Superkids Chapter 1

The man held the small bottle in his hand up to his eyes and examined it, his fingers stretching inhumanly around the sides.

“Nicely done, Mezz, I’m very proud of you, you’ve certainly proven yourself with this one.”

“Thank you, sir!” The young girl replied, stepping closer as the man set the bottle down into a box just its size, preparing it for its journey.

“This will be the beginning of the best advancement the human race has ever seen. I expect to have this inside the first five by tomorrow, and then after that, well…” he paused and smiled at his new head scientist, who blinked patiently. He straightened out his jacket. “Alien technology will surely save this helpless species. You know I’ve worked very hard to prevent this… beloved planet… from meeting its slowly impending doom, as what happens to all planets in time.”

Mezz clasped her hands in front of her and did a small bow of her head, her green locks of curly hair cascading down about her. “It’s been my pleasure to help you Mr. Bloodgood.”

The man’s shoulders stretched wider as he breathed in and stood straight. He touched each of his fingertips to the matching one on the opposite hand. “I hope you find your new office significantly more comfortable than your old one.”

The girl jumped at the sudden presence- actually two presences- behind her on each side, their hands softly taking her shoulders. Both of the guards gave their full attention to Mr. Bloodgood, pointy hair-covered ears perking upwards.

“Take her to her cell. I’ll meet with you again tomorrow.”

Without any further questioning, they guided her out of the penthouse with surprising force.

…

It was the first day for a lot of things. A teaching job, a top secret dream job, and it was also the first day that Yvette Elektra had ever tried to use a school copying machine. Her eyebrows knit together as she read through the settings on the tiny screen before her, pressing the flimsy up and down buttons to try and find the right menu. She groaned loudly in frustration, but then noticed a rather tall, lanky man walk past her with a hand full of papers. He stopped at the teacher mailboxes across the room and had to bend down to get to his, which was inconveniently placed near the bottom of the tall rows of cubbies. This man had to be almost seven feet tall, and watching him bend over that far was comical enough to make a small smile spread across her lips. He was replacing the papers inside the cubby with the ones in his hands rather clumsily. She remembered him from the conferences she’d been to during the summer preparing for the upcoming school year. Some of the other teachers had told her the guy seem
ed to make a fool of himself every ten minutes.

“Hey mister bean pole,” She called. The man jumped at the loud sound, hitting his head on the cubbies not once, but twice as he shot upwards, dropping everything in his hands in the process.

Yvette covered her mouth as it happened, attempting to hide the fact that it had made her laugh a bit. His gaze shot back towards her in alert, and one of his hands gripped at his head where he had hit it. He whispered “Ow” a couple times once the pain hit.

“I’m so sorry; I didn’t mean to scare you that much.” She said, her voice picking up near the end.

“Ah, um, it’s ok, this… this isn’t the first time that this has happened.”

She felt a little bad for this poor guy. She handed him the things he dropped. Her head tilted back as she looked up at his face. “Anyway, I was going to ask if you could show me how to use the copy machine. I have to make some copies of this lab safety form for the kids.”

He was still rubbing at the back of his head. “Oh, you’re the new chemistry teacher? I knew there was supposed to, um, be someone but… there’s a lot of new… it’s nice to meet you, my name actually isn’t mister bean pole.”

“Oh really because I thought that was pretty dead on for you.” Yvette said, laughing between her words.

“It’s… It’s not.” He said, talking as they walked over to the old contraption. She watched him show her the steps, the method quick but a bit overly complicated. She tapped on the side of the machine. Once all of the copies of the paper had shot out, he gathered them up and handed them to her with a really sweet smile considering she had probably just given him a terrible headache.

“It’s Gavino.” He told her. “I um, I should get to my classroom, the first bell is about to ring and I have to set up the hydroelectric experiment for today’s introduction. It was nice to meet you miss… um,”

“Yvette. Yvette Elektra.” She informed him, head held high.

She noticed a bit of color rush through his cheeks. “It was nice to meet you Ms. Elektra,” He said, and then slipped away before she could make another comment.

The rest of the school day played out without any interesting events. After the first two classes the students seemed to all look the same, and all she could think about was something that she couldn’t tell anyone about. A couple of weeks back, she had been hired by the owner of the company she had wanted to work for ever since she was in the second grade. TAHA, the Technological and Anatomical Headway Agency, was a top-secret company that specialized in improving the lives of everyone on Earth by inventing things that were so technologically advanced that the public had come up with several rumors that the whole place was run by aliens, which of course was silly. The most intriguing part about it was the reason why they had hired her was because she had just gotten a job at the high school in the science department. Of course this seemed a bit peculiar, but nothing could have stopped her from accepting the job of her dreams.

After school ended, she made her way over to the building that was only a couple of blocks away, the engine of her motorcycle whirring with the same anticipation she felt within her being. She parked at a meter in front of the skyscraper and made her way in, showing the paper she got in the mail to the unusually hairy man at the reception desk, who nodded and let her by. She was to be met by TAHA’s owner, Nicholai Bloodgood, which she had deemed would be the greatest moment of her entire life. As the elevator flew upwards with her in it, she couldn’t stop herself from bouncing rapidly on her heels. Instead of feeling butterflies in her stomach it was more of an intense buzzing, a pulsating urge to move forward and get the surprise assignment.

The elevator stopped.

