AX-1

CHAPTER 6

Alex opened his eyes to see nothing but blurs. He closed them. Everything went dark again. The second time he opened them, he could make out three fuzzy round lights, with a solid, black darkness enveloping everything else. He was disoriented, and couldn't even tell up from down. He felt like he was swirling around. He felt sick. Like every bone in his body was bending and his muscles were on the verge of tearing. He blinked and attempted to move his hand to his eyes, and only with great effort did he succeed. The soreness was debilitating. His eyes cleared and he could finally see everything, much clearer than he remembered. Even just looking at the lights on the ceiling, he noticed small, shallow scratch marks on the metal rims bordering them, a task he previously could not do, even with his glasses. He noticed that he could hear the calm breathing of the other occupants in the room in clear detail, and could distinguish between their breathing patterns. He could, oddly enough, smell each one of them strongly. The memories of the events seconds prior compiled in his head, and they played like a movie in his mind, but did not clutter his thoughts like he had expected them to. Though he was tired as all hell, excitement rushed through him. He had survived, and it seemed to be a success! He wanted to run and jump around to celebrate, but his soreness persisted. He turned his head, looking to the side of the room that he heard footsteps coming from. Maxwell walked up to the bed where Alex laid, genuinely smiling.

"How do you feel, Alex? you're alive! It worked!" he said with child-like enthusiasm.

"Sore, painfully sore." Alex groaned with a smile on his face.

"Anything else?" asked Maxwell.

"I've got a huge headache, and my back hurts more than the rest of my body." Alex said, now trying to shift positions to release the tension in his back

"Alright, those are all to be expected!" Maxwell said. "Your body has just undergone a massive change, and you've been lying there in the same position for months. Things are going to feel a little bit weird, you know?"

"Ok." Alex said simply.

"By the way, you've changed a lot! Here, I'll bring you a mirror." Maxwell's hands swung around, gesturing as he spoke. After a minute or two, Maxwell rolled in the mirror.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Stand up! Give those muscles a good stretch!" He assisted Alex into a sitting position, Alex exhaling painfully all the way up. He then jumped down from the elevated bed, his knees on the verge of giving out. Maxwell sensed this, and tried with all of his might to keep Alex supported on his feet. Alex gazed at the man in the mirror, shocked at what he saw. He had grown taller, from within the 5-foot range to over 6 feet tall. His arms and body were slender, but had a terrifying amount of muscle tone. He even had abs, which he scoffed at. His dirty blonde hair was gone, a natural-looking dark scarlet hair had replaced it. His eyes stayed a hazel brown, though. He caught a glimpse of his teeth. They were different than before. The canines were slightly larger, and his teeth looked overall slightly sharper, making them quite intimidating.

"How did my teeth and hair change?" he asked Maxwell, pressing his fingers against his teeth and feeling the texture of his hair.

"Oh. uuuh... they fell out and regrew back when you were out cold. As for the hair, we didn't change it's color intentionally. When we modify the genes for things like hair growth, not only just the targeted gene changes. If you had other pre-existing genes that just weren't expressed, they will sometimes randomly activate during the procedure." Maxwell said, matter-of-factly.

"Whoa, That's cool... So, has anything happened since I was out?" Alex said, his tone growing slightly more serious.

"We'll get to that. But first, aren't you hungry? Most GMH's are starving after they undergo the process. And look at you... your body fat percentage is so low right now. It's hard to put enough of all the necessary nutrients through only the IV into your energy-hungry body. On that note, It was also a pain to keep filtering all of the junk out of your system while still leaving the virus in to do its magic. Glad that's over." Maxwell said with a sigh. Now that Maxwell had mentioned it, Alex's stomach craved food.

"Sure, I could go for a big meal right now. Where do I go, though?" Alex asked.

