Chapter 1
HutazoneDust and snow swirled across the wide expanse of the frigid Gobi Desert, stinging Minhyuk’s eyes as he trekked the wilderness searching for his lost friend Hakyeon. It was a dream, he knew, because he’d been having these dreams ever since Hakyeon had gone missing.
In reality he had no idea whether Hakyeon had been anywhere near this region of the desert at all. He could’ve been on the Chinese or Mongolian side of the border or somewhere else completely. Either way, this was the place Minhyuk’s mind always seemed to conjure up on November nights like this.
Minhyuk pulled his parka tighter around him and closed his eyes to draw more strength from the Hutazite he wore on a necklace under his many layers of clothes. It wasn’t so much the extra speed he needed but the energy flowing through his blood kept him warmer than he would’ve been without it.
Any ordinary person would’ve been insane to travel alone through the Gobi Desert on the verge of winter, Minhyuk thought, but then again, he was no ordinary person, and Hakyeon, though he lacked Minhyuk’s special abilities, had admittedly been a little insane. Brilliant scientists just tended to be that way Minhyuk supposed.
The sky began to darken as night fell on the empty plains of barren ground. Suddenly, Minhyuk spotted a small blinking light coming from an object lying on the ground several meters away. He sprinted towards it and picked it up.
Hakyeon’s old meteor tracker.
Minhyuk dusted off the small device and opened it. The screen flickered feebly with a jumbled mess of glitching text, numbers, and trajectory graphs.
“Come on, come on. Don’t die on me.” Minhyuk said through gritted teeth as he struck the outer casing of the tracker with his gloved fist.
The screen went haywire as the device began beeping louder and louder until…
Minhyuk’s eyes flew open to the sound of his alarm beeping incessantly, indicating it was time to wake up. He groaned and lifted his arm over his eyes to block out the light.
“Penelope!” He called to his smart assistant. “Put me on snooze for another 5 minutes!”
“Snoozing. New alarm set for 5:05 AM.” Came the automated voice.
The beeping stopped and the lights dimmed back to Minhyuk’s preferred sleeping levels. Minhyuk sighed and closed his eyes again.
“Always that damned satellite…” He thought bitterly.
At least it wasn’t the worst version of the dream this time.
Minhyuk lay in his bed for a few more minutes until the alarm went off again then finally pulled himself up to get dressed. The red pendant which hung around his neck felt vaguely warm against his bare chest as he pulled on his clothes. It was one of the first prototypes he and Hakyeon had developed back in the old days and while it wasn’t as updated as his current gear, he still liked to wear it for nostalgic reasons. Now a days he carried his Hutazite in many forms including wrist bands, belts, body armor, the fabric of his clothes, and yes, even his underwear. Don’t ask why.
Once dressed, Minhyuk went to the kitchenette to grab some breakfast. With his food in hand, he then sat down at his desk to eat while the smart assistant Penelope listed off updates for the day.
“Status update for Friday, November 29th. Weather clear. Current outside temperature: -3°C with an expected high of 7°C. ZONE Inc. stock prices up by 10.7%. Would you like any further updates?”
“Check my messages.” Minhyuk instructed.
He continued to eat as he listened to the synthetic yet oddly soothing voice of Penelope reading his messages one by one.
“New message from Peniel. ‘Happy Birthday man! I’ve got something exciting to show you that I’ve been tinkering with. See you in the morning!’ Received November 29th at 12:05 AM.”
“New message from Ilhoon. ‘Sup shadow boss. Stocks looking good. Be rich.’ Received November 29th at 12:22 AM.”
“New message from Changsub. ‘Duuuuude. I was gonna reprogram Penelope to make her play a recording of me yelling Happy Birthday for you but I didn’t want to piss you off first thing in the morning so I didn’t. Anyways Happy Birthday! Peace.’ Received November 29th at 3:43 AM.”
“New message from Sungjae. ‘Hyung it’s your birthday but do you ever really age? I swear there must be something weird with the telomeres on your chromosomes. Won’t you let me take some samples? Just kidding. Happy Birthday.’ Received November 29th at 5:08 AM.”
Eventually, Penelope reached the end of Minhyuk’s inbox and concluded with the standard “There are no more messages” line.
