by Chewy Walrus
The EPS:
"Smug little bastard," Dr. Charles Elias Walker sneered, tapping the edge of the hypodermic needle he held in his hand and rolling up his sleeve.
"Charles, why are you doing this?" Dr. Walter Curie asked, carefully measuring a particular biological catalyst on his chemistry set.
"Because that conniving, overzealous wop infected me, you dolt!" Walker said, angrily walking over to where Curie stood, finishing out his measurements.
"That's not what I meant," Curie said, handing the catalyst to Walker, who smiled, tranferring the test tube to his own station.
"Then what did you mean?" Walker asked, pouring the catalyst into a prepared solution.
"This whole thing with Cicciotto," Curie began, slipping his hands into the pockets of his lab coat. "The mental torture. The kidnapping. The holding hostage of his son. The emotional turmoil. Why are you putting him through this?"
"I'll tell you why!" Walker said, jabbing a finger in the man's face. "To be devoted unwaveringly to the cause at hand, that Italian filth must be broken! Mentally, yes. Emotionally, definitely. Physically, possibly. Spiritually, if need be."
Walker stirred the solution in the beaker before him lightly as it turned from a hunter green to a rich amber hue. "Everything that Cicciotto knows, or thinks he knows, he knows only because it is what I want him to know!"
"How so?" Curie asked, running the beaker to the test area.
"Agent Owens. Cicciotto cares deeply for her. She is an empath, a manipulator of emotions. Under my orders, she has placed Cicciotto under a spell of sorts. He is in love with her. He has sworn himself to protect her. She is now his undoing, and, coincidentally, his new reason for staying with us."
"To what end, sir?" Curie asked, pouring a minute amount of the solution into a test beaker. "What makes you so certain that he will stay?"
"Well, at this point, he is confused. Ms. Owens will see to it that he either continues in this feeling of confusion or simply rebuts it with her fierce love signals pumping into his brain twenty-four-seven," Walker sneered, rubbing the tips of his thumb and forefinger together.
"And what if she falls in love with him?" Curie asked. "What if she is already?"
"She's a whore, Walt," Walker said emotionlessly. "And as such, she's one of the greatest actresses the world has ever seen. Not only do whores fake orgasms, but they do this so well that they actually dupe the poor fools into believing that they are the best lover since Romeo or Don Juan." Walker chuckled for a moment before he continued. "However, it is also known that whores are incapable of true love, by the romantic Hollywood definition. They know only physical, raw, unbridled, animal instinct, which they often confuse for love."
"You sound so sure, Charles," Curie said incredulously, placing the test mixture in the hypodermic needle that Walker had been tapping.
"If you only knew how many times every other male in this complex felt the same way, Walt," Walker said, a grin appearing on his lips. Curie was a bit taken aback but quickly regained his composure.
"You mean she...?" Curie paused, thinking it through. "And you?" His eyes grew wide, and he gasped as Walker chuckled.
"As I said, Walt, she's a whore."
"So, why the lie about the antidote?" Curie asked. "Why tell him you hadn't already discovered the Anti-Pathogen?"
"He's so predictable, isn't he?" Walker said, having cooled down considerably from talking to Walt. "When he came back with one fewer subject, I knew something was amiss. I figured he'd gotten cocky and done something foolish, which was obviously what he did. However, like he himself said, his body can only reproduce the chemical -- not the biological. The Pathogen itself is biological, as is its Anti-Pathogen."
"So, he can't make any more of either?" Curie surmised.
"Exactly," Walker said, dipping a cotton swab in some peroxide and touching it to his arm. "Which means that no harm will come to me, and we can still garner the desired test results from the infected metahumans at the Side-Show."
"You're still ignoring my preliminary question, Charles," Walt said. "Why lie in the first place?"
"To make him feel superior," Walker said, swirling the swab around, covering an area of his flesh with the peroxide. "Watching him with that look on his face, like he had finally beaten me." Walker chuckled again. "That was priceless. It was all I could do to keep from laughing in his face! As long as he thinks he has an upper hand, then there is no way that he feels threatened. And he feels more inclined to stay."
"You seem to have had this all planned out from the beginning," Curie said, sucking the amber-hued test mixture into the hypodermic needle.
"Like I said, Cicciotto is too predictable," Walker said, as Curie walked over to him with the syringe full of Anti-Pathogen. "By the way, have Vidalia come to my office as soon as this is over. I want 'Eddie' back in his play pen as soon as possible."
"Yes, sir," Curie said, poking the needle into the prepared area on Walker's skin. Charles winced as Curie depressed the liquid into his veins. Walker smiled as he closed his eyes and thought about what was happening inside of him. The biological catalyst was serving as a strengthener to his proteins and, as such, to his blood cells. Specifically, his white blood cells, which were now, undoubtedly, targeting the black Pathogen and eradicating it fully from his system.
"You know what to do with the rest of that, I presume?" Walker said, his eyes still closed.
"Yessir," Curie replied, placing the beaker with the amber-hued Anti-Pathogen onto a Bunsen burner. Turning the flame on, the scientist watched slowly as the liquid turned from amber to hunter green, signifying the death of the catalyst within the mixture. Curie then poured the mixture into a large vat labelled EXCESS BIOCHEMICAL STORAGE and sealed the lid.
"Done, sir," Curie commented as he finished his task.
"Good," Walker said, sitting up and rolling his sleeve back to its regular position. "The formula?"
"Too complicated to memorize," Curie said, holding up the floppy disk that contained the Anti-Pathogen formula. Walker smiled as the scientist plugged in a powerful electromagnet and set the disk atop it.
"Very good, Curie." Walker nodded, pleased. "Using magnetic current to erase the disk. Impressive. Most impressive."
"Thank you, sir," Curie said, nodding to the doctor. "That should be the last of the Anti-Pathogen."
"Excellent," Walker said, walking through a nearby door, which led directly to his office. As he slid into his chair, Walker turned once again to his former co-worker. "He thinks himself a revolutionary, Walt. Little does he know that his so-called revolution is about to fall."
"Indeed, sir," Curie said, nodding, a huge smile on his face. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to summon Agent Owens for you."
"Thank you, Walt," Walker said as the orange-suited man began to exit.
"Oh, Walt!" Walker called after him as he was about to leave the room. Curie turned and looked at his boss with an arched eyebrow. "Did you leave me those files I asked for? On the damned Revolutionaries?"
"Oh, yes," Curie said, pointing to a discarded stack sitting next to Walker's desk. "Everything TriVex hacked from the Malvan-X mainframe is right there for your perusal."
"Thank you, Walt." Walker smiled, waving his friend away. Bending down beside his desk, the doctor pulled up the first file, reading the tab attached to the name.
"The 'Animal-Man'?" Walker raised an eyebrow as he read. "Fascinating."