Lowly Ascent

The sound of a door opening followed by a chime awoke Isaac. He grumbled as his eyes shakily opened.

'Was it raining? Why is my face moist?'

"Ah, you're up. I'm your attending physician. It will be my job to keep you in tip-top shape, even help you get stronger, at least physically so you can survive."

The cheery, youthful, and foreign voice made Isaac alarmed. He tried to sit up but found himself restricted by straps. He lifted his neck to find himself on a stretcher in the middle of a cage.

Seeing his situation he instinctually tried to escape.

"Oh...I was told you would be a little resistant, not knowing what's going on. Umm...should I tranquilize you and do the checkup while you are unconscious instead? I don't want to get bitten...it...isn't a great feeling."

Isaac twisted his neck to the limit, from the edges of his vision he saw a young man in glasses in a white coat outside the cage.

'So I'm here then...' He made a realization, remembering what that Gremlin was telling him before he lost consciousness.

He gritted his teeth, and said, "I won't bite. Just remove all these restraints, I don't wish to be uncomfortable."

"Oh? I uh...yeah, I can do that. You're quite civilized. Honestly, I wasn't expecting it." The doctor opened the cage and locked it behind him. He then removed Isaac's restraints and helped him off the stretcher.

The first thing Isaac did was wipe his face.

Even if he was now free, and the naïve doctor could be dealt with. Isaac knew where he was, he knew that even if he got rid of this one obstacle he would have hundreds more to get through. His best choice was to bide his time and act like a good little subject.

"So Doc, what do you need me to do?"

The young doctor's face brightened, he had never had a patient so compliant before, "I just need to check your heartbeat, blood pressure, the works. Oh, and a blood sample. After everything's done you'll be sent to incarceration.

Isaac nodded, "Go ahead."

The doctor did as he said, giving Isaac a physical and then drawing blood. When he was finished he stood up and exited the cage, Isaac didn't try anything the whole time.

"That's everything. The guards will be here soon. I'll...um...I'll let them know your cooperative. Until next we meet." The doctor gave a slight nod and left the room.

A few minutes later, a group of guards entered.

"No sudden movements, hands where we can see them." They didn't seem to care for the doctor's words. 

Isaac again did as he was told. The guards entered the cage and put him in cuffs. He was escorted out of the room and entered the rest of the facility.

There weren't many hallways surprisingly, it was mostly stairs or prison blocks, and lots of prison cells.

'There's got to be thousands of people here...how did they accumulate this many people?'

For the Bureau, gaining specimens was easy. They had Gremlins kidnapping people from the slums, buying from outside the country, or simply getting them from casualties of war.

Currently, the country is in a dispute with another over a resource in a small region near a border they both share. The issue is that the region is shared by another country that is trying to use the conflict for personal gain, as they aren't as powerful or interested in said resource. 

It made the conflict enter a stalemate, with tension rising daily. 

From the conflict, the Bureau has been covertly kidnapping people from the area, from all sides. They haven't been caught due to increased cult activity in the region's main city.

"Here's your new home, enjoy it." One of the guards uncuffed Isaac and threw him into a cell.

Isaac crashed against the floor as the guards chuckled and wandered off.

The first thing he smelt was piss and shit, as well as some other foul smell. Looked like the prison's toilets didn't flush.

"So, you're one of the new guys. I'm not impressed."

Looking up, Isaac's eyes met with a woman's. Her long dark red hair blocked out the light. Her most notable feature a scar on her cheek, reaching to her ear.

He muttered, "Who are you?"

She smiled, her grin devilish, "Your new playmate, I'll go easy on you little lamb."

...

"Ah, Mr. Raven, you're here!"

(Of course, I am. You succeeded?)

Doctor Braun bowed, "Yes, we made some interesting discoveries. Please, follow me."

Cain was led into a large chamber filled to the brim with machinery. At the center of the room was a large device with multiple pods, each pod had a person inside with vital screens displayed beside them.

Above the pods, a large screen displayed people in separate areas doing random things, but it was blurry and the screen would get static every few seconds.

(So not only did you stabilize everything, but you also somehow displayed what's happening in the dreams so we could see them? Albeit poorly, this is great nonetheless. I knew when you said you were constructing something, but I did not expect the upgrade in tech to help this much!)

Cain was truly surprised, he would have expected the scientists to have fixed the soul-melting issue, but this was above and beyond.

Braun turned giddy hearing Cain's praise.

"It's all thanks to you sir, without your guidance in the beginning we could have never done it. You set the ball rolling!"

The two conversed like collogues before Cain raised a question, (So, other than fixing the drug, what's with the pods? Is it for the screen?)

"I can answer that Lord." Walking into the room, Ivan and a few other scientists came to thank Cain. After which Ivan gave Cain an answer.

"The machine helps with the stability a bit, we don't plan to keep it that way since that would ruin the whole point of the drug development. The machine is mostly to help immerse the subjects and record their brainwaves, which we can also play in real-time, using a program developed by Doctor Violet, we can change the data into a viewable show. This helps with seeing the changes on the drugs on a deeper level."

Braun added, "We tried three different types of the drug, and each one seemed to have minute changes on the dream world, we can use this to create a perfect world to fit our desires, if only a little. But it's helped let us guide the dreamers, which is also the machine's last feature."

Cain stood there and listened to the group of old and young explain. The machine used electromagnetic shocks to influence the dreams and the subjects' minds. They've been tuning it so it doesn't affect the brain as much as the dream but for now, they've been using it to make the dreamers test the limits of the worlds.

None of them had plans for using the machine for brainwashing, which was one of Cain's first thoughts hearing of it. He had experience in such trickery. 

(Progress is good, this progress is better than good. You've all surprised me greatly, my initial deductions of the length of this research have shortened greatly. You should be proud.)

Coming from Cain, it was like being praised by a celebrity, every scientist present was helped by him at one point or another. His pointers were outside the box and had a whole other outlook on the world than most, he deeply ingrained himself in their hearts.

They long forgot how they met Cain, the scientists didn't care much for things other than their research. The Raven was a boon, they didn't care if he was a bird, they even respected him more for it.

"Oh, but there is one problem we wish to run by you," Braun admitted.

Cain raised a brow. One he didn't have.

(Oh?)