November: I Might Be A Superhero

007: Pathway to a Disastrous Experiment (I)

10:25 pm, Atticus Lab.

Doctor Hemmingway knew after the alien invasion on the previous night, Indianapolis would become unlivable because the aliens would attack again, and it might spread to every other part of Earth. It seemed something was buried under the depths of Indianapolis, a thing these aliens hungered for because the ground cracked upon their arrival. With a telescope, he watched from afar how a light-green scaled, velvet huge hand swallowed kids and took them down.

Surprisingly these aliens passed down their viruses to kids around the age of sixteen, leaving them with superpowers. Doctor Hemmingway was still trying to wrap his head around the idea if these kids could be used in fighting aliens when they returned again. If he had a solution. Although he wasn't a good guy.

He was the man in charge of Atticus' lab, a ruthless scientist who violated the principles of medical ethics. He denied patients the right to informed consent, using pseudoscientific frameworks such as race science, and tortured people under the guise of research. At first, it began with animals, going under a disguise to adopt cats and dogs as pets, using the CUSIA technology which he invented, to replace strong genes with that of weaker species like rabbits and pigs. He wanted to know if the strong physical attributes of a person could be enhanced and transferred over to a fragile person.

And now he was to conduct these unethical experiments on the kids with superpowers, as part of his work for the CUSIA project to perfect his technique.

But things took a different turn for Doctor Hemmingway when the government got themselves involved because they wanted to use these kids for selfish purposes. Bribed him with huge cheques after publicly denying that there was no alien invasion of any sort, but confiscated these kids, bundled them, and handed them over to him. He couldn't do as he pleased because he, his scientists and interns, worked under the watchful eyes of armed military men with CCTV observed by the shadow government.

"Bloody bastards," Doctor Hemmingway cursed under his breath as he looked away from the window to his mirror where he was adjusting his tie. They allowed him to do as he pleased with the animals and when it came to the kids, they came up with their own policies. After threatening to shut down his lab and ensure he becomes poor if he decided to go against them.

He had a meeting with them and deliberately let ten minutes run because he didn't like anyone bossing him around. The Atticus lab was until this morning.

"My apologies for being late, however, I do appreciate the fact that this meeting was called for the situation at hand to be fixed," Doctor Hemmingway audibly announced as he walked into the conference Hall, consisting of powerful and infamous men who did dirty work for the shadow government. They were all seated at the large table, waiting for him.

"Doctor Hemmingway," someone acknowledged his presence as they remained seated.

Placing the briefcase on top of the hardened executive wooden desk, Doctor Hemmingway sat on the power seat, beside prosecutor Adams, the corrupted man who always ensured all rumors and charges against Cynflac Pharmaceuticals were dropped. He was famous for hiring thugs to beat people up, or even kill them once they went against Cynflac Pharmaceuticals, the corrupt and rotten drug company he made the law firm he worked for to back up.

Prosecutor Adams also covered up the killings of the head of state. And he made sure victims of abuse from the head of state household were locked up in jail. Being a prosecutor for twenty years, he craftily cleared the mess of top politicians who were reliable enough to write him fat cheques, so he was considered to be the most corrupt and wealthiest prosecutor in Indianapolis.

It wasn't shocking he was the spokesman for the shadow government. The man was rotten to the bone.

"You're ten minutes late, Hemmingway. What took you so long?" Questioned Rodney Brown, second commander of the army in Indiana. The man was present because he wanted a trained supervillain he could use in fighting a war against the Russians.

"Couldn't leave some things unattended to, I wouldn't want my lab to go in shambles." Doctor Hemmingway provided, eyeing the man. He didn't like to be in their midst, he wanted the meeting to get done as soon as possible.

"You should know better than clearing things up beforehand." Another man spoke up. Doctor Hemmingway couldn't recall his name but he knew the man was more terrible than the devil. He was a consigliere who belonged to a deadly mafia group.

"Before we proceed with the meeting, may I know if all these kids with the viruses have been caught?" Intertwining his fingers, Prosecutor Admas propped his chin on top of them as he made this inquiry. Staring at them one by one.

"No,"

"Some were smart enough to escape," There was a collective grunt in agreement.

"How about we start going to their homes to pick them up? These kids cannot roam about freely. They're a threat to the government!" Rodney Brown slammed his fist against the desk, startling everyone after he made this suggestion.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Doctor Hemmingway disapproved of this.

"What do you know, old man?" Rodney Brown nudged his head forward as he crossed his arms over his chest. He raised a mocking brow at Doctor Hemmingway who in turn remained as calm as he could.

"You'll be inputting fear in the hearts of people if you invade their lives to get the virus infected kids."

"Does it matter?"

"Of course. Barely twenty-four hours ago, aliens invaded this city, although they didn't make themselves known but they passed their viruses to kids through their ships, leaving them with infection-induced powers after lives and properties were destroyed…"

"Straight to the point old man, stop going through the corners."

"I say we bring a strategy to lure in these kids themselves. Breaking into their homes and schools isn't fair."

A scoff from Prosecutor Adam's silences everyone and they cast a disapproving look in his direction.

"Bickering back and forth would make this meeting epic, but I'm not in for that," the man stood up, folded the cuffs of his shirt, and placed his hands on the table, leaning towards Doctor Hemmingway. "I say we get these kids whichever way we want. My son's one of them. I spoke with him and he's agreed to work with us, however, he'd live a normal life and would not be locked up in an isolation tank like some lab animal."

"Sensory deprivation tank," Doctor Hemmingway corrected.

"The hell whatever it is," Prosecutor Adams scoffed.

"This son of yours, what quirk does he have?" Doctor Hemmingway folded his arms across his chest.

"I see you already have a word for it," Prosecutor Adams scoffed, "Chase breathes out fire. Can make fireballs, burn down buildings if needed."

"Not unique like most kids," someone muttered and Prosecutor Adams's ear rose in an alert.

"I beg your pardon?" He asked, looking around to know who just said that. When he himself was proud of his son.

Someone immediately burst into the conference Hall, putting a halt to the discussion.

He was wearing a lab coat on top of his outfit and had big-rimmed glasses on. What made their gazes linger a bit on him, was the fact that he was panting like he did a marathon with cheetahs.

"I'm sorry I took so long, Doctor Hemmingway." The boy stammered. "Everything's been fixed,"

"Who is this and why is he in our midst? No one is supposed to be here apart from you, Hemmingway. This isn't a casual meeting, whatever we discuss must be kept confidential." Rodney Brown made this statement, shooting a glare at the boy who appeared frightened.

"Styles is an intern here in Atticus lab, he has juicy news for us concerning kids with quirks. Told me about something he witnessed this evening at Walmart mall and he was smart enough to make footage of it," Doctor Hemmingway didn't pay attention to them because he didn't want to look into their annoying faces. "Join us," he told the fragile-looking boy.

There was silence as the boy's head bounced from one man to the other. He stood unsure of himself for a while, before joining them.

"Now can we proceed with the meeting?" Prosecutor Adams asked and there were grunts in agreement.

They spent the next twenty minutes discussing these kids and with the help of documents provided by Doctor Hemmingway, they figured out some vital information concerning various kinds of quirks. Doctor Hemmingway performed serology testing to help estimate the number of viruses these kids have been infected with. He tried transferring a bit of the virus into a cat, but it was futile.

The fifth-seventh pages of the documents held a picture of the cat's hair falling off, and its body bloating until it exploded inside the glass hamster cage, leaving charred remains covered in black blood.

On the eighth page stated that the virus couldn't be transferred to another. It bodies just its host and would kill the species it gets passed on to.