Chapter 259: Importance of Protection.
(This chap aged poorly...or maybe I'm just prescient? Also sorry for the late update. I went to see Deadpool lol.)
[General POV]
Leonard Hofstader's laboratory in Caltech.
"Knock Knock." Howard knocked on the open door to alert Leonard about their presence.
He entered with Rajesh and walked straight to Leonard. Looking up from his experiment setup with neon lasers, Leonard turned off the power source, turning off the laser first before pulling down his goggles to speak with his friends.
"So, are we going to the launch party?" Howard asked sleazily. "I already have my camera storage wiped so I can take pictures of the cosplayer girls there."
Leonard chuckled and said, "We're not even invited to that….Also, don't…"
"Oh, but that's the case. Yeah, if you want to come, you just need to submit the pass application on the website. I paid extra to get the VIP pass." Rajesh said as he took out a few passes from his pocket. "It's only 20 bucks each."
"Awesome—" Leonard's excitement halted as he remembered, "But Sheldon didn't want to go though."
"That's even better. We'll invite Sheldon's sister instead. They shared most of the DNA, so it's like part of Sheldon is there if you insist on him coming." Howard joked, his eyes lit up at the mention of Missy.
Rajesh scoffed and said, "Yeah right. There's no way you're going to meet her. She already knows all about you." Rajesh and Leonard laughed at Howard's uncomfortable expression.
Leonard laughed and turned to Rajesh, "H-How did you get the pass so fast? Did you apply for it a long time ago?"
"Don't be silly. I applied last night and went to pick it up at the Entertain building this morning." Rajesh replied with a smile.
"They really do work fast." Howard said with amazement. He turned to Leonard, and scrunched his eyebrow, "Why doesn't Sheldon want to go to the launch?"
Leonard signed disappointedly, "He's boycotting whatever Edward put up. Last night, Edward finally made the top of Sheldon's mortal enemies list."
"What did he do?" Howard asked with confusion. "And to be clear, I'm not curious about why Sheldon gets mad, I just want to know if I can do that too."
After chuckling, Leonard replied, "I'm not clear about it. You need to ask him."
Inside Penny's apartment, Missy and Penny groaned as they woke up from their sleep, with a massive hangover hitting them. Missy slept on the sofa, and Penny was sprawling on the floor in a star shape.
"I need some water." Missy whispered hoarsely. Both of the girls' hair were disheveled, and their makeup smudged because they went to sleep without taking it off.
"I'll get some water." Penny struggled as she got up from the floor, her entire body shaking, and she staggered to get to the kitchen. They went overboard last night with the drinking and clubbing, thus turning them into this state.
"Did we do something after getting home last night?" Penny asked.
Missy shook her head, "I don't remember anything, not even how we got here."
Suddenly, the girls heard a knock on the front door. As they were slow and sluggish to open it, the knock became a bit harsher this time.
"Coming!" Missy rushed to the door with a hoarse voice. As she opened it, Mary was standing there with an angry expression. "You went clubbing, and you stopped by your brother's apartment to give him a 'Purple Nurple'!?" Mary asked angrily as she stomped inside the apartment.
Flabbergasted, Missy asked, "I did?"
Back to Caltech, in Sheldon's office. He whimpered as he walked to the board to write his equation, sobbing at the slightest movement as it hurt his chestal region.
"I don't know how, and I don't know why, but this surely has something to do with him." Sheldon mumbled grievously.
…
[Edward POV]
Although I wanted to meet with Eve– Pepper's mother to apologize to her, we couldn't meet up because she was in Spain, having a 3 day soiree party there. The morning passed by quickly as I was working on the game launch event, only stopping to have a break during lunch.
"Hmm…I haven't had that since…" I mumbled to myself as I was standing in the kitchen, thinking about what to eat for lunch. "I need something soft…" I mumbled to myself.
"But I don't have the roux though." After rummaging through the kitchen cabinet, I found none of the ingredients I needed to make chicken katsu, japanese style curry and rice dishes.
