My Adventures with Invincible

by simply A10

following a failed invasion attempt and the destruction of the planet Krypton and the Kryptonian empire along with it, one ship landing in rural Kansas sparks a chain of events that will change the fate of not only the planet earth but the entire galaxy at large.

3. Chapter 3

It had been years since the Invasion, since Zero Day, years since they had watched as almost all the men and women, they had served alongside were killed in what was almost a large-scale invasion, if not for the sudden disruption that came from the invaders side of the portal they had been pouring in from.

Even today nobody was certain what exactly happened, an attack from a rival group, some sort of malfunction with one of their devices, or perhaps it was just sheer luck, or even an act of God. Whatever it had been, Sam Lane and Amanda Waller viewed it as a second chance, a chance to lick their wounds and be ready for the next inevitable attack.

Sam and Amanda had dedicated their entire lives since that day doing everything in their power to prepare America to defend itself from a future inevitable alien invasion, quickly ascending the ranks of the United States military, with Sam becoming a General and Amanda Waller becoming a Lieutenant General, acting as his right hand.

Sam and Amanda believed that Cecil and the G.D.A. would not be enough, they had witnessed the guardians fight the invaders firsthand and had watched them struggle greatly, they were outnumbered and had it not been for the sudden disruption that ended the invasion they likely would have all been overwhelmed and killed.

And then there was Omniman, this new hero that had recently sprung onto the scene. Sam Lane nor Amanda Waller trusted this newcomer with a ten-foot pole, he was not human, and in their mind was another potential Zero Day waiting to happen.

When Omniman arrived on earth Cecil had decided to confront the alien personally, when he questioned him on various things, the G.D.A. had used an advanced lie detection system to determine rather or not he had been answering Cecil truthfully or lying and unsurprisingly, he had indeed lied to Cecil, except for with one question that Cecil had asked him.

Cecil had asked the alien if his people, which if he remembered correctly were called Viltrumites, had ever been on the planet and Omniman told Cecil no, which seemed to be one of the few truths he had spoken that day. That one truth did nothing to make Sam and Amanda any more trustworthy of the alien hero.

However, despite both of their protests regarding the alien hero, Cecil and the G.D.A. took no action against him and allowed him to remain on earth. This created a feud between Cecil and the duo.

The duo, no longer trusting of Cecil and the G.D.A., had begun making moves to gain influence within the government while simultaneously undermining Cecil's own influence.

This had begun with the creation of task force X, created by General Lane and Amanda Waller, A top secret black ops division was directly under their command.

Their first objective was to get their hands on the technology that had been recovered following Zero Day. A great deal of it was in the G.D.A. headquarters under the pentagon, likely in the various white rooms within the facility, however there was still a great amount at the Cadmus facility, so that is where they would start.

---

In a Cadmus facility in upstate New York, It had been a relatively quiet night at the facility, that is until it had been rocked by a massive explosion putting a hole in the side of the facility and leaving fire and chunks of debris everywhere.

It was then that a pale skinned boy who looked to be about ten or eleven walked in with a strange outfit.

"Lizard League! Divide and conquer! We'll find the secret tech faster if we split up!" The boy exclaimed.

"No my son, that's not a tactically sound strategy, remember our talk, there could be hidden dangers here we need to stick together, strength in numbers."

"But mom!" The boy tried to argue.

"Prince Lizard!" The woman said in a stern voice. "Do not disrespect me, I allowed you to do the explosion, which was louder than I would've liked, I'll take it from here." the woman said as several members of the Lizard League went into the facility behind the two of them.

"What is your command my queen?" One of the members asked the woman as he bowed to her.

"Move deeper into the lab, our intel was spotty but we should find what we are looking for on this level. The flames of this burning world will warm our cold blood! Onward until the lizard league rules all!"" The woman now known as Queen Lizard ordered, a malicious grin present on her face.

However, before she or the others could do anything they were interrupted by The Immortal flying through the wall at high speed and tackling one of the bigger members into the wall on the opposite side of the room.

Through the hole that the Immortal had made walked in War Woman, wielding her Iconic mace. Next to her was Black Sampson, quickly followed by Aquarus who used water to slide into the room. Emerging from the ground was a figure in a green bodysuit that covered him from top to bottom, including his face, this was Green Ghost, one of the new members of the Guardians of The Globe.

"The Guardians of The Globe!" Queen Lizard shouted in a mix of shock and disbelief, they had only just arrived and had not expected to encounter resistance, let alone the Guardians this soon.

"Stand down and surrender, this is your only warning." Wonder Woman said, her tone conveying absolute seriousness.

She, along with the other Guardians had seen what the technology housed in this facility was capable of and would prevent it from falling into the wrong hands by any means necessary.

"This doesn't have to get any uglier than it already is." War Woman said in hopes of getting them to surrender.

One of the larger members of the Lizard League let out a roar as Queen Lizard signaled them to go on the attack causing the Guardians to do the same with a major battle ensuing.

"If heavy hitters such as yourselves are being sent in there's no telling what's being held here." Queen Lizard said with a devious smirk.

As the battle intensified parts of the facility began to become more and more unstable, the roof of the facility had begun to crack more and more before it eventually gave in entirely.

"Everyone watch out!" Immortal shouted seeing a large piece of the roof falling down towards them.

The guardians had braced themselves the best they could, believing that the large chunk of roof would fall on and most likely crush them, at least the ones who weren't durable enough to survive such a thing.

However, the Impact never came, and the Guardians looked up to see something none of them had anticipated.

Holding up the large chunk of the roof with one hand while floating in the air was none other than Omniman.

Omniman was a tall muscular man, he wore a white skintight suit that was mostly white with red accents with a large red O emblem on his chest along with this he also had red boots, red gloves, and a red cape. He had short, slicked back hair that was black on the top and grey on the sides along with his hair he also had a thick well-groomed mustache.

"Just in time." Omniman said with a small smirk.

War Woman scoffed. "New suit?" She asked.

"Plain white thing not flashy enough for you?" Immortal asked as he and the others continued to battle one of the bigger members of the Lizard League who he had been fighting since the battle first started.

"Yeah, the tailor said it wasn't iconic enough, apparently everyone is running around with giant letters on their chest these days." Omniman replied.

"Is that what this is?" Immortal said as he looked down at his chest, the large yellow streak down the center of his chest looked like an I which he had apparently only just seemed to notice.

While this battle was taking place in one part of the facility, A woman was currently fighting her own battle on the other side of the facility.

---

Two scientists were helping a woman walk down the hallway toward the exit of the facility, one of them was an older man who had long grey hair, this was Dr Elias Brandyworth, the head scientist of Cadmus.

The second was a much younger man, this man had shaggy blonde hair and also wore glasses, this was Dr Arthur Fournier, a young researcher for Cadmus and an assistant to Dr Brandyworth.

"I only needed a diversion; at this rate they're going to bring the building down on top of us. You weren't even due for two more weeks" Dr Brandyworth said as he and Dr Fournier helped the pregnant woman walk down the hallway.

"I'm sorry you two, I don't want to let you guys down, I-I know how important this baby is." The Pregnant woman said in visible pain.

"You have nothing to apologize for Polly, I should have found another way."

"It's going to be fine; we are almost at the exit." Dr Fournier said, his voice carrying a French accent.

However, right after Dr Fournier finished speaking Polly screamed in pain as pink energy surged from her eyes and mouth, she would have fallen backward had it not been for Dr Fournier and Dr Brandyworth catching her.

"I don't have much time left, doctor, this baby is coming out soon." Polly said weakly.

"Come on, we're going to get you to a hospital." Dr Brandyworth said as he and Dr Fournier helped Polly and they all managed to make it to the exit.

Both Branyworth and Fournier helped Polly into the passenger seat of Dr Brandyworth's car.

As they put her in the car Polly reached and touched Dr Brandyworth's cheek. "I'm not going to make it, am I? I can feel it." she managed to breath out her voice carrying a mix of pain, sorrow, and acceptance.

"Please promise me you'll take care of the baby, I need you to promise me." Polly said with a pleading look.

"Don't say things like that Polly, you're going to be fine." Dr Brandyworth attempted to reassured, though deep down he wasn't so sure.

"Dr Brandyworth, let me come with you, you might need-" Dr Fournier tried to plea but was cut off by Dr Brandyworth.

