CHAPTER 2 - SUDDEN CHANGE

A quick and pungent frost streamed through his skin, hitting his flesh while momentary gasps shook his tired and battered mind. His eyelids were dark and heavy, struggling to open due to the hellish pain. The words of that figure in the fog echoed in his head like a distant waterfall.

<He's been sleeping for two days, I'm worried... Awakening like that will surely have caused an abnormal stress on his body. > A metallic sound, as if a piston had activated, finally pulled Klint out of his dreams.

<I know it's my responsibility! As useful as ever, Maliard!> A familiar voice became clearer and clearer as Klint slowly managed to scratch the sleep that forced him to bed.

His eyes made an enormous effort to remain open and his sight, blurred, did not allow him to understand where he was. The greyness of the walls welded with bolts and reinforcements made him suspect that he had been kidnapped. His heart was pounding as soon as he noticed the black fluid drip attached to his arm.

Panicked, he tried to rip it off, but his right hand was handcuffed to the cot where he had spent the last hours in a coma.

Klint began to be consumed by terror while steps echoed outside the futuristic door, the buzz of small mechanisms accompanied the flow of the door. A figure skimmed inside the room, storing without a minimum of care a device similar to a headphone.

He widened his eyes at the sight of a woman in a tight black jumpsuit and a pale white coat. The suit seemed to shine along the purple veins that passed through the material symmetrically.

The sight of his eyes began to recover almost completely. He could see the blond strands swaying on her shoulders and the elegance of the gestures as she arranged the folds in the suit. Klint freed himself from the sheets, enduring all the accumulated fatigue and turned into the cot, trying to put his feet on the ground.

Monica spotted him and pounced on him desperately, as she cried out in a high, raised voice to go back to bed.

She forcefully put him back to bed and began to touch him, noting with joy that his wounds had completely healed without trace. Klint started to be embarassed and grabbed Monica by the forearm. Seemingly confused, she soon realized that her strange attire could be suggestive for someone who had never had actual social relations.

<Could you... > Murmured Klint gently, clutching the blankets to him.

The thing embarrassed her too, that she quickly withdrew, buttoning her gown while mumbling some excuses.

The blush disappeared from their faces and Klint felt free to move, now that he had been tinkered from the bed. Monica sat next to him and offered him a cup of coffee, which he kindly refused. Net cleared her voice and began searching for words to clarify his ideas.

<I know you have many questions and that your head is confused but let me explain your current situation. > Klint listened carefully, making an effort to not to fall asleep.

<You are now in the III ship of the association N.O.I.R.... The Pietas! > With a rather childish gesture, she opened his arms and showed the inside of the room where he slept. He turned his head towards a panel behind them, a snap of her fingers and the porthole opened, letting in the clear ligh, reflected over the sea of clouds. Klint glanced at the blue sky, furrowed by the shadow of the ship on which he was a passenger.

<Ship? N.O.I.R ? I do not understand... weren't you a researcher? Then those monsters... I do not understand. > He asked distressed, looking at the cold white floor. A faint reflection accompanied his heavy and weak face.

<I'm sorry, but you, Klint are no longer entitled to be let loose. > Biting her lip, she sighed and looked right at him. His eyes were full of sadness, probably if it were not for the effort, they would have profusely watered.

<Lance Klint died in that clearing, you are something "different". Like all members of NOIR> She said quietly, without hiding the stern tone.

Klint looked at his hands, remembering the blood and brutality of his gestures. The images were clear and imprinted in his eyes, he could not pretend not to understand, what he had done was not possible to anyone, he was no longer an ordinary inhabitant of Sector 0.

She smiled at Monica, which impressed her so deeply that she pulled her back into her chair like a lost child at the sight of an insect.

<What happened to the clearing... It was not something possible for anyone, right? > He asked, keeping his head down now, without letting his smile cloud his lips.

Net's face darkened, turning to the desk, tipping over pens, paper, and glasses. From his pocket he pulled out a thin black card that was slammed onto the now free desk. The board quickly expanded in the form of a completely black screen with purple details, under Klint's stunned eye.

<Beautiful, right? > rReplied Monica while smiling, but without being able to hide that veil of darkness on her face.

The screen lit up, showing a file entitled "I REPORT SUBJECT 8 - CODE NAME: ALPHA".

Klint's face remained petrified as a chilling chill seized him, he had never seen that document before, but he could remember the first sentences by heart.

