An early Saturday morning

The steady rumbling of a motorbike could be heard on the roads north of Boston. The driver zipping by the autumn leaves as it flew up and down the rolling hills.

Having started his drive a little before dawn in an attempt to avoid traffic, they found themselves having to slip by cars on their way downtown, leaving many disgruntled drivers in their wake.

Kai sped past bunker hill on his way towards his destination, his bike leaving a light blue ionic trail following him through the morning fog.

He'd received word from his friend Anderson that he'd heard some disconcerting news after making a breakthrough at his internship, and that Kai should come over as soon ASAP.

Kai turned his bike away to the right from the river as he drove up towards his destination. Parking his chromed bike against the sidewalk, he placed his keys into his pocket before rushing into the main lobby of Greentech.

Eyeing the turrets in the corners of the room, Kai walked up to the front desk and coughed into his fist. To try and gather the secretary's attention.

*cough*

"Excuse me sir, but I'm supposed to be meeting with someone, can you call for a Mr Jacobs-"

"Kai! There you are." A voice sounded from the stairs.

Turning around, Kai could see Anderson walking briskly towards him.

"Andy, what's the situation, you called me at 5 am, and provided no context?"

"I'll tell you in a minute." Andy replied. Turning towards the secretary he asked. " Do you have that consultant badge I'd asked for earlier? I wouldn't want my friend here to get turned to Swiss cheese before I could get his opinion." Andy said, motioning to the turrets in the room.

The secretary, Mr Davis, as the name plaque said, pulled out an ID from under the desk and held it out to them between his two fingers.

As Andy reached out for it, Mr Davis pulled his wrist back. " I believe you know that bringing in unauthorized personnel into the building can lose you your position Mr Jacobson." Mr Davis said as he gazed at Kai, suspicion unconcealed as he looked upon him, his appearance be closer to that of a greaser than a scientist.

"I'm well aware of that." said Andy, as he reached out and swiped the ID from the mans hand, before pressing against Kai's chest. "But I require his opinion on a recent breakthrough I had made last night." He continued before leading Kai towards the stair case.

Walking through the mostly empty building, Kai asked his friend in hushed tones "Now what could you need my opinion on, because last time I checked, I'm no geneticist."

Andy chuckled as he turned the corner to the elevator, "Of course you're not, that's not why I called you." He said before calling the elevator.

"Then why?"

*Ding*

The elevator door slid open, after they stepped inside, Andy pressed the button for the sixth floor before replying, "Because you're one of the few people that I would trust my life to."

The elevator ride was quieter than comfortable, so much so that the humming of the elevators motor sounded much mor loudly than it should.

*Ding*

The door slid open and they both stepped out. With Andy leading the way, he led them down the hall to a door locked by a terminal, where he began to type in the password.

"Andy, what's got you so worked up?"

"The same shit that has been bothering me since February. "

The door slid open and Andy lead the way inside. The inside of the roof was filled with microscopes, Peter dish's, preserved mutated specimens, and glowing green vials along the walls.

"FEV"

Kai stepped into the room and looked at the materials, his face making a slight grimace in disgust. He turned to his friend, and after moments of thought he'd asked. The public already knew about FEV. A data leak to the press earlier that year made sure of it. "If it's that, than why would you need to take such a big risk, the public already knows about it?"

Andy sighed, leaning against the desk against the wall, he gazed up at Kai. "I'm not trying to whistle blow a project already in the public eye."

"Then what?"

"Mariposa military base was lost last evening. The division that was supposed to act as security there rebelled. They took control of the base, cutting off access to all research on the strain they had there."

Andy rubbed the bridge of his nose from beneath his glasses. "A few weeks ago my team developed a potential success to the Pan-immunity Virion project. We had developed it working on tardigrades and thought that we might be able to use it as a working vaccination for the new plague." Andy continued, making his way over the one of the terminals on the desk.

"But it's become a whole new framework than the other strains of FEV, it can practically troubleshoot itself throughout its host before beginning its mutation. And now with the potential permanent loss of Mariposa, the military's super soldier project has hit a halt, and they'll turn there gaze to other project alternatives."

After typing in the final input, the machine to the right of the terminal twisted open. Reaching in, Andy grabbed a glass container, with plastic reinforcement.

Kai seeing Andy about to hand him this, opens his hand. Andy places it into Kai's hand, and closes his fingers an round the vial.

"I don't know what they did in Mariposa, but it was enough to make the soldiers there cause a revolt." Andy looked Kai in the eyes, anxiety leaving his hands shaking, "I made this to help people, and I will not allow my creation be used as a tool of war."

Kai raised his free hand to comfort his friend, resting his hand upon his shoulder. "It's ok, I understand… but what do you need me to do?"

Andy sighed, trying to keep his resolve, he weekly forced his words.

"I'm asking you to hide it, it's the last sample. I've already destroyed the others, but this! This is too valuable to be destroyed. It could save millions, but that can't justify the millions more that would be lost if it were to be weaponized."

A solemn moment passed between them before Kai accepted the vial into his jackets breast pocket. "I'll do it, but are you going to be ok after this? Your you get in trouble if your teams research just disappears, won't you?"

"I've already planned the coverup, but I need you to protect this. I've got another gift for you"

"Is it more responsibility? Because that ain't much of a gift."

