X-Virus: Origins

## X-Virus: Origins by Sagavan

(X-Virus was created by MamaPorcupine/Godzilla2199.)

To say that Liam Williams had a rough childhood would be an understatement. A combination of a lack of a comfortable home and inadequate parenting from the age of 4 would be rough on any child after all. He grew up in a crummy apartment that was often filled with dust while the paint regularly peeled from the walls. It only had one bedroom, so he had to sleep on the couch. Though the bedroom was usually empty anyways. The poor boy barely knew about his father, and his mother was barely around. She was a drug addict and would often steal to get enough for her daily pack of cigarettes. Her addiction led her to often abandon her son for days, or even weeks at a time.

On the very rare occasions when she was actually around, she only did the bare minimum a mother could do for a child. She used the money that somehow wasn't spent on drugs to buy necessities, she cooked food for him, and she made sure that he didn't stay up too late. Other than that, she couldn't care less about the brown-haired boy. Despite all of this, the young Liam didn't seem to mind this at the time. Yeah, he was pretty lonely, but he was also decently self-sufficient for someone like him. He was able to learn how to fend for himself at the mere age of 5. He had a lot of alone time to figure out how to use things like the microwave and stove.

When he wasn't busy learning how to take care of himself, the lonely boy would often pass the time by watching TV. His favorites were always the ones related to science which sparked a lifelong interest in the topic. The crippling feeling of isolation from never interacting with other kids never really set in for the child at the time. He just got used to this fucked up routine. That all changed when he was about 7. On a typical day where the kid was all by himself, someone entered the house. Instead of it being Liam's mom, it was actually a social worker. He wasn't sure who had alerted CPS about the situation, but that didn't really matter. He was finally taken away from his irresponsible mother and was placed in one of those group homes meant for children without foster parents.

This seemed like a perfect opportunity for the boy to start a fresh life that was better than before. He was in a new place with other children similar to him. This was his chance to actually socialize with others, and possibly make friends. Sadly, it didn't work out. During his first few days in the building, he got picked on and bullied by a small handful of kids. They kept calling him stuff like "freak" and "loser" for his quiet demeanor. This convinced Liam that every other child there was like this. He became intimidated by everyone, and just isolated himself further by not talking to anyone. At least he had one thing that kept him company. Books. He would usually spend hours sitting alone in a chair, reading whatever science related books that the group home had. It gave him comfort from all of the uncertainty he usually felt.

His stay at the group home lasted way longer than he expected. He was so starry eyed and hopeful that he'd find a new home with a new family very soon. That was before reality hit him hard. Days passed. Weeks passed. Months passed. Years passed. As the rest of the kids were adopted, Liam was always left to the wayside. It was like he didn't matter. That childish hope quickly faded as he got older. He just kind of accepted this routine of this. He got used to the idea that he didn't fit in, and no one wanted him. Not his father. Not his mother. Not the other children. Not even other parents.

He accepted his fate of being alone and forgotten by everyone. That all changed one day when he was 13 years old.

.....................................

It was a cloudy Tuesday afternoon. Liam was sitting on his bed, reading one of his favorite books about cells. His focus was interrupted when he heard a knock on the door. It was one of the workers. They had told him to pack up his belongings, and that he'd officially been adopted. The teen was very confused when he heard this. "Someone actually adopted me? I've got to be hearing things. Surely no one would adopt a 13-year-old rather than someone younger. Am I hearing this correctly? This has got to be a mistake.", he asked, as he was still uncertain if this was real.

"It's official. Papers have been signed and everything. Mr. Marburg is waiting outside right now. Make sure not to take too long." The worker told the troubled teen before handing him a suitcase, and leaving the room.

He decided it was no use questioning things as he packed up his stuff and walked out of the building. Liam was met by a well-dressed man with black hair and a beard. He seemed nice enough when he kindly greeted the boy, who simply gave a shy wave in response. The quiet teen was led to a nice-looking blue car. He was impressed with the vehicle as he entered the back seat. Soon, he watched as the group home slowly disappeared from the view of the window as the man began his drive to Liam's new home. During the car ride, the brunette decided it would be best to try to at least make some small talk with his new foster father.

"So, what should I call you?" Liam quietly asked as he twiddled his thumbs in boredom.

"You can call me Matthew or Matt. Dad or father is also alright if you're comfortable with calling me those." The black-haired man said to his new son.

