Chemical X

"Hello. My name is Rosylyn Rose, and I represent the Network's corporate interests in your company, which of course the Network recently devoured, er, aquired. And now, I am here to assimilate your company, GeneYum into our large network of subsidiary companies, which include almost everthing you touch or consume on a daily basis." The attractive raven haired lady in the black dress suit and red heels clicked slowly along the board room conference table, as she made her way to stand directly behind the Chairman's chair, upon which she placed her manicured hands. Her green eyes gazed out at the somber faces,( who wondered how many of them would still have jobs that night.) Rosylyn could not hide the twinkle in her eyes today, she knew the answer to their question, all would have a job, because by the time she was done explaining the situation, all would eagerly sign their souls to the Network on the simple contracts. Just a dot of blood ensured they would enjoy infinite success. This was how the Network worked, and Rosylyn was its elite handler.

"It has come to our attention, gentlemen, that you have developed a chemical which, if tests prove out the theory, could have an enormous, haha, pun INtended, effect on humanity. You currently call this chemical Chemical X, how Marvel of your researchers," Roselyn paused to glance around the room, only a scant few seemed to catch the subtle pun. Good, GOOD, she mused to herself, just as she had predicted, easy pickings here at GeneYum. She continued.

"Can you call in the researcher responsible for this discovery, now, gentlemen, so I can hear exactly what potential we are looking at, and decide just how important Chemical X could be to ALL our bottom lines!" She let loose with a delightful and hearty cackle, to which the gentlemen around the table did the same. They all quieted when a mousy young lady entered, a typical lab rat. Stringy brown hair fell past her shoulders, and her jacket was wrinkled, and hung on her small frame. She gazed around from behind thick square frames, and she seemed annoyed to have been bothered.

Roz gave the young lady her most dazzling smile.

"What is your name, dear? I am Rosylyn Rose, I represent the Networks corporate interests in this company."

"Natalie Nelson, junior research rat in lab seven, three floors under this building." the kid replied, soflty, with no hint of malice, just boredom.

"And Natalie, what can you tell me about the potential of Chemical X? You can skip the scientific mumbo jumbo dear, look around this table, I doubt we would understand. What I want to know IS, Natalie, what the potential this chemical offers humanity."

Natalie blinked, and rubbed her chin, cocked her head, and began to tap her foot. The board grumbled a bit, unaccustomed to this silence and forethought.

"Well, for starters, kiss obesity goodbye. Obesity based Diabetes, gone with in months. Athletes, endless. Housewives, they'll buy products with ChemX, hell yeah they will, why I have been using it myself for weeks."

A gasp was heard round the table, as the kid laughed. She pulled from her pocket a picture which she slung up the table to Roz, who took it from the Chairman.

Roz smiled when she realized the fat chick in the picture was Natalie.

"And when was this picture taken, Natalie?" Roz asked.

Natalie matched Roz's evil grin.

"Three weeks ago."

The room burst into spontaneous noise, amazement and wonder and the slow sinking in of the fact they had a miracle product on their hands. They needed to hear no more, and Natalie was dismissed to return to the subportion of the building.

Roz turned back to the gentlemen, who all noticed before them beige enelopes, wrapped in red twine and sealed with red wax.

"Who is going to be the first to sign up for the next Generation of GeneYum?" she asked. Every single man signed, and they all left to go eat together in celebration.

Rosylyn stayed behind in the empty board room, and was looking through the ChemX files, when her cell phone vibrated. She recognized the number as Corporate.

"Ah, Royal Grey, I am in the middle of something exciting, could this wait?" Roz asked, not so kindly. Royal Grey was the Networks current political blowhard, and one of the most watched news men on the Network's prime time news slots. His Royal Grey Hour of Truth rivaled Beck's show in viewership, and Royal had a major crush on his boss, Roz and thus called her several times a week. Most of the time she ignored them, but he called fom HER bosses private number, tricking her, thus her short tone with Royal tonight.

"Chem Xciting, Roz?" Royal slyly said, and Roz sighed.

