4 days later…

“Breaking news, a terrorist attack has taken place on the Congress of Armistice located in the United Kingdom, the identity of the attackers is currently unknown, the purpose of the meeting was to appease the rising tensions between the VOA and the Red Confederacy. Seventy-four casualties thus far have been reported, many of them were diplomatic personnel of said alliances. The Confederacy points to the VOA as the perpetrators of such an incident, the leader, Hyeon Su, swore in a conference that the Vanguard will not go unpunished for their deliberate actions. After finishing his declarations he ordered to mobilize tasks forces to some countries recently associated with the Red Confederacy.

“This circumstance has aggravated the relationships between both alliances as well as increased the uneasiness of many nations worldwide. In other news…” The video they are watching together in an online multimedia sharing platform pauses.

“Can it get any worse?” asks Roberth.

“Where are the alien visitors when you need them?” Another friend says.

“Don’t expect them to come here, if they ever existed at all, they wouldn’t act as mediators for our petty conflicts.” Roberth shakes his head.

“What a time to be alive...”

“Well I have to go, I’m gonna visit someone.” Roberth goes to Valeria’s house, to then to meet Phrixus at his hideout, he said he has something to show them.

***

12:21pm…

Meanwhile at the entrance of Phrixus’s hideout…

“Ok… how are we supposed to enter?” Valeria says. “I only see an armored door and a keypad, I’m gonna assume he gave you the password.”

“Umm… he hasn’t told me anything about a password, I’ll give him a call.” Roberth contacts him by phone, without response.

“Well?” Valeria is somewhat annoyed.

“No response… It looks like we’ll have to…” Roberth is interrupted by the door opening abruptly and Phrixus aiming a pistol at them.

“I don’t sell drugs! Get lost before I… ah it’s you, you didn’t bother to ask for the password?” Phrixus says.

“Yeah yeah, you didn’t say anything about that…” Valeria says.

“Been very busy these days, I was making my little fort nicer.”

Valeria shakes her head and sighs. “Alejandro you are so—”

Phrixus interrupts her. “Sshhh! Silence! Don’t say that name, get inside and I’ll explain.”

Roberth and Valeria enter Phrixus’s hideout and notice that the building inside has changed a lot; braziers illuminate the main hallway, the walls have been reconditioned and painted. They are impressed with how Phrixus has managed to remodel the place. After a few seconds, the group comes to the main hall.

“Wow Alejandro you have some interesting taste in décor…” Valeria says, before she is silenced again by Phrixus.

“Cut it out, why keep shushing me?” Valeria is upset now.

“That name cannot be said any longer unless you want to die…” he says with a sarcastic tone, then he laughs. “Gotcha, well that’s not the case, my name’s Phrixus for now.”

“And why that name?” says Roberth.

“The VOA wanted a codename, that’s all.”

“Ok Mr. Phrixus, what did you want to show us?” says Valeria.

“A tour of my clubhouse of course, follow me.”

Phrixus guides his friends to show them every site and space of the hideout, occasionally narrating some anecdotes depending on where they are. In the forge, Phrixus pulls out a finished sword and shows it to them.

“I present you the arming sword, a classic and reliable one, it was very popular in the high Middle Ages, and is a good choice if you want to act on a grudge against someone you hate.” Phrixus hands the sword to Roberth.

“And where did you get this?” says Roberth, examining it.

“I forged it.”

Roberth looked confused. “You made it?”

“Books are a powerful and formidable source of knowledge, in my leisure time I dabble in craftsmanship. Come with me to the workshop and you’ll see how to create an antipersonnel IED using only a soda can, any kind of shrapnel, black powder, and scrap metal.”

Just when they leave the forge, a large animal suddenly appears in front of them, hissing at them and taking an aggressive stance.

“Dixy stand still! These are my friends, chill out will you?” Phrixus talks gently to the animal, making it calm down immediately and take a docile posture.

