Disclaimer: I don't own the Dark Universe failed franchise or any other original source materials of the characters or stories used in this series.
LOGAN S. RIDER AND ZIGWOLF PROUDLY PRESENTS
Dark Universe
Frankenstein's Monster
Synopsis: You know this story. The mad genius Dr. Frankenstein, the crack of lightning and his unholy creation. Now look closer and you will find a tale that blurs the lines between tragedy and hope. Love and hate. Life and death.
Man and Monster.
The story opens in 1795, as a ship and her crew traveled through the waters of the Arctic. Below deck, a middle-aged scientist named Victor Frankenstein was in his cabin with papers and maps strewn across the walls, as if he were looking for something. The ship's captain, Capt. Robert Walton walked down to Victor's quarters and gave a status report on how far the ship had traveled into the Arctic. Victor was paying greatly for this expedition, but the Captain wanted to know what they were after before moving forward any further. Victor was silent and when he finally spoke, he asked the Captain, "Do you believe that man was ever meant to defy nature?"
In 1755, Victor and his brother, William were sneaking out late one night to sled in the freshly fallen snow. They played for hours, unaware that a storm was heading their way and a blizzard began. Victor and William were split up and Victor found his way back home, informing his parents that William was lost in the storm. Victor's mother, Caroline, recklessly ran out into the storm to find William, leaving Victor's father, Alphonse, behind to look after Victor and be there in case William returned. Neither William nor Caroline ever came back, and when dawn broke and Alphonse went out to find them, all he found was their frozen bodies huddled together as they tried to stay warm, comforting each other in their last moments before freezing to death. Alphonse blamed Victor for getting Caroline and William killed and sent him off to boarding school. This tragedy had an effect on Victor and in college, he studied the human body and the effects of how cold temperatures have on human tissue. He hoped to turn his past tragedy into something positive, such as learning how to preserve human organs with the right method of freezing for long periods of time so the organs wouldn't waste away before being able to be transplanted.
In college, Victor had no friends except for his close friend and love interest Elizabeth 'Beth' Lavenza. She was a surgeon who took interest in Victor's work and became one of the only colleagues that could keep up with his work. One day, Victor received a letter informing him that his father had died from scarlet fever and that Victor had inherited all his assets and properties, which included Castle Frankenstein near Darmstadt, Germany. Victor traveled there for the funeral with Beth coming along for support. When they arrived, Alphonse's former assistant/ mechanical expert was there to greet them; a hunchback by the name of Fritzolich 'Igor' Igoristolovichin. As Igor took them on a tour of the castle, Victor became fascinated with his father's laboratory which contained machinery and chemicals that were now at his disposal. One chemical in particular took Victor's notice; an electrically conductive liquid that was meant to give electric power to machinery without it: a portable battery-like jelly. Just put a conductive wire in the liquid and instant power to whatever machinery the wire was connected to. It failed for its intended purpose, but an idea had formed in Victor's head of other "applications".
Victor proceeded to test out the liquid with corpses his father studied. Victor threw a hand, that had been dead for days, into a container with the liquid and after poking the nerves the hand reacted. Victor brought in Igor and Beth and showed them the reacting hand, then unveiled his plan: to bring a human back to life. Igor was on board because of the breakthroughs that could come from this experiment, but Beth was hesitant to let Victor go through with this. Sometime later, Victor tried to persuade Beth to work with him on this experiment, but she still hadn't budged from her position. Victor walked away a short distance before turning around and giving Beth a letter that came from her home. She read it and broke down into tears and Victor was close by knowing what was written on the letter. As Victor and Igor enter the room to see what the matter was, Beth told them that her mother had passed away and Victor comforted her, but also took advantage of the situation by saying that if they were successful in their experiment, then there was a possibility that Beth's mother could be brought back. Beth nervously accepted to help out, unaware that she had been emotionally manipulated.
