Recordings of 001: Second
Sitting comfortably in her seat, Mother was talking amicably with her superiors on the phone when a knock hits the door breaking her attention. First, she apologizes, "Sorry, but I'll have to call you back." before she hangs up the phone, "Come in," she says invitingly.
The door opens to reveal Valk's tall build, before entering he bends down so as to not bump his head on the door's frame.
Mother not waiting for him to bow, inquires, "How much did you recover?"
Knowing that this is no time for pedantics, Valk approaches while pulling the chip out of his chest pocket before apologetically stating, "Sadly, only 63 percent was recoverable Mother."
"Give it!" She declares vigorously as her hand reaches out, not hiding her hunger to see the recovered recordings of 001.
She knew that this appearance of hers was unsightly, however, 001 had humiliated her by escaping and nonetheless using her to do it. This wasn't a simple matter of a random person escaping the lab, it was personal. The only reason she sent E049 to the four idiots rather than 001, was that the value behind getting an entire world enticed her more. But make no mistake, she wanted 001 dead.
The moment the data chip was handed to her, she immediately plugs it into her laptop and opens it, starting with video recording 1.
░░ Video Recording 1 ░░
The video begins with a scientist standing in front of the camera, his eyes wide open, revealing his excitement, before stating, "This is the first test for the predator before we put him through the awakening procedure. So that we can see how much of an improvement he will gain after the awakening."
The video cuts to a large room with sand as the floor, and a man in the center, his attention locked on a disfigured wolf chained to the wall.
The wolf gnarls and barks as it tries to break free from its bindings, both eyes intently focused on the man. Suddenly a loud gong sound plays, before the chains disconnect from the wall, releasing the wolf.
Within moments the wolf reaches a top velocity above that of a cheetah. The man, in turn, swerves his foot behind his back while placing his hands in a yin-yang symbol.
The moment the wolf reaches striking distance, a loud crunching sound reverberates through the air along with a large cloud of dirt surrounding the two.
After the dust clears, there's a body of a wolf lying limp on the ground, convulsing along with one of its eyes sticking out, and a man standing in perfect posture, his back straight and his hands behind his back, the only thing off about him, being his right foot painted red.
░░ Video Recording 2 ░░
It starts again with the same scientist in front of the camera, giving a briefing. "This is recording 2, this recording is of the predator going through the awakening procedure."
The video cuts to a small room with four scientists standing around a man strapped to a steel bed, and a heartbeat monitor to his left.
One of the scientists clearly young in age, fills up a syringe with a light red liquid before handing it over to the most senior scientist, who upon receiving it orders, "Make sure his straps are as tight as can be, we don't want a repeat of experiment 005."
Bringing his attention to the man, he waits for the nurse to finish disinfecting the patient's upper left arm, before feeling for the vein and injecting it with the fluid.
For a brief moment, everything felt like it had stopped. One by one every light from the center of the room flickered interchangeably without order, causing everyone to panic, before darkness consumed everything.
The only light available is that of the ever-faint lines across the ground designed to glow for occasions such as these. After what seemed like minutes, backup power kicked, revealing every scientist on their hands and knees panting with their scientist robes drenched in sweat.
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Video Recording 6 starts to play, prompting Mother to pause the video before looking for videos labeled 3 through 5.
Valk interrupts her search with a cough. Stating, "They were too corrupted to recover Mother."
With a sigh of discomfort, while rubbing her forehead, she murmurs, "Damn this 001," before playing video recording 6.
░░ Video Recording 6 ░░
The video starts black with no clear vision, only the faint luminescent light coming from the lines on the ground. This brief silence is broken by heavy breathing before a voice reminiscent of the head scientist starts speaking, "Whoever finds this... be warned never ever under any circumstances visit 001, NEVER! After his second awakening. . . He's changed. What once was a reasonable man, is no more... The only thing left is a demon."
A long silence follows before being broken by his speaking again, except this time his breathing was clear and crisp, "Why do I have my camera recording? Odd?"
░░░░░░
Mother looks at the rest of the files, first noticing the clear disparity between the number of audio recordings and video recordings, stating rhetorically, "With such a large difference between 2 and 6, one can tell they prefer submitting audio clips over the video ones."
░ Audio Recording of The Predator: 1 ░
"While I'm sure you're all aware that awakening only has a 1% chance of success, but with the help of our newest soon-to-be experiment, it has increased to a whopping 15%! In the past, we had thought that our awakening center would continue to be the lowest funded out of all the labs, but with this, the government has agreed to increase our funding by 25 times its original amount!"
"Audio Log for the predator, number 2: the predator has passed his test with flying colors, and orders from above have given us full permission to move on with the awakening."
"Audio Log for the predator, number 3: The awakening of the predator was met with odd results. Everyone nearly fell unconscious with many in the vicinity reporting even seeing ghosts."
"Audio Log for 001, number 4: experiment 001 has passed his second test, this time hunting a pack of wolves rather than one, with even more impressive results than the first test, if you want to see the results open up 'video recording of 001, number three.'"
"Audio Log, 001 N5: 001 has passed his third test with even better results than experiment 010, watch 'video recording four' to see his third test."
"AL1 N6: Many scientists have started to consider whether or not we should put such a valuable experiment through a second awakening, after all, he has proven to be far more useful than simple research material, a true genius of the century like the former 001."
"AL1 N7: Tomorrow 001 will go through his second awakening, while it is a little odd how everyone suddenly agreed to put him through a second awakening, I personally have no quarrel with it."
"AL1 N8: Today is the day of the second awakening. Personally, I'm looking forward to it. We expect even better results than that weirdo E049, who gained nothing during his second awakening. However, 001 is different. As the boys say, 'This awakening shall be legendary!'"
░ Audio Recording of 001: 9 ░
There was some heavy breathing, followed by a loud gulp before a voice spoke up. "Umm... the second awakening didn't go as expected..."
The voice trailed off, before continuing. "During the awakening, every single person in the entire center felt a chill running down their spine."
"The moment the awakening ended, everything felt like it had stopped. Experiment 001 then rose from the steel bed, snapping the binds like they were strings, before looking at the closest scientist in the eyes, and commanding him to kill himself."
"But just as quickly as he had made that command, we felt an even larger pressure. However, it wasn't fear like during the awakening, it was more like electricity coursing through one's veins."
"Shortly after the pressure dissipated, experiment 001 fell to the ground unconscious. It's worth noting that before undergoing the awakening, he was a very docile subject."
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Mother closed her eyes for a moment to go through the information from the videos.
Nodding her head in understanding, she began opening the report files. Different from the audio logs and video recordings these files were incredibly boring, only stating facts, however, one doesn't make it to this position without having an incredible amount of tenacity.
While reading them she slowly progresses from bored to amused to fascinated to impressed to fear. Before her, laid information on how the awakening center changed from being one of the least funded American labs to the number one most funded secret lab in all of America. All because of one man, '001'. It wasn't just a little research he helped with, every single time they were stuck with something that would take them weeks, 001 would come in and solve it within minutes, leaving every single scientist in the building both impressed and in revere. It could be said that the man's talent for genetic modification was 100 years ahead of his time.
However, that immediately changed after his second awakening. It was like he was a psychopath only wishing to fulfill impulsive desires. Almost all patience carried in that once great hunter had turned to the chasing of instant gratification.
Make no mistake he was still incredibly smart, it was simply clouded by his hunger for excitement, just like the former 005.
Valk stepped forward indicating that he wished for permission to speak.
Mother brought her attention back to Valk before straightening her posture to show that permission was granted.
Loosening his tie before speaking, Valk divulged, "Um, Mother... 004 will wake up in a month."