"Godsdammit none of this is helping!" I bellowed as I knocked Baset's book on splicing history onto the floor of my lab's vault.
Four days had passed since Bo crashed Baset's class and joined it as an unofficial student. With the day of my duel with Jane just under two weeks away and I having no visible progress in finding a new way to splice, I was scrambling.
With yet another of Baset's classes having passed, Iris couldn't help but boast that Jane had managed to splice a tier three evo that was strong enough to beat anything that I could make. At the moment, since I had nothing, she was right.
"Star Boss?" Grimm-Guard inquired from outside of the vault. The room darkened a little as his head blocked the door inside to check on me.
"I'm fine, Grimm. Just pissed at myself." I said with a sigh. I walked over to the door and patted Grimm-Guard to calm his nerves.
"Can I help?" Grimm-Guard asked. I smiled softly and shook my head.
"You helped enough the other day, Grimm. You helped me understand what was going on with Alpa." I said.
Two days ago, I confirmed that Grimm-Guard had a mana crystal inside his body much like Alpa'nagia did. The difference was that Alpa'nagia's crystal was actively generating mana, and Grimm-Guard's wasn't. While scanning him, I passed some of my mana off into his crystal to see what would happen. The crystal absorbed the mana and stored it inside, but nothing else happened. Grimm-Guard did say that he felt like the empty mana crystal behind his heart felt warmer, if only slightly.
That combined with the lysdale scripts I had of both Grimm-Guard now and Alpa'nagia before his transformation, it showed a redundant set of genes that was present in both of them. What's more, that redundant gene was a major gene that was found in my lysdale script and a major gene in Alpa'nagia's script currently. That gene was for my farm crystal.
My currently theory was that my using my DNA to fix both Alpa'nagia's and Grimm-Guard's faulty DNA and turn them into Transcended it added the genes that made farm crystals into their genetic structure giving them mana crystals. However, this was a dormant state, and once the dormant mana crystals were filled with mana, it fueled an evolution in Alpa'nagia's current form, which I was currently calling his true Transcended form.
"Boss! You in here?!" Sin called from outside the vault. I frowned and motioned for Grimm-Guard to move. He quickly got out of my way, and I hurried out of the vault and saw Sin approaching from the direction of the laboratory's front door with Bo and Gadget in tow. Grimm-Guard returned to his spot in the ceiling supports and watched from above.
"Sin? Bo? How did you get in here?" I asked as I waved them over.
"Someone left the front door open." Sin said, motioning behind himself. I groaned and slapped my forehead.
"I must have forgotten when I rushed in here last night…" I grumbled. Sin arched a brow and frowned.
"You've been in here since yesterday?" He asked.
"Still trying to come up with that new way to splice?" Bo asked. I nodded at both of them and groaned.
"It's so fucking annoying! Splicing is so complex AND simple at the same time! I've dissected it to its basest level and I still can't figure out a way to change it to suit my needs!" I complained.
Bo chuckled softly at my misery and I shot him a vicious glare and raised a hand up in a chopping motion. He flinched and ducked behind Sin who rolled his eyes at the display.
"Well boss before you have a melt down how about you talk us through your problem and maybe we can all find a solution." Sin said. I groaned then nodded.
"I guess it can't hurt." I said softly then motioned for them to follow me into the vault.
Bo and Sin obliged and when they walked into the vault they both froze and glanced around at the walls of the vault. They were covered in notes and sketches I took and hung up all over once the table started to get crowded. They weren't just of the splicing history book but of a few books on splicing I had checked out from the library on campus.
"Okaaaaaay." Bo said softly as he looked around.
"Ummm…you okay boss?" Sin asked.
"Yes I just ran out of room on the table." I replied as I walked over to said table and looked for a specific sheet of notes. I found it buried at the bottom of a pile of other notes then walked back over to Bo and Sin and handed it to Sin.
"What's this?" Sin asked.
"My idea on how to change splicing." I said. Sin took a moment to look over the notes. As he did his eyes got wider and wider until he finally shook his head and trusted the page back into my hands.
"Are you crazy! You want onto pick and choose the gene sequences that are present in a evo in order to fine tune that evo on the sub-genetic level! That's impossible!" Sin exclaimed.
"Wait isn't that what splicing is?" Bo asked as he looked up at Sin. Sin shook his head adamantly.
"No! Splicing is taking multiple genetic sequences and mashing them together and then through sheer luck and skill tearing off the excess in order to produce a evo. What he's talking about is creating generic structures from scratch! Using animals as a reference and then picking and pulling different genes and traits he wants from each animal and then combining those carefully selected traits into a evo!"
