Gemma's father died of a sudden cardiac arrest a few months back and following his death, his beloved daughter took over. Robert Reynolds was lucky that he had an easy escape, because knowing that he was the one behind everything that went wrong in the Front, well, he'd have been deluded if he thought he was going to get an easy way out.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAaDRwgucpR2
Gemma, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. Because now, she was going to have to answer for the wrongdoings of her company.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAcJh1YpPWj4
Director had repeated the story half a million times almost like a reminder or something that I'd find a hard time believing, although I was there when it happened.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAGWES81fXr4
A rivalry between wrestlers had nothing on the rivalry between companies; especially if it was a war between pharmaceutical companies. Reynolds Corporation, then owned by Robert Reynolds had been at an endless catfight with the Front since before I was born. I heard stories of how fierce the battles used to be; all economic boom, this and marketing drop, that. I never cared enough to understand the core business part of it, – although one quick flip to an economics textbook was all that would have been needed for the information to automatically embed itself into my longterm memory – but, the plotting part of the rivalry was something of interest.
535Please respect copyright.PENANA03SG1Ag3Fw
Unfortunately for the Front, Mr. Reynolds had a particular gift for plotting. His talent was put into full view when I was six and saw the floor quake from the eight floor of the Front's headquarters. My first impression was that it was an earthquake – either that or Judgement Day came early. And then the floor plummeted down. I saw something shiny and bright – probably fire – and (understandably) passed out. Three MK 82 bombs. Planted in the building's commercial basement, they ripped apart the building as if pealing a book open. It was an inside job. There were approximately eight hundred people in the building that day. The following week, five-hundred and twenty-two were six feet under the ground. As well as my parents, the owners of the Front were among them.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAVVJFOUqK7I
Director, his actual name, Michael Lauder, reconstructed the building and brought the company up again. A year after the attack, he sat on the CEO's seat. Amanda had just begun working there for the Front when the Reynolds attack took place. She started off as Chadwick and Holland's secretary but following their death, she became Director's secretary. It still surprised me today as to how she didn't go off running in the other direction.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAf8ktqXM56G
Reynolds attacked because the Front held in its hands what Reynolds Corporation had been working on for at least four generations. 202.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAfgITSdDsxQ
I still failed to understand why the Front kept all evidence of the Reynolds attack hidden from the world's eyes. There was more than enough evidence just sitting in a locker collecting dust, to end the Reynolds several times over. But Director refused to publish it. Idiot.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAlQ13jhqY1t
All in all, as Director said, the only bright side for the Front was that Reynolds Corporation didn't manage to destroy what they actually wanted to. If they had, this launch evening wouldn't have taken place. That was unless we planned on launching a load of air.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAsYiiYXLSDi
Even a two-year-old with more logic than Robert Reynolds would have questioned why the Reynolds didn't just steal the cure, especially if they managed to pull off an explosion inside the very building which the cure was kept. Dumbass.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAods2SDcGEx
But Robert Reynolds didn't work that way. I was convinced he was a genetic thing. The whole family was a nutcase. And it just so happened, one of them was standing right in front of me.
535Please respect copyright.PENANA4XJAbUSsfq
"Miss Reynolds!" Director appeared out of the blue.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAczFI7G1K8L
She turned around. "Please, call me Gemma!"
535Please respect copyright.PENANAgAlgQaXLQc
How about 'Serpent'?
535Please respect copyright.PENANAdGEH1uMIoI
"How are things at Reynolds Corporation?"
535Please respect copyright.PENANAZaGQOipfSq
"Adequate, considering the loss we suffered when my father passed," the serpent said.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAhON8Q4oGdM
Quite the performance, judging by how much they hated each other. Please, someone, give them an Oscar each!
535Please respect copyright.PENANAHTEXS7oUoI
Just how did they manage it? Especially when it was her precious dad who destroyed the Front's life work and mercilessly killed almost everyone in the goddamn building. I failed to understand how Director could be plotting a fool-proof revenge plan on her one minute and then ask questions like how are things at Reynolds Corporation? so casually the next. Then again, his wrath was child's play compared to mine, because it wasn't his parents were killed...
