The Jocking: 3rd Quarter, 4:00 -- Trick Plays

Read previous part

As if life wasn’t awkward enough already. It was about to get bad. Two hours after they had separated, the two groups reunited, now with twice the number of people.

“Adam!”
“Kai! Chloe! ...Psycho- I mean, Dr. Fisher?”
“Adam!”
“Oh, is this James?”
“Nice to meet you.”

And so, it was, that all six found themselves together in the cell that once housed Adam. Finally, he was the one who spoke first.

“Obviously, I found James. Did you guys find a way out?”
“No,” Chloe answered. “But we found these two old fools.”
“Impertinent girl,” Theodore commented.
“Hush crazy,” Adam responded. “Why are you guys here?”
“Well Adam, that’s kind of the crux of the situation.”
“What? Just answer the damn question already. Who are you?” He said pointing to Burton.
“I’m his brother. Who is that?”
“This is James, my friend.”
“The lover, Chloe loudly whispered into Kai’s ear who nodded in affirmation.
“NO!” Adam yelled. And they were all quiet for just a moment. “Anyway, what happened? Why are you two here?”
“We came here to try to stop Briggs, since it seemed you two had failed.”

Adam and Kai just kind of stared at the old men with looks that were mixed confusion and disdain. James was staring down at the floor. And Chloe met the two elders eyes with an unwavering gaze. Finally, she let out a soft cough which caught everyone’s attention.

“So,” she began, “what exactly is going on? You said you came to stop Briggs, because Adam and Kai failed. What is all this? What exactly are we doing?”

The Fisher men looked at each other, with Theodore giving Burton a tiny nod, indicated that he should speak.

“Well, I guess it’s all on me,” Burton began. “Theodore and I are followers of a sect, basically. We believe in an ancient prophecy that predicts the end of the modern world.”

“Oh!” Kai shouted. “The book! The one in your office!”
“You found that?” Burton asked.
“Yeah, I was trying to figure out what was going on with Briggs.”

“Well good, you have a little background. Basically, the prophecy states that a member of our sect will actually give birth to a...well, basically a sort of antichrist. Someone who will lead the world down the path to destruction. And that person, was Darren. Darren Brock.”

“Brock?” Kai questioned. “Not Briggs.”
“No,” Adam interjected. “Definitely Brock.”

“Anyway, my daughter, Mallory Fisher, gave birth to a male child. On the date, day, and time as predicted. But, we weren’t exactly going to just kill the child, not that we would have been able to anyway. So, we started coming up with ideas.”

“And your idea was XAP?” Chloe asked.

“Not exactly,” Burton said. “Darren, if he should turn out to be the evil, would be extremely charismatic and recruit men easily to join him. So, we needed some way to control him, should this happen.”

“You couldn’t have just killed him?” James asked.

“No. See, essentially, there is a demon that uses his body to house his powers. So, he can’t be killed because he has powers.”

“What kind of powers?” Was Adam’s simple question.

“Manipulation powers essentially. From anything in the physical realm. His powers, actually are based on the same principles that XAP uses.”

“How do you know what principles XAP uses? That’s my research,” Chloe pouted.

“Okay, so, Darren was growing older, and we were becoming quite convinced that, not only was he the demon, but his powers were growing rapidly. Fortunately, two other members of our sect heard that a company was developing something that might enable people to manipulate reality. Those were your parents Kai.”

“What? My parents are part of some cult?” Kai questioned.
“It’s not a cult,” Theodore stated. “There’s no religion. It’s just a belief that this prophecy was real. Is real, it turns out.”

“Yes, Kai,” Burton continued. “Your parents had learned that another branch of ChemCorp was producing something very interesting. But, it was under strict security principles and there didn’t seem to be a way to get any. So, we found someone to go undercover.”

“To steal XAP from me?” asked Chloe.

“Yes, Chloe, to steal some samples of it for our own research. We found a former army ranger to pose as a janitor and get inside the company. He had done undercover work as well, and was now working as a freelance.”

“Who was this guy?” Adam inquired.

“He only had one name listed. It was Briggs.”

“Briggs?” The three kids all shouted in unison.
“You hired Briggs to steal XAP?”

“Yes, he seemed a logical choice, having both work in the army and in undercover operations. Plus, he didn’t really know why we wanted it, so we thought there wouldn’t be any conflict of interests. Either way, he managed to funnel back some samples that your parents began to work on Kai.”

“But how did he steal it from me? I was the only one with the access code.”

