Children of the Vault

Children of the Vault
The Children of the Vault, from left to right: Perro, Aguja, Sangre, Fuego, and Serafina. Art by Chris Bachalo
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	X-Men vol. 2, #188 (September 2006)
Created by	Mike Carey Chris Bachalo
Characteristics
Place of origin	The Corridor
Notable members	Sangre Serafina Perro Fuego Aguja Cadena Corregidora Martillo Luz
Inherent abilities	Varies

The Children of the Vault are a group of fictional superhuman beings with Spanish codenames. They are a team of supervillains opposed to the X-Men. Their motives to attack both humans and mutants were not exactly clear to begin with, though it was known they held a grudge against Sabretooth. Their motive is that they believe themselves to be the rightful species to inherit the planet, but must first wipe out everyone else.^[1]

They are not mutants, but beings evolved from a baseline human genome over a time period of 6,000 years. Their society was raised in the hold of a ship where temporal acceleration technology was used to evolve individuals into superpowered beings, in a fashion similar to the creations of the Weapon Plus Program. Due to genetic drift, they are a separate species from either baseline humans or mutant humans.

Fictional team biography

Supernovas

Five superpowered beings who aimed to destroy both mutants and baseline humans surfaced and hunted for Sabretooth. In their attempts, they casually destroyed a town in Nogales, Mexico, and manipulated survivors and the media into thinking that the X-Men were involved. Creed was ambushed by Aguja and Fuego, unfortunately attacked too recklessly, allowing for Sabretooth to escape. He reaches the X-Men. The Children of the Vault killed all of the members of the S.H.I.E.L.D facility where Northstar was captive and took him, and later Aurora, in order to kill Sabretooth. Images of the X-Men were doctored into the security footage by Serafina, allowing for a similar attempt to discredit the team. They also enhanced the powers of the twins so that they now produce a powerful heat blast when touching.

They spoke of an incoming force of destruction that will allow only one race to survive. Considering they considered both humans and mutants as opposition to their own survival, the Children were unlikely to be mutants.

After sending an enhanced Northstar and Aurora to kill Sabretooth and the X-Men, Serafina and Perro watched from the distance. The surprise attack was initially successful, seeing the apparent death of Iceman and severe injuries to many of the X-Men. Luckily, Aurora was defeated thanks to Mystique's manipulation and Iceman's surprise (though incomplete) reformation, and Northstar was defeated by the combined efforts of Rogue and Cable.

In interrogations after the fight, Cable learned through Sabretooth that their enemies were known as "The Children of the Vault", were neither mutant nor human, and wanted him dead simply for learning of their existence. Sabretooth took a certain amount of pleasure in this revelation, as it now put the X-Men "on the endangered species list" along with himself.

Meanwhile, Serafina used her cloaking abilities to infiltrate the mansion directly. She was invisible to telepaths, and Wolverine was only mildly aware of something amiss. She easily made her way to the injured Lady Mastermind in the infirmary, and hijacked her abilities to trap Cannonball in an illusion.

Wolverine, however, realised that they were there, and managed to free Cannonball, only to have both of them taken out by Serafina. She easily disposed of Wolverine by turning his adamantium skeleton against him, poisoning him. She then defeated Cannonball and left to return with her teammates. She reported back to the Conquistador, which the Children were still using as their base, but had been refitted so that it could fly, and it headed straight for New York. Rogue and her team, now including Lady Mastermind, Sabretooth, and Omega Sentinel, managed to track the whereabouts of the ship, and decided to take the fight to the Children. However, they soon found out that the Children were not like anything they faced before, and were easily subdued, with Iceman being essentially vaporized by Fuego, as the Conquistador hovered over the Xavier Institute, ready to destroy all the mutants housed within.

However, even chained up, the X-Men were able to fight back, destroying the weapons that would have destroyed the school, and killing several of the Children, including Sangre, Aguja (Lady Mastermind projected an illusion making Aguja look like her and Fuego incinerated her) and Fuego (was killed when Iceman pulled himself back together and completely froze his enemy solid). With his last breaths, Sangre (who was mortally wounded by Mystique, who shot him with thermite bullets), tried to put Conquistador into the school, but it was stopped at the last minute by Cannonball and the ONE Sentinels. Many of the Children did manage to escape the battle alive, such as Perro, leaving behind some three thousand animal carcasses changed to resemble them, so that the X-Men had believed they were destroyed in an explosion on the ship. They then escaped to Ecuador, to hole up in the abandoned Sentinel facility once used by Cassandra Nova, and are most recently led by the mysterious Cadena.^[2]

The X-Men would continue to use the captured Conquistador as a flying base of operations for some time. Cable later wrecked it, on Providence, in a failed attempt to destroy Hecatomb by causing a meltdown of its internal fusion reactor.

