Chapter 2: The eyes that saw the light for the first time
The room in which they arrested me was, to say the least, "rustic". You couldn't expect much more from a police station that had been standing without renovations for 40 years. The walls, thinner than a palm, easily passed sound, allowing me to hear the conversation of the policemen, at least the part after I had managed to recover from the shock of having killed my father.
There seemed to be at least 10 cops on the other side of the wall, their conversations ranged from cops discussing how an aegono had been alive for over 2 days, I figured I was this "aegono" guy, although I didn't know what that meant.
Another part of the policemen seemed worried, they were talking among themselves if they should really have arrested a member of the Granger family, which I didn't understand. It would make sense if he had mentioned an important family, like some political family, or a very rich family, but my family was ordinary, the most "important" person in my family was my Grandfather, who had a convenience store on an avenue.
I didn't understand any of the points that the policemen were discussing, and on top of that there were the things I had seen, a policeman with horns and almost 10 feet, a shimmering green sky, a middle-aged man hitting as hard as a comic book character, nothing made sense.
Until she walked through the door.
On the badge displayed on her chest, a name and a rank: Ruhby Reed - Second Lieutenant Rank 5 -
A tall woman, even more by normal standards, her 6'2", more muscles than many men can dream of having, long red hair, a pair of glasses looking like Mill**use.
When I saw her, it was like an angel had entered the room. My friends always said I had strange taste in women, preferring women taller and stronger than myself.
She sat in the chair opposite the one I was sitting in, a table separated her and me. If I hadn't just killed my father and been in jail, I would have asked her out, but when she started talking, things started to make sense.
Either I had gone crazy, or I had just "seen" for the first time.
She started a long monologue.
RUHBY REED'S POINT OF VIEW
This was by far the strangest case I have been assigned.
From hunting a six-armed piano player who killed his victims by making them listen to his music, to escorting a politician's son who had received death threats from his ex-girlfriend who controlled knives that she made from her own bones, in my eight years of service, I had never seen anything like it.
To tell you the truth, in my 28 years of life I had never seen such a case.
If a child is born ageone, he usually lives less than 2 days, but this guy in front of me is 21 years old, without an E.G.O., how is this possible?
Did it have to do with him being from the Granger family? After all, the head of the Granger house is at least 1500 years old, that old man has killed things that not even in my worst nightmares would I see, and this guy's sister is not to mention it, a teenager who reached the Special Ranking at the age of 14, this guy was certainly not normal.
More than I could feel in him, he was really an aegon, I couldn't feel his aura, and he didn't seem to have any anomalies, and I don't remember a member of the Granger house who was less than rank 7, apart from his father, Antony Reinhardt, a man who reached rank 8 at the age of 18, quite an achievement, but for some reason he stopped evolving.
As I stared at him, trying to understand what that was in front of me, he asked, "Am I going crazy or are half the cops here anthropomorphic beings?"
That question lit a small light bulb in my thoughts.
I knew that Sophia Granger, this guy's mother, and Antony's wife, was a genius telepath, having achieved special ranking at the age of 22, and she could easily alter the psyche of anyone not at least rank 3.
In view of his question I retorted, "Do you know what an E.G.O. is?"
He replied, "According to Freud, an ego is the personality structure of every human being, plus what does that have to do with my question?"
(Ruhby): "No, I am not talking about the ego of the persona, I am talking about the Ostrea Generating Structure."
(Azazel): "Generating Structure of what?"
With his question, I knew I got it right.
This guy's mother changed his memories and the way he saw the world.
This guy was born without E.G.O. and his mother hid everything to do with Ostrea from him, thus showing a version of the world without Ostrea. It seems that I will have to explain to him that the world he lived in was a big lie invented by his mother, but how am I going to explain to a 21-year-old man who thinks that the strongest person in the world can lift 500KG and that everything is a beautiful version of the 21st century?
I think hunting for a six-armed piano player is easier.
(Ruhby): "Well, how am I going to explain this to you. Let's start with the E.G.O.. Do you know what an acephalous child is?"
(Azazel): "It's a child born without a brain.
(Ruhby): "And what are the parts that make up a human brain?
(Azazel): "But what kind of question is this, I just killed my father, I was arrested in the act, there are a bunch of people who look like they came out of the comics on the other side of the wall, and you ask me about the structure of the human brain?
To calm him down I demonstrate my anomaly. I pull a cigarette from my pocket, light it, and, as I smoke, I control the smoke and write in the air: "Answer my questions".
Confused, he continues.
(Azazel): "Being very simplistic, the human brain is composed of the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, occipital lobe, and the parietal lobe.
That's it, this guy has 267 IQ and has done more colleges than I can remember, there's no way he knows the structure of the brain and doesn't remember E.G.O.
(Ruhby): "What about the E.G.O.?"
(Azazel): "This so-called ego again, are you talking about the center of our personality or this so-called what-if generator?"
(Ruhby): "The E.G.O. is the main part of the human brain, usually doctors don't see much difference between a child being born brainless or aegonal, in both cases the child dies within hours. It is the brain structure responsible for absorbing the radiation in the atmosphere and transforming it into Ostrea, a form of energy that allows each person to manifest his or her anomaly. A child born without E.G.O. cannot absorb and transform the radiation, and they usually die within 2 days."
(Azazel): "Are you saying that there is enough radiation in the earth's atmosphere to kill a normal child without this E.G.O. in 2 days? The only way that would happen is after a nuclear war."
(Ruhby): "Nuclear war has already happened sir Azazel, in the history classes given in elementary school all children learn about the war that happened 3000 years ago, that caused the human brain to fine and generate the E.G.O. allowing humanity to survive a radiation infested world, develop anomalies, and that this same war created the Abnormalities."
(Azazel): "Abnormalities, anomalies, E.G.O., if I hadn't seen my father destroy a car with his bare hands, a 10-foot cop with horns, and now you making smoke signals with your mind, I'd think I was crazy. Actually I think I am."
(Ruhby): "I am as confused as you are Mr. Azazel. For a child to survive without an E.G.O., let alone live for 21 years, is unprecedented. Your mother is a Special Ranking Telepath, not that I think you understand how amazing that is, but, I fear that your whole life has been a manipulation, a lie orchestrated by your mother, to keep you from seeing the real world. I have many questions for you, Mr. Azazel, and I think you also have many questions. This interrogation room is very uncomfortable, let's go to my office, it's upstairs. We have a lot to talk about.
I stand up, take off Mr. Azazel's handcuffs, and move to open the door, then, I feel a frightening aura. Something I have never felt before in my life. Fear spreads down my spine as I bend slightly to look through the glass to see what kind of monster could be so frightening to make me, a rank 5 fighter, almost fall over shaking, when I can see enough of what presents itself is a large, imposing figure, a giant, too old to be as muscular as he was, he wasn't as big as Corporal Timoth, who was ten feet tall, but still huge, his waist length gray hair shone in the lights of the department, his beard wasn't much different. I heard his voice, husky and loud, and then I recognized this man.
(White Claws): "First that worm Antony marries my daughter wanting to steal my family's name, then he has an Aegon son, and now the bastard died to a kid who shouldn't even be alive, that bastard really wanted to ruin my legacy, it's good that he died, now, where is that kid who killed a so-called Rank 8 who had combat skills comparable to a Rank 6?"
That man who was talking at the entrance of the police station and had such an imposing aura was the head of the Granger house, the special ranking one, the representation of the White Color, "White Claws" Verith Granger, the White Angel.