How It all Began (2) or Endure

Chapter 2

Year: 2524

Location: The Gutters, Caesar's home.

City: Tarsonis Super City, capital of the Terran Confederacy.

Dead of night.

...60 minutes later.

A group of eighteen-year-old males could be seen walking towards a rundown strip club located within one of the many basements underneath the city skyscrapers by Caesar's house,

Along the way, this group spotted a crowd of men and women standing outside Caesar's broken home with a look of annoyance and fear.

As the group pushed their way through the murmuring crowd, they started to hear a loud shrill scream crying out in pain. When they finally spotted the house they walked past every night, another scream could be heard however nobody stepped forward.

The homeless watched on without a care in the world. While mothers looked on in fear, their children ran towards gangsters and the privatized police, who were gambling on the boy's life.

Back inside the basement, Caesar's dad was watching his computer with glee as he yelled, "psionic index, 10.7! Your potential is increasing Octavian! You have to survive! Where your mother and siblings did not!"

"Aiie-Aiie Aaaaaa!" Screamed Caesar as his eyes rolled back and his psionic energy slowly transitioned from away from its current bluish-green hue.

"10.8.5! Yes, my boy! The rates increasing, hold still soon will be rich!"

Caesar's father looked to him with a distorted smile and wide eyes, while an unknown mix of chemicals pumped furiously into Caesar's heart and skull.

He scoffed, "Octavian, your yelling is unbecoming as my prized experiment---ahem. As my favorite son, you need to act with more dignity. Or you'll disturb our neighbors you know."

Having heard parts of his father's speech Caesar's pupils shrank with rage and pain, his fathers became nothing but garble. His heartbeat began to slow as his powers grew, his screaming died out.

Just then his father yelled, "DON'T YOU DARE FLATLINE WHEN I'M THIS CLOSE, YOU NEEDY BASTERED CHILD!!!"

Caesar's heart appeared to flatline while his brain activity spiked. His father's words replayed within his head as his mind tuned his voice out. While he began to turn his attention towards the thoughts of surrendering his house and the buildings.

'When will the yelling stop?'

'Come on bitch die! I already owe these gangsters 1000 credit.'

'If the cops don't care, why should I?'

'Is Octavian yelling again? What the fuck! I have work tomorrow!'

The more he listened the longer his heartbeat. 10.9, 11, 11.0.5…

For years Caesar had heard these people's innermost deepest thoughts. And In the beginning, he cared. But now it was nothing but fuel to survive his father's backyard experiments.

"11.2, 11.3, 11.4,11.5! Yes, Octavian! Don't stop! Continue charting the path. So that I can prove to those people I wasn't crazy---Wha?"

11,10,9,8,7…" NO, NO NOoOooOooo! WHAT'S HAPPENING! Caesar, fight for daddy!"

Caesar's psionic power drowned out his father's hysteria and began to take on a bright vibrant lime green hue. The brown in eyes slowly faded while this vibrant hypnotic lime green continued to glow.

6.5, 6.4, 6.3, 6.2

Caesar's pupils faded, what little remained consciousness gave out as his power quickly engulfed the room.

His father glanced towards his body before dashing to the door In a hysterical motion. Just as the light began to engulf everything.

Everyone outside grew curious seeing the bright light from within the house. A few of the neighbor's woke up to dial more police. However, just when they finished a loud explosion sounded off.

Vaporizing Caesar's father, while sending the crowd flying. Arcs of green lightning burned the crowd's flesh. Shards of metal, and cement went ripping into their body while the surrounding glass shattered around them.

The men, women, and children living ground side had their walls blown in and their bones shattered. Those high above felt the building teeter, mass panic ensued causing the death toll to increase.

Looting became rampant. The official Tarsonis police force arrived in all-black shuttles, with sirens that blazed a sound so deafening it echoed over both building's speakers.

The looting rapidly came to an end, people fled back to whatever remained of their apartments. A few men and women ran outside to see well-dressed men and women in black kevlar dress suits that read Tarsonis police force in all white letters.

Surrounding these men and women were half-burnt bodies, shattered glass, charred roads, and bits of cement embedded into the neighboring walls.

At the epicenter of all the destruction was an unconscious boy being dragged away by an angry long-haired white male dawning a spiked black trench coat, black fingerless gloves, along with a grey bulletproof vest to go along with his punk rock look.

The death toll for today's incident...412 people.

