Author:
Hey guys 👋 hope you enjoy the story.
My writing schedule will be bad due to course work and stuff but I'll try to update every few weeks.
See ya around 🫡
[⚠️ WARNING ⚠️]
Contains sensitive and graphic content, be advised.
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In the halls of a secret U.S. Government lab rushed footsteps could be heard.
A man with shaggy white hair in a labcoat was running down the hall. He had just recieved an alert regarding one of his more impactful projects. A living, human weapon.
He skidded to a stop infront of a thick metal door. He reached down and, while fumbling with his jittering hands, swiped it quickly through a card scanner.
He took a deep breath in an attempt to relax, the wrinkles on his face showing otherwise.
A gentle light escaped the scanner and he aligned his eye for a rental scan. With a thud the doors slid open and he marched in, hoping to remain calm but rushing as he saw the situation.
Two people in scrubs, doctors, stood around a pregnant woman who layed on a cushioned table spasming. They were adjusting and checking the equipment around her and her condition.
"Dr Brandyworth, she's having a seizure! Likely due to the drugs and her user history!" One said in a panicked tone as they adjusted the tubes that flowed into and out from the woman.
The man with shaggy white hair, Dr Brandyworth, ran to the woman's side and gripped the tables edge looking her over to check her body without worsening her condition.
"Polly! Polly! You can power through this! We'll make sure you and your baby will be safe!" Dr Brandyworth said as he ran to the other side of the table and replaced an elevated fluid bag.
Her eyes moved to him as tears welled in her eyes. Her body stiffened and shaked. Her head thrashed against the pillow beneath her head. Her jaw was tensed shut as her lips peeled back showing her teeth as her breath hissed between them.
As she thrashed about her hospital gown showed a growing wet patch and blood coming from her lower body...
When her seizure, which lasted 3 minutes 42 seconds, finished she was unconscious with a mask to aid in her breathing. The two doctors checked her over, taking a blood sample and conducting a ultrasound to check the condition of the weapon within her.
When the ultrasound showed no signs of life from the 37 month old fetus. No beating heart that matched its mother's rhythm. No kicking like it was just a few hours ago. No life at all.
Brandyworth collapsed to his knees gripping the woman's hand as she slept, unaware of her child's condition. He looked to the ground, unable to come to terms with his failures, his his shoulders shifted erratically as he sobbed.
The other two doctors had to get people to drag him away so they could perform an emergency Caesarean section to ensure the mother who will never get to meet her child survives to see another day. He tried his darnedest to stick by her side, make up, or at least try to make up, for his failure.
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It had been about 6 hours since Brandyworth was dragged away. The C section was successful in the sense that Polly, the mother, would be able to completely recover, physically at least.
Only God knows how scarred her mind and heart will be when she learns of what happened, of how she'll weep, of how she screams for it not to be true, of how her wishes of having her baby back will never be heard.
Brandyworth could only look blankly at the doors of the mortuary within the lab, housing the corpses of failed experiments and resources to be used in later experiments.
His heart sank, he wanted to look at the child he was responsible for. The child he and the other scientists robbed of a future. A child who could never smile due to him and never cry due to him.
For a brief second he tried justifying it's death with the kind of life it would be given here but he gripped his fist knowing a life with chances, even a hellish one, could be better than what this child had gone through and what it likely will go through.
He didn't want the baby to be dissected, poked and proded in the name of science and military advancement.
His eyes hardened with a sense of duty as he stepped into the mortuary.
He looked to the walls that mounted the doors to many ghosts abused by the facility he himself pledged himself too. He wafted through the room coming to terms with his choices.
He found the door he was told held the baby. It was numbered 'Subject 00347', it was only a number, no name given by the ones who forced it into being what it became.
Brandyworth could only think of the list of names Polly considered only a couple months earlier, giggling as she did so, him chuckling along with her at her somewhat strange naming sense.
He opened the tray to the door thinking he was prepared. He gagged a little at the sight and smell. The babies skin was slightly greyish with purplish lips, likely signs of asphyxiation or other conditions.
It's body wasn't warped in any visible ways, it looked like it was merely asleep.
He reached out but his hands hesitated, not wanting to disturb what looked like a peaceful scene. He pushed through and picked up the baby and wrapped it in the cloth it was layed on.
He then, looked through other draws. He found another baby and with a harrowing expression placed it in the tray labeled 'Subject 00347'. He took of the label of the second babies tray and stuffed it in his lab coat.
He carried it as sneakily as he could out of the facility, seemingly managing to succeed.
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He drove for a while till he reached a forest clearing outside the city the facility was located.
He dug a hole, shallow as it was, it was obviously a grave. He layed the baby in it as he began filling the hole...
The sound of the trudging of his shovel added an eeriness to the scene. The nightly breeze rustling the leaves, the gentle buzzing of bugs as they flew and the subtle sounds of the trickling water of a stream a short walk away.
As he was about to pour the last of the dirt to cover the hole a muffled cry could be heard.
Brandyworth threw himself to the ground and dug up the baby with his hands. The cries became clearer. He hoped he wasn't going insane from the chemicals he worked with or the turmoil this situation caused him.
When the baby was fully uncovered he could see it clear as day.
The baby's skin was reddish, it's mouth and nose scrunched due to its screams of life. Its body littered with dirt and a few insects. Its cloth muddied. Its eyes gripped shut, unable to open due to its recent birth.
Brandyworth held it close to his chest as he just wept. He could feel it's body burning hot, a fever of epic proportion.
He ran to his car and sped to a hospital, not letting the baby leave his grip, one hand on the wheel. He couldn't go back to the facility with teh baby to ask for treatment as he would likely be executed for treason in the form of taking a weapon of epic proportions from the U.S. Government.
He ran into a hospital and demanding treatment for the child at the front desk.
"Get me a doctor! Please! I beg you help this baby!" He screamed at the front desk, uncaring of those around him.
A nurse rushed over and looked over the baby. The reddish complexion of the baby couple with the labored breathing and dirtiness of the baby caused the nurses expression to worsen.
She ushered the man to follow her.
"Do you know what the cause is?" She asked as they quickly walked.
"No, I just found him in a ditch crying as I was on a nightly walk" he said covering his tracks as to not alert the nurse.
"From the looks of him he's barely a week old at that, likely someone tried getting rid of him if he was buried" she said solemnly as they raced through the corridors.
Brandyworth internally dreaded that he was infact trying to get rid of this child, he was about to kill the kid a second time after all he's done, after all his dread and regret. The thought almost made him stop but he needed to make sure this baby lived.
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After a while the baby could be seen in the nursery, cleaned with a significantly less red look. Brandyworth looked through the glass as he saw the sleeping baby boy.
He turned away, knowing, this was likely the last time he'd see the boy. He was content with letting the boy enter the foster system. All he had to do now was erase any trace of his connection, starting with scrubbing himself from the security camera footage.
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[Author]
Sorry for the graphic content, I plan to tackle the grittiness of the Invincible world.
The story will mellow out a lot when the main series starts.
Also I may not have been as descriptive on the appearances of people as I assume to some extent you know what people vaguely look like from the show or comic. For characters with low screen time I'll describe them upon introduction.
Anything you wanna say, any advice or criticism, feel free to give it. I may do this for fun but I do enjoy self improvement.
Bye for now 👋