Virelli Manor – Sub-Basement Level – Day 44
Alex stared at the floor of the manor's deepest room.
It had taken him weeks of scanning, mapping, and dismantling decayed wall panels, but he'd finally confirmed it. Beneath the manor, under the lowest cellar, was a hidden facility—coated in alloy composites no private citizen could acquire.
This wasn't built by his father.
This was government work.
The schematics were buried in a redacted military archive. He'd cracked it an hour ago.
> "Project GAZELOCK," he murmured.
A surveillance facility.
Built to monitor Marcus Virelli.
Alex's breath caught. His fingers trembled with suppressed excitement.
> "So, even back then… they feared him."
He ran his hand over the dusty slab of titanium-reinforced paneling. It was decades old, but he could still trace the outlines of embedded micro-conduits. They were inert now. Dead.
Because his father had shut them down.
---
31 Years Ago – Classified Briefing
> "Gentlemen, Marcus Virelli is no ordinary mechanic," the general had growled, flipping through satellite images. "He's ex-Project Hephaestus. The only survivor."
> "And now he's building things in secret."
> "Monitor him. Do not engage. Build a covert facility underneath the manor, masked as geological reinforcement."
> "He can't know."
But Marcus had known.
Alex confirmed it when he found the kill-switch logs—manual override, executed from the manor's control hub by Marcus himself, twelve years ago.
He had disconnected the government.
Severed their eyes, their ears, their claws.
And said nothing.
---
Present – Access Point
Alex worked silently.
He had already bypassed six biometric locks, and two quantum-entropy encryptions. The seventh lock was voice-activated. He uploaded a fragment of his father's voiceprint from old home recordings.
The door shuddered.
A hiss escaped from the airlock seals.
And the panel slid open.
---
The Hidden Chamber
Alex stepped inside.
It was cold.
Not temperature-wise—emotionally cold. The kind of cold engineered by bureaucrats in suits who monitored geniuses like animals.
Steel walls. Mirrors. Cameras—dead. Surveillance seats arranged in a semicircle, once manned 24/7.
Everything pointed toward the core—a massive central console still humming on backup power.
Alex's reflection blinked at him from all angles.
He walked to the console and placed his hand on the interface.
> "What were you watching, Father?" he muttered.
The console whirred to life.
---
Playback – Archived Recordings
A distorted hologram projected into the room. Footage of Marcus, years younger, welding together strange devices in secret.
Energy rifles.
Autonomous drones.
A portable fusion core.
And then—a teleportation prototype.
> "They watched everything," Alex whispered. "They saw him surpass every military mind in the country... and got scared."
The final log showed Marcus discovering one of the hidden surveillance cameras.
He stared at it.
No words.
Just a long, knowing look.
Then: blackout.
The logs ended there.
> "You knew," Alex whispered, smiling faintly. "And you let them think they were still watching."
Alex looked around the room—at the forgotten monitors, the discarded headsets, the ashes of paranoia.
> "This is your legacy, Father."
> "Now it's mine."
---
Deactivation and Control Override
Alex accessed the chamber's network spine. He rerouted remaining power into a private interface, uploading the schematics and logs into his neurochip.
He could study everything later.
For now, there was only one thing he cared about:
Leverage.
And that started with DNA.
---
Return to the Upper Manor
Sunlight slanted through the manor's high windows as Alex emerged from the hidden passage, covered in dust and steel residue.
Evelyn was on a call, her voice sharp and composed as always, discussing hostile takeovers.
Marcus stood by the workbench, tinkering with an old carburetor.
He didn't look up as Alex entered.
> "Found it, didn't you?" Marcus said calmly.
Alex nodded.
> "Why didn't you tell me?"
> "Because some truths are tools. They only work when you're ready to wield them."
Alex took that in.
> "They feared you," he said.
Marcus finally looked up.
> "Of course they did. But fear is the currency of weak minds. I disconnected them. End of story."
Alex stepped closer. "Not end. Beginning."
---
Planning the Next Phase
Later that night, Alex stood alone in his lab.
Screens surrounded him—data feeds from government files, supernatural incident reports, and decrypted global DNA logs.
The creatures were real.
Vampires. Werewolves. Witches. Mutated humans. Aliens. Legends.
They walked the earth in secret.
Some hid. Some ruled. Some killed.
And now, Alex wanted their DNA.
Not for vanity.
For transcendence.
He opened a digital notebook titled: PROJECT ASCENSION.
At the top, he wrote:
> Objective: Acquire, synthesize, and test supernatural DNA strains to engineer a superior hybrid physiology—mental, physical, and energetic. Human limits are irrelevant.
Then he wrote a list:
---
Target Species & Research Goals:
1. Vampires
DNA focus: Regeneration, agelessness, neuro-link speed.
Method: Isolate pureblood strain. Avoid turned variants.
2. Werewolves
DNA focus: Muscle density, metabolic control, adaptive transformation.
Method: High-risk capture. May require silver containment.
3. Witches / Spellbloods
DNA focus: Psi-sensitivity, energy conduction.
Method: Locate ancient lineages. Blood rituals may unlock dormant genes.
4. Aliens (Unregistered Types)
DNA focus: Cellular memory, quantum perception.
Method: Access Area-51 deep files. Risk of interdimensional exposure.
5. Mutated Humans
DNA focus: Unpredictable. Use only stable anomalies.
Method: Collab with rogue genome labs.
6. Legendary Beings (Declassified: Category-Ω)
DNA focus: Unknown. Possibly myth-level traits.
Method: Surveillance first. Do not engage.
---
Alex leaned back.
This was more than science.
It was rebirth.
If humanity couldn't evolve…
He would evolve himself.
Piece by piece.
Gene by gene.
---
Closing the Night
Marcus knocked gently on the lab door.
Alex didn't turn.
> "You're planning something reckless," Marcus said, arms crossed.
> "I'm planning something inevitable," Alex replied.
Marcus chuckled.
> "That's how I used to talk. Before I built this place. Before I made enemies powerful enough to build chambers beneath my own feet."
Alex finally looked at him.
> "Then you understand."
Marcus nodded, slowly.
> "I do. Just remember—some monsters bleed. Some don't."
> "And some," he added, "bleed only once."
Alex smiled faintly.
> "Then I won't give them the chance."
As Marcus left, Alex tapped a single command on his control pad.
The room darkened.
Holograms of supernatural anatomy spun to life—blood strands, nerve matrices, shifting bones.
> "It begins now," Alex whispered.
His eyes glowed with anticipation.
> "Project Ascension."