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Pat*eon : CaveLeather
Game of Thrones: The Dragon Who Remembers
Game of Thrones: What Must Be Done
Night.
Seeing that Tony Stark showed no signs of waking up, and considering the guy hadn't had a decent night's sleep in days, Luca simply checked his vitals to make sure he was still alive, packed up his things, and left the lab.
"I've already notified Pepper anyway. Better not disturb their heart-to-heart later."
Luca didn't stick around in New York. He had his own business to attend to. He called on Spot to open a portal and went straight back to Sokovia.
Back home, Luca wasted no time. He took out the compressed cubes he had been carrying around for days—the ones from the Skrull station—and unsealed them with water.
"Alright... let's synthesize this first. If I can't figure it out, I'll just hand it over to Sherry..."
"Uh... knowing her, she's probably still awake at this hour, right?"
The item Luca had brought back was one of the glowing core components he scavenged from the Skrull lab.
Specifically, the colorless, transparent biological agent on the left.
[Compound V]
[Source: The Boys Universe 1/5]
[Creator: Frederick Vought]
[Core Component: Super Skrull Project Gene Sample]
[Synthesis Materials: 1 can of blue dye, 1 cylindrical test tube, 1 gram of addictive substance, 100ml energy drink]
[Item Description: A genetic serum developed by Nazi scientist Frederick Vought during WWII. Originally intended to create super-soldiers to turn the tide of the war. After the Nazi defeat, Vought defected to the U.S. with the formula. He collaborated with the military to refine it into a stable version of Compound V.
Its primary effect allows the subject to manifest various special abilities based on their unique genetic code.
However, despite being the 'stable' version, injection carries massive risks. For adults, the survival and successful awakening rate is less than 1%. Injection during infancy guarantees survival, but the chance of developing powers is only about 80%. Furthermore, since the abilities are random, there is a risk of physical mutation or severe side effects.]
[Tip: Not everyone gets to be Homelander. Sometimes, having the delusional confidence that you possess 'world-shattering wisdom' is a superpower in itself, right?]
Reading the description on his system panel again, Luca felt a headache coming on.
He only had one vial. Using it directly would be a waste. He had to research it—mass production was the only way to make this profitable.
But the risks were insane. Less than a 1% survival rate for adults? And experimenting on babies was a line he wasn't willing to cross.
As for the powers themselves...
The item was powerful. The ceiling was high—you could get a Superman-lite like Homelander. But the floor was incredibly low.
If he ended up creating a bunch of freaks with gills on their stomachs or spikes growing out of their eyes, it would be even more useless than those defective [SMILE Fruits] he'd seen before.
Besides, it wasn't like Luca lacked methods to awaken powers. The "Mind Stone Potential Unlock" he used on the Maximoff twins was a perfectly viable, safer alternative to Compound V.
The biggest issue with V was the RNG—the randomness.
Even if he could stabilize it for adults, Luca would never inject it into himself or anyone he cared about, just to avoid getting stuck with a garbage power.
On the flip side, he couldn't risk giving it to someone he didn't trust, in case they rolled a god-tier ability and became uncontrollable.
In short, it was powerful, but it felt like a white elephant—too valuable to throw away, too troublesome to use.
"Yeah, I'll let Sherry try to replicate it first. If we can't copy it, this conversation is over."
"If she can replicate it and remove the instability and side effects, then it would be a fantastic enhancement tool."
"And if we can't get rid of the side effects..."
Luca's eyes flickered with calculation.
If he could mass-produce [Compound V], he was leaning toward using it on his Yuri Bio-Clones.
They grew fast and were easy to control.
More importantly, Luca had the [Superman Gene Extractor]. If a clone lucked out and awakened a top-tier ability, Luca could extract it into a "Superpower Capsule" and gain that ability himself without the risk.
As for the clones that failed or got trash powers? He could extract those too, just to diversify his inventory.
Or he could just ship them off to the Dimension War as cannon fodder. He wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
Actually, since getting the [Superman Gene Extractor], Luca had already been doing this with the "Mind Stone Potential Unlock" method.
The problem was, when used on the Yuri clones, that method mostly resulted in psychic-based abilities like "Telekinesis," "Mental Perception," or "Mind Control."
Luca had a stockpile of those capsules, but unless the power level was off the charts, they were inferior to the "Quicksilver Speed Capsule" he was currently using.
"Hmm, but Compound V awakens powers based on the user's DNA. If I use mass-produced clones, will they all get the exact same power?"
"Maybe I need to tweak the genetic diversity of the clone troopers later."
"If I do that, it might even help Sherry analyze the relationship between specific gene sequences and the powers they manifest."
While running these calculations in his head, Luca didn't stop moving.
Although he hadn't been back to Sokovia for a few days because of Tony, he had already ordered his subordinates to prepare the synthesis materials.
Well, "Blue Dye" and "Test Tube" didn't exactly require a complex procurement process.
He drew the circle, placed the items, and mentally triggered the synthesis.
A flash of white light later, a brand-new vial of [Compound V] sat in front of him.
Picking up the blue genetic serum, Luca thought about the "Superpower Capsules" he could make with the extractor.
A wild, somewhat ridiculous idea suddenly popped into his head.
If he could successfully reverse-engineer the drug, mass-produce the capsules, and standardize specific abilities...
"Could I pick out some of the more... harmless, general-utility powers and sell them?"
"Painless Genetic Modification?"
"A Superpowers for Everyone Plan?"