535Please respect copyright.PENANAmtkOqWOyYh
Although I'm certainly not a murderer, Gemma's smug face always made me rethink this quality. However, I had more chance surviving in space than going anywhere close to her because the Serpent's father was so rich, the security that surrounded her 24 hours a day was so... well, secure, it was as if they were guarding an actual gem! And not the cheap kind either. Bottom line was that an enemy couldn't go near her within a ten-mile radius.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAfK4QZYPDMy
Yet the helpless girl is standing a little less than ten inches from her death.
535Please respect copyright.PENANABWWqXSCYYN
Joke.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAL5OK4yIc3n
I think.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAIuOszKu0fw
In that moment, I was well and ready to give her a piece of my mind - quite literally, by shattering her cranium into a million fibers: also literally - shattering things with my mind was one of my masterly abilities. However, a bucketload of disappointment hit me in the face when Director shook his head at me. He was probably reading my thoughts as if it were an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation manual.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAmvFgmklWqR
I scowled, ignoring him.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAAQiRrx0QmB
One must wonder, how can a – technically – superhuman be stopped by something as feeble as security? That's because it wasn't any old security. Robert Reynolds knew the Front's little secret. They discovered the ins and the outs of what the Front had been up to, and how the creation of Emerald Reese went way beyond the cure. Why do you think they burnt our building in the first place? During this maniacal act, they discovered my life story - at least my life story as a child. They knew all my strengths, weaknesses, and pretty much everything the Front knew. Reynolds knew that the Front was likely to use their creation against them – as if I wanted to. Director also opposed this idea. Something about a metaphorical nuclear war breaking out between the Front and Reynolds Corporation, if we did. So, being the cynical man he was, Robert set up a specific "anti-202" agency to protect Gemma. If the FBI, MI6, and a little bit of Star Wars army rolled all into one, that would be the anti-202 squad. I couldn't go within reaching distance of her.
535Please respect copyright.PENANA7oCzZ71oL3
Well, she was within reaching distance now.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAXb2DtPAKf1
Director must seen through my head because the next thing you know I was dragged to the side, away from a very fake conversation between the she-devil and Annie.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAbBZzwmmkBa
"202, don't even think about it!" Director scolded.
535Please respect copyright.PENANALVdA5gsvr2
"What?! She's right there!" I exclaimed, wildly gesturing in her direction, "If I could just—"
535Please respect copyright.PENANAgrlQLROKab
"Absolutely not. I will not allow you to—"
535Please respect copyright.PENANASwZAIQjoPP
This is ridiculous!
535Please respect copyright.PENANAWQQEVXrC01
"This is ridiculous!" I exclaimed.
535Please respect copyright.PENANA133MbyMKvC
He leaned his head close to me.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAllBFKhG4xD
"202, tonight you are forbidden to go near Gemma Reynolds," He spoke in a deadly, low voice, one that dared me to argue back.
535Please respect copyright.PENANA6Li7F9GMrq
I chose not to. This time.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAVOZY2ppATc
***
535Please respect copyright.PENANAyo1Qlykq4b
And so, for the rest of the evening, I trudged around in my intolerable dress, reserving my vengeance for another day. But what happened right at the end of that night was what was most interesting. It started with a very heated conversation with the lovely Gemma Reynolds.
535Please respect copyright.PENANANlrcLvFJFN
"Yes? Okay... alright. So the car's here?" I heard - or rather eavesdropped on - the Serpent speak from where I was standing next to Will, Anne, and Director.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAr1JqQkeBJ5
Then the Serpent came towards us.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAMSgkZ2j3An
"What a grand evening! Such a shame it had to come to an end. Once again, congratulations! Your sincere efforts deserve this success, I wish you the best of luck!"
535Please respect copyright.PENANAMxKrxK29PN
Seven billion people, fourteen billion faces.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAOawxtKEmdC
"Thank you, Gemma. I wish you the best of luck running Reynolds Corporation, especially at such a young age," Director replied.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAfrY0wZLXf3
Oh the act!
