UpStart: An AMI-Core Biotech Family Company

We arrived, pulling into a sparsely populated parking lot before a generic looking office complex, I guess not generic in the sense of common, it was plain looking. A ‘generic’ office building is usually a glass covered skyscraper, as they all are. This was was more of an old school ‘70s brick building. Above the front door read “AMI-Core Biotechnology”. We remained huddled in behind all one hundred and ninety whinnying horses of the 3.0L V6 that drives Shalaly’qua’s classic Champagne Gold 1995 Nissan Maxima, laying a commanding one hundred and fifty foot pounds to the ground. I took concern of the address asking Michelle, “Are you sure the is UpStart?”

“Well, this is the place I got it from. He said he’ll be here.” She responded. There didn’t seem to be any activity in or around the building. I thought we should just remain in the car until Anders arrives.

“Hey, uhh… make sure you are all on alert, okay? If that Th’tauth Assassin’s friend shows up…”

“What do you think he meant by Poacher, T?”

“If blood maggot were from some natural version of maggots as we know it, though Genetically Modified, why would contract merc’s from Salshakgar look for them, and their ‘creator’?”

“I’ve never heard of such a place.” Tom questioned, “what’s going on?”

“Tom… There is only one active native rift that connects our realms. Colby mentioned it before he passed.”

“Woah, is you saying there is some sort of star gate?”

“It’s not exactly like that but conceptually, yes. Their realm isn’t some other planet that you could travel to on a SpaceX rocket. It doesn’t exist in our reality. You couldn’t go there by conventional means, like flying a plane to Europe.”

Tom sat back, “So, It’s a different dimension and there is a portal to get there? Okay, I can see that.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to dump all this on you because it’s a lot to take in. But, Imagine our world is a soap bubble, and other worlds are separate soap bubbles. When two bubbles touch, their surface interfaces and becomes essentially one. These weak points are areas that enable stable openings though certain steps. These situations are actually rare based in the volume and usually one has to go up the dimensional ladder to descend into another, so to speak. Say, if all the bubbles were in a flat plane and connected on the top and bottom by a string or filament. There are similar, though different, dimensional spaces up and down the filament as well, encompassing more of existence.”

“What if you go all the way up the string?” Michelle blurted out.

“If one could do that, they would likely be intensely powerful, but I’m not entirely sure. Theoretically, all filaments in existence would converge on the great anti-Singularity of pure potential. It would be more likely one finds themselves going the with the energy gradient. That’s why I said they would have to wield immense power. It takes energy to go uphill.” As I captivated my audience, a midsized luxury SUV rolled into the lot and parked near the front door.

“Oh, hey. There he is!” Michelle whispered, pointing out toward the new arrival. We watched him park, linger a moment outside of the entrance while looking around, then headed inside. I signaled for us to head over. Michelle knocked on the front door. We were greeted by a nervous man, itching his greying hair in confusion.

“Y-you brought f-friends? You brought the product, right?” Anders tried to hurry us inside. “I tried contacting Mr. Whipple; however, I’ve not received a response, which made me concerned due to his usual promptness in replying. I called every phone number I had from his office and no one answered. Who are your friends?”

“I’m sorry. I tried to call you, but my rival sent his maitre d' to dispose of me, along with my recent work..” Anders looked confused, Michelle looked confused as well, “You see, I have been making ground breaking progress with our new product…”

“Ahem-”, I cut her off, “Let me take it from here, Ma’am. Sir, my name is Tellurius, and I’m a long time Associate of Mr. Whipple. We have had recent, and unrelated, issues that have resulted in our friend Nathan’s internment to the Shadow Realm. I was working diligently to retrieve another important member of our association from there, when my laboratory was infiltrated by unknown assailants. I was attacked and left for termination. Fortunately, for all of us, Nathan discovered me and sought to reboot me. He did what he could but I had internal damage that required new parts. To his great credit, being not tech savvy, I was repaired but required an extensive reboot. He was lost to the shadow realm as well during this time. The acting editor was then assassinated by the same people who assailed me in my laboratory. My friend here is holding a bag of some particularly vile organic matter that, I believe, is the origin of some serious imminent danger,” I grabbed the now thawing sack of ground maggot and stuck in out a few inches from his face. “I need you to tell me what exactly this is.”

