The grocery list… ya that's about all the things I need this week now I just need to make a beeline for the doors. Alright, the security guard isn't looking, let's go for the exit. I prepared for the escape with my backpack containing all the food I will be stealing from the supermarket. 3…2…1…And I took off while the people around me took a few seconds to register why the homeless man was running. Lucky for me the guard gave up seeing my head start and not feeling the need to halt someone who only stole a bag's worth of items.
I ran across the streets until the supermarket was out of sight and made my way to the bridge I used as a home like so many others. When I got there a group of well dressed gentlemen appeared from behind the tents that the homeless erected. "Hey you, they tell me you know Josh!" Their leader yelled at me.
"I don't know where he is." I said raising my arms getting ready to run if need be but I could tell the men were carrying guns.
"I got a message I want you to give that rat who stole the goods from me." I nodded until I saw him reach into his coat and the glint of a pistol shined in the sun, "wait!" I screamed
Bang Bang Bang… he unloaded his entire clip.
My conscience started to lift as the pain became nothing more than a fever dream and I found myself in space among the stars. The sensation I could feel at the moment was like being one with the universe until a being appeared in said stars moving them as if they were his body.
It spoke in a voice that I couldn't hear but feel in my soul, "Your death was not meant for you. That death should be of another but he fooled his fate using you, thus I am obligated to give your life a second chance. Balance…"
I couldn't feel any emotion from the person, whether they were a man or woman or something else entirely is something I couldn't comprehend. It spoke once more, "you have no choice in the matter. I can only grant you a boon as repayment."
It gave me a moment to process my death, "What's the boon? And where would you send me?" I asked worried.
The stars shined bright for a moment as if calculating the course ahead, "chaos magic I sense is the closet power in tune with your soul. Marvel I will send you, there's space that you can occupy there."
Marvel? I thought. It's been a couple years since I've watched the movies after sneaking into the theaters. I remember Thanos and most of the world ending threats I think? At least I'll know where not to go if I want to live. But what's chaos magic? Is that something Doctor Strange had?
The being spoke again, "however your memories of this plain must be erased, to maintain balance…" the word echoed in the vast space.
"Are there any other things that could happen to me? For example being family to one of the superheroes or something else like being rich? I could really use the money." I asked
It neared its head to me, at least I think it was, "chance, that is the coin flip every new born takes. You will be no different, only the boon differs you to others. Whether you're born a genius or a simpleton is fine by I, fair well."
Before I could question it further the stars shined so bright that I was flash banged until I felt myself in a new body. A kid's body strapped to a table. People in white gowns around me. This isn't a hospital.
"First log, experiment 626: mutant. The subject has the gene but as far as we can tell there aren't any visible nor seen phenomena of it. Neither did his parents know what powers he had before ending them. We will be commencing the project and see if it awakens due to trauma. Hail HYDRA." Said one of them.
I looked around and saw other kids in the same position as me. Some with different aspects such as scales or feathers. This can't be where the being sent me. I heard a drill turning on, snapping me back to the man in charge of me. He was preparing to drill a hole in my knee. From fear I quickly tried to use the boon or chaos magic whatever it was but nothing came to me. My memories are leaving me, I can't remember how I got here. How do I get out of this?
"AHHHH…" I yelled together with the other kids.
It continued for hours, "experiment 626 is still alive while the majority of the other experiments have died. The project was deemed a failure. Suggest transferring to virus or biological weapons departments to see results of other projects as the mutant has little to offer. September 3, 1993, end of log."
After he finished I sensed pain relief drugs or possibly something stronger coursing through my blood stream and I entered a coma. Then my vision came back and I was in a different room. This time alone with a single man who looked different from the other people in gowns as he wears casual clothes. He checked a couple documents and spoke in a language I couldn't understand.
Then he came to me and spoke, "experiment 626, I will be injecting a virus into your body. It has destroyed the organs of many of your kind, perhaps you will be different. Which is why I encourage you to fight for your life since it will help my work."
He moved to a tray and pulled out a huge syringe with a large pointy end. The man ripped open the shirt I had on and aimed the syringe over my stomach, "goodluck 626."
"Ahhhh…" I screamed for days in the empty room feeling my body resist the virus until it passed.
