Bonds of Strength and Struggle

NASIR'S HOUSE

2:28PM…

Nasir was in his room getting ready to head out and meet Ahmad, Sadiq, Umar and G at the Field. As he got dressed he started hearing two people shouting, his parents at the kitchen had gotten into a bitter argument, his father Abbas was drunk and his mother Bilkisu had had enough of his addiction. Nasir was already used to this and he continued to get dressed as if nothing was happening, the arguing continued and they were getting louder, Nasir's father was getting hostile and his mother started getting scared. Suddenly, a loud thud echoed throughout the house followed by the mother's scream. Nasir exploded through his door and ran straight to the kitchen, his eyes widened in horror as he saw his mother on the ground writhing in agony and his father standing over her, mumbling curse words at her. Nasir's two sisters Asma and Shamsiya also ran in with tears in their eyes knowing what had just occurred, they quickly knelt down to console their mother and help her get up. Nasir was devastated and disappointed, his father had always acted out, but it had never come to this.

The father upon surveying the seen, began to think clearly. Abbas looked at his wife on the floor with his daughters consoling her as they cried as well and his son staring daggers at him ready to attack, he knew what his son was capable of and in a moment of pure cowardice, he began to apologize profusely and backing away from them. He continued to apologize until he reached the door and then quickly running out, escaping from the situation as Nasir looked on.

Nasir knelt down to console his mother who at this point was balling her eyes out from the physical and mental pain she just went through, Asma and Shamsiya were also in tears and were barely able to console themselves let alone their mother. Nasir and his sisters helped their mother to the living room where she could rest properly as they treated her wounds.

3:45pm

Nasir, his mother and sisters, still in the living room sulking and healing from the traumatic event. Nasir had something to say, but held his tongue in respect of his family's condition. His mother Bilkisu looked at him and immediately knew he had something to say.

(In Hausa) "what's on you're mind my son?" she asked in a tired voice.

(In Hausa) "Ummi this is unacceptable… this… this will not happen again." Nasir stated.

(In Hausa) "I know my son, God will help us by his will." Bilkisu prayed.

(In Hausa) "no… I mean… I will NOT let this happen again." Nasir said.

(In Hausa) "(eyes widened) kai! What are you trying to say, be careful, remember that he's your father." Bilkisu warned.

(In English) "(looks at her angrily) and that gives him the right to do what he did… to you? You're his wife not his child!" Nasir shouted.

(In English) "Kai!… are you talking to me like that?(covers her mouth with her hand) Nasir please calm down (In Hausa) stop this behaviour, I know you're angry but I'm fine. PLEASE don't do anything. If you act out it will do more harm than good." Bilkisu said.

(In Hausa) "Ummi you're not fine, you have a bump on your head and bruises on your arm… this can't happen again." Asma said.

(In Hausa) "yes Ummi… and what do you think would have happened if Nasir wasn't their and Baba decided to attack us." Shamsiya added.

(In Hausa) "KAI!!!" Bilkisu screamed.

"i don't want to here it, this won't happen again. You're father is trying and I know in my heart that he will get through this and come back to us by God's grace… all we need is faith in him and faith in God almighty… we just have to continue praying… you hear me?" Bilkisu stated.

"ok." They all replied simultaneously.

(In English) "good… Nasir aren't you supposed to go and train with G and the others?" Bilkisu asked.

"yes." Nasir answered.

"toh go now, what are you waiting for?" Bilkisu queried.

(In Hausa) "em… I wasn't going to just go and leave you." Nasir said.

(In Hausa) "ok then we're fine… go go go… now." Bilkisu said.

(In Hausa) "hold on now, you're not ok yet I can't leave you guys." Nasir argued.

(In English) "you're sisters are here, they will take care of me and lock the door when you go out… just go, go and get stronger for me." Bilkisu shooed as Nasir stood up. Nasir looked at his sisters and they looked back at him nervously but still nodded in agreement.

(In English) "(sighs) OK, see you guys later." Nasir said as he walked to the door.

(In Hausa) "May Allah bless you and bring you back safely." Bilkisu prayed.

"Ameen." Nasir answered as he walked out of the door and his sisters locked the gate and all the doors of the house afterwards.

THE FIELD

4:05PM…

G and the others have just finished praying, Nasir arrived a few moments after they started. G who led the prayer turned back and saw Nasir completing his own prayer and waited for him to finish.

"Nasir… what was the hold up?" G asked.

"...Sorry G, my mom and sisters needed help with somethings…. yeah." Nasir answered.

"oh ok… hope she's doing Ok?" G asked.

"(looks away) yeah… she's fine." Nasir answered nervously.

"... are you sure everything is ok… you can talk to me Nasir." G said.

"yes sir… thank you, everything is fine." Nasir answered in a happy tone.

"ok then." G said as he got up and folded his prayer mat.

"now before we start, I thought you would like to get an update on your chemistry teachers situation." G stated as they gathered around him.

"we found some more intel on him, what I will say now is that he's definitely working for somebody and what he's working on is what Sadiq hypothesized, he's trying to create 'THE PERFECT HUMAN'." he explained. The boys all looked at each other confused and shocked at what they just heard.

"I know… weird, we weren't able to get the identity of the person he's working with but I don't think the list will be very long." G continued.

"maybe one of the scientists at Kronos labs went rogue or something." Ahmad suggested.

"yeah, or maybe it's the Kronos lab guys themselves. Doing something undercover while forming the good guy." Umar added.

"all valid points and most or maybe even all of them could be true at the same time, but for now our eyes will be on your teacher. This guy has been at this for six months, and from what I know he doesn't seem… stable." G said.

