----Nathaniel Essex — Clone 231 POV
Clone 231 stood alone before a wall of monitors, his hands folded behind his back as he watched the recordings taken from one of his facilities.
He watched Sabretooth charge first, watched Scalphunter unleash his weapons, watched Harpoon fill the laboratory with energy-charged projectiles, and watched the other Marauders fall one after another.
Essex did not react. He had watched hundreds of his creations die before.
Marauders could be replaced. Facilities could be rebuilt. Even his own bodies were expendable.
But the two intruders were something else entirely.
The footage rewound itself automatically to the moment Deadpool got injured.
A few seconds later, Deadpool's body began regenerating, muscles rebuilding themselves, nerves reconnecting, and flesh knitting together with remarkable speed. Essex's eyes narrowed with fascination.
"Remarkable," he murmured, watching the process frame by frame. "The regeneration begins almost immediately, with virtually no delay between tissue destruction and cellular reconstruction."
The footage paused. Essex enlarged the image.
He had studied Logan's healing factor for years. Wolverine was extraordinary. His body could repair catastrophic injuries, resist toxins, recover from trauma that would kill almost any other organism, and maintain itself despite an extraordinary amount of cellular damage. Logan's mutation was one of the greatest biological anomalies Essex had ever encountered.
But this new guy was different.
Essex resumed the footage and watched Deadpool's regeneration again. His body had recovered from decapitation with a speed that was, in certain respects, even more impressive than Logan's.
"Wolverine repairs himself like a machine," Essex said softly, speaking to no one. "This specimen repairs himself like a sponge."
He smiled. The possibilities were endless.
A healing factor like Logan's could stabilize his mutant clones. A healing factor like this guy in a costume might do something even more valuable.
Essex smiled. "Perhaps Wolverine was never the ideal specimen after all."
He returned to watching the battle. That was when his interest shifted.
Deadpool was fascinating. Wolverine was invaluable.
But the guy with the mask and red eyes was something Essex had never seen before.
The recording showed Kakashi standing in the middle of the laboratory while the Marauders surrounded him. His posture was relaxed, almost lazy, yet his eyes tracked everything around him.
He slowed the footage. Then slowed it again.
Kakashi moved. The recording barely captured him.
One moment he was standing several meters away. The next, he was behind one of the Marauders.
Essex replayed it. Again and Again. He continued to watch as he saw the man use different mutant abilities.
Then came the clones. Multiple of the man appeared throughout the laboratory.
Essex's eyes narrowed. "Interesting."
He examined the energy readings from the high tech cameras installed in the lab.
They weren't ordinary holographic projections. They weren't technological duplicates.
Each clone possessed a physical presence.
Essex leaned back.
"Replication through energy manipulation." He smiled faintly. "And yet unlike my clones, they disappear when sufficiently damaged."
He watched another recording. Kakashi's lightning technique struck Harpoon.
Essex paused the footage at the moment the lightning emerged from the man's hand.
The energy readings climbed sharply. "Lightning manipulation?"
He said the words with quiet fascination.
The idea of a mutant producing lightning wasn't particularly surprising to him. But Kakashi's abilities weren't behaving like conventional mutant powers. His energy did not appear to originate from the same biological mechanism as the mutants Essex had studied.
There was something fundamentally different about it. Essex continued watching.
Kakashi disappeared. Harpoon's weapon passed through him.
Then Kakashi reappeared. Essex froze the footage. He replayed it. His expression became intensely focused. "Spatial intangibility."
Essex's fingers moved across the keyboard as he began analyzing the phenomenon.
The laboratory recording showed the exact moment Kakashi activated Kamui.
Space itself distorted. Part of Kakashi's body seemed to disappear from reality.
The attack passed through him. Then he returned.
Essex stared at the screen. For the first time since the battle began, genuine excitement appeared on his face.
A specimen capable of manipulating space.
A specimen capable of creating physical duplicates.A specimen capable of producing different elemental energies.
A specimen whose eyes could seemingly manipulate perception itself.
He continued watching. Kakashi looked at Vertigo.
Vertigo froze. Seconds later, she collapsed.
Essex replayed the moment. There was no visible attack or energy discharge or physical contact.
"Neural interference?"
He shook his head. But something about the way Kakashi's eye moved made Essex suspicious.
He searched the database for similar abilities. "An ocular mutation," he murmured. "But not one I recognize."
Essex had encountered mutants that could destroy countries on their whims.
But Kakashi's abilities did not fit neatly into any category. The man wasn't merely powerful. He was biologically inexplicable and that made him irresistible to Essex.
Essex smiled. "I believe I have found my most interesting specimen yet."
He pulled up Kakashi's image. Essex stared at the image. "Where did you come from though?"
He looked at another monitor. A map of the region appeared. There was a red dot blinking which was associated with location of Wolverine.
Essex stared at it and he hacked into the city cameras and saw the man with the two other man that he was interested in.
His smile widened. "Two regenerative specimens in one location."
He began typing again. Then he stopped.
There was another problem.
The man with red eyes had demonstrated enough power to eliminate the entire Marauders.
Sending another conventional squad would accomplish nothing. Essex needed something stronger.
He opened a classified file. The screen remained black for several seconds.
Then a photograph appeared. a woman with red hair.
Essex looked at the image with an expression of quiet satisfaction.
"Perhaps it is time to send someone who can truly challenge him. And the perfect test for this specimen."
He opened the file.
PROJECT: PRYOR
SPECIMEN NAME: MADELYN PRYOR
GENETIC SOURCE: JEAN GREY
STATUS: STABLE
Essex's smile returned.
Madelyn Pryor was a clone of Jean Grey.
One of the most powerful mutant genetic templates Essex had ever obtained.
The woman possessed extraordinary telepathic and telekinetic potential, and Essex had spent considerable resources studying and refining her abilities. Compared to the Marauders, she belonged to an entirely different category.
Essex touched the screen displaying Madelyn's profile.
He opened a communication channel. "Prepare Madelyn Pryor."
A voice answered through the speaker. "For what purpose, Doctor Essex?"
Essex looked once more at Kakashi's image. "For collection."
He turned away from the monitors. "And make certain she understands that I want the people alive."
-----Author Notes---------
Thankyou Al65 for supporting me!
Y'all can now read the next 15 chapters of the fanfic on my pat*reon.
https://pat*reon.com/Charizard6
[No star]
Thankyou for your support!