Mia Davies took a deep breath, her hands trembling as she gripped the cup of hot cocoa she'd been handed to comfort her. She had to give them some credit. The interrogation room, if this really was one, was actually pretty nice looking. It was bright and colorful and had a warm cozy feeling which was improved further thanks to the blanket they were letting her wear and the nice cozy jazz music playing in the room. It was all intended to put her at ease and let her relax so she could tell them everything that happened to her. Across from her, two government agents watched with a mix of skepticism and fascination, pens poised over their notebooks. She was about to tell them what happened in the Silver Softwares Lobby. About the abduction, about the fear, the flames and the impossible monstrous transformation of man who seemed almost otherworldly.
"It was...it was like nothing I've ever seen." She began. Her voice shaky but determined. "These people, this cult, they called themselves The Infernal Brotherhood..." She swallowed shivering at the memory of their mad gleeful eyes, glinting under the harsh light. "They-they were absolutely deranged. All they walked about was fire, fire, fire, flames, watching the world burn...and they were armed to make it happen."
Agent on her left leaned forward, voice gentle but poised. "How many of them were there? And what were their demands?"
"There was about...eighteen of them. Six of them on the floor and the others around the upper floors. All dressed in dark clothes, tactical vests with, God, it was awful, they had grenades, flamethrowers, pyro devices...they wanted money, weapons, media attention, the typical things, but mostly they wanted to make a statement. And...and these men...these terrorists...they planned to do it by...burning us alive." A silence settled over the room, thick and uncomfortable as she sipped her cocoa to refresh herself. Then she continued, her voice catching as she recalled that horrifying memory. "And...and we were all terrified. Everyone was cryong or begging them to let us go. Except for...him."
"Who?" The other agent asked her.
"That man, that strange fearless man." Her voice drifted into a sense of awe. "He just...sat there. Cool as ice. While the rest of us were trying not to fall apart, he looked...well, almost bored. He kept telling them that they didn't have to do this and that they could still stop. They hit him, held the flames up to him, insulted him, laughed at him, threatened him with all sorts of horrible things and he...he just sat there. He told them....he told them: 'You can still walk away. You don't have to do this.' He told them over and over again." The Agents looked at each other and then they looked back at her. "They laughed like Hyenas. Thought he was crazy. Hell, we all did. But then they set up a camera and started streaming us as they made their demands, filming us like we were part of some twisted show, they were even announcing it like was a gameshow! Sick motherfuckers." She sighed and shook her head. Mia took a long pause before she continued. She knew that they weren't ready for what happened. "They...they grabbed him, the brave guy, Cool Ice I guess we'll call him for a filler, they grabbed him and dragged him in front of the camera and forced him to his knees. They were going to make an example out of him." She sipped her drink again and closed her eyes as she remembered the helplessness, the fear, the horror as they waited for the moment to unfold. "They started counting down from ten but he...he just...he just sighed. He wasn't scared. He wasn't crying or begging. He looked annoyed. Like he was disappointed in them. I couldn't see his face but I imagined a 'Disappointed Dad Look'. And then, what he said next caught everyone off guard, he said, and I quote: 'Well, screw it, I tried. Tag in, would ya?"
She looked up at the agents as she met their stony, unreadable, sunglasses clad expressions with one of pure shaken conviction. "I don't know what happened next but...he started to...well, change. His body began to shake and tremble and convulse, his muscles began expanding beneath his skin like he was being ripped apart from the inside. There were these horrible, wet, cracking sounds, like bones breaking, muscles tearing. He was growing, freaking growing! I swear he was doubling, tripling in size, turning this dark, blood-red color. Veins bulging everywhere. I think they might've been glowing? His skin looked like it was barely containing all the power building inside of him, like it could split at any moment."
The agent on the right sat back, his sunglasses clad gaze fixed on her in wary disbelief. "Are you saying he....became something else?"
"
Yes. Not human, I knew that at least, but something different altogether. He turned into this massive....
THING! I'm sure as hell not calling that thing human. But, the terrorists, they tried to light him up. Emphasis on tried. One of them unloaded an entire flamethrower on him, but he didn't even flinch. He made this sound....this...roar, like it came from somewhere much deeper, darker than anywhere human, like it could've come from the depths of Hell itself. And then..." She took another shaky breath. "He started tearing them apart. He was ragdolling them all over the place, throwing them through walls, walking through their flames and explosives, ripping through their armor like it was paper. I've never seen anything like it. He was unstoppable and darting all over the place so fast, impossible fast, nothing they did could hurt him and yet..." The Agents leaned forward, captivated by her tale. "And yet? He didn't harm any of us." Mia spoke softly, as though even now she couldn't quite believe it. "In fact, he seemed to be
protecting us somehow, keeping the chaos away from us while he dealt with
them. He destroyed those cultists, tore them apart, broke them, shattered them. Then he just...leapt through the wall and disappeared. You saw it right? That giant gaping hole in the wall?" She asked as she gestured to the side. "The one that looked like a wrecking ball smashed through it? He did that. Like it was
nothing."
The agents exchanged another long look with each other before they turned their attention to her again. "Do you know who he was?"
"No. I don't know who, or what, he was. But he saved us, I know that much, and I'll always be thankful for it."
