FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

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Dante lay silent, not moving an inch. Still unconscious from the brutal attack; he'd been resting his head in a pool of blood. James lay just ahead of him, also lying in his own blood but...lifeless.

The men who had attacked them quickly ran off, taking their injured man with them after Dante had broken a rib or two from diving feet first at his side. Sirens could be heard from a distance, gradually getting louder and louder until the alley they were lying in was flashing red and blue, and police and paramedics were on the scene.

A few furs ranging from big and small, young and old, had gathered, wondering what all the commotion was all about. They hadn't dared leave their homes from the gunshots heard. Paramedics surrounded James and Dante, checking their vital signs.

After checking Dante, they strapped him up and carried him into the Ambulance, and rushed him to hospital. They grimly saw that they couldn't even save James, his blank, lifeless expression staring eerily up at them as they carefully closed his eyelids and covered up his body.

*******

Grace just sat there in her chair, staring blankly at the floor; the paths of her tears visible still on her face as she blinked her red-rimmed eyes. She was shaking, frightened and covered in a blanket, a police woman trying to comfort her as she went over and over the incident in her head.

She couldn't believe it, she wouldn't.

"They have to be alright; they have to be. They can't die; please oh God!" she thought to herself. "Why? Why?!"

The phone began to ring and Grace gave a frightened gasp as she was snapped out of her thought process; the officer calming her down by saying,

"Shush, don't be frightened, it's just the phone. You're in shock.", and urgently grabbed the phone.

"Hello? Yeah...Yeah... No... What?! OK... What about their parents? Who'll contact them? Oh... OK... I'll tell her...bye" and the officer put down the phone with a very disheartened look on her face, knowing she was going to regret saying the bad news to Grace.

"Grace, dear" she said with a very gentle voice, trying to be as careful as possible; Grace just glanced up at her expecting the worst.

"Your friend, Dante is...OK. He's in hospital right now but he's in critical condition." She said with a look of pure dread about to tell her the next part of the news. She was fumbling for words when Grace asked,

"What about James? Is James OK?" she asked, her eyes beginning to shine with newly shed tears. The officer just looked awkward at her, biting her lip as she did; making Grace well up with guilt and sadness inside and began to cry silently, tears streaming down her face again, giving a gasp of breath each time she needed to inhale.

"I'm sorry hun..." the officer said with a great wave of guilt now washing over her; she felt hopeless.

"The medics tried their best to save him but...it...", she couldn't say anymore as she watched Grace sob silently in front of her; wrapping her arms around her to try and calm her down and give her comfort.

*******

A week later...

Laying in a coma, on a bed in a hospital, Dante was bandaged up, after having three operations to repair his damaged skull and had lost almost half of his blood.

During that time, they'd lost him twice in the operating theatre and once while he was in the ICU. That was excluding the way they'd found him on the scene. It was quite a disheartening experience for the paramedics who managed to bring him back as they were rushing him to hospital.

A doctor was chatting with his fellow staff over a fresh cup of coffee early one morning.

"He should have died; he did die, from the massive trauma to the head alone. But losing all that blood...it's unheard of! I've never seen a case like this, ever in the history of medical practice!"

One or two of the conversation's participants nodded in total agreement as he spoke enthusiastically.

"Although; it's impossible to tell when he'd ever wake from his coma; it's very subjective. The most recent after attacks as bad as these are months but, this young fellow could surprise me again; he's extremely lucky to be alive."

******

Three days passed; James's parents had had his funeral, Grace attended but Dante was still critically ill in hospital. She had visited him and talked to him. She knew he couldn't hear her; it was good to talk to him though. It made her forget about what happened; she felt at ease. She held his hand and whispered,

"Thank you...Thank you for saving me.", and she'd begin to well up with tears, letting one or two fall but hold the rest back. Before she left him, she planted a kiss on his right cheek, looked at him regretfully for having to leaving him, and left.

*******

At the end of the week, Dante was still lying there. But now was beginning to show signs of increased brain activity, as the doctor monitored his condition.

