The Dynamic Taser

Chapter 3: Accident

Seth had lost more time than he thought. He was never able to catch Ryan and his gang, but at least he knew where they were going. He got to Rexton Laboratories around 2:00 AM. Rexton Labs was closer to Manhattan proper, but still within the Queens borough. As he peddled up to the lab building, he could see Ryan's and his goons' bikes off to the side of the building, leaning against an electric panel.

Shoot! They beat me here faster than I thought.

Seth got off his bike and laid it off to the side. He took in the large laboratory building as he walked up to it. Rexton Labs was a subsidiary of Rexton International, a large pharmaceutical company that had hands in most other scientific research fields, particularly those in physics and chemistry. The owner of the entire conglomerate was Charles Rexton, and he was one of the wealthiest people in the world, right up there with those two computer geeks and that jerk with the bad toupee. From what Seth had seen of him on news reports and such, he seemed like a real jerk-like business type, only interested in the bottom line and everything else. At times, he seemed too serious though. There was never any kind of scandal about him at any point in the news. Seth supposed that was a good thing in a way, but the guy seemed almost emotionless. When Seth reached the door, he shook his head to clear his thoughts and return to the task at hand.

The front door was locked again, and Seth wondered for a moment as to how Ryan had gotten inside without breaking anything to triggering an alarm. There was an access panel to the right of the door that controlled the lock, although there was a key slot in the handle as a backup. Seth smirked; thankfully, he knew the code. His father had offhandedly mentioned it to him one day a few summers back when he had asked him about what his parents were going to do for their anniversary. His dad said at one point that he had to assure there was a way to remind himself of when that was on a regular basis so he wouldn't forget and suffer Seth's mom's wrath. So he made his access code the date of their wedding so he would have to remember it. Smiling to himself at his father's own goofiness as well as his ingenuity at such an idea, Seth entered the eight-digit code into the access panel: 0-8-1-6-1-9-9-1. The door beeped and Seth heard the audible *click* that meant the door successfully unlocked. Seth opened it cautiously and slid inside, doing his best not to make a sound, closing the door quietly behind him.

Seth's eyes had to adjust to the darkness for a minute. He mentally pseudo-cursed himself for forgetting to bring a flashlight in his haste to catch Ryan. He was beginning to think that he hadn't thought this through that well. The lobby he was in was empty, so that squad of thugs must've gone on already. He just hoped that he wasn't too late yet.

Using his hands to feel around, Seth crept slowly across the lab floor. He went from room to room silently, intently listening for some sign of life other than himself. The first floor was clear, so he moved on to the rest of the building. As he passed a room on the fourth floor, he thought he heard movement. Bracing himself for what lay beyond that door, he quickly flew it open and dashed inside, ready to confront his foe. He was instead greeted by the squeaking of a dozen mice in cages.

Well, that was anti-climatic.

Seth was about to turn and leave when he noticed that some of these lab mice were way larger than they were supposed to be. His scientific curiosity temporarily overpowering his senses of purpose and reason, Seth moved to take a closer look. The altered mice were nearly twice the size of the others. It wasn't just a size difference either. They looked like they had more developed musculature as well. There was a folder on the table in front of the mice cages, so Seth opened it and looked at some of the notes inside. According to the data, the mice were being treated with a new performance enhancement drug that was commissioned by the United States military called muscorex, and the name of the research was titled "Project: Atlas." Seth saw that by and large, the muscle enhancement phase of the serum was successful, as well as significantly amplified muscle tissue regeneration. There was even an unexpected increase in brain function and intelligence.

Makes sense. The brain is a muscle too, after all.

Seth tapped on the glass of one of the enhanced mice cages, only for the mouse to snarl and try and ram the glass. Seth jumped back a little and watched curiously as the mouse continued to scratch at the glass with its claws. Seth looked back at the report. Apparently, a side effect of the drug was that it also greatly increased adrenaline flow to dangerously high levels, leading to equally increased levels of aggression and violence. The initial test subjects became so strong and so vicious that the researcher had to construct new cages made out of tempered glass, like the kind used in prisons and cars. So far though, all attempts at eliminating these side effects were unsuccessful. Seth looked back over at the cage and saw the mouse still scratching at the glass. After another second or two, the mouse apparently got tired of its futile vendetta against him and laid down on the straw covering the floor of its cage.

Seth was about to turn the page to find out more about this project when he heard a voice.

"Dude, I'm telling you, I heard something over here."

Crap! That's one of Ryan's goons!

