1 Chapter 1

Bluish forked lightning strikes the clouds, momentarily illuminating the starless sky and casting surreal white glow upon the vicinity of a brightly-lit mansion built atop the very edge of a high cliff. Below, waves as big as houses regularly crash and smash against those piles of protruding rocks, splashing rains of freezing salt-water in the chill air.

Thunderclaps comparable to a large mass of snow sliding upon a mountain slope follow shortly.

Flock of sparrows flap their wings away from the rooftops and telephone lines, hooting and gawking.

Thick, white puffs of smoke float out through an open window.

Moments later, a swarm of red droids that slightly resemble a typical vacuum-cleaner storm their way into the rear of the said mansion, their built-in stun guns and tasers drawn, searching for some good-for-nothing individual that might be invading the place and now wreaking havoc and chaos. Though that is very unlikely to happen for that place is heavily guarded, making infiltration and forced entry inside the premise almost an impossibility.

From the frontyard, mighty roars echo along the empty driveway and the surrounding bricked walls.

A small signage made of faded cartolina that is hanged on the edge of branch of an apple tree jutting out the fence beside the steel gate swings on its hinge, saying

THERE IS LIFE AFTER DEATH? JUMP IN AND FIND OUT

Somewhere beneath the mansion, a large metallic door bursts open and a tall, bearded man bolts out of it, wearing shiny white lab coat and gold-rimmed eyeglasses that almost look like a pair of magnifying glass due to its enormous size and thickness, giving the man an owlish and nerdy look. Strands of the man's silvery shoulder-length hair stick up in all directions. The man waves in the smoky air, stops, and then looks back over his shoulder at the swinging door, his eyeglass slightly askew over his bulb-shaped nose.

Printed on the door in blood-red letters:

AYN'S MAGIC LABORATORY. KEEP OUT!

The man is Professor Einstein Catacutan, Ayn to his colleagues and friends, a great theoretical physicist and inventor. A mad scientist for most people in Scientific Community, though they will not dare say it to his face. They still respect Ayn because he is a genius, mad scientist, nevertheless. They can see the professor's potential abilities in inventing things that can be of great value and benefit to the advancement and enhancement of the Philippines' ineffective and poor technology.

The security system in Professor Ayn's mansion and his servant robots are proofs enough. Though in this time and age, those things are already typical and there is nothing new nor special about their existence anymore.

Professor Ayn is deeply regarded by some as highly eccentric. That is why most of his fellow scientists will not take his words seriously when talking to him or will not even dare waste their valuable time talking to him at all. His mountain of ideas regarding technological advancement in the fields of nanotechnology and quantum mechanics are widely regarded by his fellow scientists as rather peculiar, ridiculous, and unbelievable to the extent of being labeled as false sciences by the Scientific Community itself.

His ideas are way too far-fetched, in other words.

And raise too many questions.

Professor Ayn is somewhat apathetic to the spreading rumors about him being officially labeled by the Scientific Community as mad. Every idealistic individual can be accused of being mad anyway, the professor may have reasoned out.

Even the great late Albert Einstein was mocked some time in his life for having idealistic and unfalsifiable claims. Remember his Ethereal Hypothesis? That is for one. And his Spooky Action from a Distance version and interpretation as well. Or his own Cosmological Constance idea which he himself thought was his biggest blunder ever, or so he thought, then, until the hypothetical so-called Dark Matter just proved his theory correct.

The problems with smart people is that they sound crazy to dumb people, as the saying goes. Or is it from Albert Einstein himself? Professor Ayn is not so sure about that. But one thing is certain: he believes it.

And that is not really surprising because Professor Ayn is also an idealist just like Albert Einstein. He has a broader imagination and not just a mere empiricist who unwittingly harbors the motto "to see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and understand is to believe" just like his other militant atheist colleagues. Gnostic atheists have very limited minds and imaginations. No. Ayn is such a brilliant scientist to let himself fall on those limiting labels and philosophies.

There is more than they could ever imagine. And whatever it is, it is waiting to be discovered. By them.

By him.

So Ayn promised to himself, with complete conviction and dedication, that he will eventually prove to the Scientific Community that he is also a competent scientist who is more than willing to spend all his time and energy, even his very own life, to create useful inventions and technologies that can help Filipino people fight poverty as well as for the sake of future generations.

"Dad!" a fourteen-year-old boy wearing transparent gas mask around his oval-shaped face calls out from up the stairs. The boy then strides down as quickly as he can along with his two brothers in tow.

The boy hands the gas mask on Professor Ayn.

"Thanks, Newton!" The professor put it on gratefully.

"What happened, Dad?" Newton's voice is muffled. His sharp big eyes water a little despite the mask. "What was that explosion about?" The boy throws his gaze upon the half-opened metallic door where thick puffs of white smoke constantly comes out.

Professor Ayn drops one gloved hand upon the boy's shoulder and smiles.

"Nothing serious, Newton. I assure you. Recklessness was all there is to it. But nothing to worry about now, son. All is jake."

"Are you all right, Dad?" the other boy asks, his sharp yellow eyes almost invisible behind the gas mask and the thick eyeglass. "I thought it was an Atomic bomb!"

Professor Ayn shifts his gaze at the boy with glasses.

"I'm all right, Copper. Just a small accident, really. All is jake."

"Are you sure, Dad?" Above his mask and behind his horn-rimmed eyeglasses, Copper's eyes are wide with sudden glinting curiosity as he studies his father's disheveled appearance. "You look terrible...and strange."

"I guess I do look terrible and strange, son." Professor Ayn faces his smoking laboratory, his sunken eyes weary and bloodshot.

The third boy wearing something on his ears starts walking toward the laboratory; perhaps curiosity got the better of this young lad and judged rather too quickly that this kind of curiosity he is having must be satisfied quickly or else sleepless nights will be inevitable. A gloved hand drops upon the boy's shoulder. The boy cranes his neck, looks up, and creases his forehead.

Professor Ayn shakes his head.

"No, Leo. Bad idea. It's too dangerous. You don't want to go in there. Trust me."

It is true. It is more dangerous now inside his laboratory because of the explosion. Debris and livewires are, of course, to be expected. Sophisticated laboratory such as Professor Ayn's is not a playground for snoopy kids to goof around in. Above all, he does not want Leo or any one else to see what he is actually doing inside.

Not yet.

When Professor Ayn put the rather funny signage on his laboratory door, he really means it. His laboratory is strictly off-limit to everyone else even to his five sons. That is the iron-clad rule in the mansion.

Leo returns his gaze back at the laboratory door, narrows his eyes, then steps backward.

"Don't worry, kids. Everything is under—"

A sharp explosion, but less stronger this time.

The sounds of metallic objects as they fall, clutter, and hit the asphalt floor, and a strange hissing sound that is probably coming from a leaking tube somewhere inside the professor's laboratory permeate the whole wide basement momentarily. The wooden shelves standing by the laboratory door topple sideways. Avalanche of thick books comes sliding and crashing down the floor in waves.

"—control."

Professor Ayn winces.

"I guess you're right, Dad. Everything is under control." Copper grins with his face in the laboratory but his eyes secretly nail at their dad.

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