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"Don't believe in yourself! Believe in the me who believes in you!"
-Kamina Maneuvers, (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann)
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<(Atem POV)>
As we both stepped into Hammer Bay, the capital of New Genosha, the beautiful, and sprawling city came into our view. A growing piece of heaven that has been widely benefitting from the economic developments caused by me, my company, and the metahumans under my command as well as the huge technological leaps taken under some of my more prominent and intelligent employees.
"So you finally shifted Aocalypse's flying pyramid in here, huh? It was about time since it was gathering dust on Mars anyway. But why the hell did you keep it in the middle of the city? It seems a little out of theme compared to the rest of the city." Ororo said as she looked with awe at the huge newly upgraded pyramid spaceship in the middle of the city filled with greenery and giant buildings.
"It may be a little out of place here, but it's still one of the most unique structures in the city. Plus it has a lot of strategic value behind its unique placement, the prime of it being its powerful capability to fuel an energy barrier that can surround and protect the entire city in times of danger. Also, it's quite a good escape ship in case of an enemy attack that's more... dangerous than we can handle, even though I'll make sure that it never comes to that." I answered with some amount of pride lacing my voice as we both stared at the massive pyramid.
"Quite innovative. I guess your battle with Apocalypse did bring some good to the world even though it almost destroyed Egypt with all the earthquakes produced during the battle." Ororo gave me a teasing smile.
"Well, you can't blame me. Apocalypse didn't exactly listen to reason. Plus even though it wasn't really my fault I still reimbursed all property damages caused by my battle by paying 300 million dollars back to the country and its citizens that were affected. So my conscience is as clear as water in that case." I shrugged.
After we were done feeling nostalgic while looking at the pyramid, we flew to the second tallest regular building in the city, which was the same height as the Burj Khalifa and was the new headquarters for the League, my own secret organization on the level of Shield or Hydra or the Ten Rings, only with the aim of being more Global, more connected and more secretive than the others, although, on hindsight, I should have purchased a more subtle building for that because this one was definitely going to attract attention.
The tallest building in the city on the other hand was called the Holy Spire. It was not only the tallest building in the country but the entire world at a height of about 1000 meters or 3280 feet. It was the administrative office for the entire country and the reason for it being taller than the League headquarters was to show that the power of the council was higher than anyone else in the nation even though it was democratic.
Genosha was mostly a democratic country. There were two councils termed the High Table and the Secondary Table. The Secondary table was composed of members who were elected by the people to represent their rights while the High Table was mostly the people who I knew were responsible enough to run a country without getting corrupted and turned into selfish greedy bastards or worse self-justifying do-gooders.
However, one thing was common in both government bodies, members could only apply to their positions as long as they were accepted by me, their patron god thus making me the de-facto most powerful and influential person in the country without even doing anything. Also, the fact that I could take full political power into my own hands during times of war and national emergencies also helped my case.
"Lord Atem, Lady Ororo. Welcome back to Genosha. I hope you were successful in doing whatever you went to accomplish there right Your Majesty?" A middle-aged man bowed as he welcomed us when we entered the building flying followed by Ororo.
"Ah, Forge, yes I was very successful in my endeavors. How is your research going by the way? Hope, you are not overworking yourself again. Believe me, overwork " I greeted the man back as I noticed dark spots under his eyes and his tired body language like he hadn't had a second of peaceful sleep for a long time.
"I am good sir. Just a little nervous about the newest product launch. It is going to be the biggest thing ever for metahumans, so we cannot mess it up, no matter what. The world's future itself depends on it." He smiled tiredly while looking like he needed to sleep ASAP.
"Yeah, but I doubt you are going to live that long the way you are going. As for the release, I am sure it will be a success. Miss Sinister, aka, Claudine Renko assured me that the serum would work as intended especially after the 'thorough research' she conducted using my body fluids as well as all the DNA samples she collected from Mystique, Copycat, and Rogue." I said confidently while walking towards Miss Sinister's lab.
Both Ororo and Forge followed me with awestruck expressions on their faces, probably wondering how I was so confident despite knowing Claudine's absolutely sadistic and uncaring-for-life personality.
The woman was the last female clone alive of Mr. Sinister after we killed all the other Mr. Sinister clones as well as the original one. She was the only one left alive mostly because of her extreme intelligence and knowledge about genetics and the x-gene in particular. Also, she was perfect for what I needed her for, making the ultimate metahuman cure, a real one in this case.
As all three of us got into the elevator and went down to the underground portion of the building where most of the research and experiments took place, I noticed an increase of scientists working than last time.
"Did you hire more workforce by any chance?" Ororo asked the question lingering in my mind.
"Yes, we did. Zoya increased our budget quite a lot after Miss. Sinister joined us and we began to produce more results to show for our research giving us a way to not only fund more projects but even hire more people as well. People really underestimate the number of unemployed or dissatisfied brilliant scientists unhappy with their workplaces. All we did was just identify the ones who were truly useful using Zoya's algorithms and hire them while giving them high enough salaries and research budgets.
In fact, we had a growth of 9% in completion of new projects and research within just one month of us starting to employ more researchers." Forge said with a content tone, probably happy that he would have time for his own experiments and projects now that we had enough workforce.
