Titans on Earth/Volume 1 Full Text

Prologue
The Tale of the Prometheus

"Well, there is no going back now."

Even though he knew he was talking to himself and was probably having the attention of an occasional old man, Benjamin Voight didn't cared.

He stepped into the security reception of that certain airport as he left all his belongings in big square recipients and walked through a rectangular metal detector. Behind him were boys and girls from an average age of 13 to 18 years old, all of them were the same as him, not only because they carried a very similar amount of luggage, but also because they possessed something he did as well.

Just as his thoughts had reminded him, there was no going back. Military soldiers maintained constant surveillance in that airport with heavy assault rifles armed and ready to point at any sign of danger.

In a normal situation, even the most dangerous killer or the smartest of thieves would not want to step specifically on that airport, and on that day. Danger was out of the question in normal terms, but those were not normal terms. The soldiers with the "Mexican Special Forces" band hanging in their arms were looking straight at them, suspicious of every threatening move Benjamin Voight or any of those youngsters could make.

It was August 20th. They were on El Cairo International Airport Mexico, ready to take off to the nearly empty lands of Siberia and Northern China.

He was given green lights, and Benjamin picked his stuff as fast as he could as he was escorted by two of those aggressively looking soldiers. As they walked, the boy could not only notice the cameras in the corners following him and taking a series of photos with a blinding flash, but he could also notice the tip of those rifles aiming directly to his stomach should he resist.

Benjamin had wandered countless times why was he deserving of such treatment, why those soldiers were so ruthless with him and the guys behind him on the security station. Then he reminded himself of what happened to him, and that sort of gave him counsel, after all, ever since he acquired his power, he was marked as a monster even by his most dearest friends.

He sighted, and then felt a rather gentle hit from one of the soldier's rifles compared to what he had felt of them before.

"Be quiet" the soldier ordered.

Benjamin was close to set a complain, but he decided to stay silent when he looked at the angry eyes of the person that told him that, which were still observing the path ahead.

"All passengers to Tartarus state, report to gates 12, 14 and 15 according to your passage's specifications."

The voice repeated over and over again as the "passengers" walked through the alley, escorted by two or four soldiers each towards those gates.

Benjamin was taken to gate 12 and boarded into a fancy automated bus that drove towards an enormous plane. It was an Airbus 380 as Benjamin recognized the model. He always liked big planes, and the Airbus 380 was one of the models he always dreamed on getting in since he watched photos of interiors and luxurious decorations.

Well, that plane's interior decorations were nothing compared to those he had seen. Benjamin's expectations were turned to dust in a split second.

Basically, the plane was redesigned into what seemed to be ten lines of uncomfortable seats aligned in several dozen lines of the same type.

Benjamin sighted, again.

He looked at his passage, the he looked back towards the entrance and held a long breath of the last fresh air he would smell from his homeland for the rest of his life.

He took a seat on the farthest seat near one of the plane's window and laid back until his head remained rested as much as it could.

"Well, there's definitely no going back."

He closed his eyes and tried to get asleep after listening to one of the airplane's crew members say that it would be a eighteen hour flight.

A sudden tremble from outside the plane broke his thoughts of resting. He and all the people who were already on board stood up as the plane crumbled.

"Now what?" He yelled.

The soldiers pointed guns at them immediately so Benjamin had to seat again. Gunfire started to be heard from outside. He immediately looked towards outside from his window.

His eyes opened wide as he saw one of the soldiers screaming in agony as an enormous dog composed from a strange green, glowing energy mauled his throat and threw him away, dead.

The young man froze on his chair, and felt a big, cold drop of sweat slipping his forehead and meeting his nose.

"Shit, this can't be happening" he thought. He saw a group of soldiers going out with their guns ready and with combat stances.

More firing was heard, so the last of the soldiers were forced to come out eventually. Benjamin took this as a chance to go out and witness the fight for himself, probably help, he needed a good reason to make them forget that idiotic sentence of transferring him to Tartarus.

He unlocked his seatbelt and ran towards the plane's gate. He looked over his shoulders.

No one followed him.

