CHAPTER THREE
Ares' POV
I didn't move. I couldn't understand why they couldn't get such simple instructions. I already had the plan laid out for them. It was as if they had their other routine that was taken from someone else.
The mission was slowly being sabotaged and I can't risk any more lives to be at stake. Yes, I'm no one to these men but a Lieutenant with glasses. Who wears glasses anyways these days? And aren't Lieutenants supposed to be a high rank? Doesn't that give me the right to command these guys? I'm pretty sure they're obliged to do what I say. I don't know, I'm sorry; I'm just not too interested with these things. Simply talking about it is already giving me a headache.
But give me a battle blueprint, or a strategic assault I'm the man you're looking for. When it comes to research, as long as it is within the field of my interest, which is mostly about genetic engineering or biological enhancements, you'll need me.
Anyway, that's not the point. I'm getting way off topic.
What's important is, we're still on track. The men they've dispatched... Let's just say we've lost a number of good men today. And it wouldn't have to be like this if only they listened to me.
Pardon my manners, where have they gone. My name is Ares Portley, the child prodigy of this institution. I'm actually just a scientist whose nose is supposed to be buried behind computer screens. But I'm not. I know I'm supposed to, but there really is nothing that they can do about. I guess it is one of the many advantages for being the asset of the company.
I don't remember exactly how long I've been with the ARC, or the Amalgamated Research Constitution, but I've been around way before I hit puberty. My life before that just comes to me as a blur, so yes, it's pretty horrible to have no idea of what your childhood is like before you begin working as a minor. But I guess that's just how life hands it to me.
Recently, we've created a state-of-the art Software that can better reprogram our soldiers that have gone rogue. It was called, the Rubrix. I named and designed the concept. Everyone laughed at me at first, but as I ignored them and went about with my research alone our Head Researcher looked into my work and thank goodness he realized the potential of my work and finally, after all these years, decided to take it as a new project for the whole institution. I'm not normally cocky when it comes to these but look whose laughing now!
As I was saying, for a project that would take for almost a decade for me to finish, it was now narrowed down to ten weeks. And at the end of the week, what we needed now was a guinea pig.
Before I go into further details, I would like to explain to you further as to what inspired me to begin this research. I had, with me, a notebook containing some unfinished research work as I stepped into ARC. It was the only thing that gave me a position in the institution. I'm not exactly sure why or how I had the notebook with me, but I just did. Like, how you would normally walk to school with a random stain on your shirt, you never knew how it got there, but there it is anyway.
Sadly enough, I don't even remember why they--the ARC-- took me in either. I guess I'm just lucky that they did. They told me I was an orphan, and that my dad was once a great scientist and died in a freak accident when one of his own works backfired on him. No one told me exactly why, but I had his notebook with me, I was talking about it earlier, remember? This became the reason why I decided to continue the research. Maybe somehow, I'll remember bits of my past and more of my dad. I don't know, but it's still worth a shot.
Dad designed this program called the Neurovascular Invasive Electronic System, which is basically an enhancer to the human body system, composed of millions of micrometer plasma robots programmed to connect to the cerebellum igniting neurons to specifically supplement movement, posture and balance while some also gather to the brain stem to regulate the basic life support of the body. The rest floods down to the spine or the muscles, but mostly surrounding our cells since that’s where most of the magic in our body begins. Did I ever mention that they prefer to situate themselves along long bones since that’s where most cell formation takes place? But that’s another boring story I’m sure you guys aren’t interested in listening to.
Let me just cut it down to the simplest, most relatable way I can explain to you guys.
If you watch movies, then maybe you can imagine someone evolving into a Captain America. That's basically it. It also became an office joke that my dad was a fan of Captain America and dreamed of making the unreal come to life.
Well now, the joke is on everyone who made fun of him.
The secret to the N. I. E. S. is that it actually has nanobots that run through your system, they are half the size of your eosinophils--random white blood cells responsible for infection control--and like our cells, they have their own categories. To enhance one's intelligence, the concentration of neuron-like nanobots are injected into the Cerebrospinal fluid (or your brain juice).
To increase the stamina of your body we inject them into your veins, that way they get faster access to your cells, help back up their mitochondrion—the cell’s powerhouse—and for faster regeneration they go deep to your bones where cells are naturally reconstructed within your body. For faster reparation, we inject these into parts of your muscles and voila.
No one really notices, but all our core energy lies within the cellular structures of our body. And I know you wouldn’t want me lecturing stuff about science here when you can already learn them at school.
If you ever manage to appreciate the ingenuity of my father’s work, isn’t it amazing to realize that he created that? The N. I. E. S. And I just improved it by creating a software to externally manipulate these nanobots to make adjustments more convenient from the outside. With this, we won’t have to mass-produce several more millions of nanobots to constantly inject into the human body. What we can do now is just inject 500 milliliters of plasmodium nanobots that can be easily acquiesced to our specific biologic enhancement.
