister Zirrozinski, the cyborg's awake."

"Good. I'll prep him for travel." Bobby nodded, gaze swiftly flicking back to Harper. "Would you like to say your goodbyes?"

Harper ran a hand through her dark brown hair. "Nah. I'd better stay up here encase this thing malfunctions again."

It was a long shot, but after saving them from the supposed 'threat', Bobby appeared a little more open to the idea of her presence on level 6. He glanced at the researchers for any sign of disapproval, but there was none. They surely though that Harper understood this technology better than they ever could.

"Very well. Alert me if there are any problems."

With that, Bobby Zirrozinski strolled into the elevator with the woman that had just arrived. His cold eyes never left her. Not until the doors closed and they were transported down to the ground level.

"So, how should we proceed, specialist?" One of the scientists asked. Harper allowed herself a glance at the woman's name tag. It said that her name was Doctor Evelyn McQuarrie.

Harper wrapped a finger to her chin, feigning deep thought as she slowly stepped towards the door. There were six people, in total, within that room; four scientists and two security guards. Ten more in the other laboratory stations. She could easily sneak through the complex and avoid being caught, but her problem remained within this room. All six people would very much notice if she went missing...and she needed to get to that computer in the central control room. The one that operated the electromagnet. It needed to be shut down via manual input...it was on a shielded and isolated network, so that meant no remote hacking.

First, she had to deal with the people that could sound the alarm. There were two guards both armed with communications devices, for example, but engaging them head on was not a good idea. Outside of her powered suits she was only human... Her overall fitness was slightly above average since many of her suits required some kind of physical strength to operate, but it was not at the level at which she could fight two armed guards at once and win.

Directing most of her attention through the neural implant, she managed to connect Model Val to the rest of the building's mainframe. Val lacked the ability to cause a total power failure, but it could definitely cause a distraction to buy Harper some breathing room.

There was a sudden bang from the hallway as Val caused a power surge in the maintenance panel's fuse array. A 'clang' followed, indicating the panel's hatch covering being blown from it and hitting the ground.

Both guards jolted to attention. "The hell was that?" One muttered.

The scientists tensed up, not entirely thrilled that they had to worry about a parademon and a potential intruder. Slowly but surely, the soldiers crept up to the door.

Harper quickly stated "One of you should stay in here and keep a rifle on the test subject. He could get violent."

After sharing a glance, the men separated. One slunk into the hallway with their gun shouldered. As he went out of sight, the other guard reluctantly peered over at the parademon. Harper turned to the scientists. "Hey...I need a molecular readout of this thing's armour, a higher output tissue laser, a high-powered microscope, and records of all your previous experiments."

All four of them scrunched their faces up in disbelief. The guard sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Look...she's doing your jobs better than you guys are. Just do what she says, okay?"

Begrudgingly, the men and women all splintered off to seperate corners of the room to accomodate Harper's bogus requests. Then, she was left alone at the operating table with the guard. She wasted no time in whacking him over the head, causing him to fumble forward and drop his gun. The idle hum of the charged plasma torch masked the sound from each busy scientist. Then, she swiftly pushed one hand against his mouth and an arm around his neck. He struggled, but his mind was hazy from the hit. It didn't take long before she'd smothered him to unconsciousness. She let his body down slowly, and still the machines deafened the scientists from each small thump.

Ensuring to remain calm, Harper slid over to the door and waited patiently for it to slide open. The last guard had returned. He had barely managed to take four steps into the room before she did the same to him; strangling him until any form of awareness slipped away.

The researchers still didn't stir from their duties, but it wouldn't be long before they turned to find their protectors motionless on the ground. Harper had to act quickly.

She somehow managed to get Val to turn off all communications within the room, and then as she stepped out of the lab, encouraged Val to lock the door behind her. When the scientists finally turned, holding the products Harper had requested, they were completely sealed in...with no way to call for help.

Grinning at her handiwork, Harper dashed into the control room. She took to the terminal, engaged a search function to locate the controls for the electromagnet array holding Victor captive, then opened said operation. Harper disabled the device with a few swift keystrokes. What came next was an almighty 'bang' that shook the very foundations of the building. It was coming from downstairs. She took this as a sign that Victor was free.