AN: Hey every one this is Jcrowe, this is a new story I have been working on. Sorry for the slow releases, next update will be for 'A Grimm Contract' followed by 'Blood Ruling Hero'. Feel free to PM me if you want to talk about the stories, your positive feedback is what drives me to continue these stories. now without further ado here is the first chapter of Resident Fallen Hero.
Chapter 1
It was a cool day in early fall in the Arklay Mountains, a small mountain range in the mid-west of the United States. Within these mountains lay Raccoon City, the home and birthplace of the Umbrella Corporation. The Umbrella Corporation is considered one of if not, the most powerful pharmaceutical companies in the world. The corporation has major influence in the production and sale of cosmetics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, industrial machine production, consumer products, health foods, the transportation industry and tourism. Though unknown to everyone except for the topmost members of its ranks, Umbrella uses these influences to hide and fund one of the world's largest developers of biological and viral weaponry.
Founded by Oswell E. Spencer, James Marcus and Edward Ashford under the name of Umbrella Pharmaceuticals in 1968. The three met at university studying virology and became closely associated due to their beliefs in the eugenics movements that dominated Europe and North America in the early 20th century. Their aspirations and plans truly were set when tales of a mythical West African flower known as 'Stairway of the Sun' reached the now Doctor Marcus. Marcus discussed his hypothesis that the flower likely bestowed powers to its consumers by a mutagenic viral infection. The three along with a collection of like-minded associates did eventually find the flower in the tribal lands of the Ndipaya people in an underground temple, and much to their joy Dr. Marcus was proven right with the discovery of the Progenitor Virus. In the end Umbrella Pharmaceuticals was first formed by Oswald E. Spencer to help funding the research of the Progenitor Virus, and culminated in a plan titled the "T-Virus Project" where the three would independently develop strains of the Progenitor Virus to the US military as a weapon.
Now nearly thirty years later the renamed Umbrella Corporation has developed multiple powerful experimental Bio Organic Weapons (BOW's) using an aggressive variant of the Progenitor Virus named the Tyrant or 'T'-Virus. Now the only living founding member, Spencer continues to search for the path forward toward his ideal evolution of the human race through the power of the T-Virus.
Spencer Estate, Arklay Mountains, 1994:
Outside of the large metropolis of Raccoon city and within the sprawling forests of the Arklay Mountains sat the seemingly abandoned Spencer Estate. Unknown to those who live in the city this is not true, housed within and below the sprawling estate was the first and longest running hidden testing labs of Umbrella's bioweapon development programs using its many variants of the T-Virus. Unknown to those working in the facility a hole seemed to open up above the main entryway of the mansion. Later checks of the security footage of the area would show an object being launched from the opening, landing and creating a five foot crater in the pathway raising a plume of dust and debris. The shockwave and impact of the object set off multiple alarms in the underground facility alerting the security and scientists on site.
While the personnel within the facility began to mobilize to check the situation, within the crater a form was moving within the dust. Stumbling to its feet and looking up at the closing hole in the air in front of it, green lightening seemed to manifest around the figure blowing the remaining dust away revealing the figure. Standing at a height of five foot ten inches was what appeared to be a human male, appeared to be due to his non-normal features and apparel. The males torso was bare at the moment showing heavy scaring across his body ranging from puncture, slash, and even burn scars. None of this detracted from the sheer musculature of his body seemingly sculpted from marble or even iron.
On the unknown males arms and legs were a pair of armored gauntlets and leg armor. The armor on the arms appeared to be made from layered crimson metal plating wrapping from the male's heavily scarred fingers up to just below his shoulders. Over the gauntlet was a heavy glove with odd openings on the knuckles and heavy reinforcement on the wrists. The armor on his legs in contrast seemed to be heavier than the gauntlets, black metal over red boots covered his feet and padded armor went up to just above the knees. Around the young man's neck and covering the lower part of his face was a metal faceplate, cracked and damaged to the point it looked jagged. his eyes were narrowed in what appeared to be anger and pain and glowing an acidic fluorescent green. The last to be seen was the man's hair, long and messy, the hair was green fading to black at the roots.
