Cuddlebug Explains Mutants

Cuddlebug stood at the head of a conference room. She was wearing a robe, mortarboard, and overly large framed glasses over her normal hero costume. In one hand she held a spare pool cue she'd borrowed from the recreation room to use as a pointer and in the other the remote to a projector.

"Ladies and gentleman," the child said to the assembled Wards and Protectorate in the room, "it has been asked of me to explain the origin of people like me, the mutants. The scientific name for mutants is Homo sapiens superior or just Homo Superior for short." Ashley paused for a second. "Calling mutants Homo Superior is really, really stupid though. First because no, we're not inherently superior to other humans or superhumans, and second, because it's bad science."

She pressed the button on the remote and a slide of two drawings of a chromosome. One was solid white, the other had a segment highlighted in red. She tapped the pool cue against the projection mat against the blank. "This is a chromosome from a baseline human." She tapped it against the other. "This is a mutant. The primary differance between a mutant and a baseline is a mutation of a gene found on the X and Y chromosome, causing it to become active."

She clicked again and it came up to a hand-drawn diagram of four people. One was normal, one had horns, one had a horn on one side, and one had horns but was standing next to a hazard symbol. "The inert, dormant gene is located in all of humanity, while the active form is found only in a subset of humanity." Cuddlebug tapped the normal drawing. Then, she tapped the horned drawing. "The mutant gene is found in dominant," she tapped the half horned, "recessive," she tapped the horned with a hazard symbol, "and latent forms."

"The latent form usually behaves like the recessive version, meaning that it will only normally activate if you inherit it from both parents or if you have it and one of the other active forms," Cuddlebug explained, "but it can also activate in response to extreme physiological stress. For example," Cuddlebug clicked the remote, causing a drawing of a man in a yellow suit with blue trunks and a blue 'W' on his chest. "The Whizzer, a superhero from the forties, gained superhuman speed when his latent mutant-gene activated because he got bit by a cobra and then someone tried to cure the venom by transfusing mongoose blood into him."

It was at this point that Clockblocker raised his hand. "Yes, question?"

"...Was it a magic mongoose?"

Cuddlebug shook her head. "As far as I know, no. It wasn't magic, it wasn't radioactive, it wasn't from space and wasn't a god-mongoose. Just a normal mongoose."

"...Why would that cure snake venom?"

"Look," Cuddlebug said, "it was the forties. People did stupid stuff in the forties. Anyway," Cuddlebug went on, "in addition to the latent version being triggered by outside stressors, certain dangerous drugs and certain kinds of radiation, as well as extreme distress, can make the other kinds come out before they would have naturally."

"The mutant gene was originally called the Essex gene, after Nathaniel Essex, the man who discovered it, but nowadays it's typically called the X-Gene."

"The X-gene works by coding for a substance called 'mutation factor.' That activates some genes, turns others off, and even alters a few. This forms a gene complex that is unique to every individual mutant, and the products of the genes in the complex combine with and modify the mutation factor to produce the chemical cause of a mutant's powers and/or unique physiology."

Cuddlebug clicked the remote, bringing up a drawing of a man shooting red light from his eyes and another shooting something light blue and fuzzy from his hands.

"The complexes formed by the X-gene, which confusingly enough are also often called 'X-genes' despite being entire complexes," Cuddlebug began, "as they're based on pre-existing genes, certain powers can run in families: For example, Cyclops and Havok are brothers and they both have powers based on absorbing ambient energy and using it to make a different kind of energy come out of their body."

"Since when is blue cotton candy energy?" Shadow Stalker interrupted.

"It's not cotton candy, it's plasma," Cuddlebug corrected.

"Well, then you suck at drawing."

"And you can shut up," Cuddlebug dismissed and then clicked. It popped into a drawing of a man with blades coming out of his knuckles, another man with fangs and claws, and a woman with the ears, fur, and tail of a cat. "Also, there are some genes that don't do anything by themselves and will automatically be integrated into the mutant gene complex, and furthermore will dominate the complex. The Feral gene, for example, when present in a mutant, will mean that their powers will always be some combination of claws, a healing factor, and animal-like personality or appearance."

