A young boy of twelve sat at his desk in a vast, intricate lab. Keita Asari came from humble origins; his mother was a single, widowed, working woman and his father died in a car accident; at least that was what he was told, he was too young to remember him then. Keita was a plain-looking youth, chocolate-brown eyes with swept back brown hair and yet he was one of the most brilliant young minds in the world. Sadly, this fact was not winning him any dates.
"Asari, are you sure this is going to work?" a middle-aged woman asked as she walked up to the boy. This was Dr. Betty Ross, a colleague of Keita's and a sort of big sister figure to him. The two
"I've worked all the equations and variables; plus, I've even ran some mock tests and all signs point to this working without a hitch. I left nothing to chance, Betty."
"Keita, even if what you say is true… we don't have a test subject."
The young boy was silent for a moment before inspiration hit him.
"I'll do it."
"What?" she laughed, not believing she was hearing this.
"I'll do it. I've gone over everything so there are no miscalculations and, even if the serum doesn't work, the gamma levels we'll use are going to be low enough that it's harmless."
Betty kept her skeptic look.
"I assure you, Betty; when this is over, we'll have recreated Dr. Erskine's super soldier serum. There is nothing that could possibly go wrong."
In a dark room, a young man sat hunched over his keyboard, typing furiously. Tosuke's friends always known him for two things: he was an incredibly gifted hacker, breaking into places like it was child's play. The other thing was that he was a little unbalanced. These two things got him into trouble a lot; especially with the law but he didn't care. It was all so much fun and someone had come and offered to not only pay him to hack into someplace and screw around with the system but he'd also make his problems with the law go away.
"Okay, I'm in."
An older man approached Tosuke from behind.
"Good, now locate any kind of procedure happening that involves a Dr. Keita Asari."
Betty watched as Keita strapped himself into the harness in an empty room just after taking the test serum. Despite the boy's assurances, she still felt ill at ease.
"Why are we doing this again?" a glasses-wearing tech asked.
"Because the government wants us to," the other tech, sporting a bowl-shaped haircut, answered.
"No, I mean why are we using Gamma instead of what they used in the 40s?"
This time, Betty answered.
"Because what they used in the experiment was damaged beyond repair. Then in 1962, there was a fire in the Stark Industries archives where the blue prints were kept when an employee was smoking somewhere he shouldn't have. And the only one left who knew the machine at all was Howard Stark himself and he died in a car crash in '91."
Keita, from the other side of the glass, gave a thumb's up; indicating he was ready.
"Okay, the experiment has officially begun."
Betty announced as she hit the enter key to start the test. A small timer came up, counting down to when the Gamma would fire.
"Report all systems status," she ordered.
"All programs are running normal," Glasses called out.
"No abnormalities in the hydraulics," Bowl cut added.
"Gamma levels at pre set…. Whoa, whoa, hold on. Gamma levels are rising."
"Say what?" she turned to Glasses.
"Gamma levels are already at 4,700 and still skyrocketing."
"Shut it down."
He typed quickly but the screen just flashed an "Error" message"
"It's no good. Gamma at 9,800."
Betty pushed the button on the intercom.
"Asari, get out of there; something has gone wrong."
Keita remained where he was; as if he wasn't paying any attention to her.
"Asari, I said get out."
"Intercoms aren't working and the room is sound proof; he can't hear us," Bowl cut said.
"Somebody better do something and fast. Gamma at 58,400 and still climbing."
"Open the door, get him out of there!" Betty ordered.
"Security systems are not responding, I can't open it from here!"
"Gamma at 102,000!
Betty then proceeded to bang on the window to try and get the young boy's attention.
"ASARI, GET OUT OF THERE! THE GAMMA IS TOO HIGH!"
Again, he didn't hear anything.
"Gamma at 162,900!"
"Cut all power to this block!"
"There's not enough time!"
"Then try and shut it down again!"
The screen turned black and a laughing face appeared. It then became clear to what was happening.
"WE'VE BEEN HACKED AND HE'S LOCKED US OUT!"
"GAMMA AT 200,000!"
"KEITA!"
They were all silenced by a flash of bright green light.
"Whoo, that was fun!" Tosuke shouted in glee.
"Glad you enjoyed it," Chiron said from behind him, his eyes focused on the feed from the tapped security cameras.
"Now, about the rest of my payment and the deal we made?" Tosuke asked as he erased his tracks.
"Yes, of course. In fact, I'll take care of it right now."
Had Tosuke not been preoccupied with the computer screen, he would've seen the silencer barrel that was mere centimeters from his head.
Eight hours had gone by since the 'accident' and Keita had been rushed to the hospital and immediately placed in isolation. In that time, doctors swarmed around to find a diagnosis but some knew it was only a matter time. To their surprise, after six hours, Asari did not experience any kind of decline in health. In fact, his health seemed to be improving; leaving the entire hospital staff absolutely stumped.
