(click to enlarge)
Which meant, statistically speaking, Plague was either about to become a legend, or a cautionary tale with excellent hair.
Finally, he was inside MasterGin’s clinic, the Fort Knox of DNA rewrite voodoo, and he, the Biohacker of Jae Won University, was about to steal it.
In and out. Cure Jihoon. Fix himself. Save the world. In that order. …More or less.
And if history wanted to throw in fame and glory, he wasn’t going to argue.
He came prepared. His parents thought that six-thousand-credit charge was for lab equipment. Please. Six thousand credits didn’t buy microscopes. It bought bad decisions with excellent specs.
In this case: a nanotech cloak blanket. Perfect for black ops. Terrible for subtle life choices. The enforcers hadn’t seen him at all. They were too busy chasing Kyle, Minjo, Echo, and Lisa.
Unlike them, he actually knew what to look for. Infrastructure. More specifically, signs of a negative pressure room.
He darted down another hallway, deeper into the labyrinth.
The Plastic Surgery Clinic wasn’t a clinic at all. More like a villain origin story with a lobby. Polished floors, museum lighting, the kind of place where ethics go to get redesigned. He had no time to marvel at billion-dollar artwork, which genuinely pained him. The clock was ticking.
He took a stairwell downwards. Posh tunnels gave way to older tunnels, gleaming marble replaced by cement with all the charm of a decaying bomb shelter.
His foot hit water. The splash cracked through the hallway like a jump scare with no soundtrack to soften it.
Shit. He glanced around.
The corridor held its breath. So did he.
The pool of water he was standing in had a faint bioluminescence glow. It had leaked from under a sealed door with lots of unfriendly symbols that all translated, across every language known to man, into one simple message: ‘Do not be the idiot who opens this door.’
Jackpot.
He licked his lips. He could almost taste that Nobel Prize.
He produced a bypass kit, popped in a cursed energy battery courtesy of Sophia, and went to work on the door panel. The lock mechanism, however, was old. Older than he expected. Not smart-lock. Analog. Physical tumblers.
He switched tools. His hands steady, remembering things his formal education hadn't taught him, like how to pick a school locker.
Click.
The door swung open as if moved by an unseen hand.
Very Haunted House. Three stars. Too cliché.
The dark laboratory was state-of-the-art… if the state in question was 1960s and deeply unethical. The air around him felt damp, like breathing through someone else’s lungs. The smell hit next. Formaldehyde. And something that had been alive too long. The equipment bore the heavy scars of relentless use. His fingers touched a keyboard with the characters of “A” and “S” completely worn down.
From tanks holding something segmented and glowing, a sickening green light cast shadows on the walls as it writhed.
Not touching that. Not even academically.
He pulled off the cloak and paused at an old-school computer. The black DOS screen, with a single lime green blinking box, waited for him to type code.
…Right. He wasn’t that kind of nerd. Filing cabinet it was.
Drawers. Stacks. Paper everywhere. Useless. Too slow. He suddenly missed computers.
Something moved behind him. Not a step. Not a breath. …a slosh.
Shit. Please don’t be something glowing and legally classified as ‘should not have legs.’
He turned, looking for anything slithering.
Two transparent feet, outlined in a faint glow, stood directly behind him. A trail of wet footsteps led back to a massive, bubbling tank.
His heart stopped. Fantastic. Cardiac arrest in a haunted aquarium.
His gaze tracked slowly up.
A translucent man, built of something like jellyfish flesh, stared right at him. “Who are you?” he asked in a gurgling human voice.
Not a hologram. Not a projection. The nightmare was… wet.
Plague stared at his transparent body as if hypnotized. He could see liquids moving through his veins. Faint electrical sparks across the transparent mass of his brain.
“Forgive me,” the Jellyfish Man said. He put on a white lab coat, gloves, and sprinkled white powder over his head, until it resembled a sculpture. “I get so few visitors here. I forgot my manners.”
Of course he had a lab coat. Of course the nightmare had dress code compliance.
