The Crimson Phoenix

Explanation: Part 2

Dr. Cartel led Leo towards an elevator in his office. This elevator, unlike the others was a private elevator. Leo was surprised and usually disgusted by the fact that some rich people decide to make themselves a private elevator instead of using the general one. Seeing the irritated look on his face, Dr. Cartel smiled.

“This elevator leads to a special place, a place that not many people in the organization have access to.” He said as he pressed a code to open the elevator. Leo nodded and followed him inside.

This elevator was built to go to just one floor, in the building. After entering the verification code, he pushed a small red button on the panel. This button looked like a red arrow pointing downwards. After pushing this button, the elevator began to descend.

“What I’m about to show you,” Dr. Cartel said, expressionlessly, “Must be between us.” He then gave Leo a firm look. Leo nodded and Dr. Cartel continued.

“What you saw inside the Lightning absorber, was the GE-176 prototype,” He revealed. Leo raised his brows in confusion. Dr. Cartel saw the look on his face and sighed, “It’s the Gene enhancement prototype.” He clarified. Leo widened his eyes in shock. ‘So that’s the mysterious project of THRL. And to think that I’ll be involved in an accident with that thing.’ He thought to himself.

Dr. Cartel continued with his explanation, “The gene enhancement project was actually a friendly cover for something even bigger. We work for a military agency in secrecy, to help create a substance that could grant super strength, speed, and other abilities.” He explained, and then looked at Leo, “We’ve been trying to create super soldiers.” Leo couldn’t believe his ears and he was a bit dazed.

The elevator stopped descending and door of the opened. Beyond the elevator door, was something that completely shocked Leo. He had his eyes wide opened by the view in front of him and he couldn’t help but be reminded of the movie ‘Jurassic Park’.

There were lots of scientists moving around, working on one thing or the other. One could also see a few animals inside glass containers, mainly chimpanzees. Some scientists were either keeping records of their observations or experimenting on the sedated chimpanzees. These animals looked ordinary at first till he saw a black ape suddenly turn its whole skin white. This included the fur on its body too. Leo opened his eyes with amazement and kept looking around like a lost person. Dr. Cartel seemed to be observing his reaction and smiled.

“What’s the main goal of the project and why did you think that putting a prototype inside my machine would make it work?” Leo asked curiously.

“Like I said before, the main goal of the project was to enhance the human genome by modifying the genetic makeup. In other words, we were trying to make the human body better suited for this world. This would lead to prolonged life and extraordinary abilities.” He was enthusiastic when explaining but his mood suddenly changed into a gloomy one.

“(Sighs) It was then that a military agency came with an offer. They said that they saw potential in the project and wanted me to help them create the substance that will aid them. This agency trained special forces to deal with devastating issues and they wanted me to help them create super soldiers. This agency is known as the Bureau of Special Operatives- BSO. They are military based and they are the ones who do the dirty work for the government. These guys are heavily trained and are to be deployed when things get out of hand. They are also not known to the public and if you see them, you might just confuse them as normal soldiers.”

“I didn’t want to help them so they threatened to confiscate my work and I didn’t want them to, so I decided to help them. They’ve been funding me and I’ve been working for them.” Leo felt touched by his story. How a person will have good intentions but some a**holes will decide to weaponize it. He frowned as he thought of something and decided to ask about it.

“If that’s the case, why did you have to use a highly classified substance for a civilian project? Didn’t you think of the risks?” He questioned. Dr. Cartel stopped walking and faced him.

“You and I both know that the science behind lightning hasn’t been fully understood and scientists are still thinking of ways to tap into lightning energy. When you brought your idea to me, I found it as an opportunity to see if the GE-176 could be used for civil means. It was all part of the experiment and it turns out it worked. What I did not foresee or expect was you being affected by the compound.”

Leo raised a brow and asked unamusingly, “So I’ve become a human test subject now?”

“Technically, yes.” He pouted as he walked towards a glass wall. It was a Vivarium and a tropical environment was being created inside. There was a chimpanzee, sitting on a tree and eating some shrubs.

“What’s with all the chimps?” Leo asked, pointing at all the chimpanzees being observed and experimented on around the lab.

“Chimpanzees are the most genetically similar species to humans. Since we cannot use human beings, we’ll have to use our cousins.” Dr. Cartel replied and they observed the chimpanzee. This chimpanzee was eating calmly till it suddenly heard a loud noise and went violent. It was jumping around faster than ordinary chimpanzees. It was in a frenzy and kept running around and jumping. It hit a metal wall which suddenly caved in, forming the shape of the punch that the animal gave.

Leo was shocked and suddenly found himself looking at his hands. ‘I can do that too!?’ He thought to himself. This chimp kept causing problems until it was suddenly shot with a sedative by a sedative gun. It calmed down and slowly went into a deep sleep. Leo was flabbergasted. He kept on thinking of what he was.

“The GE-176 is still a work in progress,” Dr. Cartel added as he walked away from the glass and turned to go somewhere else, “Of all the experiments we’ve conducted so far, it’s the one with the most potential…” at this point Leo interrupted him.

“Most potential? How many experiments have you conducted already?” He asked. Dr. Cartel gave him a warm smile.

“One hundred and seventy-six.” He said. Leo raised a brow.

“Let me guess, you named them according to the number of failures?” He asked with an unamused face. Dr. Cartel just grinned and continued with his explanation.