Collision

When Rogue and Magneto bring Indra and other students back to Indra's home in Mumbai to visit his family and, unbeknownst to anyone at the time, take his brother's place in an arranged marriage, the X-Men and students visit a local market where strange storms have been placing people, including Indra's brother, in comas. During one such storm, the mutants come across a young girl who tells them her name is Luisa and that she's a new mutant with the ability to paint with light. They don't have time to question her before Sentinels arrive to capture her.^[3] Anole and Loa manage to finish the Sentinels off, and the X-Men take Luisa back to Indra's family home, where the unruly girl infuriates Indra's father by creating a light painting of her and Indra in a nude embrace and kissing Indra in his room.

Magneto is suspicious of Luisa from the beginning and questions her about who she really is, managing to get her to confess that she's not a mutant and she's from somewhere called Quitado. In truth, her name is Luz, and she is from somewhere called the Corridor, a high-tech floating city where she was a student meant to be a part of something called Angelfire. However, she rebelled against her leader, a woman named Corregidora, who had Luz jailed. Luz escaped the Corridor through something called a membrane, ending up in Mumbai during the recent storm. Rogue and Magneto finally go to confront her for answers, but they are interrupted by her people, the Children of the Vault, including Serafina, Cadena, and Perro, all very much alive.^[4]

Members

The Children of the Vault members are:

Sangre (Blood): The de facto team leader, he has grey skin that is apparently made of liquid and, thanks to his advanced water manipulation abilities, can produce bubbles used to suffocate his victims, among other things. He has an aquatic body which is not easily harmed.^[5] 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. A massive, battle-hungry man, Perro is the muscle of the Children of the Vault and is always searching for a fight. Despite being the typical "brick" of the team, Perro is quite intelligent and expresses himself very well.^[6]

Serafina (Seraphim): A technopath, she is able to mechanically interface with machinery and other people. With her powers, she can enhance and control their powers. Her human senses are masterfully enhanced as well. She can differentiate between psionic illusions and reality on sight. Serafina is also able to detect genetic and bio-chemical data down to the molecular level. This makes her an extraordinary tracker, capable not only of tracing a target's path but also identifying any person or object they might have touched and recognizing subtle shifts in their body chemistry or metabolism, such as changes in adrenaline levels or pulse rate. She can also manipulate bio-molecular ingredients to some degree.^[5]

Aguja (Needle): She possesses powers that include the projection of energy blasts and force fields.^[5] 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): Like Fever Pitch or Ghost Rider, he has the appearance of a flaming skeleton. He possesses magma powers that are fueled by the energy he gets from his surroundings.^[5] He has been 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.^[1]

Luz (Light): She has the ability to bend and manipulate light, "painting" or shaping it into anything she wishes. Can manipulate light to travel at superhuman speed and project holograms of current events happening elsewhere.

Corregidora (Mayor): Can implant suggestions into the minds of others with verbal spells. She operates the House of Corrections. Her weapon is a knife. She apparently holds a grudge against the X-Men from their last encounter.

Martillo (Hammer): Superhuman strength and resistance; uses a large hammer in battle.

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.

Rana (Frog): She can physically merge with an opponent's body to either possess them or attack them from the inside.

Piedra Dura (Rock-hard): Solid stone form, possessing no blood and enhanced mass and durability.

Approximately 3,000 members as evidenced in X-Men #193.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Mike Carey, Chris Bachalo, X-Men vol. 2 #193 (Feb. 2007)
2. ^ Marvel.com Blogs - Spy in the House by Agent M
3. ^ X-Men: Legacy #238
4. ^ X-Men: Legacy #239
5. ^ ^{a b c d} Mike Carey, Chris Bachalo, X-Men vol. 2 #188 (Sept. 2006)
6. ^ Mike Carey, Chris Bachalo, X-Men vol. 2 #189 (Oct. 2006)

External links

• Children of the Vault at the Comic Book DB