"It's a more specialized version of what's done with techno-splicing." I said.
"It's still impossible! There is no way that you can pick and choose genetic sequences like that. It would take mountains of mana to cut out all of the sequences you don't want from your catalysts even if you didn't burn all your mana trying to scan the catalysts!" Sin exclaimed.
"Which is why I decided to skip using a catalyst all together and create the entire evo's genetic sequence using mana." I said. Sin looked at me like I was insane then shook his head.
"IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" He bellowed. "You need to splice catalysts together in order to get an evo's genetic sequence! You can't just whip it up on the fly!"
"Good thing I'm not whipping it up on the fly then!" I rushed over to the south facing wall and grabbed five sheets of paper off the walls, then ripped past Bo and Sin to the entrance of the vault, motioning them to follow me.
They did, and the three of us made our way over to the lysdale Gene delver simulator. As it was probably both of their first time seeing one, they were a little apprehensive to approach it. However, once they saw me approach the control console and start booting it up, they seemed less apprehensive and approached.
"What's this thing?" Sin asked.
"A lysdale gene delver simulator. It reads lysdale scripts and then displays an image of whatever genetic information is printed in the script." I explained as I placed the first of the sheets I grabbed off the wall onto the script scanner.
It made a loud whirling noise as a green light appeared under the page, and a flat panel closed over the scanner and covered the page. The noise lasted for a few minutes until a light started to shine inside the crystal clear pool of the gene delver simulator's main display pool. The whole pool vibrated and sent water misting into the air as several lights shined from various spots all over the pool.
The lights projected an image into the mist, and soon, a three-dimensional image came into view. It was of a quadrupedal feline about six to seven feet tall with large curved fangs that descended several inches below its chin. It looked similar to a tiger with its dulled and barely visible stripes, only it didn't have much of a tail.
"Is that you designed for an evo?" Sin asked. I shook my head.
"No. Remember that Amber we found earlier this week with the mosquito inside? This is what the little guy fed on before it died and was encased in amber. This isn't an evo. it's an animal that probably went extinct centuries ago. I'm calling it the Sabertoothed Tiger, " I said. Sin's eyes widened, and he sutrned to me.
"How did you get the genetic structure of that! It was inside the amber. You shouldn't have been able to get to the mosquito or that blood sample without destroying everything!" Sin exclaimed.
"You used that mana manipulation thingy. You scanned it while it was inside the amber with your mana like Auntie Baset told you to do with Alpa." Bo said. I nodded.
"And because of thar I found out I can do this…" I held my hand palm side up and channeled flesh attribute mana into it. As I channeled the mana, I remember the lysdale script for the Sabertoothed tiger. Small droplets of blood formed in the palm of my hand and floated an inch above my palm.
"Is that?" Sin breathed.
"Sabortooth tiger blood, yeah. I can recreate it using mana. However, there is a problem. The moment I stop channeling mana into this synthetic blood, it starts breaking down and decaying rapidly." I said then to prove my point. I stopped channeling mana, and the blood dropped into my hand and turned a dark brown color, then grey and blew away in the air.
"So because it's synthetic, it ages rapidly…" Sin said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, which is the first of the problems I need to solve with my new way of splicing." I said.
"Why not just use real blood like with normal splicer?" Bo asked.
"Because he's trying to make a new form of splicing. If he copies too many parts from traditional splicing or techno-splicing, then it's just one or the other." Sin explained. Bo's eyes widened, and he nodded in understanding.
"Gotcha…" Bo said, then looked at the other pages I had in my other hand. "…what about the rest of those sheets?"
"These are Lysdale scripts for evos that I planned out." I said, then took took the saber toothed tiger script off the scanner.
When I did, the image of the animal disappeared, and the gene delver simulator went to standby mode. I pulled another script out and placed it in the scanner. After the loud noises and flashing lights scanned the page, the projectors around the pool projected the image of the evo I had planned.
The evo was a large and bulky grey skinned bi-pedal creature with legs and feet that looked similar to an elephant and a rhinos, thick tree trunk sized arms and shoulders, and a round pot-belly Its face was reminiscent of humans only with two large tusks parading past its mouth and an enormous horn where its nose should have been. All the physical attributes made sense since it was I had modeled it with human, African elephant, and black rhino DNA.
"First proof of concept evo: Ogrest, the stampede." I said.
"That things massive!" Bo exclaimed as he looked up at the evo.
"How big is it?" Sin asked.
"Seven feet tall. I designed it to be a midway point for the titan and the thrad." I replied, then took the script off the scanner and placed the second one on.
