The lab buzzed with frenetic energy. Assistants in their pristine white coats darted between humming consoles and various equipment. Each seemed to avoid running into the other by just a hair as the bustling activity continued.
The air was thick with tension punctuated by hurried footsteps and the hiss of pressurized gases escaping from somewhere in the tangle of machinery, pipes, and canisters. The canisters contained a glowing liquid that flowed through transparent pipes into the machines; all of which were connected to a single station in the room.
At the center of the room, the test subject lay strapped to an inclined table. A patchwork of wires and electrodes snaked across his bare torso. The pale glow of the overhead lights illuminated his face. His eyes were unfocused, his breathing was shallow and his lips were trembling – perhaps he was muttering prayers or curses.
Thick restraints bound his arms and legs to the table, tight enough to dig into his skin and leave the area around them red with irritation. A network of IV lines fed various colors of fluid into his veins, their origins hidden in the array of machinery looming around him. A faint smell of antiseptic hung in the air, providing proof of prior sterilization of the environment; and yet, he seemed forgotten amid the whirlwind of activity.
The assistants began to bark orders, requests, and notices at one another, their urgency growing with every passing second. While one of them was recalibrating a siphon and another frantically typed commands on a control terminal, someone dropped a tool, the clang reverberating across the room like an insult, the sound of which drew twenty-one sharp glares across the room.
And then the elevator chimed.
The sound was faint but it cut through the cacophony like a surgeon's knife. Instantly, the bustling ceased. Every assistant froze mid-motion as their heads snapped toward the double doors at the far end of the room. Amid the silence, a sharp inhale resounded as the subject's eyes came into focus.
The silence was palpable, causing the hum of machinery that filled the background to feel oppressive.
The elevator doors slid open, revealing a single figure standing in the dim light. He stepped forward slowly, his polished black boots clicking against the metal floor. His lab coat was immaculate, carrying an almost ceremonial weight.
The Scientist.
Without a word, the assistants parted, retreating to their stations at the edges of the room like shadows fleeing from light. A feeling that was lent credibility as the pale overhead lights shone bright, temporarily blinding the assistants as their eyes struggled to adjust to the light.
He had a handsome and young face, but his eyes were sharp and calculating. They swept over the setup with precision, searching for inaccuracies as he continued forward.
He stopped at the edge of the subject's table, his expression unreadable. The subject's chest heaved as his eyes focused on the figure in front of him, but there was no recognition, only fear.
The scientist leaned forward, his fingers deftly adjusting the positioning of the electrodes with a calmness that belied the magnitude of what was to come. He went around the table, correcting mistakes and repositioning items. The assistants watched him work; their eyes focused intently as they took note of the changes he made.
"That would have been a failure," he muttered to himself, his voice low, but still audible in the heavy silence. "I can't fry another conduit; these things are hard to come by."
Satisfied, he took a step back, his hands clasped behind him.
"Comfortable?" he asked the subject.
"Please…," the subject managed to say, his voice low and harsh like a person parched.
"I understand you, however, we must grow, we must break new grounds, and you are key to understanding the truth of our world. Don't panic, I'm here", he answered.
For a moment, the room held its breath. Then, with a calm voice, he ordered:
"Begin"
One of the assistants pushed a button on one of the consoles, causing the subject's table to tilt till it was almost vertical. The lights dimmed and a low hum filled the room, growing in intensity till it became a loud whir.
The subject flinched, his eyes closed and his face scrunched up in pain, his muscles tightening as they convulsed against the restraints. The IV lines all fed the glowing liquid into his body, causing his veins to glow with a bright blue color.
The console screens constantly refreshed, showing wild fluctuations along with incomprehensible streams of data scrolling faster than anyone could read.
"Initiate phase one," the scientist ordered, causing an assistant to freeze as the words she was about to say got caught in her mouth.
The hum deepened into a pulsating rhythm, each pulse causing flickers of bright light to shoot through the glowing blue liquid into the subject's body. His body jerked violently every time the flickers appeared. He screamed – a guttural sound that sent shivers through the assistants. His eyes opened and they appeared to glow in the dim lights of the room.
"Energy levels are stabilizing," one of the assistants reported.
The Scientist's gaze remained fixed on the subject, his expression cold and devoid of emotion. "Increase the flow, Phase one is not complete," he ordered.
The assistant hesitated, glancing at the subject whose eyes no longer glowed for a moment before she entered the command. There could be no disobedience, no hesitation, no mistakes. The repercussions for these were strict and she did not want to bear them.
