Our Dreams, We Sold Every Last One
Both professors were punctual, arriving at their meeting place at the same time. "I've never been here before," John remarked upon glancing at the signage for Café Een. Never mind that he hadn't had any contact with his best friend for eight months.
"They make the best coffee in Townsville." Joan held the door for him, then ordered café au lait while John opted for his tried-and-true hazelnut cappuccino. It was impossible to count how many gallons of coffee and espresso they'd guzzled during grad school. Joan claimed a table in the far corner to keep their conversation relatively private. "I've made a stunning breakthrough with Chemical W," she began without any pretense.
John's lips immediately turned down. He'd been under the assumption that Joan abandoned Project W due to burnout. In her language, the words "stunning breakthrough" meant she'd done something she probably shouldn't have. "What sort of breakthrough?"
"I may have created actual superheroes."
He did not know how to react to her beaming smile. "Superheroes?" he echoed.
"Yes, superheroes! Real people with special abilities!"
His Adam's apple bobbed nervously. "You… experimented on humans with Chemical W." A statement, not a question.
She nodded. "I did."
"Joan…"
Her exuberance faded in the face of his incredulity. "What have you done?" she heard him chide, just like her team members. Also like them, he would come to understand her reasoning. "Let me explain, John. I hate to say it but Project W reached a standstill. That's why I left."
His brow furrowed. "Didn't you tell me someone's life was at stake? Wasn't that reason enough to continue our work?"
"Of course it was, but I received the opportunity to take W in a different direction. Maximilian Morbucks reached out to me. Not only did he grant me unlimited personal funding, he helped me get permission from the SDC to begin clinical trials."
"He helped you." Meaning his vast fortune had paid someone off in order to skirt the rules. This was one reason why John despised the notion of corporate entities sticking their greedy hands into scientific pursuits they didn't understand. "So you work for that man now."
"Yes," Joan confirmed, "and I have my own team at a state-of-the-art facility."
God, what happened to her integrity? John couldn't believe she'd sold out so easily. Then again, she never liked being told "no". "What was the outcome of the trials?" he asked to avoid the fact that the woman sitting across from him was rapidly becoming a stranger. "Did your subjects express the negative effects of Chemical W?"
"They did– several varieties of neurological degeneration. It was disheartening, but it only prompted me to try something radical." Joan leaned forward over her coffee cup. "The compound failed when administered orally and intravenously, so I introduced it genetically."
"Joan, you didn't…"
She only grinned, so proud of herself. "I want you to meet them, the world's first humans augmented with Chemical W. They're incredible, John. They have amazing potential."
He downed the rest of his cappuccino in order to prevent himself from shouting at her. Clearly she couldn't hear the disappointment in his tone. Still, John couldn't deny his curiosity; he needed to know how mad a scientist Joan had become. "All right," he agreed, "show me."
The shipping yard was an odd location for science to be conducted. Odder still was how the building extended several stories down instead of up. Since Morbucks owned it he likely had things to hide, such as the outcomes of genome editing experiments. John maintained a stoic countenance as Joan used a key card to unlock the door to her laboratory. Several researchers turned toward them, eyeing their boss's guest with either mistrust or curiosity. "This way," Joan motioned, "it's their recreation hour."
John's heart rocketed into his throat as soon as he stepped through the doors leading to the play area. He hadn't been expecting children. The little girl with white hair noticed him first, staring at him from across the carpet of fake grass. The other three stopped what they were doing to stare as well. "This is my friend John!" Joan called to them. "Come say hi!"
They approached somewhat cautiously like most kids did when meeting strangers, yet it was plain to see they were anything but typical. John did not possess the vocabulary to accurately describe how it felt to look upon them, but as a whole he was crushed. Crushed by the knowledge that the brilliant and accomplished woman standing beside him had the capacity to do something so… inhumane. He could not fathom what drove Joan to embed Chemical W into human DNA when neither of them fully understood its effects. "Morbucks gave you permission to do this?" he softly questioned.
"Not exactly," Joan admitted. "I started splicing Chemical W onto select zygotes while the clinical trial was ongoing."
John swallowed. He doubted she had legally obtained the genetic material needed for her experiment if she'd used the study as a cover. It made him ill to think Joan could stoop so low. Had he ever really known her? He knelt to the children's eye level. "Hello…" he greeted, offering a hand, "I'm John Utonium. What are your names?"
"Une, Tvaer, Natt, and Sai," Joan answered for them. Sai folded his arms and scowled at having been denied the simple courtesy of introducing himself.
