The Crimson Phoenix

Building the Lightning absorber and Breakthrough.

Five o’clock in the evening, Leo and his aunt, Molly, were in the garage building the lightning absorber.

Stretching his back and yawning, Leo said exhaustingly, “I think we should stop here for now. I’m already tired. I can come back after an hour nap,” Molly also stood up. Her apron was a bit dirty near the knees. She wore them so as not to get her dress stained.

“Okay, but aren’t you a little hungry? I know I’m hungry,” Molly claimed, rubbing her groaning belly which was longing for food. Leo chuckled upon hearing her stomach. “I could actually use a snack.” Molly uttered. They covered the lightning absorber and went back into the house to get a snack.

In terms of completion, the lightning absorber is thirty percent complete. Leo was still reading books on electronics and mechanics. He wanted to achieve what Michael Faraday failed to and what many scientist have failed to achieve. He has a high focusing ability which allows him to grasp knowledge faster than others… of course, this only applies to things he’s really interested in. Molly decided to make some sandwich for both of them, including little Kate who was still watching a cartoon on the TV. Quickly devouring his sandwich like an hungry wolf would, Leo decided to give his friends back at Sunshine city a video call.

“Hey Leo my man,” James smiled as he greeted him. He was the first to connect to the group call, “How was your first day in your new school?”

“First day at the new school was just like any normal first day at school.” Leo replied. At this moment, another person’s face appeared on the screen and connected to the call.

“Hey babe.” The person greeted. It was Tracy, Leo’s girlfriend and she looked messed up. Her hair was ruffled, her face was pale and her voice sounded hoarse. Her lower eyelids were saggy and looked pink, due to lack of sleep. Leo looked surprised and confused.

“Hey Tracy. What happened to you? You look—” He was suddenly interrupted by her.

“Beautiful? Yes I know, no need to flatter me,” she hastily replied. Leo was speechless and looked glumly.

“Leo was about to say you look messed up.” Leo revealed. Tracy’s smile froze in place and she shot Leo a cold stare.

“She sick because she hasn’t felt you in a while,” Mason implied as his face also appeared on the screen and he joined the call. Tracy rolled her eyes and ignored Mason’s statement.

“Mason man. Good to see you, how you doin’?” Leo greeted wholeheartedly. He really missed Mason and it was Mason he missed the most, of the three of them.

“I’m good bro. How’s the new school?” Mason asked.

“It’s great actually. Things went smoothly. No trouble at all.” Leo gave his heartfelt reply.

“So… did you make any friends, hit on some chicks,” James probed. The moment James mention the word ‘chick’, a look of interest appeared on Tracy’s face and her curiosity was piqued, as she brought her ears closer to her phone in order to listen to what Leo would say.

“Yes I made a friend,” Leo replied and Tracy was more attentive this time, waiting for Leo to finish his statement, “But I did not hit on any girl. The guy’s name is Logan so no need to worry Tracy, your ‘investment’ has not been destroyed.” Leo laughed.

“Were you saying something Leo?” she faked innocence and acted like she wasn’t listening. Leo smirked. Thinking of Tracy made him have sense of being incomplete and he needed her to be with him.

“So. How’s the project going?” James asked seriously.

“You mean the ‘lightning current Absorber’? It’s going on non-smoothly if you ask me. There are so many other problems such that finding a storage unit might be the least of my problems.” Leo complained.

“What about the material to be used for the conducting materials?” Mason asked.

Leo sighed heavily, “There’s still nothing on that. I don’t think any material I have easy access to can take heat. And separating the charges… that’s a load of work if you ask me.” Leo explained. Mason and Tracy nodded.

“I wonder if you could just leave the separating alone,” James suggested. Leo was at loss.

“What do you mean?” Leo asked. Tracy already understood what he meant and decided to explain.

“What he meant was that you should not bother about charge separation,” Leo was still confused. Seeing the confusion on his face, Tracy decided to explain further, “Lightning bolts are either positive or negative. When negative charges gather at the base of the cloud and like charges repel, it’ll push the negative charges on the ground further below, leaving only the positive charges. Then a negative leader will come from the cloud and meet up with a positive leader going up from the ground, this will form a clear path which the lightning will pass through and when the lightning strikes, all the other negative charges that the negative leader had with it will be pushed into the ground, making it a negative CG (cloud to ground),” she explained. Seeing that Leo was starting to understand, decided to carry on, “All you just need to do is know if a lightning will be a positive CG or a negative CG. But fact says that negative CGs occurs the most so prepare mainly for that.” She said.

“Hold on, if lightning brings in only a negative charge, and I find a way to make it get into the appropriate electrolyte, won’t that lead to charge imbalance in the electrolyte?” Leo asked with a confused tone.

“Well… what does your scientific brain tell you? With what I know, the electrolyte should be able to balance it.” She put her hand on her chin and pondered.

Leo looked unamused. “And also, given that there’s no suitable electrolyte that can take that heat and voltage all at once, wouldn’t there be high risk of an explosion?” when Leo said this, everyone started to ponder on it. Leo was right, there could be conflict in the separation phase and it could lead to an explosion.

