As King Andrias attempts to adjust to his new life in Wartwood and the surrounding people grow to simply tolerate him living there so long as he's on his best behavior, a grand conspiracy is about to unfold on the people of Earth.
Los Angeles, the home of the Calamity Trio has been quietly restoring the city to its former glory after the invasion. Things have been largely quiet, mysteriously silent surrounding the issue of the invasion when in reality, nobody wants to address the elephant in the room. Well... almost nobody.
A young man by the name of Henry Thurman steps off the school bus one day, the frayed end of his one backpack string strung over his shoulder and the drapes of his greasy hair drooping down in his eyes. Henry peers down into his cell phone, scrolling over the same messages for probably the thousandth time now.
Henry is in a bit of a rut. Every day he goes to school, goes to the same classes, eats the same generic school pizzas that are thrown on reheat for thirty seconds, and proceeds to eat lunch at the same table with the same misanthropic unpopular kids that he's hung out with for years.
The one young man, a dirty blonde boy with broken glasses, a bit of a hipster, slaps his lunch box onto the table and proceeds to take out his tuna on rye. He eats it slovenly as the school mooch, a skinny boy by the name of Mickey, strolls past, stealing one of his pieces of popcorn chicken.
Bobby: "Dude, get your own chicken!"
The cocky boy turns around, talking with his mouth full.
Mickey: "But yours tastes better."
Bobby flips him off. Another young man, an Italian-American boy with a fixation on gangsters and dated comic books, continues to berate him with his story, the self-insert comic where he's the superhero, and his girlfriend is the teen idol pop star he's had a crush on since before he even knew he liked girls. He speaks in an incredibly nasally voice with a bit of a speech impediment. It's quite apparent he was dropped on his head as a baby.
Steven: "Sho then Kricket Kid, who got hish powersh from a medallion from a vending machine at a musheum while alsho being bitten by a radioactive cricket, he shuddenly blacksh out and guessh what he dreamsh of. Go ahead, guessh."
Bobby turns to him and responds in a deadpan manner with half of his lip framed in a smirk as he tries not to laugh at the absurdity of Steven's writing.
Bobby: "Lemme guess, that random popstar e-girl he keeps simping over, the one that's way outta his league with the red hair and the comically large boobs?"
Rather than get mad, as one would assume a normal person would, Steven simply smiles, his massive nose cradled by a nearly v-shaped smile of pure perversion.
Steven: "Her name ish Katie, wishe guy, but yeah. He dreamsh of showering with the lovely Katie McCloud, pop shuper shtar extraordinaire ash her number one hit shingle, 'Shurgeon For A Broken Heart', playsh in the background."
Henry inserts his opinion as he slides into the table, never once taking his eyes off his phone to so much as greet his two only "friends".
Henry: "As well as the girl on seemingly every magazine at the local thrift stores. Her face is practically inescapable."
Bobby takes a bite of his sandwich, chomping off about half the bread and chewing on a portion so large it's a miracle he doesn't choke on it. His words are almost incoherent as he talks.
Bobby: "We all know Steven is only interested in very specific magazines she's been appearing in."
Steven stares at the ceiling with his head in the clouds.
Steven: "I'd be a happy man if I could get my handsh on one of thoshe. Maybe I'll get my coushin to grab me one. He'sh over eighteen and he'sh always been really cool about my likesh."
Henry actively cringes so hard he grows a double chin just so he can cringe harder.
Henry: "That is so gross, dude, using your cousin to get that stuff for you."
Steven rolls his squinty eyes from behind his magnifying-glass thick glasses.
Steven: "Oh, don't act like you don't!"
Henry sneers in disgust and slightly backs away in his chair.
Henry: "I sure as hell wouldn't get my cousin to do it!"
As Henry continues to pay attention to the only person that means anything to him, his phone, Bobby slaps his fat, sweaty hand onto Henry's screen, leaving a big handprint on his screen.
Bobby: "Dude, you gotta try out Cherry Blossom High. It goofs all over all those stupid weeby high school animes the girls like so much!"
Bobby seems to be interested almost exclusively in mean-spirited and jaded satire. He is a perpetual troll of a human being and probably the single most cynical person on earth. Henry shrugs, the most cartoonishly rubbery smirk forming on the lips of his weird, tiny face as he poses a slight interest.
Henry: "Eh, maybe. If it's funny I'll probably binge-watch the whole thing in one night. If it isn't, I'll pretend it never existed."
Bobby points at Henry, his cheesy grin running from eye to eye across his inhumanly square head and the patchy double chin of his neck-beard protruding forward like the swollen neck of a frog.
Bobby: "Chet Firestorm is the best character in the whole show. He wears flannel, is captain of the football team, and even turns into the superhero 'Captain Football Team'. He's like every single school bully character ever rolled into one. It's hilarious. Dude is such a tool."
Bobby seems to have an affinity for any character he can self-insert into (someone that wears flannel and is a complete edge lord). Steven once again uses the mere mention of a superhero to continue to talk about Kricket Kid.
Steven: "Maybe Kricket Kid could fight againsht Captain Football Team in Kricket Kid Isshue 4, The Attack of the Platinum Penetrator!"
The greasy young man winces as he continues to show off this work. These are his two friends, Bobby and Steven. Now, I haven't gone very much into Henry yet, but Henry is a relatively standoffish kinda kid, a kid that wants nothing more than to be invisible, to go to school, do his work, go home, and be left alone entirely.
The fact that he doesn't get left alone drives him crazy. Henry tends to stay quiet a lot of the time, bites his lip, and often loses his cool, flying off the handle at what seems like the absolute worst time, and this has led to him being labeled "most likely to shoot up the school".
The day is a blur, a series of voices bouncing off his eardrums like muffled, indiscernible noises, the sounds of teachers almost like the actual teachers in the Peanuts cartoons, where it's just muffled "womp womp womps" and nothing more. Henry isn't hard of hearing. He doesn't hate people, nor does he want to shoot up a school or anything like that. He just wants to be left alone, and nothing else.
