Chapter 136: An Altered Test

Kai had gone around the back of Gary and was gripping tightly onto the chair. It was a clear sign that he had been backed into a corner. This was the first time he had ever heard of something like the

‘Altered Investigation Force Act’, so of course he had nothing prepared to counter that. When coming in, he had been hoping that he could use his meagre legal knowledge to get his friend out of this situation.

Seeing that Kai was speechless, Gary could only assume that what the White Rose agents claimed to be the truth. He wouldn’t be surprised if they had special privileges, but he naturally had no idea that they would be so wide.

‘Shit, isn’t there anything I can do to get Gary out of this situation? …If this whole case went to court I could probably help him out then, but there’s even more of a chance for things to get out of hand.’ Kai bit on his right thumb, unsure what to do.

He only knew the fact that Gary was a suspected Altered, but he had no idea that his underclassman wanted to avoid being brought in for completely different reasons. If they got his blood all the cases he was linked to would come to light! However, since his friend had come here to stand up for him, Gary didn’t want to give up, so there had to be another way.

“What exactly is the test?” The young high schooler asked confidently.

The White Rose agents found this a little strange, during the whole interrogation Gary had been pretty much an emotional mess, so why was the boy acting up now? Was it because of his friend? If that was the case, shouldn’t he be more nervous just like his friend clearly was?

“We test your blood.” Sadie began to explain which only put a confused look on Gary’s face. He was sure he had just heard that they were unable to just take his blood and that it would be a special test.

“I can see your confusion, so let me explain. I’m not sure how familiar you’re with Altered and how they came into existence, but I assume you at least know the part that the procedure uses the fossils of beasts that used to roam our planet in the past.

“There is a little known fact about these beasts and that is that unlike us their blood was black. Now, since Beast DNA runs through the bodies of us Altered, it means that we too no longer have normal blood like the average human.”

Out of the grey and gold coats that the White Rose agents wore, Frank pulled out a small tube. There was a bit of light blue liquid inside. Sadie then opened the lid slightly and one of her fingers had turned into a type of claw in front of the eyes of the two teenagers and her partner.

She pricked a finger on her other hand, allowing for blood to fall into the container. Strangely, the blood from her hand looked to be quite red. At least with the naked eye it was impossible to tell if there was any difference at all to ‘normal’ blood.

“There is a reason why the Altered Investigation Force was established, and why White Rose is looking for unregistered Altered. There are things that aren’t publicly told on the news. The colour of one's blood varies from person to person.

“In my case you don’t really see it, but in other cases the blood of the Altered has darkened to the point you don’t even need this test. In extreme cases, one’s blood is completely black, which indicates that the Beast DNA has mostly repressed the human DNA.

“In these cases we have found that their human nature starts to change, they start to attack others, exhibit a lust for rage and anger, and worst of all they even might assault even their family and close ones.”

This was the first time Gary had heard anything like this. He knew a little about the blood since some of the Altered fighting matches he would watch but about black blood being a sign of a dangerous Altered. Now he knew why the White Rose agents were so involved in this case.

Billy had killed his parents, and his other murders led them to believe that he was on a killing spree. From the sounds of it, those Altered weren’t humans that had just gone angry due to a new power they had obtained, but something inside them had fundamentally changed them.

Gary gulped, because that sounded very similar to something he had experienced himself. At some point the system had begun warning him that his bloodlust was rising and the closer it had gotten to the full moon, the worse it had become. He now worried whether he might have become this last type of Altered.

“Regardless of all that, this test will bring us clarity about exactly what you are, Gary.” Sadie said, shaking the small tube until the liquid inside the tube slowly turned from red to black. On a closer inspection, it had actually split the two substances with the black liquid on the bottom, while the red blood was a bit brighter than before on the top.

“As you can see with my blood, it looked bright red completely like you would expect a normal human’s to look like, but this little thing inside lets us break down the blood. If you are an Altered, like us, then the same thing will happen with your blood.

“You're clearly unregistered, so if the test works, that will be our grounds to get a warrant from a judge to get our blood sample.” The female agent smiled.

The only thing Kai could think was that they were screwed. There was no way out of the test at all and there didn’t seem to be any way to trick it either. On the other hand, Gary felt like somebody had thrown him a rope.

‘Ever since I got this thing I was wondering whether I would technically count as an Altered. Was there really an ancient beast in the past that was a Werewolf? It's a risky test, but…I don’t think I’ve ever seen that my blood was black. All I can do is take the test. If there’s no way out of it, then there’s no way out of it. There is nothing else I can do, but…’

“I’ll take your test.” Gary agreed.

“Good, not that you had a choice anyway.” Sadie pointed out.

“However, as I understand you’re only allowed to do this because you think I’m an Altered, right? I’ll do the test now in front of you, But I will only show you the result. I keep this tube, and I keep it with me.”

The two White Rose agents looked at each other, and while they didn’t like his commanding tone, they didn’t really see a problem with it either. It wasn’t unusual for people to not want to consent to things that had to do with the police force or government.

Nevertheless, they had done this job long enough to know that people refusing to cooperate wasn’t necessarily because they were guilty, a major part of those they had wrongfully accused, simply hadn’t wanted to be on file.

It was then, after a nod from Sadie, that Frank pulled out one of the tubes and handed it out to Gary who started to open the lid.

******

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