Xenopox
The Xenopox Serum is a serum created by Doctor Siri Solen. The Xenopox Virus, which is contained within the serum, was created at MedUSA, a laboratory, in Oregon, though as a company, its facilities are spread across the globe. The base of the chemical concoction was the actual poison of the snake god, Ophion. In ancient times, anyone that Ophion bit would become snake people, reptilians. They would bite others, and the further away from Ophion’s original victim, the less human traits the victims would keep and the more of a reptile they would appear.
The original poison used had come from an ancient unearthed relic. Using the poison as a starting point, MedUSA began testing and tweaking the properties. The original idea of the board of directors and several of the scientists was to find a way to resurrect the snake god himself, perhaps by cloning. However, all attempts using the poison, failed. They then tested the poison on animals and people. By studying the effects on a microscopic level, they grew to understand the properties of the substance better.
They found that by tweaking certain properties and adding DNA of other animals, they were able to successfully mutate their test subjects into mutants. The xenopox worked both ways. They could add human DNA and inject a spider, causing the spider to grow much larger, containing both a chitin carapace and a skeleton along with higher intellect. By adding spider DNA and injecting a human, they discovered that the human mind became cold and alien in their thinking and they developed spider-like appendages such as fangs or the ability to spin webs.
In the Oregon facility, they had also begun experimentation on monsters that had been specifically hunted and captured by MedUSA hunting teams. These monsters’ DNA samples were in the process of being studied and worked into the xenopox strains when Siri Solen was brought on board at the facility. Her direct supervisor was a super-villain named Doctor Demented. The pair worked extremely well together, and progress on the strains grew exponentially. However, Siri eventually discovered much of what was happening at the facility, originally being ignorant. This led her to stage a rebellion and release all the mutants and monsters from captivity. This triggered a total annihilation of the building, and, consequently, large amounts of data and xenopox strains were lost.
Doctor Demented set up a new base of operations in Hawthorne Asylum, and continued work on the xenopox strains that he had managed to keep. The doctor was obsessed with finding a way to resurrect his dead wife. He needed a body capable of housing her brain, but not dying in the process of the brain transplant. Demented used the virus on corpses, and found that it could reanimate dead tissue, but the bodies were too useless. Then, he started testing on living subjects that came snooping around the asylum. The mutations from the virus were multitude, but it would make people grotesque or mindless and even touching them he would risk exposure, so it would not do for his wife. Then, he remembered Siri and reached out to her in an attempt to expedite his research.
He had several of the xenopox strains, and one among them was the Alpha Strain, the original strain. This would be what Siri needed to formulate a serum. She went to obtain the sample, but was then captured by the doctor. He forced her to stay and aid him in his research until Lycaon and Absinthe assaulted the Asylum. They managed to save Siri and escape with the virus, which Siri could then use to return Molly McCoy back to her human form. It is possible that through more experimentation, Siri might someday be able to undo any type of mutation that has occurred, by use of this very serum.
