Chapter 58: CHAPTER 56

Bolivar Trask, an anthropologist who saw the rise of mutants as a threat to the human race. He worked with that ideal to create a way of suppressing or outright eliminating these threats. He had worked with that goal in mind all though these years, the hate for the mutant race, was what fueled his resolve… but then came the despair.

His own son was affected with the X-gene; it was a fact that almost drive him to insanity but he was able to persevere and further strengthen his determination to bring an end to the mutant specie. 

He researched all he could into the X-gene and found a way to suppress the gene that was present in his son. Unfortunately he wasn’t to be glad for long before he had his daughter and she too possessed the X-gene. 

All these were what acted as the inspiration for the SENTINEL project; a way to rid the world of the filth that was mutant kind. 

He was able to meet like-minded people who believed in his vision and supported his work while also giving him transparency from the people who would like to put an end to his work. 

He had worked all through the years and finally he received information from one of his benefactors about a mutant who could evolve. The information contained within didn’t describe what he could do but there were scientific proofs to back it all up. He would have liked to experiment on that particular mutant but he suddenly lost all contact with them a few weeks after he got his hands on that data. 

It wasn’t until later that he received a call that told him that he should hurry up with the project and that a mutant was planning to overthrow the government. He dove back into his project and even his partner, William Stryker, even agreed to use his own son as a test subject due to his psychic abilities that they were able to make a somewhat working version of the  Sentinel project – The Master Mold. 

An AI that also functioned as the hive mind of all other Sentinels built. 

With the Master Mold, they would be able to automatically program it to create new Sentinels while also constantly updating and evolving the Sentinels in real time. It was a marvelous work. The best thing that humanity has ever created, he believed. 

The Quenial Conference was just a way to meet with the same like minded people and celebrate this breakthrough of humanity. But who would have known that he would meet the S.H.I.E.L.D’s Hunting Wolves – led by the famed Draugr and what he believed to be two super soldiers.

He had been warned to steer clear of anything that concerned S.H.I.E.L.D and its pack and that was what he did the moment he identified who the man was. He panicked and believed they were here for him, somehow having heard of his project. 

He contacted Stryker and had him relocate the working Sentinels to another base in the event that he was caught since that would be humanity’s last line of defense. 

In the end his worry came through and he was caught by the Draugr and his pack which was already bad enough only to turn worse when he heard the names of his children coming from his mouth. He was still processing what underlying meaning that meant when the Draugr asked him a question. 

“What do you think about mutants?”

He didn’t even take a second before he answered. 

“They are the cancer of humanity. Failed product of what could be called humanity’s next step in evolution.”

“And what do you think humanity’s next step of evolution would look like?” The Draugr asked him again. 

What did this mean? Did they think they were the next step of humanity’s rise to the top of existence? All they-

“Why aren’t you answering?”

He looked around and saw the face of inquisitiveness on the Draugr. 

“Since you deemed an entire specie as failure then for sure you would know what success looks like now wouldn’t you?” He had a faint smile on his face the entire time he was talking to him. 

Trask didn’t know how to answer that but he knew he had to. 

“Obviously it would be ensuring that we are higher than any other threat that pose danger to us-” 

“And the answer is the SENTINEL project?” Draul asked the still strapped-to-a-chair man. 

“Yes!”

“So humanity’s next step in evolution lies in scrap metals that high school students use in their little science projects? I asked you what would humanity’s next step in evolution would look like not how the technological advancement would look like.”

Trask couldn’t help but frown at that. What was he playing at?

“You look confused so let me clarify; the advent of mutation was said to have started 300 – 500, or maybe more, years ago based on some historical proofs. Which means that the human race started changing, or rather put factly, evolving at least for the past half a millennia ago. That was long before technology came, way before steam engines and light bulbs were created – the mutant race as everyone now calls them emerged before the first battery cell was made and yet you judge them lower than the scrap metals that started having technological use a little over 200 years ago. How does that make sense?”

Trask stared in disbelief as what he believed Draul to be insinuating. Did he think that the mutant race were what humanity was heading towards. 

“Preposterous! What the hell do you think you are saying you ignorant whelp?..” Trask screamed out in righteous fury. 

“I’m saying that for the past close to 100 years, humanity has been experimenting on the X-gene for their military, scientific, health and biological advancement. The so-called SENTINEL project you are so proud of was made entirely possible by studying the X-gene, was it not?” Draul asked calmly, his eyes not leaving that of Trask’s for a moment. 

“From the time of the first World War, the US army and all those who had begun to notice the change in humanity had started experimenting for ways to replicate such ‘evolution’ in their persons, Captain America was the result of such experiments and he was hailed as the first hero when all that he was came out of a bottle that contained minor success of replicating the X-gene. It didn’t end there either, they pushed it further after they lost their shield and created the atomic bomb – the ultimate spear – and nuked Hiroshima. With the success of the War Hero the whole world was thrown into a mad dash for power and greed consumed men and such the mutant race was exposed. But in order to keep them in the spot light so that they could be experimented on in the public eye without anyone the wiser about it, governments across the world who coveted such power painted them as ‘failed humans’, ‘mistakes of evolution’, ‘freaks of nature’. While at the back, away from society’s scrutinizing gaze, everyone experimented on them to gain the power and glory that came with Erskine’s success on Captain America – you were no different too. It was all justified under the slogans of ‘safeguarding humanity’, ‘advancing science’ and the one that ticks me off the most is ‘for the greater good’.”

