What If-Chp3

"He's up! He's up! Thank Shane he's up and about!"

"Uhh...What happened...?"

OJ blinked his eyes to adjust with the light. He saw Gillian and Queenie looking back at him worriedly. He shot up and immediately blurted out a whole long line of questions, "Wha...? Woah! Woah! What happened? How did the U-Chamber go? Did we get to it? Did we stop it? Did it work? Is everything over?"

"What are you talking about? There’s nothing to stop,” Queenie asked, surprised. “But it's over, alright,” The insemination was perfect. We have a new life inside Shane Metropolis we can personally take care until it's ready to be out in the world. The whole town is rejoicing now.”

"What?! Shane's gone up the duff and you guys are actually happy about it?!" OJ sprang to his feet. "Are you all crazy?! Do you have any idea how old is Shane?!"

"Of course we do, duh!" Gillian replied. "But there's nothing to be upset about. She's in good hands—us. We'll help her take good care of the kid. Of course, she need to take care of herself too coz we got limits. If she can't handle it, then it's up to her to decide whether to keep it or not."

“Besides, Shane is already 12 years old and had her first PMS about 5 months ago. It’s rather normal for her to have kids,” Queenie said as if it was a normal thing to say.

"You guys are out of your mind! Shane has enough trouble already trying to cope with the fact that both her parents are dead and now you don't even care that she's gonna suffer for the rest of her life? You're cold, man! You're cold!!!"

"Not as cold as you are when you let Frank die."

"Jared!"

OJ spun round to see Jared leaning on the wall looking at him with those ever cold, uncaring eyes. His blood boiled seeing the white blood cell standing without even caring what happens to the city he's living in. With a loud yell, he dashed towards Jared and pounced onto him. Blow after blow was coming onto Jared as OJ vented out all his anger and dissatisfaction with every punch he embedded on Jared's face. Jared wouldn't take this lying down. He put up with a fight and was determined to give OJ a good sock in the gut. Gillian and Queenie took a great effort to separate them, but luckily Queenie was well trained enough to pull OJ away from his nephew.

"Stop it! Stop it, you guys! You're acting like babies! This supposed to be a joyous where we celebrate life and a new assignment, and I will not tolerate anyone who would want to ruin this day!"

"Joyous?? You call this joyous?? You guys are all nuts! Nuts!!!"

With that OJ barged out of the house and out into the streets. He saw the hustle and bustle of the streets as everyone threw confettis and cheered and chit-chatted excitedly and celebrating crazily, looking happy about Shane Metropolis having a new life they will have to look over. OJ groaned inwardly and continued to run. He ran and ran and ran until he couldn't run anymore. When he looked up, he saw that he was standing exactly the spot where Gillian had found him—the Eye Auditorium. He stood before the Eye Piece and saw things from Shane's point of view where it was all dark with brooms and mops and buckets all around and there was a faint sobbing that followed. OJ could only guess that Shane was hiding inside a storeroom or something bawling her heart out after her horrible sexual experience.

OJ felt like crying too, after what had happened. Everything was going down to the dumps. Everything was over. Shane is going to be living her life like hell and it was all his fault. He crawled into the place where he was found by Gillian, cold, hungry and sad, and curled into a ball, wallowing in self-pity.

"It's all my fault...I should've just took the hypothalamus and fly straight back into Frank. I shouldn't have hung around and trying to prove myself a hero. It's my fault Frank's dead. It's my fault Drix's dead. It's my fault Leah's dead. It's my fault Shane got into this hellish mess...It's my fault..."

As OJ cried, beating himself up about everything, Jared stood at a slight corner, watching him with slight pity in his eyes.

It's almost 2 month's after the rape incident. The cell had fully developed into a tiny foetus. OJ was assigned to monitor the progress of the foetus and he and Gillian (playing truant again, as usual) were standing at the bridge looking down at the foetus. Several important-looking cells dressed in diving outfits gathered around the foetus maintaining it and taking real good care of it. OJ could make out slightly the features of the foetus: black beady eyes, arms and legs that ended in stubs that have yet to form fingers and toes, a head that's larger than the rest of the body and an umbilical cord that stretched way high above their heads to the thick walls of the uterus.

"Isn't he a beauty?" Gillian asked as he admired the foetus like it was a fantastic reality TV show.

OJ didn't reply. He was still musing over the fact that it was his fault that this little innocent foetus had come to being. If he hadn't been so smartmouth and everything and paid more attention on saving Frank than bickering with Drix about working issues and showing off all the time, this would never had happened. As he continued to mused about his misfortunes, the whole place suddenly turned blinking red. A loud mechanic voice annoucing ALERT was on and everyone stopped doing whatever they were doing to figure out what was going on.

"It looks like the alert is coming from the stomach," Gillian said worriedly.

"Well, let's hop on the wheels and go check it out," OJ replied.

Gillian nodded and led him to his bike. Soon they were riding towards the stomach. Once they were there, they had the shock of their lives as scores and scores of cold pill capsules floated into the area and there were troops upon troops of cold pill cadets swarming into the stomach with serious-looking faces and armed with arm cannons. OJ, through his experience with Drix, could tell that those facial expressions meant business, and their business was to fight cold. If they have nothing to blast, their mere existence could cause fatality.

"Drixo-Benzo-Methamphedamine, here to give temporary coughs and cold," the whole troop recited together the exact same thing Drix had said before. "Contains..."

"Yeah, yeah, we know what you contain!" Jared, who have just arrived in the scene, exclaimed. "And we know pregnant women should not take you guys. Well, for your information, you're entering a pregnant area and you gotta go!"

