Things were not looking up on the follow through. A short contact with Officer Tin had confirmed that, apparently she had gotten angry enough at the news that some of her co-workers had to calm her down before she stormed out of the office.
I wasn’t feeling the best myself; the thought of what could have happened was dwelling on my mind the whole time that Officer Barns and I babysat the reporters. Most of them seemed fairly interested in the riot but chose to not follow along with it until more facts could be produced. They apparently knew that some people were caught; a good story is one with a happy ending.
The secretary was the one who had made the call to Officer Tin, calling her on her mobile phone before we could know about it. She had gotten the number from the student references database, confirming that her daughter was suspended and having a hand in the crime. It wasn’t professional to do it so soon, the job of reporting the infringement to her should have been the police force, not the school secretary.
What is done however was done. Though that didn’t worry me the most. It was the news that was following. During the anger toned voice, I could overhear some of the conversation coming from the female officer. Apparently she was half threatening her absent daughter with the Animatrix serum. I highly doubted it would come to that however, since one had to report for a dose themselves on free will.
Or so I thought.
“Wow, that’s a bit rough.” Officer Barnes stated once I had reported the conversation back to him. Confused, I raised an eyebrow at the comment.
“Rough? The Animatrix serum can only be administered to a person by free will. She can’t order one then use it on her without people knowing.” I stated factually, trying to keep my voice down as we escorted the reporters out of the building. With the current chaos, it wouldn’t do to have them here.
To my dismay however, I was proven wrong. Officer Barnes turned to me once the last reporter had left, his expression grim; “I forgot that you don’t have cable. A recent bill has passed with the newest strain of the Animatrix Serum. If a crime was committed that would ordinarily mean that the apprehended person would be sent to a correctional facility, the closest family member has a choice. He or she can become the legal caretaker for the apprehended criminal once they administer this new strain. I think they have to sign all these papers, seems like a big fuss to me.” He stated blandly.
Half dreading the answer, I continued the conversation on the way back to the surveillance room; “What is this newest strain? Wasn’t the gender and animal strain enough?” I asked with a growl, my distaste for the serum was on a few levels. Without it, none of this drama would ever be happening.
“Apparently,” Officer Barnes spoke as he opened the door for me; “Doctor Leon found the aging gene. With this new strain, it can be used to revert someone or something back to a specific age by grouping and splitting cells. Some science stuff like that. From the results, apparently the youngest someone can go back to is three years old. Or close to it. Plus, it can only be used once. If they take this strain, their body becomes immune to further changes to the aging gene. At least that will help prevent immortality and over population.” He stated with a sigh, sitting in his chair to wait further orders.
Hearing the news, I really couldn’t believe it. If this was true, this new strain could be used to turn the elderly back to normal children again. Though as Barnes stated, a second person had to become the legal caretaker through a large process. It did make a little sense though, this way the criminals could be brought up a little better and in a different age group. Though with the mind being drawn back this way, would their mind become a 3 year old as well? I didn’t have any answers. Only questions.
“How come I didn’t hear of this? As Police officers, I thought this strain would be immediate news to us.” I asked, befuddled by the fact that I wasn’t told of this sooner. Unless it was just revealed last night, I could understand that.
“It happened just recently I believe. From what I can gather, the report of this new change is slowly sweeping across the world and just hasn’t reached us yet. Though the option is still open for orders. For any medical reason for regression, you have to have medical certificates and all that, the government doesn’t want a world full of toddlers where proper, healthy adults still can live freely.” he reported, his own thoughts going through his mind.
That made sense. If many adults wanted to be teenagers, they would just apply straight away and blow the whole system out of the water. So only medical or law reasoning could be accepted for this new strain of serum. It still didn’t stand right with me. The bad news didn’t stop there however.
“Apparently, if the person is a rapist, a murderer that goes after the opposite sex because of homophobia or because of the thrill, a second is injected to make them that gender. Same if they attack one with that race, they are charged to become an animal person. I don’t know who passed the law, though it seems a little off to me. Only someone with aims to change the world in his way would propose this. How it got through is beyond me.” He wondered.
If this was true and the case was strong enough against any of the attackers today, some of them may be back to looking at pull-ups.