"Damn it. Should I just do instant ramen?"
Hesitating whether to go out to buy the ingredients or to stay home and work, I referred my schedule to Robin, "How much more time do we need to finish up the cinematic videos?"
"Best case scenario estimate, 2 hours." Robin replied.
"Not bad, how about the worst case scenario?" I asked.
"2 days." Robin replied. "Not including your trip to the dentist."
"I'm not going to the dentist." I muttered with confusion.
Robin sighed and said, "In 3 days, you have consumed 12 Snickers bars, 8 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, 10 Kit Kat bars, 15 Hershey's Kisses, 6 Twix bars, 7 Milky Way bars, 9 Skittles packets, 5 M&M's bags, 4 Butterfinger bars, 3 Starburst packets, 2 Airheads, and 1 entire bag of Jolly Ranchers. That's a total of 102 individual candies, enough to fill a medium size box, all devoured in just three short days."
Flabbergasted by her keeping track of my sweets intake, I said defensively, "Well, I get stressed when I'm working."
"There's signs of you experiencing pain in your teeth this morning. I have already booked an appointment to get you to the dentist."
"I'm still not going to the dentist. It's just a little pain. I can live with it." I said dismissively, and my mind went to think about the curry ingredients again.
"Fuck it. I'm going to the store." I walked briskly to the front door and grabbed my keys, only to bump into my dad at the front door.
"Hey, I thought you'd be hungry." He said as he raised the takeouts in his hand. "So I bought some Chinese food."
"..."
"Ed?" He called me as I was blanking out. "Oh, sorry. Yeah that'll be great." I replied after snapping back to reality.
My dad was in his ship captain's uniform, stealing some time out of his busy day to spend it with me. Even though I had a hankering for Japanese food, substituting it with a lunch break with my dad didn't sound so bad.
Although when we were eating, I couldn't help but sense he had other intentions of having lunch with me today. The food was laid out outside the house, on the table by the pool where we could watch the sea as we ate.
"So, spit it out." I asked abruptly. My dad choked and coughed, startled from my suddenness. "The food?" He asked with bewildered eyes.
"No, your intention. I don't believe you'd endure the lunchtime traffic, just to have a meal with me."
My dad replied awkwardly, "I just…feel like, we haven't talked in a while. I don't know what's going on with your life. So I want to spend some time with you."
Goosebumps arising from my skin, I shuddered, "Oh god, please don't do that. We're not that type of father and son."
He raised his hands in surrender, "I know. I know." Then, he smirked and said, "Of course, if you don't want to say it, then I'll just have no choice but to continue emulating this…. What did you say it was again…AHH! A lifetime movie parental figure way of speaking."
I rolled my eyes, "So, you're threatening your son?"
"Of course not…" He gave me a slight grin, "Well, sure. A threat then."
"Fine. What do you want to know?" I asked him.
As he ate his food, he said, "No, we're not doing it like that. I want you to be able to tell me about your life. Just like two old friends catching up."
"Well…" I hesitated for a bit before saying, "I'm pretty sure I'm crushing hard on Missy."
My dad widened his eyes and chuckled, "Alright. I'm not going to judge you. She seems really nice. Although, she is almost 30…"
Chuckling, I joked, "Well I'm not trying to ask her out…now…"
"Is that why you flew her out here?" My dad asked casually, not giving me judgment, just curious.
"No. That's just for some entertainment. I just want to see their reunion. Paige, Missy and Sheldon."
"Who's Paige? I know who Sheldon is, and Missy is, but Paige is a new one."
"Paige is… the screenwriter for the movie Pepper wants to make."
"Pepper wants? You don't want to make it?"
"Not really my type of movie. It's a rom-com. I'm working on a TV series about chess, also about a high school chemistry teacher who resorts to cooking and selling crystal meth in order to secure his family's financial future before he dies of terminal cancer."
