Cerion checked himself in the mirror, searching for any flaws. He once again adjusted his hair a bit and kept it swept back.
The drawback of having Kryptonian heritage was that he could not employ people to groom him for public events like this one. After all, how would he explain if a comb just snapped when the beautician decided his hair needed to be combed? He could withdraw his tactile kinetic shield, but there was a chance he could accidentally lose control. Even if the chance was as low as ten percent, he was not willing to take that risk, especially in the current atmosphere.
His interference with the 9/11 attacks had some unforeseen consequences. The good news was that no one recognised him which was a plus point as he was nowhere near prepared for that kind of attention.
As for the bad news, some poor shmuck managed to film Cerion's heroic moment in saving the flight from crashing. Then the guy had to post it on YouStream, which attracted all sorts of attention on the guy. Last he heard, the intelligence agencies were regular customers of the guy's home. On a side note, he acknowledged the video sort of made YouStream all the more popular among the general public. So, there was that unforeseen, if positive, development.
The consequence of that video streaming all over the world was that people were now aware there were supernatural beings. The religious groups jumped right into the incident, claiming God sent his angel down to protect the good people of Flight 93. Of course, these people floundered when the question was raised as to why God never stepped in to save the other flights.
As usual, such cynical questioning never bothered the faithful as they fiercely believed this incident was a sign of God. After a month of deliberation, even some members of the Catholic Church dived headfirst into proclaiming the miraculous survival of passengers of Flight 93 as a product of divine intervention although nothing official came from the oldest church of Christianity.
The obvious counterview to the religious view was the claim of alien intervention, which was true in this case. Unfortunately, that did not gain much traction as the video feed that captured his heroic moment tended to favour the religious side.
It was certainly not something he did purposefully. When the video was taken, he was sort of bathed in silver light. Unfortunately, the angle of the video made people see the light as wings.
Personally, he couldn't find wings anywhere in that video, but the mind sees what it wants to see. It was a classic case of mass Scotoma. The religious people wanted to see an angel and so they were seeing an angel with wings. It also didn't help the passengers of Flight 93 tended to credit their miraculous survival on God and his dutiful angels in heaven. Inadvertently, he may have renewed the Christian faith in the US, which was already hosting a very strong religious majority.
But the ripples didn't stop there.
The two terrorists who hijacked the plane also survived, and they also got an eyeful of his stunt. Rumour has it the two terrorists were being squeezed out of every iota of information by the intelligence community. Whatever intel the agencies managed to squeeze out they have so far chosen not to divulge to the general public. However, there were rumours circulating, and conspiracy theories were quite rampant.
The wide majority of the US was ready for war. They only needed an enemy to fight. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon.
But, with two terrorists captured and the subsequent investigations carried out by the intelligence agencies, it was only a matter of time before the US went to war. President Thicket had already made it clear in his address to the nation that those nations responsible for harbouring and aiding these terrorists would feel the military might of the United States.
"Sir, everyone is ready for you."
His assistant's voice cut through his musings.
"The stage is set?"
"Yes sir," Gavin affirmed.
"Just give me a minute."
Gavin nodded before closing the door.
Cerion looked at himself in the mirror before taking a deep breath. He adjusted the sleeveless vest he was wearing over his blue shirt one last time. It was now or never.
"Everyone, please welcome the CEO of Vex Corp, Mr Cerion Vex."
Cerion walked onto the stage with a welcoming smile, to the applause of many in the gallery. The audience even gave a few exciting whistles, which were totally not planted.
"Thank you for that warm welcome. And for those of whom who took the trouble to whistle, I'll keep this short and interesting. I guarantee you won't be bored to death."
The audience laughed and gave a few appreciative whistles here and there. It was always important to ease a crowd to attract their attention span. And seeing as he only had a few things to say and the rest was just a presentation, he needed all the attention. On the screen, the symbol of Vex Corp which was no different from the symbol of House Vex, was proudly displayed.
"Before I share the future of this company with you, I'd like to introduce you to two new products."
Clicking on the remote in his hand, the screen behind him shifted to show the image of a V-pod.
"You are all familiar with the V-pod, I assume. Well, it is my greatest pleasure to inform you all that the sales of V-pod have crossed the one million mark as of today…just in the US alone."
There was applause once again.
"The lesson we learned from V-Pod's success is that people love technology. The simpler and more advanced it gets, the better the reception will be. We are poised to corner the market and replace other competitors because our product is sophisticated and user-friendly. So, keeping this in mind, I'm launching a new product today."
The screen behind him flickered to show a thin metallic strip. On a further click on his remote, the metallic strip opened to show a screen.
"Meet Vex Corp's answer to increasing the collective computing power of the world. Meet SolPrime, the laptop that is going to replace your PCs simply because it outperforms any computer available in the market. With a V1 core processor and an OS of our own design, this laptop also hosts 2GB RAM with a 200 GB hard drive. You can also use the wireless earphones with Bluetooth connectivity, and they have a 4400 mAh battery."