"Listen Jeff, could you make sure that you take care while I go for my late lunch. I want you to call me if anything! I mean anything changes in his condition." he said with a very serious tone in his voice.

"Yes, Dr. Mathews, I will," Jeff replied with a very understanding tone.

"Thanks...You're a good assistant. Hopefully you'll be a doctor soon," he said, his voice pouring out with confidence. Jeff was damn fine doctor material.

"It's been my life long dream sir, thank you," he said with great pride and dignity, as the doctor left him. He sat there for about a minute watching over Dante through a glass screen, all Dante's vitals being monitored on the control panel in front of him.

He started to read the morning newspaper. Ironically, there the little 'roo was on one of the pages. He read at it, humouring himself at the crap the tabloids loved to right about juicy stories such as this one.

And then it happened...

With no warning whatsoever, Dante immediately jolted up in his bed, screaming but abruptly stropping as if waking from a nightmare; breathing very heavily. The monitor for his heart rose dramatically.

Jeff jumped hysterically, toppling over his chair as he heard Dante's scream of terror. Shakily getting up off the floor, rubbing one leg, he peered in at Dante and then quickly grabbed his walkie-talkie to call the Doctor.

Dante quickly picked his arms up, shakily, to block the blinding bright light that was glaring at him from all angles and said to anyone who could hear him,

"AH! The lights...turn off the lights," he said with a hint of painful urgency.

"Doctor Mathews" he said with a great tremble from his fright.

"Hello, what do you want?" the doctor said.

"Doctor, the patient, he's...he's awake!" he choked; now gasping for air while rubbing his head a little from the fall.

"Right, thank you. I'll be right up now!" he said hurriedly.

"Hey, turn the damn lights off!" Dante shouted, Jeff responding quickly, dimming the lights.

"Thank y-ah!" Dante spluttered; grabbing his head as it felt like an elephant was stepping on it, collapsing back into his pillow. His eyes watered from the pain, though it finally subsided as he breathed a little heavily.

The doctor then rushed into the monitoring room with his coffee spilt all over his otherwise, pristine overcoat.

"How's the patient?" he asked surveying Dante through the window, still caressing his throbbing head.

"He's fine, he just woke up frightened, scaring the hell out of me as he did," Jeff said with a little chuckle at the humorous situation.

"OK, I'll go in there now and go talk to him. Inform the police that he's awake. My God, this child is amazing," the doctor said with an expression of awe on his face.

"Yes sir!" Jeff said, almost like he was in the army talking to his commanding officer, and he rushed off. The doctor went through the door by the side of the monitoring equipment, carefully opening the door and went into the room where Dante was.

"Hi, Dante", the doctor said with a gentle voice. "How are you?" Dante just stared at him blankly for a moment, then said,

"Who? Me?" with a tone of unbelievable confusion.

"Well you're the only one here, so I must be talking to you. You're telling me you're name's not Dante?" he asked with a little bit of annoyance.

"Well, I... I...don't know?" Dante looked in deep thought, trying to remember but he couldn't find it. In fact; nothing, he couldn't remember anything

He looked up at the doctor who was now surveying him with a look of confusion.

"I don't...remember," he said, now trying hard to remember but, all he got was another painful throb from his already aching head.

"Oh dear..." The doctor sighed, now realising what was wrong.

"You must be suffering from amnesia."

"Bless you..." Dante said with another look of confusion, as he cradled his head.

"You're suffering from memory loss. Well, it's obvious that it's because of the injuries you've sustained," he said with a much more clear view on why this has happened.

"What happened? And does it usually hurt when you have anshesia?" he said with a vacant expression.

"Am-nee-shia.", he enunciated with exaggerated facial expressions. He obviously took pride in his work if he was picky over words like that.

"You were attacked by a few thugs."

"Oh...but why?" he asked, perking his ears inquisitively.

"Well...from your little friend's statement, because of your homosexual friend." He muttered. Dante looked at him blankly again. The doctor sighed.

