Chapter 19: Change

[Somewhere in Dahke, in a secluded military facility.]

Dallas woke up to the sound of footsteps. It was people entering the room, but this time he noticed the room was a bit different than before. He was transferred.

The two people in front of him, he recognized one of them. Dwayne, the big guy. He was standing there with a friendly smile on his face, looking at Dallas.

The other one, he doesn't know who that is. He was probably around his fifties. He held a cane to support him. Wrinkles could be seen on his face. He was also bespectacled, and judging from the way he was looking at Dallas, he was probably astigmatic.

"Good day Dallas. I hope you're feeling well." The old man said.

"Good day, sir. May I ask the reason why I am here?" Dallas asked, cutting straight to the chase.

"Relax young man. We're not gonna perform inhumane experiments on you. We're just gonna give you a pair of new legs." He said and chuckled.

Dallas nodded. Then he snapped.

"What did you just say? Legs?"

The old man raised an eyebrow to Dallas' reaction.

"Yep. You're getting robotic legs!" He exclaimed.

Dallas stared at the old man's face for a few seconds to check if he wasn't bullshitting him. Of course he wasn't lying. He was serious on getting Dallas a pair of new legs. He even nodded a few times with a smirk. The man besides him was also smirking, knowing that Dallas is probably thinking they were bullshitting him so bad. Who wouldn't think that? He just lost his ability to walk, and someone comes up to him and says he can walk again!? Of course he would check to see if he wasn't getting bamboozled!

"So you seriously can give me my ability to walk again?" Dallas asked.

"Yes, but of course, there's some conditions you need to agree to." The old man said.

"Of course. Fine, what are these conditions?" Dallas asked.

"After getting those new legs, you'll have to be reinstated into our Advanced Tactical Team. You will be our agent, work for us and go on missions under our name. You will receive advanced training from our top agents. Of course, you will only get this if you agree to these conditions." He explained.

The man beside him handed Dallas a handful of papers. They were contracts. Dallas spent half an hour reading them and made sure the conditions are on his favour.

After he was sure everything was okay, he signed the contracts. He handed them back to the old man.

He offered his hand to Dallas, and they both shook hands.

"Pleasure to be working with you Dallas. My name's Anthony."

"Likewise."

"Aaron, make sure the surgery for his legs is ready by tomorrow." Anthony spoke to the man beside him. Aaron didn't say anything but only nodded.

They both left the room to let Dallas have some alone time.

He sighed deeply while staring at the ceiling.

"The fuck is going on."

*******

The next day, Dallas was already prepped for surgery and was brought to the OR. Doctors and their assistants were already waiting for his arrival. Of course, these doctors are doctors that are specialized in... Installing robotic legs...?

Anyways, the surgery went well without hiccups. It took a long a time but the surgeons did a bloody good job. Pun intended. For a normal robotic leg surgery, at most it would take around five hours with the current technology level, but the surgeons installed something else in Dallas' body to make him stronger then before. After all, Dallas knew he was going to be their lab rat. He had nothing to lose, and nobody to miss him.

In the contracts, it was stated that besides the legs, he would have a set of bionic spines installed on top of his original one. He would have better back strength after this. The reason was the is a new generation exoskeleton, and it would only be compatible with Dallas' new bionic spine. Without it, a normal soldier would have his body overexert and would cause injuries, or worse, death.

It needed the bionic spine so it could be brought to its full potential. Plus, this exoskeleton is more mobile and agile, perfect with Dallas' new legs, but of course he would have to train himself to be more familiar with his newfound abilities. The spine is connected to him, and the exoskeleton would remotely be activated just by his thoughts. If a different person tried to wear it and activate it, the exoskeleton would automatically break the bones of the person.

After a long surgery, Dallas was sent back to his room unconscious. The surgeons made history, but that history had to be kept a secret for now.

The first bionic super-agent, was made in Dahke.

Dallas is now officially a member of the Advanced Tactical Team, working under the Private Military Company "CREED"....

******

Felkra, Damien's house.

Damien was browsing through his computer for course intakes of any local universities. He applied for all of them. All related to engineering of course. There's no way he suddenly chooses to become a teacher.

He's not the type of person to work in groups, let alone to be teaching a group of immature kids.

He will die from embarrassment alone. He wasn't also a great leader. That's why he didn't want to be a businessman and suddenly have a high position in either his father or mother's company. Getting that felt like cheating for him because to get that position one needed to work hard enough. Why would he get that position from his mother even though he didn't have any prior experiences.

That's something you only see in movies or dramas.

Anyways, he applied for a total of 10 universities and colleges, but his main target was the closest one to him. With his skills, he could ace the exams and apply for a scholarship for the entire five semesters. It might be a different story for Bianca though...

