Chapter Text
To say the least, Frank was excited. After all, he's skipping three classes today cause he's going on a tour, and not just some boring tour, but to his dad's lab, at famous tower of the Iero industries. It's one of the world's biggest laboratories and to say his dad has a good position there is an understatement. He's one of the fucking co-presidents and the best scientist in the world. I mean it’s called after his name after all. Frank himself wants to be a big scientist like his dad one day, so all these science tours some people might find boring is actually fun for Frank.
It's the first time in a long time he's gonna set foot in that lab, which he finds ridiculous. It's HIS dad's lab, for fucks sake, he should be able to go in and out with no problem. However, trust me when I say, the security there knows him already by the amount of time he tried to sneak in only to get kicked out the next second. It wasn't always like this though. He used to go visit his dad at work a few years ago with no problem, and that's when he developed his love for science. But of course, Frank ruined that by being the clumsy shit that he is.
He broke a bottle of chemicals. At first, he thought it was no big deal. He thought he can just clean it up and no one will know. But when he went to get the mop and came back to a hole on the floor where the chemical used to be, he knew he was in big shit. When his dad found out about it, he basically banned him from that building, so Frank was now stuck with only school materials at the lab club to do his experiments.
But now, Frank is gonna set foot inside the lab for the first time in forever and he's not gonna waste this opportunity. His mission? Steal the stuff on the list he made a few weeks ago when they told the class about the tour. I mean, stealing is not really stealing when you're stealing from your father right? That's what Frank tells himself but stealing is still stealing.
Suddenly, he was snapped out of his thoughts when the bus came to a stop.
"Alright, everyone! Listen up!" The teacher said as she stood up, "once we go inside, no running, no screaming, no touching or drinking any chemicals, no joking around..."
"You got the key card?" Mikey whispered as he leaned closer to Frank, the teacher's voice still ringing in the background.
"Dude, of course, I did. This is like my only chance of getting the stuff I need. I'm not gonna fuck it up with something as simple as forgetting a key card," Frank said as he turned to face Mikey.
"Ok, ok just making sure," he said. He hesitated before continuing, "we gotta be extra discreet thought. My brother knows what we're up to and he's not happy. "
"Why does your brother know about it?" Frank frowned, disappointed in Mikey, "secret mission, remember! Secret means- I don't know secret!"
"I know but he heard when we were talking yesterday!" Mikey whisper shouted, mirroring Frank's tone, "and when I hung up the phone he came in and threatened to tell mom if, and I quote, "steal a single hair from that lab"."
"What? You scared of mommy?" Frank said as he did a sarcastic pointing face.
"No, fuckface, but when she finds out about this she won't let me hang out with you anymore. She already thinks you're a bad influence, this is just gonna give her something to rub on my face," he said.
"Your mom thinks I'm a- have she met your brother?" Frank sighed annoyed, "Ray was the nicest dude I met in my life. Now that they are best friends, it's like he got infected by Gerard's assholness."
"That's not my point, ok? My point is if my brother catches us, no hanging out after school," Mikey said as he started rubbing his eyes, "you know, I'm starting to agree with my mom. You ARE a bad influence."
"If we do this without getting caught, he can't prove anything. Can he?," Frank replied, ignoring Mikey's last comment, "Mikey, c'mon, I really need you, you can't bail on me now."
"No one said anything about bailing," Mikey sighed, "I'm just not sure this is such a good idea, but I know how important this is to you so I'll do it ok? But in one condition."
"What?" Frank asked, a smile finally making its way on his face.
"If we get caught, I'm telling them you kidnapped me," he said as he looked at Frank seriously. Frank just nodded, his smile getting bigger.
Mikey turned to the back of the bus as he sighed. Frank frowned as he followed Mikey's eyes to see what he was looking at and that's when he saw them. Gerard and his best friend, Ray, were sitting at the back, talking and laughing loudly with the others as we speak.
"He's so gonna fuck this up," Mikey said, both of them still looking at Gerard.
"Mikey, your pessimism is showing," Frank said and that's when Gerard's eyes fell on him. He watched as Gerard did the slicing throat gesture with his thumb and then winked at the end. Frank's eyes widened and both he and Mikey turned back to the front.
"Did he just wink at you?" Mikey asked as he looked at Frank with wide eyes, mirroring Frank's same expression.
"I think he did- what the fuck?" Frank now frowned as his heart started beating faster, "your brother needs help."
"Believe me, I know," Mikey said as he sighed for the thousandth time that day.
"Why did he even sign up for this tour. Last time I checked, he's not a "nerd", like he likes to call us, so why the science love all of a sudden," Frank said through greeted teeth.
"I bet the only reason he's here is to bust us," Mikey rolled his eyes.
"...and last but not least, no separating from the group," the teacher finished her speech, frowning as she looked at the back where Gerard's gang was, "hey! People in the back! If you keep up that behaviour, I'm sending you back to school!"
