Evolution

'Come on baby! Let's see what you got!'

Jim could hardly wait to see what an evolution point could do. Unfortunately he was going to have to wait as this evolution process did not seem to be quick. All the upgrades he had received had been completed in a flash, literally. Despite having a tiny flap of molecules for a body this evolution was taking its time. 

'Come on, what it happening? There really isn't that much to evolve, is there?'

He was starting to question himself. Maybe there was more to evolving than he thought.

Finally the flash came from his double plasma membrane and it seemed to change subtly. Sparkles ignited all around Jim and he felt a rejuvenation of energy. This was the stuff! It felt like he was a super star or just someone rich being pampered with tea and biscuits at least.

'...'

Actually, once that flash high was over he looked at his membrane again. Just with his soul senses it didn't look like there was any difference. An incongruous sense of disappointment hit his soul mind, yet at the same time his tiny membrane body still seemed to be happy with the change. Maybe it was still fixated on the flash and sparkles or whatever else the evolution point had done to make his body feel top notch.

'Let's look in the system.'

Sensing a lemon, but hoping for the best Jim's soul felt a little tension.

'Hey, this isn't a big deal. Why am I so worked up?'

Probably because the evolution ended with so much fanfare, Jim's body was sending him feel good emotions. And since it could really only send one emotion at a time it wasn't jiving with his soul right at this moment.

[Profile

Name: Jim

Species: Non-determinate

Title: Autoimmune Disease

Level: 1

Experience: 2.047 (1/3)

Health: 1/1

Critical Health: 1/1

Physical: 1

Mental: 1

Spiritual: 1

Talent: Meditation III [0], Concentration II [8], Memory II [2], Self-examination II [2] 

Skills: None

Evolution point(s): 0

Organelle: None

Mutations: Selectively Permeable Membrane

Neutral biomass points: 0

Poison biomass points: 0

White blood cell biomass: 2,178,339

]

'Well, of course the evolution point is gone, but in addition to the new Membrane it looks like my poison must have killed a few more cells. That poison is probably all spent by now though. I can't believe that all those zealous white blood cells wouldn't have hunted every last poison protein.'

Interestingly enough he had a few more experience points. Making all that poison had really helped him out. He might have to revisit the poison option in the future if he ever was able to get a poison organelle again.

'Oh, well, it was good while it lasted. Let's take a look at the submenu for this new membrane.'

Jim had purposely distracted himself with the poison to calm down both his body and his mind. This conflict within his own head was not beneficial for anyone. But now that he had acquired a tiny bit of space to think clearly he dived in.

[Selectively Permeable Membrane Level 1

Available biomass: 2,178,339

Inner Membrane: 1 

Vacuoles: 0

]

'Uhmm, there is not much different here?'

He was thrown off at first. There was absolutely nothing different about his membrane except for the name. There was still an inner membrane and obviously all his vacuoles had been destroyed by the killer T cells and their minions the regular white blood cells.

'Back to square one. Well let's upgrade it to Max. Wahoo!'

For probably the ten thousandth time he upgraded his membrane.

[Selectively Permeable Membrane upgraded to level 2. One white biomass used.]

[Selectively Permeable Membrane upgraded to level 3. One white biomass used.]

…

[Selectively Permeable Membrane upgraded to level 29. One white biomass used.]

[Selectively Permeable Membrane upgraded to level 30 (Max). One white biomass used.]

'Mother of max... What?? So using an evolution point was worth five more levels. This was messed up. Why did it take you so long, then? I thought I was going to get something good!'

Taking a deep soul breath Jim let his already ephemeral emotions pass.

Five levels was five levels. Soon Jim' soul naturally let go of any emotion. This was what he had chosen. He had wanted to keep at his old strategy until it worked. Maybe he had expected a little more defense. Maybe he had been looking forward to an even more permeable membrane that he could coordinate and selectively allow to do incredible things. All of that goodness would have still been along the lines of his old strategy for survival. 

'Alright, at least upgrading my membrane to max restored my cell body completely. Yay!'

Looking on the bright side Jim was happy to know he was back to looking like a normal cell again. He was back! A somewhat misshapen bag of proteins and lipids presented itself in the aqueous liquid once more. 

There was no one to see him proudly showing off, though. No cell was in sight. In fact there was no one to even hear his soul's communication. He was alone again. But this time there was something different. Where before when he extended his soul senses he had not been able to sense anything at all, this time he could feel that he was moving. Technically Jim's cell wasn't actually moving, it was the environment, the aqueous substance itself that was propelling him along.

'This is different. How did I get here? Am I in some kind of blood stream?'

Thinking about his new circumstances he pondered. This can't be a vein or an artery, there is no blood. At least since he started to pay attention he had seen no blood cells. What was going on here?

'Regardless, I need to find someway to change up my cell signature. That is the most important thing. Especially now that I found out that my evolution might not have actually changed my membrane too much!'

He had to find something he could selectively allow into his membrane that would change his identity. The white blood cells had been able to identify him though some sort of voodoo analysis of his membrane. Jim and started to think of it as his system signature or name. He was going to have to figure out more about this naming system. It seemed important on the cellular level.

The only way to do anything about this system signature right now was to accidently bump into other cells. But what was his chance of bumping into something that he could selectively allow inside his membrane and incorporate into his cell body somehow? He didn't know. But if he could find something it would be a game changer.

What is going to happen? In what direction is this current taking me? What is the destination? Am I going to get peed out like waste? Or is this a blood vessel and I am going to find myself at the literal heart of whatever beast this super organism is?