Two Days After the Shadow Incident
For the first time in weeks, the world stopped bleeding, if only for a moment.
The silence that followed the destruction of the Shadow lab and shutdown was unnatural. Omnic activity across the Mesopotamian basin slowed to a crawl. No new pulses. No new assaults. No disappearances. As if they were holding their breath.
Jack Morrison called it a coincidence. Ana called it a pause before escalation.
Shawn didn't call it anything. He simply used the time.
Southwestern Training Grounds
Twenty medics stood before him, uniforms crisp, nerves raw.
Eight of them bore the battle scars of California and Wadi al-Hasa. The other twelve were new. Volunteers inspired by legend. Drawn by the story of a man who could steal death from others and survive the impossible. They had no idea what was in store.
"Welcome to hell," Shawn said, stepping onto the field. "I don't care why you joined. Just know this: when the fighting starts, you're the first in and the last out. You don't panic. You don't flinch. You run into fire while others scream."
He pointed to the original eight. "You see them? They've already been through the crucible. The rest of you? Time to catch up. However, you four, follow me. The rest of you, S3bastian here will be training you."
The four remaining unawakened originals—Steve Wolfe, Dwayne Cobbs, Sonya Dunn, and Felix Jenkins, stood before him. At first, he was going to let them naturally figure out how to unlock the bioelectricity the others had, only giving them a small nudge in the right direction, but the incident with Spencer quickly changed his mind. He was going to awaken them.
Dwayne flinched a bit, "I don't like that look in your eye boss."
"As you can tell, your peers have changed. They run faster, heal wounds faster, and are generally tougher than the average human."
"You've mentioned this before, something to do with bioelectricity within us, right?" Sonya asks.
"Correct. Before I was going to leave it up to guys on your own to figure it out, but what I've seen on the battlefield recently, I'm going to awaken you here and now."
The process was easier for me to do it for them, as all it took was a jumpstart as compared to them having to go through an ordeal where they needed to focus on their bioelectricity to save them. Even if conditions were met, there was no guarantee they would survive said ordeal as it gained its influence over the course of time. Shawn placed his hands on them, one by one.
Steve's hands sparked. Dwayne grunted and tensed. Sonya blinked hard, jaw clenched. Felix gasped sharply, sweat rolling down his temple.
Then, quiet. Shawn observed them closely. "Welcome to the new you."
R&D Laboratory
With his core team awakened, Shawn moved on to something far more ambitious.
Project ABR- 7
There were too many deaths already in this war. If Anubis was evolving along with his forces, humanity would have no chance in the second part of this war. Therefore, Shawn would help humanity evolve as well. Since the timeline was changing anyway, why not?
The formula was bold.
A precise cocktail of adrenal regulators, oxygen-stabilized blood boosters, neural dampeners, and synthetic endurance compounds, all guided by a small trace of programmable bioelectric current. It wouldn't make anyone superhuman. But it could help them survive.
After tests, the results were within his desirable outcomes. The rats had longer stamina. Faster clotting. Reduced pain sensitivity. Mildly tougher dermal tissue. Enough to give the average soldier a real chance. He needed a human test subject however, so he tested it on himself. He gained all these effects with no negatives.
He tested it on himself again. Still worked flawlessly. No spikes. No crashes.
Now came the true test.
The Training Field
Ten medics stood in line. Five awakened. Five unenhanced. Shawn lifted the cold steel case containing the ABR V1 injectors.
"Temporary boost. Thirty minutes. You'll run faster, hit harder, recover quicker. But don't be stupid this isn't invincibility."
They nodded. Shawn moved down the line, injecting each one. The effects came fast. The enhanced medics adjusted quickly. Bodies tensed, stabilized. Breathing deepened. Muscles locked into control. They sprinted cleanly, efficiently.
But the unenhanced.....
One collapsed, seizing. Another fell to her knees, screaming as her heart rate doubled. One vomited violently, another gasped for breath, crawling from the track. The last stumbled and struck the ground, too disoriented to stand.
S3bastian sounded the alert. "Vitals crashing! Blood pressure redline—administering counter-shock!"
Shawn rushed in, calming one by jolting his nerves manually with a controlled electric burst.
Five minutes of chaos. All stabilized. Shaken from what they experienced, but alive.
Later that Night in the Testing Lab
The data projected across the screen in furious red. ABR V1 was a failure. Not in function—but in application. Ana reviewed the data with Shawn.
"This isn't a performance enhancer," she said quietly. "It's an overclock. The human body simply can't process this kind of surge without catastrophic breakdown. You've created a warhorse… for machines. Not people."
Shawn didn't argue.
He simply stared at the failed vial in his hand.
"It worked on me," he muttered.
"Because you're not like them anymore," Ana replied. "You've gone through a hundred calibrations no one else has. You're the blueprint, not the standard."
Too strong. Too fast. Too aggressive for the standard human body. The boosted oxygen transfer overloaded lungs. Muscle responsiveness outpaced neural reaction time. Pain inhibitors numbed the body but didn't suppress the panic response.
Shawn stared at the results. His expression unreadable.
S3bastian leaned back in a chair. "So, I take it we shelve it until the next generation of humanity comes along?"
"No," Shawn said flatly.
S3bastian blinked. "Did you see what it did to their insides?"
"They survived." Shawn turned toward the workstation. "That's all I need."
Hearing his response, Ana stood next to him.
"The Shadow facility, we can overlook. But this... Shawn you're giving untested drugs to make normal people like you. I have to report this, like you should have when you started developing it. In fact, for something like this, you need a lot of approval to even begin this research."
"I hear you Ana, and I understand what you're saying. Do what you have to." Shawn says without looking up from the microscope.
"Can you afford to make more monsters?" Ana asked.
Shawn pauses. "Do you think I'm in the wrong. You know as well as I do what would have happened if I asked for permission. You know they told me that I could only use my powers to heal the highest ranking when they need it. They wanted me to ignore all the soldiers who actually go out there to fight and die and only heal those who haven't seen a battlefield since the war started.
When we win this war, what do you think is going to happen? Do you think that humanity has an epiphany and changes? Hah. I'm not worried about creating any monsters. I'm trying to keep us from becoming the monsters, by being the monster."
Ana reaches into her back pocket and takes something out. Unfolding it, she shows Shawn a picture. He instantly recognized little Pharah. In fact, the picture brought a smile to his face.
"Fareeha. The moment she was born, I knew I loved her with my entire being. I knew that I was willing to do whatever it took to keep her safe. But how does one in my life of business keep someone they love safe. You joked about me being a medic, but I couldn't be farther from it. In fact, I'm more like a modern day assassin. Knowing this, I long ago made the decision that you have. I don't mind being the monster, so she doesn't have to. I sympathize with you Rose." She explains.
Shawn nods his head. "Thank you, Ana. For understanding. I understand that I was too zealous initially. You have my word that I will do the utmost to make sure that I do not cross any lines."
She begins to walk out of the room. "You better not."
"You're going to keep testing?" S3bastian asked.
He opened a new file: Project ABR-7 Mk 2
"I went too far too fast," he admitted. "The idea is sound. The formula just needs tuning. Spread the effects out, give the body time to adjust, stagger the release. I'm going to make sure no soldier dies because they couldn't keep up," Shawn replied.
Shawn's Personal Log
"ABR Version One: Unusable for baseline human physiology. Overwhelms internal systems. Immediate rejection. Dangerous at current levels."
"Success rate among enhanced medics: 80%. Functional, but requires more stability."
"I refuse to make a drug for just the few. If humanity is to win this war, everyone must be stronger. ABR will become the edge anyone can wield."
"Version Two begins tonight."