"Neat." It was all the teen said as the rest of the ride was filled up with awkward silence.

When the car had finally come to a stop, Liam exited the vehicle as he was in awe of what was in front of him. It was a modern looking mansion that was unlike anything he had seen before. This was where he was living? This had to be some sort of dream. He followed Matthew into the luxurious home and felt that hope from so many years ago slowly came back. This was it; he was finally getting what he always wanted. Before he could ask him any questions, the older man stopped in front of a door with a keypad. "I'll be back in a few hours. I need to get some important stuff done. How about you get accustomed to your bedroom?" Matt asked the boy.

Liam nodded softly as he did his best to hide his disappointment. It hurt that he wasn't able to spend that much time with his new father at the moment.

"Alright. Your room is to the left on the second floor."

With that, Matt typed out a four-digit code on the keypad which opened the door. A stairway to a basement was all that could be seen before the door closed behind the man. Now that he was alone, Liam made his way through the mansion. His footsteps echoed through the large hallways before he eventually found his room. Once he unpacked his belongings, he lied down on his new bed. It gave him a moment to think about everything that happened. Despite all of the luxury of his new home, this was beginning to feel all too familiar to his old home. Was his life going to be stuck on repeat? He spent most of the time in his room either reading his books as an escape or staring at the ceiling. The only time Liam left the room was to get some snacks. This lasted for about 3 or so hours before his dad had come back from whatever he was doing to tell the teen that dinner was ready.

During this, the teen decided to ask about the lab coat the man was wearing. He had a hunch this might be related to the long absence.

"So, what do you do for work?" The teen curiously asked.

"Well, I'm a chief scientist. I work with a bunch of other people to help find cures for viruses and whatnot." Matt casually explained to his son.

"Impressive. That must make you important."

"Of course I'm important. Otherwise, I wouldn't be so cooped up in that laboratory for hours." The older man jokingly remarked to lighten the mood.

Liam felt a lot less shy now that he was actually getting to talk to his dad. It felt really nice and was a good change of pace to what he was used to. Those positive vibes ended once the two had finished dinner. When the brunette had put the stuff in the dishwasher, he noticed his father was starting to make his way back into the basement.

"Where are you going? Isn't your work done for today?"

"Sorry. I'm only given a couple small breaks before heading back to work. I promise to be back before midnight." He assured the troubled teen.

All those worries from before came back to Liam like a crashing wave. Was he going to be left alone again? Was he doomed to this endless cycle of being unwanted? No! He had to say something.

"Wait!"

The raven-haired man turned around as he stopped typing the code on the keypad.

"I-I want to help you. I'm incredibly interested in science. I know I'm not as knowledgeable on this stuff as you, but I want to learn. Please."

Matthew thought about it for a few seconds. He could tell how desperate his son was with his suggestion. It would be cruel of him to say no.

"Well, I always wanted an assistant to help me out. Sure. You can join me."

Liam smiled brightly as he was relieved that he would spend way more time with his dad. He felt like he could barely contain his excitement. "How about we start right now?" The older man asked as he finished typing the code on the keypad. The brunette eagerly nodded as he followed his father to the stairs that led to the basement. This felt so surreal in the best way possible.

He couldn't wait to get started.

.....................................

Many years had passed since that fateful day, and life had generally gotten better for Liam. Starting out as a helper for his father, he didn't know anything about how all of these diseases and viruses worked. He was a total rookie to it all. Eventually, he began to get the hang of things. By the time he hit his 20s, he felt like he was an expert in reverse engineering viruses into cures. It felt so gratifying for his skills to grow thanks to the help of his dad. He also grew a lot as a person. He became more egotistical and snarkier as he became more sociable with his father. Yet, he was still rather hesitant to talk to anyone besides his dad and maybe some of the staff around the mansion.

Even with him being a little more open to more social activities, like how he played baseball way back during high school, he was still suspicious of other people his age. It wasn't actually because he was getting bullied. On the contrary, he didn't have to deal with bullies when high school started. Once he gave rude people the answers to homework assignments, they would leave him be. Yet that doesn't mean he was "popular". People still found him weird with how much time he spent writing in his notebook that was full of formulas and stuff. Liam would often hear the occasional whisper about how odd he was. Not like it mattered to him. He didn't think he needed any social interaction. He was perfectly fine with being alone with his science.

