Day 4 had arrived, and the recruits found themselves in a large laboratory. There were several human-size specimen tubes towards the back. Inside of some of them were odd creatures that they had never seen. Some they had only heard of in legends and fairy tales. 

“Is that a vampire?” One of the recruits blurted out.

“No way what the hell is that? Are these real?” Another exclaimed.  

Standing in front of the recruits were two people, Zac and the beautiful Indian woman Kenji had met several days ago. 

“Good morning! And they are indeed real my Tiny Tots! I hope you all enjoyed your time with your mentors.” Zac smiled. 

Everyone but Genkei seemed to have a satisfied look on their faces. Genkei looked like he was doing everything in his power not to pass out at the mention of their “mentors.”

“Today, you’ll be spending your time with my lovely assistant. One Dr. Shaila Varma.” Zac motioned to his right. Dr. Varma fluttered her fingers at the recruits while winking at Kenji, who scoffed at the title of Doctor. 

“What do we need a Doctor for?” One of the recruits asked. 

“I’m the one who administers the Nano-machines that give you access to Programs, thereby awakening you as Chasers.” Dr.Varma said with a smile. 

The excitement in the room went up several levels at the mention of Programs. Several of the recruits looked over at Zac menacingly. Zac, in turn, just began to chuckle. 

“Before we begin, are there any questions?” Dr. Varma asked. 

“I got one. What exactly are Chasers?” Akiko asked.

“Hell of a first question.” Zac said with a smile as he leaned against one of the tubes. 

“These strange creatures you see in these tubes. Do you know what they are?” Dr. Varma said sternly. 

They all had ideas about what they were, but none of them wanted to say it out loud, for fear of sounding crazy. 

“They are exactly what you think. Cyptids, monsters, paranormal, supernatural… it's all real, well most of it. Humans have never been at the top of the food chain, and sometime after the first human civilizations came into being, so too did a group of people. Those people made it their business to protect humans from the things that seek to do us harm. Including ourselves. They were given a title from someone or something,  in a language that no longer exists on Earth. The closest translation we could muster was, ‘Chaser’.” Dr. Varma saw the shocked look on their faces. 

“Why doesn’t anyone know about this?” One of the recruits asked as they touched one of the tubes holding a demonic looking creature. 

“The fewer people who know the better. One of the best ways to protect humans from themselves, is to keep them in the dark about things they don’t understand. We’ve all seen how the human race likes to deal with things it doesn’t understand.” Zac sighed. 

“The U.N. agreed with our train of thought. They also understood they could not stop us from continuing, at least not without inducing mass panic. So they proposed the Secrete Security Operatives Against the Paranormal Initiative. The S.S.O.A.P Initiative, for short. It basically says we are free to proceed as we always have, as long as it stays out of the public's eyes, and we keep them informed of our operations, especially those that can affect global politics.” Dr. Varma carried on. 

“Wait, so Soap?” One of the American recruits giggled. 

“Yeah, we think it’s stupid too. But the U.N. refers to us as ‘Cleaners’, I guess they think they're clever.” Zac chuckled.

“And by proceeding as you alway have… meaning?” Ume inquired. 

“Eliminating all entities that pose a threat to society, or life as a whole. That can range from these monsters you see here, to particularly nasty humans.” Zac answered. 

“Seems you missed a few dictators.” A bronze skinned young lady responded. 

“It’s not that simple. Sometimes killing a single or multiple bad people can do more harm than good. In most cases solving the issues that lead to the dictator coming into power is the way to go.” Zac shrugged. 

“I know it happened before we were born, but the US Iraq War is a prime example. A lot of people were killed, some that needed to be, and a lot who didn’t. However, as soon as the US occupation ended, some would say things got even worse.” Dr. Varma sighed. 

“Human problems are complicated, monster problems are relatively simple. So we try not to involve ourselves in global human conflict, unless things get out of hand. Like when the bombs were dropped during WWII. That’s when we made our presence known to the Allied Forces.” The room became eerily quiet after Dr. Varma spoke. 

“Why do you think Hitler committed suicide? Because he’s a coward? Yes, but what drove him to reveal his cowardice, was the vision of a squad of perfect Jewish superhumans, ripping his army to shreds and hunting him down.” Dr. Varma gave a dark chuckle. 

“After the war ended and The United Nations was formed, their first order of business was the  S.S.O.A.P. Initiative.  To summarize, we chase away the darkness, so people can live in the light.'' Zac smirked. 

