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History

Children of the Vault (Earth-616) from X-Men Vol 2 191 0001

The Children of the Vault emerge in the outer world

Supernovas[]

In the early 1970's, a research group mostly formed by biologists, but also by the temporal physicist Bella Pagan, conducted experiments of temporal acceleration and parallell evolution. Largely derided by the scientific community, they found backing in South America. They received a cargo ship from the Chilean government to operate in, which was kept in international waters for decades, after which knowledge of the project was largely lost. In the locally accelerated temporal environment of the ship, also known as the "Vault", time moved faster by a factor of several hundred times. In the few decades that passed in the surrounding world, a microsociety of highly evolved beings descended from a human genetic base over a time period of six thousand years.[2]

Using advanced technological tools to adapt their organisms, they evolved into superpowered beings, now considering themselves a new species. Following an ecological tragedy, the "Children" of the Vault were expected to leave their captivity and take control over the world.[2] One of the scientists formerly involved in the project, Doctor Casales, grew guilty over the group's unethical actions. He hired Sabretooth and his associate Pasco to assassinate those who had worked on the experiments. After killing Casales, the two mercenaries found the ship, the Conquistador, completely abandoned and sealed off on the open ocean. Coincidentally to their arrival, the effect caused by the M-Day event which depowered most of the mutant population, was misinterpreted in the Vault as a global cataclysm. Thus, the Children of the Vault unexpectedly emerged. A depowered Pasco died in the resulting conflict, but Sabretooth escaped.[2]

The Children of the Vault sought to eliminate Sabretooth to keep their existence secret until they were ready to make their presence known. In their attempts, they destroyed a town in Nogales, Mexico. The Child Serafina manipulated survivors and the media into thinking that Sabretooths' supposed allies, the X-Men, were responsible.[5] Sabretooth contacted the X-Men as they investigated the allegations. In order to kill Sabretooth before the X-Men could learn of the Vault's existence, the mutants Northstar and Aurora were kidnapped and brainwashed. During this process, Serafina tampered with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s security footage, allowing for another opportunity to discredit the X-Men.[6] Serafina and Perro secretly supervised Northstar and Aurora attacking the Xavier Institute. The surprise attack was initially successful, but unpredicted factors led the X-Men to defeat their lackeys.[3] Their failure led Cable to learn the truth behind the Children of the Vault.[3] Simultaneously, Serafina decided to infiltrate the Institute herself. Although invisible to telepaths and machines, Wolverine became mildly aware of her presence. Still, she easily made her way to the injured Lady Mastermind in the infirmary and hijacked her powers to trap Cannonball in an illusion. Cannonball identified gaps in his memory as Serafina was intercepted by Wolverine. She was able to escape, but her imprudence fully exposed the Children of the Vault.[2]

The X-Man Rogue formed a new team of X-Men to directly confront the Children of the Vault, who decided to redirect the full power of El Conquistador, as a mighty flying ship, to the Xavier Institute. The X-Men infiltrated the ship to engage in battle and were restrained. As the X-Men failed in their mission, the Children of the Vault successfully arrived at the Xavier Institute.[7] However, the shape-shifter Mystique tricked the Children of the Vault as Cable sabotaged their sources of energy. The X-Men successfully destroyed the Children of the Vault before they could annihilate the academy and the majority of the world's remaining mutants. With his last breaths, the leader of the Children of the Vault Sangre, who was mortally wounded by Mystique, tried to ram El Conquistador into the school. His plan was stopped at the last minute by Cannonball and the O*N*E Sentinels. Although the main agents in the Children of the Vault apparently perished in the end, many managed to escape the brawl alive, including Perro and Cadena. They left behind three thousand animal carcasses genetically sculpted to resemble them, so that the X-Men would believe they had been killed in an explosion on the ship. The Children of the Vault escaped to Ecuador to hole up in the Wild Sentinel facility once used by Cassandra Nova. Now led by Cadena, the Children of the Vault resumed their plan of world domination and declared mutantkind as their main opponents.[8]

Collision[]