While being kind of normal on its own, it made for a worrying combination along with the growing fascination with death that the brunette had. He was always told about all these symptoms of the diseases and viruses, but he never saw them in action. This caused him to grow morbidly curious. No one really saw the possible warning signs. He just seemed like a typical nerdy introvert. It didn't seem like he would do anything harmful. That would all change when Liam's life took a turning point.

.....................................

Liam was 24 years old and was on the path to get a master's degree in chemistry at one of the most prestigious universities in Michigan. His last college class for the day had ended, which marked the beginning of spring break. As he was making his way through the lobby of the science building on campus, he heard someone call out to him. It was a group of four students he was familiar with. Particularly because he worked with them on a project for writing class earlier in the semester. "Yo, Liam. Didn't expect to bump into you. Say, how about we get to know each other better and hang out at the coffee shop near the business building?" The blonde-haired woman eagerly asked.

"I'm good." It was all the young man dismissively said before turning his attention away from the four.

"What?! Why not? It's the start of spring break for pete's sake! Lighten up. This is the perfect time to have fun and party." She told the brunette as she was clearly disappointed with the answer.

"Look, I have way more important things to do than "having fun" and "partying". Best not to waste my time on such superfluous things." Liam remarked as he began to walk away.

The young woman sighed as one of her friends told her to forget about it. She accepted, and walked in the opposite direction of where the loner was going. Now usually when classes ended, the young man would spend his time at the library for a couple minutes before heading home. This wasn't the case, however. The important thing he mentioned earlier was a virus his father and a couple of other scientist co-workers were assigned to find a cure for. The Xelymtopa virus was found in the bloodstream of some camels from Australia. While symptoms for it when caught airborne were like an intense fever, the symptoms for when it entered the bloodstream were even worse than that.

He had been told about the nasty effects. First, the test subject would begin coughing uncontrollably 5 seconds after the virus had settled in. Then they would begin to emit high pitched noises, which would quickly be followed by uncontrollable body spasms along with foaming of the mouth. Soon, everything would stop as they would die. The scariest thing was that it only took 30 seconds for someone who was infected to pass away. Morbid fascination that Liam had aside, this was urgent. The scientists had to make a cure for it before it even had a chance of spreading to humans, which would be catastrophic to say the least.

This meant that Matthew and his son had to work extra hard to reverse engineer the Xelymtopa virus. Best to spend as much time on it as possible. When the young man arrived back home, he quickly greeted the servant that opened the front door before excitedly rushing to the laboratory. He had memorized the code for the door and knew it like the back of his hand. 2207. Once he typed the numbers on the keypad, he rushed down the stairs. Liam made it to the main area of the lab only to see his father in one of his usual video calls with the other scientists. When the call had ended, Matt turned around to see his son had been waiting for a short while.

"So, what's the plan for today?" The young man asked as he was putting on his lab coat. He was just about ready to get to work.

"Actually, I don't think you'll be able to help. I have to go to the main facility in Alaska as soon as possible."

"How come? Has the situation with the Xelymtopa virus gotten that bad?" He asked as his dad was only really called there for emergencies.

"Not quite, thankfully. It's just that my co-workers think it would be better if we all collaborated on a solution rather than us all working solo. I know how lonely you get when I'm gone. I promise I'll be back in at least 2 days."

After the father explained this to the brunette, he began to pack his stuff in a fancy suitcase. Liam should've felt disappointed by this announcement. His dad was going to be gone for a long time, and he wouldn't have anyone to feel comfortable around. Instead, he felt determined and even a little exhilarated. For all his years as Matthew Marburg's scientific assistant, he had never worked with the viruses on his own. He always either got help from or was supervised by his father. Perhaps this could change things.

"I don't think you'll have to worry about me that much, because I'll be trying to find my own solution. I think it's about time for me to do some stuff on my own, especially since my skills have improved astronomically from when I first started out."

Of course, the raven haired man was very hesitant about this. He couldn't say anything to dismiss the offer before his son spoke yet again.

"Please just let me do this. I'll tell you what, if I'm not able to make a cure by the time you're back, I promise to never ever ask about this again."

Liam wanted this so bad. He wanted to show off his skills. He wanted to prove himself. He wanted to make his father proud. Despite knowing better, the chief scientist made his decision. It was always hard for Matt to tell his son no, especially when he got clearly passionate about things like this.

