The Experiments, The Procedure and The Power Gained

Four months.

120 days.

2920 hours.

175200 minutes.

10512000 seconds.

That's how long I'd been here. Having these quacks experiment on me. Trying to awaken and mutate my X-Gene and turn me into, as they called it, the perfect predator.

I'd listened in whenever I could, using techniques from my life as Red Hood to sharpen my senses, and I'd found out my X-Gene was a rare type. The type that manifests with atavism. Atavism being what happens when someone showcases traits that humans lost long ago. It's also called an evolutionary throwback.

I also laughed sardonically at my situation as I remember all the times I taunted Killer Croc for the exact same thing. Though from what I heard, they planned to make me a little more...indiscreet. Basically, they hoped for me to be able to control whatever mutation they gave me.

I can't say I want the power they want to awaken inside of me. Because I don't.

But with my knowledge of the MCU and my knowledge of what's to come, I need this strength. Plus, they say it'll regrow my legs and heal any internal/hidden injuries I've sustained over the course of my life. Which is a plus, I guess.

Anyway, over the time I'd been here, they'd be experimenting on me like some sort of guinea pig. Prodding at me, injecting liquids and taking bone marrow samples. If it weren't for this body's extensive pain resistance and all the memories I have about resisting torture, I'd have been driven insane by this process. Constantly cut open, constantly having things torn out of me, constantly having stuff injected into me--It was hell.

But, it wasn't very good torture. You see, a person can adapt to anything. All you need is routine. You can get used to physical pain. Like I said, you adapt to it. But the routine of the nurse coming to feed me, the routine of the doctor coming to check on my vitals--as long as I focused on that, the pain was either to adapt to. Because, after all, humans crave routine. We need it otherwise we begin to break down.

So, with this knowledge, my memories of how to resist pain and other tortuous situations...I was doing surprisingly well.

What was happening right now?

I was being prepped for the procedure that was about to awaken and mutate my X-Gene. I was being injected with multiple different liquids that were either green or red. Christmas colors. Should be about Christmas time right now, right?

Whatever.

Over the time I'd been here, I'd had a lot of time to think about thinks. A lot of that time was spent thinking about how to escape but the reminder was me reviewing the information I had. X-Gene. That was what gave Mutants their power - they were the next step in Human evolution or that's what most geneticists think - and when this X-Gene awakened, it gave them some sort of power. It was usually random but siblings had been shown to have similar powers. But then again, other siblings had been shown to have completely different powers. So it was pretty much random.

But from my understanding, this was the MCU. I'd grown up with Frank Castle and we'd joined Project Cerberus together with Billy Russo. That's exactly like the Netflix show. So, if this is the MCU, how come I have an X-Gene? Mutants didn't exist in the MCU.

...Yet that was only because the rights to the Mutants and the X-Men belonged to a studio different to the one that owned the MCU.

If I'm really in the MCU, there's no rights to certain groups or people. If they were in Marvel, they'd exist here, wouldn't they?

That's when I looked through my memories and found companies that weren't in the MCU. The main one being Oscorp. At that point, I understood that this wasn't the MCU I was used to. It was closer to the comics...but with the realism of the MCU. Well, as real as superheroes and supervillains can get, I guess.

As I thought this, I was being wheeled toward the operation room.

Speaking about the operation I was about to undergo...well, let's just say it was a real shit show. A mish-mash of other power ups.

The genetic editing and awakening that gave Jessica Jones her power. The Gamma experiment that made the Hulk. A new super soldier serum derived from the one that made Captain America. But before all of that, I was going to get my X-Gene awakened. Apparently that's why I was picked.

Yeah, of course because I have the X-Gene but also because the powers it will give me. It may seem random, the powers the X-Gene gives a Mutant, but it's not random if you can study them. If you can get a sample of their DNA, you can figure out what power they'll get when it awakens. Of course you need to understand the X-Gene to an absurd degree but these guys who had me? They had that absurd understanding. How they had it, I had no idea. But I'd put a bet on it being through experimenting on Mutants. I know, I know--what a surprise, right?

Whatever. It doesn't matter how they have that much knowledge about the X-Gene. What matters is that they chose me because whatever my X-Gene is going to bring out of me through Atavism, it was going to give me a healing factor. This healing factor was needed. Every other subject had died from the procedure I was about to go through. With a healing factor, they thought this was the best way to ensure survival of a subject.

I knew I'd survive. I had to. And what I do, I'll break out and...

Suppressing a smile, I was moved onto a metal bed and strapped into it with much thicker and stronger restraints.

I knew I could escape them, especially after whatever enhancement they were about to put me through. But for now, I just acted how I usually acted while these scientists were around me: I acted like I was catatonic.

Needles were poked into me and a blue substance was pushed into my system.

