Italic = Emphasis

[] = Artificial Intelligence/Android Speech

SIYENN CITY – TECH SQUARE – DEXLABS HEADQUARTERS – June 7th, 2014

[Hello. Please state your name and business.] A voice that despite being robotic and monotone, still managed to sound welcoming spoke as he rang the doorbell.

"Ummm, hi, I'm Noah… Noah Nixon. I got an email about coming here to assist on a project about nani- I mean, nanos." Noah said hesitantly. He almost said nanites by habit.

[Appointment with Noah Nixon approved. Visitor clearance granted. You may enter.] the same voice greeted him as the central door slid open and apart. Noah looked through the bolted door expecting to see the laboratory where impossible things may happen that the world has never seen before, but he as the interior revealed itself, he realized that this was simply the entrance hallway that led to the waiting area.

[Please, wait here for a member of Dexlabs staff to accompany you. Do not attempt to access other areas without corresponding clearance. The bathroom is the door to your left.] the same voice warned him as he looked around the hi-tech surroundings. Even the waiting couch looked like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Noah had expected strict protocol like that. Over the past couple years, he had gotten used to visiting highly advanced facilities where a normal guy like him would feel like he's way in over his head. He was no soldier, metahuman, genius, or any other person of importance, really (besides his extremely brief time as an EVO), however, he's explored almost every corner of Providence HQ with Rex and Bobo, even when he didn't have proper clearance, and even got Rex to take him to a Plumber base. So, considering everything, Noah knew what to expect when the door ahead of him slid open.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

What he didn't expect, however, was hearing screams of pain. Noah saw a guy in a Dexlabs lab coat running around, panicking, yelling his lungs out, all because his head was on fire. Before Noah could take in what was going on, the guy ran past him and into the door that the robotic voice pointed out to be the bathroom.

Noah was now totally and utterly confused. He didn't know whether to look into the door ahead of him to see what the heck was going on, or whether to check on the guy with flaming hair.

Before Noah could decide, the guy came back out of the bathroom, the flames extinguished, the hair charred and his head wet. Noah didn't know the means through which he managed to pull it off, and he didn't want to know.

"Dude, uh… you okay?" Noah asked him.

"Yeah, yeah." – the guy shrugged it off, though judging from how he was reacting to it, he clearly was in some kind of shock. Noah pulled his arm over his shoulder to support him and led him back into the room where he came from, hoping that there'd be other scientists there to help.

"Hey! Anyone there?" Noah asked as he looked around. He seemed to be in the main laboratory – tables and surfaces filled with various projects from all of the branches of science could be seen. Noah gazed at the eye-catching wonderland of microscopes, vials, petri dishes, canisters all containing different compounds, robots, machines and contraptions that ranged from pocket-sized to reaching the tall, tall ceiling. Most notably, a large percentage of them seemed to be weaponry or armor in various states of assembly.

"There you are, Randall!" Noah heard someone approach them. "What in the world possessed you to test out that Block Pistol for yourself? We have Jaime and Valerian for that!" another person in a Dexlabs lab coat asked Randall sternly.

Randall tried to respond, but it the only thing Noah could make out was something about "dee-en-dee"

"Don't worry about him, stuff like that happens all the time. I'll get him to a medbed." he assured Noah as he took Randall off his hands. Noah was surprised at how nonchalant he was about his colleague suffering from potentially second-degree burns. "Wait…" he halted. "Who the hell are you and how did you get in? Explain, now, or I'm calling the Dexbots!"

"Um… Noah Nixon. I was told to come here for a nano thing. I, uh…"

"Oh, you're the guy. Hm." he looked Noah up and down in a testing gaze. "You a metahuman?"

"Uh, no. I mean not anymore. Former EVO."

"Yeah, but- you still got some powers, right?"

"Nope. Sorry. No powers."

"I don't get what good a nano of you would be if you're not a metahuman. Well, I never got the principle on which Dexter chose the candidates. Why can't he at least bring someone hot, like Jenny Morebucks…" he said in disappointment.

