11:02 am…

Roberth is watching the television to see how they are covering what happened to the minister.

The announcer says, “…The President of the Republic, Ernesto Castellanos in a press conference.”

“Dear compatriots of this proud nation, I have the sorrowful news that our comrade Gabriel Menendez has been attacked in cold blood by terrorists that are against our peaceful revolution, as if that was not enough, they also mercilessly murdered the guards in an inhumane way.” As the President speaks, the news report shows pictures of the flipped car and the yellow CAUTION tape wrapped around the house. “I deeply thank God for letting Gabriel’s family remain unhurt before such unspeakable acts, we believe the terrorists are linked with the shopping mall incident, they are mercenaries hired by the VOA paid in blood-stained dollars and drugs. If they think they can destroy our impregnable patriotic spirit they are completely wrong, with the help of The People’s Militia, the National Guard and you, our trustworthy citizens, we will determine the whereabouts of these criminals and they will be judged with the full weight of Venezuelan justice, furthermore, I’ll give the immediate order to track these immoral subjects on every public space, especially universities, every man and woman will be interviewed to gather valuable information… remember dear citizens, our revolution has enemies who want to demoralize us, but they will never make it if we remain united….”

Roberth changes the channel. “It is a relief my face hasn’t appeared on national media,” he says.

“Still babbling of the same adversaries every day; VOA, America, or blaming his covert collaborators or better said,” he coughs, “the false opposition against this government, for the country’s problems: crumbling public services, unresolved issues about food shortage, increasing poverty… the cycle will never end,” says Phrixus.

“There are still people who buy that blather... speaking of which, are you going to tell me what you did to Gabriel?”

“Having a terrifying and incurable mental breakdown plus the inability to fall asleep… he is pretty much doomed unless Ernesto decides to put him out of his misery… Somehow I can absorb... umm, let’s call it ‘brain juice’, meaning I get his thoughts, memories, and knowledge and making my mind stronger at the cost of causing a biochemical mess to the victim’s head. I’ve been experimenting with that odd ability when I had the chance to do so, mainly when I’ve gotten into fights against any crook or troublemaker, I’m getting the gist of it and hurts less than before, and before you say it, I won’t succumb to others’ personalities.” Phrixus says.

“That’s good to hear, I would worry you’d become somebody else, or worse, completely lose your mind…” Roberth says.

After some minutes of talking, Roberth remembers something… “Wait a darn second, if I heard right our tyrant said he’s going to send his private army to check universities to track you, you know what that means?”

After a pause, Phrixus says, “Good grief, they could get Valeria to punish us. We have to look for her now.”

They quickly go to the college where Valeria is to prevent the worst.

***

1:06 pm…

Valeria is on the university “Guillermo de Blanco” hanging out with her friends when suddenly she recognizes militiamen entering to the place to speak with the institute’s staff. She knows they are unfriendly people and decides to separate from the group using a vague excuse, she heads to the alternate exit inconspicuously hoping there are no militiamen there. Unfortunately, she runs into another militia group keeping an eye on the place, one of them approaches her and begins to hurl questions. Valeria is polite but doesn’t say more than she has to. She wonders if her friends have done something.

Finally they asked her to accompany them to their vehicle for further questioning. Valeria can’t tell if she’s being detained, and she can’t run, so she tries to cooperate. She gets inside of the vehicle and suddenly her head is covered with a black hood and the truck departs immediately…

***

28 minutes later…

Valeria wakes up slowly and tries to remember what happened, while slowly regaining her senses she notices her eyes are covered and her wrists are tied up. She hears footsteps and someone entering to the room, he removes her blindfold and switches on the lights, revealing three militiamen.

“Do you know why you are here? The reports say you a very close companion of the wanted criminal, tell us where he’s hiding and I’ll let you go…” The militia sergeant says.

She stalls for time. “What? Why have you kidnapped me? Who do you think you…” says Valeria, somewhat anxious.

“WE ASK THE QUESTIONS, LIMIT YOURSELF TO ANSWERING THEM, OTHERWISE…” says another of the militiamen before being silenced by the sergeant.

“Chill out Carlos, don’t scare her, or we won’t get any information.” After a pause, he says, “I’ll ask again… where is the terrorist?”

Valeria would never give away the location of Phrixus’s hideout despite his sudden change of behavior—she doesn’t trust anyone who works for the government as all of them are unscrupulous and vicious, and tries to come up with a lie to get out of this mess. “H-He’s in… a residential complex, on New Concordia Street, a red house…” says Valeria before being interrupted by the sergeant, grabbing her by the jaw and making her look into his eyes.

“That is false. You know what will happen to you if you don’t tell us? I can easily make you disappear, sell you to the Rabid Dogs, or deliver you to my friends behind me.” said the sergeant, the other two militiamen grimacing and chuckling.

