Well, sufficing to say, that tablet you found was not kidding on the stone thing. Only you wished you did not have to serve as the living example of its existence. Sure the thought of having a muscular body sounds good but the fact that you could hardly move on your own and that sometimes you threw around blue lighting from your eyes in random bouts of anger; which ended up with Brandon angry at his infirmary getting damaged at times.
Robert, Marcus and Brandon were pulling their hairs out at trying to figure out how the hell did a stone created from an ancient stone tablet gave a person not only a different body but also powers if the blue lighting was indication.
Though the one thing you found strange was during the event when they need to move you from the lab to the infirmary, which required a gurney since you could hardly move. Joy called Turtle Squad, who upon seeing you became shocked but at least had the decency to not ask questions at the moment; to move you. The four really tried but your new weight made almost impossible but when Joy joined them, getting you on the gurney and moving it became easy. And speaking of Joy, while everyone who has seen you have acted in real shock at your new appearance and blue lighting, Joy on the other hand had this look on her face like what she was seeing you do was something that she herself has already seen.
You were currently quarantined to the infirmary and you told your main staff to tell the rest of BW that your were indisposed due to a weird viral condition; giving temporary reason why you would not been seen for some time. The only ones that knew about your real condition were your main staff and Turtle squad. You just hope that your staff can handle themselves while you recuperate.
Though one major important thing you need to make sure was that Professor Jerry Hall Lucas and that he currently had in his possession a copy of the tablet, which now you knew was real and thus there is the risk of some other group discovering the secrets of the tablet.
You knew that there was absolutely no way you could hide what really happened to your body, but you need to find a way to minimize the potential consequences; cause if it got out that an ancient stone tablet had the ability to change people and grant them superpowers, it would change everything, and not for the better. So, you told Joy to find some way hide this.
Though imagine your surprise when you receive a call from President Kennedy himself to offer condolences on my 'accident'; you did not understand what he meant but you played along since the President mentioned that he knew about your new body and that was hoping for a speedy recovery.
Later, when you asked Joy, she told you that she, along with Robert, used their influence to spread the word that you were exposed to a steroid that was dosed with radiation that was found in the possession of an enemy rouge group that was retrieved by a group of spec ops. When Robert was examining it in his lab, an accident occurred, and you were exposed to the steroid and that it drastically changed your body and that now you were in therapy to recover and get used to your new body.
You could not believe people, especially the President himself, bought that lie. But since the lie was backed by Joy and Robert, who practically wrote the book on radiation, it was accepted. The one thing that was not mentioned was the blue lighting.
At least you could later walk around the base without freaking out people; though this would limit your interaction to outside people; at least until word about the reason for your condition spread. Your just grateful that the steroid excuse was used since the last thing you need was for Guinness to put you in their book for tallest man; which it should be only for natural growth.
The only people who truly knew the whole truth were Robert, Marcus, Brandon, Walter, Hayden and Joy. The rest of BW believed the 'steroid' lie, though Turtle squad and Brandon's nurses were aware of the blue lighting, but they kept their mouths shut. But you knew that sooner or later, the blue lighting would have to be revealed to the rest of BW at least.
Though you will admit that it felt kind of nice to receive flowers from the entire base hoping to get well soon.
Unfortunately, due to all the things happening around the base, from your change, the construction of the training ground to the transportation of the nuclear material, Joy did not have the chance to request more armed personnel to join BW.
Apparently, the failure of constructing the training ground for HQ really got to Joy cause this time she took to this task to the heart and not only used the construction company BW had on payroll but also used army engineering corps that was helping with the Nuclear Lab.
Two weeks later, Joy comes to tell you that the new training ground was complete. According to Joy, the new training ground was a combination of elements you would find in a Green Beret and Navy SEAL training ground with her own personal ideas; which according to her it would really test any soldier that dared to train there.
You had the gut feeling that you were going to be one of those that would end up being tested.
Hayden, wanting to make sure nothing caused you any stress due to your accident, made sure that all his work was done without problems. He managed to order extra food rations for HQ and those were safely stored in the kitchen storage room.
Just like with the food, Hayden managed to acquire the large diesel generators, along with enough fuel to keep HQ energized for an entire month; not counting if it was rationed. Since the army engineering corps was in the place at the time, they helped install the generators safely.
With no way to hide what happened to you, you decided to come clean to your main staff about what really happened, from the tablet, the translations and the stones.
While Brandon and Robert were intrigue on how the stone work and how they could change a person's body; Walter and Hayden interested in seeing something that was supernatural turning out to be real; Joy looked like she wanted to bash her head in the nearby wall at hearing your story; especially upon hearing the part of the tablet was in the possession of a Nazi general.
After being subjected to every type of test Marcus, Brandon and Robert could think of for days, which included drawing blood from the tongue since it was discovered that while your skin was now so hard that needles broke upon contact; your insides were not. They came to a possible conclusion.
