Red Cancer

To say that UA-3846 had been partially disappointed by the lack of bacterial activity near his position in the body the previous day was simply to report the truth of the situation.

Sure, when his father apologized and promised to try another day he just agreed.

It wasn't his father's fault that neurons kept the body quarantined, away from the outside world, and sitting almost ninety percent of the time in front of a computer when it was the moment to sleep. Given this, the family decided to return home to rest.

And today, UA-3846, now in his new uniform similar to his mother's one but with a white shirt, was waiting his turn to begin delivering oxygen.

Maybe... hopefully, a bacteria would cross paths with him while he was doing his job.

He at least reflected that it was good to know that the neurons in this body wanted to ensure that the Covid virus didn't have the slightest chance of entering this world.

The thing was that... after learning a lot about the outside world... UA-3846 knew it was not the most appealing of places.

New memories crossed his mind

That day was one of those days when macrophage teachers allowed their students to rest.

There were simply no classes today.

Confronted with this situation, UA-3846, now a bit older, had an idea of what he wanted to do to spend some time having fun.

AM-2432 was out playing with her friends, so he had two options. Stay in the classroom doing nothing, probably studying a lot of stuff he already knew very well, an idea that made him sigh in boredom... or perhaps...

A grin appeared on his face as he pulled the gold card out of his pocket and pressed a button on it.

It didn't take too long until T-Killer cells appeared inside the room by using their migration.

"Follow us." They had serious stares, nothing to be surprised about since they worked directly for the neuronal cells, it was wholly natural that they did not denote many emotions.

Their job was to be professionals.

The two cells transported him, without complications and even a single cell noticing, to the place where his other friend was.

The problem is that they only led him to the entrance of the brain... not directly to LM-4321.

UA-3846 walked through the corridors full of computers without having much idea where to go... just like his mother during her rookie days.

Did he have to advance more rows of computers?... or should he go back?...

His answer came when, taking a quick look at the computer number of a neuron next to him, he received the revelation that the name of that neuron was…

LM-150752...

"Dammit..." he said, clenching his teeth in frustration.

He assumed a lot of things... perhaps he had been left in a different part of the brain by mistake, maybe he was simply an idiot and he hadn't paid enough attention and made a mistake when he walked to the left some time ago... or something... whatever the cause... he was screwed up.

By the time, with the help of another neuron that showed him the way, he finally found his friend, UA-3846 could only curse how much quality time he could have wasted thanks to him inheriting some of that bad sense of direction from his mother.

"I doubt the problem will be fixed if I give you a map, right?" LM-4321 giggled.

"Yeah, I'm afraid it won't solve much ..." he sighed before preparing himself to chat.

"So what would you like to do today?" LM-4321 put her hands on her shoulders and asked with a smile.

Although the idea of watching other neurons playing videogames or reading a good story sounded very attractive, especially since he still wanted to understand the whole chronology of The Legend Of Zelda, an idea crossed his mind...

UA-3846, after having trained a lot, realized that... despite knowing how to fight, he didn't know much about the bacteria...

The little he understood about them were names and their taste, but... he lacked knowledge about their fighting styles... something normal considering that his official classes only consisted of how to run away from them.

And while asking his father would make sense, he realized that the neurons would probably have much more detailed information in their databases.

Who knows, maybe they knew about viruses and bacteria that had never entered the body... they interacted and studied the outside world after all.

"I ... would like to improve my knowledge about diseases." UA-3846 told her as he crossed his arms.

LM-4321 blinked a few times, then rubbed her chin. "I guess it makes sense that you want to know about that."

She then turned to her computer and, once again, she began searching for some detailed files of information.

"I just want you to know that..." she sighed, rubbed the back part of her neck, and gulped... "Out there... there are things much more terrifying than anything we, the neurons, are capable of imagining..."

And what he learned after that really did justice to the warning LM-4321 had given him.

The coronavirus might have the world locked up and in a critical situation, that was true... but the truth was its strength and lethality was no match to even begin to be compared to other viruses... some of them caused him a few nightmares that night.

It was difficult for him to determine which of the viruses was the scariest one, but... there were two that stood out very easily...

Although, unlike bacteria, viruses lacked a mouth or a large body, which would suggest that they were "beings" with not much intelligence... some of them behaved in ways that one could not help but wonder if those things could actually think... that... maybe... they had been created and programmed by something or someone who did have that capability.

