by Silas Vale
He chuckled a bit, looking at her with dubious eyes.
"I've heard how hard it is to get your phone number, Willow Grace. Be careful, or you might just begin to fall for me." He smiled as he walked ahead of her, pulling a ring of keys from his pocket and slowly going through them. Eventually, he picked one out, and slid it into the keyhole of a cellar door they had just made it to.
With a loud creak, he pulled it open, and lights automatically flicked on through the entirety of a very long hallway.
"After you."
"Fall for you?" She scoffed, rolling her eyes as she walked into the hall and started walking down it. "Nice try. Don't flatter yourself, kid."
She pulled off her jacket, holding it in one arm as she glanced around the hall. "This looks like a damn murder chamber. I wonder if there are any other tunnels underneath the campus." She tilted her head to the side, studying the cracks that lined the stone walls. "Maybe I'll go check out the library and see if I can find anything. Those tunnels would be fun to explore, I'd bet." She smirked slightly. They would be a good place to get drunk or high off their asses.
She had… Interesting priorities.
"Oh, there are. I've got a map down here, somewhere. I used to explore them, but eventually got bored of beer cans from the eighties and dead rats. So be my guest, if you want." He closed the door behind them, locking it as he began to walk down the hallway.
"I promise my lab isn't as murderous-looking as this hallway. I just never got around to furnishing it."
He chuckled as he glanced over to her, looking her up and down.
"So. Think we'll be able to cure cancer?"
"I think that's on you, isn't it?" She quirked an eyebrow, turning her head towards him as she looked him up and down. "This is your theory. I'm just helping you test to see if it works. If it doesn't, that isn't really on me, now is it?" Her voice was somewhat calculated. She was obviously quite intelligent, though it wasn't apparently obvious at first glance.
She just looked like one of the party girls that hung around campus. And she kind of was.
"So where's your place, then?" She changed the topic after a couple seconds of silence, looking forward again. "Do you live on campus?"
"I rent an apartment downtown. Not many people on campus really wanted me here, so I just decided to get my own place. I'm not exactly one of the popular ones, Willow. That's why I'm surprised you've decided to work with me."
It was obvious he didn't know about the attendance bump she'd get for working with him. And figuring that out would break his heart. He figured he would finally be able to make a friend.
"But I suppose you're right; this has been my pet project for a long while. I would just like to get a second opinion on the subject, especially yours. I've heard wonderful things."
Everyone had heard both the wonderful and the terrible things about Willow Grace.
At least her reputation was better than Blake's.
"Yeah, I've heard that before." She knew of her reputation. Her father was a successful businessman, and the Grace name was certainly known to some. She was making a name for herself too, both good and bad. She was a genius, and many people knew it.
Nych nodded his head, but had fallen silent.
She was very sure of herself. She knew she was beautiful, and would likely use that to her advantage. She also capitalized on her intelligence, and he knew that she was likely just using him now for the notebook.
Then again. She was helping him, when she didn't have to be.
The two of them were such polar opposites, but… He could see their partnership actually going somewhere.
They could do great things.
"Here we are." He muttered, making it sound nonchalant.
But oh, it was not.
The large room they walked into was bigger than a football field, and was a perfect square. There was a sliding ladder on every wall, because nearly floor to ceiling… There were plans. Paintings of technological blueprints or design work. The room was filled with tables covered in papers, sliding chairs, empty bottles of who knows what and a few pizza boxes and Chinese food containers.
"Pardon the mess." He said shyly, walking towards the center of the room. In the center sat a giant metal cage, with a bench on the inside.
"… Wow." Willow's breath left her, and she looked around the room with wide eyes.
It took a lot to impress Willow Grace.
She set her binder and jacket down on the closest table, taking a couple steps into the room and looking around it with visible awe on her face. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, tucking stray strands of orange hair behind her ears as she examined each poster and the cage in the center of the room. Nych was a very lucky man, because he was going to see a side of Willow very few people ever saw.
The side that was completely devoted to science, and was amazed and excited by it.
"I, uhh… I've been meaning to clean the place up, and straighten all of the papers, but… You know, I never really have time anymore with medical school, robotics classes, hospital volunteering, the works…"
He volunteered at the hospital? No way. It was almost impossible to get a volunteer spot at the hospital in Vancouver. People registered months in advance.
"So just kick anything aside if you need to. You can look at any of the paintings, if you'd like, most of them are just random musings…"
He fell silent again as he pulled his ring of keys from his pocket, unlocking the cage in front of him.
"… I'm impressed, Nych." The tone of her voice was different. Was it… Admiration?
She walked up to a random table, picking up some of the drawings and notes and flipping through them with curiosity. There was a clever gleam in her eyes, and she leaned against the table as she examined all of the pages. They were certainly impressive. The amount of research and work that had gone into everything in that room was astronomical, and it was just lying out there ripe for the viewing.
