AN: To get a little background for your character; you're a history major doing a co-op degree, you're 19. You have a close relationship with your brother, but not your parents. You love history, movies, video games, rock 'n' roll and cooking. Anything else you'll find out as the story goes on. You'll meet the crew of the bebop next chapter I promise! This is just necessary background, sorry.
The day started out just like any other day, with no implication that anything out of the ordinary was going to happen. You had woken up early, a good hour before your parents would rise, to eat a quiet breakfast with your brother. You brother, Alan, was 21 and freshly graduated which also meant he was freshly broke and had moved home to save up a little money. You on the other hand were just starting your second year at university and had moved back home to be closer to your co-op job. It would count as a couple summer credits towards your degree and didn't pay too badly.
After shoveling a bowl of corn flakes into your stomach with your brother you hurried to get changed. Your work was pretty relaxed on dress codes. You had managed to pull some secretary work and odd jobs at a physics research laboratory down town and the company was much like a software company - trying to attract young, creative minds by appearing 'cool' and 'hip'. You pulled on a pair of black capris and a white tank top, topping it off with a comfortable pair of converse sneakers. You pulled your hair into a high pony tail and swiped on some black cat-eye eyeliner before pulling on your lab coat (the only mandatory uniform) and dashed out the door.
You met your brother at the car and called shot gun in a playful voice even though you both knew he was driving. Alan was tall and muscular, and you were forced to admit he was good looking. You had fought at lot as children, Alan was always more popular and successful than you were, but as your relationship deteriorated with your parents in high school you had grown very close to Alan. So once Alan moved back home the two of you created your strategy: get out of the house before your caring but over barring parents woke up, let Alan drive you to work on the way to his job, pick up as many extra hours as you could, and then meet Alan for dinner before going home. It was a good 45 minute drive to work, but the way Alan drove it only took you 30.
Work went as normally as it possibly could. In the morning you did your time at the front desk, redirecting calls and forwarding paper work. After lunch, you led a few tour groups from other universities around the weren't very talented when came to math or the sciences, you were stronger in English and History, but you enjoyed the crazy possibilities of physics enough to enjoy your work. As the day came to a close and most people headed home, you headed down to the basement. The main floor of the building was mostly offices and think tanks, but the basement was serious business. Most of the company's testing happened in the basement and it was typically off limits, but you had managed to make a few friends over your time at the lab.
The basement was considerably cold and you had seen too many horror movies to ever be comfortable down there. The walls were painted crisp white, but the dingy lighting made everything a shade of off-blue. Electricity hummed through the cheap lights and somewhere in the distance water could be heard dripping. You jogged your way through the labyrinth of halls, finding the room you wanted automatically.
"Doctor Keller?" You asked softly, poking your head through the door with out knocking.
"Hmmm," an old man with thick glasses and greying facial hair peered up from his desk, glancing at his watch, "Ah, _, right on time."
You had been visiting for a while. He was in charge of some of the company's largest research projects and always had something for you to do. He was fatherly and rather philosophical, and you had grown rather attached to the old man.
"Anything I can do for you tonight?"
creased his greyiny bushy eye brows together, his brow furrowing. At the thought that he was out of work you frowned, your lips drawing into a small pout and your eyes widening to puppy dog size. Catching sight of you removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes.
"I've got one job for you, but I've already got Liam working it."
You face fell instantly. Liam. The worst of your co-workers. Liam was a boy genius and a dirty punk. Literally, he was a no good punk who preached too much about anarchy and, in your opinion, listened to horrible music. He was always rude to you and had a talent for making you uncomfortable in any situation. Unfortunately for you Liam had a 4.0 grade average and was a natural in advanced physics, making him golden in the eyes of the company heads. You worried your bottom lip between your teeth for a minute, mulling the choices over.
"As much as I hate Liam, I hate going home more. I'll take it."
Dr. Keller smiled and reached under his desk. He pulled out a large bucket contains a large array of bottles and extended it to you. You walked over and took the bucket into your hands and examined the contents.
"Bleach?" You asked curiously, riffling through to bottles, "Windex? Ammonia? what is all this stuff?"