"Not at all, I know how risky this could potentially be, so I swiped this from downstairs." Andy reached into one of his desks drawers and pulled out an plastic container the size of a pencil case. Handing it to Kai, Andy answered the unasked question. "Some of the techies in R&D were commissioned by Rob-Co to create some improvements to the vital sensors in their Pip-Boys, so I swiped one of the prototypes. I know that your trying to piece together a 3000 model and figured this would be a suitable thanks for the trouble."

Kai's eyes widened at the mention of the cases contents. "I don't know what to say. Thanks, but why are you taking so many risks. If you get caught you'll lose your job, they'll throw you in jail, at the least?! I know we've never been the most law abiding citizens, but this would be the third time that you've taken such a risk this year!"

Andy looked Kai in the eyes and said to him, "Because things have just been getting worse and worse lately, I've seen enough to know to question my country's agenda. The tension both in and out of the country has been growing and I am terrified that if we don't do what we can, while we can. We'll lose the opportunity to even attempt to help ourselves."

"I got it, I understand dude, fight the power and all, but you need to be careful to not lose the life you still have." Kai grabbed the case and began his walk out. "If you need help, know that I'll do what I can."

"I know, and thanks" responded Andy, with a tired smile.

"Always."

Kai took the elevator back down to the main lobby, where he returned his consultant badge to the less than polite Mr Davis.

Walking out to his moded bike, he straddled the seat and pulled his goggles out of his pocket, put them on his head and began to make his way home. It had been nearly four hours since he'd woken up, and he still hadn't eaten. Though that might still be put on hold when considering how excited he became, thinking about the several hundred dollars worth of hard to get tech in his bikes pouch.

A Pip-boy was an expensive piece of technology, and not one that would typically be affordable on the wage of a hobby mechanic.

Kai managed to get pieces of some less than functional versions previously. And stared to price together a 3000 model. Rob-co didn't make them easy to repair either, with them costing almost more than the tech is worth to get it repaired.

Yet despite that, he'd almost got it into perfectly functioning condition, but he still couldn't get the damn thing to interface with the user properly. Making it no better than an overly expensive calculator, radio combo.

But with the pieces that Andy had given him, the biggest issue of the interfacing was all but null.

Kai was just a few miles out of central Boston when he started to notice the increased military activity. It had only been ten minutes and he'd already passed three convoys of tanks. And it seemed that everyone in a uniform was sprinting somewhere.

'The hell is going on? Is there a parade going on or something?'

It was only a minute later, a few miles north of Cambridge, that Kai could hear a wailing over the sound of his motorcycles humming. After realizing that it was a siren, he slowed down his bike and pulled over to the side of the road to let it pass. But it was only after the bike came to a halt that he realized that the siren wasn't an emergency vehicle's.

Kai took off his goggles and glanced back down to road towards the town when as he tried to place where he'd heard that sirens sound before.

'It's faint, but I could have sworn that I'd heard that siren before. No, it couldn't be.' Though Kai in horror.

It took ten seconds for kai to make the connection, ten seconds of building horror as he remembered the drills he would do in school. Hiding under desks and evacuation routes.

When the ten seconds were over Kai was sure that it couldn't be anything else. He pulled his goggles back over his face as he sped up the road as fast as his bike was capable of going. Dodging past the few vehicles still on the road, driven by equally terrified drivers.

He needed to get home, or to his sisters' house at least, there was a vault near her neighborhood, and he might just be let in if he got there quick enough.

"Cmon, move you beautiful beast!! I didn't fix you up for you to fail on me now!!" Kai screamed as he clutched his bike's handles with a white knuckled grip.

He could see the neighborhood where he made his workshop. It was situated beneath the interstate, the highway stretching above him as he passed underneath.

After turning the corner he could see his shop, laying at the end of the road.

And then there was light. Bright blinding light, coming from Kai's left, and reflecting off of every surface. The exposed fingers on Kai's left hand were burned alongside his left cheek. Kai would certainly have been blinded if not for his tinted goggles. Although he could hardly see as it was.

Chancing a glance back, Kai was able to see the enormous mushroom cloud rising in the distance, but most worrying was the visible shockwave moving towards him quickly.

The shop was less than fifty feet away, but the shockwave would hit in seconds. The garage door was closed and taking the time to open it was out of the question.

As he entered the driveway, he gripped the brakes, and nearly flipped the bike in his rush to slow down. Hopping of of the bike before it could still, he grabbed the pouch from the side as he sprinted towards the side-door.

Kai yanked the door open, never before being so thankful for forgetting to lock the door.

Stepping into the shop, Kai turned to close the door, but was beaten to it by the shockwave, slamming to door into him with enough force to send him flying six feet landing onto his back.

There was a crack, his ears were shot so Kai could do much hear it as he could feel it. The pressure, the give, the vibrations of glass shards rubbing against each other, and then the itching.

His hands moved to scratch beneath his jacket, but the itching only became worse.

Kai looked down, and saw the faintly glowing vial had broken, and it's contents were spilled all over his shirt and hands.

The itching became worse, unbearably so, as he tried desperately to remove his shirt.

But before he could, his arms began to change, rapidly growing into large green claws. Claws that reached up and tried to strangle him.

The world began to swim, colors and lights flashing as everything turned into mist.