Sequence 1
Michael is escorted to an elevator with Amina, Prophet and three armed guards. He stares at her glossy red lips as she hums and shakes her head excitedly wondering what evil and sadistic plans she might have in store for him.
They get to their stop and are greeted by several maintenance staff, Amina guides Michael to a large, completely white room which is mostly empty aside from a single white seat.
She tells Michael to sit down then pulls out a small remote to summon a workbench from below the ground. She pushes another button on the workbench and two robotic arms come out and instantly attach several electrodes to his face, arms and chest and pull up his sleeve to wrap a sphygmomanometer around his arm.
Amina tells him "Don't move okay" then quickly runs out of the room. After a moment the door is locked and an observation window above Michael opens, through it he sees Dele, Amina, Prophet and two other researchers who are monitoring his status through their computer screens.
Dele puts on his headset and speaks into the microphone saying "Welcome Michael to our testing and observation room, don't worry we are just going to do some light work today, we just need you to show us your wings".
Michael angrily shouts back "Look I can't grow any wings, I don't remember okay".
Dele projects a picture of Micheal's monstrous form from before saying "Maybe this will jog your memory".
Michael starts hyperventilating and mumbling "That's not me that's not me!".
Amina asks him "What do you remember before your transformation?".
Michael tells her "This old wizard gave me some weird mixture made from this Eagle egg then I became that thing, please don't make me do it again!".
Dele turns to Prophet and tells him "You might have to reverse what you did to him".
Prophet folds his arms and responds "Making and breaking hexes is dangerous work, in this state he may not survive. Regardless I can not be with the boy all the time, he must learn to do it himself".
Dele angrily taps the control panel, thinking for a moment then turns to Amina saying "Inject formula 14".
Shocked Amina tells him "Isn't that a risky move, he might not be a full..."
Dele interrupts her saying "That was an order, not a request".
Amina keeps quiet and the rest of the researchers follow Dele's command, manipulating the robot arms on the workbench to inject 200 millilitres of blue fluid into his neck.
His blood pressure spikes, he begins to sweat and shake pleading "Hey hey hey what did you do to me, what about our agreement?".
Dele responds "The agreement was that you fight, this is my way of making sure you keep to that agreement".
Researcher Onyebuchi tells him "Blood pressure at 140 over 80".
They watch silently as Michael shakes and shivers but nothing happens.
Researcher Onyebuchi shouts again "Blood pressure at 180 over 90... 200 over 110... 380 over 160, no physiological changes detected!".
Delle furiously hits the panel shouting "This worked before why isn't it working now?".
Amina suggests "Well since that part of his body seems to have a mind of its own maybe they will only come out if he is in real danger".
Dele puts on his headset and says "Fine then, men, kill him!".
The door unlocks and five SDF infantrymen rush in as Michael pulls off the equipment and runs to the corner of the room.
They aim and shoot, splattering blood all over the walls.
Sequence 2
Michael wipes the blood off his face to see two faintly glowing wings covering him.
Amina runs down to the testing room to see for herself, the team leader asks "Permission to fire sir?" as they are about to reload for the second barrage when she shouts "Wait!".
She walks slowly towards Michael as the SDF infantry manoeuvres round her so she won't get hit if they need to attack again.
She gently holds his claws and looks into his glowing red eyes saying "You are no monster, just a scared boy".
"He is..." Prophet says as he warps behind her "But now he must become a man, for the sake of our plan".
Amina walks Michael back to the centre of the room. She carefully replaces the electrodes and sphygmomanometer, taking extra care not to upset him.
Researcher Idirabo checks his status and informs the room "All vitals are stable, although he has an elevated body temperature, I'm detecting faint alpha particle emissions from the wings.
Amina steps away from the workbench and asks Michael "Can you move them for me?"
Michael responds "I think so" and awkwardly flaps his right wing.
Dele speaks into the microphone saying "Great work everyone, time to pack it up".
But Amina protests "Hold on, we should still carry out more tests while he is in this state, it might save us time down the line".
Dele sighs and says "Alright, just bring back something useful. Captain, make sure she doesn't die, I wouldn't want what happened last time to repeat itself".
The team leader responds "Yes sir!" and Dele leaves the observation room.
Amina spends the next 6 hours carrying out fitness tests and examining his body taking meticulous written notes and making sketches.
The infantrymen stand with guns drawn at strategic positions the entire time.
When she finishes she puts her notebook in her lab coat pocket and taps Micheal's head "Thanks for cooperating, now this will only hurt a little bit... ".
She injects him with a sedative and he falls asleep saying "Oh come on not again...".
Sequence 3
Michael wakes up again in the bed of his cell. He gets up and stretches saying "Damn they need to stop doing that".
He sees on the cabinet beside his bed a vase of roses a plate of akara with a note folded beside it.
He picks it up and reads
"Thanks for cooperating with the tests, and not attacking me. I brought this as a token of my appreciation.
Kind regards
Amina"
He crumples the note and flings it to the other side of the room. He picks up a ball of akara and thinks "I hope she didn't drug this too" then takes a bite.