"Alright, but just make sure not to go overboard with anything." The older man said as he finished packing his stuff. He gave his son a hug before both of them left the lab. After a few minutes, Liam watched as his father drove away from the mansion. With the man away, the brunette confidently strolled back into the basement. He was ready to get to work with the Xelymtopa virus. Working with other diseases made him think this would be like his previous work.

"How hard could this even be?"

Let's just say he was regretting that snarky thought as he had his head down on the table after about 5 hours of work. All that time had passed, yet he couldn't come up with anything. He tried all his usual techniques like adding different chemicals, but none of them worked. He even made an artificial version of Xelymtopa, which oddly enough glowed bright green, to try to reverse engineer that into a cure which didn't work either. It felt like his brain was fried up, and it couldn't think of any other possible solutions. Then again, what solutions were there? This felt impossible for the young man.

"Stupid Australian camels. You just had to have some fucked up virus in your bloodstream. This wouldn't have happened if you weren't so weird.", he grumpily thought to himself. Just as he was flipping over one of his notebooks to an empty page that wasn't filled with failed formulas and scribbles, he hissed in pain as he got a pretty bad paper cut. "Dammit.", the brunette muttered to himself as he looked at the small injury. "Great, now I have to clean this up while also dealing with this headache of virus. Way to kick me while I'm down." Right before he got up to get a band aid, he felt the gears on his mind begin to turn. He remembered where the virus was first discovered and looked back at the blood.

Liam had a lightbulb moment as he was quick to get a drop of his blood onto a glass slide with a cover slide. After cleaning up the paper cut, he got out the microscope to use it for his hypothesis. The brunette also had a syringe filled with the green liquid and carefully added a single drop next to his blood sample. With that, he put the slide underneath a microscope to see what would happen. The artificial virus made contact with the blood, and it seemed to consume it. After a few moments, the blood was completely overtaken by the green liquid. All that changed was that the drop of the disease was bigger than before. The young man groaned in frustration at this. Well, at least he was progressing in the right direction.

Perhaps this meant that his blood wasn't immune to the Xelymtopa virus. Maybe there were people who had blood that would be immune, though the lack of ways he could get any other blood samples made him feel even more defeated.

"I guess I could text my father about my findings. We'll figure something out eventually or something."

However, his defeated attitude didn't last long. His mood changed as he remembered the reason he was doing this in the first place. No! He had to find this cure! He needed to make his dad proud! He was going to do this no matter the odds!

"Okay, I just have to figure out how to tell if someone is immune or not. Clearly I can't just tell by looking at someone. That's ridiculous. There has to be a way."

As he stared at the blank notebook paper, his mind began to think about the deadly symptoms yet again. He was incredibly curious about what it all looked like in real life. After a lot of consideration, he had come up with a plan that would go into action tomorrow. He began to write it out on the paper, and the young adult felt excited about this. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to indulge in his darkest thoughts just a little bit. He thought it was just for science. He made a mental note that he would only do this one time as an experiment.

Just once…

Kind of funny in hindsight, wouldn't you agree?

.....................................

Liam had spent the rest of the next day getting prepared for the plan. Since he would be going out when the sky was dark, he had plenty of time to get everything he needed. He decided to bring a couple supplies for his "experiment" in his backpack. These included a bunch of syringes with some being empty and others having the virus in it, some rope, and an old metal baseball bat he found in his closet. Of course, it would be foolish to dress unprepared for something involving a disease. He decided to wear a gas mask and blue goggles to make sure the chances of catching the virus were zero. By the time the sun had fully set, the young adult was ready. He made sure none of the servants were around as he walked out of the mansion to head to a nearby neighborhood.

It was a very quiet place, and it was quite dark due to there not being that many streetlamps. Liam decided to choose a random house to look at and hid in a nearby bush. From the view of the window, he could see that there was a 50-year-old man inside. He began to write down notes about him from his small notebook. He continued watching the other man from the window to make sure to get more information about him. 30 minutes had passed, and he was fairly certain the man lived alone. When the lights of the house soon shut off, the brunette decided to make a move. Snooping around all of the windows, he discovered that one of them in the back of the house was wide open.

"Rookie mistake." Liam thought to himself as he quietly climbed into the house. After some sneaking around, he eventually found the breaker box under one of the paintings on the wall. The stranger must have just heard the footsteps as he had gotten up from his bed and stumbled around the living room.

