Shooting Star

Chapter 9

It was supposed to be his special day: a young boy finally reaching the age of adulthood. Michael Thetis had been waiting for this day for a long time. He had saved an incredible amount of money from his part-time job at a fast food joint to be able to afford to go to Splash Flower Resort, one of the largest and most renowned water parks in the country. Ever since he was a little boy, Michael always wanted to go to Splash Flower Resort, where the slides were fast-paced and intense, the water was cool and refreshing, and the hotels nearby were some of the most luxurious ones you could ever stay in during vacation... at least in the area, anyway.

The problem was, his strict, overbearing parents would never let him go. They were afraid of what would happen if he got too far away, contamination from the pool water, or the possibility of him drowning. To add to this, they had no intention of spending their money for such a high expense trip, especially since they were living paycheck to paycheck, and partially because ever since he hit puberty, Michael had been foul-mouthed, disobedient, and spoiled, and they did not want to reward his bad behavior. Over time, though, as he got older, he got more mature and ended up being better, and his parents were delighted to see how much he had mentally grown, despite only being 18... Or maybe it was an act to get his parents to lighten up and open the possibility of letting him go to the water park when he became an adult. Who could truly say with Michael...

He considered it the happiest day of his life. Everywhere he went, he enjoyed every moment of it. The slides, the lazy river, the make-shift shore at the end of the park, where all the kids and adults laid and played. Michael even had the biggest funnel cake someone could eat there.

But after one last deep dive, he emerged from the water to find a woman staring him down by the edge of the pool. His parents were there. Watching. Concerned. Michael didn't even have enough time to say a word. And then, she grabbed him, yanked him out of the water, and ran for it, with the surprisingly light boy in her arms. Michael was so in shock that he couldn't even scream or fight back as Bonnie carried him out of the water park, sprinting, while his horrified parents chased after her, begging her to put him down. But then they lost her in the crowd of attendants. Bonnie was gone, and so was Michael. Wolverine Army was so ruthless that they would order Hyena Labs to kidnap subjects in broad daylight, in front of their own families and hundreds of witnesses.

The test this time was different. Far more dangerous. It was your typical Lock Drug injection, but with a catch. THUNDERLock_86 was the most notorious Lock Drug that existed in Hyena Labs. As its serial number indicates, 86 people have died from it due to biological incompatibility. The scientists that weren't placing their sick bets that 100 people would die from it were so concerned with its high body count that they discussed with General Gregory about whether to just stop its search for a compatible body altogether, and predictably, he didn't care. Bonnie was so confident that it was going to be another casualty that she told Michael bluntly that there was a high likelihood that he would die. Michael still couldn't even scream. However, in the end, Michael survived. Somehow, despite the amount of souls lost by it, THUNDERLock_86 was finally able to find a proper owner. But something happened. Once it was over, Michael was smiling from ear to ear and giggling as the drug took over his nervous system. It was something that had happened with a few previous subjects before: the Lock Drug caused a drastic change in his personality when it seeped into his brain.

It was because of that change in demeanor that he spent a very little amount of time in the camps. He was only in there for four days before he killed an entire room full of prisoners. The power of his Lock Drug made it effortless; they were dead in less than 5 seconds. The guards walked into the room and saw the electrocuted corpses of around 15 prisoners, as Raincloud stood in the center of the room, smiling. The cloud over his head hovered at the top of the room and spread to create a second ceiling, raining down on all that existed in that room. Raincloud never explained why he killed them. Maybe he was so far gone that there wasn't a reason.