Yellow Jacket

Issue Eight: The Truth Shall Set You Free

[Six Months Ago]

He was a drifter. Constantly moving forward and yet with no real direction. He tapped his foot anxiously, clutching a manila folder close to his chest as if it were a newborn baby. The music from the elevator began to chime, irrelevant tunes from an even more irrelevant band. He tapped his foot down on the floor, waiting impatiently for the metal doors to slide open and send him out onto the floor. This was the day, he pushed the bridge of his glasses up as he practiced the speech in his head, he had made sure to cover all the points, have all the answers to all the questions, today was finally the day that Clark Withers would get his chance. The doors finally slithered open, Clark stepped out and bristly walked toward a waiting room, where a large black reception desk met him.

"I'm here for my appointment with the Stark Industries board." Clark spoke calmly but firmly, trying to make it seem as if his business mattered to these big-wigs. The lady was hunched down, her eyes glued to a stack of paperwork. Her pen scribbling in between the hundreds of lines ad check marks needing to be filled.

"Take a seat, you'll be called down shortly." The receptionist said in a hollow tone, lacking any sense of enthusiasm, heavily deflated like a balloon. Clark took a few steps back and sat down on a chair, twiddling his thumbs as he gazed around the intricately dull scenery around him. From the bland, drab walls to the uninspired decor, it was utterly baffling how a company run by the eccentric Tony Stark, someone who exuded charisma, natural creativity, could feel so lifeless, so robotic.

"...and it seems now that power is starting to return to most of the suburbs. Police still however warn citizens to remain indoors and cautious after the events that occurred just over 8 hours ago. The android known as Ultron has not been sighted since then however it is likely that this latest threat has been thwarted, Ultron was originally created by scientist Hank Pym as a peacekeeping entity, something that ultimately proved to backfire, a public announcement on behalf of the Avengers and the quasi military organization 'S.H.I.E.L.D'-"

"Mr. Withers? They're ready for you." The receptionist's voice ripped Clark from the screen, he took a few prolonged seconds to prep the speech in his head once again. In truth the global news surrounding anything related to superheroics fascinated him, it was like a renaissance they were living in with superbeings being born left and right, each dangling along the lines of good and evil, making their choices, being significant. It was something that Clark longed to feel, significance of any magnitude.

"Thank you." Clark calmly muttered, straightening his tie out and clearing his throat before shuffling inside the next room. He was met by the board, several men and women seated with their eyes plastered to the documents in their hands. He could hardly tell if they even knew he was here.

"Alright, Mr. Withers, floor is yours." An executive spoke up, lifting his head ever so slightly, he then gestured to a nearby computer station for Clark to use for his presentation. He bristly walked forward, remembering to straighten his back, puff his chest out. The executives looked at him, their eyes were like needles poking into his skin with every glance. His mouth felt dry, Clark cursed himself for not bringing a bottle of water with him in case his nerves took over. He would just have to brave through it. He had rehearsed this over and over afterall, he could do this. With a few strokes of a keyboard, the projecter roared to life, spitting out a PowerPoint presentation on the large screen. The executives rolled their swivel chairs around to comb over the presentation.

"Here at Stark Enterprises, we try to innovate, after all, our CEO is Iron Man. We seek to move forward in powerful strides, and we try to be on the cutting edge of everything. Like Mr. Stark, we try to be futurists, benefitting people, at the forefront. So what have I had in mind? Well, something just like that, something that can help...guide people. This is the Mutant Codex." Clark cleared his throat, hovering the pointer at the screen, now flashing a bright graphic with the words 'Mutant Codex' typed in the center. "What this is, is a program that can locate the latent mutant gene in any user upon use. If no gene is located, it will return nothing, but if it does return something, well than that user now knows what they are. After that the app recommends the user a variety of mutant-integrated schools and areas for where they can better understand their remarkable abilites. I'm well aware you are probably all curious as to know the specifics of how this was achieved. Well the next slide goes into great detail in how we firstly request fingerprint identification from the user and-"