章 154: Chapter 154: The Rose of Life
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"Plant a good seed and you will joyfully gather fruit."
- Mary Kay Ash, (Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay)
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<(Bruce Wayne POV)>
It took Lucius about five minutes to stop the fight between the two scientists. Apparently, the two although having become best friends, still didn't like it when they insulted each other's wives.
Normally, they made sure to avoid talking about their marriage as it was a sensitive topic for both of them since while Victor didn't like to be reminded about his wife's disease and his inability to help his wife despite his promise to do so, Winslow, on the other hand, had a weak spot for the love of his life who was, in fact, a robot he designed himself so that he would not have to be alone for the rest of his life and would always have someone to talk to. Yeah, Winslow Schott was the ultimate Otaku Neet who designed and made his own wife after he figured that he would probably never find a good enough girl for himself... Respect to him by the way.
However, all this didn't mean that Winslow didn't love his wife. As a matter of fact, he loved his robot wife so much that he made himself forget that she wasn't human so that he could enjoy his happily married life with her as any normal couple would. As it happens, his creation was so perfect that nobody ever even doubted that his wife wasn't human, at least not until the couple invited Victor and his wife, Nora to dinner where Victor found out about the truth after noticing that Winslow's wife didn't bleed or get burnt even after a burning candle fell on her skin while she was serving them dinner.
Victor and his wife although initially creeped out by this, accepted it later since this wasn't the first time someone had married a non-living thing, and also, there was absolutely no difference between Winslow's wife and a normal human woman on the outside except for the fact that she didn't bleed or feel pain. However, when considering her emotions, her desires, and the love she felt for her husband, everything was as humanlike as possible. Hell, even she herself almost behaved like she wasn't a robot at all, always trying her best to avoid any discussions about it, which was probably a design feature that Winslow had used when making her.
Anyway, as I was saying, even though the two scientists normally tried their best to avoid sensitive topics like the difficulties in their marriage, it didn't stop them from engaging in stupid banters or useless arguments.
Usually, their disputes start with minor scientific disagreements that normal people wouldn't even care about, but as the argument escalates, they often end up touching on sore subjects that they know they will regret later on. Today's argument followed a similar pattern.
"At last, I have finally calmed them down. To think such incredible geniuses could be so childish. I guess gifted people are never normal." Lucius Fox returned to where we were waiting after breaking up their fight following which he released a tired sigh and gave me a look, something I didn't bother to react to. "Maybe we should leave them alone for now and come back later so that they could calm down. Although I won't be passing this incident over to the HR department, I still need to have a good talk with them about their behavior in the workplace... maybe even schedule them a couple of therapy sessions with a good shrink." He said with a serious voice.
"But why did they even start fighting? Considering they are the top developers of this company, and that their argument seemed quite serious, something about their current project they are working on should be the cause for the start of this fight, right?" Julia accurately guessed.
"... Yes, Miss. They were indeed fighting because of their current project. You see, they are currently working on something called Project Megan, an AI doll that can not only act as a playmate to little children but also take care of them if they fall sick or get hurt. The dolls will function as caretakers, friends, nurses, babysitters as well as therapists to children and will effectively halve the duties and responsibilities of parents. And as you advised a few months ago Mr. Wayne, we have also started working on a more health-focused variant of the robot as well according to the design you provided us called Project Baymax." Lucius started to explain. "Their argument started due to this project when they could not decide whether they should give the doll... a bright pink dress or a neon blue one." Mr. Fox revealed with a straight face.
""...""
"... Maybe it would be best if we visited the third researcher you were speaking about, Lucius. At least, we could save ourselves a few of our remaining brain cells that way, don't you agree Master Bruce?" Alfred finally broke the silence with a forced smile.
"Yes, I agree. That would be for the best." I answered as Julia also fiercely nodded her head.
"Fine, follow me." Lucius gladly replied, happy that he would not have to continue to deal with the two scientists right now. "Also, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell Winslow that the three of you are now aware of his wife's... situation. It's a delicate matter for him. Victor and I have already given him our word that we would keep it a secret, provided that Winslow continues his monthly appointments with his therapist and marriage counselor."
"Of course, a gentleman... or a lady never kisses and tells." I agreed with his request before following him to our next destination.
Our next stop wasn't exactly a traditional building like the last one. Instead, it was a large two-storied glasshouse connected with multiple portable laboratory cabins and an entrance to what seemed like an underground bunker. The area around this particular facility was covered with various plants and trees neatly arranged and labeled like a well-maintained garden with massive floodlights positioned all over the place at different intervals
"This entire area is the Wayne Botanical Research Center. Of course, what you see in front of you isn't even one-fourth of the research center. Most of the place is actually located underground where the researchers can control every aspect of environmental conditions and can simulate any situation for their experiments. From artificial lighting called grow lights to carefully made nutrient-rich soil and complicated irrigation systems that can control water to the milliliter, they have it all there." Fox explained. "Of course, numerous ongoing pieces of research are being conducted by hundreds of researchers here, but I am sure that you are only interested in our most talented researcher out of all of them." He said with a small smile.
The CEO led us straight into the glasshouse where a lone woman was currently observing a small sapling with all of her focus while scribbling various readings and notes on her pad. She was so engrossed in her work that she didn't even notice us approaching and continued fiddling with the plant.