Suddenly remembering why the heck he was here in the first place, Seth put the folder back where he found it on the table and looked for a place to hide. As he saw a faint shadow appear in the door window, he dashed up to the door beneath the window and pressed his ear to it to hear better.

After a brief second, Seth heard another voice.

"And I'm telling you, there's no one else here right now. It's the weekend man, all the brainiacs are gone now, and even security is lax because they haven't had any trouble in years. I should know, my worthless dad's a janitor here."

That's Ryan's voice!

"Now come on, we get to that big room in the center where they're keeping that stupid Frankenstein lightning machine and do what we came here to do before the next security shift gets here in an hour."

Seth nearly scoffed out loud at Ryan's comment. "Frankenstein lightning machine?" It's a static electricity collection and distribution matrix, you brainless idiot! He glanced up and saw the shadow leave the window and heard footsteps become fainter as they walked down the hallway. Seth breathed a sigh of relief before getting back on task.

Seth looked around the room for something that could help him. Unfortunately, he didn't know where Project: Zeus was anymore than they did. For all his years of secretly studying his father's research, Seth had never actually been to the lab itself here before, so he had no idea where he actually was at the moment or where anything else was for that matter. Now he was really starting to think that he hadn't' thought this through well enough.

Oh well, I'm in deep enough as it is. And a real man would see this through anyway.

He finally found a floor plan on a nearby wall detailing the fire exits. It looked like the lab that housed the large distribution machine for Project: Zeus was near the heart of the building. It took up a good-sized portion of the yardage of the facility and was nearly five stories tall. The viewing rooms around it started on the seventh floor and continued until the top floor, with a skylight above for atmospheric observation. Unfortunately, with Ryan and his goons having a steady head-start, Seth needed to get moving if he was to stop them. When he was sure they had left, he exited the Project: Atlas room and got his bearings. He went over to the elevators, and from the lighted numbers on top, he could tell that Ryan and his friends had taken it and were already on the sixth floor. Realizing that he needed to get to Project: Zeus before they did, and hoping that they were dumb enough not to know where it was, he dashed up the stairs next to the elevator.

After a tiring three flights of stairs, Seth emerged on the seventh floor. A quick glance at an empty and open elevator revealed to him that he had missed Ryan and company, but just barely. He turned down the hall and saw that the door to Project: Zeus was already ajar. He walked up to it, and saw Ryan and his friends gathered around a terminal in front of the large device, which Seth couldn't help but notice and admire it. It was a massive machine, covering the rest of the building's height and up to the skylight. Cylindrical and nearly forty feet in diameter, it was easily the largest device Seth had ever seen. It was even bigger than Seth had gleaned from his dad's blueprints. Dozens of wires, cables, and coils trailed from all sides and angles of the body, surrounded by metal plating. Before he could be fully taken in by the machine, Seth reminded himself of his mission, and threw the door fully open dramatically. It promptly hit the wall, bounced back, and slammed shut.

Man, I suck at this.

Embarrassed, he opened to door again as stone-faced as he could muster. As he pointed an accusatory finger at Ryan, he could see that he already got everyone else's attention, as they were all staring at him. "Alright, you guys, the jig is up!"

The guy to Ryan's left turned to him. "Did that dork seriously just say that?"

"He's a goober that way," Ryan replied. He turned to Seth. "And just who's gonna stop us, tough guy? You?"

Seth looked around him. Ryan and each of his goons were dressed in their usual grunge-like attire, but with a slightly blacker tone to them, probably to help from being seen, with all of their hoodies over their heads. Ryan himself was brandishing a crowbar, holding it over his shoulder, trying to look cocky and intimidating. Max, the guy to his left, held a sledgehammer, letting it hang from his side down to the floor. The two other thugs, Kyle and Nick, each held a wooden baseball bat, slapping them against their open palms menacingly.

Yep, I did NOT think this one through. Okay then, when in doubt, stall like your life depends on it, because now, it probably does.

"How did you guys get in here anyway? This place is restriced," Seth asked.

Ryan reached into his hoodie's waist pocked and produced a large ring of keys, at least a good fifty of them or so. "My dad's a janitor here, remember? He's got a key for every room in this dump," Ryan said as he jingled them.

"And he just gave them to you?"

Ryan smiled threateningly. "Well, he didn't give them to me, as much as just did nothing as his fat sorry ass was passed out from one too many cold ones . . ." Ryan's smile then transformed into a hateful scowl. "As usual."

Max chimed in. "What about you? How did you get in?"

"I, uh, know all the codes . . ."

