Gwen curled up in the corner of her cell, blonde hair rough and matted as her eyes absently stared through the small gap between her legs. Shudders passed through her occasionally, eyes blank and unseen.

The tiny area was referred to as her 'room', a small cot to one side with a dresser, a toilet to the other. Each of the remaining scientists had one to be thrown into at the end of their 'shifts'- and pulled out before the next began. The only hygiene, outside of the toilets, they had access to was a communal shower they were shoved into every three days. As such the rooms were not particularly sanitary, sheets unwashed and dyed with the smell of sweat and dead skin. Luckily their dirty lab coats were at least replaced every day- and they received new pairs of ill-fitting underwear every week... 'Luckily'.

A small camera sat atop the door- able to see almost the entire small room at once. The corner where Gwen was sitting was an exception, being mostly out of view, only the top of her hair likely visible. 

She'd spent a while memorizing the cameras and where they were positioned, now thankful for Riri's long explanations on lens warping and optical receivers, slowly trying to find gaps where she could make small moves unnoticed. 'Soon.' 

A cocktail of emotions shuddered through her; heart throbbing anger, painful sobs of sadness, growling shame, burning loathing. Her eyes stayed blank, careful not to give anything away lest a guard take exception to her 'gaze'- even if she was in the relative privacy of her cell. She'd been beaten several times for it. Some of her coworkers were beaten for acting out in their cells first thing in the 'morning' after. 

A few of her fellow prisoners completely broke already, refusing to work and study on their assigned tasks. They were further tortured. Made into examples. Raped, cut up, burned and broken, then hung from the ceiling of the cafeteria as the rest were forced to eat under the amused gazes of the guards.

Still, she at least had the last fortress left. As advanced as the technology in this hell was, they weren't able to claw into her mind. Though, they were listening to anything that slipped through her mouth, microphones not-so hidden in the walls.

Gwen fingered the thick collar around her neck, not moving it enough to produce the painful electric shock. Another insult and wound to their status as human beings, the collars were forced on all the researchers. Luckily they didn't have attached cameras or microphones- 'just' a tracker, signal receiver, motion monitor and a powerful taser. All running on a battery that needed replacing either after two discharges or two weeks of use. Hopefully the results of her plan, if successful, would make her immune or resistant to the taze. Though, death was still a far more likely outcome for her insane plan.

Her lips crooked as she stifled a giggle. The lab she worked in may have a few other researchers in it, but they luckily kept their mouths shut at Gwen's odd movements over the past month. A quiet, despondent acceptance of their fates letting them eek out tiny territories in the lab with an unspoken agreement not to infringe on others projects- which at this point were mostly empty gestures to make it seem like they were working.

Hence why none of the other researchers realised what Gwen was doing. They thought she was like them, looking busy to not get beaten but not making any effort to push forward. After all, she hadn't even submitted any product for 'testing', and nor had she acted like the few from other labs that desperately tried to find results- hoping it would give them better treatment.

But Gwen wasn't doing that. 'No no no...' She suppressed another giggle, 'Either I die, or I become a misshapen monster and kill as many guards as I can.' There was no good outcome to expect. The researchers weren't allowed needles to inject themselves with, and it was well known that external energy such as gama radiation was a necessary catalyst for the super soldier serum to function, so there was no chance of the researchers mutating into a monster- at least from Osborn's estimations. 'But there's so much energy right under our feet.' 

Gwen hid the crazed smile between her legs. The lab she worked in had a shallowly buried ionized, heavily radioactive gas pipeline traveling under it for use in another lab. The geiger counter could only detect it in one corner- Gwen's corner- where a crack led to a small leak. She didn't know what the gas was, but it was short lived in contact with air, but radioactive enough that she likely only had a few days before the geiger counter stored in its box across the lab started picking it up. 'Luckily no one is adventurous enough to take it out again after I used it.' She stifled another giggle and rocked slightly.

'A bit of acid and the crack will widen. Maybe blow the pipeline if the gas is too reactive. The radiation should be high enough to get me some results. Whether I die or it leads to a horrific mutation?' A quiet giggle escaped as mad tears wetted her cheeks, 'we'll see, won't we?' 

