Chapter Twelve - The Truth
Rasen, Tempest and Hikari had finally reached the Biokasei labs. Rasen noticed that Hikari was slowing down, she coughed again, she had been coughing frequently since the incident with the gas. Tempest had also noticed.
"Whatever she did back there...it sure took it's toll on her." She thought, "She just ran out there...then the gas was gone." Tempest remembered what she had seen before, the last time she had seen a human body with wings.
Tempest walked through a labratory, it was empty and looked abandoned, however there was still a tank filled with a strange solution, a naked human body was suspended inside, it had wings on its' back, red wings, it didn't have a head, it seemed that this body had been grown in order to be a practice for some other kind of experiment.
Tempest gazed into the tank, disgusted by what she saw.
"So this is it, and they plan on doing this to actual people too, not just cloned bodies..." Her hands were shaking in anger. "A program to clean up atmospheric pollution...using low rank humans as test subjects....these cruel madmen!"
Rasen glanced at Tempest, he had been suspicious that she knew more than she had been letting on for a while. But before he asked anything, he heard a squeak. He turned just in time to see Hikaris' legs buckle beneath her, she sat coughing on the ground.
Rasen rushed over to her, "Hikari, are you ok?" She looked up and nodded slowly, "Let's rest a while." Rasen suggested to Tempest.
She nodded and continued walking, "I'll check up ahead, we should continue on to the labs as soon as possible. If there is anyone who can help her, that's where they'll be."
~*~
After Tempest returned, Hikari had recovered and she and Rasen where waiting for her, ready to continue.
"Did you find anything?" Rasen asked quickly.
"Yeah, I found that the head room is at the top of the complex, that's where we should go, we might find some answers there." Tempest responded. "There is an elevator in the next room that will take us there directly."
Rasen nodded and he, Hikari and Tempest entered the elevator in the next room. While it rode up to the top of the complex, Rasen was deep in thought.
"I'm about to finally get some answers...but what might I find out?"
The elevator stopped on the top floor and the three entered a large lab, Hikari wandered over to a glass window, through which she could see a steel operating table. Images suddenly flashed through her mind, her lying on that very table, two doctors standing over her, one nodded to the other and a mask was put over her face, then blackness.
Hikari made a frieghtened sound and started backing away from the window, trembling.
"Can I help you?" The voice came from the doorway to the next room. And as Rasen and Tempest turned, they saw a doctor in a blue coat entering the room. Just behind him was a young girl who looked abit younger than Rasen, dressed in green and sky blue, she watched Rasen, Hikari and Tempest carefully for signs of danger, it seemed she was a bodyguard.
The doctor spotted Hikari, still trembling, looking into the operating room.
"The experimental Kaijuu! Didn't we ship that out already? Was there a malfunction?" The doctor seemed to recognise Hikari instantly. But he then stopped and glanced at his guard.
"Bella, please leave us momentarily, I will call you back in shortly." The girl nodded and exited the room. The doctor turned back to Rasen and the others.
"Sorry, but she dosen't need to know what is said here." He explained.
Rasen was confused, "Kaijuu? Shipped?" He didn't understand what the doctor meant.
The doctor had walked over to Hikari and was examining the wings on her back, Hikari was now visibly terrified by him. "Oh! No no!"
He looked up at Rasen and Tempest. "The ventilator's filthy! You've got to take better care of these!" He touched the wings on Hikaris' back and a cloud of a black substance fell from them.
"What are you talking about?" Rasen still didn't understand. Tempest looked away, knowing what the doctor meant.
"What am I talking about?" The doctor approached Rasen, "You have to understand, I spent alot of time, making this one I did! I cloned lung cells and grew the filter organs, or 'wings' you could call them. This is a top-of-the-line anti-pollution model kaijuu, my best work I might add."
Rasen shook his head, anger beginning to grow inside him, the doctor continued. "Entirely designed to suit your needs, was there a problem?"
Rasens' body shuddered as his anger grew further. "What!?" He exclaimed, as the buzzing red aura began to form around him once more. "So, so why can't she speak?" Rasen was struggling to keep his anger in check.
The doctor thought back to the post-operation conversation he had had.
"Tolerance testing is going well, all that remains is treatment and transport." He had said to another doctor.
"Treatment...is it really necessary to go that far to preserve secrecy?" The other had replied.
"Secrecy? Well, thats one reason, but..." He had paused for a moment, "There is no need for tools to talk, is there?"
The doctor straightened his gaze again and answered Rasens question, the same answer as he gave the other doctor. "There is no need for tools to talk, is there? But I must tell you, the lungs are at a terminal stage, and we can't replace them either...."
He got no further, Rasen lunged forward and punched the doctor in the face, sending him sprawling to the floor, Rasen drew his blade and pointed it threateningly at the doctors' face.
"What are you talking about? Tool? Hikari is a she, she's human! What did you do to her? Answer me!" Rasen could feel his rage building further.
Tempest spoke then, "What is going to happen to Hikari?"
The doctor, caressed his black eye, "The prototype wasn't built for durability. It's only a matter of time, before the filters fail."
"What if I take her somewhere the air is clean?" Rasen asked him, still struggling to control his anger.
"The air gets worse everyday, if it stays here any longer, in this environment. 'She's' a goner I'm afraid." The doctor finished.
"You...you people are sick! Treating human beings like your play things, and you think is a game!" Rasen shouted at the doctor.
Hikari touched Rasen on the back and he turned, he looked at her for a moment and his anger washed away. "Let's go Hikari." Rasen looked up at the ceiling, "The sky...that's where the air is clean, I'll save you, I promise." Hikari nodded.
Tempest walked over to the door and Rasen and Hikari followed, they walked through and made there way down the hall, leaving the doctor behind, just as they reached the elevator coninuing up towards mid-district, they heard a noise and spun quickly, expecting an attack.
It was Bella, the doctors' body guard, but the look on her face wasn't of someone about to attack, it was one of concern. "I...I heard everything...I listened through the door...I didn't know...I want to come with you...I want to help save her...I can't work for someone like him any more...not after this."
Rasen gazed into her eyes, searching for a hint of a lie, but he found none, he looked at Tempest quickly and nodded. "Ok."