The trio began working on one of the corpses in the lab to bring it back to life. After injecting it with the electro-conductive solution, they tried to electrify it to life but it burned and exploded. Victor concluded that the body was too small to handle the amount of electricity meant to fully bring it back to life. They needed a much larger person to revive, though no normal human was big enough, so they would have to piece together different body parts to craft a seven-foot giant man. Needing more additional parts than what was available to them from Alphonse's small supplies, Victor and Igor traveled into Darmstadt to gather necessary body parts from the local graves, which drew the attention of the townspeople as they arrived in the day to find the graves recently dug up, not aware that Victor was responsible. The trio finished their creation, but needed a fresh brain and spinal cord to bring this experiment to life. Waiting for the right opportunity, it came in the form of a farmer named Adam who was burned in a barn fire and covered head to toe in third degree burns. As the town's doctor couldn't help, the farmer's family came to Frankenstein as a last resort. Victor had Adam on the operating table and pondered on whether or not to do anything, as the man's brain and spine were fully intact and functional, and an opportunity like that would probably never come around again. Igor was nervous about Victor not doing anything and what kind of person would let something like this happen and Beth was firmly opposed to this. Adam eventually died while the trio were arguing and later Victor faked sympathy with Adam's wife when he told her that he died, but he'd take care of the funeral preparations and send the man to be buried properly. The family left and Victor removed the brain and spinal cord and inserted it into the experiment, finishing it and closing up the body. Now the trio waited for an anticipated thunderstorm to bring their man-made being to life.
The trio calculated when a thunderstorm would arrive and set up their equipment in one o the castles towers to take advantage of the constant stray lightning to bring their creation to life. The night arrived and Victor raised the creature into the sky with a pulley and with a most brilliant lightning strike, electricity coursed through the creature and throughout the equipment. It became too much for the equipment and it exploded, taking much of the tower with it. Victor, Beth and Igor were scraped and bruised but they survived, but they all and a question: did it work? Victor looked for their creation throughout the castle wreckage and upon seeing that the operating table the creation was attached to was now empty, Victor heard a loud thud behind him. Through the smoke and fires in the lab, Victor finally saw his creation standing and happily shouted, "It's Alive!" Victor moved closer to inspect The Creature and we see from the Creature's point of view that its senses were dulled but were slowly returning to normal and when it saw the fire he panicked and roared (due to that being the last thing Adam saw before he was burned near death), grabbing Victor by the neck. Igor and Beth tried to get the Creature to let him go but he was too strong. As Victor was nearly choked to death, Igor ran off and came back with a syringe, injecting a lethal dosage into the Creature's neck and it instantly fainted, not dying like the dosage was intended to do. The trio dragged it to the lowest basement of Castle Frankenstein and put the Creature in a room that they reinforced so he wouldn't be able to instantly break through.
In the days after the Creature's resurrection, the town police, Inspector Turpin and Officer Vogel were looking into the recent grave robbery and suspicion pointed towards the owners of Castle Frankenstein. Thus, combined with the recent experiment and the chaos from it, they assumed that crazy things were happening over there and traveled to the castle to investigate. Meanwhile, Victor was trying to figure out what went wrong with his creation while Beth and Igor cleaned up. Victor decided that he would try to teach this Creature how to act like a civilized man again, when the trio heard two sounds at the same time; a large bang from the bottom levels of the castle and a knock at the castle doors. Victor asked Igor and Beth to silence the Creature while he went to distract whoever was at the door. After opening the door, Victor was met by Turpin and Vogel, who wanted to inspect the castle because of the destruction that occurred. Victor invited them in and tried to explain what had happened was an experiment with collecting lightning to be able to give homes free electricity. They all heared loud banging and Victor lied about it by telling the police that the castle had been slightly shifting and making loud noises ever since the tower was destroyed. They seemed to buy the explanation and left, but what Victor didn't see was that Turpin had found a corpse finger and was intending to build a case against Frankenstein. After they left Victor went down to the basement to find Igor and Beth struggling with the Creature. Victor tried his hand at calming the Creature by showing that they were all friends, which worked and the Creature stopped struggling and the pair let him go.
