Of course they hadn't known.
They had stayed up late, driven by hopes and caffeine, too close and too excited to stop for the night.
The wires were fitting together so perfectly, and the chemical compounds were acting just as they were meant to!
They were on a roll, they couldn't stop!
It was an innocuous little machine - basically a brick with one big button. Their fingers buzzed with excited energy, eyes alight with curiosity.
Would it work?
They had to find out!
One of them pressed the button that they had created, their minds following the pulse of electricity down into its theoretical center, knowing what was happening when they had built it with their own hands.
The Pulse was sent out, and they watched with glee as the ectoplasmic samples displayed so neatly upon their table abruptly stopped glowing and shifting. The compounds that made up that otherworldly molecule fell apart, and the strange life that inhabited it fled alongside those bonds.
They celebrated, of course. Cheered and hugged, finally having found the perfect way to keep the world safe.
Sleep was easy to find, minds content with the knowledge that their latest invention was a grand success.
Waking up late was predictable after that long work session, and they went right to work, cut off from the real world by a staircase into the basement.
One missed phone call wasn't a big deal, right?
It wasn't until one of them noticed an odd smell the morning after that, that they were shaken out of their routine.
Maddie checked the voicemail. Danny hadn't gone to school yesterday. He wasn't answering his cell.
Jack followed the smell up to his son's bedroom.
Well...
When half your molecules start to fall apart...