Dr. Kryo was not looking forward to the next matter that he needed to carefully address with the Gray family, but he didn't want to immediately open up to that sensitive subject. "Mr. And Mrs. Gray…" he started saying, but Barry stopped him stating, "Please, you told us to call you James, and we don't want to be hypocritical. You can call us Barry and Monica as well!"
James looked at the couple with a remorseful smile. "Well then, Barry and Monica, I personally know the gender of your baby and I still won't tell you and will allow you to find out yourselves. However, you can call this the curiosity of an old man, but would you be willing to tell me which names you've picked out for either gender?
Barry and Monica looked at each other for a few seconds and nodded their heads with caring smiles to show that they were more than happy to do so. Barry looked at Monica and pointed at her with a questionable look on his face silently asking if she wanted to be the one to tell James. Monica said, "Go ahead, I know you want to baby." Barry grinned at this and stated, "Well James, if the baby comes out a girl, we want to name her Megan, but if it's a boy, then we will be naming him Liam!"
Dr. Kryo took a moment to ponder over what he had just heard. "So that's the name, huh? The name that will change the world if this goes well. I will never forget it." James thought to himself. He let a knowing smile shine on his face for a moment before dropping his head down slightly and removing all traces of happiness from his face.
"Monica, Barry, I am genuinely delighted that I am the doctor that gets to deliver your baby. I do, however, I need to bring something to the both of your attention. I need you both to brace yourselves for a conversation that I can only imagine will be uncomfortable to say the least."
Noticing Dr. Kryo having a more grim expression, the both of them decided to lend their ears to the gentleman in front of them. They had full intent to take in everything he needed to say. James looked at them both before taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. This gave the impression to Monica and Barry that James must be feeling quite nervous about whatever it is he has to discuss with them. This, in turn, made them both a little uneasy.
"The King has been making quite a few changes in Keena recently. He has mandated that a serum that is known as the A.E.S. be administered without fail to every single newborn baby. I sincerely apologize, I know that sounds ridiculous and unfair that you can't refuse this, but the King has demanded it be so." James stated with pure frustration in his eyes.
The couple looked at each other with worry written all over their faces. They had never heard about any of this before and had no idea what it all meant, but now they were finding out just before they were going to bring their baby into the world. "What is A.E.S James? Why is it so important that we can't refuse? On top of that, why are we not allowed to have a say when it involves our unborn child?" Barry asked, going on a bit of a tangent with obvious anger placed carefully in each word.
James knew this would be the reaction of many, and knew that the anger projecting from Barry was not actually aimed at him, but at the Kings' demand. "I will explain any and everything you need me to and then some. Before I explain,however, I want to make one thing clear to you both, and you both only, that I do not wish to play a part in the King's antics anymore. So regardless of whether or not you agree here today, I will still follow this path that I have chosen to walk." James had the most friendliest of smiles while stating this. "The A.E.S. stands for Ability Enhancement Serum. It has been in development for the past twelve years and I was forced to be on the team of scientists and researchers that created and designed this serum."
Barry and Monica didn't say anything as it looked like they were hanging on to every word that Dr. Kryo produced so he continued. "As for why you are not allowed to refuse under any circumstance, this serum does exactly what the name suggests, but it goes a bit further than that." James took another breath before continuing, "This serum will become one with the newborn bodies we administer them to. The serum finds the cells in the body that determine the body's capability and capacity to obtain an ability of greater strength and a much further depth of power and enhances it by ten fold. This is top secret and if any of this were to get out, a lot of people would be hurt. The King seems to have found other life forms in the universe and are claiming they are a threat to us in Keena. This is, supposedly, why the order is being forced. He wants more powerful soldiers. He wants an unstoppable force at his command."
The Gray family were stunned, shocked and a little bit confused. "I understand the serum a little bit now, and maybe even less of why the King demanded it, but forgive me doc, why is this even being put on the newborns in the first place? Why can't we just take it later in life? And one last question, why is it just us you're speaking like this to? I mean you said you were saying this to both of us and us only right? Why?" Barry asked for both Monica and himself.
