Cyclical, cyclical. Everything is an infinite fucking loop, he thought to himself. This did appear to become a pattern of his as of late. To him, the world seemed to have cast its net of inevitable danger closer and closer, and the only way to escape it was either by death or insanity. Rarely did he ever have the time to just sit back and reflect. In many ways, his secret condo in Darkside represented all that was wrong in his life.
What drove me to all of this? How do I get myself into these wacky things? Is this karmic retribution for the life I lead? I only do what I do to help others. He sighed. This is so frustrating, he thought as he sat on the edge of his bed. He was still a little banged up from the midnight drama with The Sentience. He needed to gather his thoughts. There were so many things to unravel about the happenings of last night; the Pink Flame Riders, Pierce, the androids, the Clone Farm. He couldn’t believe he went through all of that in few hours, all in the name of saving someone he considered family.
He went to the main menu display on his holo-watch to check out the footage of the clone farm. Still can’t believe this shit. This would turn the CWR community upside down if I leaked this. But it might put me at risk too. Hmm, I guess I’ll have some questions for good ole Shino Honda when I pay him a visit, Caiden thought. Just as he was about to close the window, a pop-up notification emerged saying, ‘Upload of file XNS-Nano Code.hlg is complete’.
“’Bout damn time,” he said.
Accessing the fully uploaded codec, a drop-down menu with numerous titles appeared. Some of files included nanocell formation; life cycle, membrane synapse connection, data transmission, assimilation, nanocell types, and a plethora of other subjects to choose from.
“Jeez. Okay, let’s take a look at data transmission. I wonder what that’s all about,” he said to himself. He clicked the file and a holo-video began playing.
“Dr. Amiko reporting new video file four-eight-zero-one; Data Transmission. In our nanocell formation video log, Dr. Sendo and I concluded that the base nanocell has four nuclei; two organic, and two techno-organic. In light of this realization came our hypothesis, specifically about how the nanocell could possibly influence cerebral function.
With more energy and intelligence at its disposal, we can speculate that a brain reinforced by nanocells would function and operate approximately fifty to one hundred times more efficiently than a brain without nanocell reinforcement. Specifically, on the topic of data transmission, we ponder the processing of visual data. A normal human retina interprets and transmits data at a speed rivaling an ethernet connection. With a nanocell enhanced retina and brain, data has the potential to be processed much faster and more efficiently.
Since we haven’t any proper way to test this theory, we can’t know for sure just how much faster a nanocell enhanced brain would intake and interpret data. But with a proper test subject we could record our findings. That, though, may prove difficult, and even unethical. There are countless things that could go wrong. Surely Dr. Volda would find a way to conduct these kinds of tests if he was aware of what we were doing. Maybe we should keep this from him. Wouldn’t you say Hisashi?”
The video log abruptly ended. Hmm, I should revisit this. That Amiko lady was smart as hell. Little did she know, the nanocells in my brain have eight nuclei. I might be able to finish that project I started working on, after all. I wonder what Vantz is up to? Caiden thought stood up to stretch.
He made his way to Vantz’s room, knocking on the door several times. “Vantz! Hey, Vantz! You up?”
He didn’t answer. He opened the door just to make sure Vantz was okay, expecting him to be asleep, only to be surprised by what he saw. The room was dark. The blinds were closed. He saw Vantz, sitting upright, robotically stiff, staring haplessly at the light grey wall of his room. He was unfazed by Caiden’s entrance. He sat there in silence.
“Hey, man. Are you there, dude? Earth to Vantz?” Caiden called out.
“What do you want, Caide?” Vantz replied coldly. He was still facing the wall, unmoving and barely responsive.
“What’s goin’ on with you man? Why’re you so being weird?” Caiden asked tentatively.
Vantz shook his head. A few seconds of awkward silence ticked by, leaving Caiden unsure of what to say as he stood in the doorway. “It’s always like this,” Vantz began with a calm, but abrasive demeanor.
“What’re you talking about? Always like what?” Caiden asked.
“This!” Vantz yelled as he stood up to turn around and look at Caiden.
“What are you so mad about? What is ‘this’? You’re not making any damn sense!” Caiden shot back.
“It’s just like when we were kids!” Vantz replied. “This kind of shit always happens to me!”
“Vantz, I dunno what to say to you, man. I mean, you’re like a brother to me, and I’m not gonna sit by and let something happen to you, especially if I can do something about it.”
“Fuck man! I know, Caide, okay? I appreciate you always stickin’ your neck out for me. But, you know what? Just forget it man,” Vantz said.
“No way! Finish what you were saying! ‘Cause I wanna understand where all this aggression is coming from,” Caiden replied combatively.
“Every damn time something happens to me or whatever, you always come and get me out of a jam! It’s been that