The evo that was displayed for this script was a quadrupedal evo. Mostly reptilian in nature, it lacked any front legs and instead had large wings with paws on the joints that it used as front legs when walking. It had powerful hind legs and a long scaled tail that had a fan-like tip. Its broad and flat head looked similar to the draconis that Draco owned but didn't have the massive horns sticking out its forehead. Covered in head to toe in jet black scales and having piercing red eyes, it was modeled after the venomous wyvern that appeared in the English fairytale. With the fruit bat, komodo dragon, and bearded dragon DNA I used as bases, it was just as deadly.
"Second proof of concept: Void Drake, the plague." I said.
"DIBS!" Bo yelled. Sin and I looked at each other, then down at Bo.
"What do you mean dibs?" Sin barked. Bo took a deep breath and then pointed at the image of the void drake.
"When Chase makes a void drake, I get the first one! I call dibs!" He said confidently. Sin scowled at Bo and shook his head.
"We don't even know if he can make one of these things, and you're already laying claim to the first one."
"I'll let you have the first one, Bo, but in exchange, you're going to have to help with testing of it." I said tjen flashed a devious grin.
"Suddenly, I think it might be a bad idea to accept that evo…" Bo muttered to himself.
I pulled the second lysdale script off the scanner and then placed the third and final script onto the scanner. This was the one I was the most proud of because it was the one that used the saber toothed tiger DNA.
This evo was a bipedal evo that stood at six and a half feet tall and feline in appearance. Its fur coloring and long fangs were attributed to the sabertooth tigers' DNA in it. It had a thick tuft of fur around its neck that was similar to a lions mane only a lot coarser and not as big as a mane. It possessed four eyes, however, instead of two like a normal feline, and that was in part to the orb weaver spider DNA that was part of its base. On the forearms of both of its arms were silk producing organs that were unique to that species of spider, though they were no bigger than a grain of rice.
"Third proof of concept: Primordial, the ancient." I said.
"Ra's bitch that looks badass!" Sin exclaimed.
"Looks terrifying…" Bo said then took a step back.
"I designed it to be a all around guerilla fighter that can strike terror into its opponents hearts so naturally it has to look a little scary." I explained.
"Well these evos are cool and all Chase but how are you going to make them?" Sin asked. I groaned and ran my hands through my hair.
"I don't know!" I barked then stomped away from thr gene delver simulator and over to the maturation tanl at the center of the lab. Bo and Sin followed close behind me. "I know this is going to have to be a longer process than splicing however it can't take as long as techno-splicing but can have shared elements of both. BUUUUUT! In order for it to be considered something new it has to have some component that is wholly unique and can't be replicated by either system of splicing!"
"How about we come back to this later when you're more mentally equipped to deal with this…say a hundred years." Bo teased. I frowned and chopped Bo on hos head. He groaned but still marked at his joke.
"Boss you might just be over thinking it. Your parents were techno-splicing scientists right? So you grew up around this techno-magi, and you've spent your entire tike here at Andromeda learning about magic and splicing. Just take what you've learned so far and find a way to combine them. Not in a way that makes sense to everyone else but in a way that makes sense to you." Sin said.
Bo and I blinked for a couple seconds then shared a look. Sin frowned immediately and crossed his arms.
"What does that look mean?" He asked.
"Nothing…I'm just surprised something so profound and meaningful came out of your mouth…" I said.
"Yeah, you look like a big dumb gonk so it's easy to forget that your actually smart." Bo added unnecessarily. I frowned and chopped
him on his head again.
"Shuddup!" I snapped as I shook my wrist out. "Kids head is harder than stone…"
'Stone…?' I thought as I paused mid-sentence. 'Stone, stone, stone…earth element…crystal attribute…flesh attribute…combined maybe…flesh and crystal…mana crystal…just like Alpa and Grimm!'
"FUCK A DUCK I FIGUTED IT OUT!" I bellowed as I turned around and raced over to the storage area of the lab.
Three days ago Bo, Sin, and Nate all helped me unload all the techno-splicing equipment that I got from those gangsters that Sin took care of. We ended up off loading it in the storage area and even got most of it put together and but most importantly, was the Ford-Lysdale gene resonator.
The name didn't mean anything to me when I first read it in that gangster hideout, but now that the machine was fully assembled and powered on, I knew exactly what it was. Gene resonators were vital to all techno-splicing, once a evo embryo was created, the resonator vibrated it at high frequencies to stimulate rapid cell growth. It kick-started the evos gestation period.
"What did you figure out?" Sin asked as he came to a stop a few feet behind me.
"Something only I can do!" I exclaimed proudly.