“Not the only one. He said that he had made a contact within the organization who helped him. I actually assumed it was you, Chloe. Anyway, we began work on XAP. I monitored Darren at school. We had taken precautions early on in his life, and he had never known that I was his grandfather. Should his powers ever activate, we needed as many people to stop him at every location in his life. If he knew who I was, he might wait until the whole family was together and then kill us all. However, I started to get sick, a lot. Age was catching up with me. But we needed someone to keep an eye on the school. Fortunately, we had someone who was interested and already involved.”

“Briggs?”

“Yes, I hired him as a football coach. He had played back in the day, and seemed like a great choice. He totally had the personality, and actually seemed rather happy with the job. It gave me a chance to take time off. Briggs eventually learned the whole prophecy and what was going on, and he seemed rather interested in helping out. So, he kept an eye on Darren. I never told him about Kai.”

“What about me?”

“I was watching over you too. You see, the prophecy also states that someone would come who could stop the demon. You fit the description and so I followed you too. Theodore was a professor and met a boy that he became convinced was the light.”

“I guess that was me,” Adam said.

“Yes, so, here we were. A demon awakening. Two possible heroes. A rapidly approaching end. And research into a mysterious chemical. You see, we thought that if it came down to it, we could use XAP on Darren, and either remove the demon itself, or turn him into someone that would never use the power. Briggs suggested he join the football team. He thought the pack mentality might help. We declined, but kept that in mind as a backup plan. So, we started researching those kind of changes with XAP. It turns out, Briggs was way ahead in the research, and he built his own machine. Apparently, he had been getting enough XAP to keep a lot for himself, while still funneling some to us.”

“Stupid boy, so he burnt down the ChemCorp plant?” Kai asked.

“No, he didn’t. I doubt he would have hurt us honestly. We were on good terms with Briggs. No, Darren started the fire. His powers were awakening and he knew what our intentions were apparently. So he started a fire spontaneously. Apparently, any manipulation of reality is his power.”

“Wait? Darren killed my parents?”

“And his own, Kai. Darren’s demon was beginning to stir. And anything that got in its way was going to die.”

“So...I’ve been blaming Briggs for their death....completely without any real....fuck. I’m a little bit of shit head.”
“Yeah you are,” Adam said as he pet Kai’s hair. “But we love you anyway. So, Darren kills his parents. And then...what?”

“Well, we needed to crack down. So, we had Briggs use the device on Darren while he was at school one day. Turns out, Briggs had already used it. Suddenly, everything was out of control. Briggs was turning men into jocks. But Darren did seem under control. For a while at least. But now, it’s quite obvious that he is an even bigger threat than before. Except now, he turns men into members of his football team.”

“I have a question,” Kai interjected. “Okay, so this XAP... it alters reality. Does it change the laws of physics or anything?”
“No,” Theodore answered. “It should work in the exact same premise of this world.”
“It’s more about chemistry,” Chloe finished. “SAVIOR is what the project was called when I worked on it. XAP is totally a term I learned from you. Basically, the reason I was recruited was to work on carbon bonding, whose unique properties enable life as we know it to exist. Chemistry functions within the realm of physics, so, no...no changes there.”
“Then, okay, when I was in Briggs’ jock realm, I weighed like five hundred pounds. That doesn’t seem possible. The biggest bodybuilders and football players are at three hundred.”
“Oh!” Burton said excitedly. “That’s just part of Briggs’ imagination essentially. They don’t actually weight that much. It’s the same way that football rosters add height and weight to players in order to look intimidating. Except here, the scales just say a different weight. I mean, if you write 200 pounds where it should be 50, that’s pretty much all it is.”
“But they do look bigger,” Adam said. “So, they are slightly larger.”
“They are as big as they can be functional,” Chloe explained. “I played with it in the same manner. You can make people bigger and they can survive. But they can’t function. Our bodies aren’t naturally able to reach that size, but physically we can function there. Briggs just changed our evolutionary history as a species. No biggie.”

“So Chloe,” Theodore began, “you said the program was called SAVIOR when you joined it?”
“Yeah, well that’s what they told me. And to be honest, I doubt that it’s true. ChemCorp preferred we not know a whole lot. They’re a very mischievous bunch. Some of their other products have made the news, through side corporations of course. It was suppose to save the world, they told me.”
“Who hired you?” Burton asked.
“Why, Moore did. We’ve been fighting ever since.”
“How long have you worked here?”
“Umm, just over four years.”
“You’re awfully young.”
“I’m a child genius, literally. I have a PhD in Carbon Bonds, to shorten the actual title.”
“Four years?” Burton looked questioningly at Theodore. “How long did it take to get a working model of XAP?”
“Oh, just about two years. They already had some research done. Basically, the premise of my thesis was the final key. Actually, I had a working model after a year, it just damaged reality a lot.”
“Briggs has been playing with an outdated model, I think,” Burton said.
“Maybe that’s why Brock got out of hand?” Theodore suggested and Burton nodded in response. “Chloe, did you ever invent an antidote or a sort of prevention method?”
“No,” Chloe responded. “Sorry, didn’t plan on it becoming a worldwide issue.”
“What about TAN1?” Kai asked. “My parents files had something about a cure, they called it TAN1.”
“I’ve never heard of it,” Chloe stated.
“Me either,” finished Burton.
“Curiouser and Curiouser,” Adam said whimsically.

