Super Science
Ch 62: Find an Old Friend
"What do you mean I can't have my daughter back!?", the father yelled at Egon.
"Sir I-.", Egon tried to calm him
The father quickly grabbed Egon's collar and yelled at him while shaking violently and sobbing, "Give her back! GIVE HER BACK DAMMIT! I NEARLY LOST HER AND I'M NOT GIVING HER UP TO YOU!"
With one quick motion, Egon slapped the man hard enough to knock him away and leave him lying on the floor, carefully tending to his raw face as he exclaimed, "Get a hold of yourself! We need to keep her in quarantine and under observation for her and your safety!"
"Safety?! She's fine!", the father argued back while motioning with his hand.
The two men were now on the opposite side of a soundproof one-way mirror looking into a testing chamber that had been quickly outfitted to look like a little girl's room. The room had to be constructed in a hurry and overnight since the night before when the girl was brought back from the dead. The girl, Suki, was inside the chamber playing with dolls alongside Eri happily and blissfully unaware of what transpired just hours ago.
Egon rolls his eyes at his argument and tells him flatly, "She only looks fine. We don't know what's going on inside. For all we know she could be possessed by a demon wearing her skin like a suit."
"What!?", the man exclaimed in a mix of shock and disbelief.
"Sir I've seen enough movies to know you should never fuck with resurrection unless you're a god, and I'm no god.", Egon told the man, who just looked at him as if he were crazy. "Besides, for all, we know she could just be a zombie.", Egon said while looking at the girl and shivering in fear.
"Okay, now you're just being crazy!", the man stated.
After getting into his face, Egon leaned against the mirror and stated in a serious and uneasy tone, "I'm serious! That Splinter we used, the Quirk that was in it, we don't know all the ins and outs of it. For all we know she's being kept in one piece by the energy in the quirk. She could be a rotten corpse on the inside. She could just be kept fresh until she rots.", he turns to the now silent and pale man as he asks him, "Do you want that? To see her die again, but slowly?", the man looks away as he begins to tear up. "I know you're scared and want her back. But we have to cover our bases so when you bring her back she doesn't have any complications.", Egon says to him in a calm tone while placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I…understand.", the man finally relented.
Egon patted his shoulder and told him nicely, "Please go home. We'll let you when we make progress. Besides, you should file a claim for that accident you had."
The man nods and leaves the room with Chopper helping him back outside. Once gone Izuku joins Egon in staring blankly at the little girl lost in her happy world.
After a bit of silence, Izuku sighs deeply and says, "I feel bad for him. His kid dies, is brought back, and now he can't even be reassured by this fact by taking her home."
Egon nods in agreement and babbles aloud, "Too bad we can't find someone else who was affected by Victor's quirk."
Then a thought crossed Izuku's mind and turning to the man he asked, "Wait, didn't Victor say he had a friend that he used his quirk on when it appeared?"
Realization dawned on him as well and Egon turned to Izuku with a smile, Asking him, "Wanna go to Russia?"
"Are you sure about this?", Izuku yelled over the wind pressure as he and Egon soared through the air in heavy winter clothing.
"Of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?", Egon yelled back with a huge smile on his face as she looked over the horizon.
"Oh, I don't know! Maybe because we're flying to Russia, on a dragon!", Izuku yelled back, motioning towards Torch Wick, who they were riding on top of.
In the time between not seeing Torch Wick, not only had he and Ungoliant become the two apex predators of Pacifica, but he had also seemed to double in size. As of right now, if he were standing on his legs, he had grown to the same size as Abomination Overhaul (150 ft).
"It's faster than a commercial airline!", Egon argued back.
"Surrrrrrrre! And nothing says "friendly arrival" like flying into a currently civil war-stricken country on the back of the largest flying creature in recorded history!", Izuku sassed back before looking behind him and asking, "By the way, why is Purah with us!"
"Research! Different topic! Different place! Ancient Tech!", the woman told him, clothed in her own winter gear as she hugged Izuk from behind to hold steady.
After about an hour of flying, Torch Wick landed several dozen miles away from a small township that seemed to be nestled in the middle of nowhere.
Climbing off the huge beat, Egon stated while looking at the settlement in the distance, "Well, this is the place. Victor's old village."
"We'll have to hoof it the rest of the way.", Izuku said with a small sigh, knowing that coming into town on dragon's back could mean a not-so-warm welcome.
"Good to hear. Meet you back at this spot during sundown?", Purah asked the two men as they both nodded. Giving them both a smile and peace out hand sign, she said, "Click Snap!"
With that Torch Wick spread his wings and launched himself into the air and flew over the horizon in just seconds. Egon then took a small metal cube from his pocket and pressed a button on it. He threw it a good distance from himself and watched as it swiftly turned into a two-person snowmobile.