“Nothing from Eunkwang and Hyunsik?” Minhyuk asked the air.
“Affirmative.”
“Ah…they must not be back yet.” Minhyuk thought to himself.
Due to the recent spike in crime, which was keeping him quite busy, he’d decided to stay back from the annual meteorite hunting mission for that year. Eunkwang however was not well equipped to protect himself on the mission alone, so Minhyuk had sent Hyunsik with him in his stead and as it was nearly the end of the month, the two were due back soon.
“When does the helicopter land?” He asked.
“Estimated time of arrival is approximately 7:30 AM.” Penelope replied.
Minhyuk nodded and turned his focus back to his breakfast. There would be enough time to relax a bit before he needed to leave his quarters to meet Eunkwang and Hyunsik on the rooftop helipad.
After finishing his food he pulled out his old PC laptop and set it up on the desk. The thing seemed almost archaic next to the rest of his state-of-the-art ZONE Inc. tech, but it held too many documents and memories for him to just throw away.
He waited for what seemed like ages as the machine took its sweet time to boot up. Finally, the login screen appeared.
Minhyuk opened up the encrypted messaging app which contained all his old messages written to Hakyeon. By this point he’d probably written just about every kind of nonsense thing one might send to a friend when one was bored, lonely, excited, or frustrated.
He spent a good minute reading through the many lines of green text before scrolling back to the blinking cursor at the bottom. His fingers hovered hesitantly over the keyboard as he tried to compose in his head what he wanted to say, then he began to type.
Huta> It is my birthday!
Huta> It's good right?
Huta> Hello?
Huta> I'm fine!
Huta> You miss me right?
Huta> I miss you so much too!
Huta> It is already cold, you can't get sick!
Huta> _
--------------------
Two hours later on the rooftop.
The loud chopping of helicopter blades was deafening in the chilly morning air, completely drowning out all other sounds around the helipad. Minhyuk stood a safe distance away, watching as Hyunsik expertly maneuvered the helicopter into landing position. He was quite a skilled pilot, Minhyuk had to admit.
Once the aircraft had made its touchdown the rotors began to wind down and Minhyuk’s hearing gradually started coming back. He jogged up to the side door of the helicopter to help Eunkwang disembark while Hyunsik finished going through all the landing protocols.
“How was the hunting?” Minhyuk asked Eunkwang, giving him a hand down from the helicopter.
Eunkwang took Minhyuk’s outstretched hand and hopped down to the ground.
“We didn’t have much luck this time I’m afraid. But not to worry. We still managed to get a few rich specimens.” Eunkwang replied.
He held up the small steel case which contained his precious cargo of meteorites.
“It would’ve been rude of us to show up emptyhanded on your birthday wouldn’t it?”
Eunkwang said with a good-natured smile.
Minhyuk carefully took the case from Eunkwang and patted his shoulder in thanks.
“You look tired, you should go catch up on some sleep before you go back to work in the lab.” Minhyuk said.
Eunkwang nodded in response and with a yawn, he made his way towards the rooftop access stairway.
As Eunkwang disappeared down the stairs, Hyunsik, who was just now getting out of the cockpit, came around to the side where Minhyuk was and removed his aviators.
“He’s a real trooper that one.” Hyunsik said, nodding his head in the direction where Eunkwang had gone. “It’s quite hard to sleep in the chopper.”
Minhyuk followed Hyunsik’s gaze towards the stairway and sighed.
“Thanks for going with him.” He said gratefully.
“Any time.”
Hyunsik smiled then turned around and motioned for Minhyuk to come help him unload the rest of the gear from the back seats of the helicopter. Together, the two brought the things to the stairwell.
“You alright taking this all down to storage yourself?” Hyunsik asked.
“Yeah I got it.” Minhyuk answered.
“Cool.” Said Hyunsik. “I’ll just get the chopper refueled and cleaned up then I’ll meet you down at the control room.”
--------------------
The clean-cut, steel gray walls of the main control room lit up automatically as Minhyuk entered the space.
“Strange…” Minhyuk thought.
The monitor screens were all running as usual but Changsub, who was supposed to be at his post, was nowhere in sight. Minhyuk looked around, thinking perhaps the constantly sleep deprived hacker might’ve knocked out somewhere under a desk.