“Danger?” He was shaken, “That’s why I tried so hard to contact her!” He began to pace around the lobby, “I’ve been so in the dark for the past few days and Eugene hasn’t even responded.”

“Hey, calm down. Start from the top.” I tried to reassure him. Michelle sat down, breathing slowly.

“Okay… We were having trouble in development of a meatless protein that is fast growing and able to have a flexible diet. Plant based products are actually as environmentally destructive or more so than just having cattle pastures.. but that’s not going to sell a beef substitute! Our initial products were not safe for consumption, and the ones that we managed to be edible were vile.” Anders sat down, “My business partner from AMI-Core, our parent company and the owner of this lab, Eugene Bernseid was not happy with the lack of progress.”

As he was talking, I couldn’t conclude he was some sort of Poacher. “Somewhere along the way, you developed Blood Maggot, then, right?”

“Yes, after a string of failures, Eugene barged into my office. He was excited. ‘Come give this a try!’, he said. Try it, I did and I was astonished over the absolute blandness.” I was unimpressed with the celebration over bland. “No, no.. Bland is good! …better. Bland can be seasoned. I asked him what strain this came from. ‘oh, its.. from some personal research.’ he stuttered. ‘Shots in the dark’, he said.”

“You didn’t question him further?”

“No, why would I? We were frustrated. I’m not really the genius here. I’m capable, sure, but Eugene is the star. He DOES have a laboratory in his home.” Anders looks around, “hmm?” I looked around as well, intrigued by his sudden interest in the office.

“What’s up?”

“It seems messy in here, as if the Janitor didn’t clean up the night before… or something.”

We were paused, quiet enough to hear the eerie hum of the office lights overhead. “Y’all hear that?” A rumbling gallop rose up. I snapped around toward the front window.

“What the hell is THAT!?” Anders shouted as this hideous monstrosity threw itself into the window pane. The glass exploded around the beast who tumbled into the receptionist’s desk.

“Oh, look who finally caught up.” I scrambled away, “Perhaps I should have known better than to leave our large rifle in the car.” Thinking quickly, as I do, I fired a round and shouted to get its attention. “We need to take this outside!” Enraged, it snorted and stomped just before charging me at top speed, a blistering 4 or 5 miles per hour, “Come on, baby. That’s it.” I dived into the front door, slamming into it. forgetting that the door opened inward. I yanked the door open and sprinted out into the parking lot. If I could get to the car, we can end it right here, I thought. This rifle should easily penetrate its exoskeleton. I made it to the car, scrambling to unlock the trunk. It was bearing down on me as I dug into the duffle bag. I threw out the bipod and dropped it down on the hood of the car. This was my chance. I racked the bolt back and locked in a 750 grain .50 caliber round. I squeezed the trigger, releasing the hammer to strike the pin.

Boom

The bullet tore trough the 45” 1:15 twist 4140 Steel barrel on a 55,000 psi ball of fire and smoke, leaving the muzzle with 13,000 foot-pounds of energy. The thick exoskeleton offered little resistance, as if it was a mere eggshell. The bullet punched a hole out of the back as fast as it entered, and as if it hit nothing at all, continued on into the AMI-Core sign, blowing up the O. For a moment I stood there in triumph, as the beast tumbled and skidded to a stop on the pavement. “Hmmph… Thought you’d have a little more in you.” I said, heading back to the trunk. The cheering of my friends stopped, then I heard Shalaly’qua shouting. I closed the trunk and the beast slammed into the side of the car, throwing me to the ground and pushing the car around. I really should have known to ‘double-tap’ as they say. Being treated to a close up look at my shot, it appears its insides have some remarkable regenerative properties, because of course it does. The exoskeleton hasn’t ‘healed’ though, so maybe we just need to punch a hundred more holes into him. Dazed, I climbed up from the ground. The blow to the car crumpled the back just behind the rear driver-side wheel.