In the coming days, the trio started teaching the Creature, which they named Prometheus, to act like a human and relearn everything a person would know how to do; meanwhile, Turpin was gathering even further evidence of Victor's crimes. One night, Prometheus started to dream of his family and former life as Adam, and told these dreams to Victor, hoping to figure out what they meant; however, Victor said that they were only dreams and that he shouldn't put much importance into them. Beth had a problem with this because Adam should have been told about his family instead of being lied to. Victor disagreed and Igor was neutral on the matter and this argument began causing a rift between the trio. The more Prometheus learned in the coming days, the clearer his mind and dreams became, until one night where he started to remember who he was, his name and his true face. He looked in his room's mirror and was horrified to see what he'd become. Victor burst into the room hearing the commotion and tried to calm him down but Prometheus choked him before yelling, "WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS TO ME?!" A strong blunt hit to head by Igor knocked Prometheus unconscious, Victor decided that Prometheus was a failure and was disgusted by him, so he'd be destroyed. Beth then finally saw just what a heartless man Victor was and regretted helping him. As the trio left the basement, Beth left the locks of Prometheus' room open so that he could escape. Loud noises were heard outside the castle doors and the trio found the police and a mob of people out front. Victor, Igor and Beth were accused of grave robbing, theft and murder and would be placed under arrest until the people found out what they did to those bodies. Suddenly, Prometheus burst out of the basement doors and ran to the front doors, blasting through them and rushing through the mob and out into the wilderness. The trio took advantage of the panicked people to escape and avoid arrest. Prometheus found his way to a windmill and the trio took refuge in the town at an abandoned tailor shop.
Days later, Prometheus made his way back to his former home, hoping that maybe he could explain his situation to his family and maybe they would accept him again. As he came up to his house, he found his daughter out back playing. He approached her, hoping to not frighten her and when she saw this stranger, unaware that it was her father, she was unafraid of his appearance and tried to get him to play with her and her dolls. Meanwhile, local police arrived at the house to search for Frankenstein and heard Prometheus and his daughter in the back yard of the house. When they came around to the back, they saw the girl with a monster and aimed their guns at him, telling the girl to get away from him. Not wanting to let his daughter get hurt, Prometheus nudged her so that she'd go to the police. Just as Prometheus was about to explain everything, his son came back to the house and saw the police, the monster and his sister right next to it. Wanting to protect his sister, he went to attack the monster with a pitchfork and stabbed Adam before he could say anything and his mind panicked, turning him into a mindless brute and he roared at the police and his son. The police, startled, opened fire on the monster who rushed at them and slaughtered them with his enhanced strength. Just as the officers were killed, the mother opened the house door, saw the carnage and yelled for her children to run inside. They did and Prometheus rushed at the locked door, pounding on it and trying to get inside. His monstrous strength, however, caused the house to shake on its foundations and collapse. After the house was demolished, Prometheus regained his rational mind and saw the destruction he caused. Horrified, he sifted through the rubble hopping that they were ok; but instead, all he found was his dead family. Filled with grief and remorse, he roared in mourning while holding their lifeless bodies close.
Elsewhere, Victor, Beth and Igor were in their abandoned shop wondering what to do next. The police and villagers were still after them, but they couldn't evade arrest for much longer. They were tired, hungry and always on alert for anyone who might notice them. Victor explained that there was a mountain villa that they could hide out in but Beth, finally having had an enough, opened up and gave Victor a piece of her mind. She had been keeping her emotions to herself for so long, but now she couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't stand how everything they did went so wrong and called Victor the real monster. She left the two men and didn't care what happened to either of them. In the darkness of night, the duo avoided the night guards and left town, only to be confronted by Prometheus who was dragging a tarp covered ice wagon containing his family. He explained what had happened to the duo and ordered Victor to bring his family back like he did with him. Victor protested, claiming he wouldn't because it was a mistake trying to play god this way. Prometheus threatened the pair with death if they didn't do as he asked. Victor hesitantly agreed to go along with this and help Prometheus until he could come up with a plan to destroy his creation. The group made their way to the mountain villa and with their limited resources they would try to set up a new lab and prepare for the resurrection of Prometheus' family. Unbeknownst to Victor, Igor or Prometheus, Beth saw this confrontation occur and rushed into town to get help, only to be caught and arrested.
