The Last Avenger and The World of Omni: Gero's Laboratory

[Sasuke Uchiha]

The events in this post occur prior to The Last Avenger and The World of Omni: Raincheck

The night’s sky, beset with stars in abundance; its fair complexion, but a serenade of moonlit hues; its grace and beauty, regrettably, fell upon a blind eye in this quadrant of the Omniverse. Radiant skyscrapers instead, marked the horizon. As far as the eye could see, a sort of hollow illumination, baring that of no life, flooded the futuristic, air-ways of Coruscant. Casting its artificial dominion far and wide, the city’s technology hummed and its machines burned into the mid-night oil as hover cars raced around haphazardly on intricate, transparent floating highways.

Ignorant to their own light pollution, its citizens still felt a captivated adoration for their City’s grandeur; it’s visage a monumental vision to beheld and not soon forgotten as its splendor had reached even the furthest of the ten verses. A sprawling city and the envy of the Omniverse, opulent and beautiful, it traversed the entirety of the zone, from gate to gate, constantly growing in all directions, even skyward when left without option.

Deeper within the sprawling city, beyond the glitz and the glam, a once renowned, once feared Doctor Gero toiled away into the twilight hours. He’d taken haven to the city, drawn to it and its technology. It offered a sort of synergy he longed for. Never before had anyone understood or had given him such free range to conduct his experiments and for that he was eternally grateful.

Ever diligent, his hands moved with the steady grace of a surgeon as he worked. Proud, he placed a futuristic looking tool upon the work bench before him, wiped the sweat from his brow, and took a step backwards in order to admire his handiwork.

Dr. Gero was a man of a malevolent countenance; that of which, was never lighted by a smile. Cold, calculating, and meticulous in discourse, the good doctor, remained tenacious throughout the many defeats awarded to him in his own world and was now, through a series of courtier style transgressions, undergoing a new reign of success shortly after arriving in the Omniverse, more specifically Coruscant.

He was a genius, regardless of his moral compass, and his aid in the banishment of ‘he who must not be named’ to the Underverse had struck an favorable cord with the city’s highest ranking officials. A fortnight later, by excellent good fortune, the doctor had delivered one of his prestigious presentations to some, five or six old cronies of The Empire. All intelligent, and all reputable men with the ability to aid in the good doctor’s research funding, he moved ever closer to obtaining his goals.

It was a celebration as Gero industries skyrocketed overnight becoming the premier bioengineering pharmaceutical company and major inter-verse-al player in a number of markets including pharmaceuticals, medical hardware, defense, and computers along with more clandestine operations utilizing genetic engineering and bio-chemical weaponry. Gero Industries, as though to cover all the bases, also presented a more public face, producing cosmetics, consumer products, and foods that made the doctor a house hold conglomerate.

One of Gero’s subsidiaries would be to a private military contract with the highly-trained security force that was the Storm Trooper Elite. Capable of rescue, reconnaissance, and para-military operations the corporation used the Storm Trooper force to secure and protect its assets and even high profile employees.

With his scientific empire on the rise Dr. Gero was able to turn his attention to his research and began developing a new generation of synthetic humanoids and biological agents of terror. His current fixation was the fascinated with analyzing the DNA of the Omniverse’s myriad species and races. It is unknown just how many prisoners or wounded soldiers actually turned up in Gero’s hidden labs as guinea pigs, but none of them ever left.

These laboratories were more like upgraded dungeons and in fact, most were still actually made of cobblestone. Chains hung from hammered spikes to metal shackles bolted to the floor. There were depressions in the floor, perhaps where people were kept for extended periods of time. An operating table stained in blood and equipped with various restraint measures centered the room, currently in use. Along the walls stood cryogenic sleep chambers with only a few left unoccupied. Adjacent the operating table, a med cart sat armored to the teeth in sharp, ridged tools, used for god knows what and in the vary air, hung a stale scent of death... and suffering.

Gero turned from his work bench, circled the operating table, and dragged his finger across the profile of the test subject restrained to the table as he spoke, “Marvelous creature, you are.”

The ‘marvelous creature’, as Gero put it, seemed but a mere humanoid. In fact, besides the moderately strong physic it possessed, it didn’t seem to have anything unique or outwardly special about it.

Upon hearing the cold voice of the doctor, immediately the restrained test subject began thrashing about in an attempt to free itself from the table. Sometime later, when it tired of the fruitless effort, the subject snarled at Gero, “Let me out of here!”

“Now, now, there’s no need to get all upset, you’re going ruin our little experiment. You don’t won’t to do that, now, do you?” Dr. Gero taunted the raven haired, test subject as he spoke, his expression coy and his eyes snake like in that moment.

“When I get out of here, I am going to kill you!” exclaimed the subject as it began to trash again.

That’s the spirit! Keep that warrior’s attitude… you’re going to need it!” Gero mocked and in response, a fury came over the male specimen as its very skin began to crawl, shift, and contort. The restraints also began to weaken as the test subject took on a horrifying transformation. Color retreated from the beings skin pigment as tiny, stone like fissures began to appear all over its body from head to toe and a giant soaring wingspan erupted from the creatures back.
“Go fuck your---ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!” violently the subject snapped at the doctor, however Gero, quick on the uptake, had plunged a syringe into the only soft tissue left on the subject: his eye.

Sedated, the creature’s upper half lowered back to the operating table as his form began to revert back to its more humanlike form.

“Computer, begin Androidization.” Gero commanded his super computer into action and in turn a large glass cylinder began to lower from the ceiling, sealing and containing the test subject as a mist filled the space within the cylinder.

**Beep Beep**

“Dr. Gero? Come in Dr Gero. This is security to Gero, out.”

“Yes, yes, what is it?” the doctor responded.

“Sir! There has been a breech in laboratory alpha. The Elite Task force has been dispatched already, but awaiting any further orders, as always, sir!”

“What sort of breech? Could just be more protestors, probably just some bleeding heart activists protesting the use of our lipstick on rabbits or something foolish like that.” Gero pondered.

“Yes sir, apparently after last night inventory check there was a report of missing chemical agents from the lab. I don’t know what their after on level 3, but we’ll keep you posted!”

“Wait, wait. Did you say Lab Alpha on Level 3?...!” Gero questioned with worry in his voice.

“Yes sir!...” the voice of the intercom responded.

“You fools! That is no activist group! Level 3 in the Alpha lab contains all of the Empire’s top secret defense research!” Gero exclaimed!

“Oh sh*t! Excuse me sir! I’ll activate all the androids on site, right away!” the voice came in, this time sounding of panic.

“Yes, wait NO! Only activate one. Any more than that and we’ll have a bigger problem on our hands. I’m on my way now, as well. Is there any more information you have for me?”

“Yes sir! There appears to be an unauthorized security clearance in the logs.”
“Explain.” Gero commanded.

“Well sir, for whatever reason, a grunt storm trooper accessed the inner sanctuary of the lab. That’s never happened in the logs before…”