Struggling to move forward towards the now nearly closed hole in space, the individual spoke in a cracked and tired voice. "Damn it… I need to get back…" Taking a stance to jump forward, the energy surrounding his body suddenly cut off causing the young man to collapse to his hands and knees. Gasping for breath the man began speaking to himself in a panicking tone almost begging. "No! Not yet, I need to get back, even if I was able to defeat them… the others still need me… mom and Eri still need me!" Pushing himself up to a standing position what little light of hope still in his eyes seemed to fade as he saw the hole finally close.
Tears now seemed to stream from the young man's eyes as he collapsed to his knees, sobs began to be heard coming from his shaking form. "No… I was too late… mom, Eri, everyone… I'm sorry I won't be able to come back… in the end I guess I'm just glad that I had managed to stop Tomura and All For One once and for all…" Unseen to the young man, he was slowly being surrounded by armed men in dark armor each identified by the Umbrella logo on their shoulders and back. The young man seemed oblivious to the men at first until the group proceeded to move forward to contain the intruder.
As soon as the order was given the boy seemed to suddenly flinch in surprise and pain before looking up and around him. Each of the soldiers that met gazes with the young man flinched as his previously tired and dead looking eyes filled with tears turned into bright green pools of determination and hidden anger. Seeming to not even notice his heavy wounds, the young man reached to his belt and hit a switch on the buckle. Then in front of the now wary soldiers the boy's broken and damaged armor seemed to flux and move before beginning to repair itself. In just a few moments, what seemed to be a broken down boy that seemed to be on his last legs, was replaced with an intimidating figure with a dark green form fitting top covering the torso and a black plate of armor covering the chest. Now around the neck was a ragged yellow cape that went to the figures lower back seeming to flutter in the mountain wind, and now covering the boys head was a cowl shadowing the boys still glowing green eyes.
All of this together along with the reemergence of the emerald lightning caused more than a few of the Umbrella soldiers to take a step back in fear at the pure intent this unknown was giving off. One of the soldiers mustered his courage and spoke up in a commanding tone to the threat in front of them. "Identify yourself, you are currently trespassing on private property!" Rallying at the tone in the soldiers voice, the rest of the group seemed to regain their courage and stepped forward while raising their weapons. Seeing the rest of his men backing him up the lead soldier continued his declaration.
"If you do not surrender, we will be forced to use lethal force!" A rush of clicks ran through the area as the group collectively aimed their weapons while clicking off their safeties. "This is your final warning! Stand down or we will open fire!" Staring at the group the glowing emerald eyes seemed to sharpen at their statement. Taking a deep breath the unknown spoke with accented English through a voice modulator surprising the soldiers that had heard him speaking in Japanese earlier. "Lower your weapons now, I may not know where I am, but I will defend myself. And if you fire…" as his voice trailed off, suddenly tendrils of dark energy seemed to manifest from his body like some kind of eldritch abomination. "YOU WILL REGRET IT!"
Before the situation escalated the unknown suddenly flinched and reached towards his back. The soldiers on that side could see a dart sticking from the unknown's suit. As the unknown pulled the dart out and looked at it, he began to stumble and the energy around him faded away before he collapsed. Seeing their opportunity, a few of the soldiers rushed forward to restrain the intruder. The commander of the group was about to order the things execution before his radio pinged him. Reaching up to his helmet and pressing a switch he spoke into the radio.
