-Numbers don’t lie, but I do-

  Downtown TB–Bridgepath, TBU, Science Lab

  “Yo Ryu,” Asri called me over, his hands were a blur as he typed. “Adjust the receiver on the left side. It’s unstable.” He points to the experiment table–a spider sat in a glass container, an assortment of nodes and receivers attached to it like a deadly contraption.

  I grabbed a small wrench and started adjusting the tuning bolt. “Good?”

  “Crank it a bit more.”

  “Now?”

  “Okay, perfect.” He continued typing. “Ming, can you calibrate for shorter lengths? I think our frequency is too high.”

  She turns the dial slowly, awaiting further instruction.

  Beep.

  We froze. Our gazes snapped to the monitor screen on the experiment table.

  Beep.

  Asri got out of his seat and approached us slowly;his gaze glued to the monitor. “Ming, hold the frequency there. Change the others too. Ryu, try provoking the spider.” He started typing on the monitor, trying to make sure this was actual data and not junk again.

  Ming quickly complied, adjusting the other nodes to match. Asri kept her busy with a flurry of instructions. Grabbing a screwdriver, I approached the glass tank.

  Beep.

  The spider, idle at first, jerked away to create distance between us. Neuroflex was calculating its reaction to us!

  A strange tension hung in the air, like something unseen had shifted. The air felt different now–more charged–as the data kept flowing in. My friends were fixated on the monitor like it was an alien device, but my attention was solely on the spider.

  No sooner had I lifted my screwdriver, the monitor started beeping again. This time, though, the data was different–it was coming in multiple bursts.

  Beep.

  Beep-beep.

  B-b-beep.

  The spider scampered to hide behind a fake rock, reacting before I even tapped the container with the screwdriver.

  “Woah! What is this?” Ming murmured to herself, trying to make sense of the new set of data. “This data isn’t connected like the others.” She pointed at the anomaly in the data.

  Asri, trying to find the source of the data, started analyzing it. “It’s recorded when Ryu approached it. But look,” he pointed to a string of numbers and graphs. “The spider was idle at the time of record.”

  “Maybe it’s noise again?” I asked, placing the screwdriver next to the container.

  “No, can’t be. See?” Ming showed the spike in the graph. “This indicates an action, but notice the others are constant?” Her finger slid across to a different graph–mostly flat. “This graph was recording the limbs and muscles. There’s no action over here.”

  “Guys…” Asri suddenly spoke, his eyes locked onto the monitor. “We just recorded an instinctual reaction.” He highlighted a new set of decompiled data–one taken from the spider’s reaction time.

  “Hold up. What?” I moved closer to him, trying to make sense of the data.

  “Oh wow…” Ming scrolled through the data; the numbers all point to one conclusion:

  Neuroflex had the instinctual reaction of the spider before its body realized.

  “Dude,” I patted Asri on the shoulder. “You just recorded the first concrete proof of the spider's sense of danger.”

  “One could also say… spider sense.” He smirked. My warning glare met his smug gaze.

  Click. The lab door swung open, and two figures entered the room.

  Professor Zheng, Ming’s mentor, and an unknown student.

  “Good afternoon, you three.” the professor said, his hand placed on the student’s shoulder. “I have someone here interested in your projects. Four heads are better than three, all that.”

  The student adjusted his expensive looking blazer, and introduced himself. “I’m Lucas Vale, top of the year in Neuroscience & Cybernetics.”

  “I’ve been hearing a lot about your project, and I’m interested to help.” He stepped towards us–towards Ming.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “So you must be Sabrina Ming, the brain of this project.” He flashed a charming smile while sticking his hand out.

  “Must I be the brain?” Ming retorted, crossing her arms.

  “Well I assumed you are since he,” he pointed at Asri. “looks like the tech guy. That one,”he gestured lazily at me. “That looks like a manual labour worker to me.”

  … Excuse me?

  Asri side-eyed me, hoping I don’t send this new kid to the ER.

  I was very tempted to.