James knew that these people were smart and he felt like he was right to open up to them. "Like I said before, I am done playing the King's games. To answer your questions, the reason why you can't take it later in life is because human experiments using the serum has already been done. Unfortunately, if you wait to administer the serum after birth even by a single year, the results are tragic." When saying this part, James had tears well up in his eyes.
James continued, "I'm going to divulge two things that are incredibly dangerous for any normal person to know at this point. The first thing is that we know how to determine if someone is capable of obtaining a powerful ability even before birth by testing blood cells. This is never a guarantee as we all know we are just granted whatever ability that comes to us. The second thing is that the King had a special serum made for one of the babies that a concubine of his is pregnant with." Dr. Kryo took yet another deep breath as he felt like this was extremely long winded. "This said serum will multiply the ability received by the Mysterious Entity not by ten, fifty, or one hundred times, but by one thousand fold."
Monica and Barry could not believe the amount of world shattering news they were receiving back to back in such a short time frame. James gave them a moment to take in what was already out in the open for them to understand. After a minute or two without anything being said, Dr. Kryo decided to continue, "As for why I am here talking to both of you about all of this is there is a reason why the King has chosen that specific baby of his to receive the special serum instead of the many others he has. It's because that baby has a body capable of obtaining an incredible amount of power. I ran my own tests across the country to find someone that would be worthy of taking the serum out of the hands of the monster we call King Artorious Richmond. I tested thousands upon thousands of unborn babies and even still, yours sat right there at the peak. Your little baby in fact has the body to obtain the most amount of power the world has ever seen even before the serum. With what is coming, I fear we will need the baby's strength sooner than I would care to admit."
Monica started to well up with tears and a lump was felt in her throat. She did her best not to be loud enough to startle anyone outside of their hospital room, but she just couldn't hold in her emotions anymore. Barry had to be the one to ask the hard pressing questions. "Why James? Why is this all happening to us and what does the king have over you to force you to do such heinous experiments?" Barry asked sharply, aggressively, but quietly.
With the last question, Dr. Kryo broke out in a muffled sob for a few minutes. Barry was taken aback by the sudden burst of emotion from James. When he somewhat regained his composure, he decided he needed to say it, "The King, he… he took my family… my wife, my son… he took them so he could force me to be compliant to his oppressive will. He doesn't know that I know, but I found out by hacking into his systems that he has already put them both to death. The worst part is that he drowned them next to each other but made my wife watch our son die first. He has just been lying to me about how they were doing so I would keep working for him. To say that I have the heart of vengeance is an understatement."
Monica was trying to get herself together in the background of the conversation, but was making sure that she kept an ear out for every word that was said. Barry just couldn't believe the King could be so cruel, but how could he not believe the broken man right in front of him. He spoke up, "I wish there was another way besides using our kids to fight and what are the side effects even supposed to look like with a serum like this?" He didn't want to admit it to himself just yet, but he felt himself being convinced more and more after every word.
James replied, "I want nothing more than to never have to involve children in grown up affairs either. I feel the stress of it all is taking some years off of my life." The sadness and a hint of regret was unmistakably etched on his face. "That is why this must end. There has to be someone strong enough to end the King. As far as negative side effects go, there are none. As hard as that is to believe, it's true. I know you don't know me very well, but I wouldn't even bring it up if I wasn't one hundred percent certain. The only thing this will give any newborn is a much stronger ability once they are granted one in the future." After that, James had finished most of his explaining and waited for any questions or concerns the Gray family had.
Monica spoke for the first time in a while, but with overwhelming concern, "This will make our baby a target won't it? This will make our family a target won't it?! Why do we need to be the one's who take the risk for the world?" Barry and James looked at Monica and completely understood that what she asked was valid. There was no way that if the King found out about this, he would just let it slide.
