The next day I got up early and walked straight into Mr. Basil’s office, 
much to the horror of his perky secretary.  “Sir.  Sir, you can’t go in 
there.  Sir, Mr. Basil is not to be disturbed.”  I acted like I couldn’t 
hear the woman and shoved the huge oak double doors open only to find a 
sixty-something year old man sitting naked on his desk with his eyes closed 
and his hands clasped in his lap.  “It’s ok Regina, let him in.”  The bubbly 
girl then gave me a smirk and closed the doors behind her as she walked out 
of the house-sized office.

	“What can I do for you Kur?”  “Put some pants on first of all.”  Henry 
looked down at himself and let a sharp laugh under his breath as if he just 
remembered he had on no cloths.  “Of course, of course.”  He walked over to 
a pile of cloths stacked neatly on a chair and began to dress himself as 
casual as could be.  “I know I am going to regret asking this, but what were 
you doing just now?”  Henry looked at me and cracked a smile, “Honestly?  I 
have no idea.  The wife makes me practice this ancient meditation mumbo 
jumbo.  Really I see no use for it.  It just takes time out of my day that I 
could spend more productively, but I promised her I’d do it.  Witch brings 
me to you.  I am sure there was a reason you broke into my office at 5:30 in 
the morning?”  “Yeah, I want any all the information you have about Vincent 
Vanhell, I want pictures, video, medical records, everything.”  The old mans 
casual smile turned to a look of concern and concentration as I was telling 
him my demands.  “I see.  You know I knew that sooner or later you would be 
asking about old Vince.  I had just hoped it would be later, much later.”  
“Why?  What do you know?  What aren’t you telling me?”  That was the moment 
I got the shock of my life.  Well it would have been the shock of my life if 
I hadn’t just stopped a bullet in mid flight the day before.

	“Vincent Vanhell is you, Kur.  Well sort of.”  You can imagine the look I 
had on my face after a statement like that.  “What the hell are you talking 
about Henry?”  “Hear me out Kur.  I am sure you know of the mysterious 
disappearance of Vincent during his final match right?  Well it wasn’t all 
that mysterious a thing really.  While the smoke was still billowing from 
the explosion, we opened a hatch in the arena floor and Vincent flew into 
it.  Once we had him safely out of the city he was escorted to a secret 
facility buried underground in a desert on the southern continent.  We began 
running tests on Vincent to find out just what made him such a great Raven.  
But we couldn’t find anything different about him except his eyes.  He was 
physically no different that any other human in any way that would have made 
him capable of the things he could do.”  I was beginning to understand what 
this old man was rambling about.  No doctor had ever seen anything about me 
that would indicate I could do the things I did.

	“What do you mean?  What kinds of things could Vincent do?”  “Well, Much 
like you, when Vincent was angry his eyes would begin to glow and his senses 
were magnified.  He claimed that time slowed down but there was never a way 
to prove it so we dismissed it as hallucinations.  His speed was phenomenal, 
he could run a full 45 miles per hour  for days at a time.  And his strength 
was amazing.  I couldn’t tell you how many times he broke the exercise 
equipment in the gym at the compound.”  This was all sounding very familiar 
but there was one thing I just didn’t understand.  “Why?  I mean… why do all 
of the tests?  Why fake the disappearance?”  Henry took in a long deep 
breath and let it out while his shoulders fell.  “It isn’t the part of my 
life I am most proud of Kur.  As a matter of fact, I wish now that I could 
go back and change it all.  Back then I was a power hungry corporate man 
just like every other ceo and officer of any corporation.  Global Cortex was 
my corporation and I was going to make it the strongest of all.  I knew that 
Vincent was different, that there was no way a Raven could climb the ranks 
all the way to the top without ever taking a shot.  I wanted to find out 
what it was about him and duplicate it.  I wanted to make my own army of 
indestructible Ravens to take over control of the other corporations and 
eventually the government.”

	I was hearing the words as he spoke them but I couldn’t believe what I was 
hearing.  “So what are you saying?  I am some kind of clone?  I am just some 
tool you created so you could take over the government?”  “No, that’s not it 
at all.  I told you Kur that I was a different man back then, I’ve changed.  
Back then I wanted to take over the Earth Government so I could be in charge 
and tax the socks off the public.  But not anymore.  Now I don’t want to 
take over the Government, I want to change it.  I want the people to be in 
charge, like it used to be.  You have to believe me Kur.”

