ANGEL DOM: The curse of chemical x
Part Two
Author's note
1) This story investigates the discovery of chemical x, and a few theories on how the Powerpuffs got their names. I decided to have chemical x discovered in a meteorite because it helps explain one of Buttercup's attacks in the sequel.
2) This story doesn't actually contain the Powerpuff girls as it focuses on John Utonium when he was a student at university, so if you came here expecting to read about Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles, I'm afraid they're not in it.
3) John Utonium hasn't earned his title of Professor yet just if you're wondering.
4) I cut this down into four parts after more than a few people (not all reviewed) thought it was a little too long. I realised that it is still quite large but it can not be cut down any further. I'm afraid this is as far as this story will ever be cut down by. I ask you to please be patient when reading it. This is Part two of four.
5) Powerpuff girls are property of Cartoon Network.
6) My eternal gratitude and supply of Cherry bakewells to Nicole Sabatti for being such a fantastic friend. This fan fiction would have never been completed without her help. So thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!!! Zoy!
&*********************************************************************************************&
"I'm worried about Adam," John confessed as he swirled the newly named chemical around in the beaker, eyes focusing on a point that no one else but himself could see.
Nick looked up from the microscope reluctantly, an annoyed expression on his face. "What? Adam's fine now after last night. He's been nicer to Fred and me as we planned. How is that worrying?"
Fred cracked his neck besides them. He squirmed a little on the sand, unable to catch the sleep he so richly desired. "Yeah. Adam's cooled down now and all it took was a little fib to get him to open up."
"It's not that," John insisted desperately. "When we found the meteorite he was staring at it as if it were a god of some sort and we he finally snapped out of whatever reverie he was in, he was being nasty again."
"Old habits die hard," Fred explained but John refused to listen. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"You have a bad feeling about everything John," Fred sniped a little harder than he had meant to.
"Don't you guys get it? How can he switch from one emotion to the next so quickly? First he's happy, then dumbstruck, and then mean within a matter of seconds of finding that!" He pointed towards the rock accusingly. Nick jumped in its way to defend it from John's accusations but couldn't help but consider it, his eyes resting sadly on the meteorite.
"Adam wanted to find a rock. We found a rock, end of story."
"No it isn't!"
How could he explain it to his companions that Adam's reaction was frighteningly psychotic? John had deduced from the argument earlier that day that Adam didn't hold them in very high respect when it came to their chosen career as he had clearly vented on Fred. Now he had to share possibly the most important discovery in the history of mankind with a group of people he considered weren't good enough to even spit on.
"You're being paranoid," Fred chided, as if reading John's mind. "Fair enough I don't trust him. Heck, I don't even like the guy but since last night he's been a lot easier to deal with."
"I don't like him either," Nick concurred, looking at John with his one available eye. He returned his gaze to the slide seconds later but made sure that the meteorite was still in one piece and more importantly in his possession. Fred stretched his legs causing another unseen bone to crack at his movements.
"The guy is obviously a psycho," Fred told them, staring at the two in a silent challenge to contradict him. No one did.
"He lost it before he even came to the desert. He must have been hanging on to sanity by a very loose thread. The desert just clinched it."
"Psycho. Fantastic. We're stuck in a desert with a psycho that no one even likes."
"Did you ever wonder why he asked us if we wanted to go on this trip rather than one of his friends?"
John ran the thought over in his mind and couldn't help but say "I've been wondering more about why we accepted."
Fred shook his head. "No, John. Think about it. That guy asks three strangers he's never met before if they want to go on a holiday with him. Don't you usually ask your mates?"
"Maybe his friends didn't want to come," Nick offered as he scribbled down some information about the chemical with one hand, and played with the zoom with the other.
"Or?" Fred prompted.
"Or…" John started, working it out as he spoke. "He didn't…have any friends to ask."
"Exactly."
That would make sense, John thought. The neglect he received from his family must have triggered it off, made Adam reluctant to reach out and ask for help. He had learnt all his social skills from people who didn't even have time to say hello to him, never mind care. That meant that he had no social skills what so ever, and despite all his efforts to gain friends, none had ever come to him.
John couldn't help but feel sorry for him, the angered worry extinguished in the light of this new discovery. It was a viscous circle that Adam was in, he couldn't reach out to anyone because he didn't know how and therefore more and more people brushed past him, heightening the isolation for the loved starved child. Adam must not have had many friends, and those he did had either left him or not been worthy of the title.
"You saying that Adam's all bitter because no one likes him and that he conveys this onto others which makes even more people dislike him?" Nick asked, summarising John's thought in a quick sentence. He dared to be mean himself, something that Nick hardly ever did. "Well if he treats them like that then he doesn't deserve to have any friends."
John sighed heavily, filling the void in front of him with his woes. "It's not his fault. I don't think he knows how. I pity him." He looked up at the sky then. "I can't wait to get out of this desert," he sighed changing the subject.
This brightened them up considerably, especially Fred, who was now juggling with the empty water skins out of boredom. He checked behind him when one fell onto the sand followed quickly by the other two, trying to convince the others that he had meant to do that.
"I'm gonna buy a boxing ring and learn how to fight!" Fred said enthusiastically, gripping his fist together in excitement. "With the money from the discovery," he explained when both John and Nick looked at him in confusion. "What you gonna do when you get out of here?"
Nick smiled at this question, a wistful grin forming on his face. "I'm going to get a bunny rabbit!"
It took a while for this information to sink into the others. "What!" they both cried at once.
"What?" Nick said, giggling slightly. "I've always wanted one. I like rabbits."
