Story by Darksuperboy
Written by Zor-Alov
S. . Labs
December 31st, 2016
9:42pm PST
Even on New Years, the lead scientests of the cybernetics didn't catch a break. Toiling away in front of computer screens, after some hours the data had numingly flown bye to the point it was becoming a blur. Doctors Silas Stone and Serling Roquette had the chore of overseeing the results for upgrades on the latest batch of XTR battle suits. The holidays weren't an adequate excuse when military forces around the world are demanding the immediate shipment of over 2000 new suits. XTRs now guarded most military facilities and political structures across the globe.
Roquette and Stone had laboriously working on modifcations in the main S.T.A.R. Labs facility on the west coast. These new upgrades were a last minute order from the top (Luthor), to be implemented in the latest batch of XTRs. Amidst a computer lab strewn with empty water bottles and pizza boxes with straggling pieces, the two doctors crunched away.
After the long couple days they've had, the last stretch was the longest part yet... that little circling icon as the last bits of data loaded. It was then in a instant, that the modifications were confirmed as complete. The two leaned back in their desk chairs and sighed with relief.
"Ahhh... nothing like computing a year's worth of work in less than two weeks." Roquette said with her usual disposition, while cracking her sore knuckles.
Doctor Stone got up and tried getting the circulation back into his tired legs. "Told you we'd finish before eleven!"
"Sure. But then Monday it's back to the next order of suits... and the next one... and the..."
"I get the picture, Serling" Silas said with annoyance.
"It's bad enough we've been turned into a sweat shop by the UN, with these XLR suits... but we don't even get an explaination for why we had to drop the few vacation days we had to get this stupid batch modified!"
"I know it's not the ideal way to spend the holidays, but everyone's on edge Serl. And the demand for security keeps pushing every available lab to mass produce them."
"Sure, us wage slaves don't want to end up like Dr. Irons!" A sore topic between the two now raised. Ever since John Henry Irons' detainment without trial by the Alien Oversight Committee, the two butted heads over their support of the government. Especially since his designs were being pushed as the only product of research now at S.T.A.R. Labs and every other major facility.
"Whatever happened to Irons is not our business, Serling, our job is keep people safe with cutting edge techno..."
"Terrorists are out of fashion, now the government can throw around the fear of ALIENS to let them do whatever they want! At this rate, I think my New Year's resolution should be to tell Luthor where he can..."
Before she could tell Luthor where to shove her two-weeks notice, she caught a glance from a tired and agitated Doctor Stone. He just didn't have enough energy at the moment to get into another loud and heated discussion.
"Yeah. Sorry."
"Look, I know it's been rough with the workload, and we've been at each other's throats. So how about we just call it a night, we'll start refreshed and civil come next year?"
"sigh... Deal."
Silas then grabbed a remaining slice of pizza and took a bite, as Roquette grabbed her bag.
"If anything else, I'll be getting back earlier than Rick was expecting" Serling than added, with the faintest smile.
"I'm sure you two will find something to do before the ball drops..."
Just then the phone rang back at their work desks. Silas rubbed his neck answered with a greasy slice of pizza in hand.
"Hello?"
"I know it's late, sorry to disturb you sir" a gruff security guard said on the other end, "but... the front desk say's your son is here to see you."
"Oh No" it was then he realized why they were able to get work done so early. Silas screwed up the days and missed something very important earlier in the afternoon.
"It's okay, Tyreese. Let him in." Silas hung up with a sigh and a heavy head as he stood over his desk. He was not exactly ready for another round with his son the star quarterback.
"It wasn't today... was it?" Roquette asked after overhearing Silas. He didn't even nod or respond, just stood there dejected. "Oh, here we go again."
A few minutes later, his son stormed into the lab and marched over.
"WHY AM I NOT SUPRISED!"
"Victor, I swear to god I'm sorry..."
"No, sorry ain't gonna cut it DAD!" Vic seethed with anger as he slammed down a football on his father's workspace. "You realize how embarassing it is, waitin up for you while everyone else managed to make it for the celebration!? But then you weren't even there for the big game... why should you bother to..."
"Victor, I'm sorry! I know it's not an excuse, but I just mixed up the dates and got lost in the work. They'll be other Victor-ee Parties..."
"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!"
Roquette knew to keep a wide distance between these two as she readied to head home.
"The worst part is... I ACTUALLY BELIEVED YOU THIS TIME! ACTUALLY BELIEVED I MATTERED A DAMN TO YOU, COMPARED TO YOUR WORK!"