I bet ladies would also love to have this injected into them since they also have the capacity to burn down fats in certain areas of your bodies or increase in it helping you aim for the dream bod. Beautiful isn’t it?
When I finally get to have my guinea pig I’ll show you what I mean. Since all of ERA's agents are actually stolen products of ARC, I believe that it's only righteous that we demand a volunteer from them. Since no one would want to volunteer for us, General Portley thought of 'borrowing,' an agent. In case you’ve noticed how General Portley and I share the last name, that was just because he adopted me. So yeah, he’s basically my father-figure. I just felt like I needed to mention it. It’s nothing important, really.
I knew it would be a little too unorthodox, so I just volunteered myself. Injecting those nanobots into my veins would make it less of a hassle than going through all the trouble just to pluck one off from our rival institution. Like I said, no one listens to me so what the heck, at least I get to design our strategic tactics.
But who am I kidding again? They thought my assault was a little too soft and weak. The general had other plans, as always. I don't understand what is it with soldiers and their guns when they can just sneak in and get what they need without affecting a whole University. He said something about dignity and honor. Well whatever crap he had going on was actually losing him some men.
And he was losing our guinea pig.
I know I was against this entire abduction thing, but I needed to know if my work is a success.
So yes, I had to waltz into a dangerous University and it was kind of easy at first. Our target, Agent Gould is just the man we needed. I know he has some sort of grudge with our organization, I’m guessing you guys might have the slightest idea of what. I just hope that he won't be taking things too personal after this.
When I found him along the corridors, I kicked him down and he kicked me down. He eventually had a gun pointed at me. Trust me, it was no fun being at the other end of a loaded gun. Anyway, our encounter was short-lived. At least some of my men considered knoc
king the other agent unconscious from another room, buying us some time to counter the Quarantine operation crap the enemy was so obsessed with.
Seriously, I just don't get why they need to kill off their agents out here in the field. It's simply so brutal. Well anyway, judging by how easily they decided to delete these guys off their list, I guess recycling them is pretty much legal now.
Few hours after that, here I am now, donned in my favorite white coat, eye goggles and mask. We managed to 'rescue' three: the two agents we needed and some poor, random girl that was probably a passerby that got entangled in all this mess.
They were all strapped down in metal gurneys situated at calculated distances from each other inside this vast, white room. Stripped down to nothing but a measly gown patients usually wear in hospitals, multiple apparatuses stickered to their skin as our—correction: my technology recorded the vital reading of their bodies.
We had a pulse oximeter, which I redesigned to additionally detect any of the N. I. E. S. in their blood stream, connected to each of their index finger. The biggest man of the three, placed on bed A, had less compared to what Agent Gould had running through his blood. I scribbled away in their charts, noting the density in Gould’s.
What intrigued me was this girl that I was now manually monitoring. I checked and rechecked and there was no sign of our N. I. E. S. Either ERA developed something a little more sophisticated or she was just clean from any of it.
I grabbed my penlight from my breast pocket and ran through her neurologic vital signs. The N. I. E. S. always made the brain hyperactive and very sensitive. Her eyes constricted gradually as I shined the light across her eyes. I marked a negative on her chart and emphasized for a blood sample later this afternoon.
We just needed another twenty-four hours before these guys stirred and decide to rip our heads off. I wonder what the general decides to do with these guys after I'm done testing my new technology on them.
Maybe if I persisted he would let me try on my Rubrix to see how it would affect these men physically as I manipulate certain areas of their body.
I looked back to the girl. Hm, she's quite the looker I admit. She had blonde hair wildly framing her serene face. Pale, chapped lips that slightly parted and a soft glow despite the pallor that washed over her. I rechecked the calibration of the Intravenous fluids connected to her vein before I took a step back.
She looked familiar. I wondered if she was the poor girl that the general decided to use as bait for Agent Gould.
I never knew Gould was a sucker for blondes. At least I personally know something about my guinea pig—wait a minute, I think she’s stirring. There were cameras everywhere, so I had to look as professional as I could before soldiers are sent in here to kill off my patients. I can’t tell you exactly if that was really going to happen, but hey, better to be paranoid than have things gone bad unprepared, right? I better go find that sedative. I waltzed as calmly as I could to a small drawer nearby the only entrance to this room and grabbed the first prefilled syringe I could find before heading back to her. Her Electroencephalogram slowly indicated her rousing from her deep slumber. I slowly injected the solution into her IV bag and watched in horror as the fluids slowly turned purple and darted down her line and into her veins.
What did I do?
I looked at the empty syringe in my hand and there I read it in bold red caps: N. I. E. S. SERUM.
Just kidding! Haha! I bet I got you didn’t I? Sorry about that, I just couldn’t help myself. No the IV bag didn’t turn purple and nothing went straight to her system but she did mutter a faint chant that caught my ear that sounded something along the lines of:
“…my name is Robyn…”