Banner: Made by Me

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Anton woke up early the next morning to the sound of his alarm clock. He looked out his window and noticed that the sun hadn't risen yet. He groaned as he rolled over and turned off the alarm clock. He got out of bed, took a shower, got dressed, then started to pack. He packed his necessities: clothes, toothbrush and toothpaste, and his journals that he wanted to keep with him. He packed them all up in a large black suitcase then proceeded to walk out the door into the garage. He got into his hover car and gently hovered out of the driveway. 

He stopped right at the end of his driveway and sighed, looking out the window at his house. He will never be in this house again. He knew for sure that he was going to miss this house, but he was very happy that he got this job. His parents said that they would keep his house clean and nice while he was gone in case he ever came back. Even though he knew that the house wouldn't respond, he waved goodbye then put the car on autopilot and relaxed until he got to the airport. 

He walked into the white, clean airport towards the reception counter. 

"Where are you going?" the bored receptionist asked him without looking up from her computer. 

"Treh Blia," Anton answered her.

The lady sighed and started to type on her computer. "We don't have a hover plane to take you there, sir, because of the dangers of Scoj Bren, but we can have your hover car take you there instead." She looked up at him over her pink rimmed glasses. "You do have a hover car, don't you?"

Anton politely smiled. "Yes, ma'am, I do."

The lady gave a sharp nod and gave him a card that had his name, place of destination, and time of arrival typed onto it. "Put this over the autopilot button and your hover car will take you there." She faked a smile. "Have a nice trip."

Anton took the card and said, "Thank you." He quickly walked away from the receptionist and headed toward his parked hover car. He climbed in and placed the card above the autopilot button just like the impolite receptionist told him to do. He watched the screen in the middle of his console plug in the coordinates of Treh Blia. Once they were ready, the hover car glided through the air on its own. Anton typed in some classical music and leaned back. The console told him that he had, at least, twenty-four hours until he arrived at Treh Blia. He leaned his head back against the headrest and let himself fall asleep. 

He woke up a couple of hours later and checked to see how much longer he had. Eighteen more hours. He sighed impatiently and reached behind him into his luggage to pull out an e-pad. He typed in the password and opened up his library. He found one of the books that Flaviu had written – The Characteristics of the Morpher Brain. It was one of his newest books and Anton had only read it three times. So far, this book was his favorite. He started to read again from the beginning. 

He read for seven hours straight and ended up finishing the book. He set the e-pad down on his lap and looked out of the hover car's window. Finally, he wasn't flying over water, he was finally flying over land. Even though the sun was just starting to set, he noticed that this land was much greener and alive than Cheolor – where he was from. He didn't know exactly what land he was flying over, but he knew that he was getting closer and closer to Treh Blia. 

Anton's head started to pound suddenly. He pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned his head back. He thought that this headache was coming from the amount of reading he had just done. He decided to take another nap and hoped that he would be relieved of his headache and closer to Treh Blia when he woke up. 

A beeping noise reached his ears making him wake up. He rubbed his eyes as he looked at the console and noticed the time left – one hour. He thought that the beeping had been for the time, but he was actually running out of fuel. The needle was dangerously close to empty. Hurriedly, he clicked off autopilot and started to control the hover car himself. He needed to land now.

He lowered the hover car toward and clearing in the middle of all the tall trees below him. He landed just in time. He looked at the console and sighed. Still an hour. 

He got out of the hovercar, took out his luggage, and checked a compass he kept on his e-pad. Typing in the coordinates, he got directions to the lab and sighed again at how long he will have to walk. Two hours. He had to walk; he didn't have any kind of service right now to call anyone for help. He would have to walk until he came into contact with service. 

"Damn it," he growled. 

He turned into the direction his e-pad told him to go and started to walk the long trek. He made sure to take note of the coordinates that he left his hover car so he could come back and get it. He took in the sight of his surroundings. The trees were tall and full of leaves. The ground was soft with the healthy, green grass with bushes and flowers popping up out of the ground. Once he got out of the clearing and into the forest, it got darker than before. The canopy rejected the sun rays coming down into the forest floor.

The scenery never changed. Which was odd for Anton. Where he came from in Cheolor, everywhere you went was different. He just hoped that nothing would jump out and get him while he was exposed. He could die out here and nobody would ever know. He shook his head and kept his focus on the compass. 

Finally, after two hours of walking, he reached the laboratory. He was sweaty and knew that he wasn't in any condition to meet anyone, but he didn't care. He had made it to the laboratory in one piece to the giant glass building. Sighing in relief, he quickly walked up to the glass double doors and into the building. He was met by the sweet smell of cleaning products and a blast of cold, fresh air. His shoes clicked on the bright white tiled floor. The walls were completely glass, so he could see everything that was happening outside. There were four different elevators in a line in front of him; also made of glass. 

