CHAPTER 06

Hell.

If there was any way to describe what I've been through these last few weeks, it would be that analogy.

A day after I talked to the scary Hydra dude, I was put through the most extreme training regime I've ever experienced in both lives and after that, I would be taken to the medical facility where all types of test and experiments were ran on me.

Sometimes a four inch needle would be inserted into my spine while I was awake and they would draw out my spinal fluid or sometimes they would expose me to extreme temperatures and watch me writhe in discomfort as I struggle to preserve my life. Biting cold, scorching heat, wrecking pain; all were conditions I was made to go through just for them to compile more data.

Whether there were trying to see my limit or for what ever reason, they always stopped when they were absolutely sure I couldn't take it any more even if that meant leaving me with an inch of my life. Conditions that would have killed a normal human ten times over were all thrown at me just to see how much I could endure.

There was only one thing I gained through this whole ordeal. Whether it was a blessing or a curse, I couldn't tell – a Regeneration factor. Making it all too obvious of my mutant abilities.

It wasn't something I was told since they didn't tell me anything and I couldn't understand German or was it Russian. Either way, I was able to find out about my regeneration factor since there were a lot of discrepancies with me and their tests.

As far I could remember, the only medication they gave me was during the first few days of my experiments. For the following weeks, they only pushed my limits above the norms of what was possible and not once did they give me any sorts of medication, not even an aspirin pill.

So it got me thinking, since there were so sure about my identity as a mutant, which I had to eventually believe as I was still alive, I had to have an ability that they really wanted or something they needed for whatever plans they had because having a simple regeneration ability just didn't make any sense to me and that brought me to my experiments.

Somehow I was able to survive being put in a burning pit, which was the most traumatic experience I've ever had. Having your skin being burned while you screamed with a burnt throat and melted eyeballs was an horrific event of unheard proportions, but having to go through it three more times was most traumatizing. It was after the third burning experience that made me realize that there was something seriously wrong with me.

On the first day of my first burning experience, all of my flesh were meshed together with pain being the consolation prize for every subtle movement I made, to the point that even Deadpool looked more like Ryan Reynolds in contrast to me looking like the Hunched-Back of Notre Dame… on fire.

I couldn't even cry with my melted throat since all I could feel was pain. It wasn't until the third day that the I was able to see once more and breathe without feeling pain but my skin was still charred but not as much as the first day. Now I just looked like Deadpool.

I was back to pristine condition by the fifth day and also resumed my training and experiments.

After that event, every night before I went to sleep, I would cut myself to see if the regeneration was a time effect because of a drug I was given or I somehow had a regeneration factor, which I did, but not even comparable to the levels of the Wolverine and Deadpool as those guys were basically pseudo-immortals.

Finding out about my regeneration factor helped clear some things about my case. The reason I was pushed that far was to see how much I could handle, and possibly heal from, but I had a feeling that was not all I could do. I didn't want to believe Hydra abducted me just for what, health potions? But whatever it may be, for now I was glad with the regeneration factor I had. Whatever Hydra really wanted from me could be figured out in due time.

Back to my regeneration, I was able to find out that it always kicks up faster anytime I underwent my training.

Take for example, the first time I cut my hand to figure out how long it took to heal, it took up to three hours for a long gash across my palm to heal. But after my Shadrach experience, I was able to heal from the same gash with almost ninety minutes. A difference of over an hour was an overwhelming breakthrough when considering the fact that that nature of injury would take a human at least two weeks to fully heal from.

Apart from the knowledge that my regeneration was able to increase in potency, I was made known to the startling fact that I was getting stronger. While it was a given when regarding the type of training they put me through, this type of strength wasn't something that could be gained from any type of training even withstanding how hardcore it might be.

While I wasn't Super Soldier level strong, I believed I was at least a quarter or a fifth of the way there, at least from what I saw in the movies.

My strength, speed, reflexes, awareness were all getting a boost in parameters with the only explanation that if they weren't drugging my meals with an Uber-level steroid, then my mutant gene was giving me a super-human physique. Of course my physique wasn't all that great since Olav always whooped my ass when it was time for 'physical conditioning', as he so smugly put it.

This was all I was able to find out these past few weeks amongst the plethora of physical abuse and experimental tortures: regeneration and a low leveled super-human physique.

Except for these things, nothing else was different for me. I still didn't know if I was still in New York or even in the States. If my mental calendar was still functioning well then I had spent at least two month under capture, which would make it November outside wherever I was, and I was already missing my normal life.

 The little chats with May, the bubbly crowds at Charlie's, my everyday at the gym, the occasional walks through the city – these were all things that I started craving during my days here and all it took was a freak happenstance to lose it all.

An event where I lacked a choice or opinion for change. An occasion where I was naught but an inconsequential piece of a villains grand plan which was an almost guaranteed failure.