In simple terms, the stone somehow made your body perfect. As in the words of Marcus, your blood showed none contaminants a normal human should have in their blood. As for the changed in body, apparently the best theory they could come up with was that the stone took fat from around your body and changed it into places around the body to make it better, but the problem is that when it ran out of the 'unnecessary fat' it started to take fat from other sources in your body, thus leading to the tiredness and bleeding. The bleeding and tiredness were also because it was discovered that your body was still in the process of changing and that it required more fat to complete the process.
Meanwhile regarding the blue lighting, from what Robert is currently able to theorize without going into invasive procedures, was two things. First, the BL was not radioactive, which lifted a huge weight off everyone's minds; second your body used up many calories to convert them into energy and said energy comes out as the lighting. You still had some trouble with it since most of the time it occurred when you felt angry or frustrated, which sadly happen a lot during these days.
Both the fat relocation and the BL's calorie consumption were the primary reason you discovered that you needed to eat more than a normal person should be able to consume.
Because of this, Marcus decided to make you a special protein bar he invented after the war during his years while studying for his doctor's license. He called it 'Tacpur' and it was apparently made of glucose and a large amount of carbs and sugar. His original intention was to replace the MREs, which tasted like crap; with something that could keep a person stuffed for an entire day. But when he tested it out, it turned out that while it did fill the person, it filled them to the point of an overdose; Marcus told you he spent three days in the hospital. But in your case, it helped you since you needed more food due your new body.
Unfortunately, while the bars were a slight improvement to the MREs, it still tasted bad.
After eating Tacpur for days straight, you began to feel better since your body was, in your doctors' words, getting the missing fat it needed to complete the changing process. Thus, after two weeks in the infirmary, you were finally able to walk on your own two feet since from what the docs told you your body had regained the necessary fat it needed in order to operate it's body form; which unfortunately meant that you had to begin training on how to fight in your new body, including how to fully control the BL. And while you could still eat normal food, you still needed to eat Tacpur daily in order to keep your body operating on full capacity.
On a side note, one interesting thing you discovered the first time the light was turned off in the infirmary was that you could see in the dark; which to be honest, was a cool thing to have, especially remembering all the times that having literal night vision would have been a blessing in all ops you did during the night.
Realizing that in order to figure out more about your condition, Marcus started a new batch of stones, which will be ready in one month.The Nuclear Lab building was finished on schedule and all that was missing was to acquire nuclear material for the lab. Luckily, material was available from a nearby nuclear power plant. You ordered Joy to make sure the convoy carrying the material was guarded right.
The convoy was under heavy guard in two forms; from the ground in the trucks was Joy with Alpha Squad while on the air, was Knight Squad riding in the Hawk. It took one day of traveling back and forth but the material arrived safely to HQ and was stored in the lab with extreme care.
Thus, the lab was in full operational capacity.
On a separate note, Robert came to you and told in secret that if a really, but dire situation occurred, he could build a 'jury-rigged' Fat Boy bomb with the current resources available, but it would take one month to build it. You told him you were grateful that he trusted you with that bit of info and that you would only order its construction if a situation really is dire.
The infirmary was once again ravaged by your blue lighting. While normally Brandon would berate you for your actions, this time he let it slide since he was there when Walter gave you the news and he could completely understand the reason for your anger.
The reason for your anger…. Walter told you that Professor Lucas was dead. The COD was that the skeleton head of the Smithsonian T-Rex fell on top of him a day before he was supposed to meet with Walter. Apparently, the exhibit was under renovation and the Professor was talking to a fellow college there, who oversaw the exhibit; when the T-Rex's head fell on top of him because the ropes holding it snapped under the pressure of the weight.
You could not believe that happened. You were walking proof that the tablet's contents were completely true and the moment you really needed the Professor to fully translate the thing to discover more of it's secrets; he ends up dying in what you would normally see in a fucking Tom and Jerry story.
Now you need to find someone new to keep translating the tablet but now that person must now be 100% trustworthy since the tablet's contents were no joke and dangerous.
Luckily Walter was able to get ahold of all the notes and data the Professor had in his office under the cover of national security, which technically was; meaning that you had the current translation efforts the Professor had done before his death. But as you stated before, you needed to find someone new to continue the translations.
With your current condition, you could not meet with governor of Montana to discuss your potential idea to have BW act as a law enforcement agency in the state when dealing with drug related crimes at least but Walter was able to get a possible appointment for you at the other half of the month.
Well, the first two weeks of August have been one whirlwind of activities. BW's Nuclear Lab is up and running alongside the new training ground; your able to walk under your own power but will need to train on how to fight again to get accustomed to your new body, including finding a way to control your blue lighting.