Speechless for a second, my dad shook his head in understanding, "Right. So that's… actually makes sense. Rom com isn't your thing. I finally learned something new about you."
"Good enough to stop the conversation and eat the rest of the food in peace?"
"No." He replied decisively.
I sighed inwardly before continuing, "Alright. What's new with me? Oh, my game is launching."
"I already know about that, but continue."
"I made a few songs for it."
"Oh, what kind of songs?"
"Basically to light up the fire of inspiration."
"That's great. What else?"
"Well, I think that maybe it."
My dad was silent for a while. "What about your friends? Anything new?"
"With what? With my friends? Nah, nothing changed… much. Oh, Enid is thinking about dyeing her hair. Alex is experimenting with cats and chicken."
We talked for a while, then I turned the table to him, "What about you?"
"What about me?" He asked, confused.
"What's new in your life? You can't ask me to spill my life details without you doing the same thing."
"Well...Now I understand what you're feeling." He mumbled as he thought about it. "Too bad the food is gone, otherwise I would've told you." He stood up from the dining table abruptly.
"Oh come on! That's unfair!" I shouted at his back as he was running away. However, he was stopped by Robin's projection midway to the sink. Robin and my dad talked for a bit before my dad returned to the outdoor table.
"Ed, do you remember when was the last time you went to the dentist?" He asked.
Speechless for a second, I replied, "I don't know, 2008?"
"You have an eidetic memory." He narrowed his eyes at me with disbelief. I sighed and said, "June 17th…2007…"
"It's been 2 years!" My dad muttered with shock. "Go and get ready. We're going to the dentist."
"I still have work to do–"
"You want to go to the dentist, or do you want me to take away your driving privileges."
"Fine." I rolled my eyes in defeat. After cleaning up the outdoor table, I took a shower, and furiously brushed my teeth for a while before walking out of the bathroom.
As I walked to the front door, I said rebelliously, "If the dental hygienist isn't hot, then forget about me sitting on the dentist's chair."
"I'll make sure to survey ahead and find you the hottest one." My dad replied with a smirk. "I'm sure Dr Oppen was hot once." He joked as he mentioned the dentist I had growing up.
…
After a short drive, we arrived at the dentist office. My mouth was pried open by the bald male dentist. He inserted the mirror inside my mouth to check on my teeths.
"Still afraid of the needle?" Dr Oppen asked with a slight joking tone. "I remember you were deathly afraid sitting on the chair when you were young. Now, you're already a world star! Still, you need to get your checkup at least once every 6 months."
As he put away the mirror, I could finally answer him, "No not really. How does it look?"
" There's a lot of tartar and plaque buildup. You just need some cleaning." Dr Oppen continued, "But overall your teeth are fine."
After I breathed in relief, the doctor suddenly took off his gloves. I asked him with confusion, "Aren't you going to clean it?"
"Oh not me… You've been gone for a while, so you've never met her." He opened the door, and a cute blonde dental hygienist entered the room with a huge smile on her face. "This is my daughter Ava. But don't worry, I'm not hiring her because of..just nepotism. She graduated dental school , and now she's a part of the family business. We're all very proud of her."
"H-Hi." Ava waved awkwardly at me. "I'm so excited to clean my first teeth."
"What?" Surprised, my eyes widened and I almost jumped out of the seat. Dr Oppen and Ava laughed at my reaction. "She's just joking. She's been here a year."
"God, my heart almost burst out of my chest." I mumbled as I laid back down on the chair.
After a few minutes of the torturous cleaning, Ava switched to the high-powered water jet, spraying a minty cleaning solution onto my teeth. The pressure stung a bit, but I endured it without making a sound.
Ava giggled as she saw my wincing face, "You're so cute. Don't worry, it's almost over soon."
"Huh hoo (I hope)." I couldn't really speak as I needed to keep my mouth open wide. After she finished cleaning, she asked me to gargle using a paper cup.
"Can you sign it?"
"The cup?" I asked with disbelief.
