Card

Hospital/lore

I wake up in the hospital. My mom and dad are there. "Darren what happened to you?" I look at my left hand and see my pinky and ring finger are just gone. My sight is now halved. I look at my leg and it is gone. "Oh god what did I just do?" My parents don't understand. "Mom, Dad I made a deal with the Devil. I have superpowers but he took away my limbs."

My parents look confused but try to understand. "I'm not lying I swear. My middle name is Rutherford." My parents come closer to me. "Darren we get that part your friends showed us that card thing but still. We just can't believe this is even possible." 

"I can." A man walks into the room. "It's been a while but they do exist." "Son you're now the property of the U.S. Government." The general says sadly. He grabs something from his suitcase that he's holding. He places a robot eye where my old one was. It goes in and after a few seconds I start to see out of my other eye. He does the same for my Leg and my fingers. "Cybernetics." He says to me but it's more to himself. 

I start to stand. "Incredible." I then come to my senses. "So I can't see my family again? My friends?" He waves a hand. "No. You'll be like one of those Comic book hero's. Only when we need you will you get a call." "There will be a considerable time in boot camp and testing to see about your genetics since you are a user." However we will give you time off now and then."

"Killing you would be a waste." "kidnapping you would be a waste since you'd just use your powers to escape us or kill us somehow." "This has happened before and we don't want a repeat of the 70's" "Without boring you...card users destroyed most of California and almost destroyed the us government in secret. We lied saying it was a hurricane and earthquake combination."

He points to my stunned parents. "You'll see your boy just don't say anything stupid. We have that all figured out if you try talking to the press." I hug mom and dad. I turn around and see the commander. He is war hardened. He definitely has seen some shit by the way he talks about that so nonchalantly. "So I get my life?" I ask. "More or less kid." 

I nod and bravely walk to the Commander. My parents hug me again but I know I have to go with him. It's not like I have much of a choice. When I get in the truck I see a few faces. One of which is an old guy. 2 of them are looking similar to me. normal height normal build etc. The old guy grabs my hand. "Pleasure to meet you Darren, my name is Harold but you can just call me professor. I nod. "what are you a professor of?" 

Cards. That's what i study. You see that card you filled out that's what I study. There used to be tons back in the times of Jesus. It became like a well that everyone used and now there is barely any of them left. I have a theory that once all the cards on this run are filled out a new batch is created. We we're lucky that didn't happen. If it did just imagine the chaos that would occur."

I shrug. "But the commander said this has been happening since the 70's" The Professor looks frustrated. "Did you listen to me at all? This has been going on since humanity has been around. We have numerous examples of people with cards going around pre 1800's its just after the 1900's too many people were literate so the cards are now as valuable as diamonds."

I let him continue. "People like Malcom X had powers. He had super strength. He tried to destroy the us but we stopped him." I stop him and ask "So why haven't people caught on?" "If every major historical figure had powers why wouldn't they talk about it openly?" The Professor answers my question. "You see you really don't pay attention do you?" "You read the material in your schools and it's considered to be folklore, fairytales. Myths." "What could you do? Go to a news station?" "Fake." "It's not like you could upload it to the internet either, people don't rely on something that stupid. They rely on newspapers. Tv." 

Every record is changed to where it's mythic in the tales they've done. For example a Russian solder in Stalingrad wrote that he would win that fight and he was the only one left standing. He died since that's what he wanted in his card but we just added a few people to his story and there we are."

I see that we stop and we start getting out of the car. "You are a super solider and now we need to mold you into one." The silent guy in the car says to me. I walk into the front door and see a sensor. I put my hand that isn't messed up and it lets me in. I walk in to see many people training. The Major was in a different car and now is training these individuals. 

We continue our path and I go to the weapons room. One of the guys goes to it. "So First off you need a new name." "We never use our real names here." My name for your concern is Peter." Peter has a ton of futuristic looking sci-fi weapons.  I utter out a name I've wanted to say for a while. "Max. Maximum." Peter chuckles . "Max Maximum?" You know we have a guy named Lomax working here with us." "He's a bit of an idiot though. I pray that guy doesn't have kids." 

The other guy starts talking. "He does have kids Peter." "2 of them." Peter shrugs. "Oh well." Other guy shakes my hand. "Wallace." "You probably won't see me much though. I work with Lomax in security and development." We hear a commotion and all 3 of them look at someone being dragged out. "speak of the devil." Wallace says. 

I ask Peter if that's Lomax. "Yep, probably fired since he's been bad lately, his Father in law died and his wife's been taking it out on him." The major yells at him "Wallace you're now head of RandD GET TO IT!" Wallace runs to his room. Peter shoos me from looking and we get back to work. He grabs a bulky metal suit. "This is a prototype we've been working on." "Now it doesn't protect you against everything Max but it will cover your most vulnerable areas."

I take a closer look to see it really isn't protective of everything as he says. Probably a good 75 percent covered as some of it is places for the metal to be weaved into the fabric. He grabs a top piece. "This is your helmet. As well as your neck guard." It looks super restrictive when I look at it. "What's the point of the neck piece being so big?" Peter puts his fingers at my neck. "have you ever heard of someone surviving a neck injury?" "Spine Neck stomach area and head are what's covered here for your most problematic injuries." Legs? Arms? We have very basic prototypes for you so you wouldn't be completely ruined but even with all of our advancements you are still flesh and bone and no one can save you from a bullet in your neck."

I nod. "So what else is there? I start putting on the suit which while a little bulky is certainly less heavy than I thought it would be. Peter grabs a few "gun" looking things and places them on the table. "Depending on the mission you will be either lethal or non lethal." These are arm cannons." "We have to obey the laws of physics still since you need bullets." "What do you think you want to be?" I say "I don't really want to kill people." He chuckles. "Wow you are stupid." "That was sarcasm, guess you couldn't tell." 

I have to kill people? Jesus I don't know if I can do that. "You probably thought something like I can't kill someone right?" "You're working with the U.S. government what did you honestly think would happen?" I am fully suited up and I feel I look ridiculous. The neck part feels awful. I feel like I can't turn around or anything. 

I load up with the rest of the options and proceed to the weapons testing and power training rooms. The professor asks me what I want to do first and I choose the power testing first. I don't have my guns loaded at all so I'm just in this bulky suit.