Roberth and Valeria recover from the scare.

“What the…! Where did you get that giant cat?” Roberth kneels to check out the cat.

“It’s not a cat, it is a Eurasian Lynx, you admire animals but don’t know what a lynx is, shame on you…” Phrixus says.

“As far as I know lynxes are not from South America, where did you get it?” Valeria says.

“Courtesy of the VOA, the seller was fairly perplexed but I convinced him. Animals have a very simple neural structure, which means I can easily reshape her behavior to grant her intelligence but I have to maintain her primal instincts to keep an appropriate equilibrium, in short, a trustworthy and smart pet, she can even understand our language.”

“Very interesting… it’s like having the perfect mascot…” Valeria says, while Dixy approaches Valeria and Roberth, sniffs at them and licks their hands.

“Regarding human cognition…” Phrixus says. “That’s another story… alright follow me to the main hall, I need to show you something.”

The group goes to the main hall, upon arriving Phrixus pulls out a big steel box and puts it on a table, it is revealed to be one of those alien meteorites, still dimly emanating particles.

“Let me guess, you stole it from some military base?” Valeria says.

“Nope, this is the one which gave me powers, all the clues and facts I could gather on the Internet about the small particles says they are not dangerous to the environment… but there is conflicting information about such claims, until I can find more detailed data I’m gonna bury it underground far away from here, I don’t want it to fall into the wrong hands.”

“And what’s new about all this?” Roberth gestures to the alien rock.

“After reading a lot of scientific reports, articles, thesis, research papers, you name it, all the analysts came to one conclusion, the ‘crystal’ that protruded from the meteorite is a unique form of mutagen that heavily modifies the DNA of the lucky victim in such a way that not even the best minds can figure out how it works. There is a wiki dedicated to this topic, explaining with detail and with scientific basis every physical and mental alteration, basic ones such as increased strength, agility, intelligence, to even more esoteric ones, such as... well, like my mind magic.”

Roberth raises his hand. “How bad… or bearable are the consequences of this event?”

“Depends on how you see it; we are talking about something extraordinary and terrifying, these meteorites have drastically changed life as we know it. Did you know the human being has a versatile and malleable DNA? The types of mutations a person can develop are almost countless...”

“I only see a depleted rock that still has a bit of the precious nectar, I doubt that quantity will do something significant.” Valeria says.

Phrixus says, “Researchers say that prolonged exposure can cause burns, scarring and even genetic damage, so it would be advisable to not mess with these rocks.”

“Huh... now I want to know more.” Valeria says.

“I’d say the same, curse my curiosity…” Roberth adds.

“That’s the spirit. Laso, come here and bring me the folder RAO-005!” Phrixus says.

Behind Phrixus appears an owl, flying and carrying a folder with both talons. Phrixus picks up the file.

“…And another pet.” Valeria coos.

“Don’t blame me, I found him while I was on an expedition, he’s a good searcher and tracker,” Phrixus says with a shrug.

“An expedition? And what is that exactly?” Roberth says.

“I’ll tell you later, for now look at this.”

Phrixus opens the folder and shows many articles and images with personal information about people interviewed after being exposed to the alien meteorite, all this data was gathered on different websites, also containing scientific explanations on how the mutations are possible and how the human body functions with these kinds of alterations.

“There you go, so you can educate yourselves. This is a new chapter for mankind… Changing the subject, all this made me hungry. Wanna join me for lunch?” Phrixus says.

“What’s on the menu?” Valeria says nervously.

“Let’s go to the kitchen, you should try my marinated bear steaks, once you try them you’ll want to eat them all the time.”

“Bear meat? Are you joking?” Valeria wrinkles her nose.

“Joking? Of course not, and before you ask bear meat is edible and I know how to prepare it properly.”

“Well, if you say so I gonna try some then.”

“I assume you have something for the herbivore…” Roberth says, with a sarcastic cough.

