Marvel: Empire of Power-Chapter 67: Seeds of Dissent, Strains of Serum

The early months of 1943 were a turning point in the global conflict. The Soviet victory at Stalingrad marked the beginning of the end for Hitler's ambitions on the Eastern Front. In North Africa, Allied forces were steadily pushing back Rommel's Afrika Korps. The tide was palpably shifting, but the war was far from over, and the clandestine battles fought by Elias Thorne and his network were only escalating in complexity and danger.

The analysis of Erskine's Super-Soldier Serum continued in Dr. Finch's Montreal labs, but full replication remained elusive. The "Serum Berserker" variant, however, was showing... disturbing promise. Finch's team had managed to stabilize it somewhat, reducing the immediate cellular degradation but not eliminating the severe psychological side effects – heightened aggression, paranoia, and a susceptibility to suggestion if administered alongside specific psychoactive compounds. It was a devil's brew, capable of turning an ordinary soldier into a temporary, expendable engine of destruction, but at a terrible cost to their sanity and long-term health.

Elias authorized extremely limited, covert field trials. He couldn't risk using it on his loyal Thorne's Guard or Feral Strikers. Instead, he "recruited" subjects from a different pool: captured Axis agents (beyond those with valuable intel like Kruger), fanatical prisoners of war deemed beyond rehabilitation, even some deeply compromised individuals from Montreal's criminal underworld whose disappearance would go unnoticed. These trials, conducted in the most remote sections of his northern Canadian compound under Thomas MacIntyre's grim supervision, were horrifyingly effective. Men injected with Serum Berserker displayed short bursts of incredible strength and mindless ferocity, tearing through reinforced barriers and armored targets before succumbing to seizures or catatonic collapse. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

[RESEARCH UPDATE: "SERUM BERSERKER" (Erskine Derivative – Unstable Combat Stimulant) – Short-Term Efficacy Confirmed. Side Effects: Severe (Psychotic Break, Rapid Cellular Decay post-Engagement). Viability: Limited (Expendable Shock Troops/Directed Mayhem). Ethical Implications: Redacted by System (Host Prerogative). Prime Essence Shard Generation: Nil (Unstable Enhancement does not yield Shard Echoes).]

No Shards from these abominations. That was... disappointing, but also, in a perverse way, a relief. Elias knew this research was morally reprehensible, a descent into the very methods Hydra employed. He justified it as a necessary evil, a weapon of last resort, a tool to understand the limits of biological augmentation, but a cold sliver of something akin to self-disgust pricked at the edges of his usually imperturbable psyche. This was a path he would tread with extreme caution.

Meanwhile, Anya Petrova's work in Washington D.C. was yielding crucial insights into America's burgeoning superhuman program. Captain America, Steve Rogers, was no longer just a symbol; he was a one-man army, spearheading critical OSS missions in Europe and North Africa. His successes were legendary, his "good man" persona a stark contrast to the brutal realities of war, and paradoxically, a source of immense inspiration to Allied forces. Anya managed to subtly feed Rogers' operational handlers fragments of "Mr. Blanchard's" intelligence, particularly regarding Hydra targets or unusual Axis technological developments, thereby indirectly guiding Captain America's efforts towards objectives that sometimes aligned with Elias's own.

She also uncovered something else: growing dissent within the OSS and certain branches of the US military regarding Captain America's "uniqueness." There were powerful factions who resented that Erskine's genius had died with him, leaving them with only one super-soldier. They were desperately seeking ways to replicate the effect, to create an army of Captain Americas, and their methods were becoming increasingly... pragmatic, less concerned with Erskine's insistence on "good men." This internal power struggle, Anya reported, was creating opportunities for infiltration and information acquisition.

Elias saw this as a potential vulnerability. If the Americans were fracturing internally over their super-soldier program, it could be exploited. He tasked Anya with identifying key figures in these dissenting factions, particularly those involved in clandestine research.

Logan (his survival still unknown to anyone but Elias and his innermost circle – O'Malley had returned to Canada under strict orders of silence) was a ghost in Europe. After Festung Niemals, the direct trail to Johann Schmidt had gone cold. Instead, Logan, now almost entirely self-directed but still accepting Elias's broad strategic objectives and intel, focused on systematically dismantling Hydra's remaining "Wunderwaffe" projects and hunting down high-ranking SS officers with known occult or esoteric connections. He became a legend among Allied intelligence chatter, an "Alpine Demon" or "Der Kanadische Teufel" (The Canadian Devil), responsible for a string of inexplicable, brutal assassinations of key Nazi figures. Each kill, if the target possessed even minor enhancements or had dabbled in Hydra's dark arts, yielded precious [Prime Essence Shard Fragments]. His reserve slowly climbed to [3.1/5.0].