He smiled with a chuckle and shook his head as he said, "Sometimes I love Hatsume and his crazy ideas."
The two scientists climbed onto the machine and drove it into town. Within a few minutes, they made it to the township and parked their vehicle. From the air, the area did not look big, but once on ground level, it was truly a manner of perspective. Despite its relatively smaller size, the place was packed with so many people.
Feeling stressed by this site already, Izuku stressed, "Man, this place is huge! How are we gonna find Ana?"
"Anya.", Egon corrected him. They both looked around for a while until something caught Egon's eye and he asked his prostate, "Izuku, what do people normally do in environments when the cold is near year-round?"
"Drink?", Izuku jokingly offered.
"Then I think we've got juuuust the place to start our investigation.", Egon turned the boy's head to a bar.
Once they made their way inside they noticed how over-packed it was. It would be impossible to ask everyone where they could find one person. There was live music playing and Egon got an idea. Walking up he shooed the singer aside and tapped the mic, getting everyone's attention as the music died down.
Clearing his throat he said, "Attention, attention everyone. So sorry to disturb your drinks but we are looking for Anya Agapov."
Suddenly a very obese woman came to the raised stage and asked back in a skeptical tone, "Who wants to know?"
"Someone who knows the friend who saved her. Victor Petrov.", Egon said through the mic, making everyone's eyes widen and the atmosphere grows even more heavy.
The woman swallowed and then told him, "Come with me."
Egon and Izuku shrugged at one another but followed the woman as they kept their hands on the Splinters in their pockets. Leading them out of the bar, the woman brought them to a small home on the east side of the town. She unlocks the door and waves the two men in. Once inside she takes off her coat, as do the men, and then sits them down at a table while going into the kitchen. After a minute she brings out a tray of some kind of hot beverage where Izuku looks unsure of tasting. Egon takes the first sip and after swallowing he assures him it is safe and non-alcoholic.
After the large woman takes her drink she prepares to sit down in the small chair as Egon asks her, "Thank you for your hospitality. But do you know Anya Agapov?"
"Hai. I know her very well. Since I am here.", she tells him as her massive body weight disappears and she sits in the chair as a petite woman. "So you know about Victor, how is he? Safe? Healthy?", she inquired.
Izuku and Egon knew this would come up, and Ego decided to be the bearer of bad news as he told her in simple terms, "Dead."
"He is. Well now. He finally found a way.", she said with a distant and sad look in her eyes. "I hope he's at peace. But why are you here?", she asks the men while taking a sip of her drink.
"Several weeks ago your old friend came to our facility in Japan.", Izuku began to explain.
"I could tell you were foreign.", Anaya inferred.
"He begged us for help. He wanted us to do the impossible.", Izuku continued grabbing the woman's attention at the vangsness. "To remove his quirk.", he finally admitted.
Her eyes went wide and in a calm tone she shakily asked, "Did you?"
"We did, but that's how he died. We threw the machine together for quirk extraction overnight. There was a chance it wouldn't work or it would just kill him. But it did work and he died in the end.", Egon explained in depth.
Looking into her cup, she asked them, "What…were his final words?"
"Thanks, self-acceptance, peace. He passes with a smile on his face. If we had more time and weren't going to have our doors knocked down by another government, we would have done everything in our power to keep him alive.", Izuku assured her, making the woman wipe tears from her face.
"Thank you. For giving him peace.", she told them in a shaky tone. After sniffling back her emotions and drying her eyes she breathed deep and inquired, "Did you come to Russia just to tell me?"
Izuku shook his head and explained to her, "No, you see we have these things called Splinters and you can put just about anything into them. And one of them held Victor's quirk. We tried to destroy that Splinter, knowing it shouldn't be in mortal hands. But one of our scientists kept a fragment and we used it to bring a recently deceased girl back to life.", The sound of this made Anya's ear perk up as she saw the young teen plead with her, "Anya. You're the only other person in the world who was revived by his quirk. We don't know what side effects come from revival from the dead. We were afraid she is simply a ticking time bomb, living as a zombie until necrosis takes over."
"But here you are, alive and very much not a zombie.", Egon stated, making Izuku hit him with his elbow.
Anya looked off to the side, stewing in her thoughts until she asked them, "How long was it until she was brought back to life."
Both scientists whispered to one another before Izuku answered, "A little under an hour."
"I was dead for only a minute.", Anya told them.
"Can you tell us what you've experienced since your revival? Any physical, emotional, or mental changes. Anything at all, even if it's so insignificant it seems silly.", Egon asked the woman as he took out his pad with Izuku to take notes.