“Why, of course, ‘falafans’ for my vegetarian pal.”

“It’s falafels you idiot! you are still mispronouncing the word.”

“That’s the point, what did you expect?” Phrixus laughed.

The group comes to the kitchen, outfitted with everything needed to prepare food: an electric oven, microwave, cooking utensils, a freezer, and other appliances.

“A wealthy man’s cuisine, what else will you do to fix up this place?” says Roberth, while he and Valeria take a seat.

“When you stop being vegetarian.” He chuckles a bit. “Alright no, I’ll have to get money by other means so I can improve the kitchen and the other rooms, but I have two pets to feed and a place to manage alone, not that easy.” Phrixus went to work reheating the food and serving his friends. “There you go, a champion’s meal.”

Valeria took a bite. “Tastes good! Where did you get the meat, though? There are no bears in this region.”

“I managed to find a butcher who has some contacts to provide me the meat, with some haggling we reached an agreement,” Phrixus says.

“At least you don’t have to hunt them,” Roberth says.

“Damn I wish I could, there is no worthy game in this province, I want to fetch some moose antlers.”

“I dislike animals being hunted for sport, it’s wrong.” Roberth crosses his arms.

“Only if their meat, fur, bones and everything is wasted. I’m using it.” Phrixus replied.

“You get no argument from me there, I can tolerate that.” Roberth says with a smile.

The party had a good time having lunch.

***

26 minutes later…

“Well I have to go, what are you going to do next Phrixus?” Roberth says.

“I’ll go on an expedition to the city, bringing down criminals and troublemakers, a good sport for me.”

“You mean catching crooks and taking them to jail?” says Valeria.

“Something like that, but that issue of catching them… I’ll judge who deserves to live and die,” says Phrixus.

“What is going on, Alejandro? That kind of attitude only will make things worse. You don’t know they can’t redeem themselves.” Valeria says before being interrupted by Phrixus.

“Redeem? What kind of nonsense is that? Murderers, rapists, psychopaths and other vermin are hopeless, the ultimate solution for them is death, that is how they pay in full for their crimes.”

“That doesn’t change my point of view.”

“Then remember this: Don’t expect mercy from them. You decide if you fight or die.”

Valeria doesn’t answer and leaves with an annoyed gesture.

“How irritating...” Phrixus sighs, watching her walk out.

“I don’t know what to say about all of this… What are you going to do now?” Roberth says.

“I’m gonna go on an expedition, like I said. What about you?” Phrixus says.

“I’d like to participate, sounds fun.”

“Outstanding, let’s go, I know a place where a gang of undesirables are making narcotics. Where is your mace?”

“At home, let’s stop by quickly to get it and then catch some bad guys.”

***

2:11 pm…

They arrive at what appears to be a normal house in a remote residential area.

“Here? Really? How do you know it’s this house…” Roberth whispers.

“The appearances are deceptive, make sure to pull your mace from your backpack when I give the signal, follow me.” Phrixus says.

Knocking on the door, the friends are on guard as someone opens it very warily and takes a peek. “What do you want? State your business or get lost.” The person hid behind the door as they spoke.

“I’ve heard you sell drugs, don’t you? You haven’t paid the rent so I came here to shut down your establishment.” Phrixus says, quickly bringing down the door and the dealer with a powerful kick. The duo come inside, where some gangsters hastily open fire.

Phrixus deflects the bullets psychically while Roberth uses his temporary invulnerability to make him impervious to the projectiles. He charges the enemy, leaving a trail of warped pellets. Both men advance and eliminate every thug in the place, after clearing the zone they notice one of them retreating to the basement. While going downstairs, one of them manages to wound Roberth with a gunshot to the chest. The hit only made him flinch a bit.

“Damn it! You better not die here, Roberth.”

Roberth laughs. “Don’t worry. I don’t die easily, I have more tricks in my bag, I’ll tell you the details later, let’s keep up the fight.”