"Who's there?" He asked as he flipped a light switch to turn on the lights of the area. In his confusion, the lights wouldn't turn on.

Liam had turned off all of the power in the house.

The man became anxious as he helplessly stumbled in the dark. He had no idea what was going on or where the mysterious footsteps were coming from. Before he could react, the younger man got behind the clueless person, and struck him in the back of their head with the bat. Once the older man was knocked out, Liam dragged the body from the floor to the bed. Using the rope, he restrained the hands and legs to prevent them from leaving. While the stranger was still unconscious, the brown-haired scientist began to write down some notes.

"Subject 001. Approximate age, fifties. Approximate height, six feet. Approximate weight, two hundred and fifty pounds. Xelymtopa immunity, unknown."

After a few minutes, the older man had woken up. He was very clearly distressed as he tried moving his limbs, but to no avail.

"W-who are you? what's going on?" He frantically asked as he continued to struggle against the restraints.

"Apologies for this inconvenience. I just need to test something very important out. I promise you that this won't even last a minute. Now, hold still."

The brunette ignored the man's confused questions and pleads to stop as he pulled out a syringe filled with the bright green liquid. He stabbed the sharp needle into the man's arm. The other man yelled in pain before Liam slowly injected the virus into the person. Once he finished pushing, he removed the needle from the arm. All the masked scientist had to do was wait for what would happen next.

"W-what did you inject into me?" The older man fearfully asked. Before the stranger could ask anything else, he began coughing uncontrollably. It had begun.

As the seconds passed by, the poor man began to suffer through all of the symptoms mentioned by Matthew. The high-pitched noises. The spasms. The foaming of the mouth. The stranger suffered through it all in such a short time frame. Seeing this, it would've been expected for Liam to find the whole sight utterly horrifying. Yet instead, he found the whole thing to be something else.

**Satisfying.**

He wasn't sure why, but watching the other person desperately try to cling onto life, despite his fate being inevitable, brought the brunette sadistic joy. He couldn't help but smile underneath the mask. After what felt like forever, the Xelymtopa virus had finally ended the misery of the older man. His body fell limp as he stopped foaming from the mouth, and the high-pitched noises were replaced with silence. The stranger was dead.

"Xelymtopa immunity, negative."

Now that the deed was done, Liam had to dispose of the body. He stuffed the corpse into a large trash bag and put it inside one of the garbage bins at the side of the house. Since he was finished, it would be expected that this would be the end of his little "experiment". Yet he still wasn't satisfied with the results. He felt the urge to keep going until he found someone who was immune. This meant that he continued to use the same strategy for the other "subjects". He'd stalk nearby areas to see which house had the most vulnerable occupant, knock them out to do his "tests", and dispose of the dead body before moving on. This didn't stop until the fourth victim. Everything seemed to be going the same as the previous three. They were restrained and unconscious while the brunette was writing his notes.

"Subject 004. Approximate age, early to mid-thirties. Approximate height, five foot five inches. Approximate weight, three hundred pounds. Xelymtopa immunity, unknown."

When the stranger had woken up, the masked scientist had told them the same thing he had told all the other victims. They began to beg the brunette to stop whatever he was planning to do with the sharp syringe. Their words fell on deaf ears as they felt the sharp pain of the needle being jabbed into one of their arm arteries. Liam injected the green fluid into the frightened person and pulled it out when he finished pushing. Now, all he had to do was wait.

Yet something strange was happening: nothing.

The stranger was panicking as they weren't sure what was even inside of the syringe. Time slowed to a crawl as the seconds felt like hours. Dread filled their mind as the wait was utter agony. They even eventually accepted they just wanted this nightmare to end. After what felt like an eternity, the terrifying silence was finally broken by the masked man.

"Congratulations! It appears you're what I've been looking for." Liam said as he pulled out an empty syringe, and jammed it into the arteries of the person's other arm.

"What's going on?"

"Your blood is actually immune to that deadly virus I injected into you a minute earlier. I thought I'd never find someone with this." He explained as he filled the syringe with blood. Once he was done, he pulled it out before going back to his notes.

"Xelymtopa immunity, positive."

The stranger felt relieved that they were still alive. They thought about how this test must've been why they were tied to the bed in the first place. Now that it was finished, maybe they'll make it out alive.

"That means you'll let me go, right?"

That question seemed to amuse the brunette as he began to laugh. The mood quickly shifted as his laughter became more maniacal. After it died down, he spoke yet again.

