The Children of the Vault are a group of fictional superhuman beings appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. First created by Mike Carey and Chris Bachalo, the Children of the Vault debuted in X-Men (vol. 2) #188 (September 2006). They are primarily antagonists of the X-Men.
The Children of the Vault were raised in the closed vault aboard a cargo ship, where temporal acceleration technology was used to evolve individuals into super-powered beings. Due to genetic drift, they are a separate species from both baseline humans and mutants. Their goal is to exterminate both humans and mutants in order to take over the Earth.
Fictional team biography
Origin
"The Children of the Vault" are a new species created by scientists, including Bella Pagan. They were cycled through normal evolutionary processes over the course of 6,000 years inside a time-accelerated cargo ship, El Conquistador, off the coast of Peru. The ship was designed to stay sealed until the planet was empty for the Children to take over, however, the energy discharge from the Decimation caused their vault to open early. The emerging species had highly developed superpowers and technology.
A scientist involved in the project hired Sabretooth and a mutant known as Pasco to assassinate all scientists involved in the project. The Vault opened as the pair of mutants approached it, and Pasco was killed and Sabretooth pursued.[1]
Supernovas
The Children of the Vault first appear in the X-Men arc "Supernovas". While pursuing Sabretooth, the Children destroy a town in Nogales, Mexico, framing the X-Men for the disaster. Two others ambush Sabretooth, who escapes and seeks help from the X-Men.[2] The Children of the Vault next capture Northstar from a S.H.I.E.L.D base, and later capture Aurora.[3] Serafina doctors images of the X-Men into the security footage, further discrediting the team. They also enhance the powers of the mutant twins so to produce a powerful heat blast when touching.
Collision
The X-Men next encounter the Children of the Vault in Mumbai, while visiting Indra's family nearby. A rebellious young member of the Children, Luz, escapes from the group's new headquarters, the futuristic city "The Corridor" (also known as Quitado), and lands in Mumbai during what appears to be a magnetic storm. She immediately encounters the X-Men Rogue, Magneto, Loa, Anole, and Indra. Luz poses as a local girl named Luisa and demonstrates her abilities. Rogue suspects her to be a mutant, and offers her hospitality at Indra's family's home. The remaining Children, led by Corregidora, pursue Luz, whom they believe to be critical to "Angelfire", a project to produce cleaner energy from the Corridor.
Dawn of X
The Children of the Vault reappear during the Dawn of X era of X-Men comics. Serafina is rescued from captivity by the X-Men, during a raid on a base of the X-Men's enemy Orchis.[4] Later, Darwin, Synch, and X-23 are tasked with infiltrating the Children's base of operations in Ecuador. The Children of the Vault are also revealed to be the earliest members of the Post-Humans, better known as Homo Novissima, a race destined to depose both Homo sapiens and Homo superior as the dominant species on Earth.[5]
Project Blackbox
Later, Forge and Cyclops travel to the Vault in Ecuador. Forge reveals Project Blackbox, a weapon pointing into the entrance of the Vault that will fire a small collapsing black hole and destroy the Vault and the entire population of Children. As they debate the ethics of the project, the door of the Vault opens, the Children emerge, and Forge uses the weapon to subdue them. Due to their recent evolution, the Children quickly overwhelm the mutants, with Forge losing a hand and Cyclops being killed by Fuego. The Children then travel to and destroy Krakoa, followed by all of Earth's heroes. However, it is revealed to be a simulated reality that contained not only the Children of the Vault but the entire Vault itself inside of a bio-dome. Forge then entered inside the bio-dome in order to rescue Darwin from the Vault.[6][7]
Members
The Children of the Vault has approximately 3,000 members.[8] The most prominent are:
Sangre (Blood): The team leader, he has grey skin that is made of liquid granting him the ability to manipulate water and receive little damage from physical attacks.[2] During the fight at the Xavier Institute, Mystique shot Sangre with thermite bullets, which evaporated the water in his body when they exploded, killing him.
Perro (Dog): He possesses superhuman strength, durability, and control over gravity. Perro is quite intelligent, despite his aggressive nature.[3]
Serafina (Seraph): A technopath, she is able to mechanically interface with machinery and other people, enhancing and controlling their powers. She has enchanced senses, differentiating between illusions and reality easily. She is also able to detect genetic and biochemical data down to the molecular level, making her an expert tracker. She can also manipulate bio-molecular ingredients to some degree.[2]
Aguja (Needle): Projection of energy blasts and force fields.[2] During the battle against the X-Men, Lady Mastermind projected an illusion to make Aguja look like her, causing Fuego to mistakenly kill Aguja.
Fuego (Fire): Has the appearance of a flaming skeleton. He possesses magma powers that are fueled by the energy he gets from his surroundings, and can absorb fire off heroes such as the Human Torch.[2] He is killed by Iceman.
Cadena (Chain): The new leader of the Children after Sangre's apparent demise, she has a globe of electricity surrounding her head that she can manipulate into electrical chains.[8]
Luz (Light): She has the ability to bend and manipulate light, "painting" or shaping it into anything she wishes.
Capitán (Captain): Optic blasts, superstrenght, flight, and size alteration. Led a group known as the Traditionalists to oppose Serafinas New Way.
Corregidora (Mayor): Can implant suggestions into the minds of others with verbal spells. She operates the House of Corrections and wields a knife.
Diamante (Diamond): Photographic memory and his psyche is the same in all resurrections, making him the historian of the Vault.
Horador (Pierce): Teleportation.
Madre (Mother): Possesses gold skin and gold hair. She watches over the Crèche, the location where Children of the Vault are reborn after death. Her existence is also inverted from the rest of the Children of the Vault; while they sleep, she works and vice versa.[9]
Martillo (Hammer): Superhuman strength and resistance; wields a large hammer.
Merbavon: Disruption powers, including barriers.
Olvido (Oblivion): Able to take anything directed at him into what he calls "the void" and direct it back at his opponents in his own form of energy.
Piedra Dura (Hard Stone): Solid stone form, possessing no blood and enhanced mass and durability.
Prisa (Haste): Superhuman speed and flight.
Rana (Frog): She can physically merge with an opponent's body to either possess them or attack them from the inside.
Terramoto (Earthquake): Earth manipulation.
Vacuna (Vaccine): Following the Children's defeat by the combined efforts of Bishop and Cable, they immediately began work on crafting a new Child who acts as a "chronal tunneler" with hyper-senses. From their work Vacuna was born, with the ability to travel to key points in mutant history at will, Vacuna can devour them forever. It was theorize that if Vacuna devoured enough key points in mutant history, the timestream would be irreparably damaged, and mutantkind would cease to exist. Vacuna eventually ceased to exist when Bishop and Cable tricked him into destroying the key point of his own creation.[10]
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