by Chewy Walrus
The EPS:
"Coochie coochie coo!" The snake-headed baby gurgled and cooed as the beautiful Vidalia Owens tickled him slightly under the chin. "He's a cute little fella!" she exclaimed, smiling softly at the child.
"Yeah..." Andy Reynolds quipped, "...for a freak."
"He's not a freak!" she contested, putting her hands on her hips. "He was manipulated by that TriVext Corporation! He can't help it!"
"Either way," the blue-outfitted agent said as he turned to leave the room, "he still looks like a freak to me."
"Andy!" the woman yelled after him, but the young man had already gone. As soon as the door had closed, it opened again as Walt Curie, Dr. Charles Walker, and John Doe entered.
"Agent Owens," Walker said, nodding to the blonde at the testing booth next to the Cicciotto clone.
"Hi, Doctors," the woman said, a bit seductively. Walker rolled his eyes as Curie blushed ever so slightly. John seemed completely unfazed.
"What have we found out, Agent Owens?" Walker asked, crossing over to the child.
"Well, scans basically say that he's got the potential to have all of Cicciotto's powers manifest themselves."
"Potential?" Curie said, obviously curious.
"Basically, cutie, he'll probably end up getting all of Cicciotto's powers when he grows up."
"And the gene match we found on the masked man? It matches our suspicions?"
"Correct," Vidalia said, handing a print-out to Dr. Walker. "He's Cicciotto, all right, just like we thought. Now that we know who he is, it's only a matter of time before we can start putting this stuff together like this." Pressing a button on a console, Vidalia brought the current roster of the "Revolutionaries" on the screen.
"Wait," Walker said, holding up his finger and pointing toward one of the men on the screen. "Is that...?"
"Test subject 43A," Owens said, nodding. "Also known as Tom B. First."
"Mr. Lance Lorenzo," Walker said, scratching his chin. He had first learned of the man during his days at TriVext. Lorenzo had been originally captured by the Chicago Police, then transferred to the MCCA, who kept him unconscious in Chicago's TriVext-operated facility that would later become the EPS headquarters. The man, who could control his density, proved too unstable and dangerous to control at this then-fledgling facility, so he was transferred to TriVext's main Thunder City headquarters, where he became test subject 43A and was soon forgotten in a hibernation tomb.
At some point later on, Lorenzo's metagene manifested itself in an unusual when when he separated into two bodies, each depleted of energy and at an advanced stage of deterioration. While one body remained in the hibernation tomb, the other was kept under minimum security, and he began to endlessly repeat "Tom B. First," lending him that nickname. Walker had been monitoring TriVext operations remotely, thanks to allies within the organization still loyal to him, and he learned about test subject 43A. Walker guessed correctly that reuniting the old man in custody with the old man still in the hibernation tomb would result in the young Lance Lorenzo, a metahuman with impressive density control powers. In fact, he had been planning a mission to procure the metahuman from the corporation for EPS recruitment, but Turner's attack on his base and the unexpected destruction of the TriVext Citadel building had altered all of his short-term plans. And now, it seemed, Lorenzo was out of reach, at least for the moment.
Walker brought himself back to the present. "John, do we have I.G.O.R. up yet?"
"No," the unnamed man known only as John Doe said, a bit perturbed. "It's going to be difficult to repair the damage Turner did to him. There was apparently a failsafe program that allowed Turner to revert I.G.O.R. back to his first loyalty -- the MCCA, the head of which was the man Turner was cloned from."
"You, Tweed, and Vidalia get on that ASAP," Walker said. "Curie and I are going to check the DNA matches to see if we can get any positive IDs on the remaining 'Revolutionaries.'"
"What about Reynolds?" Owens asked as the two doctors walked out of the room.
"He's training," Walker said as the door closed, leaving Vidalia and John in the room to tend to the baby.