Building an Association

"And how are you going to achieve it?" Essex asked.

Even he didn't obtain it himself. His genes were modified by Apocalypse to give him an ageless body. Apocalypse modified his genes to make sure that every dead cell gets replaced with a new cell as soon as the current one dies. 

His body produces stem cells at an unimaginably fast pace. Those cells later evolve into the new cells, curing all sorts of wounds or disease while maintaining his youthful appearance.

"The only reason you didn't succeed was that you didn't have the specimen to experiment on." I point my finger towards the unconscious body of Sabertooth. "Well you did… but you left them in order to work on another project. Which, I think is kind of stupid."

He frowned. "Explain."

"The reason you didn't bother working on the 'immortality' project was because of two reasons. The first one was because you are already immortal and the second was because your entire goal shifted to killing Apocalypse." I shook my head. "Which is impossible without a good specimen. And… that's when I came into the equation. A mutant whose powers are rapidly evolving." 

"Cutting my body open would be risky, so you won't be doing that. Mind controlling me is not possible as you already tried doing that." The little bump on my barriers were proof of that. "So your best bet is to help me… and in return, I will help you." 

Was he going to betray me? Definitely! Will I have a plan to protect myself? Obviously!

"Victor's abilities are good for raw strength but his immortality is not the best. James, on the other hand, survived the atomic bomb, and his entire body regenerated from barely some flesh and bones." He rubbed his chin. "I know that you have already collected samples from him. So the experiments won't be difficult, I also have my reports about both of them from when I was experimenting on them."

This man is terrifying. He was studying both Wolverine and Sabertooth and once his focus shifted to another project, he easily erased both of their memories.

"What do you want in return." My promise to bring back his wife and son is not enough. He won't agree to anything unless he is one hundred percent sure of achieving them.

His smile grew sinister. "I want your blood and skin tissue."

This was bad. Now, why was it bad?

Firstly, giving my blood will allow him to clone me and study my genetic structure… And this guy is a god when it comes to Genetics. He can make an army of my clone with just a single drop of blood.

And secondly, that will also result in my death. Once he achieves his goal, I will be useless for him and would be as good as dead.

"Deal."

Why did I do that? Simple. Because that's not how my DNA structure works. It is completely identical to human DNA without even a tad bit of mutant gene. I do have the X-genes but if I search for them through external means they don't appear.

My X-genes turns into normal human genes the moment it is taken out of my body. I tried countless methods to create a similar 'shell' or container like my body, but it didn't work. The moment it was expelled from my body, the cells changed into normal human cells.

Which is hella trippy!

But it also solves the issues related to cloning or power stealing.

Sinister had a mad smile on his face. "I will help you with this project and you will provide me with your blood and skin tissues." 

"Fine by me." The two of us shook hands.

Nathaniel stood up and threw a microchip towards me. "You know how to use that. Contact me when you start the project." 

With that, he teleported out of my room.

"I will Essex… I will."

…

…

[Later]

"So what is our next mission, leader?" Ah, yes. After the Sabertooth mission, Betty started calling me 'Leader.'

"I have plans… a lot of them, but none of them are viable at the moment." She looked kind of sad at that. 

Her popularity within the assassins association was growing fast and that's making her over-enthusiastic. But that doesn't mean she will take any mission. As long as she isn't sure if the mission is possible to succeed in, she won't take any of them.

Without sabertooth, she wouldn't have gone against Wolverine, and without the hedge of ninjas, she wouldn't have fought sabertooth.

[15 minutes later]

"So what's the meeting about, leader?" 

Betty was not the only one who was curious but the ninja boys were as well.

"How long have you been part of the association?" My question confused all of them. No one generally asks questions about the association.

"It's about to be a year." Betty replied while one of the ninja boys showed two of his fingers. 

"So one year for Betty and two for you guys." 

All of them nodded which made me grow a smile.

"What do you all think about being part of my team."

Betty seemed confused but the ninjas frowned. "The association is enough for us." One of them replied.

"The association prevents you from revealing their secrets to others but there is no restriction in leaving them." 

The association was extremely advanced so they had multiple ways to make sure that none of the members reveals anything important about them.

"The association gives you part of the mission money as your payment while taking a large chunk of it for themselves." Betty nodded but the ninjas remained silent.

"I am creating a team… an association of my own to be precise." I looked towards them with a smile. "And I want you guys to be a part of it."

This made all of them surprised before one of the ninjas replied. "We will think about it." 

They have been part of the association for a year longer than Betty. Not to mention Betty only went to the association to inform about the completion of the mission. I gave her two big missions back to back which didn't allow her to spend much time inside the association.

So it came as no surprise to me when she accepted my invitation. "Fine by me. As long as I get paid more than what the association gives. I will be happy to work under you." 

The ninjas looked towards one another. "We will inform you if we decide to join your team." 

They vanished in a puff of smoke. 

"Ninjas are really cool!" Betty exclaimed and a chuckle escaped me.

_______________________________________________________

[A/N: Yes, clones of Marcellus are impossible to make. So it doesn't matter what he gives Sinister. He won't be successful in making a clone.

and it looks like Marcellus is trying to build his own association... but why?

when will he get stronger? (yes he will...pretty soon)

Pa treon Link: Pa treon.com/ToothlessS

Discord Link: https://discord.gg/GwFen4t]