But sadly, there was bad news as well. Professor Lucas died in an accident and now you need to find a new translator to translate the rest of the tablet, but this person must now be verified before even allowed to see the tablet now that you know what it contains is real and the though of it falling in the wrong hands was horrifying. Also, you now need to eat that protein bar Marcus made to make sure you had a full stomach since eating normal food hardly fills you anymore; but it still tastes bad.
Though one important detail that you forgot to take care of was that you did not have any clothes that fit your new body. The only thing that fits was the underwear; while the rest of the time you been wearing a hospital gown that was actually three gowns sown together, which in your new body it hardly covered anything. You swore that the female nurses were enjoying this very much if their red faces were any indication, except for Joy; while the guys looked at you with a mixture of jealousy and pity. You really hope that you can get some clothes soon since thanks to this, you were stuck in either the infirmary or your room.
Joy wanted to recruit more troops into BW but with supervising the upgrade of the base's defenses, training you and welcoming an old friend to our group took up much of her time.
When Joy wasn't busy with training you, she took charge of improving the base' defenses. After two weeks of work, Crown Wall now had watchtowers around its fences as well large spot lights to illuminate the entire perimeter.
Hayden tried to order the necessary materials to upgrade the HQ's command center but due to other jobs occurring around HQ, and with the new computer lab that was being placed, he did not have time to do so. Also, he was working on a special job that was related to you; which later on you were grateful for his efforts.
Hayden tried to acquire a meeting with the mayor of Hartford but he could not get a meeting during this time. He would try again later.
You told Walter to find a translator to translate the rest of the tablet but because of the high requirements that translator needed to have since the tablet was now considered a possible WMD, you knew you could not just trust any simple translator with this job. Because of said requirements, none of the candidates Walter found during this time qualified for myriad of reasons. Walter told you he would try better next time.
Unfortunately, while you had a potential meeting with the governor of Montana set up, you could not make it since you were busy training and that you did not have any clothes available by the time of the meeting was supposed to take place. You told Walter to try and acquire a meeting some time later.
Because of all the training you were put through, looking for a head spook was the least of your concerns. Though you swore that if you could get away with it, you were willing to launch a lighting blast at the power station that feeds Langley to leave those spooks in the dark, literally.
Joy laughed at that idea.
With the construction of computer lab, Marcus and Robert almost forgot to order the necessary equipment to upgrade the lab, but luckily, they managed to do so in time without incident. The lab was now more secure and could carry on more experiments.
Robert came to you and asked for permission to acquire a computer to help run any future research calculations. You knew that acquiring one would be a hassle since computers were entire rooms full of electronics that need 24/7 monitoring to keep them running; but the amount of calculations they did would really help accelerate any projects that were put through them, so you gave Robert permission to acquire one.
It took some time, but Robert was able to acquire a computer, but the surprise came that the computer was coming from ARPA. Apparently, ARPA decided that since you were willing to test out the prototype aircraft they sent, they have decided that BW could also test out their newest computer.
It was called the Ballistic Research Laboratories Electronic Scientific Computer or BRLESC. According to the info they sent and Robert's own input, this computer is supposed to replace EDVAC and ORDVAC, which were the computers that came after ENIAC, the computer that helped calculate the military with its artillery firing tables but also test out the feasibility of the hydrogen bomb.
However, one interesting thing came was that ARPA was not only sending the computer to BW but also a specialist to assist with its functioning.
According to the file, the specialist was a British doctor by the name of Strangelove. She is a doctor specializing in something called AI research. When you asked your scientists what that meant, they said meant Artificial Intelligence, which in simple terms it meant that ARPA wanted to create something like Robby the Robot from the film Forbidden Planet.
On a side note, you are starting to wonder how come most of your primary staff are British. Maybe you should try to find a spook over at MI6 or something.
During your first meeting with her, she was professional but somewhat cold in regard to working with BW, though you could understand since from a POV she just got reassigned from her original workplace to another one in the middle of nowhere, which could be interpreted that she was a failure and they wanted to get rid of her.
But her attitude did a 180 when she meet with not only Robert, who she greeted with almost fangirl attention; but also with Joy, but in her case she showed genuine happiness, which Joy reciprocated in turn upon seeing Strangelove.
Apparently, she and Joy knew each other from a previous classified project and got separated after Joy's failure in Cuban Invasion.
Sufficing to say, that Strangelove now was really exited in working with BW since it meant that she could work with Joy again and was grateful that you ordered the computer that allowed her to come.
You asked Joy if Strangelove could be trusted with the secret of the stones and she told that coming from her, she could keep the secret.
Thus, you told her about the stones and their capabilities, which really excited her in the prospects of a stone doing that, though what really caught her attention was your BL, which she asked if it was possibly if it could be used to energize stuff. You told her she could test this theory much later.
