Prologue 16 years ago at the height of the genome project, a secret gene war was brewing between the United States and Canada. Canada, fiscally unable to compete with the American foes, sought help from other countries. No country wanted to go at odds against the Americans, no one except the one nation that had dared before, the rising sun of the East. Some of the greatest eastern geneticists were brought in by Japan, one of which was India's Victorod Mylindar and his 18-year-old son Rhazzar. Their position in the research was not dwelling with what was there, but what you could do with it. Their specialty was the experimental field of genetic manipulation.
"We lost another 12 embryos today, the mutagens are killing our samples faster than we can study them, sir." One scientist reported, looking up from a test tube. "Children..." Victorod muttered.
"Pardon..," The scientist cocked his head.
"They're children, not samples." Victorod repeated.
"I wouldn't get too close, with the rate we're losing them." The scientist returned to his work.
"These children are dying for a noble cause, they are pushing our potential as human, and they will be remembered for that." Victorod replied, pulling his bright white lab coat over his dark brown arms, he hated this feeling. This feeling that he was an abortion doctor, preserving the lives of the prior generation by destroying the next, sure his findings could benefit human life, but at the cost of our children. Plus if it weren't for the women willing to reject their children's lives, he would have none of his "children.
The middle aged man stepped through a white painted metal door and slumped behind a matching desk, cupping his face in his hands. He despised the disregard for human life, but his failures exceeded his successes.
A slight rap came from the door. "Enter". Victorod replied, without looking up. "Father, the test results from test group 467-111. Rhazzar replied, as he stepped into the room. "How are they?" Victorod looked up.
"Out of 2000 "children", 20 of them have accepted the treatment." Victorod looked over his clipboard. Rhazzar was a stern teen with a deep milk chocolate complexion, sparkling brown puppy dog eyes and split personality hair that was a patchwork of curly and straight spiky locks.
"So a 0.01 survival rate, that will comfort people." Victorod returned to his slumped state.
"Just come and see". Rhazzar pleaded.
His father's head swayed as he grudgingly rose from his desk. The stark hallways of the underground laboratory blinded the men as they journeyed to one of the far off wings. The room they entered would have put the Taj Mahal ti shame with its space. Hundreds of rows of desks sat in straight lines with twenty coffee canister sized vessels placed on each, two inches equidistance from each other. In most of them the liquid was a dark, murky brown with a grayish brown semi developed fetus curled up inside. " They would have been five months this week." Victorod lowered his head, pounding his palms on the edge of the desk. "But father look here." Rhazzar yelled from one desk at the front of the room.
Twenty canisters had been pulled together from the multitude and placed here together. Each canister consisted of a titanium top and bottom with small rounded bolts that showed the round tipped suction clamps underneath that held the glass canister in place. An LCD screen on the bottom metal base flashed different chemicals and their amounts in each container. Adrenaline 50 mL, Estrogen 150 mL, Testosterone 0.1 m.
Below the screen was a silver plate with the letters XX. Another canister with XY on the plate read out a much higher testosterone concentration on the LCD screen. 11 male canisters and 9 female canisters. Their liquid shimmered translucent amber the rosy pink embryos floated peacefully. A bright smile crossed Victorod's face. "They're... perfect." Straightening up, he brushed out his lab coat. "Bring these children to my office. No more tests. Let's see how they develop on their own." Victorod replied, picking up one of the girl canisters.
"Isn't that right, Yuki?" Victorod stroked the canister like a proud father would a sleeping child's face.
4 Months Later.
Mylindar-San, your progress has shown great improvement over the last few months, but can your entire experiment be based on twenty case studies?" Oka- San reported as the two men walked briskly down the hall. Oka was the ambassador for the Japanese Government and the only outside person who had seen Victorod's "children" personally. "Quietly now, they were just born yesterday." Victorod whispered excitedly. A lavender room housed twenty identical white wooden cribs. "So have there been any manifests?" Oka whispered. "Except for some increased muscle density on a couple of them, not much, but it does show there was some genetic change." Victorod replied.