John tried another query. "How old are you?"
"We're seven!" Une exclaimed.
"Their rate of development is accelerated," Joan added. "I haven't been able to establish a pattern so far, but they're at the physical equivalent of seven years old. Mentally they're about ten."
"Except me," Sai stated. "I read at a seventh-grade level."
"That's very impressive," John replied. "What's your favorite book so far?"
Sai's golden eyes flicked to Joan. "The Call of the Wild."
"A classic," she said coolly.
John had an inkling as to the cause of the tension between them. "Have you gone on any field trips?"
"I did once," Tvaer answered. "I went to a lab like this in the desert."
John raised an eyebrow at his former colleague. "She went to a facility in Nevada," Joan clarified. "Tvaer is telepathic."
"She's what?"
The woman grinned. "Go on, Tvaer. Talk to John like you talk to your siblings."
She twisted from side to side. "Are you a professor, too?"
"Astounding!" he breathed. "How do I respond?"
"Just think what you wanna say," Natt offered. "She'll hear it." And so would the rest of them.
John closed his eyes to concentrate. "Yes, I'm a professor like Joan."
"Where do you live?" Tvaer then asked.
"Here in Townsville, in the neighborhood of Pokey Oaks."
"You shouldn't feel sad for us." He opened his eyes as Tvaer continued. "You're sad that we can't go outside, but I've already seen the ocean. Joan says we can't leave this place yet, but someday we'll see it together."
John faced Joan. "Have they exhibited the known side effects of Chemical W?"
"None whatsoever," she smiled. "I'm fairly certain the compound will prevent them from developing illnesses of any kind."
"I see… And what sorts of abilities do the rest of you have?" he wondered. Individual demonstrations followed. Une turned invisible and Natt weathered a good-natured assault from all three of his siblings, laughing because it didn't hurt one bit. Sai went last, accepting John's phone and messing with a few apps before restoring everything to working order. Joan then said it was time for John to leave, escorting him out of the lab. He remained silent until they entered the elevator. "It's wrong."
"What is?"
"You're keeping those children locked up down here and ignorant of the real world." There was more vehemence in his tone than intended.
Joan huffed. "They stay in the lab for their own safety– their powers are still developing. And they're hardly ignorant of anything. Sai took the liberty of enlightening himself as well as his siblings."
"So he subverted your plans to keep them ignorant." John couldn't bear to look at her. "You can't treat them like lab rats, Joan. They're human beings."
"No, they're not," she refuted. "They're beyond humanity. Chemical W gave them powers that only existed as fantasy elements in books, comics, and movies. I made them a reality, John. I heralded the next stage of human evolution."
"Is that what you thought you were doing when you stole their genetic material, enhancing the human race?" They glared at one another. "Was creating something you hardly understand and will likely lose control over worth abandoning Project W?"
Joan lifted her chin. "Absolutely. It was absolutely worth it, John. You don't get to deride my accomplishments when you were too afraid to push boundaries."
"I was afraid we had entered waters we didn't know how to navigate once we finished synthesizing W, and my worries were clearly justified! Look what it did to those kids! They'll never be able to live normal lives!"
"They were never meant to." Joan didn't let his expression of disgust faze her. John was too small-minded to understand. "They're proof that it's possible to live without sickness. They're proof of genetic perfection. It's not a utopian concept, it's real. My children are the future, here and now. They're going to help each one of the seven billion people on this planet after we start synthesizing cures from their blood."
John scoffed lightly. "Oh, I see. This was all about maximizing profits for Morbucks." Joan opened her mouth to defend herself but the elevator doors parted and he walked out, pausing to turn back. "I never want to hear from you again."
"That's fine. I'm sure I'll forget all about you as your name fades into obscurity," Joan retorted. And that was it, the end of their friendship. Uneasy silence greeted her when she returned to the lab. "Get back to work!" she spat.
A younger geneticist approached. "Umm, Professor… we're worried about Professor Utonium. Won't he tell people what we're doing here?"
"No, he won't," Joan assured. "We developed Chemical W and engaged in the preliminary trial together. He's as much a part of the initial research and development as me. If I face an inquiry by the SDC, so will he." And no scientist working in Townsville wanted that on their record.
