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Chapter Eleven: Human Resources, Part One

Zander felt hurt, placing his hand on his head suddenly his mind felt blurry as if something important was gone. He shook his head and then there was a hand placed on his back. He shot up and looked behind him. It was like he had tunnel vision, a large man in a suit was all he saw.

“Mr. Matthews if you cannot keep yourself awake for longer than we will be forced to let you go.” The man in the suit said as he smiled at Zander, hoping to bring his potential out. He walked away and Zander realized where he was.

Shaking himself and making sure that he was awake. Looking at his computer screen he continued typing and followed the prompts as he collected information and overlooked what the reports were saying. Writing down a few points of data, he would use them later for a report.

Looking around he could hear someone on the phone in the next block, the large white soundproof walls set up around in him a third of a square not doing anything to help him. He adjusted his feet making sure they were comfortable against the gel pad he placed down.

He shifted his weight in his chair, its axis spinning around as he adjusted it. Lifting his weight of the chair, he adjusted himself up a bit and took a look at his current computer screen situation. Adjusting it a bit, he wiped it the screen and made sure they were cleared.

Returning himself back to the task at hand, his head started to buzz again. Something was trying to get his attention, something pushing back again. He shook it off and continued forward. He looked at the pilling information taking variables and certain words appear every so often.

Satellites, Memory, Darkness, Shadows and then a word that was so very interesting he couldn’t ignore. A word, made up of sections. Three syllables that nearly slid off his tongue it was amazing, he looked at that word and he wanted it.

“Outsiders.” Zander said as he looked forward and saw the word. No one stopped as he said the word like it was the next best thing since sliced bread, everyone continued on. Yet Zander stayed at his desk looking at the word and trying to figure out why he loved that work it was crying him, wanted him to use it in his mouth.

The buzzing in his head disappeared and it was like the word was the poison he needed to understand the world. He heard that word before somewhere in his mind, he tried to think back to where he heard it before. The buzzing appeared again, he stood up and figured he might take an aspirin.

He walked over to the break room as if he had done so million times before and opened the cabinet. Pulling out a red and white bottle, he opened the child proof seal and popped a pill into his hand. He looked at it and its relieving effects as the buzzing bounced around his head.

Pulling a glass out of the cabinet as well, he held it under the sink as he twisted the spicket. Water poured out of the sink, spinning around his cup and waving around as he let it go about half way before he turned it other way. Placing the pill on his tongue, he quickly pulled the cup to his mouth and swallowed the pill down with water.

Taking a breath, he walked back into the office cubical and navigated, negotiated the path ways between the cubicles until he made it back to his own. He sat down and returned to the computer. He continued writing down some good things to say at his meeting.

Looking down at the paper, he seen he had scribbled the word Outsiders at least three times. He wondered why he kept writing that, he loved the name and wanted to use it somehow. He had no idea what it could be used for, perhaps he could use it for someone that lived outside of the city.

He looked down at his paper and then back up at the data he was scrolling through, he copied down the data and imported it into his data collection software. Luckily it would make it into all the circle graphs, line graphs and bar graphs he would need in order to appear like he had an idea of what he was doing.

The buzzing appeared and suddenly he remembered something. Flashes of strange people, a lizard, a human and a dragon. He felt fond memories, angry memories. All sorts of kind, regrets, those that he’d had a few of, but then again too few to mention. He felt he did what he had to do and saw it through without exception. He did something his own way.

Then it disappeared, the vault closed and the memories he saw were suddenly locked off. His fingers shook at the computers as he tried to interpret what he had saw. He knew something was being hidden from him, something locked up, forbidden for himself to access.

He stood up and walked back towards the hallway, he needed water. Finding himself near the water cooler, he looked at the employees near him and grabbed a cup. Pouring himself a cup of cool water he sipped it as he took everything he saw in.

“See some shit today, and only two hours in. You know it’s going to be a bad day when that happens.” His co-worker said as he watched the same thing that happened to everyone every once in a while. “What’d you see government secret, the experiments they do, the effect of a shadow on a person; all unpleasant.”

“Yeah, something like that.” Zander said as he placed his cup back under and took another cup of water. Based on his co-workers somewhat unconcerned look on his face, Zander put two and two together and figured that this might have been some sort of high stakes file transfer center, why did he say that he knew that; that was his job to collect information on files.

“Well anyway, have you heard that someone was placed here. A memory realigned too, in our minds he’s only worked here a day, but to us we could have been implanted with memories that suggested we’d been working with him for years.” His co-worker said as he grabbed a cup as well.

