After signing autographs and saying a few more words, Lady Mental left, and the two of us continued walking through the park for a while longer.
We sat on a bench while eating some ice creams we bought, talking as we watched other kids playing, as usual, using their genes for something. One could create steel cables, another turned his arm into a sword, a girl had butterfly wings...
A boy who produces electricity...
A girl with spider legs on her back...
...A gene that speeds up the growth of plants...
...A gene that gives super speed...
...A gene... that grants thermal vision... I'd like to copy that one.
And that one.
And that one too.
His too.
And hers as well.
...I want to copy them... ALL of them!
"Aelyra? Aelyra! Aelyra!" Suddenly, I felt someone shake me and heard my name; it was Selphira, looking at me with concern.
"Ah, what is it?"
"Are you okay? You started staring off into space, I called you and you didn't respond. Look, your ice cream even fell!"
"Huh?... oh, sorry, I was just a... little distracted."
"Are you sure?" she asked, a little unconvinced.
"...Yes."
"If you say so. Well, should we..."
...
I was in bed after spending the whole day with Selphira, recalling that episode I had again. Lately, it's been happening more often, especially when I'm surrounded by people, particularly when they're using their genes.
I toss and turn in bed, remembering that feeling, that uncontrollable urge to copy genes.
I don't know why this is happening. I've thought about telling Mom, but... that seems like a bad idea.
"What should I do?"
I don't know why this is happening to me, I've thought about telling mom, but… that seems like a bad idea.
"What should I do?"
...
I was at school, and since the fight with Arnold, things have been pretty quiet. Arnold was the main bully at school… although after the fight, the other kids started avoiding me, so my only friend is Selphira. In general, my days have been very calm, and I thought today would be the same, but it seems I was wrong.
"EVERYONE ON THE FLOOR, THIS IS A KIDNAPPING!"
A man dressed completely in black shouted as he entered the classroom. To emphasize his point, he fired his gun into the ceiling, causing everyone to scream in fear and throw themselves on the ground. More gunshots echoed throughout the school, making it clear this was happening everywhere. Everyone was on the floor except for one boy, Dilan—the kid whose wings I had copied.
"YOU PUT DOWN THE GUN, VILLAIN!"
"DILAN, GET DOWN!" shouted the teacher.
"NO, I'M GOING TO BE A HERO AND STOP YOU BY BEATING Y-"
BANG
Dilan couldn't finish his sentence because a bullet pierced his head.
"I said… everyone on the floor," the masked man said in a threatening but calm voice.
"YOU!" the teacher yelled as he stood up, his hands enveloped by currents of air.
BANG
"Me," said the man after shooting the teacher, whose groans and whimpers made it clear he was still alive.
"If you don't want to end up like your friend, don't play hero and pray the authorities give us what we want."
...
"WE HAVE THE ENTIRE SCHOOL AS HOSTAGE. IF YOU DON'T GIVE US WHAT WE WANT IN TWO HOURS, WE'LL START KILLING A KID EVERY TEN MINUTES!"
A man shouted from the roof of the school with a megaphone. He wore a gray suit and a black skull mask, holding the megaphone in his right hand and a gun in his left.
"What are they asking for?" said a man in a trench coat after getting out of a patrol car and approaching the nearest officer.
"Commissioner," the officer greeted. "These bastards are asking for the shipment of genetic serums that arrived earlier this week in exchange for the whole school."
"Damn it! Even if we could give it to them, it would take more than two hours to get here, and those government guys would rather let all these kids die than lose that shipment," complained Commissioner Eduard while thinking about what to do.
"Ex-excuse me," approached a woman with green hair and yellow eyes, of average height. "I think I can help."
"How?" asked the officer, raising an eyebrow.
"I work at the school. I know there's a vent in the boiler room that connects directly to the sewers. It's big enough for a person to pass through."
"That might work! Quick, get me a map of the sewer system in this area," he turned to the woman and said, "If this works, please wait, we'll give you a reward."
…
I'm scared, I thought while crying. I moved my head and looked at Selphira; she was also crying. A few minutes ago, the teacher had stopped making noises, leaving only the sound of sobs in the room, and the noises outside that worsened the crying after we heard someone shout that if they didn't get what they wanted, they would start killing people.
I was there on the floor, feeling helpless, crying for mom. I wanted to do something, but I didn't know what, and even if I did, fear was overwhelming me. While I was lamenting my situation and... my weakness, I heard a strange noise, like metal hitting a pipe, and then heard someone say, "Another room secured, I repeat, another room secured."
When I heard the voice, I lifted my head and saw a man dressed as a ninja next to another man with a gun on the floor, unconscious. He quickly ran to the teacher and placed his fingers on his neck, then pulled something from his suit and injected it into the teacher.
He stood up again, looked around until his eyes fell on Dilan's body. He stared at it for a second before shaking his head and saying, "Wait here in silence; help will arrive soon." And with that, he left quietly.
…
"Understood," responded the commissioner after receiving a message on the radio before looking at the officer beside him and saying, "You can take down that son of a bitch now." The officer nodded and passed the message through his radio, making a small electric ball hit the man with the megaphone, knocking him unconscious.
…
Narrator POV
Zerith left her daughter's room. At first, she had a compassionate expression that gradually changed as she closed the door. Once the door was shut, her face turned into a completely cold expression, one she would never show in front of her daughter.
"Do you still not know who was responsible?" she asked her assistant, her voice as cold as her gaze.
"No, ma'am. The person responsible is still unknown," Agatha replied.
"I see."
"By the way, I might be overstepping my boundaries, but I'll ask anyway. Wouldn't it have been better for you to intervene yourself instead of just giving information to the police and waiting for them to do their job properly?"
"If I had intervened, we would have been discovered, and that would mean the end of this whole life... Besides, I didn't leave things to chance. Even if the whole school had exploded, not a single hair on my little girl's head would have been harmed."
"Understood, ma'am... Oh, they've discovered something."
"What is it?"
"This was all a distraction to commit a massive robbery of serums at the main geneticist institute."
"...I see."
...
"So you're saying that woman doesn't exist?" Commissioner Eduard asked the officer in front of him.
"That's right, sir. There's no woman working at that school who matches that description."
"I see..." he said, with a hint of concern in his voice.
"With all due respect, Commissioner, does this really matter that much?"
"Yes... if that woman concealed her appearance, there must have been a reason. The question is, what?"
Both men fell into contemplative silence until the door was suddenly flung open.
"Sir! It was a trap! They stole all the serums from the institute!"
"WHAT?!"