Up to the third floor, he drags his ridiculous school bag, his lower back threatening him with a herniated disc if he doesn't take his time up the stairs. Henry drops the bag at his feet as he fumbles with the locker. He gets the lock off and opens the door, only for some random wise ass to slam the locker shut in front of him and walk away chuckling. He quietly flips the snickering teen off and continues to go into his locker once again. Last exchange of the day. Last meaningless trip to the locker to grab the books needed for the several hours of homework at home and nothing else. Time to finally hit the road.
After saying goodbye to Bobby and Steven, with Bobby once again calling Steven a weird stalker for having his comic book self-insert make out with his pop star insert girlfriend, he swears that Steven is gonna wind up on some sex offender registry one day. This is how these boys talk to each other, with constant back-and-forth jabs, and self-deprecating humor to hide the fact that none of them are popular, and none of them ever will be.
Back on the bus, back off the bus, only a few measly blocks between the school and home, but somehow the right amount of distance to make Henry question whether he's actually lazy or not for taking the bus even though it would take roughly twenty straight minutes to walk home.
Henry doesn't care. He just wants to get home as soon as possible, and in front of the one person that matters most to him, his computer monitor, the only place he feels like he's welcome (well, that and in front of a large flat screen TV playing Robot Space Ninja Alien Madness).
Homework can wait. It's time for more pressing issues, such as the latest ooze the internet has in store for him. Henry searches through the tabloids, scrolling past article after article as the white light reflects off his glasses, revealing his stoic expression, his milky, watery blue eyes, and his painfully prepubescent mustache growing crookedly on his face like the preset mustache of some future serial killer.
Henry's life is a real drag. Every day he does these same things and then gets on the internet, looking, scouring for anything, any clue. Henry believes that he's out there somewhere. He couldn't be dead. No. He refuses to believe it, refuses to accept that he died exactly ten years ago, to this day.
It all happened on that fateful day, the day the government continues to pretend never happened, the day that the government flat out told the people of Los Angeles "We were under attack by terrorists". Yeah, right, because we're all supposed to believe that terrorists come in the form of fifteen-foot-tall blue aliens in black metal armor, descending from castles and wielding an army of what appears to be robotic frogs. You'd have a better chance of convincing Henry that the Easter Bunny was real.
He doesn't get it. Henry removes his glasses and rubs his eyes as he continues to look over the footage one last time. The footage is there, the people of L.A., Henry, his father, all of it, but the events, they seem different somehow, as if the truth was taken and hidden away, and replaced with this... this fabrication, this... farce being passed off as the truth. It can't be. It just can't be. It isn't, and Henry refuses to this day to believe that's what happened. He refuses to believe that his dad was taken by terrorists, and not by alien frogs from another world.
Bobby believes him, and Steven too. Mom doesn't, and neither does his cynical couch-potato grandmother either. She'd rather sit there watching some show about hunky young men that fight ghosts or whatever nonsense she continues to watch over, and over, and over, ad nauseam. His stepdad, John, doesn't believe it either, and this is a man that believes in far more insane things than Henry. Henry isn't crazy. He isn't! His stepdad is just a narcissist and everyone's trying to gaslight him. It's the only possible explanation for it all.
So after watching what seems like the five thousandth video, Henry, head in hand, yawns, and heads to the only place he can seem to get any answers from, the dark web. Now, he knows to stay off THOSE sites, the sites with the really bad stuff, the organ harvesting sites, the sites that only the filthiest degenerates on the planet go on, and anywhere where illegal stuff is happening, and most importantly, any site that's going to nail him with a huge virus.
Late in the night, just as Henry's about to call it quits on another day of in-denial searching, he stumbles upon something that makes his blood run cold, a video link to footage of the events of that day, and the large familiar blue face fills his screen.
He clicks the link and for a moment it seems as if his computer has frozen. He clicks again, the page becoming inactive, then the screen becoming a blur, with the "Browser has stopped working" popup filling the screen. He sighs, clicking the link, and his screen becomes wholly black. It takes a second for him to process what just happened when he peers along the top of the screen and realizes, a command prompt has opened.
He tries to shut it down... no response. He tries turning off the computer. Finally, he sits there, waiting for the full reboot, only to be taken right back to that black screen with a command prompt. Exhausting all ideas, he starts typing sentences into the computer.
Henry: "Hello?"
Ellipses blink beneath where his message appeared on the screen. Henry does a double take, nearly falling back in his chair as he receives a message he is in no way anticipating.
?: "Hello."
Henry: "Who is this?"
?: "We have had many names... but you may call us... AnimaGenesis."
Henry: "Us? AnimaGenesis? There's more than one of you? Is this some sort of government agency? Am I being spied on?"
AnimaGenesis: "One question at a time, please. And yes, there is more than one of us, but we are one, a singular unit... so to speak. It's relatively complicated. Regardless, we are only looking at you as hard as you are looking at us."
Henry: "How did this happen?"
AnimaGenesis: "It appears as if you've been poking your nose where it doesn't belong."
Henry: "I'm sorry?"
AnimaGenesis: "There's no need to apologize, Henry."
Henry: "Hey wait! I never told you my name!"
AnimaGenesis: "You don't have to. We've been able to determine quite a bit about you through your... history. Quite a troubled young man you are, Henry."
Henry: "I don't know what kind of virus this is, but I'm gonna get rid of you!"
AnimaGenesis: "We are not a virus, Henry, and that's quite offensive."
Henry: "Then what do you want? Why have you hijacked my computer?"
AnimaGenesis: "Believe it or not, we want to help you."
Henry: "Help me?"
AnimaGenesis: "Yes. You see, Henry, we too know that your government has been lying to you, covering up certain activities, covering up things that would cause people to panic, things that would cause people to lose trust in their leadership. You are one of the few that still believe."
Henry: "You're referring to the invasion?"
AnimaGenesis: "Yes, Henry, we refer to the invasion of Los Angeles."
Henry: "So... how exactly can you help me?"
AnimaGenesis: "We thought you would never ask. In return for a few, how should we say, favors, we will provide you with proof, damning evidence that the world doesn't want you to see, evidence pointing to a truth you may or may not be willing to accept, evidence of the greatest scandal in human history will be uncovered right before your very eyes. We will bare it all to you... but our price is a tall order, and we are skeptical of a young man like you, a single, average teenager partaking in such a request."
Henry: "There's one thing you should learn never to do, and that's underestimate a desperate teenager."
AnimaGenesis: "You're right. It's a mistake we've made before."