"Like that matters," Ryan said, stepping forward and taking the crowbar from his shoulder. "Cuz you ain't leaving."

Seth scrambled to stall some more. "What are doing here, Ryan? What could you possibly want here?"

"Payback."

"For what? Aside from earlier today, what I have ever done to you? I mean, I didn't even connect for crying out loud!"

"THAT'S NOT IT!" Ryan shouted. Even his boys seemed startled by his outburst. "I'm tired of being looked down on. By you and your stupid father. You think that you're so much better than me and my dad, just because you're more successful and smarter. Just because you have the brains and the cash doesn't make you better than me!"

Seth looked at Ryan quizzically. "Dude, what? I don't think I'm better than you for any of that stuff. I do think you're a jerk, but that's more because you've been taking my lunch money since third grade. And as for being smarter, maybe if you spent half as much time harassing me as you did actually reading a book, then maybe you could do your own homework for a change." Holy crap, I do not believe I just said all that.

"Guys like me can't climb outta the gutter. My dad's proof of that."

"Look, that doesn't mean anything, you know . . ."

"Save it!" Ryan cut him off. "I'm done talking to you. It's high time I brought you and your dad off your pedestals. Maybe after I smash your dad's precious machine, you might learn a little something about what it's like to be down in the gutter with me." He stepped forward again, and so did his friends. "But maybe I can let off a little more steam by hurting you. Boys, make it so he can't scream."

"Hold on! You don't wanna do that!" Seth held out his hand.

"Why not?" asked Kyle.

"Because . . . I already called that cops . . . and they'll be here any minute now."

Ryan didn't look impressed. "He's bluffing. He's so scatterbrained, he probably forgot to call anybody, let alone the cops."

Man, I DO suck at this.

Ryan and his goons advanced on Seth some more. Seth floundered, looking around desperately for something to use. He spotted a beaker with clear liquid in it on a nearby table and grabbed it.

"Stay back! Or I'll throw this glass at you! It's full of hydrochloric acid!"

Again, Ryan didn't so much as flinch. "Really? Then why does the label on it say 'Hydrogen Peroxide?'"

Seth looked at the beaker. Ryan was right. Man, I REALLY suck at this.

"Enough. Get 'em!"

Kyle lunged forward and swung at Seth. Seth ducked and Kyle's bat smashed a half-dozen beakers on the table next to him. Seth rolled over to his right and quickly got up. This was bad and getting worse! Realizing this was not the time for caution any longer, Seth started grabbing whatever was in reach and throwing it at his attackers. Most of them were empty beakers, with some occasional lab equipment. Kyle and the goons were able to doge or smack away everything that Seth was throwing at them. They began to close in on him. No, this was not looking good for Seth at all.

Ryan seemed quite satisfied with himself and his minions. "Well, don't have too much fun, guys. Save a piece of him for me. But first, I got something else to attend to." He turned back to the control panel and looked it over. "Looks like the dork could use some fresh air. Why don't I give it to him?" He pushed a button on the panel and the skylight on the ceiling opened, revealing the night sky.

During their time in the lab, a generous amount of dark clouds had littered the sky. It didn't look too bad, but it also looked like it could get worse at any minute. The full moon was still visible though, and the moonlight illuminated the chrome of the Zeus device. Its visage was an odd one, ominous even, with the shiny metal reflecting the pale glow of the orb in the sky. It looked like the machine had a large eyeball, and it was staring at Seth. Or rather, Seth felt like it was staring through him, in a creepy sort of accusatory way. It was almost as if it was daring him to do something. Honestly, it was one of the most unsettling things he had seen in a long time.

"Nice, isn't it?" Ryan chuckled. "You and your dad are really gonna miss it." He menacingly tapped his crowbar into his palm. He wound it up and loomed over the panel.

"NO!"

Ryan turned his head to see a desperate Seth reaching out to him, imploring him to stop. "Don't wanna see your cash-cow go bye-bye?"

"You idiot! This device is still in its experimental stages! There's no telling what will happen if you wreck it!"

Ryan's eyebrow twitched. "'Idiot?' Quit calling me stupid!" With all his fury and rage, he smashed the Zeus device control panel. Instantly, the panel began to crackle with electricity. "There! How's it feel now to see something you have destroyed?"

At that point, the electricity crackled and spread from the panel, through the cables and into the main device. It spread further, throughout the device, and moved up to the top of the machine. The sky outside turned even darker and the black clouds became much bigger over the laboratory building. Lightning flashed amongst the clouds and thunder shook the building, rattling the glass of the windows and the lab equipment.

