Biohuman

Dr. Valentin's body glowed bright green. Green wisps flew out of his body and Lee Seng watched as the wisps started to connect with him. The calm feeling washed over Lee Seng. He felt the tension in his shoulders release as the green wisps merged into Lee Seng. He glowed a bright green and Dr. Valentin began to tilt his head back and forth like he always did when he was studying a patient's body with his power.

"No signs of infection." Dr. Valentin spoke. Zoe tapped on the tablet and began to type the notes down. "There seems to be..." Dr. Valentin began to hum. He was stuck on something and was trying to figure out what it was. He could feel something was different.

'Is it the Protocol?' Dr. Valentin wondered. He tilted his head again and shook his head. 'No, it's not just the Protocol. There's something...' The feeling immediately disappeared and Dr. Valentin shook his head.

"There seems to be something else. Something foreign within the body." Dr. Valentin finally continued. "At least one foreign anomaly within the body. Mark it for future check-ups." Dr. Valentin continued to listen to the wisps. He could tell Lee Seng was in perfect condition other than the unknown stress that was put onto his torso.

"Torso has taken a lot of stress due to the pain induced. There are signs of muscle tissue rapidly repairing itself already. Restoration is speeding up the process, but it seems to be already going by itself." Dr. Valentin marked. He opened his eyes and pressed his hand against Lee Seng's chest. His hand pulsed green and he held it there for quite awhile.  He hummed to himself as he waited and once enough time had passed and he pulled his hand away satisfied.

"Your torso seemed to take a lot of stress. Your body wasn't used to the amount of pressure on it so the reaction you gave and the information I got from Scarlet makes sense." Dr. Valentin began to explain. "Your muscles in your torso are all repairing itself, but I made sure to go in and fix anything that would hinder you from performing well in tomorrow's transfer event. Other than that, no signs of infection. It's like the infection burned off of you and you were immune to the four Spikes.

"There are cases where people have had immunity to the infection of zombies, but I would still take precaution and take an injection shot to be safe. Other than that, you're really healthy for a seventeen year-old male." Dr. Valentin chuckled. He patted Lee Seng on the shoulder and Lee Seng nodded. "You can put your shirt back on, Lee. Thank you for your cooperation."

The tablet beeped and Dr. Valentin moved over to his two kids as they read through the Nano bot data. Lee Seng slipped his shirt back on, relieved nothing bad had happened to him. He could feel the soreness built up in his chest wasn't as bad as it was.

'The anomaly bothers me.' Lee Seng thought. 'Did he almost find out about Keng? He knows about the Protocol, so maybe he just thinks its the Protocol? I guess we should be more careful.'

'That old man's power is strong.' Keng spoke. 'Be careful of him. He could find out about me if we're not careful.' Lee Seng watched as the Valentin head and his two children carefully combed through the data. Lee Seng found himself thinking about the Valentin's. Dr. Valentin had married a woman shortly after he was put into the Protocol experiments. He didn't have any children for the twenty-five years and then him and his wife tried and had Manny.

Twenty-five years of work seemed like a lot for Lee Seng, but Dr. Valentin seemed to be genuinely intrigued by the research. He had met Manny's biological mother many times. She was a university professor and had spent much of her time handling her research. Manny's fascination of medicine came from Dr. Valentin but his studious habits must've been copied from both parents.

Dr. Muller-Valentin was her name, Lee Seng recalled. She had hyphenated her name but decided Manny would take Dr. Valentin's name. He remembered hearing stories from Zoe on meeting her adopted mother for the first time fifteen years before Manny came around. Dr. Valentin had been paired with a child and took it upon himself to raise her.

The Protocol had slowed down their aging and gave them longer lifespans because of it, so Zoe looked like she was only seventeen but was actually way older than Lee Seng or Manny. Lee Seng loved the Valentin family. Even though Manny and his relationship fell apart, he kept in touch with Dr. Valentin, Zoe, and Dr. Muller-Valentin a bunch over the years.

Watching Dr. Valentin, Zoe, and Manny comb through the Nano bot information made him realize how much he missed seeing them together. He slipped into a small smile and realized what he was doing and quickly tried to hide it.

,m 'What am I doing?' He thought. He shook his head and cleared his throat. Zoe glanced up for a moment and began to look back at the tablet.

"The Nano bot found nothing in particular. He's healthy as can be. There's no signs of infection within his bloodstream." Zoe pointed out.

"So, he's okay?" Manny asked.

