Chapter 109 - 109

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….

For some reason, I really loved telling heartbreaking tales specifically about the life of European savages, I simply couldn't help myself. But I observed the bounds of decency, yes. They were strict about that here.

But let's get back to the research.

The first phase of experiments didn't bring much clarity. Just as I planned, I ran the entire school through the Soul Forge, simultaneously teaching Jean, as well as (to a lesser extent) Sarah and Yuriko, how to use it.

It wasn't that Sarah lacked the knowledge, in hard science, she actually surpassed Jean despite the latter's doctorate and extensive experience working with mutants.

But Miss Grey was a telepath, which meant mastering a direct neural interface was fundamentally easier for her.

But I digress. The point is, after examining every single kid and mentor in the mansion, I had certainly enriched their medical files with a mountain of incredibly useful data, but I myself was left at a dead end.

I could dissect every individual genome, understanding exactly what did what and how it functioned.

I could identify the pathologies in the genetic chain resulting from a premature awakening of the genes. I could even fix a few minor glitches here and there.

But none of this gave me the answer to the ultimate question: Why?

Why did it work this way and not another? Why did it work at all?

Mutants did not share a single, universal gene that somehow stood apart from the standard human genetic code.

All the information stored in the structure of their DNA, RNA, and proteins that described the nature and design of the human body... described only a human body.

The new elements and add-ons that appeared as a result of the mutation to facilitate superpowers were entirely unique to each specific mutant.

Even between Xavier and Jean, who were both telepaths, the mutation differed fundamentally. Charles was a pure telepath with an absolutely colossal potential for telepathy specifically. He was, by the way, one of the few mutants in the mansion whose abilities were "clean", completely free of the pathologies that come with premature awakening.

Jean Grey, on the other hand, was primarily a telekinetic. Her actual telepathic potential was relatively small, but her telekinetic potential was astronomical.

The problem was that the physical structure of her brain was too underdeveloped to consciously process her own raw power.

Xavier's brain was a masterpiece of biological engineering, it was literally hardwired to parallel-process not just five, but hundreds and thousands of different vectors of attention simultaneously.

It didn't allow him to think faster, live in perpetual slow-motion, or juggle a bunch of physical tasks at once, but it kept him from "crashing" or losing his mind when bombarded by tens of thousands of alien thoughts and emotions.

They weren't unbearable for him. He could navigate them, search for what he needed, listen to the roar of the crowd while picking out individual voices, and simultaneously project his will to everyone in range.

Even if it was only along a single vector, he could hold everyone in his mind without missing a single soul.

For Jean, that kind of trick was physically impossible. The raw processing power of her brain barely differed from a baseline human's.

Therefore, calculating the flight paths of even a dozen objects at once put a catastrophic strain on her "computational capacity."

Meanwhile, she had enough raw telekinetic brute force inside her to individually sort every single grain of sand on a beach in Nice.

I would call it ironic, but no, it was just a textbook example of a prematurely activated X-gene that hadn't been given the time to finish forming the biological hardware required to run its own software.

Truly, Evolution, you are a twisted bitch!

Just when you start to suspect that all these mutants are part of some grand, overarching experiment by a civilization an order of magnitude more advanced than Asgard, you immediately stumble across blatant atavisms, genetic garbage, and deviations that absolutely could not exist in an artificially engineered organism!

Take Cyclops, for example. The number of mitochondria in his cells exceeds human norms by an order of magnitude, and their operational efficiency is higher by five orders of magnitude.

Just think about that, five orders of magnitude! It's the only reason he can project steel-melting "laser" beams from his eyes.

Yet, entirely outside the mechanics of actually firing and fueling those blasts, he has absolutely zero differences from a typical Homo sapiens.

Meaning, despite possessing internal energy reserves comparable to a mid-sized nuclear power plant, he still needs to eat normal food, drink water, and sleep. It's absolute surrealism!

And then you look at the mutant community as a whole and start suspecting something weird all over again. It would be one thing if everyone had "deviations" branching off in the same general direction.

But here, you'd have an easier time finding two mutants with identical powers and identical pathologies than finding representatives of a "single branch."

Even the talents of Scott and Jubilee, despite having seemingly the exact same baseline of "projecting destructive energy from the body", have absolutely nothing in common biologically.

Even their control issues manifest differently and stem from entirely different physiological systems.

In short, the deeper I dug, the more I realized I didn't understand a damn thing. And this is coming from a guy for whom genetics is practically a native language.

Testing the blood of ordinary humans, which I had to specially procure by taking a trip to the nearest blood donor center, didn't bring any clarity. If anything, it confused me even more.

I took perfectly "clean" blood, showing absolutely zero signs of mutation. A pure baseline Homo, so to speak.

Then, using the Soul Forge, I modeled Lehnsherr's radiation and blasted the blood with it. Ten seconds later, I was looking at mutant blood on the slide.

I could even read the "energetic blueprint" of the reconfiguration: altered muscle tissue, denser bones, and a skin pathology resulting in the uncontrollable secretion of slime instead of sweat.

But wait. A minute ago, the genetic elements for that mutation were not there. They didn't exist! So where the hell did they come from?

Furthermore, no matter how I tweaked the radiation's frequency, duration, or intensity, the blood from that specific individual always yielded the exact same type of mutation.

This meant these weren't random genetic fluctuations; it was the awakening of a recessive, latent genome!

But it wasn't there to begin with! It. Was. Not. There! So where does it materialize from?

And what's equally fascinating: if every person's specific mutation is predetermined, how do we end up with guys like the Green Goblin or Spider-Man?

There are quite a few characters in Marvel history who gained their powers via mutagens. Yet, obviously different people using the exact same mutagen all ended up with one specifictype of power, not their own unique, individualized ones.

You can't just chalk it up to them having the exact same latent predispositions, as my own research just proved, finding mutants with identical powers is incredibly difficult. So then what? Why?

Alright, let's assume Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, actually did have a latent X-gene, and the bite of a venomous mutant spider shocked it into activation.

Why do I think the spider was venomous? Well, any spider injects a digestive extract when it bites, which counts as venom.

Apparently, that specific mutant spider's venom was so hardcore that Parker's body frantically awakened its X-gene just to keep from dying.

Honestly, that theory is no worse than the one where the spider somehow magically synthesized super-soldier serum in its venom glands. If you ask me, it makes way more sense.

I mean, from a biological standpoint, how is a little critter supposed to survive if every piece of prey it bites turns into an indestructible mutant with muscles harder than steel instead of dissolving into a nutritious slurry?

But I digress. The real question is: why did Parker's body restructure itself specifically along arachnid principles?

A random coincidence? Highly unlikely. If only for the simple reason that the last "common ancestor" a human shares with an arachnid is somewhere way back at the level of the very first multicellular organisms. I'm exaggerating a bit, but not by much.

…

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