Chapter 24: Mission Accomplished
Accompanied by upbeat music, Jake, cup in hand, frantically searched for Cleo in each room. He had to find her before she knocked over the large beaker of invisibility formula.
The two-story house wasn't very large, and there weren't many rooms. It didn't take him long to find Cloe frantically swatting at insects with a net.
Numerous unknown chemicals were knocked over and cleverly poured into the beaker.
A peculiar reaction ensued, the formula constantly changing, from color to consistency...
Through the window, Jake saw Cleo frantically working on her science project alone in a small room.
A moth flew through the steam rising from the beaker, and then it vanished completely!
No, not completely—only a faint outline remained.
Seeing this, Jake was certain Cleo experiment had succeeded. He immediately rushed to the door, pushed it open firmly, and, ignoring Cleo startled expression with the net in hand, narrowly caught the beaker before it fell to the ground!
Unfortunately, a small portion of the liquid had spilled.
Letting out a long sigh, Jake looked at the beaker in his hand. The liquid hadn't completely settled; ripples occasionally rose from the bottom, creating waves.
Fortunately, there was still about 200 milliliters left—roughly seven ounces.
"Jake?" Cleo eyes widened. Clearly, Jake's quick reflexes had impressed her, and he looked pretty cool doing it.
"Hey, Cleo. I came up here looking for you—your sister sent me to check on you."
"Sorry I wasn't very nice to you this morning."
"It's okay," Jake shook his head, switching the beaker from his right hand to his left. "What kind of project are you working on?"
"Um, a science assignment, but I messed it up because of a stupid moth." She looked dejected.
Jake wanted to tell her that she hadn't messed it up because of the moth, but had actually succeeded spectacularly, but he didn't intend to say that, at least not now.
By the movie's end, Cleo would become successful thanks to her scientific breakthrough. Jake didn't want to steal her future, but he needed to borrow part of it, so he said, "Scientific research? That's really impressive. Would you mind if I took a sample of your results?"
"It's just a failure. Take whatever you want," Cleo waved her hand, her attention diverted from the moth by Jake's sudden appearance.
As for the moth, Jake had actually been watching it the whole time, but two seconds ago, it had finally achieved complete invisibility and utterly disappeared.
Shrugging, Jake poured about 100 milliliters of invisibility formula into a glass vial he'd prepared beforehand and carefully placed the remaining half back on the table.
"I don't think your experiment is a failure, Cleo," he said, putting his right hand in his pocket and holding the vial in his left. "Also, thanks for the sample."
After saying that, he ignored Cleo's surprised expression and left the room, then the house, and the lively party.
"What happened? Did you two get into an argument again?" Molly seemed to have heard Jake enter earlier. She came over but found her sister looking confused, with no Jake in sight. "Jake seems like a really good guy. You shouldn't push people away like that."
"We didn't fight," Cleo shook her head. "He just suddenly came in, asked me for half of my failed experiment, and then left." She pointed to the remaining liquid in the beaker.
The two searched outside, but never found Jake again.
Jake didn't know if Cleo and her sister would still experience invisibility in this world. After quickly leaving Cleo's house, Jake hid in a nearby alley and slowly took his right hand out of his pocket.
But it looked empty!
His right hand had been touched by the invisibility formula when some spilled, so it would become invisible. Perhaps he should be grateful, because it only got on his hand, so he could hide it for a while. If he'd accidentally ingested it and become invisible completely, Cleo would definitely have discovered him, and then there would have been major complications.
This invisibility formula would slowly integrate into the body through the skin. According to normal metabolism, the formula would be absorbed by the cells after a full day, allowing Jake to remain partially invisible permanently.
Fortunately, Jake already knew the antidote.
The dosage of the invisibility formula was extremely small, but its effects were incredibly potent.
For example, in the movie, a moth that was merely touched by the formula's vapor was accidentally eaten by Molly, causing her to become invisible. Moreover, she remained invisible along with anything in contact with her.
About 100 milliliters of the invisibility formula was enough for Jake to use hundreds or even thousands of times. As for what to do after he ran out? By then, he would definitely have found a perfect alternative.
Originally, Jake planned to stay another day before leaving, but now that part of him was invisible, if he didn't want to remain that way forever, he had to make the antidote, and this antidote was very easy to obtain.
At the nearest drugstore, Jake found the brand of ginger tablets that Molly had given him and bought several boxes.
In a flash, Jake was back in the real world.
As the invisibility formula spread, his entire right hand up to his elbow had now disappeared.
He poured himself a glass of water, dissolved some ginger tablets in it, and then used a small portable kettle he'd bought. Making the antidote required distilled water mixed with the ginger solution, which took a bit of effort.
After several minutes of work, and drinking the small glass of concentrated, tangy 'antidote,' his right hand visibly returned to normal.
He flexed it; it looked perfectly fine. "Truly incredible," he murmured.
Touching the glass vial in his pocket, he realized it was completely invisible due to contact with the formula; it could only be detected by touch.
Just as Jake finished cleaning up and was about to lie down on his bed to rest, his phone buzzed with a notification. He glanced at it, puzzled—it was a spam text message advertising some questionable massage services.
"Seriously?" He deleted it immediately and tossed his phone aside.
These sketchy spam messages were everywhere these days.
Taking it all as an annoyance of modern life, he deleted the message and settled in for the night.
The antidote to the invisibility formula worked for those who'd been exposed, but the residue itself still carried weak invisibility properties that would fade over time.
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