AnnouncementNormally this would be an interlude, but it is the one after this one, so gave you a chapter today, and the Interlude will be out SatChapter 28- Results

  New York City– Inside Fallen Soldiers Bar and Grill - 2008- 10- 22 (Evening)

  Eric Lensheer- (Magneto)

  Erik gritted his teeth as he watched his friend tense up from the beam, but it only sted for a couple of seconds, before the usual hologram of the man appeared before him, however this time it was rger than the subject, almost half again bigger than the subject. The mage had to lean back to read everything and the lines of magi characters making up the image were much more plentiful.

  However, what really caught the mutant’s eye was that all of the characters were green. Every single part of the Captain was improved by the experiment and formu that was given to him. It reminded him of Basilisk’s scan, but he only saw it when she was injured, so he could quite make a full comparison.

  “Green means ‘ok’ right?” Steve asked with a smile.

  “Actually green means enhanced.” The mutant leader corrected.

  “What I wouldn’t give for some of this tech.” The doctor muttered from her corner of the room. Erik still really hadn’t caught her name, but she looked familiar to him.

  Nath’aniel was originally quiet as he read, but then he asked. “Captain, what can you tell me about the experiment that they put you through?”

  Peggy answered instead of Steve. "We pced him on a steel cradle. Then they hit him with the eight injectors hitting various parts of his body, after that they closed the cradle and doused him with Vita rays till they saturated his body. The idea was the extra energy from the rays would open his pores and the formu would get a better result. He almost doubled in size, and more than doubled in weight from the transformation.'

  ”We recreated the experiment twice, once in the sixties, and again in the mid-nineties, neither results were as extreme as Steven’s. Yet the process still worked on those subjects.”

  “Vita rays, you’re certain?” the mage asked.

  "I am," Steve said, and then he added. "They went over the procedure with me five times the night before they did it, and I remember them all perfectly… as if I was still there." He ended with a quieter tone.

  Then the room was quiet for a time, but Erik became too eager to hear if his theory was right or not. So he walked closer and whispered a question to the mage. “Was I right? Does he have the Mosul Gene?”

  “What’s the Mosul gene?” Steve asked them. Erik heard the two women also become more alert after hearing the question.

  The mutant leader looked at his friend and then looked away a little guilty not having warned him of his thoughts.

  “It is the gene that marks a person as being a mutant or not. You all commonly call it the X gene.” The mage answered his patient.

  "You thought Steve was a mutant?!" Peggy asked him offended. "Mutants can't survive enhancement everyone knows this after the Canadians and the Russians killed so many of their own in their experiments."

  Nath’aniel corrected her. “You are only half correct, Ms. Charter… Already awakened Mosul bearers will always die if given an activating agent. However, if their gene is still dormant, then the agent will simply awaken their gene.”

  "I thought all mutants awaken their powers in puberty?" The doctor asked, as she did something about her face seemed familiar to him.

  "That's not true, Erik's powers didn't trigger till just before we rescued him from that concentration camp. And you were what thirty years old?" Steve told the woman.

  “Thirty-three.” Erik crified.

  The mage agreed to this point, saying. “Exactly, the Mosul gene was designed to be unstable on purpose. The idea was that there would be protectors among you Tribesmen of the Land, with them around you wouldn’t be helpless. So bearers of the Mosul-gene, unlike the other two genes, may awaken if enough stress or trauma, whether it is emotional or physical, is experienced by the bearer.’

  “I have heard about your schools from both Murmur and Basilisk, and from what I hear there is a lot of stress in your modern education system. From the established and authorized bullying of outliers in the css. Then there is the peer pressure to be members of certain groups or social circles, and then the pressure to remain 'in' said circles. So add into it the pressure of the chemical and hormonal changes that puberty brings, isn't it really a surprise so many Mosul bearers awaken during this time in their lives."

  They quieted the room again, as many of them processed what it was the mage told him.

  Erik gave them that moment, and then since the cat was out of the bag he asked at a normal volume. “So is he?”

  The mage reached into the hologram and rotated his hand, causing the image to change what it was dispying. All of the icons turned into a mix of green characters, and another cluster that was a soft red. Nath'aniel sighed, before answering. "No, he is not… Congratutions Captain, you are the first bearer of the Sol'lid-gene that I have worked on."

  Steve sat back a bit and asked. "Thanks. Can I put my shirt back on?"

  The mage wrote a rune into the air and made the super solider a new one, that wasn't damaged. Then he said. "Sure. I wasn't sure why you took it off in the first pce."

  While sad to be proven wrong, Erik still chuckled at that, as it was the doctor dy who had suggested it. When he looked at her, she looked very embarrassed now. Then he and the mage shared a look, and after a second the mutant leader said. "Tell them."