“I’ll keep an eye out for him then.” Zander said laughing a bit as he walked away and waved bye to his co-worker. Feeling better about what he saw in his mind and on the computer he made his way back towards his cubical. As he walked back, he found a memo was e-mailed to him.

“As it appears one of the organizations is on to us, we believe them to be from the Secret Service, the RAF or the Outsiders. Be valiant, someone you could have known for your entire life could have simply just been an implanted memory all along.” The memo read out warning him, he then looked at his reflection in his window screen.

Something wasn’t right with his reflection, something was off; it was like his face didn’t match with his idea of his face. It looked like a sixteen year old snow leopard, white and bluish fur over his face, but that shouldn’t have been a problem he knew he was a sixteen year old snow leopard.

Yet the more he thought about it, the more this community error prodded at his mind. He was sixteen years old yet, he was smart enough and advanced enough to work a desk job at a company that worked with high end files, how did that work out?

Then his flashes of memory combined with the information he had gathered, it wasn’t hard to put together. A sixteen year old tiger was suddenly working a high end, presumably high paying job at a high company, he had to infiltrating the company to find out its secrets.

Yet he wondered which one he was a part of, he doubted that any of those organizations would have hired a sixteen year old and what kind of company would work with teenagers in their normal day to day use?

Zander looked at his screen and continued typing nervously as his boss walked behind him, what if he knew? What he asked him to come with him, presumably to get fired but instead he gets tortured for knowledge he didn’t know. His fingers shook and his hands creaked as he let pressure get to him.

When his boss walked away from him, he took a breath of relief and decided to collect the most information he could on this subject. According to the memo it was Outsiders, RAF or the Secret Service that was infiltrating the company, he heard of all three of them and knew he had to figure out which one he was a part of.

Looking deeper into past memos he tried to search for ones that would pertain to his situation. Looking through the memos, he found one labeled, “Threats to current situation.” Deciding that was the most obvious memo, he clicked on it and the memo opened on his screen.

“As it goes there are multiple forces that need to be dealt with, but as with the multiple oppositions we have faced in the past from the New York and Western California Outsiders. Finally as it seems we have found a place in which we can safely deal with the multiple threats from before.”

However that was all on the front page of the memo, he scrolled down further trough blank space and then as he did. Then he came to the end of the page and found a line of words. “Information Redacted, please move along”. It was writing in big bold letters as if they knew someone was going to enter this area and attempt to gain the information.

Looking around the area, he tried to find if anyone was spying on him but he was glad to report to himself that no one was. Continuing looking down the list, he found another file.

“As it appears there are four to five main threats with in the Washington DC area, eliminating the first two will be a breeze and the other three should fall once the prototypes become active. The five threats are...”

And then another information redacted banner appeared blocking him from finding out who he could have been a part of. He was wondering, could he be some sort of secret shopper just placed in. It was almost like he was trying to inflate his importance in this issue.

Then he realized something, clicking the Control Button and the A button allowed him to copy all the text. The man or woman who placed the information had to have been having a bad day, all they did was place a few enter buttons and then placed a large box over the rest of the text.

Opening up his notepad, he pasted the words and scrolled down to where he was. He was relieved to see multiple lines of words below where he was originally blocked, someone had definitively screwed up.

“The main five threats are as followed. The first are the secret service, they know much more than they let on but bribe money will allow them to ignore for time being. The second is interstate transport system, they will be the easiest to knock out, sending an operative to one of their locations and killing one of theirs will cause them to back off.

The third are the RAF, believed to be a militant group if we can hide our presence, we may be able to fly under their radar. The fourth would be the PTA, no doubting an organization of mothers under the banner of protecting their children would be a threat, yet killing one of their own or placing one inside would be easy.

And yet the fifth and biggest are the Outsiders, a large group spread out in the country intel tells us that they may only have five members currently. If it is to be believed this is due to the strongest of the group being placed in Washington. They are cleaver, we will have to test them, they are smart and are like water pushing against our dam, they will be against what we are doing and they will try to stop us, do not instigate action without executive command.”

The memo finished and he closed it, he hoped that he was a part of the Outsiders if he was truly the double agent he thought he was. They sounded cool, they made their enemies shake in their seats and he hoped he was powerful enough for that.

“Ah looking through old memos in order to gain comparative data, I applaud your intuitiveness Mr. Matthews, don’t fall asleep and you’ll make top board in three months.” His boss said as Zander noticed him watching behind him. Slightly frightened Zander tried to act somewhat normal.

