Chapter 10 [Strike Back]

Capricorn 20/2261 4:56

"Hey, Cleopatra," I said. Her head and shoulders appeared on the screen. She wore a wide grin that was almost as bright as her hair. Her pink eye glowed as she spoke.

"Hiya, Nightmare," Cleo answered. I only used her full name if I wanted to make sure she was alone. If she was, she called me a Nightmare. If she was with other's, she called me NightStorm.

"I need to call in a favour," I said. She gave a quiet chuckle.

"You've only got two left." She warned. I smiled and shrugged.

"I need you to go to the records room and find the chip that was in Ethan-007's helmet on my last mission," I said. She tilted her head and frowned. "Please. I need it in my lab."

"Okay, Nightmare. Give me ten minutes." She signed off. I closed the screen and pressed my hand flat against the hologram. It blended back into the wall, making it glow green again in that spot.

"Simulation failed," Vix said. "Cell death at 30 percent and the immune response killed the rest. I do not think this formula will work."

I turned to my last screen and rubbed my eyes. My damaged hand began to throb as the pain killers wore off.

"Increase the electrolytes in the serum." I decided. "Maybe that will work enough to stabilize the cells."

"Running simulation..." Vix said. I watched it. It showed a white bottle on the black screen. The ingredients and their composition beside it. I braced my left hand on my cheek and waited. "Serum stable."

"Run 50 milligrams with 30 percent buffer," I said. The formula appeared in a new window. Vix appeared beside the screen in a new hologram. Her gaze was filled with a look of worry that reminded me too much of Nati. She gave me a worried look.

"Jadien, your mother's file would have her formula in it. If we could access those, then we can save all this time." She said.

"Yeah, but she's dead, and her file is password encoded. Not even Cleo can hack it." I reminded the AI. "And if we put the wrong answer it, it will destroy the contents."

"When was the last time you slept?" She asked. I muttered an answer, my eyes locked on the simulation. "Ate?"

"Vix, I do not need a caretaker," I warned. Red flash.

"Immune system killed it," Vix stated. "But the cell death was reduced to 20 percent."

"What is causing the immune response?" I asked. Vix narrowed her eyes at me.

"It's a foreign subst—"

"You know what I mean. What part of the serum is causing the most response?"

"It would appear to be Ki3Li7C2," Vix said. Kilkium Lithium and Carbon. Kilkium would be the main issue. The hyper-element was unstable at the best of times. Mixing it and putting it in the human body would be a giant risk. Hopefully, one that paid off in the end.

"Define Kilkium," I said.

"Kilkium is a recently found element, found in the center of a black hole. It is the smallest known element at 0.95 grams per mole but has the most electrons known to any element with 509 known. It is unstable in the normal atmosphere because it needs the intense pressure of a black hole to prevent the electrons from being pulled away. The small weight is because the black hole has pressed down so much on the proton that it ended up breaking a section off, the only known condition of this happening."

I chewed on my nail for a minute. Vix brought up a diagram of the element. The electrons expanded so far even at a scale, it was hard to see the nucleus.

"What happens when it is heated to body temperature?" I asked. The simulation ran. The proton exploded, and the electros went everywhere. "So that's it. It's not the immune system, it's the body repairing the burns it's causing."

"The element it's even making it to the bloodstream." Vix agreed. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the screen.

"Do we have an alternative to Kilkium?" I asked. Vix glowed before shaking her head. "Bloody hell."

"Hiya." Cleo entered then. She put a tray on the counter beside me. I glanced at the food before looking at her. "I come with food and chips."

"Funny." I rolled my eyes and smiled. A pile of chips, dried vegetables and fruits, sat on the tray beside the metal chip. Cleo picked up the microchip and pulled out the stood between two cabinets under the counter. She opened a screen before setting the chip at Vix's feet. Vix sat cross-legged and pressed her small hands to the metal.

"The chip is corrupted." Vix read. I glanced at Cleo. Her left eye glowed pink. Her intricate tattoos brightened like someone had flicked a switch. Soon the black tattoos matched her eye.

"I'm trying to recover it," Cleo said. "It's weird. This type of corruption can only happen if a scanning device is damaged. Even then it would be a million to one chance of the chip being close enough to be corrupted."

"Scanning device? Like my bracelet?" I asked. Cleo jerked her head in a nod. I picked up a pink fruit chip and nibbled on it. The intense flavours of berries filled my mouth. "It got damaged. I need a new one now."

"Okay..." Cleo mused. I could tell she wasn't listening to me. I threw a few more pink chips into my mouth. I turned my attention back to my simulations.

"Vix, keep scanning for something that can replace Kilkium. There has to be something that can handle higher temperatures."

"Okay." Vix nodded. I chewed on some of the green and orange chips, tasting the wild vegetables they were dried from.

"Come on... gotcha!" Cleo turned to me and grinned. "I wasn't able to get all of it, but I got bits and pieces."

"Thanks, Cleo." I stood and walked over to the screen. She hit play and sat back.

"Audio might be glitched." She warned. It started with me staring at the camera. My eyes were narrowed, and my hands were clenched. Behind me laid the bodies of Zerians.

"I didn't need your help," I said. I bounced on my toes and glanced around.

The video turned to static. I glanced at Cleo, who shrugged.

"I told you it was only pieces. You're lucky I could find this much." She answered. The video screen turned back on to show the dark forest.