"He was gay. They killed him. Shot him dead...they must have attacked you to get rid of any evidence. And by Christ..." He broke off but stopped mid-sentence for his own professional image's sake.

Dr. Mathews stood there and watched Dante with pity as he saw him search his memory in vain again.

"But, why didn't they kill me, am I gay or something?" Dante asked now embarrassed himself and a little confused again.

"No! No...you were just a witness. Heard you put up a bit of a fight too. Brave little soul..." the racoon added to maybe lighten Dante's grim expression.

Why couldn't he just remember what happened. He felt so guilty now. Why did that happen? Was he responsible for another person's death, his own friend? The doctor sat there for a moment and finally broke the silence and said,

"Sorry, I can't really help you much. Your other friend might be able to fill you in. She survived because of you. No you can't have visitors now", he said as Dante was about to ask if he could ask her to come and talk to him.

"You need rest. I'll be here a little later. I need to check up on some other patients of mine and then test you for anything else." he said with a deeply resentful tone because he had to leave him; this patient was quite an intriguing case compared to the usual ailments he was treating time and time again.

He walked out of the room leaving Dante on his own to ponder as to what had happened to him; the 'roo slowly laying back into his pillow once more to let the soft, cool material caress his throbbing head.

Who was he?

The doctor said his name was Dante; what a weird name he thought.

He had to try and remember something. He couldn't stay like this all the time; he had to start getting better at some point.

He laid there for a while, asking himself question after question, flinching at the bouts and waves of his constant headache as he tried to plunder his thoughts. He did this for what, to him, felt like an hour before he slowly nodded off into an awkward slumber.

*******

Over the next few days, Dante had found out what had happened to him; who he was, where he lived, what he'd done; everything. He'd also found out through the doctors about his current condition of memory loss. They had his CAT scan results and had found that a lot of his brain area was shadowed, meaning that it was inactive.

"At first, we thought it was Multiple Sclerosis-", the doctor said with a surprised tone of voice. Dante just tilted his head sideways a bit and blinked lazily as if to say "In English, please."

"-but, we checked your nervous response which gave good results, so we had to rule that out. We then thought that this condition could be a little more complicated. Have you ever heard of Cerebral Nerve Disruption?" the doctor asked.

"You're talking to the person who's suffering from it, who guesses that memory loss has to be a part of it; so you take a guess." Dante said with a little sarcasm.

"Good point... Well, what happens when someone has their head gets damaged like yours, very severely; is their bio-electric sometimes goes into a spasm due to damaged parts of their brain. Lucky enough though, it was your memory that was damaged, not anything like speech was effected." he said, but Dante gave him a look that said,

"Yeah, right...really lucky aren't I."

"Don't worry though, because it was only the memory cells were damaged, they can be repaired, but it will take many years maybe to remember all of the things. The body will naturally try and repair damaged cells, and will do that, once again by sending your bio-electric to surge into your brain and activate the nerve once again. But this is where it gets painful and dangerous."

Dante was looking intently at first, but then looked a little grim when he heard the last part.

"You'll basically be having a natural bio-electric attack. You'll start to feel pain; not to dishearten you but they say it can be extremely painful. It's because of your nerves firing all at once to transfer bio-electric to the brain. This is totally at random, and very rarely gives any warning of when it's about to happen."

Dr. Mathews was looking over his notes and scribbles he had put down on his clipboard. He'd been researching up on his patient's ailment for a few days now; the scribbles were at where he had contacted a few specialists who had given advice and slightly different information than what he came across.

"You have to have an injection to stabilise the transfer of energy so that you won't go into another coma and die if not treated quickly; resulting from your body using up too much bio-electric."

"Great, what's the injection?", Dante asked, now regretting as the doctor revealed a very large amount of clear liquid contained in a not so big needle but, had just the same effect. He hated needles, no matter how big or small they were.

"This is an electrolyte compound to stabilise the attack to stop you draining your electrolyte store. It's used for your nerve impulses but, during the bio-electric shock attacks, large quantities are used up and could cause your vital function to stop if the brain has no potential to work with."

