RBR Chapter 2 They Wake!!!

"It brings me honor that this venue is filled with comrades..." He started, the stage large enough to accommodate his pacing. The audience below were all eagerly staring at him, from teenagers to wrinkly oldies, all with one thing in common, they were scientists, those who specialised in the path of biology just like himself.

Envy, anticipation, cold detachment and many other expressions were manifested upon their faces, but he didn't care. By the end, he would have managed to mesmerise them with his newest creation.

The entire decor was in bland whites and black, as researchers like themselves didn't really care about beauty that much. When you had to dissect living subjects almost every other day, a time comes when you become detached to the mundane joys of normals.

The venue could hold over 10,000, a threshold that had managed to be reached. A smile appeared on his face as he looked at all those seated, with the reporters occupying the first seats.

He was wearing a fine black suit, a white lab coat allayed over it. He hated the coat, but it had become some sort of tradition that everyone had to follow. His steps took him to the edge of the semicircular stage.

"Pigs, cute but dirty creatures, are they not?" A question came out of his mouth, frowns, glares and incomprehension filled stares falling upon him. But that didn't matter, he had a point to make. He turned, stepping away, choosing another edge of the black stage.

"Over a century ago, those same pigs couldn't fly, something which had been limited to birds." He continued.

"But then a colleague of ours made a bold statement, 'Pigs can fly.', he said. Many chuckled at the sentence, but...a few years later, he proved it! Combining a bunch of genes and pah! A pig with wings and flight capability was born!" He ended with a clap of his hands, some people chuckling at his starting words.

"We humans have within us, a fire to advance, to pry open the secrets of the universe..." Eyes lit up with flames, the fires of hotbloodedness appearing to still exist within each one of them.

"Technology has advanced tremendously over the years since the first commercial quantum processor was sold..." He squatted near the edge of another corner of the stage, his eyes directly looking into the cameras that were live streaming the event.

"...but biologically, we humans are still fundamentally the same! Stem cell treatments, age reversal, disease eradication, gene editing capabilities...all this is possible, but, the human genome is the same, no evolution has taken place, why is that?" His voice became raised at the question. A fire had started burning in his body, the flames fueling his words.

"Because we don't know what the next evolutionary stage is going to be...many have tried, no doubt about it..." He stood abruptly, the eyes of the audience, now hooked onto his words moving along with him.

"Someone suggested a nuclear core within each cell, but the feasibility of that was...as you know, almost impossible to achieve. Another suggested more bases added to the genetic code, another, a remodelling of the helix, changing its shape...but they all failed! Why?" He went back to the podium, opening up the bottle of water to quench the parchness in his throat.

'We humans each get moments to shine in our lifetime, and mine is this, the one I think will be the greatest!' He thought.

"They were wrong...before any of you rush to disagree, hear me out." He had to break off his next words after seeing that many were about to be riled up. He knew that there were some big names in the scientific community here, some even having been the ones to come up with the previous theories.

"The cell is a complicated thing, DNA more so. Outside stimulus is the only way to let it evolve, just that its too slow. It might take thousands of years, long after our deaths before someone evolved to the point of being able to survive in space with their mere flesh body. The path I have chosen is speed..."

"...by speeding up the process of a cell's adaptation to outside stimulus, it can be induced to evolve in merely a single generation." That earned shocked, scrutiny filled looks towards him. None believed.

"I have been researching viruses, cancer cells and bacteria in order to achieve what I have created."

"Cancer cells have the ability to replicate faster as long as they have energy, viruses can carry foreign genetic material and bacteria can incorporate those foreign matter successfully. Through gruelling research and experimentation, I have managed to combine all those abilities and created the first Super cell of its kind." He said even as his fingers dug within his pockets, wrapping around a finger-thick vial.

"This my dear brethren, is the result." He said, holding it up, the transparency of the glass showing something crimson which appeared to be liquid at one moment, then gas the next.

His eyes registered every action of theirs, some abruptly stood up as if they wanted to appear right by him and clutch the vial, but then they sat down as they remembered it wasn't possible, others appeared to be deep in thought while a few had greed filled expressions which they were trying to mask with cold detachment but failing miserably. The reporters were excited, probably imagining a captivating headline for this historic achievement.

"All of you shouldn't get worked up, you will be able to see the Miracle soon." He said, the word miracle being the trigger he had agreed upon with Duncan.