 

>>> Deeper in the labs

She was awake again. Pain flaring through what little remained of her body. She didn't understand- even with the whispering thoughts of her captors haunting her blank dreams. It hurt. Everything hurt. Maybe she deserved this. She remembered her friend. Remembered the car. Remembered the agony. The cold. The muffling. The quiet. The loss.

"Hup. Awake enough to cry again." "Pah, filthy mutie. We really should just rip out her tear ducts, her eyes are already gone after all." "Yeah, they didn't even have an effect when transplanted either. Though I doubt her tear ducts will be any better. Any news on when we finally get to start pulling out bits of her brain?" "No. Boss wants us to use up the rest of her nervous system first. We'll be removing a bit of the spine tomorrow." 

The clammy metal band strapping her head down spiked into her thoughts as her emotions surged, more tears trailing down her numb skin. Why? Is it truly because she couldn't save her friend? Was she truly a monster like her parents said? She didn't mean to listen. She swore she didn't. But everyone is so loud...

The band pulsed with pain, causing her body to twitch. She didn't have her arms or legs anymore. They'd already taken them. They'd taken other parts of her too, her eyes, her ears, parts of her skull, her ribs. She remembered waking up once as they were poking around in her chest, the cold air squirming between her organs as her heart tried to wiggle free of its spot, metal rods poking and prodding and poking and prodding. 

"Ugh. Stupid thing is having a panic attack again. Amp up the drugs will ya?" "Yeah yeah. She's been getting more resistant to them somehow. We're already up over twelves times what would be needed to knock out an adult. Fucking freak." "Here, I'll flip the coils to give her a little shock. Hopefully that'll teach the bugger to stay still." "Careful not to use too much. Boss'll kill us if the specimen dies." "I know, I know."

More pain. It danced over skin and through her seizing muscles. Her heart painfully pounded and stuttered. She felt a bulge in her throat as one of the tubes started pumping something into her. Her mind started sinking as the panic scrambled the edges of her vision. 'Please stop.' Her sobs were constrained to her own thoughts. 'Please.' 

But no one was there to listen.

 

>>> The next day, OsCorp Island Laboratories 

Gwen was careful, hiding her giddiness, hiding the mad, self-destructive anticipation that burned on her tongue. She used the corner of her eye to glance at the only camera that viewed her corner, going about her day 'normally'- exactly how she wanted to appear.

She opened the glorified oven, pulling out a tray coated with a thin, dry layer of pale, piss colored dust. A super solider serum- or a version of it. Her own special recipe. Not that it had any higher chance of working. The probability was likely far, far lower. If Gwen was lucky, it would kill her quickly and the remains of her corpse would be sheer, caustic poison. She suppressed a manic grin at the thought. Her coworkers would be leaving for the thirty minute lunch soon- they were often 'encouraged' to skip it if they could, but all her coworkers mustered the collective resistance to withstand the disdain, shoving and jeering of the guards everyday. Today would be the sixth time she didn't join them. Not a particularly new or noteworthy event anymore.

She barely could keep her hands from shaking. None of her coworkers noticed anything off. Hopefully the guards monitoring the cameras didn't notice anything either. When lunch came, they'd lock her in the room as usual, with only one guard outside. Hopefully the camera monitors would be a bit laxer as well. Gwen secretly took a deep breath, trying to relieve the pressure in her chest as she scraped the dust from the tray into a petri dish on her desk, her back carefully to the watching camera- the same posture she'd been using for the last month. Nothing suspicious. They wouldn't notice till she actually took the step of no return.

She stilled her hands and grabbed the desk lamp, flicking it on for use with the nearby arm-based microscope. Likely twenty minutes or so till lunch. They had little timers throughout the lab, but no actual clocks. It made keeping track of time near impossible- especially since they were underground. Luckily the guards at least seemed to keep to a schedule, else all grasp of time may have been lost.

She absently observed the oddly crystalline organic formations under the microscope- it wasn't a particularly powerful one, but each crystal under glowed a muddy yellow gold, with shimmers of green, pink, and blue throughout. Much different than the dry-piss color of the macroview. 

And she'd be snorting it in a few minutes. She suppressed another manic giggle, lips twitching out of sight. Careful deep breaths did their best to keep her erratic heart on track as she pushed the petri dish, microscope, and lamp to the side. The lamp remaining on and shoved at such an angle to shine partially into the camera behind her. Hopefully it would give her more time when she took her leap of faith before a guard came in and shot her.

