About an hour later...

About an hour later, Alex was hit with the most intense pain he'd ever felt in his life, much worse than what Dr. Tiberius's blue colored drug did to him. He clenched his hands tightly over his stomach, trying to block out the pain. It was so intense, he couldn't even scream. All he could manage were a bunch of weak, voiceless gasps. Every nerve ending inside him felt like a blowtorch was being held to it and his stomach contracted so intensely he thought it was turning itself into a pretzel. His eyes throbbed in his head with the erratic pace of his suddenly racing heart. The convulsions came next, seizing up his arms, legs, and the rest of his body and flopping them all over the place.

A loud crash came from Darius's side of the room and Alex managed to turn his head and glance that way, whimpering in more pain as he did.

He found Darius on the floor, thrashing as wildly as he was. The lamp that usually sat on his friend's desk was on the floor next to his head. Its bulb had broken into tiny pieces that glittered almost malevolently from the light coming through the window.

We're dying, Alex thought in dismay. That stupid drug is killing us after all.

He tried to roll off his own bed in an effort to get to Darius. The fear, worry, and guilt that flooded his mind helped lend him a tiny amount of strength. He managed to get one foot off his bed when the most intense wave of agony hit him. His body locked up completely and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move at all.

He blacked out a minute later.

Alex woke up. The light from the window had changed and took on golden, mid-afternoon tones. He moved cautiously, trying hard not to make any sudden movements. He had zero desire for those spasms of pain to flare up again.

But there was no pain and no spasms. In fact, there was no trace of any lingering discomfort.

He moved a couple of his limbs. An arm here. A leg there.

Nothing.

He raised an eyebrow in confusion. Then he realized something more. Not only was the pain gone, but he also felt better than he had in a long time. He felt...different...somehow.

He jumped off his bed, taking special care not to land on Darius (who was sprawled over half the floor and snoring loudly). He did all this, even landing as light as a feather, with ridiculous grace and not a trace of his usual, stumbling awkwardness. He wasn't sure what to make of that. He'd never exhibited that kind of grace before. Not once. In fact, most people called him a clutz, or "accident prone."

He looked down at himself as if he'd never seen his own body before.

"Weird," he mumbled out loud.

Alex stretched, waved his arms, kicked his feet, and even started jumping up and down, but whatever caused the mind-numbing agony of a few hours ago was completely gone. He breathed a sigh of relief, and then smiled boyishly as he mentally went through everything he was feeling and trying to find out what was different. The first thing he noticed was that he felt light on his feet. He also felt like he could run a marathon and actually win it. Lastly, his body seemed to respond to his commands a lot faster than they normally did. Overall, however, he just felt...good. It was the first time he'd felt that good since he was a kid, when time, junk food, and not enough exercise hadn't caught up to him yet.

He looked down at Darius and went to nudge him with his foot but the moment it came within two inches of Darius's face, his friend's arm snaked forward, grabbed it, and pushed it off to one side. At the same time, he nimbly rolled to his left and popped up with the speed and grace of a cat.

"Damn, dude!" Alex exclaimed. "That was awesome. How'd you do that? I could have sworn you were passed out."

"I don't know," he replied, looking at his outstretched hands in utter confusion. "It was like my arm had a mind of its own." He looked up at Alex and his jaw literally dropped. He pointed at his friend's chest. "What's with you?"

"What do you mean, what's with me?" Alex asked, confused. "I don't have ninja reflexes. At least I don't think I do."

"I'm not talking about that," Darius replied. "Look in the mirror!"

Confused, Alex went over to the one they had hanging on the back of their door. He did it mostly to humor Darius but the reflection he found staring back at him wasn't himself. Or rather, it was but a different version. The one staring back was...ripped? The shirt he was wearing fit him differently now. Instead of being pulled somewhat tightly over his gut, it was now stretched across thick, muscular pecs. The sleeves of his shirt were tighter too and he realized the muscles in his biceps were also huge. His forearms were cut and lean and his stomach had abs now. Abs! Even his legs had lost every ounce of fat they'd had and gained strong looking muscle instead.

Darius came up to him, standing off to one side as he looked at Alex. He poked a finger at his friend's stomach in disbelief.

"What the hell?" Darius asked. His mouth was hanging slightly open in shock.

Alex looked at his friend in reply and just shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know what this is," Alex said, taking a closer look at Darius to try and find something different about him.

"Lift up your shirt," Alex commanded.

Darius arched a brow at him.

"Come on man," Alex replied. "Get your mind out of the gutter and do it."

"You could at least buy me a drink first. Isn't that how it works?" Darius asked, feigning innocence.

Alex ignored him and waved his arm in an impatient, let's-get-on-with-it gesture.

Darius rolled his eyes and quietly lifted his shirt. He always had a lean, athlete's body, but now that Alex took a closer look, he could definitely see some noticeable changes. Darius's muscles had gained mass and were more sharply defined as well.

"It's not just me. You've changed too," Alex told him excitedly.

Darius stepped up to the mirror, shoving Alex out of the way.

"You're imagining things," he replied. He felt like he looked the same as he always had.