Everyone nodded as they began to understand their role here. They couldn’t solve all the world's problems even with super powers, but they could at least do their part to keep it safe long enough for someone to find answers. As Kenji heard all of this, he started to feel a bit ashamed of himself. 

He saw these Chasers as nothing but self serving megalomaniacs, and maybe that was true for some. However, what they stood for at their core was respectable. He sighed to himself as he looked at Zac. The feelings he had regarding that man were becoming more conflicted as the days passed. He hated him, and maybe he still did, but he could not deny the respect that was rising to the surface. 

“Why are you giving us powers? We haven’t finished the evaluations?” Another Recruit asked. 

“Technically, you have finished the evaluations as normal humans. After your Awakening, you will do what you did the previous days. The only difference is you will be enhanced and have access to Programs. We will then compare your results before and after.” 

Everyone looked over at Zac, who smiled back at the lot of them. They were all itching to have another go at him after getting their Programs. Dr. Varma saw the looks in their eyes and just shook her head. 

“Yeah, good luck with that, Tiny Tots.” Dr. Varma thought to herself. These children had no clue. However, this would be good for them. Humbling cocky children was never a bad thing. 

“Will… will it hurt?” Genkei asked sheepishly. 

He had been through more than he was willing to for the rest of his life. He wasn’t in the mode for more. 

“Immensely. But you’re Helana’s pupil, right? The pain will pale in comparison to whatever that lunatic had you go through.” Dr. Varma consoled Genkei, who let out a sigh of relief. He was perfectly fine if that was indeed the case. 

“Why will it hurt? What are you doing to us?” Kenji asked. 

“We’ll inject you with nano-machines that will reconstruct and improve your body and DNA. It will remove flaws, increase strengths, and unlock any hidden treasures your ancestry may hold. Or even open up latent evolutionary paths. It will also integrate itself into your bone marrow to help maintain these changes. As you can probably imagine, it will be quite painful.” Dr.Varma spoke. 

“Can’t you just sedate us?” A recruit asked. 

“Yes, but sedation will work until the nano-machines start their job. One of their functions is to remove anything hurtful from your system. They identify sedatives as harmful. So… You’ll just have to grit your teeth and bare it, I’m afraid.” A lot of the recruits had odd expressions on their faces. If it was that painful, then, 

“How many people have died undergoing this process?” Ume asked. 

“Since the creation of these nano-machines in the early 2000s. 60%” Dr. Varma smiled. 

The recruits all looked at each other and then over at Zac. That was the 40% survival rate they talked about at the beginning? They didn’t kill recruits. Recruits died at this point in the evaluations. Some of them looked rather upset. 

“You lied to us?!” Someone shouted.

“No one lied! Except me, but I lie constantly. You just need to do a better job of asking questions. Like this. Now that you know your chances of survival, has anything changed?” Zac spoke to the recruits, and all of them became quiet. 

Nothing had changed; there was always a 40% chance of survival. The only difference was they thought they had more control over the outcome. However, no one was willing to quit. They had made it this far. They refused to believe they couldn’t get through this. 

“That was the survival rate since its creation in the early 2000s. That was over 40 years ago. You have undoubtedly made improvements in the nano-machines and the administration process. So what is the success rate in recent years?” Ume asked. 

“You’re Zac’s pupil, right? I like you. We’ve worked out most of the bugs. In the past 5 years, the success rate is 98%. That 2% chance is unforeseen circumstances, we can do nothing about.” Dr.Varma shrugged. 

All the recruits let out a sigh of relief. They were all going to go through it anyway. Still, the added stress of having a 40% chance of survival may have led to those unforeseen circumstances.

“Were you going to tell us that?” Kenji asked, 

“Maybe…It depended on how many of you looked like you would faint from anxiety. You’re entering a profession where your life's on the line every time you step out those doors. If you die from the stress of gaining a Program, you have no business being a Chaser in the first place.” Dr. Varma’s words were harsh but true.  

“But it seems like that was an unnecessary worry. You all seemed adequately motivated. However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.” Dr. Varma started to walk toward the recruits. 

“Wait, I have a question.” Ume spoke, before Dr. Varma could continue. 

“Ask.” Dr. Varma Responded. 

“Nano-Machines are relatively recent. Chasers existed as far back as the first human civilizations. How did they enhance themselves, before the Nano-machines?”