Chapter 33 : Jiaying and Hyde

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A couple of minutes after Cory's choice is made, Hyde guides us toward the basement. I'm surprised by its layout… It doesn't look like anything pop culture and my own lacking knowledge about architecture and civil engineering are telling it should look like. There are no big pipes overhanging in the ceiling, no massive electrical boxes… In fact, there's not much of anything really, except what Cory calls the Iron Coffin. And I get why she's calling it that. There's glass on the front, but it's otherwise entirely made out of metal.

Oh ! And the only pipes and cable there are are actually connected to it. I'm guessing that how the gaseous form of the Terragenisis crystal is going to be introduced into Cory's system safely for… Well, us !

Hyde's been babbling about Cory's choice and how she would thank him once her potential was fully revealed. I wonder briefly if he even thought of the possibility that Cory could been physically changed, disfigured even… And then, I realize : he doesn't care. This is the guy who used an experimental, untested serum on himself because he wanted to be exceptional. Looking at his face and how he otherwise takes care of his appearance, even if his fashion sense is stuck in the 19th century, it's like he's trying to show off his simian features.

For just a moment, I want to lash out, strike out at him… Teach him a lesson. I restrain myself : it's a useless and false sense of justice… Or maybe, it's something else, like a parent being protective of their children. In this case, a brother of his sister.

Standing in front of the open coffin, I can see Cory hesitate slightly. However, with one glance back at me and the looming presence of Hyde over her shoulder, she affirms her decision by stepping forward. With a gleeful and sickening smile, Hyde closes the pod and goes towards a laptop over the only other piece of furniture in this otherwise empty basement. Tapping a few keys, I hear the whooshing sound of gas being moved through the pipes and I can see how it feels Cory's pod. As her body get gradually covered in some kind of sediment, I see her panic and try to strike at the glass in vain.

Although I know it's a somewhat natural reaction for her brand of Alterhuman, I pretend to panic :

« Get her out ! You're killing her ! »

Hyde explains calmly :

« Unlike how it appears, she is not actually turning to stone. Rather, she's forming a cocoon around herself for her metamorphosis ! »

It's clear how excited the man is. I don't know if the man is simply pursuing science for science's sake, even risking his daughter's life for it or if he has some other agenda but… I realize how terrifying mad scientists are ! And it's not even the only one in Marvel. If he, or another one of his kind ever get wind of what I could do… I shudder just to think about it.

Thankfully for me, Hyde doesn't notice how uncomfortable I am. He's content in monologuing about 'inhumans'…

« You see, young Norrson, I feel like I can talk with you as I would an equal, and therefore, I will explain… I met Daisy's mother - Daisy is Cory's birth name - in Madrapoor not long after I underwent my own metamorphosis. At the time, I was little more than a bundle of passion, a beast of urges that reason couldn't rule. And she was a beautiful woman… Also, she was a Lady of the Night. Despite my instincts telling me to simply take her, given her choice of profession, it was a simple matter to lay in bed with her. Especially for someone with physical prowess such as I ! »

« We started a carnal relationship that lasted for a while. Until finally, my intellect and reason mostly returned to me. I grew curious about her genetics… After I acquired samples from her and began to study them, I became aware of dormant genetic markers that put her above the common man or woman. Genetic markers, I believed, resembled my own. She then told me a tale passed down in her family, about gods who had chosen her ancestors and gifted them with remarkable powers. At the time, Thor and his ilk were little more than legends and it never occurred to me that these 'gods' might actually be an alien civilization. However, her potential… This was a mystery I needed to solve ! »

The man continues narrating his story with a lot of emotions making themselves shown on his face. I have to admit… The man's a great story teller ! It doesn't hurt that he talks like a 19th century gentleman.

The rest of the story seems kind of outlandish… And that's a reincarnated, human-octopus hybrid with reality altering powers, now residing in a fictional universe who's telling you this ! He parted from Jiaying - and, hearing the name, I instantly had alarm bells ringing and the guards going up in arms in my head - to travel the world in search of proofs about his lover's story. Like Indie, the famous adventuring archeologist, Hyde participated in a number of expedition on prehistorical sites.

In the end, one of the team he belonged to, uncovered an anachronic item of unknown origins and use. While the rest of the researchers thought the site had been contaminated somehow, Hyde saw this as a proof about his theory on Jiaying's tale… That alien had interfered in the early days of human civilization, either directly, indirectly or simply experimented on the human race.

With his suspicions all but confirmed, Hyde pursued his researches to gradually uncover the truth. Though he was missing important pieces such as the name of the alien race, or the story about Hive, he figured out that aliens had experiment on humans to give birth to the 'inhuman' sub-race, theorizing that the 'in' had originally been 'Not' in a primitive form of language and therefore didn't necessarily carry this negative connotation… Back to Hive, though, maybe the monstrosity doesn't exist in this reality, or simply has a different origin story. Hyde exposed a few of his theories about 'Inhumans' and their relations with the aliens : pets, tools, slaves, even subjects… According to Hyde, from the few sources he found, humans had always been made to show a certain kind of subservience to their blue masters.

« And so, I went back to Jiaying and told her about my findings. I proposed and even helped her awaken her potential… We had a beautiful baby daughter… » He speaks fondly with a gentle smile and soft voice, before his face goes still, cold ice in his eyes and a sharp edge to his voice : « … Only she dared betray me ! She deserved everything I put her through and more ! »

Oh, boy ! I think to myself. Perhaps, in this reality, it's not a bastard from Hydra who turned the woman into a human-hating extremist, but her own husband… It sure sound like it anyway…

Suddenly, the conversation is interrupted by a cracking noise coming from Cory's open pod…