  As Steve put buttoned up the conjured shirt, the mage wove a three-run spell, which caused a bubble to fill the room. Then Nath'aniel took a deep breath before saying. "I have cast a Silence spell on this room. What I am about to reveal is a portion of the Great Truth. Something that my ancestors told your ancestors, yet when we did your people became violent or self-destructive. So if you do think you cannot handle it, leave now, and I will not think less of you."

  Peggy Charter crossed her arms, while the doctor rubbed her chin, and Steve shifted in his seat, instead of leaving. Erik saw curiosity or intrigue on their faces.

  So after a moment, the mage continued. "Seven-thousand, three-hundred years ago, a series of small meteors and a single medium-sized meteor crashed into the Earth. Less than a century ter the Sky-Tribe descended upon our pnet. They were a coltion of five or six races that formed a single Empire, in less than a year they captured and ensved all of humanity.”

  "That's why the Fang's mercenaries offended you so. You saw their actions like the sky tribes." The mutant leaders guessed.

  Nath'aniel only nodded before continuing. "The Sky Tribe ruled the earth for over a hundred years uncontested. During that time they took fractions of the humans and altered them. First, they made a group that we called the Tribe of the Sea, they were given working gills as well as their lungs, and their muscles and skin were altered so that given time and exposure they could handle the weight of kes and seas."

  "They were the first Atnteans," Steve guessed.

  "Then they made the Tribe of Watchers, they were an even smaller fraction than that of the Sea Tribe, and while it took them a decade to make, these were altered to see further, and their minds and bodies altered to need less sleep and nourishment." The mage gave little emotion to the creation to the origin of his own people.

  “Were your people able to cast magic even then?” Erik asked in actual curiosity.

  Nath'aniel shook his head, before saying. "The art of magic came to us ter, after the Great Rebellion. The Sky-Tribe didn't know the source of the energy that they altered us to be able to absorb, only that it was ever-present in the air, even when they were in orbit, or in the void of space."

  “And then these monsters altered the rest of us, that’s why you call us the Tribesmen of the Land isn’t it?” Peggy guessed.

  Nath’aniel shook his head before he answered. “While yes, you were all altered too, it was not the only reason. I am hesitant to give the whole reason, given the history my people have suffered. And yes, even Erik doesn’t know the whole of the Great Truth.”

  “This history lesson is great and all, especially given you have no way to prove it, but what does that have to do with our research?” The doctor asked.

  "It means that there was something in the equation that you didn't realize," Steve stated before Erik could.

  “Exactly, there are three gene types in our kind. Cedra, Mosul, and Sol'lid. There was a part of our biology that we have all but forgotten over the millennia. This means that the ancient stories of monsters and myths were actually ancient mutants awakening, and our modern minds discarded those tales as impossible fictions.” Erik added.

  "Like the tales of werewolves and vampires," Peggy muttered.

  "Actually Peggy, we met Dracu during the War, and he revealed that vampires like him are actually aliens." Steve corrected her statement.

  "Correction Steve, they're alien-human hybrids. Dracu was able to sire two pure-blooded human children while you were in the ice. Ironically both of them turned out to be mutants, so when they came to Charles' school. Where Beast and I were able to look closer at their DNA and learned that vampires aren't pure aliens." The mutant leader stated.

  Nath’aniel surprised the mutant leader when he asked. “What’s a vampire?”

  Erik blinked twice before saying. “Right they first came to Earth in the sixteen hundreds, so you still would have been asleep when they arrived… I guess we have something else to discuss besides the ‘grail’ during my next session with you.”

  “Again, what does Steve having this Solid gene mean for our research?!” The doctor asked rather abruptly.

  "Sol'lid." The mage corrected but still continued his expnation. "First, you must understand the difference between an Enhanced, or Mutant, and a regur person. You must understand that deep in your DNA, there were, or in your case are, dormant genes that were designed to awaken and remake you into a superhuman.'

  "Mosul bearers may awaken spontaneously, you call them mutants, but both Cedra and Sol'lid cannot, they require an activating agent. In the Captain's case, it was Dr. Erskine's super soldier formu and Vita rays. For a Cedra, Vita rays or no Vita rays it doesn't matter, their gene will awaken and they will be improved and Enhanced for a time.'

  "This is the key difference with an Enhanced. Their gene takes over the job of maintaining their bodies and powers. In an unawakened person, they would require regur dosing to keep them at their peak or superior state. An awakened Tribesman of the Land will continue to have powers until they die. Or an event puts their gene to sleep again."

  Even Peggy, let alone the upset scientist dy, understood after that expnation.

  Still, Steve asked. “And the difference between Cedra and Sol’lid?”

