Capítulo 1: CHAPTER ONE... Archie.... The Catalyst
A young boy, whose age is about sixteen could been seen bickering in a store with a trader who is an old man. The boy's name is Achie.
Though the man is old, but the way he counteracted Archie's price for the catalyst made one think he was still in his forties. The man is actually almost 80 years of age.
Spittle flying everywhere from the old man's mouth but Archie didn't care about it.
He was determined to get this catalyst to assist him in digesting the blood fragment into his body.
Blood orbs are created 10 minutes after the death of a monster.
The power contained within the monster would then coagulate to form a bloody orb which has a jelly like feel to it.
In the past, some people desperately tried consuming the blood orbs directly into their bodies only to explode due to too much energy introduced into the body by the blood orb.
The world federation council gathered scientists from every parts of the world to experiment on how to extract the blood orbs and other valuable elements from the monsters and to determine if humans can use the blood orb to enhance its abilities in a stable way.
Humans need a new method in combating the monsters... Guns and bombs ain't doing the job again. The monsters are fast and evasive which makes them survive gun battles and bomb traps. The got caught up tho. Humans set booby traps all over to protect cities from the invaders.
While carrying out experiments on some monsters captured alive, they discovered that there is a vast amount of energy contained within the blood orb that is formed when the monsters die. Humans harnessed the energy and used it to create a serum called the CATALYST.
The blood orb cannot be used by all humans. There are some rare genes that are wired to absorb the blood orb which enhance human abilities.
Humans that does not have these rare gene, when they use the blood orb, it reacts and make them bleed put and die.
The humans wirh rare genes that can use the blood orb to develop special powers also have limitations. After a short period of time, the blood orb diminishes removing the powers and abilities gotten from the fusion.
This made the scientists develop the serum, called the CATALYST. When the blood orb is used with the catalyst, it fuses right with the human gene and gives higher abilities and power. Most importantly, it makes the powers stay forever in the humans.
By calculation, the blood orb has the power to raze everything in its path and its range is 10 meters. Twice the power of a hand grenade used by the military soldiers.
Though constricted by the reaction from the catalyst, the energy in the blood orb would still breakout from its confinement but in tiny amounts. Leaking straight into the blood stream of the human.
But instead of exploding from the energy, the human would gain a steady increase in strength, speed, vision and some other special abilities.
It breaks through the limits of the human cells making man superhuman.
Some take decades digesting the energy, some take years digesting it while some special humans with alien-like rare gene might actually use just a couple of months digesting the energy.
While ravaging through an alien space ship wreckage, a rare Genetic map was found which contains secrets about the alien monsters which helped the scientists develop techniques to use in different situations to help absorb the energies within their bodies a lot faster.
....
Meanwhile, Archie was getting increasingly frustrated by the old trader or dutchbag like he'd like to say straight into his face, but he needed the catalyst so bad. He needed to use the catalyst to gain the special powers forever.
"But it was just yesterday I asked the cost of the catalyst from you and you told me it was only 100 geno, that was just yesterday so how the h*ll did it increase from 100 Geno to 170 geno today? That's a whole 70 geno difference. Where do I get that kind of money from?? How did the price even get higher in just one day?"He shouted out loud at the old trader frustratingly.
Archie had never thought of becoming a superhuman in his life. No one knew he is one of the few humans that has the alien-like rare gene. As a matter of fact, he was bullied all around by his peers while his family only sends him on errands. He tends to his father's poultry and also feed the pigs.
That actually sums up Archie's miserable life not until one day, he was chasing after one of the piglets which had escaped through a hole at the end of the wooden shed that covers the pen.
While he was looking for the piglet in the woods, he tripped and fell. He hit his head and was knocked unconscious for a while. When he woke up, he was disgruntled.... He held his head while he looked around to see what fell him down. Suddenly, he saw dead monster lying beside him.
Confused and scared, he got up fast and took to his heels. After few minutes running, he stopped. He looked back and saw that no one was chasing after him. He stood for a while, then decided to go check it out since it seem dead.
When he got there, he saw blood orbs that had been formed on the monster. There he remembered his father talking about blood orb with his friend one day. His father told his friend that he would love to use the blood orb if he can gain extra strength to help him protect his family.
Achie quickly scooped the blood orb with his hand and started running back home. When he got to the barn, he thought to himself, while starring at the orb. "What if I try this blood orb? I will have special powers to fight back the bullies". Without knowing the side effect it has on humans, Archie swallowed the blood orb.
For few minutes there was no effect on him. That made him sad. As he was walking back to the house, he felt a little tingle in his arms. He got dizzy and fell down on his face going unconscious again.
