HenryJonesJr

Absolute Comics - Justice Rising

@Pacifista's Hawk and Dove and @Bounce's Robin are approved!

Absolute Comics - Justice Rising

@Inkarnate's Batman is APPROVED!

Absolute Comics - Justice Rising

<Snipped quote by Inkarnate>

I feel that a DC world isn't complete without the big guy. I feel tempted to make one of him

@Mr Savage

It would have to fit in with @Inkarnate’s story, just FYI. As of now Kara is the founder of the Super legacy in the game. She would also get to decide whether it gets approved along with the GMs

Absolute Comics - Justice Rising

The next morning, Steve rapped gently on the door where Rogue had been placed to rest, hoping that the girl was in the mood to talk. After his discussions with Xavier, and what he figured was about to come down the pipeline, they needed to talk about what came next. His idea of leaving her at the school had gone out the window last night when they laid waste to an orphanage and a downtown of an American city. She'd be marked. He was sure of it. Whoever had abducted her and experimented on her was going to go all out to make life difficult for them. Leaving her here would put a target on the school's back, and Steve couldn't allow a safe haven to be in danger.

"Come in," the young' mutant's voice came from the other side. Rogers was relieved to hear that she didn't seem all that down.

Entering, he found her writing in a journal at the desk in the room, looking into the morning light flooding over the school grounds. The strands of white hair fell over her face as she stared down to the paper, scribbling furiously. Without looking up, she asked, "So you leavin'?"

"Yea," he leaned up against the window. Outside, on the basketball court, two mutants were playing one-on-one. A smaller boy dribbled around the larger one, before leaping nearly ten feet off the ground, going for a spectacular dunk. Before he could do so, however, the other boy's arm extended and smacked the ball away. The two of them began laughing. It was a beautiful moment between two kids, just being kids. It was still baffling to Steve that people saw these kids as abominations. That they didn't deserve to live their lives like all kids did. That they were a threat. Or, in the case of Rogue, that all they were good for was experimentation.

For all the ways the world had improved and grown since he went into the ice, it was startlingly similar in the worst corners of men's minds. It seemed like all it would take was a push to send things back to how they were when he first became Captain America. That's what he needed to fight against. To make sure humanity stayed far, far away from the brink.

Rogue's head snapped up, bringing his attention back from outside. He saw her eyes were fiery balls of determination, "I"m coming with you. After what we saw last night you can't leave me here. They murdered my family. Experimented on me. Ain't no way I'm-"

"Relax," he shook his head. She was so much like he was back when Erskine had found him. Ready to through all caution to the wind and dive headfirst into anything that would allow him to fight in what he believed in. She was young than he was at the time, but he probably would have been the same way. "You're coming with me. After last night, you can't stay here."

"Seriously?" she asked, stunned by how easy that was.

"Seriously," Rogers nodded. "But it's not gonna be easy. You're gonna have to train. Every day. It's not gonna be fun. We'll probably be on the run. Constantly."

"Sounds fun," Rogue smiled mischievously. That was what he was worried about. She was impulsive. She was a thrill seeker. He was certain she wasn't going to listen to orders. That would lead to problems. But if she was willing to learn, she'd be a good teammate.

He smirked beside himself, "Come on. Xavier and Summers want to have a chat with me. I think the blue furry scientist is gonna want to sit down with you."

"Wait what?"

Absolute Comics - Justice Rising

Leonardo and Raphael's footfalls echoed through the sewers of New York as they ran towards the place they were set to meet Donatello and the rest of their family. The two brothers had spent most of their lives in these sewers, and knew them like the backs of their shells. While anyone who came down here would be lost in the infinitely twisted labyrinth of stone, piping, and humid, stale air, the turtles moved through the space like rainwater after a storm. Each turn was made without thinking, each move to a level lower without hesitation.

It was good too, since they were being hunted.