I could barely tell where I was when I saw the man walk inside the room with a joyful grin, "oh my 626. I had a gut feeling like your people say when I saw you roll into my room. Absolutely fantastic work 626. Now I want to see what my colleagues' virus does…"
"Wait" I whispered in a weak voice but he ignored me and injected a syringe into my heart this time. "Goodluck 626." My eyes rolled back into my head and I felt the veins in my body strain against my skin wanting to pop.
—
Six years later, 1999…
I was placed in a new laboratory entirely handled by my 'caretaker'. Throughout these years my suffering had advanced his position in HYDRA granting him this hidden faculty or so he's told me. He had a piece of cloth attached to me for clothes and always had me in the room when he experimented on others. For whatever reason he spoke to me like I was his only friend, a madman. My life however revolved around three things, pain, comas, and a feeling or tread at the back of my mind.
After the first ten experiments I started feeling a string connecting me to somewhere. By instinct I could pull on it as if it were a guitar or a harp. Maybe I'm going crazy but someone else would toggle it when I pulled and vice versa. Throughout these years it was my rock in this place, I'd pull when the pain or loneliness was too much and they were there, somewhere. When I'd enter a coma I could feel them pulling the string as hard as they could waking me from them just so I could answer. For six years I had a pen pal or six years I've been insane.
"Ahh 626, once more you resist the virus. By now I firmly believe your mutant gene isn't repairing your body but resisting, although it isn't that impressive compared to others. However I managed to get this new virus that might change this crippled body of yours. They called it Extremis. It's still in the works, well not by me but their original creator. But I think–no, I know you will overcome this hill like all the other viruses. If it does indeed heal you, HYDRA will finally give me a voice. Good luck 626."
I couldn't see what he was injecting as my vision was blurry after so many experiments, but I felt the effects immediately when my veins, then organs, and finally heart started to burn up. Sirens began to alarm the staff at hand that the temperature was rising or rather spiking to dangerous levels.
"Don't shoot, you'll ruin the process. Just evacuate the area. We will supervise where it's safe." said my caretaker.
I felt my body melt the table under me and I fell to the ground. Higher the heat rose with the laboratory burning in flames. My organs were expanding inside me wanting to explode. I toggled on that imaginary string waiting for a response. After a few seconds they answered. For hours we pulled on each other's strings, with each hour I toggled less frequently until I fell into a coma or death.
When I awoke the room around me was a chamber. My once fragile body was now fully healed and fit for my young age. However a red scarlet glow appeared in my chest, my heart seemed to be the major source of the light but with every move it glowed stronger; a burning furnace. I could see my skeletal structure in the glow that came from inside me and felt a warm light across my skin.
There were no doors in the chamber, just a fortified window above me and a hatch under me. I couldn't see who was up there as the window was tinted black but a strong voice spoke, "experiment 626, you have been placed in the biological weapon program, if you follow orders well you will graduate to the super soldier program. Hail HYDRA. Repeat it!" He demanded.
"Hail HYDRA!" I yelled back wanting to see if they'd treat me differently.
For an entire year I believe it was, they tested my abilities. Groups of scientists would come up from the hatch threatening to neutralize me if I tried anything. I followed orders, wanting to know what was outside the chamber before attempting an escape, bidding time. They cut me then chopped limbs off at first, wanting to see how they grew back. However the chopped limb would produce heat that nearly melted the floor until they turned on the chamber's device bringing the temperature in the room to an extreme cold no regular human could survive, it froze me in ice until the heat I produced melted it. After that they studied my physical enhancements, they included super strength, speed, reflexes, durability and heightened senses. At the end they wanted to test my thermal powers to some degree not wanting to risk the integrity of the chamber. They brought large blocks of earthly metals ordering me to melt them with punches while my fists burned with heat. Then asked me to emit intense heat to see if I could melt the metals without touching them but stopped me as the room started to melt alongside it. Finally they wished to know of any other abilities I might have, using rudimentary efforts they tried to make me shoot fireballs from my hands but to no avail. Secretly I felt that a stream of fire or lava I could spit out from my mouth but I hid the thought; thinking of using it for an escape or at least a hidden ace leaving it untested.
