Mutant

Mutants are creatures that have come into contact with Mutagen and become mutated hybrids or monsters.

Variants

Mutants are created when earth creatures exposed to mutagen and their DNA is altered. This change in DNA causes their body to mutate and transform into something else, most often a hybrid of another strain of DNA found on the skin. The mutagen will absorb the foreign DNA and merge it into the hosts own DNA.

Animal Mutants

Animal mutants are any animal that has been merged with another animal. These hybrids are not more intelligent, just a simple fusion of two existing creatures. These mutants are more likely to be aggressive due to how the mutagen effects their brains, but some can remain docile.

Humanoid Mutants

Humanoid mutants are a special case. These are mutants that were either human host mutated with animal DNA, or an animal host mutated with human DNA. Human DNA comes with the added effect of giving the mutant human-like qualities like standing upright and having a human brain. Humanoid mutants are almost always sapient, but their level of intelligence is dependent on other factors such as age or braincell growth during mutation.
Human-born mutants will almost always keep the same mental faculties they had before mutation. They will have the same level of intelligence, memories, and personality as their previous form. Occasionally, there is the risk of the mutagen causing a decay in neuro function, manifesting as a reduction of sanity and perception of reality.
Animal-born mutants will get a significant increase in intelligence depending on their age. Their physical human age will always correlate with their age as an animal before mutation. For instance, a puppy would mutate into a child, while an adult dog of 7 years would mutate into a grown adult with a fully developed brain. This can be jarring for a creature that is used to having an animal brain its whole life.

Unstable Mutants

Unstable mutants are caused when there is too much or too little animal DNA to work with, or when the mutagen has been tampered with in some way. This causes creatures to be mutated into hideous abominations, masses of flesh and limbs that ooze mutagen. Unstable mutants lose most of their mental faculties and become rampaging monsters that only wish to eat and grow.

Transformation

Mutation can occur if a creature comes in contact with mutagen in the following ways;

• Mutagen making contact with the skin and absorbing into the body.
• Consumption of Mutagen, whether straight, diluted in contaminated water, or eating uncooked mutant flesh.
• Blood transfusion with mutant blood.
• Injection of mutagen directly into the blood stream.

Mutation is a slow process. Mutagen takes any foreign DNA from the host as it absorbed into the body and merges it with its DNA. Afterwards, the regenerative properties of the mutagen take over and rebuild the cellular structure of the host in accordance to the new DNA instructions. This process can be painful and exhausting for the host, and they will be unable to do much. Animals found in this vulnerable state are easy meals for predators, though the predator may end up mutated itself.
A full mutation depends on the size of the creature, a humanoid can take 1 - 2 weeks to mutate. After this period of time the mutation will begin to stabilize into it's final form. In very rare situations, the transformation may have a side effect of a further mutation down the line, most often due to the incompatibility of the two strains of DNA. Another rare side effect can also be cognitive regression, as seen with Baxter Stockman's mutation.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Mutants tend to be quite diverse anatomically, often they will take on traits an abilities of both species. These traits can be enhanced by the mutagen sometimes to the extent of these abilities being akin to super powers with how powerful they are. Humanoid mutants are most likely to gain new abilities in this manner.
All mutants are more durable and can heal faster than their counterparts. This is because all mutants have trace amounts of mutagen flowing in their blood. This mutagen rich blood can heal wounds and broken bones significantly faster than humans. They're mutagen filled bodies also gives them some amount of immunity to mutagen. Small, diluted amounts can have the same medicinal effect on them as it does Utrom, however an overdoes of it can lead to mutagen poisoning, which can still make the mutant sick.

Genetics and Reproduction

Reproduction amongst mutants is tricky as it hasn't been extensively researched. It seems that it is mutants can reproduce with any of the species that their DNA is made with, and are not sterile like real world hybrids like mules and ligers. The offspring will often be a mutant, but with %25 percent DNA from the partner species. For example, if a humanoid reproduced with a human, the child would be more human like than it's parent, but still have mutant traits.
If the mother is a mutant and the father is human, the pregnancy will not have any issues. However, if the father is a mutant and the mother is a human, there is a high risk of mutagen poisoning in the mother, or worse, the connection with the mutant fetus's umbilical cord will cause mutations in the mother. There's also a higher risk for miscarriage as the human mother would not have a womb designed for some mutated baby bodies.

Growth Rate & Stages

Mutants tend to have a long life span, often taking the life span of the longest lived species in their DNA sequence. For humanoids, this usually means they will have a slightly longer than average human life span. Mutant age depends entirely on the original hosts age. The younger the animal, the younger they will appear and behave in humanoid form, and vise versa.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Mutants will typically have the diets of both species its merged with. For example; a carnivore mutated with an herbivore will develop an omnivorous diet. Or, a human mutated with an animal will gain the ability to eat raw meat or fibrous plants without getting sick. There's a chance that if a food is poisonous to the host species but not the fused species, then they may develop a mild allergy towards that food.

Additional Information

Geographic Origin and Distribution

At the moment, the highest concentration of mutants are found in the New York area, due to the massive amount of mutagen spilled in the Rockefeller Contamination Zone. That forest in particular is host to all sorts of mutated creates big and small. However, there has been evidence that canisters have washed into the ocean and have been moving down shore along the east coast, so the problem could be even more widespread.

An example of a mutant, Kri

Parent Species

Any

Genetic Descendants

• Mutant Turtle

Geographic Distribution

• Rockefeller Contamination Zone

Related Materials

• Mutagen