The precious moment was broken by the shrill of alarms and the cries of children. The lights turned out and red emergency lights flooded the room. "Father... Father." Rhazzar raced through the nursery door into the wail of screaming children.
"There's been an infiltration, we have to get out." Rhazzar breathed heavy. Victorod flinched as millions of thoughts buzzed through his head. He had no choice, if they stayed they'd be locked in, but their fortress would become their prison. "You herd the man, get the children out of here!!" Victorod yelled. Nursery staff came rushing in, picking up children three at a time. The lights and noise were nauseating. "Exit C, meeting point 13 A." Victorod yelled hanging onto his Yuki as the technicians fled through the tunnels.
"We need to separate them, send them to different countries. I have a friend in Ireland... If they stay together... they'll die!" The group had gotten smaller. Only Oka, Rhazzar and Victorod stood in the hallway with seven children between them. The shots came closer. Faint wails echoed. Children's cries cut short in a blood filled choke.
"We have to keep moving." Rhazzar yelled.
Cl-click.
"You're not going anywhere." A commando ordered, pointing a semi-automatic at Rhazzar. "Rhazzar, run". Victorod hissed in Punjabi. " No, not without you." "Rhazzar, you do not honour my command with your reply, now run!" Victorod yelled tossing the children to his Son. The force of the flung children caused Rhazzar to stumble back as he tried to catch the children while holding the others. "Lock down sequence 3175." Victorod ordered. A solid metal door swung down between Victorod and Rhazzar. "Father what are you doing? Father... FATHER!!" But all that answered Rhazzar was the sound of machine gun fire and the trickle of crimson liquid seeping from under the door. "Hurry, your father's sacrifice has brought us some time." Oka-San shouted as he raced down the corridor.
"No not without father. Father. FATHER!!" Rhazzar woke in a damp sweat. Expecting to wake to the dry Indian heat, all he was greeted with was the muggy heat of Tokyo. India's Institute of Genetic Advancement had to nearly drag Rhazzar on a vacation. He had not taken one in nearly two decades. But it was the dream that kept Rhazzar from resting, because that dream wasn't a dream, but an ancient memory, one Rhazzar wished he could repress. 16 years from that fateful date. The date he lost his hero and his family. The day after that event Rhazzar transferred out of what remained of the Japanese-Canadian Genetics Project back to IIGA where he continued his genetic research, hoping to bury himself in his work. Rhazzar turned his head just enough to see his travel alarm. 10:39 PM. Jetlag had really taken its toll on him or it could have been the Gravol he took on the plane. Hunger pangs called to Rhazzar. The closet sized room stifled him so he chose to dine out tonight. The night sky was contrasted by billions of lights that decorated the city. For a man that's job it was to discover the future of humanity, Rhazzar carried a world of regrets on his shoulders Victorod's children had long since been lost in the world's cracks, knowing it was for their own safety, yet Rhazzar regretted to see his father's work go unfinished. Rhazzar stood lost in translation as he tried to find his way around the city. So far he had learned that red lights did not mean cookhouse. Finally an intoxicating aroma of fried vegetables and ramen noodles drew him in. A tiny wooden kitchen with a store patio had a red and white striped canopy stretched over the 12x15x8' space. The restaurant's name was scrawled out in Kanji, but a smaller sign read "Haa-Haa's Ramen House" in English, a language Rhazzar was more fluent in. Four couples tables were set in front with four bolted stools in front of the counter. One customer sat at one of the tables with three empty bowls sacked one atop the other. One girl slowly swept the concrete patio. The man belched loudly and yelled something rude at the girl in Japanese that Rhazzar couldn't translate. "Hey Hostess, are you blind? My bowls are empty?" The man lounged back in the metal chair.
"Yes I am blind, but not deaf. I'll get them in a moment." The waitress snapped back.
Rhazzar stepped up to the counter. Rock music faded in and out between English and Japanese. One girl with her hair done up in two buns dance about.
