"Coma?" Ashley gasped in shock, the kid hasn't even looked at the world yet he went into a deep slumber as soon as he won against death.
Riyan then told her the whole thing.
"My skills weren't up to the par," He said in the end.
"Don't worry instead you should be glad that he survived, you saved him didn't you? As for this coma, I don't think it can last long, he must have exhausted his mental strength because of all that happened and it resulted in this state, I believe he would come out of coma soon," Ashley comforted him.
She knew when it comes to treating those we care about then even the doctors who had operated on countless patients will find their hands shaking.
Riyan nodded "I hope so,"
Ashley looked at his gloomy expression, she patted his back and said in a joking tone "You got a kid now, it doesn't seem like your dating streak would continue,"
Riyan slightly smiled, he knew that she was just trying to lighten his mood "I'm fine,"
At this time a doctor approached and handed them a file.
"Let me handle these," Ashley said as she took the file and worked on the procedures.
***
Time passed, a day… a week… a month… a year.
12 Years passed just like that…
Somewhere in the city hospital….
A big hall isolated from the outside, the temperature inside was below 20' C, several pillar-like cylindrical tubes were occupying the hall. All of them were filled with a transparent liquid but were mostly empty. They all had the words Hibernation Pod with a serial number written on their bottom that varied to each cylinder.
A humanoid figure was present in a cylinder near the corner. It was a male, he had long silvery-white hair that was floating in the liquid around him like seaweeds, his body constitution wasn't that great, his skin colour was neither too fair nor too dark, it was at the middle of them but his skin seemed very tender and soft like he was never exposed to the sun before. From his looks, he looked like he was about 12-13 years old.
He was wearing a transparent plastic suit that covered most of his body, a mask with a few tubes was covering his face, his body was held by a mechanical arm attached to his suit from behind.
A tablet-like device was present on the base of this particular hibernation pod, a green line with uniform jolts and a number on the side were representing his slowed heartbeat.
Suddenly, the line fluctuated, his heart rate increased, then the finger of the youth slightly twitched.
[Alert! Patient RCB145OC Showed Awakening Signs.]
An alert notification appeared on the screen of the tablet and a message was sent to the one in charge of managing the hibernation pod station.
The youth inside the cylinder moved his fingers, then his hands shook.
Soon a middle-aged man came running inside the room, he first looked at the tablet's screen then at the youth who was showing signs of awaking from his deep slumber. He was shocked, he quickly took out his phone and dialed a number.
The ring tone sounded twice before the person on the other side picked up the phone.
"Hello Dr. Lin, what can I do for you?" The man on the other side asked.
Dr. Lin first took a deep breath then spoke "Dr. Riyan, I have good news for you. He... He is waking up,"
***
In one of the many branches of GHO, a party was going on.
Several men in white coats were surrounding a young man holding a black file, the man looked like he was in college, he had slant eyes, short black hair, and pinkish lips. He was Riyan, he looked the same as 12 years ago, it was like he didn't age at all.
Ashley, who was standing beside him was also the same, she was still the same beauty from 12 years ago, with only her hairstyle changed, her hair was cut short until shoulder length and was curled inwards by the endpoints.
One of the doctors raised his wine glass and said "This toast goes to Junior Riyan oh no it should be Senior Dr. Riyan from now on,"
Everyone laughed and cheered for him.
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The other doctors also took a step and said "Tch Tch… Getting promoted at such a young age and having a beautiful secretory as the protector, two in one Ms. Ashley by your side, Riyan you make this senior jealous,"
"Dr. Lees should choose his words carefully, if Mrs. Riho heard this then you might get in trouble," Ashley said with a smile.
Everyone laughed at her words.
Riyan just smiled, he was about to speak when he sensed his phone vibrating, he took it out, he was about to cut the call so as not to ruin other's mood when he saw that it was Dr. Lin's number.
"One minute everyone, it's an important call," Riyan said then walked to the side, he picked up the call.
"Hello Dr. Lin, what can I do for you?" He said.
Dr. Lin on the other side didn't reply immediately, Riyan was just about to speak when he heard him saying "Dr. Riyan, I have good news for you. He... He is waking up,"
His eyes widened "You serious?" He asked to confirm.
"He is becoming more and more active by every second, I believe he is going to wake up soon," Dr. Lin replied.
"I am coming right away," Riyan said. He then cut the call and ran to Ashley.
"Hey, what happened?" Dr. Lees asked seeing his unnatural state.
"This… Everyone, I have some urgent matter to attend to, so I will be leaving for now. Sorry about that," Rayon said then without waiting for others to reply he left the hall, Ashley also followed behind him.
