In a brightly lit underground lab facility, tucked away beneath a seemingly ordinary hospital, a middle-aged man with wild white hair that pointed upwards like lightning-struck strands stood hunched over a table.
His eyes gleamed with a manic intensity as he carefully poured a shimmering, iridescent liquid from one beaker to another.
The room was cluttered with all manner of bizarre equipment—twisted coils of tubing, beeping monitors, and half-finished experiments that hinted at the strange, possibly unethical, research conducted within these walls.
The air was thick with the smell of chemicals and something far less identifiable, a scent that clung to the man's worn lab coat like a second skin.
"Ah, yes... yes! The elixir is nearly complete," he muttered to himself, his voice rising and falling with fevered excitement.