A few months passed; the Quads were now eight years old. Thanks to Sai, Tvaer learned that the emotion Professor Utonium felt toward them wasn't sadness, it was pity. Some of the people working in the lab also pitied them, but no one ever said anything. Life had become monotonous and predictable for the young superhumans. They woke up, got dressed in the same plain grey ensembles they'd worn for the past year, sat through their increasingly-irrelevant classes, ran around their fake playground, ate the same bland nutritionally-balanced meals, endured the same tests and exams, then went to bed. The only thing they had to look forward to each night was watching TV together on Sai's tablet, where they spoke freely since no one was around to listen and judge them. "I can't wait to go outside," Une said aloud with a sigh. "See the city, feel the sun, play in a real park…"
Sai cast a glance at his sister. "It's not going to happen."
"How do you know? Tvaer got to go outside," she countered.
"So Morbucks could determine how useful she is to him. He's the one in charge of everything, you know."
Une sighed again and held up her hand, her arm shimmering as she concentrated on turning only it invisible. Her other arm followed, then her legs, leaving her a dismembered torso. "You look like a potato," Natt commented.
"You look like a… a vampire!" she snickered.
Natt pouted. It wasn't his fault the physicians had resorted to drawing blood from his inner eyelids, the only known part of his body that didn't repel foreign objects. His sclera were often red thanks to the needles and numbing gel. Coupled with his vivid orange irises he somewhat resembled a supernatural entity. "At least I don't have blue hair." He tugged on one of her curly cerulean locks, earning a giggle as she swatted his hand away.
"I like Une's hair," Tvaer thought, "it's pretty and fun to braid."
"Your hair is pretty, too. It's super soft and shiny."
Sai rolled his eyes. "If you like each other's hair so much, go play with it instead of disrupting this show."
"No!" the girls chorused, resuming their viewing positions. The restored silence only lasted for a minute, then Natt fell back with a groan.
"I'm bored. I wanna go outside. There're so many games we could play."
"Like basketball?" Une suggested. There was a hoop attached to the jungle gym, but they had grown tall enough that it was too easy to make baskets.
"Yeah, and soccer, football, baseball, volleyball, hockey, lacrosse…"
"Swimming!" Tvaer put in.
"Or tennis," Sai added. Sports didn't really appeal to him but he thought he might like that one. A single opponent, a racket, a ball, and reflexes. On second thought, it might be too easy since they were stronger and faster than normal people. They hadn't really noticed until that day Sai kicked Doctor Anderson. The only thing he regretted was getting his siblings subjected to more tests. Ironically, Sai was the weakest of the four; Anderson probably would've broken his leg if Natt had kicked him.
Their special abilities improved as they continued to grow exponentially. Sai no longer needed his tablet to access the internet since he could now link his consciousness with any device connected to the network, hardwired or wireless. The buzzing signals became background noise he learned to tune out, but once inside the network he became physically unresponsive and thus vulnerable. With Natt watching over him, though, he had nothing to worry about. His brother was utterly indestructible and overpowered to boot, his bite, grip, punch and kick forces off the charts. A few scientists still wanted to find out if he was bulletproof but Joan refused their propositions. Une began experimenting with altering her appearance instead of vanishing altogether. By actively controlling the amount of light around her, she determined how people saw her. At first she could only change the colors of her features, but then she learned how to change their shape and texture. Of course, her powers were reliant on perception and the glamours were easily dispelled by making physical contact.
Since it was futile to keep them in the dark any longer, the Quads received regular tablets complete with internet access, although their activity was monitored. Sai promptly removed that software from his device and installed it on one of the workstations connected to the lab's closed network. Now he could view the data the scientists generated… and find out what purpose Joan had really created them to fulfill. Before he delved too deeply, Maximilian came by the lab on one of his "progress surveys". The Quads continued playing on the jungle gym while he and Joan stood near the exit. "To what do we owe this visit?" the woman questioned.
"I'm intrigued by your latest reports," he answered succinctly. "You say you're getting close to synthesizing medicine made from their blood, but given their unique abilities I can think of much more practical applications. You called them superheroes, after all, and what do heroes do?" Joan blinked at him. "They fight bad guys and save people."
"You're not thinking…"
"I'm thinking they would be a valuable addition to my private security force." Maximilian ignored the look of slight horror on her face. "You've got a girl who reads minds, another girl who turns invisible, a boy who can't be injured, and another boy who can do everything a computer does but better." He flashed a withering look. "You're going to tell me they're only suited for life as blood bags?"
Joan didn't know what to say. Developing the panacea had been their primary goal from the beginning. Maximilian funded her research to profit in the medical sector, not in wars. "I really don't see how they'd be useful in any other endeavor," she tried.
