Manhunter Revelations (12 page)

I guess my ruse of still being unconscious
wasn't working. Opening my eyes slowly, painfully as they felt that
opening them at all is a very bad idea. I saw Serona and another
unknown woman sitting on the lounge across from me. It was obvious
the unknown woman was of the same unknown race of people as she
also had that same alien beauty, but she was older. Much older and
she had dark green hair that was also streaked with a lot of gray.
Turning my head I saw Major Hennings and Sessa standing off to the
side. Major Hennings was the only one though who appeared to be
embarrassed about the attack on me. Looking back at Serona I
grunted out,

"Someone want to explain what happened to me
and most importantly, why?"

Serona and the unknown woman looked at each
other and then Serona spoke.

"Mr. Hutchins I must apologize for rendering
you unconscious. At the time it seemed very prudent to do so”

I have heard stories about false clients
putting out contracts to draw a certain manhunter in for revenge
for his pass actions. Due to such, measures were put in place to
insure the validity of a manhunter contract before a manhunter
accepted it. The measures were so effective, that there have been
no false contract traps over the last dozen or so years. So to say
I am not accustomed to having my clients turn and attack me is an
understatement. It also pissed me the hell off.

"You are going to have to do a hell of a lot
better than an apology for attacking me.

Your actions for one, has voided our
contract, plus you committed the action in front of a federal
officer, and a client attacking their hired manhunter while he is
working on the contract is a federal crime"

I stated this while pointing to Major
Hennings.

"What I want to know though is why I was
attacked, and what the hell was I hit with?

"Please, Mr. Hutchins, I will explain
everything, but first I must ask you to continue to bear with
us"

"Tracker", interrupted Hennings, "The Ladies
here has committed a crime and has violated the terms of your
contract, and if you want to press charges, I will report these
actions and take the appropriate steps. However I too am asking you
to hear Matron Serona explanations first. Believe me it will all
become clear, even if you will think it somewhat fantastic" With
that Serona continued speaking.

"We hired you to come and help us rid our
village of the beast which preys on the women here. The choice to
bring you in on this venture was fully mine, due primarily to your
reputation in finding and apprehending criminals, and Major
Henning's recommendation. I also stated earlier that I had hoped to
meet you under different circumstances. Those circumstances are due
to the fact that your uncle and I were very good friends”

This statement truly caught me off guard.

"You knew my uncle?"

"Yes. Over the course of the past twenty plus
years, your uncle and I have worked on a few incidents together.
Over those years we became very close. His disappearance was very,
very painful for me. So much so, that I regret earlier decisions we
both made regarding our personal relationship to each other”

(DING) A light just went off inside my head.
During the years I grew up around my uncle, I would on a few
occasions ask him why he never married. He would laugh and then
tell me some laughable joke on the dangers of marriage to one woman
for the rest of his life. Yet deep down I could see that there was
something he wasn't telling me. As I got older, I noticed that on
some of the cases he would take, there would be a level of
expectation and excitement within him about the case that I
couldn't explain, but that felt out of place for the dangerous job
he was undertaking of apprehending a felon. On these cases he would
work alone, no matter what arguments I, or some business associates
of his raised. When he returned home from those cases, his whole
demeanor was happier, more joyful. Now most people would probably
say that was due to a successful mission, but to those of us who
knew my uncle, that type of euphoria was really out of place. My
uncle was a man of sternly serious demeanor, and to my knowledge
only seemed to truly relax and laugh around my mother and me. In
other situations, he always seemed to be all business. Other
business associates of his I encountered, as I grew older and
started working cases with him had told me the same thing. My uncle
was all business, even when he should have been relaxed. So you can
see why I was understandably perplexed about his joyous attitude on
those rare occasions. Only my mother seemed to understand why, but
when I questioned her on it, she would only tell me that things I
wanted to know about my uncle, I needed to ask from him. It was a
matter of respect and privacy between them that she would not tell
me. When I asked my uncle he would always give me a knowing look
and say I would know one day when I was older, and then stopped me
from asking any more questions. So I was patient, since my uncle
had never lied to me, or deceived me, and always taught me what I
needed to know to survive in life as well as in the business. Plus
there was a lot for me to learn about the business to be too
concerned about his untypical happiness. Once he disappeared
though, all aspects of my uncle life came back to me full force,
leaving me with a ton of unanswered questions. Questions that would
now not be answered. Yet that simple statement made by Serona
answered one of my questions.

