Chimera

Liam Jones slowly opened his eyes in the hospital bed.

"Did I... succeed?"

He tentatively raised a hand. With a thought, the color and texture of his arm gradually assimilated with the white wall behind him, eventually blending almost perfectly into the background.

Then his gaze shifted to the ceramic cup on the bedside table, printed with a cheap pattern. As he focused, blurry red and blue spots began to emerge on the skin of his arm. Though somewhat sluggish, that familiar sense of control over his own cells had truly returned!

This was his ability, "Optical Camouflage." Like a chameleon, he could blend perfectly into his surroundings, making it difficult for others to notice anything unusual even from close range.

"It's back... it's all back..."

Liam covered his eyes and wept. Having regained what he had lost, he could not stop tears of emotion from falling.

He had once been a professional thief, using Optical Camouflage to amass considerable wealth in his youth. But in this age of declining Mutants, his ability had faded with time, and his spirit had been worn down as well.

But now, in this medical center affiliated with Essex Corporation, he had been given a new life.

Praise God!

Not long afterward, Liam left the medical center with his canvas bag in hand, accompanied by the doctor's warm farewell.

He looked back at the grand building that had given him a second life. Its marble exterior glittered under the sunlight, while the emblem atop the building seemed to gaze down upon all beneath it.

Yet his gaze did not linger on the emblem for long. Instead, it instinctively swept over the model of the exterior surveillance cameras, the intervals between security guards changing shifts, and the latch on a third-floor window that seemed not to have been fully closed.

A thought gradually took clear shape in his mind.

The technology here is so incredible... If I could steal a few samples of the drugs or some technical data and sell them elsewhere...

With his abilities restored, the instincts of a professional thief and his hunger for wealth made Liam's long-dormant ambition stir once more.

Night was a thief's finest cloak.

After dark, Liam Jones pressed himself tightly against the building's cold glass curtain wall. The color and texture of his body flowed along with the shifting neon lights behind him. To him, his recovered ability felt even more effortless than it had in his youth; he could even feel himself merging with the building itself.

The medical center's internal security system was top-tier, complete with infrared beams, motion detectors, and pressure sensors. But before a ghost capable of bending light, they were all meaningless.

Like an invisible breeze, Liam slipped through the corridors, precisely calculating the sound of the patrolling guards' footsteps. In the final second before the heavy alloy doors of the central laboratory sealed shut, he slid inside sideways.

"Okay, the operation starts now," he muttered. His camouflage faded, revealing a smug smile.

His objective was clear—those drugs and technical files that looked incredibly valuable.

Liam expertly pried open a refrigerated cabinet. Trusting his professional instincts, he stuffed anything brightly colored or faintly glowing in the dim light into his backpack. Who cared what they were? Pretty things could always fool people.

Before leaving, he casually grabbed a portable terminal containing data, ready to call it a night in complete satisfaction.

The instant he turned around, a faint chill touched his ankle.

It was not an illusion. It was a current of air.

As an experienced thief, he was extremely sensitive to abnormal changes in his environment. He crouched down, bringing his line of sight level with the floor, and carefully inspected the corner. There, he discovered an almost imperceptible gap between the metal wall panel and the ground.

He reached out and felt around nearby, quickly finding a slightly recessed area. After hesitating for a moment... his confidence in his own ability and his greed ultimately overcame his reason, and he gently pressed it.

There was no alarm, only a dull mechanical sound. A section of flooring at the corner silently slid aside, revealing a pitch-black passage leading downward.

Liam's heart skipped a beat, then his eyes lit up.

An entrance hidden this deeply had to contain even more valuable treasures!

Without hesitation, he slipped inside and began exploring deeper into the darkness.

The passage was long, stretching downward all the way. The air grew colder and colder, carrying a heavy chemical smell similar to formaldehyde.

Several minutes later, he finally saw a trace of light. It was not white, but a ghostly green, accompanied by a low, rhythmic hum, as though some machine were operating.

As he continued forward, fear began spreading through Liam's heart. He gradually realized that he might have stumbled upon some shocking secret.

But it was already too late.

He seemed to have forgotten why he had come, knowing only that he needed to continue forward, mechanically moving one foot after another.

At last, he emerged from the passage.

