In her office at the Awakening Center, Mother sat on her black office chair, gazing out at the vast sea visible through the one-way windows. Her fingers drummed impatiently on the desk as she waited for someone to arrive. A soft knock sounded at the door, "Enter!" she called out.
In stepped a tall man, towering at an impressive height of 7.3 feet. He was dressed in a pristine white scientist's coat, and his rectangular glasses sat perched on the bridge of his nose. Clasped tightly in one hand was a notepad, while the other held a pen.
"Greetings, Mother," he spoke with a respectful bow.
"At ease, Valk," Mother responded, shifting her focus to the issue at hand. "Do you have the recordings?" she queried.
Valk nodded and walked towards Mother, neatly pulling out a USB chip from his chest pocket. "Sadly, this is all we were able to recover for now," he explained as he handed over the chip. "I must say, 001 is much smarter than we originally estimated."
Mother waved her hand, signaling for Valk to be quiet, before plugging the chip into her computer and beginning to watch the videos.
-Audio Recording 1-
"There are three ways to go through an awakening," the voice began.
"One, getting an awakening shot. Although the risks are very high, you will gain great power."
"Two, an awakening from something else like toxic slime, poison, something that will cause an intense change to the body, but the chances of success are even less."
"Three..."
-Audio Recording 1 paused-
Mother let out a frustrated sigh and paused the audio recording. "I wanted the data on 001, not on how awakening works!" she exclaimed.
Valk bowed apologetically. "Sorry, Mother," he responded. "It should all be in the folder labeled 'The Predator'."
-Audio Recording of The Predator: 1-
"While I'm sure you're all aware that awakening only has a 1% chance of success," the voice began, "but with the help of our newest soon to be experiment, it has increased to a whopping 15%! In the past, we had thought that our awakening center would continue to be the lowest funded out of all the labs, but with this, the government has agreed to increase our funding by 10 times its original amount!"
-Audio Recording 9-
There was some heavy breathing, followed by a loud gulp before a voice spoke up. "Umm... the second awakening didn't go as expected..."
The voice trailed off, before continuing. "During the awakening, every single person in the entire center felt a chill running down their spine."
"The moment the awakening ended, everything felt like it had stopped. Experiment 001 then rose from the steel bed, snapping the binds like they were strings, before looking at the closest scientist in the eyes, and commanding him to kill himself."
"But just as quickly as he had made that command, we felt an even larger pressure. However, it wasn't fear like during the awakening, it was more like electricity coursing through one's veins."
"Shortly after the pressure dissipated, experiment 001 fell to the ground unconscious. It's worth noting that before undergoing the awakening, he was a very docile subject."
-Audio Recording 15-
"We still frequently allow Experiment 001 to read research papers on improving experimental success as his insights are always, ALWAYS, without fail, helpful. If only he weren't so violent, he could have been the head scientist. What a pity, truly."
-Audio Recording 132-
"Unfortunately, I am being replaced today by a new and more capable person for the job. They call her 'mother' for some reason. Also, I have been ordered to delete all records of my involvement with Experiment 001. I'm not sure why headquarters issued such an order, but I have no choice but to comply."
⸻
Mother turned to Valk and asked, "Did headquarters really give such a command?"
Valk shook his head and replied, "No, mother. They deny that any such command was ever issued."
"So, either they were lying, or E001 had us all wrapped around his finger this whole time," She noted, pausing for a moment to reflect. "How much of the deleted interactions between E001 and the head scientist have we been able to recover?"
"While we believe we can recover all of it, it will take some time," Valk replied.
"Contact me immediately once all the data is recovered," She ordered.
"Of course," Valk replied with a bow before leaving.