Renegade Comics: Arclight

Chapter 2

"Mom are you sure that this absence doesn't count against me?"

"I told you before that it does, Bobby." A soft voice responds to her child.

"I hoped this would have been a get out of jail free card." Bobby responds, with the slightest of annoyance in his voice.

"Well at least you get to see what we're studying, son." A man responds to his son, with a more positive tone.

"Dad, you guys study how the d-listers' powers work. "

"Ehh." The father grunts.

"Ehh." The boy parrots back.

"What is it with that phrase that compels you two to use it, Arthur? You got the kids saying now, and I heard Uncle Rick is even doing it."

"Well, Diana, if you joined on the 'ehh' you might understand." Arthur rebuts.

"What he said." Bobby adds, teasingly.

The elevator door opens, and the pair guides their son to the entrance to the lab.

"This is our stop, I assume?" Questions the boy.

"Yes it is, love. I'm surprised we even got clearance to bring you up here." Diana replies, continuously keeping her warm happy tone about her.

Arthur chimes "Who knows? You might even find it interesting."

"Ehh." the boy uses as a legitimate response.

"Just try to enjoy yourself up here, for us? Please?" Diana requests.

"I can behave."

The father teases "Ehhh, I mean..."

Bobby retorts with a false pain. "Oh, Father, why have you forsaken me?"

"Because child, I am the king Arthur. I rule all." Arthur attempts to sound regal and intimidating, only to earn a flick in the ear by Diana.

"Oh sure you do, darling."

"Ehh." Arthur weasels out. "C'mon. Here we are."

"Welcome to the lab, Bobby." Diana introduces her son to the lab as she unlocks the door and pushes it open."

"Here we go." Bobby preps himself. As the door fully opens his eyes widen with instant wonder. "Woah.." is all he manages to say while gazing at the sight before him. Containment tanks, viewing stations and computers line the outer walls of a bi-level laboratory.

Arthur breaks the silence. "I've got him, you go prep the lab, Dee." He tells his amazon as he guides his son over to his desk. Next to is a containment unit with a looking glass on it.

"Cool." Bobby drones to himself, still in shock and awe of his parents workstations. He turns to his father, with no surprise to see him ogling at his mother.... again.

"Dad. C'mon." He attempts to break his father from his daze.

"Huh? Oh yeah. Sorry, kiddo." Arthur drones, still blatantly staring.

"Dad!" Bobby makes another attempt by lightly punching his father's shoulder.

"Yes son I know. But just..." Arthur holds his hand up shamelessly "I mean.." His sentence is finished with a smirk, and a content grunt. He turns around to face his son and walks him over to the looking glass. "Ok. Check this out, ya geek." The boy happily obliges.

"What's this?"

"Look for yourself." The boy peeks into the glass to see a myriad of nanobots and strange yellow and blue spheres.

"Are those?"

"Pym Particles, yes."

"Cool."

"Keep watching." A bot latches onto a yellow sphere and grows.

"Woah." Another bot attaches to a blue particle and shrinks. The boy looks away turning to his father. "That's really cool." He marvels at the sight he witnessed. The idea is simple, yet to see it with his own eyes was something completely different.

"You should go see what your mother is working on. It's very special." Arthur points over to where his son can find Diana. "It won't disappoint you. Go on."

"Ok." Bobby makes his way over to Diana's workstation. "So, what're you doin'?"

"I'm studying an extraterrestrial gas. It's not found on earth naturally. We don't even have a name for it yet." Diana explains enthusiastically, not taking her eyes off of her work.

"Oooo" Bobby wiggles his fingers.

It's actually quite fascinating. Come, look for yourself, love." Diana beckons to her boy. Bobby looks through the glass himself.

"So it's not from this earth, huh?"

Exactly. And it has some rather, interesting properties. For one it's very dangerous to the human body, which is why this chamber isn't connected to the rest of the ventilation system. However it isn't corrosive, nor does it display any physically negative effects on the body. It's as if it's presence alone is what kills the person exposed to it.

"Sounds good. For me at least. An unknown voice responds to her assessment.

"Wha, Who are you? What do you want?" Diana steps in front of the boy.

"Names are irrelevant. All I want is that gas, ma'am. I don't need to hurt you or your son."

"You shouldn't want to either. And you will not threaten my family." Arthur responds strongly, a gun pointed to the back of the stranger's white hood. The man raises his head to face Diana and her son, meeting her eyes with a pair of glowing yellow orbs.

"Wrong move, sir."