The Pulse is a news site with their headquarters in New York. Inside, Jessica Jones, now a full-time reporter, darts through the corridor to the editor-in-chief's office. "Excuse me," she exclaims as she squeezes past a fellow reporter on her way, then ends up bumping into a second worker, accidently spilling his papers on the floor. "Sorry," she says as she quickly scoops up some papers as she goes and tosses them back at the worker. The editor-in-chief is James J. Johnson. He is a middle-aged man, thin with a mustache and short hair.

Jessica barges into his office without even knocking, "Mr. Johnson, I just got word from one of my sources. We need to get to Seagate Prison ASAP."

"Yes, Ms. Jones, come into my office. I'm glad you knocked," he groans sarcastically.

Jessica turns, knocks on his open door mockingly, and continues, "There's been an accident at Seagate Prison."

"First of all... Seagate Prison. Why does that sound familiar?"

"It's a corporate-owned prison. We did an expose' on them a while back."

"Okay, And what sort of accident are we talking about here?"

"Apparently, it had something to do with a medical experiment. My source believes it might have been an attempted homicide. We're fuzzy on the details right now."

"Medical experiments? At a prison?"

"Yes, there's a program concerning prison volunteers submitting to medical testing for parole."

"So what happened?"

"A prisoner was undergoing an experiment and somehow, it went wrong and now he's in the hospital. Some believe a disgruntled guard was involved."

"Let's look into it."

"And, sir?"

"Yes?"

"I really believe this is the work of a crime syndicate. There are just too many -"

"Not that conspiracy nonsense again. You've been on that since you were an intern here."

"I think we need to look a little further into this is all."

"Jessica, I hired you because, even as a college student, you had the perfect instincts for a reporter. I mean, most interns are content with just making coffee but you actually went out and got stories... even when you weren't supposed to. You're smart but you can't buy into every corporate conspiracy theory you hear... Especially when many of those corporations keep us in business."

"Fine," she says disappointingly.

"Go to Seagate, get the story, and we'll see where it goes from there."

Lucas' eyes open. His blurry vision finally focuses on the three figures looming above him. There, he sees the Warden, Noah Burstein, and John McIver.

"I guess I'm not dead," Lucas sits up, "That's a plus."

"You're in the hospital now," the Warden tells him, "You had a hell of a night."

"What happened? Where's Rackham? Last I remember -"

"He was shot, unfortunately," he explains, "After he interfered with the experiment, he made a run for it and apparently drew a gun on another guard."

"What did he do to me?"

"Well, you don't seem to have suffered any ill-effects."

"More than that," Burstein adds, "In a way, Rackham did you a favor. From all indications, you're several times stronger now. The nanos worked better than expected."

"What?"

"You put a hole straight through my wall," the Warden tells him, "But don't worry, Mr. McIver here has agreed to pay for the damage."

"It's no problem," he smiles.

"Thankfully, the process wasn't fatal," Burstein continues, "If the nanos did not leave your body, there would have been a problem."

"Yeah, I remember you mentioning something about that," Lucas looks at his hand and clenches his fist, "So,... I'm some kind of superhuman now?"

"It seems that way," Burstein explains, "We've no way of knowing the full extent of what the nanobots did to you at this point. To be honest, I'd like to complete the tests if you're still interested."

"You mean the program's still on?"

"If you're still interested, I'd like you to come work for me" McIver explains, "I understand you're still up for parole. We've obviously made a breakthrough last night and Prof. Burstein needs to continue his work. Certainly, there's been a... misfortunte and I understand if you'd like to stop."

Warden turns to him, "How about it, Carl? The doctors say you can leave anytime you feel up to it and I can have you in front of the Parole Board this afternoon. After that, you're working for Mr. McIver."

Lucas flexes his arm in bewilderment, "Yeah, why not?"

Lucas leaves the hospital room along with two guards and the Warden with handcuffs around his wrists. He turns to ask the Warden a question, "So exactly how strong am I now?" and as he does so, he accidently snaps the handcuffs. He stops dead in his tracks and everyone stares at the cuffs in disbelief; the guards gazing back up at him. He shrugs and smiles nervously. "Oh, that's how strong I am." "Apparently," the Warden gasps then to the guards and whispers, "Keep a close eye on him until we get him back, huh?" The guards, now wide-eyed, nod silently.