Constant Pressures

It took quite a lot for someone to consider disturbing professor Hojo when he locked himself inside his private laboratories in the ShinRa science department. The preliminary results of the newest SOLDIER recruit's Mako tolerance tests were apparently interesting enough for the doctor supervising to risk forwarding the boy's medical files to the department head for a second opinion and further orders. The middle aged, bespectacled sociopath gave the faxed documents a cursory once-over, paused then reread them more slowly.

Cloud Strife had been personally recommended by General Sephiroth, the professor's finest work to date, who had also put in a request to have the boy as his personal student. The results of his fitness and combat tests placed him in the top percentile for his age and his performance in the written test showed a broad, well-founded knowledge base and a solid grasp of tactical thinking. Notes added by various supervisors indicated an almost uncanny knack for magic, a keen mind and a talent for broadswords. All in all, the kind of protégé Hojo approved of; the boy would learn quickly and not take up too much of Sephiroth's time. But it was the new recruit's ongoing Mako test that was the real gem: the boy had unnaturally high tolerance levels. Not resistance or sensitivity, but actual absorption. He'd been given the standard test injection of 0.2%, only slightly less than half what those accepted into third-class received, and he hadn't even broken out in the standard cold sweat that indicated that the body was trying to assimilate the boost. In fact, initial test results suggested that Strife's body had simply absorbed the Mako like it was a saline drip. Unnatural affinity indeed.

Hojo's interest was piqued. If he could monitor the boy and take regular samples he might be able to discover the specific chemical reaction and genetic sequence that created the higher tolerance levels which would -through gene therapy on selected specimens- create stronger and more resilient test subjects for him to experiment with. In two more years Specimen S would finally have matured enough for Reunion, but it would be advisable to have a secondary plan in motion on the side just in case things did not go as planned. Jenova knew most people were morons.

Removing this new specimen from SOLDIER would be premature; for a truly accurate measure of the new subject's abilities Hojo would be better off monitoring its progress against its peers in their shared environment. Higher tolerance levels meant he could give Specimen C more concentrated injections and the relationship between Mako levels and strength, speed and awareness could only truly be gauged in the field when assessed against the extant baseline provided by other SOLDIERs. Sephiroth's interest in the specimen also had to be taken into account; he did not want to overly antagonise his pet project.

That the new specimen was from Nibelhiem was a real stroke of good fortune: its injections would have been prepared separately regardless of dosage, making the adjustment process simpler. No-one would be accidentally getting Specimen C's shots and monitoring the effects would be far less complicated than if the boy was from Kalm or Costa del Sol. Perhaps the anomaly was a result of being from Nibelheim? It wasn't like he had a particularly large sample pool to work from if that was the case; Cloud was the only recruit to come out of that forsaken place since Sephiroth had been born there.

Hojo left his lab and proceeded to the science department's main floor, where SOLDIERs received their monthly Mako boosters. There wasn't really anything else on this floor except offices, as the professor preferred to keep his experiments away from the public eye. Some people really didn't understand that in order for scientific progress to be achieved, sacrifices had to be made. The assistant on duty led him over to the observation room overlooking where Specimen C was being evaluated; he did not want to alert Sephiroth to his interest in the boy and playing dumb would ensure greater access in the long run. Also, if the boy thought he was special the results might be contaminated.

He certainly did not look like much. Short, slender and with the ridiculous blond hair that indicated a Shinra somewhere up his family tree. The child of one of the President's early bastards perhaps, or maybe just the latest and youngest one. That was good; Shinra's took to Mako reasonably well as a rule and had a history of striving for excellence. A worthy student for Sephiroth in spite of his unassuming appearance. Hojo prepared a syringe filled with the 1% Nibelheim Mako solution that would generally be given several months into the program and handed it off to the technician standing by to inject into the boy.

The specimen wanted to know why he was getting a second injection and why the process was taking so long. The technician spouted off about 'inconclusive results', apologised for the delay and assured the specimen that nothing was wrong, successfully placating it and gaining cooperation. Hojo decided then and there that this budding scientist had potential; perhaps he could assign the man as Specimen C's supervisor? Creating bond of trust with the specimens facilitated the acquisition of results, though he personally never bothered to do so. However he did have a number of projects on the go and this was one that -with sufficient oversight- could be safely delegated. It was purely observational at this stage, not investigative.

Half an hour later the new SOLDIER showed nothing more than a slightly elevated heart rate and body temperature: usual symptoms for about half the Mako a person could take and still function normally. A third-class on 0.5% showed these symptoms a few months in, about the time Hojo boosted their shots to 1%. which meant that 1.2% was slightly under half the dose the boy could tolerate, so the professor prepared a 1.3% solution to test his theory. Five minutes after injection the cold sweats, unsteadiness and sensory overload finally manifested and Hojo was beside himself with glee. 2.5% for his test shot! It usually took six to eight months to get a SOLDIER up to that level but his new Nibelheim specimen had that as his baseline! The greasy-haired sociopath quickly added detailed specifications to Specimen C's files regarding supervision, dosage and proportional increases and ensured the computer file was tagged to notify him of any changes and updates. Sephiroth was training the boy so his innate potential would be fully expressed, making the experiment almost easy. All he would have to do was compare Specimen C's performance in the Simulation room to those of his peers to determine how far ahead of the curve he was.

Humming cheerfully at the prospect of a new project, Hojo returned to his lab. He had another experiment in progress at the moment and it had done something unexpected, prompting further investigation. It wasn't a failure, exactly, just new data he had not been prepared for. Specimen S's DNA held more potential than he'd initially believed; it was a shame he had been unable to keep samples from Specimen V to see if that was where the anomalies had originated.


Hollander was the one called in to examine Genesis when the Crimson General was all but carried into the infirmary by a worried Angeal with an unusually closed-off Silver General at their heels. The professor was more than a little startled by the massive black wings that had sprouted from the back of his SOLDIER prototype but not particularly surprised: manifestations of the genetic traits acquired by Jenova was a recognised part of the degradation process he'd seen in the early animal test subjects. The redhead's cell turnover was still high and though it had not escalated further Hollander could see new mutations that had manifested since the last checkup. His overall genetic stability however was holding: perhaps a plateau until the current mutations surfaced?

Hollander didn't really care. Genesis Rhapsodos was still dying and if the scientist was to get his chance to overthrow ShinRa he had to do it before his SOLDIER was too sick to assist him. He would offer Genesis the possibility of a cure to get the impulsive General to defect and inform him of enough of the truth of his heritage and background to distance him from the company and provoke his anger. The redhead was so easy to predict when he was angry.

Then Hollander would finally get a chance to prove that it was Project g, not Project S, that was the real success story of the SOLDIER program!


Meet the scientists. Hojo discovers Cloud and sets up a new experiment while Hollander draws totally inaccurate conclusions due to lack of data.

I am feeling half-dead at the moment; I think I may be coming down with something. Bah.