Tarleton's Lab (Audio File Set)

**Tarleton's Lab (Audio File Set)** is a collectible Intelligence series. It consists of six files.

## Files

### A Letter to the Editor

In regards to the May 19th article "Entire Community Applauds Hawkeye." I feel the need to say: no, the entire community does not applaud Hawkeye. The sanitation workers who will be cleaning up around the crime scene for days won't be applauding. Nor will the attorneys dealing with the wholly predictable lawsuits brought by the suspects.

Applause however, is the only thing Mr. Barton had in mind when he made a spectacle out stopping what amounted to a property crime with undue force and a disregard for civil rights.

For a country that nominally opposes fascism, I find it appalling how often we collectively swoon over some costumed thug trampling over supposedly inalienable rights in the defense of some nebulous ideal of law and order.

If we leave our fate in the hands of the unaccountable few, we deserve whatever future they make for us. Advancements in human science promise a future far safer than what they can provide, teeming with possibility! But sadly, we seem content with the bread and circuses of capes.

George Tarleton, Hayward, CA

### George's Diary: Sacrifices

Ultimately decided not file a report. I took all of Sunday night off to clear my head. Thinking of all the little compromises and betrayals of my principles that led me here. Somehow, in my desire to repair the world, I find myself allied with the very people that destabilize it. They are what they've always been, I have only myself to blame. I knew what the devil's bargain would entail.

Tony thought I wouldn't notice. But he took Terrigen from the containment facilities. Like it was a parent's car to be borrowed for a joy ride. And when I caught him, pointed out the unacceptable risk he took, he flashed me a Stark smile and shrugged, like a charming schoolboy who believes he will face no consequences.

And he won't. Who would hold Iron Man accountable? None of them answer to any laws or authority. He is who has always been, and I am that I am. My voice will not be heard. So what is there to do but carry on, and hope that in the end, something of myself and my principles still remain.

### George's Diary: New Treatment

Monica says that her regenerative formula is my only hope. There will be significant side effects. Considering where the cancerous growths are, I must assume it will affect my cognition.

I don't know if I will be here tomorrow. Or if I will be me. M has suggested recording my thoughts prior to her treatments, to review afterwards. Recalling what I wrote may give me a sense of continuity between treatments, as my mind is irrevocably altered.

The resentment I quietly nursed for the last five years flows like a torrent. Everything that has happened, to me, to the world, could have been avoided, if it were not for their arrogance. Make no mistake. I am dying because of the actions of the Avengers.

A-Day proved to me what I already knew. There would be no saving the world with the help of the Avengers. The world needs to be saved from them.

Despite the unimaginable tragedy, if the rest of humanity finally sees them for threat that they are, then perhaps A-Day is the best thing that happened to any of us.

### George's Diary: On the Future

Before A-Day, I labored under the misconception that through diligence I could work my way up, through the myth of meritocracy, until I was in a position to elevate the world.

Now I do not know if my new way of thinking is a measure of how much my mind has changed or how much I have learned, but back then I was a fool. Stark and Banner became great by taking power when they could. By stealing what was not theirs. By branding and franchising. I have learned much under their tutelage.

There is the power of their abilities, and there is the power that we surrender to them, in fawning adoration. The latter was always the greatest, and most deadly. But now, at last, that tide has changed. We no longer worship them like infant gods, and their power fades.

When they dim, and at last vanish, then humanity will have reclaimed what they stole from us. Only then can we walk together into a better future.

### George's Diary: Progress

Project Adaptoid continues to bear such perfect fruit. No one else sees it, but I feel the inertia, inescapable. No matter how hard the abnormals rail against their obsolescence. Like static in the air. Ozone taste. It's coming.

The AIM Experience will push potential into kinetic. When we show the public we can replace the superhumans with something faster, stronger, and obedient to mankind, then what allure will the superhumans still hold? No one prefers having a king when they could have a slave.

There will be many sacrifices. Monica begins to doubt, and in her indecision, she is incapable. She dreamed of apotheosis for decades, but now she quails before the dawn of the new flesh. Perhaps she no longer feels for me. Perhaps she never did. I watched what she did to Bruce.

If I can no longer trust her, I can no longer trust the Formula. I am willing to ride this rotting chariot of meat to the end, if it means a world without reliance on the superhumans. Without them at all.

### George's Diary: MODOK

Monica is dead, by my will. Her usefulness was at an end long ago, and her betrayal and lies were enough to condemn.

Her death makes my purpose clear, all else is ephemeral. For mankind to survive, the superhumans must be expunged, down to the memory.

D.A.R.K. Terrigen - altered from the original form thanks to our research - is lethal to inhumans. Distribution is a mere afterthought. We have had the ability and the infrastructure. We only lacked the courage and will. In one day, I can reduce the inhuman population by 99.15%.

So I will become an instrument, designed for what I must do. For killing. A perfect mind inside a nightmare body. A mental organism, designed only for killing. George Tarleton was an artifact of a past that no longer exists. MODOK is the way forward. I will drag us all beyond this prison of meat and matter.

You are ash beneath a focused lens. I am the Sun. Turn your faces to me, abnormals and humans alike. I am the mechanism of your ascension.