Victor and Igor had been working tirelessly for days to restore Prometheus' family, having had to do some despicable things to gain additional body parts. Beth finally was able to speak with Turpin in her jail cell and informed him of where Victor and Igor were so he could arrest them, but demanded to go with the inspector to the villa to save her former friends from the creature, even if it meant their loss of freedom. Inside the villa, the night had come, the family was reassembled and with the help of a hydroelectric device, they would be brought back to life. Victor looked at the bodies and wondered how he could have let things go so wrong. He pleaded once again with Prometheus to reconsider this and make peace with his families' loss. But Prometheus would not listen and grabbed Victor's left hand crushing it, yelling for him to bring them back to life. As Victor activated the machines and prepared to flip the final switch, Turpin entered the room with Beth and pointed a gun at everyone inside, saying they were all under arrest. Unbeknownst to Turpin though, Prometheus was standing right behind him in the shadows, grabbing the inspector by his wrists and shouted at him to leave. Seeing an opportunity, Victor took a nearby lantern and smashed it on Prometheus' family, dousing them all in flames. Adam yelled out in grief and anger as his pyrophobia prevented him from putting out the flames consuming his family. As Turpin picked back up his gun to shoot the monster, Igor came out from the corner he was in and knocked Turpin's gun out of his hands and the two proceeded to fight. Beth ran towards Victor and told him that they must escape, but Prometheus appeared behind them and grabbed Beth by her neck. With his face showing unimaginable rage, he broke her neck and dropped her lifeless body to the ground. Victor, enraged and seeing Turpin's dropped gun, made his way past Prometheus to retrieve it. Back with Igor and Turpin, Igor was quickly losing the fight until a flaming support beam fell on Turpin, killing him and Igor saw Victor and Prometheus face off against each other. Victor picked up the gun and managed to shoot Prometheus three times in the chest, but he was still standing with the bullets only being lodged into his chest. Part of the roof caved in and it separated the two enraged foes from each other. Igor came up to try and get Victor out before the whole place came down, but he was still staring at his creation as it yelled in anger and then fear from the fire set in, causing Prometheus to run away. Victor and Igor escaped outside as they saw the villa burn to the ground.
In the years to come, Victor used his remaining wealth to track down his creation and finally end him. 10 years later a middle-aged Victor was telling his tale to a young girl, whose exact name Victor could never remember, only that it was either Mary or Shelly. After Igor (with his back fixed thanks to Victor) met with Victor and told him that the creature was last seen in the Artic, Victor excused himself from Mary and told Igor to prepare a ship and equipment. Igor however, told Victor he'd make the necessary arrangements but this was where they parted ways. Igor couldn't thank Victor enough for making him normal, but the path he was determined to go down would lead to his own death. Victor angrily told Igor to get out of his sight and was saddened by his friend's departure, but he must press onward. Going back to the start of the story, we find Victor writing in his journal while the ship was stuck in the ice, the crew frozen to death and he was the only one left to finish the creature. He walked for days through the snow and heavy winds, finally finding a small shack in the middle of a frozen tundra and after opening the door he came face to face with Prometheus after so many years. Victor tried to raise a gun to shoot Prometheus but he was left weakened and fell to the ground, as being out in the cold for so long had given Victor hypothermia and he was so close to death. Prometheus raised up his creator from the ground and brought him to a bed. Clutching Victor's hand, Prometheus said, "I've caused so much pain and felt such uncontrollable fury for such a long time, but I had to let that go or else it would consume me, like it has done with you. I forgive you for bringing me into this world as a monster and for not bringing back those I loved. I hope with your last moments, you can forgive me for what I've done... Father". Victor's hand loosened as his life came to an end. Prometheus took Victor's body out into the snow and buried him. Finishing up the burial, Prometheus stared out into the unknown, wondering if a creature like him would ever have a place in the world.
Epilogue/ End Credits Scene: 1882, 64 years after Victors death, three figures arrivedat the ruins of Castle Frankenstein and started digging their way into the lower levels. Finally making their way into the basement, the figures are revealed to be Prof. Abraham Van Helsing, his daughter Victoria and their associate Dr. Alex Zorka. Searching around the basement, they finally found what they were looking for, Victor's blueprints for building a creature like Prometheus.