“I’ve seen this movie before.” Plague willed his voice to sound steady. “The Invisible Man, 1933. Overrated.”
The Jellyfish Man extended a gloved hand, “I’m Dr. Hoshu Tanaka.”
Plague shook his head in disbelief. Dr. Hoshu Tanaka. Founding father of DNA rewrite research. The man who wrote the rules, and then vanished from the game entirely.
“No, you’re not.” He switched to Japanese. “Dr. Tanaka died a long time ago.”
The Jellyfish Man nodded his head and sat down on a stool. “I see. You know who I am. You are sneaking around. You have a kit for breaking into secure places. That means you’re here for only one thing, …to steal my research.”
Plague took two steps back, subtly checking the seals of the bio-containment suit. The air felt wrong. Too thick. Like he’d already been breathing it too long.
“No, I’m just…” he gestured vaguely “… a low-paid, highly under-appreciated intern. You’d be amazed what HR lets through.”
“You are a terrible liar,” Dr. Tanaka chuckled. “You are aware,” he said gently, pointing to the open door, “That warning was mine. I put it there. It was not a decoration.”
Plague continued to back away. “If you touch me, I get infected right? Be honest. Are you venomous, contagious, or… both?”
“Contact transmission. Airborne spores require a 10-minute exposure.” Dr. Tanaka nodded and began to text on a halo pad, “I am writing Nurse Paine to let her know I am not to be disturbed for the rest of the evening.” He touched a button on an old control panel. The door closed and sealed back into place. “…at least from threats outside.”
Sweat dripped down Plague’s back.
Dr. Tanaka set the pad down and focused on him. Not like a person. Like data.
“Now,” he said, folding his hands, “Let us begin a fair trade of information. Tell me who you are and how you know my name. Then I might tell you where the decontamination unit is.”
Plague's eyes swept the room for another exit. Condensation dripped down the glass of a nearby pod. When he neared it, a pale worm, thick as his wrist, struck the glass with a sound like a wet slap. It gave him flashbacks to things he would absolutely deny ever reading.
Plague’s shoulders sagged. He turned back to the aquarium's sole resident, “The name’s Plague.” He gave a small shrug. “Marketing.”
“That’s not a name. Your only way out is a fair trade of information.”
Plague paused for a long while, studying the powder-covered face. He resembled Dr. Tanaka. Or something that used to be him.
Plague kept a safe distance from everything that glowed.
“All right then," he said, unbuttoning his shirt to reveal his bio-containment suit. “We may or may not have a few things in common. But that depends on how you became transparent. You did a bio-hack on yourself?”
Dr. Tanaka’s eyebrow raised. He looked at the suit for a long moment. “I see. You are a DNA Hacker.” He pointed to Plague’s chest. “Experimenting on yourself was foolish. And now you are here to steal my technology to save yourself. Am I right?”
Plague chuckled and buttoned up. “Righteous indignation. So then. Your transparent-hood was an accident. Spores or contact?” His eyes swept the lab. All those glowing things. All of them eager to be near him.
“Worse,” Dr. Tanaka’s voice dropped. His gaze lowered.
A chill raced across Plague.
The lab hummed around them. Neither moved.
Dr. Tanaka then stood and glanced at the largest tank. “I live mostly in that tank now. I killed the parasite. Eventually. Before it could finish rewriting my DNA… before my mind was lost. But I exist like this now. Something inhuman. I can never go home. I can never see my wife and child. It’s better they believe what the world believes.”
Plague’s heart quivered. His hands went still. He looked at the large tank. Then at his own chest where the bio-containment suit pressed against his ribs.
“My work is what remains of me now,” the Doctor continued. “I chose to give my tragedy meaning by understanding how the creature rewrites its host’s DNA without rejection.”
“How long ago?” Plague's voice cracked on the question. He cleared his throat. “How long ago did you solve it?”
The lab answered for him. Nothing.
Plague studied the tanks. The Doctor. The powdered coat. The worn-down keyboard keys. Years of research, typed by hands that were no longer hands.