"Cleaning products, of course. I need you and Liam to do a little matainence on the 'Wells Project'."
"The Wells project? Oh, you mean the time travel one right?"
just chuckled at you.
"Time travel, that's hopeful. No, no, not quite. We're just charging particles to see if we can get them to move fast enough to disappear and then reappear a few minutes later."
"Sounds like time travel to me," you muttered, shrugging your shoulders. You said goodbye to a little bitterly and headed off back into the dark catacombs of the basement. Arriving at the room labelled 'Wells Project' you typed a code quickly into the keypad on the wall to open the electric sliding doors. The lab was pretty high tech, which also made it high security. You had done enough odd jobs around the place to get access codes to essentially every room in the building.
Walking in the first thing you saw was the mud-stained butt of Liam's checkered pants as he bent over a control panel. You rolled your eyes and continued into the room. A row of control panels lined the first half of the room like church pews and stopped at a large sheet of protective glass. On the other side of the glass was a room full of cables, all leading to a large silver cylinder. From what you understood particles were blasted with energy and spun inside the cylinder, but you weren't entirely sure.
"Hey Liam," you chirped, slamming the bucket against the surface of the control panel he was working on. Liam jumped substantially and made a high pitched noise in the back of his throat.
"Goddamn it _, what the fuck is your problem?" Liam was darkly tanned from being at outdoor shows all the time, but you could see the outline of his farmers tan from beneth the edges of his second-hand sweater. His head was shaved clean but a thin layer of shadow covered his chin. He would have been cute if he wasn't such an ass.
"You're supposed to wear a lab coat, Liam."
"And you're supposed to think for yourself. Whats the point of wearing a lab coat all the time? You're a goddamn secretary, but they make you wear one to look good in front of investors."
You grimaced. Liam had a point, but you didn't want to agree with him on principle. You switched topics.
"Whatcha doing?" You asked, leaning against the control panel.
"Fixing some of the wiring here. Control 5 has been on the fritz for a few days. It's almost like someone tampered with it, but with the access codes protecting this room thats impossible."
"Jee Liam, I didn't know you were good at mechanics too."
Liam looked up from his work, happy at the compliment. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"Only the machines I work with. So Dr.K sent you?" You nodded in affirmation, "Great. Since the cyclindar's been out of repair the inside casing has been experience build up. Clean it out, would ya?"
Just when you thought Liam was being a decent guy, he had to go and say something stupid.
"Wait, you actually want me to crawl inside one of your demented physics projects?"
"Someone's gotta do it," Liam said a little too nonchalantly.
"What the hell Liam? NO FUCKING WAY!" You were dedicated to your job, but crawling inside a machine that did god-knows-what to particles (which you happened to made of, for christ's sake) was just beyond your limits.
"Oh don't be a baby," Liam sneered, "The breakers are all off."
The mention of the breakers calmed you down a little bit. The lab ran on a special electrical system that had at least five breakers for every testing room. They all had to be turned on manually before anything could be so much as turned on.
"Are you...are you sure?"
Liam flashed you an unimpressed face and flicked a switch on the control panel. Nothing happened. He flipped a few more and not so much as a light went on on the control boards.
"Fine," You grumbled, snatching up the bucket and stomping off. You by-passed another security measure by entering a code, and a slim door to the glassed-off section of the room opened up. You climbed into the inside of the cylinder and sure enough, the inner walls were caked with a thin layer of some dark subsistence. As you began to scrub it off you noticed it had a slimy texture and shuddered in disgust. You didn't even want to know what it was. On the bright side, at least you were safe from Liam.
"Hey, _!" You jumped, hitting your head on the top of the cylinder. Spinning around you poked your head out to see Liam on the other side of the glass with a pair of head phones on, standing next to a mic.
"Holy shit Liam, how is the PA system on?"
"Calm down, it runs on another breaker system."
As if you were going to trust Liam. You were 90% sure that the PA system ran on the same electrical circuit as the machine you were standing in, and that was 100% a good enough reason for you to get out of there. You were about to step out when you noticed Liam poised dramatically on the other side of the glass. One hand was raised high above his head, pointer finger extended.
"Liam what are you doing?" You asked, a heavy fear suddenly coming to life your chest, your stomach dropping out from under you.
