The Undergrad

by Mela NoLeuca

CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Ares POV

  "Welcome home, brother," I smiled warmly at the taller man before me.

  I watched his face morph from anger to shock as I figured he was still trying to fit overwhelming pieces of this far-fetched puzzle of his life together. I perfectly understood where he was coming from, to be robbed off his life and be fed with lies and then be ultimately brainwashed by a firm that had nothing but impure intentions for their personal gain.

  I was surprised myself because I never knew I had a brother! Let's go back to where you guys last heard of me. Yes, the day when I finally got them in my safekeeping. I had to be honest but I wasn't so sure if this much honesty was something he could handle.

  I was surprised myself when I realized that the man I was supposed to experiment on was my brother! And if it was right that his father offered him, the possibility of having his invention running through my veins was also possible. I took a mental note of observing my blood when I get the chance later on.

  My thoughts broke off when Ethan grabbed my face and looked at both my eyes. He reminded me of a loon, I smiled cheekily at him and then shrugged. "I know it's too much for you to take in, but you don't have to slobber my face with kisses crying over how much you missed me," I joked.

  The next thing I know he was drawing back a fist to punch me, I ducked away and kicked him off his balance, causing him to tumble to the ground. I chuckled watching him curiously as his wild eyes soon found mine.

  "Enough roughhousing, brother," I walked over with my hand outstretched for him. I wasn't quite sure if he was handling all this splendidly, but he needed to. "Hey, I don't blame you for getting all giddy about this, at least you had someone to break it to you. I only had a bunch of papers to talk to when I found out," I said almost to myself, failing to hide the horror that formed the moment I realized it.

  He narrowed his eyes at the hand I was offering him, hesitating before he finally grabbed it. He held it there, tightening his grip; I could tell he was still skeptic. I was cool with it though since I gave him a good enough reason not to kill me, I gave him all the proof he needed after all.

  "There was that one day when dad put us both in the corner because of something we did, what was it?" he asked with a voice so serious I swear I can imagine a suspenseful musical score playing at the back right now. Wait a minute. I guess that wasn't a figment of my creative imagination after all.

  “Gibbs! Give us a break here would you, we can fool around later,” I smiled apologetically at my currently confused brother, “sorry, where were we?” a second later the music did stop. Gibbs was a good buddy of mine; he was my assistant if you put it that way and every now and then we had this joke we always pulled when the other least expected it. You’ll see him soon enough, but for now, I resumed my grave conversation with my brother and remembered what it was we were talking about.

  As soon as the memory flashed freshly through my memory, I laughed heartily. I did not see that coming,  swear! To think that I'd have to put up another fight with this estranged man now made it sound ridiculous, I guess I’d have to thank Gibbs for breaking the tension. "Hey, it was your idea to pee in the aquarium," I mused.

  "You dared me!" He defended himself, the way his face had 'serious' all over it made it even harder to keep from laughing.

  "You told me to dare you," I feigned hurt, pulling him into that brotherly hug. "I missed you, bro,"

  He chuckled into my hug as he returned it, "All the fishes died, you know."

  We broke the hug and then laughed harder. It was just like old times until we helped ourselves to the sofa.

  "But don't think that this changes anything between you and me," he muttered quietly, smiling somberly at me.

  I groaned, then calmed down. Not believing that he was still bringing it up, I had to be honest with him on that though, "I did what I had to do,"

  "But I thought you already knew I was your brother, why would you still try to shoot my brains out, not cool Hairy," I watched him react from exasperated to utterly upset. I smiled at the nostalgia when he called me Hairy. That name awesomely started with Ares. This, however, sounded uncool to Ethan that he needed to change it to 'Airy,' unfortunately there was that one day he had ruined the already pathetic name and changed it to Hairy. It brought back sweet memories, I admit, but it had to stop there.

  "Dude, just stick with Ares, plus I never knew that until the next day when results came out!" I explained, "and hey, either way you were still going to die before or after you returned to ERA,"

  "Just because I finally found out that my supposedly dead brother actually lived through the experiment?" I watched the bewilderment form in his eyes, it was still clear how much that disgusting firm clouded his judgment. At first, I was considering the frightening thought on how he might suddenly grab the opportunity to kill me, but I waited for his response. "There must be a bigger reason why they wanted to kill me,"

  I sighed in mild relief, slowly growing confident that he was beginning to understand the gravity of how his confusing situation was. I grabbed the mug that I absent-mindedly placed on the small coffee table, and took a sip from it, "now that you're a little oriented with the bigger picture, want some hot cocoa?"