The next slide was a man with what were apparently meant to be tattoos on his arm, a man with a banded metal arm, and a man with a ridiculously tall black beehive hairdo.

"Because the complex is created by altering DNA, those altered genes can be passed down. In most cases, they don't do anything by themselves, but once the X-Gene activates those altered genes will be used in the complex and make stronger powers."

She tapped the tattooed man. "Daken not only has the same healing factor, senses, and similar bone-claws to his father but also has bones that are even harder than what Wolverine has under the metal plating and pheromones that let him influence people's emotions. Too bad he's a diagnosed psychopath who only cares about like, three people."

She tapped the man with the beehive. "Professor X had powerful telepathy. His bastard son Legion can create entirely new minds that all have their own high-level powers... of course, this also means he has untreatable schizophrenia and dissociative personality disorder with thousands of alters, so... Trade-off."

She tapped the man in the middle with the metal arm. "Cable isn't just a second-generation mutant, he's the son of two mutants and combines their powers: Jean Grey's telekinesis and Cyclops' energy powers combine into... basically every kind of psychokinesis at an absurdly high level." Ashley paused. "He can't use it very often because he has a virus that slowly turning him into a Robo-zombie but like, there was the one time he didn't have to worry about it and he manhandled the Silver Surfer while holding a flying city in the air."

Triumph was the first Protectorate to raise his hand with a question. "Who is this Silver Surfer?"

"The Silver Surfer was the Herald of Galactus and is one of the users of the Power Cosmic," Cuddlebug explained. "I explained how the old pagan gods are all real in my world? The Surfer is stronger than most of them. By a lot."

She clicked and the slide was a picture of a little blonde boy. "It's also possible for mutants to combine with other super-powered genetics. Reed Richards and his wife Susan Storm-Richards of the Fantastic Four are both Cosmic Ray Mutates, which is to say they had the genetic potential to gain superpowers and these powers were activated by exposure to cosmic rays... But they also have the recessive version of the X-Gene and they both passed it down to their son Franklin, who also inherited the potential to get powers from Cosmic Rays. Latent Cosmic rays in his mom's body activated both his X-Gene and his cosmic potential which combined and made him a Universal Class reality Warper. He's usually considered to be the strongest mutant on Earth, if not the strongest mortal in the universe."

And now Kid Win had a question: "So if mutant powers are based on DNA and run in families, does that mean that if one of your parents was a mutant they'd have your disability?"

"Well, technically my dad was a mutant, my grandpa, too, but they had the latent version of the gene so they never got powers and didn't show up on most gene trackers because they never encountered a stressor that brought it out," Cuddlebug corrected, "and not nessesarily. Since half of your DNA comes from each parent, it's possible that I just got a bad combination of genes from Mommy and Daddy and they'd have had good powers if they had active X-genes."

"And that brings me to another point," Cuddlebug continued, "the three active forms of the X-Gene are known to mutate into each other."

Cuddlebug clicked the remote, showing the greek Letters Alpha, Beta, Omega, A second Omega with a plus next to it, and an Epsilon.

"Mutant powers are classified in a greek letter system. I only know a couple of them off the top of my head and there are some terms that are decently used but aren't official. Alphas," she said while tapping the matching letter, "are mutants with high level and decently useful powers. Direct combat applications are common and sometimes full control of the power and being able to pass as human are given as characteristics but that's not consistent. Beta," tapping Beta, "is very vaguely defined but sometimes means combat-capable mutants that can't pass as human or that aren't as powerful as Alpha class mutants."

Cuddlebug tapped the Omega symbol. "This is the one most people know about. Omega class mutants are often misunderstood to be ultra-powerful mutants, and most of them are, but strictly speaking, it means that one or more of your powers are limitless. Mister Immortal of the Great Lakes Avengers can't die. Even if you completely destroy his body it'll just come back together in a few minutes. Jean Grey's telepathic abilities... you might be able to surpass her in the short term, but she can just practice and get stronger. Only another Omega level telepath has a chance of reliably beating her." She tapped the other Omega, with the plus. "Beyond Omega goes past limitless into infinite. Cable is an Omega level Psychokinetic bordering on reality warping. Franklin Richards is an Omega Level Reality Warper who uses every kind of reality waring at once with powers that function on a universal scale and has dozens of other Alpha and potentially Omega level powers besides. To give a rough comparison, the Silver Surfer, who is more powerful than most of Earth's Gods, was a Herald of Galactus and is thus basically an ant compared to Galactus and Cable was able to fight him okay while multi-tasking. A potential grown-up version of Franklin from the future showed up and Galactus was his herald. That's the differance between Omega and Beyond Omega."