"We wouldn't want you telling anyone else about this, would we?"

As Liam said this, he pulled out his weapon from behind his back. The screams of terror were useless in stopping the young man from using his bat to strike at them until they died. Poor soul never stood a chance.

.....................................

It wasn't that hard to sneak into the mansion. He had the keys to the place, and the servants were most likely fast asleep considering it was almost midnight. Before heading to the basement, Liam made sure to take a shower to clean himself from his little tests. He also made sure to clean the blood off of his clothes and baseball bat. With his mask and goggles placed in his hoodie pockets, he eagerly went to work on the blood sample in this lab. He carefully placed a drop from the syringe filled with blood, and the syringe filled with the virus onto a glass slide.

"Let's see if this isn't just a fluke."

When putting it under the microscope, he watched as the artificial virus engulfed the red liquid. Unlike yesterday, the color went from a bright green to a bright cyan color. Making sure he wasn't getting his hopes up for nothing, the brunette made sure to add a drop of the virus again to see how it would react with this new mixture. When it made contact with the newly created liquid, it quickly disintegrated.

He did it. He did the unthinkable. He had just made a cure for the Xelymtopa Virus without any help.

Before he could celebrate, the young man realized he forgot to check his phone after coming home. He remembered his last text was telling his dad he was doing okay from an earlier checkup text. When going through his messaging app, the brunette saw that there was nothing new. Might as well initiate a conversation.

"How's the trip going? Are you still in Alaska right now?"

After a few seconds, Liam's text got a response from the chief scientist.

"Actually got off the flight back home not too long ago. Gonna be here in about 15 minutes."

The brunette felt ecstatic when he saw that message. It felt like the stars were aligned for his greatest success. He had to get ready. He quickly went to work on making more of the cure. He made enough of it to fill an entire empty syringe. Once he was done, he quickly fixed his hair before grabbing the cure, and making his way out of the lab.

"Okay, calm down. Take deep breaths. You can do this." He thought to himself as he climbed up the stairs.

When he made it out of the lab, he patiently waited near the massive entrance doors. He twiddled with the syringe as he anticipated the older man arriving at any minute. The minutes of waiting eventually paid off as he heard the familiar sound of the door opening. This was the moment Liam had been anticipating. When Matthew entered the mansion, he quickly noticed his son standing there.

"Is everything alright, Liam?"

Right after that question was asked, the young man quickly rushed towards his father as he showed off the cure.

"I did it. The Xelymtopa virus now has a cure." The brunette told the raven haired man as he handed him the syringe.

The father was absolutely stunned as he held the needle in his hands. He was silent as he placed the syringe onto a nearby table.

"It was pretty hard to find out what I even needed to do at first, but I eventually figured out the key was to use human blood samples. I managed to find a blood sample that was immune to the effects, and used that with a man made version of the virus to create this. I made sure to test it out just to make sure it worked perfectl-"

The long winded explanation from Liam was interrupted when the older man pulled him into a tight hug, much to his surprise.

"I'm so proud of you."

Hearing those words caused the brunette to hug even tighter while smiling brightly. It felt outstanding to have his dad praise him. He wished this moment could last forever. Once the hug had ended, Matt looked back at the syringe filled with the blue liquid, and realized he forgot to ask something important about the mixture.

"Where did you find the blood samples to make something this incredible? Did you use your own?" The raven haired man curiously asked as he was excited to hear the answer.

"Well, I couldn't use my own blood to make this since it wasn't immune. Had to go find the sample from somewhere else. Yeah, I had to test the virus on a few people to check if they were immune, but I was lucky to find what I needed."

During the last part of Liam's explanation, Matt's expression changed from curiosity to horror at what Liam was implying. No, he couldn't be hearing this right. This had to be a mistake.

"What?"

"I couldn't just go around asking random strangers for blood samples, so I chose a little bit more of a dubious approach. Besides, I only tested it on four people, and I still managed to make something truly remarkable." The brunette continued as he was a little put off by the look on his father's face.

The older man's eyes widened as his son confirmed that he did the unthinkable.

"H-how could you? Those were innocent people. They didn't deserve this fate!" The chief scientist slowly backed away from the young man as he was terrified of what he did.

"Who cares about them? Think about how many more lives will be saved thanks to this cure! Can't you appreciate my efficient scientific methods?" The brunette asked as he was clearly distraught by how his father didn't understand how this was for the greater good.