Infecting normal cells was a common thing for viruses... but infecting dendritic cells and using them to report a "false alarm", allowing them to be able to multiply safely for some time... and then begin to destroy the arteries and any other type of organ where the erythrocytes were... that was incredible... intelligent?

And then there was that virus that, while its objective was not to sabotage communications... it really didn't need to...

After all, the Killer-T cells were its target.

Once it captured one, it introduced itself inside of those cells to begin to replicate safely... and once they were enough... they killed the cell by brutally destroying it from the inside... that if the unfortunate killer-t cells were not killed by other white cells in order to avoid the multiplication of the virus... which only presented more Killer-T cells to get infected... thus reducing dramatically the fighting capacity of the immune system.

And this virus was so quick at reproducing... that there was simply no way to eliminate them all... dooming the white blood cells to a wander of a cytoplasm-soaked sea of darkness... had the body been immortal, that would be a battle that would last for all the eternity.

UA-3846, however, concluded that the only thing worse than all that must be a superinfection caused by both viruses.

Secondary infection:

A new infection that appears in the body when the first one has not been controlled yet, whether of internal or external origin. It is also known as superinfection. As long as both infectious agents do not start fighting each other for X or Y reasons, this combination is obviously very dangerous.

Fighting HIV and Ebola each one separately already sounded like one of the worst nightmares an immune cell could experience... fighting both at the same time...

He shook his head as his face denoted horror.

"Hey!" UA-3846 was snapped out of his trance by feeling someone touching his shoulder.

When he turned around, it wasn't difficult to discern that the erythrocyte must have thought that perhaps what he had done was a mistake.

The white hair and the knife were probably the main factors.

UA-3846 realized by himself that the row for taking the boxes had been reduced significantly since the last time he paid attention… so he just turned again and walked.

"Good Morning." UA-3846 tried to get his stoic gaze back as he spoke.

"Um... good morning..." The face of the cell that was in charge of the boxes was exactly how the hybrid expected it.

Displaying fear.

UA-3846 simply ignored him and took the box to leave.

Once the machine delivered the oxygen, he simply packed the product into his box and began walking through the pulmonary vein.

He made sure his knife was properly positioned just like his bacteria detector before attempting to sit on that artifact that was going to lower him to the main road.

However, a hand touched his back before doing so.

AM-2432 had a pretty cute smile that morning.

"Is there space for two?" it was a rhetorical question.

UA-3846 simply nodded. "Sure enough, nice to see you here."

Once they both started their descent, UA-3846 decided to ask something. "And how was the party?"

"Pretty good, lots of sugar and good food." AM-2432 nodded slightly several times as she remembered. "Although sometimes I feel like something is missing to make an almost perfect party."

UA-3846 thought that what was missing must be that substance known as alcohol. Apparently, it was a liquid that human "entities" liked to consume during parties.

This body had no record of the substance because whenever the other entities offered it to the neurons of this body, they rejected it. As far as he knew, the thing had quite relaxing effects and helped to become more fun or something like that... but it was capable of causing, among other things, neural computers to lose the ability to continue storing memories for a long period of time and also greatly interrupted their great capacity of thought… making them make stupid decisions.

LM-4321 told him that she and her friends just didn't want "that crap" inside the body.

"Something quite memorable did happen though." AM-2432 sighed fondly.

"What thing?" as they had already reached the ground, they got up and started looking for the pushcarts.

"Well..." she started to play with her hair. "I could notice that NGC-6753 was looking at me constantly."

"And does that make you think he has feelings for you?" In the romantic sense, I mean. " it was a logical assumption.

"Exactly." She sighed with a dreamy look.

"And do you know him well enough?" UA-3846 asked her as he tried to check his map.

"Why do you ask that question?" AM-2432 turned to see him.

"Well, I think you've only mentioned him twice so far so if I remember correctly so I doubt you can say that you two are friends." UA-3846 rubbed his chin. "Which means that, unlike your other friends, I suppose that you don't know very well what his personality is like."

"It's true, but I won't know anything about him if I don't get close to him, right?" AM-2432 crossed her arms, luckily she was still smiling.

"I know that, just be careful, okay?" UA-3846 shrugged.

AM-2432 giggled. "I'm glad you worry about me, but you have to understand that not all red cells that aren't me and your mother are jerks."

They didn't seem to understand that regarding him… or any other immune cells with the exception of the macrophages, for that matter.

UA-3846 shrugged with a bored expression. "Right... whatever."

