Disclaimer: Noblesse isn't mine.

I Am Tao (Part 29)

Tink. Tink. Hissss.

Tink. Tink. Hissss.

Tink. Tink. Hissss.

Smoke filled the room like a heavy fog and made it difficult to breathe. M-21 ripped the sleeves from his shirt and tied one over his nose and mouth to filter out the smoke as much as possible. The other he saved for Regis. That kid wouldn't intentionally rip his clothes to save his life. And where was Regis? He couldn't feel him anymore. He couldn't feel anyone at all. There had to be someone else. Someone causing this.

"Nine cartridges. That was unexpected."

Who was that? M-21 darted to the side. The voice came from nearby, but he couldn't sense anyone. Even if the smoke made it difficult to see, he should be able to feel someone so close.

"But you should only require one."

Tink. Tink. Hissss.

The metal sphere rolled to a stop next to his foot and began to spew out smoke. M-21 kicked the ball aside. Regis was in here somewhere. He didn't have time to mess with these toys.

Tick! Tick! Tick! Poof!

The ball burst into a thick haze. He didn't have much time. His head already swirled with the scent. It made him sick to his stomach, but he couldn't leave yet. Where was Regis? We couldn't feel him. He couldn't… feel…

[-] [-] [-]

"Could you repeat that?"

Detective Kim nervously scratched his hand through his hair. The principal was not amused. He had never heard him use such a flat tone before. It felt as if the very atmosphere changed. "I'm very sorry, Principal Lee, but I need you to answer a few questions down at the station. I know this is an inconvenience. I apologize. Please, understand that I wouldn't ask you if there wasn't a reason."

"Uh, Boss?"

Frankenstein glanced back at Tao. He looked more anxious than the detective. "It seems that I have an appointment. Take care while I'm gone, won't you?" He turned back to the detective with a smile brimming across his face. "This is a rather unexpected visit, but it is good to see you again. I hope we can clear up this misunderstanding quickly."

"Uh, yeah-yes." Detective Kim, obviously relieved, nodded his agreement and waved for the other officers to retreat. "Go back to headquarters. We'll take my car."

The officers didn't move.

"That's an order!" The detective sharpened his tone, and the officers reluctantly obeyed, leaving one at a time.

Frankenstein followed the detective to his car. "This is your personal vehicle?"

"Yeah, get in." He unlocked the door and slid into the driver's seat. "I know this is a bit uncustomary, but you're a valuable connection to me. I think we've had a very cooperative relationship. Do you agree?"

"I suppose I would."

"Good." He pulled onto the street as the other officers scrambled into their cars. "I need a favor."

"This is hardly the situation to ask for one."

"Those officers, they're not for you. They came to watch me. I had to beg for the opportunity to bring you in. This is going to bring heat down on me for telling you this. They already suspect me as it is. I don't know. Maybe I am a leak, but I never told anyone but you. You didn't tell anyone, right?"

"Detective, what are you trying to say?"

"Ah, I'm in some trouble." He twisted his hands around the steering wheel and stared forward. "I've been researching a leak in the department. Somebody's been telling the news stations about these kids. I called you about it earlier. Well, they've pinned it on me because I told you about that runaway from your school. Now, we're both in trouble. Me, mostly. I'm probably going to lose my job. I put in a request with Police Chief Woo to clear your name, but after all the those kids from your school just disappeared, he wouldn't listen to me. His nephew's one of your students, you know. Some computer genius. Ah, what I'm trying to say is, I know your connections run higher than mine. I've heard my superiors drop your name to the higher ups and suddenly things change. Never knew why you bothered with me. I know I shouldn't ask this kind of thing from you, but when you get out of this, could you clear me, too?"

"What do you mean that my students disappeared?"

"I don't know how many, exactly. I've been barred from the case. Reports are coming in for missing children. There are quite a few. That's all I know. Ye Ran students, all of them. That's why you're here. Someone called in a tip that you were involved in this convention-epidemic scandal, and suddenly kids from your school start disappearing? You're being framed, if you ask me, but not everyone thinks that. They think you're destroying evidence. Killing the kids you experimented on. Crazy, I know. There's a lot of pressure coming down on us from the top. And the media, too. They've blow the whole thing out of proportion, and they accuse us of watering down the situation? Everybody's demanding answers! Now there's talk that a higher agency will step in if we don't handle this quickly enough. Everybody's already doing everything they can, and the other guy's not talking. Ugh, it always worse when it involves kids!"

"Detective Kim," Frankenstein quietly interrupted him, "calm down and start from the beginning."

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm under a lot of stress. I got carried away. Forget I asked you for anything. That's not important right now. You're worried about the kids in your school, right?"

"Yes, what has happened to my students?"

"Okay, the beginning. You already know that the news stations included that runaway from your school in the epidemic. You might as well know that his parents are dead, and we haven't found that kid yet. We don't know what happened to him. Somebody leaked his name to the media. I've been trying to track down who did it. I think it's the same person that called in the tip about you. There's no proof, of course. It's just a hunch. After that, we get a call about a disturbance at some comic convention. When we get there, the place is in chaos. Children are loitering outside. There's a possible homicide in the building, and we take in a suspect into custody. We got a tip about him, too. Call in the forensics team to investigate the scene, and they start telling us that the building is a laboratory. Didn't take long to put two and two together. A suspicious lab hosting a children's event while kids are showing up in this 'biological warfare' nonsense. So, we arrest this guy. Right after that, we get calls about kids from you're school disappearing. They're being grabbed off the streets. Funny thing is, it's only your school."

