Chapter 1

One living cell. Just one cell was all that was needed. One cell survived to become two, then four. Slowly, very slowly, at an agonizing pace, something was growing, regenerating. Four had become eight and eight, sixteen. In a landfill, east of the city, the sixteen cells absorbed organic material from all around them, feeding and processing. No intelligence guided this recreation, only the enhanced DNA of that one cell that had survived disintegration and been disposed of with the garbage. Doubling again, thirty-two cells absorbed rainwater, refuse, pollen, microorganisms and whatever else they could use to grow. The desolate blight of the landfill was a warm womb, regenerating the smallest possible remainder of a life. Hundreds of cells grew to thousands, then millions, billions and trillions, finally forming a chrysalis. More and more organic material was drawn to it and swallowed. Finally, after nearly a year had passed, a figure rose up from the cocoon in the shape of a man and walked forth from the refuse dump.

Far away, Emma DeLauro sat in the lotus position on a large square mat in her room within the secure walls of Sanctuary. She began with samatha meditation, concentrating on her breathing. Her eyes closed, and body at rest, she felt the inhalation of breath through her nose, the feel of the air as it coursed through her windpipe, the muscles of her diaphragm inflating her lungs, raising her chest and stomach slightly. She was dressed simply; in a pair of loose-fitting shorts and an orange t-shirt only a few shades lighter than her hair since she had dyed it from her natural brown. Emma exhaled and the air passed back the way it had come. She focused her thoughts on breathing.

In neighboring rooms, she could sense the amorous feelings between Shalimar and Brennan. These emotions were mixed with frustration, as neither would make a move on the other. Both were afraid of rejection and both were afraid to let themselves fall in love and risk being hurt. Emma renewed her focus on her breathing. As air entered her lungs, life-giving oxygen infused her blood and carbon dioxide was cleansed from her body.

Jesse was feeling lonely and depressed. He was longing for comfort and a sense of belonging. It wasn't that he didn't feel himself fully a part of Mutant X, but rather his natural tendency to chafe at being a part of anything. The grass was always greener on the other side and he never felt himself content, alone or in a group, leading or following. There was no peace for his restless mind and she wondered what he was seeking in his life. Her ribs rose again as she shifted her thoughts back to her own body. She contracted her stomach and her ribs sank down again as another breath left her body. Nothing existed except the inflow and outflow of air, the inhalation and subsequent exhalation.

In the lab, Adam was struggling with a problem. Emma could sense his concern. Perhaps there was a twinge of fear in him. She sensed that he was certain of something, but trying to find a way he could be wrong, because he was afraid that he was right. An image formed in her mind. There was an angry young woman. She was being restrained and a subdermal governor was being implanted in the back of her neck. Adam was the one implanting it. She tried once again to go back to her breathing, but it was no use. She stood up from her padded mat, slipped on a pair of worn old slippers she wore around Sanctuary and left her room to find Adam.

When Emma walked into the laboratory, Adam was entering information in the computer, which fed a holographic bio-emulator. It was an amazing piece of equipment that he had commissioned to be built through his contacts with the Department of Defense. The machine and the advanced brain behind it could sort through the chaos created by genetic manipulation and closely emulate how DNA controlled the production of amino acids, which in turn formed into proteins and were the key to shaping an organism. She could tell instantly that he was looking at mutant DNA by the unique bonding of Adenine, Thymine, Guanine and Cytosine found only in her kind.

"Adam," Emma said, coming up behind the older man, who was so intent on his work that he hadn't noticed her enter or even hear his own name spoken. She walked up to stand just behind and to the side of him and watched as the DNA in the tank conducted an orchestra or cellular production. It was immediately apparent to her that it was an Elemental, whose genetic makeup Adam was studying. The girl in her vision was obviously a powerful mutant. She could tell by the complexity of the amino acids. Gently, she touched Adam's left shoulder with her right hand and he turned to her with a slightly startled expression on his face.

"Emma, I didn't hear you come in," he said.

"Sorry to sneak up on you," she said, a smile lighting up her face in an attempt to put his tension at ease. He smiled back at her in turn.

"I want you to take a look at this, Emma. What do you make of these patterns?" he asked her. Adam stepped aside and she began manipulating the controls, zooming in on some of the gene sequences, running analysis subroutines and familiarizing herself in general with this particular mutant strain.

"The subject is obviously an Elemental. Possibly a Thermal or, actually, a Chemical…," she said, trailing off as she noticed a minor, but important cluster of chemicals. "A Geological?"

"Very good, Emma," Adam said.

She examined several key nucleotides and quickly came to a conclusion, "This DNA is very unstable and there's something strange about the sugar-phosphate backbone of the helixes."

Adam stepped up beside her as the display in the holographic tank swooped down to show the individual base pairs of a DNA strand. He hadn't looked this close at the fundamental components of the sample, but Emma was right, the bonds of the base pairs and the structure of the backbone were unlike anything he could recall seeing and shattered the laws of genetics as he knew them.

"This is the DNA of a child treated at Genomex six months after Gabriel Ashlocke," Adam told her. "I have run a simulation based on data points taken throughout her treatment until just before she ran away in her early twenties. What you see now is an extrapolation of what her DNA would look like today."

"Hey, what's up?" Jesse said as he entered the room. Emma and Adam turned toward him.

"It looks like we may have a new assignment," Adam said.

"Great, just as things were getting quiet around here. Should I get Shalimar and Brennan?" he asked.

"Yes, I'll brief you all in the lounge area." The blond man left the lab to find the other two team members. Emma sensed a feeling of relief from him that he was finally doing something. Though he didn't know what he wanted from his life, he always preferred action to inaction, a feeling generally shared by all of the members of Mutant X.

"It'll be easier to tell all four of you the story at once." Emma felt that the small tinge of fear he was emanating earlier had grown significantly. He put his arm around her shoulder briefly and squeezed her slightly to him in a gesture of reassurance, but she knew it was more for him than for her. They left the lab to meet the others.