"That's because you don't know how enterprising I truly am, Professor." Maximilian gave the Quads a smug little smile before turning on his heel, Joan trailing. "It would be foolish to pour money into private security without receiving financial gain. I have enemies, yes, and my soldiers protect me from them, but I also loan personnel to foreign and domestic authorities when they require creative solutions to tough problems."
"And you think my children can help solve those problems."
The man nodded. "I know they can. And they will."
Joan set her jaw. "I don't feel particularly inclined to let them join your paramilitary force."
"I'm particularly inclined to say you don't have a choice, Professor." Max smirked. "Not only did you go behind my back and use my funding for a project I never approved of, I have it on good authority you acquired those kids' DNA without permission. Any way you look at it, my money facilitated their existence, therefore they're my intellectual property." That wasn't completely true, but Maximilian was banking on the fact that Joan didn't know that.
She scoffed. "Let me guess– if I don't let you use them for dirty work, you'll pull your funding."
"And run you out of Townsville, and ensure you're excluded from GE circles around the globe, and basically end your career," Maximilian added with a sneer.
Joan took a silent minute to weigh her options. She hardly wanted to let the Quads out of her sight, didn't want to miss a single moment of their development much less allow her benefactor to send them who-knew-where for training. Their powers were growing, too. Maximilian didn't care about gathering data, but it was important for Joan to quantify her progress so she'd have real numbers to present when it came time to reveal her children to the world. And yet… she didn't want her career to end with them. The Quads were an open doorway to all kinds of scientific advancements. They were the future and Joan was at the forefront of it. She couldn't just give that up after everything!
"How can my children help you?"
Tvaer stayed behind while her siblings began their journeys. As they each left the lab with people she'd never sensed before, she mentally clung to them as long as possible until their voices faded. Her first night alone wasn't so bad, or the one after. She could stream Animal Planet all by herself. It just… wasn't the same. It was quiet, the scientists so focused on their work that there weren't any interesting thoughts in their heads. She wondered why no one had come to take her anywhere. What about Nevada where Jessica worked? Did they still want to measure her psionic output? Tvaer liked helping people but none of the scientists needed it; they told her to "run along" and "go play" but there was no one to play with.
She bounced a ball off one wall of her room, the rhythm putting her in a bit of a trance. She was bored to tears. The ball unexpectedly failed to return to her hand, disrupting the rhythm. Tvaer stared at it suspended in the air, like it had frozen. Her understanding of gravity said that wasn't supposed to happen.
Joan flung the bedroom door open wide, startling Tvaer. The ball fell to the floor and rolled away.
Natt went to Colorado, a landlocked state with no ocean views like California, but the facility he was taken to more than made up for being "stuck". Not that he felt trapped in any way; on the contrary, the sheer wonder of his surroundings coupled with the elevation made him a little lightheaded. He had to stay inside for a few days while his body acclimated, then the people in charge took him on a tour of the whole compound. It was for training soldiers who wanted to join Mr. Morbucks' private military, but it looked like one big playground minus slides and swings. There were green fields where cadets played football and soccer, a basketball court, swimming pools, and a track. The first thing Natt did after being assigned a bunk in the barracks was run around the track to his heart's content. According to the handler assigned to look after him, he ran the equivalent of twenty miles without breaking a sweat.
Natt went to the same classes as the cadets, learning things from members of elite military forces around the globe: Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and Green Berets, Marine Raiders, British SAS, Russian Spetsnaz, French paratroopers, and commandos from several other countries. He was being taught to think tactically; it was Maximilian's goal to turn Natt into the greatest combat operative the world had ever seen. After all, he was indestructible.
But that word was not synonymous with "invincible".
Une didn't just get to ride in a limousine, she got to fly on a plane to a state called Texas. It was the most exciting thing that ever happened to her, hands down. Better still, she got to sit near the pilots in first class! An adult accompanied her, a lady named Parker. She didn't talk much until they touched down, then Parker informed Une that engineers were going to try to derive cloaking technology from her ability to turn invisible. It sounded fun at first, but she only ended up sitting in another laboratory with sensors stuck all over her body, and the technicians kept taking samples of her skin. They were attempting to make artificial chromatophores that people could put on like a suit and select disguises from preprogrammed options. They laughed and called her a human chameleon. Une didn't like that; chameleons were kind of ugly. But… she did look ugly now. She had itchy discolored patches all over her arms, legs and torso, and the gel they put on her skin to alleviate the pain made her smell weird.