AM-2432 put a finger on her chin. "I thought your mother would have accompanied you on your first day."

"That was her plan," UA-3846 nodded as he closed his eyes.

"But her delivers for today started with nutrients for the area of the neck and I have to take this up to the kidney so we just said goodbye before line up."

"I see," AM-2432 started to walk a little faster as there was now a little more space to walk without colliding with somebody else. "Well, I have to carry this to the right foot so, I will follow you for a while."

UA-3846 gave her a slight smile… only for his face to turn more serious when his radar lifted and made the classical sound.

"Antigen detected." He said, looking around.

"A-Any idea where they might be?..." AM-2432 gulped, also looking in all directions.

"My radar isn't vibrating very strongly, they are probably a bit far away."

UA-3846 pulled his radio out from his pocket.

"Here UA-3846, the presence of an antigen is detected in the area near the exit of the heart, over."

"This is U-8587, message received. We are on our way."

Although he was trained to fight, it was obvious that he could not delay his delivery of oxygen or products, so he had been ordered to only face enemies if it was absolutely necessary.

Given this, if he detected something but he couldn't see it, he just had to report it and move on.

"Just... relax, okay?, I'll take care if they appear." UA-3846 narrowed his eyes.

He couldn't deny that he felt a little "cold" inside of him.

He already had training… but still, this could be the first time that he would encounter a bacteria or a virus...

And the thing is that before he had his father next to him as a precaution if something went wrong...

And now he was on his own at this... and the lives of her friend and the other cells around him were his responsibility...

AM-2432 nodded, clinging to his arm. "You know... I knew that, since you are part neutrophil, when we do a delivery together one day you were going to protect me again... but it's still a scary thing despite knowing that sometimes I would have my own personal guard."

"I knew that too." He gave a slight giggle, stroking his friend's hair in an attempt to reassure her.

They both continued walking until they heard screams coming from ahead

"Stay behind, if the situation worsens then run." UA-3846 prepared his knife at the same time that he placed his left hand in front of his friend in protection mode.

She simply nodded. "Yes, I understand."

He could feel them… his radar was vibrating too much…. And he felt that sensation again...

And then he saw them.

Various bacteria... their main color was purple, and they seemed to have multiple bladed tentacles...

"Pneumococcus!" UA-3846's face changed when he identified his enemy. His eyes narrowed, his teeth clenched. He had an exceptional rage that seemed to neutralize his nervousness.

An erythrocyte screamed in pain as one of the bacteria pierced his arm area. "Now, will you deliver those nutrients without excuses, or do you want me to continue? you little shit."

His partners in crime also held hostage other red blood cells that carried nutrients.

At least one corpse was lying on the ground by that time.

The cell that received that question decided to drop the basket.

"A smart decision... but it will not save you at all fro-" the bacteria did not have time to complete his threat as a knife pierced him in the middle of the eyes.

UA-3846 quickly withdrew his weapon and began to make multiple cuts before kicking his opponent, causing him to collide with another Pneumococcus.

"AN IMMUNE CELL!" the bacteria warned his "evil" companions of the presence of UA-3846.

UA-3846 growled like a beast as he stopped a tentacle attack with his free hand, then pulled with much force, causing the bacteria to approach against his will. UA-3846 only had to do one lunge to pierce the monster from side to side. After that, throwing the corpse out of his path as if he was holding trash, UA-3846 moved at an incredibly high speed.

A Pneumococcus screamed in horror as his limbs began to be cut off. UA-3846 held the now unable to move abomination and used him as a shield against another attack from the latest bacteria. After this, UA-3846 finished separating the head of the bacteria from his body with a brutal bite.

The remaining bacteria took a step back as UA-3846 began to chew the food. Before the bacteria could react, however, the hybrid had grabbed his head with his left hand and was pushing him with brutal force.

The bacteria screamed in a hideous manner as the back of his head hit a wall at high speed. Then UA-3846 lifted him quickly to make him crash back against the ground.

UA-3846 spun his knife so the stance he used was the one focused on precise attacks.

The next thing to be heard was the horrendous cry of a bacterium being literally cut in half.

UA-3846 sneered at his victims before placing his knife back in its compartment. Then he grabbed the radio once more.

With a murderous gaze, reinforced by his single visible eye and his entire body stained with cytoplasm, the hybrid smiled sinisterly.

"Here UA-3846, a group of four Pneumococcus has been terminated. My radar detects no more antigens in the area..."