My life, one amongst several billions, deemed unremarkable and mediocre, reduced to a madman's check piece on a board of lunacy, all for a discounted moment of a false sense of achievement. What gall.

Even a mentally unstable man, who dreamt of nothing but an unbalanced reality, had a much better sense of freedom than I who dreamt of tranquility for my fleeting life.

What unfairness must I suffer before I was granted the ticket to live a self-fulfilling life. If gods exists, then where have I erred for such punishment of injustice across the vestiges of reality that even travelling across universes to a world which was birthed forth by a man's fictional ideas I still suffer.

Was my resolve really that laughable that they found it amusing to spit on? Or was my determination that horrid that they look at me with disgust and squash whatever will I have to end such a disgraceful existence? Or are they simply looking for something to amuse them in their nigh-eternal life. Is so, then I have only but one query – why me?

Out of several billions, why pick a broken man at the end of his journey, toss him into a universe of wonders with insinuated promises of a life without bars, only then after giving him a taste of liberation you drown him in a sea of torture. Snuffing whatever spark of enlightenment he had only to lead him into the ink black canvas of the abyss.

If mortals of legends who erred against gods were cursed for their ignorance and folly, then what have I, a man who neither cursed nor blasphemed, done? If the casting of Lucifer out of heaven by God – from the Abrahamic religion, the curse of Lycaon by Zeus – from the Greek mythology, and Pandu by Rishi Kindama from the Hindu myths were acts of rebellion against these deities then when did I rebel?

Truly the acts of man are naught but amusement in the eyes of God.

If wishing for a peaceful life was my crime against the gods and I was cursed so, then if I rebelled would my existence be smote? If living as life goes on was my blasphemy against the gods, then if I strived for mine own desire will I be pardoned or condemned? If accepting of the presented reality was foul and taboo in the eyes of the gods, then would I be forgiven or will my grace abound?

For whatever deity gave me this curse or unlikely blessing, will I be forsaken if I dream once more?

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[Unknown POV]

A miracle was said to be something which occurred when you lost all avenue of hope. If so, then what was presented before me was a miracle among others.

A true gem amongst all natural treasures.

An impossibility that was made possible with the advent of the X-gene a few centuries ago. The key to the truth of Darwin's theory of evolution. A man with the ability of possibly endless growth – the power to adapt to ANY stimuli, be it environmental or physically inflicted.

Not even the X project had such potential prospects. Those freaks that could fly, strengthen their muscles, control magnetic particles were all deemed lesser or greater failures in front of such potential to evolve and adapt almost infinitely.

Just his blood, tissues and spinal fluids were rare gems. But what if he evolved further, what kind of potential will the newly harvested specimens open up?

Two months and he could already endure a burning pit of  500°C for an hour before the risk of death. Absolutely marvelous!

He could already survive the cryotherapy chambers at 200°F for over ninety minutes before his brain showed signs of failure or damage. And he could heal from both extreme conditions in record time of less than three days. This was the greatest discovery towards the next step of evolution man has ever made.

If they were able to crack his gene code, then super soldiers could be easily created and that would be an even lesser achievement. He could create the perfect undying army.

I-039 was truly a lucky find. It was pure luck that they found him and even then, they thought his ability would be one of the many cataloged in their database but this…this was the secret to godhood.

His code could allow man to step into the fabled domain of gods. This just showed that their goals were true and noble. For they alone could never die like the fabled hydra of legends, and now with this they could truly create a truly undying army. A truly evolving army. A nigh unkillable soldier like the Draugr of the Old Norse legends.

With his discovery they were able to learn what man with their limited technology could not.

Every living thing and none living thing vibrates at different frequencies. For humans these vibrational frequency had a range where they all fell under. No human vibrated the same as another but they all fell into the same range of vibrations. There was a vibrational frequency range that all humans fell under, irrespective of their origin, and this was why mutants were said to be another specie of the human race – they vibrated at an higher range of frequency. All of them. No matter how mundane their abilities were, they all fell in their own range of frequencies.

They were able to find this out due to one of their subjects having the ability to read frequencies. She could read the words from a static radio as if it was being spoken to her directly. With further study they were able to figure out from her that everything vibrated at different frequencies. Everything.

But she alone had the wonderful ability of telling them apart as she was able to identify the basic form of an object while just listening to its frequency even while blindfolded. Taking it further, she was able to differentiate between humans and mutants due to their different vibrational frequency after much trial and error.

When she was being transported she read a frequency that would spike up to mutant levels and then drop back to human levels after a while. This description was what intrigued them and they sent her out for days to pinpoint this frequency. They were able to learn that their target would go to the gym everyday where his frequency would fluctuate between human and mutant levels. They observed him for a week before they decided to 'recruit' him to their cause.

It was all on a whim that they decided to take him… but this… this was monumental. The universe was still on their side after all!

The ultimate power for the ultimate army.

Hail Hydra!