Berant city, in an abandoned industrial complex, a black sky-car hovers near a group of shabby-looking buildings. The vehicle enters one of these structures and lands. As the vehicle touched the ground, trash and debris were scattered around the place. Once the sky-car's engine stops, a man in a black suit gets down and walks to the middle of the space. As he walks, the concrete floor slab in front of him rises, revealing a hidden lift.
After entering the inconspicuous structure, the lift moves down into the floor again. Going down, the lights reflect upon the man's dark sunglasses; each light had a number underneath representing a layer of the hidden construction. The lift stops, and the number 24 is reflected in the man's sunglasses.
As the elevator door opened, it parted the numbers in the middle. A white corridor came into view. Even though the corridor was well-lit, no light sources could be seen. As the man walked down the corridor, a beam of light shot from the walls. The beam moved from the bottom of the man's shoes to the top of his black hair. After he was thoroughly scanned, the door at the end of the corridor opened. Unaffected by the scan, the man kept walking forward.
Rows of empty cubicles lined the office space he walked into. His destination was the main office at the end of the space. Empty chairs, powered-down workstations, and more than a few layers of dust met the man's gaze as he walked toward the end of the seemingly abandoned office space.
The man stops in front of the door to the main office. With his hand, the man knocks at the door.
The voice of another man was heard from inside the office. "Qu, you may enter."
As the man enters, he sets his eyes on a tall office chair at the other side of a large desk. The chair is facing away from the door, looking at a row of large monitors in the back of the office. Displayed on the monitor were cells with people inside. After a few seconds, the views will change to other cells.
Clearing his throat, the man explained the reason for his visit. "Sorry to bother you, Doctor, ...I am here because your son made progress in his search."
Without turning his chair, the doctor answers. "What did he find?"
"The man he hired, Mr. Hawk, found the woman after her son won the Berant City lottery. He had a conversation with the young man, which is included in the report. Also, the report contains a comparison between the previous photos of the boy and the young man in the video." Qu extended his hand with a data storage device on hand.
The chair turns, revealing an older man with an uncanny resemblance to Mark, although a lot older. "I have known of the child's existence for a while; this is not news to me." With a reluctant grip, the doctor grabs the data storage device and places it on top of his empty desk.
"How did you even get this? Did you bug the office of that investigator?" The doctor asked while a holographic projector lifted from a compartment in the desk and started displaying images and analysis reports.
"No, Sir, he kept finding our bugs, so we decided to bug your son's office instead," Qu reported while keeping his neutral expression.
"That was very clever on your part, Qu," The older man commented while sorting through the data handed to him.
Displaying the content of the storage device, the Doctor watches the video of Mr. Hawk talking to Mark. "Why is he not severely underweight? He should be, unless...."
Manipulating the interface, the Doctor zooms in on Mark's face. Moving the projection around, he seemed to be looking for something. "I cannot see any signs of genetic tampering; how did his metabolism stabilize?"
Qu quietly looked as the older man searched. The older man found no answers in the images he brought. The light from the holographic projector reflected off his dark sunglasses.
With a frustrated look, the Doctor sits back. "Well, Qu, I have to say that you were right to bring this to my attention. I had made a deal to leave this subject alone, but now, given the things you have brought to my attention, I have to reconsider that deal."
Dark machinations stirred in Qu's mind. "Sir, it will be difficult to take the subject from its current location. The place is full of people; there will be too many witnesses. We will have to either wait for the right moment or create an opportunity to secure the subject."
The Doctor weaved his hand in a dismissive manner. "I leave the details in your hands, Qu. I will have to go break the news to the other interested party in the deal. He's not going to be happy."
Qu leaves the office. The Doctor leaned back in his chair. He decided to copy the information to his comm-pad. The old man then stands up and walks out of his office. Turning right at the abandoned office space, he walked to a door at the corner. Once he opened the door, the man came to a small room with an elevator door. Nothing else was present in the enclosed space.