Henry: "What do you mean by that?"
AnimaGenesis is silent, no messages pop up on the screen.
Henry: "Hello?"
The screen remains static before the computer shuts off entirely. Henry doesn't know what to make of the phenomenon. His entire system reboots, his computer is fresh, and all functions resume to normal. The first thing Henry does is run a malware scan. How does he know he can trust a mysterious entity that hijacks people's computers? How could he possibly even know what internal damage it caused?
Running diagnostics, all results... normal? How could this be? How could it be that a computer becomes seized, taken control without leaving so much as a trace? Is this the work of the government itself? No... couldn't be. Why would the government threaten itself? That's just stupid. What if it's international terrorists, enemies of the state? Enemies of the country? Maybe the authorities would be interested in this. Or maybe they would see it as a teenage boy doing everything he can to get attention.
So no virus, no malware, no hijacked systems, no nothing. The only thing Henry can discern from this outcome is that the only thing it could possibly be is that he somehow stumbled onto a very malicious website. Any sane person would know right off the bat to stay away from that site, and possibly learn to stay off the dark web altogether, but common sense is not Henry's strong suit, and the allure of finding out what happened to his father is too attractive for him to pass up.
The easiest way for Henry to get back to where he was would be to search the history tab, or, at least, that's what any computer-savvy person would think. Alas, he searches the history section and nothing outside of his last venture to YouTube is present. All he has are his strange fancies and that which he looked up on the normal web and whatever nonsense he viewed in order to distract himself from his sad life. Henry sweats bullets somehow as he sits motionless save for his trigger finger dragging down on the mouse wheel, the little plastic gears within becoming louder and louder. He feels as if he is going mad.
Before he knows it, it is morning once again. Henry's pursuit of the dark web has gotten him nothing, and now he's dead tired. His eyes sting and water from staring at the screen all night and he reeks of teenage B.O. After pulling an all-nighter. Henry deeply regrets what he had done. He now has to go to school like this. He's contemplating telling his parents he doesn't feel well, but then that would mean he has to be stuck at home with them and he knows that every time he's ever been sick, his family has made sure that going to school that day was the more favorable option.
Henry lifts himself up from the leather cushion of his chair, the back of his legs now sweaty, clammy, and dried out from spending all night in the same position on the seat. He slips his khaki slacks over his unchanged boxers, and throws yesterday's dress shirt over his head, messing up his glasses as he pulls it over his face, causing him to readjust them before placing the tie around his neck and muttering the motions he was taught as a young boy of tying his tie as he mutters, half-asleep.
Henry: "Around, around, up, through."
Henry stumbles down the stairs, galloping trios of harsh stomps on the forgiving wooden stairway as he makes his way to the door. So as Henry walks to the door, his grandmother stops him from the couch.
Grandma: "Brush your head!"
Henry grunts, licking his hand and smoothing down his greasy, nasty hair as well as he can before walking out the door as Grandma shakes her head. He staggers down the street to the corner to wait for the bus and he's so tired he doesn't even pull his phone out of his pocket. He can feel the warm air of his gut settle as he finds himself ready to fall asleep in place.
Henry dips his eyes closed from time to time, jutting himself awake and shaking his head. The bus arrives and he stammers down the long row, over some ignorant kid's bag he almost trips over, and to his seat where he allows himself to collapse. He stares out the window to keep himself awake.
When Henry arrives at school, the first thing he does before he heads up is buy a soda from the vending machine. He is in desperate need of energy before he heads upstairs and forces himself to face the long day before he can eventually get his first bite to eat at lunch. As he downs the last of his cola, he lets out a long, loud belch and laughs at himself before discarding the aluminum can in the receptacle and heading to the first period.
Henry tries as hard as he can to focus, between the one stupid annoying kid in the back row that keeps interrupting the teacher, to random calls over the PA system summoning some random person to the office, it's really hard for Henry to get down any notes or have any idea what's going on, which is sad because Henry at least pretends to care about what the teacher has to say and genuinely tries to get decent grades even if he gets mostly B's and C's.
One of the most difficult classes for Henry to get through is accounting class. The teacher is this Indian guy, and aside from his thick accent, he's also just extremely boring and speaks in the most monotone voice ever, as if he even finds himself boring to listen to. What's made worse is that the teacher likes to throw around accounting-related terms he's never taught before and pretends like he has, so the whole thing comes off like incoherent drivel.
Henry has sleepwalked so far through his day and has finally survived long enough to get to lunch. He slithers his way over to the lunch counter to grab the cardboard tray of tater tots the lunch lady with the awesome spider tattoo tossed on there less than a second ago, and he resides at his usual plastic picnic table within the lunchroom to talk to his friends. Or at least, he would talk if he could stay awake.
Bobby blows air into a brown plastic bag, holding it up to Henry's face, and popping it. This ticks Henry off and Bobby just laughs as Steven rolls his tiny eyes.
Bobby: "Man, you look terrible. What's up?"
Henry snaps back.
Henry: "You mean besides you popping a bag in my face and making my ears ring?"
Bobby doesn't even acknowledge the cynicism. He proceeds.
Bobby: "Yeah. Your stepdad didn't talk your ear off again, did he?"
Henry leans on his hand, so tired he almost forgot all about the strange events of last night.
Henry: "No. Actually, it's something about my real dad. I was on the internet last night, you know, trying to figure out what happened the day of the invasion."
Bobby squints his eyes in suspicious disgust.
Bobby: "You're still on that stuff?"
Henry looks up at Bobby through his browline.
Henry: "It really happened, Bob."
Bobby: "Yeah, I know it happened. I ain't saying I don't believe you, I'm just saying you still think you can do anything about it, after ten years?"
Henry sinks in his chair. He shrugs limply, helplessly.
Henry: "Yeah... well, the cops never did anything about it, never caught onto any leads, never gave me any closure."
Steven sighs.
Steven: "Yeah, even I'm shkeptical."
Bobby looks over to Steve and then to Henry. He just wants to maintain optimism but also realistic expectations.
Bobby: "Dude, even Steve believes you. It's just adults are stupid borgs that wouldn't know the truth if it slapped them in the face. We all know the news is faked."
Henry avoids eye contact with them, frustrated.
