I dragged myself away from the still-burning compound. Once I had gone a safe distance, I rose to a sitting position. I had spent two months in that hell. Two months. I was surprised that I had lasted that long. I remembered the head scientist, the one calling himself the Doctor. He had probably escaped at the last minute. In fact, I had watched him run toward a reinforced door. I'd bet anything the room was bombproofed, or had an underground tunnel underneath it, or was an escape pod or something. I knew the Doctor had backup plan after backup plan, because his higher-ups wanted him alive, and wanted him to stay that way. He apparently was quite important to them, otherwise he probably would be dead now. I remembered his last words to me.

There were fires everywhere, and the lab was almost completely destroyed. The Doctor staggered to a room that appeared to have a reinforced door. before he closed the door, the Doctor turned to me. He showed me a symbol: three mostly white rings, with a black segment on each, each outside the other. The centermost ring's black segment pointed left, the middle ring's segment pointing right. The final, outermost ring's black segment pointed straight up to the sky. I still remember those words he said to me. "Decode the cipher."

The distant chop-chop of helicopter blades snapped me out of my memories. I heard the footsteps of a heavyset man walking across the now blackened grass, stopping right before me. The man had slicked-back brown hair, wore an orange suit with a green undershirt, and had a Persian by his side.

"Those fools thought that they could control you. They saw you as an experiment. I, however, see you as something much more formidable." the orange-suited man boomed out.
I cocked my head in confusion. "What do you mean by that?" I asked the man. He simply smiled. "I see you," he replied,"As a valuable partner. I can make you stronger, faster, more agile." I looked at him then asked; "How?" He replied vauguely. "You will have to trust me. But I can assure you, by the end of this, you will be the strongest being in the world." I looked at him, somewhat suspicious, but decided to play along anyway. "Show me." I commanded of him. That was my first mistake. Trusting a man that I had just met, and who turned out to be a criminal.

Still, I had trusted him at the time, and followed him into his helicopter. Over the noise of the propellers, one had to shout to be heard. "Where are we going?" I near-yelled at him. My only reply was silence.

When we arrived and stepped into the building, the first thing I noticed was the ceiling, vaulting up to darkness. There was a viewing platform at one end of the room, with what appeared to be normal glass protecting it. He led me to the back of the room, to a station with what seemed to be armor with huge cables attached.                                                                

I felt, rather than heard, the armor click into place. "What is this?" I asked. "It limits my power." The man I had come to know as Giovanni smiled. "Your powers are not being suppressed, quite the contrary, they are being focused. Now, as you you were trained." He snapped and pointed his index and middle finger towards an Onix. I foucused the energy in me, completely aware but not of the large, darkened room around me, and blasted the Onix with a powerful Psychic. I had easily completed tasks such as this before, and this was no different. Still, I sighed. But what is my purpose?

I had approached Giovanni about this several times, but he had always answered cryptically. This time, however, he seemed to be fed up with me. "Go back to your chambers!" "Not until you answer my question." I replied colly, crossing my arms. "Fine. You want to know what your purpose is? Your purpose is to serve me, your master." "No." I whispered. "What?" he asked me, the edge of anger clearly present in his voice. "No. You created me, and you betrayed me. I am no one's slave. You seek only to use me. This cannot be my destiny!" I began at a normal tone, but with every word I grew louder until finally, when I had yelled my loudest, I realeased a wave of psychic energy, tearing off the restricting armor and half destroying the shadowed room around me. "Stop this at once!" Giovanni yelled. The fool. I thought. He still believes that he can control me. I turned to the sky and flew through a hole in the ceiling, pieces of the man's accursed armor peeling off of me. I picked a random direction, and flew until I could fly no more.

I set myself onto the scorching sand. I had been a fool not to stock up on supplies, even more so to tire myself out. I heard voices behind me. "There! Rocket's test subject! Sedate it, now!" I felt a dull pain in my forearm, then blackness.