Could it be? Yes, Biohazard is back and so am I! I'd like to thank everyone who's urged me to go on with the story and those of you who have reviewed in the past. I'll try my best to stay encouraged in writing this story and will try to see this thing to the finish. Special thanks will be given at the end of this chapter. And now, for the long-awaited seventh chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Jimmy Neutron in any way, shape, or form in this or alternate dimensions past, present, or future. Ever. Got it? Good. I can't afford a lawyer. If I could, I doubt I'd be writing fanfictions with my spare time.


Chapter 7

Ragnarok


Ragnarok. It was one of the first words on the document, but out of all the other words in the three page document handed over to him by Professor Meir, it stuck out the most. At first, it gave him pause, and it made him stop reading just so he could pull out from his vast memory banks just why the word would even be present in a scientific document in the first place. By the time that his mind was able to comb his vast, encyclopedic mind thoroughly enough to find just what it was, Jimmy could feel his skin grow as cold as ice. And he still had the rest of the document to read over.

His vast archive of knowledge stopped short where religions were concerned, but he still had a much greater grasp of many religions than most other people did. For now, he had to rely on what little he knew about Norse mythology. It was enough. Ragnarok, an archaic Nordic word that translated loosely to the 'final destiny of the gods.' As far as parallels could be drawn, Ragnarok was the Nordic version of the Christian rapture, where a new world would spawn in the place of the old which would lie in ashes.

It was the story that defined Ragnarok which disturbed Jimmy the most. According to the ancient Nordic text Völuspá, Ragnarok, like the Christian rapture, was a chain of events, starting first with the crowing of three roosters and then, all Hell would break loose. On Earth, man would fight against man and "whoredom" would reign supreme. There would be chaos, death and destruction, where swords and shields would clash.

And then, the gods themselves would erupt into open warfare. It was prophesized that many of the gods would die in the battle, and that the battle itself would devastate the world as man knew it so much that there would be only two humans left on the world and only a handful of the gods that entered the battle would come out alive. But there is a happy ending to the tragic end of the world in that the two humans survivors that escaped the mayhem would then repopulate the Earth, now refreshed and renewed in all its beauty and splendor. It would be a perfect, new world.

And that was what gave Jimmy the chills. When he had finally finished reading the manila folder document, his lips were too dry to speak. The second he saw the two-word name of the sinister demon that Professor Meir had spawned, Jimmy felt as if he was the one that had contracted the virus.

Ebola Ragnarok.

By themselves, the two words could send a slight chill up a person's spine. One was the Nordic word for what was essentially Armageddon. The other was a highly lethal, extremely fatal, and exceptionally dangerous genus of virus known officially as ebolavirus. There are five officially recognized strains, last Jimmy checked, but now, it seemed there might be six.

Although differing in origin background and severity as well as insured fatality, all strains of the ebola virus worked the same. Essentially, what the viruses did were attack the interior lining of blood vessels and interfere in the process of coagulation, which would be the body's natural process of forming clots to prevent excessive bleeding. By first damaging the blood vessels and then interfering in coagulation, it allowed for excessive bleeding, which would cause bruise-like blemishes to appear all around the body. Eventually, the victim would essentially go into hypovolemic shock, bleed out, and die.

Ebola Ragnarok it seemed, was going to be ten times worse.

Quite simply, it seemed to be a stronger, scientifically refined, and more sinister virus than its five brethren. Where the other five were naturally occurring, according to the lab reports, Meir was able to take the deadly Ebola Zaire strain, which had a ninety percent fatality rate at its worst, and transformed it into a biochemical weapon of mass destruction whose intent wasn't simply death. According to the lab reports that were in Jimmy's hands, the Ragnarok strain was not intended to kill. Instead, it attacked the blood vessels in a way that it would induce the adrenal glands to produce more adrenaline, as if the body was aware that it was about to die while the mind remained blissfully unaware. The high amounts of adrenaline coarsing through the bloodstream supercharged the muscular and skeletal systems of the body while the damaged blood vessels summoned more and more blood to be channeled to specific parts of the body such as the heart, the lungs, and all major muscular systems, as if to lure the adrenaline towards them in an effort to strengthen the body almost permanently.

The process also resulted in the reversion of the mind into an almost primal state of dire hostility. The so-called Friend-Or-Foe switch in the mind was shut off. The mind allowed the body to do what it will and so, with so much adrenal energy coursing through its corrupted veins, the only reasonable thing for it to do was to attack, kill, maim, and destroy anything within its field of vision.