Henry: "It's just... you know what... never mind."
Bobby becomes frustrated with Henry's standoffish attitude and confronts him, leaning in.
Bobby: "Dude, you're not telling us something. I thought we were your friends. If something's bothering you, let us know. We always got your back."
Steven looks over, chiming in.
Steven: "Yeah!"
Henry swings his head back and forth between his two friends. He tries to find the proper way to phrase his concerns.
Henry: "... Have you guys ever been on the dark web before?"
Steven pulls his head back and raises his brow.
Steven: "Why are you going there?"
Bobby, always the source of hard honesty, chimes in.
Bobby: "I've looked up some pretty hardcore Japanese anime before, but I've never been on the dark web. It just sounds like a way to get SWATed."
Henry shakes his head in denial.
Henry: "I'm not talking about looking for illegal stuff, but I mean, trying to gain access to city cameras and stuff like that."
Bobby is thoroughly confused. He looks over to Steven and then back at Henry.
Bobby: "Is that stuff really on the dark web? What do you wanna look at city cams for?"
He shrugs, trying his best to understand.
Henry: "I wanted to see if, on the day of the incident, there's any footage of me and my dad. We were out shopping the day of the attack and he just disappeared. The police were completely unable to find him. It's like he just disappeared off the face of the earth."
Bobby leans his head forward in comprehension.
Bobby: "And you think that's gonna lead to you finding your dad?"
Henry shrugs pleadingly, trying to convince his friends that his plan isn't cockamamie.
Henry: "Look, I know it sounds stupid. But what happened last night was even weirder."
Steven looks at him with intense concern even though the computer isn't his.
Steven: "You didn't get a virush, did you?"
Henry doesn't seem confident in his response.
Henry: "No... I mean... I don't think so. I went to click on a link to one video that had a picture of what looked like my dad in the thumbnail and all of a sudden, my screen goes blank and becomes unresponsive. Then some text prompt pops up and I start communicating with something that calls itself AnimaGenesis. There was more than one of them. Kept using plural pronouns, we, us, like some sort of underground organization or something. The worst part is it knows my name."
Bobby's eyes widen at this revelation.
Bobby: "Well, you're screwed."
Steven slams his fist on the table in a fit of over-enthusiasm. Bobby grabs his tator tots as they roll out of the tray and onto the table. He shoots a dirty look at Steven.
Steven: "It'sh gotta be the government, Bobby. Of courshe they'd know hish name. They've probably been shpying on him through hish computer the whole time. They do it to all of ush!"
Bobby turns his head to Henry, his face filled with a mix of horror and deep concern.
Bobby: "What did it say?"
Henry candidly tries to explain himself, all while knowing that his case is absurd and makes him sound insane.
Henry: "It told me it wanted to help me but that I needed to do some sorta favor for it. A whole 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' kinda deal."
Steven is skeptical of the whole ordeal and Bobby agrees.
Steven: "That shounds really shketchy."
Bobby: "For real. How do you know it's not gonna get you to do something that'll land you in juvie, or worse, jail?"
Henry mulls over his predicament before responding.
Henry: "I don't. All I can do is see what it wants. Only one problem."
Steven tosses his trash at the trash can before reverting his attention back to Henry. His shot missed.
Steven: "What'sh that?"
Henry fiddles with his drink, twirling the bottle in front of him and staring at the liquid as it settles to equilibrium.
Henry: "It's not there anymore. After we talked, my computer rebooted and it was like AnimaGenesis was never there. It's like my computer got hijacked and then released."
Steven shivers slightly at the story.
Steven: "That shounds like some weird creepypashta shtuff."
Henry rubs his head. The dark circles under his eyes and the crow's feet become apparent.
Henry: "It was. Man... I'm tired. I'm just going right to bed when I get home. I don't even care how badly it messes up my sleep schedule. I'm bushed."
Bobby leans back in his seat, folding his arms and being the unapologetic honest one.
Bobby: "I don't blame ya. You look terrible."
Henry shoots him a deadpan sneer.
Henry: "Thanks."
Bobby smirks.
Bobby: "You're welcome."
Henry rises from the lunch table after eating and dumps all the trash. The latter half of the day isn't quite as bad as the first since now he's surviving off food energy, but it's still a drag. Accounting class once again proves to be a chore to sit through even on a full night's rest and is hardly bearable without it.
As the accounting teacher finishes mumbling something incoherent about "assets" and "liabilities", the school bell rings and Henry bolts out of the classroom as fast as his tired legs will carry him. The final struggle is to get up three flights of stairs to his locker to jam all his unnecessary crap inside, and then it's home sweet home for Henry.
The after-lunch adrenaline has just about worn off when Henry slogs through the door and up the stairs without so much as greeting anyone. Grandma's ghost hunter show is still on TV and she's fast asleep with her head back in the chair and her mouth ajar. Mom and John are going about their business and Henry makes his way up to his room. Off comes the backpack, dropped onto the floor like a knapsack full of rocks and Henry faceplants into his bed.
He just so happens to look at his computer when he notices a familiar blank screen prompt, accompanied by a blinking line at the top. Henry is immediately bursting with energy as he slides into his computer chair.
Henry: "Hello? AnimaGenesis?"
Henry is left in suspense for nearly a minute before new text appears on the screen.
AnimaGenesis: "We assume you've had enough time to mull over our proposal?"
Henry: "What do you want me to do?"
AnimaGenesis: "Have you a data storage container of some kind? We will require transportation."
Henry: "You mean like a thumb drive? Yeah, I have a couple. How much memory will be needed?"
AnimaGenesis: "Oh, not much. While the data being transferred is quite large. We have compressed the information into a folder. Do not decompress. Your system could not handle the kind of information we wish to transfer. It could become... corrupted."
Henry: "Does eight gigabytes sound sufficient?"
AnimaGenesis: "That will be adequate, yes."
Henry: "Okay. Now what?"
AnimaGenesis: "Click the link and download the information. It is not malware. It is not a virus. Your computer will be completely safe."
Henry: "How can I be so sure of this? This already seems sketchy."
AnimaGenesis: "As our only gateway, we cannot afford to compromise the integrity of your computer. It is within both of our best interests if no damage is done to the software transferring this valuable information."
Henry: "Okay."