"Oh, that's surprisingly impressive especially since you did it in such a short term. Just make sure that whoever we hire is thoroughly checked by both our telepaths and empaths at the immigration offices as well as Zoya to make sure that the new hires aren't enemy spies. And even if they do, you can always implant an exploding chip in their brains to make sure that they don't do something stupid like betraying their employers." I chuckled while seriously contemplating if I could legally do that somehow while still 'upholding' their moral rights.
"Okay bring him here slowly, make sure that his radiation doesn't get leaked. Yes, come on. place him there and put his vests in. That's it. Now return back and seal the chamber." A female voice was heard directing a group of people wearing heavy anti-radiation suits. The group silently and obediently listened to all her directions and did what she ordered, sealing a teenage boy inside a radiation-proof chamber adjacent to the room we were currently in.
"Wait Miss Renko, what are you trying to do? Don't tell me you are going to experiment on a kid ma'am. I told you it was not okay. We should keep our experiments limited to death row prisoners and heinous criminals only as per our guidelines. We cannot..." Forge started to lecture with a panic-stricken expression on his face.
"Oh, do shut up Forge. Don't worry, I am not doing anything illegal. The kid is a victim of his own ability, his power making anybody close to him die of radiation overdose. All his family and friends literally died just because he was nearby. The kid overcome with grief initially wanted to kill himself but Zoya identified him before he could do that and made preparations for him to be brought here. He will be the first metahuman to be treated by Formula-MX01." Miss Sinister proudly said as she continued to enter commands on her computer after giving me a nod to acknowledge my presence.
"But, isn't it still dangerous to test it on a kid like that especially since we still are in the testing phase?" Ororo expressed her doubts as well.
"And that's exactly why we are testing it on him." Claudine gave her flawless logic with a sadistic smile.
"... Atem, what about you, are you sure that you want to do this? And what is exactly the MX001 anyway? I mean I have heard some rumors here and there among some of the citizens but nobody knew what it was exactly." Ororo asked.
"It's the ultimate cure. At least a version of it. It's the cure to cure all metahumans of their ultimate curse, their lack of voluntary control over their powers, or the change of their physical appearance and mental behavior as a side effect of their abilities. This formula cures those parts of the x-gene.
It is currently one of the four essential metahuman serums in development in our research labs and is targeted at making the lives of metahumans better by completely eliminating the risks of volatility that come with their powers. With this, the x-gene will more or less be like an extra limb that you can simply switch on or off to activate or deactivate your powers. It will also eliminate power outbursts as well as make sure that passively your outer physical appearance is the closest to human-like it can be without harming the potential of your x-gene itself." I explained.
"That's amazing. Then this can truly change the world as we know it. So many of our misunderstood students and even the Marauders who despite being proper citizens of Genosha always hide themselves underground or in their own homes or behind their gated communities due to their inferiority complexes can lead better lives with this." She excitedly said as she understood its importance.
"Yep, it's also one of the reasons I came here first after arriving in Genosha instead of meeting the others. this not only needed my immediate undivided attention but also if this succeeds in the test, I'll be giving this to some of the new X-Force members as a gift to boost their confidence. They seriously need one after I rejected taking them with me last time I went to space."
"Should we proceed with the experiment and inject the medicine now?" Miss Sinister asked, her fingers visibly twitching in excitement to see if her little lab rat would survive the formula or not even though Zoya had already passed it off as a success using her complex calculations and simulation process.
I didn't answer anything and just nodded at her giving my approval after which she didn't even hesitate for a single second before pressing a green button on the touchscreen panel of her computer.
The inside of the sealed room was only visible by cameras and other different sensors like infrared, ultraviolet, and other radiation detectors. As soon, as she pressed the button, a needle inserted itself inside the teenager's neck and directly released the medicine inside his bloodstream starting off the experiment.
The next couple of minutes were too intense for every one of us as nothing happened. There was absolutely no reaction, no pain, no yelling, no tears, no blood, nothing.
"Nothing happened? But I thought our research results were right. So did we mess up or something?" Forge asked with some doubt in his voice.
"No, it was successful. There is no more radiation leaking from the kid's body. In fact, not even residual radiation can be found on him. It's like his body determined what was wrong with his powers and changed his physiology to correct it. The MX-001 is a complete success." Claudine said with a huge smile on his face after checking off all the data from the various radiation detectors and other sensors in the sealed room.
"However, we still need to keep him under observation and do some more tests just to be sure that it works exactly as we designed it to." She added to her previous statement.
"Good, now do that quickly and start producing the first batch of the medicine. Leave all the license and documentation headache about getting it accepted outside Genosha to me. I think about ten thousand vials should be enough for the first batch. After all, I have the perfect idea to profit off Tony Stark even more using his recently bolstered fame." I said with a grin on my face knowing that this Formula would be the proper way to get an absolute monopoly in controlling the loyalty of each and every metahuman on Earth.
I may have undergone a maturation process compared to my former self, but one thing remained unchanged: my unwavering determination to retain my title, the title of the God of metahumans.
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