Jimmy's white-knuckled grip on the manila folder grew lax and the document holding such a vile, evil scheme fluttered down to the floor. Stumbling backwards, he bumped into Cindy whose hands prevented him from falling over backwards. The blonde had tried her best to read the document along with him, but her grasp on the situation was paled by the scenarios running in Jimmy's mind on what the potential this new strain of ebolavirus had to destroy mankind. Or enslave it.

She could read science better than most of her peers, but much of the terminology in the document went well over her head. She was well aware of what the Ebola virus was. It was a virus that killed a lot of people and first appeared somewhere in Africa, presumably in a place called Zaire which was what the very first occurrence was called. She had a scant bit of knowledge pertaining to what Ragnarok was, considering her Scandinavian Gram-Gram on her father's side would always regale her with silly little stories about the culture from'the old country.' Now, she was wishing that she had paid more attention to her Gram-Gram, and not just because she passed away after killing a rampaging moose with her bare hands on a trip to her childhood home. From that day on, the Vortex family swore a vendetta against the Happy Jim's Packaged Peanuts Company.

The rest of the document ultimately was lost on her. There were too many numbers that didn't make sense, too many complex words that even most college graduates had never seen before, and so many chemical names and compounds that for a moment she thought she was back in high school chemistry class. She had no choice but to leave it to Big Brain to explain things to her, if he can ever calm himself down enough to, that is.

Confused and also surprised at the boy's reaction and subsequent loss of balance, Cindy gasped as she caught him, "Jimmy, what's wrong?"

At seeing Jimmy's breathless and terrified face, Professor Meir took the time to laugh heartily as he stooped down to gingerly pick the document up from off of the floor. "Ze dear boy has just come to terms with the fate of this wretched world. Scientists like he and I will call officially know it as Ebola Ragnarok. Your friend Herr General prefers to call it Agent Fire. But me? I like to call it my masterpiece."

With every word uttered by the mad scientist before them, Jimmy was able to grasp a little bit more energy and eventually steadied himself back on his own two feet. "It's an abomination, that's what it is, and so are you!" he yelled angrily at him, his jaw set and his fists clenched as if ready to strike. Never before had Cindy ever seen Jimmy this angry, and she could only assume that it was pertaining to whatever was in that document.

Meir's eyes narrowed as he glared at Jimmy. He set that document down against the counter top beside him before taking an aggressive step towards them both. "Nein!" he seethed through gritted teeth, his aged voice bellowing throughout the laboratory office like a thunderous strike of Thor's mighty hammer. Both of the two teenagers jolted slightly with a start. "It is no abomination! It, Herr Neutron, is the start of a new world. It will be my world. The General will simply be allowed to run it, but in reality, it is my dream. Mein! You understand! Mein!"

He turned away from them and faced towards the computers taking up a large amount of the wall area in the room. "My dream is to create a new world. A superior world. Since the fall of the Reich and my exile, I've watched as my fellow humans have degenerated into filth. Such debauchery, such ludicracy. It's as if the entire world were written by lonely teenagers, or worse, lonely teenagers who are Hellbent on pitting two unlikely members of their favorite television program together at all costs. Such insanity. It pains my heart as a man of science to see the human race deteriorate so."

His hands descended down on the keyboards and began to type away at the commands, his attention on the children now seemingly non-existent. Seizing the gap to figure out what was going on exactly, Cindy glanced over at Jimmy. "What's going on, Neutron? What was that file all about? I kept seeing something about ebola."

Jimmy shook his head and sighed, though his eyes never left the professor's white-cloacked backside. "You were right about one thing. Ebola is involved," he whispered softly. "A new version. Ebola Ragnarok he called it."

Before he was able to continue, Meir picked up for Jimmy. "My brain child," he drew out proudly as the computer began to show various images of trajectory projections and other miscellaneous read-outs. He turned back around to face them, his outline shadowed by the bright glow of the greens, blues, reds, and flashing whites of the computer monitor behind him. "It is the ultimate virus, perfected by human hands, aimed to perfect human society."

"It was simple, really. Take all the powerful ebola viruses into a lab. Take the most applicable and desirable parts of their genetic make-ups, such as transmission via air, touch, water, and the ability to withstand high temperatures. In fact, the only temperatures high enough to effectively neutralize the virus are ones such as the one emitted from the lava in the volcano we are now in."

