Snuggles The Symbiote
Taylor and Lisa were standing awkwardly in a corner when Mommy and I got to the lab. Which... Made sense, this was where the equipment to go home was... Wait? No, think about that later.
Dr. Richards and Doctor Strange were standing at a monitor next to a machine like the one that had scanned me after I was checked over after my own resurrection.
As we approached, Doctor Strange turned to Mommy, "Now, Ms. O'Leary, before we begin, this is technically confidential. Are you sure that you want to discuss this in front of your daughter? Or her friends?"
Honestly, I wasn't even sure if Taylor and Lisa were close enough to be listening, but it was a fair point.
"Is there anything... Inappropriate, for a girl Ashley's age to learn about?"
"No."
"Ashley," Mommy said turning to me, "are your friends trustworthy?"
"I think so," I answered back.
"Then there's no problem," she said turning back to the wizard and the scientist.
"Alright then," Doctor Strange began, "the good news is that you're immortal. That's also the bad news, if you'd like counseling for that I can refer you to someone."
Mommy was silent for a second. "On the one hand, I'll probably never see my husband again unless someone brings him back to life or I find some way to travel to the afterlife." Dr. Richards looked like he wanted to say something but then thought better of it. "On the other, I won't have to deal with whatever it is that causes me to have vague memories of my father and father in law trying and failing to drink each other under the table. On the third hand, I'll probably end up outliving most of my loved ones. On the fourth hand, my little girl is a God now and that means that she's probably gonna have to deal with some serious shit and I'll always be there if she needs me."
Mommy hummed. "I think I'll be okay. What specifically can you tell me?"
Dr. Richards started tinkering at the consol of the monitor and brought up a silhouette of mommy with lines and labels and stuff in one window and some long lines of 'A,' 'G,' 'T,' and 'C' in different combinations with some sections in different colors or bolded or highlighted in a second window and a third window being an image of something green with little dots dispersed in it.
"The original Lazarus formula, from what is in the notes that I liberated from our poor-choice-making friend," he began, "works in part by triggering the reanimation and rejuvenation of dead cells and the regeneration and restoration of dead tissues, bringing a freshly killed person back to life. This process somehow alters their metabolism in a way that... Honestly, considering that the subjects don't require food, water, sleep, or oxygen I'm not sure they can be called alive in the strict scientific sense."
"If you're about to tell me that I'm undead... Please be sure to draft it in writing and send it to my mother because it'll really piss her off," Mommy said. She didn't sound like she was joking.
"It would be accurate to call a Lazarus Formula subject, particularly those who are long dead, undead, but a successful subject is metaphysically alive," Doctor Strange corrected, "as are you. In particular, you're not exactly a normal Lazarus Formula subject."
"Before we move on to the interesting specific details," Dr. Richards interrupted, "according to the scans your body isn't fully regenerated. In particular, your respiratory and digestive systems are being repaired more slowly than the rest of your body, which I suspect is a case of resources being regulated based on need. Since you don't need those parts anymore, they're low priority."
"That would explain the occasionally painful cough," Mommy... What's it called when it's like deadpanning but not sarcastic?
"Just in case... I have to check with Ben since this is his house, but I'd like you to stay here for at least a few days and be scanned again to monitor your regeneration," Dr. Richards continued, "purely as a precaution."
"That makes sense," Mommy agreed. "Now, let's get to the cool stuff: Do I have powers? I've noticed that I'm a lot more muscular than I was, but not body-builder huge the way the tank-top-nazi brigade were."
"There's a reason for that, and Doctor Strange and I think it's the same reason that you came back fully instead of... Well, it'd best not to describe that in front of—"
"You know, I have some of Captain America's memories," I interrupted. "I know what the formula does to someone whose been dead too long, I know what HYDRA tried to do at America's favorite corpse-filled middle finger."
Dr. Richards blinked. "What?"
"Arlington National Cemetery was built on land that belonged to Robert E. Lee's wife," I added cheerfully, "when it was established during the American Civil War, it was done, essentially, as a massive 'screw you' to Lee in specific and the confederacy in general."
If the fuzzy, honestly kind of terrifying memories of HYDRA saturating Arlington's soil with Lazarus formula in order to horrify the American people in an attempt to steal Captain America's blood... Okay, honestly, I think I was missing a lot of context but there's a reason why I was so upset at finding out what happened with Mommy.
"That's an... Interesting bit of historical trivia," Dr. Richards conceded. "As I was saying, we suspect that the reason that you did not have quite as extreme a bout of muscular growth as the successful subjects of the original subject: According to the liberated notes," he continued, "the first modification that the leader of this HYDRA splinter cell made to the Lazarus formula, once he was able to perfect synthesizing it, was to doctor it with a mixture of Mutant Growth Hormone and the Infinity Formula. Unfortunately, he doesn't elaborate on where he got the Infinity Formula from. I'm going to get in contact with Leonardo Da Vinci and see if he knows if someone got into Isaac Newton's stockpile."