	I didn’t know what to think.  I mean, if he really wanted to use me to take 
over the Government he could have made up some story and not told me all of 
this, but then again, he could just be trying to make me think this way.  
These types of situations really suck.  “Ok so you don’t want to rule the 
world… supposedly.  What about Vincent being me?”  “Yes, about that.  Before 
we could ever find out what the source of Vincent’s abilities were, he 
became deathly ill.  So we took DNA samples from him just before he died.  
Soon after, we captured your parents and spliced Vincent’s DNA into both of 
them.  We originally planned for your parents to be the first subjects to 
receive the abilities that Vincent had but to our disappointment, neither of 
them showed any signs of manifesting the power we were looking for.  We 
tried everything we could to bring the power out of them, we thought that 
perhaps high stress or trauma would bring the abilities to the surface but 
they never came.  Your father took the worst of it by far and was driven 
partially mad.  Some how your mother made contact to some Raven friends of 
hers and used their help to escape along with your father.”  “Wait a minute, 
my parents were Ravens?  That’s impossible, I would have known.  I mean my 
mom would have told me… We wouldn’t have been so poor…”  Henry interrupted 
my doubting questions with the kind of logic I would have had if I were 
thinking clearly.  “Kur, I believe that once you were born, your parents 
quit the Raven order to hide out as common labor so that the Global Cortex 
could not find them, or you.  They rightfully assumed that the Global Cortex 
would be interested in their offspring, so that is why they changed their 
name and erased all records of their existence from government records.”

The more I heard, the more it all made sense.  The man standing in front of 
me was solely responsible for my horrible life and for driving my father to 
insanity witch is probably  why he beat my mother, witch is why they broke 
up, leading to my mother marrying my stepfather, who beat me on a daily 
basis.  Henry was responsible for all of this, and I couldn’t hate him for 
it.  I don’t know why but something inside me told me that he was telling 
the truth about how he has changed since then.

	I needed to know more, I didn’t want to hear it but I had to.  Once I 
finally spoke up the sadness I heard in my own voice surprised me.  “Ok so 
if my last name isn’t really Cuval, then what is it?”  Henry walked around 
to my side of his desk and sat on the corner with one of his legs off the 
floor.  “Kur, your parents names were really Richard and Darla Norock.  
Whatever you knew them by, I haven’t a clue.”  Henry glanced down at his 
hands witch were folded in his lap and laughed under his breath before 
speaking again.  “They were some of the best Ravens I’ve ever met.  I am 
truly sorry for what I’ve done to you and your family.  You know you look 
just like your father.”  Henry continued to apologize, mostly to make 
himself feel better, but I really wasn’t listening to him, I was too busy 
thinking about everything I had heard so far.  Finally Henry stopped 
apologizing and asked if there was something else I wanted to know.  “Yeah, 
there is one thing that I don’t get.  If you spliced Vincent’s DNA to my 
parents, how does that make me his clone?  Wouldn’t it mean I am more like 
his son or something?”  Henry seemed to have been waiting for me to ask that 
question because he answered very quickly.  “Actually no.  It turns out that 
your genetic code is a 90% match to Vincent’s.  My geneticists tell me that 
when a child is conceived, it is done with half of each parents DNA.  They 
speculate that you happened to get most of the DNA of Vincent that we placed 
in your parents, effectively creating a clone.”  It made more sense than I 
thought it would.  I just had one last question.  “Ok you have convinced me, 
I am Vince’s clone, but I just don’t get how he looks so young.  I mean, he 
doesn’t look too much older than me.”  This seemed to confuse the hell out 
of Henry.  “You mean you’ve seen him?  You’ve seen Vincent recently?”  
“Yeah, right when I transferred to Corella City.  He was in the rec. room 
saying he was visiting an old friend or something.”  Henry took the news 
like a bullet to the gut.  He stood and walked around and fell into his red 
leather chair.  He leaned forward and cupped his face in his hands.  I 
thought I heard him crying but I couldn’t be sure.  I turned and began to 
walk out the doors and faintly heard Henrys voice as I closed them.  “He’s 
here…”

