The Bionaut

In Galapagos City, nestled in suburbs surrounding the area, there lived a boy named Oliver Edgar Volve, who lived with his parents, Garrett Volve and Marla Volve. In this world, scientists had made a recent discovery that allowed them to use medicines to mutate individuals on a cellular level, allowing them to alter physical forms however they like. You could give yourself ram horns or a duck bill, but unfortunately for Oliver, our protagonist was born with a natural mutation that refused to accept the mutation medicines, and as a result, he could not mutate his body. While Oliver is not the only one who isn’t mutated, his parents could only afford to send him to an all mutant school, so he would go to school and get bullied by his classmates, given his inability to mutate, he was picked on needlessly. Oliver wished he could mutate to end the teasing, but due to his biology’s inability to accept the mutation medication into his body, it wasn’t possible. He came to be known as a “Nat”, a term used by mutants to put down people who stuck to their “Natural” and unmutated state. Oliver learned to evade his bullies by being faster and smaller than them, and seeing as his biggest threat is a muscle bound jerk with ram horns, it helped that he could duck into small spaces. As time goes on, Oliver starts to make the acquaintance of two classmates, one with a reptilian arm and another with a duck bill, and their friendship begins to bloom slowly as they help Oliver avoid his attackers. It wasn’t uncommon for people to abuse medications and try to get multiple mutations at a time, but the pharmacies that sold these meds kept records and tried to manage it as best they could. However, one addict couldn’t handle being told what to do and decided to break into the lab responsible for making these mutation medications. He successfully got away with them and completely destroyed his anatomy by overdosing on the medicines, and as a result, turned into a monster and couldn’t control his emotions or thoughts anymore. He grew scared, and tried to hide, but was now being hunted by a task force enlisted by the lab. Galapagos City was put under strict lockdown and until the criminal was caught, a mandatory curfew was instated, and the medications within the pharmacies and homes of mutants were recalled by force. Resulting in a city wide “Cold Turkey” to the drugs, which started having unforeseen side effects. People began to lose energy and grow restless, some civilians were only half mutated when the meds were recalled and are now stuck in limbo as their bodies struggled to process things correctly. Those who were fully mutated started having withdrawals, needing the meds to mediate the effects and keep their systems running. Oliver noticed his new friends, and everyone else in his school, were starting to heavily feel the effects of this and began to worry. He couldn’t let his classmates end up in the hospital, or worse, die because they couldn’t keep their bodies functioning without the help of the medication. Oliver set out on a mission after curfew, using his bully avoiding techniques to avoid the task force patrolling the streets to make his way to the lab. There, he found out that the scientists were working on a plan of attack to get rid of the perpetrator who is still hiding away. It was a danger to society and it needed to be dealt with. This resulted in the monster retaliating and rampaging through the city in anger.
Oliver realized that his blood was the answer the whole time, he could make an antiserum using the natural defenses made by his body. Enlisting the help of his new friends and his bully, Oliver and his team made it to the front lines with a vial of his blood at the ready, and with a cleverly planned out strategy, they were able to un-mutate and save the enemy. Mutations had become banned from use entirely, and everyone was reverted back to their old selves with the help of Oliver (and several pints of his blood). The criminal was sent directly to the hospital and then to a mental health institution where Oliver would visit him and help him readjust to his old body again. And with that, Galapagos City was at peace once more. Sometimes, the most powerful thing is your sense of self-worth and self-love, you don’t need to conform to everyone else to be important or useful.