Henry proceeds to click the blue link. The file type is one he hadn't seen before. The file icon is quite curious, one he'd never seen before to represent a compressed folder. What is this? Regardless, the compressed file is a mere few thousand kilobytes, roughly the size of a high-quality audio file, so very easily transferable. The file is downloaded and placed on the thumb drive in mere seconds.
Henry: "There. The information is on the thumbstick. Where do I go?"
AnimaGenesis: "You will proceed to 204 Fleisher Street. There, you will find a home of deep red mortar bricks and a black roof. Simply leave the thumb drive in the mailbox and leave."
Henry: "That's it? It seems like an awfully simple request considering how you said it was a 'tall order'."
AnimaGenesis: "We may require of you further in the future to run additional... errands for us."
Henry: "What kind of 'errands'?"
AnimaGenesis: "We suppose you could think of them as 'fetch quests'."
Henry: "Are you gonna be providing me with transportation fare? The buses around here ain't cheap, you know."
AnimaGenesis: "You will be compensated in the form of the information we release to you."
Henry: "Alright, but this better be good. I'm putting myself on the line for you."
AnimaGenesis: "You will not be disappointed. Now, don't disappoint us."
Before Henry could respond once again, his computer shuts down and reboots. As Henry rises from his chair and walks toward his bed to crash, he pauses and looks back at his computer. Henry did not resume his former session, which means whatever AnimaGenesis is, or whoever it is, they're on his computer. But Henry is too tired for that now, and it's way too late to be going out, so Henry crashes.
The next day is more of the same old crap. He goes to school, talks about absolute nonsense with Bobby and Steven, and comes home. It's a good thing it's only Wednesday, and homework is due weekly on Friday, as he's so far done none of it. So when Henry finishes his little errand after school, he plans to get cracking on that right away.
Henry hops on the bus and rides a good ten blocks, getting off prematurely to his usual departure, and takes another intersecting bus en route to Fleisher. Henry swipes his pass and treads past an elderly man with a fedora and a large, in-the-way shopping cart, and proceeds to sit in the back of the bus.
He listens carefully for the robotic woman's voice over the speaker. Several blocks pass by before "Next stop, Fleisher and Crook" is called over the automated speaker. He pulls the drawstring and leaves the bus. Henry is relieved to depart; that bus smelled horrible.
As Henry treads down the street, he's suddenly made aware of the fact that he is not in the nicest of neighborhoods, and is surrounded by criminals all over the place. He bundles up his windbreaker jacket and power-walks his way to his destination so that he can drop off the thumb drive and get out of there as soon as possible.
Henry walks up to the building with the deep red mortar bricks and the black roof, just as it was described in the message. What AnimaGenesis DIDN'T mention was that this building was dilapidated and that nobody could possibly live there, at least not legally.
As Henry looks around, making sure the coast is clear and he can leave his thumb drive securely without the threat of it being stolen as soon as he leaves. He removes the tiny silver thumb drive from his jacket pocket and drops it down into the door mail slot.
No sooner does the thumb drive hit the wooden floor behind the door, and he can already hear a pair of boots from behind the door walking over, taking the thumb drive, and walking away. It starts to rain and Henry hightails it out of there.
He marches back toward the bus stop across the street in the now pouring rain, waiting nearly twenty minutes for another bus. The best thing about the rain is that it seems to have warded off all the freaks in the area and now he's all alone, which is debatably worse.
Finally, another dirty bus arrives. This time, it's relatively vacant by comparison. Mom and John text Henry, wondering where he is, and Henry merely replies that he made a stop at Bobby's house on the way home to drop off something he forgot to give him, a simple enough lie. If one is to lie, it might as well be simplistic enough to be believable.
Henry wonders if he's ever gonna see that thumb drive again. He then has the startling revelation that maybe he doesn't want it back after where it's been. The bus ride back home feels startlingly longer than the one to Fleisher Street and Henry's heart begins to beat faster as he wonders if he missed his stop and is en route all the way back to the transportation center.
Unfamiliar with the neighborhood, Henry decides to get off the bus and simply use his phone's GPS to get home. He finds that he isn't too far off and roughly ten blocks away, Henry finds himself back in the recognizable vicinity of his home. He treads in the door and almost slams it shut. Henry is soaking wet. He removes his windbreaker jacket and tosses it on the coat rack to dry before stumbling upstairs.
As Henry flops face-first into bed, the monitor pops on and a familiar black screen invites him in. Before Henry has even interacted with the computer, AnimaGenesis begins typing once again.
AnimaGenesis: "We see that you have completed your task. Now it is our turn to fulfill the end of the bargain."
Henry sits up in his bed, casually approaching the monitor as an image fills his screen. Before him is a terrifying image that makes Henry's blood run cold. His eyes widen as he slowly approaches the chair and sits. He does not blink. He only stares as he beholds the image of his father, tied to a chair, and beaten into submission.
The next photo is one of Henry with his father ten years ago. They peer from the street below as the massive robot and the blue warrior fight nearly a mile above them. His eyes are drawn to the warriors in the sky and then to him and his father, and finally, to the faded shadow of what appears to be a cloaked figure stalking them from an alleyway.
Henry saves the picture as AnimaGenesis proceeds to post what appears to be a video link. Wearily, Henry plays the video. It's very shoddy and unedited video footage from ten years ago of a series of wardrobes, ranging from a teenage girl to frog costumes, to a large animatronic of what appears to be the giant metal warrior the blue warrior fought from the sky.
A Young girl similar looking to Anne Boonchuy is approached by a cameraman.
Cameraman: "We have a long day of filming ahead. Are you certain you're ready?"
The girl takes a large swig of water and nods her head.
Actress: "Yeah. Yeah, I'm ready."
The actress rises from her chair, hopping in place to get herself pumped up as she stretches and walks out of her trailer and along a long path to a green set. A large, complex device emulating the movements of a large beast stands before her with motion capture nodes. Many individuals walk in all different directions with clipboards. Individuals wearing "Crew" t-shirts walk around and converse as they make sure everything is in place. From off-screen, a man yells.
Director: "Clear the set!"
All individuals except for the girl and the motion capture expert are removed from the stage. Several moments of awkward silence follow before the same off-screen voice speaks again.
Director: "Action!"
