Prodigy Eternal (book 2)

Chapter Three

When the door opened, an eccentric-looking man greeted them enthusiastically. His over-the-top welcome was even more contrasted by the late hour and their unobtrusive demeanours.

“Aris!” the man said with open arms, “How the heck are you?”

As Aris and Alex stood quietly in the entrance, the man threw his arms around them both, squeezing everyone together for a group hug.

“I’m good, brother,” Aris said, forcing air out of his now compressed lungs.

When the man pulled back, Alex got a better look at his face. A pair of goggles rested on his forehead, drawing her attention. As far as she could tell they only served one purpose — keeping his spiky hair out of his face. Her first impression of Aris’s friend, based on his spazzy body language and strange appearance, was that he was a little wild and unpredictable, but she did not want to cement her judgement too soon.

“And you must be… don’t tell me, Alex, right?”

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you,” Alex said.

“For security purposes, I would prefer if you call me Toshi,” Aris said. “And she goes by Aoki.”

“Toshi and Aoki!” the man laughed, “that’s hysterical. But as one who understands covert operations, I totally get it. My name, as I’m sure you’ve been told, is Yuri,” Yuri said as he bowed before Alex. “Please, come in.”

The large door closed behind them, and the three entered a room filled with high-tech electronics. There were several stations with people manipulating data. Flashing screens and glowing orbs were swatted around and repositioned with coordinated hand gestures. It was like they had just walked into the mind of a computer.

“Can I have everyone’s attention please,” Yuri announced. The three other individuals stopped what they were doing and faced their new guests. “I’d like to introduce everyone to my good friend Aris, and the one and only Alexandra Gray.” Everyone’s jaw dropped when Alex removed her glasses and unravelled her head scarf. “As you know, they’ll be staying with us for a little while. And they prefer to go by Tonka and Aoki.”

“It’s actually Toshi and Aoki,” Aris said underneath the bustling noise of an excited room of people.

Yuri’s friends rushed over to meet Alex while paying no mind to Aris.

“I can’t believe you’re actually here,” a short stocky man said.

“Alex, this is Glitch,” Yuri said, “and as you can see, he’s the muscle of the crew.”

“I’m more than that,” Glitch said.

“I’m sure you are,” Alex said with a smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Glitch.” The two exchanged a customary bow.

Glitch stood 5'5", but looked like he was chiselled out of stone. His huge muscles stretched out his tiny shirt, and that wasn’t the only thing that made him look intimidating. His head was completely shaved bald and in the place of his eyebrows were three short metal spikes above each eye. He also wore a thick chain around his neck like he was some sort of junkyard dog.

“Despite his appearance, I assure you he’s a sweetheart.”

Next in line was Link — a thin man of Japanese descent who had the sides of his head shaved. Unlike Glitch, he had a thick patch of jet black hair on the top of his head, which was slicked back. He didn’t say much, but seemed equally pleased to meet Alex. After he bowed, he turned his head around. That’s when Alex saw his tattoo. Behind his right ear was a large dragon that wrapped around one side of his head and down his spine, disappearing underneath his shirt.

“Cool tattoo,” Aris commented. “Who’s he hiding from?” he whispered to Alex.

There were four unfamiliar faces in the room, yet Alex had only been introduced to three of them. The last person seemed completely disinterested in Alex altogether. She remained at her computer and seemed too busy to even acknowledge the newcomers’ presence.

“That over there is Taranya,” Yuri said, pointing to a woman in the corner. Taranya looked over briefly and gave a simple nod, causing her pink pigtails to bounce around. Her eyes were also pink and seemed to glow. “It takes a while for her to warm up to people, but I assure you her bark is worse than her bite.”

Alex quickly assessed her new companions, and in general, developed positive feelings toward them. The exception was Taranya, but Alex knew with time they’d likely become friends. There was obviously some tension there, perhaps a bit of jealously, but Alex had experienced this her entire life at the Facility. For some reason, it was harder for her to become friends with women.

“I heard you were in a prison brawl and beat up like twenty women,” Link commented.

“Not exactly,” Alex replied.

“I heard you have telekinesis — can you teach me how to move objects with my mind?”

“No, unfortunately I have yet to learn how to do that,” Alex laughed. “But if I figure it out, you’ll be the first person I teach.”

“What was it like finding out the Leader was your father?”

“As hard as it may be to believe, it hasn’t really sunk in yet. I obviously know that he is my biological father, but it’s not like I ever see him. Sometimes it feels like my life isn’t even my own and I’m just observing it from the sidelines like everyone else.”

“So what was it like to be in space?” Yuri asked.

“Space is… vast and pretty, I guess, but it wasn’t like I was on vacation though. I had a big task ahead of me so I was focusing more on that. It was definitely overwhelming in more ways than one.”

The questions continued.

“Can you tell us what happened while you were on the island?”

“Maybe some other time guys,” Aris said, stepping in to defend his friend from the police-style interrogation. “Alex has had a long day and is pretty worn out.”

After the introductions and incessant inquiries, Alex looked around and asked some questions of her own. “So what is this place?”

“We call it the grind lab,” Yuri responded. “It’s not much of a laboratory; we just thought the name sounded cool.”

“I get why you call it a lab, but what does the grind part mean?”

“We’re grinders.”

“I’m sorry, I’m not familiar with that term.”

“A grinder is another word for a bio-hacker. Instead of hacking into computer networks, which we do also, we hack our biology. Think of it as a new form of body-mod.”

“Aris told me a little about what you guys do, but perhaps you could tell me more about it.”

“Of course!” Yuri said with excitement. “People like us don’t really like to advertise this sort of stuff, but I love talking about it. With our implants, grinding has become much easier. Once humans and computerized technology integrated, we essentially became nodes on a network. We can access the global knowledge database for the information we need, and then use a coding language to tinker around with our cell structure. So far it has a lot of promising applications.”

“Like what?”

“Well, for instance, you see Glitch over there?” Yuri asked. “Six months ago that shirt used to fit him. He had the build of a prepubescent schoolboy.”

“So you hacked your body and gave yourself bigger muscles?” Alex asked in astonishment.

“It’s a little more complicated than that. I still had to work out a ton, but I essentially enhanced my body’s growth hormone production and recovery rate.”

“And as soon as he figures out how to grow taller, he’ll start to look like a normal person again.”

“Shut up, Yuri.”

“Uh-oh, you don’t want to see him when he’s angry. Hulk smash!”

“I find this all so fascinating.”

“That’s why you’re here, right?”