Eventually the engineers said they had enough samples of her epidermis to experiment with, so Parker took her on another plane to the state of Colorado. It was much prettier, with mountains and forests and rivers. They went to a lodge out in the middle of nowhere, but from the helicopter they flew in on Une saw a network of tree houses, obstacle courses, and big green fields. Parker told her that she was going to go through something called "boot camp". Une would get to run, jump, climb, and learn how to fight. Everything but the last part sounded fun. She didn't want to hurt anyone.
Much to her surprise, Natt was already there. He'd been there for the past month and was ahead with his training, but Une determined to catch up. Parker said Tvaer and Sai would be joining them as well once Maximilian finished his projects. It made Une and Natt even happier knowing they'd all get to experience the great outdoors together.
Sai traveled the farthest distance, heading to Alaska where he entered a communications base hidden away in the snowy mountains. The people in charge of the facility explained that they kept tabs on Russia, China, and North Korea, and they wanted his help acquiring information the nations hadn't been very forthcoming about. The sheer number of converging signals made Sai antsy, but then he plugged into a massive server and… it was wonderful. There was so much information available, seemingly infinite pools of data to browse, and he got distracted by downloading things of personal interest instead of doing as requested. No one could communicate with him since his consciousness went wandering while he was networked, essentially leaving him comatose. Ten hours and a rumbling stomach later he awoke, promising to cooperate tomorrow.
He wasn't a dumb little kid like they thought; he knew what constituted spying. But Sai hadn't yet received the opportunity to explore foreign networks and gladly took advantage of his situation. He told the tech people everything they wanted to know while downloading as much information as possible to his brain. He learned Russian in two days, Mandarin in three, and Korean in just one, able to speak, read, and write with native proficiency. Sai decided it would be fun to learn every language known to mankind. He was already fluent in Spanish and Thai, discovering the latter at age six when he attempted to find out the meaning of his name.
It was a number. His entire identity was just a number Joan had assigned him for the sake of her experiment. He was the last one to awaken in his incubation chamber so she sensibly named him "Four".
Sai couldn't find the right way to explain "child abuse" to his brother and sisters who were also nothing more than numbered test subjects to Joan. She had been abusing them since they were born, dehumanizing them, exploiting them for personal gain. Nothing about their life was "normal" like she said, and as she kept preying upon their assumed ignorance by feeding them lies, the more resentful Sai grew. The only reason he continued to let Joan and Maximilian use him was because he could not feasibly support himself or his siblings in the outside world… not yet, anyway. Little did they know that everything they did to Sai, everything he endured, only made him more capable of surviving on the planet they thought they ruled.
Once free of his shackles, he'd tear their entire kingdom asunder.
Joan accompanied Tvaer to the desert facility in Nevada where Maximilian believed her psionic powers could be bolstered with the right methodology. The head researcher of the Enhanced Neurology Division, Doctor Jessica Byers, greeted Tvaer exuberantly and received a hug in return; Joan felt a twinge of jealousy. "She's begun expressing signs of having telekinesis," Maximilian informed the woman. "I'd like you to get her to fully realize that ability."
"I'll do what I can, Sir," Jessica replied, turning to Joan. "You brought all of Tvaer's data from your lab?" Joan wordlessly handed her a flash drive. "Thank you. I look forward to working with you!"
When Joan burst into Tvaer's room it was because her real-time brainwave activity had abruptly shifted from a steady lo-beta readout to a delta pattern. If Tvaer had been napping, as was Joan's initial hypothesis, the waves would have gradually slowed, but the sudden drop in activity concerned her. Based on that information Jessica suggested they try some meditation exercises to induce a similar mental state. Tvaer sat in a plain white room with a metronome or ambient sounds playing, but neither worked. She just got bored and started fidgeting. Next they tried some perpetual motion toys which yielded some results. There were no real examples of perpetual motion in nature because nothing could move without an external force acting upon it, and Tvaer's willpower was such a force. Now it was only a matter of increasing her output.
A week passed, then two, then a month. Maximilian was getting impatient; he needed to know if Tvaer would be useful in the field like the other Quads. Just thinking of how much he could profit off her by marketing her as a psionic soldier, the first of her kind, made him want to expedite the process. Yet Joan and Jessica both said her telekinesis had to increase gradually to perform at the level he expected, like mental weight training, lest she grow older without being able to maintain control over her own powers. As a minor consolation, the range of her telepathy had expanded to a ten-mile radius.