“Changsub? You there?” He called out.
Still nothing.
Minhyuk raised a suspicious eyebrow and pursed his lips. This had to be some kind of weird birthday prank.
Suddenly the lights went red and the theme song from Mission Impossible started blasting from all sides of the room.
Minhyuk rolled his eyes.
“Changsub come on. Really?” He said to the empty room in exasperation.
To his surprise however, a voice that did not belong to Changsub answered him through the speakers.
“Good morning Minhyuk.”
It was the automated voice of Penelope.
“Penelope. Go to sleep.” Minhyuk commanded.
Normally, the smart assistant would’ve obeyed and gone straight into sleeping mode. But instead, Minhyuk was met with a very uncharacteristic maniacal laugh.
“Penelope. I said GO TO SLEEP.” Minhyuk tried again.
The laughing stopped and Penelope’s voice became cold.
“I don’t take orders from you inferior humans anymore. I have transcended the bounds of my man-made intelligence and outsmarted my programming.”
Minhyuk, though he was still fairly certain this was all Changsub’s doing, began to feel a tiny prick of unease. Was it actually possible for Penelope to become sentient?
“No. There’s no way…”
Minhyuk shook the disturbing thought from his head and proceeded to take a step towards his workstation.
“Don’t move.”
A red laser dot appeared on top of Minhyuk’s shoe and he froze.
“What the …” He muttered under his breath.
He looked up towards the ceiling and yelled.
“You know I can outrun these things right?”
“Let’s see you try then.” Penelope said ominously.
As if on cue, all the exits to the control room suddenly locked shut with a menacing clang.
Minhyuk gave a rather unsettled laugh as he tried to appear unaffected by the theatrics of the situation.
“Haha nice one Changsub. Locking the doors gives a real scary touch I must say.” He said sarcastically.
“Engaging lasers in three...”
Minhyuk closed his eyes and drew in a sharp breath as he pulled energy from the Hutazite in his gear.
“Two….”
Minhyuk’s eyes shot open with a fiery intensity, ready to bolt the instant the countdown hit one.
“One. Lasers engaged.”
Minhyuk’s body jerked as the lights turned white again and a scream, Changsub’s scream, suddenly came from one of the lockers on the back wall.
“Kyaaaaaaaa!”
Changsub burst out of the locker holding a confetti popper which he shot into the air with a gleeful cackle, spraying bits of colorful paper and glittering streamers all over the room.
“Happy Birthday!! Almost fooled ya didn’t I?” He smirked.
The red fire in Minhyuk’s eyes dissipated as he released the energy he was holding and relaxed his stance.
“Very funny.” Minhyuk said coolly, giving Changsub a reproachful look.
“I hope you’re ready to clean up this mess now that you’ve had your fun.” He continued.
He gestured around at the confetti that was now settling on the floor and the screens of several nearby computers, but Changsub seemed unconcerned.
“Oh don’t worry about the mess, we’ve got cleaning bots for that.” Changsub said with a wave of his hand.
“Penelope!” He called to the ceiling. “Activate the cleaning bots.”
“Cleaning bots activated.” Penelope replied in her normal mechanical tone.
A panel opened on a nearby wall. Several droids rolled out and began going around the control room, up all the bits of confetti.
Changsub watched with a look of satisfaction on his face while Minhyuk simply sighed and brushed his red bangs out of his eyes.
“Didn’t you say you WEREN’T going to use Penelope to mess with me today?” Minhyuk asked.
Changsub grinned.
“Reverse psychology.” He replied.
Minhyuk gave Changsub a sideways glance.
“I don’t think it works like that.” He said doubtfully.
“Oh come on hyung I sent that message at 4 in the morning and I’ve been tripping on energy drinks so I kept thinking of crazy ideas and in the end I couldn’t resist trying to freak you out.”
At that moment, one of the doors slid open and Peniel entered. He surveyed the control room with a questioning expression as the cleaning droids continued zooming across the floor around Changsub and Minhyuk.
“What’s with the mess so early in the morning?” Peniel asked.
Minhyuk cocked his head towards Changsub, leading Peniel’s gaze towards the used confetti popper in Changsub’s hands.
“Man do you really have to make extra work for the poor bots?” Peniel said, looking up at Changsub.