“Ah thank you sir, I will do my best and hope to impress your superiors and show them how well of a job you are doing.” Zander said trying to hope that his boss was enough of a stereotype that any enthusiasm would override suspicion. His boss smiled and looked proud as he walked away from Zander.

Zander quickly switched back to the memo board and opened up the top one, trying to control copy it again he found that this time the box did block him from doing so. He looked at his desk top and knew that he would need an access key in order to find the information.

He knew that his boss would have the executive key and perhaps he could steal it from him, or perhaps he could remember some hacking skills and quickly break into the data banks and steal their data. He looked at the computer and placed his hands on the keys, he waited.

“Any second now they’ll come to me, any second now.” Zander said waiting as time passed, he stood there like an idiot for a few more seconds and realized that his hacking skills, if there were any, weren’t coming to him any time soon. He remembered his boss was on his daily coffee run about now, going down stairs after checking on the employees. He would bring the hardest workers a drink.

That meant his office would be empty for at least twenty minutes and a secretary wasn’t guarding it, it would be like stealing candy from a baby. He stood up and walked out of his cubical, he walked forward looking around and trying not to be strange.

Finding himself at his boss’s door, he looked around and found it wasn’t in the direct eyesight of anyone at a cubical. No one was looking up at him nor were they looking for him, he was home free. Pushing down the lever, he quickly passed through the door way and into the office.

It was a whitewashed wall with those stupid inspirational posters over the wall. He always hated those or at least his fake memories told him he hated them. There were a few cabinets and strangely enough a dumbwaiter, presumably enough to send up a large personal package.

Walking over to the desk, he looked on the neatly organized piles of papers and folders. All of them stamped and labeled, looking at it he found a folder with the label – “Project Indigo” – looking down at it, it called to him. Zander answered, he reached down and picked it up.

He then opened the drawers and found what he was looking for, a red looking floppy disk. He grabbed it and placed it in his pocket, closing the drawer and making sure everything was as it was he was alarmed when he heard walking and two shadows approaching.

Zander wouldn’t be able to walk out the front door, he needed a second way out. Running to the dumbwaiter, he stretched open its doors and climbed in. Zander got comfortable and made sure to silently shut them as the doorknob turned. Grabbing hold of the control rope he made sure that he would be able to get out in a flash.

“Sorry for interrupting you during your coffee break Jenson but we need to talk.” Zander placed his ears against the dumbwaiter’s doors and waited. He wanted to hear what he had to say, he wanted to hear what they knew.

“Oh its okay Boss, I’m sure my hard workers won’t even notice.” Zander’s boss sounded nervous, he was stuttering more so than more and he swore he could feel his boss shivering in his seat from the other side of the room. Zander held onto the rope making sure he could still get out.

“Ah yes your hard workers, we they might not need the coffee as it appears the shadow of the void is about to cross over Earth and we are primed for the first experiment, they will be the prototypes and will be the first in a million year reign.” Zander’s Boss’s Boss said as he explained the situation, Zander’s eyes peered open something fishy was happening in this company and he wanted to get to the bottom of it.

“Where did your file on Project Indigo go?” The boss said as he pointed at the desk noting that the usually filled spot was empty in this occasion. Jenson turned his head towards it and his eyes widened after he realized that he was missing. He looked around wondering who could take it.

“Enact a lockdown in five minutes have all personnel searched, no one gets out no one gets in.” The Big boss said as he looked at the worried man, ignoring him he walked back. He looked angry very angry, and Zander shook in his place as he saw the man leave.

He stood still wondering what he had gotten himself into, this was completely crazy and somehow something was still pushing him to find out what he was investigating. He wasn’t surprised that one of these organizations was hiring sixteen year olds, they had to be crazy to do what they were doing.

Yet he still felt obligated to complete the mission for the memories he once had, or perhaps some subconscious function was pushing him further into the rabbit hole. Either way he knew he wasn’t going to get out through the current floor, he remembered that the floor below was the mail room.

He started to pull on the string, pulling the cart up as well, so then he pulled on the other string and that was when the cart started to lower through the building. The metal box traversed through the tunnel, Zander knew he had to get back to his desk before the lockdown started and his disappearance would look suspicious.

He found himself at the next dumbwaiter doors and pushed them open, the mail room staff looked confused as he placed himself on the ground, making sure to hide the folder and the key within his jacket.

“Guys, sorry its Jenson’s birthday I was just practicing for the big surprise later, don’t tell him.” Zander said trying to justify his actions, of course he highly doubted that the mail people would have any reason to suspect him in the first place.

