“I guess you’re right. Thank you,” Caiden replied.
“In the meantime, I still wanna test myself out a little bit, see what other answers we can find on our own,” he finished. Caiden headed toward the treadmill in the fitness section of the multi-functional space.
“So, what are you gonna do here?” Hitomi asked.
“I’m gonna run at the highest speed the treadmill can go, for as long as I can.”
“Oh, sounds fun! I bet you can only go for ten seconds!” Nami joked.
“Who knows? Maybe. But this may help us determine how these nano-thingies helped me with all the craziness that happened last night, no, even more than that, it may go a long way to explain all of the strange things I have experienced my whole life.” he replied with anticipation.
“Don't hurt yourself too much, pretty boy,” Hitomi said.
Caiden rolled his eyes and smiled at her as he got the treadmill started. “Bring the bio-scanner and turn it on, I want to see what kind of readings it comes up with as I do this test,” he said.
Hitomi grabbed the bio-scanner and activated it. The thin pink horizontal light began scanning Caiden from head to toe and back again. The speed on the treadmill slowly sped up, going faster and faster. When it reached full speed, the twins looked at each other and then toward Caiden with doubtful expressions.
“You really sure you can handle this? That thing is moving pretty freakin’ fast,” Nami inquired.
“I won’t know till I try, right?” Caiden said as he hopped on the treadmill, running full speed without breaking stride. The twins watched him intently, ready to jump into action in case an accident happened. Seconds passed, and Caiden was still running at full speed.
“You proved me wrong!” Nami grinned.
Caiden showed them a brisk smile while he continued to run on the treadmill at the high speed. Three minutes had passed and Caiden was still going strong with no visible signs of exhaustion, other than a little bit of sweat on his forehead. By the time twenty minutes had passed, the twins were in shock, mouths open in near comedic fashion.
“Oh my god! I don’t know what to say!” Hitomi said. Caiden, equally surprised, kept running, undeterred by the fact that the treadmill was at its highest speed. He was still nowhere near tired.
“You okay?” Nami asked.
“Just fine, actually” he replied nonchalantly.
It was as if he wasn’t even in motion to begin with. He didn’t lose his breath for a second. At around the fifty-five-minute mark, he began to grow visibly tired. A few seconds later, he lowered the speed of the treadmill and eventually turned it off. As he stepped off, his breathing was heavy, and he was sweating through his t-shirt, but he was standing upright, stabilizing his air intake.
“That was almost an hour!” Hitomi exclaimed.
They watched as he caught his breath. It wasn’t long until he was back to normal; the total recovery time was a little under three minutes.
“How fast is the highest speed on this treadmill?” Hitomi asked.
“Hmm, the specs say the maximum is about forty-three. Whoa! Fourty-three miles per hour?” he said surprised.
“Fourty-three!” the twins said in unison.
“This is incredible. Pull up the readings from the scan. What does it show the nanocells doing during that time?” Caiden asked.
Hitomi put in a command for a holographic screen to generate from the device. It showed a recording of the nanocells’ activity during the treadmill run. There was a silhouette diagram that represented the outline of Caiden’s body. It magnified to sub-cellular levels to monitor the nanocells.
“What is that?” Nami asked.
“If I’m not mistaken, that shade of red may be the indicator of nerve and muscular fatigue. At around the three-minute mark, I remember feeling a touch of fatigue. But it was only for a split second, then I felt fine after that,” he replied.
“Ok, then I assume the turquoise glow that is now overtaking the red stuff here and steadily minimizing it, are the good ole nanocells right?” Nami said while pointing at the display.
“You’re exactly right. This is amazing!” he replied.
The results from the treadmill experiment were incredibly enlightening. The nanocells were able to actively and efficiently quell the buildup of fatigue toxins for almost an hour of extreme exercise. This allowed him to run at a constant speed of forty-three miles per hour. Because every inch of his body was fortified with the nanocells, his natural limits were far greater in comparison to a normal person. This small experiment indicated that his potential to achieve even greater feats were possible with rigorous training and constant improvement.
“These nanocell things are awesome! Could this be why hacking comes so naturally to you? Your brain is literally techno-organic matter. So, does that mean you could easily merge your consciousness with any AI, database, or computer system, too?” Hitomi asked.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. And we’ve seen our Hybrid friends do some incredible things, but nothing like the things we’ve seen you do,” Nami added.
“I don’t know. There are so many things I want to find out too,” as he said that, he received a request on CWR from Knight-1. The three of them raced over to the computer hub as Caiden answered the call.
“Wizard is fully prepared to meet up with you. I let her know of the situation. She requested that you meet her at two a.m. at the Red Rabbit Strip Club in Andromeda District. The club is located in the Southandro neighborhood of the borough.” Knight-1 said. A moment of silence passed. “What is it?”
“Why are you helping me? I mean, none of this makes any sense. I don’t understand why you claim to know more about me than I do. Or why you call me ‘Rez’, or why you’re giving me such vital information about these nanocells so easily. What’s the catch? What could you possibly be hoping to gain from this?” he asked.
After a brief pause, Knight-1 began. “We share a
