Chapter Text
Project: Icarus
Date: April 8th, XXXX
Name: Dr. Quentin J. Barlowe
Report
It has been 334——————ys since the activation of Project: Icarus and so far the subject has been a resoun——— success. ICA01, otherwise known as ‘Icarus’ has continued to exc— in all of its tr———ng. The— ———-n no inst———es of ——————ordination towards its handlers nor an— violent or hos————behavior towards either of its teammates. It has a clear understan——g of its orders from handler L37HE and fol——s through with them effectively and efficiently.
Along with its phy——al prowess, ICA01’s strategic abil—— and intelligence is —————————————— and will continue to gr———s its training continues. Thoughts of increasing the difficulty of its training have been cons————ed and a request has been sent through to the ———————————rmation, we are awaiting reply.
ICA01 has been repor——— to exhibit protective behavior towards su——ects L37HE, and D43D4LU5, from Project: Lethe and Project: Daedalus respectively, which, while ex————d and encouraged, will have to b———————— potential drawbacks that may arise if———— behavior towards its other han————————
Phil frowned deeply, lifting his head from the half-destroyed research paper, he surveilled the room again. Overturned desks, chairs, and file cabinets littered the floor, files upon files destroyed in what looked like a fire, which wouldn’t be too far-fetched, if it weren’t for the fact that it was only this room that looked like it had been on fire instead of the whole building.
His team members, Error, Dream, and Volaxus were spread out across the room inspecting various objects. Error was hunched over one of the only intact computers while Dream leaned over his shoulder, and Volaxus stood in front of the large panel window at the end of the room.
They were currently on floor LL-C of the Asphodel Labs organization, it was well past midnight and Philza was part of Group C for the post-battle search team. They were looking for any potential Asphodel members that had hid among the wreckage of the building.
The Asphodel Labs, named after the Meadow of Asphodel from Greek Mythology, was an organization where souls went to lose themselves. If those who joined the Labs’ cause had a soul to begin with. Those who did, lost it beneath the concrete of the building.
The Asphodel Labs was an organization known for its inhumane ways of science and experimentation, specializing in genetic engineering and human experimentation, it turned innocent civilians into monstrous creations trapped within their own minds, with only a lust for destruction left in their wake. The Asphodels had been a blight and dark shadow over the city for years, ever since Philza was a teenager and had lost his parents in one of their attacks.
Today, they were finally taken down. Not a single soul was left behind, Philza and a handful of other heroes had been chosen to take on the task of raiding their base — which, after years of being unknown, had finally been revealed — and arresting the scientists in charge of the lab, as well as every member inside the place.
The fight had taken hours, but eventually upon the defeat of the leaders of the organization — named Kronos and Epimetheus — Asphodel finally began to surrender. Kronos and Epimetheus were locked into heavily armored vans and transported to Pandora upon arrest, while the scientists, doctors, experimenters, and gruntwork employees were arrested into normal vans and taken to prison.
Post-battle, the heroes were split into three groups of four. Phil’s team was sent into the lower levels of the Asphodel, starting at B1 while the other two groups were given the ground floors and up. They were finally clearing the last floor underground when they came across one of the many observation rooms, this one heavily destroyed.
None of the rooms Philza and his team had come across were destroyed, not purposely, not like this. Someone — something — wanted whatever was in here gone.
“Have you gotten anything on ‘Project: Icarus?’, Error?” Phil asked, turning his head towards the dark-haired hero. Error let out an annoyed huff and shook his head, the downturn of a frown on his face as gloved fingers flew across the screen.
“No,” Error said with a frustrated growl, “Whatever Project: Icarus is, Asphodel doesn’t want our hands on it. It’s behind some of the toughest firewalls I’ve ever seen, it might take me months or years to crack this.” Over his shoulder, Dream patted his friend’s shoulder consolingly.
Phil’s frown deepened. That… was not ideal. He glanced down at the file in his hand, it was one of the few that had survived whatever came through and destroyed everything. Half of it was burned from the middle down, the edges were singed and soot covered some of the words still visible. However, it was in much better shape than any of the other files, and gave them somewhere to start and something to look for.
The winged hero approached his two temporary teammates. “Look for anything with ICA01, L37HE, or D43D4LU5 in it,” Phil ordered, placing the file down next to Error. He looked over to Volaxus, who still stood in front of the panel window with his arms crossed over his chest. “What do you see, Sam?”
Volaxus — Sam — glanced towards Phil briefly before turning back to the window. Despite his goggles and mask, Phil could sense the man’s frown and he headed over to him. “It looks like a room,” Sam said quietly as Phil came to a stop next to him.
“It might be ICA01’s,” Phil offered, the thought settled uncomfortably in his chest. Asphodel had a nasty habit of referring to its victims as ‘its’ as if the people they experimented on weren’t human at all, but simply objects. The room was dark, the lights fizzled out, but Phil could make out a small, dingy bed in the corner with a dresser right next to it. On the opposite side of the room was exercise equipment of various types. There was a small, square wooden table with two chairs turned over on their sides near the center of the room. There were objects on the floor that were too small and too dark for him to make out, but he thinks he saw feathers.
“Do you think they made it out?” Sam asked lowly, his eyes not leaving from where he was staring at the open door at the side of the room. They hadn’t gotten to the hallway with that door yet, but Phil knew that they’d get to it soon, they could have a better look then.
Phil hummed unsurely, “Perhaps,” he answered, there weren’t any sightings of anyone leaving during the battle, but ICA01 might have snuck out through a back way. “If they were still here, they would have been found by now.” There was nowhere else to hide, no more rooms below this one to go to, if ICA01 escaped, they would have had to go up.
His mind drifted to the two other names listed on the file. “Icarus might have escaped with Lethe and Daedalus,” at the mention of the names, Sam glanced at him.
“Icarus?”
Phil nodded. “It was in their file,” he refused to refer to three human beings with such dehumanizing codenames. “ICA01, otherwise known as ‘Icarus’; The file mentioned that they were protective of two other subjects called D43D4LU5 and L37HE, it sounds like they were supposed to be a team.”
Sam’s brows furrowed with concern. “Asphodel has never done teams before.” It was always a singular, overpowered mutation sent out to wreak havoc on the city. Multiple heroes were usually sent out to defeat one of Asphodel’s creatures, the city was still recovering from their last experiment from over a month ago, M3DU5A. “What do you think they were planning?”
Phil shrugged, frowning heavily, “I don’t know,” he said, trying to ignore the pit in his stomach at the thought of Asphodel creating a team of experiments. They had enough trouble defeating one of the Lab’s pets, defeating three made to work together? He hates what could have happened if they had been completed.
“Whoever Icarus is, they, Daedalus, and Lethe are long gone.”