They advance and kill all the remaining thugs and get to the last room, presumably the chief’s office. As they enter inside, the gang boss appears in front of them armed with two light machine guns on each hand, they notice he is not burdened by the weight of both weapons, and suspect he is a superhuman.

“Let’s see how you get through this!” yells the leader.

A rain of bullets sprays at the duo. Phrixus uses his ability to deflect bullets again, but the sheer amount causes him to overexert his powers, and a few stray bullets manage to hit him. Roberth hurriedly tries to take cover but falls to the ground after taking some hits. Phrixus is terrified for his friend, but then sees that Roberth’s vital signs are strong. One of his psychic abilities is that he can be attuned with the nervous system of any living being that is near him.

“Only knocked out, nothing critical,” Phrixus thinks, continuing the fight.

The thug drops both guns and picks up an aluminum bat. “I’ll send you to Hell along with your friend.”

“Let’s dance.” Phrixus throws his knife in the air and catches it by the handle before it can fall.

The thug charges, swinging his bat against Phrixus. Despite dodging the attacks he receives a blow to his torso on the left side making him flinch, but it’s not serious. He throws another attack, and Phrixus manages to evade it. He gets close and stabs the thug’s forearm where he is holding the bat, disarming him and finally ending the fight with a thrust to his neck. After the man falls to the floor to bleed out, Phrixus goes to aid Roberth.

“Hey slacker wake up already, show’s over.” Phrixus says, while Roberth begins to recover consciousness.

“Damn it… it sucks when I can’t endure enough,” says Roberth while he focuses inwardly to push out the bullets inside of him, and close the wounds.

“And you can also heal quickly…”

“Yeah, at least my innards are ‘almost’ strong enough even when I’m not turning into a living tank, still that caliber put me down… I learned that trick intuitively when I was working out, I heard from other superhumans that meditation and mindfulness exercises help you to improve and even discover new abilities you might not be aware of,” says Roberth, softly cracking his neck with his hand.

“I’ll be sure to give a shot later, now returning back to business… where did they get these military-grade weapons? Help me search this place, but before we begin…”

Phrixus approaches to the corpse of the leader thug and takes as a trophy a military bandolier.

“I still don’t understand that hobby of yours of getting trophies…” says Roberth.

“A secondary effect of the mutagen or a way to measure personal strength? It’s up to you to guess, now let’s clean up the place.”

While the duo rummages the room, Phrixus finds a sheet of paper with something written on it, which sends a shiver to his spine:

Miguel,

I need a drug shipment for this weekend to be sold to a few relevant foreign clients who will pay double its weight, you better keep your pups tied up and stop their idiocy when I provide you weapons. Lately, everything is shaken with the pressure of the Red Confederacy present on the country and I don’t need an imbecile to ruin this business, especially after that incident where a rascal’s family was slaughtered because he was supposedly responsible for making the mess in the shopping mall “The Coast”, I don’t know what Gabriel Menendez was thinking to order something like that, he even told me that the officer of the assassins only wanted the guy dead, not his family, but he disagreed, “All of them including that bastard must die” were his words, what Menendez does to get rid of his opponents is none of our concern, he’s just another associate in our enterprise and that’s all, I must remind you I don’t want to hear of any incident with the reds, as well as with other suppliers or The Rabid Dogs…

When you have the merchandise ready, I will send you the next stock.

Juan

“Gabriel Menendez… Minister of Justice, you just earned yourself a dance with the Devil…” Murmured Phrixus, pressing the sheet of paper and wrinkling it. He already knew the People’s Militia were funded by the government, but now he had evidence that the important government officials were directly involved with illegal drugs.

“Did you find something or are you just goofing around?” Roberth calls, getting up after his healing.