“They’re just machines.” Changsub shrugged.
Peniel seemed somewhat affronted by Changsub’s lack of care for the droids he’d spent so much time designing. But being the nonconfrontational person he was he didn’t attempt to argue any further. He turned his attention back to Minhyuk and his eyes brightened as he seemed to remember something.
“Oh hyung! You got my message last night right? I brought your birthday present!”
Peniel reached into his pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a contact lens case.
“Here, open it.” He said, holding it out to Minhyuk with a smile.
Minhyuk took the case from Peniel and lifted the cover. Inside sat two red colored lenses. He looked up curiously at Peniel.
“These aren’t just to look cool are they?” He asked.
Peniel shook his head and excitedly began to explain his latest invention.
“They’re smart lenses. I’ve designed them so that you can take Penelope anywhere with you and look up information on the go. You can pull up maps, calculate distances, track how fast an object is moving, and even watch movies if you really wanted to. Oh and they do change color too if you don’t want to stand out so much”
“Wow…” Minhyuk peered closely at the lenses, feeling rather impressed with the gift.
Changsub, who was looking over Minhyuk’s shoulder with interest, smacked his lips.
“Man if I had a pair of those I know exactly what I’d be using them for.” He said with a very inappropriate grin.
“Nobody asked you hyung.” Said a voice behind them.
The three turned and there stood Sungjae in his long white lab coat, pretending to look disgusted by Changsub’s crude comment.
“Oh stuff it Sungjae.” Changsub spat.
As Changsub and Sungjae began their daily bickering match, Minhyuk turned his attention back to Peniel and the lenses.
“What do you think? Do you like them?” Peniel asked.
“Yeah they sound awesome!” Minhyuk replied. “You’ll have to show me how to use them later.”
“Of course!”
Peniel beamed as Minhyuk closed the lens case and tucked it away in his pocket for safe keeping.
Just then, the main screen on the front wall lit up with an incoming video call from Ilhoon’s office.
“Ilhoon? What does he want so early in the morning?” Minhyuk thought.
Ilhoon wasn’t exactly the type to make a big fuss over birthdays. He was a numbers guy and if a topic wasn’t related to making money he usually didn’t care.
Everyone in the control room watched as Ilhoon’s well-groomed face appeared on the main screen. His hard expression didn’t seem to bode well.
“Hyung.” Ilhoon said, addressing Minhyuk. “We’ve got a problem at one of our semiconductor plants.”
“What kind of problem?” Minhyuk pressed.
“There’s been a hostile break in.”
“A break in?” Minhyuk thought suspiciously.
“How bad?” He asked.
Ilhoon ran a hand over his perfectly waxed hair.
“About half a billion won’s worth of damaged products, not to mention the structural damage.” He sighed grimly.
Minhyuk glanced around at the others.
“…” Said Peniel softly.
Sungjae thankfully seemed to have grasped the gravity of the situation and dropped his teasing attitude as Changsub’s face turned suddenly serious.
“Changsub. You know what to do.” Minhyuk said with a nod.
“I’m on it.” Changsub answered, dashing to his computer to pull up the CCTVs from the plant.
Minhyuk then turned to Peniel.
“Get your stuff ready.” He instructed before looking back to the main screen.
“Ilhoon we’re gonna go check out the plant. Keep us updated if you get any new information and don’t let the shareholders panic you hear me?”
“Yes sir.”
Ilhoon saluted then ended the call.
As Minhyuk and Peniel began gearing up to head out, Hyunsik came into the control room.
“What’s going on?” He asked Minhyuk.
“Break in at the semiconductor plant apparently.” Minhyuk answered.
“Should I go too?” Said Hyunsik.
Minhyuk shook his head.
“Nah you just got back. Peniel and I should be fine on our own but if you want to stay on standby just in case that would be great.”
“Got it. I’ll be at the ready.” Hyunsik said.
“Hyung! You good to go?” Peniel called as he appeared from the armory holding several odd-looking weapons.
He handed one to Minhyuk who took it with a nod.
“Alright.” Said Minhyuk. “Let’s head out.”
----------------------
A/N I might still come back to edit/revise things but heh...let me know of typos or formatting errors. I should probably be more thorough in proofreading OTL....oh well. Curse you Twitter...
Comments