Two hours and a half later Ed was awaken in a quite rough manner by the Indian warrior. "It's time for our embark, Cicciotto. Let's go!" he said, shaking the Italian over the shoulder.

Ed opened his eyes all of a sudden, wondering for a moment about where he was. "ah... Ok, Ok. " he said, standing up and taking the luggage.

"There is half an hour left... I think I'll go to find something to bite before... I fell an insatiable hungry from the moment I got in this Universe" said Euro, touching his belly.

"And I will go for a piss" replied Rama Avatar.

"Again?" said Euro, smiling.

Rama didn't answer, and turned his back to the "friend", heading for the toilettes. Once there, opening the door, he found on the other side a young boy that was the spitted image of Axel Magus. But the impression lasted just a blink of the eyes, because the man behind the door was actually a lot older than thirteen years, and with black curly eyes, spectacles and a goatee. Rama shook his head, and before taking his long needed piss, washed his face with cold water. When he was back to Euro, he has completely forgotten the episode.

Half an hour later the two were sitting at their places in the plane, waiting for the departure.

"Have you ever been in Las Vegas before?" asked Rama, enough uncharacteristically starting a conversation.

"Yes, I did. A few times when I was an Olympic star, and then once, when I was on the run from the EPS. Me and Agent Turner won a lot of money that time... And you, Rama?"

The Indian man smiled. "Actually, I was one of the founders of the town, back... when it was? 1831? Or it was thirty two? Bwah ha ha!"

Ed shook his head. "I wonder why I asked" he said, taking the book from his briefcase and opening it, trying to ignore the laughs of his companion.

Chapter 2 - The metagene

The discovery of the metagene in 1996, by Doctor Zachary Knell of 3VX Industries, discovery that granted him the Nobel prize for medicine in the following year, has not changed to a big deal our history.

The metagene, a peculiar gene whose sole ability is to force the human DNA to mutate in different, but not unlimited ways, is actually present just in the 0,01% of the human population. That is, in more that six billion of humans, just 600,000 men and women, scattered throughout all the world, are estimated to possess the metagene.

And that doesn't mean they are going to become superheroes. The metagene in most cases simply enhances certain activities of the brain. Telepathy, telekinesis, and the well known phenomenon of poltergeist, related to young people reaching maturity, has been discovered being caused by the presence of the metagene. In other cases, the metagene acts over the brain inducing abilities in the mathematic field, allowing kids to elaborate numbers as quickly as a computer. 78% of the metagene carrying population is believed to be interested by this kind of "power-augmentation" , as the action of the metagene is called. That equates to 468,000 humans, dispersed in all the countries of earth.

The others 132,000 metahumans are interested by a different -or, better, by a plethora of other different- kind of "power-augmentation". In those people, the metagene acts over other parts, or organs, of the body: muscles, sensorial organs, nervous system, even hairs.
At the most basic level, the metagene slightly enhances normal humans abilities: it makes running faster (the case of Edulcore Cicciotto, whose ability on the Olympic tracks was the first "power-augmentation" ever observed), being able to dive deeper without breathing apparatuses, or survive falls from big heights, without too big wounds.

But in a very few cases, known as "Alpha classes" metahumans, the metagene pushes some organs beyond the imaginable, making the carriers real superheroes. It is estimated that just a few hundreds metas over the whole planet are of Alpha class, and as of today, May 2003 as I am writing this, 78 are in the ranks of Avant-Guarde, as operatives, cadets and young students, all coming from countries member or associated or allied to NATO. Little is known of similar organisation for Russia, China or India.

Alpha classes metagene carrying people, so far, has been catalogued into the following categories:
-speedster: the metagene acts over the muscles of the body, the hearth and the lungs, allowing the carrier to run as fast as half the speed of sound, and making long jumps of over one kilometre (high jumps of nearly 250 metres).
-sensorial: the metagene acts over sensorial receptors, allowing the carrier to have augmented senses (usually just one), usually smell (with the ability to following and detecting scents like a hound) or vision (telescopic vision like a falcon, or night vision like a cat). other rarely seen augmentation of sense are thermal detection (the carrier "sees" infrareds with the palms of his hands), or super-hearing.
-strongman: the metagene enhance the muscular structure, giving the carrier extra-strength; usually it comes with a hardened skin, able to resist to long distance shots or hits by cutting blades. So called strongmen always have a weight higher than normal, and are severely slower into their actions.
-mastermind: the metagene acts over the brain, giving ESP powers: telepathy, telekinesis, collective hypnosis.
-healers: the metagene enhance the normal regenerative process of the human body, allowing these carriers heal very faster and better any wounds they can receive. In a very few cases, it is know that some healers can, to a lesser degree, help healing or regeneration in another person carrying the metagene.
-one of a kind: the last category gathers all the cases in which just one or few person are know to carry a particular "power-augmentation". Example are the electrical powers, due to the augmentation of the electrical production of the nervous system, of the ex MCCA agent Shock or the super-scream of Avant Guarde member Banshee.

After a few years of relative quiet, in which the methuman phenomenon was matter just for Scientific magazines, in 2001 the hunt for metahumans began. The most advanced nations of the worlds began to look for the metahumans present inside their borders or abroad, desperately searching for all the Alpha Class, It was the next step in armaments race, as an army of metahumans would have meant to have an edge over any enemy country.

Or, as some insider source from the Pentagon assures, enemy planet. It was at the beginning of the century, actually, that a sleeping menace known from the beginning of the fifties, with the crash of Roswell, became topical. Two alien factions, the grey ones, or Boulls, and a reptilian race nicknamed Basilisk by the experts of CIA, found Earth to be the perfect battlefield for a future war. The government of the USA found that the disadvantage in technology could be filled with a genetic superiority granted by the metagene.

And so, the MCCA, the Metagene Carrier Control Agency was secretly founded, manned and financed by the USA government, with the goal of procure as much Alpha Class Metahumans as possible, to be transferred to 3VX and Professor Knell for experimentation; the nature of the experiments, being the uttermost augmentation of the metagene action over each Alpha Class metahuman, paired up with, the same sources claims, brainwashing and artificially induced total loyalty, through the use of an ample variety of drugs.

Euro closed the book. Again, it seemed a load of bullshit, but it was not so different from what happened in their original Universe.

Better to sleep, to avoid the jet-lag, though Euro. He put the light above his seat to off, and closed his eyes.