As informative as the doctor was being, Dante just felt too overwhelmed. He'd read it up after when he could actually take anything in.

"After you've injected it, it will stop the attack not long afterwards. It has a relaxant to help your body calm down. After your attack, you'll probably feel very weak, tired, cold, but somehow, some people have had heart-attacks because they have a very strong bio-electric current. If you don't inject yourself as quick as you should; you'll remember more but, at the cost of feeling even weaker."

At least that part made sense to him. The doctor seemed to be so enthralled by this curious case he had in front of him, scribbling furiously on a notepad in front of him that was placed on top of the notes he'd accumulated.

"Leaving it at the last possible moment, you'd end up damaging soft tissues. The jolt of electric can damage the lungs' fragile tissues, for example." he said with a serious tone.

"Great so I'm a walking, talking, living battery." Dante replied.

"Yes, you could actually say that. There are some upsides to this condition though." the doctor added. Dante perked his ears at that, listening intently again.

"You have the ability of super-learning. You can learn and remember information very quickly than usual." the doctor said very intrigued.

Dante looked disappointed; he thought he was able to shoot lasers from his eyes, or have some sort of super-powers. He even felt he had the short end of the stick as he could hardly feel like he was taking anything in while the doctor was bombarding him with information.

The doctor smiled softly at Dante, the look of disappointment painted across his face.

"Don't worry. You're head still needs to heal. It'll come with time." Dante still looked as if he'd been hard done by, which he had been really; he stared away at the doctors scribbling pen. The doctor had seemed to be extremely excited ever since he'd woken from his coma.

"And I doubt you ever have before but, you can't drink any alcohol. Ever...there's no telling what would happen, being as it interferes terribly with the nervous system."

After a long pause where he'd finally finished talking, then stopped his scribbling, he looked over his clip-board and smiled,

"Anything else?" he queried enthusiastically.

"No, I think I got most of it" Dante said with a completely baffled look on his face.

"OK, in a few days, you'll be having another X-ray, see how you're doing up there-" he said, very lightly rapping his head, like a door.

"- In the meanwhile you'd better get a little more rest and some food down you" he said.

"Yeah, I've got a little complaint. Can you get me some food that doesn't look like someone's threw it up after eating it?" Dante said with honesty.

"Right...sorry...I'll see what I can do about the food..." the doctor said, now feeling a little disappointed about not being wanted to explain anything. He was about to walk out of the room when he remembered something, clicked his fingers and said,

"I don't mean to babble on anymore but, your brain needs to repair the links to all your nerve cells first, so you won't be having any attacks till very later" he walked out of the room, leaving Dante to drown in the pool info he'd just be thrown into.

*******

Within the next few days, Dante was also told that he was weaker against getting hit in the head. He thought it was because he'd obviously had his skull caved in.

The doctor said though that if he got hit, it was going to hurt more that usual. If he had enough trauma to the head, it would be like hitting the reset button on his memory.

This made Dante a little more uneasy as he'd bumped his head rather painfully a few times already on the metal bars of the headboard of his hospital bed.

On the day he had his X-ray, the doctor was astonished to find that Dane's skull had almost completely repaired itself. His broken ribs were even back to normal. He had to go for a second scan just to be sure if they hadn't mixed his results up.

But sure enough, he was almost completely healed. They checked him all over; the bruises and cuts had completely healed. The cuts on his head as well were gone, and there weren't any scars that left a trace of injury.

"He's totally amazing...a medical breakthrough" the doctor stated again for the millionth time with awe filling his tone of voice.

"He can heal up to four times faster than any other person. He's standing and walking around after three weeks...three weeks! It would take almost three months just for the healthiest person to heal half way through the damage done that this boy has received, and I'm only talking about the physical damage!" the doctor quoted in pure and utter amazement.

"I won't be surprised if he starts to remember things soon. At the rate he's healing, he could be out of here in about another two weeks!"