"I'm serious. You did." Alex gestured for him to take another look. "You have more muscle and more definition too. Whatever happened to me, happened to you."

"Then why'd you get way bigger than me?" Darius asked, a petulant, almost childish tone to his voice. "Look at you. You turned into Hercules and I look like I'm your waterboy or something."

"I don't know," Alex explained. "Maybe it's because I had more fat."

"So because you were fatter, you got more muscle?" Darius asked, incredulous. "That sounds stupid."

"Well, it's the only real difference we had. I was kind of fat and you were thin. You came out with only a little more muscle mass and I came out with a bunch of muscle. I'm telling you, it fits," Alex explained.

Darius thought about it for a moment. It did sound like the only logical explanation.

"What we took yesterday must've been some kind of top secret weight loss drug or something. It takes whatever body fat you have and converts it to pure muscle. Or something like that," Alex went on. He was guessing, true, but he felt like he was mostly right.

"I guess that makes some sort of insane sense but I still don't know. Something doesn't sound right to me," Darius gave Alex an unsure look.

"Why?"

"The security for one," Darius stated, ignoring Alex's dubious glance. "There was a crap load of it. I mean Tiberius's lab was behind an actual, false wall. That's not normal. I get the feeling that it wasn't for some magic weight loss drug."

"Seriously?" Alex asked. "Of course a drug like that would have heavy duty security around it. Whoever is backing Dr. Tiberius isn't going to want it stolen by a rival company. I mean, that stuff will be worth millions, hell, even billions of dollars. Look what it did to us."

Alex waved insistently at the both of them to prove his point.

"Whatever," Darius replied, half-heartedly. "It's just that this whole thing doesn't sit right with me."

"Stop worrying," Alex told him. "What's done is done and all that crap. We can't change it now, so we might as well enjoy it."

"Fine," Darius said. He was starting to hate the way Alex was blowing off his concerns like they didn't even matter. "If, or when, this comes back to bite us in the ass, I'll be sure to tell you I told you so."

"Deal."

Alex looked at the clock. He had less than forty-five minutes until he was supposed to be at work. He went and changed into his uniform, which consisted of a navy polo shirt with Ashebrook University's logo printed over the left breast and a pair of khaki pants. A gold colored pin with his name in black letters and the word manager above it, was clipped just below the logo.

"What are you up to tonight?" he asked Darius, who was lying on his bed again, staring at the ceiling.

His friend just shrugged.

"You should talk to Anna. I know I don't have any idea what's going on with you two, but it couldn't hurt."

"Yeah, it could," Darius replied in a bitter tone. "I went to see her the other day and she screamed at me to leave. Screamed, Alex."

"What?" Alex asked, shocked. "Why would she do that?"

"I don't know," he said, even though he did know why. Every time he closed his eyes these days, he saw her bruised face. "She won't talk to me and every time I try to make her it only pushes her away even more. If I come at her too hard, she'll shut down completely and ice me out of her life altogether."

"What are you going to do?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be here. I'd be with her," he replied.

"True. It's just that I didn't think you'd give up on her so easily," Alex responded.

"I'm not giving up on her!" he yelled. The words infuriated him and Alex went abruptly silent. "But what can I do if she won't talk to me...or even see me!"

"I don't really know, man," Alex replied, choosing his words very carefully.

"It's not like I haven't tried at all. She's shut me out and whatever is wrong with her, she's not talking to me about it."

Darius's voice was full of so much rage, it concerned Alex deeply. His friend's anger was only getting worse. He tried to keep up an air of obliviousness about it to Darius, pretending to ignore it, but that wasn't working so well anymore. He was seeing how much of a foothold the anger was gaining day by day. He knew Darius was desperately in love with Anna, practically from the very beginning. He'd been there for the entirety of their relationship. Through its ups and downs. What they were going through now, however, was something else entirely. And it was hurting Darius.

"You think you guys are through?" Alex pre-winced in preparation for the backlash the question would surely get from D, but it didn't come.

"I don't believe that," he replied. "I think something is going on with her she doesn't want to tell me about. Something bad. I'm going to find out what it is and I am going to help her get clear of it."

"I thought she didn't want you to help?" Alex asked.

"That's why I help her without her knowing it," he answered, his voice carefully controlled and quiet. "And then we can both get past it together."

"So you have to find out what's going on with her and then solve the problem behind her back?" Alex asked and when Darius nodded his head yes, it prompted another question. "How do you find out what's going on?"

"I follow her around," he stated, as if the answer was obvious.

"I may not be an expert on girls, or relationships, but isn't it a bad thing to follow your girlfriend around like a stalker?" Alex asked.

The plan was crazy and Alex thought there was a lot of potential for it to blow up in Darius"s face. He tried to get him to see that but he knew it was a lost cause. When Darius set his mind to something, nothing would get him to change it. He'd have better luck trying to stop a herd of rampaging elephants.

"Don't you have to go to work now?" Darius asked him.

"Yeah, yeah," Alex replied, heading out the door. "But when this plan of yours comes back to bite you in the ass, I'll be sure to tell you I told you so."

"Leave, smartass," Darius growled.

Alex left for work, feeling apprehensive about leaving his friend alone.