She looked towards him after a moment. "How many projects have you completed down here?"
He turned to her, a bit of a smile coming to his face as he pointed toward the far wall. What appeared to be just lines before became, apparently, dashes.
"Two-hundred and twenty-six. Most of them were small things, though. I've helped pioneer many processing units for modern computers, but I've also helped in medicine. My crowning achievement is actually in testing right now."
His smile finally widened, because this was something he was truly proud of.
"I cured Malaria."
"… You cured Malaria?" She gaped at him, and after a moment walked over to him. She looked him up and down, assessing him, and after a moment narrowed her eyes as she examined his face. "… How?"
He had her attention.
That was something quite few people were able to grasp. Willow usually didn't pay attention to anybody unless she found them to be truly captivating, and this time around it happened to be Nych. To cure Malaria was a huge achievement, and she sure as hell wanted to know how he had done it.
This time, Nych genuinely grinned, and began rushing around his lab.
He eventually came back with a large sort of tube in his hand, though it was sealed on both ends. And inside the tube… Were about fifty mosquitoes.
"Alright. So these babies are the answer. They have antimalarial properties, and therefore they can't contract the disease themselves. The nifty thing is that when they bite people, they also pass those enzymes on to the person who was bitten. So yeah, you've gotta deal with a mosquito bite for a while, but it gets better. When these guys bite you, they also pass on a specific set of genes I designed that make mosquitoes absolutely hate the smell of you. So you won't be bitten by mosquitoes again, while also being immune to Malaria."
That… Was genius.
She examined the tube with rabid fascination, tilting her head to the side and reaching up to lightly tap on the glass. "That's remarkable. It's like you vaccinate the mosquitoes t
hemselves rather than actually give a vaccine to humans."
It was… A different approach. But it would work. And probably better than a vaccine.
"You could wipe it out completely with this method." She looked up at Nych. "They do pass on the genes to their offspring, right?"
He rolled his eyes, smiling. "Yes, of course they do. But I've got something better for you. These mosquitoes were designed to be highly fertile, so they’ll create more offspring than normal mosquitoes. And my personal favorite thing about them is that they feed on normal mosquitoes. Therefore, in a few generations, these genetically altered mosquitoes will have eaten every non-modded mosquito on the planet, and after that… They’ll die out themselves."
That… Was amazing.
"Did you know that mosquitoes are one of the only organisms that, if they went extinct, would not affect the world's ecosystem in the slightest? Mosquitoes make up such a small percentage of the food source of every animal that feeds upon it, they would hardly be missed."
He set the tube down on the table very, very carefully.
"In a few years, we can wipe mosquitoes from the face of the planet."
Willow looked at him incredulously, nodding along as he spoke. “This reminds me of the procedure called the Sterile Insect Technique. They've been using it with screwworms, moths, fruit flies, and they've been trying it on mosquitoes too." She grinned, obviously pleased to start going in depth.
"They sterilize the insects using x-rays, and the males go out and mate with the wild female population. But all of the eggs that those females lay aren’t fertilized, so it cuts the population in half and helps prevent disease and economic loss from pest insects." It was certainly something she was well-versed in.
She probably kept up on the news pretty well.
The smile that lit up Nych’s face at that moment was much larger than any he'd shown before.
"I can't believe you actually know about the SIT! I've contributed heavily to that project, especially with the recent development with my mosquitoes. They've started using the chemical repellent strategy, like I did, for the more hardy species. X-Rays work fine until a radiation immunity develops, or mutations fail."
He'd never met someone who actually knew about the Sterile Insect Technique.
"I… Well, I expected this partnership to be kind of awkward. We're pretty different, but… I kind of like you now."
She stared at him for a second, before she snorted and started laughing. "That's good. You're not as much of a dweeb as I thought you were." She poked his chest, smirking slightly and taking a step back. "Of course I know about it. It's kind of important, yeah? I fucking hate mosquitoes. Anything that spells their eventual extinction will be lovely for me." She shrugged, shaking her head with amusement.
"So." She looked around the room once again. "What else?"
She wanted to get the full-scope on the things this room held.
"Oh, a few things, but that's the major one. Right now I'm working on two things; harnessing the power of lightning for power consumption and, of course… The cure for cancer. I can actually demonstrate the first one for you." He said, smiling as he opened the door to the cage.
"Would you mind?"
He was about to show her something that not many people got to see.
It would definitely shock her.
Not literally, but… You get the point.
She stared at him for a moment, and after a second nodded and walked over to the cage. She sat down inside, and looked up at him once she was properly seated and comfortable. "Just saying, if you're gonna murder me down in your bunker, I'll haunt you forever and throw things off your bookshelves." There was a smirk on her face, and a teasing lilt to her voice. She was obviously just trying to mess with him.
There would probably be a lot of that in the following weeks.
"Alright." She sat up a little straighter. "Show me what you’ve got."
