NINE TO FIVE

THE YEAR 2021

Boris was mad. Clinically insane. At least the world thought so. His colleagues thought otherwise. After all, they had worked in the same place for many years. Sure they never knew about his dastardly experiments but all the more they believed he had a reason and very good one for what he did.

From a very early point in time, this prodigy was revered by a lot of people. From his elementary days, his intellect was rarely unnoticed. Ordinary science fairs would be won by a crazy invention made by Jack Boris and Jack Boris alone. Every teacher was inquisitive about him. Quiet in class. Timely with assignments and acing tests. The problem was him. His slouched thin and pale appearance obstructed Jack from a social life and a relationship. Even mild ones. But he didn’t bother at all. Scholarships were at his beck and call. Heck, he had two remote jobs in college and both of them were with big-time tech companies. It was only a matter of time before the government sighted his potential. After college, he was recruited to a national science and tech research organization. They adored the work and he did and planned and did. His greatest feat was solving global warming. It took millions of dollars to achieve but it effectively solved one of the world’s greatest problems. Following the launch day, Jack was awarded two global medals, three national ones, and seven humanitarians. But it also marked his turning point. No one noticed. No one ever could. He didn’t have close friends. Certainly no family. Just his private ho and a hamster. With some of the money he had and was still receiving, he began a covert operation. The pain he’d experienced emotionally as a child. No friend. No one because his physique would not allow him to socialize. So he ventured to create a solution with the only thing he was exceptional at. Science. Below his house, he proceeded with unorthodox experiments. Altering the human cells and organs with what he called biotes. Micro bots that were programmed to interfere with and manipulate cell DNA. After a year or two of his inexplicable and mysterious work, Jack had three sets of products. A dozen biotes focused on specific organs in the body, another dozen that hypothetically allowed the user to reshape the body and the last dozen was a progressive type. Grew along the human and enhanced the user’s physical features. He only intended to make the second one but along the process, the discovery of the other two was made. Although he didn’t know the true functions of his creations until he tested them. Jack, after placing them in individual briefcases, sat on a chair and pondered over what was next. He couldn’t let anyone know of this work. It was personal and he wasn’t willing to share it with the world. He did need test subjects to discover which he would replicate and use to fix himself. A week was all he needed to prepare for testing. It was also enough time for an evil plan to manifest in his head. At the end of that week, Jack returned to his lair with three children months old. He had kidnapped them all in a psychotic bid to test his inventions. One from the first set was injected into the first baby and a day later he ran tests. It worked perfectly except the brain had enlarged a little. He proceeded to the next set and injected the baby but nothing happened. He tested the last one and expected nothing as well since the biotes grew with the human. The second disappointed him the most. The most important out of all of them and it failed. Jack picked up the third set’s briefcase impulsively and threw it on a glass board, shattering it. The babies were startled by the noise and wailed. It only made Jack angrier but this rage was quickly dissuaded when he noticed the second child. As the child cried, the body distorted. Sort of in a mushy way. It throbbed and plopped. But the strangest and scariest thing was the rapid growth in size. Jack grabbed the briefcase he’d thrown before which was now on the floor and dashed to the exit of his basement/lab fearing for his life. His building was collapsing and before it did, Jack managed to escape with important files (digital).

HOURS LATER…

The police had arrived at Jack’s house. Why his house had collapsed was not the reason for their arrival. He was arrested for kidnapping. Turns out the best scientist in the world was also the worst bandit. It didn’t take the police much to find out. Jack's emotions were beyond words. He was a mixture of disappointment, fear, anger and failure. He felt so awkward inside. Part of him was guilty. He had a good name. A great name. And money and reputation and squandered it all because he had no friends when he was younger. He probably could have had some now but he just didn’t try. And not to mention, he had abruptly ended three innocent lives that hadn’t even begun. Jack silently wept all the way to the station. It didn’t get any better.

The FBI chief walked into the interrogation room and sat down with an almost empty folder in his hands. Jack was handcuffed on the other end of the table they sat at. The chief, Lot, handed him the folder and asked him to tell him what he saw. Jack opened the folder and saw only a one-page info pile on him and that was all.

‘I don’t understand.’ What do you want me to see?’

Lot rubbed his forehead and sighed. ‘For your entire life which is twenty-six years, three months, and two days, you have never committed a liable crime and yesterday you kidnapped three babies. Why I might ask?’

Jack knew if he revealed why he kidnapped those children, he would be selfish, a lunatic, and a murderer in everyone’s eyes going forward so he lied.

‘I didn’t kidnap any children.’

The chief chuckled. ‘Mr. Boris, I have substantial and concrete evidence that you can’t deny so it’s best if you tell the truth immediately.’

