Chapter 15: Chapter 15 – Hope dies last

(AN: Sorry, there wasn’t an update last week. I was really sick all week and couldn’t write) 

3rd POV (time skip one and a half weeks) 

Walking into Oscorp Makenzie or Dr. Ziegler, his current name, greeted the receptionist as he walked past the front desk before making his way to stand in front of the elevator. {Ding} hearing the familiar sound of the elevator Makenzie stepped into the elevator before turning around and making room for other employees. Shutting the doors after the elevator was filled to capacity a man in a lab coat coughed to get everyone's attention before proceeding to ask everyone what floor they needed to get to. What followed was a 5-minute shouting contest which resulted in 4 additional stops on their trip since some people couldn’t understand how not to talk over each other. 

Squishing through the crowd after arriving at floor 15, Makenzie walked the halls with familiarity as he greeted the employees he passed. Making his way towards his own laboratory Makenzie allowed himself a brief moment of satisfaction. Getting the job at Oscorp had been even easier than he thought it would be. Forget background checks he didn’t even think Norman looked at his resume. But to be fair while he might have only used the recipe for the weakest gene serum the Overwatch world was a few decades ahead of the Marvel world when it came to science.  

Don’t look at a few years as a small amount of time after all in the Marvel world all it takes for technology to leap through decades is someone being inspired by a dream and then voila a revolutionary piece of technology is made just like that. So, when Makenzie had come in for his interview Norman had spent the whole interview listing off various benefits, he could give Makenzie. An unlimited budget, top of the line tech, anything Makenzie could think of needing so that he could make a better version of the gene serum.  

According to Norman if a stronger version could be produced then he could perfect his goblin serum. This left Makenzie with a lot to think about. On the one hand he could potentially stop the creation of the Green Goblin on the other hand though he would be arming the US military with super soldiers and if there's one group of people in Marvel who have never been shown in a good light it would be the military. Currently Makenzie was leaning towards making a potential cure for Norman if he does become the Green Goblin instead of stopping him from changing. But he was hesitant on whether he would be able to react quick enough to stop Norman before people died from his actions.  

“Dr. Ziegler good morning.” Shaken from his thoughts by someone saying his name, Makenzie looked up and saw Dr. Conners exiting his lab with a tried smile on his face. 

“Dr. Conner, good morning. How was your latest test? I heard from your assistant that your rodents had shown promising results” 

Hearing Makenzie’s question Dr. Conner’s smile faltered and the exhaustion on his face became more pronounced “Unfortunately while at first, I thought we had found a successful stabilizing agent today the rodents showed signs of further mutation and cell decay.” 

“That’s too bad. Doctor but I’m sure you're getting close. Don’t give up just yet I believe your research could lead to great leaps in the medical industry.” Trying to encourage Dr. Conners, Makenzie sighed in relief when he saw Dr. Conners give a much more real smile at his words. 

“Thank you for your kind words, Dr. Ziegler. Well don’t let me keep you for any longer, I need to take a rest before going over the lab results once again. Have a good day.” 

“You to Conners.” Moving to the end of the hallway and taking a left Makenzie entered the third door on the left side. Finally on his own Makenzie sighed in exhaustion. He had thought that with everyone at Oscorp being scientists the environment would be rather reclusive. What a surprise it had been for him when on his first day he saw the exact opposite happening. People flew from door to door constantly talking and asking questions, trying to find solutions to problems and inspiration from each other. Makenzie had to get new locks installed after a couple of people literally broke into his lab to make sure he was okay on his first day.  

Needless to say, he now had a new much stronger lock installed and had made it abundantly clear that no one here was on his level by going around and solving people's most pressing problems effortlessly. Now, while he would still be interrupted every couple of hours it wasn’t nearly as much of a problem as before. Moving into one of the three small cubicles in his lab for changing Makenzie stopped when he was down to just his undergarments and admired Mercy’s body in the mirror. He had spent much of the week leading up to his interview making sure everything and everyone in his little hideout would be fully functional even when he was away for most of the day. He hadn’t spent much time transformed as Mercy because he thought it would be instinctual like it was for Solider, Reaper, and Genji.  

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. It would seem that he hadn’t gotten everything instinctually from his characters. Somethings like how to work a male body he already had instinctually. So, when he transformed into Mercy on the day of the interview and immediately fell due to the sudden weight on his chest and the heels he was wearing, he had been forced to do whatever he could to make it seem like he didn’t belong in a wheelchair. He still felt embarrassed by the looks people had given him on the street as he stumbled this way and that. The worst part had been when he was changing. He had spent 20 minutes just standing there in the middle of the lab (He hadn’t seen the cubicles) convincing himself that stripping as a female character didn’t make him a pervert.  

If he hadn’t been on high alert all day trying to get used to a female body, then he would have been caught in a less then decent situation by the employees who broke down his door. Finished changing Makenzie spent a little longer admiring himself in the mirror before walking towards the lab and punching in his 10-digit code and walking to his table where all the materials for the best gene enhancer from the Overwatch world were laid out. His first day in had been spent scoping the place out for any type of monitoring or listening device Norman may have installed to monitor his progress. Thankfully it seems the weak gene serum had placated him enough so there weren’t any. 

(AN: Bullshit science warning. Everything after this point will probably not make any sense????) 

