Will woke up feeling incredible. His body felt like it was surging with energy, his senses sharper than before, and there was something unknown inside him that he had never felt before. Before he could explore it, he heard muffled talking from outside the Metamorphosis Pod. Will pushed his way out and a small opening formed.

"Can someone explain to me what the hell is going on here?" A familiar looking soldier demanded as he looked back and forth between Donny and Will.

"Can i get dressed first?" Will asked, standing up.

Will didn't know what was going on or why David Nielsen was standing right in front of him the moment he left the Metamorphosis Pod. He toweled himself clean and dressed himself up but found his shirt had been ripped up, he opted to wrap himself up in a blanket instead.

"Well?" The private asked when he finished covering himself up.

Donny was preoccupied with gaping and staring at the man's wings. Finally having some time to think, Will answered him.

"It's like this, sir, we found this thing and realized that we could get very rich off of it if we sold it to the right company for research. We wanted to set up some fences around the area to keep all the zombies out but could only find a store with those traps. That's how we ended up out here."

"Alright...but that doesn't explain what you were doing inside that pod or cocoon?" He pointed at the pod in question.

Will didn't have an answer to the question.

Would he let us go if we refuse to answer? If he doesn't, we might have to fight him. He thought as he eyed the M4 strapped around the private. I'd be able to easily disable him if I awakened Adrian's bloodline.

Will immediately began to focus on his body, trying to channel something that had never been there before into is right hand. Nothing happened even as he flexed his right hand harder. He tried to switch to his left hand but it was the same result.

Did it fail or am I doing it wrong?

"Well?"

If it wasn't working, Will couldn't count on it at the moment, and if he couldn't disable the private with bio-electricity, the clash between the two may become messy, especially if he couldn't catch him off guard with a sneak attack. Will's thoughts turned dark as he considered how he might even have to resort to deadly means in order to...

"It's a little embarrassing, sir." Donny suddenly spoke up as he gave a sheepish smile and scratched his the back of his head. "We were shooting a video for YouHub." Donny lifted his phone. "It was our chance to get a whole bunch of clicks and go viral."

"You did something as stupid as strip and crawled into an unknown object for YouHub clicks?" The private asked incredulously.

"Hehe..." Donny laughed awkwardly.

"Well, you're lucky nothing went wrong. This thing is now under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Armed Forces. You two will need to stick around until I get someone to check up on you to make sure you didn't catch anything." Private Nielsen said before lifting his radio.

At that moment, a pack of coyotes crested the hill in the distance, attracted by the scent of blood, and spotted the trio. This pack was larger than any Donny had seen in the last 3 days, and they came barreling down towards them. A few were caught in the traps set around the camp, allowing the rest to proceed unhindered.

Will immediately ran towards the UTV and hopped into the driver's seat. He powered it on and hit the gas.

"Get in!" Will picked up Donny while the private open fired at the violent coyotes. They were clearly zeroes.

Using the private as a distraction, they drove towards their vehicle and the highway. As they were driving away, Will took one last glance backwards to see the coyotes swarm the private, forcing him to expand his wings and take off into the air.

When they retreated a couple kilometers away and found that nothing had followed them, Will turned to Donny, "Why was David Nielsen there?"

"My bad, he heard the gunshots and came to check it out." Donny said. "You know him?"

"Every Canadian knows him in the future. He'll participate in many rescue operations and become the poster boy for the government. He's basically Captain Canada, and he's the first person in Canada to evolve successfully into a Category 0. His bloodline is very distinctive too." Will explained.

"That dude could fly! That was a bloodline? So would I be able to get myself some wings?" Donny asked. "I thought we could only awaken abilities that are like...human. But that looked like he fused with a bat instead, did he use a bat symbiote?"

"If you wanted wings like his, it would have to be one giant bat symbiote to pull that off, and he would have more of the bat's physical features if he fused with a bat symbiote." Will shook his head. "The virus mostly awakens abilities that are within the realm of possibility for the species that it infects, but in every species, there are a small number that have a certain genetic makeup that perfectly matches up with the Talon virus. For humans, I believe the number is somewhere around 1 in every 100,000 humans. This genetic makeups—or genotype, is called the Prize genotype."

"Oh, I get it. Talon and prize, that's clever." Donny nodded.

Will continued with the explanation. "Those that have the Prize genotype awaken Bloodline abilities that researchers believe to have originated from the Talons themselves. Most of the bloodlines that are A-rank and S-rank are pretty much Talon bloodlines."

"Wait a minute! So that dude has an alien bloodline?" Donny asked in shock at the new revelation.

Will nodded. "In a way. He's still very much human. That Metamorphosis Pod back there is also an example of what happens if a plant carries the Prize genotype."

"Does that mean Parasites all have the Prize genotype?"

"Yes."

Donny looked backwards. "But that dude was already evolved...How long would it have taken for us if we didn't use the pod?"

"I think you would have started showing signs any day now and you would have fully evolved in a week or so. As for me, it would have taken another 7 months."

"Couldn't I have just evolved without the pod? We could have saved some headaches." Donny rubbed the top of his helmet as he thought about the past 3 days.

