Elsewhere.
The doctor pressed the 'record' button on his cassette recorder and sat it neatly on his desk.
"I'm keeping a record of all this just in case. Just in case what? Well, in case I die or something. Or I become involved in a seventeen car pile up and lose all my ability to talk, or write, or tango.
"Where to start? Well, at the start I guess.
"With Sean. Sean was a normal kid. Loved being outside... running, playing frisbee, I don't know. Whatever kids do when they're outside.
"When he was fourteen, Sean developed an apparent metahuman ability. He could run. Fast. Faster than it seemed possible for a human to run."
The doctor paused from his note-taking for a moment as he approached a bookshelf on the other side of the room. He reached a hand up and pulled down a few old copies of science magazines. He found his own face staring back at him from the cover of the first one, alongside the caption 'An Exclusive Interview With the World's Foremost Metahuman Researcher'. The doctor laughed to himself.
"Sean's body couldn't handle the strain. Within a year of developing his metahuman ability, he had broken nearly every bone and torn nearly every tendon in his body.
Within two years, he had experienced three massive heart attacks.
Within three years, he was dead."
The doctor went silent, and put the magazines back on the bookshelf. His gaze moved across the enormous shelf and lingered on a photo of himself and Sean, arms draped over each others' shoulders at one of Sean's sporting meets.
The doctor had been very proud of his son. He had naively thought it a blessing when Sean's power manifested itself.
"Sadly, Sean is not the only case," He continued. "There's the girl who was rapt to learn that she could fly, only to lose her ability in mid air and fall to her death. The man who could turn invisible, only to become completely blind when light passed directly through his eyes and be hit by a truck. The list goes on...
"These metahuman 'powers'... these 'abilities'... are a curse. The genetic abnormalities that cause them, whether man-made or simply a natural mutation, are a disease.
"These metahumans need to be cured. We need to figure out what causes these curses in each individual subject and somehow reverse the effect.
"Some metahumans will consider this an attack. They don't realise the harm that is being done to them and by extension humanity through the application of their powers. And so they must be cured by force, the source of their freakish abilities studied and removed. Or at least neutralised.
"I know that this will make me some enemies. I know that not all metahumans will take kindly to losing what they perceive makes them special. I am well aware of the risks.
"So this is why I'm keeping this record. Just in case. I know I may not survive this."
Doctor Ian McGregor walked back across the room and pressed 'stop'.
