And So It Begins Again

Albus Part 2

One night I was doing a drill. The drill required me to locate and disable a bomb in half an hour. The bomb was hidden among the deserted streets of the city, and I was given nothing but a knife. I had just finished disabling the bomb (with about eighteen of my thirty minutes left), when a figure stepped out of the shadows.

This was highly irregular because I should have been able to detect their presence by now. It unnerved me to know that this person had been watching me for an unknown amount of time. I didn't bother drawing out the knife I had strapped to my leg. If the figure had wanted to simply kill me, they would have done so already without revealing themselves. Clearly they had something to say to me.

They aren't telling you everything, I heard a voice say in my head. I tried to reach for my knife but found I couldn't move. They tell you only that the Renaissance are fighting for time travel, but that is barely the tip of the iceberg. We are fighting for so much more. This was my chance. A real live member of the Renaissance was standing in front of me. I tried reaching for the knife again, but once again I was unable to. We fight for knowledge. We fight for opportunity. We fight for transparency. Who is this person and how is their voice in my head? It's called telepathy, the voice answered. I am able to project my thoughts to you as well as read your thoughts. Once upon a time, many could do this. They also could do things like this. The knife strapped to my leg flies into the person's cloak. And this. The figure reaches out an arm and flings a sack of flour that was sitting onto the floor five meters into the air. And this. In the blink of an eye, the figure is now crouched on a beam supporting the roof two stories up. They lightly jumped off the beam onto the ground beneath, barely making any noise even to my sensitive ears.

People used to be able to do all of this, along with time travel freely. But then the government took that away from us. There was a holocaust. Millions were slaughtered. Anyone who had augmentations or what they called "unnatural capabilities" were killed if they resisted augmentation removal surgeries. Humans had discovered how to advance our bodies to do more than what evolution gave us. With an operation, people could change the color of their skin, grow wings, have superhuman strength. We snapped the reigns of evolution, and human development shot forward in leaps and bounds. Night vision, invisibility, telekinesis, you name it. We were creating the superheros previously found only in comic books. Surgeons had better eyesight and could control their hands with better precision. Policemen had stronger muscles and faster speed. Detectives had telepathy. And with the possibility of time travel, we were saving people. A man suffering from Alzheimer's could be brought to the future and cured. It was a utopia. But the government got scared. They found that their subjects were getting better, stronger. Stronger than even themselves. So they clamped down. They banned augmentations. They banned time travel. And as suddenly as we leapt forward, we were jerked back. It was the fall of Greece and Rome into the Dark Ages. And we are the Renaissance; we will be the rebirth.

You have no memories of your past life. You used to be one of us. The United States' government was the one who wiped your memories and fed you a false story. You knew there was something off. You were right. Should you decide to come back to us, give a signal. The signal will be rubbing your temple with your left hand six times. Fitting, isn't it? The voice takes on an amused tone. Like you have a headache. Someone will get in contact with you, and we'll get you out. Come back to us. We need our leader, Francis Bacon. With that, the figure leaves, a slight breeze from their wake the only thing left behind.