by Chewy Walrus
TriVext Corporation world headquarters, Thunder City:
Dr. Walter Curie walked into the building, whistling happily as he winked at the voluptuous red-headed receptionist who sat behind the large mahogany information desk. She smiled and waved playfully as he walked past.
Curie swiped his key card, and the elevator doors opened to whisk him safely to the third subbasement, home to his genetics laboratory. An odd thing happened in the elevators once they hit the subbasements. The lights got dim and tiny lasers located in the elevator security cameras scanned the body or bodies of the person or persons in the elevator. The lasers took a copy of the genetic make-up of the person in the elevator. If it didn't match with the recorded DNA with the name on the key card, the lasers would turn lethal, burning holes in the persons eyes until the life functions ceased. Security protocol. One of the many goodies TriVext had pioneered in its years of research.
The elevator doors opened, and Curie stepped out and into his laboratory, passing a number of gifted scientists as they tinkered with strands upon strands of DNA sequencing and coding. Stepping into his office, Curie poured himself a hot cup of coffee, pouring in a bit of sugar and cream and slipping into his high-backed leather chair.
Turning toward his computer, he placed his styrofoam coffee cup next to his mouse and began his day by checking his interoffice e-mail.
The first message was from Knell. Figures, he thought, rolling his eyes. The message said that Knell wanted to see Curie at his earliest convenience. Curie looked at his watch. It was 9:11 a.m. He could put it off for at least another half-hour.
The second message was from Jasmine, the first-level receptionist, wanting to know if they were still on for this Saturday night. Curie smiled as he sent his assent to the suggestion.
The third message was from Dr. Walker. Curie smiled broadly as he read the message, not having heard from Walker in weeks. However, Walker didn't have much to say. "Always was the all-business type," Curie whispered as his eyes scanned over the message.
Walt:
I need a favor. I'm not at liberty to say what it's for, but I need you to do it for me, just the same. Attached is a schematic for a unique form of metahuman DNA I've found. I need a test run on it. I need details. What can it do? What is it capable of? I have an idea, but I need to hear it from someone I trust. Give it to your best man, or do it yourself. I don't care. Just get it done. Thanks, Walt. I owe you one.
-- Walker
"Oh, so we're counting now?" Curie said, opening up the DNA schematic. At the simple sight of it, Curie's mouth dropped open. "What the...?"
It was unlike anything he'd ever seen before. It was metahuman DNA, all right. The only difference between it and the other types that he had seen was that this strand was concentrated, heavily. Dozens of peptides and hydroxyl groups were bunched together where only one should be.
"This is insane!" Curie whispered to himself. "Whoever this metahuman is, he's one of the most powerful I've ever seen."
Shaking his head to overcome the initial shock of his find, Curie quickly distributed the job to his best man on the floor, telling him to have the results on his desk by the end of the day. From there, Curie walked back to the elevator, setting his location to Knell's office.
Upon arriving on the correct floor, Curie was greeted by Knell's frantic secretary. "Oh, thank GOD! It's about time you've shown! He's been asking for you every five minutes since I got in at five this morning! There's something not right about it, Walt! Something not right!"
"Shh!" Curie put his arm around the woman reassuringly. "Calm down, Nancy. You're hysterical. Let me go in and assess the situation. Everything's going to be fine."
"Be careful, Walt!" Nancy called after him, falling to the floor in a sobbing heap, her arm reaching out for him. "Be careful!"
Curie looked back at her briefly and opened the door cautiously. A gust of stale air hit him in the face as he walked in, closing the door behind him. The lights were out, shades drawn, making the room incredibly dark. As Curie's eyes adjusted to the shift in light, he picked up on an odd scent. Leather. But not normal cow leather. It was odd, to say the least.
"Dr. Knell?" Curie asked quietly, straining to make out something in the dark room.
Then, he heard it. A grating hiss of a voice answered him. The voice was deep, brusk, and guttural, yet oddly familiar. "Walt? Walt, isss that you?"
"Dr. Knell?" Curie ambled aimlessly in the direction of the voice, but still couldn't make out where it was coming from.
"Yesss, Walt," the voice answered, as Curie heard the sound of movement around him. Heavy movement. When it ceased, the voice was on the other side of him. "It'sss me. Dr. Zzzachary Knell."
"Y-you wanted to see me... Doctor?" Curie asked, confused.
"Yesss, I did." The grating voice grew harsher as it bore down on Curie, drawing closer and closer to his ear as the conversation continued. "I want you to make me an antigene."
"A what?"
"An antigene. One desssigned to counter the effectsss of the metahuman gene to reduccce it back to the human level."
"But, sir, that's morally... ethically un--"
Curie's statement was cut short as a massive clawed hand gripped him by the collar, lifting him high into the air. Raspy gasps of hot air hit him in the face, the stench of which was awful. Small droplets of saliva hit his face. As they collided, he felt the spit begin to bubble and his skin begin to burn.
"I DIDN'T ASSSK ABOUT MORALSSS AND ETHICSSS. I SSSSAID I WANTED IT DONE!"
The fear that had aroused in Curie's heart began to subside when he heard the sound that came next. Crying. A baby's tears.
Curie's body was tossed into the wall like a rag doll as lumbering footsteps walked across the room to the opposite corner. Curie heard the voice of one whom he could only presume to be Dr. Zachary Knell hissing and cooing at the crying baby, who was obviously the snake-headed child of Knell's own creation.
As his eyes had started to adjust, Curie could now make out the shape of his employer and attacker. A hulking figure, standing at about seven feet, stood hunched over a small crib, holding a metahuman clone of a child in one enormous taloned hand.
"D-Doctor Knell... w-what happened to you?" Curie asked quietly, shying away as glowing yellow eyes turned to meet his from the distance of the room.
"I had a visssitor yesssterday at about five thirty, after everyone elssse had gone. He injected me with sssome of the blood sssample I had taken from Eddie, here." The voice paused, as its keeper toyed playfully with the child by waving a large claw before its face.
"The pain wasss... excruccciating," the voice continued pensively, as if recalling his own personal Holocaust. "I recall writhing in agony asss my ssskin began to peel and flake away and as thisss hard leathery hide I have now took itsss placcce. The horror asss my clothes began to rip and tear, asss large talonsss began protruding from my fingersss, ripping my fingernailsss off. The only thing that kept me from killing myssself wasss Eddie..."
The monster that was now Zachary Knell, head of genetics research at TriVext Corporation, trudged over to the door, placing his hand on the lightswitch.
"And now..." Knell said.
A blast of light hit Curie's corneas, causing him to cover his face. As his eyes now adjusted to the light, he realized that he didn't want to look at the "man" before him. But he had to. Not for Knell's sake, and certainly not for his own. But for the sake of science.
Curie slowly uncovered his eyes as they took in the full image of the figure before him. And, like every good scientist, Curie did the only thing he could do in the given situation. He fainted.