"You know which ward they're keeping all of Hobo Beard's test subjects?" I ask The Voice while backtracking out of the staff annex.

The Voice rumbles as it considers my question, "From the hospital records, it is ward B5, in the second floor of the hospital's treatment wing. It is a restricted access ward, but other than a locked door, there does not appear to be any security guarding it."

Seems like a low risk diversion, even though it might not turn up anything useful. There's no harm in paying the place a visit since I am already here. After arriving back at the hospital's exterior, I openly stride through the main entrance this time, since it is the fastest way to reach the treatment wing. Just beyond the entrance, I am met with a reception counter with a few people milling about it listlessly. The receptionist does not bother looking up from the glossy celebrity magazine she is reading and I make my way to the lifts completely unnoticed.

"Great service. Much impressed." I comment while entering the lift and punching in the button for the second floor.

"The rumored love affair between the Hero and his adoptive sister have set the printing presses afire." The Voice notes, "The story has all the ingredients bored women eat up, a good looking couple, a taboo relationship and a noble inheritance at stake."

"But the Hero and Brocon haven't gotten busy yet." I point out.

"No." The Voice rasps, "Nevertheless, the people gathering around the pair are not blind. The relationship building up between the Hero and Heroine von Amsterg has nothing in common with regular sibling love."

"Cool. Hero man's making progress on one front at least." I reply, "But what about his actual training? Loli vampire is going to be a handful."

The Voice hesitates for a moment before answering, "So far so good. The Hero makes rapid progress under the tutelage of Inspector Scott. Unfortunately, Inspector Scott is not powerful enough to truly prepare the Hero to face Marshal St Clair. The Hero's progress will soon plateau and we may need to get directly involved with his training in order to ensure success of the plan."

Yeah, I was worried about that happening. Loli vampire completely owned Big Tits the last time the two of them fought. The Hero plateauing would not have been a problem originally, since he would have, in theory, been able to train under Chance, a master who is far more powerful than Big Tits. Unfortunately, as we now know, that's yet another trap laid by Fate to derail the Hero's destiny. For good or ill, we need to keep Big Tits as the Hero's mentor until this whole affair is over.

"You want me to slap the Hero about some more?" I ask, "His core output improved quite a bit from just one or two blows from me."

The Voice muses, "If it becomes necessary. Hopefully other opportunities will arise for the Hero to strengthen himself before we are forced to act in such a heavy handed manner."

I bite back laughter saying, "Everything we've done so far is pretty much the text book definition of 'heavy handed'. Subtlety isn't exactly your style."

"How subtle can I be when the natives cannot even understand me?" The Voice complains, "I have to communicate in the universal language."

"Which is?" I query as the lift comes to a stop and its doors slide open.

"Violence." The Voice rasps.

....

I peek around the corner and eyeball the doors to ward B5. The corridor is completely empty, with the exception of some nondescript guy slouched on a cheap plastic chair attached to the wall, snoring away. A pass card reader has been built into the wall next to the ward doors, blinking away in angry red.

"Notice anything unusual?" I ask The Voice.

"That man is merely pretending to be asleep." The Voice pronounces.

"That's not all." I say, "I'm looking at the guy's spiritual nimbus right now, he's using it to sweep the area, like a radar scan. The nimbus is also really dense, almost as thick as the one Big Tits was projected while we fought at Phase One earlier."

"Most unusual." The Voice notes, "Mages the level of Inspector Scott are relatively rare. They would not be wasted doing something as mundane as guard duty."

"Think back." I whisper, "The black site. The guards posted at the inner chamber were also close to Big Tit's power level. You see a pattern emerging?"

"A fair point." The Voice rumbles, "How are you going to get past this guard then? If he is as devoted to his job as the black site guards are, our man here is likely to shrug off any mental suggestions you may try to use."

"No harm in trying. I'm still in a public area after all." I say and begin openly walking towards the ward while activating the artificial core.

Although the guard continues snoring, the scan his spiritual nimbus is emanating immediately locks on to me. I focus and mind blast the guard as I approach.

Ignore.

But the scan does not waver the slightest. Whomever this guy is, he is totally committed to protecting this ward. Only one thing for it then.

"Hey man." I say as I approach the guard and begin shaking him, "You know where the toilet is? I need to piss real bad." The only response I receive is continued snoring from the guard. Have to give it to him, he's really into his role here.

My left arm immediately snaps round the guards neck and begins to squeeze like a python. His eyes open with full alertness and he attempts to flare his spirit core in an attempt at powering out of my hold. Its too late though. My arm crushes his carotid artery with precision and overwhelming force in a perfect choke out. The guard's struggles quickly subside and I allow him to slump back into the chair. I follow up by smacking the guard hard across the head with the baton for good measure.

"You probably caused brain damage right there." The Voice says dryly.

"Oh hush. At least I managed to keep him alive. Its an improvement from the warehouse at least." I remark before swiping the universal pass across the card reader. The reader responds with a friendly beep and the doors to the ward unlock.

The smell of antiseptic assaults my nose the moment I enter the ward. Surrounding me in neat rows are probably beds, can't tell for sure because all the privacy curtains have been drawn up. By the side of the ward I see whats probably a duty station, a sad looking table and office chair combo coupled with a telephone, with a young doctor sitting there dozing away for real, drool flowing freely down his face. A pair of rooms are located right at the end of the ward, both with their doors tightly closed. Music from the radio and laughter drifts over from that direction though. The staff are off skiving in one of those rooms then?

I shake my head and turn to one of the privacy curtains, lifting is aside. If no one here is remotely bothered about their jobs, it gives me the chance to get up close and personal with some of the patients. Maybe I could question them about what kind of research is actually taking place here.

"Shit!" I hiss in alarm as I take in the patient lying on the bed in front of me, "Are you seeing this?"

"What about it?" The Voice rumbles disinterestedly, "Its just a cat girl."

No. That is no cat girl. For one, the patient before me has her cat ears growing out of her forehead. I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen. She also has a thankfully normal set of human ears at their normal position. Even more freakishly, there's a cat's mouth protruding horrifically out of the patient's right cheek.

I swallow hard and inspect the freak show closer. Checking the patient's hands, I notice that she has not ten, but fifteen fingers, with the extra fingers bearing razor sharp claws. A broken halo flickers weakly around the patient's body, and I carefully roll the comatose woman onto her stomach and undo her hospital gown. My stomach sinks when I see a pair of stubby wings growing haphazardly out of the woman's back.

I pick up the patient's diagnostic record pinned to a board tied to the bed frame. No name there. The record just refers to freak show as "Unity Prospect - Subject 506".

What in the world?