"THAT'S ENOUGH, VICTOR!" Silas snapped and accosted his son.
"IT'S NEVER ENOUGH DAD! YOU'VE BEEN DOING THIS TO ME EVER SINCE HIGH SCHOOL! EVER SINCE MOM..."
"DON'T YOU GOD DAMN GO THERE, VIC!" his father interrupted with a raised finger to his son's face. The two bitterly stared each other down, tempers flaired and the tension could be cut. But before they could go any further... a call came up on the computer. Roquette rushed over and answered it. UN secretary Lex Luthor appeared on the screen.
"Doctor Roquette, this is a priority call my dear. Where's..."
"I'm... I'm right here Mr. Luthor" Silas then hurried over, composing himself and trying to appear calm, while Victor grudingly held his tongue. "What's going on?
"I'm ordering an emergency alert, Doctor Stone. Eject all the power cells from the XTRs in your facility!" Luthor said in his stern composure.
"What? On what basis..."
"This is serious, Doctor. All currently mobilized XTRs are being ordered grounded, but it's vital the new line of suits at your facility are shut down."
Roquette angrily interrupted "We'll need a lot more than that to go on if you expect us to drop everything and..."
For once Luthor lost his calculated demeanor and screamed back "DO IT!"
The signal cut out then, Lex hanging up on that order. The two scientests were speechless, even Victor was a little nervous, and he barely understood most of the stuff that went on at S.T.A.R.
"I'll, ah... get right on that then." Roquette said with hesitation. She was more afraid of Luthor than she'd like to admit despite her earlier rant about him. As she started activating the program on the computer, Victor sighed and turned back to his son. With both matters at hand, he didn't really know how to handle the situation.
"Victor, I... I need to work, son. Can we talk about this later?"
"Whatever" his son said while shaking his head, with a tone of indignation. He turned ready to storm off, but then his father lightly grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Son, please... I'm sorry. If you could just stay and give me a second. I'll be able to give you a ride back home and we can talk about this. Really talk about this."
Victor saw his father's tired look, his eyes held this expression while mixed with remorse. His anger subsided, and he grudgingly tempered his tongue. "Fine. Just, go save the world or whatever... I'll be waitin."
Silas took that to heart and raced over to join Dr. Roquette at the computer terminal on their desks. Victor sat back on one of the stools in the work area of the lab, with his arms crossed and a lot of built up anger he was not steadied.
Roquette had already activated her part of the access code, just as a restricted button opened up from the other end of the panel. Silas then entered his code and unlocked the full entry to the desktop button. He then took a key out of his pocket and locked it into position next to the button. With uneasiness he turned the ket to initiate the power cell ejection process. The lab screens beeped with warning messages. But orders were orders. Serling then watched and monitored the sequence, as Dr. Stone then pressed the button and launched the power cell ejections.
All across the area were the XTR suits were held, in a lab at the other end of the facility, cells were ejected by computer command and with machine-operated arms. The process took several minutes, with over 2000 suits. Eventually the time read
9:58 on Serling's terminal as she watched the ejection process. The doctors were totally in the dark as to what would drive Luthor to sanction such a cautionary measure. The data they spent days to process indicated no issues. And yet here they were. As they watched and maintained the sequence, Victor stood back and gave his day room. But even he felt some uneasiness, a gut feeling he had that something must be really wrong.
A minute later the sequence was about to complete... when an ERROR message flashed across Serling's screen.
"What the... something's malfunctioning." Roquette urgently told Silas, he then typed in and got a read on it.
"One of the last suits isn't responding!" Silas said.
Serling took a look and accessed the security feed into the lab area. "Damn it, there's some kind of jam blocking the arm! The cell won't eject."
A mechanical failure made it impossible for a computer-run ejection sequence. Silas picked up the phone and called in security. "This is Doctor Stone, can we get maintenance down to the XTR holding lab. There's some kind of malfunction with the power cells, and we need to manually..."
10:00pm PST (MIDNIGHT ON THE EAST COAST)
Just then the computer screens phased on and off for a second, like a glitch.
"What the" Serling said aloud, thinking she pressed the wrong button. Everyone in the lab felt a slight tremble, the surrounding area shook like a barely registering earthquake.
Victor bolted to his feet from the trembling. "Do you hear that?"
The two doctors listened in, hearing a faint booming noise. Almost like thunder. Then nothing, it and the trembling passed as quickly as it came.
