The Johnson & Freedom Detention Center was a privately owned prison built on top of a North American mountain. Infrared sensors were on every floor. High-voltage electric fences shut out intruders. Armed guards with tinted helmet visors patrolled around the clock. Every "resident" was wrongly imprisoned.

The Nightshade Corp's stealth aircraft landed on a pad. Gabriel was rolled down the ramp. Thick metal bonds restrained his neck, wrists, and legs. They traveled down elaborate corridors, drawing eyes of the fearful and curious.

The lab was the second most protected area of the facility. Cameras were in every corner of the room. A guard stood in each aisle. Wall-mounted screens were filled with images of skeletal remains. Like Oliath, they, too, loved their trophies.

When a chief scientist caught sight of Gabriel, his eyes lit up. He went over to get a closer look. His name was Roxenburg, and he looked Gabriel up and down, scanning acne and every bruise in excitement.

"You're him!" Roxenburg said. "I'm Dr. Owen Roxenburg. I'll be working on you today. Oops! Pitiful choice of words, just pitiful. I meant treating you, yes, treating you. Oh! Let me get that for you."

After Roxenburg ripped off the tape, Gabriel said, "You're not doing anything to me!"

During the last interplanetary war, Roxenburg developed a formula that was able to weaken an Eon Viant permanently. Solomon had actually acquired the lite version of his formula.

"On the contrary, little boy," Warden Anastasia Pearlman said, standing in the doorway. A woman adorned in a uniform with many service ribbons, her frame was the result of what seemed like centuries of bodybuilding. In her presence, scientists jumped out of their seats to salute her just as the guards did.

"My friend is out there looking for me," Gabriel said. "When he gets here, you're dead!"

"The big one, right?" Pearlman asked, indifferent. "Yeah, he's not coming to save you."

Mechanical arms suspended Gabriel into the air. Every joint and appendage was covered. A swarm of syringes were injected. He felt his skin boiling as he was dunked into a tank. The thick goo hardened, trapping him in a coffin.

Roxenburg turned up the voltage levels. Electricity surged through the tank, causing the shell to erupt.

Gabriel was lifted up from the tank. His body was limp, but the electrocardiogram maintained a steady rhythm.

"Again," Pearlman said, lighting her cigar.

 

*****E V*****

 

After being tortured, Gabriel was taken several floors beneath the high tech surface to a dingy cramped dungeon. He was tossed to the ground. His blue jump suit was already stained; the name tag read EV55.

As his face pressed against the cold, coarse floor, he noticed a spot punctured with bullet holes. In the holes was dried blood. It was obvious that was where the previous prisoner was standing when he was executed.

Across from Gabriel was another cell, which was occupied by an older man with a scar over his cheek, and his hair was disheveled. The name tag read EV19.

"Hey, neighbor, you alive over there?" EV19 asked. "You must've done something terrible to get dumped in here with me. What's your name?"

The silence was interrupted by EV19's growling stomach. "I'm Resident EV19," he said. "My friends used to call me Cye. When I still had friends. Not saying that I want to be friends with you. You would basically be my son's age if I had a son, and it's weird being friends with your kids, I'd think. "

Gabriel was in too much pain to listen. "Leave me alone," he said, crawling into bed and draping the musty sheets over him. The mattress was so thin that he felt the box spring poking him.

The young Eon Viant touched the wall, hoping to form something, anything to help him escape. He fell asleep disappointed.

 

*****E V*****

 

The next morning, a guard drenched the young Eon Viant with a bucket of water, waking him up.

"Let's go, EV55!" the guard said. "You've been chosen."

The creation zone was made of three round-shaped platforms hoisted hundreds of feet above a riverbank. Transparent barriers wrapped the platforms, allowing one to see the beauty of nature but being unable to touch it. During "freedom time," or recreation time, select prisoners were assigned a platform.

Each platform had its own theme. Platform One was a sporting platform. It was a hodgepodge of a tennis court and a basketball court. The prisoners played with broken tennis rockets with cut strings. Little kids tried shooting a deflated basketball into a goal raised above standard height.

Platform Two was an entertainment platform. Prisoners were given cell phones with limited function. They couldn't dial any numbers; they could only look on social media. This was a favorite. The last prisoner to try to steal a phone was fed to an alligator; Warden Pearlman had the event streamed for the other prisoners to see.

Platform Three was a carnival platform. Volunteers were forced into costumes of various mascots. Machinery lifted them up and down out of holes where they were smacked with wooden mallets wrapped in foam. This was the platform nobody wanted to be assigned to. If volunteers didn't participate, they were dragged around by ATVs as punishment.

Inside the furry suit, EV55 was sweating. Through the costume's mouth, he could see the kids laughing.

A couple of teens got impatient and snatched the mallets from the children. EV55 embraced hits from all directions. The teens had put all of their strength into their strikes. One teen peeled away some of the foam.

With each hit, EV55 got angrier until he exploded. He got into a tussle with the teens.

The guards easily separated EV55 and the teen. Once, he could send a body flying with a single kick. Now, all he could do was curl up as guards whacked him with batons.

 

*****E V*****

 

The cafeteria was missing a ceiling. The prisoners consisted of various groups of people, the homeless and hated, families and orphans. Should there be some kind of conflict, guards were authorized to use lethal force. Should prisoners get caught referring to each other by their real names, death was the punishment.