“Actually, it was named after the serial number of the test subjects we used to test the compound, which was also named according to the number of test subjects used.” He replied with a laugh. Leo smiled and shook his head. Dr. Cartel continued, “Just because it has the most potential, doesn’t mean it’s a success. When we wanted to make the compound, we aimed to be able to grant strength, speed, and healing. Immunity to diseases was included and the GE-176 gave us that,” He said and then his face turned solemn. Leo gave him a side-eye look.

“Why do I get the feeling you are about to say ‘but’?” He asked. Dr. Cartel rolled his eyes.

“But, it also had some side effects.” Dr. Cartel completed his statement. Leo was just about to ask when he continued explaining.

“Four experiments before the GE-176, we created the GE-172. This one had most of the things we needed but it was a failure.” He explained. Leo folded his arms and listened attentively. “We tested it on a chimpanzee but something went wrong. It caused a physical change in the animal’s body, causing it to mutate and become a giant monster. It almost destroyed this place completely but it was put in check and locked up somewhere in the place as a temporary facility. We sedated it and took its blood and after several attempts, we were able to make the GE-176 which is the closest we have ever reached to our goal.”

“This compound also has its flaws. One of them is that it amplifies emotions.” Dr. cartel pointed at the vivarium with the sedated chimpanzee. “With that noise, the chimp wasn’t meant to go into a frenzy under normal circumstances, but since its little annoyance with the noise was amplified, it became enraged.

“Another side effect of this compound has something to do with chemical reactions.” Dr. Cartel walked to the water dispenser on site and poured himself a glass of water. He had been talking for a long time so he needed to wet his dry throat. After drinking, he continued, “When a chemical reaction occurs and you add a catalyst, the catalyst either, only speeds up the reaction or slows it down, but not having any other kind of reaction with the reactants.”

“The GE-176's catalyst on the other hand, actually takes part in the reaction. The GE-176 needs a catalyst at all times, or it remains a normal fluid inside your body. It will have the necessary effects and grant the user, the fundamental things, like strength and speed, but for it to completely fuse with your genes, it needs a catalyst to help with the reaction... and it knows how to get it.” He explained. Leo’s interest was piqued and he listened carefully. Seeing this, Dr. Cartel continued.

“For example, if you take one chemical and mix it with another one, the reaction might be too slow for your liking, so you might want to speed it up by adding a catalyst. The product you will get when you add the catalyst, will be the same as when you don’t add a catalyst. The only difference is the time taken for the reaction to be complete. But in the case of the GE-176, the catalyst will not just affect the speed of the reaction, but also the product of the reaction."

Dr. Cartel then pointed at another test subject. The one he pointed to was actually in a vivarium filled with sand and hard rocks. Leo concluded that they wanted to create a mini desert environment. A Monitor lizard that was injected with the GE-176, was exposed to this mini desert. After the lizard walked around for a while, Leo started to notice that the skin started to have cracks.

“Hold on, what the hell is that?! Is it shedding its skin?” He inquired as he pointed at the cracks which were increasing on the lizard’s body. The doctor just looked calm.

“Just watch.” He replied and Leo turned to look at the reptile. Its body kept on cracking and breaking and started to disintegrate and finally, turned into sand. This kept on happening until the whole animal turned into sand. Leo opened his eyes with shock as he couldn’t take his eyes off the sand. ‘Holy sh*t.' He thought to himself. It was then he remembered he also had that compound in his body.

Nothing happened to the sand and it didn’t move. Leo actually thought that it was dead until three minutes later when a big rat was walking cautiously in the vivarium. It was sniffing around for food and Leo thought it had been injected too but Dr. Cartel said it hadn’t.

He watched for a while but what happened next horrified him to the core. The sand near the rat suddenly took form and enclosed the rat. It was killed instantly without having the opportunity to struggle. The sand then took the form of the monitor Lizard which had initially disintegrated and then transformed into its normal, fleshy body before moving around.

Leo was shaken to the core and cold sweat could be seen on his forehead. ‘Imagine if that monitor lizard together with some other ones that have been injected get released, I will have to forget about going to the beach.' He thought as he feigned strength when he was actually scared.

At this point, Dr. Cartel took the initiative to explain. “The catalyst that we were talking about is actually the environment the host is exposed to,” He then used the environment inside the vivarium to explain, “The whole place is filled with sand and dust, and having contact with it made the environmental substance to bond with the GE-176 inside the lizard on a cellular level.”

Leo almost started to check himself to see if any part of his body was still intact and hadn’t turned into water, since rain was falling at the time he was exposed to the compound.

Leo looked at the lizard and thought of something hilarious.

“I think that animal should be called ‘Sand Lizard." He pointed. Dr. Cartel laughed before clearing his throat and bringing Leo’s attention to something.

“Don’t forget, you have been exposed to the GE-176 and you were struck by lightning and burned at the same time. Given that you’re the only human being exposed to this compound, I’ll have to run some tests on you and keep you under close observation. You mustn’t do anything flashy, or you might attract attention.” He forewarned.

He suddenly paused like someone who just got struck by an idea and he decided to take a thermometer from one of the desks and check out Leo's temperature. The digital thermometer then gave out a long, high-pitched beep which alarmed Dr. Cartel.

“What is it?” Leo couldn’t help but ask. He gave him a look of shock and turned the screen of the thermometer for him to see. What he saw horrified him.

[230°F]

‘How the hell am I still alive?’ Leo shuddered as he asked himself.