"Whatever that hell that was..." Silas said with the phone still in hand. He then got right back to the matter at hand with the suits. "Sorry. Like I was saying, can we get..."
"Already on it, sir" the voice on the other end then stated.
The monitor with the lab feed showed a S.T.A.R. labs maintenance worker manually trying to eject the power cell from the last suit.
"I guess those were fireworks or something" Serling then said with apprehension, not exactly sure herself as she turned to speak to Victor.
"Is New Years, Eastcoast anyway. But, I don't know it sounded... HOLY SH..."
Victor freaked out as he turned his attention to the screen. Serling and his father then watched in horror with Vic at the sight on the screen. The suit had activated remotely... and grabbed hold of the maintenance guy by his throat. Victor couldn't believe what he was seeing on the feed... the XTR protracted two long blades from it's arm, and gutted the poor man. The feed then cut out as the suit ripped off it's restraints and leapt down onto the ground floor of the lab.
"I'm not getting any response!" Serling yelled as she tried to determine a problem on the computer, but she was frozen out from the suit. And with the feed gone it could be doing anything at this point.
Silas activated security alarms. Sirens flared and armed guards burst into the room. "It's in the holding lab, shoot on sight!" Doctor Stone ordered, as they secured the lab and raced over to a large set of heavy metal doors, the entry point between the main lab and the XTR holding area.
No sooner did they arrive, that the doors started to be smashed in, by a pair of fists. The security guards were locked and loaded, while Victor and Silas stepped back for safety. As Serling furiously tried to gain access back to the suit, hoping it wasn't hijacked from some outside source, the doors to the holding area burst open with an explosive round.
The S.T.A.R. guards opened fire. The suit stepped forward unphased and robotically, as a piercing single red eye stared them all down from it's visor. They could see right off the bat no one was inside at the controls, something was seriously wrong but nothing their weapons did made a dent. It stopped and turned it's head. Starting straight at the computer terminal.
Silas realized this and grabbed Serling, still impatiently trying to get back into the systems. He shoved away to safety out of her desk chair, just as the suit opened fire on their computer station. The console exploded and sent Doctor Stone flying. He smashed into another computer across the way, injured and barely moving.
"DAD!"
The suit moved slowly closer towards Silas, as his son picked him up and tried to get him back to his feet.
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, KILL IT!" Serling yelled back as she tried to attend to Silas. The guards continued opening fire. The suit then switched it's attentions to them as a primary threat. The bullets bounced off, but then it raised an arm and unleashed a high pitched noise. The guards were phased, but then shrugged it off when it stopped and continued firing on the suit. Unfortunatly, something was wrong with their guns... the bullets were warped and wouldn't fire down the barrels.
The suit then unleashed missiles and blasted the guards. The entire lab was rocked by the explosion, as they raced for cover and fell back. They let loose laser-based weaponry now, while the suit moved ever closer to the scientests armed with machine artillary and more rocket-propelled missles.
Victor and Serling help Silas up and drag him out amidst the firefight. Into the hallway they hurry into an ajoining lab, while more guards race past them into the main lab where the battle is commencing. The lights flicker as the explosions continue.
In the lab, Serling and Victor set Silas done as he begins to come to. Suddenly another explosion rips apart the lab they just escaped from. A fireball rips out into the hallway, as the guards are strewn about the floor unconcious... or worse. Victor peers out the doorway and spots the slow but deadly suit coming.
"Get the blast doors or something!" he yells to Roquette, who then races over to a panel and activates just that. But when Victor tries to hurry back to his father, whose still badly injured but trying to stand... a missile hurtles straight at him. The blast doors try to shut as it zooms past and smashes into the hallway. Victor tries to run, but the explosion tears apart the facility inches away from him, he's caught in a horrific blast that is barely contained by the blast doors.
AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Doctor Stone and Roquette look in horror as Victor lies bloody and charred on the floor, imbedded with shrapnel in his chest.
"Jesus no!" Silas screams as he hurries over to his son, while the blast doors lock their armor plating. A puddle of blood expands across the room, as Victor struggles for life. Silas can barely touch him without the puncture wounds in his chest bleeding even faster thanks to the multiple bits of metal.
Silas is in no way a medical doctor, nor is Serling as she tears apart the lab trying to find medical supplies to help. All the while a fierce pounding on the door comes from the otherside, the renegade suit trying to break in. There's no time left for his son, he can't try to extract this much shrapnel without killing him. He'll die if doesn't try however, the third degree burns and bleeding aren't helping. Silas is at a loss for words, as he looks down at his son's charred and mangled body, bleeding and missing most of his limbs.
