Earth, year 3025.
She did not know how long it had been, maybe a few minutes, maybe a whole decade. She slowly opened her eyes with as much speed as a tortoise, seeing a white blinding light that made her close them again. Little by little, her brown, almost black eyes adapted to the brightness of the room. She had seen rooms like this one in the books she remembered reading but had never found herself inside one. Not any surgeon around the world had ever felt or seen a pulchritude like in which she was at the moment. She tried moving her fingers, dressed in a medical robe, where the cold creeped through the tip of her toes. She managed to sit herself up, examining the details of the room, A desk with surgical instruments, shelves filled with medicines, more stretchers, beside the one on which she sat. She sighed slowly, trying to remember how she got there.
—Oh my god, you’re awake!—
A 40-year-old man, with only a few white hairs left on the sides of his head, with glasses, tall and an upturned nose, entered the surgical room excited as if he was witnessing a miracle. He started looking for some instruments and rushed towards here, as a reflect act she pushed herself backwards with an extraordinary strength, taking the stretcher with her and crashing against one of the room’s walls.
—Calm yourself Eyra, I won’t hurt you—
—How do you know my name?—
Yes, that was her name, now she could remember it, of course, it was the only thing she recalled at the moment, everything else in her mind seemed lost.
—You had an accident in Moscow, one of our ships brought rushed you here. We’ve been looking for you for so long —
Moscow? She didn’t remember that, not even what she was doing there, she also didn’t know where she was right now. Her head felt like a sea of confused thoughts, which at the moment could not clear out.
—Stay calm. Look, I’m Doctor Lars, I just need to perform a couple of procedures to check that all your levels are in order and I promise you I’ll explain everything to you in detail—
That may have calmed her a little, truth was that she was not scared of the doctor, he seemed trustworthy for some reason, even if she could not understand why. Although she didn’t understand anything, so se decided not to make her headache worse, which was already getting more painful, and chose to remain calm so that the doctor could do his work. She went through an absurd number of machines and medical scans over her body, eyes, ears, mouth and even hair. A ringing was the only thing she heard when every machine finished the test, and the doctor never made a comment about it. A few minutes passed until he smiled, apparently pleased and pointed her to dress. Inside one of the many closets that were in the room, was a selection of outfits for all tastes, Eyra went for a simple and comfortable look, an outfit of dark colors contrasting against her pale white skin and her red hair.
—Now I want answers— She said.
The doctor nodded and walked towards another closet and pulled a couple of files from it, took two and opened them on top of the stretcher where the girl had laid.
—I’m guessing you don’t remember anything, right?—
—I remember my name, or at least now I do, I have tiny memories of things I’ve read or saw, but nothing else—
—I understand. Let’s start from the beginning, in the year 2387, a series of scientists started experimenting with human DNA, and mixed in to create new species and even altered certain DNAs to create new types of humans. So was born the “New Generation”, or at least they called them that. A series of boys chosen at random among a group of volunteers, the majority being of low-resources to whom they promised a better life. Some of the experiments went well, giving certain abilities to these boys, like super-speed, mind-reading or teleporting, some suffered mutations more visible, like their bodies transforming into rock, or growing wings. The latter were harassed, most of them murdered in cruel ways by people scared of these new beings. Those that were not so easy to discover, hid their powers and tried to live normal lives, but the scientists would not stop, they kept creating new mutations, and those that hid themselves mostly procreated, and 80% of their children were born also with abilities. These new DNAs were more dominant than the average human, and therefore went up on the natural selection chain on birth. Soon, since the mutant population kept on growing, as far as being as many mutants as humans in the world, and they had extraordinary abilities. War was inevitable, and many years of fighting almost took the human species to extinction. Of course, there were mutants that kept having normal human children, which in turn went into the hiding many of their parents had to go in.—
The doctor stopped his narration, as he showed her pictures and reports of everything that happened in the 600 years, some memory flashes filled her mind about what he said, history classes, conversations on the matter. Then the doctor proceeded to open the next file, which had her name on it.
—This was your father, Eyra. After the war ended he settled and had a family, had three children, two boys and a girl. All three of them human, even though him and his wife were both mutants—
There were pictures of her as a child with two other boys, she remembered them, Ivar and Niels, as well as pictures of her parents. Eyra smiled a little as she felt her memories coming back.
—But around 6 years ago everything blew up again, a group of mutants going by the name “The New Generation”, like back then. Used their abilities, altered by yet another group of scientists, to impose their idea, which was an Earth, free of humans. They first decided attacking the home of the only mutant that was against this idea, which was your father, but it wasn’t in order to kill you, they wanted to take you, and they did. First, they experimented on you, apparently your cells only needed a little push of mutant DNA because it immediately transformed. Ivar, on the other hand, needed a more intense dosis but eventually ended up transforming. Niels seemed to not accept that DNA in the same way, many examinations revealed that some of is organs were damaged by that same mutant gen that never developed and his body was struggling to reject—
The pictures started getting darker, they showed the experiments performed on her and her siblings, and she could not help but let a tear come out of her eyes.
—Somehow, for unknown reasons, becase you were in a special cell that neutralized mutant abilities, you managed to use them to free yourself from containment and took both your brothers with you, it was an impressive escape— —Yes… I remember now— —You’ve been escaping ever since, looking for your father, since it was rumored he had developed an antidote against the mutant gene and you needed it for your brother. Clearly enough, this was never proved, and were only speculations about what you’ve been doing out there—
—How do you know all this? Why were you looking for me? What the hell am I? — She said exasperated.