535Please respect copyright.PENANAu6rSN0eXkM
And on a side note, whose idiotic idea was it to hand a multi-billion dollar company to a nineteen-year-old? I was also nineteen, but did I get to run a multi-billion dollar company? No.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAA27hGq9qJU
You got superpowers instead.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAhS5NRmOSQG
"202, you are very special," she suddenly spoke, startling me. She brushed her blonde curls back, the way only models advertising Tony and Guy would do. "It really is a shame your parents aren't here to see it."
535Please respect copyright.PENANA1E2AovWwmx
I tensed. She had five sec–
535Please respect copyright.PENANArwxRwmMGpb
"Thank you very much for your visit Miss Rey—" Amanda cut in, sensing the change in atmosphere.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAg6ODmAUPnU
"But then again, my father isn't here either. He would have been so proud of The Front," The Serpent continued, cutting Amanda off.
535Please respect copyright.PENANA4B9oHMJg37
"How..." dare a deceiving, manipulative, two-faced sadist like you stand in front of The Front - no pun intended - and speak such lies as if I were a brain dead moron, incapable of seeing anything behind that not-so-pretty face of yours! And on a side note, the Front threw a celebrated with wine, the night your father's heart stopped. "... unfortunate," I replied, instead.
535Please respect copyright.PENANA9VBShtGlCX
"But nonetheless, I can't even begin to imagine, for a moment, the pain and suffering you went through after your parents..." She let the end of the sentence hang mid-air.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAYlfQAZtjQZ
Okay, she had two seconds.
535Please respect copyright.PENANA1Hdk5CNLFZ
"You seem to have quite the fixation on my parents," I replied with a bitter edge.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAD5Cew8NNMQ
"Why, they were a pair of phenomenons!"
535Please respect copyright.PENANAijosiQCO4T
My, my, I did not know that!
535Please respect copyright.PENANAAQvjwH1xcv
She continued, "I look up to them as my role models. More. My idols!" The lies that came out of her mouth were of mythical proportions.
535Please respect copyright.PENANATTx5B2L3Fy
Just as I was about to hit her back with another snarky remark, something captured my eyes.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAAfPMPggmwG
Chocolate fountain!
535Please respect copyright.PENANALCP2YnQoWY
Needless to say, I ditched the conversation there and then, and made my way to the drizzling gloss of brown beauty.
535Please respect copyright.PENANA11yoSlZ60G
"And now for the most awaited moment of the night..." I spoke to myself, drowning a strawberry under the chocolate fall. My eyes twinkled with gluttonous desire, like the River Jordan under the moonlight. I finished the strawberry in three bites and ate another. And, then another. Then a pineapple followed by grape, and just as I was about to help myself to a marshmallow, a hand wrapped around my wrist. A hand that belonged to Will, a young intern who temporarily worked at the Front.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAknwym9K10I
"What's your deal?" I eyed him.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAb90Fy46DRD
"Don't eat the marshmallows," He whispered.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAye0eixpxxD
"Don't worry, I'm far off from diabetes," I answered, shifting my hand closer to my mouth. "Why are you whispering anyway?"
535Please respect copyright.PENANA0kup4AucBW
He halted my hand again. "Unless you want to involuntarily fall into unconsciousness, I advise you to put it down. Now."
535Please respect copyright.PENANAeKlDdosX1c
I shot daggers at him.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAUd1bGyhhMh
"Please," he added wisely.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAAvfB4EtAIZ
I put the marshmallow down, not because he told me to obviously, but because dozens of questions were begging to be answered after what he just said. "So what's wrong with the—"
535Please respect copyright.PENANA8KBjDshVpV
Just then, a man about two feet away from us, whom I assume by his attire, and was a journalist, collapsed, answering at least half a dozen of my questions in the space of three seconds.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAYZIyT0CtkS
"Oh."
535Please respect copyright.PENANAatxBw2iinm
Well. That's not pretty.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAkgaKqzyk2v
"Somebody get help!" A strangers voice emerged, and within seconds there was a small crowd forming around the man.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAw6wEhoLos0
"Don't worry, he's still breathing!" Another stranger's voice said.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAC2gSLX57Gj
"Well that doesn't mean he's going to still be breathing in the five minutes," I pointed out realistically.