Okay. Noah didn't expect something like that coming from a member of Dexlabs staff, which he always imagined to be the world's top scientific minds put together. This was something Rex would say.

"J-Jen Morebucks, the supervillain?"

"I never said she wasn't a supervillain, I just said that she's-"

"Yeah, I get the picture." – Noah cut him off, as he didn't want to pursue this topic any more.

"Sorry for acting like a jerk earlier, by the way, it's just that we got a series of intrusions a couple months ago and Dexter never really got off our back for it… as if it security was my department, anyway… Oh, and I'm Luis by the way." the scientist held his hand out to shake it, but in doing so, he let go of Randall's arm, causing him to nearly fall to the floor. Noah immediately bent down to help him pick Randall back up.

"Right, I should probably get him to the medbay. You, uh, you sit here and don't touch anything. I'll have someone come get you as soon as I can." Luis assured him as he dragged Randall off.

"Um… right." Noah complied.

Well, that was a strange way to start the tour. He didn't recall anything like that ever happening at Providence, that's for sure. Well, not unless Bobo was involved.

Noah awaited quietly, trying to shrink himself into his seat so as to not accidentally activate any invention in the vicinity. Soon, he heard voices passing by, and was relieved – he was much less likely to have any accident such as the one he witnessed if he had Dexlabs staff around him. Though, the voices came from the other side of the room, and Noah couldn't see who they belonged to.

"I don't get what are you so upset about, Susan. It's not like I ruined it or anything." a male voice said.

"Wh- you… you vandalized my prototype with… with… the color scheme a Ben 10 alien! If nothing else, that was highly unprofessional of you, and I can say for certain that if you keep up such behavior you won't become Dr. Anthony Automata anytime soon! And if you weren't aware, the biochemical properties of the unsanctioned coat of paint you gave it is going to disrupt the suit's wiring, causing it to desync with the NanoCom!"

"Listen, you're not seeing the bigger picture here!" Anthony responded.

"WHAT SORT OF BIGGER PICTURE COULD I POSSIBLY BE MISSING?" Susan furiously yelled back at him.

"Don't you think that by modeling our gear after highly marketable characters like Cannonbolt, or any of the other Ben 10 aliens, or, heck, literally any superhero ever, we're going to get SOOOO many people to buy our products? I mean, action figures and comics go for thousands of dollars on the online market, and we'd be taking this to a WHOLE new different level!

Susan didn't say anything, though Noah could tell that this silence was accompanied by a dagger-throwing stare.

"Go on. Call Amanda if you want. You ask- don't look at me like that, call her, and ask if this isn't the marketing idea of the century right there." Anthony challenged her.

There was further silence, which Noah assumed meant Susan was calling this Amanda person.

"Hello, Aman- I mean, Miss Saccharine, this is Susan Test. I'm calling because Anthony is insistent that I ask you about this idea of his… No, I have no idea why he didn't call you himself. It's about modelling future Dexlabs gear in the image of various superheroes, such as Ben Tennyson's aliens…"

"Heck, I would go out there fighting if you told me I'd be invoking a superhero!" Anthony told her to say, but Susan shushed him.

"We- I mean, he's got this prototype modeled after one of Ben's forms, Cannonbolt. That's the yellow one… no, not the flaming one, this is… here, I'm sending you the images of it now. It's Cannonbolt, C-A-double N- yep, that's it. No, I- I know this doesn't look perfect, it's just a mockup, but do you think… oh, what's that? It says there that the species of the form in question has been decimated and it might seem in poor taste to have people dress as one? You don't say…" Susan repeated Amanda's statement for Anthony to hear. Thank you for your time, Amanda." Susan said, satisfied, as she hung up.

"Okay, okay, Cannonbolt might be off the table, but all the other superheroes are still valid, aren't they?" Anthony kept pushing, not discouraged by the phone call at all.