Jimmy's eyes widened, for two reasons. First, now he knew what there exact location was at least. The volcano in the middle of the island seemed a bit cliche for an evil lair, but to stay undetected by passing military reconnaissance planes and ships as well as curious explorers, it was perfect. The rock would be too dense to detect anything through, and the heat emitted from the volcano's innards would throw off any attempts for an accurate infared scan. Having it low enough into the crust for molten magma to surround it was a step further, but a necessary one. The facility was more than likely a closed one, and an accidental infectious spill could spell catastrophe for their entire operation.

The second reason his eyes widened was the implications such drastic temperatures would mean for disposing of the virus. If released into the world, no government had the capacity to stop it. Typically, ultraviolet rays could be used to try and neutralize the virus, but even then, the effects were negligible from virus to virus and surely Meir had designed in its genomes a way to combat UV rays.

There was only one question left to ask. "Why?" he croaked slowly, questions swirling around his head. "Why make a virus this powerful?"

Cindy soon chimed in. "Yeah, why bother making a virus to kill people if you want to make a new world order? Wouldn't it just defeat the purpose?" she asked, unaware of the virus' true sinister colors.

Jimmy was quick to inform her. "He's not trying to kill them, Cindy," he said through gritted teeth as he maintained his steady steely glare at the German scientist before them. "It turns you into a monster, like those monkeys we just saw. It floods your system and turns on a permanent adrenaline pump in your body, and it attacks your central nervous system, making you forget who and what not to attack." Before Cindy could tell him to 'just say it in English, Nerdtron' Jimmy quickly reiterated, "Uh, basically, it makes you a blood-thirsty zombie."

With dramatic applause, Meir laughed and clapped his hands jovially. "Very good, Mr. Neutron! It seems as if you are as they say, a very bright child. For a moment, I wondered whether or not you would be able to comprehend the true genius behind such a grand creation. Still," he then started with a slightly nonchalant tone, "it begs the question: Why fill the Earth with, as you say, blood-thirsty zombies. What purpose would the new world order want with a bunch of wild, killing machines? Well. The answer is simple. They're easier to control."

"Ebola Ragnarok is known by another name, Agent Fire, as I believe I've already said. It is only half of the grand scheme to create the supreme human race. One that is infalliable. You see, Agent Fire, as you correctly deduced, turns off the inhibitive portions of the mind, those pesky little things called morals. Without that all-important factor, humans are just bipedal mammals. For the first month after Day Zero is commenced, humanity will trim its numbers so that only the strongest and the fastest are alive. Those that are inferior specimens will, of course perish. As nature intended. And then, the plan is to fix them."

"Fix them?" the two teens both murmured softly in unison, the concept seeming too foreign for the situation.

Meir nodded slowly. "Yes, fix them. Herr General has no use for primitive barbarians such as what mankind will be reduced to after Day Zero. So, the second phase of our master plan is to create an antidote to be released that will reverse most of the effects of the virus."

Jimmy took a step forward in a challenging gesture. His chestnut eyes and heavy brows set themselves into a harsh glare as they locked onto Meir. "Let me guess. By most, you mean cure everything that makes them a threat to you and your new world order while leaving them as brainless slaves to do your bidding?"

"Very good, Mr. Neutron! I must say, I am rather impressed," Meir praised with sarcastic enthusiasm. "But you are correct. I expected no less." He turned his back to them to stare at the computer screens behind him. That is why you are here. I've created the catalyst. Now, you will help me create the antidote."

Taking a step forward so that now she was right beside Jimmy, Cindy barked out with a violent fist gesturing towards Professor Meir, "And what if he doesn't? Your plan kinda falls apart at that point, doesn't it?" Jimmy stiffened suddenly. Apparently, Cindy hadn't been given the same talk the nameless leader of this entire inane operation had given to Jimmy.

Meir shrugged. "Very true. I suppose you do have a very good point. Fortunately, I hold the Queen of Hearts," he stated flatly before reaching down to the holster by his side and drawing his Luger pistol, the standard-issued sidearm for the Third Reich's soldiers back in World War Two. Leveling the weapon towards Cindy, he added with a cocky smirk, "Or rather, the Queen to his Heart." Laughing softly to himself at what he believed was a clever joke, his hand reached below a nearby desk and pressed a small emergency button. Suffice to say, neither of them found his little joke very funny.

