Crystalline Constellations

S1 E5: Step Into My Parlour [Part 2/2]

"Jennifer Integra." The bloke stood in the doorway said in a voice which was rich and smooth and almost soothing, and the accent he spoke with was clear evidence that he was from the U.S. "Ludwig Beilschmidt, and Feliciano Vargas." He addressed each of them individually.

Now, she realised that he might have been looking up Hetalia characters and that's why he new the other 2's names, but how this stranger knew hers was beyond the girl and made her more scared. She opened her mouth in shock and confusion, but before she even spoke a single syllable, he already knew what she was going to ask.

"You're wondering how I know your full name. Well, I know tons of things, so if you expect me to tell you about every single thing I know including that, we'll be here all night or perhaps even be here for a week talking about it. But I'll put it like this: when you have a good enough knowledge of hacking into the right computers to find a person's identity, anything's possible."

Feliciano still stood in the corner, keeping his eyes fixed on him and shaking because of fear, while the only female in the entire room stared at him, too, and Ludwig stepped forward as if to protect his friends.

"Who are you?" The intimidating hunk, who was almost as tall as the man stood before them, asked in a level but still slightly defensive tone. "Und what do you want with us?"

"My name is Dr. Keates." He slowly strutted into the room in the same manner in which a cat walks, pushing the door mostly shut behind him. "And as for what I want from you, that lies in your biology." 

"What are you talking about?" 

"As I understand it, you and the one cowering in the corner are Germany and Italy respectively from an animated series called Hetalia: Axis Powers. I do my research just like everyone else who has access to Google. And as for you," He turned his head in the direction of Jenny. "my team, about a week and a bit ago, picked up traces of an energy surge in this country. When we came all the way here, we decided to start with England's capital city, which just so happened to be city which you live in, and after getting an inkling that the surge was originating from something to do with you, I couldn't resist observing your behaviour and taking a few notes. Y'know, just out of curiosity to be sure." 

"Hold the phone just for a minute, that was YOU? Last week, on Friday night when I was on my way home and I was in that car park? Since then you've been following me this whole time?" Shock and anger at what she'd just heard collided together into a mixed emotion as she demanded this. 

"Well there was no other way to know whether my suspicions were correct. Anyway, to answer Subject 002's question and getting back to my main point, the reason for me sticking close to you was because, in that time, I saw all the things you can do. I must say, I'm quite impressed. No other human in recorded history has ever had such capabilities like the ones implanted into your body like this little thing right here." He reached into the pocket of his white coat, drawing out a far too familiar royal blue coloured gemstone and holding it out in his palm. Since it wasn't its chosen user holding it, there was no glow or shine at all. It was absolutely and completely dull, as if it didn't like its current holder. 

Jen reached out to try and take it back from him, but the slender doctor quickly pulled his hand away and out of her reach at the very last second. 

"I don't think so." He tutted and shook his index finger in a 'no' sign like she was a child being scolded for misbehaviour, making her, in the back of her mind, have a sudden urge to slap him in the face. Not even she could figure out how she somehow managed to suppress this urge. "It's impolite to snatch things from people. But continuing what I was saying, the things you could do had me very interested. I thought, 'what if we could learn more about this energy from the object and its human host, harvest it, and use it as the most powerful energy source the world has ever seen? The world gets a new discovery and I perhaps get a Nobel Prize along the way."