Prologue - Arrival
The room’s windows were open so a soft breeze could push against the curtains, nearly hitting the young mutant as it fluttered. They weren't made to block the light, and were of a cheerful yellow colour which were charming, but merely grating now as Microwave, or “Eel” as the paperwork said, threw the letter against the wall.
(Microwave was zir lab name, just something to be called when your signifier is nothing but a string of letters and numbers: X-18-18, in zir case. Ze favored producing microwaves to get the scientists off zir back, and the other lab children used zir to heat up the cold kibble that they were served daily.
But Eel was no longer the bald skinny test subject and with new bodyparts and freedom, ze picked a new name: Eel. Named after the electric eels that ze loved.)
The room suddenly felt too small and Eel fought the urge to dive out of the window and abandon Genosha, with it's stupid rules, quarantines and checking of genetic code.
The ocean was still vaguely audible when the traffic and chatter from nearby streets hushed themselves. Escape was possible, but it would irritate the authorities. Eel had already pushed the system farther than any human city would allow, coming into port with not all of zir shots and having to get them. In a human city quarantines could take weeks, months but in Genosha health could be assured in just half a day.
It was fine, besides, Amp had yet to come to adjust the metal prosthetic that ze flopped down on the table. The tail needed adjustment, salt had corroded some fine piece which Eel couldn't see, and new scratches appeared on zir thighs because of it. Wait. Just wait half a day.
Ze kicked zir thighs in a scissor motion. Zir above-the-knee leg stumps seemed too bare without a proper tail stretching down below them.
It was fine. Ze breathed in, then out, resisting the urge to forgo breathing for a few minutes.
It was just a stay in a room, the ocean was right there, sea birds squawking, water crashing, tourists being annoying.
No needles, no restraints, no having to pull magnets through a maze to get some fucking food. As if to prove it to zirself, a protein shake in a metal thermos snapped into a waiting hand and was guzzled furiously.
See? Everything was fine.
It was just quarantine. It was just a letter which…
Eel rolled over and used a phone to connect to the Wi-Fi, checking how often that particular test was completely fucking wrong. Ze squinted before irritably using the thermos to coax the thrown letter across the floor back to the bed.
“Dear Eel,” the letter read, “Your genetic tests show tests show you aren't at risk for…” The page was skipped.
“The results of this test show you share a genetic match with eight or more residents of Genosha.” That was blatantly untrue and the letter was nearly thrown across the room again.
“These results share approximately twenty-five percent or higher of your genetic code, as predicted by unique sequences in your DNA that have been matched together.” What then followed was a list with vague indications of what genetics were shared.
There was one suspected to be a fifty percent match, a parent, sibling, or offspring. The rest were suspected to be various other relatives: grandparents, half-siblings, uncles, aunts, nieces, and nephews. It was bullshit. Eel scanned for a second opinion.
“These results can be skewed by excessive genetic modification with the X gene-” That was it.
Must be it. Whatever sucker the lab stole DNA from must have gotten it taken by other labs too, by spliced maniacs who wanted powers, and enough of those people must be in Genosha.
Simple. Easy.
Ze had no family, just shared genetics. Just shared genetics, too much shared genetics.
Ze smacked the letter into the bed and the phone in Eel's hand buzzed as it displayed a warning that it was overheating. Ze threw it to the side table and laid down.
Fuck.
Fuck no.
Ze couldn't have family.
Ze didn't have family. Transgen labs saw to it, they made zir from the ground up, just a bundle of cells, no parents. Zir lab siblings were the only people close to family ze had.
The test was wrong. It was fake. It was stupid!
Eel banged zir fist against the window, longing to leave long scratches on zirself, to force everything down so ze could just breathe- could think again. Who knows what the staff could do if if they saw blood.
Zir sharp, claw like fingernails had pierced the skin while making the fist.
It was too late.
Too late.
Damn it.
Ze swore at the sight of blood beading up from zir cuts. The metal in the room rattled as ze grabbed zir skull, claws digging into the scalp. The cybernetic fishtail jerked and shifted towards Eel. The slight cuts it made would be fine- what ze wanted- what ze needed.
Ze scratched and tore at zir thighs. Amp would fix zir. He always did. Who gave a shit, anyway. Zir was defective, a shitty product slated for euthanization by Transigen.
Eel knew that Amp, zir former guardian, mainly fixed zir out of religious obligation and delight in having a willing subject, desperate for cybernetic upgrades. No parent was willing to let their children go full transhominid but Eel, parentless and manufactured in a lab, gave zero fucks.
Payment and actual care for body mods ze wanted? Yes.
An employment offer by Genesis Labs to test out prototype cybernetics and be a consultant for mutant pediatric prosthesis? Fuck Yes.
A far cry from the objectification of zir early childhood.
Eel pulled out the soft padding from the tail and jerked and twisted till zir shitty meat stumps scraped inside the tail. Pain stung as it tore up zir thighs. Eel hissed as zir spinal rig hooked into the tail's neuroports. Once connected, it hummed to life, the electric signal and sight calming. Dryfits sucked, it hurt and the cuts stung, but
it's fine, hardly a problem. Pain means you're alive. Who the fuck needs comfort?
Eel scratched the floor, trying not to spiral out into the abyssal seas of self destruction.
Not in the lab. Listen, idiot, it's the ocean outside. Copy it. In, out. In, out. Follow the tide.
Tail's damaged but body's whole again at least. Can levitate, can swim. No longer a sitting duck.
A steady calm thrummed over zir, air breathing in and out of zir lungs.
Ze pulled out the letter. The words, "Would you like us to follow up on this and add your genetics to our system? Your full genetic make-up won't be taken, only slight mitochondrial DNA and DNA used to prove a genetic relationship or genetic clone; as per the Mutant Protection Acts.”
Ze ticked “No” and rolled over.
Eel had no family.