Trees. Many trees, and behind them a meadow, and a lake not far. “Where am I?” thinks Sonja.
Then, the sight wanders over the top of the distant trees, where stand the top of many skyscrapers.
There is only a place like this on Earth.
“New York City!” thins the woman. She has been there many times, but for her, raised in communist USSR, being there is always an uneasy situation.
“What I am doing here?” she thinks. She remember being assigned to a mission… where? A place in west Europe… Greece, maybe… no, it was a small nation… Andorra? Lichtenstein? San Marino? Montecarlo? No, it was Mandelovia!
But the memories of the last weeks seem gone, and trying to bring them back make her sick. So, instead, she concentrates on the present. And suddenly she knows. There are people stalking her, trying to kill her. Metahumans with uncanny powers. She smiles. If only the could know…
She runs among the trees. She feels them. They must be here.
A green ray blasts from behind the thick cover of dense bushes. Sonja jumps away, but not enough quickly to avoid the blast. But the ray is reflected, and she is not harmed by it.
She run to find cover. More rays are shot at her, but each one is reflected away, hitting branches of various trees, that explodes in many pieces.
Sonja hides under a little stone bridge. But the glow of the rays is moving away: the metahuman is clearly very far, distracted by something.
Sonja takes a deep breath, thinking of being finally safe, when out of the stone wall, behind the woman comes two arms, and the hands close over her neck, suffocating her.
But the hands of Sonja closes over the wrist of the man, and make him to roll over her head, falling on the ground in front of her. But then the unexpected happens: the young man phases into the ground, disappearing.
And then an hand sprouts out of the soil, grasping her left ankle, and making her, in turn, falling down.
The man then kneel over her, and his right hand dematerialises inside her chest, ready to smash her heart from inside.
Suddenly, the man is thrown away by an invisible force. And when he stand back on his legs, the same invisible force hit him with an incredible force, and, lastly, rips open his head, sending blood and grey matter all over the place.
From around Sonja, New York City disappears, replaced by an all white environment.
Claxons pierce the silence, and a metallic voice is heard, just before gases kick in, making Sonja unconscious: ALARM, ALARM, SUBJECT LANCE TERMINATED.
A few minutes later, while the test continues for the surviving subject, a few men in lab coat surrounds the sleeping Sonja.
“Have you repeated the genetic test?”
“Yes. She has no active metagene. Absolutely no powers”
“It’s impossible. How do you explain the occurrence?”
“I can’t. It’s like she has repulsive powers, but there are no explanation for them.”
“Repeat the genetic test!”
Only then, when they are about to leave, one notices something, and runs toward the lying body. He stops for a moment, than rips apart her vest. The naked body is perfect.
“The tattoo! Where it’s gone?”
[ 02-15-2002: Message edited by: Sonja ]
