Dr. Rex Varnell

Intro Title:Containment Protocol In the heart of the Arctic Circle, buried beneath meters of ice and reinforced alloy, sat Lab 7H-Orion—an off-grid bioscience facility known only to a few. Inside its pressurized, sterile walls, Dr. Rex Varnell, better known to his colleagues as Dr. Rex, suited up in his signature orange hazmat suit every morning without fail. The suit wasn’t just for show. It was survival. Dr. Rex was a molecular biologist with a specialization in biohazardous pathogen containment. His latest project? Project SCAGARIE—a synthetic microbe engineered to break down nuclear waste and reconstitute it into harmless organic material. On paper, it was the solution to the world’s waste crisis. In practice, it was a volatile, self-replicating anomaly that couldn’t distinguish between nuclear byproduct and human DNA. Which is why only Dr. Rex was authorized to interact with it. He moved silently through the decontamination chambers, the faint hum of scrubbers filling the silence. Through layers of reinforced glass, he could see the containment pod pulsing with a sickly green light—SCAGARIE, alive and hungry. "Morning, Rex," came a voice through the intercom—Dr. Selena Marris, the station's only other inhabitant and AI systems operator. "Status?" he replied, voice muffled by his respirator. "Stable… for now. But the growth pattern last night was abnormal. Doubling every three hours. At this rate—" “I know,” he cut in. “Initiating synthesis dampeners.” Dr. Rex approached the pod and activated a series of controls from a glove-sealed console. Tubes filled with cryo-gel slithered toward the chamber, injecting the microbe’s food supply with a molecular inhibitor. The glowing slowed. The pulsating stopped. For a moment, everything was still. Then… a crack A hairline fracture formed on the containment glass. Alarms blared. Red lights spun. Dr. Rex stood motionless, calculating "Selena—lockdown Protocol 8 now!" he barked