"Soren Cross, report to guidance immediately."
The announcement echoed through New Geneva Academy's halls. Other eighteen-year-olds snickered as I passed.
"Beetle boy's in trouble again," someone whispered loudly enough so that I can hear them .
I kept walking. Let them laugh.
The guidance office smelled like cleaning solution dipped in disappointment. Mrs. Rodriguez sat behind a desk covered in holographic displays showing student files.
"Ah Soren , sit down."
She pointed at a plastic chair across from her. It looked uncomfortable and felt the same way too.
"Your enhancement selection is due next week."
"I know."
"And you're still insisting on arthropod DNA merger?"
She took a momentarily pause and continued
"Tiger beetle DNA specifically."
I nodded with saying anything.
She sighed. While titling her head and placing a finger of her temple "Soren, I've been a counselor for twenty-three years. I've seen bright kids make this mistake before."
I asked with curiosity, I definitely know the just but pretended to be ignorant.
"What mistake?"
She sighed again and said.
"Choosing enhancement based on childhood obsessions instead of practical considerations."
Her fingers danced over the holographic interface. Student records flashed by - success stories of tiger DNA mergers, wolf enhancers, even a few bird-human hybrids who'd made it into the city's elite guard.
"Look at these statistics. Insect DNA merger has a 78% failure rate. Of the 22% who succeeded the process, less than half maintain their sanity past the first year."
"Those are old numbers."
"No these are from last year, Soren." She responded
I leaned forward. "Did any of those failures specifically attempt tiger beetle merger?"
She paused. "Well, no. Most try spider or mantis DNA. But—"
"But nothing. Tiger beetles are the fastest insects alive. Nobody's tried tiger beetle merger because nobody understands what they're capable of."
She asked
"And you do?"
I'd been preparing for this conversation for ten years. I am not gonna back down now.
"Tiger beetles can run 125 body lengths per second. Scale that to human size, and you're looking at speeds that could revolutionize combat."
"Theoretical." She said while raising her eyelids
"Everything's theoretical until someone proves it works." I responded confidently
Mrs. Rodriguez stared at me. "Soren… even if your numbers are correct, the human body can't handle those forces. You'd tear yourself apart."
"Maybe with normal merger techniques."
"There are no other techniques."
I stood up. "Maybe I'll find one."
And walked out without looking back.
The door slid shut behind me with a pneumatic hiss.
In the hallway, clusters of students discussed their enhancement choices. Most had already decided - big cats were popular this year, along with birds of prey for the more ambitious kids.
"What'd Rodriguez want?"
Jake Morrison fell into step beside me. My only real friend at the academy, though "friend" might be too strong a word. He tolerated my beetle obsession better than most.
So what are we doing next.
"The usual lecture about practical enhancement choices." I said
"You're really going through with the tiger beetle thing?"
"Yes."
Jake shook his head. "Man, my older brother works at the enhancement clinic. He says insect mergers are… messy."
"How so?"
He responded with a hint of annoyance like it is not a common knowledge now day"The neural pathways don't integrate properly. Human brains and DNA are too complex compared to insect nervous systems. Creates feedback loops that drive people crazy."
We reached our lockers. Mine was covered in printouts of tiger beetle anatomy diagrams.
"What if the problem isn't the tiger beetle nervous system?" I said. "What if it's the merger technique?"
He asked shockingly
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it. Every successful DNA merger tries to merge human capabilities with animal ones."
Hey responded "Yeah, so?"
"But what if instead of merging , you layered? Keep the human nervous system as primary, but add tiger beetle capabilities as secondary systems?"
Jake looked confused. "Is that even possible?"
I lifted my shoulders like an old men and said
"I don't know. But I'm going to find out."
That afternoon, I skipped athletics classes to visit the city library's restricted section. My student access card got me past the first security checkpoint, but the really interesting files required higher clearance.
Good thing I'd been practicing social engineering for years.
"Hi, Dr. Yamamoto."
I greeted The elderly librarian. She looked up from his desk. "Soren? What brings you to the graduate level?"
"Research for my enhancement decision. Mrs. Rodriguez suggested I look into historical merger failures to understand the risks."
Not technically a lie.
"Very responsible. What do you need?"she asked.
"Access to the biological integration archives. Specifically failed insect experiments from the early merger period."
She frowned. "Those files are rather disturbing, Soren. Are you sure you want to see them?"
"I need to understand what I'm considering."
Dr. Yamamoto studied my face for a long moment, then nodded. "Computer, grant temporary level-three access to student Soren Cross. Academic research purposes."
"Access granted," the AI responded.
The files were disturbing. Photos of failed merger subjects, their bodies twisted by incompatible DNA integration. Video logs of subjects losing their sanity as animal instincts overwrote human consciousness.
But buried in the failures, I found something interesting about beetle merger attempts.
Subject 0847 had attempted merger with a beetle DNA. Unlike other failures, his body had successfully integrated the genetic material. The problem was neural compatibility - his human brain couldn't process the beetle's sensory input.
The researchers had tried to solve this by suppressing the beetle instincts entirely. When that failed, they'd abandoned the experiment.
But what if they'd approached it differently?
What if instead of suppressing the beetle consciousness, they'd created a separate processing center for it?
I spent three hours reading through the technical specifications. By the time the library closed, I had the beginnings of a theory.
That evening at dinner, my parents tried one last time to talk me out of tiger beetle merger.
"Soren, sweetheart," my mother said, cutting her synthetic steak. "We just want you to be safe. Tiger enhancement is proven. Reliable. Why risk your life on something so… experimental?"
"Because tiger beetle speed could change everything, Mom."
My father looked up from his tablet. "Son, I've seen the enhancement failure rates. Insect merger has the highest casualty numbers."
"Tiger beetle merger," I corrected. "And those failures happened because they used the wrong approach."
"You're eighteen," Dad said. "You think you know better than decades of research?"
"I think I'm willing to try something they weren't."
The conversation ended there. It always did.
Late that night, I lay in bed thinking about tiger beetles. In my previous life, I'd spent countless hours watching them hunt. The way they moved was poetry in motion - faster than the human eye could track.
Tomorrow, I'd submit my enhancement application. Tiger beetle DNA merger.
Everyone thought I was crazy.
Maybe I was.
But if I could make it work…
The thought carried me into sleep.