by The Eurostar
MEMORANDUM
TO: Ms. X
FROM: Security Chief Arnold Bobowsky
DATE: 2001/10/15
RE: Edulcore Cicciotto
At this moment, the whereabouts of Edulcore Cicciotto is undetermined. It is highly probable that he is still inside Mandelovian boundaries, since no sign of him has been detected along the city-state limits at the docks and at the airport. An incident that occurred today at the airport, where two men whose passport and ticket were stolen, are thought to be unrelated to the disappearance of Cicciotto. I make note only in the slim chance that there is a connection.
A man named Karl Starr and living in Chicago, who is thought to be somehow known to Cicciotto, having asked his help by phone today in the morning, has been the subject of a strange fight on a highway just outside that city. The man, an alleged metahuman, has fought with another superpowered being, causing the destruction of many vehicles and a tract of the road. Starr, who was killed in the crash (while his opponent has disappeared), then resurrected just like as in the previous time in Chicago. It is known that a sort of ectoplasmic being has left his body just before the apparent death. Now Karl Starr is in the custody of the Chicago Police Department.
As of now, a team of the Mandelovian Security and Intelligence Agency is ready to kidnap him. Captain Nemo has asked our help, in the form of a private jet ready to leave O'Hare Airport.
I suggest we help. It could prove useful in the future.
CNN News, 10-15-2001, 11,30 P.M.
Sources indicated that a team of what has been described as "ninjas" has kidnapped the "zombie of the highway," as he has been known now for a day and a half, from the Chicago Police Department. The department has given no comment.
MCCA report 10-15-2001, 11,35 P.M.
It appears that subjects Tobias Christopher and Mick Harrison have broken free from sector 1984 of the Zoo. All the guards have been transformed, like the last time, into cows, with the exception of the two assigned to their cell, which have been turned into oxes. After the transformation has worn off, it has been discovered that the castration typical of the ox will be permanent in the two guards. Current whereabouts of the two is undetermined.
CNN Late Breaking News 10-16-2001, 1,30 A.M.
An accident called by the Chicago Police Department as a "metahuman outbreak" is occurring at this moment at the O'Hare International Airport. It is unclear what is actually happening, but cameras have recorded a huge whirlwind of changing colors right above the arriving facilities, as well as fire everywhere. On a lighter note, several cows have been spotted at the scene. Check back soon for more updates on the situation.
Malvan-X Security Branch daily report, 10-16-2001. For Ms. X's eyes only.
The apparent failure of the Mandelovian Security and Intelligence Agency in retrieving subject Karl Starr has turned into a partial success. In the metahuman fight that took place at the same time of the failed attempt to leave American soil with one of our airplanes, Edulcore Cicciotto has been clearly spotted. I am at this moment ready to land near Chicago with my team.
Security Chief
Arnold Bobowsky.
Edulcore Cicciotto:
As I watch the sun rising and shining over the waves of Lake Michigan, here over the "coast of Chicago," as M'xy has called it, I still feel the rush of adrenaline streaming through my body. What a day. What I did I feel? Fear. And then that sense of power. I am scaring myself.
I turn my head from the window of this wooden cabin to the table, this ancient wooden table we have gathered around. What a collection of freaks. Yet we are for each other the only ones we can trust in a world that seems to have gone completely mad.
It was last night, in the Chicago Airport. Danny was passing through the security check, just before leaving. I was still inside him, hiding in his body, when a distant explosion set off the airport's alarm. It was a car on a secondary sector of the airport, the one with runways for private planes. Many police cars suddenly began to race toward the explosion, as well as ambulances and fire trucks. But as the cars were nearing the site of the explosion, they, too, exploded.
And then, we saw a strange man running toward us. He was screaming my name, and Frederico's. We -- me and Danny -- were in the middle of a crowd of curious and policemen. I feared that the man might reveal my presence, so I left Danny and ordered him to follow me. We both fled over the roof of the passenger's building. I don't know the correct English word.
The man began to crawl like a spider over the facade of the building. It was then that I noticed that he was burned all over his body, and riddled with bullets. He had dried blood over all of his worn-out clothing, an eyeball dangling down his face, a huge hole on his right cheek from which half jaws sprouted out. It was easy to understand that the man should have been dead. Yet he was approaching us. At the same time, a voice behind me shouted my name. It was Eduardo Frederico, laughing with a malevolent grin.
Then, the unexpected happened. The zombie, because it was nothing more than the undead, jumped over the terrace and said, "Eurostar, help me. I must kill Frederico." I watched him speechless, but speechless was also Frederico, when he apparently recognized the zombie. "Karl. Karl Starr! I don't know how you are still alive, but you deserve punishment!" Eduardo said.