He surveys the room while holding his son in his arms, delicatly trying to pick him up off the floor. Just then he spots a machine at the far end... no. He goes over it in his head, and he realizes it would be too risky. Too dangerous. Untested and possibly... possibly...
Silas glances back at his boy as he struggles for breath, coughing up blood as half his face is burnt off. Silas has no choice.
He quickly picks his son up.
"ROQUETTE, help me!"
She takes off her labcoat and wraps it around Victor's limbs to try and stop the bleeding, however futily.
"God, Silas... what do we do!? That thing's trying to break in..."
"Just shut up and help me get him in there."
She grabs hold of Victor and hurries him over with Doctor Stone to a large metal table on the far end of the lab, thats connected to large cylindrical machine. She realizes in horror what Silas is thinking of doing.
"Silas, Silas we can't put him in that!"
"What choice do I... DO WE HAVE!?" he says to her while struggling to strap Victor down, whose loosing conciousness from the bleeding and lack of oxygen. Outside the XTR continues trying to break in.
Silas races over to activate a digital panel on the table with his one good hand, as his other was burnt from the earlier explosion.
"SILAS, WE CAN'T PUT HIM IN THERE! WE HAVEN'T TESTED THIS THING ON ORGANIC TISSUE YET!"
He turns back to Roquette while further restraints begin to activate and hold the dying Victor down on the table.
"PROJECT: GOLIATH was originally created for this exact purpose, Serling! The nanobots will repair Victor, at least enough until reinforcements can arrive and contain the situation, then we can get him to hosp..."
An explosion is heard outside, along with gunfire. The doctors turn to hear the mayhem, as the XTR continues to try and break in.
"I DON'T HAVE TIME TO ARGUE, SERLING! EITHER HELP ME SAVE MY SON OR GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
Roquette shakes her head, knowing how bad an idea this is. But she moves in and helpes prepare the sequence for intiation.
Project Goliath was an untested experiment, to use a machine that injects lifeforms with a nanite solution. A blend of nanoscopic machines combined from the "FOG" cloud swarm Roquette first created, and extracted nanobots from Blue Beetle's bloodstream. Designed originally to instantly repair and rebuild severe injuries like the ones sustained by Victor, it was retasked for soldiers. In the intent that the same process could not only rebuild wounded soldiers, but boost endurance and fitness using the reverse-engineered nanobots.
"Daa...d-daaa..." Victor struggled for words, while reaching out to his father with his only hand left. His arm struggled for reach, but his father held it while finalizing the machine to begin the sequence.
"It's okay, Victor... It's all going to be okay."
"What...w-w-hhhaaa..." he groaned with a strained breath, as the casing formed around the table.
"This is going to save you... just hold..." Victor said tohis son to try and ease his discomfort, as the casing sealed over him. Victor and the table were lifted up into the right position, as it was sealed like a pod into the machine.
The gunfire began to dwindle outside, leaving a dead silence that Roquette found much more terrifying. The silence was shattered by Victor's screams of pain and agony. It was painful enough for the dying Victor, but it the process hadn't even fully started yet. It was about to get worse.
"It's now or never, Silas." Roquette said, with the faintest hope that the silence outside meant reinforcements had arrived and could save Victor without such drastic...
And then the thudding sound of pounding metal fists started up again, this time making a dent. Silas gave Roquette the nod to begin. There was no going back now.
With a heavy sigh, Serling typed in the sequence and activated the full systems of the machine. The injectors within extended into the pod, through the casing. Victor was half-passed out, but already on edge and terrified. Then the needles pierced his flesh, his screams were ear-piercing. Silas gulped and felt his heart sink into his chest as his son's unnerving screams pierced the lab. Roquette strepped back in horror at what was being down. As they looked on, the nanoscopic bots were coursing through his body, rebuilding blood, organ, tissue, bone... at the molecular level. It was as painful a process as any imagined.
Amidst his screams, the thudding outside continued, now joined by strange noises outside the facility itself. The scientests could feel the ground shaking, they faintly heard amidst Victor's screams explosions on a larger scale in the sky above, the return of that booming sound heard twenty minutes prior.