"...!!!"

At that moment, the sight before him made him forget how to breathe!

What lay ahead was not a storage room at all, but a vast underground space so empty it made his heart tremble! Rows upon rows of enormous cylindrical incubation tanks towered in the darkness as far as the eye could see. Each emitted a sinister green glow, and the deep hum came from within them.

Twisted, monstrous humanoid shapes slowly rose and fell inside the liquid-filled tanks. At a glance, there were nearly a hundred of them!

"Chimera T09-014, codename 'Collision.' Genetic sources: Cain Marko, Juggernaut; Piotr Rasputin, Colossus... the monster inside is still developing."

"Chimera N13-005, codename 'Seraph.' Genetic sources: Warren Worthington III, Angel; Scott Summers, Cyclops... empty."

"Chimera K02-023, codename 'Night Demon.' Genetic sources: Kurt Wagner, Nightcrawler; Victor Creed, Sabretooth... empty."

"Chimera A01-019, codename 'Stalker.' Genetic sources: Liam Jones, Chameleon; Anna Marie, Rogue... empty."

"Chimera C14-112, codename 'Barrage.' Genetic sources: Remy LeBeau, Gambit; Ivan Daniels, Spike... the monster inside is still developing."

"Liam Jones." It was his own name.

The moment he saw his name, Liam could no longer suppress the fear in his heart. His legs gave out, and he staggered backward, trembling.

Just then, a cold hand reached out from the shadows without warning and clamped tightly around his throat!

The owner of that hand had a face strikingly similar to Liam's.

The next instant, Liam felt an indescribable agony, as though the life force in his entire body had been drained away in an instant. This was the ability belonging to Anna Marie, Rogue!

His body went limp. Before losing consciousness, Liam only managed to rasp out, "A01-019..."

That was the so-called Chimera designation he had just seen, and also the identity of the monster before him.

Without a word, A01-019 grabbed his ankle and dragged him deeper into the base.

There, a figure stood with his back to them, completely absorbed in watching a massive holographic screen.

The figure was unusually tall. His exposed skin bore a lifeless gray hue, and he wore a spotless white robe.

He did not turn around. He merely waved a hand casually.

The unconscious Liam rose into the air. Then, under the pressure of invisible telekinesis, his body slowly deformed and twisted until it was crushed into a lump of bloody flesh, which was casually tossed into the recycling pool beside him.

At this sight, the tall figure gave a cold snort.

Worthless trash with no remaining research value truly disgusted him.

Watching his own original body be killed, A01-019's expression did not change in the slightest. After bowing respectfully, he slowly withdrew.

The tall figure fell silent once more. But not long afterward, his expression abruptly changed, and his sharp gaze instantly turned toward another shadowy corner of the base.

He had sensed it... there was another intruder here!

Several hours later, at the Xavier Institute.

The private phone in Professor Charles Xavier's pocket suddenly began ringing urgently.

"Ms. Ritts?" Charles asked as he answered. "What happened?"

The next moment, Ritts's calm yet grave voice came through the receiver.

"Mr. Charles, two hours ago, one of our agents lost all contact while infiltrating an Essex Corporation facility on a mission."

"We need your help."

Ritts sounded rather serious.

"I understand your concern for your subordinate, Ms. Ritts," Charles said. "But before that, I believe you need to tell us something about Essex Corporation."

Charles had been watching Essex Corporation for a long time as well. It was an old giant in the genetics industry whose research into Mutant genes had reached depths unimaginable to ordinary people. Because of its long history and low-key public behavior, even Aurora had been unable to gather much intelligence online.

But Ritts was different. As a federal official, she naturally had access to other channels through which she could obtain more information about Essex Corporation. Otherwise, she could not have directly dispatched an agent to investigate it.

"Essex Corporation was established in 1968 by the geneticist Nathaniel Essex, one of the greatest geneticists of the twentieth century," Ritts said. "Nathaniel enjoyed traveling around the world during his lifetime and rarely appeared in public, so he was not particularly famous. But within the medical industry of the last century, he was unquestionably one of the greatest geniuses!"

"You said during his lifetime?" Charles caught the phrasing. "Do you mean that gentleman is no longer alive?"

