Chapter 4

Scars

I wake up a few hours later. It is nighttime.

Liz is back. I can feel her energy around the room, from when she has visited me. She was experimenting, playing with fire, if you will. Liz leaks off a vibrant red dust when she practices, which I can see in trails of where she has been, the same as most people who have the use of mind magic. I reach out my palm and gather the energy closest to me, mostly from the chair next to my tank. I use it to help heal my chest, which is aching. Using other sources of more natural power is one of my gifts, along with telepathy. Power, I've found, can be judged using a colour spectrum. Red through violet, the basic rainbow. Liz and Hellboy both rate at the beginning, in red.

I, of course, am blue.

Dr. Broom walks in. He smiles, seeing that I'm awake.

"Abe, are you in pain"

"No" at least not any more. But no one needs to know that. It's one of my limitations. Why is it that I still can't open up entirely to these people? Well, trust isn't easy.

"The nurses say that the scars are going to fade almost completely."

I nod, not really caring. Appearance is something that doesn't matter to me.

Dr. Broom sits down in the chair next to my tank.

"Abe, I thought you should know. The bureau has managed to locate the last branch of St. Trinian's research department.

As usual the word sends me off again, into the most powerful memories of my life.

The monks walk by again. Back and forth they go, in front of my tank. I watch them, unable to control my actions, forced to play out this memory. One swings his lantern close to me and I am blinded. I cower back in fear and they leave.

The scientist returns. He looks down on me and speaks to the woman behind him. "Log, Icthyo Sapiens, date- April 14, 1959. Exactly 24 years after the capture of the Icthyo Sapiens entity, the creature now has the approximate age of a fifteen year old human child. We can extrapolate through its growth that it was born approximately April 14th, 1865. The longevity of this creature is stunning...

I shout and shout and shout but no noise comes out. The new drug they have injected is burning like acid all the way down my throat. I scream again, and the scientist takes down my reactions on his white clip board.

I open my eyes. Professor Broom is sitting right in front of me. He knows I have had a vision, but he won't ask about it. Secretly he wonders, though. I admire him for talking to me. I always scare people because every one wants privacy, they like their secrets.

"They found several other people who received the same treatment as you..."

Another flash;

I am tied to an operating table. A man in a surgical mask is leaning over me. He runs a scalpel along my wrist, drawing blood. I do my best to jerk it out of his reach, but I have thick leather straps around my wrists. These straps are custom made, they tried to use the usual thickness, and I snapped through them in under three seconds. I can tell these ones are much sturdier, and they cut into me, the raw flesh turning a deeper blue. I gasp for air, gills fluttering. I open my eyes wide and sit upwards as quickly as I can, scissoring my powerful legs in a kick that would send me flying through the water fast enough to catch a boat. They straps don't break, and a doctor comes over, strapping a mask over my face, and using his hands to stopper my gills, forcing me to breath through my mouth and inhale the gas. My vision swims and goes grey. At least I won't be conscious for the operation.

"... These various genetic experiments will come to stay at the bureau. Among them is another Icthyo Sapiens. I was wondering if you would consent to share your tank while the bureau works on the construction of separate quarters."

I'm not really listening. Another like me? One more 'freak' as Manning put it?

I'm not unique any more; does that make me any more normal?

No, I will always be Gill Guy, genetic accident, captured by scientists with a past I can't really remember. Six foot two with skin of blue, flippers, gills and a wonderful personality; let's hear it for Abe Sapien.

Professor Broom is going to give me one of his speeches. I've practically memorized all of them, but it's important for him to think he helps me.

"I know your past is difficult, Abe, but you can't let it shadow who you are now..."

I have had enough.

"Professor, I can't not let it shadow me. For me, this is a reality. I relive everything that happened every time anyone mentions the word 'Trinian' or my escape and joining the bureau."

I'm in my small tank. The scientist comes in. He is holding various vials of liquid. The first one he empties into a tube. I feel a needle inject the liquid into my arm. It is numb for a moment, then the needle withdraws and I clutch my arm to me. A deep blue slash is rapidly growing, tracing the pattern of my veins. I squeeze my eyes tight shut, and feel the smoldering liquid working its way to my heart. It hits, and I convulse, ands and feet flail, I hit the tube, which wobbles. I open my eyes, the pain forgotten. The scientist opens the second vial, which contains the same liquid, but of a deeper colour. I know from his mind that it is more of the same, but more powerful. I crash myself into the wall of the cylinder so hard it topples over.

The glass shatters and I feel it cut into my left side, where I land on the fragments. I get shakily to my feet and watch the scientist warily. He seems calm, and he takes a step towards me.

I kick out at him, low, breaking both his knees with my foot. He screams and crashes to the floor. I run, leaving the room, knocking over canisters containing various liquids as I leave. Two liquids meet, and they explode, I feel the heat on my back. It dries my skin, and I cough, still running as best I can.

An alarm rings and I run into a small room, sensing the water I know is there. True enough; an emergency basin for chemical spills is in the middle of the room. I climb into it and swim to the bottom, holding onto the bar there.

I stayed in that tank for days and days. I don't know how long, really. The building around me was evacuated; the government came and went, filling out their useless forms. None of them found me, of course, until the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense arrived. Then they caught me.

Blinking away the after images of the pain, I keep going.

"So basically every time I talk to anyone, I relive hell."

The professor was holding up his hand now, touching the glass, trying to reach out to me. I let out a half hysterical laugh, and raise my hand to a few inches from his.

"See, you're trying to comfort me. If I was to accept this hand, I would go back again, to that pool where I spent two weeks without any food. To living in terror, wondering if my captors were going to come back and torture me again."

The professor is horrified. He honestly hadn't realized how his words affected me. He also hadn't realized how deep those cuts ran.

I smile, and close my eyes.

"Some scars never fade, Professor Broom."

He nodded once, and decided it was time to leave.

"Please excuse me, Abe, I have a lot to think about, and so do you."

He stood, and his eyes shut. I gasped as his pain hit me.

"Professor... are you alright."

"I'll be fine."

"You are very sick, you shouldn't ..."

But then I realize that this was exactly what he wanted. He had little time left, and wanted to spend it making a difference.

"Good night Professor."

"Good night Abe."

He turned to go, but spoke over his shoulder;

"Remember Abe, when I am gone, you still have friends who will do the best they can to heal your wounds for you."

With that he leaves, and I know he isn't talking about my chest.