"You and my uncle were close?"

"Yes. We met many years ago by accident as
the case he was working on was linked to a action I was
participating in at the time. Over the years we had many occasions
to work together. To answer your next question, yes we were in love
with each other and looked forward to seeing each other as much as
we could”

"How come you both didn't make something
permanent between you, and as interesting as all this is, I failed
to see how all this ties in with your attack on me?”

"We both felt due to the circumstances of our
lives at those times, it was better for us to continue our
relationship as it was. Believe me it was the most difficult
decision we both had to make. As to the attack on you, I will
answer that question, but first I need to ask you a very personal
question. How much do you know about you father?"

(BONG) The alarm bells in my head were now
really ringing. Being asked about my uncle was one thing, but being
asked about my father was the last damn thing I ever expected.

"Excuse me, but what has my father got to do
with why I am here?"

"Please bear with me. There was information
about your father that your uncle was going to tell you when he
felt you were ready. I need to know what if anything he told you
before his disappearance, or if your mother has revealed any info
to you on him”

"Nothing. He nor my mother has not told me
anything about my father” The words as I said them came out very
bitter. My uncle and mother knew something about my father, but had
never told me. For a second there I felt betrayed by them, but then
remembered my uncle never did anything without a good reason, and
my mother could never do me any harm. So if they didn't tell me
about my father, they had a very good reason. I now just needed to
find out what their reasons were.

"What I am about to tell you will seem
farfetched, more likely insane, but please again bear with me and
hear me out. You have already seen some of the unusual abilities my
Ladies and I have exhibited. Even though some of us have
specialized abilities, for the most part our basic abilities are
the same. Now your most obvious question when you first arrived was
an explanation of our claim of not being human. The answer is
simply that although my Ladies and I look human, on a more genetic
level we are not.”

Serona spoke that statement with such
conviction, that even though I may not believe her, I was convinced
that she believed what she said. The look on my face must have said
the same thing, because Serona rose, approached the shattered
window and pointed to a sign standing outside and immediately a
blue beam of light left her hand and blew the sign apart. Stunned I
looked at her and then everyone else in the room. It was apparent
from all their expressions except Major Hennings, seeing her blow
things apart was nothing new. Returning to her seat, she
continued.

"Our ancestors lived on an island that, for
the record, has existed for over one hundred and fifty seven
thousand years. The island was called Muraii, and my people are
called Muraiins, and they were and are not human. Although we
somewhat appeared human in form back then, our genetic, physical
and mental attributes were not. My people back then were small in
statue, between four to five feet tall. Our facial features looked
as we look now, with two eyes, two ears, a nose, a mouth and we had
two arms and two legs. However we did not have any hair as you know
it. Our bodies from our head to our feet was covered in lustrous
fur in different colors and our ears was somewhat elongated like
that of your legendary elves."

I sat there as she told me that story with a
straight face. My first initial reaction was to assume she was
crazy, or trying to bullshit me, but somehow after what I had seen,
I wasn't so sure.

"You are trying to tell me that you and your
Ladies are descended from a race of furry elves”

"For want of a better term, yes. Yet our race
wasn't the only other species to exist at that time. There was
another island nation, much more technologically advanced then ours
whom we met about eleven hundred years before our mutual
destruction. They were called Atlantu, and their island was called
Atlantus” At this point she stopped talking, mostly to gauge my
reaction.