“Oh it is today, I told you so.” One of the mail room attendants said as he searched through a container of packages. “I’ll have to make sure Ash knows that.”

“Exactly, make sure everyone knows today is Jenson’s birthday and get him ready for the big surprise.” Zander said knowing the manipulating people was wrong but he felt that this was done all the time in his previous line of work. He still had no idea which fraction he belonged to but he needed to get some base line information before he made wilder choices.

“Oh wait Mr. Matthews you have a package.” One of the mail attendants said as he reached into a cart and pulled out the padded envelope. Handing it to Zander, the snow leopard nodded as he wondered what was inside the envelope. Continuing forward, he exited the mail room and found the stairwell.

Briefly he pushed himself and a few other people as a series of arm guards made their way down the stairs presumably going to lock up the bottom floor and prevent anyone from leaving. Zander was really worried now, while it wasn’t obvious he stole the files they could easily figure it out from watching security tapes.

He found himself alone in the stairwell shaft and then the phone rang, and by that not the phone in his pocket but the phone that was in his package. Ripping open the top of the envelope, he looked inside and found a burner phone, it was old it had an antenna on top of it. He opened the flip phone and answered it placing it up to his ears and waiting for a response.

“Now then your confused Mr. Matthews, and I can see why you don’t have many options and you’re slowly burning them away.” The man on the other side of the phone, a male voice but it seemed to be vocally distorted. He tried to figure out which fraction he belonged to but it seemed to be coming from another burner phone.

“I’m here to help you, now then Alice if you want to dig yourself deeper into the rabbit hole, I suggest that you make your way to your floor. At the top of the stairwell there is a janitors closet and within a hologram projector, activate it and your presence will be retroactively added to the security tapes and your boss will have no idea you left.”

Zander did as the man said quickly making his way to the top of the stairwell on his floor and opening the janitor’s door. He peeked in for a second, before it closed on him. He was pushed in and got to see the entire room, it was like a normal janitor’s closet filled with normal janitor closet things.

The only thing out of place was the massive device with two metal prongs and electricity arcing up the wire. He looked at the device and them the voice came back.

“Press the big red button this will bring you back to safety.” The voice said and Zander did as he was told. Placing his hand on the interface and pushed down, he heard the sound of gears turning and electric plugs starting. An electric signal was sent through a nearby wire and the feeling of sanctuary returned.

“Tell me what fraction I’m a part of.” Zander said almost demanding answers from the voice on the other side of the phone. The voice laughed, nearly surprised that Zander figured out that more than one fraction were involved.

“You’ll figure that out all soon enough, but right now follow the trail of money you’re very close to the darkness and when you get there you will have the answers you need, perhaps you’ll run a bit over a bit but you can do this.” The voice said encouraging him as Zander looked around.

Looking out of the room Zander was ignored as a series of troops ran into the floor and the security expert started to scan people. He was nearly invisible, despite how much noise he made as the troops ran into the room he was still able to sneak in. No one noticed him.

Walking forward, he figured that he could of well made his way to his desk and stayed hidden there. Stay close to the objective and keep himself safe. The troopers point guns at people as they were forced to show their screen and their files, they were ruthless in trying to find Zander.

Zander stood silent and knew that he could end this and he could give himself up and made this so much easier for everyone else involved. Yet he stood silent not speaking up and a tear falling down his eye as he tried to justify his own actions with in his mind. Finally a troop stood above all the cubicles and held up someone by his arm.

The man was screaming there was pain on his face, he looked like he was innocent he had no idea what was going on. Zander tried to stand up become visible and take the charge on himself but he couldn’t bring himself to do it even as he saw the man in pain.

“Now then all of you, it looks like we have a traitor from the secret service here, if any of you want to turn yourself before we have to do this again, speak now!” The general said standing up and getting the attention of the people in the room. Everyone turned towards him and stood silent, they looked with shame knowing their memories could have been implanted.

“You won’t get away with what you are doing, all of you are going to hell!” The secret service agent said as he was dragged away from the area. He was dragged out of the room, Zander saw his eyes as he passed by. He could see through what was distorting everyone else’s vision.

He started to shake and scream around trying to point them towards Zander, they looked but saw nothing and instead held him and bounded his mouth. He was dragged through the stairwell and Zander felt horrible knowing that he caused this through his own action.

“Now then if any of you want the executive disk please do feel free to ask!” The general said as he left the room holding up a copy of the red disk. Zander looked at his own and sat down at his seat his perception filter and hologram turning off as he sat down.