Just then, Roquette turned and with a shriek saw two piercing red blades slash through the door. The claw like daggers cut through the sheer metal of the blast door, forming an entrance way for the suit. If this wasn't bad enough, Victor's vitals on were reading off the chart. Something was wrong. What was suppose to be a complete body reconstruction... was becoming an assimilation. The swarms were progressed much faster than anticipated, so that much more painfully. The metal of the nanobots were combininig, not just repairing injuries but binding to the bone and tissue. Victor's screams were ungodly and unbearable.
Then just like that, the machine crashed. Vitals had flatlined. Victor had passed out midprocess.
"No... VICTOR... WAKE! UP! SON, YOU CAN DO THIS!"
Silas pounded on the pod, shocked and in denial, while Roquette watched the blades of the renegade XTR inch closer to opening the blast doors. Silas was going to let his son die, but he kept pounding away trying to awaken his son. Nothing.
He fell to his knees, begging Victor to wake. Tears rolled down his cheeks and as hopelessly begged, completely disarmed from the situation with the suit. He didn't care anymore.
Roquette tried to shake Silas back to reality, when the suit finally bursted through the blastdoors through the hole it carved. Silas had his hand firmly on the case, while Roquette back away from the approaching death machine. Into the far corner she fled, Silas wouldn't move. He sat with his knees on the ground next to what he presumed... was the coffin he encased his son into.
From the suit's single red eye, it tracked the priority target of Roquette. Orders and data flowed past him as a strange symbol overid all commands and programs set in place into the suit. Like a virus it controlled the suit like a mindless automaton, as it slowly approached Roquette, which now aimed it's machine guns at her. Serling tried to arm herself with a nearby piece of metal pipe. She wasn't no Robin, but she learned how to hold weapons like a Bo after her run-in with the assassins. She nervously stood her ground in the corner, as the suit suddenly stopped and turned to Doctor Stone. It scanned the area after this latest developement, addressing new priorities.
PRIMARY TARGET IDENTIFIED.
STONE, SILAS... HUMAN. PRIMARY SCIENTEST, ACCESS TO XTR OVERRIDES...
HIGHER PRIORITY TARGET.
RECTIFY
A faint vital bleeped on the machine unnoticed.
The suit unleashed it's twin retracable blades, heated red and blazing hot. It moved ever closer, now aimed at Victor as it slowly turned and came in for the kill. Roquette watched in terror as Stone refused to move, to budge, to even acknowledge he was about to die. He just sat there. His backed turned to the pounding footsteps of the renegade suit.
The XTR then lingered right over Stone, it's shadow cast over him and the pod.
The suit then raised it's arm, ready to strike and plunge it's blades right into Doctor Stone's back. The blades glowed blood red now, burning hot. In a swift motion the suit lunged to stab...
As quickly as it struck, something even quicker pierced it's way out of the pod casing. Roquette saw as an arm smashed it's way out of the machine. It smashed through the sheer metal of the containment, and right clean through the suit itself. In the heat of the moment, the blades turned dead silver, cold hard metal again. Silas looked up in shock, unaware of what just happened in so quick an instant. The blade arm went limp and the living weapon fell over to the ground. Silas watched the suit topple behind him, crumbling to pieces like a knight's armor toppled over. It's single red eye shuttered off and died. Electircity fizzed and shortcircuited. After seeing the fuel cells dissapate and leak out the hole in it's chest, not unsimilar to a pool of blood, he turned his head up to look back at the case. He then jumped to his feet and stepped back, while the arm that saved him retreated back inward to the rest of the body it belonged to.
Roquette cautiously stepped forward. But as Silas looked into the case, at the being that began to step out of it... she got a good look at it. She gasped and put her hands over her mouth in shock at the sight before her. Doctor Stone didn't have words to articulate what he could possibly say... to his son.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?" a ghastly and almost electronic voice spoke.
What did you do to me?
Dad... what did you do to me?!
Why didn't you let me die...
WHY DIDN'T YOU LET ME DIE!?
Victor woke up with gasp. He jolted up in bed, looking around to see he was in a darkened hospital room. The heart monitor beside him began to fade back to normal, after it appeared to be loud and racing. He touched his face... and felt cold steel. The left side was clad in armor now, and a bright red eye. Touching it brought him back to the unfortunate reality. This wasn't a dream.
January 18th, 2017
10:16 am PST
3 Weeks Later
He turned his head, now that he was awake, to see doctors in the observation room behind the glass. Some old some old as it's been for the last couple weeks. He could hear distant voices though, he could hear them through the glass if he focused somehow. They were altered and syntheized like a computer, but Victor couldn't understand how he did it, like automatic translate program. It was agonizing and one of many uncontrollable functions he had to adjust to.
