THE MUTANT PHENOMENON

POSTED BY: AnonymousPoster
UPDATED: Monday, October 18, 2004 18:08
VIEWED: 3486
PAGE 1 of 1

ANONYMOUSPOSTER

Sunday, October 10, 2004 2:13 AM

No one ever really believed in superheroes. They were great for movies and comic books and cartoons and children's fantasies, but they were about as real as Santa Claus.

Then, in 1987, all that changed. At a suburban hospital in Sacramento, California, Leslie Finch gave birth to her first child--a small boy. It is a given that the doctor followed procedure, though he may have been surprised at the baby's initial appearance. After the routine smack on the bottom, the doctor ceased to exist. So did the baby's mother, the nurses, and most of the east wing. In a fiery explosion the small baby evinced the first publicly recorded release of mutant abilities. Several hundred patients and staff were killed or injured in the blast, but rescue crews discovered a small, blue-skinned baby, seemingly unharmed but deteriorating rapidly, amidst tons of charred rubble. The baby survived for three more hours, his skin nearly unbreakable by normal means and thus preventing the necessary medical attention.

The public went crazy, to say the least. The baby was an alien, some said, or the Devil incarnate. Even Christ reborn. Scientists labored relentlessly to find an answer, and eventually Dr. Charles Xavier, an American geneticist, discovered that in every organism on Earth there exists a mutator gene - the x-factor, as it has come to be known. It is the basic building block of evolution - the reason we have evolved from homo habilus to homo erectus, to homo sapiens Neanderthals, and, finally, to homo sapiens.

Taking it's cues from the climate, terrain, various sources of nourishment, the x-factor gene tells the body when it needs to change to adapt to a new environment. The process is subtle, normally taking thousands of years. Only in the last few thousand years did mankind begin to make clothes for himself, build shelters, use heat and grow food in large quantities. With this man-made environment remaining relatively stable, the x-factor became dormant. Until now. For reasons still not known to us, we are seeing what some are calling the beginnings of another stage of evolution.

At first the public was skeptical. The baby was a superman of sorts? Preposterous! Public opinion was soon swayed, however, as more and more individuals stepped forward and revealed superhuman powers of greater or lesser magnitude, or were discovered under the new scrutiny of a nation. Emily Thorinson of Dayton, Ohio could change the color of any plant she touched. She had been winning awards for her yellow and blue roses for years. Charles Keating could lift his Harley Davidson motorcycle over his head with one hand. Xian Chow of Beijing sneezed in a restaurant and shattered windows for nearly a mile in all directions. Suddenly the world had to deal with a brand new situation - the mutant phenomenon.

Government records indicate that some evidence of the x-factor existed prior to The Finch Baby in 1987, and later research indicated that the x-factor may have existed as early as the 1800's, but nothing had ever been proven and the exact cause of it's activation is unknown to this day, though speculation leads modern science to ambient radiation caused by the detonation of nuclear weapons. The Human Genome Project, by far the best funded and staffed of the projects, has determined that the x-factor is often psionic in nature, meaning that a person's power or powers are either directly tied in with the mind (mental powers), or seem to have some basis in their psyche. Even physical mutations have been related to an individuals mental state of mind, or even their current thoughts at the time of the change. Subconscious stimuli and psychological states at times of x-factor activation are being considered as both catalyst and x-factor programmer. The circumstances causing the activation may also have a bearing on what alterations in an individual take place. With the notable lack of hard data, however, further research is warranted, and everything from prehistoric genetic tampering to cosmic radiation is being investigated as a source for the x-factor's r

CREVANREAVER

Sunday, October 10, 2004 8:35 PM

I just want to say this is some really interesting and informative stuff you've posted AnonymousPoster, you rock!

MANTICHORUS

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 1:30 PM

Wow, this is quite good. But I have a question:
What about Omega level mutants, such as Jean Grey?You cover Alpha and Beta power levels, but not Omega's.

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"To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation." -Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Aphorisms.
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"Never ask for a name. Ask instead what those you meet would like to be called" - Doctor Occult.

CONSCIENCE

Monday, October 18, 2004 6:08 PM

Wow, that's a really impressive backstory to the X-Men storyline. AnonymousPoster was a rather smart poster.

It's to bad some sour pusses annoyed AP enough for him to leave.