	I quickly left the Global Cortex office and made my way to the rec. room 
just in the off chance I might see Vincent there again.  He was nowhere to 
be found of course so I got on the computer and began to look for any 
information I could about Vincent.  After three hours of searching I heard 
the entire room full of Ravens gasp at the same time.  I quickly looked up 
and found them all staring wide eyed at the TV witch hung from the far wall. 
  Once I got into a position to see what was on the screen I gasped too.  It 
was an older gentleman with gray hair and a News Channel 3 badge on his 
jacket and he appeared to be standing in front of the Global Cortex main 
office complex from witch I had just come.  “… and the Earth Government 
claims that this attack on the Global Cortex office building was not in any 
way connected to them even though the Government and the Cortex have been at 
the brink of war for the last few months.  Once again ladies and gentlemen, 
the Global Cortex main office in Corella City has been attacked and so far 
the casualties are holding at 34 dead, and over 300 wounded.  Among the 
deceased are the President and CEO of Global Cortex, Henry Basil.  I am 
being told that we have exclusive footage from a security camera across the 
street of the actual explosion witch destroyed much of the top four stories 
of the building.”  The TV screen suddenly switched to a shot of the global 
Cortex office and within a few seconds the top of the building seemed to 
just explode out the west side.  The scene played several more times and 
with each re-play, I felt my chances of finding Trish and finding out more 
about myself, slip away like sand through my fingers.  Like everybody else 
in the rec. room I was glued to the television for the next few hours, 
waiting to hear the latest news on the bombing.  I was just about to go back 
to my room to try and figure out what I was going to do next when another 
replay of the explosion appeared on the screen, this time from a different 
angle.

	Once again, it was a sot of the building and then the west side of the top 
few floors just exploded outward.  But it wasn’t the building I was 
watching; it was the huge, dark red blur off to the east that caught my eye. 
  “It was an AC!”  The entire room looked at me like I was nuts.  I asked, 
but nobody else saw the blur when the shot re-played again.  I quickly ran 
to my dorm and turned on the news and recorded the re-play with the blur in 
it.  I put the disc into my computer and tried to enhance the image.  Now 
usually, you can remove the blur that fast movement causes because modern 
cameras record at something like 300 frames per second, but I only had one 
frame with the image on it to work with, meaning that this AC covered 20 
yards in 1/500 of a second meaning that AC was moving something like 12,272 
miles per hour.  Witch I don’t have to tell you, is insane fast.  So with 
only one frame to work with, all I could get was the basic shape of a dark 
red hover AC.

	By the time I finished my work, it was just past midnight so I decided to 
go to bed and try to figure out what I was going to do about Trish now that 
my only source of information was now dead.  I woke up the next morning and, 
still half asleep, walked to my kitchen to get some water.  The only problem 
was that with my eyes still closed I walked right into a solid titanium 
wall.  I was no longer in my dorm room, I was in some kind of prison cell or 
something, all there was in the room was a bed, a table, and a toilet off in 
the corner.  I looked up to see a camera in the corner above the toilet and 
began yelling into it.  “Hey!  What the hell is going on here?  What have I 
done?  Let me out of here!”  I got no answer but a small drawer in the 
prison door opened and a small bowl of wheat cereal and a glass of orange 
juice was slid through it.  I spent the rest of the day doing nothing and 
not eating what little  food was given to me.  That was how I spent the next 
four days until I broke down and began to eat the food.  I figured that I 
could either starve or eat whatever poison might be in the food.  I never 
got sick but I will say the microwave burritos I had for lunch gave me gas.

