Chapter Text
ML-1315 could feel a wind of emotion as she looked at all the city sights while fumbling with her map and oxygen box. The slight dark spots under her eyes and messy hair would have been proof to anyone of the stressful week the freshly graduated reticulocyte had gone through. She had taken all her things from the bone marrow and had moved them all into the new house that she had picked out in a bustling area of the body with the help of her friend DW-1435.
DW-1435 was an erythrocyte with a gentle smile and hair put in many small braids who had graduated the previous year and quickly offered to be her senpai, happy to see another of the friend group who had graduated. Though even with her friend’s help the transition would be anything but easy.
“ML!? Oh ML! There you are! Do you need some help with that?” DW said exasperated as she took the map from ML. ML reached for it but DW quickly moved to keep it out of reach. “Oh no, not until I'm sure you won’t wander off and get lost.”
ML could feel her face warm up in embarrassment, “I’m sorry, there is just so much to see! I mean they barely let us see outside the bone marrow for all our time there and now…” She held her hands up and out in a big gesture, “We get the chance to see the world!”
DW felt her lips perk up in a big smile, shaking her head at her excited friend. “So dramatic ML. Keep the enthusiasm, it will help you through the first couple of weeks. Come on, we have to keep going to the right hand! Don’t want to be late!”
ML felt a jolt of realization at her senpai’s words. “Oh no! You’re right! I have been getting distracted! I can’t have them thinking I’m a loser on my first day! AND-”
DW put a reassuring hand on ML’s shoulder. “Ok, relax. We are right by the elbow and still have plenty of time. As long as we stay on schedule-”
ML didn’t hear the rest of what her senpai had to say as just then a rumbling sound quickly increasing in volume could be heard. Pebbles on the ground started to shake and be thrown around. Suddenly, a deafening explosion could be heard as the ground opened up. Out came a green slimy creature that had a single eye bigger than a beach ball. On its face a sick grin.
Pseudomonas Aeruginosa:
Pseudomonas is a type of bacteria (germ) that is found commonly in the environment, like in soil and in water. Of the many different types of Pseudomonas, the one that most often causes infections in humans is called Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause infections in the blood, lungs (pneumonia), or other parts of the body after surgery. https://www.cdc.gov/hai/organisms/pseudomonas.html
ML could feel her body respond immediately as she ran away with her senpai from the scene. As she ran she heard the germ’s gloating. “Hah hah hah. Now now, quite the lovely place you got here! We will definitely enjoy our stay here. You? Not so much.”
The slimy creature was faster than it looked and before she could move completely out of the way, suddenly she felt a slimy hand wrap around her waist and hoist her up. She let out a scream as more green slimy creatures were crawling out of the hole by the second until there seemed to be a group of six of them.
The slimy creature inspected its catch. “My my, what a lovely little erythrocyte we have here.” She let out a yelp as the slimy creature brought her closer and closer to its mouth. “I wonder if you taste as good as you look!”
“I’M A RETICULOCYTE YOU SLIMY MONSTER!” She struggled in the pathogen’s grip, kicking, punching and yelling until her throat was sore, but it was no use. She felt her eyes tear up and an ache in her chest as she looked to the pathogen’s fangs in disbelief. Her first day on the job and she was going to get eaten by a disgusting monster before her new life had even begun!
The monster only laughed at her disbelief. She closed her eyes hoping death would be quick. That was until abruptly she heard the thumps of quick, heavy footsteps and the battle cries of what seemed to be a bunch of men with rustling heavy jackets making their way to the scene. Opening her eyes she began kicking and screaming once more and the germ gained its sick smile glad to torture her a bit more.
From her side she saw a white flash and heard a hair-raising battle cry, “DIE GERM!!!” The germ led out a wail as blood spewed out of its body like a geyser. She dropped to the ground and ended up landing on top of her hero as he made a fumbled attempt to catch her.
She heard a groan and quickly got off the cell. Her face got warm and she imagined it was a strawberry pink by the time the cell stood up. “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry, are you ok?!” His wince changed to a concerned look, “That was a huge fall, are you ok?” She turned to the cell. “Oh yes i’m ok-” Taking a good look at him for the first time she could see he was dressed in all white, though splattered with red blood. He had pale skin and a badge on his hat. And…wait…This must be a neutrophil!
She recalled learning a bit about the immune system back in the bone marrow. There was also the neutrophil who would chase them with a crazed expression back in the bone marrow with a puppet that was the splitting image of the slimy monster that had captured her.