"Confirmed, we return to normal patrol."

UA-3846 sighed as he took a look at his pieces of death art...

His fists began to shake… before he lifted them skyward in victory. "Fucking yeah!" his face deformed in happiness. "Haha... hahaha... hahahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

AM-2432 approached slowly, pushing both pushcarts with the oxygen boxes. "Co... congr... atulations..." she gulped as she looked in horror at the corpses of bacteria and cells around her.

She had to close her eyes as she looked away. "I-I think… it will take me a while… to get used to this…"

UA-3846 breathed slowly as he was still enjoying this... and then he shrugged. "Jejeje..."

Normally, he would have put a hand on his friend's shoulder, but he doubted she wanted a cytoplasm-stained uniform.

"I will go to one of those places to clean myself on our way..." UA-3846 was about to take some pieces of bacteria to eat when the two friends heard a voice.

"What are you supposed to be?"

The two friends then noticed the presence of... a normal cell who had a few traces of cytoplasm on his clothes.

"You're talking to me?" UA-3846 asked. It was the most logical assumption given that he was the only unusual thing in sight.

"He... he is a hero." AM-2432 answered the question, nodding slightly.

"I can see that." The cell smiled... although this cell was quite normal... UA-3846, for some reason, felt... something...

He doubted he could describe it in words.

"However... I don't remember ever seeing a neutrophil dressed in red ..."

UA-3846 blinked a few times before looking away in disinterest.

"I am a neutrocyte. A hybrid between neutrophil and erythrocyte."

The normal cell smiled more intensely as he raised his index finger close to his chin. "I didn't... I didn't know that there could be a cell part white part red... or would it be better to say that you are a pink cell?"

UA-3846, quite stressed and still feeling a few his immune cell instincts, held his knife threateningly against the normal cell. "Alright, I'll spare your life just because this is the first time... but never call me that again!"

UA-3846 had its teeth clenched. For some reason... his killing instincts weren't completely gone...

AM-2432 got close to him and tried to push the weapon away. "Please calm down, UA-3846, you are going to scare him!"

Contrary to expectations, the normal cell laughed and crossed his arms… with a nostalgic look.

"You remind me a lot of an old friend..."

"Does your friend like pointing a knife at you?" UA-3846 raised his eyebrow, his face still exhibiting some anger.

"Our friendship is particular." The normal cell laughed. "Anyway, I should go. Nice to meet you... hybrid..."

With that, the cell effectively proceeded to leave...

Through an alley...

"That guy is weird..." UA-3846 placed his weapon again inside its carrier... his eyes narrowed and cold like a robot's.

"I don't think you are the best one to say that something or someone is weird." AM-2432 commented scratching her hair.

Fortunately, all this had made her kinda forget she was standing near corps of bacteria and at least one erythrocyte.

"That is a good point." UA-3846 sighed. "Still... I don't like him..."

"You only have known him for a few seconds." AM-2432 had to look away when UA-3848 decided he had enough food and began to disintegrate the rest.

"I guess you're right…"

However, he was interrupted by the sudden arrival of another cell who seemed to have jumped from very high.

She was a woman with black hair just like her sleeveless shirt. The rest of her clothes, shorts, and boots, were rather green.

"Apparently, it was just you." The woman crossed her arms as she watched him.

"What is that supposed to mean?" UA-3846 was not in a good mood to deal with strangers. AM-2432 placed a hand on his shoulder as she leaned close to him to feel safe.

"Nothing nothing." The woman shook her hand to negate as she began to walk away from there. "Continue your way, little red Cancer."

UA-3846 growled momentarily at being called that before shaking his head and deciding to ignore the matter.

"What did she call you?" AM-2432 had a worried face.

"It's not important ... come on, we are already late now."

"If you say so…"

I think this is the longest chapter I have written for this fanfic to date.

I think I should have been more active during these holidays though...

Honestly, just imagining what HIV and Ebola could look like in this world gives me a fright... I mean, now let's imagine some diseases from Plague Inc... the necroa virus or the neurax worm for example...

Red blood cells, in theory, can travel through the entire body in one single minute if I remember correctly... that's in part why it's correct to assume Cells At Work operates under the concept that the cells interpret time differently to how we do. But returning to the speed thing, I interpret that, along with the fact white blood cells are also pretty fast plus their migration thing, UA-3846 should be some kind of Lighting Bruiser character.

Anyway, see you next time!