“You tried playing ‘God’, forgetting about the devil waiting for the throne, until you devolve the world in chaos with the wake of Apocalypse and Armageddon. It could be argued that it is in human DNA to safeguard their own interest but you’ll lose that argument the moment it is brought up. Because of insecurities people create the things they fear; men of peace create engines of war, invaders create avengers… leaders create soldiers. Designed to supplant them, to help them… end.”

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The room fell silent at that with its residents looking at Draul with complex gazes. 

“So tell me; why do you hate the mutant race?” Came the question from the man known as the Draugr. 

“They are a virus, a plague. There are defects t-” Trask began only to be cut off. 

“What you are saying right now is no different from reading out a textbook. What I asked was why ‘you’ hate the mutant race.”

Trask went silent at that. His mind running on overdrive as he tried to process what Draul had told him. 

“You don’t know why you hate them because of preconceived notions. A classic example of stereotypes. You couldn’t bring yourself to hate your children because you might have deceived yourselves that they were unfortunate to be infected with the disease known as mutation, that’s because that’s what you think it is – a disease. A cancer, a terminal illness that wants to plague the world. A virus, hence the name mutant. It’s pretty derogatory isn’t it, the word ‘mutant’ that is. Some would say it’s racist, because the first thing that comes to the mind when you say mutation is cancer and when you say mutant, freaks. A subtle way of misdirection.” There was a smile on Draul’s face as he said that. 

“What would you call them then? Since you think it stereotypical to similarize them with a disease, when then do you wish to call them other than call them for what they are?” Trask's ferocity had calmed down a lot after Draul started talking so he was able to ask that question with genuine curiosity. 

“Meta-humans.”

“That’s all what they are. The metaphysical manifestation of the universal laws in humans, hence the name meta-human.” Draul spoke in a matter-of-factly tone. 

“You think a name is all it takes to change how people feel about them. When those mutants are terrorizing the whole of humanity?” The short doctor screamed. 

“That’s a lie and you know it. Sure there are metahuman terrorists but so also are there human terrorists also and the number of racial terrorists vastly outnumbers those of metahumans, like 50 to 1. And besides, if metahumans were really as big a threat as you made them out to be, then there would have already been a revolution.”

“We are straying a lot off topic so allow me to reiterate my question; where are you hiding the Sentinels Trask?” That seemed to bring Trask back to focus as he just remembered that he was still kidnapped despite the philosophical words this mut… metahuman was speaking. 

“I don’t know where they are.” Trask said which made the other occupants of the room frown. 

“What do you mean you don’t know where it is? Weren’t you the one who created it?” Bucky who had been silent for a while asked. 

“I had my lab assistant move them to another base, don’t know which one.” He said in a low voice as his head hung low. The conversation with the Draugr he had was chipping away at his conviction. 

“Fuck!” The Draugr stomped hard in the floor that it cracked and stood up from the chair as he spat out in frustration. 

“What is it quack, you figured something out?” Bucky and Steve paid attention to him because of his outburst. 

“This assistant of your, what is his name?” Draul looked at Trask which led the small man to understand that he wasn’t playing around this time but he didn’t know if he was right or sell out his partner like that so he hesitated. 

Seeing the man’s hesitation, Draul left the room and came back with a laptop before starting to type on it for a while before he showed what was on the screen to the doctor. 

Trask read through the document presented to him and his face visibly paled, going a shade darker by each line. 

“This… this is impossible. Lies! There is no way something such as that is possible!” Trask went hysterical as soon as he came to understand what the document he read was – HYDRA’s sponsorship of his research. Sure he could agree, albeit with a very lengthy argument, that he was bigoted towards the now named metahuman kind, but not even he would knowingly ride on the boat of one of the world’s most foremost terrorist. HYDRA as an organization was well known to everybody after their fall back in 1945 so he wouldn’t have agreed to have them sponsoring his research if he knew which party it was coming from. 

“HYDRA has been the one funding your research for years now, Trask. So tell me the name of your assistant so I can put a stop to this madness.” Draul said to Trask after the man finished hyperventilating. 

“His name is William Stryker.”

“Ughh!” 

Steve seeing Draul’s expression at that name couldn’t help but ask. “You know who this William Stryker is?”

“Simply put, he’s the Red Skull of metahuman. All he wants is nothing short of racial genocide.” Draul said as he massaged his temples. 

“Do we have any idea where he could be?” Steve as the optimist asked. 

“Nada. He could be across the borders for all we know.”

“But we know he isn’t. He can’t risk it so he’ll have to plan for transportation if he wanted to move them out of the country. Since it’s barely been 2 hours then I doubt he’s completely out of Moscow.”

They all looked at Trask. 

“What are we going to do with him?”

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