After confirming it Makenzie had made good use of his unlimited budget to get various materials he could use for his projects. The one he put the most importance on by far was this Perfect gene serum. The gene serums were meant as a way to improve people's bodies naturally. But not in a Captain America type way. Adding strength into the body and amplifying it dozens of times. No instead the gene serum worked to perfect what was already there. For example, if you had 2 brown hair genes and 3 black hair genes the gene serum would work to perfect your hair gene. Normally it would just assimilate the brown hair genes in your body so that you ended up with only black hair genes. But in more extreme cases when there is a much greater difference in the kind of genes it would work as a kind of stabilizer for your body combining both genes together making a newer better gene. 

 This is the aspect of the serum Norman is focusing on. The Goblin Serum in and of itself is an almost perfect serum the problem is that unlike Erskine’s formula which was made to bond with the body and carry it forward with the serum strengthening everything in the body, the Goblin Serum focused only on strengthening the body. This led to a deficiency that Norman had worked to get rid of. But all Norman did was try to change what the weakness effected. And now the serum can’t be changed any further, but the side effects hit one of the worst places possible, the mind.  

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With the gene serum it is theoretically possible to raise the natural adaptability of the body to a level where it could assimilate the Goblin Serum on its own, therefore getting rid of the mental instability the serum is currently guaranteed to cause. The serum Makenzie is currently making will boost his body to its theoretical “Perfect State” increasing his natural limits by nearly 4-fold on their own. Meaning if originally Makenzie could only generate 400 pounds at his peak form, then after the serum, he would be able to generate 1600 pounds of force. Compared to other serums it may not seem like much of a boost, but the 4-fold applies to far more than what Makenzie could achieve naturally. Anything injected into his body is also going to enhance him at a far greater rate than normal.  

(AN: Bullshit end) 

Moving the serum over to a freezer Makenzie opened it and put the serum in before double checking the temperature and setting a timer for three hours. With that done he looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was 2:47PM in the afternoon. He had worked 4 hours nonstop. Deciding to take a break, Makenzie left his lab and exited Oscorp to go get something to eat. As he was exiting Oscorp he paused when he suddenly felt multiple gazes land on his body. Resuming walking Makenzie forcefully suppressed his body’s reflexes and continued down the street. ‘Is it Norman? Unlikely. Then that leaves Hydra/Shield. The question is whose side is watching me. If it’s Shield, then most likely they’ve just taken an interest in my research. If it’s Hydra...Well, it better not be Hydra.’  

Entering a Starbucks Makenzie quietly waited in line before ordering a Pumpkin Spice latte and taking a seat by the windows to discreetly observe the street. Watching the hustle and bustle of the city always helped to calm Makenzie down even in his past life. He didn’t know why but a busy city always made him calmer than relaxing in nature on his own. As he continued watching people pass by a woman took the seat opposite from Makenzie silently. Having already seen the woman approaching him Makenzie didn’t react to her action and continued calmly staring out the window.  

They sat like that in silence for a while before the woman opposite him spoke up. “Lively, isn’t it?” 

Turning his head slightly, to look in her direction he sees a 5’4 blonde haired woman sitting across from him. She has green eyes with a slight blue hue and her hair up in a bun. Her body posture spoke of a well-disciplined lifestyle and the constant vigilance she was very poorly trying to hide showed that she was to at least some degree trained in combat. ‘So then either a sleeper from Hydra or a Shield agent.’  

“It always is.” Responding lightly, Makenzie turned back to focus on the street waiting for the agent across from him to make her next move. 

“Do you often come here to watch them?” She asked him, leaving the question more open to try and engage more of a response from him. 

Chuckling slightly, at the predictable tactics Makenzie decided to continue humoring the agent “Yes. Watching them helps me clear my head. All of them with their own unique circumstances and dreams doing everything they can to take one step further to their goal. Watching them I always wonder what pushes them to keep reaching for their dreams? In the end I always reach the same conclusion. But no matter how many times I reach it, it always has the same rejuvenating effect. And suddenly my dream doesn’t seem so far anymore.” 

With a soft smile hanging from his lips, he finally made eye contact with the agent across from him waiting for her response. “Uhhh.” The agent for her part was sitting there rather dumbly and didn’t seem to know how to proceed. Watching her Makenzie frowned slightly ‘Is she a sleeper after all? No, it doesn’t make since for Hydra’s work to be so sloppy. Did Shield really send someone this untrained to come talk to me. Have I mistaken their objective? But if it's not for the serum then what?’  

Not letting his thoughts show on his face Makenzie chuckled before sticking out his hand. “It's nice to meet you my name is Angela Ziegler.” ‘Whatever the reason it’s better to have them think there hidden in front of me then have them try and hide in my shadow.’ 

The agent for her part managed to quickly pull herself together after seeing Makenzie's hand and hurriedly grabbed it. “My name is Melissa Page. It's a pleasure to meet you.” 

“Likewise, Melissa, but unfortunately it's about time I get back to work.” Glancing at his watch Makenzie stands up preparing to leave. He has more work to get done today. He doesn’t have time to waste lounging around.  

As Makenzie was about to leave the agent suddenly spoke up. “Wait!” Seeing Makenzie stop she hurriedly continued. “What is it? What is your conclusion?” 

A bright smile bloomed on Makenzie’s face making several people around them blush “Why it’s Hope my dear. It’s always Hope that guides us humans in our darkest hours. As they say, “Hope Dies Last.” Turning, Makenzie walked out of the shop leaving the stunned agent behind him. 

Authors Note 

Real quick guys it acquired to me while writing the scene above me that while Makenzie is in a female character referring to him as He or him might make some of his actions seem weird. To clarify I DO NOT plan for him to have sex in one of his characters or anything, but I was just wondering if you think the story might flow better if I referred to Makenzie in female terms when he is a female character. Let me know your thoughts.  

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