"Fine, you might have a point there. However, that still doesn't give you the right to vandalize my projects." Susan warned him. "I'll have to build a completely new prototype because of your stunt! Do you realize how inefficient that will be?"

"Fine, fine. But I have one request."

"What is it?" – Susan asked, already fed up with this interaction.

"Can I keep the Cannonbolt one, then?" Anthony asked eagerly.

"Ugh!" Susan groaned, exasperated.

"Oh, there you are!" Noah heard. He had been so immersed in Susan and Anthony's argument that momentarily, he forgot where he was, and flinched when someone spoke to him directly, as if they found him doing something he was not supposed to be doing.

"You're the subject, aren't you? Wow, you look much cuter than you did on the screen. Dexter's busy right now, but don't worry, I'll definitely give you a tour of the facilities until he's available."

…Wait, subject?

…And wait, cuter?

It was another Dexlabs employee, this one being a girl, slightly older than him, wearing the same lab coat as he'd seen the other two wear.

"What's going on here?" Noah heard someone else ask. Susan and Anthony had converged on their location. "Who are you? Fassy, who did you bring?" Susan asked her.

"I didn't bring anyone! Not this time, at least. This is the guy Dexter invited for the Nano Project. I'm showing him around the lab until Dexter is ready to see him."

"I see."

"I'm Noah Nixon." Noah introduced himself. "Can I ask something? Did he not tell anyone that I was supposed to be here? Because everyone I've seen so far seems to be confused about it."

"Oh, it's just been chaotic lately, with the invasion and everything." Anthony explained.

Susan glared at him, as if ruining a perfectly good prototype didn't contribute to the chaos. Anthony missed her gesture, however.

"Oh, I didn't even introduce myself!" the girl that claimed she would give Noah the tour exclaimed. "Hi! I'm Fassy. I mean, Dr. Fassy."

"You mean, lab assistant Fassy." Susan corrected her.

"So, let us get on with the tour!" Fassy grabbed Noah's arm, ignoring Susan's comment. "This is the main lab that has all kinds of projects here. You just met two of the other employees – Mary Test…"

"Susan."

"Don't care." Fassy shrugged it off. "She's a bit of a downer. And this renowned scientific mind is Anthony Automata, who if you ask me likes to dress up as animals a bit too much…"

"For the last time, Fassy, that was Wildmutt! You know, the Ben 10 alien?"

"Uh-huh." Fassy raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

"I TOLD YOU, I'M NOT A FURRY!" Anthony yelled. "And the alien-themed suits are now an official Dexlabs project! Susan can back me up on that!"

"Do NOT drag me into this." Susan sternly objected.

Though, Fassy had already lost interest in this conversation and was dragging Noah somewhere else.

"Keep an eye out and don't let 'em do anything dangerous!" Anthony yelled as they walked away.

"I, um, wasn't really planning to." Noah commented.

"I was actually talking about Fassy." Anthony said. Susan looked at him disapprovingly, unimpressed with his joke. "What? I was." Anthony defended himself.

"This is the main server room. All of the Dexlabs research and information and storage is stored in there. There was this one time Deedee managed to get in, and Dexter ripped nearly all of his head out until Computress was able to recover the lost data. I really cherish those three days before Dexter managed to develop a hair regrowth formula. And here is the staff locker room. I wouldn't go near Jaime's locker, though. It smells so bad that Randall hasn't been able to develop an aerosol to counteract it, and Yanni the yanitor discovered-"

"You mean, janitor?"

"I know what I said. So, he found something actually growing under the locker, something alive, and Anthony's been trying to find out what the heck it is. He's certain it's a new type of organism neither bacterial, nor viral, and not even Fusion. And in the showers, we can always hear Douglas singing "Party Tonight" by Sean Szeles with Susan Test incorporated into the lyrics, but nobody's been able to gather the courage and tell him. And over there I overheard one of the Dexbots trying to articulate the full and all-encompassing definition of love that he was going to explain to Computress before his personality chip overclocked-"

"There you are, Fassy." Someone said and both Noah and Fassy stopped. It was another Dexlabs scientist, this one an adult woman. "Are you out of your mind? This is the Nano Project subject and you're showing him around the lab without proper clearance?"

