by The Eurostar
The EPS:
Edulcore Cicciotto:
Red.
Red everywhere. Fire. And blood. Fire and blood all over Chicago.
What I have done? Father, forgive me, because I have sinned.
It was one month ago, when I began to arrange the revolution. It was right after I learned to walk away from my exoskeleton in ghost form, a true ghost form. Invisible, intangible, I was able to leave the EPS without being noticed. My elemental body stayed in its bed under the ever-watching eyes of the security cameras, and Walker didn't suspect anything.
I was untouchable but also harmless. In no way, at the time, did I think that ability could have been useful for hindering Walker and his henchmen.
But then, when I found the hiding metahumans, the people that I had freed from the Zoo months ago, surviving barely in the sewers, fearful of the governement and of the people on the surface, the normal people, I suddenly knew. I knew how to be the greatest pain in the ass that Walker could ever have.
I began to organize the revolution, the fabled revolution I had many times talked about with Tobias, with M'xy, with Naecken, back in the circus, in the good old days.
For days I watched, unseen, those poor souls. I identified their leaders. I understood who would be helpful, who was to be trusted, or not... and then I revealed myself to them. They had not forgotten me. They were grateful, and they received me with reverence and hope.
I befriended many: Smith, the oldest of them, a wise man, a sort of guiding light for that community; Sage, a giant, two meters and a half tall, big as a grizzly, brave and kind-hearted; Rose, a young and powerful girl, hot-headed but smart and funny. And many others.
I instructed them, organized them, trained them. Some were Alpha Class metas, there, flying people, superstrong ones, and others with any imaginable gift. Yet they lived in fear after what, for years, the MCCA, the feds, and recently the EPS have done to them.
Interestingly enough, for many of them, the element that caused the metagene to manifest at full potential was the plague, the Pathogen-induced plague brought on by the demon-beasts that Naecken defeated. And Naecken was also their healer. They still remember the blue glow that engulfed them and cancelled those obsidian eyes, and the hate had they felt in their souls.
I prepared them to conquer the EPS. After the destruction of the MCCA and of TriVex, the EPS is the last, secret, antimetahuman, government organization (but I think no one, now, in the government still knows about it) surviving in this country. Destroy them, and the way for a revolution in the whole country, in the whole world, is open.
I knew it would be difficult. I knew that many of them would die, but most of those poor souls were with me. Not all, though.
There was a faction that claimed we should strike terror in the city and attack and conquer the town council. Rothman was their leader. He was talking about controlling the city, to establish a metahuman government over the city, and soon over the country.
It was relatively easy to isolate them and put them to silence. There were three thousand metahumans in the sewers. What could have they done toward a city with millions of inhabitants? I could not have been less wrong.
So, the day finally came. Today, eleven o'clock. Sadly, from the sewers it was not possible to penetrate inside the underground EPS headquarters. There are multiple barriers. I had studied the surroundingss of the complex many times.
We had to come to the surface and attack the building over the EPS complex, to find, then, a way in. There are many supermen, people strong enough to open a way down to the EPS levels. I would have preceded them to take my Eddie to safety, and also Vidalia, whom I was sure in that circumstance would have followed me and not Walker's orders.
But when we were out from the sewers, the unexpected happened. The supermen were all allied with Rothman, who had convinced them to stay with him. I should have known. People with lot of power are always eager for more power. Rothman, I am certain, had promised them money, and maybe slaves.
Oh, what I have done?
They began to wreak havoc on the city. Twenty-four flying, superstrong men and women, ripping apart whole buildings. Soon the city was on fire, and people were screaming, running, falling, dying...
Oh God, oh God, oh God...
I have seen one of the supermen tearing the head off a policeman with his bare hands. His heart continued to pump blood for a second, like a red fountain exploding from the neck.
Oh God, oh God, oh God...
I ran to the EPS headquarters to retrieve my exoskeleton. I could have turned into something like venomous gas and be breathed by those monsters, killing them. I could have put an end to this massacre.
But the body was locked away from me. I was not able to find it.
WALKER KNEW!
He knew all along. He was awaiting this.
There's no trace of him or of his little robot, or Vidalia, my son, Turner, Lochlan, or Tweed. Even that Richards kid is not in his compound. They are preparing to intervene, I am sure.
I am back. There's even more fire. I am a ghost. I can't do anything.
Merda merda merda. Shit shit shit shit.
The body of Sage is on the ground, with a big hole in his chest. There are dozens, hundreds of corpses lying on the street.
And then I see. Many have obsidian eyes. The plague... the Pathogen was not really destroyed... it was laying dormant in these metas... and it is activating their metagenes...
This is madness. People killing each other, destroying buildings, invading shops, setting fire to cars...
I had begun it all. I have to do something.
But I am a ghost, I can't do anything.
If only I had my body... my old body at last... if only...
...if...
...maybe...
...I feel...
...I feel it...
...I feel the weight...
...again...
My mass is returning!... I am solid again!
I can stop this Hell... that I created... now, if I only...
BANG
...Something hit me...
...I am falling...
...down...
...down...
...down...