[ChicletPrime]

Chapter 8: Micro Universe
Flashback to Raf's days as a professor at the university. Casually drops a bomb that disrupts a very important detail we've taken for granted about him and MC in the present.

• Gaia Research Center -- that's the lab where MC and Caleb are or will be, yes? Gaia as the personification of the 'world' is fairly apt. protagonist: random NPC named Michael
  
• okay, so we're taking Art & Appreciation because we actually like art, and working in the lab is soul crushing, especially when we are 'harshly scolded for questioning an overly aggressive experiment.' gee, wonder what THAT was.
  
• no, hang on. if Rafayel is teaching this class (I remember in an Anecdote that he decided to take on the job because then he could contrive a way to meet the girlfriend that was fairly unobtrusive) then the lab Caleb and her were in is blown apart in the N109 zone right now. I guess Gaia just moved to a new location and started up again?
  
• Michael's a biology major, and his work in the lab apparently deals with 'petri dishes' and 'microscopes' and 'LCMECs'. he's known in the lab as 'that Linkon intern' and his number S460602
  
• ah okay. LCMECS is a type of immortalized cell.
  
• Oh shit. Okay. Nice. Fantastic, even. Lem(urian) Cardiac Microvascular Endothelial Cells.
  
• I know just enough doctor speak to say that probaby means cells taken from the inside of the heart.
  
• Rafayel changes Michael's artwork into little colorful fish and he asks casually if the cells are taken from living subjects. which is above Michael's paygrade.
  
• Michael's out of school/working for EVER now.
  

Chapter 9: No Morning
Greyson fluff (Zayne adjacent) / pre Death&Rebirth lore

• awww. does Greyson have a crush on me? or..maybe Tara? Captain Jenna!
  
• okay, so there's a yearly review of Hunters by the Akso Hospital to check for problems to do with (over)exposure to Metaflux and Protocore Energy.
  
• "Greyson's mind, however, drifts elsewhere. It replays a scene where an injured person's heartbeat is brought back to life in his hands, and the girl smiles at him against the backlight. The Wanderers behind her burst like fireworks, their light echoing the blossoming warmth in his heart." --- eh?
  
• okay, he's not crushing on me, but some other Hunter girl.
  
• a 'Metaflux reaction' has exceeded some threshold and a Hunter now has a wound infection because of it. residual Metaflux is now in the bloodstream and Zayne and Greyson have to implant a "Cryozina" to prevent the Metaflux from affecting the patient's heart 'even more'.  cryo = cold so Zayne's come up with something using his Evol as a base or reference to halt or at least slow the intrusion of Metaflux into people.
  
• side note: Some Metaflux leaks can require medical triage for days at a time, so its not just Mount Eternal's problem.
  
• this Cryozina implant 'contains' the residual Metaflux? and it has to be replaced every so often. So its absorbing the Metaflux like an odd sponge.
  
• awww. the plant on Zayne's desk is a flower called 'snow velvet' and its endangered (or extinct) on Mt. Eternal. i guess that's why it perks up when Zayne gives it ice and snow.
  
• meanwhile, back at the real hospital work, this year's Hunter exams shows that more of them than usual are showing Type Y Protocore Syndrome. Type Y involves Metaflux that hides in various organs and systems, long latency, slow progression. No current known cure.
  
• Greyson, thinking of Zayne: "That ever-vigilant lighthouse keeper guards the shores of life. Does even he feel the weight, the helplessness?"  that's a lovely little sentence right there.
  
• oh crap. the snow velvet flower is wilting, with black ice crystals in its pot. the snow.. changed?
  

Chapter 10: Mischief
Flashback to Luke & Kieran's meetcute with Sylus

• lovely. truck driver carrying 'cargo' over a deserted road in an armored truck. works for EVER, doesn't question anything as he's just paid to drive. 'cargo' usually means 'people'.
  
• well, somebody's suddenly in the cab with the driver. one knife threat later and realizing the door to the 'cargo' is wide open and he can see dead researchers covered in blood around some empty restraints, he books it. into an alley and behind a dumpster?  i guess it was a deserted road in the middle of a city.
  
• Nice, its the twins! i love it when the story plays like its just one person, but in two places causing cognitive whiplash.
  
• Luke says Kieran is his shadow. does Kieran agree? /swivels head to follow tennis ball conversation
  
• "Someone snitched on us to the guards when we tried to escape last time."  what do you mean, last time? apparently at least one researcher felt sorry for the twins, which doesn't bode well for whatever they've been trying to escape from.
  
