Just my idea of how some people ended up with the Union. Up till now there isn't a hint that it didn't happen like this, but... Well, we might never know ;)

Warnings: blood and violence

How to...

... visit an old friend

Dr. Crombel looked down to the bloody mess at his feet without any feelings for the man who was coughing blood. He only felt satisfaction at the sight of the broken man who had dared to oppose him and his ideas. They had been working together for a few years now; they even called each other by their given names and were known as friends. His colleague had been rather enthusiastic about enhancing the human body like they did with the guards for the Union. Perhaps it was because his wife died due to her sickly, weak body. Helping sick people to stay alive! Tss, what for an idiotic goal.

Crombel looked to his right side to take a glance at one of the three slightly enhanced soldiers that he had taken with him on this act of punishment. That wasn't enough! He wanted more, something better! Something equal to Species A or Species B or werewolves and Nobles as some would call them. So Crombel developed the concept of the M-series, and that was where his colleague – who was almost as intelligent and genial as himself – had finally snapped.

He had babbled something about ethic and human rights. That fool! And if that wasn't enough, he had dared to steal documents and data to use against Crombel and the Union. He must have lost his mind in the last few days.

So Dr. Crombel had selected three guards to visit his old colleague and friend in order to get back his belongings and to kill that irritating man. It had taken some emphatic persuasion, but finally, the other scientist had revealed where in his house he had hidden the documents. One of the guards was in the next room, and he was checking if the almost dead man had told the truth. If he would find all the missing data… Well, then Crombel would give the order to slice his old friend's throat or to leave him to die because it would take only a few more minutes anyway. Maybe the soldiers had overdone it a bit since they had clearly enjoyed it.

Suddenly, there were sounds from the front door. Wasn't his old friend living alone? His wife was dead and the son – Crombel didn't bother to remember his name – didn't live at home any more.

"Dad, are you home? You didn't answer the phone and…" Whatever the young man wanted to add was cut off by a sharp intake of air as he stepped into the kitchen.

Dr. Crombel made a hand gesture to stop the two remaining guards as the son rushed to his dying father's side without thinking. The scientist in him wanted to observe the scene before giving the order to dispose of both males. He didn't take much notice of the third guard, who held the stolen documents in his hands, as he came out of the other room and back into the kitchen. The scene between father and son was much more amusing.

The young man was in his early twenties and rather handsome. He had his father's face and was of a slender build. Additionally, it seemed that he was a good observer and could draw the right conclusions from what he saw. His wet eyes and his despaired expression told that he knew what the future of his father would look like. And his own future.

Now would start the begging for mercy and for an ambulance, the assurances that they wouldn't say a word to anyone, and either tears or the shouting would begin. Humans were so predictable, and Dr. Crombel had seen plenty of these scenes before.

"Run," whispered the almost dead scientist to his son.

Another hollow sentence Crombel had anticipated, and also, the following shake of the head of the son was in his assumptions. But the young man surprised him, something that only rarely happened in Dr. Crombel's life. Instead of crying, the boy wiped his eyes once and then smirked as he glared up to the three guards and himself. If Crombel didn't know for sure that the man had no chance against the soldiers let alone himself, he would be worried by the intense change of attitude in the young man.

"I'm not going to die here, dad. Just rest a bit and wait till I can call an ambulance," Dr. Crombel heard him whisper; his voice did not shake and was full of confidence while comforting the older man.

Dr. Crombel snorted. Such a huge overestimation of his own capabilities by the boy! Two of the soldiers exchanged an amused glace, while the third one chuckled. Even so they didn't know that Crombel could finish them off in an instant. They were sure of their own abilities. They weren't guards of the Union for no reason. Through some minor experiments, they gained more agility, speed, and strength than humanly possible.

But even all these advantages didn't help you if you were distracted. The young man bounced up and struck the still chuckling guard right in his grinning face. Crombel had seen that coming, but couldn't do anything against it in order to keep his 'harmless scientist' image. Not that he wanted to help such a useless man like that guard. It was a good thing that disposing of that guy and his two comrades had already been decided. They knew too much.

Dr. Crombel had to say that the young man was rather interesting. He showed an amazing speed for a normal human being, and what he lacked in strength because of his slender build, he compensated for with legerity. He even seemed to have experience in fighting if you took his well trained movements into account.

But there was no chance that the young guy would have the upper hand against those three Union soldiers for long. He could avoid the next two blows and block the third one, but then the son of his friend couldn't stand it any more. Fists and feet collided with the young man's body, clearly showing what the end of this fight would look like. Finally, one of the guards smashed his face into a glass cabinet. A huge gash split the lip of the young man, and blood flowed freely from that injury and various minor cuts on his hands.

But he still tried to resist against the three men as they made a game out of killing him. They could have murdered him with a well aimed shot or snapped his neck, but they seemed to have fun like this. And Dr. Crombel saw no reason to stop them. In the end, father and son would both be dead, and he would have two less problems. He silently observed the scene, his mind wandering, while staying out of the way of the fight.

It was no surprise that his hardheaded friend, who was lay dying on the floor for his stubbornness, had such a stubborn son. He had too much of a fighting spirit. The young man could have died in an easy way, but he made his death difficult. Even so, it was inevitable. A child as annoying as his father, a man with a lion's heart… Dr. Crombel stopped his thoughts. Lion's heart? He smirked and another heart appeared in his mind. This boy had such a strong will to live. Perhaps he was the right one to be implanted with the werewolf's heart in the experiments that he wanted to carry out in the M-series. Up till now, he hadn't found the right lab material for that experiment. He needed to do a few tests to see if the young man would fit and if his body was as healthy as it seemed to be, but the idea was strangely amusing.

"Don't damage the younger man any more. Just confine him," Dr. Crombel ordered with a stern and loud voice.

The guards didn't seem to be too happy, but they knew that he was high above them in the hierarchy of the Union. While they carried out his order, Dr. Crombel knelt next to his dying colleague, carefully avoiding the blood on the floor.

"My friend, I think I will borrow your son for a while," he whispered into his ear and made the dying man choke in terror, his eyes wide out of fear.

Dr. Crombel snorted in boredom and shook his head while standing up. The three Union soldiers had confined the young man, who was still bleeding but no longer struggling as he hung limply between two of the guards. He must have had lost consciousness.

Crombel gave the order to depart with a nod of his head, and he followed the soldiers out of the room. As he looked back into the living room, he saw his old friend still alive on the floor and desperately reaching his hand to the direction his son had disappeared. Crombel smiled an evil grin, his thoughts already on the experiments he would perform on the young man and the other 99 humans in the M-series.

Had Dr. Crombel known what kind of a young man he had taken away that evening, he would have killed him. Even so, the experiments brought more than he had ever hoped for. The young adult made more problems than necessary. The son of his friend – later known as M-21 – was full of surprises. He had survived the experiments that only one other man could handle. Somehow, he even survived opposing Mary and Jake and had developed more abilities he should ever have had. Additionally, there was the blond haired man, which was womehow connected to M-21, that he had fought with on the roof of Union building. And what was his connection to the surviving agents of the DA-5?
But those were the pleasant surprises. Dr. Crombel would never forgive the young man that he succeeded in deceiving him and hiding the changes in his body. He wasn't used to being taken for a fool. With M-21 and the 'lost' coffin, all his problems had started…