ᵉˣⁱᵗ ʷᵒᵘⁿᵈˢ ▸ 𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐂𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐑 ✓

one.

EXIT WOUNDS.
001. | ❛ today's the day. ❜

MILA COULD FEEL THAT TODAY WOULD BE THE DAY THAT SHE WOULD MAKE HER BREAKTHROUGH.
The breakthrough of the century, the ability to create superpowers from a stable source. Scrambling around her room to make sure she couldn't possibly be missing anything. On a day so grand as this she couldn't risk anything. Everything she has worked for for the past 5 years would finally pay off. They dream that her parents were on the brink of creating was about to be accomplished.

Quickly, Mila took one last breath before leaving her apartment and headed to the laboratory to which she had built after graduating from college. It was a success, considering the amount of interns and employees applied to work alongside the brilliant mind of Annika and William Jones's daughter, Mila. The applications was gruesome to the eye, judging from which person actually wanted to work and learn or who wanted it for selfish reasons and possibly fans of her parents. She was proud to be their daughter, but she was her own person and was brilliant nonetheless. She narrowed it down to a selective handful of minds as brilliant and distinct as her, almost like they were family.

Silvana Michael, a bio-engineer whom she met while she was completing her masters at Harvard. She was less fortunate than Mila was, having been the first of her family to go to college and a lucky girl to win a scholarship to go. Her story touched Mila, but it was Silvana's bubbly personality and determination that made one of her best friend her first hire.

Evie Darnley, a chemist who was known for mixing various chemicals which resulted in explosions. However, when the two met at an internship, Mila seemed to figure out what the outgoing chemist was missing; was to add one more Carbon element to the solution. Vice versa, Evie helped Mila unlock a piece of her parents experiment that didn't make sense to a scientist that study a different area. Since her help that day, Mila enjoyed the idea of having Evie on her team.

Zelda Scotts, a medical radiation scientist who provided that sarcastic yet brightness that anybody needed on their team.
The two on occasion would butt heads at the beginning, but worked on a project together resulting in their friendship growing closer. She would be consider a second Mila since their minds thought similar.

Albert Cummings, a biomedical scientist whom Mila considered a childhood friend. Considering that the two of them grew up together and followed their parents footsteps. He was one person that Mila needed on her team, the person who pushed her harder than the others and was a strong shoulder to cry on when it didn't go as planned. Originally, Albert didn't want to accept her offer, knowing that his feelings would compromise at one point or another. But, Mila's insistence convinced him otherwise and gave into his best friend's dream.

Stepping out of her apartment, she was greeted by Albert with a bouquet of roses. Strangely enough, Mila forgot the importance of today. Beside the fact that she was going to make a scientific discovery, it was also her birthday. She held her heart as she was taken back by his kind gestures.

"Only the best for the birthday girl," Albert said handing her the bouquet to which Mila gave him a strong hug.

"Thank you, Albert. Can you believe that I forgot today was my birthday?" She said as they started to walk over to her car.

"Birthdays were never my forte, but how could I ever forgot my best friend's birthday?" Albert said cheerily.

"You could forgot when you're on the edge of creating something wonderful." Mila smiled as she opened the door to her car. "I'll see you at the lab." She said as she got into the car, and placed the flowers in the passenger seat. The roses that represented more to Albert than Mila. Where he saw it as a way to advance his feelings towards Mila, she saw it as the symbol of their friendship and how it could never change.

Her drive to the lab was shorter than usual, considering that it was a Monday and it was at the time where everyone would get up to go to work. But she didn't mind it today, she wanted to get there early to finish what she's been working on for so long. What her parents had been working on for the majority of their life together. She was going to accomplish their goal.

She walked into the lab and instead of being greeted normally, her friends in unison screamed 'Happy Birthday' to her. A bright smile appeared across her face and lasted until the song was over.

"Guys, you didn't have to," she said while each one of them gave her a hug.

"Albert arranged it. How could we not?" Silvana cheered.

Mila went to her station in the lab and looked at the flask that she kept in a temperature controlled glass box. She sat in her chair and wheeled around to face her friends, "He's very sweet for doing this, but we have to get back to work. Not everything can stop for my birthday, especially when we are on the verge of something great."

All the girls looked at each other, in surprise that she took her birthday so lightly this year compared to others. The three knew that saying something would only result in starting a riff that they didn't want to. However, there was always the one person that didn't seem to let it go,
"We aren't going to deny the obvious? Albert is a sick puppy and who's going to deny that?" Zelda asked to have a support from the others, but they were long gone before the battlefield would start.

Mila sighed as she threw her head back in her chair before she got up and got her vial from the box and retreated to her chemical lab, "I can't discuss this right now, Zelda. Maybe tomorrow, but if you do see Albert can you please thank him for everything?"

Once she disappeared, she could see the three friends start to dispute with Zelda before going back to work. That's all they all needed to do, was get back to work. Mila kept her eyes focused on her parents journal and observations on Project WAVE; she spent hours in her lab by herself going over the last fragment of information, checking her parents work and calculations.
The last thing she wanted was for it to explode in her face. Her goggles were starting to strain her eyes and she was near completion when Albert touched her shoulder.

Mila jumped up at the touch of his hand, "You freaked me out."

He rubbed the back of his neck before smiling down at her, "I just wanted to say that I was heading out, something that you should do as well. It's almost midnight."

She yawned at the word midnight as she shook her head from side to side, "I'm going to stay a bit longer, but don't worry about me."

"I'll try not to," he said as he made his way out of her lab.

"Albert," she called out to him as his heart skipped a beat at the sight of his voice being called by her. He turned around with one hand on the glass door to face the yet beautiful scientist, "Thank you for today, regarding my birthday."

"No problem, Jones." He sighed as he took one last glimpse of the grim before walking away, leaving her to her experiment.

Mila fought to keep her eyes awake as she continuously dozed off before she got self control of herself again. She carefully lifted the concoction that she brewed with atoms selectively picked to neutralize the elements in the vial. She grabbed the eye dropper and squeezed it into the concoction, just a small amount that was needed to compete the formula.
With caution, she loomed the dropped over the vial and she closed her eyes for a minute. Taking in the glory that would result in just a few seconds, the hard work that she invested was about to finally become a reality.

She lightly squeezed a few drops of the liquid into the vial. The yellow-red was transformed into a shining and compelling emerald as soon as the two liquids touched. It was a mesmerizing color that enchanted Mila to look closer and when no reaction occurred, she jumped up in glee with the first instinct was to text her groupchat with all her colleagues.

She sighed as the text went through, taking the vial in her hands and being drawn to its contents and color. Carefully, she set it down in its original position and getting a flutter in her heart once again. The liquid started to fizz with bubbles rising to the top and Mila took a closer look at how the chemicals were starting to overreact with each other. With one final look, Mila was thrown back into the wall hitting her head and falling into deep unconscious.