"There's some overlap between Alpha Level mutants and Omega level mutants, so you can be both, but I don't know what the cutoff point or points of intersection are: I know that Jean Grey and Franklin Richards are both considered to be Alphas as well as Omegas. Also, all Beyond Omega class mutants are considered Omega class by default."

Finally, Cuddlebug tapped the Epsilon. "Now, I'm pretty sure this isn't an official designation, but it's used often enough that I'll mention it: Epsilon level is used to refer to people like me, the bottom of the barrel of sucky powers. Powers that are useless, non-existent, or actively harmful, usually with a crippling disability or severe deformity. Beak, a mutant whose power is that he looks like a chicken... That's it. He just looks like a chicken, would be an Epsilon if it was official."

Cuddlebug paused for questions, but no one had one. After a moment where the only sound was that of Armsmaster's and only Armsmaster's note-taking, the young mutant continued.

"Now, mutants only entered public awareness in the past few decades," Cuddlebug, "but certain governments have known about them for much longer and the 'Essex Gene' was first discovered in the 19th century," Cuddlebug took a minute to crack her neck. "In addition to that, there's proof that mutants have been around for thousands of years, despite the claims of idiots that we're the next step in human evolution. There's even confirmation that at least one Ancient Egyptian dynasty had mutants in its royal family. A mutant named Selene, whose power is that she's basically a psychic vampire and she also knows magic, claims to be over fourteen thousand years old," Cuddlebug said, but then she clicked the next slide, "but the earliest confirmed mutant is En Sabah Nur, a bandit-turned-slave who rebelled and deposed the Pharaoh Rama-Tut, seizing the throne himself, in Ancient Egypt over five thousand years ago."

The slide was a drawn picture of an imposingly tall bald man with grey skin, solid red eyes, and thick, blue lips that had similarly colored lines from the corners of his mouth tracing his upper jaw to his ears. He was dressed in a simple powered armor with cables from the back stretching to plug into his gauntlets, and he had what seemed to be an "A" for a belt buckle.

"We know he's five thousand years old because there are hieroglyphics from back then depicting him," Cuddlbug explained, "and we know that he's a mutant because he's still alive and he shows up on mutant detecting devices. En Sabah Nur, which means 'the first one' in an ancient language that no one speaks anymore, was not only the Pharaoh of Egypt for a time but has been a major figure in many parts of the world and it's history: In addition to his time as Pharaoh, he possed as the Egyptian God Set, the Indian Goddess Kali, and the Aztec God Hu...hu-it..."

"Huitzilopochtli?" Armsmaster supplied.

"Yeah, him," Cuddlebug finished. "He posed as those gods and several more while traveling the world and visiting those places... Which, understandably, means that a lot of those gods hate him, but he's a superhumanly strong, superhumanly tough, psychic immortal shapeshifter with complete mastery of highly advanced technology belonging to cosmic space-gods so I don't think there's much they can do to deal with him permanently. Nowadays, he mostly calls himself Apocalypse."

"So, he's a bad guy, right?" Vista asked. "Becuase he sounds like a bad guy."

"Oh, hell yeah he's evil," Cuddlebug confirmed. "He doesn't think he is, but the bad guys never think they're bad guys. He was a Social Darwinist before Darwin's ancestors met. He believes that the strong deserve to live and that anyone who isn't willing to fight to prove themselves or isn't strong enough to win in constant battle deserve to die. How evil is that?"

It was at that point that Shadow Stalker checked the wall clock to see how long they'd been there.