"Oh, come with me. I'll show you." Maxwell replied with a smile while waving towards himself. The two traveled slowly with Maxwell still assisting Alex. They walked out of the room, turning into the hallway, and around a corner or two, going up the elevator, and finally reaching one of the big, open rooms Alex had seen when he had first entered. They walked up to the counter where one of the employees sat, and ordered away. They went back down to Maxwell's office to eat, while Alex insisted on carrying his own food. Alex carefully and painfully set a large spread of various delicious and nutritious foods onto Maxwell's desk and chowed down. Maxwell set his own smaller plate down and joined Alex.

"So how'd you like the books I gave you? Pretty good, right? For some reason, I could just tell that you were a fantasy fan." Maxwell said, a half-embarrassed grin plastered over his face.

"They were a life-saver, honestly. Just the medicine I needed, no joke. It was hard to concentrate at first, but I eventually got into it." Alex said, desiring to rant the heck out of these books. And rant they did. They covered the inspiring setting, the rather unrealistic but epic plot, and the oh-so-lovable characters. They told stories about how they laughed and cried at different parts of the series, and how it had one hell of an ending. They just started getting into the good stuff like philosophy when Peter barged into the room, pulling up a seat to sit in it backwards like he owned the place. His usual confident grin burnt Alex and Maxwell's eyes. They both wanted to keep talking, but Maxwell knew that this was important. He was the one who called Peter over, after all.

"I'll catch ya up to speed, Alex. Lots of stuff has gone down since your nap. I'll sum it up for you" Peter said, his voice casual but drawing your attention.

"Number one! Midnight had gone completely off of the radar for a solid three months. Ethiopia used the time to start regrouping and making a plan against him.

Number two! Slightly prior to this time, the TA mercenary group was hired by Ethiopia to kill Midnight. After Midnight had disappeared, Ethiopia contacted the assassin from the TA, asking if the job was done. There was no response. Ethiopia assumed that the job had not yet been completed, and that the assassin and the corps of men he took with him were no longer able to complete the mission.

Number Three, plot twist! Ethiopia contacted the TA itself, requesting a status report on their mission, and a possible change in the mercenary corps that they had initially hired. The TA responded, saying that they could not accept the request. Midnight then revealed himself again, with TA mercenaries by his side. This led to one slaughter of a battle next to a major supply line, which was destroyed. Cornered with limited supplies and no more allied countries(after the other countries had found out that the TA was on Midnight's side, I might add!), they desperately turned to a mercenary group not even located in Ethiopia, Moneyman's Brotherhood. They are an underground mafia-mercenary group that both trades a variety of goods and also takes job requests, though their boss, named Moneyman, only permits assassinations that he himself personally approves of and knows the context of. Anyway, this group accepted Ethiopia's pleas, and sent a corps of men over to attack, with two more corps combined with Ethiopia's soldiers that will be following later after they create a plan while the first corps stalls them.

Number Four! The first corps failed to stall Midnight's company of two hundred and fifty, the battle only lasting a few weeks. The other corps are still waiting for their plans. That's where we come in. As a former member of Moneyman's Brotherhood myself, I have access to this information, as well as communication with Moneyman himself. I have told him to include you in their plans. The Association approves."

A big "whoa" moment happened to Alex. As he absorbed and retained all of this information, his blood started pumping, but he wasn't feeling that anxious. The fear was dialed down, and the urge to do action had replaced it. Alex couldn't believe that he was really going to do something this insane. The pressure was gravely intense, but he was motivated to go, to make history, to become a key figure in the modern world, some way or another. He didn't know much of what was expected of him, but he felt like taking on any challenge laid before him. Was this the effect of the procedure? Who knows. All that Alex knew was this is how heroes were made. Peter sensed the excitement radiating off of Alex.

"Hold on there, Alex. We're still not done yet. Since we are very short on time, the crystal implantment needs to happen tomorrow. This is our chance, we need to take it. Your survival chances won't be lowered, either. We will get it done with, get on to the EX-IN wave therapy, and send you off to train at Moneyman's. You'll be in their hands, after that. We'll keep in touch, don't worry." Peter slouched in his chair, putting his chin on the backrest and sighed, showing that he was done.