Chapter 3 - Awakening

A Chapter by Ryanicus

Cal isn't dead, after all. I explain some more about the background and develop some more characters!

Cal awoke with a sharp breath, and sat bolt upright.

He realized that it wasn't such a good idea when an almighty pain daggerred at his chest and sides. He groaned, slumped back into the bed, and felt the indent in his pillow. He'd been in the bed for quite a while. Cal lay in a small room, a hospital of some sort, with a white plastic curtain drawn back on the rails above him, a drip connected to his forearm and a desk next to the door, harbouring a selection of syringes and boxes of pills. His double bed sat against the wall, leaving a large open space on the middle of the room which was strewn with muddy footprints, leading in and out of door. There were no windows, so Cal had not a faint idea where he was, or how long he'd been unconscious, but a sharp throbbing came from his ribcage. He lifted his shirt and wasn't surprised to see a mass of bandages weaving his abdomen, and all the soot had been removed.

But something was off. Or at least, unfamiliar.

His scars. One, two, three, four... five. The fifth, and new, scar, was directly below the rest, and was still stinging to the touch. Augs were the only injection to be administered to the heart, what had they done to him? Who were they? He severely doubted that he had been given fire-breath or shapeshift.

Cal swung his legs from beneath him and stood up shakily. He staggared towards the door, careful not to disturb his wounds, but as he twisted the doorknob it was pulled open from the other side. Cal gasped, still unsure of where he was and whether it was hostile or not, and clung to the wall behind him.

A tall wrinkled man stood in the doorway, a neutral expression disguising his face. He wore circular glasses, clearly too big for his face, and a white gown associated with stereotype mad scientists. He bore a hooked nose and large brown eyes, and was grasping a clipboard to his chest, which he almost dropped when he saw Cal.

"Ah," he cleared his throat, "Callus August. You're awake."

Cal raised his eyebrows, "I noticed. Where are we?"

The man ignored him, and beckoned him to follow. Reluctantly, Cal wandered down a long hallway after the man who seemingly didn't care whether he was obliging or not. The only illumination was cast by dim lamps screwed to the walls, and the floor was oddly metallic. Cal hadn't seen anything like it before, after all, he'd been cooped up in a five star penthouse all his life. He noticed that there weren't any windows here either, and began to ponder whether we were underground. That was the most sensical explanation.

"Here we are." said the man without emotion, staring at his clipboard like a nightclub bouncer checking his list. They stood outside a metal door, which opened by a four-digit key-code. The scientist stabbed the numbers quickly, and the door hissed, then slid open slowly. The door hadn't even clicked yet, and they scientist had gone.

Cal stepped inside and found himself a mouse in a lions den. A massive dome-shaped room, chandeliers blessing the area with much appreciated light, walls decorated with various paintings in gold rimmed frames, and a mass of bookcases at the rear end that would have put most libraries to shame, if they still existed. In the exact centre of this wonderful room, sat a victorian desk carved with strange patterns and wisping legs. At this desk, sat a young man who was smiling at Cal. His head was raised, his blonde spikes complementing his handsome face with wide lips and a carved nose. He had obviously just been engrossed in a large, hardbacked book... a book?

Cal hadn't seen a book since he was seven years old, when a maid used to lend him adventure novels from the early 2000's. Reading wasn't common anymore, since when the public realised it was cheaper to just type on a computer, and read on a computer, nobody bothered with printing. Everything was digital. It was all Cal had known, so he couldn't exactly mourn with nostalgia.

"So," the man said, "It's alive!"

"Yeah, I am. And I also don't have a clue who you are." snapped Cal. The last thing he remembered was falling from the destroyed top floor of the Aug-Industries building with his entire ribcage trying to escape. And his Dad... Cal's Dad was dead. Dead. Sure, people die, terrorists die. Gangsters die. Soldiers die. William August was a business man, and he practically single-handedly moulded the world to what it is now. He meant well, right? Cal had thought he was a good man- or an average man- he just had a lot on his plate. It didn't make any sense, and it still hadn't sank in the Cal was an orphan now. The tears had fell, the surges of emotion had passed, but Cal still did not truly understand what was happening. Yesterday he was doing math with Riley, staring at Ellan and having lunch at school... today, he was wearing a hospital gown and standing before a strange man with spiky hair who was apparently ecstatic at the fact Cal was conscious.