This had made Dante's day. He was going to start remember things soon!

He was due to speak in court, though. It was too late. They had deemed him unfit to testify because he couldn't remember anything at all.

This made him extremely agitated; he never wanted to even speak to anyone after that. It wasn't his fault he couldn't remember anything. They had the evidence and everything, except the weapon that sealed James' fate. The knife was present with the guy's fingerprints still dotted all over it.

It just wasn't enough evidence. The men were walking free a few days after. The only thing that was given was a fine for the dog possessing a knife. It was such an unfitting punishment, for such a disgusting crime.

"They couldn't just account for one description, they needed two" they had said. If his along with that girl's description had matched, they would have been put to jail for first degree murder, accomplice to murder, and brutal assault and battery.

He couldn't believe that they were going to get away with it, although his anger wasn't really justified in his brain because he just simply and honestly couldn't remember. But it had to be them, he knew it.

The way they smirked with their jeering expressions at him just wrenched at his insides as they walked out of the courtroom.

*******

Within the next few days, Dante had completely healed. He still had a little trouble with his balance when he was walking but that didn't stop him. The doctor wanted to run more tests again and check his condition to see if he was healthy enough to leave.

They had started with some simple test, making sure he could see straight; make sure he could distinguish colours but, then they tested him for other things like reflexes and how far he could jog, run and sprint. They were amazed by what their test revealed to them. Dante had broken the record for fastest reflexes.

"He had a two thousandth of a second nerve conducting velocity" the doctor had told him in the test but, to Dante that didn't really mean anything. During the tests for the stamina, they put him on a tread machine and let him jog, run and sprint on, until he got worn out.

He was running for half an hour and still didn't feel tired, he felt like he could have gone on for a week. The most impressive thing was when they decided to test him for his speed. The machine could only go about 20mph but it was too slow for Dante. In the end they had to bring in an even faster machine when at last they found out he could reach a speed of 40mph sprinting!

"He really is a medical breakthrough" the doctor had thought to himself. How can he be so fast, so agile and so healthy? He has such a fast healing rate. Very fast!

He had to contact some department and see what they can do and find out about what Dante can really do. He had neither the equipment nor the techniques to explain Dante's amazing "gifts".

*******

After about two days later, the doctor had received a phone call.

"Hello, who's this?" the doctor asked with much curiosity. He'd been called up from one of his patients who were causing a ruckus because she wasn't cooperating with the staff.

"Hello, this is Major Fredrick Jackson. You called one of my colleagues a few days ago and mentioned something about a boy?"

The Major sounded as curious as the doctor.

The doctor was unable to contain himself over the phone, bursting out with his experimental findings like a kid that would react to clarifying his Christmas list.

"Yes, yes...calm down! It is rather interesting. Maybe we should conduct tests to clarify the situation; and back-up your findings. Believe me, this had better not be a hoax. I will not tolerate waste of military time and resources for such a big issue like this one" the Major growled with a dangerous tone in his voice.

"I shall send an escort later within the week. As much as you are reliable to my contact as he says, we still feel the need to run the tests you had."

The Major's voice became calm once more. It was like he was possessed.

"Yes, Major... You aren't thinking about taking Dante from the ward without others knowing, are you? I mean he's got a very worried carer who wants to know when Dante is coming home," the doctor murmured.

He felt he didn't want to get on the Major's wrong side being as his tone of voice was his only defence for avoiding it.

"I have every right to do what is necessary, and to even take the boy and wipe his existence off the planet. If he is as what you say; then the military will conduct further tests." Once again, the dangerous tone becoming apparent, though his arrogance from his power seemed to be shining through with it.

"If you speak a word about this to anyone...well...I don't feel the need to explain." He finished, his tone almost daring the doctor to let him know what extent his wrath could reach. The doctor had become extremely nervous at this.

"I shall call you when the escort is ready to pick him up. You shall cover for us in telling his carer that he is going for extra tests. You are not to say who by or where..."

"Well...what am I supposed to say?" the doctor interrupted.

