Chapter 322 "Romantic" Wedding Season (Part 6)

Stark initially sent a few mech suits over, and eventually, he went over himself. After a lot of effort, they finally moved all the equipment into the room Shiller had prepared.

Looking at the room full of odd-shaped machines, Stark couldn't help but sigh, but considering that he needed Beast's help, he went to great lengths to hold back what he was about to say.

The blue-skinned Beast, however, took it in stride. With a smile and a push of his glasses, he said, "I don't have the resources you do. It's only in recent years that I've had the funds to acquire these machines."

"Wait a minute, you only got them in the last few years? Have they been tested?" Stark grew increasingly uneasy.

"You can rest assured. Many pregnant women have been tested here, and I've recently been busy with commercializing it."

"You mean to say these machines can be commercialized?" Stark frowned and said, "You just mentioned this thing can detect if the fetus in a pregnant woman's womb has the X-gene. If every hospital had one, wouldn't that mean...?"

The others looked at Beast with some skepticism too. Beast wasn't surprised by their reaction and said, "Do you think that if a pregnant woman's fetus is found to have the X-gene, she will terminate it, thereby leading to an extinction of mutants?"

He shook his head and said, "Don't forget that although 90% of mutants aren't that powerful, there's still the other 10%."

"Can your machine detect the level of the mutant fetus?" Steve's eyes widened.

Beast shook his head again and said, "Using Beta-level as the dividing line, it can only detect whether it's above or below Beta-level."

"That's enough!" Steve said excitedly. "Most of those above Beta-level don't affect life, right?"

"Yes, and mutants above Beta-level are very strong. For instance, myself... well, it's Beta-level when you add my intelligence. If we speak purely of Beast's abilities, it would be somewhere between Beta and Gamma Level."

"You're too modest," Shiller said. "With your intelligence, you should be an Omega-Level Mutant."

Beast laughed heartily but didn't forget the matter at hand. Adjusting the machine, before starting it he said to Steve and Carter, "I must emphasize to you that over 90% of mutants are at or below Beta-level, and that's not even counting the Epsilon Level mutants that die at birth."

"Some Epsilon Level defects occur in vital areas of the body, such as the heart and throat, and they may die during development, which means the likelihood of being above Beta-level is even lower."

"If indeed it's not above Beta-level, I don't recommend bringing this child into the world. I tell every pregnant woman this, and it's not just being responsible for you and your child, but also for the safety of our society."

"Your sense of duty is admirable," Shiller said. "In fact, many issues are also found in regular human embryos during prenatal screening. While it's a significant blow to parents looking forward to the birth of their child, it's ultimately sparing a family's suffering."

"Problems will always exist, it's just that modern medicine's advancements preemptively eliminate potential pain and danger. That's a good thing, isn't it?"

Beast clearly sympathized with these words. He said, "During the machine's testing process, I've seen many pregnant women break down emotionally. They act as if nothing would be wrong if they just didn't come for the test."

"But the truth is, whatever issues the embryos in their wombs have are already set in stone. Being able to detect that is fortunate. In the era before this technology, countless Epsilon Level mutants were bedridden for life or endured the disdain of normal people while struggling to survive, only to die in pain and obscurity. Preventing such a tragedy for a family is the most important motivation for my research."

Steve and Carter's eyes reddened. Steve tightly embraced Carter and then Carter sat down in her seat. Beast fastened her safety belt and moved the scanning device gently toward her abdomen.

Data began appearing on the machine, and everyone's hearts were in their throats. Beast's brow gradually furrowed, and Steve's mood started to become more and more desperate.

After a while, Beast suddenly turned off the machine. He didn't immediately announce the results but instead looked at Steve with a somewhat strange expression.

"What's wrong, PhD? It's okay, just tell me. I can handle it..."

"No, the machine didn't tell me the results," Beast said, adjusting his glasses. "All I can tell you is that the Super Soldier Serum that transformed you likely runs through this child's veins as well."

"What?!"

Beast glanced at the screen again and said, "There's nothing magical about this machine. It doesn't directly detect the X-gene but can observe the embryonic state. The machine is equipped with a database of mutant data from generations past, which allows it to compare the embryo's state with that of numerous past mutants to draw a conclusion."

"But the premise is, the fetus must only have the Mutant Ability, it can't possess any other superpower, and clearly, your child falls into the latter category," he inherited your Super Soldier abilities, which will severely interfere with the machine's judgment, making it impossible to reach an accurate conclusion."

"Let's say that if your child is Delta Level, but at the same time, he has the Super Soldier Serum running through his veins, the machine will consider his strength sufficient to reach Beta-level and thus classify him as a Beta-level Mutant."

