Ichor walked out of the bathroom located at one corner of the lab. He was now dressed in a pair of loose pants and a black body hug shirt.
In the short amount of time he had been here, he had made sure to take note of his surroundings.
This looks to be the lab, it must be connected to the large pool in some way. There are several glass tanks with obscured contents, there are also faint smells in the air. Something primal…
Ichor narrowed his eyes as he glanced around, he had an idea of what was in those tanks but he decided not to bother about them for now.
He arrived beside the three who were waiting for him. He had found out that the trainmaster's name was Sal and the lady beside him whom he had met at the beacon was Maja. Both of them were captains, just a rank above cadets.
For a captain to be so far ahead of cadets, I'm guessing something's at play here. It's highly likely that we that qualified for the test aren't even fully cadets yet.
Ichor didn't mind the strange gaze with which Maja looked at him or the hungry gaze with which the lady in lab coat stared at him.
"It's nothing short of amazing. I've never seen anything like it. His body must have a certain sort of resonance with the fluids in Golgotha." The lab lady's assistant handed over a file to her and she quickly skimmed through.
"His vitals are stable and he seems to be in peak condition." She muttered before looking up at Ichor.
"It will take some time to get used to your body. As you might have heard, the fluid has made changes to your body and you'll be inherently stronger than before with more space to grow."
"The rest of the cadets went through a week of rehabilitation, to help them adapt. You'll probably need less but I'll arrange for three days at least." Sal spoke this time around.
"Three days? Isn't that too short?" The lab lady asked with a puzzled gaze.
"I mean, I get that he's special. Hell, I haven't seen charts like this since… Well you know what I'm talking about. But I say he gets a week. Just to be safe."
"There's no need."
All eyes fell on Ichor as he spoke, his voice was gentler than before and his eyes seemed to have this look of clearance. Sal could tell that something was different the moment he saw him.
"What?" The lab lady questioned amusedly. "Do you know what could happen if you don't adapt to your body?"
Without waiting for Ichor to respond, the lady continued, her expression one of disdain. She was upset at the fact that a rookie would interfere in a chat between high ranking officers.
Although she was the head of the lab, she was in fact the highest ranking officer among the three of them. Popularly known as Miranda, the mad scientist, she was a major, a rank directly above sal and maja.
Her code name was "The devil!" for reasons that no one dared to speak of.
"Your body is currently in a weird state of paradox, one moment it is functioning properly and the next it's either not functioning at all or it's over functioning."
"To put it in simpler terms, imagine your heart suddenly begins to beat at a hundred times per seconds one moment, and the next you can barely get blood through your body. Your muscles will be deprived of oxygen, your brain will be affected and your thinking restricted. You can go from being as weak as a baby to being as strong as seven men."
"Such a situation isn't only problematic during missions but in your daily life. Imagine in the process of training, your muscles suddenly go limp. You can go from upside push ups to broken necks in a second. Or if you applied the force of a punch instead of a gentle touch when shaving. You might sever your head before you know what's happening."
"I think that's enough, Miranda." Sal chuckled. He looked at Ichor and sighed, an understanding look in his eyes.
"I know you are eager to get back into action but she's right. She's an expert at this kind of thing."
Ichor looked between Sal and the lab lady Miranda. He turned around as walked away from them to their greatest surprise.
He approached the lab assistant.
"What's your name?" He asked her,
"St… stella…" she stammered. If she had been in any right state of mind, she would have realized that she was a senior to the young man before her.
But something about his charisma and his gaze made her feel like she was under his mercy.
"Can I have that ribbon, Stella?" Ichor asked, his gentle voice charming and frightening the lady at the same time.
The weird contrast between her emotions made her confused and before she knew it, she was handing over the red ribbon she had previously been holding to Ichor.
Miranda was about to say something but Sal gestured to her to hold on. They watched along with Maja as Ichor tied his hair into a rough bun with the ribbon.
Then, he took a deep breath and exhaled through his mouth.
Pa! Fwip! Fwip!
Ichor suddenly moved, performing a series of simple martial arts moves. His fists were quick, his kicks sharp. His movements were extremely fluid as he moved about, fighting an imaginary enemy.
He fought for almost five minutes before suddenly pausing. He returned to his neutral stance and exhaled through his mouth.
Then he looked towards sal.
"I need a favor, what do I have to do?"
"Hey brat! Let me tell you, just because you could move about like a horny frog for five minutes doesn't mean you are exempted from the reha—"
"Miranda," Sal called out.
Miranda looked at sal, her expression twisted into anger. She was provoked. She knew that the only reason why Ichor hadn't performed a few moves and instead went on for five minutes was to prove to her that he was more than capable of controlling his body perfectly.
She had the aim to give him another lecture and if possible punish him but she decided to let go when she heard Sal call her.
"Don't worry, I'll handle it from here." Sal said, his mysterious smile was back.
"You know what I want." Ichor's eyes were filled with that same peculiar gaze, one that Sal couldn't quite explain or understand.
"Yes."
"What's the mission?" Ichor asked, already behaving like a military man would.
"Simple. A spar."