	By the second week the lights in my cell stopped turning on in the morning 
and the food began to come less and less frequently.  The strain of thinking 
constantly about Trish and the fact that I had been in total darkness with 
very little food and no contact with the outside world began to eat at me.  
It was fully a month before I snapped.  I picked up the bed and threw it 
against the wall.  “Fuck you, you cock suckin bastards!”  I was yelling as 
loud as I could, so loud that it hurt my ears, but I didn’t care.  “You 
fucking tell me why I’m here or I’ll…”  I then grabbed the toilet and ripped 
it off the floor and crushed it over my head, the water that was still in it 
splashed down over my body and spread quickly across the floor.  If I wasn’t 
crazy with rage I might have surprised myself.  “Let me out!  Let me out 
NOW!”  I ran as hard as I could and punched at the wall, this time however, 
I was surprised when my fist ripped through the titanium wall like it was 
paper.  I quickly ripped open a hole large enough for me to fit through and 
found myself in a large cave brightly lit from hundreds of yards above.

	::Clap Clap Clap::  The lights hurt my eyes after spending a month in total 
darkness, but I could hear the clapping coming from right in front of me.  
Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the light and right in front of me stood 
Stephanie Mactaggart, and at her side was Vincent Vanhell.  It was Vincent 
who was clapping, Stephanie was just standing there with a look of 
astonishment on her face.  Just before I was about to run across the room 
and kill both of them, Vincent looked down at Stephanie and smiled as big as 
he could.  “Honey, could you do me a favor and get our young friend here 
something to eat?  I am sure he’s hungry after such a long time without 
food.”  Stephanie then looked at me with such hunger in her eyes that it 
would make you think she was the one who had been starving in a dark metal 
box.  “Sure Vince, I’ll be right back.”  She turned and began to walk away, 
when she stopped and looked over her shoulder.  “You two play nice now.”  I 
looked back towards Vincent only to see that he was no longer in front of 
me.  “Boo!”  I turned around and found him leaning against the cell behind 
me.

“Impressed?  You shouldn’t be Kur.  You could do the same thing if you would 
just open your eyes and let it happen.”  “What the hell are you talking 
about?  Why have you brought me here?”  “Oh stop it Kur, you know full well 
what I’m talking about!  The glowing eyes, the super speed, the amazing 
strength!  You can do it all, you have done it all, but you are so blind to 
it that it only happens when you are pissed off or think you are in danger.” 
  “So you know about all the stuff.  Big deal.  Why lock me in a prison 
cell?”  We were both shouting at each other like fighting brothers and the 
realization that I am a clone of this man suddenly hit me.  “I locked you in 
there to stress you Kur.  I wanted to show you how easy it is for you to 
access your gifts.”  “What you couldn’t just give me an instruction manual?” 
  “Ha ha, cracking jokes at every opportunity.  Just like Stephanie told me. 
  You know, she has been begging me to let her have her way with you.  Now I 
never knew if she meant she wanted to have you tortured or if she wanted to 
sleep with you but I think that with the way her mind works it could have 
been one in the same.  Oh speak of the devil.”  Stephanie came walking up 
behind us from a staircase that led up into the darkness where the lights of 
the cave couldn’t reach.  She was carrying a large silver platter with about 
a dozen deli sandwiches on it.  “Are you guys talking about me?  Nothing bad 
I hope.”  She giggled at herself and set the platter on a small table at the 
base of the staircase.  I caught myself staring at her and thinking that at 
that moment, with a smile on her face and such a pleasant attitude, she 
could have been a girl I’d have fallen for.  Besides that, her breasts were 
twice the size I remember them being, she must have gotten them ‘enhanced’.

	“Come on Kur, eat up.  I’m sure your starving.”  Jeez she almost seemed… 
nice.  I walked over to the table and grabbed a sandwich and ate it quickly. 
  Vincent and Stephanie just stood the patiently while I ate four or five 
more.  When I was finished Vincent spoke up.  “Come up the stairs with us 
Kur, there are more comfortable quarters for us to talk… afterwards.”  I 
wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that.  “What do you mean afterwards?  After 
what?”  Then as casual as could be, as if it was a daily occurrence, he 
said, “Our AC battle of course.”  I almost shit my pants right then.  
Vincent wrapped his arm around Stephanie and the two of them began to walk 
up the staircase into the darkness.  “Come along Kur, we have a lot to do 
today!”  Shaking my head in disbelief, I followed the couple up the stairs.