"But the truth is, he does not possess a Beta-level Mutant Ability, and might even have an Epsilon Level defect, which could lead to a serious misjudgment."

After a short pause, Dr. Beast said, "It would be better if we could wait until the fetus is bigger to examine it again, by that time at least we could tell if there are any apparent physical disabilities, but by then an abortion would be far too dangerous. It seems this machine still has much room for improvement."

Everyone fell silent for a moment, not expecting such an outcome, Stark patted Steve on the back, saying, "Look on the bright side, the abilities from the Super Soldier Serum could compensate for any physical deficiencies the child has. If he really is below Beta-level, at least he won't be very weak."

Steve's expression remained heavy, he said, "My biggest concern is Gamma Level, strong but uncontrollable, a serious threat to society. Plus, with the abilities from the Super Soldier Serum, I can't imagine how much destruction he could cause."

No one else knew quite how to comfort him, when Shiller spoke up, "I can have Gray mist take a look to see if the embryo currently has any significant physical deformities, but since the embryo is still very small, most organs are not fully developed yet, and whether there will be problems in later developmental stages can't be guaranteed."

"That's nothing." Venom suddenly interjected, "You're such blockheads, even if the child is born with disabilities or an unusual appearance, just find a Symbiont for him to bond with, and turn him into an ordinary person, isn't that right?"

Everyone was taken aback.

They had just remembered that there was a magical creature known as Godtar, which coexisted with humans in an extremely peculiar way, even capable of completely altering a person's appearance. A powerful Symbiont like Venom, for example, could not only complete a disabled limb but could even piece together skin fragments.

Steve looked enlightened, that's right, before knowing the child had Super Soldier abilities, one might have worried in case the child was too frail, but now knowing that the child would be born with Captain America's physique, then even if there were an appearance irregularity, as long as it could be concealed, it wouldn't be a major issue.

Carter also saw a glimmer of hope, and, at that time, Loki spoke up with his arms crossed, "I've been wanting to say, have you forgotten that there is magic in this world? There's so much magic can do—as long as you are willing to pay a high enough price, I believe Mephisto would be willing to make a deal with you to help the child regain any missing limbs he might have."

Many things are like this; participants are confused, while bystanders see things clearly. Too often one thinks they have reached a dead end, only to find more opportunities ahead.

Shiller and Loki exchanged a glance, they spoke up actually to hint to Steve, but the reason they hadn't mentioned it earlier was because these solutions were not curing the root of the issue.

For such a child, their appearance was actually easy to change, the real bother was their innate physical issues, it's very likely that despite all the preparations, the child might not survive after birth, if they did survive they might be plagued with illnesses, suffering, or even if healthy, they might feel out of place among their superhuman playmates and experience psychological imbalance.

They worried that Steve, seeing a glimmer of hope, would insist on forcing the issue and end up causing harm to both himself and others.

However, with the empowerment of the Super Soldier Serum, at least there wouldn't be any physical issues, and by compensating for any deficits in appearance or limbs, they could basically expect a lively and robust child.

Steve and Carter both breathed a sigh of relief, but Dr. Beast still said, "I recommend you bring in specialized scientists and geneticists to conduct research, it's best to determine the levels in advance, in case there's a defect that might cause a miscarriage, you need to be prepared to remedy it."

"A defect that might cause a miscarriage?"

Dr. Beast sighed, looking as if he was remembering something, his expression turning sad, "I've seen an Epsilon Level fetus once, in its developmental process, its intestines grew excessively and branched endlessly, as if there was a tree inside it. Eventually, the branches grew out of control, piercing through the lungs, resulting in the fetus's death."

"Another child, during their development, evolved gills and after being separated from the mother, couldn't breathe normally. The medical staff at the time didn't realize what the problem was, and he suffocated to death."

The two examples cited by Dr. Beast sent chills down everyone's spine. Steve immediately picked up the phone and said, "I'm calling Nick right now to prepare a Symbiont."

Stark said, "I'll call Steven. Even if he's too busy right now, he'll have to send a Mage over."

Shiller thought for a moment and said, "Currently, the experts in the field of biological genetics lack in-depth research on Mutant genes, far behind Dr. Beast."

"Even so, I still recommend that we bring in Doctor Connors, Dr. Pym, and Dr. Richards, and if possible, it would be best to call Doctor Destruction too."

He paused, then added, "I know a genius in the field of genetic research, except he's not on the right path, always doing evil experiments concerning genetics, the X-Men should have heard of him."

Dr. Beast turned to look at Shiller.

"His name is Nathaniel Essex, codenamed Mister Sinister."