Mongoose Princess And Snake Gods

The goal of the project was the salvation of humanity. The project founder, Dr. Leonard Lucien, an Oxford-educated French geneticist, wanted to prepare the human race for survival in an age of global warming, super storms, ecological disasters, global terrorism, pandemics and other threats. He understood all too well how frail human beings truly are. The good doctor lost his Senegal-born wife Amina and their son Adam when their plane went down over Paris in 2010. Thus he created Adam 117. Using his dead son's DNA, along with some serpentine genes, Dr. Lucien created the first human/animal hybrid. A new order of being known as Atavist.

Adam 117 looked like an ordinary human being. Fully grown, he measured six feet four inches and weighed two hundred and forty pounds. His skin was light brown, his eyes light green and his hair curly and black, the result of his mixed European and African ancestry. In fact, he was the near-perfect replica of Adam Lucien, the project founder's long-dead son. But that's where the similarities ended. Adam Lucien had been seventeen years old when he died. Adam 117 was twenty years old, physiologically speaking, when he emerged from the bio-engineering chamber where he was grown in a vat.

The product of genetic engineering, Adam 117 was supposed to be an improvement over ordinary human beings. Well, in many ways, he was. He had an IQ of 180, and his physical capabilities were even more impressive. Adam possessed a strength the world had never seen, easily superior to that of the greatest Olympic athlete or strongman. He could lift six and a half times his own weight. He healed rapidly from any injury, including those that would kill an ordinary mortal. Once a year, he shed his skin, rejuvenating like only a serpent could, thanks to the ophidian DNA within him.

Like his serpentine ancestors, Adam is a carnivore. He cannot digest cooked eat, he has to kill his prey in order to feed. Another one of Adam 117's most disturbing characteristics is his primary weapon. When threatened, he spits acidic venom that can eat through titanium. Adam is immune to the effects of his corrosive venom, which can eat through almost any solid surface. His only weakness is extreme cold, like all serpents. The project founder wanted to create a superman. He got more than he bargained for when he created a monster.

Using Adam 117 as a blueprint, the project created several other superhumans. The next one was Eve, a six-foot-tall, red-haired and green-eyed Caucasian female. She was created by combining human and animal DNA, most specifically that of a mongoose. Eve is stronger and faster than any human being on the planet. She can lift four times her body weight and run at speeds exceeding that of any Olympic athlete. The project heads were pleased with Eve, who exhibited far more humane behavior than Adam 117, whom they clearly discovered had sociopathic tendencies. After Adam and Eve, they created Solomon and Mariam, the last creations of the project before Dr. Lucien decided to shut it down, prompting his death at the hands of Adam 117.

Having discovered that the project heads considered him a mistake and wanted him dead, Adam 117 decided to escape, but not before confronting his creator/father. He escaped his quarters, melting through the steel barriers designed to hold even him, and barged into Dr. Lucien's office. He killed the man who created him, and stole the blueprints from his office. Adam set fire to the labs that night, killing most of the project personnel. This happened on January 17, 2008. Fortunately, Eve was able to escape and took with her the twins, Solomon and Mariam, who had been created using human blood from Arthur Chang, a deceased Asian prodigy long connected to the project along with scorpion DNA.

Eve was twenty years old, physiologically speaking, when Adam 117 destroyed the project headquarters. The twins were fresh from the vats, and thus still immature. Although mere weeks old, they had the look of adolescents. With the project scientists, experts and caretakers dead and gone, and Adam 117 on the loose, Eve became the twins caregiver. They found themselves alone and broke in a strange world, the world of ordinary human beings. Fortunately, with Eve's genius-level IQ and resourcefulness, she adapted well to the outside world. Thus, Eve fashioned a new identity for herself. She became Evelyn Masterson, University of Toronto civil engineering student and academic luminary. As for the twins, Solomon and Mariam, they became Sol and Mary Yamamoto, Eve's "adoptive" siblings.

Eve and the twins tried their best to live normal lives, while knowing that Adam 117 was out there. Adam remade himself as Jericho McAdams, McGill University-educated corporate shark. In the five years since the project was destroyed, he crafted a new identity for himself, completed university at an accelerated rate, and became a rising executive at Excelsior Enterprises in downtown Montreal, Quebec. At some point, Adam 117 met Leopold McKane, a dying billionaire. He offered him immortality...for a price. Using his own DNA's recuperative powers, Adam 117 lengthened the old man's life in exchange for wealth, power and influence. Not only did Jericho McAdams become the president of the special projects division after McKane Industries absorbed Excelsior Enterprises, he also became McKane's right-hand man.

McKane Industries began venturing into cutting-edge genetic engineering, where immortality lay, according to what Adam 117 promised Leopold McKane. Using the blueprints from Dr. Lucien's project, McKane Industries scientists were able to create a special formula which transformed ordinary human beings into something more. These enhanced men and women were imperfect beings, but in Adam 117's mind, they were the first steps towards something more. He envisioned an army of supermen and superwomen taking the world, with him as their leader. Eve, Solomon and Mariam were still out there and would have to be dealt with at some point. No matter, though. The first initial trials of the formula had been successful. The twelve men and nine women selected for the experiment, all of them hardened convicts between the ages of twenty and forty, had been turned into superhuman warriors. Of course, such unruly sociopaths wouldn't listen to anyone and they'd prove hard to control. Unfortunately for them, their abilities though superior were far below those of Adam 117, the first superhuman. He subdued the strongest of them in single combat, thus proving his superiority to them.

These were but the first of his troops, of course. Adam envisioned himself leading an army of tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of supermen and superwomen against the paltry governments of the various nations of the Earth and wresting power from their hands. Yes, one day he would rule the world. That's why he was created. The strong survives and the weak dies, that's the way of the world. Ordinary human beings were soft and weak, but they were also belligerent, xenophobic and numerous, therefore he couldn't underestimate them. For now he'd play nice with his fellow corporate sharks and McKane, his "ally". Someday, he wouldn't need them. One day, very soon, he would rule all. Until then, he'd play nice and hide until the right time to strike. Like a true snake.