Having retreated to the Corridor in the city of Quitado, the Children of the Vault maintained their society. Unexpectedly, they met problems due to the erratic behavior of one of their own. The rebellious Luz conducted acts of vandalism to insult the leadership of the Vault. She wanted to avoid being conscripted into their Angelfire Project, which would use thirty Children with energy-based powers to generate energy for their entire city forever. Imprisoned by Corregidora, Luz managed to escape to Mumbai, where she ran into the X-Men. The Children of the Vault sent Sentinels after her[9] that were obliterated by the X-Men. Recognizing their enemies, the Children of the Vault attacked the X-Men, particularly seeking revenge against Rogue.[10] During the battle, Luz traded places with Indra's fiancée Vaipala, who was kidnapped alongside Rogue and the powerful Magneto.[11] Rogue was sentenced to death while Magneto was chosen to compose the Angelfire machine. However, as the technology was activated without the real Luz, the lack of power of the doppelgänger caused the machine to malfunction, which crashed the Corridor into Mumbai.[11] With the imminent collapse of their city, the Children of the Vault were overpowered by the X-Men. In their escape, which was successful due to Luz surrendering, Magneto was able to provide the necessary energy to separate Mumbai from Quitado. This action led the Children of the Vault's city to be lost outside of space-time.[12]

Into the Vault[]

As part of their main plan of subjugating Earth, the artificial intelligence of the City upgraded the Children of the Vault and released them onto the world to evaluate their chances. The upgraded individuals became second-generation Children of the Vault.[13] In their mission, Serafina was captured by the anti-mutant organization Orchis to be studied in one of their bases. Orchis' enemies, citizens of the mutant nation of Krakoa, raided the installation, accidentally freeing her. Confused, Serafina escaped,[14] but was tracked by Wolverine to the abandoned Wild Sentinel Factory. The entrance to the Vault was exposed to the mutants, who sent Laura Kinney, Synch, and Darwin to infiltrate their society. However, as soon as the three mutants entered the Vault, they lost contact with the exterior world and became trapped in the temporally accelerated environment.[15] The City immediately identified the contamination of its environment and sent the Children of the Vault to eliminate the mutants. However, the mutant Synch was able to replicate their technologically-based abilities, killing them.[13]

In retaliation, the Child Aguja unleashed a massive force field to destroy her foes.[13] The Children of the Vault were rebuilt and upgraded by the City, believing the mutants to have been destroyed. Considering that the Children needed an extra upgrade to face humanity's advances in Orchis and mutantkind's development of Krakoa, the Children of the Vault prepared to undergo a second upgrade as third-generation Children, which still proved not to be sufficient. The mutant spies survived, however. For one century, they gathered intelligence about the Vault. Eventually, the mutants were ambushed, and Darwin was captured. Darwin's evolving abilities were considered by the City to be the key to granting the Children of the Vault another upgrade for a fourth generation. Synch and Wolverine attempted to escape the Vault to inform Krakoa about how the Children of the Vault functioned. They were chased and killed, but Synch was able to retain his memories upon resurrection.[16]

The Quiet Council of Krakoa imperatively commissioned Forge to combat the Children of the Vault. Forge developed Project: Blackbox, an artificial reality generated with Krakoan technology that trapped the Children of the Vault within an illusory world, where they believed that they had accomplished their mission. In fact, they were trapped in stasis. Moreover, a mutant signature was identified inside the Vault. Believing it belonged to Darwin, Forge entered the Vault.[17] He found Laura held captive in the City,[4] but was quickly identified by Serafina. Forge mentioned that he wished to see the results of Blackbox. Being curious, Serafina allowed him leave the Vault with Wolverine. As he left, Forge interacted with the intelligence of the City and learned that Darwin had merged with it after being captured.[18]

Children of Tomorrow[]

The Krakoan society eventually collapsed due to an attack by Orchis, which led to Krakoa going dormant and the mutant population vanishing.[19] The Krakoan technology was dismantled and Project: Blackbox became unresponsive. This caused the Children of the Vault to be reactivated.[20] Upon reactivation, the Children of the Vault were free to exert their influence upon the world with no mutant opposition. They developed a virus to influence humanity into accepting their status as saviors of the world. Presenting themselves as the "Children of Tomorrow", they shared their technology with afflicted regions of the planet in order to gain the world's trust.[1]

Unfortunately for them, the time-traveling mutants Cable and Bishop were able to foil their plans. Cable used his strain of the Techno-Organic Virus to infect the Children's city, which would not only engulf them all, but also form a Spire that would summon the Technarchy and devour the entire Earth. Left with no choice, Serafina reversed the Children's infection and let humanity free, causing the humans to now hate the Children with a burning passion. After Cable re-absorbed the virus as promised, the Children left the Earth and returned to the Vault.[21]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Various advanced technologies

Notes

  • The Children of the Vault are very similar to the Neo.
  • Without their technologies and the power required to operate them, they are primarily just normal humans.[8]

See Also

Links and References

References

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