One simple test. That's all it took to change my life completely. Now, I have to learn how to use my new powers and how to be an agent for The Agency. But most importantly, I need to learn all about my new body. That would take some getting used to. A Flower's Bloom Part 1 by Megan Campbell Copyright  ©2010 Megan Campbell Released: July 4, 2010

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

This was the first story that I ever published on the Internet. I've learned so much since writing it, and I'm sure that it shows. However, this second edition of A Flower's Bloom remains true to the original. The only difference between the original and this one are spelling and grammatical changes because I had the opportunity to pass it through the excellent editor that first contacted me because of this story. I wouldn't be nearly the writer I am today without his immense help and support. Thank you J.

This first part isn't much more than an introduction, but I'm posting it today because I wanted some "meat" to post tomorrow. I hope you enjoy.

Foreword

I started writing this story a couple of years ago. It was originally supposed to be a short story that I could use to help my mom understand how I feel, but it continued to grow and grow. While I still plan to use it in that capacity, it took so long to write that she already has a basic understanding from other avenues.

Thank you again for taking the time to read this story. I hope that I can provide you with an entertaining story that you will enjoy to the last page.

Chapter 1 - The Test

My name is Brett Campbell, and I have hated tests my entire life. This midterm was going to be the worst. Advanced Biology, what am I even doing in this class? It wasn’t even required.

Mr. Bailey was a great teacher, but I don't think even he could prepare us for this test properly.

From day one in his class, he had warned us about this test. This test could be more important than the final, yet he had not given us any idea of what was going to be on it.

As he began to pass out the test, one thing in particular stood out in my mind. It was only one page! The tension in the class noticeably lifted. As he placed the test on my desk, I noticed it didn't even take up the whole page. A gasp came from somewhere in the front of the classroom.

As the rest of the class finished reading what was written on the paper, we turned to look at our teacher for confirmation.

Moving back to the front of the classroom, Mr. Bailey finally spoke. "This is a rare opportunity, and it's one that I am privileged to be able to teach."

"Does this mean we don't have to take a real test today?" asked a girl in the front.

"A question and answer test, no," he said. "But if you want to participate in the DNA study section of this class using your own DNA, we will be providing samples today.

"The forensics lab is very busy, and only one class a year is given this opportunity," he continued. "To participate, just fill out the release form and turn it in. If you do not want to use a sample of your own, an example set of results will be provided for the study."

Relieved, I quickly filled out the release form and turned it in. Those of us who had signed the release forms were then taken to another room where DNA samples were taken.

Chapter 2 - The Results

A week later, we got the results back. Learning about DNA with your own as an example was quite different than how they taught it in high school! The course material was unique to me, and I thought that was what made it so interesting.

The most interesting part, however, came about two weeks after we started the study.

Walking into class, I noticed a man and a woman who looked out of place. They were dressed neatly, and looked very professional. They were talking to Mr. Bailey who, upon seeing me, waved me over to his desk. Upon reaching his desk, he introduced me to the man and woman.

"Brett, this is Agent Harris and this is Agent Johnson," he said, motioning to the man and woman respectively.

"Agents, this is Brett Campbell."

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Campbell," Agent Johnson said while extending her hand. "If you'll come with us, we can get started."

"Get started?" I asked, looking to Mr. Bailey for clarification.

"Go with them and they will explain everything," he said while walking us to the door.

I followed the two agents out the door and down the hall. They opened the door to an unused classroom and ushered me in. Inside the room there were two other students from my biology class.

Nikki was a very beautiful blonde girl whom I had often wished I had the willpower to actually talk to. I'd gone to school with her since elementary school, but I never was able to get to know her. Justin was the other student, and I didn't know him at all.

After the agents introduced themselves and gave us the chance to do the same, they pulled out three binders; each binder had one of our names on the front.

As Agent Harris passed the binders out to us, Agent Johnson began to explain, "The three of you are here today because of the results of your DNA tests. Agent Harris and I represent an organization that can offer you a great opportunity. If you choose to accept our proposal, you will be guaranteed a job with a six figure income after your training has been completed."

Wow, I thought, this must be my lucky day.

"Doing what?" Nikki asked.

"Working for the Agency," Agent Harris responded.

"As a spy?" I asked excitedly.

"Well, yes," said Agent Johnson.

"Cool, where do I sign up?"

"It's not quite that simple, there are conditions to this proposal. For one, you will be 'enhanced' to become a super agent. This enhancement, however, is experimental."

"So we are going to be guinea pigs," Justin spoke for the first time.

"This procedure is experimental, but it has been used successfully before. Nobody has been killed or handicapped in any way.

"The binders we have given to you contain more information about the procedure. What we are asking is for you to thoroughly read the binders and make a decision. We will be back tomorrow for an answer. Until then, we ask that you keep an open mind. Thank you for your time."

