Not that I was surprised, but I recovered from my injuries surprisingly quickly, all thanks to my enhanced regeneration. Still, they wanted to stay in the recovery room and get so bedrest.
Over the next couple days my friends ca for frequent visits; Kianna made an appearance to let know how things were going with the Vyrane mission debrief. Weirdly enough, everyone else on the team was debriefed by supervising commanders from The Judicator, but no one had an audience with the Lord Generals, not even Captain Seash or Kotlokk who oversaw clandestine operations for the mission. Thought it was strange they specifically called Eve for an audience and no one else; made a little anxious once again wondering what they were planning.
Tillia ca with Kianna most of the ti and the two girls gabbed it up quite frequently, almost too much for my taste. Zyno and Yun were often by my side as well, Zyno especially. Proving himself to be my best friend once again, he got my futuristic emulation station that held pretty much every Earth video ga and hooked it up to the hologram TV for . Since I’d lost my laptop back during the Holistia Nebula mission, I asked Zyno if there was any way he could rig up a more portable way to play my gas, and he said he’d look into it.
A few of my visitors were quite the surprise; Seash ca to check on and once more congratulated on a mission accomplished, though he made it a point to not stick around for small talk and certainly didn’t start up a conversation over the decisions I’d made to reveal the truth of the Predazoans to the vyranes and all the other things we butt heads over. Kotlokk ca for a brief visit too, asking for more sci-fi movie recomndations from Earth, and offering a few of his own favorites from Imperial dia. Lobae and Vinnago visited a few tis, trying to show themselves friendly all the while, but conversation with them was rather shallow, and while I wasn’t about to kick them out of my room since I was surprisingly eager for company, I couldn’t forgive and forget the rift that’d grown between us either. I was being more open about and Eve’s problems with the Empire now, but I was still going to be careful who I counted as friends for those who worked for our enemies.
There were a few more random soldiers or marines I’d t on previous missions who filtered on through, quite a few who were just curious about the Vyrane mission and wanted the gossip. I could see firsthand what the researchers told about the grunts on the vessel being kept out of the information loop now too, so of whom had absolutely no idea about anything that’d occurred while we were planet-side.
The doctors removed my torso-binding, and I was set to be discharged after three days laid up in bed when so more white coats ca into the room, none of whom I recognized.
The man in the middle was tall, taller than even, surprisingly skinny, and with weirdly long limbs and fingers and an almost skeletal face with a sharp, pointed chin and ticulously trimd black goatee that followed every ridge of his jawline. The alien’s skin was a sickly blue-grey, and he had beady yellow eyes and black hair slicked-back. He honestly reminded of a cartoon villain; looked like soone who was planning to place a damsel on a railroad track or sothing.
“Agent Samson, my na is Doctor Ullion, head researcher for Predazoan gene manipulation.” He introduced, his voice sounding oily slick.
Na didn’t sound familiar either; probably a new supervisor taking over from The Judicator.
I was getting out of bed and getting dressed, trying to push off one of the dical doctors making an effort to help , “What can I do for you?”
Doctor Ullion pulled out his tablet to display a hologram that showed a humanoid’s musculoskeletal structure, “Now that you’ve been dically cleared, we’re going to need you to co with us to have so tests perford.”
I finished getting dressed in the casual Earth clothes Zyno picked up for from my apartnt, a simple black t-shirt and dark grey sweatpants, “What, why?”
The hologram’s body lit up in a few specific places, and a great wall of text and numbers scrolled by, “It’s been confird your genetic structure has been modified by Alpha-03; we need to ensure you’re still stable, haven’t been assimilated or controlled, and to see the extent and limits of these enhancents.”
I fixed him with a flat look while I put on my blue hoodie, “Seriously? And we have to do this now?”
Ullion nodded, “Unfortunately yes; before you’re released back with the rest of the crew, we have to make sure you aren’t carrying any kind of dangerous contagions as well.”
It wasn’t like I had anything better to do, no reason to kick up a fuss. Eve still wasn’t back from her debrief with the Lord Generals even after three days; last ti we dealt with them it took over a cycle, so there was no telling how long they might keep her now.
I gestured to the collection of research doctors before , “You aren’t going to quarantine and throw in a containnt cell in the anti, are you?”
Ullion smiled, and even his smile seed sinister with too many small, sharp teeth in his mouth, “Of course not, Agent Samson, we can all walk there just fine.”
I looked at the dical doctors in the corner who were finally done with , then over to the research doctors I’d have to deal with next.
I let out a quick sigh and just shrugged, “Alright, let’s get this shit over with.”
***
The amount of tests the research doctors threw at seed unreasonable, overly redundant, and pretty much nonsensical. Right away they did an excessive amount of bloodwork, then they scanned with every kind of scan I couldn’t even imagine—maybe mapping out all my DNA or so nonsense. They took skin samples, bones samples, a urine sample, pretty sure they were going to ask for a sen sample if I didn’t tell them to knock it off with all the samples.
They did so weird image tests too, had in so room with a screen that displayed my body through all kinds of weird lenses, like seeing just my skeleton moving, or my muscles, my organs, my nerves, and then so weird colorful ones like mapping my body heat or energy, tons of stuff I didn’t even understand. They had move and stretch, turning every angle as they grabbed tons of pictures or videos of my movents, trying to see every little detail of my body.
It was wildly invasive, but all the more irritating because I straight-up told them what my genetic enhancents were; enhanced strength, enhanced speed, enhanced durability and enhanced regeneration. And yet still they kept testing , taking scans of every square inch of my body as though they didn’t care what I told them.
Although to their credit, I did hide the fact Eve and I could communicate directly and privately with a newly created bone in my inner-ear through a series of humming vibrations, but the whole point of that was so we could talk without anyone knowing about it, especially in front of our Imperial enemies.