He nodded, closing the door and pressing a few buttons on the control panel located within the cage. A light blue glow began to take over the metal, and he sat down next to her.
"Just… Don't touch the side of the cage, and you'll be fine." He said, nodding towards the four walls and the ceiling made of what looked like fence material.
"Understand that this lightning is created via friction, just like it is within the clouds. Therefore, there isn't much electricity being put into the production of it, besides the minuscule amount used to create the friction. Now, watch this."
He pressed another button, and oh. The lab came to life.
From the ceiling, tens or hundreds of bolts of lightning began raining down on them, seemingly only focused on the cage. A green bar on the screen on the panel began to rise, and Nych shouted above the noise.
"See that bar? That's a percentage of energy needed to run the college for a month. We're already at ten percent, and we've been here for a few seconds."
Steadily, the bar kept rising, and the bolts of lightning continued to rain down upon them.
Finally, however, the electricity stopped flowing, and Nych pressed the same buttons he had before. The blue glow around the cage faded.
Willow grew more and more exhilarated the longer she sat in the cage. It was incredible. She felt like Nikola Tesla, sitting there in a cage surrounded by thousands of volts of electricity. She kept her hands on her legs, and after a second looked at Nych with a big grin.
"That was amazing." A laugh bubbled up from her throat. "Oh my God."
This was… Quite a different side of her. Far more mellow and laid back than the regular tough-girl persona she had on.
He nodded, smiling as he carefully opened the door to the cage. He did so with rubber gloves, because he never knew if any of the electricity would linger in the metal.
"Isn't it? It feels absolutely amazing to have all that control over lightning. Eventually, we'll be able to control the storms and get lightning that way, and won't have to use any electricity at all, including what's used to create the friction."
This man was, obviously, brilliant.
"I'm working on other things too, but we're not here for those. I'll tell you about them some other time, if you decide to stick around after this project is done."
Hmm. He obviously wasn't very self-confident.
"We're here to cure cancer. Ready to see what I've got?"
"Ready as I've ever been." She stood up, leaving the cage and being mindful not to brush up against any of the metal as she did so. She didn't want to wind up accidentally electrocuting herself, considering she still had a lot she wanted to do in life and didn't want her brain getting fried.
She had already made several breakthroughs in her own personal projects, but those didn't matter at that moment.
"Show me your progress." She crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked around. "Might as well get to work."
When Rumors arise
The hours passed with pleasant conversation and interesting information about each other.
Nych and Willow were, surprisingly, very compatible with each other. Many of their interests were the same, once Nych got past Willow's party shell. She was actually quite nice, and not the prude everyone made her out to be.
Nych had decided to ride the bus with her, simply because he didn't have anything else to do and wanted to continue the conversation with her.
She was fun to talk to.
"So like I said, the machinery is going to be difficult. Building something this small hasn't been done before, but… I think we'll be able to do it."
They were nearing Willow's stop.
"I work with a lot of really small components." She ignored the strange looks she got from other college students on the bus, and reached up to press the button for her stop. "If I have the right equipment, I can probably do it. A lot of my projects revolve around robotics themselves. The medicine is sort of an add-on, and a way to have steady pay when I graduate. I do find it fascinating, though." She shrugged her should
ers.
She glanced out the window and pursed her lips. "This is my stop, here." She said after a moment, looking over at him.
She didn't really want to leave, but she'd talk to him again the next day.
He nodded his head, looking around the bus with a bit of amusement. "I'm sure I'll be able to find my way home. It appears you and Blake are going somewhere?"
Ah. Yes, that was Blake.
On the sidewalk.
Jumping up and down.
Waving like a lunatic.
She would never give Willow any peace, would she?
She had changed, hopefully for cleaner reasons than anything having to do with Shayne, into a long black skirt that hugged against her legs. Her top was black as well, and her high-heels gave her a good three inches over Willow.
That was saying something, considering she was usually an inch shorter.
Nych chuckled, looking at the very gothic-looking woman outside the window.
Willow stared at Blake for a second or two, and then rolled her eyes. What an idiot.
She stood up, and cast a look back at Nych. "We're getting dinner. I'll see you tomorrow during class." She stuck her tongue out at him teasingly, and then stepped off of the bus and onto the sidewalk. He was nice. She was glad her professor had approached her earlier that day, as working and talking with Nych had actually been quite the pleasure.
"You look like an idiot." Those were the first words she said to Blake, and she smirked slightly as she adjusted the leather jacket she was wearing. "So. How was your day?"
Blake feigned that Willow had hurt her feelings, before bouncing right back into her very cheery attitude.
"It was fantastic. I feel like I'll totally bang Shayne by the end of the week. And honestly, I can't wait." She smiled a bit, because this time she was actually being sarcastic. "I'm kidding. I don't really like him that much, considering I've heard stories of what he's done to girls. I think I'll lead him on a bit and then break his heart."
Well. She really didn't hold anything back.