"This is the containment team, we have captured the intruder, what are your orders sir?" There was a moment of silence before in a burst of static a male voice spoke. *Bring the unknown to the labs, word from Doctor Birkin. They want to see what makes this thing tick and if it can be used by us.* Sighing and cursing under his breath the leader spoke up to his men "Alright men collect the subject and bring him with us. The doctor wants to use him." Ignoring the mumbles and silent curses of his men, the soldier turned back towards the Spencer Estate entrance and thought to himself. 'I hope those nutjobs know what their getting themselves into… because I know if we hadn't caught that thing off guard then…' The memory of the things glowing eyes appeared in his mind again sending a shiver down his spine. 'I just hope this doesn't bite us in the ass.'
-Line Break-
Doctor William Birkin sat in his office within the Spencer Estate underground lab going over his research of his pet project of a sort different from the blasé T-Virus. Derivative of the Progenitor Virus as well he designated it as the Golgotha Virus, or G-Virus for short. When he had originally found the viral strain within Lisa Trevor, the only known survivor of the Progenitor Virus, Birkin had been surprised. While he had been studying the effects of this new strain he had found that the G-Virus worked in the complete opposite way of the previously made T-Virus.
Unlike the T-Virus, which had a very low chance of the individual surviving with their higher brain functions intact, along with cases of cellular degeneration. The G-Virus instead would continually alter an individual on the genetic level, as well as repair damaged cells at a high rate. Also unlike the T-Virus, those who are infected with the G-Virus would not become sterile, which was a major high point for Spencer to prioritize Doctor Birkin to continue his work. Birkin knew that Oswell could not be trusted with the slew of 'accidents' that followed those who worked with the man. Then there were the stories of the mans 'Project Wesker.'
Before Birkin could continue his thoughts, a sudden tremor shook the facility nearly knocking the man from his seat. Catching himself on his desk to steady himself, William went to check his lab to ensure that there was no chances of a containment breach. Along the way William could see the halls filled with rushing members of the Umbrella security forces, curious the doctor reached out to catch one of the remaining members to ask what was going on. "Officer what is happening? What was that tremor?" The operative seemed to think for a moment deciding whether or not the person in front of them was important enough to tell the situation. Stiffening in recognition the operative straightened and faced the doctor before replying.
"Sir, an unknown object crashed into the main pathway leading to the Spencer Estate." Surprise filled the doctor at the operatives words as he responded, "Where did it come from?" The operative shrugged and replied, "I am not sure sir, we were just told to go to the site and determine the situation. Now excuse me sir, but I need to go now." Saluting the Doctor the operative rushed off. Now curious at what could be happening, Doctor Birkin made his way to the security office to check in with the team there. When he had made it to the monitor room, Birkin could see all of the operators surrounding the main monitor for the Estate.
Walking up to see what the commotion was, Birkin was hit with a sudden bout of shock and intrigue. There standing in a large crater in the main road leading to the estate grounds appeared to be some kind of humanoid creature surrounded in some sort of energy field. The doctor's first impression was that somebody had sent an unknown B.O.W to attack the facility, then hearing the individual speak sent a chill of excitement up the man's spine. This… this could be what the man had been looking for to complete his G-Virus project! Jumping on this opportunity, Doctor Birkin rushed forward past the operators and reaching for the radio to speak to the men onsite.
"This is Doctor William Birkin; I want you to incapacitate the unknown and bring him to the facility and directly to my personal labs. Is that understood?" There was a moment of pause before a rough voice responded, "Rodger that doctor, standby-" watching the screen with bated breath, Birkin and the other operators sighed in relief that the soldiers had caught the unknown off guard with a tranquilizer round. Seeing that his newest asset had been contained, Doctor Birkin thanked the operators and left the monitor room to go set up his lab. It was around fifteen minutes before six soldiers came in carrying the unknown on a portable stretcher.
Nodding to the group of Umbrella operatives, Birkin spoke up, barely held excitement in his voice. "Place him on the examination table and restrain his limbs. You can then leave after you are done." Hearing grumbling from the men as they carried the figure to the table. When the group had finished transferring the unknown to the table and secured them, the group saluted and left without another word. Not bothering with the soldiers attitudes, the doctor walked forward to begin his examination of his newest subject.
