Jason knew he was way over his head when the experiment started spewing odd readings.

Initially, the reactant was reacting 3% faster than usual, but this was explained by either the weather being extremely brutal at the moment, the heat acting as a catalyst or they used some extra concentrated solution. No one cared because this was supposed to be a very simple prep phase with no really dangerous chemicals, and the extra speed was actually nice because it cut the reaction time by about 5 minutes. It was when we added the natrium that things got really out of hand.

Water vapor is produced as part of the reaction, but it usually condenses and reacts back into the solution before it becomes a problem. It was a problem as the extra heat in the system kept the water in vapor form, causing a basic yet catastrophic reaction that melted an inch-wide hole in the containment chamber. This wouldn’t have been too bad, honestly, as the chamber was built to last against all sorts of torture.

The building it was built into however. Whoever, built the place, fucked up, as a bloody gas line was under the chamber. Hot, glowing metal meet gas pipe; gas pipe meet hot metal. When this happened, Jason thankfully left for the Jones, as the explosion blew the building almost clean off its foundation; witnesses claim to have seen a ball of fire emerge from a dragon's maw.

He dashed downstairs, equipped his mask in case of any gases, slapped on a pair of goggles a size to large, and entered the blast zone. Glass equipment was strewn across the flour, and an expensive centrifuge was still spinning upside down and leaking its contents. His co-workers were there as well, though they were on the ground a bit confused but all in one piece because of the chamber being built like a doomsday bunker. The screaming monitors, however, drew his attention.

Panicking, he sat down on the only chair left standing, de-escalating the situation by going through the logs and first disabling the first three alarms: breach, explosion, and gases. Following that, he began going through the remaining alarms. The first was that the materials in the chamber had basically been vaporized and had temporarily succeeded in becoming a perpetual energy source, for which he immediately sent the recording to higher authorities with no further explanation. The second is that the material storage facilities have been damaged. And lastly, a worrying amount of radiation is spilling into the environment at an increasingly fast clip.

This was what broke his cool; spinning on the chair, he barked out orders to his co-workers, "Gamma type Breach-Class 5 going 8." That got everyone’s attention, and as a herd, they ran out of the room, with the head researcher being the only one left. "Jason, what are you doing?" stumbling from the blast "We need to go," she called out as Jason typed away at the keyboard, using as many shortcuts as he could through the facility shutdown operator. "We succeeded, the project is a success, and our names will go down in history!" he barked out louder with maniacal glee in his voice.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

She approached the monitor deck, clearly off-kilter and unnerved by his words, saying, "Yes, and we will be in lead caskets if we don't leave!" emphasizing the last words one by one. "True, true, if only it were only us," he said, turning his head slightly and bashing his poor fingers into the carbon keyboard. He paused to stretch his red fingers and take a deep breath. "We succeed, but the product is unstable." breathing again, more ragged "It's producing more than the projected amount, which means it's burning off its mass for the extra energy. If it continues, it will reach a critical mass and create a pressure difference so large that nukes will look small.

Turning his head, he can see the head researcher with a glassy look going through all the modifications he has made to the meltdown and burning sky operations, an amalgam lockdown sequence that will drown out and freeze anything in the facility. "Won't work; custom files require manual override with an administrator key," she says, shaking her head as she passes the key and muttering "Mom would be proud" before abruptly leaving.

Jason remained seated until he received system confirmation that he was the only person left before leaping from his seat and kicking the maintenance panel off the front of the monitor deck. Pushing the combed wires to the side, he installed the key to the USB port, after which he disconnected the tri-phase facility link he uses for checkups. He took out his phone, connected, and uploaded his custom override. Coming out and over to the monitor, he can see that the radiation has already passed the lethal threshold and will go critical in 5 minutes. Flipping the lockdown switch, he smiles and says, "Ahh, button, it's nice seeing you again!" before promptly smashing it.

Nothing happened at first before all the lights went out, leaving only the glow of his phone and the reactant in the chamber as the only sources of light. Looking at the reactant, Jason could see a bright green and pink corona circling an orb so red it could be mistaken for blood. Leaning heavily on the reinforced glass, he remembered the name of this entire project. In the beginning, the project was called "Trinity" for the odd combination of three materials before becoming "Project Philosopher" in reference to the red stone of power. "It's just as lovely as I'd hoped," he said, succumbing to the leaching cold water that had reached his waist.

Waking up with the worst hangover he has ever felt, he cried out a long and depressing groan as his short, chubby arms held his head. Not only that, but his vision was terrible, and he couldn’t find his glasses anywhere. Annoyed at the predicament, he tried to clap his hands as part of his ritual of the day before feeling the extra weight his hands carry and the lack of coordination hitting him in the face.

Before he could cry out in indignation for his aging body's weakness, he was suddenly picked up by his arms and head by warm, caring hands. He promptly fell asleep in those warm grasps, drooling and speaking odd, garbled words from his toothless mouth.

* 3 Three months later

Jason, or more accurately, Derrick, has finally conquered the vile wooden cage.

* Level 8 climbing

It was a very tall crib! Derrick, finally beating this monumental foe, slept on the hard wood floor. The reasons why are very complex, and it would take a long story to explain the intricacies of Derricks'...

And Mom got me again. A tall, beautiful woman with amber-yellow hair, four arms, and turquoise scales. Her expression is one of annoyance, looking down with piercing yellow eyes at poor Derrick as she carefully manhandles him back to his crib. clearly tired of Derricks' nonsense.

But why does Derrick do this? Why go through all this effort if he was going to be caught again?

* Level 14 shenanigans

That’s why.