Anya took a moment to collect her thoughts and then explained to them, "Not much. I sometimes lose the sensation in my fingers and toes like I'm going numb or experiencing frostbite when I'm not. I get dizzy very easily so I can't drive. And I get flashes of when I died, brief but very vivid. I've learned to cope."
"Anything else.", Izuku prompted.
Anya taps her chin and then explains with a bit of embarrassment, "Certain things trigger my flashes. For instance, I can't look at Borsch without seeing myself smeared on the payment."
After typing this last bit of info down, both men finish their drinks and stand up while bowing to the woman as Izuku said to her, "Thank you, Anya. You have no idea how much you've helped us."
Anya nods and says back with a sad smile, "Thank you for giving me closure on my friend."
"Can I take her back? Really?!", the father of Suki, hopefully asked Egon with tears in his eyes.
Egon smiled with a nod, then told him in a firm tone, "Yes, but if any complications arise I want you to come back ASAP!"
"Thank you thank you thank you!", the man thanked the scientist while bowing on his knees.
"Just be sure to keep an eye out for these side effects. If anything else is out of the ordinary, call me and bring her back!", Egon doubled down while pulling the man back to his feet.
"I will! I will!", the man said with a happy tearful smile.
Just before the man could run into the testing chamber to be reunited with his daughter, Egon shouted out to him, "And this goes without saying, but don't tell a living soul about this."
"Even if I did, I don't think anyone would believe me.", The man called back.
Ego shook his head with a sigh and muttered under his breath, "Oh, you'd be surprised who's listening."
"You wanted to see me?", Wily asked as he poked his head into Egon's office, an obvious fake smile on his face.
Egon wasn't buying it for a moment and sitting in his chair with fingers laced, he waved him in while saying, "You know why you're here, correct Wily?"
Wily stepped into the room, dropping the facade, and smiled wryly at him while saying, "Of course I do. Ah, but for which of the two reasons."
Egon narrows his eyes as he pets Peet, who is sitting on his lap, like a cliche villain. Telling him, "Izuku had known about the Robot Initiative and Project Mono since its inception. We allowed you to go through with it to see what you'd do. And we stopped you before you went too far."
"Despite being so newly constructed, I didn't give you enough credit. For that, I apologize.", Wily says with a bow while taking a seat across from him.
Even though he didn't show it, for the first time since getting his overinflated ego, he felt small in the sight of the man before him.
"But keeping the Resurrection Splinter was something I didn't expect.", Egon exclaimed before taking a breath and telling him, "Now I should be mad and you and I want to be more than anything. But I've had time to think. And I've come to realize that maybe you are right, Wily.", This made the old man raise his eyebrow in curiosity as the man continued, "If something can be easily controlled in an environment, why shouldn't we try and study it."
Wily smiled and told him with a sneaky tone, "I'm glad you see things my way. Prepare you to have a bit of me in you."
"Don't push it.", Egon warned him as a tack mark appeared on his head. "Saying that, I've come to realize that the world is full of many what-ifs. At some point, someone could find another power similar or gain control over the one we have. If that happens and we have no knowledge of it, how are we to react and use contingency planes? How can we staunch the bleeding before it gets out of hand.", he admitted with a stressed expression.
"So what are you saying?", Wily asked him, not fully understanding.
"I'm saying this.", Egon told him as he reached into his pocket and slid the Resurrection Fragment towards him. Wily carefully and cautiously took the source of power between life and death, as Egon continued, "I want you to test this power, in every ethical means you can. Find all its ins and outs. See what makes it tick. See what it can and can't do and how far you can stretch it. Ask for anything you need to accomplish this. Bones, cadavers, DNA samples, whatever."
Wily smiled and taking a deep bow he replied, "By your order, it will be done.", making Egon roll his eyes as Peet honked at him.
After quickly calming the bird down, Egon tells him, "Dr Izuku will also be accompanying you on these experiments, and please, one at a time. The last thing we need is a zombie apocalypse.", making both men shiver at the thought.
Shaking the fera from his head, Wily said back, "That's fair. Though if I'm being honest. I'm surprised by your actions. I would have thought you'd can me."
Egon glared at him, then admitted, "You're a mad man Wily, but smart. I can't let you run wild or into someone else's hands. I see your worth tenfold.", This statement surprised him and sent a ping of happiness and pride swelling up in him for the single praise. "That does bring me to my other point.", Egon stated vaguely, making the old man come closer in curiosity. "Don't do something like this again. Got it?", Egon warned him as Wily bowed. "And this goes without saying, but everything that happened between you, me, Izuku, and Chopper stays between us.", Egon left him with that, making the man smile and nod as he left the room to begin plans on his new round of creations and experiments.
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