With Kyle and the goon squad stupefied by the awing display, Seth broke free of them. Immediately, he was able to get a handle on what was happening now. "You moron! You've overloaded the system!"

The lightning outside grew more numerous and threatening. Ryan was uncharacteristically scared now. "What's going on? What's happening?"

"I just said that you overloaded the system! The chaotic fluctuating charge is attracting the lightning from outside! If one of those bolts hits the machine, it'll hit critical mass and this whole place will blow like the Fourth of July!"'

"But . . . I didn't—Arrgh!" Ryan was cut off when a small jolt of electricity shot out of the smashed panel and struck him in the chest, sending across the room and into a pile over by the door, next to his friends. His body crackled with some leftover juice.

Just then, a massive bolt of lightning struck the Zeus device, just as Seth feared. The entire room lit up with blasts of electricity shooting out in all directions from the Zeus device. Bolts struck lab tables, shattering them into piles of splinters. Every last piece of glass in the room crashed into shards, littering the floor with dangerous broken glass. Some of the lightning ignited the wooden tables, setting the lab aflame and triggering the fire alarms. Unfortunately, there were no sprinklers, due to some of the chemicals that were volatile when exposed to water. The fire spread quickly, and if they didn't leave soon, they would all be boxed in by the flame, doomed to suffer a burning demise. Seth did his very best to size up the situation.

This has got to be the literal definition of everything going straight to hell.

Seth was frozen with real fear. It appeared as though chasing Ryan and his goons here and standing up to them had completely spent whatever courage he had left. Taking in the chaos around him, he still couldn't will his legs to move; it was as if they were made of concrete jelly, wobbly and weak, yet still unmovable and rooted to the floor.

It looks like this is really it. I really blew it big time. I failed. I failed everyone. Dad's project is gone, and soon, I will be too. So much for me being of any good to anyone. Sorry Dad . . . Mom . . . Brit . . . Alicia . . .

As Seth was about to resign himself to his abysmal fate, the images of his family and loved ones entered into his mind. And with their memories, came renewed strength.

. . . No! I can't let them down! I WON'T let them down! I will not allow them to be sad because of me! This all depends on me now! And I CAN do this! I WILL do this!

Seth slapped himself with both hands to bring him back to reality. He rounded on Kyle and the guys. "You! Get Ryan and get out of here! I'll reroute the power and feed it into the main grid to diffuse it and prevent a critical mass!"

Kyle dropped his weapon. "You don't have to tell me twice!"

Ryan stirred on the ground, the electricity still in his system, crackling about him. He struggled to lift himself up, but couldn't manage it. He reached out for Kyle. "P-please . . . H-help me!"

Kyle didn't take it. "Nothing doing, bro. Every man for himself." He ran out the door and the other two guys followed him.

Shocked and left there alone, Ryan, realizing that he had no one, mustered all the strength left in his body to climb to his feet. As he moved toward the door, he looked over his shoulder to see Seth, boldly moving toward the destroyed panel.

"We're not done yet."

With that, he limped out the door and into the hallway, which was rapidly becoming just as dangerous as the room he just escaped.

—

Seth moved with determination of spirit, if not strength of body, to get to the destroyed panel. Bolts of electricity lashed out at him from all sides. He may have gotten a few lightning burns, but Seth pressed on to the panel. When he reached it, quickly looking it over, he saw that Ryan did a good job of wrecking it; there wasn't much left of it. Most of the buttons and switches were obliterated, and Seth didn't have much left to work with. Summoning all of the knowledge he had about this device and how it worked, Seth worked to salvage this machine and his father's research, and hopefully, save his own hide as well.

He flipped the reset relay. It did nothing. The emergency shut off switch was busted beyond functionality. Seth knew his only hope was to see if he could reroute the power and distribute it throughout a larger grid. He pushed a few keys, trying to crack the override command code that would grant him access to the grid. He did crack it, and began furiously typing away at the controls, trying to get the excess power anywhere away from the lab. He was able to enter a sequence that dispersed the power into the larger grid that was connected to the city's power. Some of the electricity around him subsided, and it looked as though he succeeded. However, after about a few seconds, a red light flashed on the screen in front of him. The capacity of both the device and the grid transfer system had been reached.

Great! Now what do I do?

