"Can you stop touching things, please!" Lydia shouted at me as she ran from across the lab to pull some beakers out of my hands. Her honeyed locks bounced as she ran towards me.

"I'm sorry, I just get really antsy from doing nothing and you know that." I said as stepped away from the test tubes, "It's even worse than we are doing this in the morning."

"Juan, you know that this is the only time in the day that we can do this without getting caught." She wandered back to her desk with the beakers in hand and placed them neatly alongside everything else there. With the amount of stuff that was on her desk, I wondered how she even had space to put them or how it looked so tidy. The laboratory was a pristine white room that reflected light at every angle, trying to blind anyone brave enough to enter and face the beast that waited inside, Lydia Carpenter, the smartest person in the world. I don't say that as a compliment, it's a fact, her power is an above human intellect making her the smartest person on Earth. I sat on a stool by one of the many research desks scattered around the room surrounded by centrifuges, incubators and even 3D printers. Over the last few months, being back on Veltrace Island has been weird, I haven't been back here since I was nine. The labs weren't here before but hey ere nice inclusion to the place. I've come here so often now that I'd gotten used to the whirring of machines and clinking noise of people stirring their experiments, it became a beautiful symphony that eased my soul.

"You make this sound so naughty," I said with a smirk.

"It is wrong, we both know that." She said as she grabbed a case from underneath her desk. "I now realize that you were making a sexual joke."

"See, you are beginning to pick up on them more." Even though she was insanely smart, she was bad at picking up sarcasm or suggestive jokes which I found funny. She brought the case over to where I was and placed it in front of us. It was a normal handheld case that had a hard-metallic exterior, the difference between the case and any other metal case was the three-point verification system that Lydia built into it to keep anyone else out of it. She placed her thumb on the display underneath the handle, then pulled her diamond blue eyes to it allowing it to scan her eye.

"Hash browns, bacon with a side of white toast." She finally said into the case before the mechanical bits within clicked open.

"I really don't understand why that is you voice recognition code, you of all people I'd thought would have some overly complex passcode."

"Firstly, I made sure the system can't be just used by an idiot who picks up. The sensor also has an in-built heartbeat monitor and pupil dilation detection software so that you can't just have my thumb and eye to open it. So, there is zero way that anyone other than me gets past those two systems. On the .64 percent chance someone can do that, there is a vocal analyses software that detects if my voice is being mimicked, spliced or under duress which will destroy the contents of the case. So, I made it my breakfast order for fun."

"Destroy the contents, you can't be serious. This is the last of it, what if we need it in the heat of battle and you are under duress."

"I have countermeasures for that, but I'd rather have it destroyed than have anyone else get a hold of it." She said as she opened the case. Inside, the last six test tubes of Roboro sat snugly. The inner lining of the case was padded and little sections were cut out for the chemicals to lie in as well as other chemicals and equipment. These vials were the only things Oliver and I could recover from A.R.D.O labs earlier this year, I was going to tell everyone else eventually that we had taken it but so much happened so quickly that just ended up hiding it. Then I found out about Lydia, it was difficult to convince her to not to tell anyone about it, but she was just as curious to what it could bring as I was. Our motives were both selfish, but in that, we created an unlikely partnership.

"So, is it ready to be tested?" I asked, reaching to grab one of the vials only to have my hand swatted away like a fly.

"No touching, These are still work in progress. As ready as Transgress was to release this chemical, it was still so unstable and would have killed the person who took it in a matter of minutes."

"So, not ready."

"No, not for now."

"You've been working on this for seven months now, I thought you would have been done by now."

That set her off, "Oh, I'm sorry that I'm trying to make it safe for you to use. You think you can do better with your single-digit IQ, fine! Do it!" If there was one thing she hated was having her intelligence questioned. A vein on her forehead bulged out as she shouted into me, her eyes becoming a darker denim blue.

"I'm sorry, you're right. You're the smart person on the island, hell, on Earth. You know what you're doing."

"I already know that I am, but I appreciate you trying to use flattery." The blue in her eyes reverted back to its usual beautiful blue. "I have made progress with the formula though. The chances of death were 89 percent, but there is now only a 25 percent chance."

"That's a lot more than you made it out to seem," I said as I spun around on the stool.

"I'm not risking human trials till I have a five percent assurance that it won't harm you if you use it, there is also a new issue that came up."

"That doesn't sound good."

"It's not. Come with me," she said as she closed the case and walked towards the quarantine room with me following close behind. When we entered there were two cages both with white mice inside them, but the green overhead lights made their fur a pistachio colour. One of them moved around energetically in its cage with wood chippings stuck to its body, the other was a lot more reserved. "The one running around is Aristotle and the other is Hypatia. Aristotle was given a small dosage of the formula in the morning and within two minutes it took effect, he is now exhibiting the ability to manipulate static electricity." She took my hand and placed it on top of the metal cage, shocking me.

"Why did you do that?" I asked as I waved my hand back and forth.

"That was for earlier. Don't ever question my intellect again. Regardless, Hypatia had a dose about forty-eight hours ago and was exhibiting levitation but it seems that the formula only lasts two days at most before the ability dissipates. However, that isn't he concerning bit." She took a syringe that had been placed in a closed box out from beside the cage and waved it around the cage of the second mouse. She instantly reacted and went haywire, she pounced at the cage like a feral animal giving both Lydia and I a scare, she flew backwards into my arms before quickly pushing herself off me. The mouse tried to squeeze its body through the bars of the cage, trying to get to the syringe.

