In the heart of a forgotten mountain range, buried beneath layers of concrete, steel, and secrecy, there stood a clandestine lab humming with low, rhythmic pulses. Bright lights buzzed overhead, casting an eerie glow over transparent tanks, mechanical limbs, and a hundred flickering screens. In the center of it all stood Doctor Nerion Starveil, dwarfed by the machinery surrounding him, but unmistakably the master of this realm.
Short and portly, Nerion's figure swam within the folds of his white lab coat. His bald head reflected the sterile light, and the heavy brass-and-glass goggles clamped over his eyes ticked and whirred softly as they shifted focus. A thick, gray mustache sat on his lip like a solemn curtain, twitching now and then as his lips moved with calculations, murmurs, and grief-laced hope.
He stood before a sealed incubation pod—a high-tech artificial womb suspended in a reinforced vertical chamber. The pod's inner shell shimmered with bio-luminescent gel, pulsing softly around a slowly forming figure.
Fingers trembling slightly, Nerion tapped at the translucent surface of a screen embedded in the nearby console. With every press, streams of complex genetic code scrolled past like a digital waterfall.
> [Subject Code: X-35] [Project: SINGULARITY DAWN] [Specular Genome Base: STARVEIL, HAIO — Deceased] [Commencing Phase One: Catalytic Stem Cell Reconstruction…]
A picture flickered briefly on the screen—a teenage boy with gentle eyes and a carefree smile. Haio Starveil, Nerion's only son. Lost to a rogue Inhuman attack only a year ago. A wound time refused to dull.
Nerion's hands gripped the edge of the console tightly.
"I couldn't save you, Haio…" he whispered, voice cracking with memory. "But I will bring you back. Not just as my son… but as the world's hope."
Behind him, robotic arms slid into motion. One inserted a vial into the chamber—a preserved DNA sample, the last remnant of Haio's body recovered from the wreckage. Another began to emit concentrated bursts of catalytic plasma, jump-starting the cell regeneration process.
Inside the artificial womb, cells multiplied. Stem clusters began to take shape, guided by Nerion's painstakingly engineered genome map—one that had been expanded beyond humanity's limits. Haio was being reborn, but not as an ordinary Inhuman.
He would be the first being capable of wielding thousands of Specs—powers once believed impossible to unite in a single vessel. Archive would be his anchor. And his very existence would become a beacon… or a weapon.
Nerion's thoughts were interrupted by a familiar beeping noise. A biometric warning. The process was straining the chamber already.
"Too early for stress signals…" he muttered. "We need time. Stability must come first."
He moved quickly, adjusting coolant levels, rerouting neural links, and integrating a backup data stream into the forming nervous system. The entire lab trembled faintly as the artificial womb recalibrated. Still, the development stabilized, and the pulse returned to rhythm.
Outside the reinforced walls, armed shadows patrolled the corridors—operatives of The Parallax Circle, the villainous organization that had kidnapped Nerion six months ago. To them, he was a tool. A mind to enslave. But Nerion had other plans.
He glanced up at the embryo forming inside the pod. Legs. Arms. A heart now beating on its own.
"Haio," he murmured, tears clinging to the edge of his mustache. "I don't know what kind of world you'll wake up in… but I promise, I'll give you the strength to survive it. You won't be their weapon. You'll be their end."
With a trembling hand, he reached forward and pressed his palm against the surface of the glass. On the other side, the growing form responded with the barest flicker—almost like a reflex.
A miracle in motion.
A child reborn through science, grief, and defiance.
This was the beginning of the singularity.