She stopped speaking and looked at him remembering what her friends had said about them. He cringed at her sudden change. Taking a nervous glance around she could see the other neutrophils making quick work of the pathogens. The battle was practically over by that point. Those pathogens had not done their homework! Speaking of…he had saved her! Should she…thank him?
She had heard some cells making oxygen deliveries in the bone marrow talk about them. They had said they were ruthless, freakish, and unforgiving. But that didn’t make sense. He had saved her! He was the reason she was still…alive. Sure they were kind of loud and…violent but she was about to be eaten for goodness sake! No, she wasn’t a little scared erythroblast anymore, she was going to talk to him!
“Are you ok? I’m sorry if i’m making you uncomfortable” The neutrophil said with a hurt look. “N-no don’t worry. It's me. I’m just a bit shaken up is all. Thank you for saving me!” ML quickly said to remedy the situation. She thought back on some conversation starters she would use back at the bone marrow. Maybe a compliment?
“Oh, quite a nice badge you have there! It...looks just like mine.” She pointed to the badge on her head. The neutrophil looked pleasantly surprised. “Oh this?” He pointed at it. “Thank you, this is the badge I got as a band cell.”
ML scrunched her eyebrows as she had an even more confused look on her face, all the previous fear waning. “A band cell? I’m a reticulocyte. Is that like the reticulocyte version for neutrophils?” The band cell nodded his head with his lips turned up in a bright smile. “Yup! I’m actually on the job right now with my senpais! Or was anyway…” He looked around subtly gesturing to the neutrophils who were busy…eating the bacteria!?!
Her look of shock wasn’t that subtle. “Oh yeah um, that is phagocytosis. It tastes worse than it looks.” He said this with a grimace. It did nothing to lessen her curiosity. “Huh, hey do you think a reticulocyte could try phagocytosing something?” His eyes widened and his mouth became agape like a fish. “What!? I- I don’t think that has ever been attempted before-” Before he could finish his sentence ML grabbed the arm of the monster and chomped down, biting off a good piece of it.
Mouth still agape he stared at the bold reticulocyte who was now slowly turning an ill green color as she choked down the pieces of the germ. “Huergh, that really does taste horrible. I don’t know what I expected from such a nasty thing.” She glared at the pathogen. His face scrunched up with a look of concern. “Spit it out! Spit it out! You might get sick.” She seemed to be getting sicker by the second with her face looking greener and greener. “N-nope. I don’t want to make an even bigger mess for you to clean up. Huerge, I bit it and now I suffer the consequences.”
He sighed, defeated. “Ok, i’ll stay with you in the meantime. And…we are both really covered in blood so…if you're comfortable with it maybe I could take you to a wash station where you can wash up.” Her lips curled up in a grateful smile and her eyebrows slightly furrowed. “That’s kind of you but I really need to get back to my senpai to let her know I'm ok and didn’t die. I hope I haven’t caused you too much trouble. I’ll just go to my senpai first and then you can take me to the washrooms.”
He smiled gently and slowly nodded, “Sounds good, I'll wait for you right by here. Don’t worry, I'm happy to help and… speaking's been nice too. I should be going back to my senpais too…ML-1315.” She gave a gentle smile back at him, “Thank you. Oh, um…and I never got your number…” His slight look of confusion gave way to a look of sudden realization. “Oh yeah, I don’t really have one of those on my hat yet as a band cell…my number is U-7776 but everyone calls me band cell.”
“What do you want to be called?” She asked the boy. “Band cell is just fine.” “Thank you Band cell!” she happily nodded and walked off to find her senpai.
Band cell got to work phagocytosing the bacteria. He hoped his senpais would be proud of him for being able to kill a germ that quickly although…he would definitely be grateful if they hadn’t seen his fumbled rescue attempt. It ended up working, in the end breaking her fall but he was sure the tricky dendritic cell his senpais told him about had gotten it all on camera and would sooner or later use it on him. To activate him his senpais had said? He was not looking forward to that day.