John scrunched up his face in bewilderment. It was strange some of the things people wanted to get when they were rich. Some people bought every item that they could, wanted or not. Others continued to live their lives, not allowing their bulging bank account to change their life style. He supposed it all hinged on whether that person was happy. Nick would be satisfied with the simple love that a rabbit would provide. Fred wanted to follow in his father's footsteps. He began considering what he would buy with his share of the money and how it would reflect on him.
"I think I'll use my share of the money to buy that Johnson house and build a lab."
"What?" Fred asked, sceptically. "No Ferraris? No expensive mansion?"
"I'm happy with that house, thank you very much. Besides, when word gets out that we discovered a meteorite we'll become famous. The recognition is enough for me."
"Yeah!" Nick agreed partially. "Think of all the fancy do's we'll attend. We'll be the envy of every scientist ever."
"We'll be put into commercials!" Fred said dreamily.
"Maybe we'll have our own show, Nick's science time!" He said, drawing his hand across the sky as he imagined reading the starlit, neon sign. "You can be the coffee boy," he laughed, pointing at Fred.
"WHAT!" Fred shouted, laughs puncturing the word. "If I'm the coffee boy, I'm gonna be a really bad one!"
"We'll have to share it," Nick continued, a little worried perhaps that the others were planning to leave him out of the running. He allowed a sigh of relief when Fred replied, "Of course! We all did this together, even Adam all though he did nothing more than whinge the entire journey…"
"Now Fred,"
"No, John, hear me out," he interrupted, avoiding the criticism. "When we get out of here it isn't going to just be the rock over there that will make us famous," he said gesturing towards the shimmering meteor, "but this very story where we had to fight against the odds. When they found out that Adam flipped, he'll be the laughing stock of the entire science community. I doubt anyone will ever want to speak to him again."
"Maybe we shouldn't tell them," John said a crushing order that he expected Fred and Nick to follow. "We all went a little crazy out here. It could have been anyone of us…"
"But it wasn't. It was Adam."
Finding nothing to say to that remark, John silently turned to Nick who was smiling once again as he continued to stare at the chemical under the microscope. The meteor had pretty much gone unnoticed since its discovery and John couldn't help but wonder if the meteor was actually a vessel of some sort, designed to carry the chemical x. However the dynamics of the meteorite suggested that it had been untouched by anyone's but God's influence. Still it was perplexing. The meteor had silenced now that it no longer held the liquid inside of it. Utonium couldn't help but wonder about the strange properties of it and if they really wanted to know them.
"We'll definitely be famous when we get out of here," Nick said dreamily.
They weren't going to become famous though by sitting in the desert and waiting for death to claim them. They had to move on.
"It's time to start walking," John told them as he picked up his sleeping bag from he ground, a shower of sand spilling from inside where the wind had blown it. "We're not going to become famous if no one knows of the discovery. We've determined that we follow the northern star and we can hardly do that at day time can we?" He threw his backpack over his shoulder and gave a smile designed to comfort his friends.
"I'll get Adam."
&*****************************************************************************************&
Something was wrong.
When it had happened, John didn't know. How, he couldn't determine. Why wasn't even worth asking. But something had happened in those few short minutes to Adam.
The first sign that John noticed was wrong came when he first laid eyes on Adam. He was hunched sitting on top of his backpack as he had been since he sat down, as if he hadn't moved since then. That was impossible. They had all heard his snoring during the discussion, meaning he must have fallen asleep. Yet he still looked tired, those heavy bags under his eyes said it all.
The second sign came from his treatment to the other members after he had finally got up. Fred had approached Adam only to be severely slammed for not being ready to get up and go. All that hostility had returned, but especially at Fred. John was blaming it on the discovery of the meteorite still, deciding that the change in emotions was still rampant therefore he shouldn't hold it as important.
He should have.
The third sign came from the way he acted. He was once again snapping at everyone but this time it held dangerously psychotic undertones in the way he spoke it, and it was often coupled with a gesture or promise of physical violence.
As they continued to trek their way along unchanging terrain, John couldn't help but watch after the enigma, studying every movement, every sign, interpreting it to something, anything that may explain why he was acting the way he was.
It was at this point that John remembered a particularly heartfelt poem named "Not waving but drowning". Adam must have been like that his entire life, born in the choking depths of the sea whilst his family watched from the shore, laughing and joking. The other night he and the others had thrown him a lifeline. They thought he had taken it.
But he hadn't
He had swum away from it as if they had thrown him a poisonous snake, leaving the rope twitching in the water.
The other night, Adam had exposed himself, his heart, and even his most precious dream even if he hadn't meant to. Now he was angry with himself for allowing this information to slip and even more angry with them for listening. It was almost as if he had blamed his momentary lapse of protection on them. At least that's what John thought, that he was angry at letting down his guard, that he had accepted the compassion of those he swore not to. Now he felt vulnerable, perhaps even embarrassed about allowing himself to feel and was now going out of his way to convince them that he didn't want their help.
Indeed he was going to excruciating lengths to do that now.
"Hurry up!" he ordered harshly, practically dragging the others behind him. Nick puffed with the renewed effort that the muscles in his body were enduring, barely, bordering once again on another collapse from exhaustion.
"Can't…we…slow…down?"
Adam scoffed at this proceeding to actually quicken his pace rather than slow it as suggested. "Get yourself moving you lazy…"
"Ease off Adam," Fred interrupted, his voice clearly conveying how he felt about the exasperating tedious, repetitiveness that had been their interaction since day one.
