Chapter 163: Smith Medicals’ Stage. 2010 CE

Helios was walking along the crowd with Gwen as people started to gather around the stage of the Stark Expo as a lady just came out to announce something. The lady was smiling, and she was holding a mic in her hand.

"Alright people, today's going to get busy!" shouted the lady excitedly, making the crowd cheer. "First up, Smith Medicals is going to take the stage announcing a rather amazing discovery by Doctor Maya Hansen, to which we shall see shortly. After that, Hammer Industries are going to show you all some exciting things that they just built, so stick around for a little while!"

The crowd cheered once more, hyping up the presentation in front of them. Helios quickly pulled Gwen towards a seat on the edge of the stage, sitting on it.

"You want some?" Gwen suddenly offered Helios some gummy bears.

"You brought gummy bears?" Helios looked at her weirdly.

"What? My friend from ballet practice gave it to me this afternoon." Gwen shrugged.

Helios sighed, and took the orange gummy bear, chewing it slowly.

"Then without further it do, Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome, Doctor Maya Hansen!"

The crowd gave a warm applause as Maya entered the stage rather awkwardly. A few men whistled as she stepped on the spotlight, liking what they saw already.

"Hello everyone…" She waved her hand to the crowd shyly. "My name is Maya Hansen, but you know that already… I worked in Smith Medicals, the head of it actually…"

The crowd was amused by the awkwardness of Maya, but some liked it, as it was… charming…

"Today I'm going to talk about a lifetime project of mine called the Extremis Project…" she said, clicking a device in her hands, and a logo of the project appeared behind her. "What is this project you might add? Well, it obviously involves medical breakthroughs because I worked in Smith Medicals…"

The crowd chuckled a bit at her 'joke', even though it was not really funny…

"The Extremis project deals with all kinds of things." continued Maya, saving herself from awkwardness. "But the point is, it can heal almost all diseases and disabilities, including the loss of limbs, cancer, and many more…"

The crowd was now interested in the presentation of Maya, at first, they just watched her because she was pretty and charming, but now, they focused on the topic of the presentation instead.

"Basically, Extremis is an advanced form of genetic manipulation that me and my team back at Smith Medicals created using nanotechnology that we developed ourselves, it acts like a virus, travelling to your brain to 'rewire' it or some sort. The virus allows your body to regenerate from physical damages, deformities, and, in large doses, even psychological damages, in a short time."

Maya gulped as the crowd's eyes turned to her, anticipating what's coming next.

Maya looked at the screen behind her. "Er… I think we have some video proof on how it works… but viewer discretion is advised, if you're a bit squirmy, I think you should close your eyes for a few minutes. We've contacted some veterans that lost their limbs in wars, and asked them if they want to participate in the testing phase of this newly developed technology, and some of them agreed, so, people who are in this video all agreed to be filmed and tested."

A video then was played on the screen, and it shows a man walking to the frame of the camera, sitting on a chair. He spoke about himself, how he was in the army, how he lost his arm in the middle east, and how he said that he agreed to be a test subject in this newly developed technology.

A woman, Maya, suddenly entered the frame, bringing a serum with a needle to inject it, she walked up to the veteran, and started to insert the serum liquid to his arm stump. Not a minute later, the stump suddenly glowed, and slowly but surely, his arm regrew back, making the crowd gasp, and the veteran was crying a bit when he saw it.

Maya asked if he felt any pain, he said a little from the regrowing, and once all of his arm grew back, Maya asked if he could move it, and he did, he was able to move his limb again, which made him cry, thanking Maya for all she did. After that, the video ends.

As soon as the video ended, the crowd cheered in excitement from the prospect, Helios saw that Gwen was really interested in it, her eyes practically sparkling, she also stood up from her chair and gave the video an applause.

"So that's the demonstration of the new technology…" Maya smiled awkwardly as she didn't know how to calm down the crowd. "We at the Smith Medicals are still working hard on improving the technology, but it is usable for the public…"

The crowd cheered more loudly as they heard that it is usable for the public, some even already contacted their loved one that has cancer or lost a limb to tell them about it.

"But… because the technology is new, and the overall volatility of the virus, it is still quite expensive to produce, so it will be limited for quite some time, but, Smith Medicals offered that we'll give it to you for free if you are a veteran, or if one of your family is a veteran."

The crowd's applause drowned Maya's voice as she tried to speak again. Helios touched Gwen's shoulder, making her turn to him.

"Do you want to buy some ice cream? It's getting boring…" Helios murmured.

"But Doctor Hansen is cool!" Gwen argued as she continued to clap. "Stay until she finishes, please?"

Helios sighed. "Okay…"

Maya then continued to talk about the details of the technology for the sophisticated people in the crowd, making some people leave, because they do not know what she's talking about. Even though people are leaving, Helios and Gwen still stay, because Gwen told Helios that she adores Doctor Hansen, and wants to be like her when she grows up, so she must listen to what she says.

"So… I think that's it for my presentation today… If you want to know more about the project or the program that comes with it, you can visit our area in the east section of the expo… thank you…"

The crowd gave her a standing ovation as she got out of the stage, many reporters quickly reported on the new technology, saying that a new age of medicine is coming to the world, blah blah blah, Helios doesn't really care about it, for him it's boring, because he already heard her practising on his home with his dad and mom.

He just wanted some ice cream.

After that, Helios walked away from the stage with Gwen, who was talking about Doctor Hansen nonstop.

Meanwhile, at the corner of the expo, a man was watching with his sunglasses. He was watching the presentation with a frown and hatred on his eyes, his hands glowed orange as he clenched his fist, before walking away from the expo, exiting the place.