It was common knowledge that family education shaped a person's character.
As a child, Emma had been withdrawn and quiet, the kind of girl who rarely spoke to anyone and had almost no friends.
And if having an incompetent father was bad, having a mother who drank, took drugs, and cheated on him was even worse.
A household like that was enough to make life feel suffocating.
"Looks like the famous White Queen and Silver Fox did not have it easy," Drex said, watching the two beautiful sisters on the screen.
They were sisters, but they did not look alike at all. One had long brown hair. The other had platinum-blonde hair.
"Boss, do you want to bring them back?" the Black Queen asked. "They might awaken similar mutant genes."
"I do not really want to disturb their quiet lives," Drex said after a mont. "That is, assuming they actually want that quiet life for themselves."
He had no hoarding instinct. And their abilities were not especially impressive, were they? Was he supposed to bring them back just because they were pretty?
Then again, if this universe had no mutants, did that an Eric Magnus was living an ordinary life too? What about Polaris?
"The most important thing might be that Mystique is gone," Drex muttered. "She was gorgeous in her pri, but now she is probably at old-lady age."
A rare mutant Drex actually found a little regrettable. Without her powers, she was probably aging normally now, maybe around Peggy Carter's age.
Emma Frost spent her days playing the perfect white lotus.
As soon as she got ho, though, she dropped the act.
While Emma was not looking, Drex obtained a blood sample from her, and the Black Queen quickly modeled, analyzed, and tested it.
"There is indeed an X-gene in her body," the Black Queen reported. "But I cannot confirm whether it is the sa type listed in the files."
Silver Fox, Kara, was analyzed as well.
She had an X-gene too.
Emma was lying in bed. After a whole day of forced performance and false sweetness, she felt tired and sick to her stomach. But it was sothing she had to do.
"Emma Grace Frost."
A voice suddenly rang out.
Then a figure wrapped in shadow appeared, making Emma jump in alarm.
From the way he looked, he was obviously not soone decent.
"Relax, Emma Grace Frost. I am not a good person."
The shadow said it like that was sohow a point of pride.
Emma was so stunned by the bluntness that she did not react for a long mont.
"Enough with the small talk," the shadow continued. "I ca because you have the potential to beco one of us. Do you want to understand the aning of life? Do you want to truly... live?"
Emma shrank back on the bed and said nothing.
"Then I suppose I interrupted you," the shadow said, fading a little. "If you want to keep living this kind of artificial, exhausting life forever, I will leave."
"Wait!"
Emma called out.
In the next room, Silver Fox Kara said the exact sa thing.
"What can you give ?" Emma asked as the shadow regained its form.
At first, she had been afraid. But the mont she heard him say she would live like this forever, fear was replaced by sothing else.
She did not want to go on living this way. She did not even know why she was living like this. She wanted change.
"The ability to break free from all of it."
"What do I have to pay?" Emma asked.
Even when she was little, she had learned there was no such thing as a free lunch.
"Freedom and loyalty," the shadow answered. "You will beco one of us. After that, betrayal is impossible. The only result of betrayal is death. But honestly, your current life is not much different from being dead already, is it?"
Emma froze at the words freedom and loyalty.
As everyone knew, Arica worshiped freedom above all else. Freedom, democracy, liberty, all of that was sacred.
To make her pay with her freedom...
"I will give you ti to think about it," the shadow said. "Take your ti. But if you refuse, I will not appear again."
He had not expected Emma to agree so quickly, so he turned to leave.
"I agree. Can you take with you now?"
He had underestimated how desperately Emma wanted to escape her family and her life.
"Of course," the shadow replied. "But once you choose, you cannot take it back. Are you sure?"
"...I am sure."
Emma no longer felt she had anything worth holding on to.
Then she vanished.
In the next room, Silver Fox Kara chose to think it over for a few days. She could not make a decision that quickly.
"Welco to the team, Emma Grace Frost."
Standing before Emma was a figure covered in black armor, with a simple cape hanging from his back.
"You are...?"
Emma saw a few other silhouettes around her, but none of them were clear enough to make out.
"You can call the Black King. Co with ."
Drex addressed her in that low, calm voice.
Black King?
Emma was still frightened in this unfamiliar place, so she hurried after him.
Drex led her into the laboratory.
"What are you going to do?" Emma asked nervously.
Why had he brought her here?
"I told you, Emma. You have the potential to beco one of us. Now it is ti to develop that potential."
Drex took her hand before fear could drive her into running, then fixed her to the operating table.
"Do not worry, Emma. This will be over soon."
Under Drex's power, Emma slipped into unconsciousness.
First, Drex extracted her X-gene and created a full profile of it.
Only then did he begin the process of awakening and activating it.
He watched as the changes started spreading through her body.
From the cellular level upward, her normal cells were rapidly overwritten and transford into X-gene cells.
Then Emma opened her eyes.
Her entire body had turned into a diamond-like structure.
Drex imdiately felt soone trying to invade his mind. He struck back without hesitation.
Emma clutched her head and cried out in pain.
One of Emma Frost's best-known abilities was telepathy. She could read thoughts and mories, forcibly alter them, control minds, block psychic intrusions, link multiple minds together, and use telepathy to place victims into unconscious sleep. She could also use a brainwave amplifier. In terms of raw telepathic strength among mutants, only Professor X stood above her.
Her other ability was full-body diamond transformation.
In that form, Emma's body beca nearly flawless and could withstand enormous force. She did not feel fatigue, did not need water or food, and was immune to psychic attacks from other telepaths.
However, she could not use telepathy while in that form.
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