To everyone's surprise, Adam drew to a halt. He turned, marched straight up to Fred until he was directly in front if him. He leaned down and stared directly into Fred's eyes, their faces just centimetres away. Lighting sparked between them.
"You're getting on my nerves," he growled.
Fred blinked, not intimidated in the slightest. "What? Again?"
Adam turned away, too disgusted to even look at them anymore. Again he began to march, not caring when Fred cursed loudly.
Nick slowed his pace until he was level with John who had deliberately hung back to assess the situation. Fred was now yelling after Adam, annoyance dripping from his voice as he desperately tried to get him to slow down to a more leisurely pace.
"What's going on?" Nick asked, obviously noting the same things that John had earlier. Nick was incredibly intelligent as were the rest of them but he hid it in a very humbling way. He very rarely showed it to others.
Ahead of them the shouting became more poignant and both members were flailing limbs wildly in what John hoped was nothing more than an idle warning.
"Something happened last night," he babbled realising that they had to determine the problem soon before someone got hurt. John rose one hand to his head in an attempt to ease his headache and sort out the muddled thoughts of which there were so many. "Nick, I don't know what."
"You'd of thought he'd be happy we'd found the meteorite and a new specimen at that. Doesn't that mean that his dream has been fulfilled?"
They both looked ahead at Adam, grimacing as he jolted towards Fred with a fist raised high and Fred donning a defensive stance. So far no blows had been exchanged but both knew that it wouldn't last long.
"That sounds familiar. Did you say that last night?"
"Uh, something around that area, why?
As John pondered this niggling sensation in his mind, Nick took the opportunity to down a little water. He offered some to John, who refused, before telling him it was now empty and slipping it away.
"What was the last thing said before Adam went to sleep?"
This time it was Nick's turn to be thoughtful. "I said that we'd be famous when we got back."
"WE," John emphasised; seizing the mistake and making Nick feel a little guiltier than he had intended.
It had been rumoured that children who were neglected by their family and if they ever received attention from another, demanded all of it for themselves and hated having to share because it reminded them too much of their childhood. Was that Adam's problem? Maybe Adam wanted the meteorite discovery all to himself. It would definitely make sense. However when John looked at Adam's angry demeanour he felt that there was much more to it than that. It wasn't just that Adam thought they polluted the science profession that he deemed so highly with their incompetence, and therefore saw it as an insult towards himself and other scientists that he had to share the discovery with them. It was more than his trying to convince them he didn't care for their compassion or his vulnerability at revealing untold truths to absolute strangers. It was more than that, so much more.
"I have to be honest with you, John," Nick whispered, eyes gazing at the moon lit sand. John waited expectantly, concerned by the saddened tone to his voice. He looked up briefly to say, "I wish we never found the meteorite," and then resumed his previous position.
John couldn't believe what he was hearing. The meteorite was the sole purpose of the expedition. It was just like taking a bath and complaining on how it made you clean.
He softened his tone as much as he could. "I thought you were happy at discovering the meteorite."
"I was, at first," his voice trailed away, misery dripping form every word. "But look at Adam. I think the discovery blew up his circuits. He told us it was his dream to discover a meteorite, and we did, but I don't think it was what he imagined."
"Explain," John prompted, trying to ignore the shouting coming from ahead of them. He glanced up at the sky to check they were heading the right direction from the northern star. They had all consumed themselves in their separate worlds that no one had actually checked their direction. It was lucky that they hadn't drifted from the path, as John really didn't want to have to break it to Adam and Fred.
"Well he obviously doesn't like us," Nick started, "and his dream involved him finding the meteorite. I don't think he wants to share it with us."
"That's my conclusion," John admitted, "but I thought you were for finding the comet? Last night you thought there was nothing wrong with him."
"What you said made a lot of sense. I guess I just didn't want to believe that we are stuck with the same old Adam until we get back."
Nick then said something that John had longed to hear since the discovery of the meteorite. "I don't feel safe around him."
So he'd admitted it, as John had longed to do. He intimidated him, frightened him immensely and he was glad that he wasn't the only one who was susceptible to this fear. Fred, on the other hand, seemed to thrive on it as he was usually the only one who would take a stand against the giant when John couldn't find the energy to do so himself. At first he had tried to convince himself that he didn't want to get involved, which, admittedly, he didn't, but part of that decision was made more out of fear than it a desire to remain neutral.
"I know how you feel," he said to offer the same relief to Nick as he had just done for him. "I don't know what he's going to do next. I feel like a person trying to figure out when a volcano is going to erupt."
Nick hummed in agreement. "Last night though seemed to clinch it, but I don't remember anyone saying anything that may have upset him."
John systematically sorted through last night, skipping thought the discovery, the research and the tired, happy and short conversation at the end of it all. No where could he remember anyone saying anything that may have offended Adam when he part of the conversation. All they had discussed was how they would become famous when they got back and little else. He had noticed that Adam had fell almost silent (except to give insults) at one point but he put that down to exhaustion. Adam had after all exhausted most of his emotional energy by his varying reactions during the discovery.
"We…"
The argument between Adam and Fred had become increasingly louder during the conversation between the remaining members of the group, so much so now they could barely hear each other over the screaming. Nick and John sighed at the same time, realising that they hadn't unearthed anything about Adam that they didn't already know hence they were still stuck with that same problem.
They continued the discussion for a few more seconds until they both heard something that made their stomachs turn.
The unmistakable sound of bone meeting flesh. Hard.
