No Radiation…

Summer, 14:00;
Location: Theo’s Villa, Earth;

“Victor, Leo... guys, come check the reports out,” Theo called out.

After arriving at the villa, the trio did all the possible exercises and used all the facilities to push themselves to the limit under Theo, who also did the same and made a note of everything with the help of the Gym A.I. for future reference.

Victor was resting on the couch while Leo was jogging on the treadmill. Apparently, he was getting fatigued far less than Victor or Theo.

While they were resting, Theo went to fetch the results.

"Here." Theo handed a tab to Leo and Victor.

"Hmm! These are the stats I could only dream of…" Victor’s voice trailed off, as if he had seen something unbelievable.

"Yeah, same here. I never expected to be this fit." Theo grinned.

“Guys, look at mine! I’m almost double your stats!” Leo practically shouted. His excitement was off the charts.

"Looks like you are more compatible with the insect that bit you than we are… hahahaha…" Theo smirked.

"It is possible… hahaha" Victor nodded. He was shocked to discover Leo’s stats, which were almost double.

“OR… maybe because I used to hit the gym previously…”, Leo said after a moment.

"That’s also a possibility…” Victor agreed, and Theo nodded to indicate he also believed the same.

“So… what’s about Noir?” Victor asked with a concerned expression.

“Uh, you might not believe this, but its strength, reflexes, and somehow even the IQ got some massive increase… almost comparable to an adult cat."

“So, with this result, I can pretty much almost 70% confirm that your cat is now a super cat, Victor". Theo concluded

"Why only 70%?" Leo asked curiously.

"I am not too sure about everything. Machines designed for humans cannot test animals.” Theo shrugged.

"Ah, that's true too. Noir was smart since she was little, although it’s still a little bit too much, but the fact that despite being a kitten, it has the physical attributes of an adult and mature cat is surprising.”, Victor said after thinking for quite a while.

“Congrats, you got a super cat… hahaha… and furball, I see that you have also stepped up your game, but I am also not the previous me, let's see… Hehe,” Leo gave an evil laugh and went towards the room where Noir was playing with a few robots.

"So, other than this, did anything more happen later?" Victor asked, ignoring Leo.

"Uhm... I guess not... nothing significant on my part... after talking to you guys, I just meditated for 8 hours to see if my conjecture is right or wrong, and guess what? It's completely wrong!” Theo spoke with a hint of disappointment in his tone. “Meditation only distracts us from the thirst, nothing more and nothing less.”

"Yup, the thirst is still there, but I feel like I am somehow getting used to it.” Leo joined the two with scratches all over his body.

The winner was visible here.

Other than Victor Noir doesn’t allow anyone to touch her, she tolerates Theo a little, but for some baffling reason, she absolutely hates Leo.

"Maaow.” No sooner did Leo come than Noir came over, too, and gave Leo a deep growl.

After showing Leo some attitude, she backed up, came running, did a high jump, and leaped to Victor’s shoulders, curiously looking at the reports in the tabs.

“Wow, now she is even looking at her reports, huh…” Leo teased, which immediately got him a scratch.

"Hiss…", Leo hissed in pain.

"Calm down, little lady..." Theo began to pacify the angry cat

“Mew” Noir blew her nostrils and went away to play.

“She has quite a temper,” Leo said while massaging the scratched area.

"So, how did it happen?" Theo asked curiously, and Leo also looked eagerly.

"You guys know how clingy she is, and she always sleeps beside me... I think she picked it up through proximity,” Victor said, frowning.

“Hmm, it’s possible,” Leo agreed, and Theo nodded to show his approval too.

"So, what happened to us? From what happened to Noir, we can say a kind of virus, radiation, or something similar?" Victor asked.

"Maybe… a virus… hmm… radiation huh… ah!" Theo nodded. “AI-Chan, what is our radiation level?”

"I really can't get used to your naming sense, Theo,” Leo commented, to which Victor nodded.

"It's cute, and that’s only what matters.” Theo retorted.

A mechanical but somehow cute voice sounded, “Scanning... Scanning. The radiation level of three subjects: zero.”

"Huh, zero?" "What the fuck?"

"Guys, look at the thermal scan." Theo flipped his tablet around. They were astonished to see that the three of them didn't even have thermal radiation— only black humanoid shapes. Even the gym equipment registered colors, but they were just black.

"The hell is this… Oh! Wait a second, guys ...!" Theo dashed towards the drawer and fetched some rings, three of which he tested and confirmed were not defective. "Wear it!”

“Fitness rings? You still have these?" Victor looked at the rings with a hint of nostalgia.

