"I didn't sign up for this?"
"No!!!!", Eric's screams could be heard.
"Hello!!!"
A boy of about thirteen struggled to breathe, his chest was heaving intermittently as he clutched at his head, his white hair looking disheveled. His torn clothes suggested he had been in some kind of laboratory, and his labored breathing hinted that he had barely survived a near-drowning ordeal.
"What's this ?!" he gasped, staring at his hands in horror, his breathing ragged and labored.
"What's that sound…"
He could hear the distant wail of sirens and the ruckus of machinery beeping and whirring.
Groggily, he opened his eyes to a blurry vision of tubes and wires surrounding him.
"Hello...?" he croaked, his voice barely audible. "What's happening to me?" he mumbled with confusion etched on his face, before his eyelids closed shut once more.
Then the boy's eyes fluttered open, only to be met with a searing pain that threatened to split his skull in two.
"Where …..???? What???", he mumbled..
Then a distant voice drifted nearby, "He's regaining consciousness...administer another dose of the painkiller, or he won't survive much longer."
He felt something long and sharp prick his skin, and then it pierced his right arm. "AAAAAHHHH!!!!" he screamed, his young body thrashing on the bed.
He was just thirteen, and he hadn't developed pain tolerance yet, and the pain was almost too much to bear. His consciousness drifted, consumed by anxiety, confusion, and hatred. He had no recollection of his identity or how he ended up in this nightmarish place.
Due to it he closed his eyes again.
"Sir, analysis of his brain showed a magnality," a voice said, "his brain frequencies are off the charts for a thirteen-year-old. His skull has been severely cracked."
Another voice chimed in, "We've handled cases like this... Feed him a dosage of the Elder's Bone and partially install the GET-X Chip on the back of his skull. It would help stop the blood flow and enhance cognitive abilities temporarily.."
T/N: GET-X stands for Genetic Enhancement Technology - X-series. It's a brain-computer interface chip that enhances cognitive abilities, memory, and physical performance, for a temporary state.
The medical instruments clattered and then soon, the boy was then wrapped in a soft line cloth of a patient with good stitches on his forehead. The boy's heartbeat started becoming normal, and he showed signs of recuperating.
"Soon, he would be conscious", the doctor thought.
Then, the boy's eyes snapped open, piercing through the brightness, which made him squint slightly. Then he sat up, his head spinning, and grasped his arm, noticing the intravenous drip inserted into his vein. He turned his head, his eyes were locked on the doctor standing beside him, a mix of confusion was etched on his face.
"Who are you?" the boy asked, his voice laced with uncertainty.
"I'm your personal doctor, Eric…", the doctor said with a huge smile on his face.
"I don't remember having a doctor? Who are you? What are …", the boy asked.
The doctor's expression turned from shock to disbelief. "You don't remember me? I've been your doctor for...well, that's not important right now." He paused, collecting his thoughts.
"What's the last thing you remember?" he asked, softening his tone. The boy's eyes wandered, as if searching for a distant memory. "I...I don't know," he stammered, his voice was barely audible. "I can't recall anything. My name, my family...nothing."
"You don't recall your name!!!!", the doctor asked.
"Don't ask me that!!! I asked for your name", the boy said, his face contorted with anger.
"Alright. My name is Dr. Rafael. I'm a doctor here at Lord Technologies. You were found on the east of the Lucian Bay, gasping and panting for breath", the doctor replied.
"Then who am I?"he asked again.
"Your name is Eric…..",the doctor paused, trying to make the hou recollect his memories but the boy was just looking at him.
"Eric…. what?", the boy asked. "Is it just Eric?"
"Looks like he has really gotten amnesia. The Ødegaàrds have finally lost one of their upcoming talents…..", the doctor thought.
"I don't think this would suit us well if I told him. He is still a child. But what happened that made him lose his memories?"
"Eric Ødegaàrd…Your name is Eric Ødegaàrd…", the doctor replied.
"Doctor Rafael, right?", Eric asked.
"Why are you treating me? I don't know you, and you don't know me either, right?" Eric pressed on.
Doctor Rafael's expression turned calm and professional. "That's correct, Eric. We don't know each other, but I'm here to help you. You were brought to this facility for treatment, and I'm the assigned doctor for your case."
"How can he forget about him. This is already retrograde case.", he thought.
Eric's eyes narrowed. "Doctor. Am I sick? And Where the Hell am I?"
"Didn't I tell him that we are in the Lord Technologies…", he thought. "Need to leave this room now… I need to go check what happened to him…"
Doctor Rafael hesitated before responding. "You're in a...specialized medical center. Let's just focus on your recovery for now, okay?"