You can't hide anything in here, huh? he thought to himself.

There was a reception desk in front of the elevators. He walked towards it, praying that he didn't smell as bed as he felt. The lady at the desk looked up at him in surprise before smiling. She had ginger hair that fell straight to her chin, a thin nose, small red lips, and shining blue eyes. She looked to about his age – possibly in her early twenties. 

"What can I do for you, sir?" she asked him in a cheery voice once he was close enough. 

He smiled at her and reached inside his luggage to pull out the letter that was given to him the day he graduated. He handed it to the lady and waited patiently as she read the letter.

Finally, she looked up at him and he smile grew wider. "Welcome to the team, Mr. Dalca. If you would follow me, I will take you to Mr. Arterberry." She stood up and motioned for him to follow her to one of the elevators. The doors opened, letting them come through. When the doors closed, the elevator gradually moved upwards. 

Anton and the receptionist stood side by side. He took a look at her out of the corner of his eye and wished that she would have let him clean himself up before meeting anyone. She was wearing a white blazer with a matching pencil skit. On her feet were white high heels. He saw he turn her head slightly to look at him and he quickly looked away. 

After a minute or two of silence, the elevator doors opened, and the lady walked out as Anton followed. They walked through a carpeted, narrow hallway until they reached the last door on the right. She smiled at him before turning the doorknob, opening the door. 

"Welcome to the team, Mr. Dalca," her cheery voice welcomed him once again. 

Anton walked through the door with wide eyes. The laboratory was bigger than he expected. Everything was white and the air smelled of cleaning products. There were many different desks set up to perform many different experiments all around him. Different people from all around the world sat at those tables wearing white lab coats and goggles. A huge holographic screen was floating in the middle of the room, showing the progress of at least twenty different experiments that were happening at the moment. 

Anton heard a voice behind him and the clicking of nice shoes against the floor. "Why, if it isn't Mr. Dalca. We are very happy to have you here." Anton turned around to see Flaviu Arterberry behind him, offering his hand in welcome. Anton quickly stepped forward and grabbed his hand, giving it a firm shake. "You can leave us now, Mary, I'll show Mr. Dalca around the lab," he told the lady still standing behind Anton. 

She respectfully bowed her head and said, "Yes, sir." She turned to look at Anton. "I'll see you around, Mr. Dalca." With that, she turned on her heals and left the room. 

Anton turned back to Flaviu and followed him. Flaviu showed him all the different experiments and let him talk to a few scientists working there. Anton was very excited to meet them as he had heard of them from a couple of Flaviu's books. 

Flaviu then took him to the back room. He stopped outside a metal door that read: Caution. Dangerous. "Now, Mr. Dalca – is it all right if I call you Anton?"

Anton nodded excitedly before answering. "Yes, sir."

Flaviu nodded. "Alright, Anton. Behind here is something that we don't normally let other people see, but since you are going to be working here, I assumed that this should be shown to you. Stay with me at all times." He then punched in the key code on a pad next to the door and waited patiently as the door opened. He then walked through and motioned Anton to follow him. 

The Morpher's room. 

Anton's mouth gaped opened at the many doors that led down a long hallway. Each door was solid glass with three little holes up near the top. "Are all these rooms taken?" Anton asked as they passed a small room with a man sitting on a bench with his knees up to his chin and his head buried in between his knees. 

Flaviu looked behind him at Anton. "No. Not all of them." He sighed and looked ahead. "I will tell you one thing, Anton. I hope I never see all of these rooms filled with Morphers."

"Why?" Anton asked curiously as he drew his attention back to Flaviu. "Wouldn't that mean that you can test more subjects?"

Flaviu slowed down so he was walking now beside Anton. "Have you read my books?" he asked quietly. Anton nodded. "Then you would know that there are quite a number of them. I have run out of experiments to try on these creatures. There is nothing more for me to do, but I keep working and redoing experiments because I am told too."

"Why?"

Flaviu looked into a room they passed. "I'm not sure. The science world, and even regular civilians, believe that the Morpher's are unintelligible, ruthless creatures that deserve to be in a lab and have experiments ran on them. I thought that as well at first but coming her I've seen more than a creature in them. I see a human. A human that is scared and wants to go home, but can't because every time they try, they die." He turned to look at Anton. "They can't escape."

Anton looked down at his feet. "I've never heard about that before."

Flaviu shook his head. "I'm not allowed to write a book on what I believe. Only on what I've learned for them." He was silent for a moment before he said, "Come on. Let's head back and I'll show you your room."

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