"Querido Dios, What's wrong with it?" I said as I took a step closer to the cage to examine the rabid mouse.

"Aside effect I discovered that the drug has an 89 percent addiction rate. Hypatia is currently going through withdrawal."

"How much have you been giving her?"

"Yesterday was her first dosage." Lydia's eyes meet mine, they were filled with worry. From the other room, I could hear the door between the lab and the med bay. Lydia had heard it too and quickly hide the syringe. We ran out of the quarantine room to see Stephy standing by Lydia's desk.

"There you are. I see you two were having your alone time." She said with a perky smile.

"We were until you got here. I mean can't a guy spend some time with his girlfriend without someone barging in?" I asked the girl. It was still weird to call Lydia my girlfriend, but we decided that since we were spending so much time together, we needed an alibi so that people wouldn't pry into what we were doing together. Everyone seems to have bought but I always worried that Stephy would find out we were lying, all she needed to do was read the emotion between us and we would be screwed but it has worked thus far.

"Well, sorry to interrupt but I was going for breakfast, do you guys want to come along." She asked.

"We would love to. I just need to clean up the lab first, but I'll catch up with you too." Lydia said before heading back into the quarantine zone, while Stephy and I made our way to the dining hall.

"I would never have seen you two as a couple," Stephy said as we waited for the elevator at the end of the hall.

"You've said that every month since we got together," I replied.

"Well, it's just shocking. Lydia is a handful; she can never be wrong about anything and isn't the most comedic of people, she's more introverted than she lets on and is usually always working. I just never saw that as your type." A ding from the elevator followed after her words.

"You know me, I love to subvert expectation. Also, she may be a handful but I've gotten used to it and I'd like to think that I am a positive influence on her like she doesn't spend the whole day in the lab now and she's slow at it but she finally knows when I'm making a dirty joke when I say it. I see that as an absolute win." I said smugly as I entered the elevator after her.

"Don't get me wrong, as much as I never would have predicted that you two would end up together, I ship it. You two are cute together." She smiled as we began to descend.

"What about you? I bet you have a whole line of people waiting to date you." I nudged her shoulder.

"I do," She sighed. "but they all just want to get in bed with me."

"You don't know that."

"My powers makes it so I do. I can literally feel their intentions. I'm just tired of guys." She said as the doors opened up to the dining hall. The Foxhole made sure to emphasis the 'hall' in the dining hall. The room was massive and crowded like a restaurant on a Friday evening, groups of tables were spread around the hall and to the far right was a section cut out of the wall where the kitchen could pass out the meals to the everyone else. The delicate fragrance of jam, scrambled eggs, toast and bacon filled the hall that immediately sent a smile onto my face. In front of us stood Ellie, a smile grew on her face when she saw Stephy.

"Great, I thought you forgot about breakfast. Oh, and Juan is here" She said, I was the king of sarcasm and I was evident that she wasn't as pleased as she let on that I was crashing there get together. "I guess I'll find a bigger table." Stephy and I walked behind her as she scanned the dining hall for a table.

"What about her?" I asked.

"Who, Ellie? Were just friends." Stephy said as she looked towards the girl in front of us.

"You did say you were tired of guys. The two of you would be pretty cute together."

"No, she doesn't, you're being silly. We're just friends." She laughed nervously as she walked away from me and talked to Ellie. I gave them space to just chat and just took in the smells before I felt fingers intertwine my own. Lydia was standing beside me with a simple smile.

"I put everything away. I'll find time to work on it later. Let's do the socializing thing then get out of here." She said as she pulled me towards the other two girls.

"So, we need to talk." Stephy began as we sat on the table beside them. Her voice was to the point and serious. "I've been assigned a mission."

"I can't tell if this is a good thing or not," I said in response.

"I've been avoiding going on a mission for months, but Akari is pushing this on me. Since this is my first mission back, I'll need a team." The telepathic waiter came around scanned our brains then disappeared into the kitchen.

"Well, you know that I'm going with you," Ellie said.

"I mean you don't have to beg, you know we'll come too," I said as well.

"Pardon me, but did you say we?" Lydia asked as she looked me in the eyes. "I don't do missions and you know I have work to do here."

"We both know that you can do it while on the road, but I definitely think you should come with."

"Juan, it's cute that you want your girlfriend to come along, but no offence Lydia. You may be the smartest person in the known universe, but you have no combat experience what-so-ever." Stephy said kindly.

"That is how you flatter someone. Thank you for seeing the logic in the situation as usual."

"I'm about to spit some facts right now. As you said, the smartest person in the universe. We could need her, she a year away from becoming a doctor, fastest learner there is. Seeing as Meg is on another mission and she was like the resident computer expert, she can learn everything she knew and more by dinner. There is a whole lot more that she can do that I ramble on about, but you know short and simple. You can do your thing on the way or there or actually what is the mission."

"Bodyguard duty for Samuel Wilstock."

"I have changed my mind. I am coming along." Lydia had a smile twice the size of her face when she heard that name or maybe it was because the food had finally got to the table and she finally got her hash browns, bacon and a side of white toast as she got every morning.

"I don't know, are you sure you're up for this? It might get dangerous." Ellie asked as she took a bite out of her breakfast burrito.

"Juan will give me a self-defence course; I'll be ready by, what time we need to go."

"We're leaving tomorrow morning."

Lydia looked at me straight in the eyes. "Eat up honey, you have your work cut out for you today. Fair warning, I am a horrible student."