“Take a look at this.” Phrixus hands over the note. “How about that, Gabriel Menendez somehow ordered the assassination of my family using confederate soldiers, he may deny every accusation thrown at him about tracking and ‘bringing to justice’ activists against the regime, drug trafficking, everything damn it!” he says angrily. “Even this crap he planned, just because he is the president’s… no forget that word, tyrant’s.” He puts emphasis on that word. “Right hand doesn’t mean he is untouchable, I’ll take care of that arrogant bastard…”

“And you want to assault his fancy house alone?”

“You are damn right, or what do you have in mind?” Phrixus starts to think through options.

“I want to go as well, that ‘minister’ is nothing more than a protector of criminals and a corrupt-to-the-core bureaucrat,” Roberth says.

“Let’s raid his manor then.”

“But before we go you should change those ragged clothes, you look like a bum.”

“Ok, go to my hideout then, the password is 123456789000, I have some clothes in my house.”

“Seriously you couldn’t think up a better one? Whatever, don’t be late” says Roberth.

***

Phrixus arrives at his parents’ home, goes to his room, and begins to take out the clothes from the drawer. First, he takes a stylish and practical military-style jacket, a gift from his father, still with its protective wrapping and good as new, then takes a dark green long sleeve T-shirt, a pair of urban camo cargo pants, black leather gloves, a pair of steel toe boots, and a pair of customized bandanas to cover his head and face like a shemagh.

“This should be enough.” Phrixus decides. He changes his outfit and returns to his hideout. He needs to seek justice, no matter what.

25 minutes later…

Roberth is waiting for Phrixus in the main hall when suddenly he hears someone walking in the hallway toward the room.

“What do you think, eh? I take this seriously…” Phrixus says, showing off his new clothes.

“I couldn’t say the same if that jacket gets torn… Well, everything ready?” Roberth says.

“Yeah, let’s not waste more time.”

They begin to equip themselves for the expedition to Gabriel Menendez’s house.

***

9:02 pm…

Somewhere near Gabriel’s home…

“What a sight... a dwelling worthy of a revolutionary with all its luxuries earned with hard work, it takes a lot of guts to fool the people constantly…” Phrixus says, while hiding with Roberth in the vegetation to check out the place. The house indeed looks extravagant: beautiful, decorated gardens, exquisite architecture design, all kinds of overpriced decorations in the backyard, and the most important… a private security service guarding all the place, they wonder how the residence looks inside…

“I see the fruits of his labor, as if money laundering wasn’t enough for these bigwigs while the country’s population suffers. So, what’s the plan?” Roberth says.

“Simple and easy, sweep away anyone who stands in our way. I doubt the minister has an escape plan, he’s too overconfident and proud of himself, and when I get him I have something special for him.”

“Sounds good. Let’s make an uproar.”

The duo abandon their cover and head to the main entrance of the mansion, it is very guarded by the minister’s bodyguards, they are not sure how many Superhumans are protecting the place; a few of them have visible physical traits that make them easily recognizable, one of them has hands with a faint, chromatic-like characteristic, while another one Phrixus noticed exhaled cold air but was not smoking anything and the climate is warm. What kind of powers they have is left to imagination, for now… As they get closer, one of the entrance guards demands them to stop. The other four guards are raising their guns high as the duo are carrying weapons.

One guard shouts. “Stop right there, what is your business here?”

“Take a wild guess.” Phrixus says with a grin.

The duo quickly opens fire against the guards, killing three of them. One superhuman guard charges while the other one manages to get to the checkpoint and activate the alarm. Phrixus takes out the superhuman guard, and Roberth dispatches the last one who turned on the sirens. As they progress through the place, more security guards appear only to be killed, it doesn’t take long to clear the area.

A few minutes later they spot a car escaping from the place at high speed.

“Roberth watch this place, I’m gonna get him.” Phrixus runs towards the car.

