Mutation. The key to evolution. The process is slow, normally taking thousands of years, but every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward.
…..
Auschwitz, 1944.
Young Erik Lehnsherr shivered as he hid in a muddy hole beneath the tumble-down shack that had served as his home for the past two years. Not far from where he hid, he could hear soldiers marching around, trying to subdue the riots going on outside. With every strangled cry and spray of gunfire, Erik cringed, wishing he could disappear into the mud.
"Erik." a young girl's voice hissed.
Erik jumped, looking over to see his only friend in this hellhole, Janey Whiteman. She held out her hand for him, a gesture he gratefully accepted.
"We have to run, Erik." She told him.
"But, what if they shoot us?" He asked in reply.
Janey just smiled.
"Then you bend the bullets."
Knowing time was of the essence, Janey pulled Erik out from under the shack, breaking out into a dead sprint. All around them, they could see soldiers firing on every person not wearing a uniform, regardless of whether or not they were running for freedom or for cover. Erik and Janey kept low, hiding whenever they had the chance before continuing their run. Some soldiers saw them making a run for it and fired at them. Erik looked behind them and saw the barrage of bullets coming towards them. He quickly turned around and raised his hands. As he did, the bullets deterred in either direction away from him.
"Good job Erik." Janey hissed.
They reached the large barb wire fence that blocked their path. Janey looked at it, knowing that it was too big for Erik to bend. She tightened her grip on his hand.
"Erik, whatever happens, do not let go."
Before Erik could question what she was doing, Janey closed her eyes and focused. Slowly, both she and Erik begin to rise off the ground, gradually picking up speed. Within a few seconds they were flying several feet over the wall of barbed wire that had imprisoned them for several years.
The soldiers stared in disbelief as the two children literally flew to freedom. By the time they recovered from the shock, they were too far away to shoot.
"We did it, Erik!" Janey cheered. "We're free!"
The two kids landed in the forest just outside of the Auschwitz Camp. There Janey almost immediately became panting, having never exerted herself so much before. Erik held his friend, worrying about if she would be all right.
"Janey?"
"I... I'm okay Erik." She assured him, pulling him deeper into the forest. "Come on, we need to keep moving."
"But… where will we go?" Erik asked.
"Somewhere safe." Janey replied confidently. "Somewhere that will accept us, and what we can do."
Erik looked at Janey sadly.
"I don't think that a place like that exists."
Janey faltered for a brief moment, but quickly regained her confidence.
"Then we'll make one." She declared. "We'll make a place where people like you and me won't have to live in fear. A place where we can embrace our gifts. A safe haven from those who fear us."
With this dream fueling their resolve, the two children ran into the night.
…..
It took a long time, and many trials for both Erik and Janey, but soon, their hard labors soon bore fruit. Haven City was established in 1962, and was filled with mutants from all over the world seeking refuge from the unforgiving world of humans. For a long time, Erik and Janey's dream had become a reality.
Sadly though, this was not meant to last. In time, Erik began to long for more than a small corner of the world, a desire that didn't go unnoticed by his old friend Janey. One day, Janey couldn't keep silent any longer.
She approached Erik's room in the large home they shared, tentatively knocking on the door.
"Erik?" she called. "I know you're in there. Let me in?"
The door opened a small crack, allowing Janey to slip inside. As she suspected, she found Erik standing on the balcony outside his window, staring out at the large wall that surrounded the city. She approached him quietly, leaning against the rail next to him.
"Everything alright Erik?" she questioned.
He sighed, turning to his old friend.
"It's quite the accomplishment you've made for yourself Janey."
"That we've made for ourselves." Janey corrected. "We did this together, just like we said we would."
"Yes. But it's not enough."
Janey blinked, looking at Erik in confusion.
"Not enough?" she asked. "What do you mean?"
"We have been given great gifts. But we must hide what makes us unique from a world that fears us. Why?"
"Humans fear what they don't understand, and what's different. We live in their world, and we must follow their rules."
"Why?"
Janey didn't like the way Erik asked that, and her face betrayed her emotions.
"What are you getting at Erik?"
"Why shouldn't we expand our reach? We have the dream we always wanted. We can take it to the world."
Janey stumbled back.
"Expand?" she stammered. "Erik, we got lucky getting Haven City. If we try to get more, we'd have to..."
She found herself unable to finish her thought, but Erik's response only solidified her fears.
"Exactly."
"Erik, no!" she pleaded. "Hasn't there been enough violence already? Enough pain and death?"
"For our kind, yes. But aren't you tired of being forced to hide in some corner of the world? Don't you long for mutants to be accepted? Not feared?"
"If you go down the path you're planning, the humans will never accept us!"
"Our equality and their acceptance don't have to go hand in hand."
By now, Janey was fighting back tears.
"Erik… what happened to my friend who just wanted to live in peace?" She practically sobbed.
"Peace was never an option for me."
Janey took his arm, a pleading expression on her face.
"Erik please… don't go down this path..."
Erik gently pulled her arm off of his, brushing a lock of her hair out of her face. It was clear that their paths were no longer aligned, and that Haven City was not where he belonged.
"Goodbye Janey." he whispered, pulling away.
He walked out of his room, leaving Janey on the balcony as the flood of tears finally began to fall.
…..
Erik left Haven City in search of his own purpose. Later, he would meet a fellow mutant and professor named Charles Xavier and the two would form a great friendship, but that too would end disastrously. Erik would become the villain known as Magneto, self-proclaimed advocate for mutant supremacy and leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants.
As for Charles, he would go on to found the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, an institute dedicated to the teaching and protection of mutants. It also serves as a training ground for a team of mutant heroes dedicated to protecting the world for humans and mutants alike: the X-Men.