"I feel fine, mom. The doctor even said I'm all good," Keita said to his mother; she had rushed over the moment she heard about what happened.
Naturally, she obsessed over anything could have happened to him but he kept assuring her that he hadn't received any injuries or illnesses; something he had been doing for the last hour. It was at this moment that Dr. Ross came in, Mrs. Asari knew that some things between were government secrets so she took this as her cue to leave.
"How do you feel?" she asked hesitantly.
"Fine, the doctor said I should be able to leave by tomorrow morning," he said with an easy smile but Betty remained neutral.
"Keita, before the emitter fired, the gamma level was 200,000; that's the equivalent of going up to a nuclear reactor and licking the core. By all rights, you should be dead."
"It's gotta be the serum, it worked."
Betty was silent as she stared into the boy's eyes while he stared into hers; Keita could feel that she didn't believe him. Somehow, part of him didn't believe him, either.
Betty spent a few more minutes at the hospital and then left to return to the lab. She then immediately requested an Isolation and observation lab and called in the techs. They found her working on the computers closest to a heavy door.
"What's all this?" one of them asked.
"I'm still not convinced that Keita is completely fine. No one takes a blow like that and comes out unscathed."
"You think something is wrong with him?"
"Yeah, something we're not seeing or haven't seen yet."
The techs were silent for a moment or two before one spoke up.
"Where do you need us?"
Betty smiled and issued her orders.
Eventually, Asari was released from the hospital but Betty offered to take him home on the condition that they got to the lab and check him out on their terms. Despite his attempts to assure her that he was okay, he agreed to allow her to do tests; if only just to give her peace of mind.
Much to his puzzlement, he was placed in one of the heavy isolation rooms with doors on par with bank vaults. Inside held very Spartan accommodations; a single bed, a sink and mirror and a bathroom.
"Isn't this a little excessive?" he asked
/Just taking precautions/ Betty said through the televised intercom.
"You taking samples of my blood and having me stay in a hospital is a precaution," Keita retorted.
/Humor us at the least, Keita. We just don't want any doubts/ Betty pleaded with the boy.
He sighed in defeat and gestured for her to proceed.
"Can I at least get a sandwich or something in here?"
Chiron strolled towards the entrance at the research center; not long after hearing that the Asari kid had somehow survived. He was confused and annoyed at this development. How could have that kid survived?
'If you want something done right, you got to do it yourself.'
"Interesting…" Betty thought out loud while she gazed into a microscope.
"What did you find?" one tech asked.
She didn't answer him right away; she pushed the intercom button, grabbing Keita's attention.
"I found these green… growths, I think…. on your blood cells."
/Are they malignant?/ Asari asked from his room; his mouth full from a bite of the sandwich he asked for.
"They don't appear to be. Your white blood cells are ignoring them completely."
Both of the scientists went silent as they pondered what to do next. Betty then looked to the Keita on the screen.
"I'll do some chemical tests and give you an update," with that, she hit a button to kill the intercom. What she didn't know, however, was that she only stopped the feed on her end. Keita could still see what was going on in the lab but the sound had been cut. Betty took out a recorder and hit the record button.
"I'm going to administer some Epinephrine and see what we get. Could one of you get it, please?" she asked.
"I got it," Bowl Cut replied.
Within moments, Betty got what she needed and began the first test by adding just a drop of the hormone. Now she looked back into the scope.
"Okay, let's see what we go—WHOA!" she yelled.
"What's wrong?" asked Bowl Cut
Betty said nothing but presented the glass slide to them. The glass had cracked badly but what caught their attention was the red blood had turned green.
"The cells turned completely green and enlarged when the Epinephrine took effect."
"Is that bad?" Glasses asked.
"This was just a sample of his blood; there's no telling what would happen if this were to occur in the whole body."
"So we keep him away from this Epi—stuff?"
"Epinephrine, and the body produces this stuff naturally; you guys would know it better as adrenaline."
"So what do we do with him?" Glasses asked again.
"For now, we make sure that he stays in there and doesn't do anything stressful until we have a better idea of what we're dealing with. That means we can't let him get afraid, too much exercise, or angry."
The two techs looked at each other before shrugging.
"Well, that shouldn't be too -"
BANG!
Keita had spent the last few minutes watching his colleague talk between themselves. Okay, to him, it looked like they were just mouthing to each other but that was only because Betty forgot which button was to shut the intercom off and which was the one to kill the feed on one end. Although, he had done this far more times than she did so he wasn't one to talk or think in this case.
