Nis

WHEN NIS WOKE UP, he was still in the dingy room and was still bound to the chair. But there was something different about the room.

A table was in front of him and in there were pictures of his parents, both beat up and bloodied. He screamed but it was muffled by the tape. He thrashed around only to weaken from his useless efforts.

When he was about to lose hope, the door burst open and revealed Director Orebil. So much about hope.

"Look who do we have here. One of those four little ingrates." he sneered.

Nis only glared at him. The Big Boss of Libero took off the tape abruptly that Nis had to stifle a scream of pain.

"You managed to hide your tracks. But I didn't know you would fall right to this trap." he taunted.

"Shut up you monster!" Nis spat.

"Now, tell me where the rest of your siblings are hiding so that we can get this over with. I only need the Codex."

"Why would I tell you? This is another cliché scene where you'll torture me anyway, right? What are you waiting for? Go at it!" Nis yelled.

"You got fire in your eyes boy. I like it. And the gadgets you invented are quite useful you know, thought I'd just let you know." Orebil laughed.

"I don't need that kind of compliment from a monster like you." Nis said.

"Tch. Stubborn kid."

The door opened and a man entered. He was carrying a laptop and he showed it to Orebil.

"Good. You're excused now."

Orebil, laptop on hand, went back to Nis and placed the laptop in the table in front of him. It was a live feed of what was happening to where ever they were.

On the screen were his siblings, who were fighting their way in. The three dodged bullets and took down enemies. The looked impressive. And without a doubt, they were here to save him.

"Your siblings are here to fetch you Nis." Orebil said, his smirk not fading off his face.

"Oh yeah? Then they'll kill you." Nis retorted.

"I think it would be the other way around."

Orebil showed three C4s and planted one on the door, one on the window by the side and the last one at Nis's lap.

"You have got to be kidding me!" he yelled.

Orebil set the timer to thirty minutes. Before he left, he taped his mouth once again and said one last thing: "I'll get the Codex one way or another. And have fun dying!"

*****

Nis was panicking. He didn't have much time left, to be accurate, he only had ten minutes left. Where were they?

He was branded a genius but he was so damn helpless at the moment, at least to him.

Scenes of his life flashed on his mind. But one memory stood out.

When he was eight years old, he picked a fight with Nica and got defeated miserably. He cried for hours and didn't talk to her for a week.

One day, he stumbled upon a shed. There, he found a lot of machines, old and new.

'Probably mom's.' he thought.

He started digging through the machines and before he knew it, he had been assembling the machines. That was also the time he decided to invent his own gadgets. His first invention was the Pen Bomb. A personal favorite of his.

He didn't know why, but most of his inventions involved a pen. Must've been a fetish, he thought.

As time went by, his inventions increased in number. One night, when he was ten, his mom went into the shed while he was still working there.

"Nis? What happened here?" his mother asked.

The once dirty shed got dirtier. Machines scattered everywhere, oils were dripping from the tables. It basically turned into a machine workshop.

"Uh, hi?" was Nis' smart response.

"Don't 'hi' me young man! What happened to the shed?"

"Uhm, I invented stuff?" he replied but came out more like a question.

He noticed his mom pause. "You invent stuff?"

"Yeah." he answered sheepishly.

"Show me."

He was confused at first but he led his mom to his room. He opened sections of his bed, cabinets, tables and even the walls. Various inventions lined up: Pen Bomb, Pen Laser, Electric Gun, Sleeping Thongs, Tiara Dynamites, Fan Missiles, etc.

Nis saw the amazement in his mother's eyes.

"Sorry I entered the shed without permission. I needed to get away from Niche's teasing, Nico's sarcastic comments and Nica's strength." he said while fidgeting with his fingers.

"Oh Nis. Don't be sorry! These are amazing!" his mom retorted. "What else can you do?"

"I kinda hacked my school's database system."

"You did what?!"

"Sorry mom! But I was bored! I didn't have ideas for new inventions so I tried something else! I used dad's present, my laptop and just did stuff!"

"Nis Alexander Bravo Cortes-Warren. You are an amazing boy! You inherited my love for machines, and probably my talent for hacking." she paused. "I said that out loud didn't I?" he nodded. "Anyway, with these inventions of yours, would you like to make money from it?"

That was the time Carmen started to sell his inventions. He got lots and lots of money, but he didn't forget to share it with his mom who helped him.

His flashbacks was put to a stop when the door burst open, again. His siblings stood by the door, all three have guns in hand.

'The bomb!' he thought.

He looked down and saw they only had a minute left.