He turned back around to see Roquette and his father. Silas activated a microphone.
"Victor, is everything alright?"
"It's... no... no dad, it's not. I tired of being in here" Victor spoke now with a almost electronic voice blended in with his normal speech patterns.
"I know that, Victor... but we need to do more..."
"NO." Victor then tried to get out off the bad.
"Victor, please, don't move... you need to just calm down."
"What I need" he said while ripping the straps off his lower body, "Is to GET. OUT... OF THIS ROOM"
He struggled to adjust, as he ripped off the cover. The doctors looked on in horror as two cyborg legs slammed down onto the floor. The rest of his torso was a blend of cybernetics grafted into his flesh on the majority of his body.
Cooped up for so long, Victor hadn't even gotten the chance to walk or adjust, but it felt cold and numb. Hard metal replaced the normal synapses and senses. He screamed as he moved with his new limbs, grinding on him as it felt like machinery tore him apart at the bone level.
He spent must of the three weeks in and out of conciousness. But Victor didn't sleep anymore.
He turned to see the looks on all their faces, he was a monster in their eyes. Except to his father, from which he only saw what could be described relief mixed with disappointment.
"WHAT I NEED IS MY REAL LEGS BACK, DAD!"
He limped over to the glass as the doctors backed away
"LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO ME!" he roared as he pounded on the glass with metal fists. As the glass cracked, the nurses then entered and tried to calm Victor down. But Vic howled in frustration and pushed them off him as they tried to force him back into bed.
In a panic, everyone rushed aside as he burst threw the door. Victor stormed out in a rage and began to slowly build up speed as he moved down the hall, while doctors called for security and nurses screamed in horror. Patients looked on in shock and ran for cover. Victor felt like they were about to ready the torches and pitchforks, it was a nightmare that only fueled his anger even greater.
Silas grabbed his cellphone and began to dial as he stayed a distance behind his son, just trying to make sure he didn't get hurt.
Victor's speed increased from stift limbing into full on running, as armed security rounded the corner.
"Halt!" They yelled with an order, but Victor passed right on by them, pushing them aside like players in a football tackle. They slammed into both walls with sheer force. Victor turned back to see the raw power he could unleash, he was afraid of his own strength. A look of disgust came over him as he saw the unconcious security guards, then looked down at his arms and hands. He then continued to run, trying to avoid bystanders and staff, he didn't want to hurt anyone else.
Victor ran and ran, misjudging his own speed. He began reaching levels not even he matched on the field, speeds no normal human could reach as he learned the hard way... when he crashed straight through a window while trying to turn a corner.
He flew smashing out the window of the 16th floor.
Defenestration was not his favorite word at the moment.
In a jolt of energy and tension, Victor landed feet first on the ground with a hard smash. He could feel the joints and gears, his new metal muscles as he took the shock of the landind. He formed a crater in his wake, but was left uninjured to his suprise. He was terrified and panicked. Victor didn't know what to do as he crawled out of the hole he made in the hospital parking lot. He took a few steps and leaned on the side of an Ambulance, as everyone around him fled at the sight of him. He sighed in remorse at what has become of him.
"It's all right, Victor" a voice than said above him. Vic looked up in terror, as his cybernetic eye zoomed in and scanned, to his disbelief a flying individual in a cape.
Superman.
"Everything's going to be okay."
10:27 am PST
Several minutes later, Victor was back in his observation room, sitting on his bed. It was slightly bent due to the holding weight of his new body. He just zoned up, still grasping the situation, while Superman was present and talking to his father.
"Project Goliath was suppose to heal your son?"
"In theory yes, the military only funded in when data indicated it could be used to increase strength for combat troops in addition to healing them. But, but this was unforseeable. The nanites, istead of repairing or boosting my son's body... they combined into him. Almost like a cybernetic symbiote, they attached themselves to Victor at the submolecular level. The majority of his limbs and organs became techno-organic, rather than just being rebuilt. The nanobots by themselves would dissolve into the bloodstream after repairing, but at this point they are fused and will be impossible to remove for the forseeable time being."
Silas turned and put a hand to his son's right shoulder, one of the few flesh and blood parts still remaining. He remained still and stoic.
"The metal shrapnel, it must have triggered the error in the nanobot repair process" Silas continued as he looked upon his son.
"So then instead of just repairing common bone and tissue" Superman theorized as he stood before the two, "they made improvements based on the metal also in his body. A synthesis of man and metal that forced them to permenatly fuse in order to complete the repair process"
"That about sums our best guess up" Silas disparringly admitted.
