The Nefarious Doings of Dr. X

He was supposed to be the epitome of human grace and kindness. Goodness manifest. He was to be the apex of human nature. My gift, to the world. What went wrong? Who is to say, save the philosophers?

It was the perfection of the Nature-O-Boost gene, a genetic reinforcement that would enhance every aspect of a human being's nature: their strength, their intellect, their confidence, their goodness - a genetic holy grail to which I had devoted my academic life, despite the lack of support, the derision even. And derided now, by he who I had laboured so long to create.

To begin, my faith was rewarded: he was all I had hoped for, and more still. A life, his life, willfully devoted to selflessness. Or was it, I wonder, even then?

It was to dentistry that he wished to devote his life: there he saw the most amount of good could be done. So, under my tutelage, and with his incredible intellectual prowess, it was soon that he received his medical degree and began his career in the field of oral hygiene. For years he was happy, and his reputation grew and grew, until he was the most sought-after dentist in the world: he maintained the teeth and gums of the most popular celebrities, the most distinguished scientists. How proud was I! Of my son. And so it was that the real story had only just begun.

"I am the most respected doctor in my field. All who come to me leave with that degree of oral hygiene that remains unparalleled in the world: I am a living saint among humanity, the philanthropy I undertake is unprecedented! Ah! But there is so much more that I could do for my fellow creature, had I the capacity; so much more that I could accomplish, had I the power!"

Who could say but he when his descent began? But it was a madness, to be sure, that fueled his deeds. A corrupting lust to do more good? An abuse of power that led to the path of evil? The reasons may number, but the result remains the same. That result, with which I must live.

"Dr. Shang! Welcome!"

"Aha! Hello, doctor! Time again for the torment!"

"Ah Dr. Shang, your teeth are a perfect reflection of your mind: brilliant! I expect this shall take no time at all, if you would but follow me."

Dr. Shang was led into one of the rooms, seated in the dentist's chair, and a paper towel was clasped round his neck.

"And where is your assistant?"

"It has been a slow day, so I let her go early."

"Yes, always the generous one. You spoil your employees too much - it will be the ruin of you!" Dr. Shang laughed, and stole a glance at his watch: nine o'clock in the morning.

"Yes, yes. What is the ruin of who remains to be seen," the dentist muttered, whilst preparing his instruments.

"I'm sorry?" Dr. Shang asked. The dentist's back was turned to him, so
Dr. Shang took a look around the room. The room that was his private dwelling for a half hour each year seemed odd today: something was not right, something was out of the ordinary - but a longer inspection was ended before it could begin:

"Please lie back!" the dentist said. "Breathe this in and count to ten backwards!" He fixed the overhead lamp on the doctor: dark against the light, he seemed to be brandishing an oxygen mask threateningly, his powerful bald form towering over Dr. Shang, who lay on his back on the lowered chair.

"Doctor, I don't understand - wha-what's going on here?" he stammered.

The dentist moved towards him, the mask in hand. His shadow fell across Dr. Shang as me spoke slowly and evenly: "Please breathe this in, Dr. Shang, and count to ten backwards."

"I will do no such thing! This is to be a routine check-up, not this, this joke!" Dr. Shang exclaimed, and moved to push aside the hand bearing the mask. But in response the dentist let the mask fall to the floor, and the opposite hand came quickly to rest flat against Dr. Shang's chest, holding him to the chair with a subtle yet intense strength.

"You are brilliant, Dr. Shang, yes. But you lack the conviction to fully utilize that brilliance." The dentist pulled the thin water vacuum from the tray. The tip glinted especially sharp metal in the lamp's light. "I, however, possess that conviction - that power."

"Wha-what are you talking about?" Dr. Shang's eyes flicked from the dentist to the vacuum, which hovered just above his head.

The dentist laughed a mirthless laugh. "That, you see, is my point.
Those who wish to do their best must go the farthest. Those who wish to gain the most must sacrifice the greatest."

And with a flash the vacuum was plunged into the cranium of Dr. Shang, who let out a scream. Dr. X made sure the vacuum was secure, then took a seat on his stool, removing his hand from Shang's shocked body. With eyes wide with terror, Shang watched his assailant pull out another vacuum, attached to a very large industrial pump, which sat atop the instrument tray. The tube was slid through the top of Dr. X's smooth pate as he continued: "I am only one person and as such can only do so much. With more people I could do more. But I have found none who have that strength of character, that strength which, seemingly, only I have. So because I cannot find those people, I must become them: use what they were never capable of using. Do what they never dreamed of doing."