------

Following Morning

Location: ???, still Tarsonis

Caesar awoke to find himself cuffed to a hospital bed, with a light blue iv being inserted into his veins.

His eyes frantically scanned the plain white medical room before falling on four doctors who were studying his medical data with a look of conflicted curiosity. Turning his head further right, he spotted two lightly armed guards with standardized gauss rifles standing behind the doctors.

Caesar attempted to sit up however the cuffs clamped down on his limbs, restricting his movements. His eyes locked onto the cuffs before glancing back at the guards then turning to the doctor's who all dawned weird-looking earpieces.

As his eyes darted around the room they began to widen as he thought. 'It's all military-grade. Their tech's all military-grade! And it's nothing that's publicly known--wait! I can't sense their thoughts! What am I going to do!? NO! No. Stay calm, then assess and evaluate.

If you are here then Father's dead, and your body is stable. This means his poorly run experiment worked to some extent, not that I needed it. That piece of slag was the cause of my previous--hopefully previous health issue. But on that note, what am I sensing in my head and.'

"Where am I?" Asked Caesar. His voice was quiet yet raspy, clear signs it had been underused. This caused young doctors to smirk catching Caesar's attention, however, the boy said nothing glancing at the elderly doctor.

She said nothing while the young doctors had their eyes trained upon Caesar's face before glancing towards their elderly supervisor. Who disregarded him to continue studying his data.

His attention turned towards the four doctors who still seemed to be infatuated with their new specimen.

*Clunk clank, Clunk clank.* Caesar shook his cuffs drawing their attention to it. "Could I sit up?"

The doctors looked towards their supervisor who just raised an arm, causing the cuffs around his wrist to unlock. Before telling them, "begin questioning" in a dull and monotone voice.

----

Caesar's Pov

'The cuffs, my data, and this weird feeling in my head, then the fact that I can't read their thoughts...it's safe to assume I'm not leaving anytime soon. Ok, first; they could probably detect my psionic energy. The second is that they're looking to benefit from it, so the question now becomes. If I'm trapped how do I benefit from them?'

"Hi Caesar, I'm Doctor Tom. How are you?"

'...Let's play scared and stupid.'

"Good." 'I hope that sounded innocent enough.'

Doctor tom: "Caesar, can you answer my questions?"

"I can try."

Doctor: "Good. Now Caesar, what's the last thing you remember?"

"Pain and Darkness...." '...Look at him, his eyes twitching. He thought I'd tell him something of value.'

Doctor: "Caesar. Do you know what psionics means?"

"It allows you to control stuff." 'They all look less interested in me. I wonder what my Data's telling them right now.'

Doctor: "Caesar, did daddy teach you how to use your psionic energy?"

"No." 'Why are they staring into my eyes with so much interest?'

Doctor: "Do you remember your name, Caesar?"

"Yeah, It's Caesar."

Doctor: "And how do you know?"

"Because you've been calling me Caesar." 'What's with this line of questioning?'

Doctor: "Does the name Octavian ring any bells, Caesar?"

"No. Should it?" 'Are they testing my memory, but why? Does it have anything to do with whatever's in my head?'

----- Elderly Doctor Pov----

'Geralt Caesar Augustus, born 2516 in Mar Sara General Hospital, was kidnapped nine-month after birth due to his phenomenal psi index grade of 10.5/10. It is now believed Harold Connington was responsible for taking him along with 7 other kids. Mr. Connigton named each of these kids after the numbers 1 to 8.

And was responsible for the deaths of 7 while crippling 8th...Octavian's...Geralt's...Caesar's psionic potential with his experiments. Caesar's psi index comes in at 5.9, however, the boy's psionic energy is...unusual to say the least.

As for the boy himself...he disturbs me. He's too calm for a child and it's unnerving, even the other gutter kids weren't this calm, and that makes me nervous. However, he's just too interesting of a specimen to ignore! Plus he's been so well behaved, unlike the others.'

Doctor Tom: "Tell me, Caesar. How do you feel about the confederacy?"

Caesar: "I love it."

Doctor Tom: "Oh you love it! Why?"

Caesar: " Confederacy's a nation...opportunity."

'Even the director would see him as the perfect broken toy. Then it's decided! We'll turn off his neural inhibitor and adjust it if need be...But still, what a weird way to describe the confederacy.'

"We have the Data we need, and he's only a five so we'll be skipping his testing tomorrow."