He could see that he had already gained quite a lot of attention. Now, it was time to draw in more customers with a few more flashy products about to enter the market. He took note of the cameras screening everything in the background. They were directly being live-streamed in YouStream. He also made a mental note to mention their compression algorithm, which made live-streaming so simple and efficient.
Setting those thoughts aside, Cerion went back to engage the crowd and dazzle them with more consumer goods.
XXXXXXXX
Bruce scratched his chin at the conundrum before him. He has been working out different angles to chart out a way to suppress his Hulk transformations, but so far, he has come up with just a single option. The best bet was to convert all the cells in his body back to full human cells. This led him to design a virus that would destroy the anomaly in his cells.
It was a risky idea, seeing as any virus that could kill Hulk's cells would be dangerous to his other normal cells. So far, his attempts to make a virus that solely targeted the Hulk cells in his body were hitting several roadblocks.
Even so, he still managed to make a knock-off virus. Obviously, it was not perfect, but he was nonetheless interested in seeing how it performed.
A drone took blood from his arm and passed the blood sample to the testing lab. The drone treated him with a brief blast of Vita rays that sealed up any discomfort he felt on his arm.
"Optima, are you ready?"
"Of course, Dr Banner. Testing Sample 1 of Project Green."
Bruce watched on in interest as the drone that took his blood sample set up the testing sample in a closed glass case. Another drone approached with a small canister that marked a sample of the virus he developed.
From the safety of a glass door, he watched as a sample of his blood was exposed to the virus.
"Applying Liberty1 to Sample 1." said Optima in the background.
Bruce had named the virus Liberty because it was supposed to free him from the Hulk. Looking into the projected screen, he saw the virus attacking the Hulk cells in his blood sample.
At first, the virus started picking up speed in attacking the cells. He could see the percentage jump from five to fifteen within seconds, but once it reached twenty, the virus began to flutter out.
"Sample 1 failed."
"Test Sample 2." he ordered, not losing hope yet.
Once again, another sample of his blood was placed, and another canister holding the virus was introduced to the sample. This time, the virus fluttered out once it reached eighteen per cent.
Bruce tested five samples in total, and all of them were abysmal failures. The virus's average effectiveness was a mere seventeen per cent. It was not much, but it was a start.
"How did the test go?"
Bruce was so startled that it nearly caused him to Hulk out. Turning around, he was faced with Cerion, and Bruce noticed his arm was turning green.
"Can you not do that? There is a green rage monster waiting to turn this place to ground zero in the blink of an eye," Bruce said, holding his chest and trying his best to calm his racing heart.
"Sorry. I think you need to practice meditation if you are getting this twitchy."
Bruce shook his head at Cerion's suggestion.
"I don't think meditation is the key. My time is better spent in finding a cure." said Bruce, slowly returning to his normal state.
"Bruce, you are treating Hulk as a disease. Don't do that. Your body has undergone an evolution of sorts. What you are struggling with is your mind. If you have better control of your consciousness, you will be able to control the transformation."
Bruce frowned while letting out a scoff. "This is purely a genetic anomaly. If I can destroy the infected cells, then I can remove Hulk from my body."
Cerion let out a sigh.
"Of course, I will aid you in finding a cure, but meanwhile, think about this: Your transformation is triggered by your heightened emotions. Your body undergoes an increase in muscle mass, coincidentally releasing a lot of energy from your cells. Do you honestly believe such a change in your body can be eradicated?"
That gave Bruce pause while looking at Cerion with wide eyes.
"What are you saying?" he asked, not liking the direction Cerion was taking this conversation.
"There is a strong possibility that you may not be able to eradicate Hulk in its entirety." Cerion said, directing a look of pity at Bruce.
"You mean I'll always have to live in fear of changing into Hulk?" Bruce asked, with fear shining in his eyes.
"Not if you learn to master your emotions. Have you ever thought why you are not in control when you change into the Hulk?"
Brice remained silent. He had given it quite a bit of thought, but several conclusions he reached were not to his liking.
"An alter ego is forming inside your mind, Bruce. And I think you also agree that's a bad idea. We need to ensure your split in the psyche is reversed first and the best way to do that is through mastering your mind."
Bruce was not entirely sure such an approach was worth pursuing. This was mostly because it was not a scientific approach, and he couldn't exactly predict any results. Of course, any scientific approach he knew also did not guarantee any results, so he was in a difficult place.
"Tell you what, I will arrange a teacher for you. All I ask is that you try this out for a week. If you feel it's a waste of time, you can always come back here to continue your research." Cerion suggested.
Bruce considered the idea for a while and finally decided to give it a try.
"Alright. But I can't exactly show my face outside as I'm still a wanted man in the US."
Bruce watched on curiously as Cerion waved away those concerns.
"You don't have to worry, my friend. The place I have in mind has no extradition treaty with the US."
Now, that got Bruce curious and a bit of relief.
"Where exactly is this place?" he asked curiously.
"You are going to love this Bruce. What do you think of a trip to Kathmandu?"