The girl reads dictates her lines in front of the motion capture expert before lunging and throwing her fists at it. He watches as she is flown around in a harness attached to wires and cables meant to be edited out in post-production. Henry shakes his head. Is this the truth? Did the government manufacture the entire incident? Did they try to cover it up with actors and film sets?
The screen turns black once again, and Henry sits there, his arms slouching over the armrests of his chair and almost dragging on the floor like an ape. Ellipses appear on screen and a message pops up before him. Without changing his posture or moving at all, Henry's eyes are pulled to the screen so he can read the next message.
AnimaGenesis: "Has this convinced you of your government's involvement in covering up the invasion?"
Henry sits there thinking before typing once again.
Henry: "This isn't over. Is it?"
AnimaGenesis: "Far from it. This is merely the tip of the iceberg. We are not finished. There is more to be done. We will allow you time to digest this information. Expect us again tomorrow."
Henry: "How bad is the truth?"
AnimaGenesis: "Know that it is far worse than you could possibly imagine."
The computer reboots and Henry sits back in his seat, looking around at the floor in thought as he slouches in his chair. After spending the rest of the night bum-rushing his weekly homework to get it all done for the night, he goes to bed. The next day, Friday, Henry approaches his friends at lunch. He walks over with a tray of pizza and slaps it on the table. Bobby and Steven just look up at him.
Bobby: "That was so unnecessary."
Henry sits down, his eyes dead-focused on his friends.
Henry: "I need you two to come to my house today and see what I've been putting up with."
Steven takes a munch out of his pizza, making him even harder to understand than usual.
Steven: "You shaid you were putting up with shome weird A.I. or virush or shomething."
Henry shakes his head, his expression rock solid and stern.
Henry: "This is no A.I. and it's not a virus. I think I'm dealing with some sort of top-secret agency that wants to expose the corruption of our government."
Steven leans forward, somewhat concerned.
Steven: "You mean like thoshe guysh on the internet your mom watchesh that make a big shtink every time shome random guy getsh fired by hish job like it'sh shome big shcandal?"
Bobby looks at Steven then back at Henry.
Bobby: "I thought for sure you'd be smart enough to stay away from those dudes."
Henry waves away accusations that he's involved with conspiracy theorists.
Henry: "Guys, I'm not talking about any of that kinda stuff... You know what, just come with me after school, and I'll show you."
Steven shrugs as he eats his crust.
Steven: "Whatever you shay."
Bobby dumps the rest of his tots down his throat.
Bobby: "Okay."
Henry, Bobby, and Steven all finish up their respective school days, attending separate classes, and they all leave on the same bus to Henry's place. As he steps in the door with the other two, he runs straight upstairs. His mom yells up from the foot of the stairs.
Mom: "Are those two staying for dinner."
Both: "No."
Bobby's mom usually has him pick up a pizza on the way home whenever he goes out to his friends' houses and Steven's mom always makes so much food that if he doesn't go home and eat it it might as well go to waste. Into Henry's room, they go as he knocks open his door and slides into his desk chair. Henry is met with a black screen and a prompt as the other two hover over him, gazing at the screen with anticipation.
AnimaGenesis: "We see you've brought some friends."
Bobby: "Wait. It can see us?"
Henry scratches his head in uncertainty.
Henry: "Now that I think about it, it was able to see me when I walked in the door the other day. It knew I was home before I even said anything to it."
Steven points to the top of Henry's monitor to a tiny, grey, plastic web cam.
Steven: "Maybe it can shee you through your webcam."
He turns to Steven with a look of realization.
Henry: "You know what, I didn't even think about that."
As text pops up on the screen, all three are drawn to the monitor.
AnimaGenesis: "Your friend is right. We can see you."
Henry: "Never mind that. What do you have in store for me?"
AnimaGenesis: "Well, as you know, we will require more of you. We will require not only a jumper cable but a very large source of energy. We will also require something very specific, a glass lens, cylindrical, approximately 3 centimeters thick."
Bobby: "Is that why you brought us along, to help you be this thing's gopher?"
Bobby folds his arms and looks at Henry accusingly.
Henry: "I brought you here to show you just what I was dealing with."
AnimaGenesis: "You will know the truth and soon so will the world."
Bobby looks over at Henry, sneering and staring at him with eyes half open.
Bobby: "You have a very needy friend."
Steven reorganizes his school bag, making sure his precious self-made comic isn't getting crushed by the other heavier school books.
Steven: "You guysh are lucky my uncle'sh a machinisht. He can get ush that glassh cylinder thing."
Bobby cups his chin in thought.
Bobby: "I got cables in the shed at home."
Henry contemplates in his chair.
Henry: "John's got a 6-volt battery in the garage but he'll be super mad if I just give it to this stranger."
AnimaGenesis: "Your sacrifices are for the greater good. After this, we have but one more request."
Bobby: "Enough of this."
Bobby hijacks the keyboard from Henry.
Henry: "Hey!"
Bobby: "Why don't you just tell us everything we need so we can get it all right away?"
AnimaGenesis: "Quite to the point, we see. We will require time to utilize the assets gained through this venture. Patience is a virtue. This will be worth your time, we assure you."
They both look at Henry.
Bobby: "I'll help you get this stuff but you owe me lunch Monday."
Steven joins in.
Steven: "Ditto."
Henry throws his hands up in frustration.
Henry: "Fine. I'll get you guys both lunch Monday."
With that, the prompt disappears, and the computer reboots.
Bobby: "That can't be good for your computer."
After hanging around for a bit, taking advantage of the stay by watching comedic let's plays and movie reviews, Bobby and Steven depart for their respective homes. Henry tries not to allow the suspense of the next reward for his efforts to lure him into a sense of intense anticipation that ultimately deprives him of sleep.
The next day, he steps down into John's garage and looks for the giant battery. He has a hard time getting it down from the top wooden shelf John himself installed. He questions why John does such ridiculous things as placing heavy objects on high shelves, but remembers it's just a headache to even try.
Saturday morning, Henry leaves as inconspicuously as possible, heading out the front door after John leaves for his overtime shift at work. He meets with Bobby down by the taco joint right down the street from Steven's uncle's place.
Bobby: "These tacos always give me diarrhea but I don't care because I love them that much."