Barry asked, "How strong will the King's baby be in comparison to ours?" He wanted to know the strength of both and what exactly made James interested enough in their baby to go this far so soon. Monica wanted to know the answer to this as well. She already knew what she had asked before was rhetorical and was basically answered with the weight of the situation.
James looked into both of their eyes for a short while. Each passing moment felt like an eternity to all three people in that small hospital room. He hesitated, but continued with the information he needed to give them to hopefully win them over, "The tests were ran over three dozen times and it seems as though the King's child has the capability of being stronger than the high end ability users by more than thirty times. Unfortunately, that means the serum would boost his performance based on his body's capabilities by one thousand times, which would add up to over 30,000. That amount of power is something that could destroy all of existence if put in the wrong hands. Also, I don't think I need to explain that the King would raise him to be the next dictator under the guise of the title of King."
Monica whimpered slightly and sighed in defeat. Barry on the other hand had his head somewhere else, "You said you tested our baby correct?" For a second James could see that maybe he was getting through a little bit. "That is correct. I have tested your baby's cells on countless occasions due to the astronomical power they could possibly wield." Without hesitation Barry demanded, "Explain. I will ask again, why is our baby so important? What is his strength?"
James knew for sure now that he couldn't hold back anything he knew from this point forward. He explained, "Your baby has to be the first of its kind. While running the tests, we thought several times that we had something wrong or something was incorrect about how we tested the cells, but that just wasn't the case. Your baby has the capability of holding more than seventy two times more power than the absolute elite ability users. With that being said, using the serum on your baby would then multiply that number by another thousand. That would make your baby's power end up being over 72,000, which would be well over double the amount that the King's baby would be if they received the special serum. There would be nobody who could stop them from extinguishing all of the evil from this world and making the world whole."
Barry wasn't able to speak after hearing the explanation. Even Monica stopped her crying and seemed to have a newfound emotion going on. She said, "You mean even if we don't use the serum, he would be the world's most powerful ability user?" James gave her a solemn head nod. Reluctantly, Barry turned around and looked at Monica. Without looking at James he said, "James, can we have a moment please? I promise we won't run from this. We need to discuss this in private amongst ourselves. If nothing else, we will stay absolutely silent about all of this. You have my word."
James knew that he needed to respect their wishes. On top of that he would never force anyone into it, that's not how he wanted to be. However, he thought, if they had to get the serum administered anyway, then why not the strongest in existence for the strongest baby in existence. James was about to step out, but before he did, he stated one last thing in secrecy, "I will give you both some time. Unfortunately, I can't wait long out here. I will give you a little more than 5 minutes. We need to make out as if we weren't talking about these things. When I come back in, I will need your answer, and we will need to set you up for the delivery Monica. I will see you guys soon."
As the doctor left, Barry and Monica never took their eyes off of one another. "As he said, we should discuss this quickly love." Barry started off. Monica nodded in agreement and said, "Let me start. I believe this will be easier than you feeling like you have to convince me. When he started talking I almost wanted him to disappear with all of the things he was saying, but as more of the truth came out, I started being won over. As much as I hated to admit it to myself, it made sense and all added up. What I'm thinking is, if our baby has to have a serum regardless, I think we can raise them well enough for them to know right from wrong. I would be willing to agree to the serum as long as there is a way to keep us hidden from the King. If what he is saying is true, and I believe it is, then the King is evil enough to do something to us for crossing him."
Barry couldn't agree more and he responded, "I think what you've said hits the nail on the head. I am in the same boat with my initial thoughts versus how my thoughts ended up." Barry took a few steps towards Monica until he was right next to her. "I think we should take the special serum and train our baby to be on the right side of humanity." Monica smiled at him and was already feeling proud of their little one. "Who knew they would already be this incredible?" Monica stated warmly.
Monica and Barry hugged each other in that moment and finalized their decision. All that was left was to wait for the doctor to come back in and let them know where they stood. Even though they knew what they wanted now, they were still nervous. A few moments later and all that was heard was **KNOCK** **KNOCK** **KNOCK**