"No, you can't, I cannot in good conscience ask you to come with me, what I am about to do will most certainly end my career as I know it, possibly even my life, you are still young Arthur, and you are one of the brightest people I have met in this industry. You can change the world with your intelligence, don't waste it on me, if Erikson finds out what you did here you lie, tell them I threatened you, anything to keep them from arresting you or worse." Brandyworth told him.

"But Dr Brandyworth-" Fournier tried but was cut off again.

"I need you here Fournier, when I'm gone Erikson will get more desperate, he will want to create more weapons, you won't be able to stop him, but you can put limits on him and whatever weapons he may try to create." He said, looking at him with a sad and pleading expression.

"Please Arthur, I need you to stay with Cadmus and use the resources to make Cadmus into what it's supposed to be, an institution to help people, not what these people have made it into, if anyone can do it it's you Arthur." Brandyworth said.

In truth it pained Brandyworth to ask Arthur to essentially clean up after the mess he had made but Brandyworth knew that Arthur was the only person here who had the integrity to make things right at Cadmus, Cecil and the G.D.A. simply did not care, all they cared about was the alien technology that Cecil had personally asked him to have studied and tested a few years back, Steven Erikson ran the show at Cadmus and he only wanted to create biological weapons.

Arthur wore a sad expression, he knew that it would likely be the last time he ever saw Dr Brandyworth again, he had helped him so much since he arrived to work at Cadmus, Arthur considered him a great mentor and a great person, always trying to do the right thing even at his own expense.

"It's been an Honor to work for you, Dr Brandyworth." Arthur said, extending his hand out to shake Dr Brandyworth's hand.

Rather than accept his handshake, Dr Brandyworth reached out and pulled Arthur in for a hug, surprising Arthur as he had not been expecting that.

"Take care of yourself Arthur." Elias whispered before breaking off from the hug and quickly getting in the car and taking off.

As the car pulled off, Omni Man came flying out the side of the facility, holding one of the Lizard League members by the neck. He looked down at the small speeding red car that had been driving off before looking down at Arthur Fournier for a moment before shrugging and throwing the Lizard League member back into the building.

However, as he reentered the facility and chucked the lizard league member away something out of the corner of his eye had caught his attention.

Turning his head his eyes widened ever so slightly before narrowing dangerously as a scowl appeared on his face.

Before him was a disassembled Kryptonian android, with the symbol of Krypton's Artificial intelligence, Brainiac on its chest.

A large number of questions ran through Omni Man's head as he looked at the droid.

How had it gotten here? When had it gotten here? Did they somehow fend off the kryptonian empire? Was this planet one of their colony worlds before they were wiped out? But that couldn't be possible, he had seen kryptonian colony worlds before and this definitely wasn't one of them.

Seeing one of those damn things again had flooded his mind with past memories, many of whom were not pleasant. He did not know how they had gotten here or why they were in some human laboratory, but he didn't like it, the only saving grace to all of this was that as far as he and the rest of the Viltrumite empire knew Krypton was destroyed. He highly doubted there were any Kryptonians here, if there were they would have made themselves known long ago.

He debated rather he'd ask Cecil about it or not but decided not to, after he did not want to make Cecil suspicious of him nor did he want to chase after ghosts, his focus now was on his new mission, and he would see it through.

---

Following the incident at Cadmus, Erickson along with a group of soldiers had gone to the hospital in search of their weapon, only to find a sorrowful and defeated Dr Brandyworth, a dead specimen, and a weapon that had seemingly vanished without a trace.

Needless to say, Steven Erickson was livid at the situation, that was his weapon and because of Dr Brandyworth he had lost it.

The following day, Dr Fournier had been questioned about the events that had taken place the day the specimen was out of the facility.

Arthur had lied and claimed that he had been ordered by Brandyworth to help him escort the specimen out the facility for her safety despite the action breaking several containment and security protocols, Arthur told them that when he questioned Dr Brandyworth he threatened to have him fired or worse for disobeying him.

It pained Arthur to have to lie about his mentor like this but it's not like he had much other choice in the matter, if he didn't who knows what they would do to him.

He never learned what they did with Dr Brandyworth, but he knew that he would most likely never see him again, and with Brandyworth gone he was one of the best scientists in Cadmus now.

However, despite this, Erickson still did not completely trust him so rather than make him the new head scientist of Cadmus he gave the position to Dr Rodgers, another Cadmus researcher who had more loyalty to Erickson and his goals than Fournier did.

Dr Rodgers was an older man who looked to be in his mid-fifties or sixties, his hair while not grey was balding. He had some type of mechanical eyepatch over his eye as well.

Currently Fournier was going to approach Erickson and Dr Rodgers regarding various future projects, some of whom held great personal importance to him.

As he stepped into the main lab he was greeted by Dr Rodgers and Steven Erikson.

Steven Erickson was an African American man who had a short fade along with a mustache. He wore a black suit with a red tie and a United States flag pin on his suit.

"Good evening, Dr Fournier, it's good of you to join us." Erickson greeted.

"It's good to see you sir. I'm told you have some new projects for me to begin working on, yes?" He asked.

"That is correct, you and Dr Rodgers are to begin overseeing the creation of our new weapons." Erickson replied.

"New weapons? But Polly passed away, how could we possibly-" Arthur tried to say but was cut off by Erickson.

"It is true that for a time we lost the specimen, however thanks to Dr Rodgers and various other Cadmus researchers in Cadmus." He said, gesturing to one of the pods in the lab. Arthur looked at the Pod and his eyes widened in shock and horror.

Inside the pod was a woman with a shaved head who was tied up to a multitude of machines as she floated inside the pod, her eyes had rolled up to the top of her head and one of them twitched somewhat, it was clear from looking at her that to even call her alive was a stretch.

"Unfortunately, by the time we revived her, her brain had lost too much oxygen, none the less we still intend to make the most out of her, with Brandyworth gone we won't be able to make any more like her so I need you and Rodgers to get everything you can from the specimen."

Fournier looked on in horror, he had always known that these people were not the best from a moral standpoint but to keep another human being like this was nothing short of evil.

"T-this is wrong, how could you leave her like this? We can't do this, this has to be against the law, we need to find another way, no we have to find another way."

"There is no other way! And you WILL comply and aid us in the creation of new weapons for the United States government. Or so help me god I will dispose of you myself, you are already on thin ice as it is Dr Fournier, if I were you, I'd be doing everything in my power to keep from falling in the water." Erickson threatened.

"I… yes sir..." Arthur said in a defeated tone.

"Good, now onto other topics, I recently took a look at the files of various projects you have been working on and one in particular caught my interest."

"Oh? And which project would that be, sir?" Arthur asked.

"This supposed serum you have been developing, according to your files it can increase not only the intelligence of an animal but also its strength, its speed, its durability, something like that could prove very useful for our troops."

"Yes, well as you know the serum is not intended for humans, in fact it is specifically intended for a gorilla, I intended to inject it into one and have it act as my lab assistance, if my theory is true than it would be intelligent enough to compete with the best researchers in this facility, it may even potentially gain the ability to speak and communicate like any other human." Arthur explained.

"Yes, I saw that too, but I don't want to waste such a serum just for the monkey to act as a measly lab assistant. So here's what's going to happen, you will be allowed to inject the serum in a monkey as you intended, however, it will not be reduced to a mere lab assistant, I want soldiers, weapons, not more eggheads, it will be trained to be another weapon in our arsenal and you will oversee it, and once that's done I want you working on a serum that can do the same for humans." Erickson said.

It took Arthur everything he had not to scowl at the man, this power-hungry buffoon only cared about his damn weapons, he didn't care about the potential breakthroughs that could be made and the lives they could change for the better.

"Yes sir." Arthur said, fighting not to spit the words out like poison.

"Good, you are dismissed."

Arthur walked away, a scowl developing on his face, not only were they forcing him to turn his own projects that were meant to better humanity into weapons to bring about destruction but they had desecrated Polly, keeping her alive like that, leaving her to suffer the way they did, all so they could have another weapon, it sickened him, it angered him, but Brandyworth believed he could bring about change.

Arthur wasn't so sure he could live up to Brandyworth's expectations of him, but he would have to try, he had to try, had to find a way to do it.

For now, he would focus on his current projects, they may not be going the way he hoped but he would have to make the best out of a bad situation.

And that is exactly what he did, he had given the ape the serum and as expected it gained intelligence along with other feats including improved senses and improved strength.

Along with this the Gorilla also gained the ability to speak quicker than Arthur had expected.

