SIXTY-TWO

They arrived at the gigantic ancient Egyptian palace, it looked exactly yet nothing like what the three girls had seen in movies.

Their father helped them out of the vehicle and walked with them through the giant metropolis like city.

It was filled with everything one would expect, markets, villagers, snake charmers, fire breathers and magicians, naked children playing with each other and the Aladdin City sized and styled palace in the centre, everything was so new and expensive, yet, everything looked like they had gone back in time, but...

"How long did it take for you to build this place?"Ruby asked.

He looked at her for a second before saying,"My loyal subjects worked tirelessly to build a home suitable for myself and my family, this took about thirty years."

They looked at him, shocked...he was in his early forties, did they begin building when he was ten?!

He looked back at his daughters then smiled sweetly and said,"You may go wherever you please."

They felt hesitant after what happened the last few times they were allowed to ' go wherever they pleased '.

He turned to a guard and said something in a language none of them had heard before, and Ruby and Rose were fluent in Arabic, the main language of the middle East, Egypt included, was he speaking Ancient Egyptian?

The guard bowed then walked off and all the others followed him.

When they were gone, Rose said they wished to explore the place, though all the others wanted to do was sty with him so no one else died because of them.

Rose dragged Ruby and Lucille away from him and he looked at them as they left.

Rose went to a small shop and the owner spoke in the same language their father spoke.

Rose didn't understand till the woman smiled and bowed as their father came forward and took a bracelet of intricately woven threads then placed it on her hand, but she frowned and asked,"Could we be alone as we ' go wherever we please ' ?"

He smiled then excused them as Rose kept dragging them from store to store, to go somewhere he wouldn't see them, and he didn't follow.

Ruby asked Rose what she was doing then she turned and said,"I saw mother."

Ruby's eyes widened as she asked,"Really?"

"Yes, she and about a dozen people were kept in literal cages by dad, he's going to use them for some sacrifice."

Ruby looked at her, shocked, as she said,"Ruby, I don't know what he's planning, but I know that he's trying his best to open up to us for some reason, we have to take advantage of that."

"And what if, no when he catches you, what would you do? Remember what he said back at the arena?"

"I'm not scared of him, or even death, what I do fear is letting innocent people suffer when I could have done something to help, I have caused enough pain to deserve whatever will happen to me, but..."

"No, Rose, you've done more than enough to make up for what you did, I'll help you."Ruby said.

"We'll help you."Lucille said, taking her hand.

Rose took a deep breath then said,"Okay, here's the plan, I have studied him ever since we got here and found some flaws in his form..."

***

I looked at Luis' notes then at the table and the equipment...

"You're working on protein structure and synthesis, aren't you?"

He looked at me, through his goggles, there was a flash of amazement, shorter than a few seconds, but long enough for me to realize.

I then said,"These are sequences of amino acids you've drawn, but these are really large and complex proteins you've drawn, how long have you been at this?"

"Since I was hospitalised, why?"

"I recognize some of these proteins, that one's keratin, collagen, melanin and...ankyrin."

He looked at me then I pointed at the middle page.

"This folding pattern belongs to ankyrin, one of the sturdiest proteins known to man, but what are you doing with it? It couldn't help us against him."

Luis sighed then said,"This is the protein structure of Jonathan Forthhold Welshes' skin, his skin contained most of your average cutaneous amino acid sequences, except for one, ankyrin, and it had very large amounts of it as well, large as in forty-five percent of the protein mass."

"But humans don't have the genetics to synthesize a protein like that in such large amounts."

"Exactly, that's why I find it weird, and that's not the only thing, his blood also contains morula cells and his stratum basialis contains large numbers of bilaminar embryonic totipotent cells, giving him the ability to heal wounds at monumental speed, somehow like you, it's just, much more."

"And his skeleton? It seems over here, he has..."

"Tricho-dento osseus syndrome yes, denser bones, much more difficult to break through, but also more difficult to swim with, and yet, it doesn't seem to adversely affect the dentine coating of his teeth like usual, my question is, what would a human be doing with this kind of genetics? And how come none of his daughters, siblings and even homozygous twin brother have it?"

I nodded in agreement and was about to leave when he called me back.

"The reason I typically hated your presence was that I saw you as an insufficient waste of oxygen and brain matter who made no contribution whatsoever to anything and anyone around you, but I guess I was wrong."

"Wait, are you complimenting me?"

"Do you want to leave?"

"Nope..."

"Then sit."

"Okay...up top!"

"No."

"Don't leave me hanging."

"I'll blow off your hand if you keep it up there..."

I sat beside him and asked what he was doing, then he said,"I'm trying to break through his impenetrable defences, I'm working on a strain of antibodies which could possibly inhibit his ankyrin and...defences."

"Really?!"I yelled, too loud for my own comfort,"I could totally help."

"Really?"

"Amino acids are my jam nigga."

He gave me a look which made me sit down in shame.

***

Mack did a butterfly kick, while the Lightning staff Luis had made for him whipped forwards and sliced through a bottle target, then he did a flying front kick and tapped the bottom of the staff and it reintegrated back into its rod like form, then he spun it and slammed it on the floor, doin an open legged b aerial with the momentum, before he placed it under his arm and did a palm strike.

He heard clapping and looked back to see Lucy as she slowly walked closer, and he actually found himself hiding his blush by her otherworldly beauty and grace.

She came closer to him and asked politely if she could have the staff, he was hesitant after his past...experiences with me and the staff in my grasp, they weren't pleasant.

He eventually gave her the staff after her puppy dog eyes then she analysed it like a movie prop, in great detail.

She pulled two sections apart, making it like a pair of nun chunks then asked,"Magnets?"

"Yeah."He said.

She saw the metal fibres holding the sections together were intricately woven in a finger trap manner, and it all unraveled when she touched the bottom, with a blade poking out.

She apologized for almost cutting through Mack's second most prized possession after his face, his hair, and he was amazingly calm, such a womanizing, perverted sugar daddy, sigh, I'll totally miss him when he's gone.

He asked if she could go for a spin, so she first asked for how it worked, the buttons or amount of pressure needed to change it from a kunai, to a whip, to a pair of nun chunks, to a spear, to a staff and over again.

After he had given her the tour, she gripped it tightly between her hand, then threw it up...