[-] [-] [-]

"Shinwoo?" Suyi tried to sound cheerful, but there was no hiding the concern in her voice. "Did you get a weird call from a hospital?"

"Yeah." He answered absentmindedly. No doubt preoccupied by a video game. "I didn't call back. Sounds like a good excuse to skip school to me."

"Let me talk to her." Ikhan snatched the phone out of his hand with little resistance. "They called me as well, but they wouldn't answer any of my questions. They just insisted that I go to the clinic that they're offering. I'm not doing anything until I talk to the chairman. It seems suspicious to me."

"Don't go there no matter what." She squeezed her pillow tighter and drew her knees up to her stomach. The news was over now, but important reports were still interrupting the regular program. "I already told Yuna. There's something going on."

"I'm going to call the principal, and I'll call you right back."

"He's not answering his phone."

"That's unusual for him."

"Just promise to stay home tonight, okay?"

"Yeah, I promise. You, too."

"Okay. I will." Suyi hung up the phone and tossed the pillow onto her bed. Her friends were safe, but she couldn't keep her word to them. Not tonight.

[-] [-] [-]

He felt weightless. Nothing reached him here. Nothing held him down. His feet didn't touch the ground, and his body floated as if suspended in air. No, it was too thick for air, too heavy, and the pressure from it encompassed him from all sides. He stretched out his hand until his palm encountered a hard, smooth surface. Vibrations swept through his fingertips and pulsated through his surroundings with a dull cadence. It sounded both muffled and thunderous like voices erupting underwater.

More overbearing than the noise was the light. It set the room ablaze, and even with his eyes closed, he could tell the area was flooded by it. It penetrated through his eyelids with a strange illusion of darkness aglow with red. This confused him. Was he dead? Was he drifting through that white abyss? Only this time, no one awaited him with the command to open his eyes. M-21 struggled to obey the order. Even if unspoken, he must obey it. Your eyes. Open your eyes. Lashes fluttered up as light broke through the opening and blinded him. Slowly, the intense whiteness faded into a calmer green luminance.

His own reflection stared back at him with a curved and distorted image. Gray locks of hair rose above him in fluid tufts that swayed and curled with each movement. A mask concealed his nose and mouth, and his hand traced along the edge of it, rising and falling with the curves in the plastic. His eyes looked beyond his reflection, through it, to see the other containers like his.

Stretching from floor to ceiling, two rows of glass cylinders cast their own green radiance. Light refracted off the liquid and cast emerald glimmers into the space between them. It lit the aisle more than the fluorescent lights above them. He looked into each container carefully. Was he alone? Was he the last?

Air bubbled through the solution and broke the surface of the water in the container across from him. Ripples of light fell to the ground below in a medley of circles. A hand pressed against the glass in the mirrored image of his own hand. A blue sleeve clung to the wrist and puffed out along the forearm. The rest remained hidden behind a glare. Who was it? M-21 leaned in closer as he stared through the glass. A second hand appeared followed by blue shoulders, a yellow scarf, white hair that swam and swirled in the liquid, red eyes. Regis.

M-21 scraped his nails against the glass. Regis! The cry cut through his mask and rushed to the surface in a series of bubbles. The glass didn't break. He looked down at his hands. There were no claws, no layer of fur covering his arms. His powers didn't manifest at all. He pulled his strength again. He focused his powers to his fingertips, but there was no sudden surge of energy. He was no different from a human, and never had he hated anything more.

Regis' eyes were only slits. His hands slid from the glass as his body relaxed. He was barely conscious. His eyes widened slightly as if it were all he could do to make eye contact, and M-21 shuddered under his gaze. He had seen that look before. The last seconds. It was sharing the end of life.

NO! The scream sent a shockwave of bubbles through his tank. M-21 pounded against the glass, but the liquid restricted the force of the impact. The sound shot through the solution like a heartbeat. He slammed his back against the wall behind him and drove his heels into the glass with kick after kick. Beats permeated around him in loud and rampant surges mixed with a gentle tapping.

He froze. The tapping did not come from his struggle. It resonated from outside the container. A ballpoint pen rapped against the glass as a quiet warning to settle down. He knew the gesture at once. Dr. Crombel peered into the tube. The man didn't smile. No, not even a shred of sadistic intent. There would be no gloating, no superiority, no elitism. He didn't acknowledge him at all. It was the same as before. He was a scientist, and his experiments were so inferior that he did not need to assert himself over them any more than a human needed to dominate an insect. M-21 shut his eyes as Crombel met his gaze. No. He would never share his life with that man.

A/N: I have made a fanart for this chapter. It will be under my Deviant Art account. (Fleeting Vapor there as well.) I'll post a link on my profile page once the picture is uploaded.