Wishes

"You're right." Liman spoke, scratching his short black beard.

"The research project is still very important, what happened was that our project was being suppressed while similar new others were being created." There was no happiness in her tone.

"Have you offended someone important?"

Liman laughed at Trevor's question. "lad, do you think offending just one person is enough to end me and others? It wasn't someone, but several people who banded together to suppress us."

The doctor's gaze grew angry as he remembered his enemies.

"As you may well know, there are three factions that hold most of the power in our Pequi Republic. Among these three, the Waldens and the Hollows are the ones that most directly face each other in this dispute. It turns out that we've been involved in this political tangle since we were forced to join the Hollows while looking for more resources to fund our research."

The middle-aged man's fingers sank into his own black beard, scraping his chin as he smeared that part of his body with grease that hadn't yet been wiped off his fingers.

"Joining the Hollows was like digging our own grave. In the beginning, they actually gave us credit and offered a lot of support that sped up the research by several measures. The price for this, however, was that in just a few years they obtained both our precious data and the human resources they needed to develop their own research in-house." His black beard began to shine like plastic from so much grease that dropped there.

"But what about the third faction? What did they do?" Trevor asked, raising his eyebrows as he supported the weight of his head with his right hand..

Unlike Liman, however, he did not soil his chin as he had rubbed his dirty hands on the chair he sat in: using the luxurious white leather that lined the chair like mere cheap napkins.

"Do you mean the Dekinos? What else would they do? Hmph. Since our Pequi Republic was founded over fifty years ago, they are the ones who control everything from behind. In fact, I even believe they were the ones who purposely made it difficult to gather resources in order to force us join into one of the factions they manipulate."

The middle-aged man didn't speak anymore after that, as he was concentrating on trying to clean his dirty beard after feeling uncomfortable with the sticky feeling in that part of his body.

Emona took his place in the conversation. "That's why we were forced into this corner, Trevor. Okay, now that you understand our situation better, I think I can proceed with the next step in our conversation: the experiment itself."

The woman with the Eastern Asian features sat up straighter in her chair before she continued talking.

"Since we researched these events, we've gained a basis for cataloging and deducing with some precision, the behaviors that these supernatural individuals have in common. The most remarkable thing was that everyone, without exception, paid a price to obtain these superpowers."

Trevor frowned. "Are you telling me I paid a price?"

"Maybe yes, maybe not. Another thing that is striking about these people is that they always have some obsession or desire, which can vary in terms of intensity." Emona replied calmly.

"Before our budget was cut off, right at the beginning of our joining the Hollow Frontier faction, among the things they offered us, one really caught our attention: the possibility of working with a living supernatural." Emona smiled as she said the last words.

"It didn't take us long to get our long-awaited supernatural. We got excited, and the first idiot among us to put his hand inside that thing's cage had to put on a hand prosthesis for the rest of his life, hahaha!" Liman who was beside her also chuckled along.

"After this ridiculous event, we were able to do other experiments that tested the limits of the supernatural. He had an obsession with scraping his teeth against hard objects, wearing them out on the spot. His power allowed his jaw to be as strong as an adult Rock Basilisk." Emona said seriously.

"Rock Basilisk? How strong can this thing be?" Trevor asked, withdrawing the hand that supported the weight of his head.

"Strong enough to crush this whole room and a few others around." Liman replied to Trevor this time. His beard was now much more presentable than before.

"No, I meant just about the power of his ja-" Trevor was about to explain himself further when Liman reached out with his right hand, shaking it as if to tell him to stop talking.

"I was just talking about this animal's jaw." Liman laughed at the strange expression the lad in front of him was sketching.

"Wait… Are you telling me the Hollow Frontier faction sent this supernatural without warning you all or that it was just that specific idiot who didn't heed the warning?" His eyebrows were raised, Trevor also returned to support the weight of his head with his right hand.

"None nor the other. What happened was simpler than you might think. When Hollow Frontier sent this supernatural to us, they forgot to tell them they had captured the guy while he was sleeping. The power of that supernatural was unknown to both us and them at that time."

Trevor pursed his lips as he heard Emona speak. "So how did they find out that this supernatural was in fact a supernatural?"

"How would I know? I don't know that many secrets. Hollow Frontier has always kept its investigative methods to itself. I believe they must have discovered the guy by chance. Anyway, what matters is that, theoretically, the supernatural was supposed to be unconscious."

Emona picked up the metal cup Liman had used moments ago and stared at the amber-colored liquid at the bottom of the object. "The worst thing was that even though Hollow Frontier informed us that they had injected drugs to keep the supernatural out, we didn't believe in them and used our own methods to prevent incidents."

The orange liquid stopped hitting the inner walls of the metallic cup when Emona suddenly stopped moving her left hand. The smooth surface of the beer inside the cup reflected Emona's mocking smile.

