Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary - Chapter 400

Chapter 400: Chapter 400 Serena’s Origins (2)
Avery’s mother continued to talk about her early days in the lab.

They typically performed uncomfortable tests on her for several hours each day, followed by class that focused mostly on weapons, subterfuge, and fighting techniques.

After listening for just a few minutes, it was apparent what the lab was looking for.

‘They were trying to build soldiers from the ground up. Grooming and experimenting on children.’ Avery thought, his anger growing as he learned more about his mother’s past.

She also talked about how whenever she or one of the other kids failed, they would be severely punished. Typically beaten by some of the mor sadistic researchers and deprived of food. And those that continuously fell below the arbitrary standards that were difficult for young kids to grasp often disappeared. Never to be seen again.

The longer he listened, the more Avery understood why his mother did not want to talk about her past and the reason she wanted to forget it forever.

Just receiving the secondhand account from her filled Avery with pain, so he could hardly fathom what it must have been like for her to live through it.

“But it was when I turned nine that things became really bad. That’s when they started the truly agonizing experiments.”

There was a haunted look in Serena’s eyes, and she paused for several seconds before continuing. Clearly gathering her thoughts and doing her best to disassociate her current self with the past.

“I remember the first time they put me under intense heat. They started at just above body temperature and slowly raised the temperature. I’d been sealed in a small box, and it was not until my skin started to redden and I felt a stinging sensation all over did I truly realize what was going on. I’d thought that I’d managed to harden my heart and toughen my mind and body by that point from everything else, but that first test showed me how wrong I really was.”

Serena recounted how she had screamed her lungs out and begged for them to stop for no avail until her throat was dry and course and there were blisters all over her body.

It was not until she collapsed and was on the verge of death that the torturous experiment was stopped and she was pulled out.

After she awoke, she was checked over by a number of people before being sent back to her room.

The next day, she returned to normal classes, but at the end of the week she was subjected to another cruel stress test that pushed her young body to its limits.

“Why were they doing something like that to you?” Avery asked, finally unable to just listen any longer.

It was so awful that he knew there was no reason his mother could give that would make him accept what she was put through. Still, he felt like it would be easier for him to follow if he at least knew what the heartless researchers were trying to accomplish.

“Ah, I suppose I should have explained that. I got caught up in telling you everything from the start and going in order. I didn’t find out the purpose of their experiments until much later, so I didn’t consider your confusion.”

Serena came out of an almost trance-like state when Avery asked her a question.

To not relive the events, his mother had been recounting her early life as if it were some ancient history and not something that had actually happened to her.

Avery felt a knot in his stomach and throat as he truly realized the horrors his mother had lived through and the lengths she had to go to just to not break down.

‘It’s like every day of her life was at least as bad as my worst moments. Even having several of my bones broken and nearly dying in my fight with Iniquus seems cute to some of the things she had to endure.’ Avery thought, doing his best to empathize with the brutalities his mother had been subjected to.

Once she had collected herself again and sorted out her thoughts, Serena told Avery what the objective of the facility that had raised her was.

“I’m still not sure exactly how they did this, but they had identified children with the potential to develop extraordinary abilities. I’m not sure if it was caused by some mutation, or the lineage of an ancestor that had possessed powers themselves, but myself and the other children were brought to our limits as a means to awaken our dormant capabilities.”

She described a few more of the tests that had been done to her.

There were times that strong electricity was shot through her body to the point that she felt like her insides were tearing apart. One time her heart had apparently stopped for a little over half a minute. At the time, she had truly thought she was going to die.

Other times she was exposed to highly radioactive substances, or her blood was injected with metal that quickly built up and made her sick.

Of course, since they were valuable test subjects, the researchers did their best to keep the children alive, but ultimately more than seventy percent of the kids that Serena remembered originally being in the same group with her were gone by the time she reached thirteen.

“I’m pretty sure that I was one of the last ones that developed a special ability before the cutoff. It was when they were filling my bloodstream with metal. It hurt so much and made me feel sick to the point of wanting to die. I always thought that it was one of the worst experiments they put me through, and that day I just needed it to stop or I was going to lose my mind.”

“Somehow my wish manifested itself and I forcefully pushed the metal back out of my body and destroyed the machines that I had been hooked up to. From what I heard later, I also killed two of the researchers, but they were only expendable grunts and were easily replaced.”

There was the slightest upturn in Serena’s lips as she mentioned killing two of the researchers that had been experimenting on her.

Avery found this a bit unsettling, since his mother had always been a very gentle person. Yet now she was describing people’s deaths that she had caused with a hint of merriment.

‘I guess I can understand. After so long she was finally able to get back at some of her tormentors. Even if only in some small way.’ Avery thought.

After awakening the power within her, Serena had been on the verge of death since she had forcefully extracted the metal in her body.

This had ruptured several of her blood vessels and ripped holes in her flesh.

Of course, the lab she had been in was not going to let a successful test subject like her die easily, and she was treated with the best medical equipment around to keep her alive.

“Once I woke up, some of the higher ups came to meet with me and congratulated me on my awakening. They said a bunch of complicated things at the time that I didn’t really understand, but I know now that I was being treated like some sort of technological breakthrough rather than a person. Still, that was the point where I thought my life might finally improve. And it did for a time. But it was all just a faced to control me.” Serena said, her voice laced with bitterness.

Now that she was one of the few children that had successfully awakened, she was given her own room that was far nicer than the shared accommodations she had previously lived in.

“I’d gone my entire life living in a cramped space with dozens of other girls. With the only thing to call my own being my bunk in the middle of one of the eight bunk beds that went from the ground to the ceiling and were as small as possible to save space. At first it felt like I had gone to some sort of paradise. I had a large fluffy bed and could adjust the climate settings as I liked. My meals also vastly improved. Before we had been fed what was essentially just a nutritional paste. It was at best lacking in flavor and at worst tasted awful.”

Avery’s mother believed that depending on which people were providing food on any given day determined whether it would be bad or not. The individuals that got a sick enjoyment out of seeing the children in their facility suffer tended to be the ones that would provide the nastiest food.

However, that had all changed for Serena. Being one of the special successes, she was given access to delicious food for the first time and even provided with a rare confection on occasion.

Now she realized that it was really just normal food from an average autochef, but at the time, it had been like the finest cuisine to her.

“Obviously, my blissful state did not last long. When I had fully recovered, it was time for more tests that focused on using my powers. It was hard to begin with, and every time I failed to produce desired results saw me berated and punished. The researchers may not have known exactly why, but they had discovered that a stronger emotional state brought out our powers. So, they had no reason to stop their cruelty. The only real difference from before was that the rewards for success were a little bit sweeter. Nothing more.” Serena said, wearing a somber expression.