Work down in the Genesis Tower's main processing labs went on as usual, all except for one minor difference. Minor, that is, in the grand scheme of things. To the processing technicians and scientists working on the project, it was very important. Unlike some of their higher-ranked coworkers, this group had not been called in to meet with Team Five and their supervisor, the new head of Chronos' Africa Section.
They were working on a new type of female Zoanoid, one that would be comparable to the Hyper Zoanoid types. None of the old models could hope to compete with the Hypers in anything but speed. In fact, the female Zoanoids were the only models that could consistently outrun the Hyper Zoanoids – most models at least – over various kinds of terrain.
Most of the labs on this floor were dedicated to producing new types of Standard Zoanoids, but there were a select few that had been given over to research and development of new Hyper- and female Zoanoid types. This was the first – and to date the only – laboratory that was devoted to creating a hybrid of the two types. A female Hyper Zoanoid would be ideal for Chronos' plans in the long run, especially given the possible combinations of Hyper traits that bred into the next generation.
Crossing a Razell with a Ranza produced offspring with higher athleticism, enhanced agility when compared with a normal human, and a natural affinity for both running and climbing. Crossing a Ramochis with a Sharru produced more physically robust offspring, with an affinity for either wrestling or swimming, depending on the child's personal preferences. Even more combinations were possible, but still the coupling of a Hyper Zoanoid and even an enhanced female Zoanoid would result in offspring slightly weaker than the Hyper but only slightly stronger than the female.
It was well known that two Hyper Zoanoids would produce a much stronger child than a Hyper Zoanoid and a Standard Zoanoid, just as two Zoanoids produced a stronger child than a Zoanoid and a human. That was why these technicians were working to develop a female of the type. Cloning and gene-splicing, while they could be used to develop new Hyper Zoanoids, cost too much in time and resources to be a viable way of propagating the breed.
Of course, given what had happened in Chronos lately, with Lord Imakarum Mirabilis declaring his son a part of the organization, some of the more theory-inclined techs had started to wonder just what kind of a child the coupling of a Zoalord and a female Zoanoid would produce. Even a Proto-Zoalord would be suitable for this kind of experiment. After all, their shortened lifespan was due to their increased rate of cellular metabolism and not to any kind of damage to their DNA during processing.
It would be very interesting to find out just what kind of offspring a coupling between a Proto-Zoalord and a Hyper Zoanoid would produce, which was why a few of them had put in orders for a pair of dummy Zoacrystals in their next shipment of materials. One would be used to develop a Proto-Zoalord whose genetic material would then be crossed with some of the more robust female Zoanoids. The other would be used to process Chronos' first female Proto-Zoalord.
Her genetic material would be combined with one of the Hyper Zoanoids, since the female Hyper Zoanoid that was being developed would doubtless need a great deal of study and testing before she was ready to be accepted as a finished Hyper Zoanoid model. It would be very useful to Chronos' future goals to have a previously untapped source of Hyper Zoanoid stock suddenly made available for processing. Of course, there was bound to be a small pool of those who were qualified to become female-variant Hyper Zoanoids, just as there were a select few people who could become normal Hyper Zoanoids.
It had been easier than expected to convince the Sleeper Techs to divert some of their raw materials for the project. None of the people being studied would be missed for some time, and Chronos was very good at falsifying documentation. Besides, if any of them were killed during processing – or after, as would have to be done with the two Proto-Zoalords – there would be no one asking about them as there would be in other places. After all, tourists disappeared all the time.
But for now, there was work to be done on their new Hyper Zoanoid type. This would make it the only one of its kind, and some might say that that was all the qualification that she needed to be considered a Lost Number.
Those people were idiots.
There were enough differences between a Zoanoid prototype and a Lost Number that the comparison was completely moot. Apples to oranges, really, and anyone who couldn't see that deserved to be demoted.
As the processing technicians hurried about their tasks, checking and rechecking the prototype's vital signs and making adjustments to the amniotic fluid she was resting in, they were also taking the time to refine the form that had been chosen for her. Someone had suggested the name Samarubu for the prototype. The name had stuck, and so Chronos' first female Hyper Zoanoid would be named Samarubu.