Over the next few weeks, he had begun training the Gorilla in a multitude of ways both physically and mentally, quickly the gorilla's intelligence began to grow rapidly. Arthur Took to calling the gorilla Monsieur Mallah, which the gorilla seemed to appreciate.

As the weeks passed and Monsieur Mallah's skills began to improve Arthur's focus began to turn to Erickson's pet project, from what he had seen while working with Dr Rodgers he could tell that what they had been attempting to do thus far wasn't working too well.

Arthur had another idea that he believed had potential to work, it was a risky idea and there was a chance it would not work the way he intended but if he was right then it would be the closest thing they would have to a new weapon.

He had gone to Dr Rodgers and explained his idea and what he would require in order to pull off his idea.

A few days later two guards escorted a little girl into the facility. The girl had short black hair and appeared to be very nervous, a little scared even as she walked with the two guards.

The girl looked down as the guards brought her to Dr Fournier, who quickly dismissed the two guards once they did so before kneeling down to the girl's level.

"Hi, I'm Dr Arthur Fournier, what is your name?" He asked the girl in French.

"L-Laura." she responded in practically a whisper.

Of course, he already knew who the girl was when she arrived having read her file, Laura De Mille, born in Nantes France and given up for adoption by her birth mother, Laura had spent her entire life up until now in the foster care system.

"Laura, it's nice to meet you, I know this is all new to you and it may seem scary, but I give you my word that I will look out for you and keep you safe, all I ask in return is that you trust me. Can you do that?"

The young girl looked at him for a second before nodding in agreement, deciding to put her trust in this man, she did not really have a choice but compared to the men who had brung her here and the adults in the various foster homes she had been in this man seemed different, he seemed more trustworthy and Laura felt reassured by him.

As Arthur began to run various tests on the girl he was glad that he had been very specific with his request, a female girl between the age of eight to ten years old with the same ancestry and blood type as Polly, even more fortunate was that Polly was mostly of French descent so it was easy to get them to bring them someone who was also of French descent.

With Arthur having someone who came from the same background and spoke the same language it became easy to bring her into his inner circle along with Monsieur Mallah who he had also brought in his inner circle following the injection of the serum.

Luckily because of Mallah's supreme intellect thanks to the serum he was able to learn French rather quickly, however teaching French to a child if it wasn't their first language would be difficult, while it was true that for his idea to work he would need a young girl between the ages of eight to ten with the same blood type as Polly his theory didn't require her to be French, he just needed that so she could be in his inner circle and it would be easier for him to tell her things that other guards and researchers within the facility would be unable to understand.

Arthur also believed that if he managed to make a weapon for Erickson it would solidify his place here and they would be far less inclined to simply replace him with someone else.

Arthur believed that if he took some of Polly's DNA and made some adjustments to it in order to make a serum of it in order to inject a subject that had an identical blood type as her could potentially cause abilities to manifest within the subject. However during his calculations he ran into a problem, if he were to put Polly's DNA in a subject that was too old it would have a disastrous effects and potentially kill the subject, the same was the case for someone who was too young, so he required a subject that was close to reaching puberty and would receive the serum, this would allow the body just enough time to adjust to the serum before puberty could kick in and the subject could then grow into its powers and manifest them.

Arthur had administered the serum to Laura, at first Laura was nervous, scared even, but throughout the whole ordeal Arthur had reassured her that everything would be fine, this somewhat put her at ease but not completely.

Arthur was not sure what her life had been like before ending up here, all he knew was that she was an orphan from France and that was it, Laura never talked about it and Arthur didn't pry.

He would do everything in his power to help protect her and make the process easier for her. Since if his theory worked, she would be the closest thing Erickson would have to his weapon and while it was good for him it was also a concern for Arthur, eventually he would have to begin stalling until he could find a more precise excuse as to why Erickson wasn't getting high quality super soldiers as fast as he had hoped for.

Arthur had no intention of making any other weapons for Erickson apart from Mallah and Laura, he needed his inner circle to be small so that the few weapons Erickson did have would be in his inner circle, this would allow him to learn more about various operations Erickson was doing and would allow him to have a sort of insurance should Erickson make an attempt at disposing him which Arthur knew was highly probable given the type of man Erickson is. He would be sure to make contingency plans in the future if the worst-case scenario were to happen.

However, his focus had gone back to Laura, who's abilities had finally begun to manifest after some time. Her abilities were different from what the abilities of the original weapon were meant to be, instead of controlling the matter around her, Laura was able to change the matter of her own body in various ways, of course Arthur had put limits on it when he made the serum. Unfortunately, when Laura manifested her powers, she did not have good control over them.

Arthur was quick to help her and make the process easier for her, of course it didn't take long for Dr Rodger's to figure out that Arthur had a breakthrough with his work on creating a new weapon for Erickson and ended far more involved in the girls training process than Arthur would have liked, even despite him telling Rodger's that he was best suited to handle it since not only did she trust him more but he was the only researcher in the facility she could actually speak to.

However, it did not deter Dr Rodger's in the slightest who had begun to slowly overtake Arthur in overseeing Laura's progress, Laura did not feel the same reassurance and trust with Dr Rodger's that she felt with Dr Fournier.

Over the next couple of months Laura had gotten significantly better with her abilities, despite this however she had become far more disgruntled with her situation, she did not appreciate Dr Rodger's treatment of her. Unlike Dr Fournier, Dr Rodger's experience was far more forceful and demanding than Arthur was, he was also far colder towards her, treating her more as an object than a person.

Arthur had predicted such a thing would happen and also knew it would make it even easier for her to end up in his inner circle of trust as a result.

Erickson, while not upset was displeased at the results, while Laura's abilities showed great promise, they were not the type of abilities he had wanted, he had demanded that Fournier and Rodgers give him what he had asked for.

Erickson had demanded that both Rodgers and Fournier give him the actual weapon that he had sought out from the beginning rather than weaker versions of it.

Arthur had given Erickson reassurance that he would begin to look into getting him what he wanted alongside Dr Rodgers.

Erickson had also begun pressuring Arthur to complete the super soldier serum, Arthur had told him that while it was successful like Mallah it would take time to make a serum compatible with human beings.

Following this, Arthur had begun working with Dr Rodgers on the new weapons, he knew he would be unable to bring all those weapons into his inner circle less they get caught and his plans end up being revealed.

So, with this in mind, he had secretly and very subtly sabotaged their creation in development, it would cause them to not only develop poorly but for their powers to affect them negatively, it would take most of them everything they had just to stay in their current form.

He knew it was a cruel thing to do, but as Arthur had to begin telling himself, it would take a cruel today for a better tomorrow.

---

As the years had gone by, Laura and Mallah had improved vastly over time, they had also begun to see actual combat and had been sent on a couple missions but not all that much.

Arthur had gotten older, and throughout his time in this facility his anger towards Cadmus and everything it stood for only grew immensely, he thought that perhaps after the first couple of attempts they would stop trying to pursue this insane idea and would settle for what they already had.

As his anger grew, so did the anger of both Laura and Monsieur Mallah who, like Arthur, had come to realize that this place could not be reformed and would be better off destroyed.

Laura was no longer the child she once was, having grown significantly since Arthur had seen the girl for the first time, now at twenty one years of age, Laura now wore a form-fitting red and black bodysuit with long gloves and high boots that Arthur had created for her to accommodate her abilities, along with that she had kept her hair relatively the same with it being long and black.

Mallah had not changed much over the years, he now wore a red beret and had a belt of ammo around his chest.

It was a late night in the facility and most of the researchers had already gone home for the day and the facility was relatively quiet. Currently Arthur was in his personnel lab with both Mallah and Laurain the lab as well.

He had begun discussing ideas to the two of them in French on what they were to do about the current state of Cadmus.

Despite twelve years of trying, it became more and more clear that they would not be able to reform Cadmus, so the trio had begun making plans to destroy the organization as a whole.

That was until the door to Arthur's lab had slid open with two men wearing some type of military or special forces uniform walking in before two other figures followed in behind them.

Arthur, Mallah, and Laura all became alert and on edge by this sudden intrusion, the uniforms of the soldiers were not that of the standard guards and the three of them did not recognize the two figures who walked in after them, though from the looks of their appearances they seemed important.

Arthur took note of the appearances of all four of them, one of them was a taller man with blonde hair in a simple buzz cut, along with that he also had a build that would make you think he was a bodybuilder at first glance

The other was smaller than the first, but he was still somewhat tall, unlike his fellow operative, he had white hair which was slightly longer than his colleagues hair, with part of it covering one of his eyes.

