Adam and Eve

Dr. Genus struggled to accept what he was seeing.

This was the crowning achievement of his life, the product of combining artificial evolution with Vought International's genetic technology. He had considered it a perfect work of art and the hope of a new humanity.

The one consolation was that she had not died when her oxygen supply was cut off. Instead, she had awakened early and escaped from her cultivation vessel.

After partnering with Vought International, Dr. Genus had devoted himself to creating a subject that perfectly combined their two technologies. After countless failures, he had finally produced an embryo that survived.

Amazingly, the embryo had split into identical twins. Even more astonishingly, when it split into two individuals, one twin lost a Y chromosome from its twenty-three pairs of chromosomes and developed as a girl. The result was a boy and a girl.

The odds of both events occurring together were so low as to be virtually impossible. Dr. Genus could only believe it was fate.

Once the experiment succeeded, Dr. Genus named the two surviving embryos The Male and The Female.

Under his agreement with Vought International, Dr. Genus had to share his progress promptly. The news drew intense interest from Vought's executives. At their insistence, and after some "friendly" negotiations, they agreed to send one subject to Vought's research facility, where its geneticists would raise the child.

Dr. Genus chose to keep The Female. Genetically, she lacked a sex chromosome, but statistically, she was the miracle of life that should have been almost impossible to create.

At the suggestion of Vought International's scientists, these two masterpieces of modern biotechnology, these hopes for a new humanity, were renamed Adam and Eve.

The names alone showed how much Dr. Genus and Vought International expected of them.

Since her birth, Eve had been raised in a cultivation vessel modified specifically for her. Before she awakened, she had grown to the size of a girl of about fifteen or sixteen.

Genus had planned to wake Eve only after she reached full maturity, a process that would take just a few more months. He had never imagined something would go wrong when the miracle was so close.

At the sight of the shattered glass vessel, Dr. Genus snatched up his radio and shouted, "Quick! Lock down the entire base!"

"Release Beetle!" he added.

"What? Doctor, are you sure?" came an astonished voice over the radio.

"Do as I say! Don't waste another second!"

Adam and Eve were the finest work of Genus's life, but they were the joint achievement of two research teams. Beetle, by contrast, was the most perfect product of artificial evolution Genus had created on his own, before Vought International found him.

Genus released Beetle partly because he still hoped to recover Eve, and partly because he wanted to find whoever had broken into the House of Evolution.

He would never let the person who had destroyed his life's work escape. If the intruder was still in the base, Beetle would find them and torture them to death.

Before long, a reply came over the radio. "Doctor, we've let him out..."

"Ah... Stop! You monster! Ah..." A scream followed.

"What's this, old freak? Finally decided to let me out for a stroll?"

Dr. Genus frowned. Beetle still had no respect for him.

Fortunately, when Genus created Beetle, he had tampered with his genes. Beetle needed medication supplied by Genus to stay alive, so despite his attitude, he more or less obeyed him.

The clones who had released Beetle had not been so lucky. They were probably dead by now.

"Use your ability and find a few people for me. Hurry," Dr. Genus said.

Beetle had a special ability: he could sense the presence given off by living things. The stronger they were, the more keenly he sensed them.

A moment later, Beetle replied, "Hmm. I found two presences I've never sensed before. One's nothing special, but the other..."

Beetle's eyes widened. "So strong. Very, very strong!"

Meanwhile, A-Train had escaped the House of Evolution and regained his composure. He looked around. Before going in, he had told Electric Mouse to wait here for him.

But Electric Mouse was nowhere in sight.

A-Train looked down.

Electric Mouse lay motionless at his feet.

Unease gripped A-Train. He realized something terrible might have happened to Electric Mouse.

A-Train turned Electric Mouse over and found that he was dead.

What shocked him was that Electric Mouse had no wounds anywhere on his body. Even in death, his expression was peaceful.

A-Train was certain someone had killed him. But what kind of monster could kill a superpowered person without leaving any sign?

The thought chilled him. He needed to get away from this place. Anyone who could kill Electric Mouse like that could probably kill him before he had a chance to react.

A-Train pushed his speed to the limit and vanished in an instant.

A-Train had never noticed that someone had been following him ever since he left The Female's home. His pursuer had stayed close behind him all the way into the House of Evolution's underground base.

Only when the base suddenly lost power did the pursuer lose track of him.

"Huh? Why did the power go out?" Luke asked, gripping Mitarai Fubuki's hand tightly.

Mitarai Fubuki did not pull away. It was pitch-black, and without holding hands, they could easily get separated.

There was something unusual about this place. Mitarai Fubuki did not want to lose Luke here.

They felt their way through the darkness for a while before the lights suddenly came back on.

A-Train was long gone.

But that no longer mattered. This was quite possibly an enemy's secret base, so Luke led Fubuki deeper inside.

Fubuki wanted to remind Luke that they had sneaked in, and marching through the place so openly might not be a good idea.

"So strong. Very, very strong!" Beetle sounded stunned.

Dr. Genus was overjoyed by Beetle's answer.

Beetle was the pinnacle of artificial evolution, his power almost unmatched.

To Genus, Beetle and Homelander represented the ultimate achievements of two different approaches to genetic technology.

For Beetle to call someone "very" strong twice, that person had to have surpassed the limits of humanity.

It had to be Eve!

Eve was still in the base!