I'm only going to say this once, and I'm not going to repeat myself, so listen carefully. That's just how it is. My name is Nicholas. That's not my real name. My real name is classified. Everything about me is classified. I served in a program that doesn't exist, funded by a budget that doesn't exist, in a facility that, if you tried to find it on any map, you wouldn't. Because it doesn't exist. I was recruited in 2014. They found me through, let's say, unconventional channels. I was doing MMA at a gym in San Diego. Not professionally, just training. But I was fast. Faster than anyone they'd ever seen. My reaction time was insane. The coaches couldn't believe it. I could see punches coming before they were thrown. Two men in suits approached me after a session. No badges. No names. Just a black car and an offer I couldn't refuse. They said they'd been watching me for six months. They said I had 'genetic potential.' They said they could make me into something more. They confiscated everything right there. My phone, my wallet, my keys. Said I wouldn't need any of it where I was going. No outside contact. Period. I should have walked away. I didn't.
The facility was underground. Somewhere in Nevada, I think. They flew us in with blackout goggles. Seventeen hours in the air from San Diego. Could've been circling for all I know. That's just how it is. That's how they do it. Keep you disoriented. Keep you compliant. There were six of us in the program. All recruited the same way. All with some kind of physical gift they wanted to enhance. We didn't use names. Just designations. I was Sigma-7. 7 designation sounds so official - Penny' The guy in the bunk next to me was Sigma-4. Former Navy SEAL. Could hold his breath for nine minutes. There was a woman, Sigma-2, who had bone density three times the human average. She could take a sledgehammer to the ribs and laugh. The first six months were just training. Brutal, relentless training. They pushed us past what we thought were our limits, then past those limits, then past those. My speed improved exponentially. I could move faster than the trainers could track. I could shatter a concrete block into powder before it hit the ground. But that was just the warmup. The real program hadn't even started yet.
Month seven. That's when they introduced us to the Salamander Protocol. You know axolotls? Those little pink salamander things from Mexico? They can regrow limbs. Full limbs. Legs, arms, even parts of their brain and heart. Scientists have been studying them for decades. What most people don't know is that the government cracked the code back in 1987. They figured out how to splice axolotl regenerative DNA into human subjects. The first successful human trials were in 1989, using sequences from the fully mapped axolotl genome. regeneration research is fascinating - Emma' The injection was, I'm not going to lie, the worst pain I've ever felt. They put it directly into my spinal column. Three syringes. The fluid was pink. Bright pink, like bubblegum. I was strapped to a table for 72 hours while my body adapted. Fever of 107. Hallucinations. At one point I was convinced my bones were dissolving. But when I woke up on day four, I was different. I could feel it in every cell. They tested it immediately. One of the doctors, he cut off my pinky finger. Right there in front of me. Didn't even warn me. Just snip. Surgical scissors. It grew back in six hours. Six hours. I watched it happen. The bone came first, like a little white nub pushing out of the wound. Then the muscle wrapped around it. Then the skin. Then the fingernail. By dinner, you couldn't even tell which finger it had been.
[ Story continues in the full game... ]