"This is Doctor Josep Entenga. Head biological Researcher at MEI."
He was a man of average height, slightly on the slimmer side. His messy black hair was long and parted out the way of his face. His eyes looked tired sat behind those large square glasses. The wrinkles on his face told a long tale of hardship. He had a long white lab coat over the top of his white shirt and red tie painting him as your typical scientist.
"Just call me Pep, it's nice to meet you."
"Pep, this is Himiko Suzuki, she'll be the newest member of the special operations team."
"Oh, miss Suzuki, welcome aboard."
"Pep here is going to give us a tour of the lab so we can get you up to speed on the findings."
Pep led us to row of a large microscopes, each with samples that were encased in glass boxes. The one he led us to had a piece of debris encased inside.
"This is a piece of debris we found at a scene where the Aethesium entity was spotted. Take a look through the microscope my dear."
I peeped through the microscope and on the debris was a colony of small purple particles flying in random directions like a swarm of flies on a bin.
"What are those purple particles flying around the rock?"
"They, my dear, are aethesium particles. We assume they are a by-product of the entity who keeps flying around, saving the world, traces can be found in every site he was spotted in, the first site, in Okopo, here in Rengappon and in Groissant, where the most recent sighting was. With non-living, solid objects, the particles do nothing, to living samples however..."
Pep led us to another microscope with a skin sample inside, I peered my eyes through the microscope to see the particles merging into the cells, making them expand before splitting into more cells. Whatever animal this sample came from has been long dead, yet the particles were causing it to...
Heal.
"This is a skin sample from a corpse of one of the alien creatures found across the city. As you probably saw, the particles start mutating the cells, strengthening them and causing them to rapidly repair themselves."
So, anything he comes into contact with, gains these small particles which mutates cells.
"What about humans? I came into contact with him, am I now infected?"
"Very perceptive. Yes, your concerns are correct, you also have these small particles flowing in your body, but such little contact will only result in a small amount attaching to you, your body's immune system will fight off the particles' effects, but if you make frequent contact with the being, you will eventually gain enough to the point where it will change your body, we don't know what happens when the body is overrun. Possibly, we may become like the aethesium entity."
I placed my hand on my chin, hitting the thinker position as I pondered what he was saying.
"So hypothetically, if this stuff were to infect the entire world, humanity could evolve to become godly beings, is that a bad?"
"It's definitely an interesting idea. We don't quite know if that can happen, it's just a hypothesis. But if you'll follow me, I'll take you to the where we've been experimenting with living creatures then maybe you could come up with your own answer to that question."
We followed him to a section of the lab that housed multiple glass cages housing different animals from, insects to rats. It's like some dark zoo. Besides them was a door to a room with the sign Vivarium Pep led us through said door. Inside, was an observation room with desks and computers facing a large glass window with an artificial environment housing monkeys and other smaller animals.
"This room is for researching the effects aethesium has on animals, so we can answer the same question you asked earlier. We've encountered mixed results; look at that one for example."
He pointed at a monkey who had a small arm protruding from its lower back.
I stared in shock. If I ever see him again, will I grow a third leg or something. Could I grow a Siamese twin?
"The results can be both physical and mental, some have lost their minds, suffered moments of psychosis. One stopped eating and starved to death. It's hard to have to subject these creatures to such torment but we need to know the effect this has before it's too late and this stuff potentially destroys humanity. We need to learn its effects and potential cures to halt its effects."
"But there do also seem to be overall good effects, their strength, reaction time and vision all seemed to massively improve along with the previously stated healing factor you saw on the skin sample. Hypothetically, Aethesium could be the key to immortality if it can heal and multiply cells faster than they can die, then it could cut out aging entirely. If we can figure out the source of this, we can uncover the next step of our species' evolution."
"We might even be able to utilize this to create more efficient forms of transportation, possibly even space travel."
Pep stared into the prison pf glass with hope in his eyes. Before taking us out the room.
"We observed the effects on non-living substances, nothing, observed the effects on flesh samples from previously living beings to find that the cells began to mutate so we tested the same with living animals to find the same results. Finally, we started to question the effects on other types of cells such as plant cells, this brings us to the final place I will show you, the botanical garden and where the most drastic changes can be found."
He led us through the door to the room next to the vivarium, titled Botanical Garden. Inside was the same set up as the vivarium and behind this glass window was what looked like it was supposed to be a garden.
But for whatever reason, the plants had lost all colour, it was a giant overgrown grey, soulless mess.
He stepped in and noticed my confused expression and went to explain what had happened.
"Aethesium destroyed the chloroplasts, the substance within the cells that turn it green, chloroplasts are necessary for photosynthesis, assumedly because aethesium was its new source of energy, the plants had no need for them anymore."
"We placed objects carrying aethesium within the soil we placed in the room, then we sowed seeds and within days, this is the effect. They grew rapidly and far beyond their original capable size. Another thing we noticed from the infected plants are that they release spores containing aethesium, causing it to spread. If aethesium were to reach the plants outside, it would most likely multiply rapidly."
"Furthermore, these spores cause negative effects on any living organism that comes into contact with them, from headaches to mental breakdowns. It's important to remain cautious when entering the botanical garden. The next logical step is to test the effect it has when ingested, if they were to infect the whole planet, would we still have a source of food?"
This aethesium stuff seems too dangerous I think it needs to be destroyed.
"That's about everything we at the research department can show you in regards to our findings in aethesium research. What's next on the agender. Mrs Isamu?"
"I need to show her around the spec ops department, get her up to speed. Thank you for showing us around, Pep, the work you're doing is great, I'm really looking forward to seeing how it develops."
With that we made our farewells and headed to the other side of the building, to the special operations department.
Where my work truly begins