"The idiot who lost his arm was so enraged at the time that he swore to return the grudge he suffered in various measures."

Her smile widened. "It wasn't until later that we noticed the reason why the supernatural took our colleague's arm off was because his obsession was not only biting hard things, but also because he had to avoid repeating the material he bit in the recent past."

Trevor considered the most obvious possibility. "Are you telling me that a fellow co-worker of yours did just exactly that to get revenge on the supernatural?" His complexion returned to its usual calm, cold as the ice of the Southeastern Plains.

"No, he did worse than that, hahaha! Hrgh-!"

Liman couldn't take it anymore and laughed until he bent his entire spine back. The middle-aged man did something he hadn't done in years, and he paid the price for it when pain assaulted the area of ​​his body that had just been bent backwards.

Emona just shook her head as she looked at her fiance. The woman then spoke, rolling her eyes. "Our idiot colleague, as you well described him, not only increased the obsession of the only supernatural we had access to, but he also made it to a point of blowing himself up with him."

"..."

"The what you mean?" Trevor didn't even know where to start from.

"I literally meant that the supernatural exploded. For everything that the events of the time could indicate to us, the most likely is: the supernaturals who did not complete or fulfill their obsession will explode."

"…"

This was the second time Trevor had been silent for full seconds without saying anything to the two doctors.

'Does that mean I can explode at any time? No… This is too absurd to be true. Even if they're right, I still have to make sure first whether or not I'm someone with superpowers.'

Emona spoke again, breaking the silence of the room. "Don't think about it too much. This is just conjecture on our part that has yet to be confirmed. For now, I want you to focus on something else more important: your wishes."

"My wishes?"

"Yes, your wishes. What do you most want in this world? What would you like to see happening in this damn world? This is very important for our future collaboration, Trevor." Emona said as she nodded.

"I want to rescue my father." Trevor was pretty sure he'd said that to Sarina moments ago. At this point, he knew that everything he said had somehow reached Liman's ears. It wouldn't be strange to assume that from the man capable of setting up this meeting before he even thought about stepping into this dormitory.

'This makes me think, did he let this research project fall apart on purpose from the start to force Emona into a corner?' He felt like a snake appeared from inside his pockets. This invisible snake was there the whole time, but only now Trevor began to see it moving.

'The very fact that the only supernatural they have had access to suddenly exploded along with the most obvious person in this story seems too good to be true.' Trevor couldn't look at Liman the same way he had before.

'No… What if this was his deal from the beginning with Hollow Frontier? They would have gained what they wanted, and so would Liman. The only losers in this entire story would be two people: the doctor who was sacrificed and Emona. The Pequi Republic would continue as well as before, and even the supernatural could continue to be explored in secret.'

This doctor was too scary!

Even the black mist didn't scare him this much!

Trevor did not even want to imagine what kind of words Liman used to convince Emona to marry him willingly. Until moments ago, this woman looked like she hated Liman up to his inner damned guts, but everything changed upside down in less than 24 hours.

'How did I manage to get so close to someone like Liman?'

Speaking of the devil, Liman had recovered from his back pain. He got to his feet and headed towards the kitchen, leaving Emona and Trevor alone in the living room.

"That's a very noble wish, Trevor." The female doctor smiled at him.

The lad in question took his time to elaborate a proper answer to this woman in front of him.

"I don't think my goal is anything noble, I feel that it's actually my obligation as a son. My dad was too good to end up like this, with no one even bothering to remember his name." Trevor expressed his helplessness with a deep sigh.

"Still, it's commendable to say the least. It's quite difficult to find trustworthy people in this world, regardless of whether they are of the same blood or not." Emona raised the metal cup and drank the beer that lay there without lifting an Adam's apple from her slender neck.

"Do you speak this from experience?" Trevor's question led to an awkward silence for the next few moments. If not for Liman's timely reappearance, the green-eyed lad thought there would be no easy method to break this embarrassing atmosphere.

"Honey, I brought us more drinks." The middle-aged man arrived from her right and placed a glass bottle on the circular glass table, between Emona and Trevor.

The bottle was so cold that it caused the local humidity to quickly condense into water: which created a small puddle in the table as the item was turned sideways in order to fill another metal cup that Liman brought from the kitchen.

"Have I interrupted something?" Liman asked as if sensing the strange atmosphere.

"No, me and Emona were just continuing our conversation about wishes and dreams. And what about you, Dr. Liman? Do you have any dreams or desires to fulfill?" Trevor asked without taking his eyes off the puddle of water that was generated by the cold beer bottle.

Emona, on the other hand, looked at her fiance with eyes that sparkled with curiosity.

What would Liman Naite's dreams or wishes be?