Just then he could see his senpais making their way to him now. U-4989, U-1146, U-2048 and U-2626. U-4989 arrived first with U-2048 right behind him, a big grin on U-4989’s face, “We wanted to give you two some space. Didn’t want to spook her. So, you two seemed to be talking for a while.” U-4989 said with a happy, teasing grin. 2048 pitched in with a pensive expression. “Quite unusual for a red blood cell. You don’t see one that bold everyday.” U-2626 was next to arrive on the scene. “So when are you introducing us to your new lady friend?” He said with a teasing smile. U-1146 was last to arrive with a gentle smile almost hidden by his stoic demeanor, “Guys calm down. Quit teasing him.” Though he did have to admit it was quite strange for a red blood cell to be so bold. He hadn’t seen one like that since his own girlfriend AE-3803 who had gone up to him to thank him and by pure chance they just kept running into each other until they became great friends and eventually lovers. It was heartwarming to see other bold red blood cells who spoke to the white blood cells as equals without animosity or fear. Band cell could feel his face warm up at all the senpai’s assumptions.
“Yeah…she seems kind of nice though. Hey, maybe…I could try to befriend her?” His lips perked up and his face illuminated with a hopeful expression. “When I was speaking to her she seemed a bit afraid at first but she seemed to warm up quicker than most cells. Though…hey U-1146, what would happen if a reticulocyte tried to phagocytose a dead bacteria.”
Hearing what his kohai had said, U-1146 eyebrows rose in a surprised expression unlike his usual stoic demeanor. “What!?...I mean they would probably get sick to the stomach trying to consume bacteria. Wait…you aren’t saying?!...” Band cell cringed. “I am…they bit the bacteria and they got sick.”
U-2048 spoke. “She probably won’t be trying that again anytime soon.” U-4989’s face held concern, “The second erythrocyte to speak to a neutrophil and she ends up getting sick. I hope she feels better soon.”
U-2626 joined the conversation with a scheming smile, “Though…if she is sick…you guys are already going to the washroom together right? This gives you an excuse to well…check in on her. And seeing how things went with AE and U-1146…”
U-1146 felt himself get a bit embarrassed. “Calm down U-2626. They only just started talking a half an hour ago.”
Band cell felt his face warm up, “Yeah, it's not like that, we just met!”
U-2626 held his hands up, though he still had a conniving smile on his face “Ok, Ok, i’m just kidding”
U-1146 spoke. “Although she might be comfortable with Band Cell, we should move away for the time being. We don’t want to overwhelm her with all of us here.”
U-4989 had a disappointed look on his face. “I guess that is true. Though I was hoping to get a chance to meet the reticulocyte who was talking to band cell. You really don’t meet cells like that very often who would decide to have a face to face conversation with a neutrophil.
Band cell’s smiled gently, “Well…she started talking to me after I had saved her from the Pseudomonas Aeruginosa.”
The senpai’s all got bright smiles hearing their kohai’s achievement, U-1146 spoke “Great job Band Cell. You saved her and took down the bacteria all by yourself…you have improved a lot.”
Band cell smiled right back at his senpai’s compliment. “Thanks! But I still have a long way to go until I'm as good as you senpais!
U-2048 looked around, “She will probably be back any minute, we’ll leave you to it then.” U-4989 looked a bit disappointed, “Yeah, I guess he is right, I'm still looking forward to meeting her though.” U-2626 feigned a wistful expression, wiping imaginary tears from his cheeks, “They grow up so fast. Well if you ever want to charm her, U-2048 will be happy to help you.” U-2048 rolled his eyes at his friend and put on the smile of a charmer as he mused. “With this face it's pretty effortless for me. It might take you a bit of practice but I could show you a thing or two on how to attract the ladies~”. 2626 quipped, “For such a ‘ladies man’ for some reason 1146 seems to be the only paired person of the four of us, and to someone as lovely as little miss red too, even though it took him ages to actually spit it out and confess.” 1146’s face warmed up thinking of the romantic confession he had tried so desperately to make perfect with the help of his friends that it had crumbled around him and yet…at the end of it…Miss Red Blood Cell was smiling brighter than he had ever seen and jumping for joy and in the end they had sealed it with a kiss.
Band cell embarrassedly smiled and despite himself let out a giggle or two at his senpai’s antics. He was curious about this reticulocyte he had stumbled upon. He wanted to ask her so much. “How long had she been working before then?”, “What did she think of the body as of then?”, “Why was she so eager to try phagocytosing a bacteria?” and…“Why did she decide to speak to him? A neutrophil…” He needed to be cautious however, he didn’t want to overwhelm her. He felt an itch of anxiety and yet could also feel a wave of subtle elation go over him.
He could hardly wait to speak to the reckless yet bold and unusual yet kind red blood cell he just met, ML-1315.