Chapter 15

Experimental Grounds

Coming out of the shadows into the little spark of light that brought hope to this unforgiving room, the figure took color.

A man with a lab coat, presumably in his thirties, came out. He had a short but thick beard and beat up hands.

His presence gave off an unusually unsettling, mad scientist vibe.

In his hand, he was holding a plier-ish looking object.

In the middle, it had some jewel, blue in color.

Coming even closer, walking slowly he approached Nick, who still had no idea why he is here.

The scientist let out a short sigh and continued his chain of thought.

‘‘Say, Nick, do you know anything about that…jewel you have on your neck?’’

‘‘Who are you? Where am I?’’

‘‘We’ll get to that later but for now, answer my question!’’’

‘‘I don’t have to tell you.’’

‘‘Oops, that’s enough for me! You know, just from your expression, I can deduce that you have ABSOLUTELY no clue about it. So…Nick, I’ll get to my part, but first…’’

Saying this he got even closer, to the point where he could reach him with his hands.

‘‘Let me take a look at it.’’

He whispered slowly, reaching out for his necklace. Reaching out for Nick’s cold, comatose body.

Unable to reach with his hands, Nick resisted with his head, pushing the scientist’s hand when it got close.

‘‘Ah, I see. This will do the trick.’’

The scientist pulled out a vaccine and quickly stabbed Nick with it.

‘‘What is this? I can’t move!’’

‘‘Don’t worry it’s just for safety, well…my safety.’’

Afterwards, he continued his activities and brought out the necklace.

‘‘Let’s test this bad boy out!’’

He grasped it with the plier looking object and held it tight. When they both started shining with a super bright blue light.

The scientist looked more than pleased with this outcome.

‘‘Ah yes, yes, GLOW, GLOW’’

However, Nick was in horrible pain but couldn’t even move enough to be able to scream in agony.

It was getting brighter and brighter until a shockwave sent the scientist flying to the other end of the room.

The pliers had smoke rising from them like a gun that was just fired.

The pain Nick had felt just now was no less painful than having his groin cut open.

Though this time the horrendous pain was spread all throughout his body.

If he hadn’t been paralyzed this would have been enough to knock him out.

‘‘Okay than Nick, I’ll answer your questions. Who are you, was it? Well, I am known by many names but you can call me Bob. I’m tryna get friendly with you, Ya know. Next question is…what was it again? Ah yes, where are you, right? You are in a cell next to what I call the Experimental Grounds. You’ll see more about it when we get there.’’

Surprised by his friendly attitude, Nick couldn’t help but question his morals.

The explanation Nick was given, while bold, was still enough to figure it out.

‘‘So there is only one possible explanation to this. We probably lost the fight and they got what they want. Experimental Grounds huh, hmm, that doesn’t ring a bell.’’

The scientist, or should I say…Bob shoved his hand in the pocket of his lab coat and brought out a key, which he used to unlock the chains holding Nick against the wall.

Immediately after he took him and exited the room.

The next room was dark until he clapped his hands and torches that were on the walls lit up.

Nick would’ve probably looked surprised if he wasn’t paralyzed.

The light revealed a display of precious necklaces on display.

‘‘Ah, how much time have I invested in this research? Now then. The things you are seeing now are prototypes, prototypes of your necklace.’’

‘‘What does he mean by that?’’

‘‘For many years have I wanted to make a copy of the jewel of power, but when news spurred up in town about your arrival, only then did I think I was closest to cracking its secrets. I’ve tested prototype after prototype only to get more failures, but you, you are just the thing I was searching for this entire time. With its powers, I’ll be able to rule the world!’’

‘‘What is he even talking about? What does all this mean?’’

‘‘I don’t suppose you know a lot about her right? I remember it like yesterday…I was a scientist at the royal research team of Languinia. She was a young woman, filled with talent and joy. She had both beauty and brains. She was of great help to the declining research capabilities of this nation. She helped us break through a lot of important barriers, she changed the way we think about the world around us. She was truly like a gift from the gods!’’

He continued walking with Nick on his back.

Walking into the next room, which was huge.

An iron bridge running over a forested area, about the size of a few big stadiums.

‘‘Until one fateful day, when she left the research team. She left for one reason only. The head of the research was looking into crystals of power and immediately upon hearing these news, she resigned. That is when I started getting that she was hiding something from us, something very important. Usually, she’d share all information she had with us, no matter how revolutionary or profitable it was. But this time she hid it. , ,What could be so strange or revolutionary that she would hide it from us?’’ I asked myself. So I dedicated the next few months of my life, just searching for clues in the crystal of power or in old documents when I found it.

A newspaper article about the Sole’s jewels of power. Their uniqueness, their mysterious design trapped my mind. Next year I left the research team and started my personal work with a goal to find the secrets of this jewel that she held so dear. Now, do you see why I needed you here? You, Nick Sole, will be the final piece to this puzzle I thought I’d never solve…’’