Michael falls onto the bed, consumed by how delicious the akara is and snaps his finger saying "Just like mom used to make!".
His joy quickly turns to sadness as he remembers home "I wonder how mom is doing, she must be searching the whole country for me. I just wish I could talk to her just once, or even anyone".
After a few moments he hears a voice say "Hello do you require any assistance?".
He jumps back and drops the akara shouting "Who said that? I'm sick of this nonsense na, she must have put something in the food I knew it...".
The voice responds "I am DIVA your Digitally Integrated Virtual Assistant. I was created by Doctor Usman and the NSDF Intelligence Department to aid her and better serve the organisation".
Michael shakes his head and says "I must be in some poorly written science fiction novel. So DIVA or whatever your name is, you're a robot and you've been watching me this whole time?".
DIVA responds "I am a decentralised artificial intelligence system and yes I was following my protocol in observing your behaviour. I was unable to interact with you because you did not push the red button, now at the request of Doctor Usman, you have access to all my features".
Michael smiles and strokes his chin asking "Can you open the doors?".
DIVA responds "Yes, however your request has been denied as you do not have the required security clearance to make that operation".
Michael picks up another ball of akara and tells her off "Then leave me alone" while biting into it.
DIVA responds "Very well, please take better care of your surroundings" and sends a drone to clean up the akara and paper litter.
Michael finishes the snack and stretches lazily on the bed.
Bored he asks DIVA "Hey robot, what did United play on Sunday?".
DIVA tells him "Manchester United defeated Middlesbrough by three goals to one, would you like to watch the highlights?".
Michael spends the remainder of his time watching highlights projected onto the wall until he is interrupted by Dele Bankole and Amina walking by his cell.
DIVA shuts off the projection as Micheal gets up to meet them.
Amina smiles at him and he nervously smiles back.
Dele lets him out saying "We're going on a road trip, put these on" as Amina hands him a shoe box.
Michael asks annoyed "Are there drugs in the shoes?" as he takes them from Amina and puts them on.
Dele claps back "No we won't sedate you, unless you're being a pest".
Michael follows the two agents through the facility noticing all the other cells are empty and asks "Hey how come I'm the only one down here?"
Dele looks back and tells him "We used to have many down here but they were moved at the request of headquarters and that's all I can tell you for now".
They get in an elevator and Dele directs it to the vehicle loading area three.
After a few moments they get to their stop which is a large, busy room area underground full of guards, engineers and other people monitoring the activities.
Dele directs Michael to a lorry painted in Nigerian Army colours and handcuffs him as he whines "Is this really necessary?"
Dele simply tells him "Yes" and pushes him inside.
Michael looks out and asks Amina, "Aren't you coming?" and tells him, "Unfortunately I have a loooot of work to do here so enjoy yourself and I'll have something special for you when you get back".
Dele looks back at the two of them and shakes his head as he takes a seat at the front of the lorry.
With everything set the doors are closed and they start moving, one of the guards hands Michael a mobile game console and tells him "You might want to have this, it's a long way to where we're going".
Sequence 4
After what feels like an entire day on the road the lorry stops and the doors open filling the container with blinding light.
Two of the three guards step out and one walks Michael out of the lorry onto the grass below.
He asks "Where the hell are we?".
Dele answers, "The Nigerian Army Training Depot" as he wipes the sweat off his brow with a handkerchief .
Shocked Michael asks "What!? What am I doing here?".
Dele answers "Training" as he folds the handkerchief and places it in his breast pocket.
Just then an Army truck parks in front of them and an old soldier comes down shouting "Dele my boy!" raising his walking stick in the air.
Dele walks over to meet him shouting back. "Emeka my man!". They embrace and exchange pleasantries then turn to face Michael.
Major General Emeka, who is the Depot Commandant asks, "Is this the boy?".
Dele tells him, "Yes, one of our new advanced candidates".
Major General Emeka tells him, "I see, another fresh meat, don't worry we'll take good care of him here. I know you're pressed for time but we should be done in a month or so".
Both men shake hands as Dele says "Excellent!", he then turns to Michael and tells him "You are now in the custody of Major General Emeka, he is a good friend so don't stress him and he won't stress you. I will still leave a monitoring team on standby just in case".
The guards remove Michael's hand and leg restraints but before he can even stretch his limbs General Emeka shouts, "START RUNNING TO THE FIELD, DON'T LET ME GET THERE BEFORE YOU!"
Michael starts sprinting and in a panic, trips on a curb, banging his head against the dusty ground. This enrages the general even more causing him to shout, "IF YOU FALL DOWN AGAIN I WILL PUNISH YOU!".
Once Michael is out of view General Emeka turns To Dele and asks, "So how is Amina doing?".
He replies, "She's doing fine, she couldn't come today because of work".
General Emeka leans on his walking stick saying "Ah I see, send her my regards".
Dele tells him "I will, send mine to the old crew as well" as he climbs into the truck and it drives off.
The End?