Mutagen

Day 162 - 11:22 AM - Conference Room, Great Island Military Base, Atlantic City High School, Great Island, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States of America

Professor Alphfa Alston gave a ridiculous request. Not only, he wanted to leave the military out of his part of the meeting, but it would also be dangerous as there would be nothing to protect him if danger happened. Looking at the two escorts behind him, the two young soldiers behind Major McGuire appeared to be more reliable.

Mark looked at the two people on the other side of the table without expression. He waited for the response of Major McGuire and Captain Yorkshire.

And he was astonished.

"We will take our leave then."

"If that is what you wanted."

Both Major McGuire and Captain Yorkshire replied, respectively. But in any case, these sentences should not be their supposed reply at all. Even the soldiers behind them were surprised by their words.

But without minding those expressions, both the Major and the Captain left the room. The soldiers with them had no choice but to follow behind wearing strange emotions on their faces. It was except for one young soldier behind Major McGuire who was looking fiercely towards the scientist.

Professor Alston seemed to be amused seeing that young soldier but said nothing until the soldiers left the room.

"Mind control..."

Mark voiced out with uncertainty. He could not confirm if his assumptions were correct as he could not feel any fluctuation of magical energy from the professor. The only thing he knew was that the emotional thoughts of the two leaders got cut off as if they were executing some set of instructions after they replied.

"No, no. It's not Mind Control." Professor Alston replied while waving both his palms at Mark. "I just sent some brain wave signals which disrupted their thought process and made them execute some suggestions. It is more of hypnotism than mind control."

Mark stared at Professor Alston in silence. On the other hand, the latter just smiled at this reaction.

"Well, now that there will be no nuisance, we can start asking each other some questions. But it seems like our first questions are the same, right?"

"What are you?"

Mark and Professor Alston voiced at the same time as if they both had a tacit understanding. The former was expressionless while the latter was smiling brightly. Nevertheless, they had the same thing that they wanted to know.

Since the start, Mark already had this question.

Back at the school grounds, when Mark set everything up to gain more advantage towards these soldiers, this young man came and almost disrupted everything. But that was not the issue. What the problem was that Mark never detected this Professor Alston, who appeared on the school grounds.

Even now, if Mark could not see Professor Alston, it felt like he was not there at all.

With those in his mind, something clicked in Mark's thoughts.

"You're not the real deal, aren't you?"

Mark voiced out, which seemed to have surprised the professor.

But then, the professor smiled even brighter.

"Brilliant! I never thought that you would notice that."

Then, confirming Mark's assumption, the appearance of Professor Alston flashed as if an electronic projection turned off.

There, a robot with a humanoid shape wearing a scientist's robe sat while looking at Mark's direction.

It was a robot, or maybe, an android. No wonder now that it gave out a feeling of a person that was not alive. Even more dead than the Jumping Corpses Mark encountered before. The body, the professor was using, was not a living thing in the first place.

"Just who are you? I don't think that even the highest technology of Earth can already create something as high tech like this."

Mark asked with a frown.

"Hey, hey. I already answered the question. It is my turn to ask."

The robot started to move, mimicking the reactions of a human. It was very strange to see since its face was nothing but a blank metallic visor.

"That is not my question that you answered."

Mark said with a frown. His first question was what Professor Alston was and not show the real appearance of this robot in front of him.

"Tch, alright. You got me." Professor Alston replied in annoyance.

Then, the appearance of the robot flashed once more. This time, however, it was not the appearance of the young scientist.

Gray wrinkly hairless skin, large black beady eyes, a nose without a bridge, and a tiny mouth, that was what replaced the robot's appearance.

"A Greyling."

Mark voiced out.

"Hey, that is rude." Professor Alston reacted rather fiercely. "Calling us Graylings is very derogatory! And even if many of us with almost similar species had the same color, we mostly belong to different planetary races. Bear that in your mind!"

Mark had a strange expression now. Who would have thought that a Grayling would be offended by being called a Grayling? Nevertheless, what Professor Alston said was not wrong. It was like calling people white or black even though they came from different countries and just had the same skin color.

Nevertheless, Professor Alston already answered Mark's question. He was not a human. And he also revealed it with sincerity. Mark could tell as the two escorts behind the professor had some surprising reactions.

They were not surprised that the professor was not human. The escorts were shocked that he revealed the truth just like that.

"Now, it is your turn to answer."

Professor Alston's large black eyes blinked as he stared at Mark intently.

"What is there to answer. I'm human. At least, for the most part."

Mark replied while shrugging his shoulders.

Sure enough, Professor Alston started intently at Mark as if he was scrutinizing something. In truth, he was scanning Mark's body.

Mark knew of it as he could feel a strange feeling enveloping his body. Nevertheless, he had no qualms about it. Even Mark himself was curious as to what he ended up becoming.

