Affinity (On Hold)

Code Blue

"Doctor, XVL45's immune response is causing necrosis to his heart cells."

The nurse covered with sweat, hurriedly passed the chart to the doctor who was also about to leave the operating room. It was beyond chilly and the clanking and screeching of metals surrounded the entire room.

There were about five people in the room which composed of three nurses who were swiftly prepping and checking the vitals of the body as if flipping speed stacks and two doctors, one an intern and the other a senior doctor named Doctor Monterey. They were part of one of the most sensitive experimentation yet in the history of underground medicine.

The young boy on the operating table was having a seizure, his eyes fluttering and heartbeat pounding fast as his body hits a stellar temperature of 101˚F. His meek body almost knocked one of the staffs who held him down.

"His body is rejecting the APLEX apparatus!"

That was the cue for the doctor to inject an immunosuppressant. It was painstakingly long full minute as they waited for the seizure to die down and vitals to go back to normal. It stopped. However, it was far from the good news.

After a long few strides of minutes, the doctors finished doing the necessary physical exam, confirming that the boy was indeed dead.

Doctor Monterey shook his head before he checked the wall clock was solely creating a sound on top of an eerily silent space. "4:26 AM, cause of death, cardiac arrest due to antibody mediated transplantation rejection. Call the morgue and notify."

He was awfully pale as his left arm lifelessly suspended at the edge of the table.

"Should I bring in the next subject?"

"I'll have some coffee first and we'll resume within an hour." He turned his back to a corpse as he stripped off his gloves and tossed it on the yellow bin as the others did so as well.

"Doctor Monterey."

The young boy is breathing with an escalating rhythm. The other doctors were glued to their spot but Monterey took a step towards the boy before he jolted back when subject XVL45's eyes swiftly opened and a pair of innocent gray eyes turned to the group of bewildered staff. They cannot believe what they just saw. The child had no pulse. He was dead a minute ago. It was a miracle seeing the boy blinking and breathing calmly as if nothing happened.

Fixing his composure, he said, "A survivor. Boyd, cancel my other operations today and call them. They have to know that our experiment was a success. He is no longer a screening subject. We will give him a name." He looked at the malnourished child lying on cold white tiles, examining him with amazement on his malicious face.

"Try to bend this, my child." He handed a crowbar to him.

XVO1 examined the crowbar, weighed it on his hands and effortlessly bent the compact metal until it looks like a stiff letter "U". The room was filled with loud chatters for the first-generation bionic child that survived the gruesome experiments that they conducted. They cannot believe that they have finally did it which means they won't get shot down by the powerful corporations funding them. 

"We will continue with the next phase."

"What name should we give him, doctor?"

"DANTE."