Chapter 4: Going from Predictable to Far-Fetched

Coming to my senses, I realized I was lying in a dark alley and, by the looks of it, it was quite late. Confused as to how I got there, I backtracked and remembered how I had discovered the voice in my head and how I had asked it to let me escape. Puzzled as to why I was being held underground in the first place, I backtracked even more and saw my parents knocking me unconscious right before I was put into the room. I had never known my parents as anything more than serious party-goers and it was a mystery to me as to how I had gotten into the alley in the first place.

Unable to come up with anything more, I then tried to access the voice in my head and came up with a blank. I tried again to no more success. Now I was starting to have serious doubts about the underground facility and wondered if I had imagined it all. Coming to the conclusion that I had indeed imagined the underground lab and all its mysteries, I suddenly panicked, hoping that my powers had not been my imagination. Using telekinesis to lift myself out of the alley, I gave a sigh of relief and grinned.

Dropping myself down a few blocks away from the alley, I walked to the local bar and strolled in. As I sat down and asked for a drink, I felt quite a few heads looking at me with frightened expressions and curious, I read their minds. Or a better word for it would be, I tried to. Whenever I tried to read anyone's mind, all I came up with was a void or a sense of nothingness. Feeling a little anxiety now, I surveyed the crowd and noticed for the first time what I was dressed in.

Prison uniform of the state's jail for the "seriously dangerous insane serial killers" something I thought only existed in the television show "Dangerous killers and where we kill 'em" I was extremely baffled as to how I had gotten a uniform that I didn't know even existed, so I decided to go to the men's and take it off. Once inside, I tried to pull the bodysuit off me, but every attempt just made the suit cling tighter to me. Deciding to use my powers, I did the same trick as I had done in my dream, turning my body temperature up to 250° C, but the suit did not break; doubling that temperature, my feet (my shoes had melted by then) started to melt through the floor and I decided I would not get the body suit off using that method.

"Damn" I thought "that uniform is just like the show. What the fuck is going on here?" No longer bemused with the situation I turned into liquid and got out of the suit. Triumphantly I raised my fist into the air and guffawed, just as I heard the same metallic voice from my dream "you will now be destroyed". Just able to see the suit detonate in time, I was able to raise a minimal mental shield, one that managed to protect me... barely.

Opening my blood crusted eyes; I looked around and noticed that the building I had been in was completely destroyed and that the people inside it had suffered a quick death. Feeling somewhat bad about it, being somewhat my fault in the first place, I brushed it off when I remembered how they had treated me with looks of disdain.

Anyhow while I was doing some thinking, a figure in a black cloak came out and approached me with his palms open to indicate he was unarmed. Curiously I examined the figure.

She had done well of hiding their appearance as I could not tell the gender until she was next to me. There was a hood covering the face and when looked into, all that could be seen was darkness. On the hip he/she carried twin Katana swords, over her left breast was a symbol of a dragon and some squiggles written in a radiant gold that blended really well with the cloak. Some part of my brain clicked and I realized it was probably some Oriental texts, Chinese or Japanese most probably. Somehow I knew that the words over her breast meant Deadly Serpent and without a doubt I knew she was coming for me and I wondered if I should put up a fight, go peacefully, or leave quickly before she approached. However before I had the chance to make up my mind on what I wanted to do she spoke.

In a melodious voice she said "Jason, you are to come with me, the great lord wishes to see you" With that, I felt a tingling feeling and the next I knew, I was in some sort of majestic hall. I knew this even through it was nothing like the pictures of halls I had seen when I had done a project on the medieval times.

Looking around, I saw thousands and thousands of figures that were hidden in cloaks, similar to the one of the girl that had approached me. In the center of the hall was obviously the great lord, on a platform that was at least a few hundred feet high. I looked up the platform to look at the man and I jumped back. Near the top of the platform were thousands of skulls decorating the edge and outlining inverted pentagrams of blood. Visible shaken I tried to appear nonchalant and walked forward using my powers to slow my heartbeat to normal.

When I reached the platform the man looked at me and suddenly I knew what pure evil was. Pure evil was this demon in front of me. I had never known terror as I knew now when I faced this creature. When his eyes met mine, I felt like emptying my bowels on the floor and only the fact that the man would've been pissed stopped me.

The man spoke, "I am Figlio and you shall serve me or face my wrath for eternity". Suddenly I regained a little bit of backbone and viciously assaulted Figlio. Blow for blow, Figlio blocked and, when I tried using my newfound mental powers, I found that they were being countered. Stunned, I attacked with even more vigor, but my punches and kicks were just blocked. Out of nowhere, Figlio landed a punch in my gut and I flew back 100 feet. Skidding to a stop, I snarled and launched myself at him. He didn't even blink as he lifted me up and threw me against the wall. Abruptly I stopped, looked at him and realized how overmatched I was. I suddenly felt extremely foolish for trying to attack him. By the level of his skill, I had no doubt that if he wished he could have executed me without even batting an eye. I stopped and made an indication of peace. Figlio looked at me and laughed and then assaulted me with even more force. Punches and jabs landed on my body in a continuous flow until I was sure all my bones had to be broken and my body felt like one giant bruise.

Finally he stopped and looked at me and said "Iglio Maniuk". With that my bones all set back into place and I was whole once more. That didn't stop me from feeling the pain though. My whole body ached and I wished I could just drop dead right there, but I knew to do so would only provoke more pain and I remembered that to show weakness was to invite pain. Figlio was looking at me and when he saw I was ready he smiled and said "Try that foolish stunt next time and you'll be screaming for hours. Now I have a mission for you. In the city of Lucé there is a pendant that grants the wearer immense power. Now you will get the pendant for me, do you understand?" Clearly I thought, this man is delusional, I knew the first thing I was going to do as soon as I dropped this monster was get the hell away from wherever I was now.