&**************************************************************************************&
Both Nick and John were shocked beyond words when they saw Fred lying on the floor, one hand clamped painfully over his lip. The hurt person barely had time to pick himself up from the ground before another well-planted kick landed into his side. Fred tumbled.
He crunched his eyes against the pain before delivering something extraordinary of his own.
A look of concentrated contempt, easily out powering Adam's stony features came from Fred.
And then something strange happened.
With a little effort he stood up in the sand, one arm still clinging onto his ribs. He growled animal like, raised one hand and said three little gestured words.
"Bring it on."
&***&
The decision to hand over the microscope and the vast majority of the strange mixture they had gained from the meteorite to Nick had been a lucky one as Adam shoved Fred in the back, knocking him to the ground. The brutal giant however found no satisfaction in this simple strike, and advanced on the fallen man, hungry for more. Fred crawled away as best he could, Adam chasing him.
John quickly caught onto what was going on as he saw the fight unravelling ahead of him. He quickly turned to Nick, gesturing to his backpack where the meteorite was held.
"Hold that close to you, but not actually on you. We can't afford to lose that chemical!" John ordered. Nick obeyed; dumping his backpack on the floor, both chemical and meteorite now separated from him.
John quickly turned on his heel, walking stoutly towards the two. He was deliberately ignoring the fact that if Adam were on a rampage, Nick would probably be his main target and that he was leaving his friend and the chemical in extreme danger.
"Adam!" He cried "What are you doing?!"
The giant turned to look at him, his eyes blazing with insanity. John silently gasped at the sheer lack of any human compassion. Adam smirked.
He dived at Fred.
The fist came like lightning as it struck Fred, a solid punch that sent Fred flying head over heels into the sand.
John could do nothing more than watch the two fight from the sidelines. Both Adam and Fred were much more muscular than he was and he dare not get in the middle of such emotional driven strikes as those ahead. With out being able to offer physical assistance to his best friend he could only try and calm both of them down, shouting at the tangled men as they wrestled on the sand. If John didn't know any better he would have thought that Fred was enjoying this as much as Adam.
Then it all slotted into place. Their discussion earlier regarding children, Fred's admission that he wanted to be like his father, a champion martial artist, the way he condoned violence in a way that John didn't think he would. It was all adding together now like the last piece in the puzzle.
Fred wanted to continue the fight.
His 'dragon spirit' as he had called it earlier was proving to be an equal opponent for that of Adam's storm of fists, despite the injuries he had sustained. John could tell that Fred's main attack was his defence as he avoided fist after fist, kick after kick with a strong parry that would have made any fighter jealous.
John screamed at them some more for all the good it did.
The fight was becoming more heated. Adam's lip had been split and a dark circle had formed around one eye already. Fred, apart form the injury he had sustained during the previous surprise attack hadn't been touched. He bobbed and wove, easily avoiding every badly placed punch. Adam was getting even more infuriated, if that were possible, blinded by his rage as he thrashed against his more nimble enemy.
Nick sat, protecting the meteorite but watched with a saddened heart as the two men fought. John's feeble attempts at stopping the fight had been unsuccessful but that wasn't going to stop him from trying. He was acting as the voice of reason, desperately trying to get through to both parties.
Fred however, despite the throbbing pain in his side appeared to be enjoying the fight as he laughed, albeit a little painfully, whenever Adam missed a punch and he was able to retaliate with a devastating counter. The only sign that Adam was once one of them was the fact that he looked like them, nothing more.
"Come on guys, this isn't helping!" John tried as he accidentally ran into Adam's way forcing him to duck underneath his fist.
"Come on, you hunk a junk. Hit me!" taunted Fred, still energetically bouncing on his feet. Adam lunged at him and once again missed by an inch. Fred elbowed him hard in the exposed spine, forcing him down, doubling the effect when Fred slammed his knee into his stomach.
"Guys! Stop it!"
Adam picked himself up like a man possessed. His eyes brunt fiercely and he wore a cold scowl.
He ran at Fred again, this time catching him in the one place he knew he could hurt him.
Fred fell onto the sand, doubled up in pain. Adam advanced, clearly intending to finish the job. This was not a matter of winning any more, but a matter of who got injured more.
John had no choice in the matter now. He had to step into the ring no matter how much he detested violence. He jumped in front of Fred, arms outstretched to protect his friend. Adam continued to advance.
"Adam!" John tried. "Stop this! It's futile!"
He shouldn't have even bothered. Adam ignored him. As the man turned psycho reached him, he merely reached out one arm and tore John away from his stance, throwing him painfully onto the ground.
"John!" Fred gasped, still unable to stand.
He couldn't stop Adam by acting as a barrier and with very little else to do, John launched himself at Adam, jumped onto his back and tried throttling the behemoth.
This, unlike before DID get his attention as he snapped his body this way and that, spinning to try and get John off from his back. John screamed the entire time as he clung onto Adam.
Fred managed to get up then. He screamed and rammed Adam, delivering a head butt to his mid rift. He then helped John as he too clung onto his back.
After a few more seconds of thrashing Fred managed to trip up his ferocious friend, and he landed with a soft thud. Both John and Fred sat on his back.
"Get off me!"
They did more because Adam despite their combined weight was still able to get up rather than because he had asked them to. He stumbled away, growling all the time.
"Give it up," John ordered; adopting the tone that no one dared question. "The fight is over."
"I'll get you for this. I swear it."
"I suggest you calm down!" John screamed, looking back and forth between both Fred and Adam. "This is pointless."
