Inside the sealed laboratory, the hum of machinery echoed like the heartbeat of a giant beast waiting to awaken. Every screen glowed with streams of cascading data, and the air itself felt charged with anticipation.
Nathan's fingers danced rapidly across the keyboard, adjusting the parameters of dozens of interconnected instruments. Each keystroke was precise, deliberate, as though a single mistake could unravel the delicate balance of the entire experiment. He had spent weeks perfecting this system, and now every tenth of a centimeter mattered.
He stopped for a moment, exhaled, and then re-checked each setting twice. There could be no errors—not with gamma radiation.
Finally satisfied, Nathan walked toward the radiation chamber. The pod-like capsule stood in the center of the laboratory, filled with a translucent, viscous fluid that shimmered under the sterile lights. It was no ordinary liquid. This was a specially engineered nutrient and protective solution designed to shield his body and cells from the violent fury of gamma rays, while also catalyzing their absorption.
"This is it," Nathan muttered under his breath. His voice trembled with excitement and dread.
He climbed inside, the thick fluid enveloping him like a second skin. It was viscous, heavy, almost suffocating—closer to cement than water. Yet it was this suffocating embrace that would protect him when the storm began.
With a hiss, the radiation chamber sealed shut.
A moment later, the instruments roared to life.
The electron linear accelerator ignited, spitting out streams of high-energy particles. Across the chamber, a massive laser array charged, condensing into a blinding lance of light. The two beams—electron and laser—were hurled at one another, colliding with catastrophic intensity. The explosion of energy birthed an overwhelming surge of high-energy gamma rays, funneled directly into Nathan's chamber.
The torrent struck like the wrath of a dying star.
Nathan felt it immediately. A thunderous roar filled his skull, and for a moment, he thought the very fabric of reality had split apart inside his mind. His entire body convulsed as the gamma storm invaded his cells.
Boom!
The translucent liquid around him sizzled as it reacted with the radiation, triggering the violent metamorphosis of his body.
His cells began to shatter and repair, over and over in rapid succession. Each time they broke apart, they rebuilt stronger, tougher, more resilient. The agony was indescribable. His veins bulged, his muscles twitched uncontrollably, and strangled whimpers escaped his throat despite his determination to remain silent.
The pain was worse than when he had taken the super-soldier serum—worse by magnitudes. That had been torture; this was annihilation.
Nathan clenched his teeth, nearly biting through his tongue. He could not pass out. He knew that if he lost consciousness, the gamma rays would ravage him uncontrollably. Only by staying awake could he learn to perceive them, to guide them, to force his body to adapt.
"Stay awake," he whispered to himself, his words bubbling through the fluid, barely audible. "Control it… make it yours."
The gamma rays surged like tidal waves, flooding every fiber of his being. For anyone else, this much exposure would have been instant death, their cells torn apart beyond repair. But Nathan's body was different. His system wasn't rejecting the radiation—it was evolving with it.
From outside the chamber, the scene looked monstrous. Streams of raw gamma energy poured into the pod, crackling and boiling through the liquid. To any observer, it would look less like science and more like a man being devoured alive by a star.
But within that torment, something miraculous was happening.
Nathan's cells began to adapt, shifting their very nature. They became not only resistant but capable of storing, neutralizing, and redirecting gamma energy. Layer by layer, his biology transformed into something greater. His cells hardened, their structures reweaving themselves into a lattice stronger than even lead's shielding properties. Where normal tissue would have disintegrated, his cells began to thrive.
The room filled with the mechanical chorus of engines and monitors, interrupted only by Nathan's muffled groans and guttural growls of pain.
Outside, Peter Parker—better known as Spider-Man—paced nervously. His masked face tilted toward the chamber window, his hands wringing together with restless worry.
He wasn't just the playful neighborhood hero now; he was a young man staring at a friend gambling his very existence.
"Come on, Nathan," Peter whispered. His prayers spilled out in fragments, muttered to every god he could think of—Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, even mythological deities. "Please let him survive this… please."
He'd seen dangerous experiments before, but never like this. He knew exactly what gamma rays did. He remembered the case of Dr. Bruce Banner. Gamma radiation didn't just scar—it reshaped life into something unpredictable, monstrous, and uncontrollable.
And yet Nathan had chosen to step inside willingly.
On the other side of the lab, Sapphire reclined lazily in her containment chamber. Her amorphous form shifted like a lazy pool of blue liquid, her posture making her look more like a slouching puddle than a cosmic symbiote.
Beside her, Riot rattled impatiently against the glass. His voice was full of excitement, his tone bordering on manic.
"What's this lunatic doing now?" Riot asked, pressing closer to the glass.
Sapphire didn't even lift her head. "He's experimenting with gamma radiation. Trying to inject it into himself."
Riot's eyes widened, then gleamed with cruel delight. "Gamma rays? Hah! Finally, the fool has lost it! No creature can withstand that kind of power. This is suicide!"
He began to laugh, his body thrumming with manic energy. "If he dies in there, we're free. No more chains, no more cages! We'll escape, hijack a ship, and bring our brothers here. A symbiote civilization—our empire—will rise from Earth itself!"
His laughter echoed, venomous and wild.
Sapphire, in contrast, merely sighed. Her voice was soft, almost amused. "You underestimate him. Don't forget—someone else survived gamma radiation. Hulk."
Riot's laughter faltered.
"With Nathan's mind and willpower, you really think he'll just die?" Sapphire continued, her words slow, deliberate. "He's not ordinary. He never has been. He's pulled off miracles no one else thought possible. You've seen it."
Riot hesitated, his grin faltering. Memories surged—the impossible feats Nathan had accomplished, the way he defied logic again and again. Slowly, Riot's excitement drained away, replaced with an uncomfortable chill.
Sapphire turned her head lazily toward him, a faint smirk forming. "You keep calling him a fool, but you call him 'boss' every time you slip up. Maybe you already know the truth."
Riot growled but didn't answer.
---
Inside the chamber, Nathan was reaching his breaking point. His body shook violently, every nerve screaming in unison. Yet amid the agony, clarity emerged.
He began to feel the gamma rays as more than just pain. He sensed their rhythm, their pulses, their destructive beauty. He reached for them with his mind, guiding them into his cells instead of letting them ravage freely. Slowly, excruciatingly, he bent the storm to his will.
"Mine…" he whispered through gritted teeth. "This power… is mine."
The gamma rays roared louder, as though the universe itself resisted his claim. But Nathan refused to yield. He endured wave after wave, the liquid around him nearly boiling away, his body glowing faintly as the energy infused deeper and deeper.
Hours passed.
Then, at last, the instruments wound down. The beams faded, the chamber's glow dimmed, and silence crept back into the room.
The pod hissed open, steam rising in twisting plumes. The protective fluid drained away, revealing Nathan's battered but standing figure.
His skin glowed faintly green under the lights, his veins pulsing with radiant energy. His eyes opened—brighter, sharper, filled with a power that hadn't been there before.
The experiment was complete. Gamma Level One—achieved.
Nathan stepped out, unsteady but alive. His body was transformed, humming with restrained energy, his cells permanently altered. He had survived where countless others would have perished instantly.
Spider-Man gasped, relief flooding his voice. "He… he did it. He actually did it."
Sapphire's lazy smirk deepened. Riot, meanwhile, sank into silence, his earlier excitement crushed by the undeniable reality.
Nathan looked at his trembling hands, then clenched them into fists. Power radiated through him—not destructive chaos, but a controlled storm.
He whispered, his voice steady despite exhaustion:
"The power of gamma… is mine."
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