"Proving to you that you're just a big scared pussy." Liam said in his best tough-guy voice.
"LIAM NO!" You shouted as his hand descended towards a button on the main control panel, but you were too late.
And that was when things got weird.
You were suddenly surrounded by the brightest light you had every seen in your life. It was so bright that you doubted if it was really a light and thought maybe you had injured the nerves in your eyes. You tried to shield your eyes with your arms but even that didn't help. You felt hot, like your skin was being roasted from the inside, and you felt the distinct sensation of falling head first.
Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the light vanished. Still dizzy you fell to your knees, covering your eyes with with your hands. Green patches floated across your vision as your eyes adjusted. Everything felt like it was spinning and you were forced to press a palm against the floor to steady yourself. You panting heavily and despite having just been extremely hot you noticed you had broken out in a cold sweat. You sat unmoving for a while, just trying to steady yourself. You tried to breath deeply, tried to slow your heart beat, but nothing was helping.
"Get up!"
'Liam?' you thought in a confused haze at the sound of a voice. No, it was too deep for Liam. Raising your head slowly you opened your eyes just a peep to see who it was. At first everything was green and blurry but slowly your eyes returned to normal. The lab looked like a disaster had occurred. All around you the machinery was smashed in and rusted, and the electrical cables were all torn apart or frayed. The glass separating the machine from the control booth was smash and a few of the control panels had been up rooted. 'what the absolute fuck?' you thought in panic, trying to understand. Just what button had Liam hit?
"I said get up!"
'Oh thats right, the voice!' you thought, your eyes flying to middle of the room. In the control booth a man stood in the middle isle, pointing a gun directly at your person. He was wearing a dark trench coat and a pork pie hat. You probably would have made a comment about the man looking like a reject gangster from the 1920's, but the gun he was holding had you pretty quiet.
Shakily you rose to your feet, overcome again by dizziness. You had to support yourself just to stand, resting your hands on your knees.
"Hold on, whats happening? Who are you?"
"You're coming with me."
"What? Me who? I don't understand. Are you police? Where's Liam-"
The man was yelling at you again but you couldn't hear what he was saying. A buzzing had started in your ears and was now loud enough to block anything out. But you could still see, and you noticed the man cocking his gun. He wasn't going to shoot you was he?
The muffled bang followed by a burning pain in your left shoulder gave you your answer. The force sent you tumbling backwards. You could barely understand what was happening as you hit the floor, raising your hand to your shoulder. There was blood, not as much as in the movies, but you were still bleeding pretty heavily. Hearing another bang brought you to reality and you scrambled to your knees, scurrying behind a large curtain of cables for cover. From your perspective on the ground you noticed a large grate that covered a vent and in your panic you went straight for it. Yanking the grate free you had to stop yourself from screaming, the pain in your arm was absolutely excruciating. Collecting yourself you slipped into the vent and started to crawl.
Your hearing was returning to normal, and you could hear the man scouring the room behind you. You only made it a few feet through the vent before it ended, and you realized that the bottom of the vent had fallen out. There was an opening to your right, but that just lead back into the control booth. Poking your head out you could see the man, knee deep in cables looking for you. You could also see shards of glass covering the floor at the opening of the vent. You only had one idea, but it was your only choice.
Slowly you wrapped your hand in the cuff of your lab coat and picked up a sizeable shard of glass. You crawled out from the vent, scooting glass out of the way with your foot so as not to make noise as you walked. The man who had shot at you was deeply engrossed in his search for you and, ironically, didn't take note as you approached behind him. Taking a deep, calming breath you did the only thing you could think of. You raised the glass shard and plunged it as hard as you could into the back of the man's neck. There was a spurt of blood, which you weren't expecting, and a brutal scream that made you instantly regret what you had done. The man turned and fired at you, but the glass dagger in his neck must of ruined his aim because you only felt a sharp pain in your thigh. Glancing down you noticed your pants were ripped; the bullet had only grazed you. The man was falling to his knees, blood seeping from his lips, and you stepped away shakily. What had you just done? The body finally hit the floor with a heavy thump and at the sound you turned and ran blindly.