Several thought came to his mind as he made his way to the hospital, he was happy that the boy he had saved finally woke up from a coma after 12 years but he was also worried thinking how would he react after seeing the world for the first time, his body might have grown but his mind wasn't, would he be able to adapt to the way of the world? If yes, then how long would it take?
***
At the hospital…
As soon as Riyan arrived at the hospital, he made a run to the isolation room. Dr. Lin had told him that he kept the boy in an isolation room free from the other doctors who were overly curious about him.
Isolation rooms are designed to isolate the residents inside from the outside world and make an artificial environment suitable for them, it is specially made for the people who had lived inside a hibernation pod for a long time and their body hadn't come in contact with the outside environment all this time.
Riyan arrived in front of the room and grabbed the handle, he hesitated a little before opening the door, when he looked inside he was surprised.
A boy with long silvery-white hair was sitting on a chair on the other side of the room, his back was bent forward, his eyes were shut closed, his hands were clasped together with his finger pointing at the floor and his thumb at Riyan. He was wearing a light blue one-piece dress that is usually worn by admitted patients.
Dr. Lin was standing on the side observing his actions with an astonished expression. The behavior shown by the boy in front of him was completely different from what he expected, the body didn't cry, he didn't get overtaken by shock and confusion or something a normal person seeing the world for the first time would do. If he wasn't himself seeing all this he would have never believed it.
Ashley also arrived at the door and saw this scene.
The boy's ears twitched a little when he heard the sound of the footsteps, he raised his head and slowly opened his eyes. His unnatural eyes were revealed.
Both of his eyes were of silver color.
But they weren't just that, when Riyan looked into those eyes he saw a few slivery light fragments shining and moving inside those enlarged pupils, they twinkled like the stars in the night sky.
It was hard to tell if this was just an illusion but whenever the boy blinked his eyes, it seemed like the position of the light fragments completely changed. Those eyes were somewhat scary but when matched with the boy's overall appearance they carried an alluring charm that caught onlookers' attention with one sight.
Such eyes were rare, even among mutants who were known for developing unnatural traits after acquiring mutation or were inborn mutants.
'Silver eyes?' Ashley muttered to herself, as she looked at the enchanting eyes of the boy, they were shining like a whole sky was sealed inside them, they seemed to carry natural magic within them.
After regaining his calm, Riyan took a step forwards and walked to the boy, he opened his mouth to speak but didn't know what to say, in the end, the words he was able to utter out were "Hey junior, it's… you have taken your… time,"
The boy kept looking at him, his moving lips to be more precise but didn't respond.
Dr. Ling on the side gave him a superficial look and said "He is seeing the world for the first time, how is he supposed to understand human language? He is showing signs of high intelligence, I think either the mutant ability he awakened is similar to Precise Deduction, Calm Observer, and Fast Thinking or he is not able to properly process his thoughts after waking up for the first time.
Actually, there is also a third possibility, the use of Mutagen should have put quite some stress on him both physically and mentally so…" He stopped after saying that much.
Riyan and Ashley both understood his meaning, the third possibility was the child being mentally ill and could not think or respond normally, acting just like a newborn puppy.
Riyan took a deep breath, he was willing to take responsibility since the day he decided to save him, with the time that incomplete success of saving the child's life only tempered his resolve to undertake this responsibility. He was just about to speak but the boy opened his mouth and said something.
"He.y ..Ju..nior tak..n time.," The boy muttered and tilted his head in confusion.
Everyone was confused at first but soon they looked at the boy in shock.
"He repeated it?" Ashley subconsciously said.
"He definitely has a passive ability that enhances his intelligence and learning capacity," Dr. Ling said in an excited tone. This type of ability is a great treasure for people like him that spends years learning things, according to him if the boy has such an ability then it's just a matter of time before he makes up for his lost 12 years.
Riyan looked at the boy in his eyes and extended his hand "Junior, wanna go out and see the world?"
The boy looked at his moving lips then at his hand, he subconsciously extended his hand and put it on Riyan's hand.
When Riyan felt the boy's thin soft hand pressing on his, he felt a heavy burden on his shoulder falling off.
Ashley looked at the scene in amazement, it also felt a little funny to her as she remembered a scene where the little puppy shakes hand with its owner.
Riyan then turned to Dr. Lin and spoke "Discharge him from the hospital, I want to take him with me, right now,"
Dr. Lin wanted to refuse because the boy had just come out of a coma and he also wanted to observe him, analyze his body, see what he got but seeing Riyan's firm expression he knew it was impossible.
"I will take care of the procedure," Ashley said then left the room.