The chief snapped his finger and another agent entered the room with a laptop. The lot opened the laptop and played the security feed from the hospital he kidnapped the babies from. There was no denying it. In a moment of bad luck, Jack’s face was revealed a little plus the watch he was wearing plus his accomplices all ratted him out. There was no point but...

Jack pressed against his forehead strainfully. ‘You wouldn’t understand if I told you.’

‘Try me’, Lot replied.

‘There is no point. Just arrest me. Sentence me. I can’t explain and even if I did, no one in this entire world can and will understand. Lock me up.’

The FBI chief sighed pitifully and walked out of the room signaling for the guards to return Jack back to his cell.

Weeks later, Jack stood for trial and pleaded guilty. He was charged with seven years’ imprisonment and house arrest for a year as well as revoking his job at the research facility. He also made public and private apologies. But it did no good because the world saw Jack as a scumbag and he was treated as such. Ironic, the reason why he did all this was not to be treated as an outcast, and yet he’d brought worse upon himself.

8 YEARS LATER….

LANAJ HILLTOPS

30 METRES AWAY FROM THE SUBURBS,

Baxe tossed a pebble over the edge of the cliff and watched it fall to the bottom of the cliff, right beneath his feet. Angel watched too and they laughed. Normally the both of them would be at the base training their butts off for a fight that they knew nothing about. But today was different. They hadn’t gotten any call or text requesting their presence there, so they decided to seize the opportunity. Having lunch at a dangerously high cliff. It might have been dangerous to normal people but to them, a fall from that height would prompt only a slight bruise.

Their lunch that afternoon wasn’t a date even if the both of them wanted it to be. With the time that they’d known each other, a romantic relationship was bound to develop but the problem was there was no way that it would last. Aside from the fact they had both undergone trauma and were still bound to face more, their lives were far from normal. From wielding life-threatening powers to working for a top-tier agency as legal rebels. They both understood at their age that until they were through with all this madness, it would never work.

Instead, they were there for Darke’s one month of disappearance. None of them wanted to believe that Darke actually fell to his demise, but deep down, they knew it was the truth. Baxe knew the others were well aware of the date but everyone was probably spending it in whatever way they preferred. As for the two on the cliff, they knew the place they were currently at was Darke’s favorite place in the area except the base. Since their hideout was under surveillance 24/7, it felt weird. Beside them were three jumbo donuts and a bottle of Chapman. Darke’s favorites.

Angel exhaled and grabbed a donut to examine it. ‘Do you think he’s still out there?’

Baxe stopped munching on the donut and swallowed. ‘I really don’t know what to think. And it doesn’t matter either. What matters is what I hope for…’

’…But it’s just too much, Angel interrupted. ‘To hope for something that might actually never happen. It…it breaks my heart.’

It wasn't until then that Baxe realized that Angel was sobbing. No one realized how important Darke was until he left. Until Darke’s death, everyone wondered if he actually had emotions or feelings. Then they saw him lunge into the tunnel without his mask, his face full of tears and a huge smile on. Baxe shifted the confectionaries away and moved closer to Angel. Immediately he did, she buried her head into his chest and cried for what seemed an eternity. Sometimes, the only thing someone needed to take their pain away was someone else to be there for them. Baxe had to urge her to stop since his shirt was getting seriously drenched.

Angel rose up with a donut in her hand after wiping her eyes and Baxe did the same. She raised her donut and Baxe raised his half-eaten one.

‘To Darke?’

Baxe smiled. ‘To Darke.’

Then he stuffed what was remaining of his pastry into his mouth in an attempt to make Angel laugh. She did in fact so much that fell back down to the picnic cloth on the ground. It was the first she’d laughed like that since the mission. Angel stared at him for a while and noticed the twist of hair that locked down his forehead like Superman’s. She assumed that it was just how his hair was before but looking closer, it looked well groomed as though it was a purposeful act.

RIIIINNNNG!!

Angel extended a hand to her satchel and retrieved her holo-pad. Her expression had already changed to a distressed one. There was no other person who would be calling at that time of day except one of the Nine. They wouldn’t have time to spend for Darke but they’d call for some useless ‘saving the world’ crap. Sure enough, it was a video call …from Banks. Angel answered and the first thing she saw was a sorry and beat-up version of her friend. Where there were meant to be perfectly curved eyebrows were drenched ones. And her red eyes were quite unmistakable despite that she was in a dark room.

Banks sniffed. ‘Hey...uhm, sorry I couldn’t make it to the cliffs.’ She paused and sniffed again. ‘Mr. Fox says he wants us at the base tomorrow by 11. See you there?’

Angel was about to say something obscene and impolite but Baxe shoved his face in immediately and squeezed her hand. ‘Yeah. See you there.’

He ended the call and scratched his head. ‘Never seen her like that before. No wonder she didn’t come.’

Angel let her anger subside and took a moment to realize that Banks was also grieving, as much as they were.