“So,” Chloe opened, “Brock, who is the human body of a demon, turns men into jocks in order to end the world? My god, this is a dumb plot twist. What bad sci-fi novel am I living?”
“It’s no novel Chloe,” Theodore stated. “And we have to stop them.”
“But how? Brock can just kill us, can’t he?” Kai asked.
“No, he already would have. For some reason, you three must be immune.”
“Brock seems really obsessed with me,” Adam volunteered. “And he’s quite determined to have me join with him.”

The Fisher men looked at each other for a moment and then both shrugged.

“Maybe you were right.” Burton said.
“If Brock wants him, I’d assume...” Theodore’s voice cut off suddenly. Someone had walked into the lab they were in. Flanked on either side by two massive bodybuilders, Briggs strutted into the room.

“Well, well, well....look who the cat dragged in,” Briggs smiled. “This is an interesting little development.
The six people in the room froze. There wasn’t sound until finally Chloe heaved out, “Fuck.”

******************

Jamie was sitting at his desk, twiddling his thumbs. He was angry. He didn’t really know what to do. His partners were getting frustrated and he hated being treated like some pathetic loser. After all, he was just as much a part of this as they were. Bastards. He was so mad, so could just punch something.

“Howdy Jamie,” the bovine voice caused Jamie to look up from his desk. It was Brock. He looked a little different then usual. Larger, almost.

“How come you’re down, little man?”
“Don’t call me that, you dumb fucking jock. Where the hell have you been?”
“My, my, my, trying to order me around? When the other testicle drop?”
“Fuck all you assholes!”
“You know, I really like this anger in you.”
“Don’t patronize me.”
“I’m not. Anger and rage make a great player. At this rate, all you need is a banging bod.”
“What?”
“Come on Jamie, do you want it?”

Jamie looked up at Brock’s dark blue eyes. He traced down the man’s body, intently examining every crevice and curve of his deep musculature. The way his veins bulged out over the muscles, which were laid upon each other like carefully crafted stones. He took a deep breath and inhaled the sweet smell of musk and sweat that radiated from Brock. He soaked in the larger man’s incredible prowess. And he let himself descend. He didn’t have to take that shit from Briggs and Moore anymore. He was fucking better than those damn fuckers anyway. Boiling to the surface, Jamie let his rage consume his thoughts. His brain collapsed into the deepest realm of primal power that existed within himself.

He could see himself, the way he was meant to be. Big meaty arms, huge bulging legs. Thick bull neck. He could feel the heavy weight of his pecs moving up and down as he breathed. Never before had his body felt so alive. He could feel every flexing muscle. He could control them and their incredible power.

All the tension and stress melted away into a violent rage that enraptured his mind. He didn’t care about what Moore and Briggs thought. Those fucking motherfuckers didn’t know fucking shit about nothing. Fuck that crap. He was a fucking football jock. Fuck yeah.

The rage swelling up inside of himself began to push at his body. He was increasing in size as his gave into his primal nature. Once a thin man, soon massive muscles, a true testament to weight lifting, covered his body. But they weren’t pretty muscles for show. They were part of his body, his machine, for football. It was his purpose in life, after all. To be a big, dumb, football jock. Just another man on the field. Another one of Brock’s teammates.

Brock looked down at the chiseled, square-jawed mega-muscled jock clone in front of him. When the brutish creature finally looked up at Brock, he could see the happy surrender in his eyes. And with a quick blink, there was a strange vapid stare, as though there was nothing going on upstairs. There wasn’t, actually. And finally, the new jock let out a deep growl and yelled, “Fuck yeah!”

“Come on Jay! I’m almost ready to win.”
“Fuck yeah dude!” Jay said, slapping his quarterback’s ass. “We gonna fucking take this shit bro! Yo the fucking bomb ass mothafucka!”
“Yeah, I am.” Brock led his new drone to the locker room and got him suited up appropriately before sending him off to practice. Jay fit right in, and it wasn’t long before Brock had no idea who he was among the throng of muscle and sweat that rehearsed their sport endlessly. Preparing for the day when Brock called upon them to help him win.
“And now,” Brock said as he went back inside. “I have just one final piece of the puzzle. Good thing, cause the play clock is certainly counting down....”

3:00 remaining in the quarter . . .

CAPTCHA