"heh… that guy has left stable in his village. He has completely convinced himself that he is superior to everybody and makes it a point to remind you that we're all beneath him." Ahmad said.

"i swear, one time he was like we should prostrate to him whenever he enters a class, for what ever reason, even if he's not coming in for his class." Sadiq added.

"yeah and that we should address him as 'master'." Umar added.

"wow… and the school allows this?" G asked.

"no… but they have to tolerate it to a certain extent cause even though he's crazy, he's a freakin brainiac!" Sadiq answered.

"the guy knows every subject along with all their text books, back to back to back. Its crazy how much info that guy carries around in his head. And that's also why we all understand the modes of his madness most of the time." Nasir explained.

"ok, so this guy can't be trusted, nor can he be underestimated… this is something. And we still need to find what exactly he's doing to achieve this perfect human." G contemplated. The boys looked at each other and knew exactly what to do.

"we might be ahead of you on that." Ahmad said.

"what do you mean?" G asked.

"Sadiq." Ahmad called as Sadiq walked up to G and handed him his phone with a picture of Mr.Bolaji's equation's on it.

"these are all the equations Mr.Bolaji has written in his notebook, everything including labels and time stamps. you're people in the lab can use this to know exactly where he's going with this. And from my own knowledge, it matches our suspicions like you said." Sadiq explained as G looked at the pictures.

"did… you went through your teachers notebook again?" G asked.

"...yes sir." Sadiq answered with his head down.

"we all did… sir." Ahmad said as they all stepped forward with their heads down.

"....… good job. Nice to see you guys taking initiative these days." G said with pride. They all raised their heads in shock and happiness.

"thank you sir." they said simultaneously.

"but we encountered a problem while we were taking the pictures." Nasir said as he went to pull out the notebook from Sadiq's bag.

"this…" Nasir said as he unwrapped the notebook revealing its destroyed and soggy state. G's mouth fell open as he saw the notebook close to falling apart.

"how did this happen?" he asked.

"(sighs) when we went to take the pictures, Sadiq and Nasir went into the lab, Umar stayed at the door to stop any student from entering and I stood in the hallway to watch so I can let them know when he was coming back. What I didn't anticipate was that bullfrog Bala to show up and get in my face… he then saw Sadiq and Nasir in the lab and he pushed past me and Umar to see what they were doing. Sadiq held the notebook behind him and He started getting in too close and we got into a shoving match and we hit Sadiq making him let the book fall into a bucket of water… but we now know that was some kind of chemical." Ahmad explained.

"Bala again… hrmph…this is a problem, let's deal with one thing at a time." G said angrily.

"do you know how we can fix this?" he asked.

"I tried but my powers didn't fully work, I can only take out the liquid, the acid components still remain." Sadiq answered.

"did you all try your powers… simultaneously?" G asked again.

"(all looking at each other) huh?" they exclaimed.

"what happens when you boil something in water?" G asked.

"it… cooks?" Umar answered.

"a hard surface item, like a spoon." G added.

"it sterilizes and gets cleansed of all bacteria." Sadiq answered.

"good, thats heat plus water, in other words Ahmad's powers plus Sadiq's powers." G explained

"Umar, what happens when you use your powers to combine different substances that's base form is earth, wood, tree bark and stuff like that." G asked.

"changes its form and creates something new." Umar answered.

"good, then Nasir, what happens when you add or extract the right amount of carbon dioxide from the air around a substance." G asked.

"it either cracks up and dies or expands and… looks better." Nasir answered.

"good, now time for a practical. Fix this book. Sadiq focus on the ink moisture to maintain its form as writing, Ahmad sterilize the book of all bacteria, Nasir deal with air around it and Umar, you fix its form . now go." G directed.

They all stood around the book and concentrated their minds towards it, they held the book together as their eyes kept focus on it. As they concentrated, G circled around them and observed closely. The book began to come together, their powers working in unison, the cover came together, the pages colour changed back from brown to white. The writing was visible again and in a few moments the book was restored and good as new. The boys celebrated, and G smiled with pride as he looked on.

"good job boys." he said.

"thank you sir." they replied.

"now we just need to get it back to his desk and hope he won't notice." Sadiq said.

"don't worry about that, bring it. I'll have it arranged this night." G said

"(hands over the book) shouldn't we be doing that?" Sadiq asked.

"no. We need to get it back there today. There's a small chance that he hasn't found outs its missing yet, so if we leave it till tomorrow its going to be harder getting to school before him." G explained.

"no, WE should go tonight." Umar said.

"no… its too risky." G replied.

"sir…" 

"I said NO! I don't want to here anymore of this." G dismissed.

"Yes sir." they answered reluctantly.

"good, now lets start training…" G said. 

They went on with their training, the boys continued to have worries on their minds. Ahmad fears he may never be able to control his temper with Bala and he may eventually explode on him. Sadiq continued to contemplate his feelings for Zainab who was still avoiding him. Nasir dreaded his next encounter with his Father, afraid of what he may do to his mother or what Nasir would have to do to his father to protect his mother. Umar was terrified of his secret coming out to his friends and family, and even worse, he fears he may never be able to abstain. G's only concern was to protect his boys from the government and he will stop at nothing to do that.

The Nigerian government has deployed a Task Force for the soul purpose of hunting down Nucrons who are at large, as time goes by they continue to apprehend these Nucrons and send them to an unknown facility. The masterminds behind the operation Dr.Kane and Dr.Emeka have a plan that is beyond what the world can comprehend. And Mr.Bolaji remains confident that his experiment will eventually produce THE PERFECT HUMAN.