Tony entered his office, he strolled up and down angrily, he thought of his deadline of his work and wondered how he was going to do it, he was furious, then he thought, "I need to start the human test subject, if the mouse could revive a human would, I would just have to find a way to stop the side effects", then he picked up his phone and dialed a number... The number picked up and he said, " Mack, I need you to do something for me". Then he pulled his mic from the table and announced, "I'm giving Everyone a break today, in less than two hours you all should go home to your families, you could really use it, all experiments suspended". As he put it off he could hear the sound of hails and happiness by the staff, he smiled.
Mike got home after school, he dropped his bag on the chair and passed through the living room, "kid", a voice called from the living room and he turned back hissing at the voice, " hey dad", he said.
The voice came from his dad, who sat on the chair with bottles of alcohol around him and cigarettes end, he was also smoking one, the whole room was in a mess as he talked like a drunkard, "didn't you see me, couldn't you greet, I'm your father you shit".
Mike replied, "sorry dad".
" f**k you", he replied, "now where's that bitch you call your mother".
" She's at her stand", he replied then muttered, "she's no bitch".
His father looked up at him and said, " what did you say?
"Nothing dad", Mike replied.
" Gerrarahere", his father said waving him away".
Mike hissed gently and left, he walked to his room, he opened his door and shut it, his room was untidy with clothes everywhere, they lived in a small apartment, there was football and soccer posters everywhere with action figures and all. Mike lay on his bed and closed his eyes.
At the secret lab, Richard was testing out his suit. He ordered REED to deactivate the suit and put off the gauntlets, after staring at the arms, he asked, "REED out of curiosity, if someone else wore you, would you activate?
"Depends Sir, my systems are only programmed with your father's DNA, so unless it's someone with your father's DNA, like a relative, I'll say negative", REED replied.
Richard nodded, " guess that leaves grandpa and aunt Cecile", then he looks down and up again, "REED, start virtual reality training".
" yes sir", REED replied.
The whole room gets transformed into a virtual reality zone.
"20 seconds till targets arrive", REED said.
" You know reed, I also found out you can change the voice of the wearer ", Richard said.
" Yes Sir, I can also automate it to", REED replied.
"Automate sounds better, I want you to automate my voice every time I wear the suit but not changing it, don't want anybody knowing who I am", Richard said.
" Granted Sir", REED replied.
"And you can call me Richard", he said he dodged one of the virtual reality robots blast and blasted his back, it didn't hit the robot, " gosh, I have to work in my aim", then he blasted again, the robot dodged it and more came, he got hit a lot and tried another shot, it hit one of the robots, "whoo!", he screamed and jumped, then he got another hit on the back.
" Richard you are at seven life points, one more hit and its done ".
" well let's make it count ", Richard jumps and fires, luckily he hits about seven of the enemies before he gets hit and everything cleared.
" Training session ended, you've been beaten ".
Richard looks around, " REED how did I do?".
"Well Richard your performance is rated to 37% ".
" oh bummer, that will have to do". Then Richard walks over to the arms, "REED let go out for a test flight".
" don't you mean test run Richard ".
Richard hits his face with his palm gently, "yea whatever". Then he puts on the left gauntlet, then the left one, both gauntlet activate sensing each other through his skin, then they cover him up in his mechanical suit, " let's fly ", Richard said smiling. A mechanical round shaped door split into two and opened, "nice", then soundwaves began to generate from his leg and he flew out.
Mike woke up in his room to hear his phone ringing, " he searched for it anxiously, he finds it, sees the caller ID as Mack. He swipes to receive, "hey man, what's up".
" Hey Mike, I got a nice job down, it's got a lot of pay in it".
"Like how much?')", Mike asked.
" hundred thousand naira ".
"A hundred?, I need that kind of money now, okay where you at".
" come meet me at our joint, hurry up if you don't want someone else to get it ".
" I'll be right there Mack". The call ended as Mike took a jacket and wore it, then he put on some jeans and went down, he sneaks down and sees his father sleeping on the sofa, he runs out of the house and gets on his bicycle, he rode off. After cycling for some minutes, he stopped in front of a low class bar, he entered after nudging a few guys outside which he seemed to know, the place was a bit quiet with men and women all over, some drinking, talking, chatting, his eyes rolled over when his ears caught attention of his name being called, "Mike, over here", he turned around to the voice and saw a guy calling him, he recognized the person, he went over and shook hands, " Jim, how ya doing?".
"I'm okay, Mack is I'm here, he's waiting for ya dude", Jim replied.
" all right, see ya",Mike entered the door as Jim closed it, Jim was mack assistant, he was close to him, handling business for him but this one was different, mack wanted to handle this himself, he would have asked Jim fie questions but he wouldn't get anything and Mack doesn't like anyone asking him why? Mike who was in the room sat opposite to mack who had a big fiercer looking man who was his bodyguard , noticing only three of them were there instead of the usual lot of bodyguards.
"So Mack, details?", mike asked.
" So there is this new drug and my client needs a volunteer, he's very rich and hell pay you a lot", Mack replied.
"OK, but what about others, you know how I am about new drugs", mike replied.
" I have guys but I know you need the money especially with school and that father of yours, that's why but if you don't want, no need, I'll find others?".
Mike thought about it, " I need the cash, could help with my education a lot.... I'll do it".
"Good", Mack said and signalled to the guy, "Mc joe".
Mc Joe punched Mike on the face and he fell down unconscious.
Get him to the lab", Mack said.
****
Later at night, as mike was conscious but his face eyes were blindfolded, he noticed he was being wheeled into somewhere, which just happens to be a lab in BRAVE IND. He shouted, " hey, what's happening?".
"It's okay kid, the blindfold is just a necessary thing my client prefers his identity and location unknown, sorry I blacked you out.....you ready?"
That was Mack's voice, he knew it anywhere, "all right, I get it, I'm ready".
" Good kid", Mack replied. Then he spoke to Tony," Doc! He's ready "
Tony nodded, "you boys put him in that glass chamber, be careful".
Mc joe and Mack carried him into The chamber and closed it after them. Tony pressed some control buttons. Inside the chamber some electronic belts held the kid's arms and legs strapped fast on a metal plank magnetically.
" Project LAVA is ready to commence, subject human ", Tony said as he writes it down, " commence ", he said to himself and pressed another button which allowed the lava to flow through the tubes finally covering the whole Glass chamber.
Mike was struggling and shouting, " its burning me, its hot...hot...hot, get me out of here, plzzzzz....I'm begging you...it burns... Ahhhhhhhhh!".
After a few minutes, the lava had been absorbed entirely by his skin, his body was beaming red and yellow, then it cooled off, he lay unconscious in the chamber.
Tony checked his computer, "computer status!".
"His heart is beating Sir, he's alive and is okay"
"Yes", Tony shouted as he jumped up, " I did it", then he turned to Mack, "get him out of here and keep surveillance on him, I want to know if any changes in him, you will get your money like agreed".
Mack nodded, " Alright let's roll", Mc Joe carried Mike out.
Tony nodded as he put of his lab coat and left for the night, he had the kid brought in after he sent everyone home for the day.
Mike woke up later in front of his house with a small leather bag beside him, he opened it and saw naira notes, "yesss", he said as he picked it up and ran inside the house.
***
The next day it was all about the armored man on the news through the media, every single form, newspapers, televisions, radio and all others.
The next thing is a series of sub scenes fast forwarded, armoured man lifting a train that wrecked off its rails, catching a baby before it fell into traffic, stopping Crime literally......
He was fast becoming popular.
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