With that, the two agents left us alone in the room. I looked over at Nikki and Justin. Nikki appeared to be as excited as I was, but Justin had a weird gleam in his eye that I did not know what it meant.

"Do you think it's real?" I asked, finally getting the nerve to talk to Nikki.

"I don't know, but it sounds exciting," she answered. "Anyway, I'd love to stay and chat, but we’d better get back to class."

I groaned. "I guess so."

The two of us grabbed our binders and headed back to Mr. Bailey's classroom, leaving Justin behind to his own thoughts.

Chapter 3 - The Decision

When I finally got home from classes that night, I immediately sat down and opened the binder. The first part of the binder contained the DNA results that I had been given in class. But the second and third sections really caught my eye.

Section 2 contained a detailed lab report from someone. I assumed that it must have come from the Agency lab because it had many notes relating the results of the DNA test to some kind of procedure that was not specifically mentioned in the document. Not being able to make sense of the notes, I skipped through the pages until I reached the end of Section 2.

On the last page was a summary of my DNA results and how they matched up with the procedure. The final paragraph caught my eye:

Subject Rating: 98%
Subject Summary: The subject has the highest match rating that we have seen yet. In fact, the subject would have been given a 100% rating if not for one small genetic anomaly on chromosome [restricted]. If the subject agrees to undergo the procedure, there is a 99.9% chance of success if the anomaly is corrected. However, if the anomaly is not corrected during the procedure, the success rate drops dramatically to 65%. We would encourage doing whatever is possible to persuade this subject to enter the program. We believe that the subject could gain nearly 100% of the enhancements that the procedure can grant. We also suggest fixing the anomaly on chromosome [restricted]. Fixing the anomaly would not be hard, and the benefits gained from doing so would greatly improve the program.

Wow, that wasn’t what I was expecting to read! The Agency thought I was special! Although, learning that I had an anomaly of some kind brought down some of the excitement.

Turning the page, I came to Section 3. It was all about the procedure.

It was obviously written by a scientist who had helped develop it. It was boring to read. However, since I might be undergoing the procedure, I forced myself to read about it.
Essentially, the procedure was nothing more than an injection. A specially created retro-virus was injected into the body. This retro-virus then proceeded to 'optimize' the person’s DNA. It rewrote the DNA to bring out the best in the person’s genes.

The scientists still were not 100% certain how the virus worked, but they had proved that it is safe, for certain people. The retro-virus tended to react badly for people with certain DNA.

Any person who was to undergo the procedure was given a rating before the procedure was administered. Anything above an 80% was considered acceptable. The binder also showed the success rates of the procedure.

So far, the success rate had been 100%; nobody had died. However, the amount of 'enhancement' varied between subjects.

Most subjects saw an increase in strength and dexterity. They were faster and stronger. Some individuals had seen 'other' enhancements, but the binder didn't go into detail on what those enhancements were.

This whole thing seemed like a dream. I not only was going to become stronger and faster, and better looking, but I also was getting a job with a six figure income. I couldn't see a downside.

However, even with my mind pretty much made up, I called my mother to tell her about it. She was very wary of me undergoing the procedure, and told me that she wanted to see the binder when she got home.

When she arrived home, she told me to grab the binder while she made dinner. While dinner was cooking, she took the time to read through the binder. She was impressed that I had made an impression on the Agency, but she was very worried about the consequences if I accepted their offer. We were still talking about it when my dad and the rest of my family made it home for dinner. We mentioned the offer I was given over dinner, but my sister was the only one of my siblings who showed any real interest in the offer.

After dinner, my mom, my dad, my sister, and I thoroughly studied the contents of the binder. After discussing all the good and bad points that we knew of, my family and I concluded that this could be a great benefit to me. I didn't have all the answers that I needed to have. There were definitely some questions that I would need to ask the agents tomorrow. With that thought in mind, I headed for bed.

Chapter 4 - Acceptance

The next day, I was once again called out of class to meet with the agents. When we were all in the room, Agent Johnson spoke first.

"Any questions before you make your final decisions?" she asked.

Nikki was the first to ask a question that I think we all wanted an answer to. "What will happen to us if we do decide to undergo the procedure?"

"If you choose to undergo the procedure," Agent Johnson stated, "you will be moved to a military installation within the next week to begin preparations.

"You will still have full contact with your families by means of telephone and Internet," she continued, "but you will not be able to leave the base until after the procedure has been completed."

"How long will that take?" Justin asked.

"The procedure itself takes 4-5 days to complete its work, depending on the individual, and the amount of work that the procedure is required to perform," Agent Johnson explained. "Including the testing and preparation time, I would expect you three to be back in school two weeks from now."