He grabbed the panel with both hands, shaking in desperation. Just then, another bolt of lightning struck the Zeus device. The power overflowed beyond capacity and traveled through all outlets of the device including the one connected to the control terminal. The power of the device flowed through it, through the connector cables, and into Seth's body. He screamed loud enough to wake the dead as every fiber of his being was filled with electric current. His body sizzled and flared with electric power, lighting up the entire building and the surrounding area. After a few seconds, the shock subsided and Seth stood there, smoking from his ordeal. He collapsed onto the floor in a charred heap. He lay there, on the outskirts of consciousness, about to pass out. If there were only some way he could will himself out of here to save his sorry butt. But it was hopeless; there was no way out and now he was down for the count. As the lab continued to collapse around him from the fire, his last thoughts of consciousness were of his family.

Sorry, guys. I still blew it. I tried, though. I tried . . .

—

Ryan limped through the lab building, trying to find an exit amidst the flames and smoke. His vision was starting to blur, an ailment not at all helped by the smoke. As he got to the end of the hall, he saw that both elevators were already gone. His so-called "friends" must've taken them. Friends! Ha! Some friends! They ditched him at the first sign of trouble!

I'm gonna make them regret that, Ryan thought to himself.

He went over to the stairwell, as that was his only remaining option. He rammed the door open with his shoulder, and staggered into the stairwell. He descended the stairs for four flights when he saw that fire had engulfed the floors still beneath him.

Damn! All that lightning and stuff must've spread all over! This is all that waste of space's fault!

Ryan dashed back into the hallway on the third floor. A quick glance and a blast of searing heat told him that this floor was ablaze as well. He looked around, desperate for an out. The only thing he saw that could offer any hope of salvation was a ventilation grate on the wall. Without hesitating, he kicked the grate open and dived inside the vent. Since the vent was made of metal, Ryan instantly felt like he had just jumped into an oven. He struggled as he crawled through the vent, hoping against hope to find a path that led outside. He wasn't paying careful attention where he was going, however, and as he passed over another grate latch beneath him, his weight caused it to give way and he plummeted to the levels below. The vent curved and angle a few times before he fell through another gate and landed on damp concrete.

Gathering his bearings, Ryan looked around him to see where he was. A vile and horrid smell filled his nostrils, and he gagged in surprise. It was like a dead skunk that had just vomited up a meal of rotten eggs and sauerkraut. Ryan saw in front of him several pipes, coming in up from the lab, that was pouring a mucky green substance into a stream of water running through the ground. Ryan walked up to the sludge and took a closer look at it. It looked like Nickelodeon slime mixed with toad snot.

What the? Toxic runoff? And secret toxic runoff too! This stream probably flows out into the bay. So much for this joint going green. At least not that kinda green.

Ryan looked around the room again. There were no doors or windows. Aside from the vent through which he fell, which has high up on the ceiling now, this secret dumping room was completely sealed off. Ryan looked uncomfortably at the sludge flowing into the stream. It looked like that was his only way out. Taking one last breath, he jumped into the polluted water.

As soon as he hit the water, Ryan felt his body tingle. It was kind of like before when he was shocked, but this time it was different, it wasn't as painful. Still, as he swam through the stream and into the pipes leading outside, he felt really strange, like his body was changing somehow. The further he swam, the more it felt like he was moving through the water more easily, like he was becoming a part of it.

After what felt like hours, Ryan emerged from the pipes and washed up on dry land. He coughed, noting that his voice sounded weird, like it was deeper and lower. He must've been full of water. He looked back and saw that Rexton Labs was still on fire, and there was no sign of either his lackeys or Seth.

Serves them all right for screwing with me.

Off in the distance, Ryan heard police and fire department sirens approaching.

Well, they took their time. At least I high-tailed it outta dodge before I could get caught for this.

Pleased with himself, Ryan allowed himself a spiteful bout of laughter. However, when he looked at himself to check for injuries and saw himself, his laughter turned into a blood-curdling scream.

—

Seth found himself awake, and surprisingly, not in a whole of pain. He sat up and looked around. He was far away from the lab, out in park on a hill overlooking the lab. He looked out at the lab and saw that the police had arrived, as well as the fire department, who were already starting to put out the fire. He sprung up, with an astonishing amount of vitality, and figuring he better get out of there before the authorities found him, he dashed off toward his home with a speed that he never knew he had. For someone who had just been hit by lightning, he felt like he could sprint the whole way home. As he ran off, he hoped that there would at least be something for his dad to salvage his project. More to the point though, he tried not to think about how he was in a universe of trouble. He tried to think about if the cops would be able to connect him to what when down tonight. He tried not to think about if Ryan or the other guys got out in time. He tried not to think about how even he got out. But mostly, he tried not to think about that scream that was rattling through the night air and chilling him to the bone.