Playing God
Dr. Emmanuel Michelson was finally discharged from the hospital a couple of weeks later.
He shielded his eyes from the bright light of the midday sun as he walked out the doors of the hospital and stood in front of it, waiting for his driver to pick him up.
A black Mercedes with fully tinted windows soon pulled up before him and a tall dark skinned gentleman in a black suit exited the driver's seat and quickly walked before Emmanuel.
"Congratulations on your full recovery, Doctor Michelson!", the driver saluted before opening the car door for him.
Emmanuel responded to his greeting with thanks and took his seat in the car. The driver returned to his seat behind the wheel and sped off.
He returned to the hospital's morgue a couple of days later, acompanied by his brother, to retrieve the bodies of his wife and son and organized a funeral for them.
After the service was over, Dr. Michelson was left alone to allow him to say his final goodbyes. He knelt before the headstones of his wife and son and wept bitterly for hours.
Dusk soon arrived as the sun slowly set behind the tall scy scrapers in the west. The sky slowly darkened as rain clouds gathered above. The temperature grew colder as the sky started shedding tears of its own in the form of a light shower.
The force of the rain increased and soon turned into a full-blown storm, forcing everyone currently in the cemetery to take cover.
Even with the chaos of the storm around him, Emmanuel seemed to be completely unpeturbed.
The rain drops masked his tears, as he continued to stare intently at his wife's and son's headstones.
A random bolt of lightning suddenly flashed brightly, lighting up the whole area for a single moment follwed by a loud roar of thunder, stopping his weeping episode and granting him an epiphany.
He took a deep breath and uttered in a broken voice; "Rebecca...Elijah, I will find a way to honor your deaths. I promise you that".
He rose to his feet and looked towards the sky, allowing the rain to wash away any remnants of sorrow from his face.
"I couldn't save you, but I'll do my best to prevent anyone from going through the same ever again", he declared, and walked away, astonishing the observers.
He walked up to the car, his driver standing under an umbrella with a towel in his hand.
"Take me to the Institute", Emmanuel instructed as he took the towel from the driver who nodded in acknowledgemnent and proceed to open the door for him. The driver then took his seat behind the wheel and quickly drove off.
They soon arrived at the entrance of the Institute and was received with salutes from the armed guards who were informed of his coming.
He nodded at them as the car dove further towards the main complex. He entered the lobby of the main complex to see all the staff gathered there.
He was received by warm greetings and condolences. Though he remained slightly aloof, he still responded to the greetings of these people he had spent years with genuinely.
His brother, Hezekiah, realized that something weighed heavily on his mind, but he knew not to ask now.
He also wondered why his brother came in to work right after the funeral of his wife and only child, but he kept his curiosity to himself.
After receiving all the greetings and condolences, Emmanuel returned to his office, took his seat and began typing away on his machine.
Oblivious to him, members of his staff who were concerned about him were staring at him through the translucent glass walls that enclosed his office from the rest of the unit.
...
For the next five months, he hardly stepped out of the Institute. One would begin to wonder if he ever went home. The only movements he made were from his office to the lab; to the cafeteria and back to the office.
People could see him working busily on a project, but not everyone was preview to what exactly that project was.
A few of the specialists in the Institute who were in the know, were occasionally called in to aid in aspects of the project that required their expertise. Hezekiah was among the few who were fully involved in the process.
Emmanuel finally concluded the calculations after several trial and errors in the simulations they attempted. Hezekiah inquired about how sure Emmanuel was about the result, but Emmanuel just asked him to wait, and see.
It was the end of the work day at the Institute and majority of the staff had closed for the night but Dr. Michelson had continued to stay on and work some more on his project.
He entered the laboratory with the results of the six-month worth of calculations they had been doing.
He called over his brother and other trusted members of his staff who were involved and were still around to begin the final phase of the project.
They developed a chemical compound based on the calculations and simulations and after a few adjustments, managed to develop a serum that could make the genetic makeup of the subject of the experiment susceptible to hyper evolution.
"The gene enhancement compound is ready. We can move on to the live testing phase", Roswald, one of the scientists said as he studied the readings from the devices.
A few guards rolled in a cage holding one of the Institute's test monkeys that had been genetically altered to have the most human like genome in its body, and Hezekiah guided them in setting it up. The monkey was strapped to the table and every part of its body was hooked to reading machines.
When evrything was set, a tiny bit of the serum was injected into the monkey's bloodstream.
The effects were almost instantaneous as the monkey's body started to spasm out of control. Its muscles were torn apart and rebuilt, becoming well defined and its overall height was increased by a few inches.
The audible cracking of its bones did well to convey the amount of pain the monkey was currently in, even with the anaesthesia helping to numb the pain.
"What are its vitals looking like?" Emmanuel asked as they observed the monkey from behind the highly tempered bullet proof observation glass.
"There has been a massive spike in the heart rate but still in the expected acceptable range", Hezekiah reported.
After a few minutes of continual shaking, the monkey's muscles soon relaxed and his heart rate slowed down to a normal rythym.
"Its vitals have stabilized and are now normal. There are no clear negative side effects, however, its brain waves show activity greater than what we expected. If we leave it be, I suspect it could grow smarter than an honours student and even potentially grow as smart as us", Roswald reported.
"Indeed, that could come back to bite us", Hezekiah added.
"That is the purpose of the miniature explosives in the heads of all the test animals. i feel bad about it but If we are to guard against a possibility where this creature becomes a threat to humanity, we need to remove it now", Noah, another of the scientists suggested bluntly.
