I began with the stable cases.
GENESIS-5 ran its adaptive matrix, layering dozens of samples, filtering out redundant or inert data, flagging anomaly clusters. I watched as it self-corrected, adjusting weighting protocols as new correlations emerged. Real-time evolution of the code. Just as I'd designed it.
Power categories aligned loosely with gene behavior, but the real patterns were subtler—binding affinities, activation sequences, biochemical signatures unique to each expression.
But what caught my attention weren't the patterns. It was the outliers.
Cases where symptoms didn't match gene expression.
Where power levels shifted with emotional or environmental triggers. Where two individuals with near-identical mutations had completely different results.
That was the heart of it.
The X-Gene was more than a gene which gave powers. It was a possibility. A conditional expression of self—part biology, part psychology, part something else.
Callisto's file came up first.
Unstable manifestation. No visible decay. Accelerated reflexes. Heightened senses. Aggression spike under pressure.
But her genetic profile showed traces of a compound I hadn't seen before.
No... not a compound.
A binding inhibitor.
Her body had naturally developed a limiter—a failsafe locking part of her mutation down. Maybe a defense mechanism. Or maybe evolution's answer to instability.
I flagged it.
Then came Masque.
And Masque was a mess.
Too many overlapping traits. Too much degradation in his cellular structure. Every scan showed recombinant drift—his DNA actively changing in response to proximity with others. Like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be.
At first glance, it looked like mutagen exposure.
But no. The pattern was recursive. Self-replicating.
His bloodwork looked like it had been contaminated by dozens of different genetic signatures—but none of them were foreign.
All absorbed.
His mutation didn't just allow him to reshape others into different appearances—it reflected genetic properties onto himself.
Theoretically… he should be able to disguise himself too.
And yet… he couldn't.
Because somewhere along the line, his ability—unstable, chaotic—had turned inward.
Every scan confirmed it.
Masque's body had begun mimicking the genetic "noise" of those around him, passively and constantly, until his own template dissolved into a composite of unbalanced fragments.
That's why he looked the way he did.
Twisted. Grotesque.
The irony was brutal. A mutant born to reshape beauty… trapped in a body he couldn't restore.
Because the mutation couldn't tell who he really was anymore.
His genetic self-identity had collapsed.
Masque had become a contradiction.
I flagged his genome too.
I leaned back in the chair, fingers steepled beneath my chin.
GENESIS-5 had already begun re-mapping the category tree based on these findings.
***
1 Year Later
One year of refinement.
One year of trials, simulations, setbacks, and silent revolutions.
And now—
I had it.
The first working prototype of the X-Gene Stabilizer.
Version 1.2. Designed specifically for low-to-moderate instability mutations—cases where the body didn't reject the mutation outright, but where side effects spiraled beyond sustainable thresholds. Partial physical disfigurement. Random sensory spikes. Or uncontrolled power bursts.
I stood at the medical console, coat hanging over my chair, gloves on. Across the room, a young Morlock named Rell sat quietly in a treatment chamber. Fourteen. Skin like cracked porcelain. And this was not some Chinese Novel description but literal description of her state.
Power: Thermal emission—but only under panic. She'd nearly burned herself to death three times.
But I was gonna fix it today.
"Vitals stable," I said, watching the slow scroll of her heartbeat across the top display. "Neural load dropping."
Emma stood behind me, arms crossed, white-clad and unreadable. She didn't speak just stood by my side.
Rell's body twitched once, then settled.
The green light turned solid on the console.
[STABILIZATION SUCCESSFUL – 94.6% GENE REGULATION]
[NO CELLULAR REJECTION DETECTED]
[PSIONIC FLUX LEVELS: STABLE]
[FOLLOW-UP DOSAGE REQUIRED IN 8 WEEKS]
I exhaled, long and low.
"That's the fourth one this week," I murmured.
Emma didn't move. "That makes twenty-three successful stabilizations. Out of how many attempted?"
"Thirty-two," I said. "And ten of the failures weren't lethal. Just ineffective."
"And the others?"
A pause.
"Mutations too volatile. Genetic structure too far gone. Mostly nearly Masque-tier cases."
Emma's gaze shifted toward the darker wing of the med-bay—where more dangerous files were stored. The unsolved ones. The unstable.
"The stabilizer's not a cure," she said.
"No," I agreed. "It's a regulator. Like insulin. Like anti-seizure meds. It won't change their powers. But it gives them some normality."
I looked back at the screen.
The stabilizer was an intramuscular compound—microscopic protein strands keyed to each individual mutant's gene expression.
No one in the world would even dream of this for another 60 years at least.
And I'd done it in twelve months.
Rell stirred inside the chamber. The monitor chirped—body temperature normalized. Her fingers flexed.
"I… I can feel it again," she whispered.
"You're not overheating," I said. "Your mutation was responding to emotional triggers. But now the feedback's suppressed. You're in control."
She looked at her hands, eyes wide. "It's not cracking anymore."
I stepped closer and crouched beside the chamber's transparent shell. "That's the new normal for you, Rell. Get used to it."
She cried.
Quiet, relieved sobs.
Back in my private lab, I logged the day's results and reviewed the projection charts.
If I could generalize the stabilizer to cover 60–70% of all Morlock-level mutations, I could eliminate most fatal outcomes from uncontrolled abilities.
But there were still anomalies.
There were many cases nearly as bad as Masques.
The stabilizer didn't hold against those.
But I was already working on a solution.
****************************************
You can get access to early chapters on patr*on.
If you like my work and you want to support me then you can become my patron on patre*n.
My patr*on account is S_Pandey_0170