"Any idea where these damn things came from?" Raph looked over at his brother as the two of them lept over a pipe in their way. Behind them, they could hear the tiny, metallic footsteps of their pursuers. While the sewers had seemed to stop them in their tracks for a short while, the robots had seemingly re-calibrated when Raph and Leo met up with one another, restarting the chase. "Don't seem like anything we'd see from the Dragons. Though they're the only ones with reason to send a bunch of murderbots after us!"

"Not important now," Leo responded, motioning towards the subway access hatch directly in front of them. "We get to Donnie, we see what he can do."

"For once having a mega nerd as a brother is gonna come in handy," Raph mused about their situation. "Who woulda guessed!?"

Leo looked over his shoulder for a moment as they approached the panel. What he saw gave him an even higher sense of urgency. A new battalion of the robots flowed forth around the nearest corner like an angry flood of snapping, metal jaws. Whatever had scrambled their circuits down here had clearly been cleared up, and they were back at their full ferocity. They rushed closer and closer as the two turtles unsealed the hatch and slipped in. As Leo closed and sealed the hatch behind him, the metal indented, showing the form of the teeth behind it. The metal seal began to buckle under the repeated blows of the unstopping automatons.

"You know, this reminds me of a Next Generation episode where the Borg-"

Raph cut Leonardo off, "Really? Now? We're gonna do this now?"

"I'm just sayin'," Leo shrugged and smiled sheepishly.

Before Raphael could display any more outward signs of frustration at how much of a geek his brother was, a loud rumble began to approach from down the subway tunnel. The rails nearest tot them vibrated in an unnatural way, and a pair of lights very much unlike anything either of them had ever seen on a subway car. To Leo they almost resembled the shape of the turtles' eyes when they were wearing their ninja masks. Donnie was nothing if not literal when he designed the thing.

The vehicle began to slow as it approached the two brothers, and the large mass of metal came to a sudden stop with a last jolt. Raph and Leo exchanged looks, both of their mouths hanging open in surprise. What stood in front of them was an old New York Subway car that had been completely painted over. Graffiti of the four turtles and Splinter adorned the outside, along with other various tags that Mikey had been trying out.

"We seriously need to sit Mikey down and remind him what 'ninja' means," Leo rubbed his temples as Raph chuckled.

The door to the car hissed open, and Splinter stood in the opening, offering his hands to his sons, "Come, Donatello says we must keep moving or we could be struck by a train."

"Comforting," Raphael sighed as they hopped on.

Before Splinter could close the door, the robots broke through the access panel. The metal door blasted against the side of the transport, and the little metal monsters clambered over one another to get to the mutants. Donatello threw the vehicle into gear, sending the three mutants stumbling to catch their balance. The subway car lurched forward, its wheels searching for a grip. It seemed as if it would never move, before it shot forward like it was launched out of a canon. Not fast enough, as two of the robots lept into the vehicle with them. One was smashed by Mike's weapon, while the other was skewered through its optical panel by Splinter's walking stick.

"Welcome aboard the Shellraiser, dudes!" Michelangelo exclaimed victoriously.

"We haven't agreed on that name!" Donnie called back from the control cabin of the subway car. He made his way back to them, and gingerly took the robot off the rat's staff. "If we have any chance of knocking these things out, I'm gonna need to see how this thing ticks."

"Uh, dude," Mikey threw a thumb over his shoulder at the controls, "who's driving?"

"The computer, of course," Donnie responded absentmindedly as he approached the workbench at the back of the moving train car. Leo looked around, and had to admit that Donnie had done one hell of a job on this thing. The small workbench was located next to Donnie's computer station. There was a small cot with some first aid supplies on the other side, and up front were chairs everyone could strap into if need be. "It runs on an automated program that compiles subway metadata running through the New York Transit system which-"

"Donnie, we talked about this," Leo sighed. "Short, easy to digest sentences."

"It talks to the other trains on the track to know when to turn," Donnie grumbled.

