Chapter 1
(14 years later)
The doctor who helped deliver Dexter was right. He learned to walk and talk in a much faster time than the average infant could; one could say his development process was accelerated. And from the day he was old enough to control his fine motor skills and watch movies and television shows (most of which were science fiction), he started inventing whatever gadgets were featured in the media, from the sonic screwdriver of Doctor Who to a lightsaber in Star Wars which Mom and Dad, although amazed at Dexter being able to invent such a thing at a young age, forced him to discard since Dee Dee started playing with it and ended up cutting majority of the appliances and furniture in their house.
These inventions and his fantastic academic standing in school were nothing compared to his pride and joy: his laboratory. Ever since his parents discovered that he could invent gadgets expected of a doctorate level engineer, they had the construction crew of their house build another building about the size of another house for Dexter to use as a laboratory, only accessed through a secret walkway behind his bedroom bookshelf.
Dexter was in his laboratory, carefully tightening the last hex-nut on a remote-control like device with an antenna sticking out of one end. "EUREKA!" yelled Dexter as he held up the completed device in the air, "I, Dexter boy genius have completed my very own dimension transfomer!" "Congratulations, Dexter!" Said the monotone, feminine voice COMPUTER, the A.I. of his laboratory, "Shall we test your new invention?" "Of course my love!" Dexter replied with an excited grin on his face. At that moment, one of the square tiles on the floor opened up and a stool table with an apple on top of it rose out. "Finally," Dexter thought to himself, "test run #77 should be perfect! Dee Dee has set me back in this invention's progress by disastrously interfering in all my test runs, but today is the day I perfect my latest creation without my stupid sister to stop me!" He then set the monitor on the remote to read "micrometers", aimed it at the apple and pressed the "ZAP" button. A golden electric beam then shot out of the red ball at the tip of the remote and hit the apple. The moment the light cleared up and Dexter's eyes readjusted to the correct brightness of the room, the smile on his face turned from excited anticipation to joy. "YES! I DID IT!" Dexter yelled, seeing the apple was now a size that he could pick up with two fingers. Before he could examine the apple more thoroughly, an all-too familiar shriek reached his ears: "HI DEXTER!" after composing himself from the scream, he screamed back at the source: "DEE DEE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY LABORATORY?!" The now 17 year old Dee Dee put up a look of excited innocence on her face replied, "Mom told me to tell you to get ready to leave for our new house in a couple of minutes!" "Girl," Dexter replied in annoyance, pointing a finger at her, "I have been packed since 2 days ago! Now get out of here and leave me alone! I need to finish my other test runs on my latest invention!" Dexter yelled at her while flashing the remote, which was almost another potential lab disaster. "Oooooooh, what does this button do?" Dee Dee asked in fascination upon seeing a button labelled "EMERGENCY". Before she could press it, Mom's voice came calling, "Kids! It's almost time to go!" "Coming Mom!" yelled Dee Dee. "Oh well, BYE DEXTER!" Unlike awhile ago, Dexter did not jump nor wince at Dee Dee's goodbye and neither did he react to her ditzily dancing towards the exit and slamming the door to the room of the lab Dexter was in, which caused a nearby test tube display to fall from its shelf on the wall and shatter. In fact Dexter was now sweatingas though he had run across the entire country without stopping, processing the fact that Dee Dee's finger was just mere inches from the button. After around ten seconds, he breathed a sigh of relief. "COMPUTER, initiate microlab sequence" "Yes, Dexter." Replied COMPUTER.
Once he was in the small backyard of the house, Dexter watched as the walkway between the house and the lab move into the walls of the lab's exterior like a closing drawer, and a machine on the roof raised a gigantic version of the antenna on Dexter's invention. He aimed his remote at the larger antenna and hit the "zap" button. A few seconds after the golden electricity from the remote hit the giant antenna, the sight of the laboratory disappeared; the entire building was now the size of a miniature 3x3 Rubik's cube which he placed in the pocket of his lab coat before he headed to their car. Although the ride to their new home would only take an hour, Dexter hadn't slept at all the previous night due to pressure to complete the latest model of his invention, so he fell asleep on Dee Dee's shoulder. Throughout his years of schooling, he had always amazed his teachers and most of his classmates (amazement at his academic prowess was as far as it went for Dexter; he never really formed friendships with any of them nor even made the effort to socialize, so nobody really cared about him as a friend, and he was fine with that) with an academic mind far beyond that of the average middle school student, so it was no surprise that he would dream about himslef being treated as the new Einstein or Hawking in his new school, and a high school environment at that. But before he could dream further, he was woken up by the sound of his future classmates and teachers making the sound of a car horn with their mouths, just as they were about to cheer for him solving a difficult equation.
"We're here kids! Welcome to our new house in Townsville!" Dad said excitedly. As Dexter groggily got out of the car, the sight of their new home, or mansion rather, jolted Dexter awake. "WE'RE GONNA LIVE HERE?!" Dee Dee asked excitedly. "Yes Dee Dee," answered Mom excitedly, "ever since Dexter received the Utonium scholarship grant for young scientists, Professor Utonium himself is letting us rent out one of his many mansions! Provided that Dexter will also be one the of Professor's lab assistants on the weekends..." "YAAAYYYY! I'M GONNA LIVE IN A BIG HOUSE! I'M GONNA LIVE IN A BIG HOUSE! I'M GONNA LIVE IN A BIG HOUSE!" Dee Dee chanted excitedly while walking up and down the street. Dexter, on the other hand, was more excited about working with Professor Utonium and impressing his classmates in school the next morning. So after putting his laboratory back to the correct size in their new backyard and unpacking his things in his new room, Dexter fell on his bed, anticipating his first day at his new school when the morning arrives. "Tomorrow," Dexter thought to himself, "I will show them pure genius..."
The moment the alarm on Dexter's phone went off, he didn't show any signs of disturbed slumber, but rather, excitement; he finished his personal hygiene and breakfast under 10 minutes. He thought that he should look his best for a first impression so he wore a suit, which made him look quite good to everyone, even some of the girls on the school bus, something that nobody really cared about during his middle school years. The attention he was getting upon arrival up until his classroom brightened his mood even more; he was already greeted by majority of his new schoolmates and teachers due to word getting out that he was the recipient of the coveted Utonium scholarship grant and his impressive academic record in his old school. For the first time in his life, he felt like a king.
"Well class," The teacher, a kindly looking middle aged man said, ending all the chatter between Dexter's classmates, "Welcome to a new year and new environment freshmen! I would like to introduce two new students to you! Will Mr. Dexter Tartakovsky and Mr. Mandark Astronomonov please come in front!" Aside from Dexter, the one who was seated beside him, a boy with a bowl cut, wearing glasses, a white shirt tucked into denim shorts and brown leather shoes and who much taller than Dexter came up with him, although unlike Dexter, he kept a straight emotionless face as if saying in his mind, "This introduction schmintroduction thing is pointless! Let's get on with the lessons now!" "Now class," said their teacher, "I want you to emulate their example in terms of schoolwork as these two both have outstanding academic performances! Now you boys may sit down!" As they headed back to their desks, Dexter thought to himself, "He is a genius too? Oh no, I might have competition! But wait, why does this have to be a competition when he can be my friend?" "I know what you're thinking, Dexter and I have no intention of being friends with you!" said Mandark, glaring at Dexter afterwards, as if he wanted to kill him. "I'm going to prove that I am superior to you intellectually and that I deserve that scholarship more than you do!" Dexter gulped and thought to himself, "Well, competition it is then...But also, how was he able to read my thoughts? Nevermind, he might just be bluffing..."