— Nevada, Underground Bunker, Secret Lab —
A black man in his 20s was tied to a chair. He was wearing all black shirt and sweatpants. In front of him there was a man and woman in their 40s, wearing white lab coats.
"Injecting the serum in 3, 2, 1," the woman counted as the man injected the tied up guy with a syringe with blue drug in it before both of them quickly left the room and locked up the steel wall behind him.
The man who was just injected initially felt alright but shortly after intense pain spread all over him, it felt like each cell in his body was resisting change.
"AAAHHH HELP ME!" He screamed "MAKE IT STOOOOP!" He then started begging and in 5 minutes his entire body started shaking.
The chains that were holding him shattered under his struggle and a minute later his heart gave out. He shit his pants and died.
Behind the bulletproof glass the scientists from before and a woman in her 60s were watching.
This elderly woman was none other than Grace Malory, Deputy Director of CIA.
"Experiment Number #42 is a failure. Subject has shown enhanced strength and vibration generation before its heart gave out." The female scientists said as the elderly woman turned his attention her.
"I told you Dr. Brown, I do not appreciate you calling these man subjects. They are soldiers who volunteer for this program." She said, clearly pissed of.
Before the Dr. Brown could say anything, male one replied "We apologize Deputy Director, Dr. Brown was just following standard procedure."
"That maybe Dr. Gaylord, but these are men and women who are willing to sacrifice themselves for this country. Reducing them to a lab rat is unacceptable." She said and both scientists nod their head but they did not agree.
And they both knew the only reason Malory was saying so was to soothe her own consciousness.
This was the 42nd subject. Many of them died gruesome deaths, and of those who survived two of them displayed severe physical alterations and only 4 of them could be said to be truly successful.
The main problem they were facing was not the death toll. What they had a problem with is lack of Compound V.
The US government had purchased 100 dose of Compound V from Vought before Homelander put a stop to their direct purchase of the formula.
The CIA only provided them with 75 dose. And they were tasked with creating a team of Supes.
People who can fight against Vought's Supes. Loyal soldiers who knew how to follow orders.
"Doctors. I need you to improve the probability of survival. Only 23 more vials are left. Since Homelander took over Vought we are unable to secure more vials. And everyone who knows the formula is either dead, loyal to Vought, or too afraid of Homelander to show their face in the sun. We cannot waste these last vials."
"Deputy Director, we know close to nothing about this compound, it will take us years to deformulate. Let alone trying to improve upon the existing formula to be suitable for adults to transition into Super Soldiers." Dr. Gaylord said much to Mallory's de-satisfaction.
"Actually," Dr. Brown said as she took a look at the file in her hands "There might be a way.
"What is it?" Dr. Gaylord asked. She showed him the file, it took him a moment, but once she pointed at the successful patients he noticed what she was getting at.
"The sample size is too small to make a decisive conclusion," he told her.
"But there is a genetic component to the Compound's reaction to a person. You have to admit it could theoretically work." Dr. Brown said with fierce look in her eyes.
"What are you two talking about?" Malory asked.
"The successful subjects-" she began but Malory cut him off.
"Successful soldiers,"
"Out of the 4 successful soldiers, they do not share a single common phenotypic characteristic. At least none we can observe. But we can find subjects who are more likely to survive."
"What does that mean?" Malory asked
"It means their siblings, parents or children are likely to survive." She said but Doctor Gaylord cut her off.
"More likely to survive. The death rate should still be significant."
"What percentage are we talking about?" Malory asked
"It's impossible to know without further tests but in my professional opinion the chances of a sibling surviving is 40%."
"Then if we make sure the next soldiers taking the Compound V are related to the successful soldiers?"
"Impossible to say. But they are more likely to survive."
Mallory thought about it for a moment. She asked them to improve the rate of survival and they came up with this very quickly, it might be wise to give them a couple more weeks to delve deep into data of survivors to see if there was something unique in them.
So far, the surviving Super Soldiers all displayed the mid level powers none of them were more powerful than Kimiko let alone truly powerful Supes.
And they needed powerful Supes.
The elections were coming up and the polls all showed Singer up 6 to 8 points. And they needed a Supe who was capable of killing the future Vice President. Fast.
"If-" Dr. Brown said. "We can get the siblings of the subject who survived the experiment their rate of survival would be much greater." She added. "Subject #12 has two brothers and a sister,"
"They are not enlisted in the military let alone this program." Dr. Gaylord said but Malory had a thoughtful look in her eyes.
"What about the other survivors, do they have siblings?"
"Subject #36, and Subject #22 both have a sister."
"Again, neither of them are part of military or volunteered for this experiment." Dr. Gaylord said but Malory ignored him.
She liked to talk about how important her soldier's lives were, how important civilians are to her, but she was the Deputy Director of CIA.
She killed dozens of people herself and ordered the deaths of hundreds if not thousands. Some of them were US citizens, quite a few of them were children, and she even send her man to suicide missions.
Push comes to shove, the only thing that mattered is the mission, and she would make sure the last 23 subjects will have the highest rate of survival.
(AN: People who survive Compound V as an adult are supposed to be very few even though every named character who take it as an adult survived. 10-15% survival rate seemed right to me.)