Neuron and The Leviathan's Awakening

Dr. Noah Balnikov watched the news footage in disgust as reports came in of yet another massive oil spill caused by corporate negligence. Millions of gallons of thick crude were now seeping across the ocean's surface, killing thousands of marine creatures and destroying precious ecosystems.

"Idiotic, careless humans," the marine biologist snarled, slamming his hand down on the lab table, sending vials and petri dishes clattering to the floor. "Exploiting and decimating the ocean's bounty with not even the slightest shred of respect or responsibility!"

Alone in his private underwater research lab located in the Marianas Trench, Noah glared at the video footage of the massive oil slick slowly killing all marine life in its path. It was the final outrage on top of a lifetime of perceived injustices caused by humanity's insatiable greed and disregard for the natural world.

"You want monsters? I'll show you real monsters..." he growled under his breath.

Noah had devoted the last twenty years of his life to unlocking the secrets of the ocean's most formidable life forms - the ancient, primordial behemoths that somehow survived and thrived in even the most extreme conditions. He'd risked life and limb collecting samples of their cells, their proteins, everything he could obtain from the terrors of the deep.

Now, it was time to turn his ground-breaking research to a darker purpose - one that would force the ignorant surface-dwellers to finally understand the power and consequences of disrupting the sea's delicate balances. 

Entering his indomitable will into the lab's quantum computer core, Noah initiated the Hypermass Ultragenetic Mutation Protocol he had been developing in secret - a revolutionary process that could alter the size, scale, and bio-structure of any organic being down to its foundational cellular level.

First he gathered samples of planktonic clusters along with cells extracted from some of the most gigantic organisms on Earth - specimens of the Nomura's Jellyfish, the Lion's Mane Jellyfish, and even a piece of the rare Megamouth Shark he had managed to bio-preserve before its regrettable demise.

Working quickly, he cultured, spliced, and merged their biomass through a bewildering array of genetic sequencing and mutation exposure procedures. Every step brought the cellular strains closer to the parameters Noah had pre-programmed - exponential mass and density increase, hyper-accelerated regenerative capabilities, neuro-muscular amplification...

When the process was complete, a bubbling petri dish now contained the first actual realization of what Noah's misanthropic genius had brought into being: 

A fully autonomous cluster of hyper-dense, mega-celled protoplasm...that was already beginning to expand and undulate in a most disturbing fashion.

Several hours later, the suburbs of Pacific Cove were shaken by tremors akin to that of an earthquake or underwater volcano eruption. Suddenly a massive, gelatinous form burst from the waves, tentacles and whipping pseudopods of translucent flesh as large as redwood trees slamming into the shoreline.

Citizens screamed in terror as the gigantic, grotesque amorphous beast lifted what passed for its gargantuan central body onto the sand, condensed eyespots and sensory clusters forming on its rippling mass as it surveyed the town before it like a bizarre extraterrestrial visitor. 

Noah watched the carnage unfold from a mile off the coast through his lab's ion-shielded view portals with a sense of twisted satisfaction. "Yes...let the havoc begin."

His creation let out an indescribably abominable roar as civilians fled in all directions. It reared back, dripping jagged fangs forming around a dark gullet, and began sweeping its pseudopods across the beach with terrifying force - ripping homes, vehicles, and anyone unfortunate enough to be in their path to shreds.

Just as the titanic horror was primed to advance deeper into the city, a streak of azure energy shot down from the sky, slamming directly into the side of its bulbous torso. The beast howled with mindless outrage, tentacles whipping around furiously as a human figure clad in shimmering blue armor with contrail wings extended from his back hovered before it amidst swirling contrails and photon energy.

"All right, you...thing," Neuron said, his high-density psionic forcefield swirling to life as his superconductor-augmented brain assessed the colossal creature before him. "I don't know what kind of genetic experiment you slipped out of, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to put you back in time-out!"

Noah cackled from his secure vantage point as the caped hero fired bolt after bolt of neural plasma into the merciless depths of his synthetic horror's semi-permeable anatomy to no effect. 

"Foolish being of limited comprehension - your feeble powers are no match for the hyper-evolved protogenic behemoth of my creation!"

Indeed, each searing blast of pure mental energy, while somewhat disrupting the protoplasmic entity, only seemed to momentarily disperse its gargantuan biomass before the spongy colossus began rapidly regenerating anew!

Frustrated, Neuron unleashed an ultraviolet psychokinetic burst from the gem set in his suit's chestplate, blinding the towering fiend while he zoomed around to its underbelly in a blinding zig-zag. Combining his brain's quantum probability calculations alongside sub-atomic energy redirection, the caped hero formed a softball-sized orb of superheated plasma compressed to inconceivable density between his palms.

Just as the leviathan began to recover its "sight" and whirl around, Neuron hurled the fist-sized orb of antimatter directly into the center of its pulsating mass - the resulting antimatter/matter reaction triggering an apocalyptic implosion that blasted the shoreline with a shockwave pulverizing anything within a half-mile radius.

