CH 28: A breakthrough

January 2004…

A few months had passed since Marcus had started working on Lizard serum with Connors and other scientists. And with Marcus' help, they had a breakthrough in the research.

The problem with the serum was that it would grow unchecked and rewrite every single DNA in the body completely, thus changing the injected person into a Lizard

Marcus had found the solution to this problem. A neutralizing agent or more like a nano-virus that could counteract the lizard serum so it can only do targeted changes on specific parts of the DNA that needed changes.

That means the muscle, the bone, the capabilities of regeneration, and other things which would change the human body without completely turning them into an insane havoc-wrecking Lizard.

Although that would mean they wouldn't have the same resilience as the full version, they can at least not look like a monster.

Marcus and his team had finally engineered the special nano-virus after many failed attempts in the past months. And now, it was ready for testing.

A naked man was brought out and laid down on a bed. His feet and neck were tied up to hold him down as he had no hands.

Marcus and others didn't have to take any protective measures because they were going to first test the nano-virus and its effects.

A researcher came forward and administered a syringe full of transparent liquid. The liquid was just a mixture of nano-virus and a nutritive solution.

All the monitoring equipment connected to the man was showing that his health was normal even after some minutes of the injection.

The team was about to cheer for their success when the monitoring equipment started to blare.

"Sir! Multiple organ failure, along with cardiac arrest. If we don't do anything, he will die."

"Inject the serum, now," Marcus said calmly, contrasting others, showing that his years of meditation didn't go to waste.

The researchers that were scrambling about got to their work in a hurry, some tried to stabilize the convulsing man as another researcher brought out the green-colored serum from the containment unit.

He used a syringe and extracted the serum from the vial. And after making sure there were no air molecules inside it, he injected the syringe into the convulsing man.

"Put him in the containment cell, quickly!"

The researchers hurried to follow Marcus' orders and quickly dragged the wheeled bed into a room made of titanium alloy.

After leaving the convulsing man inside, the researchers came out to monitor his situation via a camera placed inside the cell.

And slowly, the subject stopped convulsing, and his breathing became even.

The researchers held their breath, waiting to see if their research was truly successful. And soon, they got their answer.

Fleshy buds sprouted from the disabled subject's shoulder and slowly grew to the size of an average human arm. And a few minutes later, it had completely formed digits. The skin looked as smooth as a baby's.

After another few minutes, the subject ripped open his restraints with ease and got up from the bed.

From the video footage, the researchers saw that the man was examining his hands and body before he stepped forward and punched the metal wall.

The zoomed-in footage from the camera showed that the man made a .5-inch dent in the 8 inches thick Titanium alloy wall.

"Alright, I would say that's a success…put him back to sleep. And keep monitoring for any unexpected long-term effects."

After ordering the anesthetization of the subject, Marcus unfurled his hands that were crossed in front of his chest and sat back down on a nearby chair.

A researcher pressed a few buttons and a white-colored gas was released inside the chamber, filling it to the brim. And the cell went silent after a few thuds. When the smoke was extracted, the camera footage showed the naked man lying down on the ground, his chest rising up and down in a constant rhythm.

"You can celebrate, gentlemen. It's your success too."

Hearing what Marcus had said, the researchers cheered and congratulated him and each other on the success.

And a few days later, using the research data of the subject, a new and better method of injecting the serum was derived.

It wasn't anything special, just the serum and the initial neutralizing agent were to be given in succession almost instantly, which made sure that the subject doesn't have to go through the convulsing pain and the possibility of losing their life.

After the serum and the method of injecting were finally perfected, the first one to take the serum was Dr. Connors.

"Congratulations, Doctor. I am happy that you've finally made your wish come true."

Marcus smiled politely and grabbed Connors's hand for a handshake.

"Thanks, Dr. Hunt. But if not for you...I don't know how much time it would have taken me to perfect the serum…So… thank you, really …thank you so much."

Connors was on the verge of tears, but they were tears of happiness, the happiness of regaining his arm back and fulfilling his lifelong dream.

After his chat with Dr. Connors was over, Marcus got back to his lab and decided to test the serum's effect on his cells.

Because he had a sneaking suspicion that the serum wouldn't work on him perfectly as it did on others.

The reason was that the Lizard serum, along with giving special qualities of a Lizard, made the person a cold-blooded mammal and they could even hibernate in excess cold and survive without any nutrition for long periods.

But the problem came with the Extremis that was already integrated inside his body, as it had exact opposite properties of the Lizard serum.

Marcus took different cells from his body and put them under an electron microscope and put a drop of the Lizard serum on every slide to observe their reactions.

And the reaction was the same as Marcus expected, as soon as the Lizard serum tried to come in contact with his cells, the Extremis Started to heat up rapidly, reaching terrifying temperatures.

And the serum couldn't stand a chance against the heat and evaporated without a trace.

'Hmm! As expected, it isn't working. I need to either develop a neutralizing agent for the Extremis and see if that works or upgrade Extremis itself. Extremis 2.0, like in the comics.'

******

"Bang…bang…bang…bang!"

"Hah…hah…hah…hah!"

Under the starry night sky and among the loud sound of firing guns, Jude, Michael and Hammond were running as fast as they could.

Hammond was using his body to shield Jude and Michael from the wall of bullets coming toward them.

"Boss, we shouldn't have pried in their businesses in the first place…FUCK!" no

Michael couldn't help but curse out mid-sentence after a bullet hit his side, "Thank god, we have the bulletproof suit Big Boss gave us, otherwise, I would be dead by now…But still, Boss, we had enough information already, why did you have to go ahead and smack a hornet's nest…" Michael couldn't help but pour out profanities as it was the only release keeping him sane.

Jude knew he made a serious mistake trying to pry more into the guys he had informed Marcus about but it still made him angry when Michael kept mentioning his mistake again and again.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, ALRIGHT. I know I made a fucking mistake, will you stop crying about it, now? We are mercenaries, it's not like we haven't gone through this shit before. So Man the fuck up, Michael."

Jude's outburst seemed to work on Michael, who also realized his mistake and stopped speaking.

And after a few more minutes of running through the hail of bullets, Jude put his hand on his earpiece and said, "John, we are in range. You're up."

"I'm in position, boss," replied John from a seemingly tall building.

Instantly after John's voice rang in the earpiece, a loud bang was also heard and the gunfire behind Jude and Michael suddenly halted for a second…