Fred stilled his breathing the pain finally registering now there was nothing to take his mind off it. He looked at Adam smugly; his cheeks reddened with the recent exertion that his body had just faced.
"If we want to get out of here alive then I suggest we work as a team."
"Team?! Like that's going to help," he spat.
John took a moment to calm himself, never mind Adam.
But Adam's attention was not on John, or even Fred.
John's fears were realised.
He exploded towards Nick before anyone realised what he was doing. John ran after, even Fred managed to hobble towards him.
Meanwhile Nick was standing, paralysed by fear. Adam soared towards him, one elbow ready and waiting to attack.
Nick couldn't move, he couldn't even attempt to run.
There was no time.
He was helpless.
Adam was just metres away now, a startling battle cry lingering in his throat.
One fist was raised.
Nick braced himself for the impact, for the hateful blow to be delivered.
He was ready.
And then Adam pushed past him, that fist falling down to his side not to be used. Instead he gave a hefty push, knocking Nick down as he had done to John before. The weakened man didn't take it well and fell to the floor.
Adam continued running.
John quickly dived down to Nick, sweeping a hand under his back. He was about to ask him if he was all right but Fred's cry stopped him before he could.
"John! The meteor!"
Indeed Adam was heading towards the discarded backpack, the sanctuary of their hopes and dreams.
Then it slotted into place. Adam DID want it all to himself. Why else would he head towards the meteor? He knew that he had done it now, that there would be no chance that they would share it with him. He was left with only one option. Taking the meteor himself.
"Oh my God."
John was forced to go after Adam now. Fred was injured as was Nick leaving him and Adam left. Despite the fact that Fred had landed some very good hits it hadn't slowed him any. John realised that he must have been fighting on hatred alone now.
John had to stop him.
He was the only one who could.
&****************************************************************************************&
Knowing that he wouldn't win in a physical fight, John was forced to rely on negotiation. That was one of his strengths that not many people knew about it. Fred was a much better negotiator than he was but at the current moment in time he didn't care much for words and was relying on the primitive but effective use of violence.
He reached Adam as he was invading Nick's backpack, chucking food wrappers, clothes and all sorts of things out of the bag in his search for the precious meteorite. John slowed to a halt. Each step closer to Adam was becoming increasingly difficult. He stopped just short when Adam let out a triumphant yell. He pulled out the meteor and chemical x, both gleaming in the moonlight with a foreboding magnificence.
Okay John, he told himself, it's time to prove you can negotiate.
"Adam, what are you doing!" he began when Adam began laughing at the meteorite, eyes glittering with a copious amount of insanity. He was even in the classical evil man pose, arms bent back, fists partially open and, of course, the patented evil laugh.
Adam glared daggers at him, all compassion lost. "Hee hee hee," he giggled, wrapping the meteorite in a protective field of limbs.
"Well!"
"Foolish Utonium," he spat maliciously.
John growled. "What's wrong with you Adam? I thought you were better now?"
More heartless laughter, but as the seconds passed by and the three companions looked on, those laughs turned into sobs that he could not contain.
"You must think me stupid!" Adam yelled, taking one step closer to John. Bravely he stood his ground, fighting hard against the onslaught of fear inside of him. His brain screamed for him to turn and run, but his heart said continue.
"I don't think you're stupid," John said slowly, one palm outstretched and lowering to try and get him to calm down.
"Deranged maybe," he heard Fred mutter and Nick couldn't help but agree.
"Adam," John began again, ignoring his friends' criticisms. "You shouldn't attack people for no reason…"
"No reason! NO REASON!" Adam cut in, furious. Another step forward. "You think I had no reason. Well Mr Science guy, you're wrong."
"And why is that?"
Another step.
"I had my reasons." He shrugged deeply as if it were nothing. "First, he was really getting on my nerves." He turned to Fred, hatred bleeding from his eyes. "I DO HAVE FRIENDS!" he screamed, tears now cascading down his face. "AND I DON'T CARE IF YOU DON'T LIKE ME!"
He then turned to Nick who crawled backwards as a response. "And you," he said hissing, "I deserve friends as much as anyone." Then finally to John. "I don't need your pity!"
He was yelling, half bent over in pain. John found himself wondering if Fred had made an impact after all. The sad realisation was that it wasn't a physical pain that was causing him to hunch over, but an emotional one. They were witnessing the release of years of concentrated despair, anger, hatred, and sadness. All of it was flooding out of him now. The dam that he had built to hold back those powerful emotions that built every time people ignored him, struck him with their apathy, and more importantly, pushed him to the darkness, were being released now. That helpless anger, the desire for an answer that never came, for someone to wipe away those tears rather than yell them away, and the bitterness that his dreams were never answered. No worse than that, they were crushed.
All of it was escaping in a tremendous release that was years overdue.
Adam then clutched onto the meteor tighter and the chemical x. He strapped one onto his belt, throwing the rest of them in his worn backpack, fondly caressing the one on his belt when he answered.
"I'll show them all who they should have noticed…"
"Adam,"
"You people," he cried with dangerous undertones. "You have no idea what it's like being me…"
"Then explain it…"
"Oh no!" he cried, wrapping the meteor even more tightly in his grasp. "I'm not telling you everything. You have no idea what it's like waiting for someone to acknowledge your existence. Just to hear the words "well done"? Do you realise how much I was judged by my parents for not being…" he paused then continued in a much more hateful tone, "like Harold".
His body was trembling with the emotional energy that boiled inside of him, brimming over his defences for the first ever time.