Meals were not provided on trays. Instead, the guards dropped items from the second floor. Sometimes, they had bit into the food before tossing it over. Molded bread, squishy fruit, and dried vegetables rained on the prisoners. Some guards made a game out of it; a point for every child they hit, two points for every woman, three for every man.

EV55 imagined Oliath had rescued him from the nightmare. Then, he thought about Solomon's words. Did Oliath purposely lure the House of Knights to the island? Was he not the man EV55 thought to trust?

After collecting scraps off the floor, HS91 caught sight of E55 isolating himself. HS91 was a 15 year-old with mustache stubble.

"Why don't you come eat with my family?" HS91 asked.

EV55 joined HS91's family for dinner. It was his mother, AS23, and his little brother, ES33. The main course that day was rats. There was always an abundance of rats.

"Was that you on Platform Three?" HS91 asked.

"They put me in that stupid costume!" EV55 said.

"The guards usually do that to the newbies," HS91 said. "Happened to me, too. My knee was sore for, like, a week."

"I hate that they do that," AS23 said. "We're human beings. No one deserves the kind of treatment we've been getting."

Although ES33 was shy around EV55, AS23 was more outgoing. There was something about her that brought up memories of his own mother.

For a moment, EV55 thought he was back in Dakurai Manor with the way HS91's family set the table. Even in the chaos, they maintained some sense of normalcy.

HS91 explained how, after war broke out in their country between Eon Viants and the military, they fled to a new one. Upon arriving, they were captured and brought to Johnson & Freedom. They were told they needed to quarantine because of possibly being infected by Eon Viants. It didn't take long to realize that was a lie. Eon Viants didn't carry some contagious disease. In certain countries, refugees were despised.

It had been four years since HS91's family had been prisoners at Johnson & Freedom. And despite that, HS91's family held out hope that someday they'd be free.

"Don't get me wrong, it sucks being in here," HS91 said. "But we have each other."

"What about you, 55?" AS23 asked. "Is your family here?"

"I don't have a family," EV55 said.

 

*****E V*****

 

While prisoners returned in single file to their cells, EV55 was escorted by a gang of guards. Even without his unique abilities, the fact that he was an Eon Viant scared them. Before reaching his cell, the lead guard, Pasco, intercepted them. He had curly hair and a mole under his eye.

"The Warden wants to see EV55."

Warden Pearlman stood by her desk. Her seat was occupied by a familiar face.

"Are you enjoying your stay?" Kirby asked.

"I'm going to kill you!" EV55 said as the guards restrained him. Pasco jammed a taser into his stomach.

"Don't be so rough with him," Kirby said. "We're old friends."

EV55 was pushed into the seat, handcuffed to the armrests. At Kirby's insistence, Warden Pearlman and the guards left him alone with the young Eon Viant.

When Kirby discovered that EV55 was captured, he immediately departed for Johnson & Freedom. He was always threatened, that was the price of glory and fortune, but no one ever made an attempt on his life before.

"Why would a strong and powerful Eon Viant want someone like me dead?" Kirby asked.

EV55 reminded him that he destroyed Grid 0047.

"Look, kid, I've been involved with some messed up things, but I had nothing to do with that," Kirby said. "Whatever your reasons for wanting me dead, you should base them on something other than a lie."

Could that Solomon guy have been telling the truth? EV55 thought. Has Oliath been lying to me this whole time?

"The things Eon Viants can do are simply awe-inspiring," Kirby said. "If you people weren't so prideful, we could accomplish so much in this piece of trash world. Tell you what, I'm going to give you a second chance. With your assistance, I will become the greatest arms manufacturer for generations. Agree to help me, and, if you're a good boy, I'll do what I can to get you out of here."

EV55 was torn between truth and lies, but one thing was clear: he wanted nothing to do with Kirby. "No," he said.

"You're in no position to reject me!" Kirby replied, readjusting his tie. No one had ever denied him since he founded his company. "I'm going to make it my purpose in life to ensure that you rot in here for the rest of yours."

 

*****E V*****

 

While EV55 was in bed, he covered his face with his pillow, unable to drown out the sound of EV19's chattering. For 9 minutes straight, the elder prisoner rattled off the different types of pasta dishes he made.

"Will you shut up?!" EV55 yelled, violently turning over.

"Sorry," EV19 said. "Once I get going, I can ramble on for hours."

"I don't care what you have to say!" EV55 replied.

It momentarily stung EV19, but he quickly got over it. "Well, if you're going to be locked up with me forever, you have to talk at some point. Otherwise, you'll go crazy. So, why are you in here?"

EV55 went back to ignoring him. EV19 wouldn't let that deter him. "I'm in here, and I didn't even do anything wrong. I just helped out some Eon Viants."

With EV55's ears perked and curiosity piqued, EV19 revealed how he helped a couple of Eon Viants get away from authorities so that they could escape earth. He fancied himself as a historian, having studied everything he could about Eon Viant culture.

"What if I told you I'm an Eon Viant?" EV55 asked.

"No, you're not!" EV19 said.

EV55 lifted up his shirt to show him the signature gemstone implanted only in Eon Viants.

"So you are," EV19 said, more burdened than enthusiastic.

EV55 explained what torture Dr. Rosenburg subjected him to. EV19; however, didn't believe the lost of his abilities was permanent.

"I've seen something like this before," EV19 said. "An adult may not be able to recover their powers, but someone young can."

"Can you help me?" EV55 asked.

"I can. I will," EV19 responded. "Training commences tomorrow, EV55."

"Gabriel. My name is Gabriel Honor."