Zander faced the red disk towards the computer and inserted it into its port. He made sure that some papers were laid over his computer so that he could hide the port and make it look like he was doing work. He entered the memo page and entered the first one again, scrolling down to the bottom he wanted information.

Two of five threats have been eliminated, as it appears the secret service has implanted a spy be vigilant for one and look out, it is believed that the Outsiders are planning on investigating. As for the RAF with their lunar base destroyed, we have no need to worry about them, perhaps we can extort them for funding.”

Zander read the memo, he realized that the secret service wouldn’t have sent two agents or else the other one would have contacted him, and with the RAF gone he was only left to be a part of one group. He was a part of the Outsiders, which had to be it. Yet he wondered if he had a power, did Outsiders have powers? Did they have gadgets?

“Good news everyone the RAF has extended our funding, this partnership is going greatly.” A man said walking in with a file presumbally to give to Jenson. They didn’t clap still apprehensive after the secret service agent was detained. Continuing back to work Zander wondered if that meant the RAF was working with them.

He needed to do something and do something quick, something was going on soon but he needed information first and it was then that a memo appeared in his update screen. It appeared to be something that was only for those with the executive keys.

Opening it he wondered what sort of horrors would be inside. He waited for the memo to load, the text file appearing and loading up.

“As it stands most threats have been dealt with, as it stands today in a half an hour or so our entire Earth will be engulfed by a somewhat parallel anti –matter dimension that has slowly been engulfing our universe. It is through that in other timelines there was a dimension that blocked the anti-matter but in this one we can built the prototypes and prepare for a million years of conquest.”

Zander stood back from the computer trying to comprehend the information, the buzzing in the back of his head appeared again, It was almost if he was trying to access his memories but couldn’t he was blocked from opening the vault, he didn’t know the pass word.

“Currently the first prototype is located within the secret chambers located behind the round vestibule on the twelfth floor.”

Zander knew he had to go there something was pushing him to go, perhaps his old mind knowing information that he didn’t. He walked forward towards the staircase his body disappearing and his hologram appearing again. Talking the folder and the executive key he walked into the staircase and made his way towards the twelfth floor.

Being invisible to people had it charm, such as sneaking around the base of a dangerous company. He tried to remember coming this way before, he tried to remember just walking up the stairwell or coming to work, but as he did so he realized he only had his instincts.

Climbing to the top of the stairs, Zander looked at the single rotunda that was the twelfth floor. Thinking about it was strange this was the only point in the building without leading to some sort of hallway. He walked over to the secretary desk and no one was manning it.

Behind it he clicked the computer on and there was a greyed out command, placing the executive disk inside it activated and a door behind him opened. The future was before him and he had to ask himself to go into the hallway. It was dark and metallic, going on for what appeared to be miles.

He walked in the hallway, a breeze of cold air blowing over his body and somehow reaching down through his fur and touching his skin. He stood still as he covered himself and started to shiver. Walking forward he turned to the left and found himself in the first room, whoever he was looking for would be close.

He was looking for a prototype, something that just yelled out the word prototype and he needed to find it. If he was lucky it would be simple to find it would be obvious to find it would be right in front of his face.

Zander stopped as he crashed into a large figure before him, frozen in a large block of carbonite, a metallic carbon allow. Knocking on it he heard the echoes of it and saw the person frozen in it. As he looked at the strangely human face the buzzing came back to his head.

He held his hands to his body, he saw that face before he saw that hair pattern he felt warmth engulfing him, he felt familiar. Holding his head, Zander lost control of his body and he ran around crashing into the wall and falling against the floor. He held his hand as he got control back and stood up. It was red and he probably bruised it.

Looking up at the person before him, he felt so many things come to him yet they were so blurry he couldn’t remember where he was coming from, he could see his objective or what he was doing, he didn’t even know if he had powers. It worried him he sat down next to the frozen block of metal and he realized that he didn’t know the name of the person next to him.

The block of metal was on a floating device, while deceived it had a console controller laid down on the block next to him. Zander picked it up and activated it, as it connected it displayed vital information.

“Adriano.” Zander read out as the device showed the status. It was a nice name for a very nice human. He looked up at the human frozen in time and blushed, he was kind of cute but it wasn’t like he would date him or something. Ignoring that he took a look at the pad, his heart rate and oxygen levels seemed fine but he had a shit-ton of adrenaline in his blood.

