In the city of Townsville, crime loomed frequently on the streets.

Criminals would lurk in the corners during the day, trying to find prey that they would bring into the shadows to kill or rape. They would rob banks of everything they had and make a run for it. They would get caught but they would always either find a way out or someone they knew would bail them out, leaving the streets unsafe once more.

The Mayor along with other law abiding citizens would try and do something about it. They would set up higher rated security systems, add more officers to their staff, and even tried to ban criminals from the city entirely. Nothing worked, with their attempts being either unconstitutional or damaged beyond repair.

And as soon as that started to happen, citizens started to leave. They wanted no part in the city since it became unsafe to live in or to start a family. And the ones that didn't have the funds to go anywhere, were as cautious as possible. Leaving their kids in the house instead of taking them to school, being very quick when walking their pets outside, or not exiting their house at all. Most people of this caliber had jobs where they work from home but everyone else continued their days as normal albeit hesitantly.

As crime started to escalate, the Mayor started having cops outside of his office and his house whenever he's there. He would also have police monitoring Miss Bellum for her own safety. Everyone in Townsville were on high alert and afraid for their own and their families' lives. Danger stuck around every corner of the city and there wasn't much they could do about it.

However, there were people who still had hope. Individuals who still believed that they could do something for the town. Something that would hopefully turn things for the better. They worked around the clock, hoping that they were inches away from a solution to their dilemma. An answer that will bring the city a sense of relief.

They lived in a small white house in the suburban part of Townsville. It stood out among the others in the neighborhood due to its cement walls and the bright red door. Their work space was the very basement of the home and it looked nothing like a normal room with the name should be.

Tables lined the white walls, littered with different beakers, chemicals, and machines. Two men stood, hunching over their work and studying it through their safety goggles. One of them - a tall, thin man with short ebony hair - gently poured small drops of a pink liquid into a container of a green substance. He sloshed it around and watched it change from green to purple. After that, he added a bit of a yellow liquid into it and it changed to brown.

The other male - who was shorter and had longer black hair that was tied in a prickly ponytail - had been mixing different ingredients together at a more rapid rate. He didn't seem to mind of its changing appearance or the fact that it was bubbling up slightly as he worked. After a few minutes, he saw that the liquid had turned a very dark purple. He scratched his bearded chin in thought as his black eyes shifted to his partner's elixir.

"Do you mind if I use that Utonium?" he asked rather quickly, stretching his hand out.

The taller male - Professor Utonium - stopped what he was doing and glanced at the other person. He then stared at the beaker the mentioned individual was holding. His eyes then peered at his table littered with almost empty bottles and a couple of unidentified fluids.

He gave his partner a quizzically look but gave him the formula he had. "What are you even doing over there Jo?"

Jo didn't replied. He gently placed a few drops of the other liquid into his own concoction. He then watched as his creation started to froth up to the top of the beaker before the substance burst from the opening, splashing against the table. The two stepped back a little as the droplets flew onto the mentioned surface as well as the floor. However, nothing happened.

They sighed in relief, almost simultaneously. They both looked at the beaker in Jo's hands and noticed its black color. It looked as if all of the worlds' darkness had combined itself into one condensed liquid that resided in the very bottle the short man was holding. Utonium raised an eyebrow.

"I have never seen any chemical like that before..." he noted. "Especially of that color..." he turned to his partner. "What is it?"

A look of uncertainty crossed Jo's face as he eyed Utonium before staring at his concoction. This was something very new to the world. His partner knew his stuff so if even he has never seen anything of this caliber in his life, then it was something entirely foreign. He had created something that could be in the record books. Something that could be used for science in the present as well as the future. And it needed a name to commemorate its greatness.

"I don't know." Jo admitted, staring into the dark depths of the container. "But I'm sure we'll find out what it is in due time."

"We?" Utonium seemed shocked. "I thought you would want to take credit for your own chemical."

Jo turned to the taller man with a genuine grin. "No way...you were over there working just as much as I was. Our chemicals together formed this new creation. So I say, we did it as one."

"Whatever you say." he said with a small chuckle. He then sighed, his smile dissipating. "But I believe that this mess should be cleaned up by you since you did make it."

The smaller man chuckled softly, peering under the table and watching the black liquid trickle onto the blue tiled floor. He nodded, heading to the washroom that was in the lab to get some cloths.

Utonium meanwhile, took off his white lab coat and gloves and placed them behind his chair. He then headed up the stairs, staring at the clock that read 11 PM. "I'm going to order dinner. How does late night pizza sound?"

"Fine..." Jo mumbled, wiping up his mess from the table.

The tall man hummed in approval before heading out. Jo eyed him as he left before crouching on the floor to clean the liquid from there.

The only thing that rumbled through his mind was the brand new chemical he had created not too long ago. He was so eager to test things with it. To do studies with it. To see what it did. He wanted to get one of the lab rats from the back room and start injecting them with it. But the more important thing on the table was not what it did. But what its name was going to be.

He could have the greatest creation of all time on his hands. He could be known as the most successful scientist to have ever existed. He could get rewards, medals, money, media coverage, the works. Everything of his wildest dreams could come to past because of this creation but that couldn't happen until he had a name for it.

As he cleaned up, that was all he thought about.

He wanted to be something memorable. Something even the normal citizens of today could pronounce. Something easy on the eyes like the liquid that was in the bottle. Despite its dark appearance, it was rather simple to look at. It needed to be simple.

"Chemical..." he tapped his chin. "JU...?

It was the first letters of his and Utonium's names combined. He shook his head. That wouldn't work. It sounded kind of ridiculous in retrospect. Chemical JU, that wouldn't do.

"Chemical...Black?"

Childish. Naming things after a color was juvenile.

"Chemical J...?"

No.

"Chemical U?"

Nope.

"Chemical Z?"

What was this, an anime?

There had to be a good name for this elixir. Something that stuck. Something that was fresh and simple. Something that everyone would be able to remember.

His eyes lit up, heading over to Utonium's desk and pulling out a marker and a white sticker that they always used for labeling things. He wrote something on it, pulled off the sticker, placed it on the bottle and smiled in satisfaction.

He then put it with all of the other untouched chemicals on the high shelf in the back of the room and his grin only grew. He then said proudly.

"Chemical X. My very first creation." he sighed. "I'm so proud."

He then started to clean up the empty beakers and placed them in the lab's washroom to be cleaned. He nodded to see that his work space was clear before heading upstairs as well, turning off the lights as he did it.