"Wait, didn't two of your test cars crash?" Raph panicked. "Two out of four? As in half?"

"Yea, sure," Don waved his worry away while he started to crack open the robot. "That's why I have a failsafe button. Someone just needs to pay attention and press the red button up front if it blinks."

"Sounds like a job for-" Mikey started.

"No!" everyone else responded in unity.

"Aw," Michelangelo's shoulders fell.

Splinter moved up to the cabin, nodding to the brothers as he did. Leo patted Donnie on the shoulder, "You gonna be able to figure this out, bro?"

The outer shell of the robot cracked open, revealing the complex circuitry inside. Donnie's hands worked like that of a surgeon, pulling out anything and everything he didn't need to do his job. He considered Leo's question, "Yea, but I'm going to need some time."

"Well, lets hope this piece of crap doesn't fall apart on us," Raph looked around at the vibrating train car.

Suddenly a loud thunk emanated from the roof, and Mikey slapped Raph on the shoulder, "Way to be a major jinx, bro."

Leo motioned towards the hatch on the top of the train. Raph and Mike boosted him up, allowing him to flip open the panel. On the other side, the robot was waiting for him. He quickly caught the robot by the neck, and tossed it into the side of the subway tunnel. He watched as it bounced along the concrete and fell to pieces, sparks flying through the darkness. But even as that one was taken care of, multiple new invaders fell from the roof of the tunnel.

He pushed himself onto the roof of the train, rolled, and unsheathed his swords as he came to his feet, slicing two in half as he did so. One fell from above him, and he sliced its head off before it hit the roof of the Shellraiser. Calling down to his brothers, he announced, "Gonna need some help up here! Looks like they're dive bombing us from some maintenance tunnels running above us! You keep working on the drones, Don!"

"Actually they're not drones. More like a cybernetic hive mind that-"

"No one cars, Donnie!" Raphael called down as he joined Leo on the roof. "Just shut 'em down!"

Michelangelo joined his brothers, spinning his nunchaku with vigor, "No joke, I totally had a dream that was just like this. But instead of robots, it was sewer alligators."

"Shut up and smash some robots, you dummy," Raph growled as he plunged his sai through the body of one of the robots. He spun and flung it off his weapon into two other bots, knocking them off the side of the train car. "Man, these tin cans are fun to smash."

The three brothers formed up around the rooftop entry hatch as more and more robots fell onto the vehicle and began to close in. The three of them knew that they had to give Donatello as much time as he needed to do whatever he needed to do. Wave after wave of robots came at them, and the brothers moved as if they were melded with one another. Leo slashed with his swords at ones that attempted to get withing Raphael and Michelangelo's shorter reach. Raphael used his brute strength to tear apart any that got by Leonardo's blades. Michelangelo used his uncharacteristic fighting style to move around the circle in flips and slides, drawing the robots off balance.

But Leo knew it wasn't going to be enough. For every one they struck down, it seemed like four more dropped down onto the Shellraiser's hull. He was getting tired. He figured Raph was as well. Mikey was always enthusiastic in a fight, but he was always sloppy. IF Raphael and Leonardo's proficiently sound fighting slipped, Mikey would get overwhelmed. It wasn't a good situation, and there was a good chance it was going to get worse.

"Uh, bros," Mike sounded worried. "Low bridge coming up fast."

Leo looked over his shoulder and saw that a station was indeed approaching, luckily with no train in it. But it was a low bridge. They wouldn't be able to stay on the roof.

"Father!" Donnie called. "Press the red button! It'll divert us from the station."

"Wait! Don't!" Leo called out to the two members of his family inside the train. "Stay on course!"

"Leo," Raph responded cautiously, "I'm not really keen to be tenderized tonight."

"We won't be," Leo assured him. He kept his eyes on the approaching wall, "Closer...closer...Now! Turtles! Hand six!"

