The laboratory was never meant to be a place for a child.
Even during the day it felt wrong—too silent, too sterile, too full of glass containers holding things that should never be preserved. The lights hummed constantly, a faint electrical buzzing that filled the air like the whisper of something unseen.
For Dr. Elias Veyron, however, the laboratory was everything.
He was a biologist, but not the kind who studied birds or plants under sunlight. His work existed in shadows—animal genetics, neurological control, chemical influence on behavior. Rows of cages lined the room: crows, rats, reptiles, even wolves kept in reinforced enclosures. Every creature was part of an experiment.
Every creature was obedient.
Not because they trusted him.
Because he made them.
His son, Adrian Veyron, hated the place.
He had grown up around it, but he never truly belonged in it. At sixteen, he understood that the work his father was doing was… unnatural.
Still, curiosity always pulled him back.
On that night, the laboratory was darker than usual. The main power was off, leaving only emergency lights glowing faint red along the walls.
Adrian stepped inside.
"Dad?"
No answer.
The cages rattled slightly as animals shifted in the dim light. A raven stared at him from inside a cage. Its eyes were unnaturally focused.
Too focused.
Adrian frowned.
"What did he do to you…"
Then he saw it.
A glass cylinder near the center of the lab had shattered.
Dark liquid was spreading slowly across the floor, glowing faintly like diluted ink mixed with light.
The label on the broken container read:
LIMBO EXPERIMENTAL CHEMICALS — Prototype 07
Adrian took a step closer.
The air smelled strange.
Sweet.
Burning.
Something in the chemical vapor reached his lungs before he could react.
The world tilted.
His vision blurred.
The last thing he saw before collapsing was the raven in the cage… watching him.
---
When Adrian woke up, the world had changed.
He was lying on the cold floor of a different room.
Not the main laboratory.
A containment chamber.
His body felt… wrong.
Every sound was louder.
Every scent sharper.
Every movement outside the room registered instantly in his mind.
Something inside him had awakened.
He slowly stood up.
Across the room was a mirror mounted on the wall.
And beside it…
A mask.
Black leather.
Long beak.
Round dark lenses.
A plague doctor mask.
Adrian stared at it.
The room felt silent in a way that made his heart beat louder.
His reflection in the mirror looked pale… different… like something behind his eyes had shifted.
He picked up the mask.
His hands trembled.
Why was it here?
Why did it feel like it belonged to him?
For a moment he hesitated.
Then he put it on.
The moment the mask settled over his face, something inside him aligned.
The world sharpened.
His breathing slowed.
His voice—when it came—sounded calm, distant, almost amused.
He looked directly at his reflection.
"I am…"
A pause.
Then the words came naturally.
"I am Mr. Plague."
---
But the laboratory was not empty.
In the deeper section of the facility, something else still lived.
A section that had burned months ago.
An accident the official reports called uncontainable chemical combustion.
Adrian moved through the dark hallway slowly, instinct guiding him.
Animals inside cages began reacting.
Not with fear.
With obedience.
Rats gathered near the bars when he walked past.
Crows fluttered silently and watched him.
Even the wolves lowered their heads as if recognizing something higher in the hierarchy.
Adrian stopped walking.
He realized something terrifying.
They were listening to him.
Without commands.
Without hesitation.
The Limbo chemicals had altered something fundamental in him.
It wasn't just physical change.
It was control.
Connection.
Influence.
And it worked best on animals.
---
Then he smelled smoke.
Not fresh smoke.
Old smoke.
Burned flesh.
Something alive.
Adrian followed the scent into the destroyed wing of the laboratory.
The walls were blackened.
Metal beams twisted from heat.
Glass melted into the floor.
Then he heard breathing.
Heavy.
Painful.
Something moved in the shadows.
A figure stepped into the dim light.
What remained of a man.
His body was charred beyond recognition.
Skin burned black and red.
Clothes fused to flesh.
One eye gone.
The other glowing faintly through smoke-darkened skin.
Yet somehow…
He was still alive.
Adrian didn't move.
The burned figure tilted his head slowly.
"You… shouldn't be here."
His voice sounded like burning wood cracking in a fire.
Adrian spoke quietly.
"Who are you?"
The man laughed weakly.
The sound hurt to hear.
"They used to call me… Blaze."
Mr. Blaze.
He had been one of the researchers.
One of Adrian's father's assistants.
A man who never escaped the accident.
Everyone believed he died in the fire.
But the Limbo chemicals had done something else.
They had changed him too.
Blaze stepped forward slightly.
The air around him shimmered with heat.
"You smell like the chemicals…"
Adrian didn't answer.
Blaze studied the plague mask.
"You're his son, aren't you?"
Adrian nodded slowly.
Blaze's expression darkened.
"Then you should know something."
Silence filled the burned hallway.
"Your father didn't die in that accident."
Adrian's breathing stopped.
Blaze continued.
"He was killed."
The words echoed in Adrian's mind.
Killed.
"By who?"
Blaze stared at him for a long moment.
Then he said a name.
A group name.
Something whispered in the darker corners of experimental science.
A name connected to disappearances.
Secret laboratories.
Unethical research.
People who created disasters and then erased the evidence.
Blaze spoke quietly.
"They call themselves…"
The Group of Danger.
Adrian felt something cold settle inside him.
Danger.
A name that sounded less like an organization…
and more like a warning.
Blaze turned away slowly.
"If they learn you survived… they'll come for you."
Adrian removed the mask slowly.
For a moment he was just Adrian again.
The boy who lost his father.
The tragic protector.
But something else existed inside him now.
Three versions of himself.
Three identities born from the same night.
Adrian Veyron — the quiet protector who would defend the innocent.
Mr. Plague — the walking disaster who would break systems and unleash chaos.
And a third face he had not yet created.
A different kind of mask.
Not leather.
Paint.
He imagined it suddenly.
White bone patterns across black skin.
Cracks spreading across the design.
A skull that looked shattered.
Broken.
Like something that had died but refused to disappear.
That would be the face of the anti-hero.
Not a monster.
Not a savior.
Something between.
Blaze watched him silently.
"You're thinking about revenge."
Adrian looked back at the mirror fragment hanging from a broken wall.
His reflection stared at him through the plague mask.
Not revenge.
Something bigger.
Investigation.
War.
"I need to find them."
Blaze didn't stop him.
Because he knew the truth.
This boy had already crossed the point of no return.
Adrian stepped toward the exit of the ruined laboratory.
The animals throughout the building stirred again.
Listening.
Waiting.
Obeying.
Behind him, Blaze spoke one last time.
"If you chase the Group of Danger…"
"You won't be able to come back."
Adrian stopped at the doorway.
Then he said quietly:
"I'm not trying to come back."
The night air outside felt cold and endless.
Somewhere out there was the organization responsible for his father's death.
Somewhere out there were the people who created disasters like the one that made Mr. Blaze.
And somewhere out there…
Were others.
People connected to the same hidden world.
Old enemies.
Old allies.
Future teammates.
Adrian looked at the dark horizon.
Then whispered under the mask.
"Let's see what you're hiding…"
"Group of Danger."
And without realizing it…
He had just stepped into the story that would eventually unite sylence, old friends, disasters, and monsters into one impossible team.