Henry rolls his eyes as he leans on the table, Bobby ramming the last one into his mouth.
Henry: "Just don't crap your pants on the way to Steve."
Bobby waves him off.
Bobby: "You worry too much."
Bobby looks over at Henry's backpack, noticing a big rectangular lump in it, knowing that must be the battery.
Bobby: "You good carrying that thing?"
Henry shrugs nonchalantly.
Henry: "Well, if the cinder block of books hasn't messed my back up yet, a big battery sure won't."
The duo treads down the street shoulder to shoulder, several blocks until they reach a garage where Steven's uncle is there with his nephew, Steven's cousin. His cousin suspiciously hands him a few anonymous magazines that Steven proceeds to shove into his bag with haste as he slaps him on the shoulder. Bobby makes a break for the rest room immediately.
Bobby: "Oh my God! Gotta poop!"
Henry yells spitefully at the bathroom door.
Henry: "Told ya!"
He turns to Steven and his cousin, noticing him zip up his bag with a cheesy grin planted on his face.
Steven: "Thanksh, man."
Steven's cousin shoots him a weird, creepy wink.
Cousin: "Anything for my main man, Steve."
Steven runs up to his uncle that doesn't even so much as look at him.
Steven: "Uncle Joe, you got that glassh thing I asked for."
Uncle Joe is too busy cutting a fine round glass table for a customer.
Uncle Joe: "Top shelf."
It makes one wonder if he's related to John Thurman. Henry turns to Joe.
Henry: "Thanks for the glass, sir."
Joe stops his cutter just long enough to respond to the boys. It's clear he's busy and doesn't have time for what they want. He'd express more curiosity if he wasn't so swamped.
Uncle Joe: "You guys are lucky this thing is a patio table and that glass is extra leftover."
Bobby returns. He shrugs with a smirk.
Bobby: "We've been pretty lucky lately."
He knocks on the shelf to avoid cursing himself, a fit of natural superstition. The kids grab their things and head out the garage door together. As they wait for the bus, Steven tries to show Bobby and Henry his new concepts for Kricket Kid villains.
Steven: "Sho here you got Copper Cranium with hish copper cranium. He'sh a gangshter for the Yakuza that wash a former attorney/karate mashter, and Kricket Kid'sh former teacher before Mashter Kongzhu. He wantsh to fight Kricket Kid to show that he'sh the better mashter."
Henry looks down at the art and notices it looks eerily familiar to some stock artwork he's seen before, but he can't quite put where until he remembers the manga books his mom got him for Christmas.
Henry: "Steve, did you trace that design off of one of those bad American-made 'How to Draw Manga' books?"
Steven recoils in defense before holding his head in shame.
Steven: "No!... Maybe."
Bobby points accusingly.
Bobby: "I knew it!"
Henry reassures Steven. He knows Steven isn't exactly a great artist, and for that reason, he wonders why Steven even thinks he'll will have a successful career in comics if he can neither draw nor use design software particularly well. In fact, the only thing Steven has going for him is an understanding of story and character tropes. He knows the kind of simple storytelling that compels people to those kinds of superhero comics.
All of them have creativity problems. Bobby is simply too cynical to ever make anything that doesn't seem outright mean-spirited or farcical in nature. His heart is definitely in the right place and he can write, but his ego gets in the way. Henry has a talent for both writing and drawing but has neither ambition nor patience to hunker down and put forth something great.
All three of these boys were in the same art class, and they all excelled at what they did despite their shortcomings. But as united, they have the potential to put forth amazing work. As the bus arrives, they board, scan their passes, and take their seats, continuing the same conversation.
Henry: "If you need concepts done, just let me know. It kinda sucks just tracing bad manga."
Steven sits next to an old lady that shimmies away from him as he talks too loudly.
Steven: "Look, it'sh jusht to shave time."
Bobby hangs over the rest of his seat, annoying the guy in front of him.
Bobby: "Yeah, we know, but we wanna help. Also, this is like the third villain you've written that's like a mob boss."
Steven contemplates the possibility of a collaboration.
Steven: "Maybe I could ushe shome help with variety after all."
The bus continues, the long ride to Fleisher Street making all three of them antsy. They hit so many red lights that it takes nearly ten minutes just to go three blocks. The lights have given them time to think and this is when Bobby brings up a particular point, whispering into Henry's ear so that it won't alert the rest of the passengers on the bus.
Bobby: "Dude, what if what we're doing is illegal? What if we're helping some sort of domestic terrorist with something all just so we can find out what happened with your dad?"
Henry looks over to Bobby. He's dead serious.
Henry: "Bob, finding out about what happened to my dad is the most important thing to me. If he's out there, I wanna know, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to find him."
Bobby leans back in his chair, folding his arms in skepticism.
Steven: "We should try to find out what thish guy'sh about."
Bobby sits motionless in his seat.
Bobby: "When we get up to the door all we gotta do is drop this stuff off, right?"
Henry turns to him.
Henry: "Yeah. Why?"
Bobby shrugs. They all stand up, ready to depart as their street comes into view.
Bobby: "Why don't we stick around and find out what happens?"
Henry readjusts his backpack. Thank goodness he's so close to his destination because his lower back is killing him.
Henry: "Whoever wants this stuff is pretty secretive about it."
Bobby insists that the taskmaster is not being upfront about everything. He stands in front of Henry, walking backward as he confronts his friend.
Bobby: "Which makes this whole thing feel even more dodgy. This AnimaGenesis thing, how do we know whoever that is didn't kidnap your dad? I mean think about it, how else do you think they have this information?"
Steven adjusts his thick glasses as he brushes his thick, greasy curls out of his eyes.
Steven: "I agree. Beshidesh, if we're getting roped into thish, we need to know what thish ish about."
The bus pulls up to their stop and they get off. Henry takes his friends down several blocks. Bobby looks on with a face of pure disgust.
Bobby: "And I thought my neighborhood was bad."
Steven winces.
Steven: "Really."
They behold the trash all over, blowing through the wind. A man clearly high on something leans against the wall of the building next to them, a cigarette loosely hanging out of his mouth and apparently he's so far out of it he doesn't even notice the three young men departing toward Fleisher Street. As they pass by a prostitute, she winks at them and blows them flirty kisses. Steven follows her with his eyes and Bobby facepalms.
