"C'mon Stockman, tell me awready! What's this new gig you've been hiding?" Jazz tugged on the scientist's arm. His grip wrinkled the delicate fabric of the lab coat.
"What are you talking about Rollins?" Stockman shrugged him off playfully as if Rollins were a curious child, which he was right now.
"Don't try to put me on no mind trip. I saw you snoopin' around and I heard ya'll got somethin' big in store for me." Stockman lifted a brow and smiled, indicating that Rollins was right, but made him wait in agony for his answer.
"Ok." He breathed. "You aren't supposed to know, but you are being initiated back into the Special Ops squad of the Foot." Stockman explained. His smile died a little, but came back and was softer than before, but Jazz paid no mind because of his now ruined surprise had been revealed. The man wrapped a playful arm around the scientist, which brought his head uncomfortably low. Stockman pushed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose and struggled to keep his head up.
"For real? I knew'd it, I knew'd it. Ya'll missed me didn't they?" Jazz's voice lightened up with a muffle in his throat.
"You could say that." Stockman suggested. Once again, his smile faded and he slipped into a look of despair. "Just don't tell them I told, you, this was supposed to be your surprise." He asked.
"No matter what, I'll act surprised." The man walked proudly down the hall.
"I'm sure you will." Stockman muttered. The two African- American men came across the lab door where said news was to take place.
"Ready?"
"Yeah!" Jazz rubbed his hands together violently that the friction burned his hands, thus, having to blow on them. Watching him so happy, Stockman smiled again and pulled back the door. The laboratory was dark and pitch black. The only light providers were the green lit tubes up above from the mutagen and the subtle bulbs lighting up the counters. Stockman guided Jazz through the empty lab and stood before a containment unit.
"Alright, just step inside the pod." Stockman extended his arm to the open unit.
"Why I gotta be in the pod?" The matter of it puzzled the thug. Stockman let out a breath that suggested that he, too, thought it was bizarre.
"Everyone wants to do it this way, just do it."
"Ok." He spoke, still unsure why he had to go in it. Jazz took a step onto the steps and entered the unit. Once, inside, he turned around to talk. "Ya'll scientists do some things backwards but I'll slide." Stockman ignored his friend's thoughts.
"Place your arms inside those cylinders next to you." He asked.
"What is this? These don't lock 'em in, right? I ain't into that freaky dink if you know what I'm sayin'." He joked.
"Trust me Jazz, That is not going to happen. Sacks wants it to be this way."
"So, this is Sacks' idea." The happy tone of his voice shifted as he allowed his hands into the cylinders. "'Tween you and me, I don't think that dude's for real." Stockman paused and looked up at Jazz. His face was blank, blank as in, he was hiding something. "What you all serious and silent for?" The thug asked.
"Because I'm in here." The voice nearly gave Jazz a heart attack when he saw the silhouette of a man standing in the back. He didn't know how he missed him, but it came forward. Before Jazz could do anything else, the cylinders locked onto his arms, trapping him inside.
"What the heck is this?! What the heck is this!?" Jazz shrieked. The man's body began to appear as the lab lights went on. The many scientists filled the room, streaming to their stations, but no one stood out more than Eric Sacks.
"Welcome back Rollins. Glad to see you and Stockman again." The thug's mouth gaped wide open. He definitely wasn't getting promoted. He looked all around the room in fear. He didn't know what or why he was here, but he knew who brought him. His dark eyes reverted back to Baxter Stockman. He stared back at Jazz like he was sorry, but Jazz wasn't having any of it.
"'Ey you played me, man! You betrayed me!" He struggled against the arm restriction.
"Oh no Rollins, Stockman's entire story to you is all too real." Sacks chimed in. Jazz looked back at Sacks, not at all pleased. "You see, you are being re-admitted into the Special Ops, but you are a special case. Recently, our last experiment with mutation was… flawed. As you saw earlier, we are ready to recreate the process in a whole new way."