  "Fine, add some marshmallows," he grumbled with elbows on his knees as he dug through his hair, "I still don't understand, if ERA wanted to kill me, why didn't Craw let me take that bullet?"

  I cleared my throat, honestly still tense, "are you still mad at me for that little oopsie?"

  He frowned at me for a moment before he sighed in defeat, shaking his head. I wondered what was going on in his mind, was he brooding? And if he was, I was just hoping that it didn't include me dying.

  "Hey man, before you think of killing me, just remember that I was planning to kill you, not your buddy, okay?" I cleared myself. "Obviously, he was a good man, just consider his efforts something to be... Um..." I fished for the right words. Damn, I was never good with words when it came to these things.

  "Not put to waste?" He finished for me.

  "Bingo," I grinned sheepishly, "He saved your life man, and there had to be a reason why."

  "Of course he would," his expression grew darker, "he would always look out for me. I looked to him like a brother,"

  I suddenly felt guilty for my handiwork, and especially guilty throughout those years I wasn't with him. Then again I can’t help but let that twinge of jealousy probe right at my darkest thoughts of how righteous it only was to kill that Craw guy. I was his brother, and no one should be able to replace me. But hey, that’s just me; I guess I shouldn’t have thought of it that way, I couldn’t be that evil nor could I blame my brother's vulnerability.

  He wouldn't have to be like this unless I turned up sooner or later. But I had no clue at all that ARC's biggest threat was this guy right in front of me. My brother. Hey, don't blame me. I guess my timing was a bit off as you'd like to think, but better late than never, right?

  I turned to Ethan and saw how much of a wreck he was. Wow, this guy needs to loosen up a bit.

  I looked to the hidden camera poised ever so slightly in the corner of the ceiling and pointed at my mug, mouthing marshmallows before turning to my brother, "Well, I'm here now, bro. And this time we'll work it out, and I swear to catch up on all your hellish life and all your goading telling me how awesome your life was at ERA," I jokingly said, adding sarcasm to my tone.

  "Thanks man," a small smile framed Ethan's lips. "I wouldn't call it awesome either after learning that they were planning to kill me in the end. I don't understand what I did wrong. Well maybe I did screw up trying to rescue Craw, but I don't regret that." I rolled my eyes, this guy lacked humor!

  The silence that followed was so awkward that when I took another sip from my hot cocoa it was the loudest thing in this room right now. It must have sucked to have the person you rescued die in the end shortly after.

  "You know, I was thinking the same thing, so I have a few theories myself," I decided to b
reak the ice.

  He didn't move, I went on, "first off is, knowing that you are the 'Golden Boy,'" I air quoted, "they are aware that there's a possibility of taking down ERA, who knows how far your limits can go. And then there's that other thing," I paused thoughtfully.

  "What other thing?" he asked flatly, by the looks of it, he seemed as if he was bracing himself for the biggest blow.

  "I think you're the source to our technology," I stated, the door opened and I began noticing how Robyn was dominating all the work from my assistant, Gibbs. I guess that was why he was trying to find ways to get me to notice him. 

  "How does that even relate?" Ethan gave me an incredulous face, completely oblivious to Robyn's presence. Wow, something seems off here. From how my men reported, these two were like bread and butter. I even thought that these guys already screwed over to get this kind of bonding. I’m betting this one with Gibbs, where was he anyway?

  She walked in with a tray of Ethan's hot cocoa, and by the looks she had on him, I had a feeling she was trying to check out how Ethan was doing. I did drop the bomb on her by telling her that we were brothers, my goodness I'll never forget how she tried to wrench herself free from me.

  I thought the biker dude appearance would make her less hostile. Apparently, she instantly noticed how the biker dude and the crazy doctor both looked stunningly handsome. I think that made it a dead give away to the point where I had to show her the files before she was finally convinced that I meant no harm.

  Evidently, Ethan here still didn't have the slightest clue on what happened during Robyn's 30-minute disappearance. I suppose I could conclude now why he was still so cold towards her. Yep, they definitely did it.