Victor sat through the whole conversation looking at his hands. At that moment, he then clenched them into fists and threw his father's arm aside as he dragged himself up to stand.
"Easy, Victor." Superman held his hands up, trying to calm him down. Victor stared at his father with a scorned and rage-fueled expression. Hot-tempered and angry, he paced from side to side of the hospital room.
"Is this what it took to get your attention... to become another one of your EXPERIMENTS!?"
"Victor, I wasn't going to lose you. I only did what I thought I could do to save you"
"SAVE ME! There's barely anything left to save." His electronic voice strained him, and made him just the more angrier about the situation.
"There weren't any other options, what with that H.A.R.D.A.C. killing machine trying to break in..."
"The what? You mean that XTR thing?"
Silas then realized his son didn't know the full details of what went down, due to being in and out of it.
"We thought they were built to self-destruct during the invasion. But it seems that those suits had a hidden program in their subroutines" Superman explained, "designed to activate during the invasion. A rogue AI called H.A.R.D.A.C."
Superman tried to explain to Victor that this AI, which was believed to have been destroyed seven years ago by Batman, stored itself away in software fragments later used by an assistant to the project that created it. That assistant was John Henry Irons, the creator of the XTR suits. Lexcorp found the AI, and weaponized it to aide in the invasion rather than destroying it or altering the public. Irons caught on, but was arrested to be silenced. If not for Luthor's change of heart, the H.A.R.D.A.C. program would have taken control of all the suits and destroyed the mobilized Earth forces in the heat of battle.
After this lengthy exposition brought him back to the present, and back to what happens next with him. His father's experiment caused the explosion that nearlly killed him, and drove his father to turn him into another experiment. An even worse abomination.
"You can forget football... or the University. I can't walk down a hall without people running in terror from me! It hurts to move... to talk and breath... I see numbers and data in me, and it's tearing my head apart!"
"Son, I..."
"GET OUT!" Victor screamed, as his voice crackled like a failed computer signal, and his cybernetic eye blazed fiery red. Silas held his face in his palms in sadness, then with a look of remorse at his son he turned and left the room. Superman could only watch this all unfold, standing there as the unfortunate audience to this melodrama.
"I know it's probably not my place to say this, Victory. But you shouldn't be so hard on your father."
"Your right, Superman...it isn't. All he cared about was work, stupid machines. Now I'm just another one of those damn metal monstrosities... HOW CAN YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT HE DID!?"
"He cares about you Victor. It's hard to understand that now, but he does. During everything that was going on with the invasion, the government was overrun and we barely had the manpower for the League to respond at the scene. iaf you father hadn't tried what he did, then you would have died Victor. No other away around that."
Victor mournfully had to lower his head, forced to acknowledge that fact.
"If he hadn't of called us earlier today things could have gotten really bad. He risked his life and his job to save you, he cares enough to only want to protect you."
What Superman didn't bring fully up is that the League protected his father from questioning by the authorities about the experiment on his son. It was enough for any other situation to end in his criminal imprisonment, or worse the termination of Victor. But the League stepped in as Silas risked everything to protect him. Given that the superheroes jsut saved the whole word, the government took the League's word for it and let the situation slid under the rug.
Superman then put a hand to Victor's shoulder, and with the calmest and most respectful voice he'd heard from the man of steel "Believe me, I know eaxctly what it's like Victor. To have a father risk everything... to save the life of his son."
"You really do, don't you?" Victor replied back with his synthetic voice. The two connected in that short moment, as Victor began to start feeling less angry and depressed.
"I just... I just don't know if I can still forgive him" Victor then said as he looked into the nearby mirror, "Just yet anyways"
"I understand, Victor... this will still take alot of adjustment. But what you need to do now is try to get back to having a life. It's time you got out of this hospital room."
"What kind of life is that? Look at me."
"Deep down your the same man, just with a few new adjustments."
"I just don't want to hurt anyone, Superman. Live in peace, away from... all this"
"Then I think I can help you in both departments, Victor. I know somewhere with a bunch you'd fit right in."
For the first time in weeks, Victor laughed out loud at the idea of it. "Oh yeah, as if."
"Two of them are green, one can breath underwater, another's an orange space warrioress, and not to mention there's my teenage clone with a super-enhanced pet Wolf."
Victor stood there at a loss for words while trying to comprehend that mental picture.
