Brotherhood

This Is The Voice

Blake and the others had already put in a long week, but no one had worked harder than Kermit. Kermit had been working almost around the clock, getting their story straight with the Company and then instructing everyone on what to say. It was, Blake was fairly certain, completely illegal. But what else could they do? The abilities that Shard granted weren't something that the general public would be able to handle lightly. And if knowledge of the entity got out, it would at best cause a crisis, at worst cause a panic. Those who knew the truth had been consulted, and everyone agreed that a certain amount of secrecy was best at this point.

Then the Company had extended its long international reach.

Those who were investigating were understandably frustrated. After hearing the same story over and over, Blake didn't need to be a telepath to know they were aware that there was some measure of collusion. But when their home offices started encouraging them to back off, there was little they could do.

And then there were the public interviews.

Blake hated lying. Over and over again, he'd smiled into the cameras and the looked the reporters in the eye and told them bold faced lies. Terra was taking the fall for everything. Terra, their story went, had been performing illegal genetic experiments on humans with specific genes, trying to create supersoldiers. Breaker, working for Terra, had abducted all of them, including Unum and Elton, and had subjected them all to these experiments. Adam, Gareth, and Matt had been brainwashed into assisting after Breaker tortured them, and had abducted Blake as part of these experiments. By the time Terra had been brought down by an international task force that everyone was sworn to secrecy about, the genetic manipulation had resulted in permanent glowing eyes for Unum, Blake, Elton, and Murray and the occasional glow in the others. It was caused by a marker, something injected into them that bound with those particular genes and created a harmless bioluminescence much like fireflies that identified the presence of the gene. In the case of Unum, Blake, Elton and Murray, the bond had been so strong that their eyes were permanently altered. In Adam's case, he'd already been injected with this marker without his knowledge or consent. When Breaker publically abducted him, it was this marker that Breaker was referencing when he demanded Adam show him what was inside of him. Choking him the way he had had caused the blood vessels in Adam's eyes to burst, creating the glow that marked him as a subject of interest for the genetic experiments. These abductions and experiments had been going on for nearly six years, and Unum was the unfortunate Patient One.

The whole thing was as nauseating as it was ludicrous. But the public ate it up. Already, there was pressure for stronger laws against genetic manipulation, and an outpouring of sympathy for Unum. In a persistent vegetative state at the end of his life, Unum was getting more love and support than it seemed the man had ever gotten in his life. Blake had come to learn that Unum had been a ward of the state growing up, with no family. Matt was still serving as his doctor, but it was Blake that primarily cared for Unum now, along with the nursing staff. Unum's room was directly across the hall from Blake's in the hotel. Blake spent a great deal of time with him, usually reading to him from the paper even though he couldn't sense any conscious thought at all from the man. And of course, Unum was here now, in the Voice studio, seated in his chair in the audience behind Blake, tended to by his nurses. They'd been quick to discover that if Blake moved too far from Unum without a chi present, Unum's vitals dropped alarmingly. All they could do now as bring him along wherever Blake went.

The live shows were a great distraction. While it was difficult to lose artists from his team that he'd grown fond of, Blake always loved the energy that came along with live performances. And the ratings, he knew, were through the roof. The outpouring of support for his marriage to Adam did Blake a world of good. And after their interviews and the revelations that came from them, Blake and the brothers were all but mobbed. Blake had offers from no less than six contact lens manufacturing companies to provide him with lenses, and had been contacted by multiple eye surgeons who believed they could restore his natural eye color. Maybe at some point he'd take someone up on it. But for now, he was determined not to hide what he was. In some part of his mind, he thought it would make it easier for those he left behind, the constant reminder of what he was.