"Dr. Xyrespace!" Fassy exclaimed in shock.

"You'll get back to your projects, Fassy. I'll deal with Mr. Nixon."

Despite her talking about Noah as if he was some child to be minded, Noah actually felt relieved. Finally, someone sensible. This Dr. Xyrespace was probably the Dexlabs version of Dr. Holiday as the voice of reason, Noah assumed, and he gladly followed her instead.

"Dr. McPherson will see you now." Dr. Xyrespace told him as she led him to yet another door. Noah was even more relieved to hear this, as he had a lot of questions about what exactly nanos were, why was he a candidate one, what would he have to do, and who the heck decided to give them a name so similar to another invention that altered people's lives on a global scale. Also, judging by his crew and what he saw and heard of them, he really wanted to know what Dexter would turn out to be like.

"Welcome." Said the boy-genius, accompanied by a hovering feminine robotic-looking hologram, and even though Noah would never admit this out loud, he strangely found her… kinda hot.

Dexter himself, however, was a bit different from what he expected. Sure, he'd seen photos of him, but never in person, and the way others talked about him and how Dr. Xyrespace, a grown woman, referred to him as "Dr. McPherson", he had expected someone… older. In reality, Dexter looked even younger than him.

[Thank you for participating in the Nano Project, Mr. Nixon.] the blue AI lady said, whose voice Noah immediately recognized as the one that let him into the central entrance as he rang the doorbell.

"Yes, your contribution in the effort against Fuse's forces might turn out to be extremely valuable." Dexter approached him "Did you bring the object?" he held his hand out.

"Um, yes, I have it right here. I hope this is what you were looking for." Noah got a worn ping pong paddle out of his jacket pocket. It was his personal one, one that he'd been playing with for years, and one that certainly fit the description of "valued personal object" that the Dexlabs email inviting him had requested.

"Excellent. Thank you again, Mr. Nixon. Have a good day." Dexter told him, and the door behind him opened up once again.

"Um, that's it?" Noah hesitantly asked, surprised that this was all that was needed of him.

"Yes." Dexter answered laconically.

"I, uh, had a couple questions about this whole nano thing, and why was I chosen for it specifically, and…" Noah brought up, but was interrupted.

[Please accept Dr. McPherson's apologies, as he is extremely busy with nano development and other projects related to fighting the ongoing invasion and so, unfortunately, he does not have the time to explain the details of the project. Rest assured that you have made a valuable contribution to Dexlabs research. We thank you from Dexlabs, where it is always a fine day for science.]

Noah didn't know what to say. The only thing left to do for him was to turn back and leave. At least this crazy visit was over. One thing was certain, though. This was nothing like he had ever seen at Providence.

DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL - One-shot: Where the Science Happens

Time for my second ever story for Ray's huge universe, and this time, I chose a more comedic approach. Kyra did a good personal story with Coop and Jamie, then I had a Ben story that was really grim, so I felt it was appropriate to have E1 get a comedic one next. Though, it was easier said than done, because getting an accurate feel for E1's style of comedy was harder than I expected. Though, I earned Ray's seal of approval, and am proud to contribute this story to his universe. He agreed that Dexter's corner of this universe really needed a boost to the comedic side to better match the original show, and thus, this one-shot came to be.

I've been interested in doing a Dexlabs workplace comedy type story of my own, and this was sort of me tiptoeing into this kind of comedy while preparing myself for when I do it on my own time. And E1's version of the Dexlabs cast is different enough from mine so as not to have overlap between creative ideas. Overall, it was a creatively fulfilling experience for me, and I'm looking forward to working within the E1 el- I mean, canon, again.

-end transmission