Alad carefully mixed the chemicals in the beacon at his station; he had to have his creation perfect, it would certainly be a worldwide phenomenon. He shared a laboratory with two of his closest friends Henry and Terrance.
“I think this could be the right mixture!” Alad shouted excitedly, much to the annoyance of Henry who peered around his workstation divider.
“You’ve said that every time,” Henry rolled his eyes.
“How long until it’s ready?” Terrence asked, putting a halt to his own activity.
Alad checked his watch, “A few hours maybe.”
The young scientist Alad scribbled down a few more notes and put the clipboard back down on the bench. The laboratory was nothing fancy, it contained a few workstations, a pigpen with a dozen pigs, food supplies and low-grade equipment; no one was complaining though, as it was government funded. The three of them had finished studies and convinced a politician to create a department of research and creation.
Two years of experiments and ideas had gone by and they were yet to successfully come up with some grand creations. Terrence was intent on creating unique latex disguises; ones that could fool anybody. His sales pitch was to use it for government decoys, infiltrations, as well as for spying in foreign lands.
“Why don’t you give up and help me with my invention?” Henry offered.
“Because your time travel device is impossible and that other thing on the stand looks ridiculous,” the thing Alad was referring to was a metallic looking man Henry had been working on. Twice he had changed the materials, until he had finally upgraded it to a virtually indestructible lifeless man.
“That thing is called Hell, and one day it will help me in more ways than you could possibly imagine my friend,” Henry smiled.
“Why would you call it Hell?” Terrence laughed.
“I picked the first word I randomly flicked the dictionary open to,” Henry lied.
Alad removed his protective gear and made his way over to Terrence’s bench, “Incredible!” he admired the liquid rubber Terrence was manipulating over his own arm. Terrence could make his arm fatter, and add powder to change shades of the skin colour. He even used make up to add scars and then remove them.
“This is my masterpiece,” Terrence smiled.
“You two could add your creations together,” Henry suggested.
“It could go hand in hand, they would need to stay alert on reconnaissance missions, right?” Alad asked Terrence.
“They would,” Terrence nodded.
Alad had been working on a substance to rapidly and immensely increase focus of the user. Soldiers would welcome the formula with open arms and he could make millions; giving the three of them the opportunity to achieve their own goals and research dreams.
“What will you call it?” Terrence asked.
“I don’t know. Focus?” Alad scratched his chin.
“Quiet you two!” Henry shouted, as he made adjustments to the silver bracelet device. Sparks flew out and the device went flying into the back of his workstation divider.
Alad and Terrence burst out laughing. Henry frowned and tried to maintain calm whilst gathering the pieces.
The three of them were deep in concentration hours later; each working on his individual task. Alad had nearly reached the desired conclusion on his formula, Henry was dead quiet, and Terrence now had a different arm on.
A knock at the door had Terrence and Henry spinning around. Alad stayed focus he was at the end stages of his creation. Henry opened the door to a man in a suit; their boss.
Mister Baldfro was the man who made it all possible for the three scientist friends to set up shop. His tall frame over shadowed the two scientist’s in front of him, he looked like too much of a menacing figure to be working in an office, but looks were deceiving he was the kindest man either of them knew.
“How’s the progress my friends?” Mister Baldfro asked, as friendly as ever.
“Uh, great,” Henry said, not wanting to comment more on his time travel device.
Terrence saw that Henry did not want to go in to more details and held his fat prosthetic arm up in front of Mister Baldfro.
“Incredible!” Baldfro said, astonished.
“Thank you,” Terrence smiled, “Follow me.”
Terrence led Baldfro toward his desk and Alad turned around, “Baldfro! I’ve nearly got this ready I did not mean to deliberately be rude.”
Baldfro placed a hand on Alad’s desk and watched the young scientist pour a white powdery substance into glass vials, “Progress is more important,” Baldfro smiled.
Terrence beckoned his boss to come to his station and witness the incredible things happening. Beacons containing different coloured substances swirled and bubbled, prosthetic pieces lay in a jelly type substance.
“May I show you sir?” Terrence asked, excitedly.
“Of course,” Baldfro nodded.
“Please give me your arm.”
Baldfro held out his arm and Terrence removed a layer of prosthetic substance from the jelly. He wrapped it around the boss’s forearm once he put it on properly and made the seal Terrence applied makeup. Baldfro marveled at how his dark skin had transformed to a white mans arm with a tattoo.
He patted Terrence on the back congratulatory, “This will prove very useful Terrence, and you have done well as always.”
Henry watched defeated from the sideline, he wanted the time travel device to work when Baldfro arrived. Alad arrived at Terrence’s station with a vial in hand excited, “Mine is ready all it needs is testing,” Alad informed them.
“So it’s not ready,” Henry laughed.
“I’m positive this will work,” Alad said, certain.
“Well now I can report progress to my superiors,” Baldfro said, happily.
Henry breathed out a sigh of relief.
“I shall be going,” Baldfro turned to leave only to turn back, “Oh before I forget congratulations on your successful implementation of hologram in security. The security companies have gone wild for it, expect big dollars in the mail.”
The three scientists cheered each other with joy, it was one of the few projects they all had worked on and it was a success.
“Baldfro you want to try some of my formula?” Alad held up a vial.
“I’ll leave that to the guinea pigs,” Baldfro joked.
“Who’s game?” Alad asked his two coworkers.
Terrence held up a hand and Henry shook his head.
Alad retrieved a clipboard and pen for Henry, “You can record the results then mister happy.”