Suddenly Mason’s eyes lit up, “There might not be a risk of explosion,” he said. Leo, Tracy and James stared at him blankly and seeing our confused states and curiosity, he decided to explain. “Guys come on. It’s not like lightning strikes continuously. It’s all gonna happen in a flash.” He said.

Tracy gave him an irritable look. “Hello! Is someone forgetting the fact that a lightning bolt is five times hotter than the surface of the sun and contains approximately three hundred million volts which will all enter the rod all at once—”

“Which would make the risk of an explosion even bigger.” Leo said as Leo imagined himself standing on the roof of a sky scrapper with the completely built lightning current absorber in front of him. Lightning stuck it but the moment it did, the machine exploded and sent him flying meters away and crashing into another building. Imagining the pain and how disfigured he’ll look sent shivers down his spine. ‘I’ll operate it from afar.’ Leo thought to himself.

“LEO!” He suddenly heard Tracy call his name and he snapped back to his senses.

“Yes, I’m listening.” Leo said quickly.

“If we don’t want an explosion, then we need a metallic conductor that can handle that huge amount of voltage and I’m suggesting a metal with high thickness and has the tendency of containing over a billion joules of energy. We’ll also need tons of insulators and a few advice from some electrical specialists.” Mason suggested.

James suddenly cut in. “Even if the metal can take the voltage… which it barely will be able to do, what’s stopping the high temperature from burning the insides of the machine? Worst of all, you’re gonna have to wait for lightning to come get you because it’ll take some time unless…” James listed some other conditions which gave Leo a headache. They all entered a pondering state once again. It was all complicated and the requirements were just too much.

“Guys, let’s talk about this later, I’m already tired.” Leo said as he didn’t want to worry about the factors to consider for now.

“Okay man. Maybe you should even suspend the project for now.” Tracy suggested. Leo nodded in response.

“I need to direct my fantasy.” Leo said.

“Then do what you do best,” Mason advised. Leo looked at him with raised brows.

“Which is?” He asked. Tracy laughed.

“Being a mechanic,” She proclaimed. Leo gave it some thought. ‘maybe it’ll be nice to get a mechanic job around here.’

“Thanks guys. I’ve gotta go. Got some work to do.” Leo said as he yawned.

“You wanna take a nap don’t you?” Tracy said, unamused.

“Yes. I want to sleep. Talk to you guys later.” Leo said as he hung up. He laid on his bed and closed his eyes. He was so tired, it took just two minutes for him to sleep completely.

***********

Logan and Leo were in the school cafeteria discussing about some people. Logan was introducing Leo to the students, both seniors and juniors… well, some of them.

“…that’s Carly, she’s cute and she’s the shy type and she just has two friends—Jenny and Nora. That’s Miles over there. Great soccer player and a charming guy. He’s in his senior year and he’ll probably come tease you,” Logan said, looking at Miles as he was eating his pizza. Upon seeing Leo and Logan look towards his side, Miles decided to walk over. He forgot to tease Leo yesterday and his face just reminded him.

“Hey boys, how’s it going?” Miles greeted and Logan gave a frustrated sigh. ‘Ugh, here we go again.’ He thought annoyingly to himself.

Leo smiled and replied, “We’re good. You?” Leo didn’t sense any hostility in his words so he decided to act nice. Even if Miles was hostile, Leo would still act nice. He doesn’t like arguments.

“Oh I’m fine. I’m Miles, by the way. Nice to meet you.” Miles introduced as he extended his hand for a handshake.

“I’m Leo.” Leo introduced with a smile and returned the gesture. Miles added a little bit too much force on his palm and squeezed Leo’s hand but Leo wasn’t weak either so he squeezed his in return. They were in a deadlock but they made their faces look normal in order not to display their pain and attract too much attention. But people around could tell that they were struggling with each other.

“So where are you from?” Miles probed after letting Leo’s hand go and used his butt to push Logan away in order to sit in front of Leo.

“Hey!” Logan yelled. Leo chuckled slightly.

“I’m from Sunshine city.” Leo replied. Miles was a bit surprised and also confused.

“What does a guy from Sunshine City come to do at Sky Hills?” He asked. Leo sighed. He didn’t want to tell him the real reason why he was at Sky Hills so he lied to him.

“I’m just here to stay with my aunt,” Leo replied, displaying no emotion that will expose him. He didn’t actually lie though, it was more like he told a little part of the story.

“Okay,” Miles bought it without suspecting anything. Logan decided to join the conversation but was interrupted by Miles again.

“Mr. Conner thinks very highly of you. He couldn’t stop blabbering about how smart you are,” he said, staring Leo in the eyes like someone who’s trying to study him.

“What do you think?” Leo asked. After what you would call sixty seconds of studying each other, Miles finally uttered.