"Apocalypse's influence has been felt throughout human history," Cuddlbeug finished, "and he has surfaced several times to plot various things, often involving the use of the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death, who are usually people he's found and used his alien technology to boost the powers of, then mind-controlled... But some people think he's pulling a long con."

"Could you explain that?" Miss Militia asked.

"Well," Cuddlebug began, "his goal is supposedly to wipe out humans and other non-mutants, who he believes to be unfit in comparison to mutants, and turn the world into a wasteland where the survivors will be forced to grow strong and fight for the right to live... But he's been around for thousands of years. He's had access to deadly diseases and weapons of mass destruction for centuries longer than anyone else. He could have easily done it by now, and he's been defeated surprisingly easy despite a really impressive showing the first time he showed up in the modern age. And uh... a lot of his schemes end up helping the heroes who oppose him in the long run..."

"So, some people think he might be scheming towards some greater goal," Weaver supplied, "and is only playing at being the villain."

"Yeah. It's mostly fringe groups, lunatics, and mutant supremacists that think that but there's enough evidence that it could be true, even if it's a slim chance, that it makes me uncomfortable to think about," Cuddlebug admitted.

"You seem to know an awful lot about this guy," Gallant observed.

"Yeah," Cuddlebug said as she put her hand behind her head, "I like to learn about Superheroes and you can't learn about Heroes without learning about villains. A lot of people overlook Apocalypse because he's usually beaten by one or two X-Men affiliate teams whereas people like Doctor Doom or Thanos often have to be fought but alliances of all the major teams and independents, but whenever I see something about him in my research I feel drawn to it. I don't know why," she finished with a shrug.

"Anyway," Cuddlebug said with a click, "other examples of ancient mutants are Romulus and Remus: The twins who founded Rome. I don't know about your world, but in my world, they're Feral Gene Mutants." Cuddlebug paused for a moment so her audience could take in the childish drawing of a man and a woman in front of the Roman Colosseum. "Uh, they're still alive in my world, too. Regenerative healing factors let you live for a long, long time. Also, Remus is a girl. I don't know why the myths change that. Romulus is kind of a tool and that's all I know about them."

Cuddlebug clicked again, and the picture was replaced with a drawing of a man with blue skin and fins on his ankles as well as a drawing of a baby. "Mutants aren't the only people with the X-Gene," Cuddlebug added. "In addition to us, there are also the changelings, who are born with powers instead of them activating at somepoint as they grow up, and Atlantans who have it latently. Changelings are otherwise indistinguishable from mutants, but Atlanteans have a uniform set of powers and physical changes: Unlike mutants, there is enough differance to call Atlanteans a different species, scientific name Homo mermanus, not to be confused with actual mermaids. They'll show up on less precise mutant detectors."

Cuddlebug clicked and switched to a slide showing a drawing of a muscular man with pointy ears, black hair, and wings on his feet. He was dressed only in a green speedo. "Atlanteans are sometimes born with or naturally develop abillities beyond the normal abillities of their kind, which are tied to their X-Gene, and can interbreed with humans. Empowered Atlanteans are considered mutants and scan as such. Namor the Sub-Mariner," Ashley said with a tap to the drawing, "the current King of Atlantis is both a hybrid and an Atlantean Mutant. Currently, he's the only Mutant in Atlantis. Atlanteans and Atlantean hybrids are very long-lived," Cuddlebug finished, "Namor fought for the allies in World War Two as part of the Invaders, a group of Superhuman fighting Hitler's armies of vampires, mad science abominations, and knock-off Super Soldiers, and hasn't noticeably aged since then."

There was a brief beat. "Also, apparently he's something called a 'manwhore,' " Cuddlebug added matter-of-factly.

This triggered Clockblocker to fall to the ground and start laughing uncontrollably. "Oh god... That delivery," he said once he got himself under control.

"Oh...Okay," Cuddlebug said as she got back on topic. She clicked the remote one last time. "And that's really all I've got," she concluded. "If there are no questions I should get this stick back to the rec-room."

The final slide was simply a bold The End

AN: This is tentatively canon, though its place in continuity is iffy at this time. Ashley's explanations are a mixture of actual canon and extrapolatory headcanon and are the assumptions for this story.