"What you talkin' 'bout Willis?" Jazz's face dropped to the forever immortalized face from the old television show "Diff'rent Strokes". Sacks stepped up to where Stockman remained, close to Rollins.
"Animals won't be mutated. You are." He spelled out.
"What makes you think Imma work with ya'll after this?! Huh, rich boy?" Jazz spat. Eric ignored the tone of his fighting words. In a cage or not, Rollins didn't scare him.
"Who in their right state of mind hire someone that looked like the beast?"
"D*mn!" Jazz mumbled. He didn't think about how he would live afterward. Now he's trapped. "I ain't just no beast. I'm a sexy beast. Mufasa, king of the jungle, foo!" Sacks chuckled to himself and turned his back to Jazz as he walked away. "So, what? Imma be the lonely mutant freak now?" he called to him, catching back Sacks' attention. "My only fam is them ninja turtles." The mention of the turtles stung a piece of the former CEO, but he had the perfect answer to his question to cover it up.
"Rollins, meet your new partner, Ellis." With an irritated wave of his hand, the Foot soldiers by the back door opened it up and let a peculiar looking man inside.
His red hair was styled in a bowl haircut, followed by a long beard that stopped just at his neck. He wore a leather jacket with spikes on the collar too. Overall, he looked like an idiot. Jazz thought the same thing. He walked eagerly to the pod, but stopped abruptly beside Sacks. The action threw everyone off.
"Hey! I'm your new partner, of course my buddy Eric here told you already. My name is Jonathan, my last name is Ellis. Jonathan Ellis." The large man's voice was respectfully low with a hint of a Celtic accent. His demeanor seemed excited and friendly, but his attitude didn't come out that way.
"Ellis is our volunteer to mutate along with you." The last words from Sacks made Jazz drop even lower. Of all people, the only one who would understand him was this weirdo.
"It's going to be awesome! We'll be like brothers." Jonathan tried to show his joy, but failed miserably.
"Kill me now." Jazz murmured under his breath. Sacks shrugged his shoulders.
"Sorry, but your just too valuable. Never thought I'd say that to you." The boss smiled deviously. "Ellis, if you'd please?"
"Step into the pod to get mutated into some wicked animal?" He finished his sentence like a robot. It was seemingly rehearsed, like he was practicing what to say, or what Sacks would say. A kiss-up in the making perhaps?
"If you could?" He assuaged Ellis' peculiar actions.
"Sweet!" He yelled. Jonathan made a b-line to the pod beside Rollins and followed the instructions from one of the scientists to strap them in.
"Preparing specimen for mutation." One female scientist said after setting Jonathan up. Unlike Jazz, who was slumped and angry, Jonathan stood up straight with his head up like a soldier.
"Good. I will be back in a couple days. You boys have a lot of growing to do." Sacks looked into the eyes of Rollins until he couldn't see them as he walked out of the laboratory.
"Goodbye Eric! See You then!" Jonathan Ellis yelled. Sacks didn't acknowledge his parting and disappeared. "He's such a nice man."
Now, he was really stuck. Jazz stood there as the needles on both sides of his arms inserted them into his dark skin. He grits his teeth as they pumped mutagen into his bloodstream. Soon, he couldn't feel the small things, but kept his arms from moving too much. His eyes searched around the room, trying to find something to watch, since he was going to be stuck there for a couple days, and talking to that doofus, Jonathan, wasn't an option. Something told his to look down, and forward. Sitting at the desk in front of him was Baxter Stockman on the computer. He tried to update Jazz's current condition, but his sorrow kept him from doing so as he stared at his friend in the pod, horrified by what he had done.
"Hey! Baxter! You betrayed me, man! You deceived me cous!" Jazz bellowed. His arm flinched a little, causing the needles to move within him. He grits his teeth once more until the pain subsided." After you had me up in your house, too." It was hard to think Jazz was being sentimental, but he was. Stockman didn't know how to handle it as he carried on and did his job.