When you asked Joy to come up with a plan to train you regarding your new body and maybe your BL, she immediately got to planning. A two days later, she had one ready and told you to prepare for hell on Earth.
The training program would last for a month. For the next two weeks, she had you working on your body's physical capabilities only; while the other two weeks were to train your BL.
After two weeks of grueling training, tests and observation, several things were pointed out.
Regarding your body's strength, you could demolish brick walls with one punch; lift and throw a truck with ease more than 500 meters away and if the remains of the test dummies were any indication, you could probably kill a normal person by simply slapping them if you don't control your strength.
Regarding the body's durability, this is were most of the tests took place and produced the most jaw-dropping results. A punch from a normal person, getting hit with a bat, a metal bar, and a brick did not work at all. A knife broke upon contact with your arm, not feeling anything. But the most important test came when Joy, with your permission, shot in the arm with a handgun; it did not penetrate nor feel anything at all. You then told her to continue trying to shoot you with different guns of different calibers, regardless of the danger; you even order other soldiers to shoot you from multiple angles at the same time.
Not one of the guns were able to hurt you, hell even a grenade exploding in your hand, which Joy yelled at you for trying that alone; no damage came to you. The final two risky tests came when Joy not only shoot a rocket launcher at you, but you had Roland shoot you with the Hawk's weapons, you came out unscathed.
Sufficing to say, all the soldiers who saw this, heck everyone in BW now wanted to see if they could get the same treatment you went through. Poor Marcus looked like he wanted to shoot someone after getting asked multiple times if he could create the same 'steroid' that gave you your new body.
In terms of speed, you found out that you could jump high and create craters upon landing on the ground hard. But the most important discovery came when you were told to try to run straight at full force. A few seconds later, you discovered that you ran all the way to Hartford, apparently also running through the electric fence without noticing.
And finally, in terms of endurance, you could last an entire 8 hours straight without slowing down before exhaustion began to hit you hard, making you eat almost triple the amount of Tacpur to recover the energy.
An important drawback was discovered regarding your new body. Your fingers were too big to fit in the triggers in normal size guns. This really limited your combat capability.
Speaking of combat, because of your body's strength it was decided that you could not spar with anybody due to the fear of you accidentally killing someone; not even Joy wanted to try. Thus you were forced to practice alone in fighting with your bare hands, following Joys' instructions.
You just hope that training your BL is easy and does not backfire.
One of the biggest issues you had was that due to your new size, none of the clothes you owned now fit you and you knew well enough that your size was not available in any clothing store. The only thing that fit you was the underwear and that was by stretching it a bit. You were using whatever you could find to cover yourself.
Which imagine your surprise when Hayden came to present you with clothes that were tailored to your new size. Apparently, Hayden had remembered the story about Robert Wadlow, the Alton Giant, who held the record for being the tallest man in the world at 8 feet, at least officially since unofficially that record belongs to you now; and thus he contacted the companies that made Wadlow's clothes and ordered different sets for you in your new size, including shoes and underwear.
He ordered three different sets: casual, army dress uniform and a field combat uniform.
You were thankful that Hayden accomplished this for you.
You were curious on to where the Sankt got the tablet, especially since it could be possible there were more relics like it where it was found. So, you contacted some people who owned you favors to see what they could find regarding Sankt and his movements.
Weeks later, your contacts finally got an answer from old records. Sankt was apparently stationed in the Berg concentration camp near Tønsberg, Norway for some time and was later reassigned to another post in Europe, which he left with several crates of unmarked contents.
You had a possible location on where he could have gotten the tablet.
You don't know why but for some reason, strange things have begun to occur around HQ for the last two weeks. Like some saying some stuff going missing, falling without explanation, lights flickering on/off; heck you even swore that sometimes the room you were in became cold suddenly for a few moments without explanation.
You needed to find out what the heck was happening.
On another note, Joy seemed to look around HQ with more attention.
You talked it over with Marcus and decided until the rest of the tablet is translated, it's better to give the stones a name for now.
Thus, you told him to give the stone the name Philosopher Stone.
When asked why, you told him that the name came to you since the legend of the stone is basically a stone that changes things.
That and on the chance that someone got a hold of the reports or heard something, upon hearing the name Philosopher Stone, they might ignore it on the premise that it was a misdirection with using the name of a mythical object.
When you told the rest of your staff about the stone's new name and the reason, they agreed. Though, Joy on the other hand, while she said she approved of the name, she had this smile on her face that everyone in the room could tell was fake. Strangelove looked at you with pity and like she was preparing for your funeral.
The next day during training, Joy seemed to take way too much pleasure in shooting you with several guns and even asked Ronald if she could borrow the Hawk to use it's weapons against you. You would have asked why she is like this but you even though you were bulletproof, you did not want to risk angering Joy again.