A Hero's Song (Darkest Secrets Volume 1)

Prologue

It was quiet now.

The constant wailing had ceased. The only noises were two distinct cries - down from an uncountable number of whimpers and screams that had dwindled as the experiments' claustrophobic existence dragged on.

One child gained control of his uppermost self, he began to twist and bob in new ways. This intrigued him. He explored the space around him as best as he could, taking in what he saw. It would be many sleep cycles until he could comprehend his small universe.

He could move with much more purpose than his companion, who seemed not to care to use his visual organs at all. He usually slept fitfully, twitching and rolling as he dreamt.

To the camera, this child's life was, uneventful, to say the least. The two baby boys didn't move around much.

They lay - unsupervised - under a sterile glow in a glass box bigger than they by too many times to count. Two boxes with dark, reflective lenses sat high on the walls. Around the pen at adjacent corners, tracking their movements with care. The only things in the room were the children, two blankets, one mobile - space-themed - and two pillows.

The boys were fed through feeding tubes that lured them with the sweet scent of chocolate. They thrived on a high protein meal filled with enough vitamins and minerals to kill a normal person. The defenseless ones did not know this. All they knew was that they existed, alone.

That would not be true for long.

They would sleep for long periods, usually due to some external force, such as the drugs in their feed. During these intervals, men in white coats would come and pick them up, leaving the room and returning often hours later. After running tests on the babes.

It was quickly discovered that only one of the boys was lucid, he could sit up and act like a normal child if an overly pensive one. They called him the Active Child.

The other babe had two states:

One was of terror-filled sleep, accompanied by tossing and crying - a frantic state that, even when sedated, gave trouble to the technicians who carried him; the other was a state of total inactivity.

Unless provoked to feed by the scent that announced meal times, the older twin would merely lay on the ground. His eyes open to the ceiling, motionless for hours on end. His body moved more in his sleeping cycles than it would during full consciousness.

The active boy's attempts to interact with him were never registered. No sign of conscious thought or feeling was deliberately shown by the Still Child.

At the age of eighteen months, both children began to show patterns of deviation from human development. While the doctors had no way of knowing how intelligent the Active Child was before this time, they now realized that the cognitive function of their experiment had surpassed their expectations.

He could talk and read, having taught himself during the few times he roamed his test environment freely. He communicated with the doctors and seemed to understand that his existence depended on them.

As to his role as some sort of lab rat, he did not seem to mind. His moral functions had not yet developed, and he did not know the outside. As such, the doctors found in him a willing and helpful subject.

The Still Child showed an enhanced physical development, reaching the size of a five-year-old in a little under three weeks after his first growth spurt. At this point, his growth slowed, yet continued at a quick pace of an inch or two a week.

The doctors calculated that his continued growth would see him reaching adulthood at around three years, as long as his system did not stop the anomaly. As a test subject, he was unruly, if that word could even apply. He continued to be unresponsive and completely immobile during his periods of wakefulness. He had yet to display any higher cognitive functions.

However, as interaction with his body grew more frequent, those tasked with his measurements began to display... irregular behavior.

It began with technicians stumbling on thin air and grew to include spontaneous fits of panic or rage. After an incident that ended in the murder by clip-board of one of the doctors, the Still Child was only monitored remotely from his pen.

At 3 years old, the Active Child had caught up to the Still one in terms of physical growth at a size comparable to that of a seven-year-old. This accelerated growth was estimated to safely stop at a physical age of 18 years for both specimens after a period of two more years.

The cognitive development of the Active Child continued to expand in leaps and bounds, he absorbed and assimilated every scrap of information he could access. The doctors soon seized on this habit and allowed the boy to participate in the design of experiments they had been conducting in conjunction with the company's enhanced automaton project.

This technology, or rather blueprints, theories, and notes, was cutting edge. No government or organization on the planet was capable of conceiving what these minds had already done. The Active Child took to the notes immediately and became frantic when they attempted to remove him from the test room.

Leaving him to his own devices in the lab proved fruitful when, two days later, the scientists discovered that he had proved most of the theories that they had been unable to implement for months. They heralded his genius and began to use him to further their research to greater heights. The Still One continued as before, save the growth of his body.

Until one night, late into their second year of life, that is.

The twins slept soundly in two large metal beds that were bolted to the floor. Everything seemed normal.

Absolute silence was broken by a screech of reinforced steel tearing. The Active Child shot up from his slumber, eyes darting towards his brother's bed, and the direction of the sound.

He saw a silhouette in the gloom. As no light had been installed for their personal use, the room was pitch black during sleep hours. His night vision was enhanced, so he could see through the blinding dark with only moderate difficulty.

This night he did not even need this skill. He saw that his brother floated above his mangled bed, emitting some sort of dark blue glow.

He was surprised, having never actually seen his catatonic twin move on his own other than to suck at a feeding tube. His surprise was cut short when another screech forced his gaze to the bed now rising under his brother.

In a series of tremendous groans, the bed ripped in two, then each half pulled in two once more, seeming to defy the laws of physics in the exactness of the tears.

As this happened, the Active Child noticed the timing of the gestures his twin made and the ripping of the bed. The wreckage floated in front of the Still One - in no less than eight pieces - for a moment. Then, the elder boy flung his arms to the side, sending the chunks of metal slamming through the bulletproof barrier of their enclosure and into the concrete walls.

Having exerted his will upon the world with such force, the Still Child slumped in the air. His aura faded and his body fell to the floor. Immediately following, alarms blared, red lights strobed and a sickly-sweet gas filled the room through the vents. Men in gas masks filed in and took the Still Child away.

The Scientists and Doctors monitored his vital signs and talked about the implications of the event as they walked. The Active boy overheard a few muttered words of moving into something called "Phase 2". Then the gas put him to sleep.

As he faded, he pondered the meaning of his existence. Why was he here? Who was he? Who were these men? How had his brother done that?

Most importantly, what was Phase 2? Those words must mean that his life alone was not the purpose of this experiment. They were to be put to purpose. What could that purpose be?

The Active Child - Subject B-1337 - soon learned the meaning of "Phase 2".

They were to be weaponized.