Shayan & Avan - The Mutated Potato

Part I - The Inciting Incident

The sun rose slowly into the clear blue sky on a quiet afternoon, overlooking the weathered and cracked brick walls of an ancient library. Which stood in a small parking lot, that was having a slow day.

What wasn't having a slow day, were the two people arguing in front of the library. Well, "arguing" would be a bit of a fib, it was more like a man getting dumped by his girl friend.

"Please Genny! Don't leave me!" exclaimed Avan, as he grasped the hand of the girl that still captured his heart.

A hazel haired, fair skinned woman in blue denim overalls.

"I'm sorry Avan. But I'm looking for somebody a bit more brave" said Genny, as she pulled her hand away, and looked off into the distance. Averting her gaze from the tall, oddly muscular, caramel-toned man.

"Somebody who faces his fears head on! Instead of running away" Genny said, as she tightened on of her hands, and brought it down on her chest.

A solemn, distant, wishful look in her eye - which Avan wasn't privy to because she looked away.

"I am that person!" demanded Avan, as fleeting desperation escaped his lips.

Genny glanced back with an unconvinced frown, that bore into Avan's hopeless eyes.

"I'm sorry Avan. I just don't feel excited by this relationship anymore" said Genny, as she crossed her arms over her chest while looking off to the side, despondently.

Then she turned around, and walked away.

Leaving Avan standing in the midst of a nearby bench's shadow.

Defeated, and lost.

***

Many minutes passed, as the sun slowly inched across the sky. But for Avan, it felt as though time hadn't budged. His eyes peering off into the vacant distance as he felt the entirety of his sappy, somewhat cliche, love life come crashing down all around him.

The many fond memories he had with Genny floating around his head like a film reel stuck on repeat.

He would've probably been stuck in this dower mental state, were it not for his best friend who arrived in front of the library via moped.

And by "arrived" I mean, he crashed into the floor when his moped hit a small, illogically dense pebble, which flung the budding scientist onto the pavement.

The sound of an academic skull colliding with a rock hard surface pulled Avan out of his somber mind palace. Bringing him to the sight of a dark skinned man in a dusty lab coat, and black cargo pants.

"Good god! Shayan, you alright?" asked Avan, as he jumped into action and quickly helped Shayan onto his feet.

"No, I'm not!"

"Oh god! What, did you break something? Why do you keep driving that damn moped without a helmet? How is that even legal?"

"It's not, but that's not it" replied Shayan, as he got regained his balance. Supported by his friend.

"What's not it? The helmet thing or the broken bones thing?"

"The latter, but also its totally illegal to drive a moped without a helmet" replied Shayan, as he dusted off his shoulders and adjusted his unbuttoned lab coat.

"Then why do you-" began Avan, as he was about to ask Shayan the perplexing conundrum of driving a moped at dangerous speeds helmetless, when Shayan interjected with "-anyways, we got a problem. Like a serious problem".

Shayan looked at Avan with a serious expression, the kind that Avan had so often seen when Shayan had exposed himself to something troubling.

Like a homeless man dressed like a banana dancing outside a subway station, or a depressed mall Santa staring off into space during Christmas.

"...what kind of problem?"

Shayan looked Avan dead in the eye, and said with a straight face "the mutated potato kind".

"A mutated potato?!" replied Avan, as a dire expression flashed onto his bearded face.

"Yeah, and even worse - or better, depending on who you ask. It was destroying a bunch of old ladies, outside a retirement home" said Shayan, as he rubbed his nose.

"D-Destroying?" asked Avan, a little taken back by Shayan's words.

"Demolishing, curb stomping. Whatever you wanna call it - either way, they're never gonna come back to that home. That's for sure" replied Shayan nonchalantly, and a little grimly.

'Holy shit...' thought Avan, as his brain conjured up a terrifying image of a bunch of old ladies being beaten down by a mutated potato.

"We got to do something..." Shayan said.

"WE?!" exclaimed Avan, as he confusingly gestured to himself and Shayan.

"Well, who else is going to? The police?" asked Shayan skeptically, as he scoffed at the thought.

"Yeah, good point" Avan replied, as he rubbed his beard hairs in thought.

Remembering all the times law enforcement either did nothing, or somehow became the problem. Like that one time, when two officers responded to a robbery by robbing the robbers.

"Okay, so what do we do?"

"What else? Give that thing chase!" proclaimed Shayan, as he quickly hopped onto his moped and revved the meager transport vehicles fuel-efficient engine.

"Hey wait! Shouldn't we-" said Avan, as Shayan began to drive off. Cutting his caramel friend off, as they darted out of the library's parking lot.