It had been agreed upon that – for now at least – Samarubu would be an upgraded version of a standard female Zoanoid. She would have all of the characteristics of a normal Zoanoid of her kind – enhanced speed, endurance and stamina - but they would be pushed to their absolute limits during the process. Once this prototype version had been proven viable, a group of them could be created and bred with Hyper Zoanoids who had been specifically selected for their various attributes.
The offspring of the various couplings would be invaluable research subjects. It would be their characteristics that would decide once and for all whether the Samarubu-type would be the only ones of their kind, or if an entire range of female-variant Hyper Zoanoids were worth the time and recourses necessary to produce them in numbers comparable to their male-variant counterparts.
As the retroviruses went to work altering the woman's genetic structure, the attendant processing technicians continued about their work monitoring and working to control the Zoaformation process of their newest creation. The first metabolic spike was greeted with a pleasant sense of accomplishment, a sign that their work on this new Zoaform was paying off; likewise, the second. The third wasn't deemed a cause for any alarm, either. It was only when the prototype's metabolic rate spiked for a fourth time that the gathered scientists began to become concerned about the development of the Samarubu prototype.
"Her metabolic rate is rising erratically; heartbeat is starting to become irregular," Dr. Sylar said, from his post monitoring the vital signs of the prototype.
"We'll try to stabilize it. Just keep us updated, Halling."
"Yes, sir."
Turning back to his monitoring station, Dr. Sylar began to notice something else that was odd about the Samarubu prototype.
"The fluid temperature is rising rapidly!" Dr. Lukas shouted, even as Dr. Sylar looked more closely at his own monitoring apparatus.
There had to be a reason for the fluid temperature to be rising this fast—there had to be!
"Try to lower the fluid temperature! If it gets much higher, the specimen won't survive!"
What? "It's the prototype itself that's causing the temperature fluctuations! Her body temperature is rising steadily now; the fluid is the only thing keeping her from dying of hyperthermia!"
A half-minute later, the readout on his console fizzled out. Attempting to reboot the system produced no results. "I've lost the readouts; what's happened?"
"I don't believe this!" Dr. Kalveson shouted. "The monitoring devices have been melted by the prototype's body heat!"
The Samarubu prototype, once peacefully sleeping in the processing-tank she had been put in, began to twitch and move fitfully within the 'tank. The amniotic liquid, once slightly cooler than room temperature, began to simmer and then boil as the Samarubu prototype began to heat up from the inside. The Plexiglas of the processing-tank began to vibrate imperceptibly as the bubbles began to grow larger and larger as the amniotic fluid heated up.
There was a kind of barely restrained chaos permeating the laboratory now, with the technicians and scientists all racing to try and regain some small modicum of their control over the outcome of the Samarubu prototype's processing. It was now generally accepted that this test-type was going to be a Lost Number, good only for study and further experimentation, but none of them wanted to be caught in the shrapnel from a processing-tank's explosion, and one was inevitable if they did not find some way to bring the fluid temperature back down below boiling.
There were spreading cracks in the body of the processing-tank now, and some of the fluid had even started to vaporize. This resulted in the shell of the tank starting to bulge in the center, and the weakened structure, combined with the cracks and the heat and the steadily mounting pressure caused the processing-tank to detonate with the force of a bomb. Boiling amniotic fluid, filled with the jagged shrapnel of what had once been a standard sized processing-tank, deluged the laboratory.
The scientists nearest to the processing-tank – Drs. Anton Kalveson, Harley Dent, and Halling Sylar – were scalded to death by the superheated liquid. The rest of the technicians were left severely injured but alive. In the rough center of what had been the laboratory, in the remains of the processing-tank that had held her, the Lost Number Samarubu crouched. Her body was alight with incandescent light and blazing fire.
If anyone had been alive or even conscious to make the comparison, they probably would have said that Samarubu's Zoaform bore a great deal of resemblance to the Human Torch. That is, if they had even been able to look close enough to see the similarities through the near-blinding light that her body was emitting.