With Drex Valen's superbrain, shaping a human body was almost trivial. The real challenge was activating the brainwaves and waking the body up.
The woman lying there with her eyes closed looked strikingly similar to Android 18.
Drex had also copied a structure of mutant-like genetic cells into her design, giving her a foundation for abilities rather than leaving her as a hollow shell.
If this worked, then the next step would probably be to create human-made versions of the White Queen, Mystique, and a whole roster of other artificial mutants.
Electromagnetic waves mimicked brainwaves as they slipped into the body, then simulated neural currents to bring every system online.
The heart began to beat. Blood started to circulate. The lungs expanded and drew in breath. The stomach began secreting digestive fluid. Every organ in the body started working.
Only the brain remained stubbornly silent.
No matter how many tis Drex stimulated it, there was still no brainwave response.
"If Frankenstein could do it, then there's no reason my scientific version of creating life should fail..." Drex muttered.
He placed both hands on the body's head and increased the output of his electromagnetic field.
The woman's body began to tremble visibly.
Her eyelids quivered. Beneath them, her eyes moved rapidly, just like soone dreaming.
Then, all at once, a violent surge of electricity erupted from her body.
The surrounding instrunts remained perfectly intact. They had all been built from Drex's atomic alloy, so even he would have had trouble smashing them by hand.
Her eyes opened.
Blue-white arcs flickered within them.
She had the blank innocence of a newborn, with no self-awareness and no sense of right or wrong.
She lunged at Drex and reached for him.
He did not move.
An invisible magnetic field caught her in midair and held her there, suspended and helpless.
"An infant mind, no thought, no will... but she really is a blank slate," Drex said.
He turned her over and inspected her from every angle with his magnetic control.
Then she started crying. Loudly.
Drex ignored it. His lab was well insulated. There was no chance of anyone outside misunderstanding what was happening in here.
After confirming that her body had no major flaws, he moved her in front of him and used psychic force to invade her brain.
He freely reshaped her mories, then gave her consciousness and thought.
"I am... Android 18?"
She looked at the man standing before her.
He was her creator.
And incredibly strong.
Drex watched her, thinking ahead.
That ant he could create other characters he had seen before. Their appearance, at least, was possible to reproduce.
But only the shape.
Their soul, their abilities, and the core of what made them themselves would all be different.
He released the magnetic restraint around her, and Android 18 dropped neatly to the floor.
The version he had created, of course, did not possess the overwhelming strength needed to crush a Super Saiyan. Drex himself might not even be able to take one in a straight fight, so there was no reason to expect his creation to do it.
Still, that could change.
He still had the Book of Life, the Kryptonian genetic archive containing every recorded gene of the Kryptonian race. In theory, he could use that database to create people as well.
If that happened, he would have a Kryptonian army.
What would the three great empires of the universe matter then? What would Thanos's Black Order matter? They would all be nothing but a fart in the wind.
"Still," Drex said quietly, "I'll need to watch out for things like the Mind Stone and Soul Stone. Those are the kind of nonsense that doesn't play by normal rules."
He had never dared create a Kryptonian army for that very reason. And, of course, because he lacked proper incubation chambers.
Back on Krypton, he had been a researcher in weapons and materials, not in genetics or biology.
"Number 18, how do you feel?" Drex asked.
She was still standing there without a stitch on, but with a wave of his hand, atoms rearranged themselves across her body and ford a suit woven from vibranium fibers.
"I... feel good," she said after a brief pause. She did not refuse her creator's question.
From Drex's observation, her strength had likely already surpassed one hundred tons and was approaching two hundred. Her body was impervious to blades and bullets, had excellent resistance to physical and energy attacks, and could fire energy waves as well.
By raw combat power, she was probably on par with Blonsky's Super-Abomination.
After telling her to stay here and not wander off, Drex left to attend Urd's birthday dinner.
At the most luxurious restaurant in New York, Urd had gone out of her way to wear sothing completely unlike her usual style.
"Drex, you're here."
She had noticed that the entire restaurant was empty except for the staff. She had originally intended to reserve the whole place, but when she asked the manager, she learned that the restaurant had already been bought by her boss, Drex Valen, and was now used strictly as a private dining room.
It was a well-known restaurant in very selective circles, one of those places that regular people never even thought about entering.
Urd had never dread of stepping inside before she beca Drex Valen's secretary and assistant at Blade Tech Industries.
A lot of rich people had tried to book tables here, and the restaurant had turned them away without blinking.
The owner behind it all was an extrely capable man. Plenty of people had tried to buy the restaurant from him and all had failed.
Until Drex asked.
The man had given it to him outright.
Drex had bought it because he liked the view over the New York skyline and wanted, at least once in a while, to sit above the city like one of the great n of the world.
Normally, he would never waste money on sothing so useless.
Even now, with more money than he could reasonably spend, he still did not make a habit of throwing it away.
What surprised Urd most was the restaurant manager.
He cleared the entire room, politely escorted the other guests out, and then changed into waiter's attire so he could personally serve her.
The departing socialites did not look angry at all. In fact, they sent Urd aningful, almost amused looks and handed her their business cards with surprising warmth.
Drex lifted his glass and clinked it against hers.
"You look beautiful tonight," he said. "Like you walked straight out of a painting. I'm afraid if I speak too loudly, I'll scare you back into the fra."
"Thank you," Urd said, clearly delighted.
"Your birthday gift."
Drex placed a small box in front of her.
"Having you here is already the best gift I could ask for," Urd said, though she still accepted it and opened the lid.
Inside was a sapphire the size of a pigeon's egg.
Clear and flawless, it caught the restaurant lights and turned them into sothing dazzling. Urd found her eyes fixed on it almost instantly.
"I thought cold tones suited you," Drex said with a faint smile.
He liked cool colors too, though his preferences ran mostly to blue and black.
"Does it have a na?" Urd asked, utterly captivated.
"The Azure Queen," Drex said. "It's the finest sapphire."
"I love it. Thank you."
She closed the box gently.
"That's all that matters," Drex replied with a nod.
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