"Son of a bitch!" Lisa shouted from across the room.
"Mutant Growth Hormone, in addition, temporarily granting or enhancing mutation-based powers," Dr. Richards continued as if he hadn't been interrupted, "can be combined with other drugs to either influence the effect of the Mutant Growth Hormone, or enhance the effect of the other drug. Not only did it enhance the effects of the Lazarus formula and the traces of infinity formula it was doctored with, but because it combines with almost any drug it served as a binding agent, allowing the two formulas to merge and work together instead of against each other."
"In addition to the aforementioned reanimation and immortality, the Lazarus Formula enhances the body to peak or moderate superhuman levels and allows the body to continue to function with broken bones or bullet wounds," Doctor Strange picked up. "Significant head trauma can render them temporarily dead, but they'll revive perfectly fine all their lives... However, their enhanced muscular bodies aren't... optimal. They're built for power, not speed or agility."
"The Infinity Formula, a form of the Elixir of Life... Honestly, it kind of works like a magical equivalent of the Super Soldier Serum," he continued. "It fixes anything wrong with your body, rejuvenates your body to the peak of health and youth, rebuilds you into a perfect balanced physical specimen, and continuously reapplies itself keeping you from aging or your body from degrading. You could spend a month on the couch eating your weight in junk food and only getting up to grab more food and you would still be in perfect shape and able to use any physical skills you'd developed before your month off."
"However, unlike the Super Soldier Serum, it doesn't bring your mind to peak human levels, only your body. It'll stop your brain from breaking down, but it won't fix mental disorders that have no organic cause, nor will it improve your intellect, memory, or capacity for reason. Furthermore, under normal circumstances, it is not permanent. Without regular reapplication, it'll wear off and you'll suffer rapid aging as a side effect."
"But the Lazuras formula does reapply itself, and combined they work together to enhance the body to not the peak of human potential, but the peak potential of a low level superhuman, healing and repairing the body better than either could on our own and rendering the Infinity Formula's effects permanent. Theoretically," Doctor Strange finished, "it could be transfused directly into a living human and have the same effect."
"Incidentally," Dr. Richards continued, "you should never let anyone you don't trust have even a drop of your blood. Synthesizing super serum from blood samples is difficult, but if the leader of this HYDRA cell can do it with the original Lazarus Formula then theoretically anyone could do it with the improved version. Particularly since we haven't even discussed the viral component."
"...They infected her with a virus? Mixed with zombie juice? ...Is Mommy a Resident Evil boss now?" My tummy was starting to clench up now.
"...No, and I'm a little concerned that you know about that. Those games are above your age range," Dr. Richards said hesitantly.
"If she can handle Silence of the Lambs she can handle Resident Evil," Mommy said defensively.
"I'm not going to touch that," Dr. Richards conceded. "Anyway, do you know what CRISPR is?"
"No," Mommy replied.
I raised my hand and bounced a little.
"This isn't a classroom, you can just say that you know," Dr. Richards said to me.
"Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats!" I shouted. "It's a branch of genetic science based on how certain bacteria can integrate foreign genetic material into their own genomes. In short, you use a viral particle to introduce new gene packages and special enzymes that slice apart and knit back together the host's DNA with the new genes either replacing or being added to it allowing for ease of genetic customization or modification in a way that's much easier, controllable, and more efficient than traditional gene therapy and with fewer side effects than something like the Connors formula."
"Very good," Dr. Richards praised, "now CRISPR is useful for a lot of things, but in this case, I'm going to focus on its application in making superhumans. Say that someone wanted to make a superhuman with powers similar to Luke Cage but they don't have access to the procedures and chemicals that gave him his powers. One thing they might do," he continued, "is to sequence the DNA of an animal with some kind of enhanced durability, say, an abalone, a mollusk with a very durable shell, take some of the genes responsible for how the shell forms and use CRISPR to mix those genes in with the ones responsible for how human skin forms. Do it right, and going forward that person's skin will be tougher. Combine the CRISPRing process with other treatments and bulletproof skin is certainly plausible."
Dr. Richards turned back to the console and fiddled with it, making the dots in the green thing take up the whole monitor. "This is a slide that our... You know I never caught his name."
"Skull-Face," I added. "'Cause of the Face-Tattoo."
"As good a name as any," Dr. Richards agreed, "this is a slide that Skull-Face took for his notes, showing his modified Lazarus formula with viral particles—in this case, a cold virus modified to only spread through direct blood to blood contact—to serve as a vector suspended within it. These particles allowed for... honestly quite extensive CRISPR modification. It's honestly a shame that Skull-Face fell in with HYDRA. This kind of genetic manipulation is genius."