"No, I want to know what's going on. What happened to me that I was admitted? How did I get here?"Eric asked, this time infuriated.
"Could I just make up a fake story?", the doctor thought. Then Doctor Rafael sighed."Eric, I understand your frustration, but please trust me. You need rest and treatment. We'll address your questions later, I promise."
"Rest? When I'm in a lab coat as if I'm some kind of experimentational pig.", Eric replied, shouting.
"Alright. Alright...", the doctor said. "Well. Yo-yo a-r-e o-r d...". He then reached for a tablet on the bedside table, his fingers swiping across the screen. The device lit up, displaying a series of images and data.
Eric's gaze drifted towards the screen, his eyes struggling to focus. "What...have you done...to me?" As he spoke, his eyelids drooped, and his head slumped back onto the pillow.
"Thank God I did that.", the doctor thought. "Looks like I have to report this to the superiors…"
"An Ødegaàrd having amnesia is something else…", he thought.
The doctor grasped the tablet beside him and approached the door.
"I need to consult with Perry," he murmured to himself, "he'll know what to do with... him."
His hand reached for the door handle, hesitated for a moment, then slammed the door shut.
As the doctor exited the room, a strange red glow began to emanate from Eric's forehead. A wispy tendril of energy, resembling a glowing red substance, slowly emerged from his skin.
The tendril extended, its glowing red length unfolding like a dark, ethereal serpent. It then slid into Eric's open mouth, as if drawn by a morbid hunger. The boy's body shuddered, his eyes frozen, as the appendage disappeared into the darkness of his throat.
Then Eric closed his eyes…
The doctor walked to the next room and pushed open the door, then he dropped the tablet to the attending nurse. "Hello Sarah", he said. "The patient in Room 4 needs to be sedated. He shows signs of retrograde amnesia, probably induced by the traumatic event he witnessed."
Sarah's eyes widened as she took the tablet. "Retrograde amnesia, Doctor? That's a severe omen. Is it the Luke's kid?"
"Yes."
The doctor's expression turned grave.
"His brain activity is off the charts.
We need to run some tests, but first, let's get him stabilized. Sedate him and monitor his vitals closely. I'll order an MRI and EEG to get a better understanding of what's going on."
Sarah nodded, already moving towards Room 4. "On it, Doctor. I'll get the sedative ready and prepare the patient for the tests."
"Okay, Doctor…"
"Alright Dr.Rafael", Sarah said, picking up the tablet before pushing through a transparent display that seemed to be glowing.
It was more like a storage unit but on a desk computer version.
Then Rafael looked at his left and right hands, he was holding a obsidian black tablet but the one on his hand was a blue one.
"Ahh, Shit! I exchanged the wrong tablet", Rafael thought. "How the hell did I make such kind of rookie mistake"
"Sarah, er...mmmm", the doctor coughed.
"File #2346 Received. Contains 1 Yotta-Byte of patient and individual files contained.", a monotone voice said.
"Alright Guardian. Document that Patient in Room 4 …", Sarah said, as she moved out of the unit.
"It would take about three minutes to decode the data and mobilize it to the specific units for approval", the monotone voice.
The light glowed a bit before starting to mobilize the sending the files to the cloud storage unit of the hospital.
As she prepared the medication, she glanced up to see Rafael's forehead beaded with sweat. "What's wrong, Doctor?" she asked, looking concerned.
Rafael's eyes darted around the room before fixing on hers. "I made a mistake," he admitted. "The data I accessed wasn't for Patient 4. It was for... someone else."
"What do you mean? Who was it for?",
"Don't worry, I'm just joking...", Rafael said, wiping off the sweat on his body.
"Rafael please, just be reminded that this work please. Just a minute, you looked a bit concerned and now, you are just joking..."
"Are you really serious for once?", Sarah said, looking annoyed.
Rafael went beside back and hit the glowing button on her table and then the screen lit up.
"Hello, Dr.Rafael…", the Guardian AI said.
"Cut down the transfer of the data inside the tablet. Transfer null and void", he said.
"Do you have the authority to override this ….", the AI asked in a monotone voice.
"Yes I have", Rafael said. "Doctor Perry's license …", he said removing the specific doctor's specialist card.
"Phase One is Done!!!", he thought.
"Activate the Neuro-Portal in the elevator on the right. I need to interface with the Cerebral Nexus and analyze the data streams from the neural lattice present in the second room."
"Alright Doctor... Sending the command for the interface activation...", the AI assistant said.
"Now, I have scaled through Phase One. Now it's time I tell Doctor Perry my findings. I would do my best to have at least this recruit for the Organization...."