However, that is not who Arthur was focused on, his focus was on the two people that the soldiers had seemingly been guarding, one of them was a large African American woman with short black hair who wore more professional attire.

The other was a heavier set man who was Latin American, he had a tan shirt with a particular style military cap, he had a small amount of facial hair and from what could be seen of his hair it was black and likely a buzzcut similar to the large soldier who was standing behind him.

"Who are you?" Arthur asked, still on edge along with Mallah and Laura, both of them had taken defensive stances and were ready in case they tried anything.

"My name is General Lane, standing next to me is Amanda Waller and the Two men behind us are agent Wilson and agent Corbin." The now named General Lane answered.

"General?" Arthur asked, raising an eyebrow. "What could a general of the United States government possibly want that's so important it required them to come and see me directly instead of going through someone like Erickson? Unless you did and he just didn't tell me, but I've had the displeasure of knowing the man long enough to know that is not in his nature, so I must ask, what do you want with us?" Arthur said with a glare directed at the general, Laura and Mallah glaring at him as well.

The General maintained a calm yet cold demeanor as he replied. "It's simple, we have been aware of you for some time Dr Fournier. We are also aware that you and your companions have become very disgruntled with Cadmus over the past couple of years." The General explained.

"Your point?" Laura asked the man, now able to speak English, despite that however she still carried a French accent.

"I have an offer for Dr Fournier, and should he accept, it will benefit all three of you." General Lane said.

"And does this offer entail?" Arthur asked with a tone of suspicion.

"As you know, Cadmus holds technology that was recovered from the Zero Day incident, an incident I'm sure you're well aware of given the role you've had at this facility since you joined it." General Lane said.

"Yes, I am aware of the extraterrestrial technology, however most of it was handed back over to the GDA following the attack by the Lizard League, out of fear that Cadmus could come under attack again and the technology could potentially be stolen." Arthur explained, his suspicion growing ever so slightly.

"We are aware of this, which is why we are here, with a majority of the technology under Cecil's thumb it makes it inaccessible, this leaves Cadmus as our only other option to get what we desire, as a Cadmus researcher you are someone who knows your way around the technology far more than most in your field of work." General Lane replied.

"So, what you desire is something made from the extraterrestrial technology?" Arthur said more than asked.

"That's correct, we have a series of various weapons that we would like for you to make with the technology, and while you may not like making weapons, compared to the test tube babies Erickson has been forcing you to make for the past decade this is a far better alternative." Amanda Waller said.

"And you do this for us, we set you free from Erickson and from Cadmus." One of the soldiers, Agent Wilson, added.

"And how do you intend to do that exactly?" Monsieur Mallah inquired.

"Don't worry yourselves with that, all we need is those weapons, and in exchange all your problems will disappear." the bigger soldier, Agent Corbin, replied.

Arthur had a look of contemplation on her face for a second before sighing and replying. "I'll do it, and I expect you to hold up your end of the deal." Arthur said, his expression turning to a glare at his last couple of words.

"We will end up our end of the deal, you have my word." General Lane assured.

Amanda Waller then pulled out a hard drive and handed it to Arthur who took it. "Inside that drive is the schematics for all the weapons we want you to make." she explained.

"Very well, I will see to it that you get all your weapons."

"Excellent, and of course it would be in everyone's interest if Erickson or that lapdog of his were kept in the dark regarding our new business arrangement." Amanda Waller said before the four of them turned and left Arthur's lab, leaving the trio to process what just happened.

"Do you trust them?" Laura asked, breaking the silence.

"No." Arthur replied. "But they are our best option right now and we need to do everything we can to take advantage of it. If they say they can deal with Erickson and Cadmus we can only hope, if nothing else we will have the weapons as a bargaining chip."

"It seems almost too good to be true." Laura commented.

"I agree, they cannot be trusted, they are just another faction of the government who wishes to bring about more destruction to the world rather than bring improvement to it." Monsieur Mallah said.

"You are not wrong Mallah, but unfortunately it will take a cruel today for a peaceful tomorrow." Arthur rationalized. "For now we will give them what they want, most of the technology here has been left untouched due to Erickson having more interest in biological weapons than more conventional weapons."

Arthur took the drive and put it in his computer and analyzed the various schematics for the weapons, some were armors that seemed to be made for special forces personnel, and guns that used the same type of blasters that the extraterrestrial robots used instead of conventional ammunition, with one of the guns being a large minigun, likely made for Agent Corbin.

Another one was a mask meant to turn the wearer's scream into a high frequency sound attack.

Along with those there was a device that was meant to act as some type of armor that could allow the user to control and manipulate electricity, another type of armor that would allow the user to manipulate fire to a certain extent.

And then there were the robots, it seems that these people wanted to repurpose the robots for military use, Arthur wasn't too happy about this, but he would do it anyway, and should things go south, he would have a large arsenal of weapons at his disposal. If these people wanted him to make weapons, then he would make them, and perhaps he would even make some creations of his own.

And that's exactly what he had begun doing, for the next couple of months in between working with Dr Rodgers on whom he and Erickson had dubbed phases one through five. Despite Arthur's plea to cease the project with each phase showing less success than the last, Erickson had demanded they continue to work on the phases, it took almost all they had just to stay together and not fall apart.

What they didn't know is the reason they were all like that was because of Arthur, he swore not to allow Erickson to get his hands on any more weapons, thus he proposed the idea to Dr Rodgers that they should begin creating weapons like Laura from the lab directly instead of doing it the way he did, he explained that this way they would be able to grow an army that would be loyal to them from birth and through them they may be able to figure out how to make the weapon Erickson actually wanted.

So that's what they did, Arthur knew that it would likely fail, but to be sure, he intentionally sabotaged the growth process of phases two through five so Erickson could never truly get his weapons, of course he did it subtly and made sure that they wouldn't learn that he had been doing it intentionally.

He did not take pride in doing so but working in this facility had more or less desensitized him as he continued to tell himself over the years today would have to be cruel for tomorrow to be peaceful.

When not working with the phases who he knew were failures from the start, he was building weapons for General Lane, he had started with the guns, then he moved onto the robots, once they were done, he moved onto the armors and then the more advanced suit that was meant to enhance the capabilities of a normal human.

Arthur was shocked by the capabilities this alien tech had and found himself regretting not taking advantage of it sooner, none the less he was doing it now and that's all that matters, and he did not intend to endure this place and its occupants for another twelve years.

He had just finished the suit and the mini gun when something unexpected had happened.

Brandyworth had been found, but not only did they find Brandyworth but they had found the weapon that Erickson had been livid about losing all those years ago.

Arthur had never found out what had happened to Dr Brandyworth but had assumed him to be dead, now learning that not only was he alive but that he was being hunted made Arthur lose all concentration.

Erickson had already devised a plan to draw them out, apparently the weapon, who was only twelve years old had begun acting as a hero, and with that in mind Erickson had the perfect idea to capture her.

Erickson had also ordered that Mallah and Laura, who he and Dr Rodgers had referred to as phase zero, would be sent out along with phase two through five in order to apprehend phase one.

Arthur knew that they would bring both Brandyworth and phase one in alive, he knew he didn't have much time now, if they got their hands on Brandyworth and phase one it would only be a matter of time until Erickson got what he desired and he couldn't let that happen.

He hadn't finished all the weapons general lane wanted but from the looks of it he wouldn't be able to, with the current situation he would have to take matters into his own hands, he told Mallah and Laura to try and bring phase one and Brandyworth in without hurting them too much if possible, and told them that they would have to make their move now.

He had begun preparation the moment he left, he would not let things get any worse than they already had, he was putting a stop to this here and now.

---

It was a busy afternoon in downtown Chicago, people drove up and down the I-94 freeway going about their daily lives unaware of what was about to happen.

Without warning a missile hit one of the cars on the highway causing it to go airborne and do several flips, this led to a chain reaction of crashes causing a large pileup on the left lane of the freeway.

Following this, four figures make their way on the freeway shortly followed by responding Chicago police and Illinois state police arriving shortly after, getting out of their cars and drawing their pistols and rifles on the four beings that stood before them.

The four individuals all varied in appearance, each looking less human than the last. All of them seemed to be deformed in some shape or form with various mechanical parts attached to their bodies, the one who stood on one of the wrecked cars had the most human looking appearance looking to be a boy with blonde hair, though he still had many features to him that still made him look grotesque and the others three didn't look any better.