"So, you have two choices, then, Herr Neutron," Meir drew out with dramatic flair as he motioned with his hand carelessly pointing his handgun here and there, causing both of them to stiffen slightly whenever the barrel of the Luger came their way. It wasn't so much that the old man was pointing the gun at them as much as it was that the old man's bony finger seemed to rest ever so nonchalantly on it, ready to squeeze at a moment's notice.

"If you help me, the two of you will have a secure future in the new world order. Perhaps Herr General will be so kind as to ensure that your families will not come to harm, and you may all thrive and flourish in the new world borne from the ashes."

"But if you refuse..." Meir's thumb flicked the safety off his Luger and leveled it at a certain kill shot, were he to take it; Cindy's heart. "The girl dies. And then..." Meir shrugged as the faint sound of a security checkpoint being cleared rang from the other side of the hallway. "Well, to be honest, we haven't discussed it too thoroughly at that point. You see, your cooperation isn't necessary. It will only shorten the amount of time it would take until our master plan comes to fruition. The world's fate is inevitable. The fraulein's, on the other hand, is entirely up to you."

Jimmy gritted his teeth in anger as he glared at the arrogant rogue scientist standing before him, a pistol gripped leisurely in his right hand and a Cheshire grin plastered across his face. They, whoever it was again that they even were, had corralled him into a damned-if-he-did, damned-if-he-didn't situation. If he agreed, the world was doomed. If he didn't, the world was doomed, and Cindy was dead.

Before he had a chance to respond to Meir's offer, the door leading out from the hallway of horrors that contained the plexiglass boxes of infected rhesus monkeys parted, allowing four men to rush into the room, led by the same officer that had led them down to the lab from before. Summoned by the alert that the emergency button underneath Meir's desk gave off, their boots clanked along the metal grating floor, a thunderous sound amidst the silence of the machinery softly whirring around them. Four rifle barrels found themselves aimed at the two adolescents.

The officer stepped ahead of his men, glancing only slightly at Jimmy and Cindy for a brief moment before snapping a brisk salute to Meir. "Professor," he greeted crisply as his heels clicked in apt attention. "I trust that these delightful children haven't giving you any trouble at all."

Professor Meir glanced over at the two before chuckling lightly. The sound was more haunting than the sounds of the infected animals that led into the man's quarters/private laboratory. "They were very... Cooperative, Major." Looking over the officer's shoulder briefly, he called out, "Think about my offer, Mr. Neutron. Think very, carefully..." Meir then fixed his gaze back on the major that had led them down to the lab in the first place. "Take Mr. Neutron and Ms. Vortex back to their quarters. I'm sure they have much to discuss."

The soldiers following the major in took that as their cue to begin prodding the two adolescents to get them moving. Two soldiers took point, leading them down the hallway as two others pushed them forward from the rear. After waiting a moment, the major and the scientist followed the entourage down the hallway. The cacophonous sound of the infected primates howling at them deafened their senses.

Ignoring the screeches of mixed agony and rage, the major turned his head to look at Meir. "Professor... What are the chances you believe that that Neutron fellow will-" His question was cut short by the face of a deformed Rhesus monkeys snarling against the glass, pounding at it with bony, skeletal hands. The major took a sharp intake of breath before clearing his throat, carefully regaining his composure. "That, uh... How likely is it that Mr. Neutron will agree to aid us in our cause?"

Meir laughed lightly at the dark-haired man's troubled expression and demeanor after an encounter with a piece of evidence of his stunning, if not macabre, brilliance. His dull blue eyes shone with an icy spark as he looked at the two teenagers being led at gun-point. "He doesn't have a choice."


"What do you mean you don't have a choice?"

Cindy stared at the boy sitting across the room from her on the other bed of the room. The guards had led them back into the room that Jimmy had regained consciousness in earlier that day. While they were gone in Professor Meir's lab, it seemed as if the base staff had repaired the destruction Cindy's earlier outburst of frustration had caused. With its bare, metal walls, two beds, single window, and single, not-destroyed nightstand complete with shaded lamp, it was all but clear that their captors wanted them to feel as... homey as possible.

From on his bed, Jimmy could only stare down at his own hands, clasped in a frustrated lock. Whoever this 'General' was, he had all the inner-workings of an evil genius. A true evil genius. This man was on a level ten times greater than any other foe Jimmy and his friends had ever went up against. Professor Calamitous was a genius, but he was an idiot nonetheless. The Yolkians were aliens with superior technology, but they lacked the common sense and foresight to prevent a gang of children from over running them, stealing a capital ship, and flying off. Come to think of it, all of Jimmy's former enemies (former in the pretense that almost all of them are currently either incarcerated, reformed, or have somewhat retired from evil doing) were cartoonish butt monkeys for Jimmy to thrash on an almost weekly basis.