• oh, wow. two bodies, one lymphatic system. they feel, see and hear what their twin does?!? oh man, they are 16 year old babies.
  
• okay, exposed to (a) Protocore, they showed 'rejection' reactions and a 'transformation' is likely within three months. oh, the risk assessment was too high so they were being transferred to a disposal site near the N109.
  
• oh fuck, they weren't the only set of twins being experimented on.
  
• muahah! oh fine. Luke decides they should take out the boss of Onychinus if they only have three months of life left, just to go out 'with a bang'. if that doesn't work, then at least they'll be dead and not turned into Wanderers.
  
• The rumors about Sylus are wonderful. i particularly like that he has to drink the blood of teenagers to maintain his youthful appearance and that he's apparently a shapeshifter.
  
• little tidbit that Sylus has a 'luxury suite' at the Solon Hotel. isn't that were the original explosion happened, and then where we went for the protocore auction as Sylus' arm candy?
  
• On the nature of Sylus: You can kill him, or you can replace him or you can become his subordinate.
  
• Nice! (rumor) It's apparently Sylus' 80th birthday.  well. i've always wanted to cross 'nail an octogenarian' off my bucket list.
  
• Luke loves crunching ice. Duly noted!
  
• hey, random Sherman mention. the twins met him at Elysium (another club like The Nest?)
  
• Luke has no chill for a guy who likes the taste of cold.
  
• Sylus, not clearly identifiable from across the street and through a partially curtain drawn window, vaporizes someone while the twin watch on, rapt.
  
• the twins are freaky fast and i love it. Kieran doesn't pay attention to details because that seems to be Luke's job. and Luke notes that Sylus seems to have a barrier around him and nobody crosses that line. unclear if its a literal barrier or just an exclusionary personal bubble.
  
• Luke and Kieran can talk to each other, even when separated by physical distance.
  
• Okay, so Sylus is taking in an orchestral concert where he is the only person in the auditorium. super exclusive performance! the concert has been arranged by a "Mr. R.".  L+K decide to make their play here, with Luke as the visible target and Kieran in the shadows.
  
• Luke deviates from plan! i get the impression that our hotheaded twin probably does that a bunch.
  
• well, that plan didn't work either but Sylus just ejected them from the hall and called them boring. them's fighting words!
  
• so in a confusing set of events, our babies get hired at a fighting ring that Onychinus' members favor. but Onychinus is just casing the joint (?) in order to take it out, either to get rid of it or swallow it into Onychinus' list of businesses(??) L&K decide (spontaneously?) to offer their services to Sylus. Feudal fealty stuff! very romantic in a blood soaked sort of way.
  
• wow. okay. Sylus has them take out the fighting pit/ring people, and then has them fight each other. which is wild, since they're so enmeshed with each other. Sylus is still very bored, the poor misunderstood boss-man.
  
• oops, twin fight interrupted as one of them starts to transform, black crystals exploding and crawling. the other drops in sympathetic pain.
  
• Sylus hands back the knife which had dropped to the transforming twin, who first starts to kill himself, but then looks at his brother and opts instead to start gouging out the crystals.
  
• The other brother grips his hand and says he'll 'help'. i'm guessing he means help with the suicide, which will take them both out.
  
• Sylus uses his evol finally as if to finish the job for them, but at the very last, the twins don't want to die so Sylus shatters the crystals instead.
  
• Sylus: "In the N109 Zone, dying is easy. Staying alive — now that's the real proof of strength."  Exit Sylus, stage left through the blood spatter.
  
• L&K heal up and then go to offer their services again. boy, they are persistent.
  
• Oh. Because of the crystal wounds on one of their bodies, they are no longer identical. aha. so, masks.
  
• oh, they got the masks from "303" who's now in the N109, which was the designation of one of the other twin-pairs in the lab. so at least one twin managed to make it out alive. scrolling back, they were named "Phi-" something. Phillip? Philos? Philippines?
  
• nice. so they want to stick around Sylus just to see if anybody can kill him. well, gotta do something with your remaining life, i suppose.
  
• RULES OF SUCCESSFUL AMBUSH
  1) Conceal your strengths
  2) Know your enemy
  3) Exploit your advantage when the enemy least expects it
  4) Swiftly abandon flawed tactics and use new strategies to confuse your opponent
  

So, technically, one of the twins could still transform at any moment. And they don't say WHICH twin was damaged and since they're always under the masks...  this was great!