12 - experiment

Dante had managed to get Raven Darkhölme to agree on coming to his clinic.. getting a samples of her blood and experimenting on it with different DNA would proof vital to finding out how mutant anatomy worked, and maybe he could even uncover the possibilities of removing and adding the x-gene at will…

For now he needed to get in touch with Charles Xavier, and maybe see how he was handling everything.. if he could get a favour from someone as influential as Charles then he could rise reach new heights.. the only problem being, that Charles seemingly died, with no body to be found and only a gravestone being ordered…

Dante wasn't to sure when Charles had died, but suspected it to be connected to a police report mentioning a group of mutants fleeing a destroyed neighbourhood..

All of this mess had happened while he was away and experimenting on Kingo's body.. He should have made moves to find out about treats to his future plans.. it was now to late to change this event but he could perhaps search for future events that would threaten him or his plans..

Searching for anything related to mutants, Dante stumbled upon a couple mayor driving points that when against mutants.. One was the cure that was created, others were experiments done by companies that had ties to the government or ties to a mystery person.. some companies seemed to have been ordered from above, but had no clear reason as to why..

He would need to find out who was behind that, but that wasn't the mayor concern.. apparently Raven had been captured on multiple occasions, one of them being when she assassinated Trask, a company head who experimented on mutants… his death didn't really stop the company, with them continuing the work they had set out to do.. now researching robots that could adapt to the x-gene and counter it.. their work was.. interesting.. but also problematic.

They planned on creating killer robots... to essentially kill anyone with a specific genome.. Dante wasn't quite sure why they specifically wanted killer robots, but that worked for him.. Trask industries hadn't advanced technology much and would need years to finish such a robot, but Dante already had the technology and with their data.. he could advance his own cybernetics to a new level..

He would need to visit their lab to get all the samples, but other then that he could ruin them from the comfort of his own home..

Dante couldn't help but be happy at all that was working out for him.. he had a eternal core and plans to research it and could soon research becoming more powerful..

-

The plane had landed and Dante had said his goodbye's.. he planned to go home before anything else as he wanted to get the eternals core into something that could analyse all of its properties.. Raven would also arrive in the within the day likely giving him twelve hours to set everything up..

Getting to a ride by using a taxi provided by the company he quickly arrived at his home, entering it after months of time had past.. His home had gotten a little dusty with time, but nothing that couldn't be handled by turning on the ventilation system, that had been turned of because of him not paying his electricity bill now running on his own power..

He could keep his building running on his own power for another decade, but much rather get the power from a different source.. he only needed to get them to forget him, but keep giving him power.. it wouldn't be difficult for him..

Placing down his luggage and getting the power back on cost approximately the same time, getting the ventilation on, cleaning all the dust..

Taking out the core, Dante placed it inside of a strange devise.. that started buzzing once the core got into it.. with that beginning the true research into the core, Dante became free to view the results of everything that he had left behind..

The x-gene experimentation had been progressing at a steady pace when he had left but had stagnated halfway on his journey, as nothing could be further extracted.. but all of that would soon be fixed.. Raven would visit that day, bring her blood with her and paired with the Trask industries experiment data he would soon be able to manage the x-gene on a new level..

Gaining powers would be a gamble but he could always remove them afterwards if they didn't suit him.. then again the process might be a little more dangerous with his body compared to that of a robot..

-

Halve a day had past with Dante looking at the data from Trask industries and slowly setting up their demise… and after all that waiting a notification popped up in the corner of his eye, alerting him that someone was at the door..

Opening the door remotely, while he himself cleaned up some of the wares of the table, allowed Raven Darkhölme to enter his clinic..

..

Raven looked around.. she had volowed the instruction she had received and had come to the clinic they had requested.. her following the instructions didn't mean she was unprepared for a fight… even if she had lost some of her mobility, she still was a master in combat.. plus she had brought a gun.. just in case..

The door to the clinic seemed to be automated, and she could enter without anyone stopping her, but no one was at the front desk, the whole place seemed somewhat empty, gathering dusk.. although it seemed to be in the prosses of being cleaned, seeing as how the ventilation had started again, moving some of the dust away..

As she looked around, the door behind her opened, turning around she saw a somewhat aging man enter.. he had white hair, but he had the body of someone half his age..

"Raven.. nice to meat you in the flesh.. I am doctor Dante Ripper.. but you can just call me Dante, sorry for the clinic not being clean.. I have been away for a couple of months while doing independent research.." He had stretched out his hand for a handshake, but Raven felt as if there was more behind the friendly greeting than what he had just said..