John was losing control of the situation and he knew it. Emotions in such quantities, especially ones on the negative side of the spectrum, were dangerous. Couple it with a psychotic mind and you have a recipe for serious disaster.
He took another step forward, closing the gap between them no matter how stupid it may have been.
"We're your friends Adam," he tried but he was only laughed at again.
"Friends?" He asked, in sceptical amazement. "Friends don't bitch about each other behind their backs." He stopped, gave one look at the meteorite, and more importantly, the chemical before pulling something out of his pocket.
John stepped back as the saw a sliver of fire run up a metal blade.
No, not a blade for it was too small.
John surreptitiously looked on the item concealed in Adam's hand. It was almost so small that it could easily be passed over and he found himself wondering if the others had noticed, and, if they hadn't, whether he wanted to draw their and Adams attention to it.
Indeed Adam seem pleased at his reaction, a malevolent grin growing on his face as he looked into John's terror stricken eyes. He quickly looked at the item, then to John and then back again until John understood the gesture.
Then he looked at Fred.
There was no way he could negotiate with him now, John knew that, he had gone beyond the point of no return. Then, to his shock, Adam suddenly grabbed the sole chemical x container from his belt, turning slightly so no one could see what on earth it was he was doing. He contemplated jumping Adam but knew that the item in his hand, whatever it was, could inflict some damage to him so he kept back, waiting.
After a few seconds Adam turned back around, grinning inanely. The object in his hand was still concealed but something dripped from the end.
"Whose idea was it, hmm?" Adam asked, looking at them through the tears. "Was it yours John?"
He stepped forward, fist clenching. John stood his ground but inside his heart was thundering. When Adam stopped centimetres away, his heart stopped.
"No," Adam said, causing Johns heart to beat again. "You didn't plan it."
He glanced at Nick and Fred. Fred was hunched over, a lot like Adam, standing protectively in front of Nick. Adam turned to them, his fist clenching even tighter so John couldn't tell what the object was.
"Adam!" John cried in an attempt to protect Fred. It was no good.
Adam stopped in front of Fred, tears meeting a low scowl in an unmistakable intensity.
"You on the other hand…"
"What!" Fred dared, standing as tall as his injuries would allow. "What did we plan?"
"I can take the lies," he said loudly, frantically gesturing to see if Fred would react. He didn't, with a stout heart he held his ground, just as John did. But John had a feeling that Fred would not take kindly to a second invasion of personal space and would take steps to defend it.
"Yes, I know about your lies regarding his 'so called brother'," he pointed at Nick. Then in a low, threatening growl, he said. "But I won't let you take my dream."
"Your dream?" Fred spat, pouring on fuel to the fire. "Your dream means nothing to any of us. For God's sake get a grip on reality Adam! No one's trying to steal anything from you, you're the one who's going crazy over a dead rock!"
Adam seemed personally offended by the insult and leaned even closer to Fred. Then the strange object was revealed.
It was, as John suspected not a knife but part of it was metal. On closer scrutiny John realised what the object was.
A needle.
John looked on confused. What was he going to do with a needle? Never mind that, why did he have a needle in the first place? It was hardly something that you took into the desert unless…
Adam held the first aid kit!
But what damage was he intending to do with a needle that was specifically designed not to hurt. Of course it could be used as a weapon if aimed at a particularly sensitive part of the body like the eye, but still…
"Adam, what are you doing with…"
He didn't have time to finish. Adam suddenly shot his arm forward; the needle pointed towards Fred who looked on surprised if not slightly curious. He had time to mouth a quick "what?" before the needle plunged straight into his arm.
Adam jumped back, his job done.
John didn't know what to think. Was Adam's mental state so confused that he had to injure someone no matter how small?
John didn't move from his spot, his mind befuddled.
"And what good did that do, Adam?" John criticised hardly. "Look at…" his words trailed off, never to be finished. The empty needle was still implanted in Fred's arm but his face had now become as pale as a ghost. His limbs trembled; his eyes were haunted as he softly dropped to his knees.
The needle's purpose done, it dropped to the floor, idle. Fred's looked up at Adam, hands clamped over the spot where the needle once protruded. But he didn't look irritated as John had expected but a look of abstract terror.
A look that would be imprinted on his memory for all eternity.
John was at his side in an instant, ignoring the laughing spectre as he dived onto the sand. He placed a caring hand on Fred's heaving shoulders, his body was now convulsing wildly, and John had to hold him down. Nick got up and helped, offering reassurances to Fred even if he didn't know why.
"Fred what's wrong?!"
His only reply was that of a tortured cough. Adam laughed at the pain ahead of him, enjoying it as if it were a comedy.
"What did you do!?" John demanded forcibly. Adam continued to laugh. He pointed a shaking finger towards the discarded needle.
John agreed, curious as to why Fred had reacted so badly to a simple injection. Fred was not allergic to anything. Then his eyes lay onto the needle.
The needle had been completely emptied of its contents, but, on closer inspection, there appeared to be black liquid dripping from the end.
John stomach's turned and his face became as pale as Fred's had.
"Chemical x," he breathed.
"I have all the water," Adam said smugly, all sadness now gone from his voice. "Remember? I took Nick's water supply and you idiots never thought to get it back? Don't you realise that I've been drinking yours all this time to save my own?"
"You did this," and Nick paused, finding the energy to say the word but still not believing it when he did, "intentionally?"
Another hoarse laugh coupled with a smug smile that made John believe that killing was not only legal, but also an obligatory course of action.
"Of course! You think I didn't figure that northern star thing out myself?"