With that, the other two mutants knew exactly where their leader was going with this. The three of them rushed to the back of the Shellraiser, cutting the robots down as they went. When they reached the edge, the slid off the side, grabbing the edge and hanging off the side. The wall ledge smashed into the robots on top of the train, pulverizing them into a blizzard of wires, metal, and circuitry. As the train blasted through the station, Leo almost laughed at the confused humans that watched it fly by in a blur.

"I hope someone throws that up on Tik Tok!" Mikey whooped.

The three pulled themselves back up to the top of the Shellraiser, and their smiles immediately melted away. The robots had already replenished their numbers. The three brothers looked at one another and sighed, readying their weapons.

Before the bots could attack, however, a spasm went through them like a wave. The little metal monstrosities all seized up before falling over, motionless. They all began to slide off the side of the train like penguins on those National Geographic specials Don loved. They all clanged and shattered on the floor of the subway.

"Donnie!?" Leo called down.

"Did they shut down!?" he asked. "I used this one's receiver transmitter to send a simple binary malware that initiated a complete system-"

"Are they gonna turn back on?" Raph cut Donatello off, knowing that he'd go on forever if he let them.

"Not for a while, no," Donnie confirmed. "In the meantime I'm gonna set up a surprise for them if they come into our sewers again."

"Hell of a job, Donnie," Leo smiled.

"Nerd power, bro," Raph agreed.

"Bros, I think this calls for a little deep dish action!" Mikey called out.

"Ugh," Splinter grumbled. "Kids."

The Shellraiser made for the Den, having an adventurous maiden journey. Leo felt pride in his family, but one thing still had him feeling uneasy. Whoever sent these things knew who they were, what they were. They sent incredibly advanced robots after his family, and the turtles had no idea who they were. Their enemies in the city were piling up, and they hadn't even begun to put a dent into any of them.

His family was in danger, and there was nothing that scared Leonardo more than that.

Absolute Comics - Justice Rising

So Wraith's Angel/Raven characters will be removed from the roster.

I'm also decreeing that Doc's Spider-Man can now be applied for. If no sheets are posted before he posts, he is safe to continue with the character. But if someone wants to pick up Spider-Man, they are free to attempt to do so.

Absolute Comics - Justice Rising

MB has been taken off the roster, and Batman is free to be picked up. Whoever picks the character up will not be beholden to the story he had started and they can start fresh.

Absolute Comics - Justice Rising

_{Location: Triskelion}

---

The Helicarrier Argo floated silently over SHIELD headquarters as Nick Fury peered out of it from the conference room window, his one good eye following the floating fortress's lazy arc across the sky. The Helicarriers were the backbone of SHIELD's response capability, and the Argo was the most advanced ship in the fleet. He had helped oversee her construction under the former Director Mace's leadership. It was capable of crossing the Atlantic in three hours thanks to the new repulsor engines. The others in the fleet were good, but this was going to be the thing that allowed SHIELD to respond to anything across the world. A net of these carriers spread evenly across the globe like a suit of armor.

At least that was Director Pierce's desire. Fury had always hoped that they would only be support. It was an old fashioned notion for sure, but Nick had always hoped they could work with the metahumans of the world rather than against them.

Top brass in the governments of the world felt differently, though. Things were spiraling, and politicians were scrambling to try and keep up. Rogers had reappeared and was tearing through random locations across the states. They hadn't been able to piece together a motive or a pattern yet. Some rando that look liked he dropped out of a barbarian movie showed up in the middle of Oslo. A girl who could fly and pick up a car over her head was treating Metropolis like her personal playground.

The normal humans of the world felt like they were losing control, and that was always a dangerous situation. When people panicked and lashed out, someone usually died. Taking into account that the people in this case could bench press a Buick, that could be a recipe for worldwide disaster.

But the path had been set, and Fury wasn't sure there was a way to change that.