Miller, the Trauma Variant Feral Striker, remained Logan's silent, savage shadow. His bond with Logan was absolute, forged in shared battle and mirrored trauma. His abilities continued to evolve under the [Adaptive Regeneration Protocol], developing a surprising resistance to energy weapons (after several near-fatal encounters with Hydra prototypes) and an uncanny ability to navigate complex, collapsing structures. He was less an attack dog and more a relentless, unkillable sentinel.

The Pacific Theatre remained the primary deployment zone for Thomas MacIntyre and Elias's "Adamantium Guard" Feral Striker pack. Their successes against the Japanese "Oceanic Purity" cultists had earned them Namor's grudging respect and increased cooperation. The Sub-Mariner, now more of an active intelligence partner ([Loyalty: 45% - Mutual Victories Forging begrudging Alliance; Recognition of Host's Value in Protecting Oceanic Interests]), began guiding them to more significant targets: hidden Japanese submarine pens that threatened Allied shipping lanes, clandestine island bases used for launching amphibious assaults, and even other, minor "Kairyu-Shin" breeding grounds.

The Feral Strikers became masters of amphibious warfare. Beaulieu, with his "Aquatic Predator" specialization, was their scout and underwater combat expert. Dubois, Macgregor, and Lemaire, their bone claws rending steel and flesh alike, were devastating in shipboard assaults and beachhead clearing operations. They fought Japanese marines, fanatical cultists, and bio-engineered marine monstrosities, their battles unseen by the wider world but vital to disrupting Japan's more esoteric and unconventional war efforts. Each victory yielded Combat Data and more Shard fragments (bringing Elias's total to [3.9/5.0]), and their individual abilities evolved, Dubois developing thicker, almost armor-like hide when his Battle Fury was engaged, Macgregor learning to track targets through water by scent, and Lemaire mastering silent takedowns in near-total darkness.

The [Atlantean Physiology Data (Full)] was now [85% Unlocked] for Elias, and he could feel faint, empathic connections to the oceanic currents when Namor was actively using his powers nearby. The potential for creating his own aquatic or hybrid troops, once he had more Shards and fully understood Erskine's serum, was immense.

But a new, troubling thread emerged. Anya, sifting through heavily redacted OSS files concerning their "foreign asset recruitment" programs, found disturbing references to early, failed attempts to create "enhanced interrogators" or "psychic operatives" using experimental drugs and esoteric techniques, some of which bore an unsettling resemblance to early Hydra methodologies Kruger had confessed to. It seemed the Allies, in their desperation to counter the Axis, were also beginning to tread dangerously close to the same dark paths.

Worse, she uncovered faint whispers of a highly classified, joint US-British program, codenamed "Project M" (for "Mutant" or "Metahuman," the terminology was unclear), aimed at identifying and potentially weaponizing individuals with naturally occurring "paranormal" abilities – psychics, telekinetics, individuals with unexplainable physical attributes. The project was in its infancy, shrouded in extreme secrecy, but its mere existence was a profound threat to Elias. If the Allies started actively hunting and weaponizing natural talents, it could expose his own network, and potentially uncover individuals far more powerful than anything Hydra or Erskine had created.

The System confirmed this as a [RISING THREAT: Allied Metahuman Exploitation Program (Project M). Potential for Uncontrolled Prime Conduit Discovery/Weaponization. HIGHLY VOLATILE. Objective: Infiltrate/Monitor/Control/Neutralize as necessary.]

The world was a tapestry of secrets and shadows, and Elias Thorne was pulling at its threads, exposing its hidden patterns, and weaving his own designs into its fabric. He possessed the means to create unstable berserkers, a pack of evolving Feral Strikers battling horrors in the Pacific, a legendary mutant hunting super-Nazis in Europe, an alliance with an undersea king, and a growing understanding of the forces that truly shaped global power. But with each new power gained, with each secret unveiled, the dangers multiplied. The seeds of dissent within the Allied superhuman programs, combined with the whispers of "Project M," signaled that the superhuman arms race was about to enter a new, far more unpredictable phase. Elias needed to secure that final Prime Essence Shard, perfect his own super-soldier replication, and prepare for a world where Captain America might soon be the least of his concerns.