'Focus Gwen.' She stood up and made her way to the fridge near her corner. She'd left a concoction in it last night- a potent acid that'd eat through the laminate tile and rock of the floor. Hopefully, anyway. She'd descretely tested it on a chipped piece of tile and concrete, dissolving it in seconds. It would hopefully widen the inconspicuous crack in the corner, straight down to the pipe. 

Retrieving the glass beaker of clear liquid, she carefully brought it over to her desk. She wasn't sure of its reactiveness to flesh, but a loose hair she dipped in instantly disappeared, so she wasn't going to take her chances. At least, not before she leapt.

Beaker in place she went and grabbed one of the cheap metal trolly's and loaded it for appearances, grabbing a few different sized beakers, frozen material samples from the freezer, and a few containers of chemicals along with a miniature centrifuge, branson burner, and distill. 

The next few minutes passed in a blur, Gwen absently mixing random chemicals together- only careful enough to not get too heavy of a reaction from any. A beep brought her out of her haze, and she blinked. Watching as her coworkers shuffled to and out the door. A guard looked in, glancing around before sneering at her and slamming the door, a click echoing in the now mostly empty lab.

She let out a breath she was holding. She flicked a small timer to the side, for just a minute. Enough time to hopefully make whoever was watching the cams write her off. The shaking in her hands got worse, but she did her best to still them, back to the camera as tears of suppressed panic started trickling down her cheeks. She couldn't breathe, white edging in from the peripherals of her vision. Her head was floating. 'Soon. soon. soon.' 

The timer beeped and she let out a strangled gasp, once again pushing the lamp to the side- into the line of the camera. She shoved her chair back, 'accidentally' hitting the metal trolly towards the corner with the crack. As if in a panic she whirled around and yanked it back- the beaker of acid placed carelessly unbalanced on top of a petri dish tipping over and spilling off the cart- directly onto the floor around the crack. A spot out of view of the camera. Gwen pretended to curse, heart pounding a million miles a minute as she stood up to get the mop, the faint sound of sizzling and visible lower of the floor in spots where the liquid splashed making her suppress a wild smile. She was on a clock.

Wasting time, she filled the mop bucket on the other end of the room, before slowly wheeling it over. Looking at the mess out of sight of the camera and giving a fake sigh before temporarily leaning the mop on the wall and collapsing into her desk chair. Twirling around she 'absently' scooped up the petri dish, positioning her head so it was behind the lamp shining into the camera. Her body was soaked in sweat, shuddering, hot and cold. 

She poured out the dust onto a flat metal plate, using a ruler to arrange it in a line. 'Go big or go home, they say. I think my first time doing drugs will encapsulate that pretty well.' She snorted a laugh, face distorting as she grinned and cried and frowned. She took a breath. Exhale.

Close the mouth.

Lean in. Dust softly touching her nose.

Inhale.

 

IT BUrNs 

She gasped, sinuses burning, revolting. She needed to sneeze. She needed to throw up. The only thing in her nose was sand paper. she coughed, trying to play it cool as she absently shoved the plate to the side, throwing it onto the trolly and pushing it away as well. 

Wetness dripped down her lips, spluttering as she exhaled. She grabbed a nearby rag and slipped into the corner where her 'spill' was. She could hear the hiss of compressed gas escaping now. Did the acid chew through the pipe? Wait, she could just look. Blood dripped from her face as she crawled closer to the hissing, crackling hole. A rabbit hole? Gwen laughed. Slap her ass and call her Alice, for she's going on a trip!

She snickered. Suddenly her head was over the hole, arms no longer under her properly. Her eyes rolled in her skull. That was odd. She could still feel her knees, but she couldn't move them. Why couldn't she move her hands? Gwen looked down into the hole. Three feet of concrete had been cleanly eaten through, exposing the pipe two and half feet under her and the slowly widening crack in the plastic pipe. 'Huh, the pipe's still there. Guess the acid didn't eat plastic.' The clear thought faded, and she giggled as she watched the edges of the crack dry and chip under the unrelenting hiss, her hair being blown back by the strong breeze.