A trickle of blood clouded Dr. Shang's vision, and so he only heard Dr.
X switch on the pump. And faded, as his brain was sucked from his skull, and directed into that of the mad dentist's.

The murder of Dr. Shang was as if I myself had been murdered. And when my son disappeared shortly thereafter, I thought my love for him would go as well. But it did not. Could not.

It returned, as a pain in my heart, when Dr. X came back into my life.
Into my life. Into everyone's life. But he was not the same person I had created: he had become twisted with a terrible evil. Dr. Shang's brain had not taken to the fusion, recoiled at the horror of the host brain. But the Nature-O-Boost had made Dr. X's brain too strong, and it held a most powerful grasp on the new addition, so that remained of
Shang could only run so far: and it became an appendage on the top of my son's head, stretching towards all four corners in a futile effort to free itself; but forever entwined with Dr. X's brain. It was thus as I saw him nest, in the news reports of some villain unleashing terror upon the ordinary citizenry.

Crushed and abandoned, I retreated here, to seclude myself - to try again. But not to make the same mistake. And so it was that I devised Chemical 27: the Free Will Inhibitor. Like a moral immune system, it defended the mind from malicious thoughts, stayed the impulses that trigger that reprehensible behaviour. And with a combination of
Chemical 27 and the Nature-O-Boost, you were born: the true virtue of goodness; the unwavering upholder of justice and right. My second son,
Captain X.

A sea breeze rustled the bamboo shoots at the top of the grassy hill.
Far in the distance the cry of a gull briefly broke the long silence.

"So," Captain X said softly, "Dr. X is my brother."

"Yes."

He drew a deep breath and looked around. From the top of the hill all of the small island was visible: bamboo trees blanketed most of its surface, interrupted by small patches of grassland and the periphery of sand rocks that marked the beach. The sea lapped at the island's edges, as the climbing sun glinted off its waves. In the island's centre was his home and international headquarters, the residence and laboratory of his father, Professor X. His gaze returned to that man, who sat on the grass before him.

Professor X continued: "The knowledge of your brother was not meant to be kept secret from you. But I felt it was necessary to withhold it until that time when I felt it right that you should know. And would be able to accept that knowledge."

"Yes, of course. For I have battled many villains in my career, foiled plots both diabolical and vile, and saved citizens and cities from calamity and catastrophe!" Captain X looked up, a light in his eyes.
"Yes, I do not suspect it any coincidence that Dr. X has not struck since my birth, for his infamy among my more seasoned colleagues is of the highest disrepute. An ill-shapen brain that crafty, a twisted heart that black, would not silence so quickly otherwise.

"But you have waited until I have proven myself the greatest of my league: Dr. X will have myself to reckon with now, should he threaten the populace again!"

Professor X shook his head. "And what would you propose to do, should Dr. X strike again?"

"Put an end to his evil ways!" Captain X confidently replied. "Bring justice to bear on him, that he might see his error, and denounce this terrible superiority of his!"

"You believe it to be that simple?"

"He was intended to be good," Captain X said, "and to good can his fallen self be restored!"

The professor looked at his son. "But it is not a matter of restoration. It is a matter of choice. And Dr. X chose evil."

"You do not approve of his actions then!" Captain X inquired. "You cannot love the things he does!"

Professor X shook his head. "Of course I do not approve of his actions: they are villainous. But nonetheless he is my son. And I gave him the freedom to choose his path, on his own. I had hopes for him, but that he did not fulfill those hopes does not mean I should care any less for him. That is what makes my love for him unconditional, as a father's love should be."

"But he is a supercriminal! He must be stopped, his tyranny must be curbed!"

"To be sure," the professor replied, "but do not expect any reversal in his way of thinking: the choices Dr. X made, and make, determine who he is. Human nature is more ambiguous than I had originally anticipated in my original formulae: with your brother, there is no type of fundamental structure to which he could revert - " Professor X stopped.

"Like me," Captain X voiced the unspoken thought.

"Yes," Professor X replied, "like yourself." The moment Chemical 27 was proven a success Professor X knew this moment would come. His hesitations in the laboratory during Captain X's creation had almost terminated the project, wondering: what happens when Captain X encounters the question?

