She watched, helpless, as the pale liquid flowed from the syringe into her son's bloodstream. "That seems like an awful lot," she worried aloud. The man injected the last of the fluid and then turned to face her. He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently. "He's fine, Mary. I studied it out very carefully and didn't give him a drop more than was necessary.""He's so little." She reached out to stroke the little boy's dark hair.
"Are you sure we are doing the right thing?"He put the syringe down and pressed a bit of cotton onto the boy's arm. "Hand me a Band-Aid."She obeyed. "He's only three, Nathan. Maybe we should have.""He's fine." The words were spoken firmly and Mary fell silent. Nathan put the Band-Aid over the cotton and then started putting away the items that lay around the small body on the table.
"The gestation period should be exactly 15 years., he told her, excitement lingering in his voice. "He'll be 18 years old, and he'll be a hero like no other." She merely nodded, not sharing his enthusiasm. "Meanwhile, I'll analyze the original compound and in a few years I'll be able to reproduce 8/15. I'll work on speeding up the gestation period." He was muttering now, more to himself than the woman standing silently beside him. "If only Ellerton had recorded the formula he used before his death.
""What will you do with it when you reproduce it?" she asked startling him out of his reverie."Sell it, of course." He put his hands on her shoulders. "Honey, if this goes like I've planned, we'll be set for the rest of our lives, and his." He gestured at the boy and went back to his work. "There are people, big people, who will pay plenty for this." He held up a small beaker of pale liquid."And they will make other people invincible?" she asked.
"Yes. But they will pay big for it." He grinned as he returned the precious beaker to its place inside the sturdy cabinet. He closed the door, pulled out a key ring, and locked it. Tugging on the door handles to make sure it was secure."But what if the people you sell it to use it to make criminals?" Mary asked, her brow creased with worry."I think the 'good guys' will be willing to pay a pretty penny to keep it out of their hands." He smiled and patted the locked cabinet door.
"I'll start on it tomorrow.""Don't you care that you could be making unstoppable villains?" she asked. "I'll offer it to the right people first." He caught himself and looked at her "Don't worry about it. I think we'll be pretty busy raising our own little hero to worry about petty things like that. Besides, in 15 years he'll be invincible, so it won't matter if there are unstoppable villains because they won't be able to hurt our boy." He gently slid his arms under the boy's limp body and lifted him from the table. "He'll be the best hero this world has ever known.
""The rest of the people won't be invincible, Nathan." Mary told him bluntly and he shot her a warning look. "Drop it, Mary. I'll worry about the selling. I don't want to hear any more about it from you." She stood silent; if he had slapped her it would have had the same effect. Her eyes were hard as she watched him walk toward the door. She glanced at the cabinet then pulled a little toy train from her pocket and set it on the counter beside an empty beaker.
Her mouth was set in a thin determined line as she followed him out the door. Infused with invincibility and trained for greatness, Jason Roper is set to fulfill his father's dreams. But when Roper deviates from the instructions he is given, he stumbles upon an expansive criminal network. Determined to use his power to help those in need, Jason Roper discovers that there are times when invincibility alone is not enough.Is Jason Roper destined for greatness as he has been told, or is his life just a front for a larger, more sinister plan?.