"Yup, he's fine. The only thing that's concerning is this." Zoe tapped on another part of the data and brought it up. It was a Dark Matter chart.

"His Dark Matter values have increased?" Manny muttered.

"His Dark Matter values have increased by 80% in the past month." Zoe said. "And if you look here, Dad, there seems to be more of the white matter value added into him. I wonder why his Dark Matter is turning a different color than its supposed to be."

"The growth of his Dark Matter is concerning. It shouldn't go that high for an average person. He does have certain conditions that may exert his growth more in that, but the white matter... that's a whole 'nother thing I don't know much about. We would have to continue to watch it to make better informed decisions on what to do. For now, we can only hypothesize that the white matter that appears as a tail and in his body, act like Dark Matter." Dr. Valentin pointed.

"Kay, i'll mark it." Zoe nodded.

"So what do we do about the infection then? There's no signs so do we inject him with the cure just in case?" Manny asked. Dr. Valentin moved over to the desk and tapped at the desk. A phone signal appeared and Dr. Valentin cleared his throat.

"Hello, Dr. Valentin. What can I do for ya?" A nurse answered.

"Ahh, hello, Gladys. I need someone to get me one dosage of Z-cure." Dr. Valentin answered.

"Ahh, Doc." Lee Seng spoke. Dr. Valentin looked up.

"That'll be all, Gladys. Thanks." Dr. Valentin hung up and rounded the desk. "Anything else, Lee?"

"Mmm, I haven't eaten all day and was wondering if I need to take anything in particular." Lee Seng asked.

"Porridge would probbaly be the best thing for you, then. Eat slowly if you don't want to throw up." Manny immediately answered.

"Mmm, what Manny said. Porridge, soup based things, maybe even noodles would be fine. I would stick to porridge since it's relatively available all around the campus. Eat slow and don't overeat to compensate for everything else." Dr. Valentin wagged his finger. Lee Seng nodded and Dr. Valentin patted Lee Seng's shoulder. "Well, if there's nothing else, we'll get you your Z-cure shot and you'll be on your way to dinner."

Dr. Valentin made his way back to his seat and continued to work on the computer screen. Zoe moved over and linked the tablet onto the smart desk and the two finalized their work with Lee Seng.

"Glad you're okay?" Manny asked, stepping over towards Lee Seng.

"Y-yeah, I guess." Lee Seng awkwardly stuttered. Manny leaned against the examination table and folded his arms.

"We can go to the Third Year building for food after this, then."

"They don't have a diner in the dorm building?"

"They do. That's what I meant. Get you some porridge and make sure you're good."

Lee Seng nodded. It felt weird that Manny was helping Lee Seng. He didn't seem clingy like he was when they met each other, again. Manny was more composed and seemed to make sure that Lee Seng was okay.

"You're not acting so clingy now." Lee Seng pointed out.

"Clingy?" Manny looked up at Lee Seng. "Me being clingy? With you? Nah, I think you're seeing things."

"Mmm, whatever you say." Lee Seng shrugged. A knock at the door made the Valentin's all look up.

"Come in." Dr. Valentin spoke. Lee Seng watched as an older woman stepped in with a small case in her hand.

"Hello, hello!" She cheerfully greeted. "Ah, your children are visiting you today, Dr. Valentin? It's been so long, Zoe. You should come to work here more often."

"Hi, Gladys. It's been awhile!" Zoe cheerfully smiled. She hugged Gladys and gave her a cheery smile. "Since dad's over here now, I have to take care of the rest of his work at the lab. I came over here to help him with some of the leftover lab work."

"Ahh, your father is such a mean one for stacking his work onto you, dear. Dr. Valentin, make sure Zoe doesn't die from your workload!" Gladys scolding turned into a chuckle. Zoe and Dr. Valentin chuckled as Manny simply smiled.

"We've been stuck together with the same workload for awhile, Gladys. Zoe knows the stuff better than I do. I think my old age is catching up to me now." Dr. Valentin chuckled.

"Well, I have the Z-cure right here." Gladys lifted it up. "Shall I do the injection?"

"Oh, I'll do it." Zoe said. Gladys handed her the shot and nodded.

"Well, it was nice to see you two. Come more often, Zoe. It's great to see you, again, Manny. I hope you're alright, dear." She pointed at Lee Seng. She noticed the casually swinging white tail and covered her mouth. "Oh, dear. You got an interesting patient, Dr. Valentin."