Cybil (2018) #projectsuper

Chapter 25: To the Max, Part 1

It wasn't at all pleasant for James to wait until his daughter awoke from her deep, almost unnatural sleep. Fortunately, he did have a lot of time to try to think about what he would say.

Of course, both of them had to move into a new room that just happened to be empty and have room enough for the both of them, as the barracks that Cybil had destroyed were now quarantined, with Fuller making up an excuse to the effect of, "a chemical reaction in the crystal obtained from the mountain".

Even he didn't buy that excuse (not that he could, based on what he'd seen), but if he could count on anything from the Rubiks Cube that was Fuller, it was being able to sell a lie as if it were the truth.

James himself had bought it, after all.

Thinking time, it seemed, was over as Cybil stirred a little before her eyes snapped open.

She tried to get up, but it was in vain as her body protested with pain that James could feel even from his external point of view.

He turned away, clearly unable to see her like this. "Don't even try to get up, Cybil. The strain of using that power requires some rest afterwards."

James took a deep breath. It was a hard fight for him not to sound as angry, scared, or genuinely emotional as he really was at this point. He needed to keep his tone measured and calm. "Do you remember anything about what Fuller said I went off to do?"

The girl shook her head no.

Of course, he thought. That incident may have affected more than just her external health.

"Oh. Okay. I guess that's not quite important right this second, anyway." He thought for a moment.

"Did I ever get around to telling you about Max yet?"

Another "no" indication.

"Well then, since you're here..."

Cybil sat up more at attention here, compared to the glazed over, slumped posture she'd previously had.

"By the time Max was born, I had gotten a little more familiar with the actual process I was using to create this sort of 'artificial humanity'.

"I had created Max to appear as a boy from Latin America, keeping it fairly ambiguous physically to lower the chance/amount of questions people would ask regarding his heritage.

"In fact, he was originally intended to know a few dialects of Spanish and Portuguese. Unfortunately, that... didn't pan out."

Cybil raised an eyebrow at this.

"You... might have to find out what I mean later."

"Needless to say, that wasn't the only thing he was intended to do. In addition to also having superhuman acrobatic skills to help him in the rare combat situation, there's his Gift. At the cost of a lot of his energy, he can employ a sort of mind control/persuasion skill. It allows him to convince others to do anything he wants them to or flat out bend them to his will outright and fully for a time..."

A chill ran down the scientist's spine as he thought about it. He alone was a more than powerful weapon in the wrong hands.

And considering what he'd just seen from Fuller...