A YJA Moment - T.C.R.I.

 When S.H.I.E.L.D. took control of the nation's security apparatus after the implosion of Checkmate, they decommissioned many operations throughout the United States.  In New York, Oscorp found itself having to divest itself of many of its questionable holdings, lest the authorities looked too closely. Willing to snatch these assets up was a small upstart company known as T.C.R.I.

Trans-Continental Research Incorporated emerged almost ten years ago, founded by brilliant geneticist Baxter Stockman.  Stockman is said to be one of the world's foremost minds on genetic engineering, having studied with the legendary scientific pioneers Nathaniel Essex and Herbert Wyndham.  Operating out of a small lab in Hell's Kitchen, they soon gained a reputation for cutting-edge research into genetic disorders.

When an accident involving hazardous waste injured a young Matt Murdock, investigations into rumored undisclosed and unethical experiments were launched by the FDA and the Office of National Security.  The fines and sanctions that resulted nearly bankrupted the young company.  Floundering financially, T.C.R.I. all but ceased operations for many years until after the Apokalips Invasion.

Receiving an influx of cash from a silent partner, he built T.C.R.I. and immediately scored important contracts with S.H.I.E.L.D. and other government agencies.  In particular, they were tasked with continuing the research into metahumans which has been started by the Hammond Institute and furthered by Checkmate.

Few know that T.C.R.I. is now funded by the villainous technological organization known as A.I.M. Baxter Stockman no longer exists, having been ousted from leadership.  His name has been co-opted by the entity known as the Cerebral Repository Adapting New Genetics or C.R.A.N.G. Nicknamed the "Brain in the Jar", C.R.A.N.G. is composed of brain tissue grown from DNA combined from the greatest minds on the planet.

In keeping with A.I.M.'s goals or unrestrained research, T.C.R.I. has been taking their knowledge of genetics and moving to the next step.  Acquiring a xenobiological transgenic sample, an individual who possesses both human and feline DNA, they have been working to create a viable nanotech or retroviral means to convert humans into half-animal forms.

Their initial research was believed to be fruitless, creating nothing but a radioactive goo that had seemingly no beneficial effect on test subjects.  Not long after the Murdock Accident, T.C.R.I. scientists discovered that this goo, which they now named The Mutagen, did have the properties they sought.  In humans, it was capable of activating latent meta-genes, but in animals, it could cause them to develop anthropomorphic traits.

As the current Mutagen is not refined and causes unstable results in the test subjects, it gained little notoriety until agents of A.I.M. discovered it had produced stable results.  The runoff of the Murdock Accident had mutated a rat and four turtles.  Trained in the art of ninjitsu, these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are not a subject of a city-wide manhunt in order to capture and vivisect them.  Only then can T.C.R.I. perfect the Mutagen.