"Ballads of Rebellion"

** Rebellion Ballads **

** Chapter 5: Daughters of Storm **

The hiding place smelled the wet earth and rudimentary medication. The eight saved children in sector 9 occupied mattresses in the hottest corner of line 7, their scars-sprinkles pulsating in sync with the electrical discharges that escaped from the wires exposed on the ceiling. Lia watched the younger one, a five -year -old girl named Lucia, whose eyes shone like headlights on a fog night. *Just as mine must have shone*, he thought, playing the crumpled picture of his pregnant mother.

"The oracle sent new data," Arthur announced, projecting holograms above the makeshift table. Images of virtutec underground laboratories flashed, showing glass chambers with bluish liquid -suspended fetuses. "They are not just modifying children ... They are * cultivating * a new generation."

Sofia lifted one hand, where a thin vine sprang from her wrist, getting involved in hypnotic patterns. - Some of these children already manifest skills. Lúcia ... - She hesitated, looking at the girl who now made water d'ummers dance above her palm. - They are like seeds planted on poisoned soil.

Igor emerged from the shadows, carrying a case of stolen surgical instruments. - Graham woke up. And you won't like what I'm going to do. Her black eyes settled in Lia. - We need to know where these laboratories are.

Lia adjusted the exoskeleton, now modified with destroyed sentinel parts. - I go with you.

"You're very involved," Sofia warned. - This is an emotional trap.

"Our whole existence is a trap," Lia replied, passing her.

In the makeshift interrogation room, Edward Graham was chained to a metal chair, its neuralectic implants disabled by frequency inhibitors. His previously impeccable face was marked by burns of the electromagnetic pulse.

- How many generations? Lia asked, holding her mother's picture before her eyes. "How many children were modified before they were born?"

Graham laughed, a hoarse sound of those who had lost faith to his own voice. "Do you really think it was the first?" The Divinity project began 40 years ago. Your grandparents were * volunteers * in the initial phase.

Revelation has reached Lia as a punch in the plexus. She backed away, feeling the exoskeleton shake in tune with her rapid wrist.

"Lies," he whispered.

"Why do you think your family lived in the Hope neighborhood?" Graham leaned forward, the chains ranging. - It was a monitoring center. His little brother was not a "collateral damage". He was the first child of the second generation to present total compatibility.

Igor arrested Graham's head against the table with a solidified shadow. - Where are the laboratories?

"Under the virtue lighthouse," the scientist spat blood. - Where would one more God build your Olympus?

An explosion shook the hiding place. On the monitors, security cameras showed three figures coming down from the sky: Deep Impact with its pressurized water cloak, Blight Bug wrapped in a cloud of metallic insects, and a new figure with plasma energy wings - Seraphiel, Captain Virtue's "right hand".

"They came to Graham," Artur shouted, while defense holograms came around the children.

Lia ran to the arsenal, activating her exoskeleton in full combat mode. - Sofia, take the kids through the tunnels! Igor, create distractions. Arthur ...

"I'm already inside," he replied, fingers dancing on bright keyboards. - I disabled their antigravity systems for ... three minutes.

"Enough," Lia smiled without joy.

The battle was brief and brutal. Deep Impact flooded the main corridor with water jets capable of cutting steel, but Lia redirected the energy to her thrusters, flying in spiral to avoid Blight Bug, whose insects pierced concrete walls. Seraphiel, however, was different - his wings emitted a frequency that made the exoskeleton of Lia vibrate painfully, as if she wanted to dismantle.

"You carry their blood, but not the grace," the new heroine whispered, touching Lia's mask. - Let's take you to where you belong.

It was then that Lúcia appeared, small and fragile, her lightning scars shining as supernovae. With a scream that echoed in the foundations of the city, a wave of pure energy exploded from the child, disintegrating Seraphiel's wings and throwing blight bug against a wall.

The price was high. Blood dripped from Lucia's nose as she fell unconscious.

- Withdrawal! Lia ordered, grabbing the child.

As they fled through the root tunnels that Sofia kept open, Lia looked back one last time. In the center of destruction, Seraphiel rose, his wings regenerating himself with particles of energy stolen from the air.

"The lighthouse virtue," Lia muttered, feeling the weight of Lucia in her arms. - That's where that ends.

In line 7 server room, Arthur discovered the most cruel truth: Captain Virtue broadcasts contained subfrequencies that altered brain chemistry. The "devotion" that the masses felt was as artificial as the powers of the heroes.

And in Lia's pocket, her mother's photo revealed a microscopic inscription on the back: *"Subject 09 - 97%compatibility. Proceed with activation phase." *

As the sun was born, dying the ruins of another lost hiding place, Lia understood that to overcome the gods, he would have to become something greater than human.

But in the laboratory under the virtue lighthouse, Captain Virtue watched everything through Seraphiel's eyes. And smile.