"Trust me, you'll fit in fine"
Hall of Justice
January 20th, 2017
3:04 pm EST
A few days passed, as Victor composed himself mentally and further adjusted to his limbs. By then he met up with Superman and Zeta Tubed to Washington. The transportation experience was a rush, especially as he was now half-machine.
He metal feet thudded on the marble floor with each step, as he walked out of the tubes alongside Superman. He followed him into the training room, past memorobelia and computers in the newly rebuilt Hall of Justice.
To Victor's amazement, he looked upon some of the most famous heroes right in front. He only saw a handful of their heroics on televison, and now here they were.
In the sparring ring was Robin and Wondergirl, practicing fighting styles with fancy footwork and powerful moves. Punches and kicks that could have pulverised normal people like he once was. Over in another corner was Superboy, lifting mega weights with one arm. To his side was Miss Martian using telekinesis on a sandbag as a bright orange warrior flew above her and pounded away at it. Starfire.
Artemis and Blue Beetle were off to the side, standing back to back whilst shooting fast moving targets in midair. Artemis with her trusty bow, and Beetle with his hand dandy arm cannon. Victor thought that looked real cool.
"Hate to interrupt training everyone, but there's someone here I thought you'd like to meet!" Superman called them all over as they spotted the young man standing before them.
They all took a glance to him and dropped everything to head on over. This was pretty intense, Victor was face to face with the Justice League's greatest new heroes.
"Well hello, then. It's nice to meet you" M'gann charmingly greeted Victor, as the rest of the heroes exchanged helloes and other assorted greetings. He took a liking to Robin and Wondergirl, and even with his new cybernetic hands, Starfire and Superboy's grips were extremely strong.
"Welcome to the clubhouse, ahh..." Artemis tried to ask, not realizing he might not want to use his real name.
Superman asked Victor earlier if he wanted to use his real name amongst the group, but he hadn't decided yet by the time he had been brought over. But before he could answer Artemis' hesitant query, he turned to his left shoulder in shock as he saw a green gecko now perched upon it. Victor squirmed in a startle as it smiled at him. It knocked it off as it then landed on it's paws... YES paws. Victor couldn't belive with his normal and cybernetic eye. The gecko shifted in mid-landing into a green little rabbit. It tweeked it's nose and whiskers and to Victor's amazement, then it morphed upward into a humanoid form. INto Beast Boy.
"WOW! You look so cool!" Beast Boy said with likewise fanboy amazement.
"Ahhh, thanks" Victor didn't know much to say to that. The aliens and superheroes he could handle. The green shapeshifting elf was something else. He was slightly confused and offput by the kid's reaction.
"Not that you weren't already cool... you're VICTOR-REEE! Star quarterback! But now your like a kickass cyborg or something out of the old movies I watched!"
Miss Martian bit her lip while Superboy facepalmed. They were trying to avoid insulting Victor, taking that last comment as one.
"Oh, Beast Boy!" Artemis muffled under her breath, in response to his feared faux pas.
"Cyborg?" Victor asked as the purple-uniformed, barefoot changeling stepped forward in wonderment.
"Sure, half-man... half-robot. Hey, bet you could benchpress more than Starfire! Or match cheetah speeds!"
He then shifted into a cheetah and zoomed around Victor, while Superman and the rest of the heroes began to facepalm. They wanted to have a friendly chat, not scare off the possible up and coming hero.
"Could you dial it down a little BB!?" Wondergirl tried to ask, but before she could get a word in edgewise, he shifted back and grabbed hold of Victor's right arm.
"Sorry. Just... one last question. You're made of nanobots, right? So... you could like, morph a big giant arm cannon or something. Ya know... BABBOOOOOOOM!"
After a few seconds of letting that all question sink in, not to mention trying to picture making a cannon out of his arm to bust some heads like the assorted heroes amongst him... Victor finally mustered up a response.
"You're a strange little dude aren't you?" was all Victor could say in a slightly disturbed tone, trying not to hurt the little green kid's geeky heart.
Beast Boy stood there eyes wide as ever, then he chuckled "You called me dude. Sweet!"
Everyone else relaxed on that note, and joined in to talk to Victor. On this note Superman made his leave, with a smile on his face knowing he was amongst friends. All the while Victor couldn't help but crack a grin from that little green dude's big old grin. The one person not afraid or intimidated by the Cyborg... this just might work out after all Victor thought to himself, as the Team started to show him around.
I didn't have a hand in the project much, but the group asked me to post these stories here. ^^ I hope you enjoy them!