Jacob sat the table, happily eating a simple omelet he had made himself. The morning was peaceful, and the sun outside was shining. It was a beautiful day to go out and do anything.

Too bad he was stuck inside waiting for his parents to wake up.

He had found the two of them walking around the fair after going on the rides. It was pretty late at that point, so he decided to just stick with them for the rest of the night. He was pretty sure he’d passed out from tiredness at some point, because he couldn’t actually remember making it home.

He had also woken up wearing the clothes he had worn to the fair. Another sign his parents had brought him home and had just put him to bed. Today was laundry day anyway.

“When are they getting up?” he asked aloud as he looked over at the two other plates of food he had gotten ready. He didn’t want to leave to see Eve until he had seen his parents eat the food he’d made for them.

He leaned back, lifting the chair with his legs so only two of the chair’s touched the ground. “Maybe I should just wake them… Who is that?”

Jacob put the chair back the way it was as someone loudly knocked on the door. He got out of his chair and carefully made his way to the front door. He leaned toward the door, only for the mystery person to knock again, scaring him into stumbling onto the floor.

“Someone in there?” he heard a familiar voice call. He looked at the door and wondered why Agent Kennedy was knocking at his door so early in the morning. If they had found out about Eve, he doubted he’d be this calm.

“Yeah, it’s me Jacob,” he said, trying to buy time would only make things look worse. Better to figure out what it was he wanted before he had a chance to get really suspicious. “Give me a second to unlock the door.”

A few turns on some locks later and Agent Kennedy was sitting on a chair in his living room.

“Orange juice?” he offered the agent, who quickly declined.

Jacob shrugged, putting away the juice before asking the burning question. “So why are you here?”

“Actually thought I would talk to your parents about it before I told you. Any idea where they are?”

“Oh they’re probably still…” he started to say before he was interrupted by the sound of two people walking upstairs. He glanced upwards before turning to the stairs.

“Give me a second,” he told the agent as he walked to the foot of the stairs and looked up. “Mom, Dad, are you two awake?”

“Yes,” his mother’s voice replied from upstairs.

“Jacob, is someone down there with you?” he heard his father ask from the second floor.

“Yeah, it’s Agent Kennedy from DOSP,” he called back. “Says he’s here to talk to you guys about something, says it’s important.”

“Tell him we’ll be right down,” he heard from his Mom. He glanced over at the waiting government agent.

“They say they’ll be right down,” he explained as Agent Kennedy sat back and started to wait.

“Sorry about that,” his dad apologized as the two made their way down the stairs. “My son said you were Agent Kennedy, right?” held his hand out for him to shake. He glanced at the hand and smiled awkwardly.

“Sorry, can’t come into physical contact with you,” he apologized as well but kept his hands in his pockets. “Has to do with why I’m here.”

Before he could say anything else, he dug into his suit and took out a plastic bag with a zip lock on it. He carefully unzipped it and then held it out to Jacob’s dad. He looked inside the bag and shrugged, reaching in and taking the paper out.

Jacob’s mother leaned forward as her husband unfolded the paper. Both started reading it, their eyes narrowing as they did.

“Parental permission form?” his mother asked as he glanced at her son worriedly.

“We have reason to believe your son might have come into contact with the escaped animal we were talking about. There are a few tests we wanted to run, nothing invasive or anything like that. Just a few scans and an interview to help us narrow down where the animal could be hiding.”

Jacob gulped loudly enough to get all three of their attentions.

“Hey, calm down, kid,” Agent Kennedy held his arms out in a calming gesture. “You’ll be just fine. No pressure.”

“Well, I suppose it would be okay,” his father grabbed a pen and set the paper on the table. He hovered the pen over the dotted line, his hand trembling a bit. “And you’re sure he’ll be okay?”

“As sure as the sun will rise tomorrow,” he said with a charming smile one wouldn’t expect from someone who worked for a secret government agency.

“Alright, fine,” Jacob’s father signed the paper, his mother doing the same while glaring at Agent Kennedy. “When do we go?”

He looked as though he was bracing himself. “I’m sorry, but I can only take Jacob with me.”

“What?” his screamed as she smacked her hand on the table.