Realizing that the doctor had more information than he should, it was like he got inside her mind and knew every one of her past movements and what the next ones were going to be.
The doctor sighed, his gaze gave away that he had been asked the very questions he was afraid to answer. He paced around the room, gave signs that he was going to start talking, but then stopped, so he did a million times before he finally decided to start talking.
—I was the scientist in charge of your case and of your brothers, but wait, everything has an explanation—
Eyra stepped back a little, grabbing a scalpel that was on the equipment table, hiding it from him.
—Yes, I admit it, I was one of the “Bad guys”, but that’s in the past. The second you escaped, they blamed and killed most of us, I managed to escape through a ventilation duct, since then I’ve been running way until the “Sunrise” corporation found me, that’s where you are right now. —
She kept the scalpel out of sight, waiting for the chance to strike.
—The Sunrise corporation is an institution formed between humans and mutants working for a greater good, the founder worked in the war with your father and she’s also looking for him to provide us with the formula he made against the mutant gene, we knew you were looking for him because that’s the only antidote that can save your brother. —
A new series of memories came to her mind, of Ivar, Niels and her escaping between cities of rubble, tracking their father, and the last track had led them to Moscow, where her brothers were.
—This site of the corporation, which is the most equipped in the world, is in Saint Petersburg, we have more sites among some of the main countries of the world, all underground, hidden, because the New Generation wants to wipe out mankind and any chance that they can be in charge of the world again.— —What happened in Moscow? I remember the three of us were running from a group of mutants flinging rocks at us, we were too exhausted to fight back, Niels was almost unconscious. But that’s the last thing I remember. —
The doctor sighted, like he was trying to avoid answering that question, luckily in this case he didn’t take too long before talking.
—You were pitched against the ruins of a bridge, the only choice was jumping, and so you did. You were found on the shore of a river and brought here, you were lucky we found you before they did.—
—And my brothers?— She asked.
—There was no sight of a trail to them, Eyra. —
Her legs started to fail her and she fell to the ground.
—I have to find them… Niels was bad… I… have to... find… them.— She kept repeating to herself
—Easy little one, all will be alright— The doctor approached her as if to rock her and, in that moment, pulled a syringe out of his pocket and gave her a shot on the arm, knocking her out.
—What do you mean she escaped?!—
Yelled Coronel Haakon to the mutant soldiers that had corralled those three kids on that bridge in Moscow.
—We had them locked on, to make a clean entrance and an easy capture. And you’re telling me they escaped?!—
—The girl is really powerful Coronel, we felt like magnets pulled us back as she stared at us, as when she decided to attack, she could also throw boulders at us with more strength and speed. Also, her brother does unexplicable things too, he heats up any surface, It became hard to follow them because our shoes melt.—
—Excuses! —Said the Coronel, exasperated. — You were 7, not even with the biggest ability of this world they should have escaped. Besides, what happened when they fell in the river? Why did you not follow them?—
—It was night time sir, we lost them in the darkness of the water, we could not track them. —
—More excuses. Retire immediately.—
The Coronel stood staring at the operation board, trying to find a solution to the disaster his soldiers had caused. Suddenly one of the dismissed soldiers entered shook up and with no permission.
—I told you, you were dismissed! —
—Sir, I’m sorry to interrupt, but we caught one.—
—The girl? —Exclaimed the Coronel with obvious preference.
—No sir, the boy that melt our shoes. —
A tight smile grew on the Coronel’s face.
—Well have him brought here, we need to have a conversation.—
The soldier made a quick exit and then came back with a hair as red as his sister’s, but with grey eyes and a much darker skin, his hands bounds and mouth gagged. The soldier sat him on a chair in front of the Coronel.
—You can retire now, Ryan. Leave me with him.—
—But Sir… —
—Do you not know when you’re given an order? —
The gagged boy wasn’t shaken by the Coronel’s response to his subordinate. Ryan nodded and retired, leaving them alone. The Coronel removed the gag and untied his hands.
—It was a nice touch melting the soldier’s shoes—
—Thanks, I supposed the organization will gift them new ones.—
—You know the plan was capturing her, we need her DNA again to keep performing experiments, then we would have released her so she could find your father. His antidote is the only thing that can ruin our plans.—
—Everything went out of control, we had to jump.—
—Then you should have remained together, what about Niels? —
—We got split up in the water, I don’t know what happened to either of them.—
—We have to solve that, Ivar.—
—You’ve never explained why you can’t use my DNA. —
—She was the one who accepted the mutant DNA directly, we believe she already possessed it, but it was only inactive, besides, her powers are three times stronger than any common mutant, and we do not know the reason yet. You, instead, took around 5 doses before adapting to the DNA, and your powers are only on average with that of any soldier, only that they’re rarer and unique, which is why they amaze others. On the other hand, your brother has rejected every mutant DNA, and it looks more like it’s killing him. You three all seem to belong to different species, and that is quite interesting.—
Ivar was red with anger, because of what the Coronel said, and he noticed his growing rage.
—Oh! Don’t be so melodramatic, there’s always a brother that bests the others, in this case it’s your sister. The sooner you accept that, the sooner we can continue with our mission, you will be briefed on the instructions for your escape soon. —
The boy nodded. The Coronel gagged him and tied his hands again, before calling in the soldier named Ryan once more.
—Ryan, you may take him away now. —
The soldier entered, and without a word proceeded to take the prisoner. The Coronel stayed on his own, meditating on the next step to take.
