Six Geniuses in a Room

"Subject number 89 is now awake."

Silk groaned as he awoke from his sleep. His body ached like it hadn't in an age. Slowly he sat up to look around at his surroundings. It was a laboratory, no a medical facility. The technology on display was centuries in front of Earth. He hadn't seen anything so cutting edge for a while.

"So can we have your name so we don't have to keep calling you subject 89?" a woman asked. She had long black hair and wore a lab coat. She looked human except for scales on the side of her neck not quite reaching her face.

"I'm called Silk." Silk answered habitually. "Where am I?"

"New Hope Hospital. The greatest hospital in all the universes, or so we like to boast."

A younger man also in a lab coat entered. He had brown hair but if you looked closely at his hands you could see small suction cups dotting them.

"How is the patient?" He asked holding a holographic tablet and reading some information.

"Alive. He seems a bit slow but he's been sleeping for a few months so that is to be expected. I Suggest further monitoring." She answered.

"Can I see what you've done to me? You know, look through my medical files." Silk asked.

The man snorted, "a fellow doctor, are we?"

Silk blushed in embarrassment. "No, your right. I'm no doctor." A thought overcame him, "my suit," he burst out. "Where is it?"

The woman raised an eyebrow, "it's hanging on the rail on the wall. We took the liberty of washing it."

Silk breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you," he smiled.

"Right, I'll let Dr Tanner explain what we did to save you and I'll go and check the other patients." The man said leaving them.

"I feel like he dislikes me for some reason." Silk noted.

"He does," she confirmed. "You've been taking up a lot of the hospitals resources and he felt like we could have saved more if we'd abandoned you. In most cases we would do just that but the hospital director wouldn't let us and wouldn't tell us why."

"I like the hospital director. He seems nice," Silk said happily.

"She is nice, but lets get to your diagnosis."

"Yippee," he said sarcastically.

"Initially you came in spouting maggots left, right and centre. You were immediately quarantined and we found a virus rewriting your body into maggots, it was nasty. Luckily that was reversed through some genetic engineering."

"You what," Silk said surprised. "I presume you found the engineering already in my body."

"Yes and after I stopped you dyeing immediately we had to try and piece you together. That isn't my specialty so I passed that on to Dr Stoneheart, the man you just saw. He managed to get you back to what you were but then the last problem prevented itself."

"I've had a few cowboys in my genetics. That includes myself."

"Well we found to contending forces trying to vie for dominance in the body when there shouldn't be. You were in flux. Honestly the genetic engineering to maintain your body was inspiring to view but none of us could really understand. Dr Stoneheart managed to find an equilibrium and here you are. He might not admit it but studying you advanced his research by years."

"That explains why my body feels different." Silk said. "I'll have to break it in. What about my healing ability?"

Dr Tanner frowned. "It took a real hit. You were using it when you came in. It left a mess of skin but you have to realise it's hard to try to heal someone when their body is trying to heal itself. We don't know if you have it."

Silk noticed a machine in the distance and got excited. He sprang up and excitedly examined it. It was a stasis bubble, time actually couldn't move in it. He hadn't seen one since the demonic war. Memories, it was obvious, he now remembered what Filum had done in the war, the war wasn't blocked from his mind.

"Oh, Doctor Tanner. Thank you, I can remember. All this information, thank you." He hugged her warmly. "I did need to come here."

"I don't know why you're so happy but its nice to have a happy patient." She hugged back.

Silk pulled away suddenly, "I have to know though. The scales, what are they?"

"Don't you know? You've gone through a similar process. Genetic engineering to give us an edge in battle. This is New Hope Hospital and we are on the front lines." She answered confused.

Silk's eyes narrowed but then the weight of the words took over him. "War, front lines. From what?"

"The immortals. How do you kill something that won't stay down?" She asked rhetorically.

"I don't think I'll like the answer." Silk said with a warning tone.

A different voice answered this time. "Genetic engineering."

"Director, it's rare to see you on the medical floor." Dr Tanner said happily surprised.

Silk wasn't so happy. He turned to see Strocker, a bit older but the rapier was at his side. He had been converted by the man in blue.

"Another man who won't stay dead," Silk said. "Always a pleasure Strocker."

"Don't be like that. I've aged, I'm not immortal like I once thought. It put things in perspective and now I help people in this hospital. People change."

"I don't buy it. Even if you could change I can't forgive you. Oak is dead." Silk said bitterly.

"Dr Tanner," Strocker said. "Fetch you colleagues and meet me in room 9.0 in fifteen minutes. Silk and I are going to take a walk."

"Yes sir." She bowed and then awkwardly blushed and rushed off.

"Shall we go," Strocker said leading the way.

"So what do you need to say to me?" Silk asked.

"I'll level with you," He said quietly opening the door to the lift. "I'm not here by choice. My new abilities allowed me to travel in time further than I ever could before." He pressed the button for the ninth floor.

Silk smiled, "You didn't." He was breaking into laughter.

"Yes I did. I wanted to see how demons were made and I somehow entered the war against the immortals. For some reason my ability to travel is locked and I'm stuck." Strocker grimaced.

"So why am I here?"

The elevator doors opened.

"I need your help to get me out of this place. You have some knowledge of escaping the immortals grasp. You did it with Phoenix and Crusher so when I felt you travelling I dragged you here in the vague hope you would help."

The room was full of disfigured bodies. They were mutated and then autopsies were performed leaving them unrecognizable from the original.

"Those bodies are the immortals, aren't they?" Silk asked.

"Yes. Once we corrupt the DNA we kill them but there's not much we can tell from them once the DNA is corrupted so we are at a loss. We can't find a weakness."

"I can't help," Silk said angrily. "How much have you shown these people? If I'm right this is a paradox and we are so close to killing the universe never mind escaping."

"What are you talking about?" Strocker asked confused.

"This technology," Silk said shouting. "This medicine and this focus on genetic modification is early demon technology. You are creating the demon race."

Strocker looked genuinely dumbstruck. "I didn't know. I haven't actually seen demonic technology and only rudimentary demons. All I've done is installed a teleportation array for escape purposes on the hospital."

"You'd better be telling the truth or we are in a whole lot more trouble than a few immortals and almost certain death from their great power." Silk paused, "I can see why you thought you were screwed. We are."

"I have something to show you in room 9.0. It's important, please follow." Strocker said moving on.

Silk followed hardly listening. Ideas were filling his every thought. He needed to escape, somehow not affect the timeline as Strocker had pulled him into a delicate situation and not die from the most powerful beings the universes had dared to make.

Room 9.0 had a jet-black door. Strocker opened it to reveal a stark contrast of a bright white. Four people were awaiting them. Dr Stoneheart and Tanner were there examining a brain in a jar. Another woman in a lab coat stood over what looked like an android and was tinkering just under the neck. She had what seemed like fur on patches of her body. A man in a lab coat was examining data on a screen. His body was much too large to be natural.

"You've met Dr Stoneheart and Tanner. Dr Miller is the one examining the robot while Dr Grey is looking at the data. We need your help to merge the android with the brain." Strocker said.

"And why would I do that?"

"That robot is our secret weapon and it may be our only chance of escape." Strocker answered.