The subject's gaze was fixed on the assistant as they began to glow again. The pain had subsided at some point, but now it returned and the gaze he leveled at the assistant made her shrink back in fear.
"How do you feel?" he asked the subject after a while.
By the time, he said these words, the screams had died down, but they still seemed to echo in the room. The subject's eyes now glowed bright in the dim room, his muscles had multiplied in size, straining his restraints. The restraints had expanded to accommodate the size of his muscles, but they remained firm, holding him against the table without any sign of wear. His veins stood out against the rest of his body, shining with a blue tint as the glowing liquid continued to circulate in his body.
"I'll kill you," the subject spat through closed teeth.
"I would be happy to see you do that, but you need to survive phase three," he answered calmly. "So, are you ready for phase two?", he asked.
The subject's eyes widened for a moment before he began to struggle against the restraints. His violent actions did nothing to move the restraints, causing his expression to turn to one of despair as the scientist ordered:
"Initiate phase two"
The machines whirred as they started their gruesome work. Blades lowered toward the subject as he struggled as they began to cut off his limbs one after the other. It was incomprehensible how one could scream so loud, but his screams drilled deep into their ears, leaving many of the assistants shaking. Amidst all this, the scientist stood like a rock, impervious to the violence of a storm.
The gruesome process continued for an hour and by the end of it, the subject had turned red. He and the table he was restrained to were drenched in blood.
The scientist who had been emotionless through both phases of the nightmare that was the experiment so far, smiled widely. The blades raised off the subject, showing that the second phase had been completed. The console to one side of the room showed details of the subject's state at that moment. The room held its breath as the assistant who was monitoring the console announced in a low voice that pierced the room –
"P… Phase Two has been completed successfully. Subject's stats are stable"
It was like the scientist was waiting for that announcement because he burst out laughing the moment the assistant finished his announcement.
"This is amazing… We finally made it," he proclaimed amidst his laughter. He did not seem to notice the glowing eyes of the subject that were fixed to him as he celebrated.
Before any of them could react, he moved to the central console and entered a string of commands. The assistants were horrified when they heard the hiss of gas being released as the restraints clicked. The subject was also dumbfounded for a moment as he could not imagine why he was released from his restraints, but he reacted when he noticed the assistants slinking away from him.
He only looked at them for a moment before his eyes snapped to the scientist and he pounced.
Crash!!!
"Woah, be careful. This lab was expensive to build."
A bunch of machines had been crushed, causing sparks to fly as the wires touched each other. Some of these touched the subject's body, causing arcs to stream all over him, but they only lent more to his terrifying appearance. He looked like a monster out of the worst of nightmares – glowing red eyes, covered in blood with lightning arcs all around him.
In a corner of the rubble that the crash caused, blood spread out over the pristine floor. Due to the unrestrained attack, some of the assistants had been killed instantly.
"Tsk… Tsk… That will be difficult to explain," the scientist muttered to himself.
As for how the scientist had evaded the attack, it was like he teleported across the room. The subject who now looked like a red-eyed demon, was already dashing across the room to attack the scientist again.
Crash!
Crash!!
Crash!!!
It was at this time, that it became crystal clear how the scientist had evaded the first attack, because, the two of them had turned into blurs of color, one a white streak that led the blue and red streak around the room. In the process, many other machines were destroyed. Many of the assistants were unfortunately caught in the crossfire and ended up crushed under the rubble of machines.
"Alright, that's enough," a powerful voice resounded in the room.
The white blur suddenly stopped moving, while the blue and red streak flew across the room until it crashed into a wall, adding to the list of tragedies it caused.
The scientist dusted off his white lab coat as he walked toward the subject who was now embedded in the wall. His body was mangled and his limbs trembled as arcs of lightning flickered around him.
"You're not too bad," the scientist said as he approached the subject. "As I said, we must grow, we must break new grounds, and you are key to understanding the truth of our world. In that sense, you are a great sign."
His words caused the glowing red eyes of the subject to dim as his expression grew dark.
"Don't be cross, we have more work to do. So, restore yourself. I'll be back in a moment," the scientist announced before walking to the elevator and subsequently leaving the room.
The subject's red eyes glowed again as he scanned the room for the rest of the assistants, who he found huddled in a corner.
Then there were screams…
…none survived the incident.
Signed:
The Scientist.