Apathetic Avengers, Excerpt

Here's something to whet your whistle whilst you pick the sand out of your crevasses at the beach. Rachel WON'T be joining. She doesn't do beaches.

She grabbed the hand-out with the experiment on it and put it front of her. Edgar flopped a pair of gloves of the desk next to her as he pulled his on. She looked at them, and rolled her eyes. She picked them up and considered putting them on, but started reading the experiment to Edgar. “We need 3 ounces of the perchloric acid. For God sake be careful with that crap.”

“I know,” Edgar said. “Put your gloves on.” He put the beaker on the table and poured the 3 ounces of the acid into it. He put the plastic back over the top of the huge Erlenmeyer flask and passed it to the next table who was gesturing for it. He picked up the beaker—

The perchloric acid came sloshing out when Bobby slammed into him, on purpose. It sloshed out, splashed onto the table, onto the experiment paper, on Edgar’s hand and onto Celeste’s pants. She grabbed the beaker and pulled it out of Edgar’s hand and pushed his hands away. She picked up the paper and tossed the acid into the sink.

“BOBBY!” she yelled. “What the hell is wrong with you!”

“Oh, did geeky drop the acid?” Bobby said.

“You made him spill it all over the place!” she screamed. “On my new pants!” She pointed to the obvious stain. “What’s wrong with you? God, you’re such a jerk.” She shoved Edgar’s hand under the faucet built into the lab table and turned on the water.

Bobby smirked. “Sorry about the pants, Cel, but that was funny.”

“Funny?” Celeste said. “This stuff dissolves metal, you jackass.” She held up the lab sheet which now had a hole in it. “Ugh, go away. Just go away.” She put her hand in the air, “Mister Kelsner, this is stupid. This stuff is dangerous. We should be doing this under a hood.”

“Your opinion is not warranted, Saint Cloud,” he answered, not even looking over.

“Asshole,” she mumbled. She realized that Edgar was staring at her, shocked. “What’s your problem, Hammerhead?”

“Perchloric acid makes organic materials combust,” he whispered, looking at his hand. “And it should have burned my skin, badly.”

“Diluted,” she said.

“No, it said right on the bottle, ‘anhydrous perchloric acid, non-dilute solution. Danger, keep covered’,” Edgar said.

Celeste leaned in very close to him. “It. Was. Diluted,” she said, stressing each word. “And if you say anything that might imply otherwise, you’re going to regret it.” She put her hand back in the air. “Mister Kelsner, we need a new lab sheet.”

Click here for the adventure!~~> Apathetic Avengers: The Faction Stories, Vol 1