Staying next to the person he felt warm, he felt that he had to rescue, and then the rest in this holding facility. On the screen there was an option to melt the person before him, standing back he clicked on that and perhaps deriding it a klaxon sounder before a red light flashed and showed him he needed another type of disk. He decided to call this hypothetical disk the engineer’s disk.

Then the door opened again, placing the controller on the ground Zander waited as he heard two people sound off behind the door. Making sure it looked like no one had entered, he remained pensive that he would have to fight someone, he didn’t want to hurt them.

He walked over to behind the door and placed his hand on the doorknob it was cold, maneuvering himself he made sure that the majority of his body was hidden. If they didn’t look behind them they would never know he was in the room.

“Would all employees please make their way down to the conference room for a meeting in five minutes.” A loudspeaker spoke from above him, echoing in through the metal hallways. Not that it mattered but someone at the end of the could have heard the message.

“We better hurry up, Boss wants us down their ASAP.” One of the engineers, a lion said. He walked into the room while the other one, was comparing the block of carbon to the door. The block of Adriano and Carbonite began to float when the hover motor activated, forming an anti-graviton field.

The engineer pushed the block with ease as it popped under the door and they made their way out. Zander took a breath of relief, propping his back against the wall. His mind continued to buzz, it was like something of his past was trying to contact the future.

“Follow the trail.”

Zander was confused, where did that voice come from. His mind stopped buzzing and he felt relief. Keeping his hand on the handle, and grabbing the vital monitor he stayed a few steps behind the engineers and made sure to get out before the entire area closed.

They walked into a maintenance elevator, larger doors closing and blocking Zander access. Turning around Zander made his way to the normal elevators, he didn’t know where the conference room was but he might have not needed to.

Clicking on the button of an elevator that was higher than him, he watched as the metallic box was brought down to his floor. As excepted it was filled with a fair amount of people all going to the same place, the conference area. He entered and saw the floor pressed, he figured that was where he was going.

When he arrived at the third flow, an influx of hundreds of employees made their way to the conference center. It was a massive standing room, with at least a thousand people in the area. A large stage made sure that their boss, the one from before was above everyone else.

The engineers hovered in Adriano as the director smiled. Zander wondered what was happening with Adriano he had to the prototype, more so with this conference meeting that wasn’t mention this morning. The employees looked confused on why a man trapped in Carbonite was in their conference hall. Many people were talking trying to figure out what was happening.

“Now then my wonderful employees, I have decided out of the kindness of my heart to show you the next stage in the evolution of mankind.” The director said with a smile on his face as he looked at Adriano, Zander didn’t like that.

“So much in the human body goes to waste based on space. One of the biggest waste are bones, with devices today we can create all the blood cells by replacing on the vertebrae. Yet that is not our topic.”

The crowd cheered mindlessly, Zander pushed himself forward going through the clapping crowd and trying to make his way to Adriano. He needed to know what was happening and how he could stop it. He didn’t care if he was Outsider, RAF or secret service he was making this happen.

“Today we talk about how we harness energy, we need food to live but what if instead we absorbed energy, took it from one of the many background sources, but surely it couldn’t work for all humans but I have managed to do that.” The director said as the engineers stood at the console, placing in an engineer chip and preparing to free him.

“There is an anti-matter dimension on the same phase of ours and for the next million years it shall pass over Earth, we have been experimenting on it with space probes and now as its shadow passes over Earth, finally I can show you the results of the last ten years of my life.”

“Replacing his bones, he now has a metal exoskeleton on his body and can conduct this energy. He is the next series of man, soldiers fighting, power generation, self-powered devices, he is the next generation of human.” The director said as he nodded at the engineers. They pressed a button on their console and the de-carbonating process activate.

Zander looked forward as his boyfriend was activated as the prototype. The carbonite burned away from his face, the material turning red and Adriano breaking away from his prison. He stepped out onto the stage as Zander tried to get to the front of the stage and see what was happening. He was wearing his normal attire and seemed relatively normal. Zander had no idea what they had done to him but surely it must have been horrible.

“Now then activate energy conduction.” The director commanded. Adriano looked out into the crowd and saw into Zander’s eyes, his body was engulfed in black flames, shadows following out from his body and into the world. Zander and the rest of the press backed up as Zander noticed that Adriano had noticed him.

“He knows me.” Zander said as Adriano was brought back to normal, the director smiling with a grin as wide as the Grand Canyon. He knew know much power he was showing off from Adriano. A man touched his back, and looking behind him three men with guns all decided to point their weapons. They did not resist pulling the trigger.