“As Jacob is the only person who has possibly contacted the animal, he’s the only one who I can take back with me,” he explained quickly, as though he had rehearsed the lines. “I tried to convince my superiors to allow you to come too, but they want as few people involved as possible.”

“Then he won’t go,” his father said, sterner than Jacob had ever seen the jovial man before.

“Listen, I know this looks bad, but I can assure you everything will be fine,” he told them with that same charming smile.

“Don’t you try that with me,” his mother argued. “He hasn’t even said if he wants to.”

“I’ll go,” Jacob cut in. “I’ll go with Agent Kennedy.”

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“Are you sure?” his father asked as he walked up to him. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“I kind of feel like I have to,” he explained. “The sooner they find whatever it is they’re looking for, the better. Right?”

It also gave him a chance to figure out what they already knew about Eve, and refusing when he had already been so friendly with Agent Kennedy before might have looked suspicious.

“Are you sure about this?” his mother asked, to which Jacob just gave a determined nod. She took a deep breath and then put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it tight. “Alright, if you’re sure… but you’re going to listen to me first.”

Jacob was hauled into another room before he could blink and sat down at the table as his mother gave him a list of do’s and don’ts. Mostly basic things, like not signing anything, knowing he had the right to refuse questioning and other things which made him wonder about his mother’s past.

However, questions about how exactly a housewife had a working knowledge of what to do when detained by the government would have to wait. For now, he had a mission.

As he walked out of the house with Agent Kennedy, he felt ready to do this.

The pair got into the front of the black van without a word as Agent Kennedy turned the keys. They drove in near silence until they reached a small lot near the edge of town where some tents had been set up. A few other people in suits were walking around, but the whole place looked pretty sparse.

“We’ll be having you talk to one of our people while she administers the tests,” he explained as he parked the car.

“Just… be ready. She’s… well, let’s just say she’s a unique individual.”

Jacob gave Agent Kennedy a careful look as he followed him out of the car and toward the tents. It was mostly empty with a machine hooked up to a pod off to the side and a bench with a computer being used by the only other person in the room.

“Agent Kennedy, you’re back. And you brought… a kid,” a serious young woman with her hair done in a bun and wearing a white lab coat said as she looked down at him.

“Calm down, Kaze,” he held his hands up in attempt to calm the already seemingly calm woman. “This is one of the kids who had the specimen traces on him, the one that…”

Whatever he was about to say was quickly forgotten as ‘Kaze’ pushed him out of the way and marched right up to him.

“You,” she pointed at him. “Into the lab now!”

“What?” Jacob said he jumped back at the woman’s quick shift. “Aren’t we already in the lab?”

“Kazami, you can’t just,” Agent Kennedy tried to protest.

“Yes, I can,” she interrupted again. “We haven’t had a lead since we got here, and now we just find two kids who have traces of the sample all over them.”

Jacob froze as he heard the words ‘two kids’. They knew it was either him or Eve. He would have to be on his toes to make sure he didn’t give anything away.

“Kazami!” Agent Kennedy barked, grabbing the attention of both of the other people in the room. “Do I have to remind you we got a parental permission form for a reason? A form you have to sign too before we can begin?”

Jacob held the paper out, ready for it to be taken.

Kazami let out a frustrated click of her tongue before taking the paper and going into another room.

“Sorry about her. Kazami tends to get a bit,” Agent Kennedy paused as his mind went through a list of words to describe his coworker, “passionate about her work.”

“She’s crazy,” he muttered just loud enough for Agent Kennedy to hear. “Why do you even have a crazy doctor around?”

“Not a doctor,” both adults said, Kennedy with a smile on his face and Kazami with a frustrated groan. She had apparently heard him from the other room. Pretty clearly considering she kept talking even as he could hear her moving stuff around.

“Would have been a doctor if they hadn’t classified the research behind my thesis right before I got my doctorate,” Kazami said bitterly. “Just a few days away from becoming Doctor Makoto Kazami. Kid, if there’s one thing you learn today, it’s that the world is not fair, and it will take any chance to crush your soul into the dirt.”

“Kaze, stop traumatizing the child.” Agent Kennedy sighed.

“Never,” she snipped at him as she emerged from the other room. “Where do we even keep the pens?”