"Let me guess, they looked liked scaly
goblins”

"Not quite. They were huge compared to my
people, and they too looked somewhat human, averaging around seven
feet tall, muscular, with rough textured grayish pigmentation to
their skin. They also had two eyes, ears, arms and legs, and hair.
Genetically though, they too were not human”

"Okay assuming what you just told me is true,
what happened to your people and the Atlantu?"

"When our people first met it was due to an
exploration party from Atlantus which had traveled to our island
which was located in what is now the Pacific Ocean. Atlantus was
located in what is now the Atlantic Ocean. The discovery of our
races was an amazement to both of our peoples. We wanted to learn
as much as we could about each other. Where did we all came from,
our cultures, our sciences, art and music. We also found out from
the Atlantu that there was a race of people on the mainland that
was also different from both of us. This was news to us for at that
time my people were, not from choice but mostly due to certain
circumstances, primarily isolationists. As you can probably figure
the people on the mainland were the early members of the human
race. The Atlantu did not allowed their people any contact with
them due to their primitive nature. As we all found out later, the
most basic difference between the Atlantu and our race was the fact
that my people, the Muraii were people of the earth. We believed in
the power of the earth and it's life force to provide balance and
harmony in life. The Atlantu was a society based on technology and
science. They believed our way of life was a mystical one that
would not yield any great advances. My people on the other hand
could not understand this concept of science and technology. Due to
such many years was devoted by both cultures studying the other.
Trade, commerce and the study of our different arts was also
conducted. For over six hundred and fifty years our races lived
well with each other. No contact was made with the early humans by
mutual agreement of both races. Then one of their most prominent
scientists made a major astounding breakthrough in the field of
genetics. The Atlantu was a race of people whose most important
belief in life was the pursuit of improving themselves. This
breakthrough in genetics was their holy grail to do so. My people
by this time had also made vast inroads in our belief and study in
the power of the earth. Most of my people had some type of
abilities, which allowed them to draw on the life force within the
earth to accomplish wonderfully amazing things. Today you would
call those abilities magical. Events was going well for both
cultures, and then things started to change. Slowly at first. It
was many years before my people started to notice the difference in
the Atlantu. There was genetic miscarriages during birth. The
appearance of most of the Atlantu started to change. When the
ruling elders of my people questioned them on this, they were told
the Atlantu was on the verge of a major evolutionary improvements
in its people. The Atlantu were experimenting on themselves
genetically. Our ruling elders expressed concern on these genetic
changes, but those concerns were dismissed by the Atlantu. Over the
next century the Atlantu changed so much physically, there were
serious doubt if they could all be from the same race. After
witnessing some disturbing events with the Atlantu, the Elders of
my people decided to break off all contact with the Atlantu. When
the Atlantu was informed of the elder's decision, their reaction
was as if we had told them nothing of any importance. So contact
with the Atlantu ceased. Over the next four hundred years or so
both of our races had no contact with each other. During this time
my people had made fantastic strides in the use of the earth's life
force. We could control and shape the growth of the plant life and
certain small animals around us. Then the Elders decided it was
time for us to venture out and study the other race of people who
lived on the mainland. We could not however make contact with them
or interfere with their development in any way. Our goal was strict
and simple. We were to study them without their knowledge and
without revealing ourselves, to see how they were advancing. The
humans then were primitive, violent, but very interesting. During
our studies we started getting information on rumors being passed
among the humans of monsters, which was destroying entire villages.
These were unusual events and as such were passed off by my people
as fanciful rumors and superstitions among the humans. That is
until my people found the remains of a village that looked as if it
had been ravaged by a lot of wild animals of unknown origins. There
were just parts of bodies evident around the village. There were no
survivors and no whole bodies found. It was evident the bodies had
been torn apart and partially eaten. My people looked for these
creatures, but we could never find them, but evidence of their
destruction continued to be found. Then slowly my people starting
finding evidence that whatever was doing this damage had unnatural
origins to it's nature. It was the Elders who finally figured out