"And you keep up THAT behaviour and you'll stay single for the rest of your life," Gerard yelled from the back, making a few people giggle, "maybe buy a few cats, I heard it helps and you definitely look the cat lady type."
And like that the whole bus burst out laughing, because he was right, she did look the type. There were always people speaking how she looks like a cat lady, but no one really said it in front of her, until now that is.
"My personal life is none of your business young man," she said as she crossed her arms, "besides, I do have a boyfriend."
"Your cousin doesn't count Miss Banette!" He yelled from the back, causing even louder laughter.
"And that'll be three detentions for disrespecting a teacher," she said as she got off the bus clearly pissed as hell. The laughing calmed down as the students started standing up to follow her. Frank threw a quick look in Gerard's direction only to see him laughing, not caring that he just got three detentions.
As they got off the bus, Frank quickly pulled his hood on as he recognized one of the guards in front of the door. That's Greg, the guy once he got a smoke with when he kicked him out for the third time that week.
Mikey and Frank did as planned. Once they were on the second floor, they discreetly separated themselves from the group as they made their way to the stairs. Now, Frank knows the tour is gonna be on the first five floors because that's the part accessible to the public, but the fun only begins after five. Above five is where all the secret experiments are, away from the public eye. Also where the storage is, so he'll be getting his stuff and checking what new stuff they're working on since the last 10 years.
So the two walk-ran, trying to be the least suspicious possible, oblivious of the other two idiots following right behind them. They were up on the sixth floor, where Frank knows is the storage as he took out his list of materials and started searching with Mikey.
Once they were done with the ones on the first page, Mikey nervously asked, "ok, we got everything. Can we go now?"
"There's another page," Frank said as he flipped the paper to show it to Mikey.
Mikey's eyes widened, "Frank that's a lot! How are we even gonna carry this without being seen? You said only a few materials!"
"It is a few!" Frank said as he started searching for the stuff on the second page, "besides, I'll show you the cool stuff on the 8th floor as I promised. The tour is only showing you the boring stuff, there will be no need to go back to them."
Frank knows Mikey's a science nerd. Not as much as him, but he is, so he took a deep breath and said, "just so you know, the only reason I'm helping you right now is because of the 8th floor."
Frank smiled as he continued stuffing chemicals in his bag. He feels lucky to have this idiot on his side as a best friend. Frank never had siblings, but Mikey is the closest to a one he has now.
"What's all this for anyway?" Mikey asked as he continued checking the names on the bottles.
"Stuff," Frank said, only to get a look from Mikey, "okay, if we're talking about now, I'm trying to replicate Spider-Man's webs."
Mikey smiled, "cool! Can I see once you're done?"
Frank winced, "I don't think I'll ever finish. It's been already months I'm on it and all I can do is shoot goo."
"Oh, I have no doubt you can do it," Mikey said as he dropped what he was looking for and turned his whole attention to Frank, "dude you're like a mini Frank Sr. I don't think, I KNOW you can do it."
Frank smiled from the side of his mouth as his hopes got high. He really is lucky for having Mikey.
Once they got the last thing on the list, they exchanged excited smiles and started walking to the stairs again. Suddenly Frank stopped as he remembered something. He turned to Mikey as he said, "fuck the 8th floor, I have something cool to show you on the 10th floor."
"But we're still going to the 8th floor after right?" Mikey said as he raised an eyebrow, "the talking camel, remember?"
Frank hesitated before saying, "ok, ok, but we have to be fast. There are 30 minutes left to the tour. They'll notice we're gone if we don't get back before the end."
"Ok then, lead the way," Mikey said as he followed Frank.
As they got on the 10th floor, Frank swiped the card and the green light indicated the door being unlocked. They both ran inside and made their way to their destination, ignoring the foot that stopped the door from closing behind them. The halls were empty, one of the reasons being that the 10th floor is highly classified and only 0.5% of the staff have access to it.
Frank heard his father talk about the experiment on the 10th floor when he was on his phone during dinner. It is some sort of concentrated light energy in one small ball. He put it in his "to see" list when he heard it was found in a comet. Strange things in a comet means aliens, aliens means... well aliens, it doesn't need to be mean anything, they're just cool.
Once they got there, Frank can now easily say he doesn't regret getting up to the 10th floor by foot because it was beautiful. It was like a small blue floating sun. It was in a locked room with a big window to the hall, which is what let them see it.
"What am I looking at?" Mikey asked as he looked at Frank, "I mean, dude, this is cool as shit but I wanna know the story."
"Alien light," Frank said. It's not exactly what it is but Mikey got what he meant. "It's some sort of concentrated light energy."
"How concentrated?" He asked.
"A star energy in a small ball kind of concentrated," Frank said, Mikey's eyes going wide.
