The family awoke from their sleep and proceeded to prepare for the day ahead. Samuel quickly prepared his things for the journey and joined his family for brunch. After their last meal together, they gathered on the porch to see Samuel off. He hugged his parents as they wished him good luck. "Be sure to take very good care of yourself and make absolute sure to call us often, okay?" Vivian said to him. "I promise, I will", he said in response.
"You are a man of the Griffin household. Be sure to stay strong no matter what you go through", his father added patting his shoulder. "I sure will", Samuel said with confidence. He then turned to his sister and gave her a hug. "Be good okay. I'll talk to you later", he said as he ended the embrace. "Big brother, come back soon", she said not really wanting to let go. "I'll be back, don't worry about me little sis", he said as she finally let him go.
He picked up his bag and took a few steps back. "I'll talk to you guys as soon as we arrive there", he said as he stretched his wings and softly leapt off the ground. He flew backwards a few feet off the ground and waved goodbye. After they returned the wave, he turned and shot off towards Dr. Michelson's Mountain lab.
"WELCOME BACK SAMUEL", Lisia greeted as she opened the door. "Thanks Lisia", Samuel said as he walked in, heading directly for Dr. Michelson. "Hope you are all set for the trip?" Dr. Michelson asked when he noticed Samuel. "Yeah!" Samuel responded. He dropped his bag and retracted his wings returning to his regular human form.
"Here", Dr. Michelson said as he tossed a small black box to Samuel. "What's this?" Samuel asked as he scrutinized the box. "Press the button on top", the doctor instructed. Samuel did as instructed and pressed the button awaiting what would happen. After a few seconds, the box popped open and a series on interconnected nano bots emerged, flowing up his arm and surrounding his body. Samuel was a little weirded out but relaxed when he felt no harm to his body.
The nano bots covered his entire body and mimicked the very clothing he was wearing. "This is so cool, what is it?", Samuel asked as he admired the outfit. "My brother sent it over recently. I sent them some data and they came up with this. Because you rip through your clothes whenever you transform, you'll need to wear this suit made of nano bots. The bots will disassemble whenever you transform and reassemble when you reverse your transformation. This will avoid putting your birthday suit out on display after every transformation", Dr. Michelson explained.
"Oh wow! That's very useful", Samuel said deciding to test out the suit. He brought out his wings and changed into his hybrid form. He noticed that the suit did its job even with his extra appendages. "Cool!" he said and transformed back. "It's only a prototype. They'll have the main one ready after I send back the data on the use of this one", he informed.
"Let's get going then", the doctor said as he picked his own bag. They walked to the elevator and took it down to the underground garage. Samuel was stunned immediately they stepped foot into the garage. The garage itself covered a large area even extending outward from the mountain's location.
Arranged in a nice setting were multiple grades and styles of cars that most people will only dream of owning. He even saw some military grade ones in the back. "How did you get all these?" Samuel asked in astonishment. "I had my own life before I met you, you know?" Dr. Michelson said jokingly.
Samuel stood, rooted to the ground, drooling at the corner of his lips as he tried to guess which of the luxury cars before him was going to take them on their journey. His fantasy was however short lived. "We are taking that one", Dr. Michelson said as he pointed at a relatively plain looking SUV. "Aww!" Samuel whined as he walked towards the chosen car.
Upon reaching the car, he realized that the outwardly plain looking car was new and not at all uninteresting. Dr. Michelson tapped his thump unto the lock and a scan screen appeared. His thumb was scanned and only after it glowed green were the doors opened. They loaded their luggage into the SUV and after ensuring nothing was left behind, took their seats. Dr. Michelson started the car and began driving across the well-lit tunnel underground.
After a minute of driving, they approached the end of the tunnel. "Lisia, if you would…" he said to the panel on his dashboard. "ACKNOWLEDGED", Lisia responded as a large door leading outside opened. Dr. Michelson drove through the doors, out of the tunnel and joined the main road leading out of the mountains. The doors to the tunnels closed up immediately.
Looking back, Samuel could not recognize the door. Had he not just passed through himself, he would not have guessed there was one there. The camouflage in the area was amazing.
"That's incredible. It's perfectly hidden", Samuel said staring back in awe. "You haven't seen anything yet. Lisia, shut down all non-essentials and put the lab in 'Stand-By' mode and activate 'Lockdown protocols'", Dr. Michelson said to the car's computer. "ACKNOWLEDGED. LOCKDOWN MODE ACTIVATED!!", Lisia announced.
"It's so cool that you were able to create an AI as advanced as she is", Samuel acknowledged. "You're quite mistaken. I didn't create her. If you recall your first interaction with her, she told you herself. The Lisia I have is only a fragment of her main body. Don't worry about it for now. You will be learning about her a lot in the future", Dr. Michelson explained.
"Wait, what's this about a lockdown?" Samuel asked suddenly. "Take a look at the mountain lab", Dr. Michelson said as Samuel turned and, using his telescopic vision, viewed the mountain but to his surprise, there was nothing that could differentiate it from the others. "Woah!" Samuel muttered. "Does that answer your question?" Dr. Michelson asked. "Hmm!" Samuel nodded as he sat back down.
The entire mountain facility has been placed on stand-by mode, shutting down all non-essentials completely, sealing itself off from the outside world. You couldn't tell the difference between the lab and the other regular mountains. After hours of driving, they finally reached the city. As they drove through the city, Samuel could do nothing but be in awe of everything.
Being his first time in the city and all, he was yet to get used to seeing things for real instead of on television. After a couple of hours in low traffic, they finally arrived at the City's border. "I can't believe I'm leaving the city for the first time", Samuel said ecstatically. "But you've barely even seen the city", Dr. Michelson joked as they drove down the highway in the direction of Cape Metro City. All throughout the journey, Samuel had one thought, 'Who was he going to meet?'
Back in the mountains, the Griffin couple were sun bathing at the shores of the lake by their house. The atmosphere was cool and serene, enough to make you fall asleep. A loud scream suddenly tore through the quite atmosphere. The scream came from their house; from Catherina's room. "Catherina!" Bernard yelled as they run towards the house. They entered the house and quickly climbed the stairs to their daughter's room. They opened the door to find her lying on the floor shaking in fear. "What is it? What happened?" Bernard asked his eyes darting around the room.
Vivian quickly ran to her daughter and helped her off the ground; hugging her tightly. "What is it baby? Tell us what happened" Vivian asked as she checked her daughter's temperature. "I just had a daymare, that's all. It's nothing really", she said as she stood upright and straightened herself out. "I am going for a walk to clear my head", she said as she quickly walked out the door before her parents could stop her.
"I am getting a little worried about her", Vivian whispered to Bernard as Catherina walked out of the door. "Me too", Bernard replied. As Catherina walked along the shores of the lake, she began to think out loud. "I wonder what that was. I could swear that I saw big brother in his transformed state, but the feeling was different than before. It was as if it wasn't him. Whatever it was, it seemed to be staring at me, almost like a reflection. Its eyes scared me; they looked sinister".
"A daydream? I hope that's all it was", she said to herself as she stopped and looked over the horizon. "Well, no sense in worrying about that anymore", she said as she picked a shiny stone and threw it at the water. The stone skipped continuously on the surface of the water until it hit a small floating log, shattering it. "What exactly is going on with me?" she asked herself as she watched the pieces of the shattered log float on the surface of the water.