The troop of cold pill cadets were looking at each other in confusion. They were surprised to be sent here for nothing and weren't sure where to carry on from here. As Jared and hi squad tried to shoo them out of Shane, there were red alert lights everywhere, stating enormous level of medicinal toxin. Everyone had to act fast before they all go down with Shane. OJ and Gillian helped. As they tried to get rid of the cold pill troop, OJ couldn't help but notice one of the cadets. Though all of them looked almost the same, this particular cadet had the exact feel and aura of his late partner Drix. His strong built, the way he prepares his hand cannon, the distinctive look on his face, those eyes that said he meant business...it was like staring at a still living Drix standing right in front of him.

"Alert! Alert!"

OJ, Gillian and Jared spun round to see Queenie calling out and running towards them. She had to catch her breath a little before entertaining the trio's questioning eyes.

"I was just from the Eye Auditorium and I've surveyed the outside world. Shane has been taken to the hospital and will be pumped of her stomach. We might be expecting some medical backup team and other entities coming in to stabilize her too."

"Right," Jared nodded, then turned towards the cold pill cadets. "You heard her. There'll be a pump coming in to take you away. There's no one having a cold in here. I suggest you guys pack up and leave."

A silent trail of mutters occur as the cold pill cadets turned around and faced the stomach, waiting for the pump line to come and fecth them. Jared ordered some of his men to go down to the U-Chamber to see if everything's alright. Gillian followed them while OJ made himself useful by sending the cadets on their way. Not long later, a long tube descended down into the stomach and started squirting out some clear fluid ridden by enzymes ready to get into action saving Shane Metropolis. Many cells gathered around to watch as the enzymes and cold pill cadets switched places. Some of the SPD members ushered the enzymes to different places to stabilize parts that were under red alert, while the rest ushered the cadets to get in line to be pumped out. As the last colld pill was in the tube, OJ realized that the Drix-look-alike was still standing at his place. Jared noticed and stomped towards him.

"Hey! What are you still doing here? Get back in line and get the hell out of this body!"

"I'd rather stay, just in case there really is any symptoms of coughs and cold or any bacterias hanging around here," the pill replied nonchalantly, preparing his cannon.

"I said you're not needed here!" Jared shortened the distance between them, his eyes glaring dangerously at him. "And that's final! Now get out of here before you kill Shane and her kid!"

"One pill won't kill anybody," the pill grinned maintaining his cool, which obviously pissed Jared off because he was prepared to grab him and toss him into the line. But OJ suddenly jumped in between them and blocked Jared.

"Woah, woah! Cool, man! Coll down! Ain't got any need to be all tough and everything."

"Out of my way, Jones! This smart ass has got to go!" Jared yelled, threatening to grab and throw OJ as well into the pump tube.

"Come on, man. There's nothing bad about having him around," OJ tried to calm him down, but Jared wasn't buying it.

"You actually think that everything's gonna be OK if you let him stay here?! Shane's almost died because of him and his troops and we would've all gone down with her! Is that what you want?! To let what you've done to Frank happen to Shane too? Now, back off, Jones!!"

"Hey, chill, man," OJ was fighting to urge to slap him silly. "I'm just saying that one pill never hurt anyone. I had a cold pill for a prtner once, and all the time he never brought any harm to Frank. I can vouch for him, Jared. Just trust me on this one, OK?"

Jared glared venomously at OJ for maybe about a full 30 seconds before letting out a huff and turning towards his squad. OJ heaved a sigh of relief, glad that nothing rash happened, what with the rest of Jared's squad staring nervously at them, anticipating something bad to happen, like a huge fight maybe, between them.

"Is he always a ticking bomb?" the pill asked.

"Don't mind him. He's been that ever since I got here."

"Why did you help me? I thought you're one of them."

"Well, I'm kind of a newbie here. You kinda remind me of a friend of mine back where I came from. You wouldn't by any chance knew someone by the name Drix, would you?"

"Drix?" the pill lit up. "You mean my twin brother? What happened? Where is he?"

"You're Drix's twin?" A sea of surprise, fear and guilt swam in his heart.

"Well, all of us have the codename of Drixo-Benzo-Methamphedamine, but Driz's the name. What happened to him? How is he now? It's been a while since I 've seen him after college."

"He..." OJ hesitated before telling him the whole story. By the time he finished, he realized that he had unconsciously led Driz into the U-Chamber. By then, OJ could see that the SPD members together with the enzymes moulding some sort of protection over the foetus and were whispering conforting words to it at the same time.

"I see..." Driz rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"He was a good guy. He's pretty serious like you but he's kinda fun to be with. I'm...I'm sorry I wasn't able to save him..."

"It's alright. I don't blame you. He died in the line of duty. I believe it's an honourable death for any cadet in the force. So, this is the place where Shane's child is formed, eh, Mr. Jones?"

"You...You can call me Ozzie," OJ replied awkwardly, unable to shake off the feeling that Drix was still alive and kicking.

"Hey, Jones! Glad you're here!" Gillian waved at them from afar. "Everything's a-OK now! The kid's fine! They're working on trying to keep the kid alive! Mother even told me that she's stabilized in the outside world already. Everything's gonna be fine!"

"Yeah, I see that," OJ replied, then turned to Driz and said, "Man, and before that I thought of actually letting more of you stay there so that this kid could just go and end Shane's sadness and everything would be a-OK. I can't believe I'm such a cruel sod-off. Jared was right, I am colder than they are."

"You're just being bitter, Ozzie. Now, while they're doing their job, how about showing me around Shane?"

OJ smiled and nodded, asking for Gillian's permission to borrow his bike before giving Driz a tour around Shane Metropolis.