Chapter 3: The Event

"Class, this is Doctor Jackson, he is a research assistant at the Ilsan SLP Institute next door in the university research park."

"Please Caroline, it's Mark. And I'm the Lead Experimental Assistant, I work closely with Doctor Paul Sidar, the latest winner of the Nobel Prize in Biology."

"Well, yes. Today's class will be a presentation from, uh… Mark here. His research is in the same field as many of the research topics you will be choosing from later in the semester to do your science thesis on. So I want you to listen carefully to everything he has to say, his research is very interesting." Mark smiled at Caroline at this, knowing that she will be quite impressed with what he does once he's done with his presentation to her, well to her class.

"Oh, and there will be a quiz tomorrow on his presentation, so you should take short notes while he presents." At this, most of the class takes out some paper and a pen, but they are also quite interested in what he has to say. After all, he is from THE Ilsan SLP, where it's rumored Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (D.A.R.P.A.) research is being done, stuff you only see Sci-Fi movies. The class of senior students at Trinity Private School is quite interested to find out which of the rumors are true, if any. One of the students puts up his hand to ask about one particularly interesting rumor.

"Mark will take questions after the presentation." The hand regretfully descends.

"I'm sure you guys have heard tons of crazy rumors about what we do at the SLP, like that we are working on alien corpses." The class noticeably perks up at this, which makes Mark chuckle.

"No, there are no aliens in our labs, but I have to admit, some of the things we do in the main lab are out of this world. Today I'm going to make a presentation on the lead project in the lab. For fun, let me take a few guesses from the class. You." Mark pointed to a boy in the right side of the room who quickly put up his hand.

"I bet you guys are making laser guns."

Mark chuckled again. "No, our research is not weapon related, at least not directly. Remember, Doctor Sidar won the Nobel Prize in Biology. You?"

"Next generation, undetectable steroids!" "Oh yah, that would be so awesome!" The boy's friend gave him a high five as he laughed.

Mark stared at him, and then shook his head. How did a meat head like that get into Caroline's class? Must be some benefactor's kid.

"No, we aren't working on steroids. Anyone else?"

A shy, smart kid in the back put up his hand.

"You in the back?"

"Doctor Sidar got his Nobel for his research into nano-particles done in 2005. I'd bet you are expanding on that with attempts at functional nanobots."

The class went silent at this, the smart kids because of how interesting this topic is, and the rest because Jack finally spoke up.

"Well, someone that knows about Sidar's work, I'm impressed. Yes, his Nobel was for nano-particles, and yes we are working on programming these nano-particles so that they can act at the cellular scale in a living organism. Popular media likes to call this technology nano-machines or nanobots. We just call them Programmable Nano Particles, or PNPs."

Caroline looked very impressed with this news, and a little scared for Mark knowing that he shouldn't be telling a class full of teenagers this kind of detail of what they are doing. But Mark looked quite smug, having just struck the entire room dumb.

"They are self replicating machines that function with energy from their environment. They are very adaptable and capable of great feats; we really don't have a clear idea of their limits. Recently we have started animal testing with self-programming PNPs, the mice tests have gone really well and we might begin moving onto tests with more advanced animals such as canines and primates."

There was some grumbling and shifting from the class at the mention of animal testing.

"Don't worry, we are very humane with our test animals, and only use a small amount of mice, no large scale tests until we think it's safe."

Mark looked back at Caroline, who looked utterly dumbstruck at this point, and a little more scared. Mark ignored the scared part, and thought about how easy it would be to get her back to his place tonight after this next bit of his presentation.

"I even brought a capsule of them so you can get a look at the future." At this the silence of the room evaporated as everyone leaned forward to try to get a look and talk with their friends. "Can you believe this guy?" "He's gotta be pulling our legs, there is no way he'd…" "Jenny is going to love this! She'll wish she never dropped this class in the first week."

Mark opened his briefcase on his desk and pulled out a capsule filled with gray goo, holding it up triumphantly between his finger and his thumb. It was about the size of his thumb, with a cap on one side.

"They are about 100 times smaller than a human cell, capable of entering the cytoplasm of a cell and making chemical and electrical changes. There are 500 billion of them in this capsule here, but most of the capsule is just a suspension fluid. They are dormant right now until they get activated by blood and warmth. They can communicate with each other over centimeter range, or I guess I should say inch for you guys. They are self programming, and they can specialize into specific roles, PNPs in muscle tissue will work on making the muscle better, or make bones harder, or make neurons faster, et cetera."

"This batch is has been given the directive to improve its host in any way it can. They have a limited form of awareness, simply because there are so many of them. This generation also has the first version of wireless communication. We are going to try to get mice to talk to computers with their minds, isn't that cool?"

The class was once again dumbstruck. Did he just say that mice could talk to computers with their minds?

Caroline had sat down on a nearby bench. I can't believe any of this is possible, there is no way they have advanced that quickly in that lab, it's just not possible. The complexity alone would be just…

"We have been having some trouble with the hosts recently, or more specifically their immune systems. As the PNPs get more complex and larger, the host's body responds to them more strongly. Our recent batch has had a failure rate as high as 90%, with 50% dying from massive shutdown within 24 hours. We are trying to understand what is happening.

"Recently we have been trying to temporarily turn off the immune system during initialization, and then adapt all of the PNPs to the body's immune key. It seems to be very promising so far, and this batch also has the latest version of that initialization software."

There was barking and yelling coming from the hall. Miss Parkman awoke from her daze and opened to door beside her to see what was going on.

A white bolt of fur blasted into the classroom, barking and scaring poor Caroline silly. Mark dropped the vial that he had been gesturing wildly with.


Bolt darted through a door being opened by a shocked looking guy with a broom.