"That's it?" I asked. "I thought we would be out longer, maybe for training or something."

"Because we value education at the Agency, the three of you will finish out the last few weeks of the school year before we start the regular training," Agent Harris replied. "This will give you a chance to adapt to any changes that you may go through during the procedure."

Why was he staring at me when he said that?

"Changes?" I had to ask.

"Some people undergo small physical transformations during the procedure, such as bigger muscles or weight loss. Nikki and Justin both fit into this category according to their profiles," Agent Johnson explained.

"You, on the other hand, are in for some bigger changes," she continued. "It would be beneficial for you to get used to the changes before we start the training."

"Are you talking about the anomaly?"

"Yes."

"I wanted to ask about that too. What is it?" I asked.

"I can't go into specifics about it at this meeting."

"Why not?"

She hesitated slightly before answering, "It's personal. I don't think you want to discuss it right now. We can talk about it after this meeting."

The two agents went on to answer all of the other questions we had. Finally it seemed that they were ready to discuss items other than questions.

"Now," Agent Johnson said, "if there aren't any more questions, how about some answers? Justin, do you want to go through the procedure?"

"Yes."

"Nikki, what about you?"

"Yes, I do."

"Alright then, that just leaves you, Brett. Do you want to go through the procedure?"

"I don't know," I replied truthfully. "I'm still worried about the anomaly. I don't know what it means well enough to make a decision."

"Brett," Agent Johnson said while sitting down next to me and taking my hands in hers. "If you decide to go through with the procedure, I have been tasked to be your handler for the time being. Your case is special, as you know, and we want to provide you with the best care possible.

"I have seen your records and I have seen your profile. This anomaly, if corrected, will change your life drastically. But, I think you will be happy with the results. I cannot tell you more about the anomaly unless you agree to undergo the procedure, but everything I've read about you and everything I've learned since meeting you leads me to believe that it will be best for you."

I stared into her eyes. I thought maybe she was just trying to persuade me to join the program at any cost, but her eyes told me differently. It looked like she genuinely meant what she said.

"All right, I guess I'll do it."

The smile on her face was so big when I said that, I just knew I had made the right decision.

"Great!" she beamed while standing up. "Because all three of you are 18, we will not need to get your parents to sign anything.

"So," she said as she moved back to her briefcase at the front of the room. "I have your agency contracts here. You can read and sign them here if you like, or you can take them with you, look over them with your family or a lawyer, and then bring them with you when we leave for the base."

She then handed each of us a small stack of paper. After reading through it, I decided to sign it there. In essence it was just an employment contract. Everything from specifying an income of $300,000 a year (that was very surprising) to confidentiality agreements was included. Justin and Nikki also signed their agreements.

When that was finished, Agent Harris gave us all a second packet. "This is your introduction packet. It includes everything you need to know about the agency as well as instructions for what to bring with you on Monday."

"On Monday," he continued, "we would like to meet here at nine o'clock. We will then head out to the base where the procedure will take place. See you all then."

With that, we were sent back to class for the remainder of the day.

Chapter 5 - A Final Goodbye?

I spent the weekend with my family. My parents and my sister were worried about what would happen to me, but my brothers just thought that it was cool that I was going to be trained to be a super spy. The possibility of gaining "powers" of some sort was also exciting to them. Frankly, it scared me more than it excited me.

Monday morning seemed to come way too fast. I was very nervous while getting ready for school.

What if something went wrong? Could I die? Would the "changes" be more than I could handle?

The binder said that no one had been harmed or killed during the procedure. The scientists in charge seemed to be very careful when it came to finding the right candidates, and were even more careful when performing the procedure, but it was still a scary proposition.

After giving my family hugs and saying goodbye, my mom drove me to school. Since it was still another hour before we were supposed to meet with the agents, she reluctantly dropped me off so I could go to my first period class. I had to promise to call her every night before she would let me get out of the car.

I didn't really know what the lesson was about during class. I was too busy thinking about all the possibilities of what could happen over the next week.

As the bell rang and class was dismissed, I nervously headed to the classroom where I was to meet the agents. When I opened the door I found that I was the last to arrive.

"Okay," Agent Harris said, "Are you all ready to go?"

"I guess so," Nikki replied.

The agents led us outside to a black car. We piled our small overnight bags into the trunk and then got in. After a short drive, we pulled into a hangar at a small airport. Inside the hangar was a small corporate jet.

Up until this point I hadn't thought about where the military base would be. I thought that we would be heading to a local base somewhere here in Utah. It came as a shock to me that we were going to be traveling far enough to require a jet! I had a sudden feeling that I was going to get homesick.

Soon we grabbed our bags and boarded the plane. While we were being seated the engines came to life and soon we were on our way to our destination.