Le Grande Milano

Le Grande Milano was, as far as any normal human was concerned, the greatest magician that had ever lived. Le Grande Milano was in fact the greatest magician who had, and should, have ever lived. But his name, just like any magician, was a huge mass of smoke and mirrors, designed to add wondrous mystery to what was actually a very dark reality.

Nathan McGuire, a man of many talents, none of them useful, most of them hindering. He lived the majority of his life unemployed, ill and rotting. He would squat  in a range of abandoned houses, and would usually be chucked out by the police after alarms got raised due to the smell of a dead body. Of course there never was a dead body, it was the smell of Nathan decaying slowly, usually in a pool of his own piss. By the age of 24, this man had tried every illegal substance under the face of the sun and yet somehow his body still clung on to life, day by day.

One day, a knock came at his door. This was odd he thought, as it was not actually his door, and to anyone with any eye balls, this house was clearly run down with nothing but vermin living within. Fortunately for Nathan, that is exactly what the visitor was after, vermin, and Nathan was as close to that as humanly possible. He heard one last knock followed by the sliding of an envelope on the dusty wooden floorboards. It wasn't due to fear that Nathan had not answered the door, on the contrary, Nathan would have gladly answered the door had the visitor waited, but even he had enough dignity to not walk to the door before wiping after taking a shit in the kitchen sink. He clumsily gathered up the envelope, AdvancaTec was written in bold letters on the front. Within was an invite for a clinical trial, free drugs for life in as higher quantity as required for all those who successfully complete the medical study. Of course this, to any person with a functioning brain cell, was simply a honey pot ploy devised to gather the required test subjects. Unfortunately for Nathan, his brain cells were too busy telling him to drink his own urine to care about what potential dangers may be awaiting at AdvancaTec. But then again, I'm not sure his life could have actually got much worse anyway.

AdvancaTec's building was a huge, black and purple, marble tower near the centre of London. All windows were blacked out and it seemed like an incredibly high tech prison facility. The front of the building bore the same logo as the envelope Nathan held up just to make sure he was in the right place. It should probably be said that before his life of drugs, Nathan was actually incredibly smart. At the age of 7 he had the IQ of a genius, which is precisely how he turned to drugs. Nothing his school could teach him would satisfy his mind, he constantly sought new stimulants to fuel his mind. Starting with cigarettes he eventually made his way up the drug ladder until he felt he could never fall back down. This was not the case, and is partly the reason he had come to this medical trial, for the stimulants of drugs were slowly beginning to fade. They were much more a necessity to remain normal rather than a high to stimulate his mind. Anyway, I digress. The medical trial was for a new drug called Oxybin. This drug was designed to push humans into the next evolutionary stage, to be precise, it has been suggested that the next level of human evolution will effectively be super powers, super strength, speed, telekinesis etc.

The trial started off well, all test subjects responded positively and their brains began to develop, within weeks they were clean of drugs, looked healthy, fit, ready to take on any challenge thrown their way. This was as good as it got for most however, soon, people's bodies began to reject the forced adaption and evolution of their cells. Their bodies began to wither away, decaying to the point of a corpse before the subjects drew their last breaths. There was one hopeful subject however, as is stereotypically the case in such stories. Nathan began showing signs of the next evolutionary stage, his mind, finally receiving the stimulus he had craved for so long. It wasn't much time at all before he began to realise his true potential, capable of performing magic without any tricks or gimmicks. Unfortunately, he also came to the realisation that he would never be allowed to leave this place alive, not unless he somehow found a way to get out and stay out. His brain was now much more efficient than the average human, he got smarter and smarter each day. His blood was regularly taken for samples and eventually he hatched his scheme to be free. It went down without a hitch of course, but now was his real test. How could he possibly find a way to prevent the company getting away with killing him, or bringing him back,  but this time with better restraints.

Alas, Le Grande Milano was born, he used his powers to convince numerous TV stations to film him 24/7, he became a sensation across the globe, performing magical stunts 24/7 without the need to sleep. He would perform shows and parties and anything that would keep him in the public eye. Anything to prevent AdvancaTec getting rid of him without serious questions being raised. AdvancaTec however had no intention of bringing him back or killing him. They had already gained what they wanted and whilst he was showing off as a magician, they could focus on the true potential of Oxybin.

Using Nathan's blood, AdvanacaTec managed to perfect the drug and began manufacturing super humans. Only a few at first and mainly to see how the powers adapted themselves to the individual. No one tested at first ever gained the exact same abilities. Enter Clara René. This woman will take part in many stories I will write in the future, and for good reason. Clara earned the nickname Bittersweet, her power was that of illusions and she would grow to be the most powerful illusionist in the world, a power so few ever gained and even less ever mastered. But back to our story, where did she come in? It was safe to say that Nathan was incredibly powerful, his bodies capability to adapt to the original formula was evidence of that. So it was for this reason, he was the choice target for Clara to test the extent of her abilities. If she could successfully control him, she would know that her potential was huge.

So here we are, Le Grande Milano's final show, the key point of this story and the part I've been hoping to get to for a while, I mean seriously, I was tempted not to write the back story just so I could imagine the scene I am about to set. The biggest venue in London in 2020 was the Maxerclatz, a stadium capable of holding 500,000 people, all currently paying to see Le Grande Milano in person. The room was dark with dim lights hitting the audience. The stage a dark wood with blood red velvet curtains drooping behind. Milano was now to conduct a chainsaw trick, he had his audience member up on stage and he was preparing to make an active chainsaw pass through his volunteers neck, leaving him unharmed. To the world, it was a master class in magicianry, but for Milano is was a simple act he conducted on a regular basis. The chainsaw now floated above the mans neck, ready to drop at any second. It was at this moment Milano probably regretted looking into his crowed, ready to see their amazed faces, because one audience member he noticed, had her bright blue eyes fixated on him. Not on the chainsaw or the sweating man, but on him, as if trying to see into his skull. She was beautiful, she had bright blonde hair, a perfect face, succulent lips and the chest of an adult film-star. At least that's what he thought, she slowly began to change, her eyes became pink, her hair a dark purple and her chest shrank as her face reformed. Milano blinked, he looked around at the other audience members, looks of horror and shock on their faces. A woman in the front row screamed. Milano slowly looked back at the purple haired woman, she had a huge grin and continued looking into his eyes. He slowly turned, seeing a chainsaw covered in blood on the floor, splashing the blood of a decapitated head all over his shoes. He was stupefied, he looked back for the purple haired woman but she was gone, she had delved into his mind and created exactly what he had wanted to see, before forcing him to behead a man live on stage. He fell to his knees. 'They finally got me' he thought to himself as he drew a pistol from his vest, he had kept this for a last effort to prevent him being taken back to their facility. He raised it to his chin, closed his eyes, squeezed the trigger and dropped. His dead body lay on the floor, the blood from his head joined the pool being created by the decapitated man.

AdvancaTec went on to redefine the world we live in, something I hope you will return to read more about. Milano went down in history as the greatest magician who ever lived, who's nerves finally got the best of him. 

Authors note: This story is completely unedited and re-read, the plot was conjured up late at night and it was all written very hastily in one sitting on my phone whilst my insomnia again got the best of me. I like the idea I created in this story, however it is similar to many other books and novels I know about and so I am not sure if I will write anymore in this universe, but I thank you for the time taken to read my work and I hope you have briefly enjoyed yourself.