535Please respect copyright.PENANA8pVwPDaknr
I was met with a bunch of scowls.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAO9dHuWGbYT
I mentally face palmed myself. "Oh for God's sake! Call an ambulance!"
535Please respect copyright.PENANADedw3MMnIz
Suddenly I was yanked to the side.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAntUfogtJNG
"There will be no need for that, 202," Director appeared out of nowhere. I'm beginning to believe he can teleport. "We'll take care of him."
535Please respect copyright.PENANABePzaVpzWz
"Oh really? And how are you going to do that?"
535Please respect copyright.PENANAd4EXhro96s
"We have hundreds of doctors working for the Front."
535Please respect copyright.PENANAfLn1wXOsJw
"You are going to have a dead body at an event that is hosting the biggest discovery in history, and guess what? Everyone in the entire world is going to see it and The Front is going to go up in flames as it did during the Reynolds' attack! That's right, mister!"
535Please respect copyright.PENANAvr3Vk6eOYO
"Will you stop being so dramatic? He's not going to die! He's just seda—" he paused. "Like I said, we'll make sure he gets the care he needs."
535Please respect copyright.PENANARDq0ZmgKee
"We can't take responsibility for him! It's not our fault..." my voice drifted away, along with my mind as I tried to decipher why something as innocent as marshmallows was altered in the first place.
535Please respect copyright.PENANA12oi7lHBAI
"Director..." I called, but he was too occupied with the man.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAJqjBtxy2R3
"Someone get the Doctor!"
535Please respect copyright.PENANAGBeVPeooSz
"Director!"
535Please respect copyright.PENANAi5tyIz8vMW
"Not now, 202."
535Please respect copyright.PENANAX8K5mBb9rW
"No, it has to be now!" I exclaimed. "How did you know the marshmallows were drugged?"
535Please respect copyright.PENANARStxytejK4
My question was ignored.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAOyXk2IUXX2
"Answer me!"
535Please respect copyright.PENANAlYwsIBRrdq
"202, you are making a scene, we can do this later!" He said, turning back around.
535Please respect copyright.PENANA4OhiXaVZ0b
Unless...
535Please respect copyright.PENANAUmG8AmVkfj
"Unless..." In a short moment, my mind began piecing two and two together. Well actually, it was more like eight and eight together, considering the giant leap of a concluding statement I was about to blurt out. Unless you already knew...
535Please respect copyright.PENANArk2p8gXsDp
Slowly, I was backing out of the crowd, when Amanda grabbed my arm. "Where are you going?"
535Please respect copyright.PENANAaUhm2tKPzN
"Director said he had it all under control," Tentatively, I brought my arm out of her grasp. "He said, I should stay out of the way, so yeah, uh-huh..." Nodding like my life depended on it, I whisked myself away out of the hall before she could stop me - as if she could even if she tried, but lack of subtleness wouldn't have done me well considering the situation I suddenly found myself in.
535Please respect copyright.PENANArcNnlCwRvy
I was about to call the Front's driver, but decided against it, calling a cab instead.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAv6MlO4zIeP
"Where to, Miss?" The driver asked, turning to the back seat.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAdg7DxLAm8s
"The Front Headquarters. You know, the pretty looking, silver building in the middle of a forest–"
535Please respect copyright.PENANAiYWrV3E1Bs
"I know what it is, Miss. Is there a person in the country who doesn't?"
535Please respect copyright.PENANAxOFyE8x5s1
"Oh, right... well, hurry up, then!"
535Please respect copyright.PENANA4z8A6NaHJb
***
535Please respect copyright.PENANA8y3JJcIVkV
Upon entering the Headquarters, I took myself first to Amanda's room. There was something important I had left there.
