Only a day after Clara informed Roland about Project Chimera, she was called to the Research Labs. She hoped that there wasn't too much going on, and honestly, she didn't give her okay for Project Chimera. One of the things about human video game media was humankind causing terrible calamities through some misstep, at least according to the Resident Evil and Doom series. When she was confirmed by the triple-layer identification lock, she met the scientist who had been placed in charge of Project Chimera, looking a little grim.
"What's wrong?" Asked Clara, dreading the answer slightly.
"I'm afraid we're going to have to cancel Project Chimera indefinitely." Said the scientist.
"Really?" Asked Rick, both him and Clara feeling somewhat relieved, but still wanting to know why.
"Yes." Said the scientist, "Yesterday, I remembered that the Lyre Zoo had a sample of anaconda tissue that they were planning to send to the Frozen Ark Project. I asked for it today to test the formula we were going to use for Calypso and Calliope. I introduced the two viruses we were going to use, one holding lion DNA and the other holding goat DNA. After that, I got up to go to the water fountain in the lab, but when I got back, the tissue sample had died."
"Were you able to determine what happened?" Asked Clara, hoping it wasn't what she was thinking.
"Actually, yes." Said the scientist. "In attempting to merge their 'payloads' with the anaconda DNA, the two different viruses fought against each other and ripped apart the DNA strand in the attempt."
"Oh," said Rick, clearly relieved, "For a moment there I thought we were about to face a Resident Evil scenario."
"That wasn't the spooky thing," Answered the scientist, handing a piece of paper, no bigger than a receipt, and folded in half to Rick, "this was found next to the tissue sample." Unfolding it, this message was found in handwriting no one had ever seen.
Let not the adamu suffer the price of their arrogance.
"I only saw the word 'adamu' once," said Rick, disbelievingly, "in books written by Zecharia Sitchin, which are apparently translations of ancient Sumerian texts."
"Then what are the adamu?" Asked Clara, turning around to face him in his wheelchair, "I've never heard of such beings."
"To put it briefly," said Rick, "they were the first modern humans created by aliens called the Annunaki, at least according to Sitchin."
"And why would these aliens need these adamu?" Asked Clara, still confused.
"Again to put it simply," answered Rick, "the adamu were used as slave labor for the Annunaki."
"That's not the spookiest thing." Cut in the scientist, "I sent an image of the note to the Nevada Crime Lab, and they only found one match: the address label from Anne Cumbertin's package."
"You don't think those were sent by the same people?" Asked Clara, stunned.
"It was either that, or a video game nerd who's also an Ancient Alien conspiracy theory believer." Said the scientist, "But for now, we know that we can't use at least two different Animalia Virus strains in one subject."
"Can you confirm this?" Asked Rick, somewhat disbelievingly.
"Before you two showed up, I and my colleagues attempted different virus-and-tissue combinations, and the same results from my own test showed up, DNA torn apart by the different strains of viruses." Said the scientist, checking up on updates with his colleagues via IPAD connections.
"In some ways, I'm disappointed," said Rick, "In other ways I'm relieved."
"You were thinking about Resident Evil, weren't you?" Asked the scientist, somehow not surprised.
---
"Glad I wasn't the only one." Said Roland, reading the latest post from Clara (including a note that mentioned that she had no idea what they were talking about, but that Rick and the scientist obviously did) as everyone waited for O'Riley to come out of the bathroom before they went to Manaus.
He was just getting halfway through telling the others about Project Chimera when the post showed up announcing its cancellation. While the uplifted Animalians had no idea what "Resident Evil" was, the others did. When O'Riley came out of the bathroom, they told him they were talking about a watchmojo.com video about overused video game plot points, and how the Resident Evil got several of them.