Congrats, james.!
james. wrote:
Doctor Irving Kultz was once a world-renowned and well respected Biologist and Chemist along with his business partner, Doctor Joseph Scott. The two had been working side-by-side for just over twenty years before all Hell broke loose. Who would have thought that the very subject matter which brought them together would also be the very thing to tear them apart?
It has been three years since Baskerville was destroyed, and while most spat a repugnant good riddance, there was one man who mourned the loss of his beloved experiments and all of his years of research. Doctor Irving Kultz was now alone in the world, barely even thankful that he managed to survive the destruction. At this point, what exactly was there to live for? Literal years of blood, sweat, and tears were poured into the research, and only in a matter of minutes, it was all taken away.
Despite witnessing the destructive massacre with his own eyes, Doctor Kultz refused to believe any of it truly happened. Of course, that initial shock only lasted a few days. The utter loneliness that he suffered on a daily basis forced the shock to be replaced with a near debilitating agony that caused him to question everything. Why did Experiment Zero choose to spare his life? Initially, Doctor Kultz was thrilled that he was the Chosen One, but the pain accompanied with loss began to tear down his metaphorical walls — he swears the viscet was exacting his revenge instead.
As the days turned to weeks, and the weeks turned into a full month, Doctor Irving Kultz experienced something he’d never felt in his entire life: the seven stages of grief. It struck him that he had never truly lost anything until that tragic day, and so he vowed: never again.
Never again would he allow all of his hard work to go to waste. He would rebuild — he would finish what he started, and never again would he allow anyone to get in his way.
Without a team or a crew of any kind, it would be incredibly difficult to rebuild, but if Doctor Kultz was anything, he was most certainly determined. He used an entire year to build a new laboratory of sorts. It wasn’t the best by any means, but he hoped it would serve its purpose. The following year was used to focus primarily on tracking very specific viscets and swiping their eggs without a moments hesitation.
He would have been lying if he said he wasn’t completely, one-hundred percent confident in his new experiments, but as time drove on, eggs were dying rapidly because of the constant experimentation. That was his forte, though! With Experiment Zero, he had found a way to conduct the experimentation while the viscet was still inside of the egg. Why was he having such a hard time now? When it was most vital?
Nine eggs completely wasted, ad unfortunately for him, breeding season was over for the year. Doctor Kultz refused to believe that he was doing anything wrong. It wasn’t his fault the eggs were failing, it all had to do with the strength (or lack thereof) of the viscling inside. Once he found somewhere else to place the blame, Kultz was perfectly fine with waiting until next season.
Months passed — rainy spring turned to warm summer, warm summer turned to chilly fall, and fall brought the greatest season of all. As biting cold as it was, Kultz spent the next few weeks tracking and waiting as patiently as he possibly could. There was something off about the winter months this time, however. Kurtz noticed, with a heavy heart, that there were no where near as many viscets as last season.
Five eggs.
Doctor Irving Kultz managed to collect only five eggs, and somehow he also managed to keep his anger at bay, no matter how badly he wanted to just smash the god forsaken things and forget about his stupid dream. But that’s what a quitter would do.
and Kultz was no quitter.
So, he cared for the eggs with a newfound tenderness, yet still…
#10: perished.
#11: perished.
#12: perished.
He waited, anxiety bubbling in his gut and nerves on fire, for numbers 13 and 14 to meet the same fate. He was extraordinarily careful with the two remaining eggs, making sure to not disrupt them too much, all the while pumping them full of different strands of DNA and mutated genes. Four days had passed when the Doctor noticed a crack in the shell of #14. He hadn’t handled them outside of the incubator, so it was concluded that the viscling inside had attempted to break out before its proper time, thus resulting in its own demise.
Kultz was beyond angry and only a moment away from tearing his own hair out, but he needed to stay calm if he was to care for the remaining egg. #13 went though only one more day of experimentation before it was left alone in the incubator. The hope was that the genes would permeate through and around the embryo and the egg would hatch to reveal a beautiful viscet with mutations never witnessed before by man.
Oh, was he in for a treat!
It took weeks, but the egg finally hatched, and Kultz did nothing to assist the creature within, only sat and watched as it emerged on its own. Doctor Kultz’s eyes welled up with tears as the small viscling struggled to climb on all fours within the incubator.
Kultz had warned his once best friend the dangers of naming the experiments in fear of attachment, but now, as lonely as he was, where was the harm in becoming attached to the only company he had?
He named the new project 'Lazarus', and figured it would only be appropriate if the only viscling to survive continued the project's legacy by inheriting the name.
An entire year had passed by in the blink of an eye and Doctor Kultz was unable to physically work with Lazarus thanks to his red-hot aggression. Working with him from the other side of the glass was deemed useless as well — the viscet was just too damn stubborn! Sometimes Kultz thought it might be best if he released the captured viscet... but he feared Lazarus would only come back for him to finish what Zero had started. So, he would keep the experiment behind glass until he figured out exactly what he was going to do.
It was a quiet Thursday night. August 19, to be exact. And Kultz feared he was too late. He didn't figure out what to do with Lazarus, so the viscet took it on himself. Kultz heard the glass shatter. He heard the heavy foot steps, and the claws scraping against the metal floor. He heard the giant beast of a viscet growing nearer, and nearer... and the only thing Kultz did was grab his notebook to scribble his last words:
The story of Doctor Irving Kultz may have ended, but the story of Lazarus XIII had only just begun. He took back his freedom by force, and he would find others just like him and together, they would take the world back. Together, they would fight. Together, they would conquer.
1485/1500