And the head of the zombie exploded. But that didn't stop him. With only half a head, pieces of charred brain all around on the floor, the zombie jumped at the throat of my old competitor, trying to suffocate him.
"What's happening, Ed?" Danny asked me, but I was horrified by the powerful display of my old adversary. I, and half the world, suspected that he was also a meta, but with a more appropriate power of superspeed, not the ability to explode heads from within.
And, as if all that happened was not amazing enough, from out of nowhere a... an angel, or so it seemed, appeared hovering over us, and pointed his finger to the zombie. "You! I killed you!" he shouted. But then a perplexed expression appeared on his faced. "No! The evil has left you! You are not alive!" and then his white, glowing eyes watched Frederico. "There is evil in you!"
A huge whirlwind of ever-changing colors, a cosmic kaleidoscope opened behind the so-called angel. Meanwhile, the flames from the wrecked cars and trucks had spread to planes and nearby buildings.
And then, two more persons arrived without anyone noticing: a strange guy with a coat and a top hat, and a young man with a cat in his arms. The guy with the top hat pronounced some random sounds at Frederico, who turned toward him. His grim changed into an evil laugh, as the two began a strange dance -- I could only describe it in this way -- one around the other. The angel, at the same time, charged at the zombie.
I, Danny and the young man with the cat were observing the scene, truly perplexed at what was happening, when many men dressed in black arrived over the terrace, descending from ropes down two helicopters.
"Ah, this time you will not take me, bastards!" shouted the young man, who in a blur disappeared.
"Take them all alive," shouted one of the men in black, probably their leader.
They charged at me and Danny. He took flight, and I went "ghost." But they had strange guns, shooting electrical rays, which somehow wounded my intangible form. I fell to the ground, and I was sure they were about to take me, when I felt two strong arms lifting me. It was Danny, bringing me up into the sky.
"I feel better, friend. Put me down. We have to help the one with the cat," I said, smiling at Danny. The man was in the hand of two agents, who were trying to break one of his legs. A third was screaming, as the cat was scratching his eyes with its claws.
I increased my density heavily and punched the two, knocking them out. Danny grew two bull horns on his head and a rhino horn on his nose and charged the other agents. The cat had already done his work on one.
I turned to the rest of the fight, just in the moment in which the angel made the zombie disappear. At the same time, the top hat guy, who now was surrounded by a glowing aura, stopped his dance, and Frederico fell to the ground. Then he turned to the remaining agents, and began turning them into cows. But new agents were arriving.
"We have to leave. Now!" I shouted.
"I might know a place to hide," the top hat guy told me.
The angel folded us into a ball of energy, and we simply disappeared from the place. The top hat guy presented himself as M'xy, and told the angel ("Call me Naecken," he said, while the other man is called Tobias Christopher and is a speedster) about a wooden cabin near the docks on Lake Michigan. "The place where they gather," he said, but who "they" would be, he had no answer.
"There is an old man there who seems to know things. He supposed I was from the future," M'xy said. The cabin was empty, and we found no traces of the old man. But it was large enough for the five of us (to say nothing of the cat) to rest for the night.
And now we are here, sitting around this old, wooden round table, wondering what to do next.
M'xy speaks first: "Frederico is possessed by K'tl, my evil self. I have temporarily put him off, but soon he will be as deadly as before. I need your help to defeat him."
Naecken watches each of us, and then says: "There is greater evil, greater than K'tl, out there. I need your help to find it."
Silence.
I speak: "There is a corporation, in Thunder City. They have my kid. I need help to free him."
Then Tobias shouts, "There are agents of the government that capture metas and torture them. They killed my girl before capturing me. I need your help to avenge her."
Finally, it's Danny's turn. "I'm from the future. I have nowhere to go, so, in a way, I also need your help."
Silence.
"Well, it looks we have to make plans. Ah, since we have a fancy headquarters and a round table to meet around, it looks like we need a fancy name for our team," I said, jokingly. Tobias laughs, while the others look at me very perplexed.
CNN Late Breaking News 10-16-2001, 10:00 A.M.
The outcome of the metahuman outbreak in Chicago is still unclear. The only thing known is that the subject of the incursion of superpowered beings was ex-Olympic runner and silver medallist Eduardo Frederico, the Cuban-born athlete who ran for the U.S. team, winning four silver medals behind Edulcore "Eurostar" Cicciotto. After reaching him by phone, Frederico said he had been attacked for no reason by "a bunch of metahuman freaks."
On a side note, the body of a prostitute in Chicago has been found this morning. The cause of death? Her head had apparently exploded. We'll be back with more news after these messages.