“You’re a very smart guy, and you’re strong too.” He complemented then he stood up, “Too bad though, I’ve only got two months left in this school, wish could get to know you better. Here’s my number, call me if you need anything.” He said as he gave Leo his card containing his number before he left. Logan was annoyed as he shifted himself back to his initial position before Miles interrupted him.

“He seems like a nice guy.” Leo complemented Miles as he watched the handsome figure walk out of the cafeteria. Logan looked disdainfully at Miles.

“He’s a big pain in the ass.” He grunted. Leo chuckled and continued with his food.

************

In the mysterious underground laboratory, a group of scientists were working tirelessly. They were put under too much pressure this time by Dr. Cartel and none of them had a bit of rest. Immersed in their own aspect of the project, they worked towards rectifying the initial failure of the GE-172 and after four more attempts, they’ve finally had a new serum which reduced the factor physical change in the body.

Dr. Cartel injected the new serum into the body of another Chimpanzee and placed it into a large vivarium. The conditions established inside the vivarium was that of a tropical rainforest. The vitals of the chimpanzee was being recorded by the computer through the instruments placed on some areas of the chimpanzee’s body.

“Test subject CH-00176 is in the vivarium. Initiate test for rage stimulation.” Dr. Cartel ordered. Some scientists pushed a few buttons and then a speaker in the vivarium began to play a static signal. It was loud and if there’s one thing animals hate, it’s noise.

The chimpanzee got annoyed and began to cover its ears then it roared at the source of the noise. It suddenly hid behind some shrubs and it was nowhere to be seen.

“Test subject rage test: minimal. Visible physical change: none to be seen. The test subject has hidden behind some shrubs…” Dr. Cartel recorded. This was a normal procedure in science so as to know where to improve on the next time they want to test anything.

Dr. Cartel and a few scientists moved closer to the vivarium and try to locate the position of the Chimpanzee. After trying to locate th chimpanzee, they couldn’t find it I;the whole vivarium. Dr. Cartel and all the present scientists were a bit shocked and confused too.

“Check the vital signs of the test subject and tell me if there are any anomalies.” Dr. Cartel demanded. The scientists tasked with monitoring the vital signs and life signatures of the chimpanzee were all alarmed and confused.

“Vitals are normal. In fact, they are a bit too normal.” A male scientist reported. Dr. Cartel was surprised and went to check the computer and saw that everything and all the bodily aspects of the test subject CH-00176 was more than normal. Body temperature was a bit high, given the anger, and heart rate was very slow. Not too slow though but it was slow enough to be alarmed.

“What the hell…” Dr. Cartel muttered to himself. Suddenly, the sound of metal being destroyed was heard from the vivarium. All the scientists looked over and they saw some wires which were creating sparked and was damaged. That was the initial position of the speaker which was used to make the annoying sounds. The scientists and guards there looked down and saw the metal speaker itself, twisted and deformed beyond recognition.

“Impossible!” A female biologist was surprised. Not even a human could bend a metal speaker that thick without using some kind of appliance. She was shocked to the core and she suddenly took a few steps back. The view of what happened the last time with the monster of the previous experience was still fresh in her memories and she couldn’t help but shudder.

“Sir,” one of the scientists, who were assigned to check the virarium for the test subject, reported. “We can’t seem to find it sir.” Dr. Cartel pondered for a while and what came to his mind made him excited and fearful. He made a speculation but he decided to keep it to himself and do proper research.

“The vital signs here are normal and the tracker shows us that test subject CH-00176 is still in the vivarium… but we can’t see it… because it’s invisible?” He muttered. The other scientists heard and they were surprised but they weren’t too shocked though, given what had happened three days ago. “If it’s still alive, it’ll give off heat.” An idea struck Dr. Cartel’s mind like a lightning bolt and he quickly gave out orders.

“Use infrared g****es to scan for it. As long as it’s still alive and gives off heat, it can be spotted.” He speculated. All the scientists and guards put on infrared g****es and they finally spotted the chimpanzee. All they could see was everything else was blue while the chimpanzee was in orange-amber like color all through. This is how an infrared g****e sees things.

The chimpanzee was sitting on the rocky ground of the vivarium, cross-legged and munching some grubs. It was also staring at the scientists presently staring at it and was confused too.

“Target has been located sir!” A young geologist exclaimed. He took off the infrared googles and he didn’t see anything other than the mini tropical rainforest inside the vivarium, so he put it back on and saw that the chimpanzee was still sitting there. Dr. Cartel walked towards him and collected the googles from him and he too saw the chimpanzee was still sitting there, staring at him too. He was shocked.

‘So it is invisible!’ He thought to himself. He was a bit excited and another thought entered his mind and he couldn’t help but have mixed feelings. Feeling on being a great scientist and also a villainous one. He imagined the world in the future if this serum was perfected and he felt his blood boil.

“Interesting.” He said as he smiled. “Put the observations on record. Test subject CH-00176 has turned invisible and has adapted to the surrounding nature.” He ordered some scientists and they quickly put that on record. He then whispered to himself, “This is another breakthrough we have made. The birth of the GE-176!”