Captain X opened his mouth and said: "But freedom of choice is needless!"

The professor's tension suddenly disappeared and was replaced with curiosity as his son continued: "Who, given the choice between good and evil, justice and injustice, would choose immorality?"

Professor X laughed to himself when he realized Captain X's reasoning.
"But of course you would not understand the idea of free will. As I did not understand the implications of that freedom... Who is to say?" He looked out over the ocean for a moment. "Who is to say who is right and who is not? Which is better and which is worse?

"But it is getting into the day and I have yet work to accomplish. So I retire to the laboratory. But it was important that you know about your family, even if you do not fully understand them."

Professor X slowly raised himself off of the grass and walked down the hill, through the bamboo shoots, towards the laboratory.

Left to his own thoughts, Captain X remained there on the hill for several hours still. He thought deeply about good and evil as the sun swung overhead and began its descent; he thought intensely about free will and determinism as the sun slowly climbed down the darkening western sky; and he thought sincerely about family and love as the sun melted into the sea and cool twilight breeze put the grass and leaves to their rustling slumber.

And as the sun disappeared completely, Captain X walked back home - but something seemed amiss to his superattuned senses.

He could not believe his eyes when he arrived at his home: a giant hole had been blasted into the northwest wall! Scorched rubble lay strewn about the area and out poured smoke from inside the building.

"Professor!" cried Captain X. "Professor, where are you?" He leaped through the ruined wall and ran at superhuman speeds down the exposed corridor towards the laboratory, calling out his father's name. Doors had been blasted open, walls had been scorched and burned, and debris lay all over the floors.

Finally he arrived at the laboratory, to find it utterly destroyed: the huge room had blasted into a black and twisted wreck. Computers and cables sparked and smoked, and pieces of wall and ceiling came crashing to the floor, which was covered in smashed equipment, upturned tables, and debris of experimental physical, chemical, and biological natures.

In a corner lay the professor, hurt and dazed. Captain X ran to him - then heard a voice, one he had never heard before yet was not altogether unfamiliar.

"Greetings, Captain X."

The professor looked at Captain X as the superhero turned around. In the centre of the room floated a massive metal chair. A large figure clad in black sat in it, a purple cape billowing like wings in the air, an "X"-shaped appendage on his bald head bobbing as the chair maintained its anti-gravitational equilibrium.

"I apologize for arriving unannounced and uninvited, but I am a busy man. My world conquest begins shortly, and I have many preliminary affairs to see to! I thought, however, that I might stop by and see my family before events began!"

"Dr. X! What villainy have you executed here!" Captain demanded.

"Oh yes, I would apologize for the damage as well, had anything of value been damaged," Dr. X scoffed, "but these gadgets are but toys compared to the devices of a true genius! These projects are but distractions from the enterprises of a true mastermind such as myself!" The chair glided towards Captain X and the professor, making the proud contemptuous smile of Dr. X easier to see.

"He is who he is," Professor X said to Captain X. "You see now, he might be stopped but he cannot be changed."

Captain X looked up at Dr. X: "Brother! See how you have hurt our father! Cease this wrongdoing! Does not your heart implore you?"

Dr. X laughed aloud. "'Brother!' So he told you that now, did he?
Well, I will call no wind-up toy brother! You are nothing but a mockery, and as such do not understand the conflict of an imploring heart!" he roared, leaning forward in his metal chair. The "X" on his head bobbed to and fro. "Your heart is that of a drone, an automaton programmed with some solitary purpose. My heart, however, is free to choose its own purpose, and I tell you now that henceforth that shall be to rid this world of sniveling, inexorable do-gooders such as yourself!"

He leaned back in his chair. "Now I have much to accomplish, and if you think you can stop me, Captain X, you shall be in for a terrible surprise!" Dr. X punctuated this warning with a laser blast from his floating chair that blew a hole through the wall above Captain X and the professor. Laughing, Dr. X flew through it and away.

Captain X turned to his father and sat him up.

"Are you all right, professor?"

Professor X brushed himself off and straightened his lab coat. "I will be fine, yes."

Captain X shook his head. "I do not understand. If we are brothers, why does he choose that which is so clearly wrong?"

"Because," Captain X's father replied, "because he can choose."

Captain X paused. "And you still call him your son?"

"Yes. That is my choice."

Captain X looked up at the blasted hole in the wall, and narrowed his eyes.

"I have no choice."