The commotion caught the attention of a young girl with long straight red hair, a pink domino mask with green eyes underneath, and a pink and light pink costume as well as a light pink cape and a light pink skirt, on her chest was the atom molecule logo with rings embellishing it.

This was Samantha Eve Wilkins, also known as Atom Eve, a young girl who had recently taken up the burden of being a hero shortly after manifesting her powers, those powers being the ability to manipulate nonorganic matter on an atomic level.

The girl flew down behind the cops before speaking, getting the attention of some of the cops.

"Um fall back and form a perimeter or something." The girl said, not sure as to how heroes normally handled these situations.

"What?! Get the hell out of here!" One of the cops exclaimed before one of the four figures extended their arm and wrapped it around the van and chucked it at the officers.

Thankfully Atom Eve had got in between the cops and the van and created a shield which prevented the van from landing on any of the officers.

"We'll fall back and form a perimeter." the officer said following the near-death experience, retreating with his fellow officers.

From a building above, both Laura and Monsieur Mallah watched as the girl began fighting the four experiments, one of them falling apart not even thirty seconds into the fight, unable to preserve its own form.

"We should go down and help them, we could apprehend them much faster if we do." Mallah suggested.

"No, they don't want us to help, Erickson and Dr Rodgers wish to test their field capabilities." Laura said with a neutral expression.

"But if they fight her by themselves then they will die." Mallah argued.

"I know, but there's nothing we can do about it I'm afraid, their fate was sealed the moment those power-hungry bastards decided they wanted a superhuman army bred from a lab." Laura said, her fist clenching in anger.

"Dr Fournier made them like that on purpose, sometimes I wonder if he made the right choice in doing so." Mallah remarked.

"You know why Arthur had to do that." Laura shot back. "We all agreed that we would never allow Erickson to have such weapons at his disposal."

"I know it's just… this all feels so wrong." Mallah said with a frown.

"We all have had to make tough calls these past couple of years but every hard call we've had to make has been for the best. A cruel today."

"For a peaceful tomorrow." Mallah finished with a sigh.

"It all ends after this, after tonight there won't be a Cadmus to make such abominations, no more Steven Erickson, no more dr Rodgers, no more of us being used as weapons by these monsters, it all stops after tonight. A peaceful tomorrow is actually on the Horizon."

"Have you ever thought about what you wish to do once all of this is over, once Cadmus is gone and we are finally set free?" Mallah asked in genuine curiosity.

Laura nodded. "I have, I want to travel, see the world and meet new people. All I've ever known for the most part is that damn lab, and before I got there my life wasn't exactly much better."

"And what about you Mallah, what will you do?" Laura asked.

"I shall remain with Dr Fournier, there is still much the two of us will be able to achieve with our combined genius in order to help better the world." He spoke

"I figured as much." Laura said with a chuckle.

They watched Atom Eve as she witnessed Phase Five fall apart with a look of horror on her face.

"What's happening?!" the girl exclaimed in complete bewilderment.

From behind, the most human looking of them landed on a car crushing its roof and causing Atom Eve to let out a yelp as she turned to look at him.

"She's dying." He explained, walking past eve and looking down at the mess of organs and body parts that was once his sister. "We aren't like you, it's hard for us, unlike you aren't perfect."

"Just who are you?!" the girl asked, a little put off by what he was saying.

"You don't know?" He growled out as the other two beings that Atom Eve had briefly forgotten about landed next to him on both sides. "I have to speak for our siblings, they've never been out of their tanks long enough to learn to talk."

"Our?" Atom Eve asked, not liking where he seemed to be taking this conversation.

"You're phase one." he stated, gesturing to her and causing a gasp to escape her lips. "Phase two." He continued gesturing to himself. "Phase three." he said, gesturing to the only other one who could even pass as a human. "Phase four." he said gesturing to the other one, who looked far less human than his two counterparts and it looked to have no skin at all and was even more deformed. "Phase five." he finished, gesturing to the pile of meat, bones, and metal that had killed itself trying to attack her.

"Each attempt less successful than the last, and of course we can't forget phase zero." he said bitterly, glaring up at the building both she and Monsieur Mallah stood atop of.

"P-phase zero?" Atom Eve muttered as she looked up to see a woman and... Was that a gorilla?

"She's not like us, she got her powers from different means and always got special treatment, she's the closest thing they've had to perfect since you." He declared.

"To her we're just a bunch of freaks and failed experiments, the way she, that Gorilla, and Dr Fournier look at us with pity, I hate them." Phase Two said, spitting the words out like venom.

Eve didn't know how to respond to that, this whole thing was so much for her to process.

"Ok… so you're all less good versions of me... Then this should be easy." She said, unaware of how wrong she'd end up being.

Phase Two roared as along with Phase Three and Four charged at Eve, thus beginning an intense battle on the freeway.

Laura and Monsieur Mallah watched with great interest as the phases took on Atom Eve. the girl's skills were nothing short of remarkable, she was able to not only manipulate matter but create her own constructs on a whim, it was easy to see why Erickson was desperate to have a weapon that could do such a thing, why he had tried for years and years to recreate what he believed had been stolen from him.

The two watched as the fight progressed, with cars being thrown left and right, it did not take long for Phase Four to fall apart and die as the fight continued.

Atom Eve had started to gain a bit more ground in the battle, holding her own against the remaining Phase Two and Three, creating a suit of armor around herself that helped her a great deal during the fight.

That was until Phase Two knocked her into the other lane, forcing her to avoid cars while trying to save them from crashing while also avoiding strikes from both phases two and three.

And then came the tanker truck which promptly hit Phase Three before rolling over, an explosion soon followed as Atom Eve saved a family and dumped her from a car that would have crashed before throwing it at Phase Two sending both him and the car into the tanker causing a major explosion.

Eve had thought it was over until she saw both phases two and three emerge from the flames, both of them encircling Atom Eve like sharks circling their prey.

As they encircled her, Phase Two spoke. "It's a shame we had to fight like this sister. We could have been a family together, wouldn't that have been nice."

"Sure, we could have all moved in with Dr Brandyworth and be one big freak family." She sarcastically retorted.

"Brandyworth isn't our family, we're pretty much the best we can make without him, Dr Fournier was his successor and even he can't keep us from falling apart, either that or he simply didn't care, after all he made Phase Zero and she always gets special treatment from him and the others, we weren't so fortunate."

"They talk about us like we aren't even there! like we don't even exist to them! While listening to them talk about how perfect you are! And how perfect we aren't!"

After saying that, both Phases Two and Three went on the attack, gaining the upper hand on a weakened Atom Eve.

Laura was about to step in when it seemed like they were about to kill her when a car slammed into both phases two and three at a high rate of speed, killing Phase three as her body came apart from the force of the crash leaving only Phase Two remaining.

Enraged by the death of his younger sister, he tore the wheel off the car causing it to do several flips before coming to a stop.

As soon as it did, Phase Two ripped the door off and saw an old man in dirty clothing.

"Look who it is." Phase Two snarled, grabbing the old man by the head with his enlarged hand.

"Let him go!" Eve shouted.

"You actually like this monster?" Phase Two asked, dangling Brandyworth by the neck over the overpass. "Good." he said with a smirk before dropping Brandyworth and allowing him to fall into the streets below.

"NO!" Eve shouted, quickly flying down and managing to just barely save Brandyworth.

Despite managing to save Brandyworth, she got no time to rest as Phase Two quickly came down on her, forcing her to make a shield to protect herself and Dr Brandyworth as he relentlessly beat down on it with his hands mixed with chunks of concrete.

"They can change into things... Alter their bodies... I can't do any of that stuff." Eve said as she kept the forcefield up.

"Cadmus wanted to make the perfect weapon by any means necessary but even I have a conscience! I implanted a subconscious block to prevent you from altering living tissue. You were perfect but with limits, I wasn't there to do the same with them. I always thought Arthur would be able to prevent something like this but…" He trailed off, unable to finish his statement.

It was then that an enlarged fist struck Phase Two sending him flying back into some parked cars before the fist returned to normal.

Both Brandyworth and Eve turned to look at the direction the fist came from only to see Laura, or Phase Zero according to Phase Two.

"And I'm guessing your phase zero?" Eve stated more than asked as she got into a stance.

"I suppose, but unlike them I have an actual name, you can just call me Laura."

Brandyworth quickly noticed that she was much older than the others, he then noticed that unlike the others she had a name, it did not take long for him to put two and two together to figure out why this was the case.