“They’re next to your computer,” he pointed to a PC on the other side of the tent.

“Really? I could have sworn they weren’t there anymore,” she grabbed a pen and signed the same paper Jacob’s parents had signed just a short while ago.

“There, now can we start the experiments?” she pushed the paper to Agent Kennedy. She walked over to the pod and twisted a handle before pulling it open. “Kid, mind standing in there?”

“Sure thing,” he walked into the pod. Kazami went back to her computer and pressed a button. Jacob looked around as the pod and the machine came to life. Lights flashed, and bleeps started coming from then. “So what is this going to do?”

“It’s going to scan you for any traces of the animal,” Kazami explained as the machine kept going. She looked up at Kennedy and pointed her thumb at Jacob. “Alright, so the scan’s going to keep going, feel free to start the interview.”

“Okay, we’ll make this simple,” he grabbed a folded chair and set it up in front of Jacob’s pod. “I’m just going to assume you haven’t seen any animal that looked… weird? Nothing even a little bit abnormal?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” he replied coolly. “I have no clue why I would have its stuff on me.”

“And that brings us to our second question.” He took out a photo from his pocket. It was a picture of Eve at the fair, taken from a distance. “This girl, Eve, who is she and where did she come from?”

“No clue, I met her that day,” he replied as he felt the first drop of sweat emerge from the back of his neck.

“I see,” he crossed his arms. “You looked pretty close for just meeting that day.”

“We became fast friends,” he spoke back when there was sudden commotion from outside the tent.

“Agent Kennedy,” a man in a suit barged in.

“You have to get out there. It’s the strain, it’s here!”

Within a second, Agent Kennedy was out of his chair and dashing outside with an intense look on his face. The last thing Jacob saw before he went outside was him reaching into his jacket.

Jacob looked around as he started hearing a commotion from outside the tent. He flinched as he heard a few gunshots get added to the mix. He focused on the noise, following its center as it traveled around the side of the tent.

His head turned as the noise came to a stop. He watched as the source of the sound stood still for a second before Eve ripped through the tent’s wall. She landed on the floor in a crouch before her head snapped upwards to scan the room.

Instead of wearing her normal clothing, she was wearing her black chitin armor and had four eyes again. She glared at Kazumi, who dropped to the floor, before turning to Jacob and seeing him in the tube. She stood and started walking forward, cracking her knuckles.

“Get back, Jacob, I’ll get you out of it,” she yelled loudly, any hope he had of tricking DOSP dying right there.

He just let out a sigh as he ducked down and waited as Eve’s arm turned into a giant claw. She swung, several cracks appearing in the glass. She gave a satisfied smile before swinging her claw a few more times. She stood aside as he got to his feet and looked at the hole in the glass big enough for him to walk through.

“Why didn’t you just open the door?” Kazami finally screamed at Eve from her spot on the floor. “It wasn’t locked, all you had to do was twist the handle!”

“Shut up,” she yelled back as he walked out of the tube and placed his hands on her shoulders.

“What are you doing?” he hissed at her.

“I’m saving you. I saw you in the car with the government guy, so I followed it to save you,” she said plainly as she winced and reached for her arm. “Now come on, let’s go!”

Jacob gazed downwards and sucked in a breath as he noticed Eve’s right arm. It was a stump covered in orange goo. She covered the stump with her other arm before getting in his face. “I’m fine, it’ll grow back… I think.”

“Stop right there.”

They both froze as they turned to the torn tent wall.

There, standing on the other side of the tear, was Agent Kennedy with glacial eyes. In one hand he had a normal-looking handgun. In the other he had a strange weapon with glowing green parts and an exposed part of the handle letting out steam.

“Eve, run,” Jacob looked at the armed man in front of him.

“What, I can’t just…” she started arguing.

“Just go!” he screamed as Agent Kennedy raised his normal-looking gun. His legs moved faster than his mind, putting himself between the two, making the man hesitate for a moment.

That was all she needed to escape. The chitin-covered girl leapt out through another window. Agent Kennedy ran after her, and Jacob heard a few more gun shots go off. When he came back a few moments later, he did not look amused.

“Under the authority of D.O.S.P, you are now under containment until further notice,” he announced as three people in suits walked in through the door to ‘escort’ him out.