I AM A MUTANT??

'Ahhh no..more plea..se make it.. stop it hurts.. hurts so much'

Experiencing pain, immeasurable pain was the only thing Yao remembered when he came to his senses.

"Whe..where is this?" He muttered as he felt the cold floor beneath his aching body.

There was not an inch of his body that didn't hurt, so much so that despite finding himself in an unfamiliar environment, he chose to just lay there, unmoving; Not even the sound of heavy footsteps echoing through the narrow corridor made him lift his head from the ground.

"Rise and shine, vermin." A voice full of disgust echoed in his ears, followed by the clanking of a metal door as the footsteps got closer.

"You're not dead yet No.37, so stop acting like it!"

With a heavy thud, a combat boot landed on his stomach, making him spit out a mixture of dried blood and saliva; his unsightly look didn't garner him any sympathy here.

"Mutant scum!" 

With a clang, a plate of food with a loaf of mouldy bread and a bowl of soup were thrown to the ground.

Yao stared blankly at the spit floating in the soup and looked up at his 'caretaker'.

He saw a caucasian man wearing a black uniform with a face full of scars; staring at him with a face full of malice and disgust, as if looking at a piece of trash.

Yao glanced at the name tag on the man's chest and noted the name, Gavin Gibson to memory.

"What are you staring at, mutant? You better drink your soup before it gets cold."

There was a hint of ridicule in his voice; he glanced at the mutant who had struggled hard to drag himself across the room and was now leaning against the wall.

He walked out of the cell, sliding shut the metal door behind himself; satisfied with the look of terror he had brought to the boy's face.

"Huu huu..." The boy was left alone in the room, wheezing. 

"Mutants?"

The word seemed to evoke a strange feeling in him, a long-forgotten memory emerged in his mind.

"Hiss..." he took a sharp breath as the memories kept unfolding in his brain and his eyes became clear.

"Did - did I transmigrate? And that too in the Marvel universe, as a mutant of all!"

Yao found it a bit hard to believe. He remembered feeling a little drowsy while reading X-Men: Days of Future Past after a rough day at his uncle's farm, so he narrowed his eyes for a short while; when he opened his eyes, he had switched worlds and bodies.

And why did it have to be in a mutant's body?

Naturally, he is no stranger to the plight of the mutant kind. Scientifically speaking, it is just a genetic mutation in humans, giving certain individuals an extra gene called the X-gene.

Typically it awakens once the individual approaches adolescence, manifesting as various extraordinary abilities.

Normally, Yao would be overjoyed to have superpowers, but now he didn't look pleased at all.

Mutants weren't exactly popular in the Marvel world. It wouldn't be wrong to say they were despised by almost everyone. Most governments in the world were running experiments on them, some in secret and some openly.

And he was one such mutant, one who was arrested because his identity was exposed!

The pain shooting across his body kept count of the numerous experiments that had been conducted on him since his capture.

Yao now understood the reason for man's behaviour before, In the eyes of many humans, mutants are deformed freaks of nature; they are everything that has gone wrong with the world.

To them, mutants are not human beings and do not deserve to have human rights!

It infuriated Yao, so much so that he wanted to burn every last one of them to ashes.

"I'll remember each one of you, just wait for me..."

After cursing to his heart's content, he turned his attention to face the current predicament.

But with the pain coursing through his body, it didn't seem like he would be able to do much, Yao couldn't help but frown in helplessness.

"That's right!"

"My mutant ability!"

His eyes suddenly lit up, and a flicker of hope arose in his heart.

But he didn't have a clue about his so-called superpower, it couldn't be something too strong, or he wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

Before he could put too much thought into it, he felt a strange attraction towards the few rays of light falling on the floor.

Yao looked up at the small window high in the cell and stared at some of the golden sunlight shining in. He couldn't help but reach out his hand.

As soon as his palms touched the light, Yao felt a warm feeling spread from his palms throughout his body, faintly easing his pain.

If there was a second person in the cell, he would surely be surprised to see the boy's blue irises turning bright golden!

"Is this my mutant ability?"

"Absorbing sunlight to replenish energy? I can feel my hunger going away. What am I? A fucking plant!!"

Saying that Yao was disappointed would be an understatement.

His mutant ability can provide him with sustenance and help him recover from injuries faster, but it is currently of no use to him in getting out of this mess.

"No wonder I've been classified as a Delta-level mutant, a second-grade mutant with slight healing ability."

The incoming sunlight seemed to provide enough energy for him to be able to slowly recall the memories in his body.

But the big question now was how to best use his little ability to escape this god-forsaken prison.

Would he have to stay locked here for the rest of his life, to be dissected and studied like a rat, and finally die on the operating table?

Yao squatted on the ground, his eyes red with tears, and his mind in a whirlpool of emotions.

His fists were clenched tight enough for his nails to start digging into his palms and his breath kept getting faster and faster. He seemed to be having a panic attack.

Perhaps it was this intense release of emotions that led to a strong wave of energy suddenly erupting around him!

Yao was suddenly pulled out of this violent storm of emotions when an emotionless sound rang in his ears.    

[Extreme emotional distress detected...]

[Stablizing host's emotions...]

"What is this sound?"

"Could it be.."

But before Yao could complete the sentence, he was interrupted by a sharp beeping noise coming from the back of his neck; the beep was quickly followed by a jolt of electricity, and he immediately collapsed to the ground.

Feeling the sharp pain coming from his neck, Yao gritted his teeth and finally noticed the collar hanging around his neck.

A power-inhibiting collar!

A device used to control mutants by limiting the use of their mutant abilities!

A collar not too different from a dog collar, not only strangling him but also strangling his mutant abilities.

Even a mutant like him with no offensive power was not spared, giving him a measure of how difficult his escape from here was going to be.