535Please respect copyright.PENANArT0gx1f6mG
The door was unlocked. I slid in, gliding towards the desk, and picked up the small transparent box that sat on the edge of the glass table. Opening it, I picked up the metal piece between my thumb and index finger and threaded the ring through the tiny holes at my eyebrows.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAo1lOmu0VSz
My rapid footsteps then brought me to where I actually needed to be. One very important room that no man could ever walk into without consent.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAAf0GT6m7ih
Well, I was a woman.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAXEZV7ETTLB
Besides, even if 202 were a man, the glass door to Director's office shouldn't have posed anything of a challenge. Unfortunately, the door was locked and tightly secured with a fingerprint scanner so I had two options:
535Please respect copyright.PENANAmIko1fhfpM
Drug Director whilst he's asleep... okay, I would first need to sneak into his house and then hide in his bedroom, which wouldn't please his imaginary wife, and then I'd drug him, drag him back to the Front Headquarters and touch the scanner with his thumb. Then again there'd be the easier option to just cut his thumb off, so actually there are three options, however, option number two would have probably just rose questions. As would option number one.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAnkpln09HL1
So, option number three seemed the most ideal:
535Please respect copyright.PENANAy613SY7Tp7
I tapped the tips of my five fingers in four precise areas.
In heartbeat, what once was a slab of glass morphed into a million tiny pieces of lethality.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAurmo4ENqn0
I knew option three was the best.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAWoqgLb6IDF
Question, is it betrayal if you're using your powers against the people who gave them to you in the first place?
535Please respect copyright.PENANAjamREzmvEh
"Nah." I spoke to myself.
535Please respect copyright.PENANA9kJxRUYm4y
Stepping into what felt like no man's land, I quickly scrambled through the dozens of drawers in the room, one by one, looking for a precise one with the practical Wikipedia which some obsessed strangers who worked at the Front wrote about me. Sadly I didn't find it in any of the drawers. I found an entire cabinet of lockers full of it. And it was not the bright silver piece of metal which was twisted this way and that to form the numbers '202' that gave it away.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAtcW89pa2kA
"Do I even know this much about myself?"
535Please respect copyright.PENANAMXz46VYnAm
Each drawer of the vast locker contained specific information, from my entire genome, to my diet; you name it. The lockers seemed to mirror almost a timeline - of my life. The further down you go, the older I get, until they finish at nineteen.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAKRZ2qchQvv
Due to both curiosity and most importantly, reason I paid for a cab and broke a glass door, I opened the drawer labeled Nineteenth Year.
535Please respect copyright.PENANALlBJR9FgvQ
Still surprised how no alarms went off.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAxaxY7G3iXQ
The door opened an inch, but seeing as someone wanted to stuff all of the world's paper into one space, it was stuck and didn't open any further. Irritatedly, I pulled much harder the second time and it gave way.
535Please respect copyright.PENANADEcwHCNJso
Needless to say, I was met with a lot of paper, most of which were stored in colored files. A lot of it was boring, just graphs and reports. But one, right a the back, so small, so lethally dark that no one would have spot it, caught my eye. It was perched there, just begging to be explored. I picked it out.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAuC49CCHZHo
There was only one word on the front, so simple, anyone else wouldn't have given it a second glance. But, it was one word that made my mouth go dry.
535Please respect copyright.PENANARk6EfmeFM5
Imagine every horror story you've ever heard. If if they were compressed into one word, this would be it. At least, that was the case for me.
535Please respect copyright.PENANAhhQo6v25q3
"Termination?"
535Please respect copyright.PENANAUpQPADZtqm
I've spoken to myself a lot during my little break-in, nothing different or unusual, you know, just casually talking to myself... except this voice didn't belong to me. I knew this because, firstly, if it had come out of voice box, I would have noticed it. And secondly, it was said in a voice so cold, it could have frozen lava. This was the only, and I repeat, the only reason why I had flinched.
535Please respect copyright.PENANALJ5eRFQxGW
"That's not a pretty word, is it?"
____________________________________________________________________________
535Please respect copyright.PENANAIaMtkaX10A
535Please respect copyright.PENANA3xMaMLEB5V
Author's note:
535Please respect copyright.PENANAPvqkU9Wp0l
Hmm, I wonder who that is...
535Please respect copyright.PENANAVcU3Wr6MtW
I hope the title didn't give away too much – even though, that was kind of the idea.
ns 172.71.254.174da2