What makes superheroes?

The green vapour shimmers inside the glass tube. The seemingly safe gas is being inhaled by the half naked man inside it. The
fluroscent green colour was added as an indicator to let one see if the precious gas was still around. It also added a fancy touch, like  in comic books. You can see it going into the man’s nostril like a bright green snake.

Now, the wait. The wait to see if the vapour is safe for the human as it was for Mr Panzer who now scuttles around in his glass cage. By the way, Mr Panzer is your pet – he is a tiny white rat who you would say ‘volunteered for the cause’.

It was originally the common cold virus, and the trick lies in altering the DNA sequence. DNA, just a sequence of As, Gs, Cs and Ts –  just shuffle them and you get a miracle. And this time the experiment struck gold, the exact first time, unlike Edison’s 40,000th time. The only reason it was successful was because the experiment was to derive a cure for common cold, not to create a super drug like it has come to now. It was a fluke. The fluke that is now held in innumerable vials that line the walls of the laboratory. The green shimmering vapour.

The virus could be administered through any fluid. But it was too bitter to be taken in as a drink and it was too slow via the blood stream to be given as an injection. It was to be taken in without the body least rejecting it by breathing it in.

The ‘miracle’ is taking effect. But only time will tell of the side effects. The subject inside the glass tank seems to stay calm for a while. Then his eyes widen, he struggles for breath and his screams are lost within the tank. Then he starts bleeding as if he is sweating.  Then the skin starts peeling off his body and then the flesh. Within minutes, it is a bloody mess. Look on if you want to, but it is better to turn off the light inside the tank and press ‘DECONTAMINATE’ (a long switch to accomodate the label). There goes experiment number 7, all the previous six failures less violent than this one. You are gonna need a new glass tank.

Then strange whirring sounds are heard from up top.  Helicopters. And all of a sudden a hole forms in one wall and another in the roof. Debris fly. And it rains men through those openings.  Men in kevlar armours and gas masks  mounted with flashlights, wielding some heavy weaponry.

Within a minute, as they say ‘Perimeter is secure’ and before doing that, one of them squashes the butt of his gun on the person who runs the facility and pins him to the ground – the person in white lab coat, you. It is not pain now. You have gone numb for a moment. You have no other go but give in.

It is a cruel sight to see your lab being ransacked, after all you have spent the last 480+ hours of your life there, without experiencing the sun or rain or whatever was happening outside.  The vials are being taken down from the wall into some fancy containers,  and you want to tell them ‘careful people – break it, then you and me are dead, after bleeding painfully through all our pores’. Then they bag and tag all the equipment – from the sci-fi stuff to the low tech – including the paper weight. Wait, where’s Mr Panzer? His cage is open. Have they taken him as well? Is he still in the room? You cannot turn your head to find out because someone is holding it firmly with your cheek scraping the floor. ‘Wherever you are, stay away from these morons, buddy. Stay clear. ‘Cos these guys may take you somewhere and cut you into pieces and study what drugs you were really on. Be safe. Hide. Run.’

Then you are bagged and while you are wondering if you have been tagged as well, you are put in a chopper, with your arms tied either way like they do to the crazy. Your neck still burns from the blow and one or two guns are still trained at you as the chopper takes off. The chopper is just whirring up and over that sound you hear a roar – it sounds oddly familiar, but amplified and distorted – like the DJs do to your favourite song. You look out of the window and find all the military monkeys in the rickety helicopter is already looking at the same direction. And at the horizon you find the thing that you could not find in the lab. Mr Panzer. Well, a little too big now for a once small rat.  A giant one. As tall as the City tower and wide enough to hide the setting sun. He was like the Yeti now, all white with a vicious brown tail which went through the glass walls of a building like a knife through butter. ‘Oh you have grown so much’ are the only words that come to your mind. You suddenly have tears in your eyes. The tears of joy, is it? The hours the little vermin spent in his glass cage inhaling vial after vial of the green vapour has made him something.  But why didnt it mutate him inside the lab? Oh wait, it must be the sun. Earth’s yellow sun and your green vapour has transformed the lab animal to a gigantic monster which is having its own way with the city. Like it did to Superman.

Military morons. These guys always spoil the show , don’t they? You curse them under your breath as you watch your now enormous pet, with shady green eyes being surrounded by gunships. This is going to be fun. He is faster than these morons think. After all he is rat. He does well to dodge the gunfire but you know he cannot last long.  A bomber appears in the horizon which flies  into the middle of the circle that the gunships have  formed around Mr Panzer.  The belly of the plane opens just above your beloved rat and something small but shiny drops on its head. So this is their answer for Mr Panzer. And the bomb hits bull’s eye.

The whir of the helicopter did not muff the blast. Your hands are not free, so there is no way you can cover your ears. It hurts your drums. At the horizon you can no longer see Mr Panzer but you can imagine what might have happened. The chopper swings in the air as it narrowly avoid a big wad of flesh(obviously belonging to Mr Panzer) which flies past it.

Well at least you may not have succeeded in making a hero, but you sure know how to make a monster. No wait, you dont know what they are going to do to you now, do you? They may kill you or may take you to a secret base, and wipe your memory clean after extracting what they want from you. Till then be proud – you made a monster from an ordinary rat and common cold.