"Yes," Ritts replied. "Dr. Nathaniel died of illness at home in 1998. Before his death, he left all his inheritance and company shares to his son, Obadiah Essex, the current owner of Essex Corporation. Dr. Obadiah inherited his father's brilliance and has also made remarkable achievements in genetics... He developed Rebirth Serum, which can restore the abilities of original Mutants. Such a dangerous product must be regulated. We attempted to negotiate with Essex Corporation, but achieved little..."

"We discovered that Essex Corporation seemed to be conducting some unknown research, so we dispatched an agent to investigate. But just now, he lost contact. Before that, the agent's final message was only one sentence—'I can't describe what I saw. They're creating genetic monsters!'"

"So... you want us to investigate Essex Corporation and find that missing agent?" Charles asked.

"Yes," Ritts answered. "I need to answer for my subordinate, and... find out exactly what Essex Corporation is planning!"

"With all due respect, Ms. Ritts," Charles said slowly, "from my personal perspective, sending agents to investigate the inner workings of a private corporation is an illegal intrusion that should not be encouraged, especially when you yourselves are a special federal agency."

"This is a necessary measure of 'oversight,'" Ritts replied. "Charles, you should know very well that not every major corporation in this country is so 'law-abiding'! Take the Transigen Corporation you all know so well, for example... To prevent similar events from happening again, we have no choice but to employ some less-than-glorious methods!"

"..." Charles fell silent for a moment, then sighed softly. "All right, I understand. I will need to discuss this matter with the others."

"Very well. Please do so as soon as possible," Ritts said before hanging up.

However, Charles did not immediately put away the phone after the call ended. Instead, he spoke again, asking, "What do you think, Miles?"

"That woman cannot be trusted." Miles's voice came directly from Charles's phone, calm and composed. "From my personal perspective, I don't believe a government employee would be this 'dedicated.' After all, in this country, everyone knows the influence capital holds!"

"So I strongly suspect she has another purpose in investigating Essex Corporation! Or perhaps she really did discover something 'very important'!"

"Then, Miles, do you think we should agree to her request?" Charles continued with a light smile. He clearly had already made his decision, but he also wanted to know what Miles thought.

"Agree to it, but we cannot follow her plan directly," Miles replied. "If we conduct an investigation like this and are discovered, we will undoubtedly become enemies with Essex Corporation. Frankly, I do not want to see that happen... The more I study Essex Corporation's technology, the more terrifying I find them."

"The portion of their core technology that Aurora has been able to investigate may only be the things they have discarded. Yet the information revealed in those materials alone is already horrifying. I am certain this corporation is secretly cultivating a genetically altered Mutant force! The Purifiers were their creation, and I saw many other things with similar concepts in the data!"

"But at the same time, I am personally very curious about their secrets," Miles said, sounding somewhat pleased. "With technological capabilities on that level, if they really are planning something, it must be something earth-shattering! So this is indeed a good opportunity..."

"Aurora can only investigate through online channels and is powerless against local data disconnected from the network... So I want to visit Essex Corporation's core data center or laboratory directly. We would definitely find many interesting things! Or, Charles, you could try finding several of Essex Corporation's core insiders and read their thoughts..."

"Unless necessary, I will not do that," Charles said. "In the name of the institute, I will submit a visitation request to Essex Corporation. Since they have conducted such deep research into Mutant genes, they should have heard of us. They will likely agree soon enough."

"A visit from the institute? I like that." Miles chuckled. "You won't leave me out, will you, Charles?"

"I am already preparing to submit another application. It should not be too difficult. By now, they should all know that the times have changed," Charles replied.

"One last question, Charles," Miles spoke again. "What do you think of Essex Corporation?"

"..." Charles took a deep breath, then answered, "Honestly, it is complicated."

"I know they must be using the genes of our own kind for experiments, but at the same time, their Rebirth Serum is indeed something of tremendous significance to us Mutants. So if possible, I would still prefer to resolve this matter peacefully."

"And if the situation cannot be contained?" Miles asked with a cold laugh. "My instincts tell me that outcome is more likely."

"...Then we can only do everything we can to salvage it." Charles smiled faintly. "Ready to save the world, Mr. Psypoint?"

"Tch... you old bastard who loves eavesdropping."