This time Nick jumped up, finding an untapped resource of courage. He raised his fists in a silent challenge, daring Adam to attack him. Tears of disbelief stood in his own eyes.
"You…mean…you…"
"I knew about the northern star thing before we set off."
"Then why didn't you tell the rest of us!" John demanded, tending to a fading friend as he did so.
Adam smirked, revelling in this moment. "I wasn't going to leave this desert without a meteor piece, to go back there and be proved a failure as they expected."
"You did this deliberately!" John cried in disbelief, all compassion towards Adam thrown out the window. "You intentionally got us lost in the desert just so you could find a stupid rock!"
"Not any rock," Adam contradicted, "but a revolutionary one. I had no intention of sticking with you when I found it. I guess this is where we part ways."
"How can you do this?" Nick asked silently.
Adam shrugged. Then he turned so he could see John, those eyes boring into his. "I'm a little tired," he confessed. "Didn't get much sleep."
Nick looked on confused. "What does that mean?"
"Oh my God…" John whispered but loud enough for Nick to hear. Adam could have made a run for it could have escaped before John and Nick came to their senses. He didn't. He continued to watch their reaction, enjoying every single minute.
Meanwhile Nick was glancing at the dumbstruck John, a look of pure terror across his face. "John?" He prompted trying to get him to explain. Fred was out of the equation for now, too concerned with the poisonous chemical that was spreading throughout his entire body, destroying him.
"My god…"
"John!"
He stared on; the realisation felt like ice was spreading throughout him. John turned onto Nick. "He listened to us."
Nick still didn't understand. "What?"
"Those nights that we talked about having kids, last night when we…"
It struck home. Of course they should have noticed earlier. Adam had quoted them word for word.
"I don't care if Fred doesn't like me," Adam repeated, smirking uncontrollably. He looked at Nick. "I deserve friends as much as anyone," then finally, John's turn, " and I don't need your pity."
Adam had listened in that night when they had discussed how they felt about him, when they had criticised who he was. They had told each other their true thoughts. Fred had confided that he didn't like him, Nick that he thought Adam didn't deserve friends, and finally, John said he had pitied him. It sickened him to think that as they spilt their hearts to each other, Adam had been sitting on his backpack, listening to every single word, growing more and more bitter at every thing they said. That's why he always looked tired, that was why they had found him sitting on his backpack as if he hadn't moved, and the scary thing was that he hadn't.
"But we heard him…"
Then Adam began snoring loudly as he stood, proving Nick's point. He had wanted them to open up and he knew they would only do that if he presumed him to be asleep.
"Good god," John breathed.
The reserve of courage not yet exhausted, Nick took on the burden of questioning. "What if we didn't find a meteorite? What then?"
"I was going to find a meteorite or die trying. We did find a meteorite though," he said happily, lightly throwing the sphere into the air then catching it with one hand.
"What were you intending to do with us!" Nick cried.
"I'm glad you asked," Adam said. "I knew that the meteorite would be found eventually, and I had no intention of sharing the discovery with a bunch of cretins such as yourself."
Fred growled through his pain but did nothing more.
"I couldn't have gone back with you lot who would steal all the limelight now, could I? So, I decided that leaving you here would be the best plan."
"In the desert?" Nick asked, angrily. "You were planning on leaving us to die in the desert all along?!"
"I had to get you out of the running somehow. My first idea came on the plane on the way here."
If John didn't feel sickened before, he definitely did now. He remembered approaching Adam on the plane to try and convince him that perhaps the trip had not been such a good idea, only to have Adam get annoyed at him for interrupting something. It sickened him, really sickened him to realise that Adam was planning their deaths that very moment, contemplating how he would kill him and his friends.
He could taste the bile rising in his throat but he swallowed it, not wanting to give him the satisfaction.
To think that this was the very same man who had openly cried just a few nights ago, who had opened his heart. He had told them his dreams knowing full well that the people who tried so hard to reach out to him were going to be dead at the end of this trip, meteor or no meteor.
"And how are you intending to get out of the desert before us?"
A cold, cruel smirk grew across his features. He extended one hand, drifting it lazily over each of them in turn. Eventually the outstretched digit came to rest on Fred.
"I heard you mention that chemical x was highly toxic. And, rather than inject the poison I had originally intended, I couldn't resist the irony factor! Come on! He was killed by his own discovery! How ironic is that!"
They all growled at him in turn, neither though making a move. "My original target was Nick," Adam confessed, looking at the ginger haired man, "but, Fred just got on my nerves and over time I changed my mind."
He had to ask it, even if it was sealing his fate. In fact he was practically inviting Adam to do the same to them as he had done to Fred, but John had to know. "Why just him?" and Nick looked at John, unable to believe that he had asked the question.
"That was my original plan," he confessed as he tucked the meteor away safely. "But that little conversation of yours changed my mind. I decided 'Hey, why not let them suffer?'"
Fred attempted to pick himself up from the ground. He was sweating profusely and his teeth were clamped together to try and over ride the pain.
"Let them watch their friend die, let them mourn for him, and then let them wait in the desert with the knowledge that they were about to go the same way."
"You're insane," Nick breathed, backing away and Adam almost smiled, seeing it as a complement.
The atmosphere was heavily tense with no one truly knowing what to do next or even daring to contemplate a course of action. Fred was down, Nick was injured (although not gravely) leaving John, the man who condemned violence for years, to try and soothe the savage beast that was Adam.
He was failing miserably and it seemed the deeper he delved into Adam's reasons for the attack, the more disturbing and disgusting the conversation became.