  "Robyn, go have a seat," I gestured the armchair I sat on earlier. It was so hard to not smile! I think that was what made her change her mind, though.

  "Uhh... Maybe now's not the time," she flicked her eyes to Ethan before right back at me as she emphasized her words.

  "Yeah," he agreed, "now really isn't the time,"

  I looked at them both, sizing up the tension between the two. Wow, this is interesting. I chuckled a bit before I let Robyn go.

  "Yeah, go listen to him," muttered Ethan. I watched the blonde cringe and glance over her shoulder with a horrible scowl plastered on her face. Oh no, big bro over here definitely got the wrong idea with that 30-minute disappearance of his girl.

  "Whoa man, I see you've got a lover's quarrel going on here but don't drag me into this," I raised both my hands as I explained how I managed to convince Robyn to take part in convincing him.

  Ethan rolled his eyes then turned to me, "what was it again about that me being the source thing?"

  Well, someone didn’t seem too keen on how my little interaction with this scary little lady went. I cleared my throat, trying to avoid all the awkwardness going on right now as I decided to go for the conversation, "well obviously, dad injected these bots in our body--"

  "No wonder you could block my punches, nice" he grinned, nodding his head.

  I shrugged, “I admit, maybe I do have it in me.”

  “You do! I swear I saw you when they injected it way back,” Ethan went on as Robyn continued to quietly make her exit. When she left, I turned back to him, “dude, tell me, did you two have something going—“

  “No!” he interjected just as quickly, his face was flushing redder than a baby’s rosy bum. I just waggled my brows at him. “Jeez, Ares, nothing happened between us, there was no ‘funky’ shit that happenedbetween us, okay?” he grounded out with spiteful emphasis.

  “Riiight,” I shrugged finishing the rest of my hot cocoa. The door burst open again and I saw the urgency of Robyn’s face as she pressed her back against the door, her chest heaving as if she ran a marathon. I was actually hoping that Gibbs did something to scare the shit out of her, I mentally shook my head as I remembered the little fiasco about the 'itty bitty' spider that went up my water spout in the toilet a long time ago.

  “What’s up?” I asked in mild surprise, “hopefully by the look on your face, Gibbs scared the shit out of you and you're here begging me to help with your sweet revenge, eh?”

  “Ares,” she began, not giving me the reaction I wanted, “did you remember to camouflage Ethan?" 

  “What does she mean?” Ethan turned to me, his senses slowly picking up as he cocked his head to the side as if he could here something. I didn't enjoy what was going on right now. Trust me.

  I shut my mouth then turned to him with the biggest shit-eating grin I could muster, “remember when I told you back in the alley how ERA would always know where you are?”

  “Yes, but if you also had the same nanobots in your blood why couldn't we find—“ 

  “I have the technology to make our institution lie low from the radar,” I interrupted him impatiently before pride began swelling within me as I made a dramatic pose of running a hand sideways through the air,  imagining a huge title to be posted in a massive banner, “I called it the Camouflage Effect—“

  “So what the hell is she talking about? What is this Camouflage thing?” Ethan was obviously fuming up and by the looks on Robyn's face, she wasn't as happy either. My ears were also beginning to pick up the slight commotion happening. I knew he was going to punch the lights out of me if I told him. But oh hell, he was going to find out sooner or later anyway.

  “I forgot to ‘Camouflage’ you as well” I grinned pathetically, grabbing his hot cocoa from his hands as I downed it in one go. Gunshots reverberated dangerously close by, causing me to nearly spit out my drink from surprise.

  “Ares you idiot!” Ares and Robyn both yelled at me in unison.

  I flinched slightly, as I countered casually, “I made the Camouflage Effect and the Rubrix, how can you call me an idiot?”

  “Because they found us, thanks to you!” He was already rummaging through the furniture in this room muttering about a question if there was a gun hidden in one of these things.

  I set Ethan's mug down next to empty one on the coffee table before me and kept my fun-loving façade. I was contemplating if I should also mention that I didn’t consider stuffing one bullet-slinger away in this room before I concluded that maybe I shouldn’t.

  I cleared my throat a little and then grinned like the idiot I am, but hey, don’t judge me.