She repeated the room number under her breath as she walked down the long hall. It turned out to be the one on the end of the hallway, which she found ironic considering that this was the beginning of a major change in her life. Her knuckles hit the door politely and she waited for a few moments, and it was answered.

Yvette had to admit that this girl was wearing the most intricate and real looking costume that she had ever seen. Her hair went down past her shoulders and was bright green at that, and her skin was as orange as the fruit. She bore dull horns atop her head, and her eyes were surrounded like a raccoon’s by a teal color that stopped at her red cat-like nose, which actually looked like it was wet. “Are you Yvette?” She asked, gasping in delight.

Yvette nodded. She hoped it wasn’t obvious that she was staring at the strange girl.

“I’m Mezz, head scientist.” She introduced herself, holding out her hand to shake Yvette’s. Her long pointy fingernails tickled her skin, and it was a bit offsetting. “Come in! Mr. Bloodgood has been really excited to meet you.”

“Absolutely quaking in my boots.” Nicholai’s voice startled both of the girls. The man actually seemed to have appeared from nowhere, because in the time Yvette had looked down to watch her step and back up again, he had worked his way directly in front of her. “Of course, I’m actually not wearing boots. Those are too much for me. I’m a simple man.”

He was indeed very simple compared to the strange girl. A red turtle neck hung over his figure, covered by a dark grey suit jacket, with normal pants. The only offsetting feature of this man was how the shape of his body didn’t seem quite proportionate, and his pupils looked misshapen, as if they were being flattened. His eyebrows curved in a way that made Yvette uncomfortable. They had a very pointed arc, constantly lifted, but still seemed friendly if you didn’t look at them directly.

Mezz shut the door to the room, and Nicholai guided Yvette to the table at the center of it. The lights were so blinding there were almost no shadows, and the room was empty, aside from a single white table with a small white box in the middle.

Yvette looked around, squinting and moving slowly. She heard the clicks of her heels on the tile floor which usually gave off a quick motivated sound but now came off uncertain and cautious.

“I know how smart you are, Ms. Elektra. I’ve seen your awards. The little human children you teach should be very glad that they got you for a teacher. I’ve needed someone like you for a while now.” He picked up the little white box and delivered it to her. “Inside is a small bottle of a special medicine that Mezz formulated for the company about a fortnight ago.” He explained.

Yvette brought it up to her eyes and lifted the lid of the box. The bottle inside was indeed very small, closed with a plastic cork. Inside was a cloudy liquid. She pressed her lips together in thought.

“I told you in my letter that I want you on my scientist team, but I need you to prove your loyalty to me first. I’m sure you know how important that is at TAHA. I know you’ve known that for years.”

Yvette shook the box a bit, and watched the weird substance move around. “Ok, so you want me to drink it? Is it some kind of vitamin?” She guessed, grimacing at the man.

“You’re very close, my dear. It is indeed a vitamin, in a way. But it has a small catch.” He brought his fingers into a pinch and squinted his eyes a bit before letting his hand fall back behind his back to meet the other one again. “It’s only for children ages ten to eighteen.”

Yvette lowered the box away from her eyes and lidded it. “I don’t have any kids.”

“I know,” Nicholai said, nodding his head. “But aren’t you a teacher now? The first day on the job is always fun. You meet new people… new young people, old people… strange people.”

Yvette took in a large breath and then let it out slowly. “You want me to give this to some of my students? That’s illegal, I can’t do that.”

The man laughed. “Oh Yvette, don’t you remember? TAHA is directly linked to the government. They’ve already given us full permission to do any tests-”

“I don’t even know what it does! What makes you think I would ever do that?”

Mezz stepped up beside her and raised one of her long orange fingers. “Uh, may I bud in for a moment? Might I remind you that I was the one that made it? Yvette, I can assure you that the substance inside this bottle isn’t going to hurt the kids in any way. I didn’t put any hazardous chemicals in it, and it was made in a safe, certified environment for tests just like this. It may seem a bit scary, but all you have to do is mix it with some water, and the first five or so kids that come into contact with it will enjoy the benefits it brings them! We would never ask you to hurt anyone. These kids will be thanking you for this.”

In order to earn the job of her dreams, this was what she had to do? In all honesty, she had thought the secret “mission” was going to be something like a stack of paperwork to fill out. Never this. The seven year old within her wanted so desperately to go through with it. She could trust these people… right? These people are the heads of the smartest company on the planet. They had to have professional backgrounds. They were smart. They were her heroes. They were who she wanted to be.

“If you agree to do this simple task that will help to make this world even better, Yvette,” Bloodgood said, his fingers tapping against his leg. “I’ll instantly promote you to my top team of scientists. You’ll be working right under my dear Mezz here.” He put a gentle hand on the orange girl’s shoulder, who gave her a smile as warm as the tone of her skin. “And if for some reason people get confused, just let them know that you’re a worker from TAHA, and the subject should no longer be controversial.”

Yvette sighed heavily, looking at the little white box. Give a bunch of kids some kind of vitamin without them knowing and win the job of her dreams, or don’t and give up her life-long aspiration. It was just too much of a risk that she didn’t want to get into.

“I’m… I’m sorry, Mr. Bloodgood… I think you’re going to have to find someone else to do this for you. These are children we’re talking about here. You should consider approaching this in a different-”

“Mmm, wrong answer.” He said, shaking his head, and Yvette’s eyes widened.

“Excuse me?” She choked.

“Mezz, go tell the cerebral unit to start up the cognizance control room.”