"How did you know?" she demanded, splitting her attention between Royal and the files. She found a report Natalie had done two weeks ago, reporting a one time surge in almost mindless violence. Natalie had felt driven to run over a small dog on her way to work one morning shortly after beginning her ChemX regimine, but managed to wrench the wheel to the side avoiding collision at the last moment. It was just a small report, a couple of lines hidden within a larger report of the amazing weightloss she was experiencing, with no loss of skin elastiity, which was nothing short of miraculous. Roz noticed the entire board had been cc'd the report.

"I just got off the phone with the mother of your superstar's room mate, Glory Ainsley Myers. Glory has not been heard from in a few days, and her mom emailed me a couple of weird pdf's from her daughter's computer that looked to be typed notes, like typed as someone else was talking. The notes were full of mentions of something called GeneYum and ChemX. I heard from the Boss we just acquired GeneYum, so figured I would give my favorite corporate kitty cat a ring, to see if there is anything I should know."

"Well Royal, maybe you CAN help me on this, and I will give you the scoop. Can you red eye to Chicago? I need you now. And bring your crew, we may need them to do research while you and I do the real dirty work on this one."

Another report, from a week ago, was aglow with the success of the weight loss, but again, sandwiched into the middle of the report, was a mention of a test subject known only as Georgia, who went absolutely beserk two days after beginning the regimine of ChemX, but the report claimed Georgia had just broken up with her long time boyfriend, and lied on the psych eval before she was accepted into the study.

What study, Roz mused.

"Sure, I am on my way with Velma and Kevin. We onto something big, Roz?" he asked, seemingly genuinely concerned. He surpised her sometimes.

"Oh yes, Royal, we are onto something real big. I need you as soon as possible, fly coach if you have to."

"Hell no, we'll just use the Corporate jet. This sounds pretty crucial." Royal pontificated firmly. Any excuse to spend the Network's dime.

"What ever Royal, like I said, the sooner the better."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Natalie was the last one in the lab tonight, and often she spent the night on the couch in the lounge, finally lying down around three or four am and getting up at seven am to start her day all over again. She loved research, the thrill of making an exciting discovery compelled her on day after day. Right now, it was a little after 11 pm, and she was just getting started. She had the weekly report to get out for Professor Windham, and she was worried he would shut down the project if he knew what had really happened with test subject "Georgia". She decided to see if he were still in his office, and was surprised to see the lights on from under his closed door. She was about to knock when she realized the door wasn't closed, it was cracked, and she heard voices. Standing to the side, in the shadows, she eavesdropped.

"Oh no Miss..."

"It's Ms., Professor Windham. Ms. Rose. "

"Ms. Rose, let me assure you the project is on course, with a smaller than usual adversity rate for this type of preliminary research. Remember, we just discovered ChemX a scant few months ago, and have had much success already."

"What is this I read about a study? The Network has not authorized the drug into study stage just yet."

"Like I said, study stands for preliminary research, a couple of human test subjects, preliminary! Not a full fledge study yet. Nothing has gone public!! And one of the prelims is the lead researcher, discoverer of ChemX herself, Natalie Nelson. Just look at her success!"

"What about the violence at the beginning of the regimes?"

"Like I said, minimal, and there is no more violence to be seen after the intitial violent urge. Easily contained, we can work with this, and our animal studies show more promise! In the five months since the discovery of ChemX, we have had our animal groups on the drug, for the past four months. Each had the intitial violent reaction, but that was it, to this day the animals remain at perfect body weight and bmi ratios. The drug has literally given these artificially induced obese lab rats the perfect bodies they all were meant to have, the ones they had BEFORE we fed them into obesity. Each case of obesity related diabetes in the rats was reversed. The implications for the drug are infinitie Ms. Rose, please do not worry about the small glitches."

Rosylyn Rose's voice was like ice. Natalie shudderd hearing her speak.

"It is the small glitches that end up ruining us all, Professor. Before we can market this, it has to be glitch free, or your reputation will be ruined, personally by me, and you will be blacklisted. Is that clear?"

Natalie almost ran back to her lab, locking the door, hand covering her mouth, and tears jumping to her eye ducts, spilling over in a flood. Oh no, she thought miserably, what have I done?

She wiped herself up with her lab coat sleeve, and approached the locked cabinet to which only she had they key.

She unlocked it, and sobbed when she looked, like she had each day for the past four days, since discovering the slaughter.

All her test mice had viciously devoured each other to death, in some kind of violent filled endless raging HUNGER.