"You can't just leave her!" Greflin snapped. The camera turned to face him. The voice that answer was distorted and broken.

"I don't intend~~" the rest was broken into static. Greflin took a step back and nodded.

"Then give me a gun. I can help." He held up his bound hands. The camera panned to the wall just visible beyond the trees. "She needs ~~."

More static. Cleo grumbled a Sif swear word before tapping on the screen. She brought up the coding and scanned it. Typed something into the command bar and clicked enter. The video began playing again.

"Now you get to choose, Ethan." Greflin stood in front of the camera. "Which is more important. The mission, or her?"

"I've already decided." the broken voice answered. "Don't make it out like there is a question."

"Hmm. Maybe you Legends aren't as perfect as my mother intended. I'm glad. Take care of her. I'll see you two soon." Greflin turned and sprinted into the forest.

The video returned to static.

"Jackrump!" Cleo swore. I raised my hand to stop her from trying to hack it again.

"Don't. It's enough..." I stood and paced the lab. Cleo leaned on the counter and watched. Her tattoos and eye returned to their standard colour.

"I want to meet that guy." Cleo looked at Vix and grinned. "Anyone that drives Nightmare up the wall is someone that I need to meet."

"Which one?" Vix asked. "Both Ethan and Leo Greflin cause NightStorm to become distraught. Both for different reasons."

"Vix, shut up," I warned. I turned to Cleo and frowned. "If the chip was held to my bracelet, would it cause corruption?"

"Only if it was held for a long time," Cleo said. She looked at the screen and frowned. "If I had to estimate, at least an hour."

"So it wouldn't be an accident," I stated. Cleo nodded. Of course, he knew if anyone found the video, he would get in trouble for failing the mission on purpose. I sat back down on my stool and stared at the screen. "Corrupt it again, even worse."

"You sure? You could show this to Jermia and get out of a partnership." Cleo warned. I gave her a long look. After a moment, Cleo smiled and nodded. "So do we have a new team member?"

"Perhaps. I still don't trust him." I picked up more chips and threw them into my mouth. "Vix bring up his file."

"Would you like me to decode it?" Vix asked.

"Of course." I sat back down at my simulation and typed in a new code.

"What colour are you going to dye your hair next?" Cleo asked, looking at her pink and blue hair.

"I'm not there yet. I don't know." I answered, only half paying attention.

"You should go red. Like a really really dark red." Cleo decided. I pulled my gaze from the screen and gave her a confused look.

"I'm trying to lay low... Not stand out." I said. Cleo smirked and shrugged.

"What's wrong with standing out?" she asked. I glanced at her bright hair and shrugged.

"If I wanted to stand out, I would let my hair grow out. No. Now I'm just trying to avoid being noticed." I said. I turned back to the simulation as the screen flashed red. "Vix, remove the buffer, do one hundred millilitres and have it focused on a smaller space, like from the hand to elbow."

"That would cause instant cell death," Vix said. I shook my head.

"Run it anyway. I'm curious." I finished off the chips and leaned back.

"What happened to your arm?" Cleo asked. "The Legend?"

"No. This one is on me. I wasn't focusing." I answered. Cleo raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. "If anything, that machine is the reason I'm alive right now."

"Oh, admitting it... who the hell are you?" She smirked.

"Haha..." I rolled my eyes at her. I tapped the tray and frowned. "Why did you bring me food?"

"Because I know you." She answered. The screen flashed red beside me. I turned back to it. "You forget to eat all the time. I was already on my way over when you called me."

"Interesting." Vix mused. I looked over at her hologram.

"What?" I asked. Vix shook her head, glowing bright. Cleo leaned over and peered at the screen as the simulation ran again. The screen showed three cells. The background turned purple, indicating the serum entering the body. White dots appeared in the purple. The white blood cells, the immune response. The cells grew larger before shrinking. "What the hell?"

"Yes, I believe something in this serum is similar to Dr. Gian's serum. The increase in cell size matches with the increase in the Legends files." Vix said.

"What little I could hack and what she released." Cleo agreed. She bristled as she remembered being unable to hack Gian's coding completely. Cleo was incredibly proud of her hacking abilities, there was little she couldn't hack. With Gian's coding, Cleo was only able to hack a mild portion of it.

"What part of the serum formula did we get?" I asked. Vix glowed, her thin brows knitted.

"Ki3O2 and the rest is coded," Vix said. Oxygen... maybe.

"Okay, make a Ki3O2Li3C2 serum," I commanded. Cleo frowned at me, completely lost. I noticed her look and laughed. "You can understand those complex coding but not elements?"

"Not at all." She admitted. "What are those?"

"Kilkium, Oxygen, Lithium and Carbon," I explained. She blinked at me, her mouth gaped slightly. "Kilkium is the issue, it's so large with its electron field that it's unstable."

"What does it do?" Cleo asked. Vix raised her head to answer.

"It causes the cell to go into overdrive, making it work harder and fast and thus increasing the size of the cells," Vix said. "It's a semi combustible element that explodes on contact with oxygen."

"And you're putting it with oxygen in the serum?" Cleo looked at me. I shrugged and shook my head.

"If Gian could do it, so can I," I answered.

"Serum failed," Vix said. I took a breath and sighed.

"Well, while you have fun with that, I gotta get to work. Bye-bye." Cleo flounced out as I waved at her. I turned back at the screen and bit my nails.

"Ki3O2Li3C3," I commanded. The simulation ran.