Then it started to feel like I was in a sauna. Then a sauna that was a bit too hot. Then an actual fire. I quickly felt like I was being burned alive. The heat was spread all over my body but it was mainly situated around my legs. It was incredibly itchy there as well. Itchy...equals healing. I couldn't look down at my legs but I could slowly feel more and more. Parts of my body that had gone numb after the explosion...I was feeling them again.

I was definitely healing.

I also felt my body becoming stronger. Harder. I couldn't look down at my body but I could feel it growing a little. Taller, more muscular, broader--It was changing according to the atavism.

Then, slowly but surely, the heat receded. Then the doctors/scientists stepped toward me and began to go over my body, looking for irregularities. They spoke in a mish-mash of languages, probably for security purposes, but after being around them for some long, I'd cracked their 'secret' language a few months ago.

They prodded at my fingers and spoke about how I now had claws. They prodded around in my mouth and noted that my canines had experienced growth and were now longer, thicker and sharper than before. They did a multitude of tests on my skin and muscles and spoke about how my skin had hardened and became like exceptionally tough hide. My muscles like metal, wrapped my the tough hide-like skin.

They still took samples of my blood and flesh and ran surprisingly quick tests on them.

While they did that, I focused on getting used to this new body. The senses were incredible. I could hear everything. Taste everything. Smell everything. Whatever I looked at was seen with such clarity it was like I was looking at it through a specialized microscope.

My body felt much stronger. Even stronger than when I was Red Hood. It was definitely superhuman.

I tried, discreetly, to break the restraints holding me down but they didn't even let out a creak or a groan. I'd have to escape through technique, I guess.

But not now. I had to see this experiment through.

Even if I ended up as some sort of monster, I had to see it through. This world, if it wasn't just the MCU, I needed power. More power. So much power it was insane. I needed to be able to at least protect myself. I didn't need to be the strongest. I just needed to be strong enough to live my life without interference.

So, even if it was risky, I needed to see this experiment through to the end. For the power.

Once they'd ran their tests, it was back to the procedure. More needles were injected into me, it was just that this time, it was harder for them to do so. It took two people to jab the big needles into me and even then they still struggled.

But the genetic editing serum had been added to me in the end. It was painful. Even more so than the heat that burned through me when I awakened my Mutant powers. It flooded through me and while it was, they stabbed more needles into me, directing the genetic editing serum to attack and change my X-Gene. To change it and make it stronger.

More heat poured into me--or was it out of me? I don't know. It just kept flooding me. Kept flowing through me. It was like I'd traded my blood for magma.

And while this was happening, the super soldier serum was put into my system and then all the quacks up and left.

It was time for the Gamma Bursts.

They were aiming to increase my strength and encourage growth of muscle, bone and marrow tissue. They were trying to make me into a second Hulk. You'd have thought they'd learn their lesson after what happened in Harlem between Hulk and Abomination...but they still hit me with burst after burst of Gamma radiation.

It hurt. My god did it fucking hurt. No matter my training in any of my lives, no matter the technique I tried to use to ignore or subdue the pain--none of it worked. All I could do was scream.

In pain, in anger--but most of all, I was screaming for the sake of screaming.

As an act of catharsis.

Yet there was another part to those screams that slowly morphed and twisted into roars. They were warnings. Threats of violence. They were a declaration that I was going to murder every single person involved in this.

My flesh twisted and morphed, growing. My bones thickened and became harder than any known metal. My skin's density went up so high it was like I was wearing layers of anti-armor piercing armor all over my body. My body grew and it grew, encouraged by the Gamma bursts, the genetic editing serum and the super soldier serum. And the best part?

I found myself feeling more and more in control of my body as this went on. I found myself knowing that I could go back to a normal human form after this. That I had the control to do that and so much more.

I wasn't the Hulk. I wasn't two personalities. I wasn't three different people in the same body either. I was just one person. A new and combined person.

I am Jason Todd, sure. But I'm a new one. I am me. Those were my past lives.

This is my new one.

And with the end of the Gamma bursts, I knew it was time to enact my first set of revenge. Then I could leave and go find Frank. He needed to know about Rawlins and Billy. They betrayed him. They might've even orchestrated that bomb going off that took my legs and ended up in me being brought to this place. Either way, Frank needed to know the truth.

But for now, I had to kill every single quack here, find out who employs them and kill them, and wipe every bit of data they have on me from everywhere. Then I needed to destroy any samples they have of me.

Then...and only then, could I help Frank.

With the snapping of the restraints holding me, I stood up to my transformed body's new height. A massive 7'10" and I instantly saw that my head now had a snout. Like a dinosaur.

Scoffing to myself, I realized that what I said about Killer Croc was really coming back to bite me in the ass. But putting that aside, I morphed myself back into my more human form. My height shrunk down until it was back at the original 6'3" it had been. But my body was still covered in what looked like black scales. My hands and feet tipped with talons that glinted with a sharpness that surpassed any knife I had in the Marines.

My face that was now back to being human albeit covered in black scales, twisted into a toothy smile.

I was gonna put these to good use.