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Absolute Infection

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"So, what's the story behind this specialist they're bringing in?"

"As far as I know, he had a fiance who was pregnant, but she ended up miscarrying while he was overseas. She was supposed to have the child right before he got back, so she snapped and killed a woman for her newborn. The doc realized what happened, turned her in, and they were able to get the kid back to his real father. That was a good 5 years ago..."


This was the conversation between two security officers at a research hospital run by the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. At the hospital, the board of the WHO had asked for the assistance of a reculsive microbiology expert in assistance in a new disease they had isolated.

His name is Dr. Raymond Palmer.

With his briefcase, Dr. Palmer was picked up at the airport by members of the WHO's staff, including the hospital vice-director Lorraine Reilly, and brought there. The hospital's director, Dr. Martin Stein, filled Dr. Palmer in.

About a week ago, in a Berlin fashion show, model Mari Jiwe had collapsed on stage. She and 22 other cases from the show were brought to the hospital showing symptoms of fever, intense muscular pain, frantic hallucinations, bloody vomit, and, finally, a comatose state. The 22 other patients were dead within hours, but Mari, still in a coma, is still alive and she was safely transported to Geneva to undergo observation. Thankfully, the 23 victims from the show are the only cases so far, which means they can exterminate the virus permanently if they can cure Mari here and now. The virus they detected has the ability to replicate the DNA of the victim, and thus adapts by "disguising" itself as normal human cells to defend itself. On top of that, it "shares" the DNA of anyone it infected, leading to risidual DNA strains from the other 22 victims detected in Mari. The WHO named the disease "death council", or (in mid-to-late Latin) "Morticacaus".

Dr. Palmer did as much research into the Morticaucas as he could, in Mari's extracted blood samples, the remains of the other 22 victims, and in animal test subjects they had in the laboratory. The conclusion Palmer and his teammates came to is that they can track the virus by "mapping" Mari's body where DNA of the other victims are present and looking for "voids" in the map that could mean Morticacaus. They then formulated a carcinogenic chemical compound that attacks cellular elements common in all animal cells that Moritcaucas can disguise itself as. The problem is that they can't make a dose small enough that it can't harm Mari while killing Morticacaus. Dr. Palmer has an idea, though...

Palmer brought out, from his briefcase, a technologically-infused suit of his design. He explains that, years ago, he worked with Dr. Saul Erdel, before his disappearance after his mission to Mars, who had discovered a radioactive mass that landed on Earth. Erdel discovered that the "white dwarf matter" as he called it, emits radiation that can safely separate atoms from matter, when exposed long enough, while keeping the original shape. In short, it can shrink objects. While Palmer was in seclusion, he obsessively worked on a suit with a built-in white dwarf amplifier that would allow the wearer, if they know how to operate it safely, to shrink to the size of single-cell organisms. Palmer is going to shrink himself, along with a genetic map of Mari and a pistol full of carcinogen, to "hunt" the Morticacaus himself. He'll only have an hour of air in his suit when he does, so they need to work fast. One of the doctors, when Palmer said he has no definite name for the suit so far, he said it should be called "The Atom"; Palmer rebuffed it and said "The Cell" would be more accurate, since its impossible to become smaller than a cell with the tech.

Dr. Palmer shrunk down to blood cell size and entered Mari's blood stream. He managed to actually destroy a majority of the Morticacaus cells, with no harm to Mari, and could travel more quickly through her bloodstream than anticipated. But just when he was about to destroy the last bit of Morticacaus, Palmer saw a form of nanotechnology fused with the cell. When he was questioning what it means, Rudy Jones, a janitor working at the hospital, was spying on the procedure and activated a remote control he hid in his uniform. Mari awoke and screamed in pain, scaring away the doctors trying to help Palmer. The animals they had tested Morticacaus on then all spontaneously died. The nanotech in the mother virus of Morticacaus infused Mari's DNA with that of the animals Morticacaus, but more advanced than the human genetics. She now has various abilities, but she went mad and attacked the staff. Palmer destroyed the final bit of Morticacaus and the nanotech, but Mari still had powers and was still savage. Palmer traveled to her inner ear and attacked it to throw her off balance. He then exited her through her ear canal and knocked her unconscious with a miniaturized leaping punch, which still packed the strength of a normal punch in an insect-sized fist.

In the aftermath of all this, Mari regained her sanity, but the powers she gained from animal DNA still remained. She thanked Dr. Palmer for saving her life before agents of CADMUS (Council for the Administration and Deterrence of Metahumans in the United States) came to take her to a hospital in the US, since she's a US citizen and she falls under her jurisdiction. Raymond Palmer made his way back to the Swiss airport, scribbling in his notes the name "Anatomical Transition Of Mass device".

Meanwhile, Rudy Jones, after stealing a vial of Morticacaus-infected blood, called his employer, Professor Anthony Ivo, who created the virus and released it on the fashion show as part of a field test, but the phone didn't pick up. Ivo was already on the run from an assassin... one with the Omega symbol carved into their skin...
 
Notes:
* A lot of this is inspired by the video game "Trauma Center: Under the Knife".
* Dr. Palmer's fiance was Jean Loring, who is now serving a sentence at the Arkham Institute.
** The woman she killed was Sue Dibny, wife of Palmer's friend Ralph Dibny.
* Raymond doesn't like to be called Ray, saying only Jean would call him that...
* Dr. Saul Erdel was infected by an alien parasite he contracted on Mars and CADMUS killed him trying to gain control of the organism. His colleague, Dr. Jones, was also infected...
* While working on the Atom suit in seculsion, Palmer tested on himself. He survived the initial failed tests, but has various grotesque scars across his body as a result.
** The white dwarf matter doesn't affect lead, so Palmer used it as the base of a "battery" containing the white dwarf energy that he plugs the suit into when not in use. He also uses lead to contain the material in a safe in his lab.
* The animals Mari's genetics fused with include a gorilla, a snake, a bird, a lizard, a cheetah, a fish, and others.
** Mari plans on confronting the WHO on the use of animal experimentation after being released from CADMUS.
* Prof. Ivo will return...
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Comments11
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Nightshade475's avatar
I like the story, like how Ray corrects the choice of Atom, makes so much someone of his intellect!
does Vixen transform or is she just gifted with their abilities?  Also like how he wound up keeping the name ATOM