Sniff! Sniff!
A barely thirteen-year-old boy huddled by the roadside as he clutched his belly trying to suppress his intolerable hunger. Dressed in ragged clothes in the harsh winter months furthered his suffering as frostbites settled in.
"Please… someone… anyone, save me!" perseverance to remain alive was his only stimulation as he struggled with his fading consciousness.
"What will I get if I save you?"
"I will do… anything… that you want."
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HUH! AAH!
Excruciating pain made the boy wheeze as he slowly gained consciousness. His initial view was multiple holes in the ceiling through which the sunlight was peeking, illuminating the surrounding with a yellowish hue. IV bags, syringes, and multiple bloody gauzes littered the floor and in between them, a man sat on a rotten chair occupied by a book.
"Hmm, you truly got an impressive ability of self-regeneration but the downfall" – the man held a bag containing severed, bloodied, and bloated fingers with a sizable portion of puss-filled skin – "a huge amount of nourishment is a necessity for your powers, right?"
The sudden inquiry from an unknown man made the boy flustered as it was considered taboo to diverge one's supernatural abilities.
"Thank you so much for saving my life… my name is Audie, and I will do anything within my power to repay the kindness you have shown."
Unaffected by the evasive reply, the man changed Audie's bandages and replaced the IV bag with a new one. Astounded by the name 'Nova' written on the label, Audie could hardly imagine the cost of purchasing each bag. He soon realized that dozens of them might have been drained into him before he gained consciousness.
"I am sorry…"
"What are you apologizing for, boy?"
"You are spending way too much for a boy that you have found in the street, sir," Audie murmured, reluctant to show how ashamed he was.
"Hmm, that is quite funny. Do not be so materialistic boy… the cost of a single life is far more expensive than anything in this world" – with a kind smile the man gave the boy a sympathized look – "today I have saved you, tomorrow you might save me – an eye for an eye. That is how this world works."
The benevolence that the man showed contradicted Audie's past experiences. The gentleness… the fatherly warmth – what he might not have given to achieve any semblance of that throughout his adolescence.
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A massive number of micronutrients with Audie's regenerative healing factors regrew his severed body parts. Within a day, he gained complete mobility without leaving any visible scars.
Though he recovered physically, his mental health deteriorated. It was the first moment in his life that he got to experience any semblance of tranquility, but his inner paranoia morphed that sensation into anxiety and restlessness.
What was he going to do after leaving that place? Life in the slum was unforgiving. Riots between gangs were continuous as human traffickers prowled the street in the hunt for superhumans like him. Without any security and physical prowess to defend himself, Audie knew that he was going to return to the same situation from which he was rescued.
Boom!!
Panicked -- Audie instantly went into fight or flight mode as he smashed his way out through the dilapidated door.
"SIR!! What happened to you?" he cried out.
"Nothing, I was just cooking my boy."
"What kind of cooking causes a blast?"
Avoiding eye contact the man sheepishly replied, "umm, I was just only trying to make some porridge."
Audie was adamant that he heard a crow's caw as his brain took a couple of seconds to perceive the situation, his sight alternated between the charred pot and the embarrassed man.
His body was still pumping adrenaline as he involuntarily started to investigate the cause of the blast. Though the man tried to lighten the mood with an awkward laugh, the dissimilarity of the loudness and the damage caused by the blast perplexed him.
There was no severe damage, nor any scorched marks around the exploded propane tank. A large chip on the iron pot signified the tremendous force generated, then why was there a lack of destruction? Why was the man unharmed?
Looking back over the shoulder, he analyzed the man's physique: A lanky built with a height of no more than 1.7 m, the man seemed neither to have trained nor have the characteristic of a physically enhanced superhuman.
His instincts were screaming to be vigilant. The most important lesson that he learned through his tumultuous life was never to judge a book by its cover, especially in the slums. As he began to remember the hazy conversation before fainting; their interactions aligned themselves chronologically hinting at the peculiarity of the man's character.
"Sir, why don't you let me cook the porridge?"
"Are you sure? You might have to cook for dozens of people" – realizing his puzzled expression, the man suggested playfully – "go and look outside, you will get a better understanding."