  Nath’aniel started off with. “There are two.” he took a breath before continuing. “First, as I expined to Geist, back on the rooftop before you joined us, a Cedra can be neutralized and their powers removed, so they can return to live a normal life. Sol’lids however, cannot be reverted; to do so kills the subject.”

  “Then why was she so upset?” The super soldier asked.

  The mage denied the Captain. "I will not answer that as she did not wave her right to her secrets, like you did."

  Steve nodded and rubbed his head as he apologized. "Sorry, you're right."

  Nath'aniel waved his hands, indicating that no harm was done before continuing. "The second thing that is different not just with the Cedra-gene, but also the Mosul-gene, is that Sol'lid has a middle step in their awakening. My ancestors called this the 'Absorbing Phase'. Sol'lid bearers' are said to draw in and absorb excess energy in their immediate area to improve their activating agent."

  "The Vita rays," Peggy stated.

  “Partially.” The mage agreed. "There are also other energies in the area that you cannot see. Such as ambient light, heat, and as I said earlier, the ever-present presence nature of mystical energies in the air. I am assuming that the lights or mps flickered, and possibly your systems also had some difficulties staying online while he was undergoing his transformation.”

  “I don’t recall the ceiling lights flickering, but the computers and other systems that were running the experiment all got fried as he underwent the process.” The former director admitted.

  "And from what I understand, mystical energy is rather weak in most pces. Heck, I didn't even believe in them, before I started living in the Citadel." Eric added once everyone was done speaking.

  Nath'aniel nodded before countering with. "While that is generally true, there are exceptions. Pces believed to be haunted are areas where the Veil is weak and more mystical energy would be present. Also, there are the pnetary y lines. Or 'Dragon Veins' as the Eastern Tribesmen call them. Those have an overabundance of power near them.'

  “So there are potential areas, depending on where they conducted the procedure that the ambient energy was through the atmosphere.”

  "What about using Gamma radiation instead of Vita rays?" The doctor asked Nath'aniel suddenly. Her tone was no longer arrogant or snarky instead she clearly wanted to hear the mage's answer.

  Yet it was the word ‘gamma’ that made the mutant leader click the face to where he knew her from. “You’re Doc. Banner’s fiancé aren’t you? You’re his ‘Betty’.”

  She gred at him but didn’t deny it.

  The mage answered her, despite not knowing who they were talking about. "If someone has done a simir experiment to what Ms. Charter described, and they had used Gamma radiation in pce of the Vita rays, then he had to have a Sol'lid-gene for the man to survive. And if they were, it wouldn't matter the location of where they performed it, as Gamma rays are far, far stronger of an energy source than Vita rays. So regardless they would have a massively more powerful result than what the Captain got from his."

  “Oh, he does.” Erik agreed.

  “You met him?” Betty asked him.

  The mutant leader nodded, before answering. "It was a few years ago, I am guessing a year or so after his experiment, from the rumors. He was near the Canadian/American border in the Rocky Mountains. We had heard about him and thought he was one of us, a mutant, so the Brotherhood offered to take him in. He refused, and we kind of insisted, then the US Army attacked our position.'

  “It was surprising how much damage he inflicted on their forces without killing anyone. But in the end we helped him escape, before leaving ourselves. I recognize you from the picture he kept and protected during the batle, in both of his forms.”

  The room endured another long silence before Steve stated. “So it wasn’t the formu that made me what I am.”

  "It was only a part of it. Your dormant gene improved the good doctor's work to a completely another level." The mage agreed.

  “How is health otherwise?” The former director asked the mage, her tone really showed that she both cared and was worried as Erik had guessed.

  “He is fine, even with the recent battle. You must have an increased healing ability on top of everything else.” Nath’aniel reported.

  Steve nodded and admitted. "A few times I broke a bone or something during the war, it was healed by morning. The only person that could heal as good as me was ‘the Canadian’.”

  The mutant leader chuckled at that name and told his friend. “His name is actually Logan, and he now uses the alias Wolverine.”

  Yet the mage then added. "Although truthfully, I am worried about your stress levels, while I understand your sudden awakening, after over half a century of stasis, is truly trying, I really wish you had a means to rex.”

  "My regur doctors told me the same thing and I'd drink or try something, but after we lost Buck, we learned I break it down too quickly to feel anything." The super soldier said.

  Erik nodded, as he remembered that day. Yet, hearing that reminded the mutant leader of the mage's description of the booze he and Bass drank on their first night of revelry. So he requested from his mage friend. "That sounds like a challenge. Nath'aniel, do you have any more kegs of that troll ale?"

  “What? The Rual’stock?” The mage asked. When Erik nodded Nath’aniel added. “Over a hundred and a dozen kegs of it. Why?”

  “Just wondering if his increased healing will also beat it?” Erik stated.