"My god… they didn't just create weapons in labs, they went so far as to experiment on children and worse... It actually worked."

"I'm the only person who was experimented on, turns out I was the only one they could get their hands on that meant the requirements to even have the abilities I do now. But that is beside the point." Laura said, the scientist and the young girl both picking up on the women's French accent.

"I am here to bring you both back to Cadmus, I assure you I am not your enemy, but you have to come with me for the time being."

"After you guys just tried to kill me and him! I don't think so!" Eve exclaimed.

It was then that they heard the sound of groaning, and all turned to see Phase Two walking towards them, his body beginning to fall apart.

"Look at me!" He said as he got closer, more of his body falling apart as he did so.

"It was then that his legs came apart and he fell, Eve managing to catch him before he could fully hit the ground.

Laura just looked upon the scene with a frown, Monsieur Mallah coming up beside her to watch the scene.

They both always felt bad about the entire situation, none of this should have happened to begin with, but because of one man's hunger for power a domino effect of pain and suffering had transpired.

"Wait! No!" Eve shouted as she held her dying brother in her arms. "Help him! One of you has to help him!" She shouted looking between Brandyworth, Laura and Mallah seeking any type of resolution.

"It's too late, there's nothing that can be done for him, it's time to say your goodbyes." Mallah said solemnly.

Eve looked at the talking Gorilla before looking back at her dying brother as he had tears in his eyes.

"I'm sorry." was all she could say, looking at him with sorrow.

"Goodbye Eve, I wish everything was different for us..." He said before the remainder of his body fell apart and was reduced to steam.

Eve looked at where her hands where her brother had taken his final breath, a wave of sadness coming over her as the reality of this entire ordeal finally began to set in.

"T-they killed themselves… t-trying to hurt me..." She breathed out before her adrenaline subsided and the toll the fight had taken on her body finally set in as she passed out.

"Samantha! Samantha!" Brandyworth shouted as he caught her as she passed out.

He then looked up at Laura and Monsieur Mallah and it seemed like he wanted to say something but couldn't get the words out. He remembered that shortly before he went into exile that Arthur had a project involving giving a Gorilla super Intelligence.

"Not everything is as it seems Dr Brandyworth, we are not your enemies." Laura reassured.

"Arthur… did he make you two the way you are?" He finally asked.

"Yes, all a part of a greater and larger plan, I cannot go into detail now but in time you'll see."

And just like this Brandyworth's worst fears had been confirmed.

'How far had Arthur gone in order to fix Cadmus? Was that even what his goal was? Was he fully on board with Erickson now?'

However, Brandyworth's thoughts were cut off as four box trucks pulled up with Military personnel exiting from the trucks, weapons drawn on Eve and Brandyworth.

Exiting from one of the trucks was Steven Erickson and Dr Rodgers.

"What a treat, not only do I get my weapon back but my prized Scientist crawls from under his rock as well."

From behind, a soldier came up from behind Brandyworth and hit him in the back of his head with the butt of his gun, knocking him out.

"Was that really necessary? We already had him, it's not like he could've run." Laura remarked.

"Where are the others?" Dr Rodgers asked, ignoring Laura's previous statement.

"What do you think? They're dead." Laura retorted.

"What!? And you didn't help?!" Dr Rodgers exclaimed.

"Our orders were to observe and ensure the target would be ready for capture should Phases Two through Four fail." Mallah said, coming to Laura's defense.

Dr Rodgers was clearly livid at the fact that the beings who he had spent the past few years working on all be wiped out after one mission, the only upside was that they now had the original weapon at their disposal.

The soldiers quickly scoop up Brandyworth and Eve were put in the trucks and had been brought back to Cadmus.

---

Everything was ready, everything he Laura and Monsieur Mallah had planned for the past twelve years would finally come to fruition, and now he had tools to further his progress a great deal, they would be back within minutes and as soon as they arrived it would see the beginning of the end of this institution as a whole.

The drones were primed and ready to go, and he had various other tools at his disposal to dispatch them should the need arise, but he wouldn't play all his cards at once, Phases Two through Four were likely dead and he would likely be able to convince the weapon to aid him at best and let him do what he needed to at worst, considering that they just kidnapped her against her will she would have absolutely zero reason to help them out of the predicament they were about to find themselves in.

Mallah and Laura already knew what to do now that the plan was in motion, and he knew he would be able to count on them when the time came.

Arthur stuffed an item in his lab coat before walking out of his lab and towards the main lab in the facility where he was sure Erickson and everyone else was by now.

Inside the main lab, Erickson was arguing with a now awaken Brandyworth

"You have to let her go! She's merely a child Erickson!" Brandyworth Exclaimed, gesturing to Eve who was on strapped down on a platform in a lab.

"No! She's a weapon! My weapon! And it's taken years for me to get her back." Erickson replied sternly

"I'll come back! I'll make you someone else! Please just let her go!" The former head scientist of Cadmus begged.

"Oh, you are back Dr Brandyworth, and you will make me more weapons like her." Erickson stated.

"Hello Dr Brandyworth, it's been a while."

Both Erickson and Brandyworth turned to see Arthur walking up to them casually with his hands in the pockets of his lab coat.

"Arthur..." Brandyworth muttered walking over to him.

"Ah, good of you to finally join us Dr Fournier." Erickson greeted.

Arthur gave a nod of acknowledgement to Erickson before looking at Eve who was tied down to a metal slab, her hands bound together, not that it would really do much against the girl who could manipulate matter, not to mention the fact that she was awake.

"Hey." the girl called getting the attention of the three men. "Let him go, and I'll stay."

"The man who tore you from your mother's womb and you want to save him? Adorable, but no. We have plans for the both of you."

Arthur narrowed his eyes upon hearing this before shifting his gaze to both Laura and Mallah, giving them a slight nod which told them all they needed to know.

The two quietly made their exit from the lab as Eve managed to free herself from her restraints as Arthur predicted she would.

"Go on." Erickson said before pulling a gun from within his suit and aiming it at Brandyworth's head. "Do something else you'll regret."

Arthur's eyes widened in shock and horror "No! You can't Erickson!" He shouted.

"Stand down Dr Fournier." He ordered before turning back to Eve.

"You just talked about how valuable he was stupid." Eve reminded

"I did, but now that I have you and Brandyworth the specimen is no longer required." Erickson retorted.

"Are you sure?" Dr Rodgers asked hesitantly.

"Do it!" Erickson commanded.

Following the orders given to him, Erickson went to the lab's main computer and switched on a device that made a tube open up and come from under the ground.

Arthur couldn't help but scowl at the sight, he had never forgiven them for what they had done.

Inside the tube of some sort of liquid was a bald woman with all sorts of machinery connected to her body.

Her eyes were open but rolled up to the top of her head as one of them twitched slightly.

"Who... who is that?" Eve asked, taking a few steps back.

"Where do you think all your brothers and sisters came from?" Erickson asked.

Eve gasped at the revelation. "That's… it can't be."

"Good ol mom." Erickson said tauntingly

"Oh god… she's… she's alive!" Brandyworth exclaimed.

"No… she isn't Polly died a long time ago Dr Brandyworth… this... This isn't what living looks like..." Arthur said solemnly.

Arthur quickly checked his watch, any moment now the drones would be finished with their first objective and all arrive here, where he could finally put a stop to this

"Alive enough. Unfortunately, she suffered too much brian damage before we could get her up and running again, but we both know she only had one use anyway." Erickson said, his gun still aimed at Brandyworth's face.

Brandyworth buried his hands in his face and began sobbing, though his sorrow quickly turned to rage and anger as he looked up at Arthur.

"You! How could you allow them to do this?! I wanted you to put a stop to this! To fix Cadmus! Instead, you helped them create those... Those abominations! And then you let them do this Polly?! How could you! I put my faith in you Arthur! You were supposed to destroy this place! Not help it grow into this... This hell!"

Arthur was completely taken aback by this, of all the things he had expected and foreseen in his calculations of how this situation could go this was not what he had anticipated.

"N-no! I couldn't… there was nothing I could do Brandyworth! Shes already dead! She died the day Eve was born! I've spent these past twelve years here doing everything I can!" Arthur shouted back, his composure completely dissipating.

Erickson's mind processed everything that was said before all the dots began connecting, it all made so much sense now.

"You were plotting against me; you've been plotting against me since the day Brandyworth left! You're the reason phases two through five were a bunch of failures and the only successful weapons we made were always under your care and why they were so buddy with you!. Erickson couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it all.