“T! MOVE!” She shouted, firing rounds into the beast. “Get them guns over here, bro.” Her distraction was working, and I scrambled to the driver’s seat. I could get the car right to the window and as they are unloading the bags, I can drop more .50’s into its ugly mug. The engine turned over and the 190HP V6 hummed. I stomped on the gas pedal and took off. She was successful in luring it away from the front of the building, but she lost its attention. I believe it figured out which one was Tom. I sped up, faster than you would want to reasonably drive in a parking lot. I was able to intercept the beast, throwing all 3009 pounds of car into it at 45 miles an hour. I dove out of the vehicle moments before the collision. In hindsight, I should have just stayed in and took the airbag. Jumping out of a car at 45 miles per hour is not recommended, especially for full organics. The vehicle plowed into it, knocking it to the ground.

“Get to the trunk!” I hobbled over and yanked out a duffle bag, tossing it to Shalaly’qua. “Take this!” I yanked out the second bag, “I want to be ready when…” The car flew over my head and smashed into the building. The car blocked the door, my friends inside. The monster was hot on my ass, I turned and shot with my coilgun into the hole the .50 cal left. Fortunately for me, that wound is still sensitive, giving me a moment to dive into the broken window to the side.

“Okay, you just ran the car into it, and its not stopping. I’m going to die.” Tom squealed, still holding his ears from before.

“Knock it off, Tom. I don’t appreciate that negativity. Head to the back of the office, I can take at least a few shots while the car is in the way.” I found a desk toward the back end of the office and set up the rifle. The car slid away from the door, as if it was a Styrofoam Prop. “Okay, maybe one shot.”

Boom

The bullet ripped a new hole it, but it simply shuttered and walked on.

“We could take the elevator down to the lab, you know, before he gets too close?” Anders was frantically pressing the elevator call button.

Racking the bolt again, “That’s a good idea. You go ahead and, uhh, call that elevator.”

Boom

“Maybe hit it in the face?”

“How about I hit YOU in the face, Thomas?”

Boom

Ding

The brushed nickel elevator doors slid open and they piled in. “Come on!" It’s open!”

Grabbing my duffle, I sprinted into the elevator as the monster bore down on me, crushing the desk I just left.

“Close the door. close the door close the door close-the-door.” The doors lazily slid closed. As the elevator descended, the monster slammed into the outer doors, bending them in. The Elevator got caught up on it, grinding down. For a moment, I thought we had been pinched but the elevator slid free and continued down.

“Phew. I thought we were goners!” Michelle spoke, as if she were perhaps watching a movie.

“I think this goes without saying, but there better be a secondary exit. That door was bent in, aside from our friend up there.”

“"I’m gon’a call that asshole, ‘Russel’.” Shalaly’qua said, exasperated.

“Why Russel?” Tom questioned.

“Man, Russel my ex-boyfriend… they have common personality traits.” She chuckled, “been shot about the same amount of times, too.”

“Okay, well, Russel took four rounds from the largest gun we have and didn’t seem to slow him down much. Oh, and I ran into him with a car.” Silence fell upon the elevator. In the silence, a difference sense took over.

“Bro, you smell that?” The fume grew. We were all sniffing. Michelle smiled. The elevator came to a halt, and opened to a long laboratory hallway, lined with glass observation windows to various rooms for experimentation. The smell then overwhelmed the elevator room.

“Oh, no…” The hallway was littered with lab coat wearing corpses, doors ajar, windows broken. Biomass was tucked into the corners of the once clean and orderly space.

“What happened?!” Anders shouted, in shocked confusion. Among the bodies, small creatures dragged and crawled around, milling in their area like caterpillars on a leaf.

“So, Anders. Where did you say the exit is located, again?”

“The… back?”