#DrSebastianBennettBeginnings
#AnExtremelyShortStory
#ByMRenèLee
#4thWallUniverse
"I'll show those bastards!" A man grumbles under his breath as he erratically shuffles through the papers scattered on the desks surrounding him.
"How dare they terminate my program? It's MY program. I'm the one who started it." In a fit of rage and frustration he swipes all of the papers the desk's contents onto the floor with the cane he wields in his right hand. After catching his breath he adds, "And I'll be the one to say when it ends!"
With his hair a mess and sweat colleting on his brow, the man scans through the dark. His lab coat waves as he rushes over to tall file cabinet at the back of the large lab. He almost slips on the many reports he has strewn on the floor. He tries to open the metal cabinet but finds that it is locked. After a few forceful tugs he pulls out a set of keys from his pocket. His hands are shaking uncontrollably as he frantically tries to find the appropriate key to access the cabinet. The sweat on his forehead rolls down the side of his face. He fumbles the keys and his cane, causing them both to fall to the ground. The echo they generate is deafening. He falls to the ground after them. Before he can rise to his feet, the lights of the lab come on and he knows he is not alone. He slowly raises his head in the direction of the lab's entrance.
"Dr. Bennett?" the nightly custodian asks as he stands confused in the doorway.
"Yes. Uh, Yes, it me." Dr. Bennet answers him as he regains his footing with his cane.
"Did you mean to leave the light off, sir?" the custodian asks.
"Uh, no. Not at all." Dr. Bennett struggles to come up with a lie. "I seem to have forgot where the light switch was in my absence." He chuckles before looking away, embarrassed at the pitiful lie he just told.
"Oh, well, it's right here." The young custodian points to the switch on the adjacent wall. "Let me know if you need help cleaning those papers up. I'll be right out here for a while."
"Sure thing, dear boy," Dr. Bennett says before the custodian walks away from the door. Dr. Bennett sighs with relief and turns around to the metal cabinet. With the correct key in hand, he quickly unlocks the cabinet and begins ripping through the many files and folders it contains.
"Good. Here we go," Dr. Bennett whispers to himself. After a minute or so of looking through the folder containing information on Exo-S 1.3, he wonders aloud, "This isn't all of it. Where's the rest?"
After a short pause he whispers through the grit of his teeth, "Dr. Mason." He looks across the disheveled lab once more as he looks for his former colleague's desk. Not wanting to spend any more time searching the lab he is not sure he is authorized to be in, Dr. Bennett hurries to the lab entrance. He looks down the hallway in both directions until he sees the young man buffing the hall floors. He waves him down to get his attention.
"Sorry to disturb you again, uh..." Dr. Bennett pauses.
"My name is Ethan," he answers.
"Ethan. Right. Sorry for bothering you again but which of these desks is Dr. Mason's? I can't seem to remember," Dr. Bennett asks.
"Oh, he actually has a personal office now. One of the offices connected to lab." The custodian informs him.
"Oh really?" Dr. Bennett tries to hide his anger. "I wasn't aware that he got his own office."
"Yea, it only happened recently," the custodian responds.
"Well, thank you. I appreciate your help." Dr. Bennett smiles and re-enters the lab. He quickly locates the three offices connected to the lab and it's not hard to tell which one belongs to Dr. Bryan Mason. Through the glass walls he can see the pictures of Dr. Mason's parents with his brother in uniform after his training camp graduation next to his degrees on the wall.
It doesn't take long for Dr. Bennett to get into the office. He quickly finds the files he is looking for. Dr. Bennett can hardly contain himself as he looks over the folder containing the data for the Exo-S 3.0 prototype. He grabs the folder and the server information where the raw data is kept. He moves as fast as his degenerative legs allow him to as he reaches the hallway where he pauses to catch his breath. He notices the hallway is clear and Ethan is nowhere in sight. Dr. Bennett looks forward and sees the prototypes Exo-S 1.3 and Exo-S 3.0 in their respective display cases. Dr. Bennett looks down the hallway again.
"I will be the one to say when it ends...and that has not happened yet," Dr. Bennett says to himself. Glass flies everywhere as Dr. Bennet slams his cane into the display case of the Exo-S 3.0.
Ethan hears the loud crash and rushes to the hallway. He immediately sees the broken display case and the missing prototype. He looks down the hall and then in the Biomechanical and Biophysics division lab where Dr. Bennett was...but he is gone.
YOU ARE READING
4th Wall Universe
AdventureEvery hero has a beginning and every villain was once a regular person... Well, most of them were, but you can find the pieces to their puzzles here.
