Doctor Xenos stopped in front of another door, and with his finger poised over a coded button, he looked at Agent Orange over the rim of his glasses. “I told you: that’s Lumberjack.”

Having experienced the tantrum of Jack-in-the-Box before, Agent Orange was becoming a bit anxious. “Yeah, but doc...”

Doctor Xenos drew in a sharp breath, shaking his head, and waving off the rest of the agent’s sentence. “Agent, just because the situation has progressed beyond your capability to understand it, please do not resort to the inane idiom of ‘doc.’ This is not a Bugs Bunny cartoon. I worked a great many years on my doctorates, and I prefer that people call me ‘Doctor;’ it’s on all of my diplomas.”

The agent smirked. “Your parents must be so proud.”

Doctor Xenos said nothing. A light under the doctor’s finger lit up, a beep sounded, and after a series of locks clicked open, the door slid open to the right. “You’ll have to leave your gun with the guard.” Xenos flashed his I.D. badge, and said to the guard, “It’s okay, he’s with me.”

“Yes, doctor.” The guard stood back to the side of the door. “Sir, I’ll have to ask you to leave your weapon with me. You can reclaim it as you leave.”

Agent Orange gaped from the doorway at the huge room full of equipment and technicians. He absent-mindedly let go of his gun handle, rolling it over his finger, and handing it butt first to the guard. “Sure thing, here you go. Take good care of it. I’ll get it on my way out.” He stepped through the doorway, and the door slid shut behind him. The noise of the room echoed under the vaulted ceiling. He still couldn’t believe the size of it. This must have been the dome he saw from outside the complex.

“Agent!” called Xenos, “This way! You’ve been asking questions about Jacks for fifteen years. Don’t you want your answers?”

Agent Orange looked around the dome as he walked up to Doctor Xenos. “I’m not so sure anymore.”

“Agent Orange, surely you’re not intimidated by this facility? You did break in, after all.”

Something caught the agent’s eye, and as he headed for it, he answered, “Actually, the door was open. I can’t help it if the guard fell asleep.”

Doctor Xenos raised an eyebrow and smiled a thin smile, as much at the agent’s sarcasm, as what it was he was headed for. “Yes, well, he must have literally fallen, because he has quite a lump on his head from what the infirmary tells me.”

The agent stopped in front of a huge, glassed in, tube-shaped tank, full of a murky green liquid. Squinting, trying to make out what was inside, he glanced back towards the doctor. He opened his mouth to say something, but thinking better of it, he arched an eyebrow himself, nodded slightly, and looking back at the tank, said, “Well, these things happen. Hope he has medical.”

“He’s being taken care of.”

“Geez, doc... sorry, doctor, that sounded ominous. Hope you’re not getting rid of him just for letting me get by. I snuck up on him. I’m good at that; it’s my job, you know.” Agent Orange cupped a hand over his eyes, and leaned over the rail towards the tank as if he were looking at something far away, and this would bring it into focus. “What’s in this thing, anyway? I see something floating in there, but I can’t quite make it out.” Still leaned over the railing, he tapped on the glass, like he was trying to get the attention of whatever was inside. The agent snickered a little, because he suddenly had a picture of a two hundred pound goldfish swimming up to the glass, and saying, Yeah, whaddaya want? Instead, a naked man with an oxygen mask strapped over his face floated up against the glass, sedated and unaware of the agent’s presence. Agent Orange jumped backwards, falling over a roller chair left out in the aisle. “Jesus! Jack!”

Doctor Xenos walked up behind the agent, and offered him a hand up, but was waved off. “The latter, I assure you, agent. We can’t seem to find any usable DNA of the Nazarene. There’s a quality about it that we can’t duplicate. Even if we could, NATO and the United Nations are scared that he’d upset the balance of world power.”

Story and characters owned by Chris Bishop, copyright 1997, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.

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The Origins Behind the Origins (or how some of these characters got their names):

That's all for now! Thanks for reading. :^D