"You're a doctor. I'm sure you aren't stupid; you don't really think she would allow such a thing as to say that he has gone to a classified military training facility, to be tested for enhanced abilities such as you mentioned, is she?!" the Major growled at him.

"Uh...Uh; no sir," he trembled, feeling pathetic that he was even calling him sir.

"Good. Now I have to make arrangements. I shall phone you within the next few days. Make sure that he does not leave the hospital," the Major said threateningly.

"Yes, Major..." the doctor said and put the phone down in haste.

"Oh...what have I done?" he gasped; putting his hand on his forehead and sighing out heavily.

*******

Dante was told by Dr. Mathews that he was going somewhere just for a few days where they would analyse him more closely. He didn't say where but Dante was quite enthusiastic about it.

He was glad to get out of the hospital. Dr. Mathews gave him a very guilty look though, every time he came to check up on him, though Dante just didn't know why. Two days after telling him he would be going to the testing facility, the doctor had received the call from Major Jackson.

"An escort will be there to pick him up at 10pm tonight. We don't want to arouse suspicion," the Major had said. But the doctor thought that was more suspicious than picking him up in the morning.

The day was very excitable for Dante; he was finally getting out of hospital and was going somewhere where he thought he was going to have lots of fun. Seconds seemed minutes, minutes seemed hours; the day seemed so slow.

After thinking about what he was going to do for a short while, he decided to go and get something to eat because he was starting to feel quite hungry. He was walking to the cafeteria when he walked passed Dr. Mathews and realised he was very nervous about something.

Shrugging it off as quickly as he noticed, Dante just went into the cafeteria for his lunch and sat next to a few friends he'd made in the hospital. They were all waiting for him, talking about what they had done in the day; asking Dante what he might be doing when he got there. He told them over and over again that he didn't have a clue himself.

"The doctor told me I was going somewhere, tonight...that's all I know" he told everyone.

"Oh come on Dante? You've got to know something more than that?" pleaded a boy called Henry. He was an eight year old lion cub. He was in for a bike accident and had hit his head.

"Honestly; I don't know anything," smiling as he said it because he couldn't believe they didn't believe him, when he always spoke the truth to them.

"We can tell you're lying; you're smiling," a girl said. She was also eight years old but was a fox. Her name was Vicky; she'd gotten hit by a car when she was playing on the street.

"You're making me laugh because you're paranoid about it; you keep going on and on," he said now beginning to giggle a little.

Both of them looked beaten as they mashed away at their bowls of cereal. Dante even began to laugh now watching them, as oddly funny as it was for some reason. They looked at each other wondering why he was laughing; infectious as it was, it soon had spread to them too as they just watched him; starting to laugh a little uncontrollably.

After finishing his food, he went into the lounge with them while they watched cartoons on a TV in the corner, he decided to read one of the old magazines to try and pass the time away. The magazine had very soppy stories; each one talking about how someone had lost a baby or something life changing happened to them.

As he flicked through one of them, he saw that girl Grace who was looking distressed; crying, and next to her was a picture of him when he was younger and another kangaroo; both smiling happily at the camera, holding each other around the shoulders.

Dante was immediately reminded about the events from a few weeks ago; stormed out of the room without telling his two friends, tearing up the magazine into small pieces and ran to his ward.

*******

It wasn't long now until he was leaving.

He'd packed his things and the doctor had given him the injections he was going to need ever if he had one of those attacks.

He told him the procedure; insert the needle into his neck and inject it. He might need someone to do it for him because it could be too painful for him while he had an attack. It usually was, apparently.

It didn't really bother him; he was just glad to get out of that place having spent over three quarters of a month in hospital. Needing only less than two weeks to heal; the rest being monitored; kept away from the press; willing to kill to interview him.

The doctor brought Dante down with him on strict orders and waited in the car park for a black car to drive up to them. The car park was deserted except for a few cars dotted in random spots.

