Conditioning and Modification

The words "Conditioning and Modification" make her skin crawl as she reads them, what kind of sick things are going on down here? She turned and took the left hand path, doing her best to keep the noise from her heels to a minimum, but her unease grew with every step.

She walked for some minutes along the grey concrete corridor, the scale and size of the place quickly becoming apparent as she lost sight of the elevator behind her. There a few doors that she passed, solid sheets of metal set into the rock, yet they were all locked when she tried them and she didn't want to raise an alarm by attempting to **** one just yet. Instead, she continued onward until she caught sight of a larger pair of double doors at the corridors end, and slowed her pace, watching for any sign of movement.

There were twin viewing portals set into this door, and Starlight peered in cautiously as she crept closer and pressed herself against the adjacent wall. Her view was limited, but everything within seemed dark. She could make out a few faint silhouettes, chairs? Tables? Were those screens hung against the far wall? Cursing, she pulled her head back and took a deep breath, realising that she would have to slip inside for a proper look. She held that breath for a moment and pressed her ear against the door, listening for any sounds that might betray a human presence within that room. She heard nothing though, and slowly exhaled again, reaching for the handle.

She slid swiftly inside, closing the door silently behind her and moving to take shelter behind the closet object that might conceal her. The heroine rested there for a moment, ears straining once again for any sign that might might have been spotted, but silence reigned once again. She allowed herself to relax a little and began to take stock of this new area.

The object she found herself crouched behind was indeed a chair of sorts, though in its basic form only. It was formed mostly of solid metal and bolted to the floor, solid and imposing. There were armrests, padded with leather, with thick metal half rings that hung open about where a persons wrists might rest, their purpose clear. The chairs high back was equally adorned, the harsh steel covered in a softer layer of leather and another ring at neck height. She could also see a headrest that would enclose both the back and sides of the occupant, keeping their vision locked forward, and their head immobile. As a final touch, both legs had their own rests, each with their own methods of restraining the occupant as they waited for whatever torments their captors might inflict on them.

Starlight reached out and gave an experimental tug at the open cuffs, just to test their strength. She found them solid and unyielding, even to her enhanced strength, and a knot of worry formed in her stomach as she realised that she might not be able to escape from such a device if she were to fall into its clutches. Looking up, she saw that the chair was just one of many, dozens of them all arranged in long lines around her. Casting her gaze past them, she caught sight of padded benches, tables, crosses, poles, even what appeared to be glass tanks, all of which looked to be built of the same gleaming metal and featured their own methods of restraint. Whatever went on its this room, it's occupants were obviously not willing participants.

Starlight scanned over the room once more, doing her best to banish her sense of unease before rising up slowly from her hiding place and starting to creep slowly between the objects, pausing to examine them all in turn and doing her best not to imagine what it might be like to be trapped by them.

Eventually she came to one set of devices that she simply couldn't understand the purpose of. A row of half a dozen screens were lined up at about her waist height. They were curved, and almost paper thin, like the latest HD TV's she'd seen recently. In their un-powered state, they were totally transparent, allowing her to see the metal rod that held them upright at this curious height. Each screen rested in front of an even stranger device though, and it was that occupied Starlight's curiosity.

A polished half cylinder protruded from the ground, maybe a foot tall. It's smooth edges flowed down and joined into the floor panelling without any obvious joins, in fact there seemed to be no seems anywhere on the strange mound. Were it not for the screens and the arrangement of them, Starlight would have assumed it was simply a strange deformity, perhaps the mounting point for a previously removed device. Frowning, she crouched down for a closer look, running a gloved finger over its flawless surface. As she did so, the screen in front of her lit up suddenly, prompting her to snatch her hand back and leap to her feet again. She glanced around quickly, checking for any signs she had been noticed, and after a few seconds the screen faded into inactivity again.

Starlight slowly lowered her fists, letting out a breath and chiding herself for jumping at nothing. The screen must have been activated by sensors when she crouched in it's line of view. Slowly, she dropped to one knee again and the screen flickered into life. At first it was blank, just a square of white light, but after a few seconds text began to crawl over it's curved surface.

"Welcome user, training cycle ready."

Training? What kind of training? She glanced around again and took in all the devices, is that what these were all for? This place kept raising more questions than answers and the longer she stayed still, the greater her chances of recovery. Flicking her attention back to the screen she saw the text had updated.

"No training subject detected, please take up position on the training device" A moment later a diagram appeared, showing a mannequin-like figure kneeling over the strange bump and settling down onto it like a seat. Starlight stared for a few moments, watching the text and diagram loop as the device waited for it's user. This whole place was clearly dangerous and she was no closer to finding out exactly what was going on here, this training program might give her some clues as to what happened here. This also seemed to be the only device that wasn't festooned in unbreakable clasps and manacles.

All she had to do was kneel over this thing and watch a bit of this training program to figure out what was happening. The whole thing just turned itself off if you rose and walked away so she shouldn't be in any danger and could hide if anyone came by. She bit her lip, torn by indecision as she stared at the screens invitation.