"... Fast and furious... drift... drift... Fast and furious... drift... drift... The girl sang as she gave a Beyonce booty shake.
A short, round woman no taller than the counter came out and began beating the younger girl in the side, shouting rapidly. The girl shrieked and shouted back.
"Excuse me... excuse me..." Rhazzar tried to catch their attention.
"Hi hi, welcome to Haa-Haa's Ramen House. May I take your order?" The girl replied very peppy as soon as the woman stopped beating her. "may I please have a vegetarian bowl please?" Rhazzar as his fingers nervously tapped on the counter. "Mebe..." The girl smiled, placing her pinkie beside the corner of her mouth, winked and whipped around behind the counter, pulling a bowl of noodles and vegetables out f what seemed like midair.
"Order up Veggieman." The girl presented with a little ta-da.
"Thank-you uh"
"Yuna"
"Thank you Yuna." Rhazzar turned but Yuna spaced out for a couple of seconds before shaking it off and heading around the corner of the desk, heading towards their other customer. "Okay, That's four bowls of Ramen at 500 yen each so your total is 2000 yen." Yuna placed the bill on the table.
"Yes, let me just get my... CRASH" Dishes flew everywhere as the man made a mad sprint for the open street. The man threw the two girls to the ground; he nearly made it to the street, but the man's knees buckled out from under him in his escape.
"Pathetic, can't even do a proper dine n' dash." The blind girl huffed as she sat on the man's back, throwing off his center of gravity. "What is the meaning of this?" A rent-a-cop demanded as he raced around the corner, it seems someone saw what happened and alerted the police.
"Thief" The blind Girl reported as she got off the man.
11:38 PM Haa-Haa's House In a small two story house over the Ramen house, a trio stirred in a tiny shoe box of a room, A young man 5'1" crouched over a beat up laptop. "Is there nothing on that file?" The blind girl growled.
"We busted our e to get that file from OkaCorp and there's nothing on it"
"There's nothing that 've found yet, but it is a large file." Hojo sniffed as he pushed his broken horn-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"HOJO WHAST ARE YOU STILL DOING UP??" Hojo's mama screamed through the floor. "Nothing mama... as I as saying I haven't found anything... yet... Yuna? Yuki? " Hojo sat abandoned in his room.
"Hello..."
"We lost another 12 embryos today, the mutagens are killing our samples faster than we can study them, sir." One scientist reported, looking up from a test tube. "Children..." Victorod muttered.
"Pardon..," The scientist cocked his head.
"They're children, not samples." Victorod repeated.
"I wouldn't get too close, with the rate we're losing them." The scientist returned to his work.
"These children are dying for a noble cause, they are pushing our potential as human, and they will be remembered for that." Victorod replied, pulling his bright white lab coat over his dark brown arms, he hated this feeling. This feeling that he was an abortion doctor, preserving the lives of the prior generation by destroying the next, sure his findings could benefit human life, but at the cost of our children. Plus if it weren't for the women willing to reject their children's lives, he would have none of his "children.
The middle aged man stepped through a white painted metal door and slumped behind a matching desk, cupping his face in his hands. He despised the disregard for human life, but his failures exceeded his successes.
A slight rap came from the door. "Enter". Victorod replied, without looking up. "Father, the test results from test group 467-111. Rhazzar replied, as he stepped into the room. "How are they?" Victorod looked up.
"Out of 2000 "children", 20 of them have accepted the treatment." Victorod looked over his clipboard. Rhazzar was a stern teen with a deep milk chocolate complexion, sparkling brown puppy dog eyes and split personality hair that was a patchwork of curly and straight spiky locks.
"So a 0.01 survival rate, that will comfort people." Victorod returned to his slumped state.
"Just come and see". Rhazzar pleaded.