"Shouldn't we be dead right now?"
"I know, that's what they're trying to understand," Frank's started explaining, "it's not even hot. It's like only light energy and that's it."
Suddenly, a noise from the halls made them, snap out of their dreams, remembering they are somewhere they aren't supposed to be.
"I'm telling you, Ray, they went this way!" They heard Gerard whisper shout as the noises came closer.
"Shit," Mikey said as they exchanged terrified looks. Quickly, Frank checked for any toxic or danger signs on the closest door and when he didn't see any, he quickly swiped the card and they both hurried inside. But they weren't fast enough.
"There!" They heard Ray's voice and before the door could close, a foot blocked its way. Of course. The two were much bigger than Frank, not counting Mikey since he was just watching Frank struggling to close the door. So, with only one push, the door opened, causing Frank to stumble on his feet and fall on the floor.
"Oh yeah! We got you now," Gerard said as he took out his phone and started filming, "now, Mikey, got anything to tell mom?"
"Gerard, turn that off!" Mikey yelled as he made his way to Gerard to take his phone.
"Nope!" He said as he pushed Mikey away. He stumbled backwards and Frank laying on his way made him trip on him and fall right on his stomach. Frank winced when Mikey's elbow made contact with his stomach then tried to push him away. Gerard laughed as he pointed the phone camera at them, "ok mom, here, we got Mikey and his bestie wandering somewhere they're not supposed to with stolen chemicals. The question here is, what are they gonna do with all those chemicals, huh? Make drugs? I bet that's what they're doing. And why did you get here, huh? You were gonna steal this, um, what even is this?"
Frank followed Gerard's eyes only to see the ball in the same room as them. The thing hasn't been understood yet, they don't know what it can do or what will happen if they're this close to it. They shouldn't be in here! From all of the rooms, why did they have to end up here? I mean logically, they were standing next to the window showing this room so the nearest door would've been the one leading here, but Frank didn't think about that when he panicked.
"I bet they were trying to steal it to power up their drugs," Ray laughed as he watched Gerard walk closer to it, camera pointed to the thing.
"Hey! Get away from it!" Frank yelled as he got up after Mikey was off of him. He made his way to Gerard and made a move to steal his phone from his hands, "and stop filming! You know how much trouble this can get us into!"
"Oh, I'm counting on it," he said as he lifted the phone up, away from Frank's reach. Frank started jumping, trying his best to reach the phone but his height betrayed him. Gerard was so enjoying this right now.
"What the hell's going on here?" A new voice came in and everyone's heads turned towards it. Frank knew that guy. That was Dr. Philipps, the other co-president of this place. If they weren't fucked then, they sure are fucked now. This guy hates his guts. His eyes landed on Frank as he frowned, "of course it had to be you. How much trouble do you have to cause here to learn your lesson and stay away from this laboratory? This is a highly classified floor, and you have no right to bring your friends up here."
"Oh, we're not his friends sir," Gerard said as he pointed at Frank with his thumb, "they were stealing stuff from you and me and my friend Ray were just trying to stop them. We're security interns, by the way. We're new... so you might not know us."
"No, you're not!" Frank snapped as he turned to Gerard, "you're not even strong enough to be a security guard."
"Who said I'm not? You want me to show you my muscles." Gerard said as he turned to Frank and stared down at him.
"Ray, maybe. But I doubt you can even open a jar," Frank said as he continued staring right into Gerard's eyes hatred radiating from him.
The staring contest continued for a few seconds before a smirk appeared in Gerard's face and that's when Frank knew a snarky comment was coming, "but I bet I can make you open your legs for me."
Frank lost the staring contest when he became red as hell and looked at Mikey, waiting for backup that never came. Instead, all he did is make gagging noises.
"That's enough! Everyone out of this room! I called security already, if you're not out of here in five minutes, you will be dragged out," Dr. Philipps said as he took a step away from the door for them to make their way out.
Before they made any move to get out of the room though, Frank's eyes fell on Gerard's phone. It was centimetres away from him. He can reach out right now, take the proof, destroy it and they will continue to live their normal lives, oblivious of the fact that his future is nothing close to normal.
But it didn't go as planned. As he reached for the phone and started pulling it out of Gerard's hand, Gerard's other hand joined and he started pulling as well. They pulled and pulled and when Frank saw a mischievous smirk appear on Gerard's face, he knew he was up to something. Before he could figure out what, suddenly Gerard let go of the phone, making Frank stumble backwards. Trying to regain his balance, he forgot about the phone in his hands and let go. It was like everything was in slow motion as the phone flew straight to the ball.
"No!" Frank yelled as he tried to reach for the phone and try catching it, but he was no spider-man, he doesn't have good reflexes or super speed. So instead, he watched as the phone flew right into the ball, disappearing into thin air.
Everything was silent, then all of a sudden... boom! And everything went black.