"Do it", Emmanuel, after a few seconds of contemplation, instructed as Roswald tapped a button and the monkey's head popped in a tiny miniature explosion.
After making sure the serum had not given the monkey any surprising regenerative or restorative abilities, cleaning robots were released to clean up the mess and properly dispose of the corpse.
After the cleanup and incineration of the corpse, the lab was purged off all contaminants before the team returned.
"Since the serum is ready, it's just left with the main component", Emmanuel said as he and Hezekiah rose from their seats and walked out of the lab.
"Bro, are you sure you want to do this? Should we really be playing God like this?" Hezekiah asked as they walked down the hallway.
"Why? Are you getting cold feet?" Emmanuel asked with a chuckle.
"Not really, I'm with you all the way. As a scientific researcher, I desire to see the end results of this experiment. I just wanted to know if you were having any second thoughts. We still don't know the full extent of the red pearl's power", Hezekiah warned.
"Not in the slightest. The majority of our duties as scientists are basically trial and error. If it turns out for the worst, we only need to find a way to properly handle it. If not, I have nothing else to lose, although...I'm confident it's going to work out all right", Emmanuel said assuringly as they arrived at the Institute's most secure vault.
He moved to one side of the door while Hezekiah moved to the other. he removed his necklace and placed the device on a slot.
There was a loud ping as two hand print scanners appeared before the two of them. They then simultaneously placing their palms and scanning their palm prints, the locks on the vault doors were released and the doors slowly opened.
They soon returned to the lab with a small, tightly sealed box on top of a trolley.
They all then moved to another lab used for high-risk experiments. After rolling the trolley into the room, Hezekiah returned and the vault-like doors were sealed behind him.
Emmanuel took his seat behind the five-inch thick, reinforced, tempered glass, and took control of the mechanical arms within the sealed room.
Using those arms, he steadily opened the box revealing a dark crimson pearl that gave off a faint aura-like glow for a few seconds before returning to normal.
Emmanuel took a deep breath as he slowly guided the mechanical arm to pick up the pearl and slowly lowered it onto a tripod.
The pearl was then bathed in high intensity plasma that slowly melted the pearl. After an hour, the pearl was completely melted into a liquid solution.
The melted solution and the serum were both slowly transferred into the same receptacle simultaneously.
The solution bubbled violently as the entire colour changed to a deep crimson; the colour of blood.
The bubbling soon stopped as the solution came to rest in a calm state.
After waiting a few minutes, Emmanuel finally gave Roswald the go ahead to test the serum.
A drop was extracted from the blood like serum and run through the devices for analysis and the results came out as expected.
"We've done it everyone. All these months of tireless work has finally paid off. The ultimate superhuman gene has been realized. Now it's time to move on to the final stage", Emmanuel addressed them.
"Do you already have the subjects in mind?" Noah asked curiously.
"Of course. Due to our enhancements, the serum would not work for a grown adult, but an unborn, still developing fetus. I've selected a couple who are currently expecting.
According to the records, they should be visiting the hospital tomorrow for their regular checkup. I'll have one of my contacts create the opprtunity for the serum to be administered.
We'll just observe how things go from there", Emmanuel said as he sealed the flask holding the serum and placed it gently in a security case.
...
A loving couple visited the Sienna Metro general hospital for one of their usual first trimester check ups.
Upon checking the woman's vitals, the doctor informed the couple that the quantity of blood in the mother's body was not enough and could cause complications for the pregnancy; therefore he placed an order for blood from the bank.
Seeking their child's safety, the couple agreed to the arrangement without a second thought, and a couple minutes later, the mother was hooked to an IV with type AA blood; hers and her husband's type.
She had long fallen asleep as the process was expected to take a while. Leaving his wife to rest while he got something to eat in the hospital cafeteria, the husband left her with the doctor.
A few seconds ater the husband left, the door opened again and two men in doctor's coats entered with a dark security case.
One of the two men opened the briefcase and brought out a flask containing some blood-like liquid.
The liquid was extracted with a large syring and injected into the IV blood bag hanging above the woman. They then shook the bag slightly to allow the substance mix easily with the blood.
After a few minutes, the veins all around her body gave off a faint glow visible on her skin as her temperature increased a little. Although deep in her sleep, the woman started groaning in pain and the actual doctor had to cover her mouth with an oxygen mask that gave off a faint anaesthetic gas to help numb the pain she was feeling.
After a few more minutes, the light converged onto her womb and slowly faded before disappearing completely.
"It's done. Daniel, be sure to follow the plan exactly and report back to me on every situation", the taller man said.
"I'll do as you have instructed Dr. Michelson. Nothing will go wrong on my watch", the doctor promised as the two; revealed to be Doctors Emmanuel and Hezekiah Michelson, left the room and disappeared at the corner of the hallway.
"Good, the ball is now rolling. All that is left is to prepare", Emmanuel said to his brother as they returned to their car and drove back to the institute.
"Brother, I'm going to need you to take charge over the Institute for a while. I need to prepare physically and mentally for what is to come", Emmanuel announced to his brother.
"Don't worry, little brother, I've got your back", Hezekiah responded as he nodded in agreement.
Following his sabbatical from the Institute, Dr. Emmanuel Michelson enrolled in a special top secret training course, all in preparation for his future mentorship role.
As he stood at the top of a hill, covered in sweat, he took a deep breath and sighed, "this is just the beginning".