"Dr. Pamela Isley, nice to meet you once again. I hope that my company is treating you better than the last place you worked." I smiled, recognizing the beautiful green-eyed red-headed woman who was wearing a lab coat and a pair of glasses.
[{(Image in Discord)}]
She was a brilliant botanical scientist who had started working for Wayne Enterprises as an intern under a senior researcher who was trying to make some kind of bioweapon using plant pollen. After I completely bought out Wayne Enterprises, I terminated the project since it was too dangerous to be made into reality before mindwiping every single bit of knowledge about the project from the scientist's mind. It was at this time that I met Dr. Pamela Isley. She was the most gifted botanist I had ever met in my life.
After I became interested in her work, I looked more into her and found out that she used to make designer drugs to fund her college. She was a genius when it came to plants. Cortana also found out that Pamela had an abusive father who murdered her mother when Pamela was still young, for which he was sentenced to jail. But he had died under mysterious conditions after he was visited by his daughter while in jail. Some cops suspected Pamela to be the one who killed him but there was no definite proof, and it was concluded that he had either died naturally or was poisoned with an untraceable poison that had left no proof.
Of course, at this point, most would chalk her up as a criminal, but fortunately, I was not a hypocrite like most. I have learned to not judge people without knowing their entire situation. Who knows, maybe I would have done the same thing if I were in her place. Hell, I have been doing the same thing with dozens of people I have killed until now.
Also, Isley was an avid environmentalist and insisted that her work should be beneficial for the environment. That was one of the reasons why she admired me so much since my company did not shy away from spending billions of dollars every year to help the planet while also being on the path to becoming the first carbon-neutral company in the next four years. Of course, it was mostly to please environmentalists like her since I could always terraform Earth to its pristine condition whenever I wanted but of course, I wasn't going to reveal it to the public.
Anyway, after I promoted her to the position of Senior Botanist in my company, she did her best to work on multiple projects to prove her capability including a method to let plants grow at a much-advanced rate as well as perfumes filled with different pheromones to affect people's moods, both of which could be extremely useful not just as products for sale but also for some of my plans in the future. But what she was currently researching was something I personally requested from her.
"Oh, Mr. Wayne. What a surprise! I didn't think you would be paying me a visit after... what happened the last time we physically met." Pamela said with a small blush creeping up her cheeks. "Just for the record, I am still sorry for what I did."
A couple of months ago when she had first pitched her pheromone project to me, she had tried using it on me as a demo to prove its capability. According to her theory, I should have been aroused and attracted to any woman in front of me because of the pheromone perfume but quite contrary to her expectations, when she tried to use the opportunity to kiss me on my lips, not only didn't I allow it but also made it quite clear that I was not at all affected by the pheromones. After all, no pheromone in the world could affect my enhanced physiology. Following that incident, she could never help but get extremely embarrassed and blush whenever I appeared in front of her.
"Well, I quite liked what happened last time, Dr. Isley. Your project was... extremely beautiful. In fact, your demonstration was so good that I still dream about it, you know." I teased her with a smile.
"Y-yeah right. Anyway, it's good that you are here. I needed to ask you something." She quickly tried to change the topic while ignoring the other three people standing in the room. "Where the hell did you get this plant from? This... Desert Rose as you call it is like some sort of Universal Panacea that can cure almost any disease it encounters. It's almost magical... except it isn't." She remarked while picking up the small sapling in front of her. "If your theory is right and if we can somehow integrate its effects in the enhanced xenobots you provided me with, then we can permanently cure every disease, condition, or ailment that mankind has ever seen with just a single remedy!" She exclaimed. "Not just men but animals, birds, and even plants. There will be nothing in this world that we can't cure. Maybe we can even cheat death with this."
"Cheating death won't be that easy but yeah, we will definitely be one step closer," I responded as I stared at the plant that the Alpha squad of my Colony had recovered from one of the black sites of the terrorist organization called the Many Arms of Death.
Honestly, replicating the plant from its genetic material was much harder than doing the same with other plants but it wasn't impossible for someone like me. So, after I found out about its miraculous medicinal effects, I sent a batch of saplings straight to Pamela for further research since I was already hard-pressed with different projects of my own. I even sent her some of my new experimental xenobots as well to see if she could combine the two projects.
These xenobots instead of being cultured from normal cells had small trace amounts of Compound V in them as in Compound V from The Boys universe. I was originally developing Compound V for my next "upgrade" but after finding out that it could also affect plants and animals besides humans, I have been trying to find out if I could replicate some of its effects without making people superhumans. Xenobots mixed with Compound V was one such attempt.
Of course, the Compound V in the xenobots was in such trace amounts that neither Pamela nor any other genius would ever have been able to figure out its composition. Hell, it wasn't even enough to give people powers or superhuman abilities. All it could do was just slightly strengthen the xenobots' capability and increase their lifespan. But still, one could only wonder what they would be able to achieve once combined with the healing attributes of the Desert Rose. Would the result become the most effective medicine in the world on par with something like the mythical Elixir of Life or would it be something completely different and unexpected?
Well, whatever the result, I am pretty sure that at the end of the day, I'll be the one who would ultimately benefit from it.
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