The night was deep as the silence covered all the noises. Amidst this silence, one man silently stood before a machine with a calm face.
His hands gently played around the control buttons, reaching all the way up to the destination where he wanted.
" Finally. My goal is within my reach."
With the sound of a simple click, the room instantly lit up from the intense power surge as the man threw away his clothes on the floor before making his way up to the chamber.
Swoosh*
Suddenly the door burst open with a shout of his friend.
" Victor, what are you doing? STOP!"
Reed tried to stop Victor but it was too late. The machine started working as soon as Victor entered it and there was no emergency stop.
" For my home and my people."
This thought entered his brain, solidifying his resolution but that didn't last long before intense pain surged through his body, shredding every fiber of his body that made him scream like a banshee.
" No! He is going to die at this rate!"
Reed quickly made his way to the control, trying to shut it down before it killed him. However, the long sequel of commands was too much for Victor, burning his outer layer of skin completely and disfiguring him into something hideous.
Turn off*
The emergency protocol immediately cooled down burning Victor as he climbed out of the chamber with his remaining strength. The pain in his body was almost unbearable for a normal body but he didn't care for it since all of his pain receptors were burned down.
" Why, Reed? Why did you stop it? I could make it."
Victor asked hoarsely, looking at Reed with a betrayed expression. He knew he had a chance to get stronger than current himself and he was a bit closer to a level where he could freely walk around the world without worry.
" You would have died there. Do you think normal humans can process such energy without a medium? If it wasn't me, you would be burning ash."
Reed tried to defend himself but Victor gave no care to his words. The dice had been cast and who ruined his plan was his best friend. No, it was his former best friend and new enemy.
His heart turned cold, feeling betrayed and irritated from Reed's involvement.
" Don't touch me! From now on you are no friend of mine. I hate you. No, I despise you. You are the same breed as others. A fool who thinks you could change the outcome of inevitable."
After saying that Victor lost consciousness while Reed couldn't process what was happening to him but the first thing that came up to his mind was to save his friend.
He put Victor on the nearby table, calling Susan to ask what he should do. He was a physicist, not a doctor and the person who was closest to being a doctor was Sue.
" HI?"
Sue immediately answered her phone while running on a treadmill. She was sure that Reed would be sleeping now but surprisingly he was still up and calling her this late.
" Sue, I need your help. Victor has been burned by the cosmic energy. I don't know what to do."
Reed didn't conceal the fact that Victor was in an emergency and Sue didn't talk anymore. She directly switched to her working mode while picking her phone up from the case.
" Check whether he is breathing or not first since his skin has been burned off. Place him upward and don't touch his body directly. If he isn't breathing, clear up his airways. I am on my way."
She disconnected the phone while putting on her jacket to hurry up.
Meanwhile, Reed was monitoring Victor's situation with simple tools because he didn't have that many medical tools here.
" Damn it! What should I do?"
Reed hit the wall with anger, pulling his phone up one more time but this time he didn't call Sue. Instead, he called his rival who had rich knowledge about anatomy and had various resources.
" Duud* Hello? Reed, it has been a long time. What do you need?"
Arthur's voice echoed from the other side as Reed took a deep breath.