The door to the conference room slid open, and Pierce, Amanda Waller, and Maria Hill all entered. Pierce, a man in his sixties who looked like he was in his forties, was dressed in a sharp navy suit. From the outside he looked like any typical military man who went into government service afterwards. Hair greying the black out of his temples, and a strong frame that was only now starting to deteriorate. But there was a cunning ambition behind his green eyes that honestly scared Fury sometimes, and that was hard to do.

If Pierce was hiding his intimidation factor, Amanda Waller wore it proudly in everything she did. A former CIA analyst, a less proper description of Waller might have been that she was "built like a brick shit house". On top of that, she had a personality to match. Waller believed that the super powered age was a existential threat to the human race. She was pushing hard for stricter surveillance on mutants and metahumans, civil liberties be damned.

Hill was Fury's protege, and one of the few agents in SHIELD he knew he could trust. She nodded to him as she took a seat at the conference table, her short hair bobbing as she did so.

Fury took a seat as Pierce began, "What's your update on Rogers?"

"He and an unknown mutant tore through a town in Mississippi last night," he started. "No idea why he was there or what he was doing. In the end, he allegedly blew up an abandoned orphanage in order to kill the mutant. Our agents didn't find any traces of him or the alleged mutant. But we did find tire tracks from two motorcycles."

"Meaning the former Captain isn't working alone," Waller mused. "Does the Widow know anything?"

"If Natasha knows what he's up to, she's not saying," Hill added.

"And we can trust that?" Pierce looked over the rim of his glasses at Fury.

"Romanoff is one of the best espionage agents the world has ever seen," Fury chuckled back at the director. "If you can find some way of ensuring she's telling the truth, I'd like to see it."

"I'm sending Masters after him," Pierce looked back down at the files he had brought with them.

"We're turning Captain America into a criminal now?" Fury was shocked. "Listen, Director, I know you haven't been here long, but I know Steve Rogers. If he's doing what he's doing, he has a good reason."

"I don't care what his reasons are," Pierce shot back. "He's flaunting the agreement he made with SHIELD after he murdered a man on national TV. He wrecked a town in Mississippi. What happens when he goes to Chicago or New York? I'm not taking that chance. Masters is going to bring him in, and we're going to take a rogue, unpredictable agent off the board. Masters is the best choice to do that."

Fury clamped down on his anger. Masters was a great agent. He was cold, calculating, and lethal. Sending him after Rogers was exactly the kind of move that was going to set off a powder keg.

Fury shook his head, "Whatever you say, sir. And what about the situation in Norway?"

"We sent Coulson," Waller scoffed. "I doubt that case isn't going to be anything other than a teleporter who just discovered his powers, no matter how big and buff he is."

So Coulson was abroad now too. Another one of Fury's trusted agents away. He could trust fewer and fewer agents on the Triskelion. That was a dangerous proposition.

"I'm giving you Masters's leash for this mission, Nick," Pierce looked directly into Fury's eye. "Masters is a pro. We both know it. If this goes belly up, or if you delay at any time to give Rogers some breathing room, it'll be your head. Understand? The security council is losing patience with us. If we don't start getting things under control, we'll all be out on the street."

Absolute Comics - Justice Rising

Rogue came to in the jet, on a bunk in the infirmary section towards the rear of the aircraft. The pad she was lying on was firm, but she didn’t have the strength or desire to get up and announce to Summers and Rogers that she was awake. Rogue wasn’t sure if it was the use of her powers at a new level, but she felt like she was hungover. At least she assumed this is what being hungover felt like. She was only fifteen, after all. Considering what her father was like, she hoped she'd never feel a hangover in her life.

She was safe alone here, bundled up in a thin blanket and cuddled up against the bulkhead. Here Rogue was allowed to wallow in her own thoughts, and that’s all she wanted, as toxic as it was to her psyche.

