Miracle Tale

Prologue

*Beep

*Beep

*Beep

The lab sat in a dark silence except for the methodic beeping of machinery. It never stopped beeping.

*Beep

*Beep

*Beep

A man sat alone in this darkness, waiting. He had his eyes fixed on the computer screen in front of him, or at least what should have been his eyes. His elbows rested on the desk as he lazily watched the screen. The man's right hand held a half-smoke cigarette, and with the other hand he held his head.

*Beep

*Beep

*Beep

He sighed deeply as he drummed his fingers against his bare head. The monitor displayed 5 "vital signs". In actuality it was monitoring the stability of the test subjects. He continued waiting while the beeping drilled into his skull.

*Beep

*Beep

*Be-

*Growth Complete*

-5 out of 5 Specimens Intact-

It stopped. The beeping stopped. The man looked up surprised and took one last inhale of his cigarette before putting it out. He moved his attention fully to the computer and read the text. He smiled slightly before he opened a separate file on the computer and began to type;

Entry Number 128:

Growth was a success. It appears the subjects will have a higher magic capability. This is the missing key I have been waiting for. Unfortunately, it came at a high price...

He stopped typing and sighed deeply. He unconsciously rubbed his chest where there were now a few missing ribs. The man continued;

I will begin the SOUL transplant soon. I pray it will work this time. 

He deleted the last sentence and instead wrote:

I expect promising results.

End of Entry

He closed the log and hesitated before getting up and making his way towards the true lab. He was not looking forward to the next step.

He had done this process 26 times before. All of them had failed. He'd been able to perfect the growth sequence long before this point, (somewhere around attempt 5), but putting LIFE into the vessels? It had become a serious problem. One he hadn't figured out.

He paused once he reached the lab doors, his hand rested on the handle. His mind noted the possibility that this could all fail like it had so many times before. But if it did, that would mean this project would meet its end. He was out of funds and his idea supply was almost as empty as his pockets. He chuckled at his own joke. He frowned and made a mental note that staying up over 90 hours made himself susceptible to terrible jokes. He hadn't looked in a mirror recently, but he was sure he looked awful.

He turned the handle and pushed open the heavy metal door. He was greeted by five large growth tubes. They were over 6 feet tall and were huge glass cylinders. The liquid inside was a special chemical that usually was just used to heal serious wounds, however he had altered the chemical formula to aid in growing bodies from a small amount of genetic material rather than just repairing it.