"Are you going to submit the results of your research to the NAFIS?" A woman's voice came from behind it, coldness and discontent within. He had an urge to laugh out loud but stifled it. The unannounced press conference had blindsided them as he had intended, a victory for him. The others in the audience were probably taking joy in the woman's sour mood.

In order to rub it in even further, he had invited them, and now, the woman and two men had been seated behind him on the stage the entire time.

'Imbeciles, their era will be over the moment Duncan releases it...ah! It has started.' His eyes lit up when a red fog appeared within the audience, spreading and causing yelps of surprise, panic and curiosity.

Shatter!

Glass shattered as he slammed the tube he had been holding onto the stage, causing a red mist to rise up.

"Wha...what have you done Marcus? Do you want to go to prison for releasing an unapproved substance?" The woman shouted, horror thick in her shrill voice.

"It doesn't matter, the new era has already started...(inhale)...it can't be stopped!" He speed his arms inhaling the red fog into his body with a deep breath. He knew, the red fog hadn't just been released here only, but also in floating cities, the Earth, Mars...basically every place in the solar system where a very large population could be found.

'This is going to be a historic moment...' The crowd was panicking, shoving each other to try and get to the exits. He watched it all with impassivity, waiting for effects to take place.

'Its like my left hand has ceased to be a part of me.' He gazed towards it, the lab coat and suit blocking his vision.

"What is this!? Why can't I feel my legs!?" The woman shouted from behind him after he heard a thud.

'The paralysis seems to affect different parts in a random manner...this is a good point to take in all this.'

"Alpha Prime, start recording."

He ordered with knowledge that his own eyes would directly be sending all that he saw to a storage cache somewhere in his house.

Everyone was panicking around him, causing him to stick out like a sore thumb, his left hand still numb, so far not observing any other effects.

'Could it be that I have failed?' Panic appeared in his eyes, despair and fear almost creeping in. This fear wasn't for the consequences if it failed but the failure itself. This was something that had consumed almost 20 years of his lifespan. He had been very confident in its success...

'Let's wait a little longer...there is no way that what I have created only numbs the body...that would be laughable!' He tried to smile at the thought but his eyes betrayed him.

Since he hadn't registered any intense change within himself, he decided to take a look at the others, so he turned and walked towards the woman. She appeared middle aged, in a short black skirt, which had rode up, exposing her thighs, an erotic position, but he was a scientist, even having dissected female specimens, so this scene wasn't enough to occupy his mind.

'She said her legs couldn't move, I don't see any anomalies on the skin...hmmmm...why does it appear as if the skin is moving?' The skin on her legs was rippling as if something was being trapped inside, struggling to break out.

The sound of cloth tearing was heard as using his right hand, pulled off his left sleeves, those of the suit and the lab coat.

'Interesting...' His skin was also rippling in the same manner before something happened.

A scar appeared along the length from the elbow to just below the palm. It widened, before opening up...the skin tearing itself apart, with not a drop of blood appearing. It was bizarre!

'I don't feel any pain, could it be that my neural system is being surpressed? Wait, could it be that I am going to die? Are my cells tearing themselves apart?"

He had many questions, the answers of which were nonexistent since this was new territory.

"Teeth!?" This time he didn't manage to mask his voice since what he had just seen had overturned all his beliefs at that moment! Teeth lined the edge of the opening, now registering as an oversized mouth in his brain.

'What is this!? What's happening!?' He wondered, a sinking feeling enveloping his brain. Horror was starting to dawn upon him too, a regret that maybe he should have tested his creation first appearing in his mind for the first time. 

(wE...)

A screech came out of the giant mouth along his left hand, speaking a word he understood all too well.

(AwAKeeeeeeeeeeeee....)

"What is this?" He shouted barely holding himself back from trembling and pissing his black trousers.

(UnExpeCTed! SoMething Else Has PartiAl control Of Us! UnAcceptable! iT shoulD Be ElimiNated!!!) 

A cacophony of voices caused his ears to ring. The mouth was single, but for some reason the voice came out as if billions were speaking at once!

*****

The first two chapters were a prologue, now, the main story starts in the next one. I hope you rate the story, favorite, or even support on Patron next month. Beware though, only the $20 tier will have all my chapters, the others won't.