"You don't care about us making weapons or being cruel and unethical, you just wanted the weapons for yourself and yourself alone. If you cared about ethics, you wouldn't have pulled some nine-year-old orphan girl from France and turned her into your own personal lab rat." Erickson continued.

"You sabotaged Phases Two, Three, Four, and Five! You sabotaged my creations! My life's work! All so you could have the weapons to yourself!"

Eve was in complete disbelief, here sat one man who very well might have been the reason her siblings were dead and why her mother had been left like this and another who proclaimed her siblings to be his life's work like they were some kinds of trophy or prize.

However, before she could voice her concerns or Arthur could speak up to defend himself Brandyworth let out a scream before grabbing Erickson's gun, trying to yank it off him.

"You monsters! All of you are monsters!" He yelled trying to wrestle the gun from Erickson.

Erickson fired a shot, causing it to ricochet off the computers and equipment until it eventually hit the tube Polly had been in for the past twelve years, causing the liquid from within it to begin leaking out.

Upon seeing this, Eve quickly rushed over to the tube and broke the glass with her powers, catching her mother in her arms.

"Do something!" She shouted looking at Dr Rodgers and Arthur for any sign they'd help.

"She died a long time ago." He looked at the girl holding her mother in her arms with a solemn expression before looking down at a watch on his wrist. It was time.

Coming through the door to the main lab was a guard who looked panicked, he quickly fired several shots through the doorway and then turned to Erickson and the others.

"We're under attack! We need to alert the-" He stopped himself as he finally realized the commotion that was unfolding in the lab, however before he could comment or react a red blast of energy went through his chest burning a hole through it before he fell to the ground, dead.

Several red lights were seen floating into the lab from multiple places, surrounding everyone in the lab, with both Laura and Monsieur Mallah returning, the latter of whom wielded a minigun.

Brandyworth looked up for a brief second at the red lights, unfortunately this small distraction would prove to be fatal.

As Arthur turned to great Laura and Mallah, a gunshot echoed from behind him, he turned around to see Brandyworth laying on the floor, dead, covered in a pool of his own blood that was pouring from a gunshot wound in his head.

"NOOOO!" Arthur yelled.

"Damnit! T-that was an accident!" Erickson said now somewhat panicked. He really didn't want to kill Brandyworth, he needed him if he had any hope of making weapons in the future.

It was then that he took notice of all the floating red lights around him, which turned out to be weapons, specifically they were made from the old alien tech they had stored in the facility. All of them had slim shapes with the red blasters on the very front.

Because most of them were facing forward he could only see the red blaster part and not the rest of its body.

"You! You'll pay for this! For everything!" He then looked at the body of Brandyworth. "And YOU! You left ME behind to clean up YOUR mess! I sacrificed my life! My career! To put a stop to all of this! You had no right to criticize me! No right! You weren't here! You didn't see the hard calls I had to make! The things I did to live to fight another day! I made the hard calls to put a stop to this place! All while you left and pretended to be a homeless man for the past twelve years!" he yelled in fury, his composure finally buckling under twelve years' worth of stress and pressure.

He stomped on Brandyworth's head several times while screaming.

Everyone watched with varying expressions. Mallah had a neutral expression while Laura looked concerned.

Erickson had a look of shock and disbelief not only in what he had just done but what he was now seeing, Dr Rodgers looked horrified, more so at their current predicament then Dr Fournier's apparently mental breakdown, Eve had a mix of shock and horror on her face, Brandyworth was dead, and his apparent successor was now stomping on his head in a fit of rage at what his last words to him had been.

"Fournier stop this!" Dr Rodgers practically pleaded.

In an instant, Arthur pulled out an odd-looking pistol and shot a red blast right through his mechanical eye patch.

"That's enough out of you!" he growled out before his gaze moved to Erickson, who took an instinct step back and put his hands in the air.

"I've put up with you and these damn government dogs for long enough! You! General Lane and his lackeys! This whole operation! I won't tolerate any of you madmen for another second!" Arthur said, spitting out each word like it was venom.

"General lane? How do you know about General Lane?!" Erickson demanded to know.

Unbenounced to Arthur and everyone else, General Lane was aware of the current situation and had already sent task force X to deal with it; the drones were all inside the main lab, which made it easy for Task Force x to breach the facility.

Eve had finally had enough, she stood up with purpose, her eyes glowing pink as she glared at both of them.

"You murdered my whole family… both of you murdered my whole family!" she yelled, her whole body glowing pink as she made both Erickson and Arthur float in the air.

Arthur, no longer having the patience for this, aimed his blaster at her and tried to shoot, however, before he could she turned his blaster into water.

The drones then all fired upon her, forcing her to create a forcefield around herself as she was being shot at from all over.

Laura and Mallah were about to intervene until they heard something from behind them.

The two quickly whipped around to see soldiers in all black with guns drawn on them.

The two immediately engaged with the soldiers, Mallah opening fire with his Minigun forcing some of them to take cover while others got mowed down.

The few shots that did hit Laura bounced off of her and back at those who fired due to her elastic-like abilities.

"Laura! Get Dr Fournier so we can get out of here!" Mallah shouted, laying down as much fire as he could.

Eve noticed the commotion to turn to see what was happening, acting quickly she turned the drones to stone and hurled them at Mallah, Laura, and the soldiers.

Laura grunted, dodging the attacks and closing the distance between herself and the girl.

However, another door then flung open, revealing more soldiers along with Agent Corbin.

"Well haven't you been busy." Corbin remarked before aiming a grenade launcher at Laura and firing it at her, knocking her into a wall.

As soon as she hit the wall, Agent Corbin aimed his grenade launcher upward, firing it at the ceiling above her causing chunks of it to fall on top of Laura before she could manage to get on her feet. "That ought to take care of her." Corbin commented with a smirk before turning his sights to Erickson and Arthur.

Mallah quickly realized the situation was no longer in their favor, he had had several rocks thrown on him from Eve but managed to stand despite that, however he was not quick enough to prevent what happened next.

Corbin aimed his grenade launcher and fired two shots, one directed at Eve the other directed at the lab equipment behind both Erickson and Arthur.

Eve was distracted by the first shot coming towards her, extending her hand out and reducing the grenade to nothing, the second however, she did not stop, rather it was because she didn't react fast enough or because a part of her simply didn't want to save either of them.

Arthur and Erickson both let out screams as the grenade exploded behind them, engulfing the both of them in the blast.

The blast subsequently knocked Eve into the wall, causing her to fall to the ground hard.

Fire and smoke were present throughout the lab, making it hard to see, not to mention her vision being hazy from the blast and the force she hit the wall with.

Eve blinked, she couldn't see Erickson, she couldn't see the soldier with the grenade launcher, or any of those soldiers for that matter.

What she could see was the gorilla and Phase Zero if she remembered correctly briefly digging through the rubble, fires, and destroyed lab equipment before picking up what looked to be a body before running off.

From what Eve could see it almost looked as if the woman was melting when she had gotten close to the fire, but it was hard for Eve to tell given her current predicament.

She then saw a pair of footsteps approach her, not even having the strength to look up at who it was.

She then heard the figure speak. "The Meta appears to still be alive, General. Should I terminate her?"

After a moment of silence, the figure spoke again. "Understood, it will be done."

Eve wanted to get up and try to save herself from the burning laboratory and the man who stood before her but the day's events had taken too much of a toll on her and she passed out from exhaustion.

---

Eve woke up to a white ceiling and the sound of various machines hitting her ears.

She blinked a few times before looking around, finding herself in a hospital.

She looked over to see her parents at her bedside.

Upon noticing Eve had woken up, her mother was the first to react by hugging her tightly which hurt given the wounds she was still recovering from.

"Oh Eve! I'm so glad you're alright! I was so worried about you!" Her mother proclaimed, tears streaming down her mother's cheeks as she hugged her daughter.

Eve let out a grunt of pain upon being hugged, causing her mother to quickly let go before her father spoke.

"I'm just so glad you're ok Eve, if I lost you I…" He trailed off.

"When we find the son of a bitch that did this, I swear to God he will pay." Eve's father swore.

That statement made Eve's eyes widen, as she remembered everything that had happened prior and how she ended up here in the first place, wait? How did she get here in the first place?

"Adam, I'm sure the police will take care of it, they'll find who did this, I'm sure of it." Eve's mother, Betsy, reassured.

