Two days later,
Mark woke up inside his cell. He didn't know how long it had been since he passed out in the lab, nor did he know what happened to him there, and why he passed out, but he was feeling better somehow.
Mark raised himself on the bed, trying to sit, but noticed a something was inside his mouth and throat.
~gurgh~
He pushed the thing out, and saw it was a catheter, and from the inside of it a reddish liquid kept coming out.
Disgusted, Mark threw the thing to the side and tried to sit again. Only now he noticedthat he was not cuffed anymore, but then looked at his arms and saw that he was wrong, it was just a different kind of cuffs, one that let him move his arms around, attached to small chains, that were attached to the bed.
Mark sat and noticed he was inside his cell, and barely did he recovered his thinking and a voice came from behind him, from behind his bed, "I'm glad to see that you are awake," said a man in white coats, "Please call Prof. Hess" shouted aloud the man, for the guards to hear while coming to the front of the bed.
Mark didn't recognize that researcher, or he was new, or he never took part in his tortures.
"Your wounds are healing extremely fast, but not only that, your health is also improving fast. I never saw something like this. Your useless ability seems to not be so useless now." said the man in white coats to Mark as if he was his patient or something like that, probably old habits of being a medic thought Mark. But the true was that Mark could not care less about what the man was saying. He didn't have any hope anymore. All he wanted was a peaceful end.
Seeing Mark was not showing any reaction, the researcher continued with his monologue, "Not only is your health improving, but your body accepted the new cells inside your marrow, so from now on, you are the first of your species. They didn't change your DNA, but the effect is the same, because from now on, your body will produce those new cells. How does it feel to be a unique being?" asked the man.
Mark looked to his right arm and saw the holes made there were already closed, only several small white scars remained, but he also noticed that he was not feeling hunger anymore, and noticed that his arms seemed to be more in shape than before, he seemed to have gained muscles.
'What they did to me?' asked himself Mark.
Barely had Mark noticed the changes in his body, and Prof Hess entered his cell. "So he is awake, and in good mental condition?" asked him.
"Yes, he didn't talk, but his reactions are fine." said the other researcher that Mark never saw before.
"Good. Bring him to the operations table. We have a lot of exams to do." said Prof Hess already leaving the room.
...
A few minutes later, inside the operations room.
Several researchers stood around Mark, looking at him while taking notes. They were waiting for Prof. Hess to arrive. They could only begin the test when he came to the room.
"Why is Hess taking so long?" asked one of the researchers, a little annoyed.
"He is applying the same process on another subject, but the result is not going well. It seems the subject in front of us is special because of the ability related to consuming mutated meat," said one of the researchers.
Hearing that, Mark didn't know if he was lucky or unlucky, because the more he lasted, the more experiments they would do to him.
A few seconds passed in silence, and the door of the operations room opened, and a few researches came in.
"Prof Hess, how went the procedure with the other subject?" asked one of the researchers, seeing that Prof. Hess finally came.
"He didn't survive," said Prof Hess, throwing a bloodied coat inside a trash bin and grabbing another one from the shelf, "Let's start, we must learn all we can from this subject"
Hearing that, one of the researchers grabbed a small cylinder with a purplish small heart inside it, and came close to Mark, "Please open your mouth, we prefer to not force feed you this,"
Mark noticed that it was a mutated animal heart, one that probably had an ability, but he didn't open his mouth, he was done playing nice to those people. For him, they could try to force feed him if they wanted.
Seeing that he was not cooperating, two other researchers grabbed a few apparels and put inside Mark's mouth to keep it open, and then closed his nostrils, and forced fed him the small purple heart.
"How is the radiation?" asked Prof Hess, seeing that Mark had eaten the purple heart.
"It spreading to all of his body, but no new ability. I can't capture a new concentration point of radiation," said a researcher using a computer by the side of Mark's bed.
Mark, too, didn't feel the usual effects that a new ability had, the needles, and the weird feeling. All he felt was the usual warm feeling of consuming mutated animal meat, but it was stronger than all previous times.
"This heart ability also has a side effect of turning the veins purple, and by now the ability would already have shown its side effects, but his veins are normal." Said the man that fed Mark with the purple heart.
"So, the beast cell we injected in his marrow seems capable of neutralizing abilities. How is the radiation in his eye and stomach?" asked Prof Hess.
"The radiation in his eyes and stomach are higher than before the procedure. Those two abilities seem to not be affected by the beast cells," said the researcher behind the computer.
"So it only neutralizes new abilities. That's why the beasts are incapable of gaining new abilities when they eat mutated animals, but the abilities they already have are not affected." concluded Prof Hess.