Intern Dorms
Floor 15
Stark Tower
Midtown Manhattan, New York, USA
July 4th, 2023 8:30PM EDT
David Banner sat at the table in the center of the community dorm room, typing away excitedly on his laptop. It was a state-of-the-art facility, modeled to look like spaceship crew quarters and tucked away in a corner of Stark Tower. There were a few such rooms scattered throughout the building, and they were all co-ed, though the one he sat in was exclusively for interns spending the Summer in the work-study program at Grayburn Labs on the same floor. Most of the other students were out celebrating Independence Day and eagerly awaiting the fireworks that would start the following hour at eight, but David had something he was much more interested in.
“There you two are – come on!” he said excitedly as he saw his friends and fellow interns, Danny and Caty Davis enter the room. He waved them over hurriedly and pointed at his screen.
“Okay, so you know that secret meeting we overheard Dr. Sterns planning after Dr. Strom canceled the timeline for human trials? Well, I might have kinda sorta hacked into Sterns’ phone and discovered they are having the meeting in the boardroom on Floor Forty-Three. That entire department is closed for the holiday, so they won’t have any witnesses… Or so they thought.”David grinned ear to ear, showing his braces as he brought up a window on his screen showing a video feed from the boardroom.
“I might have slipped in and set up a few hidden cameras and microphones.” The three of them watched eagerly as Dr. Samuel Sterns came into view on the feed. In behind him walked several other scientists who worked on various projects under the Stark umbrella – Nathaniel Essex, Victor von Hassen, Norman Osborn, and Anton Vanko.
“Wow, some big shots in that room! This should be juicy!” David said with a laugh. However, his face quickly turned to horror and disgust as they witnessed Sterns explaining how he had gone against Strom’s orders and moved Project Terrigenesis to human testing. He detailed how he had placed a few Terrigen Crystals in with the fireworks on Barge R-3 the night before, and how the combustion would cause the gems to exhale the blue mist that triggered mutations. The crowd at Hunter’s Point South Park would be closest to that particular barge when the fireworks started at Eight, and would be their unwitting guinea pigs. The other four men seemed thrilled at the chance to analyze Terrigenesis in a raw and uncontrolled stage.
“I can’t believe they’re gonna…” David had to choke back tears.
“Those monsters! There might be a few successful mutations, but most of those people are going to die! We have just under an hour till the fireworks start – we have to hurry! We have to warn them! Come on!” He practically tripped as he scrambled out the door. They tried calling and texting the other interns along the way, but they all seemed to have their phones on silent.
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Hunter’s Point South Park
Long Island City, Queens, New York, USA
July 4th, 2023 9:13PM EDT
Donny Blake smiled and whipped his head around as the crowd cheered, rolling into his shredding guitar solo in Jaggerdaw’s final number of the night, a new song they hadn’t shown anywhere else yet. His hair was damp and he was covered in sweat, the band having rocked hard in the Summer heat. The audience thrashed along with them, while a few areas broke into a mosh pit.
(Jump to 02:26 on the video below to listen to the guitar solo I am envisioning Donny playing in this scene)
Amongst the crowd, Owen Blake was beginning to grow irritated at the people moshing around him, the appeal of live music starting to fade. Nearby, Luke Bishop was having the exact opposite reaction, happily crowd-surfing and indulging in the metalhead partying. But then, the song came to an end and the concert was officially over as everyone prepared for the fireworks show to start.
“That was bloody fantastic!” Donny exclaimed as he hopped off stage and walked over to Owen.
“The crowd really went for that last song!”“Yes, yes, you were quite the meathead,” the younger brother replied angrily. Donny threw his hands up.
“What is your problem now, Owen?” he demanded.
“You wanted to come, remember?”“Yes, how forgetful of me,” he snapped back.
“Perhaps I simply neglected to recall that birds of a feather tend to flock together!”“What’s that supposed to mean?” Donny sighed.
“Oh yes, you require simpler terms,” Owen barked with a snide laugh.
“Idiot barbarians tend to attract other idiot barbarians! I am surrounded by morons! Coming to this disastrous concert was a mistake I intend to rectify immediately!”“Yeah, well, you’re adopted, you know,” the older brother replied smugly as he crossed his arms. Owen turned around and started to walk away when suddenly they heard a commotion.
“Run! Everyone, get away from here!” David Banner screamed as he came running up from the ferry dock with Danny and Caty Davis right behind him. It had taken them forever to get there with the traffic and crowded ferries.
“The fireworks on Barge R-3 have been tampered with! That’s the barge that will be closest to this park when the show starts in a few minutes! Everyone needs to evacuate!”“Slow down there, little buddy,” Luke said as he walked up behind him.
“What’s going on?”“I know it’s hard to believe, but there is a dangerous substance mixed in with those fireworks on Barge R-3,” David explained.
“The explosion will cause a mist to shoot into the air, and the wind’s current trajectory will bring that mist directly over this crowd. It’s dangerous! It could be fatal! We must evacuate now! There’s no more time!”“Okay, I believe you,” Luke said, placing a hand on the young genius’ shoulder.
“But we may have a hard time convincing the others. I’ll do what I can.” He turned and started trying to warn them as well, but they wouldn’t listen.
“Damn it!” David cursed loudly.
“Nobody takes the scientists seriously anymore! Stupid freaking idiots! Gah! Danny! Caty! Keep trying to convince them!” With no other choice, he turned and ran to the edge of the waterfront, diving into the East River. He swam as fast as he could – which wasn’t very fast at all, mind you – to the barge and pulled himself up onto the deck.
“Hey kid, you can’t be on here!” one of the operators said as he ran towards the fireworks cannon.
“We have to stop the show! Turn the cannon off!” the boy said frantically, dripping wet.
“It’s too late, kid!” the other operator said.
“We already started the countdown!”“Well stop it! Stop the countdown!” David ran over to the cannon and looked in to see if he could make out the Terrigen Crystals quick enough to remove them.
“You stupid kid!” one of the operators yelled just as David took an explosion to the face, stumbled backwards, and fell overboard into the water. The commotion caused the crowd at Hunter’s Point to finally stop and pay attention, just as a giant cloud of blue mist came barreling out of the cannon and rolled in over the park as a thick fog.
Suddenly, everyone found it hard to breathe, feeling like they had just been pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed. Eyes burned, throats ached, and panic quickly set in, all while the fireworks from the other barges were going off as scheduled. Time seemed to stop and start again intermittently as the blue mist spread, dispersing into bright orange flares as it interacted with aerosolized moisture droplets from the eyes, noses, and mouths of the crowd.
And then, just as quickly as it had started, it was gone, and the air was clear again. The other crowds around the river where still cheering at the display in the sky, most of them having not seen the blue mist due to their gaze directed upwards. The television cameras had seen it, however, as well as anyone watching the livestream of the night's events from home.
Everyone at Hunter's Point regained their composure and tried to understand what just happened, and it seemed there were no immediate long-lasting effects… But then many people started bleeding from their eyes, nose, and mouth. Bodies dropped left and right and began seizing, while others seemed entirely fine. The situation was made eerier by the fact that the other barges were still setting off their fireworks, the multicolored lights flashing over the crowd as they panicked.
Along the ferry dock, David pulled himself out of the water, his face horribly burned, coughing up blood. He started crying as he looked over and saw people dropping dead.
“Damn it… Damn it...”