“How do we take it?” Terrence asked, taking a vial off Alad.
“Well, I’m not sure? Eat it?” Alad poured some into his tongue and swallowed.
Terrence watched the discomfort Alad was having and decided to inhale some off the bench. To his dismay it felt a lot worse then what he saw Alad going through and it burned the back of his throat.
Henry laughed as his two friends took a second round.
A while later Henry was surprised at the effect the substance was having on his two friends. Their eyes had changed and they both had the sweats and sudden urge for fast paced music. They also had an extremely new found confidence; even trying to order him around.
Alad and Terrence both decided to take more, and more. When they were going for second vials Henry stepped in and it made sense. “Don’t! It is addictive.”
They roared into laughter, “You believe this guy?” Terrence asked, not his usual self.
“I’m hungry,” Alad said.
The two men looked at the pigpen at the pigs walking around and ran for it.
Henry buried his head in hands after looking at the pig now cooking over a makeshift fire. It was between two beams and had an apple in its mouth.
“I call this pig on a spit!” Alad declared.
The two had gone mad Henry thought. Terrence was preparing sandwiches with butter, lettuce and tomato. Alad retrieved some meat from the beast cooking over the fire and gave it to Terrence as requested who added the finishing touch to the sandwiches.
“And I call this the BLT!” Terrence shouted, like a maniac.
When the two were deeply distracted with ramblings and ideas Henry made his way to Alad’s desk and place a vial in his pocket and copied down the ingredients. He knew it was not the source Alad had desired to create for focus, but such a substance would be perfect to unleash on the world. Henry would see it hit the streets and watch people fall into chaos and addiction.
He even decided to give it a title on his own ingredient list, SPEED.
Henry laughed as Terrence claimed to see a naked woman sitting on the kitchen chair.
Things were falling into place he had a laboratory, his war machine hell was getting closer to being finished, the time travel device would be done soon, the hologram security was passed, endless disguises thanks to Terrence, and now he had a drug to deploy to the world. The only problems that stood in his way were two coworkers, as they would never go along with his plans.
Henry unlocked the drawer under his station and retrieved a bowl of peanut’s; Terrence’s favourite snack. He carefully laced the top layer with a deadly poison and placed the nuts on the kitchen table hopeful Terrence would indulge.
He had already formed a strong alliance with the government department of security and had been designing weaponry for them secretly ever since he got into the laboratory.
Alad and Terrence finally came to their senses and were shocked at how they had been affected. They jumped at the sight of Baldfro in the room shaking his head at them.
“How long have you been here?” Alad asked, his jaw dropping.
“Oh long enough, I don’t think you will be releasing your substance anytime soon,” he shook his head.
“I know, my notes are all wrong,” Alad said, he was deeply saddened and he was not sure if was an after effect of the substance.
“Where is Henry?” Terrence asked, looking around for any sign of their friend.
“He was not here when I arrive,” Baldfro said, annoyed.
“He probably just went out for lunch,” Alad assured them.
“Either way, I demand that substance be destroyed forever. I also want you help Henry along with his project, it must be completed.”
“I’ll be back in a few hours,” Baldfro said, leaving the room.
Terrence and Alad argued about if they should start working on the project and they decided it had to be done. Henry could not complain if they were doing work to help him and so they did. It was nearly complete anyway by the looks of things. The two of them read over the plans to make sure they knew how it worked. After three hours of painstakingly pouring through blueprints and trying different substances and so forth they decided it was time to give it a try.
“You game enough to test it?” Terrence asked Alad.
“I’m game,” Alad said, with a smile on his face holding out his arm.
Terrence attached the bracelet and they decided on a time; Alad was going back a few hours before when they were induced buy his formula. Terrence set the time and Alad pressed the travel button.
Everything swirled a sickening feeling and Alad was sure it did not work; until he saw himself with Terrence acting like maniacs in the pigpen with loud music on. He decided it was best not to be seen by his past self, and sneakily crept around to get a glimpse of what Henry was doing. He could not believe his eyes as he witnessed his friend pocketing one of the vials and take down notes.
Stealing my ideas? Alad could not make sense of the deception.
.
Terrence waited eagerly for Alad to return he wondered what was taking so long. Bored and hungry he made his way to the kitchen and grabbed a handful of peanuts and chewed them down. After a few minutes he began to feel faint, and then nauseas. It felt as though his entire body was on fire, Terrence dropped to the ground; his body shaking violently.
Alad returned his head still spinning from the travel only to find Terrence lifeless body on the floor with a bowl of peanuts scattered next to him. He ran to his friend and checked his pulse, but it was too late. The opening of the laboratory door startled him. Baldfro had returned.
“What is going on here?” Baldfro asked.
“He’s dead!”
“What? How?” Baldfro quickly strode over to Alad’s side.
“Because, you killed him…Henry.”
Baldfro quickly turned on Alad grabbing him around the neck. The two struggled knocking over kitchen utensils. They cursed each other and struck blows, but Henry was too strong. The scientist eventually over powered Alad and began choking the life out of him. He used every bit of strength to end Alad.
He wondered what had given him away. Henry even used prosthetics and special shoes to make him Baldfro’s height. Nevertheless it was done, and the only loose end to tie up now was Baldfro. With the new hologram security footage witnessing their boss kill them it was easy pickings. No one had any records of the experiments and Baldfro would be executed. Henry left the laboratory to change, return, find his dead companions, and make an incident report.
The first man on the scene was the youngest recruit in the agency; a tracker named Alfred.
World domination was no longer a dream. It was in the process.