When he woke up, he found himself on the bed inside the house. His father saw him unconscious and brought him into the house. He was scared to tell his father what had happened. His father muttered, "What happened to you son? He looked at his father with a side eye, then he replied," I tripped and fell". " Watch where you're going next time boy".... He father said while standing up from his side.
After six days, there was a monster invasion in their town. Everyone ran to shelters built by the city to help hide away from the invaders. They live in a remote small town, that made it difficult to get the military to come to their aid.
Archie was home with his mom when they heard a loud bang. " That sounded like a bomb," he said looking at his mother. His mother dragged him quickly and headed for the shelter.
Archie heard his dog bark when they were about to enter the shelter and he remembered he had left his dog in the house. He pushed his mom into the shelter and closed the door. He ran back into the house to pick up his puddle dog.
His dog's name is Tetris. He shouted the dogs name as he ran across to check the rooms. He couldn't find his dog. He kept shouting the dogs name. All of a sudden, he heard his dog barking from outside the house. He rushed outside, and was stunned by what he saw. A invader monster was standing infront of him holding his dog in its hand.
Archie was scared to death that he fell on his back. He screamed, " Leave my dog alone you bastard". The monster walked towards him trying to strike him down. He got scared and used both is hands to cover his face.
Suddenly, a blazing light came out of his hand and struck the monster. The monster fell down and threw the dog away. Archie opened his eyes a little bit, un aware of what just happened, he saw the monster lying dead. He jumped up took his dog and ran to the shelter to meet his mom.
Later that day, he told his friends what happened to him. One of his friends, Kobe, who he had told about the blood orb the other day reminded him about it.. There it struck him that he might have special powers.
Not convinced yet, they decided to test it out in the woods. Achie tried several times to summon the power but it didn't happen. As he was about to give up, he smashed both is hands together and walla, blazing blue light came out cutting down trees in its path. He was so scared he ran home leaving his friend in the woods.
After the incident, Archie tried to summon the power again and again, but it had depleted. He heard about the catalyst and how it can be used to make the special powers stay forever.
He worked himself tirelessly day and night for three whole years. Saving up his geno to purchase the catalyst. Archie is one of the few that used the blood orb directly without the help of the catalyst and didn't disintegrate.
The blood orb fused with his dna sequence giving him enhanced abilities greater than other humans that have been used for the experiment.
But due to the unstable state of the energy in the blood orb, it faded off after he used it twice.
That gave Archie a new purpose. He started looking for dead monsters to harvest their blood orb. He was able to get a fragment of a blood orb, which he kept safe while working to raise money to get the catalyst.
He had spent three years saving up exactly 105 Geno. He had long since calculated how he was going to make use of it.
First, he would buy the catalyst which would contain and compress the energy inside the blood orb, making it easier for his body to absorb the energy within it, giving him super strength, speed , dexterity, physique, and more importantly, turn him into superhuman forever.
If you volunteer, your blood will be tested to be sure you possess the rare gene. If you pass the test, you will be able to apply to join any League since the requirements for joining a league is to possess the rare gene.
You will be strapped to a chair and injected with the catalyst coupled with the blood orb. After 30 mins on the chair, if you don't exhibit any side effects, you will be taking to the chamber where it will be determined the kind of power it gives you. That will determine the platoon you are grouped into and your rank will depend on the abilities you are able to exhibit from the orb infusion.
You will be trained by the league on how to use these powers and also drilled on your physical strength to be able to hold the energy without breaking apart.
Thinking up to here, Archie was about to continue negotiating with the man when he heard....
"Get out of the way!"
An awfully rude but disgruntled voice sounded out from behind him.
Archie was already frustrated with the old man. The commanding tone in the voice made it worse. "Who the h*ll is that?" He muffled in his mind.
Archie decided to ignore the person behind him and continued bickering with the old trader but before he started, the old man cut him off.
"Look kiddo, I will tell you the truth. The man behind you already paid half the amount for the catalyst which is 100 Geno. He went back to get the rest of the payments which is 200 Geno altogether.
Honestly, I was willing to give it to you for just 170 Geno assuming you had that kind of money on you since you've been pestering for the past 3 years but you obviously can't afford that.
The old man sighed while gazing at Arch with pity.
The old trader pushed some type of secret typing signs on his thigh which pulled open a secret compartment.
Taking out the bottle of purple liquid from the compartment, he raised his head up, smiled sarcastically at the man as he was making his way forward, ignoring arch's dumbfounded expression.
"Transfer the rest of the payments then the bottle is yours." The old trader said with a hint of shrewdness in his tone.