	It turned out that the door at the top of the stairs led into a small house 
that seemed out of place in the middle of the dessert.  We walked out the 
front door of the house to see Kong standing right in front of us.  
“Beautiful machine you’ve got here Kur.  Lots of power but slow and clumsy.” 
  Slow and clumsy?  Stephanie had to have told him about the artificial 
muscle and extra armor, how could he say Kong was slow?  “Now here is a real 
Armored Core.”  I walked around the tree like leg of Kong to see a dark red 
hover AC resting on the ground.  “Kur, I’d like you to meet Hellfire.  She 
is probably the oldest active AC on the planet but I doubt you will find a 
more capable one.  This old girl has gotten me through a lot over the years. 
  Well see you on the battle field!”  Vincent seemed genuinely excited as he 
spoke and before I could raise my objections to the battle, Vincent jumped 
clear up to the open cockpit of his AC.  No wait, he didn’t jump, he… 
floated?  No he had to have jumped… but that high?  It wasn’t long before 
Hellfire lifted off the ground and began skimming the ground out into the 
open desert.  I quickly climbed up Kong’s leg and core and got into my 
cockpit to see my special pilot suit folded neatly on the floor.  I dressed 
as fast as I could and found my key already in the ignition switch.  I 
turned the key and Kong roared to life.  “Welcome back Kur, You seemed to 
have lost some weight, are you not feeling well?”  Huh?  “I’m fine Kong.  
Um, why don’t you do a systems check.”  “Affirmative… All systems are 
functioning within normal parameters.  A new generator has been added to my 
system, would you like me to initialize it?”  A new generator?  Stephanie 
must have replaced my old one.  “Go ahead and initialize it Kong.”  I didn’t 
really have much of a choice did I?  “Generator initialized.  Max output is 
280% of previous generator.”  Well that’s nice to hear.

	I found Vincent on my radar and boosted to his location.  “Welcome to 
Australia Kur.”  “Australia?”  “Yes, that is what this land used to be known 
as before the Earth Government renamed it the southern continent.  Beautiful 
place this is.  Great backdrop for our battle don’t you think?”  “Um, yeah 
sure, hey Vincent I really don’t want to fight you.  I just want to talk I 
find out what the hell is going on here.”  It was like he didn’t hear a word 
I said.  “Ours will be the greatest fight of all time.  You know I joined 
the Arena looking for a challenge but I never found one.  None of those 
fools could ever come close to what we are Kur, none of ‘em.”  “What are we 
Vincent, I want to know.”  “Not now Kur, there will be time for that later.”

	The next thing I knew Hellfire was right next to me and his plasma blade 
was slicing through the armor of Kong’s left arm.  If I hadn’t tried to move 
to the right, I am sure the left arm would not still be there.  “Armor on 
left arm is damaged, vital components are…”  I couldn’t hear the rest of the 
damage report over Vincent’s sudden outburst.  “See!  That is what I was 
talking about!  Any other Raven would have lost his arm, but you sidestepped 
it!  But you still aren’t trying hard enough!”  Before I could respond, 
Hellfire shot right past me and began to fire its machine gun directly into 
Kong’s back.  I jumped up and fired my boosters but I seemed to be flying 
right into the line of fire.  I hit my over boost and took a sharp left, but 
there again was a hail of bullets pelting me like a heavy rain.  “Stop being 
such a loser and fight damn it!  I want a good challenge!”  Jeez Vincent 
seemed to be loosing it.  I lifted my Karasawa and fired a huge green bolt 
of light that was going right for Hellfire but missed him by a mile.  As a 
matter of fact, it did miss by a mile.  I looked to the right and saw the 
glowing red hover AC floating atop a tall sand dune.  “Damn it Kur, if you 
don’t start fighting me I’ll have Trish killed!”  That did it, the whole 
inside of my cockpit was covered in a deep green glow and I could feel my 
anger pumping through me like hot magma was flowing through my veins.  I let 
out a bone-jarring yell that was more like a roar, and over boosted at 
Vincent with the limiter off.  My speedometer was reading 3,400 mph.  I was 
confused at the new speed at first but quickly remembered my new generator.  
I lifted my left arm and extended my Starlight plasma sword.  “DIE!”  I 
swung as hard as I could but only hit the hot desert air.  “Ah, that’s more 
like it!  But still too slow!”  I was over boosting with my limiter off and 
Vincent was literally running circles around me, peppering Kong with machine 
gun fire.  Then it happened, time slowed dramatically and without even 
knowing why, I cut the over boost and swung my Karasawa in a wide arch 
behind me.  Hellfire plowed right into the side of the heavy weapon, witch I 
was now using as a club.  The much lighter AC was send flying across the 
desert.  I quickly hit my over boost again and followed it deeper into the 
sand covered plain.