Once they were done with their scans and lab work it was ti to run so physical tests. Initially, I was planning on keeping it secret just how much I’d been enhanced, to not let the Empire now how strong I was now and what all I could do thanks to Eve’s genetic manipulation, but I had to admit I was actually really eager to test my own limits now.
First they just poked and prodded with various tal instrunts, seeing how durable I was. Sounds like torture when I say it like that, but they actually numbed up an area on my abdon so I wouldn’t feel the pain while they pressed so weird liquid tal instrunt into , changing its shape and form constantly to see what kind of damage I was resistant to; cutting, stabbing, heat and cold, lasers and ballistics, various things the weird tal could imitate, even raw kinetic force. They confird my skin was now 24 tis tougher, while my bones were 38 tis denser, and my muscles were 16 tis more elastic and resistant to damage.
Honestly I probably should’ve been pissed they were treating like a lab rat and purposefully trying to damage my body, and yet I was just as fascinated as they all were, watching the results of the tests with great interest.
Things started getting friendlier after the durability tests and the mood in the testing room beca much more casual. I couldn’t help but laugh and joke with the research doctors, and they all lightened up significantly—even Doctor Ullion who looked like a cartoon villain turned out to be pretty chill; I guess you really can’t judge a book by its cover.
I was rather open with them about not knowing my limitations now and curious all the sa. Of course, that led to them asking why I allowed the Predazoan asset to modify my genetics, but I could easily dissuade their suspicions telling them since I was out fighting the other dangerous Predazoans and I had such limited combat training, it only made sense to enhance so I could be useful to Eve in a fight.
Of course that was true sowhat, but I wasn’t about to add on top of that how I wanted to be enhanced so I would be strong enough to fight or rebel against the Empire as well.
They accepted my explanation imdiately, especially after I told them how my new abilities had totally co in clutch during the fight with Beta-09 when I cut off her tail and Eve was able to consu the extra biomass to increase her size to match the giant, Kaiju-sized Predazoan threat.
From there, the tests started getting more fun and physical as well; they had so machines which looked like they belonged in a futuristic gym, and they started testing how much force I could exert or how much weight I could lift.
For my punches, I was able to put out several tis more force than even the strongest bullets back on Earth; the longer I concentrated, the more force I could unleash. Made feel like I was powering up like an ani character, but realistically it was probably just more in line with what Eve was saying about my body needing to adjust and get used to the new abilities. The craziest thing was according to her, I could keep getting stronger, just like a regular person who trains or works out.
Next, they had lifting this weird, reverse press that added more pressure against my exerted force to see how much weight I could push against. I wasn’t sure exactly how the numbers worked with the enhancent with Eve saying I would have the strength of a hundred n, but my maximum record was just over 10 tons. I kept trying for more, feeling more like a superhero than ever before, but the doctors didn’t want to overexert myself, so they cut off when I started struggling.
It made wonder what the best way to improve my strength or increase my limits would be now; I couldn’t exactly go to a regular gym, even the workout equipnt on The Radiance wouldn’t be able to stress out. I’d have to co down to the research and testing areas to get a real workout, but I was definitely still interested in growing stronger; just because I was enhanced with superhuman abilities now didn’t an I would grow lazy or complacent with it. After all, the whole reason for this was to help Eve, and to work to free ourselves from the Empire.
Finally, they moved onto testing my speed. They worked with my reaction ti first, having so computer screen light up and have press a button in response. I reacted so fast they couldn’t even record the ti properly; I seed to respond instantly according to their instrunts. Doctor Ullion even admitted they might need to update so of their equipnt to properly record my limits and growth.
After the reflex testing, it was ti for a classic test; working on the treadmill. They went for stamina and endurance at first, seeing how long I could maintain a regular running speed. After an hour of that they moved on to testing my limits, having run as fast as I possibly could.
Sa as pretty much everything else, it wasn’t exactly imdiate, but once I had ti to work up to it, they clocked my max at over 1800 miles per hour, and I could maintain it steady for about ten minutes before I totally gassed out.
After all the tests and data, several hours had passed, and honestly I was totally exhausted.
“Alright Adam, that just about wraps everything up on our end.” Ullion confird, logging the last of the data into his tablet.
I waved around vaguely towards him, still trying to catch my breath, “Everything cleared for then? I’m free to rejoin the rest of The Radiance’s population?”
Ullion smiled that villainous grin of his, “All cleared; no foreign contagions, no diseases, no assimilation or controlling agents. As far as all the lab work goes, you’re still 98.8% human.”
I quirked up an eyebrow, “What’s the other 1.2%?”
Ullion shrugged, “Sothing more than human, but nothing we can really quantify—not strictly Predazoan either.”
I smiled brightly, “Oh, then you should call it ‘homo-superior’.” I offered.
He cocked his head to the side, “Like homo-sapien, but superior?”
I laughed then, “Hell yeah, based on so Earth comic books about superpowered mutants, seems to work here just fine.”
Ullion nodded along, “Well I suppose you are superior to regular humans, but I don’t think we can call purposeful genetic modifications the sa as a mutation.”
I waved him off quickly, standing up and cracking my back, “Don’t think too hard on it for now, just use it as a placeholder or sothing.”
Ullion seed like he wasn’t concerned either way, “Very well.” He tapped his tablet off and put it on the desk behind him, “And with that you’re free to leave, though we might need you again for further tests after we compile the rest of this data, but I can’t imagine that would be anyti soon.”
I quickly grabbed up my hoodie and turned to leave, “Alright, works for . See you all next ti.” I offered, then left for the halls of The Radiance, not even sure where I was heading.
I still hadn’t heard from Eve, so for the first ti in a long ti, I was on my own on The Radiance, and honestly, I had no idea what to do with myself.
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