Eddie Whelan was that creature. She saw his face emerge from the fur and features of the rat that had taken him over. She saw the pain he was in, and not all of it had been inflicted by her, though she had done her fair share. He had been the nicest of the kids at the orphanage, or whatever it really was. The only one that offered a smile to her when she first got there. Not that they had been overly friendly with one another, but he at least seemed nice.

And someone had turned him into a scared, confused mutant who was barely had control of his own faculties. He was nothing but a tensed muscle looking to strike when she had absorbed his power and emotions. Every time before when she had made contact with someone, she had felt the fear of what she was doing to them. But it was always background noise, almost like a faint ringing in ones ears after a concert. But this was like someone had attached two speakers at max volume to the side of her head. Rogue wasn't sure if it was because Eddie was a mutant, or if his state had amplified his emotions. Whatever the reason was, though, it had overwhelmed her.

She felt the fatigue rise up again, and gave herself back to sleep, letting the rhythmic drone of the jet's engine carry her off.

---

The Blackbird set down in the subterranean hangar below Xavier's mansion, and as late as it was, Steve needed to talk to Xavier. After what he had seen tonight, he needed someone with his resources if he was going to track down what was going on with Rogue and the other kids from the orphanage. Especially because he had a feeling that after the explosion in Mississippi he was going to have far more people looking for him than they had been previously.

He had been AWOL ever since Montana, but that wasn't a threat to the people that wanted him to disappear. They probably figured Steve Rogers growing old in the mountains somewhere was the easy way out. At least there he would have been quiet and out of their hair. When he came back to the life, Natasha had warned him that it had ruffled some feathers. That was his goal, of course. But even putting away a sitting US senator didn't seem to shake the boat too much. SHIELD was content to let him take down enemies in a remote setting, but tearing down the main street of an American city with a science experiment gone wrong is a different story. On top of that, whoever had fired the rocket that blew up the orphanage made sure that it would be an even bigger story.

Someone was out to make sure Steve Rogers's life was as difficult as possible. They were going to find out that might be a bad decision.

He and Cyclops made their way out of the Blackbird, with Steve pausing to check on Rogue before they disembarked. She was still sleeping, or, more accurately, pretending to be asleep. It had been a hard night for the girl, and he had no desire to wake her. He'd let her have her rest and her time alone. He had a feeling it may be some of the last she would have for a while.

It was an odd sensation traveling with her. Steve had been used to feeling responsible for what happened to those he was fighting with. Whether it was the Howling Commandos in the war, or his SHIELD strike team since he was unfrozen, those under his command were under his protection. Whenever he lost a soldier it cut him deep. This was different, though. Everyone in those situations had signed up for duty. They knew the risks they were taking and what their ultimate fate was likely to be.

Rogue didn't ask for any of this, though. She was just a kid caught up in something even he didn't understand. He couldn't even imagine what was going through her mind. He felt the bile of anger rise in his throat. That someone would round up kids, harvest them, for an experiment. They turned one into a monster, and sent Rogue into a coma to harvest god knows what from her blood. It was disgusting. And she was now his charge. That much was obvious.

Rogers made sure she was covered by her blankets before deplaning. He had no idea if he was ready for that kind of responsibility, especially if she wasn't going to follow orders. He wasn't used to insubordination, but she clearly was fluent in it.

At the bottom of the ramp, Charles was trading words with Summers. When Rogers appeared at the top, the bald man nodded to his protege who made his way to the mansion proper.

"You look terrible, Steven," Charles had a wry smile on his face.

"Ran into one hell of a rat," he sighed sarcastically in return. "Big enough to bite your head off."

"So I've been told," he turned the wheelchair to head the way Cyclops had. "The girl showed her true powers as well?"

Steve nodded, "It's like she absorbed some of his power when she touched him. Not just life force, but his strength and speed as well. I've never seen anything like it."

"Yes, Scott relayed me the information," Xavier pondered. "I don't think it's a mystery as to why they wanted her for experimentation now."

