1 Prologue

Being born had never been an easy process. Mothers of all races and species needed to endure hours of painful contractions and, in some cases, months of vulnerability to bring about a new life, not to speak of all the cases of stillborns and deadly miscarriages.

However, as Marcus watched the being that was supposed to come to life on this day, he could not help but reevaluate his opinion on the matter. Turning to face the egghead beside him, he finally asked the question that had been on his tongue for the entirety of the two-hour-long wait he'd had to endure so far.

"Will this one make it?" His voice had been called stern, even harsh, before, and he usually didn't like those comments. However, watching the nerdy scientist flinch at the sound of his voice may or may not have given him a sliver of satisfaction.

"I-it should, sir! So far, the X-gene we've been pumping into it hasn't gone berserk like in the others..." The man nervously answered, his gaze torn between looking at the large man that looked like the stereotypical commander, cigarette included, and the 'incubator', as they called it.

Marcus shook his head, ignoring the man's further ramblings. His gaze sharpened onto the blurry figure floating within the glowing blueish liquid inside of a glass cylinder. Various tubes were connected to said cylinder, feeding various substances into it.

Honestly, Marcus was still hesitant about this whole thing. He'd been there, ten years ago, when the first mutants began to appear around the world. He'd been a mere police officer then, and unfortunately, he'd been one in a rather unsavory area.

It had stung, watching as his either men quit one by one, or were forced out due to lack of funds. They were useless, their superiors had said. Superheroes basically took peacekeeping into their own hands, they said. Marcus knew better.

He knew that many of these 'superheroes' were nothing but thugs wishing to enforce their own rule on the small areas they controlled. Villains were even worse, murdering hundreds, if not thousands, of innocents in their attempt at either 'entertainment' or money.

It was this attitude of his that had quickly caught the attention of an intelligence operative. He'd been invited to come to this facility around a few years ago, just to visit it and see if he'd be willing to work there. Of course, he'd been told that, should word of this get out, both he and his family would not live.

Back then, the first lab-born mutant had still been under creation, but he'd seen enough. He'd readily accepted their offer, and with a grim determination that had been born from years of powerlessness, he'd shot up through the ranks.

Now, after a harsh struggle, he'd finally chanced upon the position that he'd been eyeing for as long as he'd worked here.

"Mutant manager, huh..." He murmured to himself, getting an odd look from the scientist next to him that had gone back to scribbling away on a keyboard. He ignored him, returning to his thoughts as he stared upwards at the metallic ceiling.

A few minutes later, his attention was once again brought back to the situation at hand as the eggheads crowding the incubator began to run around. Evidently, the moment of truth had arrived.

The x-gene was mysterious, and would likely never be fully understood, but parts of it had been deciphered. Marcus, being 'in the know', had been told of some of the secrets jealously guarded, one of which became relevant here.

The reason so many experiments had failed before hadn't been due to oversight on the part of the scientists, but rather, it was the fact that, unless the newborn mind of the experiment was strong enough, the x-gene would turn them into a vegetable moments before coming to consciousness.

It was a grim fate, with most of said 'failures' being scrapped and their x-genes being reused for the next experiment. The problem was that, with each failure, a portion of the x-gene was consumed, and their supply of it was incredibly limited.

If this experiment failed too, then they wouldn't have enough to make another one. Furthermore, as proven from the previous two 'successful' experiments, the newborn mutants would benefit greatly from small but constant doses of x-genes being put into them, something that the higher-ups, Marcus included, were greatly in favor for.

After all, quality always beats quantity when it came to mutants. Marcus had learned this the hard way, unfortunately.

He hummed as the scientist next to him quickly began to press buttons one after the other, his face quickly growing sweatier and sweatier. Honestly, Marcus didn't really understand the mechanics behind all of this, but just from the suprisingly expressive man, he could guess at the difficulty.

A minute later, a voice on the loudspeaker spoke up in the room Marcus and the scientist were in, calling for him to head down towards the incubator. The scientist nervously patted Marcus' shoulder, a small smile on this face.

"This one looks like it'll survive. I'm excited to see what it looks like, too!" The man rambled. Marcus snorted, knowing full well that it was only him and the scientist that didn't know. Marcus didn't have clearance to know of the experiment's details, since it might fail, while the scientist was just a sucker for surprises.

Heading down the stairs and into the open area containing the glass cylinder, he was quickly approached by a woman holding a clipboard. She wordlessly handed it over to him and left immediately afterward.

His eyes scanned over the contents, which basically consisted of orders and suggestions on what to do should the experiment survived. There were a few rather suspicious ones hidden in there, subtle threats and bribes, but he ignored them.

He wasn't a push-over anymore. His roots had spread far by now, and once he got his very own super-powered mutant under his command, his influence would only deepen.

He licked his lips, pushing down the eagerness rising within him. All things would come with time, and as cheers went up around the hall, he knew that his own time would come soon.