"That's how MasterGin's plastic surgery works, isn't it? MasterGin isn't reshaping people's bodies with surgery, drugs, or augments. He's infecting them with these... things, then altering them while their bodies are malleable. Your research is the off switch, stopping the process before they turn into monsters.”
Dr. Tanaka pointed to the far corner. “The decontamination unit is over there. You have about 5 minutes left before infection.”
Plague bolted towards the unit, then turned back to look at the Doctor. “I could get your life’s work out there, in the real world. Full credit for your discovery. I swear it. Your sacrifice…” His throat became tight. “I mean, your work should be out there helping people. Not locked in here being used by monsters.” He only noticed the tears when they hit his chin.
Dr. Tanaka’s expression was unreadable. “Three minutes. Or this conversation was meaningless.”
“I’ll come back for you.” Plague turned and ran.
He hit the decon unit at full speed.
An automated voice chimed overhead, “Decontamination Process initiated.”
The doors air-locked around him as he quickly stripped down to bare skin.
Through the glass, the Doctor studied what the suit had been hiding, his grotesque deformities. He didn't look away as a cloud of formaldehyde and chemicals enveloped Plague.
When the cycle had finally ended, Plague quickly pulled on his sterilized bio-containment suit and glanced outside. The Doctor had already submerged in his tank.
A green light pulsed through the dissipating haze. He stepped closer and saw a small decontamination transfer unit mounted on the wall, designed to safely move items from the lab to the outside. The case was bathed in just as many chemicals as he was, traces of haze still swirled around it.
He opened the hatch. Inside were several items. A gold VIP serpent brooch. He’d seen that on Nurse Paine’s collar. VIP clearance. A way out. And that wasn’t the only surprising thing. There was a meticulously pre-packed decontamination travel kit. Absurdly so, given the lab had just let him walk in with a school locker pick. Was this meant for Tanaka? An escape that never happened? He didn't have time to understand all of it. More items in the case were a data chip and an ornate gilded crystal bottle labeled GIN AESTHETICA™. The Doctor's formula. Someone else's logo. Inside, a soft blue glowing lotion simmered, smelling faintly of antiseptic and something he couldn't classify.
There was a note in precise handwriting: ‘For the one who returns.’
Plague stared at it.
He quickly pocketed the brooch, sealed the case, and darted for the VIP tunnels without looking back.
This post was inspired by my ongoing series, and super cool mad lab themed items at The Engine Room. From Somnium is the Scientist's Coat. The Fatpack has a hud to change textures for the coat, shirt, and tie. All textures are PBR with a latex look, handy for dealing with messy creatures. lol. ...From DeadBoy is 8 fingered stabby gloves, -- the Toxic Touch Gloves, for men and women. It comes with a hud to change the latex glove color, straps, and suspicious liquids in the syringe. ...From NI.JI are the Rimless Glasses. These are PBR glasses with many texture options for the lens and frame. It's mod, so you can scale and position for the perfect fit. ...From Waffle Science Lab is the Artificial Mastermind consoles. I love these things. It has that retro NASA vibe to me. Just touch the consoles to change the metal color, panel, and base colors. They are mod, so you can move and scale how you like. ... From Dirty Rat is the Manipulator sculpture, perfect for the desk of any serious mad scientist. ...From ND Design is build from the recent Cyber Fair. It's two stories with stacks of mainframes, tanks with aliens, and a hatch that opens. It comes with a Rez box. The set is mod so you can move things around or tint. I created a bit more of a military lab look with tints, and a metal PBR floor.
On him, Plague:
Outfit: SOMNIUM - Scientist's Coat - Fat Pack - Legacy M/A PBR [mesh](Engine Room)(2500L)Makeup: maledictus - Lacrimosa, red [BOM]
Tattoo: Vae Victis Pillar of Inun EvoX [BOM]
Hair: Dura - U122 -A: Men's [mesh]
Body: TheShops [BODY] Athletic Meshbody (Legacy)(m) (1.7.1) [mesh](5000L)
Setting:
Set: NSDesign - NS Exolab [mesh]
BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shot, hi-res, midday sky.