Suddenly, Glasses' forehead erupted with blood and he fell to the ground, dead. Bowl cut jumped up in shock as a man in black entered the room and shot him, too. The man then walked up to Betty and grabbed her by the throat and said something. Again, he didn't know what due to the com being shut off from Betty's end. As he watched the scene of the gun man demand something, Keita's logical side knew he should be afraid of this situation but he didn't. Instead, he felt anger. It started to take root when Glasses was shot and grew when Bowl cut suffered the same fate. Now, the man had Betty in his grasp, almost assuring she was going to be next; a thought that made his anger grow even higher.
And then he felt it. Like something was trying to rip out of his skin. The pain was so intense that he fell to the floor; screaming in agony. Keita reached up to grab the sink and pulled himself to his feet but the pain only seemed to get worse and it only seemed to fuel his fury.
The last thing Keita saw before everything went black was the reflection of his enraged visage; the one thing most notable of all was his eyes had changed from the usual brown to glowing a very bright green.
Chiron heard a boy's scream over the intercom. He glanced towards the vault-like door; having a pretty good idea where his target was now. Without taking his eyes off the metal barrier that separated him from his target, he snapped Dr. Ross's neck; her aid had been unnecessary.
Any further plans were put on hold when the sound of something big and heavy hit the door from the other side. The force was great enough to actually dent it. Then came another hit leaving another dent; then another and another and another until the door was ripped right off its hinges.
He looked in the doorway and froze at the monstrosity before him; eight feet tall, heavily muscled, wearing the torn remains of jeans, green skin and looking really angry. The beast let out a load roar and charged the assassin. Chiron retaliated with gunfire but the bullets bounced off the creature's green hide and served to only infuriate the beast even more. This was made evident when it ripped the console from the floor and chucked it at him. Chiron quickly ducked out of the way and ran out the door. As he ran down the hallway, he could hear the green behemoth stomp after him; tearing obstacles out of his way and roaring in rage.
An idea then popped into Chiron's mind; causing him to take a left down another way and entered another room marked 'Maintenance.' The creature must have seen where he went because it soon tore off the door of the same room. This would prove to be inane as the beast smashed through the wall.
The creature looked all around the room for its prey but only saw numerous pipes, steam and an open window. There was, however, a strange scent in the air. The behemoth's primal mind could not figure out what it was but there was a small voice in the back of its head trying to tell it what the smell was. It originated from a large broken hose marked 'Main Gas Line.' Suddenly, the beast heard the clattering of a small object. Out of its peripheral vision, It caught sight of a small, pineapple-shaped, metal object rolling towards it and away from the open window. The beast looked at object in utter confusion.
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The explosion erupted from the room Chiron had been in mere moments ago. Said operative was panting heavily after trying to escape that monster; that giant….. Hulk, he guessed would be an appropriate description of the thing. He returned to the wrecked lab but could not find Asari anywhere; perhaps that giant ate him or something. Whatever the case, he had to leave soon or risk authorities finding him here.
Chiron then took out his gun, cleaned it of fingerprints and placed into the deceased Dr. Ross' hand. He figured that this would make her take the blame; they could rule it as she went crazy and killed everyone while that creature killed her and Asari. This was the best he could do on hand due to that monster surprising him.
With nothing to do or could do, Chiron left; believing he had completed his mission.
Had he stuck around a few minutes longer, he would have seen the huge green fist punch out of the debris followed by a an inhuman roar that echoed throughout the area.
The following week came with a grim air. The local cemetery was host to a large crowd that circled four graves. The priest was reciting his prayers to the departed and to those living that were present on this day. It didn't provide much comfort to Mrs. Asari as she sobbed over the loss of her one and only child.
After the prayers wee spoken and the last of the mourners left, a single figure approached the headstone. It felt so strange to stand in front of his own grave. Even stranger is the creature he had become is wanted for his and his collogues' murder; murder it didn't commit. However, perhaps it may be for the best that it stays this way. The creature… no, he himself was a danger to everyone and everything around him. For now, Keita Asari is believed to be dead and he must make the world think that he is dead until he can find a way to control the raging spirit that dwells within him.
No matter how long it took.
2015
Gendo Ikari ran over the file on his desk; Fuyutsuki stood on the other side.
"Has the letter been sent?" he asked the former professor.
"Yes, he should be receiving it soon."
"Excellent, we shall plan accordingly and fix any issues Stark's influence may have caused."
"But why send for him now? The scrolls predict that the third angel shall appear around the time the boy would arrive," Fuyutsuki asked.
"I know and we need such a situation to move him in the ways we want him to."
Fuyutsuki remained silent.
A/N: And thus we end the Origins arc of Neon Genesis Avengers. Next chapter begins the Angel War arc. I thought I'd never get this chapter done. Normally, Wolfpackersson09 helps me but he was a little preoccupied with something else. I'm not sure if this is my weakest chapter but I got it done and that's what matters.
'Till next time, True believers!
