Three Years Ago, East Africa

Chester Yapsby stepped out of a jeep in the middle of an African prairie, the hot sun beating down on him. He adjusted his wide brimmed hat to shade his eyes, then took a long drink from the canteen that he had stashed in his jeep.

A cage rattled in the passenger side of the open top vehicle and he lifted the blanket that had been covering it. Inside the metal cage was a two foot long cockroach that reached out to swipe at Chester's hand with a massive claw.

"Hey!" Chester shouted, scolding the insect and picking up one of the two softball sized metal spheres that sat between the front seats. The cockroach backed away reluctantly, as though regretful. Chester grinned, cocking his head to the side. He took a small mp3 recorder from his shirt pocket, activated it, and spoke. "Specimen zero zero eight has grown to over ten times it's size with no discernible ill effects. If only my old lab partner could see this, maybe he would understand what I'm trying to do. But no, Icari had his chance. Now I hear he's working on turning insects into snack foods, the fool!"

Holding up one of the metal orbs, he continued. "The Roflax I built from Icari's design is a perfect replica of the prototype, which I'll be hiding here in the African savanna, just in case the replica is destroyed or lost." He looked at the oversized cockroach again, it's large bulbous eyes looking back at him with an eerie understanding. "As a strange side effect, Specimen zero zero eight also seemed to be growing in intellect as well as size. So long as I hold the Roflax though, it's will is mine!" he giggled, replacing the cover on the cage.

He turned off the recorder and grabbed a shovel from the back seat, as well as the prototype Roflax and walked a few feet away from the jeep. He plunged the end of the shovel into the dried out dirt, then looked around as several tiny pink, wrinkled heads popped out of burrows that were scattered around the area. "Get lost, sand puppies!" Chester yowled and the naked mole rats shrank away, their beady black eyes the only things showing against the dusty backdrop.

Chester continued to dig a shallow hole, and placed the prototype Roflax in. He surveyed the expansive environment to make certain no one was watching, then filled in the hole with the loose dirt he had pulled out. After a few moments, he climbed back into his jeep and drove away, content that the device would still be there for when he could return.

Little did he know however, that the prototype Roflax had activated as he was burying it, sending out pulses of low level radiation into the surrounding naked mole rat burrows.