Natalie suspected Rosylyn Rose would consider this a MAJOR glitch.

She quickly closed it as she heard the click of Rosylyn Rose's heels but thankfully they passed her lab and disappeared up the stairs.

She sank to the floor, and glanced up at the silhouette in her door window. She heard a key open the locked door, and in came Professor Windham. The look of horror on his face matched her own.

What were they going to do?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Professor and Natalie were deep into research around 11:30 when a knock on the door startled them. They turned to see the Chairman in the doorway, making his way in to the lab. He sniffed, and made a face.

"What is that smell?" the Chairman asked.

"Failure." Natalie responded grimly, glaring at him. "You jerk!!" She burst out, throwing a rag at the Chairman as she burst into tears.

"Failure?? Why ChemX is going to make us a fortune!!" The Chairman roughly responded. He hated it when females cried around him.

"No it's not!! You told me to wow Ms. Rose, tell her what she needed to hear so she knew what a great company GeneYum was. Why did you make me lie to her?? She needs to know the truth!"

"And what IS that, Natalie?" The Chairman asked.

"You wanna see the smell of failure in action, Chairman? Do you want to see what ChemX did to my rats four days ago? Or will it cut into profits?" She strode over to the cabinet, unlocked it and slung it open. The Chairman and Professor both blanched.

"CLOSE that door, Natalie, dammit." The Chairman grabbed the tossed rag and covered his mouth until she closed the cabinet.

"WHAT happened?" The Chairman asked, settling into a stool and looking as if he had just been punched.

"We don't know yet. From the initial urge of violence, we had four solid months of non aggressive behavior from our rats. But suddenly, four days ago, the rats all....just....attacked each other, violently, and actually ate each other in a blood filled frenzy! I mean, all I could do is stand in horror and watch! It was awful, none were spared. It was as if they were compelled to eat and eat and eat....until they died!! How can we market that as a DIET DRUG??" Natalie cried out.

The Chairman crossed his arms and sighing, threw his head back to peer at the ceiling as if that would help. Natalie looked at Professor Windham who was avoiding them both by pretending to read some paperwork. Great thought Natalie. Guess they want me to be the fall girl with the Network's henchwoman, Roz. How could her mentor, Professor Windham let her take on the Chairman with nary a word in her defense?

And the Chairman, that fat pig, she thought, her blood beginning to simmer, what nerve he had barging in here and trying to make me feel bad when it's...


"ALL YOUR FAULT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!" Natalie screamed, and before the Chairman could lower his head she rushed him in a roaring rage, and began to bite him, ripping his flesh from his body in a furious feeding frenzy that was so vicious the Chairman had no time to even prevent it. And right in front of the horrified Professor, his student was at the moment DEVOURING the Chairman like the Network had Devoured GeneYum.

In shock, the Professor watched as Natalie then literally, ate herself to death.

The Professor vomited, then passed out in his own effluvia.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Roz was in her suite at the hotel that evening, going over the GeneYum paperwork, when Royal came in with his two assistants. It was nearly midnight, and Royal Grey looked like hell. Rosylyn Rose on the otherhand, looked as divine as always. She was still concerned over the strange violence related to ChemX and though it was midnight, she knew the girl and the Professor would still be in the lab, and possibly the Chairman as well, after the talking to she gave him about the potential for ChemX. She could imagine him riding Natalie very hard to wrap up the research and get the kinks worked out of the drug. Roz smiled at the rumpled Royal Grey and Velma and Kevin.

"Freshen up, kiddos, we are going on a field trip!" Roz cheerfully informed the jet lagged trio. They knew which side their bread was buttered on, so they freshened up and headed for GeneYum.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As it turned out, they needn't have bothered frshening up. The scene at the lab in the basement of the GeneYum building was a grotesque and decidedly unfresh affair. Roz was glad she always wore red shoes.

"oooooh...." came a whimper from near the table.

Roz and Royal noticed the professor on the floor, shaking and moaning. Roz bent down next to the poor wretched man, and spoke.

"What happened here, Prof. Windham? I take it the formula needs a tweak or two before we can market it? Why did you fail to inform me of this fact earlier, during our...meeting?"

Before he could answer, Royal began taking charge.

"Velma!! Get out of here and go back to the hotel, set up your laptop and wait for word. Kevin, start rolling, and get a panorama. MY GOD!" He gazed around agape, wondering what happened.

