Sub Terra: Et Reditus

Twenty-One

Devi

The afternoon after we came back from Madame's, Daniel and I was abruptly called by Connor to visit him at his home office. It was a part of his official work duties, so as much as I wanted to see his family again, I couldn't. He had cordoned off a section of his living room to act as a makeshift work area.

"I hope we're all doing fine today. Great weather today, right?" Connor started our conversation off.

I nodded.

"Sure is." Daniel said.

"Well, Daniel, I have some news for you. It's regarding... your health. More specifically, it's how your body has changed these past few years.

"I've noticed it." He said like it wasn't obvious.

"Glad to hear. Well, first of all, we can see that you've had a growth spurt."

"Yep." Daniel said.

"That was part of Kumar's plan. You see, going by his true intentions, his treatments on you included you being stimulated— you know what, I'll say this in normal English. He wanted you to have a taller and stronger body so you could serve as a a never before seen superhuman warrior, fearsome in battle and impossible to defeat. According to his notes I saw, you are to grow another two inches by the age of 23 to reach a final height of six feet and two inches."

I wasn't surprised about that. He should've stopped growing by the time I'd first met him, but he continued to get taller.

"That doesn't bother me too much. What else's happening to me?"

"Secondly, there's your incredible strength. Are you aware of how powerful you are, physically?"

Daniel made a 'so, so' hand gesture.

"You're able to fold two-inch thick titanium bars like this,"

He took a sheet of paper and folded it over twice.

It took me back to the time we pulled off the examination table off the floor back at my father's basement. If that were to happen now, he could probably do that with four fingers at full strength.

"That was Kumar's expectation, at least. But with all the simulations I saw him complete, you could maybe even crush a sedan down into a box with relative ease."

Using the word eccentric to describe my father would've been a grand understatement.

"Another interesting thing to add is that you could take two or three bullets and walk off without a scratch — spontaneous hardening of the skin. But it's Kumar's miscalculations that we really need to discuss here, don't ya think."

"Mhm." Daniel responded.

"I took my own time to review Kumar's research notes, and I found a few flaws he failed to address."

He opened the drawer, sifted threw a pile of documents, and set a few down on the desk.

"My findings conclude that by now, you should be experiencing serious pains and-

"I am," Daniel interrupted him. "I can't even drive because of it. It's also hard for me to work."

Connor gave him a sympathetic sigh, and smiled.