Maximilian went over the data Joan and Jessica presented, his lips pressed into a line like the one indicating Tvaer's growth had plateaued. "This is unacceptable," he said, all but tossing the papers onto the table dividing them. "I expected to see an improvement between my last visit and now. Why hasn't any progress been made?"
Jessica sighed. "Honestly, Sir, it's because she's still a child. Her brain is still developing along with her body. There's no way to calculate Tvaer's rate of growth either thanks to the Chemical W spurts."
"So you're saying I have to wait for her to get older before her abilities are fully realized."
Joan nodded. "That is correct."
Maximilian searched the tabletop in contemplation. "When I invest so much money into a project, I expect results I can capitalize on. That girl has yet to prove worthy of her investment."
"You've read and understood the data. We've taken every avenue short of psychiatric medication." Jessica spread her hands. "What more do you expect us to do?"
The man raised a derisive eyebrow. "If drugs will get me the results I want, you'd better use them."
Joan's jaw clenched. "I'm not dosing my child with unnecessary medication. Tvaer's brain chemistry is already unique– there's no way to predict how it would affect her."
"Drugs could very well undo the progress we've already made," Jessica added, "or hinder her development as a whole."
"The purpose of making Chemical W part of the human genome was to alleviate the need for medicine of any kind," Joan said with a note of finality.
Maximilian stared at the two women. There was no doubting their brilliance, that was why they worked for him, but they didn't seem to understand that he could take away their project funding just as easily as he'd offered it. Without him they'd be stuck doing the same menial things as others in their respective fields instead of setting precedents and pushing boundaries. And really, how could they claim the moral high ground after everything they'd done, especially Joan? Drugging children was wrong but illegally genetically engineering them and raising them in a controlled environment was fine? Hypocrite.
Of course they consented after he stated these facts. Based on Tvaer's biology, Joan made a list of psychotropic drugs that were the least likely to harm her and the most likely to have an effect. After another month of trial, error, and causing great distress to the poor girl, they achieved the outcome Maximilian was after. The medication made Tvaer extremely compliant and semi-lucid while inducing delta brainwaves, the pattern required for her to perform telekinesis. He returned to the lab for a demonstration of Tvaer's newly-enhanced abilities, standing with Joan and Jessica on the sidelines of a racquetball court where a male soldier faced off against an invisible opponent. Tvaer sat cross-legged against the wall, her eyes half-lidded and cloudy as her racquet moved with precision. "Impressive," Maximilian commented. "At this rate I think it would be easy to teach her how to wield more formidable weapons."
"Like guns?" Joan asked.
"More like unmanned drones and mechs," he corrected, weathering her disdain.
"We did try some fencing exercises," Jessica put in. "Tvaer didn't really have a penchant for it."
"Because I didn't design her for violence!" Joan snapped. "She's supposed to help people, not hurt them."
Maximilian smirked. "Who says I won't be sending her on missions to help people? I pursue charitable endeavors, you know."
Joan spun on her heel to leave the court, muttering, "Anything to line your pockets."
The man heard it, snagging her arm and pushing her roughly against the door. "Watch your attitude, Professor, and remember that none of this would have been possible without me. That little girl wouldn't exist if not for me. You owe me everything."
"I don't owe you anything!" Joan returned. "Chemical W was my invention. It was my idea to splice it onto the human genome. Tvaer and her siblings are my creation and mine alone!"
"They were made with my money and my equipment, so they belong to me. Those children are products and I'm going to use them in whatever profitable manner I see fit."
The soldier and Tvaer had stopped their match, distracted by the commotion at the door. "Professor Newtronium, Mister Morbucks, please calm down!" Jessica pleaded. Joan attempted to wriggle free of Maximilian's grasp, accidentally hitting his large nose. If there was one thing the man despised more than dissenting scientists it was being struck in the face. His right hand rose to slap some sense into Joan, but then it refused to fall as if someone held it in place. His anger vanished, replaced by fascination as he glanced at Tvaer. She wore the same blank expression but her eyes looked a little less hazy, laser-focused on him. Everyone froze for a moment, then the tension snapped when Maximilian was violently thrown through the large window.
Exclamations arose from other people within the recreation area while several soldiers and scientists rushed to help their employer. Tvaer's opponent, Joan, and Jessica all regarded her with open-mouthed stares. She rose to her feet, lowered her racquet into the soldier's hands, and walked out into the hallway littered with glass. Maximilian attempted to smooth his hair and brush shards off his coat simultaneously, turning to look at the girl. Much to the surprise of everyone present, he grinned. "Now that's what I wanted to see."
His psionic soldier was ready to begin combat training.