Gene-X A to Z

This page provides an "A to Z" of the Gene-X universe.

A

Adcotte Academy: A well-known, small and very exclusive, boarding school in the United Kingdom. The headmistress is Professor Evelyn Vaile. The school has been owned, and run, by the Vaile family since its opening in the 1850s. The Academy is situated in a manor house located near Loch Lomond. The nearest civilisation is the small village of St. Alvercote, 20 miles south of the estate. Needless to say, cell reception is non-existent. The Academy houses approximately 100 students, with students sharing rooms on the second floor. The first floor is mostly classrooms, with a small number of labs and workshops. The ground floor is the location of the Great Hall, where assemblies are taken and meals served (the kitchen is adjacent). The rest of the ground floor is mostly the administration offices and residential area for the teachers and headmistress.; To the rear of the school is a recently constructed sports pavilion, housing a respectably sized pool, sports hall, badminton and squash courts, a gym (and changing facilities) and a small dance studio. The school grounds include rugby, football, and hockey pitches in addition to tennis courts, a small boating lake (swimming prohibited), and several acres of woodland.

Crabtree, Edith (Mrs): The receptionist at Adcotte Academy, Mrs Crabtree also acts as gatekeeper to the administrative offices ensuring that no child enters without good reason. A lady in her fifties, her glower is believed to melt steel at 100 paces. Her demeanour, to put it mildly, is not the warmest.

Duplikates: The Duplikates (aka Gremlins) are duplicates of Kate, save for the claws and teeth, which give them a monstrous appearance – although that’s probably helped also by their feral manner and love of terrorizing people. They’re quite stupid, but possess a certain animal feral cunning. Like cats they love to play with their prey, teleporting them all over the place and dropping them and/or leaving them in unpleasant places. They appear to be 4' schoolgirls, complete with school uniforms and red hair in pigtails, the only clues to their nature being glowing red eyes, really big teeth (all the better for biting you, my dears) and long talon-like fingernails.

Giant, The: A 40' tall rocky monster with incredible strength and stamina, it transpires that 'The Giant' is a mutant boy - of around age 11 - who just really likes going out and smashing and crushing things for fun and ... well, just fun. He's deathly afraid of his mum, however, and not the smartest 40' rock monster going. Defeated by Team X by showing him a 60' image of his mother, terrorizing him into a semi-catatonic state that leaves him rocking back and forth and chanting 'Don't put me in the cupboard! I'll be a good boy! Please don't put me in the cupboard! I'll be good!' over and over ...

Global Blackout: The common name for the still unexplained event that occurred on February 29th 2004 at 14:25:32 GMT when, for three seconds, the entire world was plunged into darkness.

Johansen, Mrs.: Head of Physical Education at the Adcotte Academy. Mrs Johansen is a former member of the Royal Army's Military Police, reaching the rank of Sergeant before retiring from the army to teach PE at the academy. She is just as sadistic and unpleasant as tradition demands of a PE teacher. Her resemblance to Sandi Toksvig is uncanny.

Kate: A 12-year old girl with the mutant ability to create a vast number of monstrous duplicates of herself, Kate used her abilities for crime (or just 'fun' if you asked her), powering a one-girl crime spree that culminated in an attack on the Bank of England. Last seen in the custody of two Watchers.

Mutants: Persistent myths and rumours abound throughout the globe that the world's governments are covering up the existence of people with extraordinary abilities that are not explainable by science. The most common name given to such people in these rumours and urban myths is 'mutant', though other names ('freaks', 'weirdoes', and other less savoury appellations) are also often heard. In the Gene-X world these rumours are treated in much the same way as this world's Area 51, UFO etc conspiracy theories. Websites, newsletters, magazines etc abound but no concrete evidence has so far come to light.

Sanctuary: The base of operations for Team X and Beatrice Vale, Sanctuary is a small cave network located deep underground approximately a mile from the school, and accessible via a passage in the Headmistress' office at the Adcotte Academy. It contains a large circular imaging chamber (the primary residence' of Beatrice Vale's holographic avatar) as well as various other so-far unrevealed chambers.

"Scary Susan": On their first mission, Team X were dispatched to safely retrieve an unknown mutant from a school in Islington. This, it transpires, was 14-year old Susan Smith. A victim of bullying, Susan has the mutant ability to transform into a 'ghost-like' intangible form with the ability to drain life energy from anyone she touches.

Smith, Mr.: A former physics teacher at the Adcotte Academy, Mr. Smith recently retired.

Smith, Ms.: A new teacher at the Adcotte Academy, Ms. Smith teaches physics. She is not related to her predecessor, Mr. Smith.

'Team X': A team of mutant school students recruited by Beatrice Vale to act as a strikeforce, tasked with protecting mutants from harm. Current membership is Joe Bardley, Jack Harkness, Lillian Janes, Santiana Castella Normenta, Christopher Sullivan, and Mike Townsen. Each member of the team has been given a watch that also functions as a communication device and limited-range mutant bio-signature detector. In addition, the watch also suppresses the mutant bio-signature of the wearer, theoretically making the wearer immune to detection as a mutant.

Vaile, Beatrice (Deceased): Headmistress of Adcotte Academy until her 'death' in 2004. Beatrice was one of the first to manifest powers after the Global Blackout, and it quite literally killed her. She awoke the next day to find herself 'haunting' a computer. Despite her 'death' Beatrice has remained active - with a hugely increased IQ she has made many scientific and technological advances beyond modern technology, and finances her work (and academy) through the profits she has made from releasing some minor works. As well as being 'dead', Beatrice possesses the ability to communicate with machines, holographically project whatever she wants in her Sanctuary, detect mutant bio-signatures, and communicate telepathically. It is not known which of these abilities her 'ghost' possesses and which are generated by the machines she has devised.

Vaile, Professor Evelyn: Current headmistress of Adcotte Academy. Professor Vaile had a noted career as a geneticist and academic at Oxford University before becoming headmistress upon the death of her elder sister, Beatrice. Her students regard her as stern but fair.

Watchers: Shadowy figures that, according to several of the Mutant myths and rumours, are often encountered at alleged 'mutant events'

Xposé: A weekly tabloid rag in the style of the National Enquirer that reports principally on celebrity news, gossip, bizarre stories about every-day people ... and the mythical mutants/freaks many people believe to exist. A typical headline might read 'Flying Peeping-Tom Spotted By Housewife In Shower!' Despite the fact it has an incredibly trashy reputation and nobody claims to take it seriously it nonetheless has impressive circulation figures.