Red water dripped from somewhere under her eyes, dribbling down towards the bottom of the hole as she babbled to herself, the flow getting bigger and bigger. She coughed, her knees finally slipping to the side as she loopily stared into the widening crack, now glowing orange at the edges. A cool pool of strawberry candy with tiny white beans was sitting at the bottom, growing in size. Was it all for her? Gwen smiled loopily, blood pouring from her mouth, as she watched golden strands start falling into it as well, like super thin noodles. Maybe not candy, but weird ramen? That's okay too. She liked ramen.

Unfortunately it was quite far from her mouth. How was she supposed to eat it if she couldn't eat it? Then she couldn't tell the chef what a good job they were doing. She flailed her limbs as best she could! She wouldn't stand for this! Food is food!

Delightfully she noticed the food got closer! Way closer! The red candy now being blown about by the gas of the pipe, sparking with little orange flares whenever a drop of blood got too close. Like mini fireworks! Gwen giggled and flailed more, it seemed to be helping! Chunks of pork and chicken were falling into the soup! And those flat noodle things she can't remember! Some really big, like slices of lettuce or onions!

Suddenly she was moving into the soup! No! Gwen panicked. She wasn't an ingredient! Stupid chef. She turned some and was now staring at the ceiling. It was glowing orange and dyed pink for some reason. That was weird. Being in a bath was also weird. But there were bubbles? Or jets? Like those little holes in pools! She once got her finger almost stuck in those. She never told anyone. She got it out after so it was okay! Her Dad didn't even notice.

Her jaw started to hurt, she clamped her teeth together, feeling weird. Clumsily she brought a hand up and slapped herself ungracefully, giggling as she tried to feel around her mouth. She couldn't feel much. At all. She frowned, her hand slipping downward as she pouted, unnoticing the splash. Quietly she started at the ceiling. The hiss was getting louder, kind of annoying. Stupid snakes. She can hiss too! So she did, hissing right back and giggling.

She felt light again, her vision shifting around as she lolled her itchy head about. The rock was such a bad pillow. Why couldn't stone be soft? Stupid stone. Her ears popped and the hissing and splashing stopped, causing her to smile and comfortably nestle in the quiet. Maybe she could finally get some sleep? She hadn't slept well in a while. A long while. Work is bad.

Stupid work.

Gwen tried dreaming. Frowning. Dreaming was hard. There was someone crying? She should get help. Maybe Gwen could help? Gwen opened her eyes as her ears popped. Blinking. Huh. She was in a comfortable fireplace for some reason. She curiously looked about the flames consuming the... lab? Annoying place 3. AP3. They sparked and crackled weirdly. She flicked her tongue out and frowned. Tasted like ash. Bleh.

She should probably get out of the bath. She looked down, blinking at the grey mud she was in and nodding. A mud bath. Kinda gross, but she heard it was good for the skin! Returning one to nature. And it looks like it worked. Gwen smugly smiled as she stood up, now covered in tightly packed, quickly growing emerald leaves, a long thin branch uncoiling behind her and flicking the air with a crack. Actually maybe it was a tail? She was an animorph now! Gwen giggled and climbed out of the shallow hole, stumbling on her weirdly shaped legs, grey back quickly covered by emerald jewels. She gasped! The tips of her fingers were budding! Would she have pretty flowers to show? A sloppy smile spread across her face, lips pulling back to reveal sharpened, thick, curved teeth.

A particularly loud pop caused her to jump, then glare out the table that shifted and collapsed. Inferior wood. Gwen scoffed, spitting at it, causing it to dramatically shatter and spin away as her spit splashed over and caused some flames to flare. Gwen giggled, tail flicking back and forth, punctuated by whip cracks. 

She curiously looked at the rest of the room. The concrete walls and laminate flooring were also on fire- just like the wooden desk. 'So even stone is lesser than my superior wood.' Gwen snorted in pride, flaring muscles on the back of her neck. A flash of gold caught her vision and she curiously twisted her head to look, tilting it when she didn't find anything behind her.

Shrugging she turned back to the room and stared at the walls for a bit. She felt like she was forgetting something.

...

Gasp!

She was in a burning building! That was a nono. She had to get out and call 991. And her Dad! She hadn't talked to her Dad in a while. She missed him. 

Gwen shook her head and strode over to the door, stumbling a couple times but easily keeping her balance. Shouldn't the building have fire alarm systems? She looked at the roof, and realized that the sprinklers were actually on- and causing the fire to flare up. Is this an oil fire? How strange. Who messes up their cooking so badly? Gwen frowned and grabbed the door handle without looking, yanking the door open as she turned towards it- then absently looked at the metal door in her hand she punctured through and ripped off its hinges.