Somehow Steve hadn't even thought of that part. He had been to wrapped up in the idea of a metakid farm for lab rats that he hadn't even considered what it would mean if someone could synthesize the ability to copy the powers of metahumans. It could change the balance of power in the world. Any dime store terrorist or tin pot dictator could create their own superpower-stealing soldiers. It could unleash some real chaos across the globe.

"What about that other item we sent you?"

During the fight, Steve's shield had collected some of Whelan's hairs, an invaluable clue into whatever happened to the boy in that place. Summers had put them through a simple scan in the Blackbird's infirmary and sent it back to the mansion.

"Ah yes, please, follow me," he wheeled himself down a side hallway of the underground complex towards a glass door marked "Laboratory". As he approached, the doors slid open, "Hank, our guests have returned."

Steve stepped into the lab, and Scout padded up to great his master. Rogers patted him tenderly on the head and took a look around the lab. It was spotless, gleaming white. So different from where he had been reborn all those years ago. Back then the Secret Scientific Reserve didn't have time to worry about proper regulatory procedure or total sterile environments. It was quick, dangerous science in a race to beat out Hydra and the Nazis. But this was like a science wonderland. Erskine probably would have been a kid in a candy store here.

"Welcome, Captain Rogers!" a voice said from above him, drawing Steve's gaze up. He almost jumped back as a hulking ball of blue fur unfurled. The mutant was holding onto the ceiling with his feet, a pair of bifocals hanging on his nose, defying gravity. He gave a smile friendly enough to make the fangs he possessed seem perfectly lovely, "Doctor Hank McCoy at your service. Was just writing up my report from the tests on that hair you sent."

He dropped down to the floor and shook Steve's hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you. You're a fascinating scientific story, if I do say so myself. The first artificially enhanced human. Fascinating!"

Xavier sighed softly, "You'll have to excuse Hank. He has a...way about him."

"Thank you, Charles," Hank didn't miss a beat. "Now, onto the samples you gathered from the specimen. That is also fascinating. Terrifying. But fascinating."

The three of them gathered around McCoy's computer, which displayed a bunch of numbers and graphs that Steve couldn't even begin to understand. He remembered Stark and Erskine talking shop in the lab before his transformation back in the day. He felt very similar now. The more things changed, the more things stayed the same, he guessed.

"I won't bore you with the numbers, but the boy had the metagene," McCoy started.

"I'm sorry, metagene?" Steve asked, feeling slightly foolish when he did.

"Every mutant has the meta, or 'X', gene," Xavier began to explain. "But not everyone with the x-gene is a mutant. For one reason or another, which we still don't fully understand, sometimes the gene activates, sometimes it does not."

"Right, and according to Rogue, Whelan's did not," Hank added in.

"I feel like she would have remembered sharing a building with a giant rat boy," Steve mused.

"Indeed," the blue scientist nodded. "Which made me theorize that Whelan was forced to mutate. So I did some digging into the data you sent, and with that I reconstructed Whelan's X-gene profile."

Hank clicked a key and a picture of the boy's DNA appeared on the screen. But it was off. The normal double helix was jagged, as if someone had put it through electroshock therapy.

Rogers let out a growl subconsciously, "Whoever did this is trying to create metahuman soldiers. By forcing kids to mutate. Kids whose parents these people almost certainly murdered to get to them, before rounding the kids up to pawn off to different scientists to study and torture them. It's like a sick version of what happened to me. Only I had a choice."

"This is the world we live in now, Steven," Xavier nodded. "Mutant children across the world are mistreated and misused. It's why we built our safe haven here, and why I will always take in those that need help. But this...this is something I never dreamed of."

"Don't worry, Charles," Rogers felt the resolute determination he had felt many times in the past rise up in him. "These people aren't going to get away with this. I'm going to see to that personally. There's just a few things I need from you."

"Steven," Charles smiled. "Anything I can provide is yours."

Absolute Comics - Justice Rising

@Hexaflexagon's Jessica Jones is APPROVED!