"Yeah." She replied innocently. I was stunned for a second, but I just signed the cup later on. "Don't sell it on EBay." I joked.
"No! I won't!" She exclaimed excitedly as she received the cup from me.
Dr Oppen gave me a toothbrush after my session was finished, and he treated me like a complete child, giving me a lecture about mouth hygiene over and over again.
My dad struggled to keep in his laughter that he had to place his hand on his mouth to cover it. Helpless, I sighed dejectedly as I watched my dad's reaction.
"We're not speaking of this ever again." I muttered angrily as I walked out of the dentist office. As we walked past the mounted tv on the wall, both of us stopped abruptly and turned to watch the tv.
[PRESIDENTIAL ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: Paramilitary Forces Launch Brazen Attack, Ambush President During Public Event…]
"Holy–" I exclaimed out loud.
…
[General POV]
The crowd had gathered enthusiastically to hear the President's speech, eager to catch a glimpse of the country's leader.
As he stepped up to the podium, a roar of applause and cheers erupted around the plaza. He waved at the crowd, a charismatic smile on his face. Behind him standing proudly was his wife and daughters.
"Good afternoon America." The President started speaking, and the crowd quietened down. In the first 5 minutes of his speech, he shared about his meeting with the Iran Prime Minister, and their negotiations for peace in the middle east. (Plot of White House Down)
The crowd erupted in more cheers and applause. But just as the President continued his remarks, a few suspicious-looking individuals near the front caught the eye of an observant onlooker. These people seemed out of place, their gazes darting around nervously, raising alarms.
Suddenly, the sound of gunfire pierced the air as the would-be assassins opened fire on the President. The President's own Secret Service detail scrambled to fight off the attackers. However, two bullets had been released.
The onlooker watched in horror as the President was struck, staggering backwards slightly from the force of the bullets. But to the onlooker's astonishment, the President remained standing, his expression barely changed.
Quickly, the Secret Service agents rushed to escort the President out of the plaza, but as they reached the presidential limousine, a loud explosion rocked the area. A bazooka round had been fired, directly at the President's vehicle. It targeted the open door, the car was invulnerable once it was closed.
The onlooker and hundreds of others watched in shock as the vehicle burst into a fiery inferno right in front of their eyes.
"NO!!" Carol Wilkes-Finnerty, Secret Service Presidential Detail Deputy Special Agent-in-Charge, flopped down to the ground, bursting into tears as she believed the entire family was dead.
Yet, as the smoke cleared, the onlooker could scarcely believe their eyes. The President, his family, and the Secret Service agents stood unharmed, not a scratch on any of them. The presidential limousine, however, was reduced to a smoldering wreck.
President Obama looked at his hand in disbelief. He caught a glimpse of a hexagonal translucent shield protecting him before it disappeared from visible sight.
"It's…a miracle." A fanatical crowd mumbled. His words spread like a virus, and the entire crowd muttered the same thing.
"GOD SAVED THE PRESIDENT!" Another fanatical man shouted. The sight of the President coming out untouched from the flame, together with his family, was burned into the mind of everyone's watching.
…
[Edward POV]
As we were watching the exclusive footage on the news, Gong Shin suddenly appeared out of nowhere, standing behind me as he too watched the news with a surprised expression. Then, he disappeared again.
"Dad. Pinch my cheek. Is this real?" I mumbled. My dad replied, "I want someone to pinch me too."
"Alright." I pinched his waist without warning. "God– OW!" He looked at me with disbelief, and then turned to the TV again. "It is real. I can't believe it."
"What do you think will happen now?" My dad asked casually.
Shaking my head, I replied, "I don't know. But I guess, there'll be a lot of movies that will come out referencing this…. Also– shit, it'll be quite bad for the launch tomorrow. The media won't cover anything else."
My dad looked at me with concern, "That's cold. He almost died. You can at least show some concern. After all, you met him."
"Yeah…Lucky for him…" I replied ambiguously.