This man was different. Twice had the point been made to him that if he were to refuse to help their 'cause,' Cindy would be killed and he would be deliberately left alive to suffer the consequences. There were armed guards patrolling the area, very strong armed guards if Jimmy's still healing abdomen had any say in it, and the base was situated well into the Earth's crust, surrounded by molten hot lava. Escape was going to be impossible. Refusal to cooperate was both unacceptable and futile as it did nothing.

"Jimmy?"

There has to be a way. There was always a way, no matter what. But how? Jimmy just couldn't wrap his head around it. It was all so flawless. So perfect! They couldn't leave, they couldn't escape, they couldn't do anything but help him. And if Jimmy refused, Cindy... No, he couldn't refuse. The fate of the world couldn't even consider it; reverse engineering a virus wasn't very difficult if you're the evil genius that made it in the first place, and Jimmy had not a doubt in his mind that Meir could do it. They weren't bluffing. All Jimmy was to them was something to speed things up a bit.

"Uh... Are you even listening to me?"

No, there had to be a way. There had to be. 'Come on, Neutron, think... think... think!' He had to think back. That was always the trick before. There had to be some flaw, there was always a flaw, especially in the failsafe measures that plans attempted to implement. Disaster loved irony, apparently. Let's see... The base was in lava. Lava. Lave everywhere. And Meir said that only lava could neutralize the virus. Wait. Yes... Of course!

"Neutron! Say something! You are really starting to tick me off!"

The lava, it was the key. If there was an outbreak for whatever reason, the section would have to be able to be closed off, like how a ship would do so to prevent a fire from spreading if it were to creep under deck. With the infected portion of the base sealed off, there would have to be a type of control mechanism that would allow the section to be exposed to the lava. Once the lava crept in, the infection would be neutralized, the lava would somehow be disposed of, and the section would be reopened, repaired, and then allowed for maintenance. How the lava would be disposed of wasn't Jimmy's primary concern.

"Nerdtron! I am going to give you until the count of three to snap out of that stupid little look you got before I- Why are you smiling? Neutron? Stop smiling! You're creeping me out! Stop-"

His concern was 1) Finding that release mechanism and 2) Finding a way out. The hovercar. His hovercar had to be somewhere around the base! There was no way they could have destroyed, at least not this soon. Never had he thank the Powers that Be for his incredible foresight so much! He knew one of these days building a hovercar that could resist the heat of a planet's molten core would come in handy!

It had finally hit him. Uh, Cindy's hand, not his ingenious plan to get them out of this and save the world.

Jimmy's enthusiasm and lifted spirits would not be deterred by Cindy's steely hand of pain. At least not immediately. As soon as Cindy's hand made contact with his face, he stared blankly to the side before gleaming brightly at her. "Cindy, I got it!" His hands cupped Cindy's cheeks as the blonde stared at him, terrified by this sudden change in mood and disposition. Oh dear. She'd finally hit the poor boy too hard.

The pain eventually set in and immediately after Jimmy attempted to further elaborate with a, "I know how to get out of this!," the poor genius grabbed his slightly red cheek and let out a pained, "Ow!" He gave Cindy an accusative glare which she returned with a sheepish smile. "What was that for?"

"Uh, because you zoned out for like five minutes and started smiling which, uh... Is really, really creepy."

"I was having a brain blast!"

Cindy blinked. "This isn't going to make things worse like they always do, is it?" she asked with a deadpan expression on her face.

He hurriedly shook his head. "Nope, it's going to save the world, like they always do." He added the last part with an annoyed look at Cindy.

Rolling her eyes in a manner that clearly voiced her doubt on how valid his claim was, she sat down next to him on the bed. "So what's the plan, Neutron?"


Alright, a lot shorter than I would have hoped, but I didn't want to put too much into one chapter. Plus, I also wanted to see how many people were still interested after my abrupt hiatus. Again, I'm really sorry about that, and I'll try to keep a bit more interest in this story. That being said, I'll do my best to try and put out a new update as soon as I can, but with the Texas summer being what it is and me needing to help around to keep things cool, it may be a little while before you see chapter eight.

Thank you all again for those who read this and especially those who have replied and expressed your interest in this story. A special thanks to all of you who have PMed me to give me some help and advice to put out this chapter!