January 1 2001
For the entire month of December HYDRA left me alone in the chamber without talking to me, only guards watched me from behind the window I believe. The majority of the month I sat on the floor facing the hatch and window, with my back against the wall waiting for anything that might come from it. The uneasiness of not having anything done to me for the first time in years caused me to have a lack of sleep from anxiety of waiting for something to harm me and the healing factor from Extremis gave me the grit to stay awake with those thoughts. Consequently I developed the habit of humming a single cord to keep me company and everyday I'd pull the invisible string of my pen pal, I feel like a lunatic. When it gets too quiet I hear whispers that sound similar to the people experimenting on me, all I can do is block them out or ignore them.
The hatch opened. I stood up in military fashion as they instructed me previously waiting for whoever it was to come up. The platform under the hatch came up revealing four HYDRA soldiers, a table and two chairs. They set up a makeshift diner in front of me not saying a word until they left. Five minutes passed and someone else came up the hatch, my 'caretaker'.
He sat comfortably at the table not fearing that I was in front of him with enough time to kill him before the chamber froze everything. He knew I could, yet here he is. The man pointed his hand to the empty chair opposite to him, "please sit 626, we have much to talk about."
I sat arms crossed weary of what might happen, he continued, "I believe despite what my supervisors say, that in order for this to work…" he waved his hands in front of him thinking of how to word his opinion, " a certain level of confidence–trust if you will. Is needed to accomplish what we wish to do, a means to end all this." my 'caretaker' spread his arms pointing out the chamber, "end the experiment. Don't you want that too?"
My eyes just watched him, "ah, right, permission to speak your mind 626." he said.
"What is required to end the experiment?" I asked
He clapped his hands as if he accomplished something, "I see we understand each other. After so many years together it's only logical to do so." he snapped his fingers, "bring us dinner, we have much to talk about. It'll take a few minutes for the plates to arrive. Before we get into the details, how do you feel? I never asked how, you know, everything must feel alive in you right? Well that's what the information on screen says anyway."
I spoke, "better than when I was on the table, nothing hurts anymore. Just warmth, heat."
"Splenid! Ah the food has arrived." The hatch opened and two soldiers carrying two plates walked in. They placed one in front of me. Steak, mash potatoes, broccoli, gravy, and orange juice. "If I remember correctly that is your favourite food according to your parents, oh I saw it on a tape we confiscated if you're wondering. Must have been what? Eight years ago perhaps. Time goes by. Please eat it'll go to waste."
Food. Real food and not the vitamins they inject in me. I grabbed the fork and knife unsure if I held them right, I forgot how to. One slice of steak I barely cut and savored its taste, freedom, that's what he served me. "How do I get to eat this? How do I get treated like a human here?" I asked.
He kept eating and with a mouthful he pointed his hand that held the knife at me, "I knew this would seal the deal." he grinned. "Do you remember that they said you could be placed in the 'super soldier' program? Between you and me I couldn't care much for it." he whispered at the end. Shoving one more piece of steak in his mouth he spoke, "I care about the progress, science of it. The outcome relating to you. You see we have one pouch or injection I don't know, never seen it. They call it the 'super-soldier serum' and we have one left after some project we did in the past. We, well I believe that you could surpass them once it enters your system." He finished his plate and placed his hands together, "the problem is how do we control you? You see the past occupants of it or at least a few who had a form of it either were loyal or… controllable. And well I doubt you hold love for us and we can't control you. If we tried the procedures I hypothesise your mutant ability will resist it thus we're back at square one. Hence the need for trust. There's a necklace or power dampener for mutants that a 'friend' created but I tried that on you before Extremis in your sleep during one of my experiments and you resisted it. Thus we have one option for this to work. We place a nice necklace around you capable of exploding everything around you while we educate you in the philosophy of our order, HYDRA. Accept and we'll inject the serum right now. Oh, any questions?"
"Will the pain stop?" I asked
"Nope. The serum hurts probably not as much as Extremis but the education plus training will hurt, its part of the curriculum. But food–real food, a bed, books? If you want it, it will be given to you and slowly you will build trust with us; and you will get more and more etc. What do you say? The offer expires once I leave."
One day they'll slip up, I thought. One day that collar won't work, I thought. One day I'll taste real freedom but for now I can live with a full stomach, "I agree to the program."