Chapter Fifty-Five, Part Three

"You've got a powerful mind, Sinister," Dan stood before the chained mutant, one hand pressed to the too-white prisoner's head. It had taken him hours to peel back the man's defences, a long grind that finally bore fruit. "...it seems that you've been up to more than just collecting mutant dna."

Brow furrowed, Dan flipped through the snapshots of the fellow's horrific life. Countless immoral experiments and procedures, all in the service of increasing Sinister's power. There was no redemption for such a man, not in this word or the next.

"Apocalypse…" Dan concentrated his efforts on a specific series of memories, the moment when Sinister gained his first taste of mutant power. He was prostrate in a vast chamber, on his knees before the mutant God-King En Sabah Nur. "You poisoned your own master half to death, the techno-organic virus you infected him with was a piece of work."

Dan burrowed deeper, through the immobilised Sinister's catalogue of genetic knowledge and laboratory experience. Even within its surface, he found inspiration for the continuation of his own work. He could already see the modifications to the genetic factors within the Superman serums.

"You're lucky that you're so durable," Dan sighed as he withdrew his hand and cancelled his spell. He had all there was to find, so it was time to move on. "You'll probably survive a full extraction procedure, though it won't be pleasant."

The cell door irised closed behind him and Dan moved a few metres to the left. Emma Frost hung in her cocoon of magical chains, positioned next door to Sinister. He gave the woman a smile and waved his hand, a move that dispelled the restriction on her speech.

"Greetings, Ms. Frost," Dan gave her a short bow of his head, before he allowed the chains around her to loosen and fall away. The cell itself was warded, magic beyond her power's influence. "It seems that you and your friends have some kind of quarrel with me and mine."

"We only seek to unify mutant kind under a single banner," Frost rolled her shoulders, stiff from her long confinement. "From Nova's stories, Charles is a villain, as are all who stand with him."

"She's entitled to her opinion," Dan shrugged. Cassandra Nova was a living tragedy. Attacked in the womb by her unborn brother, an instinctive reaction to the nature of the woman's power. "But we don't need to be enemies, your goals and mine are compatible enough."

"Join your Order of Krypton?" Frost snorted, an eyebrow raised in his direction as she smoothed out her hair. "What would it do to help mutants, if they all serve some alien overlord?"

Dan laughed as he shook his head. In some ways she wasn't wrong, there were powerhouses amongst mutant kind that could protect them from most threats. However, there were things that he could offer that no one else could.

"My species has the ability to genetically enhance other races, convert them into hybrids of our own people," he waved at his own chest. "What I offer is immortality, new powers that will reinforce and improve your own."

Once the serum was in full production, he could selectively convert certain individuals into Kryptonians. Eventually all of mutant kind would receive some variation of the drug, but he would be cautious in his first steps.

"Immortality?" Frost cast him a sceptical look. "What are you talking about?"

"My people live forever, frozen at the pinnacle of adulthood," Dan pointed to the ceiling of the cell and the sky beyond. "All we need is the light of a yellow sun."

– – – –

"It seems like it's time to call for my ride," Thrawn eyed the Kryptonian transceiver in his hand as he stood atop a deserted plateau. His people had sentenced him to exile on this unpopulated world, a fate he refused to accept. "I wonder how long it will take before they arrive?"

– – – –

"Hmmm?" Captain Jack squinted at the communication system of his ship, eyes blurred as he swigged down a draft of rum. "It looks like we're receiving the distress beacon we've been ordered to intercept…"

"Get out of the way, useless drunkard," one of Shank's unruly crew levered him from his seat and scanned the console for himself. "He's right, Captain, the one called Thrawn is ready to be collected from his exile."

"How many times have I told you," Jack poked a finger into the meaty crewman's chest. "Until we can find a way to unfuse all our ships, I'M the Captain around here!"

"Sure you are, Jack," Yondu snorted as he walked through the bridge, toward the helm. "And I'm a beautiful woman, outside and in… get out of the way, we need this space for actual working members of the crew."

Jack puffed himself up and took another swig from his bottle. His traitorous ship has rebelled after it was exposed to that cursed cube. Now it was interlocked with the rest of the pirates' ships, a massive barge that ploughed through space.

"I'll have you know, I'm a vital member of the command structure around here," The pirate Captain tilted sideways, caught before he hit the ground by an exasperated Red-Hair. "Without me, you'd all be as lost as lambs!"

"Just lock him in his quarters," Shanks waved his hand at the drunken Sparrow and sighed. "Dan-EL left us with very few structured missions, but this was one he expects us to get done… set a course, we don't want to leave an admiral of Krypton waiting."

– – – –

"The simulations all show a one-hundred percent success rate," Dan leaned back from the genetic assembler, a satisfied smile on his face. With the addition of Sinister's genetic knowledge and biomass, he had finally replicated three variants of the Superman serum. "Now, who should be the first guinea pig?"

He needed three test subjects, if he wanted to progress the project. One to receive a version of the original serum, one to receive a variant based on bronze era Kryptonian genetics, and one to take an x-gene infused dosage.

"Venom, get Logan on the phone, will you?" Dan repressed an evil grin. The durable mutant was a good fit for the standard serum, the first before Cal and Kara upgraded their own genetics. "Tell him that I've got a reward for his years of service at the Academy… message Steve with the same."

The bronze level serum would be a good fit for the Captain, and he could be upgraded later if the better version worked on Wolverine. He was undecided on who would receive the mutant version, but he wasn't in a rush to decide.

"Contact Charles and Emma Frost," Dan stood from his workstation and cracked his neck. "Ask if they have any humans who they would recommend for the project, but make them aware that you'll be vetting them by reading the memories of any they put forward…"

A lightbulb clicked in Dan's mind. Tony Stark would be born in less than ten years. If the serum worked, then both he and his father would be perfect targets for its use. It would have to wait until young Tony was born, lest the change in his father's genetics prevent his birth.

"Sir," the First Prime of Krypton entered his private lab and bowed low. "We have developed the energy detection device you've requested. It should quantify the might of any being you scan, provided they use an energy system known to Krypton."

"Perfect," Dan smiled. He could finally get a better idea of his own position in the hierarchy of this overpowered Marvel universe. "I'll test it out right away!"