As Carl awoke, there was a chill in his room, signifying that winter was fast approaching. It was just after Thanksgiving, and a coat of frost made the grass in the yard glisten a hundred different colors at once as the sun hit it. He prepared for school and left the semi-warm bedroom and headed out into the chilly outdoors to wait for the bus to go to school.
After a quick breakfast form the quikie-mart, he reached school just in time for his early morning history class. Instead of covering the war of 1812 from the get-go, his teacher spent a few minutes talking about the world ecology summit which was happening downtown for the next couple days. Leaders from many of the world's nations would be there talking about ways to slow down pollution and the destruction of the ozone layer. Carl just listened, showing a little interest.
After a day full of classes, Carl returned home, and went up to his now warm room. Plopping his bookbag on the floor, he turned on the radio for a little while. What he heard was shocking... What had that morning been a peaceful ecology summit had turned into an all-out warzone! This need some investigation.
He got into his closet elevator and headed down to the Stock Room. Carl quickly became Labcoat Man, then headed out to link with the Labwings. He sailed along towards the fracas with the hope that he could help the police disperse the rowdy crowds. When he got there, it was worse than he had heard on the radio, if that could be possible.
Seeking to reduce the crowd's capacity for violence, he flew over them and released a thin layer of laughing gas from his Labgauntlet over their heads. after a few seconds, most of the crowd was giggling. He landed, shut the Labwings off, and began to work the crowd, questioning them as to why they would suddenly try to murder the same people they were supporting a few minutes before. After accidentally hitting someone in the head with a wing, Labcoat Man realized that he hadn't folded the wings on his jetpack after he shut it off. He pressed a button on his Labgauntlet, and the wings seemed to disappear. Most of the crowd he interviewed returned the same answer: They didn't know why. All the while he was questioning the giggling bunch of people, he smelled something that shouldn't had been in the air downtown. It was somehting other than car exhaust. Labcoat Man captured a sample, and held it up in front of his LabGoggles. After a couple of seconds, the LabGoggles returned their analysis. What he had been smelling was a diluted, modified version of a nerve gas. Fortunately, it was too diluted to have an effect on him.
Labcoat Man informed the police what he had learned from interviewing the now placated crowd and went about with trying to find out where the gas was released. He took into account wind speed and direction, the height off all the buildings in the area. He determined that the gas was most likely released from the office building two addresses down the street. Making his way to the building, the scientific superhero deftly strafed inside.
Being very cautious, he looked around the lobby. Everything seemed to be in order. Nothing was messed up, and the operator's switchboard was lit up like a Christmas Tree. Since everything was okay, Labcoat Man decided to do a floor-by-floor search for the perpetrator, if he/they were still there. First floor was ok. the second and third floors checked out as well. On his way up to the fourth floor, he heard a sinister laugh coming from the top of the stairs. Labcoat Man shrugged and seemingly flew up the stairs as quietly as he could. Reaching the top of the stairs, he looked behind him to see if anyone was following behind. Nobody was. The roof door was a fairly thick metal door, showing some rust at the edges. The Chemically-minded teenager gave the door a gentle push. It was no good; the door didn't budge. He tried a little harder, but to no avail. He resorted to squirting a little hydrochloric acid where the lock would have been. After giving the acid a few seconds to melt the lock, he gave the door another push, and it opened with a creek. Labcoat Man winced at the noise because he knew the element of surprise was no longer his.
Carl stepped out onto the roof and had a quick look-see. There was nobody he could see at the moment. Then the same laughter he had heard in the stairwell erupted again.
It's about time you got here, Labcoat Man
Labcoat Man walked around the outcropping the door was in, and he saw who was talking. He was about the same height as the laughing fiend. They were both dressed similarly; each wore a Labgauntlet; each was sporting a labcoat. The only 2 differences were that Labcoat Man had the only jetpack, and that the strange scientific villian had red, pointy hair. Who was he?
Who is this strange man on the roof with Labcoat Man? is he friend or foe? Stay tuned in the next adventure, where all will be revealed!