The Doctor placed his hand on the wall to the right of the elevator door, and a scanning sound soon followed. An electronic feminine voice prompted a request. "Please recite the key phrase."
The Doctor clears his throat and fulfills the request. "Per Scientiam Nostram Progredimur"
The electronic voice sounds once more. "Key phrase accepted. Welcome, Doctor Moreau Parker." The elevator doors open with positive recognition. After the Doctor enters the elevator, the door closes behind him, and the elevator starts to descend.
After a few minutes going down, the elevator stops, and the doors open. The man moves from the elevator to the room now in front of him.
The new room was a checkpoint of sorts. The space was divided in the middle by sturdy alloy bars. To either side of the entrance, where he walked in, there was a large metal desk, with one guard seated behind each one. Both guards were wearing armored suits that covered their entire bodies. On the other side of the bars, two heavily armed, humanoid droids stood in standby mode. The droids were guarding a steel double door with sturdy construction.
The Doctor walked to the guard on the right. "Good day, Be. How is subject C doing today?" He looked at his reflection on the guard's visor.
The guard stands from the desk chair and answers. "Good day, Doctor. Not too good, I'm afraid. After last night's incident, we were forced to chain him to the wall of his cell."
"Due to his treatment, an increase of aggression is to be expected. Keep in mind, Be, I don't want to damage this subject too much. His genetic traits are almost unique. Just look at the result of the age-reversing treatment." The Doctor said without empathy for the guard's plight.
"Well, it is for the best that he is chained. After the news that I bring, I expect his aggression to increase." Dr. Parker said, preparing the guards for the things to come.
The guard nods. "Shall I buzz you in, Doctor?"
"Yes, please." Dr. Parker answered while using the reflection of the guard's visor to check his teeth.
The guard sits and nods to the other guard seated on the other side of the room. The two guards pressed a button on their desks at the same time. A buzzing sound fills the space. The gate in the middle of the room opens, and the droids flare to life. Dr. Parker walks through, and as soon as the man walks past the steel door at the end of the room, the droids follow behind him.
As the man passed the heavy steel door, he was met with the view of a large man-made underground space. Rows upon rows of steel doors lined the walls at the end of the space. The structure where he was standing was in the middle.
The sound of heavy machinery moving emanated from the structure as it started to turn. The slow movement tired the Doctor's patience. "I swear, I age a few years every time I come down here."
Once the structure stopped moving, a bridge extended from the structure to the wall of steel doors it was now facing. Dr. Parker started walking again, and the two droids followed closely. Crossing the bridge, he came upon a row of cells. He walked to the cell left on the bridge. Arriving at the solid steel alloy door of the cell, he gestures for the guard to open.
Entering the pitch-black space, Dr Parker is met by shards of reflective glass scattered across the floor, marks of bloody hand prints, and scratches lining the walls. The cell bed was overturned, and the toilet was ripped out and tossed into a corner. The figure of a man was chained to the back wall of the cell.
Dr Parker was a bit surprised by the sight. "I heard you had an aggressive episode last night, but this is a bit too much, don't you think?"
The voice of a man came from the other side of the cell. "Screw you, Parker." The only light in the cell was the one coming from the open cell door. Because of this, his face was not visible. But the parts that were visible were covered in bruises and small cuts. "I'm like this because of your dam experiments."
"Now don't be like that, Mr. Cain. You have also benefited from my research; your current strength and vigor are a testament to this." The Doctor argued.
"Why have you come? Do you have more research to do, or perhaps you come for a vivisection?" The aggressive tone was evident in the man's voice.
The light in the cell turns on revealing the face of a man around 25 years of age. Besides the bruises and cuts, he seems to be in top physical condition. There are shards of glass tangled in the man's light brown hair.
"I'm afraid not. After certain events, I have come to reevaluate our deal." Dr. Parker looked at Mr. Cain with a cold gaze.