But then, the already wrinkled forehead of Professor Alston crumpled even more.

"What did it say?"

Mark asked.

Professor Alston seemed to be surprised that Mark would notice. Nevertheless, he was more focused on the result of the scan.

"Unidentified."

The professor replied in a serene tone.

The escorts turned towards Mark with surprised expressions. On the other hand, Mark almost choked after hearing that answer.

Although he already expected it somehow, the result still gave a surprising effect.

"In a straightforward meaning... If you are human before. Then, you already left the plane of being human or any existing species."

Hearing that, Mark nodded with another shrug.

"You don't seem very surprised."

Professor Alston asked with curiosity.

"Two people already told me something similar before. And that was even way before I became what I am right now."

Mark replied. He had no problems sharing that.

Nevertheless, it piqued the professor's interest in Mark even more.

"Still, you don't seem very surprised when I revealed myself true identity. It felt kind of unfair."

Professor Alston voiced out. 

The mood swings of this person were quite unpredictable. Mark thought. It gave this alien a personality inclining more to mad scientists.

On the other hand, Mark was not surprised since he was mostly incapable of such emotions, more so in front of strangers. There was no need to put up a front either.

Furthermore, an extraterrestrial being manipulating a robot would pique interest in Mark more than surprise or shock.

"So, why is an alien here pretending to be a scientist?"

Mark asked as it was already his turn.

"Isn't it obvious? We are cooperating with the US government to fight off the outbreak."

It was a surprising answer. Mark could not deny it.

This answer meant that the US government had ties with the extraterrestrial all along.

"So, the rumors about Area 51 and other things are the truth."

Mark voiced out. Unexpectedly, Professor Alston laughed about it.

"Are you talking about that decoy base?"

That question from Professor Alston made Mark confused a bit.

Then, the professor continued.

"Area 51 is nothing but a military base that serves as a decoy to gather attention. Don't you think that a base built as secretive as possible will be easy to find out? You think that if the US government is really testing alien technology, they would allow others to see or allow some leakage to happen? Everything is done on purpose. The more that humans suspect that base, the more that they neglect other places. It became easier for us and the US government to cooperate that way."

"And what cooperation is that?"

Mark could not help but blurt out.

"Hey, it's my turn to ask. Nevermind. It is not an answerable question anyway." Professor Alston shrugged. "I have no authority over that information. I'm only here to study the Gene Virus."

Mark was a bit disappointed. Nevertheless, it could not be helped. Other countries' private matters were not that much to his interest anyway.

In any case, the existence of Professor Alston here concluded that even the aliens were interested in Mutagen. Or maybe, they already experienced it in other planets and were trying to find answers.

Mark and Professor Alston continued to exchange questions like how Mark did with Major McGuire and Captain Yorkshire.

The only difference, however, was that the professor's questions pointed more on Mark's existence. He was asking about how he became like this despite being formerly human and other things related to his unidentified classification.

Other than that, Professor Alston had no qualms in sharing information that was under his jurisdiction. And sure enough, Mark learned more than he should be able to.

Unexpectedly, the aliens were also aware of Auraboros and the spirit races. Hearing that Mark had demon blood in him, the professor started to mumble about the existence of magical races.

It gave Mark the opportunity to ask if magical races also existed on his planet.

Mark was given an unexpected answer.

Their planet did not have them, at least, the native species did not. However, there were other planets with twisted physics and laws which allow the existence of unknown energies, matter, and physiques for the beings living there. And so as, the thing humans called magic existed in some of those planets.

And in fact, Earth was not the only planet that was inhabited by human-like species. There were others in other galaxies too. It was just unlike other alien races, the ones with similar evolution chains as humans tend to have slower growth in terms of technology.

Thus, it was more impossible for human aliens to visit Earth unless for special circumstances.

Mark felt a bit refreshed conversing with Professor Alston. Unlike the exchange with the two soldiers, the professor aimed more on his interest and there were no constraints about the topic.

And to describe the professor's manners, he was more of a curious being than a scientist who only wanted the truth to revealed.

The conversation led towards Auraboros at some point. Unexpectedly, the aliens would not interfere in that matter even with their current cooperation with the US government.

Why? The reason was that it was a fight between the natives of Earth. It was not something that visitors like them should step into. As long as Auraboros would leave them alone, the aliens would not do anything either.

Furthermore, it was the law established since the start. Or else, someone powerful would interfere and vanish the visitors out of the planet.

If not for that, the Earth had long been invaded by aliens. Someone was protecting it from that and only visitors with no ill intentions and would not directly interfere in Earth's matters were welcome.

That information made Mark frown.

It made Mark feel insecure for some reason. It felt like he was driving a car but one wheel went over the gutter.

This feeling was uncomfortable. It was as if a piece of crucial information that he needed to know was missing.