In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have walked towards the mass of confused highly trained professionals.

As I got closer they looked more like advanced riot police than anything else. Well, riot police that didn't have shields.

A couple of them looked to be carrying flamethrowers, oddly didn't remember seeing any flames earlier.

I raised my right hand in greeting, "Hello!" I shouted

The response I got was not expected. Immediately following my greeting the entire group trained their weapons on me.

The change in demeanor made me pause momentarily. This wasn't going as planned, granted I didn't have a plan, to begin with.

I took a cautious step forward. The response was immediate.

Breaking the silence someone shouted out, "Freeze! You're under arrest!"

I sputtered what!? I just saved these guys!

I swallowed my confusion, "What!? Under what charges?"

One of the riot-like police officers stepped forward the sun reflected off his opaque visor. "Murder, attempted murder, and assault with parahuman abilities!"

Parahuman abilities?

"It was Self defense!" I fired back.

The officer took my words in stride, "You have the right to remain silent!"

Seriously did this guy not see what I had just done? Tentatively I step forward, someone threw something at me. Stupidly I caught it, a silver canister probably around five inches in diameter.

The top of the cannister popped open, some sort of sickly yellow-white substance covered me. I barely had a moment to react before the not flamethrowers were spraying the same substance on me.

I tried to wipe the substance off but with every swipe, I just smeared it on my body. The yellowish-white substance began to expand covering my body. The more I tried to rub it off the more it expanded.

In no time at all, I was encased in the substance. Quickly the substance went from gross goop to thick rubber-like material.

Try as hard as I could with no leverage I couldn't break out. Even with the minuscule rips, I could make they were quickly filled with more of the stuff.

I'm glad I didn't have a mouth otherwise some of it may have made it into my mouth. Now that I think about it how was I breathing? Did I even need to breathe?

I felt my weight shift, they were moving me. I couldn't exactly hear what was going on around me as it was all just muffled noises. There was a lot of grunting, I wonder how much I weighed.

Eventually, I was placed on the ground, and all was quiet around me. Slowly I began to test the strength of the substance. With every movement from me, I could feel it stretch.

Using my enhanced strength I began to tear the rubbery material from my body. In no time I was free of my yellow-white prison.

I looked about the cell that I had been placed in. Steel walls glared back at me, the door looked to heavily complex to actually operate. Sunk into one of the walls was a screen, it was blank, turned off. In each corner was a CCTV camera, look like there was no privacy here. Also of course just as every cell needs there was a basic cot and a toilet.

Looking at the walls I had the impression that I could escape, but then what? I would be a fugitive. Well according to the officer earlier, I would be a murdering fugitive.

Now that I thought about it, was it self defense? At first, it was, now not so much, I had actively sought them out.

Maybe I just needed a moment to orient myself, to sit down.

I turned to the little cot, it looked kind of flimsy. Tenderly I lowered myself to a sitting position at the foot of the cot. The cot groaned under my weight, I wasn't that heavy, was I? With a sigh, I lowered my entire weight onto the cot, needless to say, the cot collapsed.

I actually sat there for a few moments trying to figure out what happened. I looked down at myself, I looked relatively the same. The only noticeable difference was that I was now a darker shade of gray. Gunmetal gray, I vaguely remembered the shade of color is called. Wonder when that changed?

I don't remember how long I stayed in the cell, but let me tell you it felt like centuries. Most of it was spent staring at the blank screen.

After what felt like the third century, the screen flickered to life.

Displayed in red letters on a black background it read. Warning Video in progress.

My response was an intelligent one, "Huh?"

Silence followed before there was a pop as someone turned a microphone up too fast. A crackle followed as the microphone adjusted. There was a screech as someone drew a chair across a concrete floor.

Throughout the entire ordeal, I sat in silence.

"Good morning." Morning? Had I been in here that long? "Do you know why you're here?" continued the obviously male voice over the speakers.

"Not really, no." I looked at the screen which still displayed the same message.

"You murdered seven people! And are being detained under the charges of Murder, Attempted Murder, Assualt, and assault with parahuman abilities." I wisely stayed silent about the other four I had killed. "Not only did you kill them you also used excessive force! Blatant abuse of parahuman abilities!"

Spoke the man gravely the man over the speaker.

There is was again, parahuman abilities. Did it have something to do with the capes O'Neill mentioned?

"Self defense!" I fired back.

"Self defense?" choked the man. "You actively attacked them first!"

Ok, maybe self-defense was a bad defense on my part.

"Do you know what we do with capes like you that get out of control?" the man growled. "We send them to the birdcage! A prison that you will never escape!"

Birdcage? I scoffed. What a ridiculous name. Nobody was going to lock me up.

"Birdcage? Never heard of it."

What I had said disarmed the man as there was a pregnant pause. I could literally feel him shift forward in his seat over the mic.

"What do you mean you've never heard of it?"

"What I mean is I can't recollect ever hearing about a Birdcage. Or even parahumans for that matter." I glared at one of the cameras.

"Shit a Case 53." sighed the man.

Now it was my turn to be disarmed, "Um…What?" Case 50 what? Did that have something to do with my memories or my looks?

I heard a crackle as the microphone shut off. The screen on the wall also went blank. To my knowledge, I was alone again. At some point in the conversation I had stood up couldn't remember when but I had. Slowly I lowered myself back to the floor.

I wasn't an amnesiac pseudo immortal alien demon killer thing. Somewhere inside my head was all my memories. I just had to reach in and pluck them from the darkest depths of my psyche.

With newly found convection to find out who I was, I stared into the abyss that was my mind. An empty hole devoid of all memories, only a few scarce memories remained. Many stood out in the distance a candlelight miles away.

Reaching out I grabbed one of the lights, it was like holding a boiling kettle with my bare hands. I burned with rage, no metaphysical pain was going to stop me.

Taking the memory I began to understand it. Like boiled water down my throat, it burned me. It was akin to chugging the entire content of a kettle boiled water and all.

The memory was one that I should have had from the begin. It was one of my most profound memories. The memory of my name, something that had always been with me.

Now I had a name, I was no longer nameless.

My name felt familiar yet alien to me.

No longer would I be a formless being, a bringer of death. I would be Thomas Gawain Harper.