"Damn drunk drivers, no regard for anyone but themselves. So, help me God if they do anything short of throw the book at that animal." Adam practically growled out.

'Drunk driver?' Eve thought inwardly.

There was a knock on the door, and Betsy went to go see who it was and was greeted by two police officers.

"Hello Mr. and Ms. Wilkins, I am officer Wilson with the Chicago police Department and this is Officer Martin." Officer Wilson said Introducing himself and his partner.

"Oh, thank God, please tell me they found the man responsible for this." Betsy said, hopeful for any kind of good news.

Officer Wilson frowned upon hearing that. "No mam, I'm afraid we have not caught the man responsible for this, rest assured we are doing everything we can to locate the suspect, the reason we are here is to ask the two of you as well as your daughter some questions."

"Us? You aren't suggesting that we did this to our daughter are you?!" Adam said, raising his voice at the thought of being questioned by these officers when they should be out there looking for the man that almost killed their daughter.

"Adam! They obviously know we had nothing to do with this! They just want our help to catch the person responsible.

"You- You're right, I'm sorry... Things have just been so hard... Almost losing our daughter." Adam choked out, fighting back the tears in his eyes as he looked down and clenched his fist.

"You have no need to apologize Mr. Wilkins, you have a right to be angry after such a tragedy." Officer Wilson replied.

Eve looked at the two Officers, the larger one with red hair and light skin did not look familiar to her, however the officer with white hair while not looking familiar certainly sounded familiar.

"I would like to question the two of you in the other room while Officer Wilson questions your daughter on what she remembers." Officer Martin added.

Both of Eve's parents nodded before turning back to their daughter.

"Eve, you need to try your best to answer the officer's questions, try and remember as much as you can from the incident, we'll be right in the other room answering some questions." Her mother said before taking Eve's hand. "We'll get through this together, as a family." Her mother reassured.

Eve simply nodded as the two left with the red-haired officer, leaving just Officer Wilson and her in the room alone.

"I know you aren't a police officer, your voice… You were there; you were at Cadmus when everything happened." Eve said, glaring at Wilson.

"Your pretty clever for a girl your age." the man commented with a smirk. "Guess this means I can skip the formalities and get straight to the point."

"That being?" Eve said in a low tone.

"That being the General has graciously decided to spare your life; you saw a great many things in that lab and if any of what you witnessed were to get out to the public let's just say it would be bad for my superiors. So here is what is going to happen, you are going to stick with the story that we have graciously provided you to explain your injuries, everyone around you will pity you for a couple of weeks before things go back to normal and rather you chose to continue to play hero or not is up to you, you will not utter a single word about what you experienced at Cadmus or any of your Interactions with the disgraced Dr Brandyworth, rather you continue to play hero or not is none of our concern, as long as you keep quiet about what you witnessed there will be no problems."

"And if I refuse?" Eve challenged.

The white-haired man simply chuckled at this. "You are in no position to refuse, we are the United States government and will not heed the demands of a twelve-year-old girl with meta-abilities, you may not be strong, but you are not Immortal, neither are your parents."

Eve widened her eyes slightly at the last part of the man's statement, the threat was clear and while Eve didn't always get along with who she had just recently learned were her foster parents she could not put them in a situation that could get them hurt or worse.

"See, now you understand, now if that's all, I think we are done here, you have a long road to recovery after all and I wouldn't want to keep you longer than I have to." Agent Wilson said before turning to leave.

"For your sake, pray that the two of us never have to cross paths again." he said before walking out.

A moment later her parents came back in after Officer Martin finished questioning them, they both went to their daughter's side reassuring her that everything would be fine.

Unable to hold it in anymore, Eve began to sob, the day's events finally taking its toll on the girl. Her parents, assuming it was due to what they thought she had experienced, moved to comfort her, reassuring her that everything would be fine.

---

Meanwhile, Cecil was informed on what happened at Cadmus, including Dr Fournier's use of Technology in an attempt to destroy Cadmus only to be believed to be killed in the attack.

The only problem was they did not find his remains in the burnt remnants of the Cadmus facility, nor did they find the remains of two Cadmus experiments who seemingly had loyalty to him, Laura De Mille, and a super intelligent ape named Monsieur Mallah.

However, Cecil's biggest concern was the missing technology from Zero Day, while Arthur Fournier had used and repurposed some of the technology to attempt to destroy Cadmus, he would not have been able to take all of the alien technology.

Cecil had a few suspects but there was one who he truly believed would not only be capable but had the motive to pull this off.

Task Force X.

Ran by General Sam Lane and Amanda Waller, Task Force X was a secret division within the government that performs a wide range of tasks and objectives for various factions of the government, however, he knew what few others did in the organization, that being their main goal.

The goal of Task Force X was combating extraterrestrial threats and potential extraterrestrial threats, he knew that because he knew that the two people who rank Task Force X had a personal axe to grind with aliens as well as himself, due to being at ground zero during the Zero Day invasion.

Cecil knew that as time went on they would become a bigger pain in the ass, being the head of the GDA gave him a great deal of sway and authority but only so much, Lane being a general made things difficult, he could not treat Task Force X as if they were some rag tag villain group like the Lizard League, this would be a long, drawn out political battle and if there was one thing Cecil hated most about this job it was the politics of it.

Those two have had it out for him for years and if he didn't play his cards carefully, they could gain an edge over him.

---

Deep within the sewers of downtown Chicago, Monsieur Mallah and Laura had worked tirelessly for days within a small makeshift lab they had made within the sewers.

Arthur's contingency plans had come in handy following the Cadmus incident, yes, the facility had been destroyed, but the cost was great.

Arthur's body had been mostly destroyed by the blast, and was unsalvageable, unfortunately for them Arthur did not go down so easily and was more determined than ever to have his revenge.

"They have taken my body, taken our freedom, and taken our ideas. All to satiate their greed and unending hunger for power, but they have no idea what is to come, what will await them." An eerie metallic voice spoke.

The source of the voice was a disembodied brain encased in a large, round, metallic life-support system, this was Arthur Fournier, or what was left of him.

"In time, we will come to have our revenge, but we have much to plan for, I have dedicated my life to stopping people like them, but I have gone about it the wrong way, I thought I could bring about a better future through taking down Cadmus, but I was thinking too small, Cadmus is gone, and yet despite this, evil is still very much present in other sectors of the government. Cadmus was only a tiny fraction of the evil that exists within this government alone, not to mention the countless other world governments that be."

'If we truly wish to have a peaceful tomorrow then corruption must be weeded out on a planetary scale, a scale only we can achieve." the Brain said, now looking at Monsieur Mallah whose appearance hadn't changed much, and Laura, who now went by the moniker Madame Rouge.

"In time, they will see that the destruction of my physical body did not weaken us, but in fact strengthened us.

---

AN: Alright, so I know this took a while, and I apologize, the chapter was not originally intended to be this long. However, I saw this as an opportunity to do something with the character of the Brain because honestly, I hate how MAWS portrays The Brain and Monsieur Mallah, their backstory in of itself doesn't make sense, the whole black hole somehow destroying The Brains whole body except for his brain and not so much as scratching Mallah in of itself was dumb, not to mention how they go about the characters as a whole.

I am of the firm belief that The Brain, if used correctly, can be a Justice League level threat and is a very underrated villain within DC, I decided that I would do something different with him than the show did, and he isn't the only character in this show who is getting an overhaul, the second character actually appeared in this chapter but I won't say who, but i'm sure some of you might notice who it was.

I also decided to add Madame Rouge, a character I saw an opportunity to add given that she and Atom Eve's siblings have similar abilities of shape shifting to a certain degree.

Either way, the next chapter will see me actually dive into this story. We will get both Mark and Clark in this next chapter and I'm looking forward to writing it.

Also, the first four episodes of season 3 have been amazing and have given me an idea for the story by the time we get to that point.

And speaking of season 3 I think I am the last guy on the planet to see the season 3 trailer leak for MAWS and I can't tell you guys how much i'm hyped, especially if some of those characters are who I think they are, oh man this is going to be so great.

Also, I have decided after carefully mulling it over that I will in fact be adding other DC heroes and possibly even an entire Justice League roster, granted they will not show up for a while, and if MAWS season three adds any I will do my best to make them accurate to how they are in MAWS as long as they don't fuck up like they did with The Brain, the only exception to this is maybe batman, who I already have my own interpretation in mind for him in this story.

Either way, I cannot wait to show you what I have planned for this story, I have so much in store, and I hope you stick around to see what I am cooking up.