< Subject reacts well to Lambda radiation exposure and appears to be very cooperative when subject 9 is entered as an argument or as a "compromise". > Those words were all he remembered of that document.

The thing frightened him and began to tremble, while a storm of disconnected images painfully crossed his synapses. Screaming, a white floor, blood, vomiting, a smell of burnt flesh, everything was being confusingly processed by his brain at an insane rate.

Klint gasped as Monica looked at him, looking frightened. He tried to stand only to fall to his knees. She immediately threw herself at him to help, he was showing all the symptoms of a panic attack. The color of his eyes flickered from his classic brown to a shining yellow.

<Is he having a rejection? Impossible, is he reacting to something?> She thought quickly as the boy yanked her hard. She took a syringe from her pocket and with a lightning-fast gesture managed to penetrate the skin, on the side of his neck.

The boy fell into her arms, some tears wet her coat. She put him back to bed and reluctantly cuffed him to the cot again.

Monica sat back in her chair and began to mull over what had happened within only five minutes of turning the computer on.

<How did you knew that document by heart, it was lost 10 years ago during a breach. We had to send dozens of agents to retrieve it from the black box in the ruins. >

Monica turned her gaze towards the screen, the letters flickered at times and then reassembled, the simple character and the careful paragraphing referred in all respects to a military dossier.

The description of the subject Alpha matched in part with Klint: black hair, above average stature, brown eyes, but the name had been repeatedly obscured or redacted. The file was only part of the original document and served as a summary with the addition of some peculiar notes.

Monica's gaze fell on the latter, uneasily reading the same sentences recited by Klint, going further down the page. Experiments on humans and worse were described in those macabre notes.

One, however, made her nauseous. A vivid description of an experiment conducted on subject Alpha.

"The patient was subjected to the exposure of bloody images depicting subject 9 (Partly false and other true, as suggested by the superintendent -REDACTED-). Alpha initially visibly agitated and frustrated began to beg researchers to stop, only to burst into tears immediately afterwards from a series of symptoms, attributable to nausea, that led him to cease conscious functions for 4 minutes."

Net was deeply disgusted by what she had just read but her eyes remained glued to the page as she continued to scroll down the document.

<Is it possible to do this to a child?> She thought dismayed, clutching the armrest of the chair anxiously.

"After the aforementioned minutes of examination, subject Alpha rose, his face was completely pale, and his eye color changed to a very bright yellow, The electronics flickered (Is assumed that the cause was the emission of the Lambda radiation, given the distortions recorded on the cameras). The walls were violently broken and the screens exploded immediately after. The researchers were exhibiting symptoms of hysteria and panic at the subject's sight. 25 minor creatures, designated as Helspawn, were placed in the hall. Subject was given a time of 3 minutes and 25 seconds to completely decimate them. Alpha then pounced on the researchers, wounding 3 and incapacitating 2. Subject's escape continued until he reached Subject 9's containment cage, making his way through automata (28 destroyed, 6 damaged) and guards (33 wounds, 5 incapacitated). Alpha ended his fury thanks to the efforts of the defense agent of the doctor -REDACTED- currently in a coma for his injuries. The experimentation with the subject Alpha must be stopped and its custody entrusted to the Researcher Monoghan Nyx .

The Alpha subject must be immediately categorized as unstable and risky, its categorization goes from Green to Red. In conclusion, he proved capable of tampering with Lambda radiation, even shaping it to build masks or tools, resulting dangerous for the staff."

Monica continued to scroll, arriving at a series of photos, depicting the incident described in the file. Although it had happened about ten years ago, the figure was far too similar to Klint to be just a coincidence. However, it was hard to think that someone like that could do something like this.

<What has this boy been through? It's disgusting! >Monica murmured grievously while closing the file quickly. She looked at Lance, still weeping, helpless on the cot.

<From the information he should suffer from Dissociative Amnesia... Perhaps his brain is preventing him from remembering? > Monica put her hand on the forehead, nauseated and shaken, her thoughts running free in her mind, without stopping.

<Even if he wasn't him...it's amazing that he's capable of such a massacre. Not even a Zwei could do it so easily without experience.>

Suddenly a robotic voice rang in the iron hull of the Pietas. Echoing between the bolts with force.

<Arrival at destination expected in twenty-three minutes, destination Dielmon, port I-A> A sigh of relief poured from Net's lips.

<It's about time... I can finally introduce you to the team. > She said smiling as she watched Klint, who had finally subsided in his sleep.