Doctor Birkin began his notes with the suit and armor the being was wearing, taking samples from each of the materials that made it up. The doctor then moved to remove the mask and cover from the subjects head. It took some time, but the doctor was eventually able to find a switch on the mask that retracted both the items revealing the subjects face to him. Shock ran through Birkin as he saw that the subject was no more than a teenager, maybe fifteen or sixteen years old. A large scar ran across the boy's cheek under his eye and stopped over the bridge of his nose. The boy's hair was the next thing to catch the doctor's attention, it was a dark forest green that lightened towards the tips to a brighter shade. At first Birkin had assumed it was hair dye or something until he checked the boy's hair roots and saw that there was no signs of hair dye.
Confused by this, Birkin took a large sample of the hair by shaving a patch from the boy's left side. Setting the hair sample aside for later the doctor continued collecting a few blood and skin samples before implementing an I.V. with a continuous low dose of a sedative to keep the subject unconscious. Birkin then began testing with the boys blood to see what made him tick. What the man found shocked him to his core, from what he could observe the boy's cells seemed to be supercharged beyond any normal human being. Green energy seemed to arc between the cells on the slide keeping them in a constant state of activity.
Intrigued by this discovery, Birkin spent the next few hours beginning gene sequence testing on the hair skin and blood samples. Stepping back from the last sequencer to begin running, Birkin stretched his tired muscles and looked to his labs clock to see the time. Only to blink in surprise at the clock reading eight in the morning. Rubbing his eyes realizing that his wife would be upset with him for not returning home to check-in and visit with their daughter Sherry. As the man went to leave, Birkin made sure to have the security staff keep his newest subject sedated. When Birkin sat down on the underground train that would transport him back to the outskirts of Raccoon City, he began thinking about how he would proceed forward with his new subject.
-Line Break-
Three Weeks Later:
Birkin was once again sitting in his lab reading over his findings on the unknown subject now being dubbed as Project Prometheus. When the readings from the first rounds of testing came back Birkin was shocked to say the least. Prometheus' DNA showed that he was indeed human, if said human had gone through about three hundred years of accelerated evolution. Everything in the subjects body was for a lack of better term; streamlined. The subjects bones, organs, and muscles were much denser and efficient, giving the subject a baseline ability above even trained Olympic athletes.
On that subject, the equipment the boy was wearing was another thing. The materials making up the armor were actually made up of nano-machines, meaning that if the suit were damaged then it could be easily repaired onsite. Unfortunately none of the technology could be replicated at this time, due to the machines breaking down when separated from the whole for longer than a few days. The suit itself couldn't even be removed as it had broken apart and then melded with the subject leaving him in just the bodysuit portion of the uniform.
While these findings were interesting to the doctor, Birkin was more interested in Prometheus' DNA's adaptability. It seemed that no matter what viral strains were introduced to the subjects blood samples, it was broken down and was then absorbed into the cells. Interested in this, Birkin had tried everything from Umbrella's stocks of deadly viral strains except for the Progenitor strains. Even parasites were broken down by the antibodies in the blood samples, to Birkin and his associates it appeared that this boy was capable of adapting to anything that was introduced to his system to make itself stronger.
Now today was the day he was going to be testing Prometheus' blood's reaction to the Progenitor strains. Prometheus himself had been placed in an isolation tube suspended in a solution that was made to keep his body supplied with nutrients and a constant stream of suppressants. This had to be done when it was found that his body was beginning to build an immunization to the previous medications. The jumpsuit that had covered his torso was removed showing the subjects muscled and scared upper body. Birkin remembered how some of the other scientists had reacted to seeing the sheer amount of damage on the boy's body, some even had to step away to compose themselves. Birkin himself had wondered what Prometheus had gone through to warrant this much damage especially on his arms and hands. Shaking off the memories, Birkin moved to begin his tests starting with the Progenitor Virus.