  “Well we don’t assume here, Vale.” Ming turned, leaving his hand hanging. “We make sure.”

  “Got it.” He flashed her another smile.

  The professor clasped his hands and said he had to leave for the meeting, but he’ll consider Lucas as officially part of the team.

  The silence hung in the air for a moment as he left.

  “So what’s new?” Lucas rubbed his hands together, his attention at Ming. “Found some cool stuff?”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “We found some interesting data that you might want to see.” Asri showed him the instinctual reaction data.

  “Woah, this is groundbreaking.” He leaned towards the computer, pushing Asri away. “No one has done this before.” He turned to Ming. “Excellent work, Ming.”

  “This isn’t a solo project.” Ming glared at him. “We got this data after countless experiments.”

  “Oh, of course!” He straightened. “Tech boy here must’ve done all the coding. I’ve heard how good you are with computers.” He turned to Asri and gave him a smug smile.

  Asri’s face soured. Tech boy?

  “Not just Asri, mind you.” Ming nodded to me. “Shiromori was the one who drafted every experiment from the beginning. Without his help, we wouldn’t have made this much progress.”

  Lucas didn't even glance my way. “I’m sure you guys would’ve done fine without the labourer’s help.”

  “Do you have something useful to say, ‘friend’, or are you just or are you just here to run your mouth?” I snapped, irritation crept into my tone.

  Asri shot me a worried look. I could tell what he’s thinking.

  Calm down, you spider freak.

  Lucas finally turned to me. “Just saying. Some people just want free marks for their final year project.” He stepped towards me, measuring me up.

  “Yeah? Like you barging in our project mid-way?” I stood up straight, facing his arrogant face.

  “I could actually provide useful help, unlike your…experiments.” He brushed my shoulder.

  “Like helping us get our coffee everyday? We needed a runner.” I pushed his hand away.

  Ming cleared her throat, exasperated.

  With who? No idea.

  “We’re here to work, not to flirt.” she exhaled sharply.

  “I could flirt with you all day.” Lucas said—to Ming, but the sharpness in his grin made it clear he meant me too.

  I stared at him, my knuckles turned white as I clenched my fists.

  One punch, man. Just one punch.

  Lucas let out a slow breath, then turned to Ming like nothing happened. “You know, I couldn’t help but notice you’re using the old MX450 scanners. Why?”

  She shook her head, clearly annoyed. “As much as we want to use the latest MX600, the project doesn’t have enough fundings.”

  He let out a laugh, and God it was smug. “Why didn’t you say so? I’ll have it installed by the morning.”

  Ming’s eyes widened. “What? No, we can’t have you spending that much money on a project.”

  “Sabrina, look at me.” He pretended to adjust his over-expensive watch. “All I care about is the project running smoothly.”

  Who the hell do you think you are, calling her Sabrina?

  Asri shot me another glance and rolled his eyes. I gave him a smirk.

  “If that’s the case then I personally thank you, Vale.” Ming placed her hand on her chest, bowing slightly in gratitude.

  “You can thank me with dinner.” He flashed her another grin.

  “Okaaay, let’s all dial back from dinners and gratitude.” Asri stood up, his hands were slowly raising. “How about we call it a day here, huh?” A nervous chuckle escaped him as he slowly glanced back at me.

  “Yeah, this all is getting…overwhelming.” I threw my clipboard onto the table and punched it.

  Gently.

  Or so I thought.

  Crack.

  The wooden clipboard split in half.

  But that wasn’t the problem.

  The wooden tabletop cracked too.

  Silence.

  A slow, sharp breath escaped Ming. Asri sat back down, his chair creaking as he leaned. His eyes flickering between me and the broken table.

  Lucas’ smirk faltered–only for a second. Then it’s back again.

  “Let’s call it a day, yeah?” I smiled, dusting my knuckles.

  “...You okay, Shiromori?” Ming finally asked, her voice careful. Like she wasn’t sure she wanted an answer.

  “Peachy.” I said to her–my glare stayed glued to Lucas.