Darkness.
And voices.
Voices coming out of the darkness?
“…do you think it will take to discover that him it’s not Cicciotto?”
“I don’t know. At this time they should’ve crossed the Atlantic: I’m surprised Turner has not discovered it was Agent 57 disguised as Eurostar. It was such a clever man time ago. I bet he has some sort of problems in his private life.”
“A thing, Lorena, that it’s not ours to care for. I wonder what will happen when they found our agent.”
“Oh, I bet that as for now he has disguised himself like the pilot or the driver that should carry Cicciotto, while the true pilot is tied up, masked like Eurostar. He have to stay there to fake the explosion, then he will come back”.
The voices were coming toward me.
Then, the light are turned on.
I’m inside a glass cabinet, a cage, I think, and in front of me are Quantos and the Lioness.
“What… I ran away… when…” I babble…
“Shhh…” says Quantos, putting his finger in front of his mouth. “Don’t talk, for now. I’ll explain everything…”
He takes a seat and sits in front of my cage. The Lioness smiles a little provocative to me, and leaves the room.
“Edulcore… can I call you Edulcore? I could be your father… Ehm, anyway… I am sorry to have you imprisoned, but we have discovered a few things… but let’s proceed in order…
First, you have never ran away. When you tried, we stopped you and drugged you. I don’t know what you have dreamed, maybe you were running away…
Second, the visit Turner did to you when I was in the other room, was taped. We knew of the rendez vous in two hours Turner talked to you, so we had Agent 57 impersonating you on the streets of Mandelovia: Lioness gave a little distraction, too.
Third, we found that in the words of Turner there was a lot of truth. Obviously, the crap about the terrorist attack over the science district was false. Mandelovia could be planning on… slowing their research, but we use other methods. Harmless methods, at last for the living beings.
What was true in his words? That you are a walking bomb, Edulcore. You would have exploded since long ago, if you wouldn’t have indulged in drugs. It were the drugs that kept your metabolism slow. It’s hard to explains, but instead of augmenting your stamina, the drugs kept your true powers to manifest. The velocity was only a byproduct, a shadow of what you could be able to do.”
“The drugs… I used them because they were the only things to quiet my hanger…”
“It’s not hanger, Edulcore. It’s the Alpha class metagene that want to manifests…”
“So, what do you want to do, with me? You said that you asks, and don’t take…”
“It’s still valid. If you want, I open the cage and you can leave. Or, we help you to become a true superhero, like the one in the comics. You will be superstrong, superfast, you will have supersense. And, maybe, you will be able to fly…”
To fly.
Can I trust him? What I have to loose? And if they are not saying the truth? And that kid… my son… I have a son?! Does he really exist? Oh shit, what I have to say?
“Just say yes, Eurostar”
It’s the Lioness, she has just returned. I begins to believe that she’s a telepath.
“Quantos, we have the news. The Watchingbird has registered the explosion in Nevada, and a few minutes ago Lexicon has transmitted an internal document of TriVex where they states that subject Cicciotto has been destroyed in the experiment. I bet Knell is really mad, as for now…”
“So, they think Cicciotto is dead, right?”
“Definitely…”
“Perfect”. Then Quantos turns to me. “Edulcore, this would be the perfect time to let your metagene to express yourself. For the world… the world that counts, USA and TriVex, the world that want you enslaved or dead… you ARE dead. They will not be after you. But they have still your son. We can help you to retrieve him… will you help us in turn?
“OK. What I have to do?”
“You have to explode!”
