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.
The twins are then sent to kill Sabretooth and the X-Men. The surprise attack is initially successful, causing the apparent death of Iceman and severe injuries to many of the X-Men. [3] However, both twins are defeated and Sabretooth informs Cable of the Children's name and origins. Meanwhile, Serafina uses her cloaking abilities to infiltrate the X-Mansion. She hijacks the abilities of an injured Lady Mastermind, trapping Cannonball in an illusion. Wolverine manages to free Cannonball; however, Serafina subdues both mutants.
Serafina then rejoins her team, en route to New York. Rogue and her newly formed team track and board the Children's ship. In the ensuing fight, the X-Men are easily overwhelmed. The Conquistador hovers over the Xavier Institute, ready to destroy all the mutants within.
The X-Men fight back, destroying the ship's weapons, and killing several of the Children. Sangre attempts to crash the ship into the school, but it is stopped at the last minute by Cannonball and the ONE Sentinels. Many of the Children of the Vault manage to escape the battle alive, leaving behind animal carcasses altered to resemble them. The survivors, led by Cadena, are revealed to have escaped to Ecuador, to the abandoned Sentinel facility once used by Cassandra Nova. [4] The X-Men continue to use the captured Conquistador as a flying base of operations for some time.
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. A team of Children attack Indra's family home [5] and defeat the X-Men, only sparing their lives when Luz offers to return with them. The Children take Luz, Rogue, and Magneto with them back to the Corridor, where Magneto learns that the magnetic storms are a waste byproduct of the Corridor's power grid. Cadena explains Angelfire is to be powered by "the 30," a group of Children including Luz and Magneto. Cadena and her team prepare to initiate Angelfire, while Rogue's public execution begins in the "Sensorium," a psychic link among all the Children. Angelfire fails due to Luz having traded places with Indra's human fiancée, Vaipala, and the Corridor crashes into Mumbai. [6] Rogue, Magneto, and Vaipala escape from Quitado, with help from Luz and the other X-Men. Luz sends herself and Quitado back into the void between dimensions, and Magneto predicts that the Children will be unable to find their way back to Earth. [7] [8]
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. [9] 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. [10]
Once inside the Vault, the trio battle against the Children of the Vault, killing some members. In retaliation, Aguja unleashes a massive force field in an attempt to kill her foes, killing herself in the process. [11] The trio survives the attack and gathers intelligence for the next 100 years. They learn that at the heart of the Vault lies the city, a supercomputer that has become self-aware and eventually has expressed a desire to expand beyond the Vault, therefore creating in the process the Children of the Vault. After Serafina's capture and escape from Orchis and the rise of the nation of Krakoa, the city has created the third generation of Children so they can eventually take over Earth. The trio learn that any Children who have died are resurrected by the City through cloning to further the evolution process. The City soon becomes interested in Darwin's adaptation power. The Children capture Darwin in order to learn more about his power. Consequently, the city is able to create a fourth generation of Children. The Children chase and are able to prevent Wolverine and Synch from escaping the Vault. Before dying, Synch manages to make telepathic contact with Professor Xavier and ensure everything he has learned about the Children of the Vault is retained after his resurrection. [12] [1]
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. [13] [14]
Due to Krakoa's downfall after Orchis’ brutal attack, the Krakoan technology was dismantled and Project: Blackbox became unresponsive. This caused the Children of the Vault to be reactivated. [15] 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. [16] [14]
They are thwarted by time-traveling mutants Cable and Bishop. 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. [17] [18]
