"I see you're awake little thief," Michael smirked, as he bored his gaze on Thorne.
Throne's eyes darkened, and he asked cautiously.
"Who are you?"
[He is the person who brought you here while you were passed out.] HORUS' voice came through immediately, [And yes, by "little thief," he is implying he knows of our shared existence.]
Throne's expression darkened.
"I think I'm the one in charge of asking questions here little rat," Michael answered smoothly, stepping forward, till he found a seat by the corner, and plopped down to it.
"So tell me, do you realize the height of what you have done?"
Thorne was silent. Did he know how much trouble he was in right now? Yes. Was he really in trouble? He doubted so... Or at least he had, before he found out that there was someone else that knew what happened.
While he did have a level of familiarity with the crew after working with them for almost three months, it wasn't to the level where he would drown himself in grief at their passing.
He had originally joined them, to utilize them for information gathering. If there was one group who had access to information only slightly lesser than governmental authorities, and in some cases, even better than said authorities, it was mercenaries.
With their access to information and information hub, plus his own intelligence, he had promoted his father into a police officer that now worked in the outer sector, with the man, being none the wiser.
And even there where he was now, he was praised for his incredibly high deduction and crime solving ability, while Theron orchestrated his success from behind.
These three months, had no doubt brought them close, close enough he could even call them friends, albeit distant friends, but it wasn't to the level it would cloud his rational judgement.
If wishes were horses, he would wish HORUS had not killed them, but he already understood HORUS' reason, even before asking him why.
Now that there was someone else who was aware, he suddenly did not know what to do.
[You cannot beat him. Not with your current ability. Infact, I was only able to save your life, ironically because you were unconscious, thus the overload of neural signals and exponential increase in strength, from using a stage-3 combat module, did not fry your brain.]
HORUS' voice echoed in his head.
[He on the other hand is a Stage-4, he would have killed us before I could swap out the Stage-3 module, for a Stage-4. Not to mention that you'd have instantly died from overload, should he have waited enough for the swap.]
"Seeing your silence and continuous change in expression, I'm pretty sure you know just how much deep shit you're in." Michael's voice sliced through their inner discussion.
"Don't worry though, I don't plan on killing you. You're far useful to me alive," he continued.
"Although I'd have liked to study you through experimentations or even ripped out the strange artifact myself... let's say your friend managed to convince me otherwise."
"Why?" Throne asked.
"I'm pretty sure I just said the reason didn't I?" Michael answered, as he stood up. "A test would be run on you now, I'll be back later."
Without another word, he left, closing the door behind him.
"Stage-4 huh?" Thorne muttered. "You mentioned Stage-3 and 4 combat modules, meaning there are those stronger and weaker than them right? And what exactly are these modules?".
At his question, a screen popped up in his vision through Aegis Protocol, depicting seven mech suits of varying sizes and colors.
[These are the available modules, from Stage-1 to 7. Each has three forms, namely; attack, speed, and camouflage.]
Before the could continue, the door slid open again, and a chubby doctor walked in, eyes sizing Throne up before giving a faint nod.
"The esteemed guest must have informed you already, but I'll be needing to run some tests on you." The doctor said, and Thorne nodded in reply.
He led Thorne to an open space in the room, and the ground split open, revealing a glass pod that slowly rose up to the surface on its platform.
"Step in," the doctor ordered professionally, and Thorne followed.
As he stepped into it, small mechanic hands guided wires to certain parts of his body, and strapped them to it, then proceeded to do the same with some incredibly thin tubes, with needle like tips, that unceremoniously pierced into his sick.
"You'd feel some minor discomfort, as well as discharge and movement of benign static electricity, into your body. Apologies in advance. The doctor said, as though asking for his permission.
Thorne nodded, and the doctor pressed a button on the pod, while his gaze flickered to one of the many monitors in the room.
Like he said, Thorne immediately felt a tingle through his body, that continued for a while, making his body twitch slightly, and cells vibrate.
[An attempt is made at obtaining knowledge of your body's anatomy. Would you like me to permit access?]
"You can do that?" Thorne almost asked, but held back at the last second.
[I can interrupt the attempt, causing it to display a normal human biology. Currently you have six affinities, all awakened. Namely; fire, water, earth, wind, metal, and psychic affinities. By the standards of this world, that is abnormal, do I continue?]
Thorne was stunned. Six affinities! While he was intelligent and maybe arrogant, he had never deluded himself to thinking he was some sort of chosen one, even after getting HORUS, but now he was hearing he had six affinities!
Again he wanted to ask a question, but wasn't able to.
[With your permission, I can read your thoughts, hence we would be able to communicate. As for what I guess you want to ask, yes I can select what affinities the test would be able to capture.]
'Read my mind then,' Thorne decided internally with a sigh.
'And display just three. Psychic, metal, and whatever affinity you used in taking down the Stage-3s last night.'
[Understood]
The doctor was just wondering why it was taking too long for a feedback, when his biological map, began to showcase three cluster of cells that shimmered differently... Two at his heart, and one at his brain stem.
'Three affinities!' the doctor's heart practically leaped out of his chest.
Throne had a reason for displaying that though. Three affinities was rare, very rare that it was almost one in ten million, but wasn't impossible. Currently, there were two humans known to have that much.
He could have gone for two which while uncommon, was less shocking, but decided three, one to improve his societal standing, which would definitely help his father.
It was his method of apologizing for putting the man in immense stress Thorne knew he would be going through now, searching for him.
The second was oddly because of Michael. While Michael had said he planned on doing nothing to him, he wanted to elevate his importance to him, so he would have his protection for one, and as a statement of saying, this artifact, did not just bond with anyone.
He knew how the top dogs worked. While it would be beneficial for Michael to give HORUS to one of the known tri-affinity humans, it was far more beneficial it was with one under your control.
Not like he intended on being controlled, but this would have to do for now.
After that, the test was wrapped up, and the doctor left after recording the data, leaving Thorne to his own devices.
Some hours later, Michael was back, and led them out of the room to another.
Just when the reached another wing of the same floor, HORUS' voice resounded gravely in his head
[Abnormal entity detected within range of host]