"No its fine.." She shook the hand, getting a feel of the opponents strength.. to her surprise he felt as hard as steel..

"Should we get straight to business or do you want something to drink.." His intentions still seemed so strange, why would he even offer to help her gain her powers back.. was it all just a trap.. she didn't know.. what she did know was that she would not be accepting any liquids from him, until she was sure of what it was..

"No I am fine.. can you just explain what you said to me when I was in the interrogation room?" he guided her into his operating room, with many strange devises all strewn around haphazardly, or so it at least seemed to her..

"Ohh, of course.. your powers…" Dante moved to the next room where she could see him preparing something while at his side were many test tubes full of strange liquid..

She just waited in the room, not wanting to see what else he had inside such a horrifying clinic..

"Could you just sit on that operating chair… the bleu one.." She didn't know if she still wanted to be here.. everything was just off somehow.. the state of the clinic, the equipment in it and the person running it all seemed off…

As she was contemplating leaving Dante came out of the back with a cup in hand, full of some extremely strong alcohol.. even with her senses lowered to a normal level, she could smell something that strong across the room..

"What.. don't like alcohol?.. what.. I just need to take some of your blood and we can see if everything works.." The look on her face must have said plenty as Dante seemed to get confused as to what was wrong..

"How strong is that?"

"Its eighty percent pure mixed with some coffee, want a sip?" He usually drank it on his downtime, but he hadn't had the opportunity to get it while he was away in India so he planned to enjoy it now..

"No.. wont you die with that much entering your bloodstream." She would be correct if it were not for his cyberware that separated toxins from everything that entered.. sadly including alcohol.

"No.. it is just enough to get me to really feel it you know.." Dante looked somewhat confused at their opposing views…

"Ahh.. you misunderstand.. I am not a normal human.. so most is diluted before it even enters my stomach…" he looked a bit sad, as if it was the side effect of something, and that he rather not have it..

"So you are a mutant?" If that were the case then she could maybe trust him a little, as he would be less likely to experiment on his own kind.. right?..

"No.. maybe I will be.. that depends.." Raven didn't know what kind of answer that was, but all she got from it was that he wasn't a mutant..

"So why are you doing this.." Raven backed up a little, getting ready to draw her gun if necessary..

"I am just interested in the possibilities.. who wouldn't want to gain powers that they couldn't have before.. maybe I can find a way to actually get a benefit out of it, and if not than it was just a pet project that didn't succeed.." He seemed adamant in finding out the possibilities.. not so much for power as for convenience..

"So why are you interested in my blood?" She knew that the x-gene was inside of her, but she didn't know what he wanted with it..

"You are special Raven.. you can adapt to your surroundings, I certainly am not the only one that has a interest in you.." His words surprised her a little.. people interested in her.. not mutants.. but her?

'No.. he just wants to use me.. like Erick..' his betrayal had hurt her.. and she wouldn't be falling for something like that again..

"So I need your blood to see how the cure has effected it and how your genes react to its presence.." Dante placed down his cup and took out a syringe from one of the drawers at the side of the operating table..

"Is that all you need.." Clearly Mystique didn't seem to know the value in her blood..

"Well the more the better, but I cant really suck you dry now can I.." Raven didn't seem to want to respond to that, so Dante just continued..

"For your own personal health, it is better to not get to much blood drawn at once.. so if you would.. I need just this vial full.." The vail he showed was around three hundred millilitres, being around that of a normal can of soda..

Raven sighed, resigning herself to get on the operating chair..

"Great.. you will just be a little sting.." Dante inserted the needle into Ravens body, and began to slowly draw blood from one of her arms..

"..How did you contact me?" The question seemed to come out of nowhere, as it was just blurted out when Dante was nearly done..

"I hacked into the server.. but never mind that. I am more curious as to how you got captured.." Dante got the needle out of Raven, already being done as he gave her a small bandage to prevent blood from getting on her clothes..

"I got hit, by that cure of them.. and someone I thought a friend abandoned me because I had changed.." Dante had already moved to the back, still able to hear her due to cybernetic ears..

"Ahh… to leave you there alone.. is there no love for simple beauty in this world." Dante remembered things like that happening all the time in his early years.. someone would get hit and be abandoned by his friends.. at the same time trying to get a more favourable impression from raven, as he had messed up by showing some of the things he did and creeping her out…

Dante had placed the some of the blood in a machine so he could analyse the DNA.. while looking at it himself through a microscope..

"Wow.. that's certainly new.." Dante looked at the cells wondering how something like that could happen…