"It adapted! Your vaccine is no longer effective!" Olivia yelled and pointed with horror at the deer's corpse.
"Technically, it is not a vaccine, more like an antibiotic, but I get what you are saying," Ange mumbled while rubbing her chin with her fingers.
What should have been a puddle of gore still had a lot of fur and bones on it; some muscles and even a few organs that came out the back door were still intact.
Max got near and touched the corpse.
Indeed, the virus had changed shape. What was before a black box was now covered with small barbs, nothing that his power couldn't kill, but still, Ange's vaccine could have a lot of problems with it.
"Yep, this virus got a new form!" Max exclaimed, it was like a cockroach becoming immune to pesticides. However, the young man's power was still a metaphorical big shoe.
"Oh, yeah! The Lamarck's part! I remember now," Ange said with a prideful smile.
"The what?!" Olivia asked, more in shock now.
"And since each virus is connected by that goat child, each strand is now updated with the counter of my cure. This is so amazing!" She made small jumps of happiness, proud of her work.
"No, it is not!" The other girl yelled at her while pointing at the small blonde monster with an accusatory finger.
"Wait, so they can affect you now?" Max asked.
"Indeed." Ange nodded.
"La puta madre!" Olivia yelled while grabbing her head in sheer dismay.
"Relax, it is not that big of a deal! I just need some things, and I will be able to get a new counter in an hour or two," the evil bioterrorist muttered with a calm tone.
"Ok, so let me get this. Small infections, like when they bite you, are fine, right?" Max asked, making sure that he would not help the evolution cycle of the pathogen the more he got bitten.
"Yes," the monster said while walking toward the kitchen.
"But bigger samples like this one . . . well, it gives it enough time to evolve and adapt," the young man added.
"So, if we use your cheat code to kill them. . ." Olivia said, using her power to fill the gaps.
"it is just one use. Then I need to create a new vaccine," Ange answered.
"Got it, better use the traditional method for now." The boy nodded. It was useful, but going into a biological arms race with a super plague was extremely risky.
"And the vaccine stuff is our trump card," Olivia added.
"Now, I think we have a kitchen nearby. That will have all I need. Let's get to work, team!" She yelled and clapped her hands and then quickly took off her bloody clothes and left them aside, leaving her relatively clean but naked body exposed.
The kitchen, where they managed to create a temporary base, was huge. Enough to feed at least 100 people and with enough food to last them for a few weeks, most of it was moldy or partially rotten, but better than cannibalism. Most importantly, it had water. Filled with the virus, but Max could filter it; now they knew the source of the infection of this base.
Both girls were working under the emergency light, trying to create a vaccine. Angela did most of the work, while Olivia just brought her things, and Max printed some parts for her to use with his body.
Ange's laboratory over the sink consisted of a few horrible things. The brains of the three heads they had collected were in glass jars, connected between them by long strings of nerves while swimming in a smelly chemical mix. That itself was connected to a small monitor and computer they managed to steal from the offices. They broke a fluorescent light to have a small electric source to power this monstrosity. Aberrant effigies made out of scrap electronics, bone, and eyes were used as microscopes. Each delicate tool, like a pincer or a scalpel, was a part of Max's body that Ange extracted.
A mockery of a proper lab done with kitchen supplies, random electronics, and a lot of biomaterials. The monster even made sure to store the deer guideline in an almost clean pickle jar. Luckily for them, the kitchen had plenty of latex gloves and face masks to deal with biohazards.
The man needed to keep his mind occupied with something as the girl worked. So he decided to finally work on his body and go wild with the experimentation. Max had food, rotten beef and moldy fruit, but at least it wasn't human parts.
With a belly full of nutrients, Max went to the staff bathroom that was connected to the kitchen, got naked so his mutations would not mess with his clothes, and began to.
Congratulations! You have survived new challenges, and enough time has passed to allow you to get new mutations. Please pick four and wait.
The boy's mind flared up like a supernova with the number of ideas that he could do. The huge list in front of him had dozens of possible mutations for him to pick and more to unlock in the future if he got in contact with a special organism.
First was improving Max's digestive system. Getting more nutrients from his food was the cornerstone of all his mutations. If he got more practice on this, he could even go full plant or become some flesh-absorbing abomination.
Stronger digestive acid, but also a proper coating of mucus on the boy's stomach, was the first thing he thought. Breaking hair into even nutrients could be really helpful. Also, this mutation branch unlocked more acid-type weaponry, which was not a bad idea to have.
[Max mutated]
Sørensen digestive acid: This mutation changes the effectiveness of the user's digestive fluids, allowing them to break down more biological material to extract more nutrients from it.
With that, it was time to work some better muscles. Huge muscles would give him more strength, but they would screw with his stamina and mobility. In the super world, it was always better to dodge attacks rather than take them. So he went leaner, more compact, and more condensed, like a sheet of steel, proper for a professional swimmer or marathon runner.
[Max mutated]
Aerobic muscle training: Modifies the muscles of the individual to prioritize the stamina of the subject. Thanks to this, the host can participate in physical activities for longer.
Then it came to trying to chase one of the most broken powers that a super could have: super speed. However, the main roadblock he was facing was his own brain. The man's reaction time wasn't good enough.
He streamlined most of his nerves, no longer a messy mesh of wires; now it was a proper structure made with an intelligent design. More similar to a robot than a human now. He even made some nodes of neurons, so the action no longer needed to travel all the way to Max's brain.
[Max mutated]
Synaptic Accelerators: A network of artificial relays that replace certain nerve pathways leading to and from the brain, alongside partial neural rewiring and supplementary biological control systems, resulting in significantly increased reflexes and movement speed.
Finally, it was time for a long-term project. Mostly out of the fear of facing a power-nullifier zombie. Max wanted to improve his immune system to the limit; eventually, gaining a proper passive regeneration or perfect protection against diseases without using his power was a must.
This also opened the road for an experimental way of fighting that mixed well with his increased digestion potential. If he had learned something from it, it was that biological weapons were extremely effective, so starting to turn his own immune system into one was a must.
[Max mutated]
Rosetta lymphocytes: The mutation changes the user's immune system, and the lymphocyte antibodies become more generic. This way, the period where the body needs to find the correct antibody to kill the bacteria or virus is significantly reduced. Works while not using the power or having the user's power nullified.
Once each mutation was done, the only visible change in his body was his muscles. He went from a wimp to a muscular man with a nice set of abs. Under normal clothes or armor would not be noticed, but that was another bonus for him.
Then he heard someone entering the bathroom, opening the door to the stall beside him, and closing it.
"Do you need some help with that?" Ange asked from the other side, her tone calm and collected.
He had said that they would have fun when they were in a safe place, and this counted as one. So, while the new vaccine was being developed, they had time for themselves.
Max blinked a few times, confused for a second. "I wasn't masturbating . . . " he mumbled, not really knowing what to say.
"Ups, sorry then," the woman apologized, but just when she was about to go, Max talked.
"I can start doing it now if you want," he added, taking a deep breath and swallowing saliva.
Ange giggled. "Excellent, just let me . . . " she whispered with a seductive tone.
A loud thud sound made the stalls shake, and then Max saw a bright metal edge of a cleaver poking on the plastic wall that separated both of them. Another strike of the woman created a wound with the shape of a cross at the height where a normal human crotch should be.
Then, as the hand of a zombie breaking a barricade in a horror movie, Ange made sure to create a proper glory hole by punching the aperture.
"There! Shove it inside!" She yelled as Max was on the opposite side of the stall, grabbing his chest and breathing as fast as he could.