This choice: the invention makes him get fatter over time • Go Back...Chapter #4Side Effects May Include... by: upanddown   Tails rubbed his eyes and sipped at a cup of coffee. He wretched a little then forced it down. One of these days, he thought, I ought to make something that can warm up coffee again. Calibrating...calibrating...jeez more calibrating. He glanced to his right to check another screen.
A swarm of metallic spider-like creatures lay dormant in a glowing blue sea. Their design always struck him as ghoulish, something Doctor Robotnik might have cooked up in his spare time. Even his teammates and friends seemed bothered. Yet, in the end, he decided on something more pragmatic rather than pretty. Making things pretty ate too much of the budget.
Two loud beeps snapped him to attention. Calibration complete. The spiders shivered with life while they swam around in their artificial blood-plasma. Machines clicked and whirred while Tails switched off the electronic micro-scope. Tails stood from his seat and took a deep breath.
He spent all night in that lab, slaving and calibrating. Then calibrating again. Testing blood sample after blood sample. Time was almost out. The project already lagged four-going-on-five weeks behind. He dreaded the deadline, but to fix the deadline...well that sat on a different plane of scary.
Blood testing results looked alright, everything came back positive. If this project worked like it should have from the beginning, then testing class-D or even class-C organisms might come next. Not anymore. If he wanted the results he needed to sate the investors, then Class-A organisms needed testing.
Sapient, thinking, Mobians.
Tails knew a number of desperate people out there willing to put their bodies on the line for a paycheck. Every moral bone in his body raged against such a notion. No innocents hurt. So then that left another alternative.
The fox entered the preparation chamber his back rigid with fear. A neat little vial rested upon a table, filled to the rubber sealed lid with blue liquid. They don't look so bad from here, thought Tails. He picked it up, grabbed a hypo and loaded the nano-machines into it.
Like a gun, Tails gulped.
Just him and the needle now. His inventive prowess got him this far, and more often than not he put his body on the line for others. Today proved no different, right? He dabbed an alcohol pad on his vein and readied the needle.
Deep breaths, count back Tails.
Three...
He steadied his hand and moved the hypo to his protruding vein.
Two...
He relaxed his free arm, making it tense only made things worse.
One...
He pressed the needle into the skin. Sharp pain for a second, then a cold rush up and down his arm as the liquid emptied from the vial. He pulled the hypo from his skin and reached for a patch of gauze. Only to pause.
The wound in his arm sealed up the moment the needle left his skin. A smile cracked on his lips, so far so good. His heart pounded in his chest while a strange sensation overcame him. His vision cleared to an almost crystaline quality, and the night's exhaustion faded.
Those nano-machines worked fast. He snapped out of his excitement and grasped for a recording device.
"Project Super Cells Class-A Trial one, the machines are doing exactly what they were programmed for. Managing my body's consumption of energy at an excellent rate. I've never felt so awake, and my senses are hard to explain. Almost like I can see or hear a new frequency, so far there are no negative side-effects I can feel thus far. A metaphorical whip-lash from the instant change maybe?"
He clicked off the recording device and let out a giddy chuckle. He swore he felt the machines swimming around inside of him, making a gradual change each passing second. Just a few weeks of this and the investors just might be pleased.
Despite his artificial second wind, Tails knew the machines still needed time to really kick in. Perhaps a well-deserved nap to congratulate himself. He moved throughout his lab to one of the cots in the back, perfect for all-nighters like these.
He set aside his recording device, curled up in his blanket, and forced his eyes shut.
~~
The machines toiled endlessly in their host. Hour after hour they surged through his bloodstream. Kicking wasteful cells into the shape. Snatching and recycling still useful bits of caloric energy. With everything regulated so efficiently, the super-cells matched their master's programming to the dot.
The night dragged on, and a strange realization stunned the nano-machine's AI. Their flawless energy budgeting left them to their proverbial knees in excess calories. Dinner and a night's worth of coffee never seemed so vast. Concerned with their directive, they knew this energy needed to be used, not wasted.
Yet the master slumbered, he did not burn enough to warrant use for this energy. They knew a body's own programming in and out, it all came part of their own AI. Their data-banks knew a body with excess energy did not get rid of it.
No, it stored it.
Of course! They obeyed the directive, and set to work on their master. One adipose cell at a time.
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