Adam Berman was a brilliant student at Newton North High School. Adam applied for a position at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters without informing the headmasters that he was, in fact, a mutant himself, afraid he would receive the treatment other public mutants received. Adam admired the great scientists and hoped that given the right opportunity he might make a name for himself. However, the headmasters, Banshee and Emma Frost chose Adam's longtime academic rival Ginny Mahoney instead.

Simultaneously, Adam had also been noticed by Bastion, leader of Operation Zero Tolerance, an organization dedicated to the eradication of mutant kind. Bastion converted Ginny into a Prime Sentinel, and charged her with the mission to infiltrate Xavier's School and publicly destroy Adam. Ginny witnessed Adam using his power on local bully Jocko Wilkins to frighten him away, and began to make romantic overtures towards Adam in order to obtain a saliva sample from his mouth, so naturally she kissed him