"He got a face tattoo, how smart could he be?" I asked.
"That's not quite the same thing, this is a matter of intellect and knowledge, that's a matter of wisdom. He's demonstrated that he is terminally unwise, but that does not mean he's unintelligent," Dr. Richards lectured.
The monitor changed to the lines of letters and—Oh, that was DNA code.
"This, Ms. O'Leary—"
"Just call me Yuri, please, if you're going to keep referring to me by name."
"This, Yuri, is your modified genetic code," Dr. Richards continued. Some bits got highlighted and the rest faded away. "These are the genes I recognize." A set turned green. "These are genes found in several alligators and crocodiles related to the formation of their immune cells—did you know that alligator immune cells are capable of destroying HIV and most forms of herpes?" Some more turned orange. "These, however, are genes from salamanders, axolotls, and lizards related to cellular regeneration and tissue formation. Except for these ones" a couple of sequences stayed highlighted but the others faded, "which come from willow trees." Some turned red. "Galapagos tortoises and sea hydras for theoretical immortality—a redundancy if I had to assume." A few more in purple. "And the aforementioned abalone genes bonded to the skin, though without any additional treatments like I alluded to."
Back to the full image, then more genes pulled out for direct examination. A lot of them. "These ones, I can't identify which one is which, but according to the notes that Skull-Face left, they're selected from biological samples collected after the War of the Realms: Dark Elf, Frost Giant, Fire Demon, Troll, Goblin, Angel, dragon... Even managed to steal some blood from the body of one of the valkyries. These are all tied to regeneration, bone, muscle, and skin development, immunity, and longevity. By themselves, they'd be enough to make someone functionally immortal, but with the plant and animal genes and the comingled Lazarus and Infinity Formulas..."
"Your cells are also infused with trace amounts of comingled energies commonly found across the ten realms," Doctor Strange concluded. "In short... I wasn't joking when I said you were immortal. You physically cannot die to anything short of complete destruction of your body, which will be very difficult."
"So... What you're saying is that I'm now a Nordic Demigod?" Mommy asked incredulously. "Father must be twisting in his urn right now."
That made me think. "Mommy, what religion are you?"
"I honestly don't know," Mommy answered. "When I was very little my parents took me and my sister to what I later learned were Shinto religious ceremonies, which fits considering my father's traditional nature and my mother's... Everything, but when I saw photographs from their wedding it was a Christian ceremony with a minister and everything. And I'm pretty sure my father had a Buddhist funeral... Father never really talked about religion or forced it on us once we were old enough to start making our own choices, and we observed a secular Christmas and Easter every year..." Mommy finished by shrugging.
"...You're not... Quite a demigod," Doctor Strange corrected. "There are genes of godly and godlike origin in your modified genome, your physical attributes, once the serum has run its course, might be comparable to a god who does not possess a major divine mantel—Less Thor and Hercules, more Volstagg and Hebe—and you have traces of that kind of magic in your body, but you are still predominantly human. You are, most accurately, a Super Soldier. A powerful one, but still ultimately more human than anything else."
Mommy was silent for a moment. "If I wanted to be a God or a Demigod, is there a way I could go about doing that?"
Doctor Strange facepalmed. "If you absolutely have to, you can just ask. I think there's a shortage of valkyries right now if you want to stick with the Asgard theme. Stick around this group of people and you'll run into Thor eventually. If you want to get into contact with any other pantheon you're honestly on your own... I would strongly advise against this though."
"One more thing," Mommy said. "You said something about my blood being used to... If I collected enough of my blood and spilled it on my husband's grave..."
My eyes went wide, could...?
Doctor Strange and Dr. Richards both grimaced.
"...I wouldn't try it," Doctor Strange began. "I... You... The other people revived by the serum? The zombies, they... They got the same formula you did. Skull-Face's notes explicitly noted that he cranked up the dosage to be the same as what would have soaked through your grave. From what we've put together, they've all been dead for less than a day. Even accounting for the decapitations, if the serum affected them the way it affected you, they'd have been fully regenerated instantly."
"For some reason, you took to the serum much better than the other six subjects to receive it, and... Until we know why, assuming it wasn't direct intervention from a Divine or Cosmic being, I wouldn't risk trying to use the serum in your blood to try and bring anyone back. It might not... Be pretty."
Well, that was a... Mommy looked disappointed.
—
A little bit after that... It was getting late. I wanted to stay with Mommy, but... There were people who were technically responsible for me who were probably worried and someone has to help Grace keep her blood warm, and... I had therapy tomorrow, which meant I had to come back. Maybe after my session, I could spend the day with Mommy?
Taylor ruffled my hair when I walked over to her and we got ready to go back to Earth Bet. The portal opened up, and just as we started to step forward someone came in from the other side.
Miss Militia glared at us from behind her flag scarf. "You are all in so much trouble."