His father's head swayed as he grudgingly rose from his desk. The stark hallways of the underground laboratory blinded the men as they journeyed to one of the far off wings. The room they entered would have put the Taj Mahal ti shame with its space. Hundreds of rows of desks sat in straight lines with twenty coffee canister sized vessels placed on each, two inches equidistance from each other. In most of them the liquid was a dark, murky brown with a grayish brown semi developed fetus curled up inside. " They would have been five months this week." Victorod lowered his head, pounding his palms on the edge of the desk. "But father look here." Rhazzar yelled from one desk at the front of the room.
Twenty canisters had been pulled together from the multitude and placed here together. Each canister consisted of a titanium top and bottom with small rounded bolts that showed the round tipped suction clamps underneath that held the glass canister in place. An LCD screen on the bottom metal base flashed different chemicals and their amounts in each container. Adrenaline 50 mL, Estrogen 150 mL, Testosterone 0.1 m.
Below the screen was a silver plate with the letters XX. Another canister with XY on the plate read out a much higher testosterone concentration on the LCD screen. 11 male canisters and 9 female canisters. Their liquid shimmered translucent amber the rosy pink embryos floated peacefully. A bright smile crossed Victorod's face. "They're... perfect." Straightening up, he brushed out his lab coat. "Bring these children to my office. No more tests. Let's see how they develop on their own." Victorod replied, picking up one of the girl canisters.
"Isn't that right, Yuki?" Victorod stroked the canister like a proud father would a sleeping child's face.
4 Months Later.
Mylindar-San, your progress has shown great improvement over the last few months, but can your entire experiment be based on twenty case studies?" Oka- San reported as the two men walked briskly down the hall. Oka was the ambassador for the Japanese Government and the only outside person who had seen Victorod's "children" personally. "Quietly now, they were just born yesterday." Victorod whispered excitedly. A lavender room housed twenty identical white wooden cribs. "So have there been any manifests?" Oka whispered. "Except for some increased muscle density on a couple of them, not much, but it does show there was some genetic change." Victorod replied.
The precious moment was broken by the shrill of alarms and the cries of children. The lights turned out and red emergency lights flooded the room. "Father... Father." Rhazzar raced through the nursery door into the wail of screaming children.
"There's been an infiltration, we have to get out." Rhazzar breathed heavy. Victorod flinched as millions of thoughts buzzed through his head. He had no choice, if they stayed they'd be locked in, but their fortress would become their prison. "You herd the man, get the children out of here!!" Victorod yelled. Nursery staff came rushing in, picking up children three at a time. The lights and noise were nauseating. "Exit C, meeting point 13 A." Victorod yelled hanging onto his Yuki as the technicians fled through the tunnels.
"We need to separate them, send them to different countries. I have a friend in Ireland... If they stay together... they'll die!" The group had gotten smaller. Only Oka, Rhazzar and Victorod stood in the hallway with seven children between them. The shots came closer. Faint wails echoed. Children's cries cut short in a blood filled choke.
"We have to keep moving." Rhazzar yelled.
Cl-click.
"You're not going anywhere." A commando ordered, pointing a semi-automatic at Rhazzar. "Rhazzar, run". Victorod hissed in Punjabi. " No, not without you." "Rhazzar, you do not honour my command with your reply, now run!" Victorod yelled tossing the children to his Son. The force of the flung children caused Rhazzar to stumble back as he tried to catch the children while holding the others. "Lock down sequence 3175." Victorod ordered. A solid metal door swung down between Victorod and Rhazzar. "Father what are you doing? Father... FATHER!!" But all that answered Rhazzar was the sound of machine gun fire and the trickle of crimson liquid seeping from under the door. "Hurry, your father's sacrifice has brought us some time." Oka-San shouted as he raced down the corridor.