that these were unnatural creatures of science that was doing the
killing and destructions. A full council meeting was called and the
decision was made to renew contacts with the Alantu as they were
the only race of beings we knew who had this level of scientific
knowledge. We needed to find out if they were the originators of
these destructive creatures since the humans had no science or
technology to speak of, especially at the level needed to make
creatures like these. When my people got to Atlantus, what they
found shocked them almost to death. Atlantus, which had once been a
city of astounding technological beauty, was now a land of horror.
The city looked as if insane madmen had redesigned it. What was
once a bright glowing city was now a city of dark shocking
grimness. The meeting with the Atlantus council was the most
shocking. The Atlantu no longer looked to be of the same race.
There were creatures of assorted and different species roaming
through the city. The council itself, which now called itself The
Xantu, looked to be composed of creatures from different
nightmares. The Atlantu showed surprise at our appearance for they
had somehow lost all knowledge of our existence. When questioned on
the destruction of human villages on the mainland, the Atlantu
reaction was one our emissaries did not suspect. They
wholeheartedly acknowledged they were responsible but more shocking
was their belief that they felt they had a divine right to use the
humans in any way they felt in the further development of their
genetic enhancements. They had created horrifying creatures from
their experiments to test their genetic manipulations. Our
emissaries also found out that some of the creatures doing the
destruction were actual citizens of Atlantu who had mutated their
appearance in their attempt to better themselves. The madness of
the Atlantu could not be believed by the emissaries. When the
emissaries tried to convince the Atlantu that what they were doing
to both themselves and to the humans was an abomination against
nature, the Atlantu rejected their claims and re-asserted their
claim to divine right. Then one of The Xantu council suggested that
the emissaries and the whole population of Muraii would make very
good genetic subjects for study. The emissaries were appalled at
the suggestion. It became rapidly apparent to the emissaries that
if they were to continue to live, they had to leave Atlantus right
away. As they were trying to do so the Atlantu tried to capture
them. What the Atlantu didn't know was that my people had made
great advances in the use of the earth's life force. Out of the
dozen emissaries to visit the Atlantu, eight of them were Mages of
the Muraii. Mages are individuals who had mastered the use of the
earth's life force. The battle that ensued as the emissaries fought
to leave the island was tremendous. There was a great deal of
destruction caused to the port of Atlantus as they left. Five of
the emissaries was severely injured, and two were killed, although
their bodies was recovered during the fight to leave the island.
Leaving the dead behind was not a thought as the Atlantu would have
probably experimented on them. The Atlantu furious that someone who
they believed were inferior to them had managed to not only fight
their way off their island but had done a considerable amount of
damage in the process, was totally unbearable to them. Also the
power used by the emissaries fully arouse their scientific
curiosity and they now more than ever wanted them for genetic
experimentation to see if their abilities could be breed or
genetically induced into their own. Consequently war between the
Atlantu and the Muraii broke out. The Atlantu in their quest to
destroy Muraii, took their destruction to the mainland and the
humans. It became very clear to The Elders that the only way to
stop the Atlantu was to completely destroy them, which was strictly
against their beliefs in life. Yet they knew they had no choice.
Over nine hundred Mages of the Muraii gathered and commenced the
greatest use of the earth's life force ever and directed it against
Atlantus. The use of so much of the earth's life force caused a
tectonic instability beneath Atlantus, which resulted in an
earthquake of incredible force and destruction. This caused the
whole island of Atlantus to tear itself apart and their city was
totally destroyed. The explosions was of such force that they
completely blew apart all traces of their technological city,
corrupt as it had become.. Thousands upon thousands of the Atlantu
died that day and the destruction of life on the island was almost
complete. Almost. The Xantu Council, which consisted of numerous
members and most of its top scientists escaped. The leader of The
Xantu, Dorekus vowed that we had destroyed a culture that had been
slated to rule the world, and that he and the rest of The Xantu
would do all that they could to regain their divine right, and they
would do so as they destroyed the Muraii and subjugated the rest of
the world. All of this happened roughly around twenty six thousand
years ago. Unfortunately over the millennia, the Xantu have strived
to keep their word and destroy the world”