8:10am, Monday

Nobuomi finished snapping on his rubber gloves as his supervisor, Mr. Yamashita, came around the corner carrying a clipboard with details on the day's assignments.

"Hey, boss. What's with that notice that the vending machines around here will be out of Jolt Cola and Mountain Dew until further notice?"

Yamashita looked up from his clipboard. "Section D21 emptied the vending machines and is using it in the development of a new close-quarters combat model."

Nobuomi paused for a moment. "Uh, is that safe?"

"They put steel reinforcements around the D20's block of labs. Don't worry about it. Ok, here's today's assignment. We're going to finish the DNA adjustments to the X68 line."

Nobuomi accepted the sheaf of papers with diagrams outlining the needed adjustments. "You mean that octopus-looking zoanoid with all the tentacles? I thought it got rejected. It wasn't tough enough in combat."

"It's getting a few adjustments before being re-assigned as an interrogation model."

Realization struck Nobuomi like a wet noodle. "But that's... Yuck! That's disgusting."

Yamashita chuckled. "It's an ugly business, my boy. Oh, by the way. If you keep it under your hat I'll tell you what vice president Ogata was here about last week."

Nobuomi leaned in closer and hushed his voice. "Yeah, I was wondering why he was gathering super model and female pop singer DNA."

"They're making a new hyperzoanoid to unveil at that Cronos executive retreat in Hawaii. Only female subjects for that project."

Nobuomi didn't need to think too hard on that one. "That's no zoanoid. They're just going to--"

Yamashita motioned for him to keep it down. "Some guys get all the luck, eh?" Yamashita grinned.

Nobuomi adjusted his lab coat. "Yeesh! Speaking of which, has my request for re-assignment been reviewed yet?"

Yamashita gave him a knowing look. "Over to the female zoanoid division sections? Not yet but don't get your hopes up."

Nobuomi gave a frown as he pointed at the row of growth tanks they were both standing by. Inside each tank was a naked man slowly undergoing the process to become a zoanoid soldier. "Having to look at hundreds of naked men every day gets to you, you know?"

Yamashita waved it off. "Ah, you learn to block it out after a while. I don't notice it anymore."

Just as Yamashita finished another worker walked up with a bounce in his step and a big smile. "Have you seen subject MM458-5321? He's just fabulous!"

Nobuomi's eyes bugged out. "uh..."

"Don't worry," Yamashita said. "He was like that when he started here."

Nobuomi saw something at the bottom of his list just as he turned to go. "What? I have to contribute to project MIX-31? What's that?"

Yamashita looked up. "Oh, that? That's development of a new breed of hyperzoanoids. That should be interesting work."

"What's it about?"

Yamashita looked at the ceiling thoughtfully as he spoke. "Well, a lot of expensive hyperzoanoids were carved up recently by those guyver terrorists. The senior scientists here decided it wasn't due to shortcomings in our hyperzoanoids combat abilities. Our creations are plenty tough. It's the psychological factor. You see, we've been taking mostly ordinary humans and processing them to be hyperzoanoids. This time, we're developing cloned humans that have the psychological makeup needed to be real fierce killers. Then we process them into hyperzoanoids."

Nobuomi looked over the project's specs. "These are some odd DNA samples to use as raw material. Who's Mike Tyson?"

"You remember hearing about that American boxer who tried to chew off his opponent's ear?"

Nobuomi's face showed surprise. "I remember now. That guy?"

"Yeah, that'll give our hyperzoanoids some real fierceness."

Nobuomi read more. "But what about this John Smith guy? Telemarketer of the year?"

"Tenacity, my boy. They'll stop at nothing." Yamashita replied.

"Ok, that makes sense. But DNA from 3 divorce lawyers?"

Yamashita's face grew grim. "Meanness. These new hyperzoanoids will be the meanest batch we've ever created."

Nobuomi was almost shocked. "My god! This will be the most dangerous weapon we've ever created. Those guyver terrorists haven't got a chance!"