Taking a deep breath and maintaining a dynamic focus, Phrixus chases the car, matching its velocity through a force of will. This drains his energy quickly. Thinking of a plan he makes a reckless move; he propels himself forward and lands in front of the vehicle, with only a fraction of a second to act. With lighting reflexes he pulls out his pistol and shoots at the driver’s seat, before jumping up and out of the way of the car. The driver loses control and the car rolls, ending upside-down. As Phrixus approaches the wreck he sees a survivor getting out, none other than Gabriel Menendez. As Phrixus recognizes him he begins to seethe, his eyes changing appearance much like when he first got his powers. Phrixus performs a high jump, landing on Gabriel’s back and grabbing his hair.

“You are not going anywhere, bag of bones.”

Gabriel flails around trying to break free only to receive a jab to his back. He falls, but stays conscious.

Phrixus grabs him by the feet and drags him to the house.

“Everything is clear but unfortunately his family has seen us and the National Guard will be here soon. So this is the special guest?” Roberth says, his weapon resting lazily on his shoulder.

“An example of a gentleman, you need to know him.” Phrixus motions for Gabriel to get on his knees.

“The Minister of Justice, how does it feel when true justice is served?” Roberth says.

“Go to hell.” Gabriel spits on the ground. “You will know what is going to happen when the government finds out it was you, they’ll make you pay handsomely for doing this, you assassins.”

“Assassins? That’s rich, don’t even try to deny how much filth and muck is below your carpet, you did a great job arresting, detaining and ‘disappearing’ your enemies and anyone who might be pestering your little evil empire, more interesting is the question, how do you earn your money, as an honest worker that is out of the question… enough small talk, looks like we haven’t introduced ourselves appropriately.” He lowers the bandana covering his nose and mouth. “Do you remember me?” Phrixus says.

Gabriel’s mouth drops open. “Son of a… you should have died!”

“And you know what caught my attention?” He grabs him by the neck, almost crushing it. “MY FAMILY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!” He releases him. “You should quieter when you plan something, those buddies of yours are not that discreet when they write their notes, now I have to think about how to solve this issue accordingly…”

“You dare to do something to me and you will face the full extent of The People’s Militia and the Army,” Gabriel says.

“I’m tired of the big mouth on this waste of flesh.” Roberth learned through consistent practice and a bit of trial-and-error how to manipulate, transfer, and drain flows of thermal energy through metallic objects. He picks up a short pipe laying close to him in the ground, he focuses and taps in his center of mass where his “reservoir” of power resides, and quickly heats it. “This one is for my friend…” says Roberth, hitting him hard on the left flank, causing him excruciating pain, breaking many ribs and leaving a grievous burn.

“YARGH! I SWEAR YOU WON’T GET AWAY WITH THIS!” Gabriel says, thrashing around in anger and pain but still restrained by Phrixus.

“You are not in a position to threaten, besides, I am going to show you the real meaning of terror and anguish.” Phrixus gently cracks his own neck and stretches in preparation.

Phrixus grabs Gabriel’s head with both hands and forms a psychic link with a destructive purpose; he begins to disrupt and rupture his mind, plummeting him into a maelstrom of insanity, permanently. Gabriel falls to the ground in a fetal position, trembling while covering his face and head, suffering an extreme migraine, although it caused Phrixus a painfully moderate but short, burning sensation in his eyes in return.

“What have you done to him?” says Roberth.

“The punishment he deserves, a quick death is no longer on the table after all this.” He makes a gesture with his thumb, as Gabriel’s family was observing them. “I’ll tell you the details at home.”

“Great, glad I brought my balaclava, time to run.”

***

7 minutes later…

Paramedics, firefighters, and the National Guard arrive to the mansion, frightened by what they have found, all the guards have been killed and there is moderate property damage but the worst part is the condition of Gabriel; he is in a severe traumatic state and no one knows what’s wrong. His body is twitching uncontrollably, the hands are jittering so wildly the nerves and joints will tear themselves apart and his eyes are rapidly moving to random directions without blinking, he is carried into an ambulance while the family is reassured.