Malvan-X Corporation, New Town, Mandelovia, Europe. Half an hour ago.

“Chief Bibowski, we have located Karl Starr” says Agent Digigrrll to her boss, the Security Chief of Malvan-X Corporation. “The only problem is that we have found is so absurd that I don’t think we can trust this report”.

“Where the report come from?” asks the tall man.

“Chicago Police Department, chief.”

“I don’t see why we shouldn’t trust their files. What have you found?”

“Karl Starr was a meta accused of blowing up the heads of the bystanders. He has committed suicide after some killing… and then he has risen up and walked away, right in front of the police!”

**************************************************************

Just outside Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. Ten minutes ago.

Right in the middle of the highway, the man once known as Karl Starr walks straight toward east.

A voice in his head, hours ago, awoke him from death, ordering him revenge over a deadly being from another dimension, Mr. KLT, a being that possessed Karl Starr, using him to commit horrible crimes. The voice ordered Karl to find a man once widely known an Italian runner named Edulcore Cicciotto.

Now Karl Starr wants to reach Italy, to find Cicciotto, “The Eurostar”, to advert him that KLT now has found a new host, his old competitor Eduardo Frederico.

His walk is made difficult by the many cars that goes in his opposite direction. Many avoid him at the last moment. But the ones that don’t manage that, are not a problem.

Because Karl Starr simply destroy them.

***************************************************************

MandeloviAir flight Mandelovia-Chicago, somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean. Now.

Half a day ago, I, Edulcore Cicciotto, awoke from my sleep half buried in the sand. In front of me, was a young man that I never saw before. Now, that man is maybe the only one I can call “friend”.

He told me that saw me from air, while he was flying above the desert.

Flying?, I asked, thinking I was standing in front of a meta of Alpha class, like me.

The truth was even more amazing. He claimed of coming from the future, and being able to transform parts of his body into animal parts. He show me his transformation, and, you know?, I trusted his claiming of being from the future.

He said he had nowhere to go, so I told him to come with me. He accepted, and we both took flight!

It was wondrous, flying like eagles over the perfectly circular desert of Mandelovia.

I told him what happened to me, and how the Police of Mandelovia has tried to frame me for a murder I didn’t committed. He replied that he actually saw a man, near the Toyota when Lorena died.

“You saw him shooting at his head, right?” I said, and he replied: “No, he didn’t fire anything. He pointed his index finger, and the head blown up!”

Another meta! I am into something bigger than I tough. Now everything I heard, seems actually possible. Human clonation, genetic alteration, alien invasion…

“Do you want to come with me in America?” I asked to Danny. “OK, I have nowhere to go” he said, smiling.

I, too, don’t know where to go. That old man at Malvan, he seemed a good person, after all. But if the Mandelovia Police is seeking me, I don’t know if I can trust him. I have to go away. My live in Bologna… well, that’s behind me, now. The world soon will think I’m dead, and maybe that’s for the better. Poor Ottavia, we were coming along so well…

I know a thing. There is a kid, out there, which have my same genetic characteristic. He is my son, so to speak, and he is in the hand of the men that tried to capture me. So, before I will disappear from the men who wants me, being them Mandelovian or American, I will rescue him. I swear.

So, I was saying, we took flight. He on vulture’s wings, me soaring in “ghost” form, meaning I had altered my density to be lighter than air. Soon it become clear that we would never arrive in America all by ourselves, so we landed unnoticed at the Mandelovian International Airport. The first flight for the USA was directed to Chicago. No direct flight from Mandelovia to Thunder City.

In my ghost from, I stealth the flight document from a fat man in the toilette. I can pass trough wall when I am low density. I also found a man enough looking like Danny, and took his passport. I gave it and the plane ticket to Danny, and then I “entered” him. Still with a low density, I mean, I was able to stay in the same space he was occupying. It is difficult to explain, but I have to admit, easy to do.

And now we are sitting in the same seat, looking outside the window to the sea of clouds under us.

But there is a man, sitting two rows behind us, looking insistently at me, or, I should say, at Danny.

And, oh God, I know him. It was the man that always arrived second behind me when I was a runner. The man which hates me most in the world. Eduardo Frederico.