	I got to where Hellfire had landed and found Vincent standing next to his 
fallen AC.  I stopped Kong and jumped out of the cockpit and ran as fast as 
I could at Vincent.  He was jumping up and down and screaming at me.  “That 
was incredible!  I’ve never felt so alive!”  “You are never going to be so 
dead once I am through with you!”  I ran right at the taller blonde man and 
grabbed him by his neck.  I started to squeeze as hard as I could.  “Where 
is Trish you mother fucker?!  WHERE IS SHE?!”  Instead of an answer, I found 
myself sprawled on the hot sand of the southern continent.  I looked up to 
see Vincent a good hundred yards away shaking his right hand.  “Hell of a 
strong jaw you got there Kur!”  I blinked to get some sand out of my eyes 
and Vincent was right next to me picking me up by my left arm.  “Come on, 
let me help you up.”  I was half knocked out from Vincent’s 
one-hitter-quitter, so the help to my feet was necessary.  Once I was on my 
feet I began to get very light headed.  “What… Where is… where is Trisss……”

	I woke up in a bed back at the small house that doubled as a secret cave 
entrance.  Stephanie was sitting in a large soft chair next to the bed.  “Oh 
look at who finally woke up!  Vincent told me what happened out there and I 
must say, I am impressed.”  “Where is Trish?”  “Oh you and your one track 
mind, ‘Where is Trish?  Where is Trish?’  I tell you it’s enough to drive me 
crazy.  I mean what is so special about her anyway?  Yeah ok, she’s pretty.  
But that’s about it.”  Stephanie suddenly got a look on her face I had never 
seen her with before, almost a look of… longing.  “Don’t you think I’m 
pretty?  I mean I don’t have the perfect blonde hair, but I have a pretty 
face right?  And my body is ok right?  I mean I just got these new tits!  I 
told Vincent they were for him but I really got them for you.”  Crap, this 
is that last thing I needed.  I actually felt bad for her, I didn’t want to, 
I mean I REALLY didn’t want to, but there is something about a vulnerable 
woman that just melts my heart.  “Please Kur, Give me a chance, just give me 
a chance and I’ll make you forget all about Trish.”  “That’s just it 
Stephanie.  I don’t want to forget about Trish, I want to be with Trish, I 
want to find Trish and take her home and protect her and never let anything 
bad happen to her ever again.”  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw tears 
streaming down her face.  I fought it with everything in me but when she 
started crying I wanted to comfort her.  I was about to say something when 
she got up and ran out of the room.

	“That was close.”  I got off the bed and made my way out of the house and 
on the front porch.  I found Vincent sitting in an old wooden rocking chair 
and he was singing something very softly to himself.  “I fell in to a burnin 
ring of fire, I went down down down but the flames went higher, and it burns 
burns burns, that ring of fire, that ring of fire…. Oh hey Kur!  Didn’t hear 
you come out.  How’s the jaw?  Hope I didn’t break it, but you were being a 
little hysterical you know?”  “What is that song you were singing?  It 
sounds old.”  “Oh that, yes that is a very old song.  I don’t even remember 
how many hundreds of years old it is.  I sing it sometimes, I don’t know 
why, I guess it just comforts me.  Anyway, I promised you we’d talk after 
our battle and so we shall.”  “Good, I have a lot of quest…”  “Would you 
quit yappin?  We have a battle to fight!”  “What?  We just had a battle!  
Remember?  I hit you with…”  “That!?  That was no battle!  That was just a 
warm up!  I had to get you fighting in top shape!  Now come on lets go.”  I 
was about to object but Vincent was already climbing into his cockpit, witch 
was about 30 feet in the air and 200 yards away.  “Crap, here we go again”