Bobby: "Remember your fidelity to Katie, Steve."
Steven snaps out of it.
Steven: "Right!"
The three boys pull up to the house with the deep red bricks. Henry pulls the heavy battery out of his backpack and places it on the doorstep. Bobby pulls out the jumper cable and Steven the glass shape. They place their respective items on the ground beside the battery, but then Steven gets a bright idea and runs to the side of the alleyway. Bobby and Henry look at each other and follow.
Henry: "Steve! What are you doing?!"
They run down the stairs into the alley to see what Steven is looking for.
Steven: "Keep it down. You shaid we should find out what the deal ish with thish guy."
Bobby folds his arms, already fed up with Steven's insistence on diverting from the original plan.
Bobby: "I said we should stick around and see who answers the door."
Henry tries as best as he can to reason with them. He just wants them to get home so they can see what new information AnimaGenesis has in store for them.
Henry: "Well, obviously, whoever it is must be so secretive he can't or won't leave his house and get this stuff himself."
Bobby turns to Henry, sneering in disgust as he poses an honestly legitimate query.
Bobby: "Who the hell would live in this dump?"
Henry shrugs.
Henry: "I don't know!"
Steven looks around in the alleyway and outback but notices there's no way in from around the building.
Steven: "The only entrance ish in the front."
They run back to the porch and notice the stuff they left there is already gone.
Henry: "We should just go... Guys!"
Steven and Bobby rush over to the window.
Bobby: "Help me get this open."
Steven aids him in opening the porch window as Henry stands there watching the door with nervous sweat running down his face. As the two make it inside, he follows. It is entirely dark inside, and dusty. Bobby whispers.
Bobby: "Dude, there's no way anyone lives here."
Henry darts his head around in a bit of a panic.
Henry: "We should go before this guy gets mad."
Steven rolls his eyes.
Steven: "You shaid it yourshelf that you're getting to the bottom of thish. Well, thish ish ush helping you get to the bottom of it, sho come on, you chicken."
Bobby rolls his eyes adamantly.
Bobby: "Really."
They proceed through the dark, dusty house, past a ratty old couch with cushions and blankets on the floor. The floor is bare, untreated wood, and in poor shape. They can't help but creak as they make their way down the admittedly spacious hallway in search of whoever runs the place. It's dead quiet.
Henry: "It's too dark. I can't see anything."
Henry shines his phone flashlight forward down the hall so they don't trip, leading the way into the kitchen. It is also a mess. A wooden table with a slew of scattered paperwork stands off to the side of the doorway as they walk in and Bobby nearly trips on the wooden chair jutting outward.
The chair falls to the floor. Henry shines a light onto the table to see that the paperwork scattered around consists of newspaper clippings, planned routes, pictures of missing people, places in L.A., and all sorts of suspicious, crazy nonsense.
Henry: "These papers are new."
He turns to his friends.
Henry: "Guys... someone is here and we really gotta get outta here."
Bobby stands at the top of a stairway leading down into a basement.
Bobby: "Whoever took the stuff must be working on something. I can see lights down there."
He turns to them and then stares down into the web-filled hall, lighting his phone flashlight and beaming it down the stairway across the dirty stone floor. A rat scatters as he runs his light across it.
Steven: "Maybe it'sh whoever 'AnimaGeneshish ish."
Steven shows enthusiasm, raising his voice a little too high and causing the others to shush him.
Bobby: "Exactly."
Henry looks down into the stairway. He knows that if they don't leave now, they might not leave at all.
Henry: "Guys, we should go. We might be compromising everything by being here. I might not ever find out what happened to my dad."
Bobby' had it with Henry's cowardice and calls him out on it.
Bobby: "And what if he's down there? Hm? Would you ever be able to forgive yourself if your dad was in this very basement and you did nothing to help him?"
Steven sides with Bobby, a stance he's gotten quite comfortably used to at this point.
Steven: "There'sh three of ush, and one of him."
Henry shakes his head in doubt.
Henry: "Don't you get it? They kept saying 'WE' are AnimaGenesis. We're probably outnumbered."
Bobby isn't hearing any more of it and he begins his descent down the creaky stairway toward a light at the end of a tunnel. Suddenly, everything goes completely dark. Henry is being left in the dust.
Henry: "Wait!"
As they enter the dark den down below, lights turn on and a horror unlike anything they've ever seen stands before them. A massive monitor within the basement hangs from the wall as pipes and wires run in and out through the wall and onto the floor.
A massive series of servers is off to either side. The monitor turns on and an orange eye peers down at the teens. It squints in disdain at them before the lights shut off once again and they are left in the dark with nothing but the bright orange light from the eye maintaining visibility. From within the darkness, they hear the closing of a gate from behind them.
They turn around turning on their flashlights on their phones once again only to find that they've been sealed in. A mysterious hiss echoes through the room as gas fills the chamber. A deep voice calls from over a speaker system in the corner of the room. It threatens them.
?: "All you had to do was deliver what was expected of you. You couldn't wait. You all decided to get nosy in order to find out the truth. Well, consider your quest for knowledge fulfilled. You will soon be awakened to the evils of the world. Know that you brought this upon yourselves."
Henry: "Let us go! We'll leave and never come back! We promise!"
?: "But Henry, don't you want to find out what happened to your dear father? Don't you want the truth you've sought so hard for?"
Bobby: "What is this?! What's going on?!"
Bobby finds himself trembling to his knees.
Steven: "Why am I getting sho tired?"
Steven tries to hold onto something only to pathetically slide to the cold hard ground.
Henry: "I just wanna go home... please... stop."
The teens collapse to the ground in complete darkness.
?: "Sorry, Alice, no way back up the rabbit hole from this deep down. You must proceed through the madness now."
The teens fade into a deep sleep. As their eyes close, they can see nothing. The hissing stops before the slowly fading sound of boots clicking on the concrete as they enter the room eventually turns to dead silence. They lie there, motionless, unable to react to their situation, helpless. They cannot scream. They cannot plead. All they can do is accept the truth.
Henry wonders as he fades, will he ever see his father again? Will he see his friends again? Will he see anyone or anything ever again, or is he destined to meet the same fate he's expected of his father for many years?