She carefully placed it to the side. It wasn't her fault. The door was poorly made.

Stupid door.

 

>>> Osborn underground warehouse 

The croc laughed as he crushed another guard in his hand- the screams of osborn prey filling his ears as they were swarmed and dismembered by his army. A month of digging had finally born fruit. He licked his teeth, stepping forward as his army swarmed and scuttled around him. Lights were flashing, alarms blaring. 

A manic smirk covered the Croc's face as he took a bite out of the pulped meat in his hand, bones and flesh crunching and tearing as he ate, snapping and swallowing without the need for chewing. His muscles rippled under his scales as he stepped forward, listening to the empty chatter of his army as they chased runners down to the closing metal doors of the warehouse. One of the two submarines in the underground bay started up, the Croc giving it a disdainful glance as his 'tunnelers' lumbered over to it. He turned away as their massive claws, made for excavation through stone, rent metal and lifted the submarine from the water, pulling it up to the cement floor. The empty discharge and eruption of torpedoes caused him to snarl, a command to kill quickly slamming out from his mind.

He didn't bother counting or even looking at the casualties the explosions caused. There were always more soldiers. 

He stepped up to the locked metal gates, feeling a few of his soldiers being gunned down on the other side as they ripped and tore whatever they could get their hands on, now seperated from the swarm that was clawing on the other side of the lockdown doors. With a snort his hands tore into the steel, heavy frame twisting as he pulled it apart with contempt, more minions already scrabbling through the hole as he widened it, frightened screams of the foolish prey species erupting again as he laughed. A few bullets sparked off his scales and his jaws snapped shut with a snarl.

A twist and chunks of steel were ripped from the gate, hole now large enough for his massive body to step through. His excavators would widen it further for the rest of the army. For now- a cruel grin covered his face as he leaped into the second area, uncaring for his minions as he barreled through the air towards the prey that dared try and resist him. The guard's gun was ripped from their hand by a minion, not giving them time to react before the croc landed, a heavy hand slapping down on the ingrate.

The quick crunch of bone and plastic, the splatter of blood, the feeling of claws cleaving through flesh. The croc grinned and laughed again as the guard's limbs thudded onto the ground, feet scraping through the remains of his crushed minions as he stepped forward to the other guards that were too busy occupied with his other minions- the few able to see his majestic, hulking form shivering in tasteful despair.

Oh how he would enjoy Osborn making the same expression under his feet.

 

 

In World Detail Explanation : 

Serums! They're basically modern elixirs in-universe. The thing about elixirs is that they aren't just pure magic spells in liquid form like most potions- instead they're closer to vaccines minus a few steps; getting the body to produce a specific protein to achieve a goal, like fighting off an infection. The difference is it teaches the body how to physically and magically change itself instead. These changes can be temporary, like with healing elixirs, or permanent like the super soldier serum. 

Of course, the more drastic and permanent the changes the riskier and more delicate the process. You can't just throw a bunch of random chemicals together, boost it with some mana, and call it a day. That's how you get people growing extra limbs and organs, losing their flesh, becoming incorporeal, exploding, or just getting cancer. Or worse, magic cancer. And that's in the case of it being fueled properly. 

The more quick, dramatic and permanent the change, the more fuel is necessary. Generally it's best if the elixir itself provides this energy- as energy taken from the host has difficulty modifying said host due to the rules of fundamentals of magic (history)- so if you want an elixir made that grants you the permanent ability to breathe fire, you'll need alot of outside energy. The cost is even exponential. For a full body, dramatic transformation? Ludicrous amounts. Neither Gwennie or Croc actually had enough energy to succeed in their respective serums/elixirs for this. Even if Jasmine provided her own mana it would, at the current moment, not be enough. So how did they transform? 

Well, there's a... lesser-known side effect to body-modifying elixirs; specifically ones that try to permanently affect people. And that is it makes one briefly quite vulnerable to outside energy influence. In the Croc's case, he had a benefactor giving him a 'helping' hand. In the Hulk's case- he used a stupid amount of gamma radiation to fill the gap (Spangled Star Boy is the same, but far more stable). In Gwen's case... 

Spoilers :P (Though not for long...)