"No, Parker, I won't accept that!" The man chained to the wall exclaimed while his face was turning red with rage seeping in. "You will run your experiments on me and me only. Leave my Rachel and little Mark alone!"
Taking out his comm-pad, Dr. Parker projected the conversation between Mr. Hawk and Mark. Seeing his grandson's face calmed the man a little. "Your grandson is not supposed to look like that. If his metabolism changed on its own, he might hold the key to my research and maybe a way to repair your aggression problem. Besides, he might have dangerous mutations that can harm him; we need to check."
His false empathy failed to calm the raging man. "That is bull, and you know it. Leave them alone, or by the stars I will find a way to end you and your little robots."
The Doctor gave up his false pretenses and spoke to the chained man in a mocking tone. "You can do nothing to stop me; you are chained to a wall. Besides, don't forget you came to kill me?"
A sinister grin forms in the Doctor's mouth. "I, in my mercy, granted you that deal. In MY mercy, I gave you this body; you are only alive because I allow it!"
"PARKERRRR!" The rage was taking over Mr. Cain
The Doctor, fully aware of the effect of his words, pressed on. "I had every intention of following our deal. I have been doing so for the past eight years, but your grandson changed everything. If you want to blame someone, blame him."
The veins on the forehead of the chained man started to bulge. His face was red, filled with blood. Mr. Cain jerked around trying to gain leverage. His face was turning more savage with every passing moment. His chains started to slowly bend.
The metal-bending sound alerted Dr. Parker. He stopped his rant and called for the droids. Dr Parker, by instinct of self-preservation, jumped out of the cell. Once outside, he was able to hear the chains snapping and the droids trying to subdue the raging man. With a hand signal, the Doctor ordered the cell door to be closed. He walked back to the checkpoint room.
After entering the checkpoint, Dr. Parker walks back to the guard's desk. "Be, I want you to flood the entire room with sleeping gas. After subject C is unconscious, move him to the sturdy cell in the lab. Lower the temperature of the cell to 17 degrees, which will help, somewhat, to keep him docile." The doctor takes a breath. "Also, I need you to prepare another cell in that level for a new Subject, make it comfortable."
"It will be done, Sir." The guard suddenly hesitates. After clearing his throat, Be makes a request. "Sir, we will need to get more droids; the ones from before are wrecked."
Dr. Parker's face went numb with amazement. "Did he destroy them that easily. Those were heavy combat droids?"
The guard responded with a sarcastic comment. "Well, Sir. It appears that nobody told subject C that particular fact."
At Miller Hills Housing complex, Mark was removing his V.R. headset. Placing the device on the charging port, he takes a look at the time, 5:01pm. Mark orders takeout, his mother's favorite pizza with Spicy peppers. He also orders one with a selection of different meats as toppings. Afterwards, he takes a bath and gets dressed. Mark was about to freshen up the living room and kitchen, but decided against it, because of these changes in behavior, his mother was suspicious of him.
Soon after the pizzas arrived, Mark set them on the kitchen table. Ten minutes after that, there was a knock on the door. His delivery from the military surplus shop arrived. The items were being delivered by the owner of the shop, Jack Reed. Mark greets the big man and invites him to enter.
The young man moves aside and gestures with his hands. "Come on in, Jack. Mom is not home yet but, she will be here soon."
The big man entered, followed by a large hover box. "Where do you want these?"
Mark looks at the hover box containing M.R.E. and an assortment of things he bought on impulse. "We will put them in the storage room."
Mark and Jack enter the storage room and unload the contents of the large hover box. Jack spotted an old photo on the wall. "Now this brings back memories." In the photo, six men were surrounding a sky-car. The silver colored vehicle that had a name painted on the hood with red paint read Lola Bullet.
Jack went on a trip down memory lane. "This was a sky-car your grandpa, me, and four other friends put together for a race. It was a project for our last year at the institute. We won that race by a mile with Lola."
