Leave The Monster Alone

"What are you doing here? Where were you even? Who asked you to come" Jean asked in an annoyed voice. But Mark looked past it all to the happy look she hid.

"Of course my brother did" Alan replied back which started a whole string of friendly banter and arguments.

Mark broke the argument before it could escalate any further.

"So, is there any information you can provide us with? You must have dug around for more information right?" Mark was sure the party would have tried to investigate around before calling him here.

Luna was a cautious person who tried to solve things himself before asking for help from outside. As such, Mark was sure the other must have really hit a roadblock before calling for him.

"Nothing particularly. Luna did not allow us to touch the body nor separate for long which made our search very limited. We have not yet found anything" which was a safe choice for everyone. 

Mark had told Luna about the Suzy incident in brief and the other must have realised what kind of situation he could end up facing if he did not take precautions.

"It's good that you did not" Mark replied as he followed Jean deeper inside. Luna was the first one his attention zoned in on. The tall and muscular body that looked tense could only belong to the protagonist of this world.

At his side stood the twins, Darwin Hue and Dixie Hue who looked on at the doorway in a curious way but they did not take any steps to revoke the order.

"Hey, boss! We have guests here" Jean broke the cover, her loud noise attracting the attention of the whole group who stood there. The twins were the first to turn their way and gave Mark a small wave as a hello.

"You are here? Good, now give me a hand here" Luna, though, did not give the other any chance to relax or get themselves familiarised with each other. His commanding gaze called everyone to follow his orders.

"Where is the body?" Mark made his way near the man as he asked. The younger took one look behind his back before he gestured for Mark to follow. Rika and Alan made their way behind him too but he stopped.

"I seed to have a talk with Mark alone. Everyone else stays here" the voice was final, no objections would be heard. The others took an unconscious step back at that voice.

All except Alan who just stepped forward without any worry and made his way over to his brother. There was a couple of seconds where various things passed through their eye contact and then Luna finally sighed.

"Fine, Alan can come with us but no one else. This is a private meeting" it did make their other three curious about the context of the talk but they had to hold back their curiosity.

Mark saw the female twin lean toward Rika and whisper in her ear which caused the other girls to go red in her face. There was a curious look passed his way, then Luna's before back at him and the red worsened.

Now Mark wanted to ask the other what she had heard to get that reaction but he did not get a chance to do so. Mark took hold of his arm and proceeded to drag him inside. Alan followed behind them with a worried expression.

Mark was only released once they were deep inside the ruins where no one would come looking for them at all.

"What is that you wanted to talk about?" since a tense air had settled over everyone all at once, Mark thought the small talk would be a great way to break the ice. 

"It's about this whole situation. Also, you put my brother in danger" Alan was the one who stopped that arm from making contact with Mark's face or he would have felt the pain in his face by now. 

The arm had moved so fast that Mark would have never been able to stop it at all.

"Brother, it was my choice. I thought you understood this" Alan pleaded as he loosely held that hand. He did not want to apply pressure and break anything in his brother's hand.

"I do understand but I do not like it. He told me he would protect you at all cost and then you almost died out there for no reason at all and now what are you even? Not a full human?" Alan squeezed his brother's wrist in his hand.

He knew that his brother was just lashing out because he was scared for him but Alan did not like how he was talking about him.

"I made that choice. Even you or anyone else would not have been able to do anything in that position and I would not have wanted you to. I'm still a human and I intend to remain a human" being human was a choice, one he had already made.

He wanted his brother to understand it as well. Alan was the one who made these choices, not Mark. Even if the other had played a part in it all, it had come down to Alan in the end to make this choice. 

"I know and 'I' understand. That doesn't mean everyone will though" people would not hear him defend himself at all. They had not when Luna had been accused in the past nor for anyone else innocent.

The action of one wrong affected everyone's view and perspective of a thing. And Alan was as good as doomed in their eyes, they could not find out at all.

"We'll cross that bridge once we come across it. Meanwhile, let us focus here for now" Luna took deep breaths to calm himself down. It was a bad habit of his, to focus on other things when he needed to focus on the local thing first.

"Right, let's do that. I'll take you to see the body" Mark and Alan followed behind Luna who led them outside on the other gate. They entered a semi-open sanctuary type space that had a huge dome.

The dome was not visible from outside due to the larger walls on the periphery and only if you came in would you witness this beauty that was created here. It was an awe-inspiring scenery in Mark's mind.

But the most beautiful feature was the glass-coffin right in the middle of the room. It held inside a body that was androgenous and young in age. It looked to be around 9 years of age and covered in a robe. Long black hairs covered the whole body and Mark had a feeling he should recognise it.

"This is the body. What do you think?" Mark took his time observing everything. There could be too many factors or combinations of factors that could have resulted in this scenario.

"Maybe it is the glass? Or the light?" Mark asked, trying to help but Luna shook his head.

"I don't think so. The reports from the base said that such methods were incapable of preserving the body. It should have started to rot by now from the inside" it was the answer he had expected do Mark was not surprised.

"I'll go get Rika and the others" Rika would be able to tell them more about such cases. She was the leading expert in all this and had overlooked the experimentation for such projects after all.

Mark gave Alan a 'go ahead' gesture and the other left quickly. He also came back as fast but with a party of four behind him.

"So this is the body? There looks to be nothing unique about it but we cannot be sure yet. I would need to test it out in my lab" which meant it needed to be transported. 

If the body was dead then Mark should be able to store it easily in his system storage. So he tried but was unsuccessful.

_____________________

Object type is not right. Cannot be stored in the system storage.

Error: Type - bio

Note: Alive humans cannot be stored in the system storage or they would die

_____________________ 

Wait! Alive humans? But this was clearly a dead body here, wasn't it? Things were not right here.

"The system says that the human inside is alive so it cannot store it. We will need to take the whole crystal separately" which was a pain in everyone's neck.

"Alive? How can anyone be alive in such a condition? Hasn't he suffocated yet?" since they did not know the gender of the human inside the crystal, Alan had decided to go with 'he' and no one really protested.

Mainly because they had more important factors to think about. The biggest of all - what do they do about this body now?

"I'll get a small sample of the crystal for the time being if I can then. We can mark this place and tell everyone to be cautious of this place. Also, keep it under digital surveillance?" Rika suggested he alternative.