They only needed to wait a few minutes in the brightly lit yet cold lot when a large four by four had arrived; it's shining black surfaces in pristine condition as it drove down the ramp that led into the underground car park.

The occupants of the car took their time before opening up to reveal a very tall and buff lion, in a black suit. His mane was a very dark brown colour and, the rest of his fur was a tanned brown.

Dante stared up at him, a little wide-eyed as the lion towered over him.

"Hello Dante, my name is Major Fredrick Jackson...Nice to meet you," he said very casual and outstretched his massive paw to shake his hand. Dante wondered what was going on but outstretched his paw and the Major shook it vigorously; almost pulling Dante's arm off from his great strength.

"You make sure you take good care of him. I've given him the stabilising drugs when he has an attack; and taken him through the procedures. He'll tell you what he needs you to do in case of an attack," the doctor said, getting more and more anxious as he spent more time in his presence.

"Don't worry, Bill. We'll take good care of him. The team has gotten all the information as well as the top specialists on the condition. Get in Dante; I'll put your case in the trunk," the Major said reassuringly, giving the doctor a firm handshake as he'd done with Dante.

Dante did what he was told and before shutting the door; waved goodbye to Dr. Mathews. The doctor did the same back and then quickly turned on his heals, and rushed back into the building.

Dante never knew that this would be the last he'd see of him. He shut the door slowly, and was closely followed by the Major after he had one of the occupants of the front of the car put his belongings into the trunk.

*******

Dante watched as the hospital disappeared when they rounded a corner. The Major was on the phone, announcing that he had contacted Dante; although he used 'the boy' to refer to him every time he had to be mentioned.

When he'd finished, he put the car phone down with a snap; trying to arouse Dante's undivided attention; who was now staring out of the car window, counting the flashes of light as they passed each of the street lamps in his mind. Dante didn't budge.

The Major then decided to break the awkward silence after Dante got to counting around his twentieth street lamp.

"So, how're you feeling?" he asked, trying to make conversation.

"OK, I guess...little tired," he replied, still staring out the window. The Major had fought his unfair share of battles, faced fierce enemies but, Dante seemed to be eating away at his confidence, being silent and he seemed so alone.

"We're taking you to test you; to see if what Dr. Mathews is true. We'll do the tests that he implemented, and if satisfied, we'll conduct advanced tests to further test your-".

"You know he's right. He wouldn't have tried to call otherwise," Dante interrupted, now facing the Major.

"I know he wouldn't have. We still have to test you first though." The Major's expression showed that Dante could see right through what was going on.

"I'm not going back, am I?" Dante asked, although he didn't know why because he already knew the answer.

"It all depends if you..." The Major stopped. He couldn't deny the answer any longer.

"I can see there is no fooling you. You're very intuitive-".

"What about my carer at the orphanage? What about Dr. Mathews? What about my friends? They're going to notice if I've gone missing, no doubt about that," Dante interrupted again.

"We have a cover story. Secrecy is our specialty. How do you feel about faking your own death?" the Major asked, though clearly in a lot discomfort at asking a boy as young as this to do such a terrible task.

"How, though?" he answered with another question; though the answer hit him not long after he'd asked.

"Ah...that", he said when sudden realisation hit.

"Yes...we merely say that we administered your drugs to stop you having an attack..."

"...but they just don't work." Dante finished, now looking back out the window regretfully.

"Exactly...with a specialist on our side, we could say that it was ineffective and that we announce you had died," the Major then said with great remorse. Why was it him who had to tell him?

"What about the body. They're gonna want a funeral, aren't they?" Dante said, still staring out the window.

"It's all taken care of," the Major replied as soon as he finished asking. Obviously, they were definitely planning on keeping him. Dante just sighed, looking downwards.

He turned his head towards the Major, who was picking up a thick wad of paper and began reading. He obviously didn't want to face him after giving him a grim in-sight on what they had planned for him.

He stared blankly at the front of the Major's file, waiting for anymore information to be passed his way. After he'd waited for a short time, he turned back out and stared once again as they passed more street lamps.