Era of Madness

Incomplete puzzle, the calm before the storm

As they heard Enry Arsin pained cries and screams, Tyler and John couldn't help but shiver. They didn't even dare to turn their eyes in this direction. But, at one point, the complains simply stopped as suddenly as they began. Even then, neither Tyler or John dared to say anything about it, and the former simply finished to resume his story about the trap they were going to fall in.

Once it was done, John applauded, a gesture that would've seemed ironic for anybody but him:

"Wow, honestly, I'm impressed" he said. "You really saved our asses there, I don't think I'd have been able to pull it out. I just have one thing to ask..."

"Hehe, is it how am I so talentuous?" Tyler asked. "Or maybe how badass it was when I killed sector Z's manager?"

"Not exactly. Why did you choose 'Gentleman' as a nickname? I mean, that's not the worst thing I ever heard, but uhm..."

"Hey, I was in a rush, ok? Plus I don't allow you to criticize my choice, Gentleman is a super cool name"

"Yeah... uh... it sure is..."

"You little... uh no, you big... tssk, just focus on controlling the Party Hall"

Both of them remained silencious for a few seconds, and then John asked:

"And you really have no idea of who this Cain could be?"

"Not at all, I never met him even once in my life" Tyler answered. "But, one thing is for sure... this guy is weird. I don't know how, but he managed to find the letter I lost while we fell off the spatial ship. Something like this... it's goddamn impossible! Plus, right after meeting him, I had to fight this bitch, Melia... and during this fight, I actually managed to hold up a bit against her. I did stuff that I know is impossible for me... I see no other explanation, it can only be him"

John thought for a moment:

"Hmm, with what you said, the most plausible explanation is that this guy, Cain, is a mutant with particularily strange and powerful abilities" he said. "Maybe something affecting perception: this way, he could have highered his sight enough to see where your letter fell, and changed your perception of time so you can see Melia's attacks and dodge them. I don't know why nor who he is either, but I guess it's already a good clue to start with"

"Yeah, I guess you're right" Tyler replied, faking to be convinced.

In truth, this explanation didn't satisfy him the slightest. It just didn't seem right.

Tyler thought back about this time when he somehow managed to deduce that Penny wasn't human. At that time, was Cain influencing him too? Yes, it would definitly explain a lot. If Cain could get back the letter, it meant that he was close to Harry's domain when Erica, John and him fell in it. Then, he would've just have to follow them discretly, and enhance Tyler's perception at this exact moment.

The drunkard had no idea why he would do that but, considering how easily Cain infiltrated and escaped the Party Hall, there was no doubt he could've done this: from the few moments Tyler had with him, this guy seemed completly able to go that far even for such a random thing. From this moment, all the pieces somehow sticked together.

Yet, Tyler didn't know why, but he felt like something was missing, an important piece of the puzzle. He knew deep inside that Cain wasn't the responsible for those sudden abilities he got and then lost the next moment.

It was just that he couldn't guess the true reason without this missing piece. It couldn't be that he was a mutant: even if dna tests couldn't detect if someone was a mutant or had the potential to become what, for some people, it could already be deduced that it was impossible: when he had been tested to see if he could become a cyborg, not only it had been confirmed he couldn't, but also that his genes were too primitive to be a mutant, similar to a thirtieth century human. Therefore, Tyler was left without any clue.