“All antiques have their value, and I found them last week in the Sunny Junkyard,” Theo said as he safely put away the rest of the rings.

“Pretty good place for scraps… we should go there more often,” Victor said while wearing the rings.

They saw that slowly their black image turned colourful with Victor being blue, Leo being red, and Theo being blue with red at the heart area, with the only common thing being that their bodies are surrounded by black like a border.

“The results now show that we are not dead,” Theo said jokingly, trying to ease the atmosphere, which had become silent after seeing the result.

Victor was the first to open his mouth, "What is the meaning of this?"

"Yeah, that's not normal temperature, bro! I am hotter than radioactive things!" Leo nearly screamed.

"You guys are like one dead and one more than alive, while I feel like a corpse with a living heart," Theo sighed heavily, looking at the results. "The things that are happening are taking a toll on my mind.”

“Sigh… Leave it, let’s eat something… what is this? Why are there no food services?” Leo asked while browsing with his phone.

“Dude, why would they have a branch in this barren place?” Theo asked as if it were common sense.

"Uh, right... Okay, let’s make some food to eat,” Victor said while walking towards the kitchen.

"Ok, but we will again do some training before going home...", Theo said after thinking for a few seconds.

"How I wish we could tell a doctor about this condition… If I am not mistaken from the images, we can say our body is somehow perfectly storing energy without any leak," Leo said with a sigh.

"If you wish to get on a dissecting table, you can do it, and yes, you are right about the second.” Victor raised a brow at Leo’s remark.

“It would be better if we did these exercises and strained ourselves daily. After all, energy is needed for everything, so we can at least try to save ourselves. Also, due to what happened, our stamina recovery is quite good, and concentrating on these matters helps us ignore the thirst we feel every moment," Theo said.

Theo's last line made everyone’s expression complicated, including him too…

“You shouldn’t have said that, now I am feeling thirsty again…” Victor said, as Leo and even Theo nodded.

“Now that I think about it, when are the summer vacations starting for you guys?” Theo changed the topic.

“Coming week, Thursday will be the start of our summer vacation,” Victor said after confirming with the calendar on his phone.

"Hmm, mine will be coming next week, Friday...", Leo said after thinking for a while.

"Mine is also next week, good thing all the nations united, so these types of holidays became almost Universal", Theo chuckled.

"Okay, let’s eat..."

“But who is gonna cook?”

They looked at each other and stayed there in absolute silence.

***

Summer, 20:08,
Location: National Highway 76,

Br…brr…brr…

"Hah… I am feeling exhausted and refreshed at the same time. Earlier, I felt stuffed and bloated… but now, it's peace and I can feel my stamina recovering and that also at a fast speed too", Leo said while slumping in the front seat of the car beside Theo, who will be driving this time.

“Can’t believe I actually exercised today,” Victor chuckled from the back seat with noir on his chest. “I usually don’t even climb out of bed. And… I kinda liked it.”

“Yeah, this kind of almost instant improvement is bound to be fun… haha", Theo said while rummaging through data on the tab, looking like a mad scientist.

“You seem to be excited?" Leo asked.

“Why wouldn’t I? You guys know I love this kind of stuff. Seeing the things happening to us, everything feels unreal. Everything is within our understanding, but also out of our understanding… You guys might not have realised it, but the improvement we got from this small gym session requires a normal person… umm… at least 1 month. Do you guys get it? So, 2–3 hours of working out a day will be a normal person’s month of training… ha-ha… this is fantasy…” Theo paused a bit.

"Our fucking single day is like months to them…FUCKING MONTHS! bwahahaha", Theo’s mad laughter echoed inside the car, while Leo and Victor closed the windows and increased the sound insulation to prevent startling other passing cars.

Victor and Leo looked at each other and shook their heads. They knew this was going to happen sooner or later. Theo becomes like a mad scientist when something coincides with his interest. It's not that they weren't excited, but they were also worried about what might happen to them; the thermal scanning and the Noir case gave them an extra headache.

After a few miles, when Theo calmed down, he took out his diary and pen and began to scribble something.

Unable to bear the silence in the car, Leo asked, “Didn’t the government have some specialised drugs which athletes take? It’s said that these things reduce the time of training… maybe our case isn’t that unique.”

Theo stopped what he was writing and looked at Leo in shock. “Maybe what happened to us increased our intelligence too…”

“Hmm… maybe,” Victor looked at Leo in astonishment.

“BASTARDS… do you guys think me a retard? Remember, I used to get the highest in maths!” Leo bellowed angrily when he saw the shocked faces of his two friends.

