Dulles looked fearfully at the man who had emerged from the laboratory.
He came from a fringe hive world called Ronde, a planet located on the eastern border of the Five Hundred Worlds.
It was an unremarkable hive world. Tens of billions lived within the massive hive city left behind from the distant past, and Dulles had come from its lowest levels.
In the hive's undercity, filled with rubbish discarded by the upper and middle hives, toxic chemicals, and lethal radiation, all manner of terrifying cults, gangs, and mutant monsters thrived.
Dulles had lived in that dreadful hell ever since he became aware of the world.
From childhood, he had known that he was different from everyone else. No one had been willing to approach him; even the terrifying cannibal mutants had avoided getting close to him.
With a fierce will to survive and a little luck, he had lived from childhood into adulthood. Then, while searching for food, he had encountered Carl, a gang leader besieged by psychic mutant bastards.
When the gang leader, who had some renown in the underhive, witnessed the mutant's head explode right before her eyes, she took Dulles in.
After that, backed by the gang, Dulles had flourished in the underhive. He found many others like himself and brought them into the gang as well.
In the despairing depths of the hive, a group of untouchables huddled together for warmth, calling one another brothers and sisters. Dulles, the oldest among them, was respectfully called "Godfather" by the newly arrived soulless.
This should have continued. Dulles would have slowly grown old in the lightless depths of the hive, assuming he was lucky enough not to die in gang fights or terrifying mutant riots.
Then, one day, like Carl, the gang leader he had once saved,