"No not without father. Father. FATHER!!" Rhazzar woke in a damp sweat. Expecting to wake to the dry Indian heat, all he was greeted with was the muggy heat of Tokyo. India's Institute of Genetic Advancement had to nearly drag Rhazzar on a vacation. He had not taken one in nearly two decades. But it was the dream that kept Rhazzar from resting, because that dream wasn't a dream, but an ancient memory, one Rhazzar wished he could repress. 16 years from that fateful date. The date he lost his hero and his family. The day after that event Rhazzar transferred out of what remained of the Japanese-Canadian Genetics Project back to IIGA where he continued his genetic research, hoping to bury himself in his work. Rhazzar turned his head just enough to see his travel alarm. 10:39 PM. Jetlag had really taken its toll on him or it could have been the Gravol he took on the plane. Hunger pangs called to Rhazzar. The closet sized room stifled him so he chose to dine out tonight. The night sky was contrasted by billions of lights that decorated the city. For a man that's job it was to discover the future of humanity, Rhazzar carried a world of regrets on his shoulders Victorod's children had long since been lost in the world's cracks, knowing it was for their own safety, yet Rhazzar regretted to see his father's work go unfinished. Rhazzar stood lost in translation as he tried to find his way around the city. So far he had learned that red lights did not mean cookhouse. Finally an intoxicating aroma of fried vegetables and ramen noodles drew him in. A tiny wooden kitchen with a store patio had a red and white striped canopy stretched over the 12x15x8' space. The restaurant's name was scrawled out in Kanji, but a smaller sign read "Haa-Haa's Ramen House" in English, a language Rhazzar was more fluent in. Four couples tables were set in front with four bolted stools in front of the counter. One customer sat at one of the tables with three empty bowls sacked one atop the other. One girl slowly swept the concrete patio. The man belched loudly and yelled something rude at the girl in Japanese that Rhazzar couldn't translate. "Hey Hostess, are you blind? My bowls are empty?" The man lounged back in the metal chair.
"Yes I am blind, but not deaf. I'll get them in a moment." The waitress snapped back.
Rhazzar stepped up to the counter. Rock music faded in and out between English and Japanese. One girl with her hair done up in two buns dance about.
"... Fast and furious... drift... drift... Fast and furious... drift... drift... The girl sang as she gave a Beyonce booty shake.
A short, round woman no taller than the counter came out and began beating the younger girl in the side, shouting rapidly. The girl shrieked and shouted back.
"Excuse me... excuse me..." Rhazzar tried to catch their attention.
"Hi hi, welcome to Haa-Haa's Ramen House. May I take your order?" The girl replied very peppy as soon as the woman stopped beating her. "may I please have a vegetarian bowl please?" Rhazzar as his fingers nervously tapped on the counter. "Mebe..." The girl smiled, placing her pinkie beside the corner of her mouth, winked and whipped around behind the counter, pulling a bowl of noodles and vegetables out f what seemed like midair.
"Order up Veggieman." The girl presented with a little ta-da.
"Thank-you uh"
"Yuna"
"Thank you Yuna." Rhazzar turned but Yuna spaced out for a couple of seconds before shaking it off and heading around the corner of the desk, heading towards their other customer. "Okay, That's four bowls of Ramen at 500 yen each so your total is 2000 yen." Yuna placed the bill on the table.
"Yes, let me just get my... CRASH" Dishes flew everywhere as the man made a mad sprint for the open street. The man threw the two girls to the ground; he nearly made it to the street, but the man's knees buckled out from under him in his escape.
"Pathetic, can't even do a proper dine n' dash." The blind girl huffed as she sat on the man's back, throwing off his center of gravity. "What is the meaning of this?" A rent-a-cop demanded as he raced around the corner, it seems someone saw what happened and alerted the police.
"Thief" The blind Girl reported as she got off the man.
11:38 PM Haa-Haa's House In a small two story house over the Ramen house, a trio stirred in a tiny shoe box of a room, A young man 5'1" crouched over a beat up laptop. "Is there nothing on that file?" The blind girl growled.
"We busted our e to get that file from OkaCorp and there's nothing on it"
"There's nothing that 've found yet, but it is a large file." Hojo sniffed as he pushed his broken horn-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"HOJO WHAST ARE YOU STILL DOING UP??" Hojo's mama screamed through the floor. "Nothing mama... as I as saying I haven't found anything... yet... Yuna? Yuki? " Hojo sat abandoned in his room.
"Hello..."