It wasn’t me, it’s my DNA – VI

Chapter VI – Occupied [flashback to when I was 10 years old] It was an ordinary day. My dad and I were working on some robotics as usual. Howard: “Hey kiddo, you look down.” Aiden: “A lil bit yeah. Wait how’d you-“ Howard: “Know? I had a feeling. Ever since my arm got cut off you’ve always been hesitant to talk to me or even look at me. It’s okay buddy. I have a cybernetic limb now, thanks to my partner Ivan.” Aiden: “By the way Dad, I was just wondering. What’s that metallic box stapled with bolts and nuts?” Howard: “This little thing? That’s our next project. Once we fix this circuit we shall begin.” Aiden: “Okay!” Howard: “Here we are. This was something I started prototyping when I was your age. You see, I never got to study in the field of computer science until I was 30, unlike you, who has been studying it ever since primary. Anyhow, I self-taught myself a few things as a kid and in this box, is a small chip that could revolutionize the robotics industry. Aiden: “Now I’m curious.” We open the lid of the box together to see a lot of packing peanuts. Dad then takes out half of the styrofoam pieces to reveal a blue and black cube. He then puts it on his cybernetic arm, and it begins to glow at a constant pace. Aiden: “What’s happening? Also, what is that?” Howard: “it’s a Busy Box. It’s what my 10 year old self called it. I’m surprised it’s still functional and somehow my cybernetic arm was able to charge it all up.” Aiden: “Coooool!” Howard: “The Busy Box was designed to be a sort of, erm, distraction, uh, well, basically a toy. Sorry, it’s kinda hard for me to explain. Let me just show you.” Dad threw the Busy Box next to a toy car that was on the floor. It then engulfed the car whole, and turned into a voxelized version of it. The car then moved toward him and stopped by his foot. Aiden: “That’s awesome, Dad! What more can it do?” Howard: “It can mimic inanimate objects and I can control its every move. Well, almost. If it ever gets into contact with-“ beeep beeep beeep Flashing red lights accompanied with a loud alarm. Something was up. After a brief look of understanding at each other, Dad and I decided to get into the basement as quickly as possible in order to find out what might’ve happened. Little did we know, we left the Busy Box inside the lab, unmonitored, freely roaming around. We entered the basement via a tiny hatch and started looking at the various monitors. Howard: “DA..she’s back.” Aiden: “DA? What’s a DA?” Howard: “An old friend. Aiden, I want you to return to the lab and take care of the Busy Box. Take it somewhere safe as soon as possible. I’ll deal with DA. She just hijacked our comms signal.” Aiden: “By the way, what did you mean to tell me?” Howard: “Don’t let the Busy Box engulf anything organic. You can hold it however, as I programmed it not to engulf a human. But if it gets into contact with something living..” Aiden: “Game over huh? I’ll be back.” I ran back via a staircase and tried to find the box. Nowhere in sight. Or so I thought. I looked up to see a giant figure on two legs, with a familiar square shaped glow. “This DA that Dad speaks of must be behind this. No wonder why the timing was so perfect.” The beast was looking dead at me. But then looked to the side, and morphed into a cat-sized quadruped and ran out of the open window. [flashforward to when I was 12] Newscaster: “The so-called monster was simply a cow stampede running loose from a farmland. Technology these days, fooling even the brightest of minds-“ tv switches off Aiden: “They..they caught it! They finally caught it huh. The news will never reveal what actually happened. As Dad said, they are all given amnestics and false stories are implanted.” I run out of my room to find Mom and the others. Nobody was home. I saw a note and a key on the table next to the TV. The note read, Aiden, while you were asleep, Mom’s condition went worse. So we had to leave early. Jaxen is here with us for support. I’ve left a little key in here in case the news states that they’ve caught my Busy Box. You can find out where the key goes on your own, champ. With love, Dad. I put on my blue jacket and got on my hoverboard. I remembered what Dad told me about the SCP Foundation. He had exclusive clearance. Equipped with the key, I headed to the pale building with various graffiti and signs next to it. I insert the key into the lock and the door opens. As I get in, the inside seems bigger than the outside. The SCP Foundation in our place is this big facility where all sorts of the unknown are captured, classified, contained and done research on. The aim is to reduce paranoia and hysteria among the masses so that people are able to focus on what’s important. After getting my biometrics checked, I was met with 2 guards who recognized me. Guard 1: “Heyo! Isn’t it the one and only Howard’s first descendant. Haha, you’ve grown since I’ve last saw you.” Guard 2: “I know right? We haven’t had much freedom to exit beyond our premises unless absolutely necessary so it’s delighting to see you again, Aiden.” Aiden: “Nice to see y’all too. Hey, have you seen the Busy Box?” Guard 1: “Here’s a map cataloguing the various SCPs in this particular area. 5104 is the classification of the Busy Box. Head on due South and you will see it.” Aiden: “Thank you!” I slowly walked along the southern most lane. “5100…01…02…03…04, found you!”

Originally Written and Posted in CreativeWriter on 26th April 2021 by Enchanc3.