"Well, you're alive. That's a start." said the man, "I believe we've not met since you were a very small child, so you won't remember me." he hesitated, waiting for a reply, but Cal just raised his eyebrows.

"My name is Anderson. Please, sit." he gestured for Cal to proceed and take a seat on a very comfy looking leather armchair facing the desk. Cal did so, and observed the beautiful inscriptions carved into the roof of the dome. The man was closer now, and Cal saw that his left eye was completely white, with bright blue veins erupting from the centre outwards.

"Where are we?" Cal said.

"Where? This is my home. We're just outside New Manhattan. The old subway." Anderson smiled.

"Outside?" Cal opened his mouth wide, unsure what the heck they were doing in the outskirts of the city.

"Don't worry, the place is secure. The only two entrances are unbreachable, made of giant steel vault doors. My men are posted constantly around the complex, just in case." Anderson winked, and stood up. He closed his book and began pacing around the desk. Anderson was tall, around six feet, Cal guessed. He was wearing an odd selection of sprarkling bracelets and an impressive black suit. His nike trainers didn't really fit. Cal looked down, and realised that he was in socks. That was maybe why the floor felt so cold.

"I knew your father. Very well, in fact-" continued Anderson.

"I didn't." Cal cut him off aggressively, "I didn't know him at all. He barely spoke to me, I barely even saw him."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean- Look, I know you have a lot of questions, so-"

"How am I alive? I fell fifty-seven stories. Am I a ninja, and I didn't know about it?" said Cal.

"You might have noticed a scar on your chest. You have five now. We gave you a prototype Aug called Regen that was due to be released next year." said Anderson, Cal could hear the hint of amusement in his voice.

Cal looked furious, "Prototype? I could have died! Do you have any idea-"

"Yes, I have every idea. I helped your father create the first ever Aug. It was the only way you could survive." replied Anderson, bitterly. "Amazingly, your heart was still beating when we got to you. Albeit, a few seconds after... impact. You had lost a lot of blood, your pelvis had been obliterated, the front of your face was unrecognisable and you didn't have any bones in your left arm or leg. We put you in an artificial coma."

Cal was taken aback at the image. He didn't know what to say.

"Wh-what..." he whimpered.

"Regen is one of the only Augs that doesn't change your DNA. It samples it, then rebuilds your body to what it should look like. As long as you're still kind of alive, that is." Anderson seemed extemely articulate. Cal wondered if he could find out more about his father from this man, maybe he'd know-

"Yes, I knew your mother." smirked Anderson. Had Cal said that out loud? "No, you didn't say it out loud."

Cal gasped, and felt a sharp pain in his chest, and winced. Cal had saw pictures of his mother before, she had spectacularly long, brown hair and a face that could only have been described as beautiful. One of the only meaningful conversations Cal had had with his father was about his mother, he had said she had died in a car crash when he was merely six months old. Too young to be able to miss her, but he longed to meet her. Cal was used to not having parents around.

"MindFluct. Allows for the ninety percent of one's brain that isn't used by the consciousness to be unlocked. My brainwaves can travel outside my body, and into yours."

"Y-you're reading my mind?" whispered Cal, and it suddenly dawned on him. MindFluct was one of the first Augs ever released, and was banned within the first week of being on the market. The government deemed it a breach of privacy, and a powerful tool for criminals. It was also one of the few Augs that required an injection into the pupil, hence it's primary function being in the brain itself. That's why Anderson's eye was so... different. The blue veins pulsed in his eye, glowing as he had reached into Cal's mind. Cal wondered if he could actually see out of it.

"No, I can't see out of my eye." laughed Anderson. Cal smiled, he should have known. "Your father didn't want to give our guinea pigs inhuman mind-powers to destroy his company with, so we tested it on me. As you can see, I look like a villain from Star Trek."

"That's amazing," said Cal, his hands were gripping the arms of his chair tightly. "Th-thanks for, y'know, saving me. When I get injured now, just like yesterday-"

"Yesterday?" inquired Anderson, tilting his head, "Callus, you've been in that bed for seven months."

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