"Then you wouldn't have had the chance to awaken a Talon bloodline."

"Oh, right...then did you?"

"We'll find out once we get back." Will was tempted to begin testing out his abilities but didn't want to risk frying any nearby electronics if he had successfully awakened Adrian's bloodline.

They exited the forest shortly after and packed the UTV into the cargo trailer.

"You drive." Donny tossed Will the keys, entering the back seat of the armored SUV and lying down. "I'm dead, I need some sleep."

Some time later, Will drove into the compound and his grandpa came out as soon as he spotted them.

"What happened to you? You were acting strange last time and now the two of you come back after you going missing for three days. I was afraid something happened to you." Grandpa berated Will rapid-fire in Cantonese. "Aiya! I'm too old for this." Grandpa Wong repeatedly tapped himself on the back with his fist as he moved to sit down on the porch.

"Sorry, Grandpa. It was an emergency." Will said, walking over to give his grandpa a shoulder massage. "It's all good now."

"And where's your shirt? You tell me to cover up like a Mongolian every time I step out, and you're dressed like this now?"

"I don't know. What did happen to my shirt?" Will glanced over at a bleary-eyed Donny, who just woke up and stepped out of the car.

"Huh?" Donny eloquently said as he yawned and stretched out.

Broski, who had been waiting patiently by the side, finally decided that grandpa's scolding was over and excitedly hopped onto Will.

"Good to see you too, buddy."

After dinner and washing off all the residue slime, Will found an isolated room down in the bunker. As soon as he sat down on the couch, Will closed his eyes and began to concentrate and feel the changes to his body. Will attempted to invoke the bio-electricity he had seen people like Adrian Barnes use in the future.

After half an hour of trying, Will exhaled out a long breath of air and sat back in disappointment.

"You didn't get it either?" Donny asked, appearing in the room at some point.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"I'm just curious if you hit the alien jackpot."

Will shook his head. "I don't think so."

Then did I awaken my old abilities? If I at least manifested abilities on dad's side of the family...

"Turn off the lights." Will began to concentrate on the abilities he had gotten used to for over 14 years. Will started with his [Night Vision]. Because the abilities were now Category 0, he had to focus a little to feel something.

Will let out a sigh as his vision began to shift and his night vision settled in.

Is it just me or does it feel weaker than the first time?

Will tried to adjust the strength of his vision but nothing happened. But before his disappointment could set in, the world around him lit up in a wide array of colors, causing him to flinch, and his vision shifted again to what seemed like a weak thermal vision.

"What the..."

"Did something happened?" Donny asked.

"Turn on the lights again."

Donny turned on the lights and Will focused on changing his vision again. Suddenly, he could see what looked like glowing lights flowing along the walls and leading up to where the lights were. He could also see the phone in Donny's pocket giving off a glow.

Will forced his vision to shift again, and the world suddenly turned dark. Donny turned transparent and Will could see his bones, he could also see through certain objects in the room and some parts of the walls down in the bunker. Will continually shifted his vision and saw something different each time.

"So?" Donny asked.

"I think I got my original bloodline."

"You think?"

"But I think it was mutated by the other bloodline somehow. Walk around the room a bit. Let me try out my other ability."

Will focused on his [Seismic Sensitivity] this time. He couldn't feel the vibrations of Donny's steps but something else happened instead. Instead of the vibrations, Will felt Donny moving around instead. It was like he could feel the entire shape of Donny's body even when he moved behind him.

"Lift your arm." Will instructed Donny who was behind him. "I could feel it. Hold up a number for me to guess." Will waited but received nothing. He turned around to see Donny holding up his middle finger. "Mature."

"So...?"

"I think my [Night Vision] mutated into the ability to see the electromagnetic spectrum—[Electromagnetic Vision]. While [Seismic Sensitivity] changed so that I could sense electrical fields—[Electric Sense]."

"That's a good thing, right?"

"It's not quite as powerful as the Talon bloodline I was aiming for but it's definitely an improvement from the last time. I'll have to think of ways I can apply this ability."

"Alright." Donny yawned. "I'm getting some sleep then. The next time we do something like that, let's try not to do it in the middle of a forest."

Will kept track of Donny as he left the room until he moved out of his range, which happened to be at about 5 meters.

He unlocked his phone afterwards and opened up the health app. After clicking on the update button, he waited a moment for his phone and Neural-Chip to sync up before his newly updated stats displayed.

Name: Will Age: 18 Class: Berserker Barbarian Strength: 13 ➜ 15 Dexterity; 12 ➜ 17 Endurance: 13 ➜ 15 Intelligence: 0 Charisma: 8

Will ignored the useless information and focused on his physical stats.

Strange... He noted that his [Dexterity] went up 5 points. Why did that happen? Something to do with Adrian's bloodline?

The app didn't display his [Perception] at the moment but if he had to guess, it was now roughly in the 30s. This was not from his regular senses but with the combination of his new abilities.

The abilities would grow stronger as his Category level went up, but what Will needed now was a Parasite that could give him a boost in either combat ability or one that would aid him in training. Because now that he had finally evolved, his body didn't play by the same rules it did for regular humans anymore.