Chapter 1: The Beginning
"Oh"/ speech
'oh' /thoughts
Earth U.S, October 17, 2168
I have no one. My parents are dead. My mom will never take me to school and sports. My father will never show me around the shipyards where he works. I'm being put in a foster home, but I don't care, they say I'll be happy, they're all liars. My parents had died in a skycar accident, they both died instantly from the Ezero drive exploding. A drunk driver collided head on. The man who took my parents escaped with only some burns, and I'm left an orphan with no family. Some guys in suits came to the hospital, where I've stayed since they took me there after school. Said they just needed to get my stuff from my home.
"Cole". Hearing my name snapped me out of my brooding. "We're here." The door to my left opened and I stepped out of the skycar. What I saw wasn't my house, really it wasn't anything close. We had arrived near the spaceport in what looked like a private hangar.
A small freighter was in the last stages of takeoff. Looking at the men who had brought me here I finally noticed the logo on the front of their suits and on the freighter. I'd seen the logo before when I watched the news with my parents. My dad said they were a xenophobic terrorist organization.
"Cerberus, your with Cerberus." I screamed. They both just laughed.
"Well I'll be, someone is pretty smart." The man chuckled as the other smashed the butt of his concealed pistol against my head and darkness took me.
" Welcome to Project Voltage, Mr. Stryker." Was the last thing I heard.
I awoke to a woman shining a light in my eyes from her Omni-Tool. I could see her lips moving but no sounds where coming out. Eventually I started to hear muddled sounds.
"Can you hear me Cole." My blank look supplied her a sufficient answer. "Can you tell me your full name."
"Cole. Cole Stryker." I answered reluctantly.
"Good, now how old are you Cole and when where you born." She questioned
"I'm 13, my birthday is on February 10th, 2155." I mumbled.
"Good you seem all there. Begin the procedure doctor." The doctor stated as pain shot through my body and I passed out again.
For what seemed like for years they repeated the procedure I awoke answered basic questions about myself and then fell back into the darkness. My time asleep with nightmares my parent's screams echoed through the blackness, and there faces frozen in silent agony etched into my mind.
I awoke drenched in sweat, as I breathed in the hot and humid air. 'thank god, I'm not in that damn lab.' I thought happily. Of course taking my surrounding my happiness was replaced by dread. Around me was a prison cell, or what I thought one looked like. It was a ten foot by ten foot room with a small window, a small mirror, a cot with one blanket, and a small toilet.
I walked to the mirror slipping off the rag of a shirt they gave me. I would call myself pretty average muscle wise. I was about 5"11 at 13 and pretty well-built, not lanky. Of course I didn't go to the mirror to admire myself there was a stinging sensation all through my upper body and I wasn't looking forward to seeing what Project Voltage was. Weaving around my chest and back were dark red scars leading from my lower back and chest all the way up to my neck. Then I noticed the scar on my left shoulder, dried blood outlined the tattoos that marred my skin in the shape of a large number thirteen.
"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, what did they do to me." I screamed, but no one deemed to respond. "Holy shit this is happening, my parents are dead, I just got kidnapped by Cerberus, and now I'm a fucking lab rat. No-no-no-no this cannot be happening"
I was numb, that's the only way I could describe it then. Tears streamed down my face as I thought about everything that had just been taken from me. First my parents and then I lost everything else. My friends, my home, and now maybe even my humanity. Shock turned to sadness. Sadness turned to rage. I could feel something building inside, some kind of animal begging to be released. Clawing at my mind. I dropped to the cold steel floor. Screaming as my entire body burned, looking at my hands as sparks arched through my fingertips.
Then the world exploded in a bright flash.