Opening the door, a gut-wrenching scenery presented itself. Hundreds of people of different ages and ethnicity were caged like cattle. Their malnourished, skeletal figures with missing limbs represented the cruelty and torture that they must have experienced. Audie began to vomit gasping the intense stench of defecation, bodily fluids, and rotten flesh.
"Look, boy! LOOK! Don't you find this beautiful?" the man pulled Audie's hair, making him take in the grotesque sight once more.
"Why?... WHY DO YOU DO THIS?!"
Ha-ha! Hahaha!
The man's maniac laughter reverberated making the caged victims huddle themselves in horror. Appreciating their trepidation, he continued "I am doing a great service to the human species. Before they became my lab rats, their life had no meaning, no purpose… the only merit to their name was their superhuman powers. Their contribution will help me to create the ultimate superhuman."
"What kind of bullshit are you spouting, you goddamn psychopath?!" Audie's fear converted to rage as he shouted at the man alternatively trying to make sense of the perilous situation that he found himself in.
"Psychopath? Me? Hmm, I will not deny that… if you want to achieve greatness you need to be a psychopath," pride and aloofness were evident in his demeanor; infatuated with his own sadistic beliefs, he continued, "Do you know why you are not in those cages?" – he stared at Audie with greed – "because you are born with greatness, your regenerative powers have the potential to evolve; the dormant ability to accommodate any necessary modifications to help you survive in any terrain is unheard of… you are the final component for my work."
Audie began to hyperventilate with each atrocious revelation. The savagery and homicidal lunacy of the man were far more insidious than the butchers he had known living in the redlight district.
"Let me help you to achieve the greatest power that humanity can never imagine… I am giving you a chance boy, join me and the world shall be ours. We will trample anyone that defies us … you are not a saint, you have lived in the slums, and experienced the hardships that come along with it. Have you never thought to get revenge on your enemies? To trample those that harmed you, made you suffer? … join me and I will recreate you to become a weapon of mass destruction. YOU WILL HAVE THE POWER TO BECOME JUDGE, JURY, AND EXECUTIONER!!!"
Audie's eyes fixated on a group of boys about his age, bounded and caged. Most were missing their limbs or other body parts. Two-thirds of them were probably corpses, others were writhing and moaning in pain, waiting for their impending death while a minuscule number of brave souls were still struggling, hopeful of their implausible escape.
The harsh contrast between the man and the nauseating state of the sufferers resurfaced his traumatic past. Aged barely nine years old, his dearest mother with her own hands, introduced him to the gates of hell….
"Your pauper of a father had left us, disappeared. He is never going to come back, and you are no use to me with your D-class superpowers… I am better off leaving you here… Remember never try to contact me in the future!" the pure, untarnished juvenescence of Audie shattered as his mother abandoned him at the orphanage.
He never got the chance to familiarize himself with the subsistence of being an orphan rather he was immediately auctioned off in the redlight district due to his attractiveness, degraded to be a mere plaything for the patrons who could afford him. Rape, torture, and humiliation became his constant companion as he became the high-end commodity of the rich and extravagant ladies.
Everything and anything were being objectified in that purgatory for making a quick buck. Ethics, and morality were the notions of the weak, persecution was the result of those who retaliated thus Audie's escape plan consisted of yielding and satisfying to the best of his abilities until an opportunity arrived. Alas! his misfortune was yet to fulfill its due course.
Injured in the process of escape, Audie's regenerative power was discovered; instantly becoming the pig under the butcher's knife, experiencing the horror compared to which the deepest pit of hell might be considered heaven….
"AAAAH!" a guttural cry resounded throughout, the insufferable memories brought out the rage and hatred that Audie so desperately wanted to suppress. He began to experience delusions of getting revenge on his perpetrators, making them face the same torture that they had inflicted on him.
"My name is Leonard Wakeham," clutching the shoulders, gazing straight into the eyes of the disoriented boy, the man continued, "I do not know what happened to you, neither do I care… but in the future… I give you my words that you will have the power to fulfill any of your wishes."
It was the final nail in the coffin as Audie nodded to the man's proposal; giving birth to the legend of the man who would later be renowned in the entire universe as 'The Plague – The Destroyer – Angel of the Abyss: Abaddon'.