Chapter 51: Troubled Past
I was in the lab against trying to figure out a new way to bind RNA, and I sighed as someone tapped on my shoulder, "So you're awake now. I assume you want to take the test." Evos was behind me again, rubbing his eyes and with a severe case of bed head.
"Yes, Captain!" Nodding, I cleared the lab and opened a cabinet of chemicals, "Okay, then you have the whole day to try and make something. Call me when you finish or if you need anything." Evos looked a little unsure, but he nodded.
Leaving Evos to his own devices, I went up on deck to check our course. After traveling for a week and a half, we still had several months to go before reaching the Drum Kingdom. I planned to take a pit stop in Alabasta, though there was a chance of running into crocodiles and his people.
"It wouldn't be too bad to have a few of his people on my side or their devil fruits." I thought about it for a while and still couldn't make up my mind. Robin was also there, and I debated offering her asylum.
I must have been thinking longer than I thought because before I knew it, Evos was behind me again, tapping on my shoulder. "Have you finished already?" Evos smiled and grabbed my hand, pulling me into the lab.
"Okay, what the hell is that?" Evos thrust a vial filled with a clear white smoke that condensed on the side of the vial. "It's a poison. I hope that's okay." Taking the vial into a fumigation hood, one of my inventions, I used the in-built glover to open the cork.
Taking a few different binders and anti-venoms, I started to test the venom, "Do you have the chemicals formula?" Evos ran over and wrote on a sheet of paper before handing it to me. Looking at the formula, I stopped to try and make head or tails of the recipe.
"This looks like the formula for a Ricin protein, but you added on two extra hydrogens and one oxygen. Are you sure this is not a mistake?" Evos nodded yes, so I continued to test the neurotoxin. Gathering a clump of cells with a rudimentary brain system, I exposed it to the poison and watched it work.
Ricin poisoned the body by inhibiting the production of proteins in the cell. There was no antidote for the poison, and even just a single milligram was enough to kill a man if ingested or inhaled.
But there was something different about Evos's version. It seemed to seep into the pores of my little homunculi. It was almost unnatural, "Evos, is there something you need to tell me." I looked over the kid looked like he was under a microscope.
Instead of telling me before my eyes, his body started to melt into the floor, his legs turning into mist. He stopped when his eyes peaked up from the floor borders, "Are you mad at me?"
Shocked, It took a second for me to respond, "No, not mad, just a little surprised. How long have you had your devil fruit?"
"I ate it seven years ago when I was six. I was climbing a mountain on my home island when I found a cloud-shaped fruit. It's called the Kumo Kumo no Mi it a logia fruit that gives me the ability to control clouds. Though my parents told me never to show anyone, or they would want to kill me to gain the powers of the fruit."
Kneeling by the child, I stretched out my hand, "Don't worry, if anyone wants to lay a finger on you, they'll have to go through me first." Evos smiled and grabbed my hand, pulling himself out of the deck, "Thank you, Soren. Oh, by the way, did I pass the test?"
"Oh yeah, what you did is technically impossible. The water molecule is somehow clinging to the Ricin compound. I assume that's your cloud ability." Evos nodded, "I don't know how it works, but my clouds seem to stick to everything."
"That's not too hard to explain. That's a special property of water. The lattice of hydrogen bonds creates surface tension. It just seems that your powers increase that effect by a hundred times. If you don't mind, can I take a sample?"
Evos nodded, "Sure, what are you going to use it for?" Evos turned his arm into a length of white fluffy clouds, taking I vial. I tried to capture some, but my hand bounced off. Thinking a bit, I grabbed a scalpel and infused it with haki, and was finally able to scrape off a good chunk of the cloud.
"Thank you, Evos. I know it must have been hard for you to tell me this." Evos smiled, "It's good to tell someone finally. But, do I have to tell Cal and Leana." I shrugged, "Not if you want to, but I know that both of them will still care about you. Do you want to help me in the lab now?"
I gave Evos a brief description of what I was trying to do, and he immediately suggested what I could do. It was refreshing to have someone else helping me in the lab, and though I did experiments with Marco, it wasn't the same as he didn't understand biology.
I also asked Evos if he had any biology experience before, and my hunch turned out to be correct. His parents were biologists who traveled the world trying to record all the species they could find.
Evos fell silent after that, and he seemed to remember something, "They left me with my grandparents, but they never came back."
"Well, you know there's still a chance they're alive." Evos scoffed, "That was six years ago, besides. My grandparents were nice and helped me through a lot of it. And I'm happy to have a new family with you guys."
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