Aurelian was rushing to get Entropy under some type of moniterization.
In the months he's been mentoring, he has learned to operate most of the equipment in the room to a basic level through not only instruction but also observation.
Somehow, the already genius scientist was also an amazing teacher, granted he paid you any attention. He was also incredibly patient and understanding, so over time, Aurelian truly set into his role and found his place in the lab.
They failed often, but the process of learning, failing, and discovering things together, was a feeling Aurelian would never trade for anything.
Entropy was the older brother he never had; the family that didn't discard him for his faults; the family now seizing on the floor after injecting himself with alien cells.
He had seen Entropy do truly insane things, some Aurelian was sure would've killed the two of them, but they always came through in the end.
Usually, Aurelian trusted Entropy's judgment.
This time was different. What logic had boiled in that brain to conclude in injecting foreign biology into his bloodstream? There was no sense in it.
Injecting into his arm to boot; that was essentially the interstate of human blood flow; it already cycled through his heart and brain, and whatever effects it had were going to be permanent.
'I'm going to kill him'
Aurelian cleared the computer desk and heaved Entropy's still body on top. His body had already stopped seizing, something Aurelian couldn't tell if it was a good or bad thing.
Attaching as many monitorial objects to his body as possible, Aurelian opened the computer and checked his vitals.
'Holy mother of mackerel, his vitals are through the roof'
His heart rate, his brain activity, and his blood pressure were all spiked.
Although he was no longer jerking, Entropy's face periodically winced in pain. Aurelian watched muscles contort and tighten to a terrifying degree. When he used a light to check his pupils, they were unresponsive and slowly losing their luster.
For the first time, Aurelian was truly scared he was going to lose Entropy.
The thought gave him an ominous chill down his spine
'Please survive. We're not done here.'
----
It took days, but his vitals eventually settled; Entropy still showed no signs of waking and Aurelian was tired. He had yet to sleep, making sure he didn't miss a single thing.
He wouldn't know what to do with himself if Entropy died while he was asleep.
The monitor said his heart rate settled at just around 95 bpm; a ridiculously high resting speed, but there was nothing that could be done.
Unsatisfied with the information at his disposal, he wanted to check the condition of Entropy's body more closely than the computer allowed.
Grabbing a syringe, he drew a minuscule amount of blood and moved over to place it in a petri dish.
He wasn't as well-versed as Entropy, but Aurelian watched him doing often enough to get the gist of what he was looking for and how to find it.
Observing the cells within the sample, he found, nothing. There were no Aether cells anywhere in the sample.
It was baffling.
Without a doubt, Entropy injected those cells into his body and had a visible reaction to it.
So where were they?
When he thought about it further, Aurelian realized that the Aether cells only ever interacted with human cells outside of the body.
They never had to deal with the human immune system.
Perhaps they were purged once they came into contact with the human defense mechanism for foreign invaders.
The realization comforted most of his worries. Now, all that was left was for Entropy to wake.
Aurelian sighed in relief, 'Thank goodness.'
Reaching to place the tip of the syringe in the trash, his hand collided[1] with the petri dish and spilled the contents onto his hands.
'Dang it'
Rising, he retrieved a rag and wiped his mess up, washing his hands shortly afterward.
He must've started to get clumsy from being awake for so long. Hopefully, he won't be up for much longer.
"I'm already ruining your lab, you better wake up soon"
After folding the towel and placing it on the sink edge to be washed later.
As he made his way toward the computer to resume his watch over Entropy, his arm caught the edge of the metal operating table, slicing skin open.
A minor wound, but the room was supposed to remain as sterile as possible. Entropy would go on a tirade about cleanliness again if Aurelian let any blood spill on the floor.
Grabbing the nearest rag, he applied pressure to his wound and searched for a band-aid in the first aid kit.
Once he was bandaged up, he sat next to Entropy, planning on continuing his watch, when he was overcome with a wave of exhaustion like no other.
His body, which barely got by before, was now shutting down entirely. As if something occurred that drained every bit of energy from him.
Aurelian would not be able to disobey the throes of exhaustion any longer, glancing at Entropy, he hoped nothing would happen while he was out.
The guy didn't think about Aurelian's well-being when he went and almost died.
He internally groaned, 'I hate geniuses'
[1] This doesn't look spelled right lol