"How could you so easily take the life of people?! What kind of freak would so easily kill without a shred of sympathy?" He exclaimed in horror of what the young man had become.

Having to hear his own dad call him something like "freak" devastated Liam. It was a stark juxtaposition to how proud he was about a minute ago. He didn't bother to respond back to the older man as he ran to his room. The moment he got there; he slammed the door shut as he felt tears prick from his eyes. He felt a wave of betrayal hit him as he began breaking down emotionally. All that hard work, all of those years of wanting to make his father proud, all of those years thinking he finally had someone who cared for them. They all meant nothing. Soon, his tears of sadness became tears of rage as he felt something in him snap. He thought about how unreasonable his father was to his completely excusable methods. He saw Matthew as the problem.

"How could I have been this stupid?! I put all of my trust and attachment to someone who threw it away so easily! I didn't even do anything wrong!"

When the stinging tears eventually stopped, the brunette took a deep breath before opening up his closet. He stared at the metal baseball bat inside as his hands were in his hoodie pockets, gripping the mask and goggles. He knew what he had to do. When his son had left the area, Matthew took this opportunity to dial the police. He was currently in the living room, nervously pacing back and forth as he waited for someone to pick up. Once an operator had answered the phone call, the scientist mentally prepared himself the hard task of telling them about what his son had done. However, he was unaware of the enraged killer creeping up behind him.

"911 what's your emergency?"

"Hello, this is Matthew Marbug. I'm here to make a call about a killer on the loose. Come here as soon as possible. The address to this emergency is 5760 Winkler Mill Roa-"

WHACK!

WHACK!

WHACK!

"Hello? Is everything alright? Can you hear me?!"

All it took was three strikes to the back of the head…

The raven-haired man was lying face first in a puddle of his own blood. The phone was dropped onto the ground with a large crack on the screen. All the while, the young man was just emotionless staring at the corpse while covered in his father's blood. After about 10 seconds of this, he soon realized the police would be coming soon, since the operator had already ended the call. Best for him to make a move. The brunette walked past the body, and into the laboratory. He began packing his backpack with as much stuff as he could like syringes filled with the Xelymtopa virus, After getting everything he needed, he rushed out of the basement lab, and snuck out of the mansion through one of the back windows. He wasn't sure what his destination would be, but all he knew was that he needed to leave. When he made his way to a nearby forest, he decided his plan was to stick to the woods to lay low and possibly do some more experiments. Some time had passed as he thought about how something needed to change.

It was his name. Liam Williams. He hated it. As of now, he would no longer be Liam anymore.

That was the old him. The version of him that was foolish and emotionally vulnerable. The version of him that let himself get hurt by people. The version of him that got way too attached to others. Starting from right now, he would ditch his old name in favor of a new one. A name that would represent his fresh start into becoming someone that would be more of a lone wolf.

"I feel like Cody has a good ring to it. Yeah, I'll go with that." The brunette nodded to himself as he was currently deep into the woods.

He didn't have the desire to look back on his old home as he was determined to start anew. Despite leaving the mansion after taking a lot of stuff from the lab, he was still nice enough to leave something behind.

.....................................

It took 15 minutes for the police to arrive at the Marburg Manor. When they got there, they quickly looked for where Matt was. When they got to the living room, they were met with the grizzly sight of the dead body of the scientist.

Matthew Marburg was murdered.

The officers quickly went to work on going through the entire mansion to make sure the other residents were alright. Thankfully, the servants were asleep when the bloodshed had occurred, and were woken up to be escorted out of the residence. The fact that there was no sign of the son whatsoever was very concerning to the officers. He wasn't even in this room at all. They began to worry if he met the same fate as his father. Those thoughts changed when they entered the basement laboratory thanks to one of the servants telling them about the code for the keypad.

The desk of the lab was mostly empty, and there were only three things on it. The thing that caught their attention was some bright blue object that seemed to be glowing. As they held it up, they noticed that the glow was coming from a liquid that was inside the syringe. The officer that was holding the needle also just noticed the two other objects on the table. They were both pieces of paper with the one on the left being some sort of chemical formula. The one on the right was in cursive, and simply had a single sentence written on it.

*"I hope you're proud. Love, X-Virus."*

Liam Willaims was never found, and no one knows where he is to this day.