Victor held up his hands. “No…no…no, we are not talking about your intelligence, I was just thinking aloud. See, even Noir got smart too…”, to which Theo also nodded to show his approval.

“Oh…” Leo accepted the explanation, but also felt something amiss.

Everyone in the car now looked at the little cat, who was perched on Victor's chest in a perfect loaf, with its eyes closed like a monk in meditation.

“Mew...", seemingly having noticed something, she opened her eyes to see everyone looking at her, but after checking everything, she closed her eyes again like before.

“Hmm… now that I think about it, we should learn some new languages to test our enhanced intelligence”, Theo said while retracting his eyes and successfully changing the topic.

"Language Learning? Don't we have translators?"

“So what? Learning a language can improve our mental health, increase our memory, make our decision making more efficient, also better at multitasking, and we can understand things better than those original monotonic translators?” Victor said, agreeing with Theo’s idea to learn some new languages.

“Hmm..." Leo let out a sound while looking at the outside through the window, appearing to be thinking.

"Stay at my place tonight. We’ll come back here tomorrow— and again once summer vacation starts, for a more permanent stay. You guys should tell uncle aunty too…”

“Don't you guys have college tomorrow?” asked Leo with a baffled face.

“Tomorrow is Sunday!... It’s a holiday”, Victor replied with bewilderment.

"So, you forgot?” Theo asked while suppressing his laughter.

Leo hurriedly checked his phone and let out a dry chuckle.

“Now that I think about it, how come the idea of doing exercise came to you?" Leo asked to ease himself.

"Hmm… It's not an idea, I just want to know your guys’ condition, if there is any similarity between us, cause and cure", Theo thought for a few minutes before answering.

“Then what was the latter workout about? It’s not like I am complaining, after all, I am feeling much better now.”

“I might have an idea”, Victor said.

“Oh… do tell…”, Leo asked, while Theo also looked curiously.

“Like you saw from the thermal images we are somehow collecting energy and storing it, and you might remember how we are not leaking any, … my theory is that by doing something which requires energy we are expending it or assimilating it sort of, and that’s why we don’t feel bloated now and the energy is potent enough to restore out body too which can explain out fast improvements” Victor shared his hypothesis.

“Yup, Victor, you are correct, the first exercise was to check you guys, and after seeing the various results, I confirmed that this is the only thing we can do… the energy is kind of weird to… we now also need to eat food… it only restores things like fatigues, stamina, and aids a little bit of recovery… I think there are more effects too, but I can’t determine it for now… but what I can confirm is the energy we three have are of different types.” Theo spoke as he continued to scribble in his diary.

“So… we’re digesting energy so we don’t overload? To avoid, like—exploding?” Leo asked, horrified.

“Uh…how does your idea get this wild?... I don’t think we are going to burst, right? If we burst, then it’s too sinister…” Victor asked in a concerned voice.

“The chances are pretty low, but it’s not like it’s none…”, Theo said after fiddling with the tab for a few minutes.

“Phew… at least we are not gonna burst”, Leo sighed in relief.

“Uh… you didn’t get it, although we might not burst, but still, there are chances of it happening”, Victor crushed Leo’s hope.

Leo’s body tensed once again, and he looked at Theo for denying Victor, only to see him agreeing with Victor.

"Mah…Mah, don’t get so tensed up, Leo, you used to gym before, didn’t you? Any suggestions?" Theo asked.

“None, I was not even a regular, I just go in my free time, to increase my biceps and triceps to look cool…” Leo answered while taking a deep breath to calm down.

"Useless..." Victor retorted, and Theo nodded.

"Fuck you... " Leo gave them a middle finger.

“So, what are we going to do now?" Leo again asked after a few moments of silence.

“What can we do… we will search for some exercises online, then with our gym AI we will modify it and do it daily… so that we someday don’t burst like a balloon… and I have a hunch something will happen once the thirst fades”, Leo thought for a while before answering and said the last part gravely.

“Bro, stop raising death flags!... but yeah, we need to be prepared too, in case. After all, maybe we are not the only ones who are mutating, as you can see from my cat…” Victor said while letting out a dry chuckle.

“Yeah, not only for us but for our family and friends too”, Theo said with emotion.

“‘family’ is okay, but don't we three have no friends except for the three of us?" Leo said after some thinking.

The car became abnormally quiet.

“You guys should sleep; we need to stop by some shops too. I’ll take care of that," Theo said after moments of silence.

“What do we need to buy?” Victor asked while raising his brow.

“Uh, some medicines, a few gadgets, etc... and transfer me 1000, those things are for you guys, too, so not free”, Theo said the last part with a broad smile.

"Argh”, voices of grunts filled the car.