✈️Report 01: Where is Doc?

The development of the Mega Mutant Serum

Summary (tl:dr)

In 2021, Dr. Abbott “Doc” Gibbons, one of the world’s preeminent ape geneticists, founded Applied Primate Engineering (A.P.E.) to research and produce Nobel Prize-winning breakthroughs in the field of genetic engineering. Along with one of his first hires, a brilliant young researcher by the name of Avila Pires, he set off to develop a cure to ape mutation - a process that he deemed unnatural and abhorrent.

Doc Gibbons and Avila Pires together in the lab

While playing around with the different compounds within the mutation serums known as “M1” and “M2”, Doc and Avila stumbled upon a way to distill a purer and more potent mutation serum they dubbed “Mega Serum”. Doc theorized that by inserting small traces of this powerful serum into the bloodstream of an unmutated ape they could give them immunity to mutation.

Initial immunity trials were promising, but Doc began to worry about the serum’s powerful effects. Given in small doses the benefits seemed real, but Doc was terrified of what could happen if one ape were exposed to large quantities of the concoction. As he estimated what those effects could be, his fear of this scenario became overwhelming and he began to make preparations to destroy all existing barrels of Mega Serum. He feared in trying to control mutation he had instead created something far worse.

But as Doc transported a barrel of serum to be evaporated, the container cracked and the toxic contents oozed out, exposing Doc to the scenario he feared most. He felt his body burn and his skin crack as mega-mutation took hold. He managed to contain the full effects using a hazmat suit, but he would never be the same.

Doc suffers a horrible accident and is exposed to the M3 serum

Doc soon realized his exposure had been no accident. He suspected Avila had betrayed his trust and instead of helping destroy the serum, she had funneled some of it to a dark cult that had emerged around mega-mutation: the Simian Path. The Path had already exposed some of its members in ritual ceremonies, and they were planning the next mutation ceremony in New York City. Doc used his A.I. lab assistant, Apebot, to lock down his lab and engineer a narrow escape from Avila with a barrel of Mega Serum in tow.

Avila betrays Doc and attempts to block his escape

Doc went on the run to protect the serum from Avila and the Simian Path. In an attempt to track down Doc, Avila turned to the public for help in locating him under the guise of putting up flyers and saying he was in danger and needed help. With a sympathetic public now helping Avila, unbeknownst to them of her nefarious plans for wanting to locate Doc, the global network of them quickly found a Doc sighting at Primate Palace in Slovakia. Avila unfortunately arrived too late and was only left a set of airplane ticket stubs and a transportation map as a clue to where he ran to next.

The public, wishing to help Doc, was able to track his flight and determine he had gone to the Twycross Zoo in England. However, Doc managed to stay a step ahead and was gone by the time Avila had sent scientists there. After interviewing the zoo employees and piecing together details, the public was able to deduce Doc had traveled to Simian Mountain in China. Efforts to catch Doc there turned up fruitless again as he was long gone already. After uncovering a recent encrypted email receipt, the public was able to decipher he had headed to Ape Cave in Washington, USA. Doc was more clever than Avila expected by staying on the move and was already gone by the time she arrived. Avila was trying to decrypt Doc's audio journals from the lab, which unfortunately exposed her charade to the public. They managed to decrypt an audio log that Doc recorded when he confronted Avila and se admitted to being part of The Path. With the jig being up, Avila locked down the lab and fled into the night. The interns of the lab managed to brak back in, and with the help of the public, make it through many grueling rounds of security questions about doc to successfully reboot the lab.

Looking to help Doc now and protect him from Avila, the interns searched for any last clue that could help find him. They located a set of notes hidden in Avila's office, obviously to keep them from finding it, written in Doc's handwriting. With some research, it was found Doc was at Emílio Goeldi Museum in Brazil. Unfortunately they were too late, Avila had used the same information and intercepted Doc in Brazil and stolen the Mega Serum before they could arrive. The Mega Serum was gone.