"Professor Windham, snap out of it!" Roz demanded, slapping the man to attention.

"A nightmare, Ms Rose. Oh just horrible..." He began breaking down and blubbering, and Royal waved his arms frantically for Kevin to get a close up. Kevin sighed, he already was.

"You see, Ms. Rose, Natalie didn't tell us about the rats. If I had known about the rats I would have told you, I swear!!"

"What about the rats, Professor Windham?" Roz prodded.

The professor pointed to the cabinet, which was ajar from where Natalie had slammed it so hard. Royal and Kevin walked over to get it on film and Royal made a gagging sound.

"It stinks worse than my Grand Pappy's feet on a hot summer afternoon! It looks like Sparta in this cage, Roz. Real bad. Real bad." Royal gagged again and didn't notice Kevin ever so slightly angle the camera to get it on film.

"Yes! Sparta!!" The Professor cried out, agonizing over what had happened.

"Who is Georgia, Professor? What study? I need the truth this time, no more lies. For your own sake." Roz reached out and gripped the man's arm, and snarled,

"Get those jaws flapping old man."

"Georgia is our only other human test subject. I haven't seen her in about four days, but I suspect she self destructed like Natalie and her...rats."

Royal strode back to the professor with a question of his own.

"Professor Windham, do you happen to know anything about Natalie's roommate, Glory Ainsley?"

The Professor blinked as if he had not heard him correctly.

"Well, Mr Grey, why do you think we chose the pseudonym Georgia? Her intitals? GA? Not only were these girls roommates, they were lab partners as well. Glory Ainsly Myers is Georgia. I would have thought an investigative journalist as yourself could have figurd that out."

Roz stood and began pacing back and forth through the carnage, while Royal glared at the Professor.

"Maybe I just wanted you to confirm what I already knew, Professor. Do you know where we can find Glory Ainsley right now?" Royal asked.

" Why I assume she is at the apartment, here, let me give you the address. It is 963 Overhill Street. Apartment 13."

Royal sent Kevin off to find the girl, with strict orders to taze if the girl was found alive. But somehow Roz knew the girl would be no problem anymore.

"Professor, "Roz asked, "In your esteemed opinion, can we salvage ChemX for everyday consumer usage?"

"I couldn't tell you. When Natalie died she took with her so much of the research. See, Natalie was a very smart girl who happened to possess photogenic memory. She rarely wrote things down, and had planned to do the entire study write up when she completed the year. Unfortunately, all is lost now, except a note here and there. " The Professor pointed to the table, and a slim file, the one he had been pouring over when the Chairman had entered. "She was so smart....oh, what a waste...." The Professor silently began crying once more.

Roz took the folder, and motioned for Royal to wrap it up.

"Professor, I suggest you go home now, and forget this ever happened. I am going to have someone waiting at your home, to help you through this trauma. Please, if you want to retain your position in this company, never speak of ChemX, Natalie, Georgia, or the Chairman ever again. Do you understand?" Her green eyes bore into him like daggers, and shuddering he meekly nodded his acquiensence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Royal was upset he had flown all the way to Chicago for a non story (Roz had forbidden discussing it), but she tossed him a fairly meaty bone as compensation for his troubles.

The headline?

"Military Develops Mysterious Self Destruct Drug Called ChemX"

The Network ALWAYS made a return on its investments.

ALWAYS.

The characters of Roz, Royal and his assistants were also featured in my short, Devil's Bend, which if this offering tickled your facy, can be found in my siggie. Look for future offerings of Roz. The Network has their paws in everything....

This short inspired by the following thread:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by hotbakedtater


Hey HBT,

Once again great job! Looking for more!

reply to post by hoagy1199


Thank you for reading and enjoying.

Nice Job tater,

I really like the use of reocurring characters, it is very HP Lovecraft-esque.

It seems you are creating your own little hotbakedtaterverse

Keep up the good work,

~meathead

Originally posted by Mike Stivic
Nice Job tater,

I really like the use of reocurring characters, it is very HP Lovecraft-esque.

It seems you are creating your own little hotbakedtaterverse

Keep up the good work,

~meathead

Thanks for reading, Mike. Thats exactly what I have in the Network and Roz, an entire multiverse of stories!