"You remember when we bought these suits?" Adam asked, pulling at the sand-covered clothes that coated his entire body and protected him for the penetrative sand. The suit had held up well, it should have done for the extortionate price that they bought them for, but it still looked battered and weary as if to match the people inside of the suits. Tiny rivulets of sand were running from the creases where they had been imprisoned, falling silently back towards its brethren.
It was obvious that Adam was going somewhere with this, but where John couldn't decipher. "We were all very drunk," he continued cryptically. "We bought the most stupid things. Hats, umbrellas, and, we brought something else too. Something, useful…"
He stopped, watching John in particular for any sign of recognition. He had to admit that he thought that they bought more than just the desert suits but since he found nothing else in his possession the following day he assumed he had either lost it or not bought it in the first place.
Ahead of him Adam fished in his pocket, rummaging around until his hand lay rest on the item he was searching for. Deliberately he pulled it out of his pocket and began to deeply inspect the object, ensuring that that others could not see what he held in his hands by hiding it close to him.
He was enjoying this, John thought, every single second of it. He was relishing their pain and torment
as if it were a wonderful drug that he needed to get high. He didn't seem to care that his actions would cost the life of one, if not all of their members.
Indeed Adam checked all of their faces before opening his palm and revealing the object held within. John instinctively leant forward to get a better view and when he saw the object he almost wished he hadn't bothered.
It was a small circular piece item. One face of the circle was transparent plastic. In the moonlight John could just about see inside of it, and even managed to see a "W" engraved on the very right side and the edge of a needlepoint.
It was a compass.
"I hid this when you bought them," Adam explained, realising that they knew now what the item was.
"I knew that we entered from the west, and I knew that the comet had fallen on the edge of the desert. So, I thought, we'll travel south along the edge and see if we can find it. But when nothing turned up I was forced to travel deeper into the desert to find what I came here for. " He clenched his fist with the compass inside and they all winced as they heard their saving grace being destroyed. He threw the dismantled compass at them and it landed side up in the sand, already being coated by the golden grains.
"I knew that if you lot used those compasses then you'd figure out a way on how to get out of the desert. So I had to take them off you."
"Why did you ask us to go with you?" Nick squeaked that reserve of courage now reaching a dangerous low.
Adam blinked at the question. "Why did I invite you?"
"Yeah," John agreed. "Why didn't you just come on your own? Why bother going with other people and then have to go through all of this?"
They all fell into a pregnant silence as they waited for Adam to explain, however he was actually having trouble coming up with a reason.
"I had to come with you," he said uncertainly, "I didn't want to come on my own."
His eyes brightened then as he remembered why. "I was going to stay in this desert until I found the meteorite. If I collapsed, I was going to tell you how to get out so you could drag me back home. And also, you're good at carrying things. Four people can carry more than one."
"You couldn't…"
"I stole half of your food and water while you lot were sleeping. It wasn't difficult to do you know."
"You monster…"
John hushed Nick with a raised hand, and held up Fred with the other. He looked at Adam levelly, an idea forming in his head.
"You knew that we lied to you about Nick having a brother," he started, remembering when Adam had yelled at them about that. "Since you heard that part, you must have heard why we did it."
Adam snorted as he snapped his head to the side. "You did it to get me to open up," he mimicked scornfully, repeating the words spoken that very night. "Maybe I didn't want to open up."
"But you did!" Nick cried, reaching the end of his tether. "You cried and…and… told us about your family. Don't you remember?"
"More reason to hate you I would have thought. I can't have vicious lies spread about me when I'm the number one scientist."
He looked up at the sky, eyes blazing.
"Well I have the rest of your water supply," he finished, gesturing to the large amount of containers on his belt. He glanced at them, immortalising their terrified faces in his memory.
"You know I can handle the lies about having a brother, about how you respected me. But my dream, you tried to take it away! It was my idea to come on this trip! NOT yours. After all the years of hardship and neglect you expect me to share my new specimen with you?" He looked back at John levelly, his eyes demonically menacing. "I can live with that fact that you tried to steal my dream," he paused. The next two words he said had such horrendous connotations and they were bulging with hatred. He spoke the words so coldly that goose pimples formed on the back of John's neck. "You can't."
Fred struggled to his feet. John aided him, linking his arms with Fred's although he was unsure that Fred should attempt to move. Beads of sweat were raining from his forehead and his face was deathly pale. He looked at Adam with a helpless anger.
"You…"
And with that Adam took one last look at them, studying them for the very last time. He turned, offering a smile. He began to walk away, John noticed he had pulled out another compass from his pocket.
Nick ran a few steps after him, but collapsed to his knees in the sand after that. He hung his head with a mixture of misery and anger, his arms shaking with the effort of holding back his emotions.
Adam continued to walk into the distance, quickly turning into a silhouette on the horizon.
For no reason at all but to vent his anger, Nick, with a piercing yell, cried out Adam's name.
And then Adam was gone, the darkness shrouding his muscular figure as he disappeared behind the sand hill. The scurrying sand covered all evidence of his existence.
Fred was putting on a brave face despite the fact that the poison was coursing through his veins, slowly and surely killing him. He tried to hide the pain that he was in, but was failing.
As for John, he couldn't help but stare blindly into the sand, silently cursing himself for not noticing this earlier so he could have prevented this from ever happening. And he also couldn't help but notice that the vultures circled above them and in the distance where Adam had headed.
"We're doomed," he whispered and the vultures cawed in agreement.
&*****************************************************************************************&
Please visit part three to read the rest of this story.
Thank you for reading Part two.