When the smoke cleared, Neuron gently descended towards the impact crater, his armor's sensors scanning for any residual threat remaining. As he saw the smoldering chunks of charred bio-matter slowly disintegrating, he allowed himself a small sigh of relief.

That is, until the first sickening signs of regeneration became horrifically apparent in the pit below. Translucent tendrils were already starting to slither outwards, reconnecting into undulating tubes. Bio-electrical impulses surged through the dispersed matter as the monster began coalescing from its scattered remains into a new, pulsing core.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Neuron gasped, bracing himself as the newly re-formed horror rose up from the depths, quickly eclipsing the horizon once more with its towering, glistening frame.

As it unleashed another hellish roar of primal rage, stretching out dozens of groping tentacles lined with barbed hooks and fanged gullets, Neuron knew he was in for the battle of his life...

Meanwhile, Dr. Noah Balnikov grinned with mad satisfaction at the devastation playing out before his lab's viewport. His contempt for humanity had birthed a true terror, a creature beyond comprehension that seemed able to overcome any attack or injury, only strengthening its resolve to destroy and consume the world above.

As the explosions and screams echoed down to even his fortified underwater sanctuary, Noah nodded firmly - the age of the leviathans had just begun. And he already had a fresh cocktail of primordial genetic horrors gestating to continue the punishment humanity so rightly deserved...

Neuron knew his usual barrage of metahuman powers and abilities were proving futile against this regenerative monstrosity. As the creature thrashed and pummeled the beachfront with its relentless tentacles, collapsing buildings and shattering the ground itself, he realized more direct action was needed before the entire city fell to its ravenous onslaught.  

Tapping into his brain's higher neurological functions, he did a near-instantaneous multivariable analysis of the beast's protogenic molecular structure, computational biology patterns, and physio-chemical reactions happening within its viscous makeup.

A potential weakness was its insatiable need to keep consuming organic matter to maintain its rapidly increasing mass. Without a continuous supply of biomass to integrate and absorb, its hyperdense cells would start destabilizing from the inside. Starve it, and it might just destroy itself.

With a fresh strategy in mind, Neuron rocketed skyward at hypersonic speeds, flying in a tight corkscrew pattern around the flailing monstrosity. Focusing his psionic powers, he projected a shimmering forcefield "bubble" around the entire monster, sealing it off from any external atmosphere or matter to consume.

The protogenic leviathan seemed to realize its predicament, slamming its massive bulk against the impenetrable psi-barrier in a futile attempt to breach it. Within moments, it began compacting in on itself, the lack of new biomass to feed its accelerated evolution causing its cells to start cannibalizing and breaking down from severe cytoplasmic starvation.

Keeping the forcefield intact with intense mental strain, Neuron watched in awe and horror as the raging titan became an ouroboros of self-destruction - pseudopods withering into themselves, gelatinous flesh continually fracturing and dispersing in a gruesome cycle of frantic reconstitution staved only by its own mass.

At last, the once gargantuan brute let out a final, bone-chilling screech before disintegrating entirely, reduced to a diffuse haze of particulate that winnowed away to nothing on the hot desert winds. Utterly spent, Neuron released the forcefield at last and plummeted back towards the ravaged city below, crater-forming on impact.  

As stunned survivors carefully emerged from hiding spots around the decimated ruins, they surrounded the young hero lying face down in a massive divot, miraculously still breathing. Gingerly, they helped the mysterious savior stand back up on wobbly legs, thanking him profusely amid the destruction.

"Great...galaxies..." Neuron panted, removing his tattered mask and cowl to let the ocean breezes wash over his perspiration-soaked face. "That thing really did a number on me...and on you guys. Sorry I couldn't have gotten here sooner."

"B-But you saved us all, son! Whatever that beast was..." an elderly man said, shaking his hand vigorously. 

Before the young hero could catch his breath and collect his thoughts, a sleek black aircraft descended from the sky, touching down amidst a spiral of glowing anti-gravs. The cockpit canopy slid open and a wizened, balding man in a UNID Xenobiological Corps uniform stepped out, folding his arms as he glared at the weary teenage psion.

"Cadet Marcus Wright...we need to talk. Now."

Deep beneath the Marianas Trench, Dr. Noah Balnikov's sneer widened as he reviewed the footage of Neuron's harrowing battle against his engineered abomination. To finally unleash such calculated chaos against the human world was a delicious triumph in itself.

But this was merely the vanguard, he knew. A modest demonstration of what was to come as his Hypermass Ultragenetic Protocols progressed further and further, crafting more hideous and unstoppable creatures from the most terrifying denizens of the deep.

With an idle swipe, Balnikov changed the video feed to show his lab's inner sanctum - row after pulsating row of stasis tubes and incubation chambers. Each one contained freshly mutated monstrosities still gestating within amniotic viscera at various stages of acceleration, their half-formed anatomies shifting with aberrant spasms...the newborn terrors of the world to come.

"Enjoy your momentary victory while you can, young hero," he growled, glaring at the footage of Cadet Wright being pulled away by the shadowy Xenocorps officer. "My legion of Deep Ones is only just beginning to surface..."