As soon as the sample of the Progenitor Virus was introduced to the sample, there was an almost explosive amount of activity as the cells began to react to the new virus. The cells seemed to mutate almost constantly, becoming stronger and more resilient as the Viral RNA was integrated into the cellular mitochondria. Birkin's mouth was wide open in shock at the results so far. This was probably the fastest and most stable reaction to the virus he had ever seen! Excitement building at what this could mean William set the sample to the side for further study and continued onto the next test.
Deciding to go in order, William decided to try the T-Virus next. Unlike the Progenitor, the T-Virus seemed to act slowly in integration, but the data seemed to show that the T-Virus had a more stable reaction with less rampant mutation. Seeing this caused the doctor to frown at the lack of reaction but believed that the stability could be used to help in the production of B.O.W's. Once more William placed the sample within an observation container so as to prevent any chance of accidental contamination from the more dangerous virus.
'This is it, now to see how Prometheus will react to the Golgotha.' With care, William now went to a locked refrigerator unit and pulled out a purple vial. Walking back, the doctor with caution proceeded to add the sample of his G-Virus to the sample. Looking down at the sample, William had to hold back a laugh of joy at what he was seeing. The sample seemed to show the positives from both previous tests; both the positive mutations and stability. On top of these the sample showed signs of advanced regeneration and energy production!
These tests continued for the next three months until the project hit a roadblock. Doctor Birkin had attempted to talk the higherups into allowing him to turn Project Prometheus into a template for a new B.O.W. based on the new Tyrant units that Wesker had been working on. Unlike the Tyrants although Birkin proposed that they use the G-Virus instead to create a new type of soldier he called a TITAN. Unfortunately every attempt to place a control system in place on the boy failed, either absorbed, destroyed, or shorted out by the energy in the subjects body.
It was latter determined that Project Prometheus would be put in stasis indefinitely or until a new working control system could be implemented. Eventually Doctor Birkin was reassigned to the newer research facility underneath Raccoon City. The doctor honestly was somewhat relieved to now be closer to home. Not only would this enable him to see his daughter on a more consistent basis, but his wife could return to work with him on his projects.
The day before his reassignment, William Birkin stood in front of the pod holding Project Prometheus staring at the imposing figure stuck within. While he stood there looking at the individual in the pod, Birkin seemed to be thinking about something while rolling a vial within his hands. Seeming to come to a decision, Birkin spoke to the unconscious boy in the pod for what would likely be the last time. "You know Prometheus, with what we have learned from studying your DNA our research has progressed at a phenomenal pace." William looked to the sleeping subjects face, a smile crossing the doctor's normally placid features before he continued. "Well, seeing as this will be the last time we will likely see each other for the foreseeable future. I have decided to give you a gift and conduct one last experiment."
Raising the vial up to the imprisoned subject, Birkin spoke again, a note of near mania in his voice now. "This in my hand here is something I have been working on just for you, just incase my Project TITAN had been approved. In this vial is a stable combination of the Progenitor and G-Virus, you are probably the only being on this planet capable of handling the power of these two viruses in your system." A smile now split the man's face as he inserted the vial into an injection system. Seeing that the injection system was beginning to introduce the viruses to Prometheus's body William turned and walked away.
Before reaching the door, Birkin stopped and spoke, not looking back at the pod. "You know, in mythology the titan Prometheus was imprisoned on a mountain top by the Gods of Olympus for giving fire to man. He was then sentenced by the King of the Gods Zeus to have his liver eaten by a large eagle every day, only to have it grow back in the night." Within the pod the body of Project Prometheus began to react to the viruses, seizing and shaking within his restraints. Not even seeming to notice the goings on behind him, Birkin walked out the door closing behind him.
'I wonder Prometheus, will you stay imprisoned like your codename, or will you break your binds. Hehehe, either way this will be an interesting experiment.'