He closed the education ministry application website that was partnered with all the universities and colleges in Felkra and checked his emails. Most of them are just spam emails and promotions to some certain websites etc. He filtered all spams and got a few important emails. One of them was from Mr. Warren himself.

"When did I give him my email address?" He asked himself, but he remembered that Mr. Warren probably have certain people working for him to gain information 24/7. With a person as powerful influence as Mr. Warren, anything is possible.

He opened the email and read the contents;

"Damien, I have sent you the original blueprints of the exoskeletons from the first generation to the current one. Use it to your liking. I expect great things from you.

I have ordered some of my partners to deliver the parts to your home. Expect them to arrive at your house by this evening.

Oh and also I transferred 500,000 into your account. Use it however you want."

-Warren

Upon reading the two last sentences of the email, his body immediately got the shivers.

500k in his account, just like that!?

"Do these people even care about money?!" He exclaimed.

Of course they don't. That amount of money is little compared to their actual wealth. It's like taking a few grain of rice from their huge mountain of rice. They won't even notice the change!

Damien felt despondent immediately. He didn't want to receive support at the start, and now look at his bank account! 2.5 million! He felt wrong to be this rich already to the point of giving a chunk of it to charity, but he knew he couldn't do it because originally that wasn't his money. He felt bad to even spend it on even the cheapest of things.

So he just left it there and didn't touch it. He went down and saw his mother and Bianca chatting. The usual girl talk he thought. Damien thought this is a good opportunity for Bianca and his mother to bond. It might be a good thing for Bianca to receive the appropriate motherly love from his mother.

'They are getting along great. I should not disturb them and check on Clara instead.'

He went to the kitchen to see Clara preparing the lunch. She was currently cutting the onions skillfully, because she is an android after all. They must perform perfectly to satisfy their masters. To Damien, it removed the "human" feeling from them, because humans aren't perfect, but these creations were made to perform tasks perfectly.

She focused on her work, and did notice Damien there but she didn't say a word. At last, Damien was the one who had to break the ice.

"You know you can talk whenever you feel like it right?" He said.

"I just didn't have anything to say." She answered while cutting onions.

"Really? I wonder what's going on inside that head of yours."

"...I think of... Working.. all the time."

"Shit that's depressing."

She turned to look at Damien, her hand still moving flawlessly.

"What's depression? Is it the same feeling as the one I had?"

Damien flinched. 'She can feel?'

"What did you say?" He asked.

"One day I had a feeling. I suddenly wanted to know the world outside more. I wanted to learn about people, countries, cultures, and many things that exists in the outside world. Do you know what is that feeling?"

"That's.... Curiousity, Clara."

She nodded, meant she understood.

"Thanks to you I learned something new today." She said, then suddenly had a smile on her face.

Damien saw it. The most genuine and natural smile she had ever given. He was lost for words. At that moment, he really believed that she was an actual human, but reality was shit and it came back to him instantly.

"If only she could learn more." He said to himself while leaving the kitchen. Damien headed outside and headed for the gym.

"Where you going, Damien?" Bianca's voice came from behind.

"Gym."

"Why- Oh shit it's that."

Damien didn't need to explain further because she understood herself. She quickly ran inside and came outside in just a minute with a new set of clothes. White tracksuit top and bottoms. She had her hair tied up and wasn't wearing her glasses.

She quickly followed up next to Damien and walked beside him. On their walk to the gym they didn't say a word to each other. They could only hear their own breathing. A few minutes later they arrived at the newly reopened gym, but there weren't a lot of people inside. Just a few doing normal exercise inside. At the middle of the gym the coach, Alexander was waiting for them.

"You guys are a little late aren't ya?" He greeted them.

"Had some problems. What do you have in store for us today?" Damien asked.

"Well, I figured I'd let you guys do some sparring."

Immediately, Bianca made an "X" sign with her arms.

"Nuh-uh. Nope. Never. Not a chance." She said, while frantically shaking her head.

Alexander didn't know that Damien managed to defeat Bianca in a one on one before.

"Why not?"

"This guy's a beast. I can't fight him." She said.

Damien scoffed.

"I'm flattered but excuse me? Bianca, this is just a spar. Not a real fight. Come on." He said.

"Damien. Don't forget. You broke my nose before. I'm traumatized."

Damien didn't know whether he wanted to laugh or to cry. Was he really that skilled?

"Okay how about th-"

"No."

"But I didn't finish ye-"

"No."

"Let me fi-"

"No."

"You son of a bitch. C'mere."

"No-AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH"

Damien lost his patience and started chasing Bianca around the gym. Not because she didn't want to fight him. It was because she won't let him finish his sentences first. They started circling around the gym until Bianca had no choice but to throw a punch.

"Now we're talking." He smirked.