"Penny! Where are you Penny? Are you hurt?" Bolt kept going at full speed despite the yells coming from behind him. On his right he glanced into a room, so he slowed down to check if Penny was being held captive. Instead he saw many people sitting at desks, but they were all looking at him, and seemed surprised.

What is this place? Those people are just kids…

Bolt darted off further down the hall, keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of Penny. She must be here somewhere. That fast moving thing that abducted her is just outside, and Penny wasn't in it.

Bolt kept running from door to door. For some reason he could see through the doors here. They must be some kind of force fields instead of doors. The man with the mop was now chasing Bolt, using the mop to try to herd Bolt out of the school. Bolt would have none of that, and charged off around a corner, deeper into the hostile facility.

As he rounded the second corner, he spotted Penny in one of the rooms as he slid into the wall.

"Penny! I'm coming Penny!" The person near the door pushed the force field aside and Bolt charged into the room. His front right paw came down on something that crunched, and pain shot up Bolt's leg. He, of course, ignored it because Penny was right in front of him.

Bolt jumped up onto her desk. "Penny!" His paw left a smudge of that stuff Mittens had called blood. "Wait, you aren't Penny. IT'S A TRAP! RUN!"

Bolt immediately turned tail and headed for the door. The man in front of the room tried to stand in the way of the entrance, but he was a terrible henchman and the dog simply ran through his open legs, out to freedom.

"Hah ha! That will teach you for trying to trap the Super Dog!" Bolt decided this entire building must be a diversion, they must have moved Penny elsewhere. I'll find you Penny, I promise.

The guy with the mop was looking for Bolt out in the corridor. At Bolt's emergence he charged towards the intruder. "Get out of my school!"

Bolt dashed around a corner and dug his nails into a carpet and took off. He heard more yelling and a loud crash from behind him.

Bolt dashed out another large set of doors, back outside. The kid at this door looked utterly shocked.

They probably weren't expecting a Super Dog attack. That will teach them for not preparing properly.


"Penny, it's great to meet you in person, finally. Please have a seat." The jovial school principal seemed genuinely pleased to meet her. "My daughter loves your show! It'll be so great to have you at our school."

"Thanks Mr. Longbottom, but it isn't my show anymore."

"Of course not dear, and my daughter tells me it just isn't the same without you. Something about Bolt not being as brave as before. And aliens." Penny giggled at this.

"Yeah, that show has taken a very strange turn. I didn't really think they could pull that off."

It was Mr. Longbottom's turn to chuckle. "Yes, indeed. Well, let's get down to business, shall we?"

"Sure. I chose your school mostly because of the technology programs, and your links to the local university."

"Yes, Trinity Private School is renowned for its computer and science programs, and our links to the university allow us to have prestigious guest speakers. Why, just today we have someone presenting to the Advanced Topics in Science class from Ilsan SLP."

"Wow, now that is something. I'd love to see that presentation, Doctor Sidar has done some amazing work." Rose looked at Penny, amazed at her daughter's ability to name obscure scientists.

"When we do the tour, it should be no problem to have a little Q&A with him. So, were there any questions you had about the school before I launch into my presenta-"

Mr. Longbottom was rudely interrupted by some kind of scuffle in the hall. He frowned and went to the door. When he opened it, he saw his janitor sprinting down the hall with a broom.

"Smith, what is going on out here?!"

"Oh, well some white dog charged into the school and is making quite the racket, I'm just trying to get it out."

At that Penny, spoke up from behind the Principal. "What kind of dog?"

"Uh… a medium sized American shepherd, I think. Why?"

"Oh, god. BOLT! HERE BOY!" Penny charged out of the room, yelling for her dog.

"Bolt? As in the dog from the show?" Mr. Longbottom looked confused and slightly excited. Maybe it wasn't his daughter that was the fan.

"The very same, and he's a handful at times." Rose shook her head and endeavored to follow her yelling daughter.


Bolt ran across some wet grass, then into a big, square road, with cars stopped all around and buildings surrounding it. Bolt couldn't read the sign, of course, but he ran right in front of Ilsan SLP Institute.

He was starting to feel weak for some reason; his front right paw was feeling especially strange. It was still leaking blood too.

Bolt ignored that and continued his search, doing a quick circuit of the parking lot, not picking up any sign of Penny. The tingle had spread into his shoulder now. The world spun strangely as he looked around for Penny.

"Bolt? Where are you?" The dog did a quick turn at the sound of that voice, and charged full speed back towards the school. This made the world spin a bit faster.

"Penny! I'm so happy to see you! I thought I lost you!" The strange tingle had spread further into his neck and chest. He couldn't feel his paw anymore.

His full speed sprint began to slow, then after a few more strides his front right paw collapsed under his weight and he came to a sliding halt on the slick grass.

"BOLT! Oh my god! Bolt!" Penny slid into Bolt on her knees and picked up his head, turning it to face her. Bolt was still awake, and smiled at the sight of her.

Then his eyes rolled back in his head.


You probably totally hate me for that last line don't you?

Well, there is your chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. This has been hands down my favorite chapter possibly in the entire story. I really enjoyed the presentation at the start, with the descriptions of the PNPs. I also really like how the action sequence with Bolt turned out. It was great to write.

Regarding the other chapters, I have ch4 basically wrapped up and sent off to the beta readers. If you want to get a copy of the chapter before it lands on here, say something in your review and I will contact you.

Remember, you can email with questions, comments, criticisms, attaboys and death threats, or leave them in reviews. The link to my email is in my profile. If you like what you're reading, pelt your friends with links to the story and make sure they review too! I am bloodthirsty for fresh eyes (or is that eye thirsty? I can never figure it out).

Until next time, I'll leave you with the nagging questions: What is Penny going to do? Will the janitor be okay? How is the school going to react? Oh and OMGWTF IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO BOLT?!?!?!?