If Valeria had ever wondered how sheer fear feels, this would be the exact moment she found out. She was completely frightened, seeing no escape and no way to reason with them; remembering a phrase from Phrixus, a thought resonates in her mind: Fight or die.

Her fear began to transform into wrath. Closing her eyes and channeling it through her body, she only needed an external stimulus to unleash the beast inside her…

“You touch me and you’ll regret it…” Valeria says quietly.

“You think you are tough aren’t you? Let’s see it then...” says the Sergeant, laughing and taking his cigarette with the intention of extinguishing it on Valeria’s neck.

The cigarette was only a few centimeters away from her neck but before reaching her, in an instant Valeria breaks her chains and pushes the sergeant aside with one strong blow with her forearm, making him crash to the wall. The other two militiamen try to restrain Valeria, her fingernails quickly take the shape of vicious-looking claws, she breaks free easily and slashes the face of one of them, making him fall to the floor stunned. The other one pulls out his pistol but she swiftly kicks the gun off his hand and tears his throat, killing him instantly, then she approaches the militiamen laying on the ground still covering his face and puts an end to his suffering, the sergeant aims at her with his revolver and shoots. Valeria dodges the bullets with grace and gets near enough to disarm him by maiming his arm and grabs him by the neck.

“I beg you please don’t kill me, we just followed orders, I won’t tell anybody I have three kids to take care of,” implores the Sergeant.

Valeria was just holding his gaze with a cold and unsettling stare, then she thrusts her arm to his chest and shreds his heart, she finally throws the lifeless body to one side, after some seconds she leans against a wall and sits down, pondering what happened, she noticed how her arms were “absorbing” the blood of her enemies, and she had the strange feeling of getting stronger, but she was not sure at all. Two minutes later she hears a door being wrecked and perceives the rescue team as Phrixus, Roberth, and the owl Laso. They find three dead soldiers, signs of violence and a meditating Valeria…

“You might be right, Alejandro…” Valeria said, still somewhat shocked. “Reason and diplomacy are beyond their comprehension; this is the only way they’ll understand.”

“What are you going to do now?” says Phrixus.

“I don’t know... If any fool of the Militia, the Army, or whatever jerk pisses me off and gets in my way, I’ll rip them apart.” She gets up. “I don’t know if you were here to rescue me, but you were too late. Thanks anyway. I’m going home.” Valeria leaves.

“If only this hadn’t happened...” says Roberth.

“These lowlife henchmen are becoming more daring and brazen, it’s messed up when you can’t say no or refuse any demand for information against anyone who works or represents Ernesto’s autocracy.” said Phrixus, upset by the situation.

“Is disconcerting, but it’s the logical choice; either you comply or you are sent to jail as a ‘suspicious collaborator’ or any kind of ludicrous excuse, they are not peacekeepers, but they are above the law.” said Roberth, thoughtfully.

Phrixus sighs in futility. “I’ll talk to her tomorrow once everything cools off, this will be an aggravating week… we’ll also have to keep a low profile in my hideout, public places are now risky to hang around.” said Phrixus.

“We better go, sooner or later they are gonna find this mess,” says Roberth.

Phrixus takes a handheld radio from one of the corpses. “I’m gonna need this.”

“Let’s get out of here!”

***

A few days later, 3:21 pm…

Meanwhile at Phrixus’s hideout…

“The only thing that worries me about Valeria is, what if she becomes sanguinary and begins to kill militiamen just because of that incident.” Roberth talks while molding and reshaping a hot piece of metal with his hands.

“I doubt she’ll do such a thing, I have been talking to her and she is doing fine, still… I’m keeping my eyes open,” says Phrixus.

Fifteen minutes later, the Long-Range Radio rings, a call from Eve Grant.

With a yawn and a stretch, Phrixus picks up the radio. “Duty calls.”

“With such spirit I wonder how they hired you…” says Roberth sarcastically.

“Officer Eve Grant, do you copy Phrixus?”

“Loud and clear.”

“We deciphered the message, the government of Venezuela plans to sell the Omicron Stars they seized to the Red Confederacy, we don’t know yet what are they planning to do with the material but we discovered there is a convoy that is about to carry the goods to the nearest port.”

“Omicron Stars?”

“Our term for the alien meteorites, these are the coordinates of the first convoy, I need you to secure the cargo and we’ll put them in good hands, when you finish clearing the area signal the salvage team to reclaim the Omicron Stars. You’ll need your radio. Can you write down the frequencies you’ll need to contact the salvage team?”

“Yes.”

She recites the frequencies, then says, “over and out.”

“How much for manipulating something we don’t even remotely comprehend and could cause unforeseen damages to the human body?” Roberth says.

“I doubt they’ll find something by using the scarce dust it emits. Why don’t you go visit Valeria and make sure she is okay after what happened? I don’t want her to do anything reckless. We’ve had enough news coverage already.” Phrixus goes to get his gear and heads to the area of operation.