Jack looked around the room. Are all of your grandpa's things in this room?
Mark takes a look around. "Yeah, pretty much, I mean, some stuff we have added over the years, but mom decided not to throw away anything of grandpa's. I don't want to either."
Feeling a bit awkward, Jack made a proposal. "Well, why don't we go to the kitchen to wait for Rachel?"
"That's a good Idea, Mark answered. I can take the chance to show you my workshop." Mark decided to follow Jack's suggestion.
Mark and Jack talked about mechs, the Grease Monkey workshop, and Mark's McCain Reaper project. Mark learned that due to Jack's injury, his neuronal capacity had dropped to a D+, and that was the reason he did not pilot anymore, or have a more modern prosthetic. Mark recommended him to try the McCain Reaper. A few moments later, Rachel came through the door.
Mark looks at the woman. "Hey, Mom, say Hi to our guest, do you recognize him?"
Rachel looks at the man. "Is that you, Uncle Jack? I could never mistake that beard." Rachel hugs the man and slightly pulls on his beard.
The older man laughs. "You always loved to do that."
Rachel and Jack caught up. They talked for a few hours, they laughed and cried, and had a good time. Jack suddenly decided to ask Rachel about her job. "What is this about you working on a death trap factory?"
"Well, after dad disappeared, I had a bit of a tough time, so I had to find a job to keep me and my kid afloat. It's just something that happened." Rachel said, defending her actions.
"I know that you have a degree in robotics; your old man brags about that to anyone who could listen."
Rachel looked a bit sad all of a sudden. "There are reasons I can't work in that field at the moment, one of them being my kid. But there are others that I can't talk about."
Mark interrupted the woman. "Mom, if it's because of me, I'm 18, you are almost done raising me. Besides, with the money that I won for us, you can go back to college or open your own robotics company."
Rachel looks at Mark with a tender look. "Mark, even after you turn old and gray, you will still be my beautiful boy. A mother's work is never done." Rachel thought for a moment. "But maybe I can return to my studies."
Mark saw the chink in her armor. "That is a great Idea, Mom. We can look at university programs if you like."
Rachel saw through his pretension. "Now don't get any Ideas, mister, I'm only thinking about that." The temptation to follow her passion was too great.
he three of them talked and laughed for a few hours. Jack ended his visit around 8:00pm. He walks down the hall and enters the elevator. Taking his comm-pad out of his pocket, he made a call. "Hey Joe, how are you doing?
The voice at the other side of the call was loud. "Hey, Jack Hammer, what is up with you?"
"Not much, just visited Bart's daughter," Jack said with a nostalgic tone.
Joe sounded excited. "The little blond girl? That's Great, how is she?"
"That's why I'm calling Joe; do you still work for the Public Safety Commission?
"Sure, I do, on this economy, I will work there until I die," Joe answered with a frustrated tone.
Jack leaned against the wall of the elevator. "Well, the thing is that Rachel is working at the factory on the corner of Two Rivers and Third. By the things that I'm being told, the place is an accident waiting to happen. Can you go take a look?
Joe laughs in a mocking way. "I will surely go there tomorrow on a surprise inspection. I can't let Bart's little girl be in harm's way
"Jack, to me, she is still that little blond girl who loved to pull on your beard. Besides, we need to help her until Bart returns." His hopeful words struck a chord with Jack.
The elevator door opens, and Jack starts walking towards the door to Miller Hills Housing complex. Rachel and her son are also waiting for him; they have all his stuff in a room. I saw a picture of Lola today."
A hint of nostalgia came over Joe's voice."Lola, that really takes me back. Listen, Heather and I are having a Barbecue this weekend, do you want to come?"
A rugged smile showed on Jack's face. "Sure thing, I'll bring some stakes I've been saving. Talk to you later, Joe." After ending his call, Jack came out of the housing complex and got into his vehicle. His surprise visit was over.