The plane crumbled a little after another heavy strike, probably one of those monstrous dogs crushing its green body against it, he regained balance and grabbed the gate's corners with his hands in order to keep it.

He saw the soldiers from the Mexican Army coming out from all places trying to fight a pack of those energy dogs that killed every armed man. From his position, Benjamin could notice a group of youngsters apparently from his age, but with a more delinquent appearance ordering the pack of dogs to fight as a green aura surrounded them individually.

Further more, Benjamin noticed media groups and reporters taking photos and recording with highly professional cameras from a safe distance.

A spark of hope ignited from within Benjamin's heart, as if it was a call from God himself. He ran down the stairs and went straight towards the young rebels that were giving the soldiers a hard time. Fortunately for him, the dogs were too busy fighting anything that came with an assault rifle equipped with the uniform. After a few seconds of sprinting, he came to be side by side with the boys.

Benjamin was surely looking forward of calling off the battle without having to use that same power himself to stop his fellow "infected", but he changed his mindset to be willing to when he heard the screams.

"Die you sons of bitches!" they yelled with tears in their eyes and the smile of success almost breaking their cheeks, "No one is taking me away from this place!"

Benjamin noticed that they were commanded by a guy who looked extremely different from the other scared faces that cried as they killed their human peers. He knew that the criminal looking person was probably just a few years older than him, but he still looked like an experienced mercenary.

"A gang member" he thought. Of course he knew that there were many terms to define the kind of man he was looking at, but he always referred to them as "gang members", which was not entirely wrong.

Benjamin had never met a criminal before, he always tried to avoid problems with them since he did not had the means to fight, to make a difference.

This guy calmly directed his dogs towards the soldiers and ripped off limbs and spilled tons of blood with them. He evilly smiled from time to time making Benjamin's blood boil in anger.

Benjamin noticed a gigantic tattoo coming from his left arm as well as another smaller one on his right cheek depicting a flower. His blood was on the verge of becoming vapor.

He had to act.

The 'criminal' looked at him with a very serious glance and pointed a hand towards him before he could actually react.

"Hey yo!" He yelled "Come join us you bitch!"

Benjamin's blood boiled in vapor this time, those kind of people were somewhat annoying, they disturbed peace everywhere and their convictions were something that he would never understand.

"Stand down!" he ordered, "You are going to get us all killed!"

"Bullshit!" The criminal laughed, "We've got power, they have those freggin' weapons dude! We can get out of this!"

Just as he said that, a rain of bullets appeared out of nowhere and took the lives of two of those rebels, their heads and chests exploded in red as Benjamin looked how an assault vehicle with an automatic machine gun attached to it fired recklessly towards them.

The young man's stomach felt increasingly disgusted by the scene, but his heart was being crushed as he saw real violence coming from both sides.

The criminal swore and changed the directive of his minions, the big dogs that were under his control, –two of them in total– charged furiously at the assault vehicles that were mustering ahead of them.

Benjamin grabbed the criminal with one arm and directed one of his fists towards his face. The man fell, unprepared for such strike. And Benjamin looked over his fist, it hurt as if he had hit a wall with it.

"Stop this madness!" he instantly ordered at the others, who were now too scared and got down to avoid being hit.

"You dick!"

The criminal guy raised his hand and the aura that surrounded him separated a portion of itself to create yet another big and ferocious dog that stood between Benjamin and the man.

"Die idiot!" the criminal roared.

The dog charged, teeth ready to dismember every single part of Benjamin's body.

Before this scene, the young man could do nothing but to stand with a serious look towards his opponent.

"Don't make me laugh"

Benjamin's hand made a swing, and his hand ignited in a yellow energy that blazed the hell out of the dog, disintegrating it.

"W-what?" the Criminal gasped, as he looked in horror as his dog was undone by Benjamin's hand.

That was the boy's power, he had a different kind of power than the others. Similar, but different. He could protect himself of every attack he received thanks to that power.

Ever since he got aware of it, he called it the "Absolute Defense".

Benjamin looked at the cameras, and tried to show his desperation of getting out of all that mess. Yet he noticed that the camera men and reporters were watching in horror how the people they came to fear fought each other.

He then knew he was alone in that mess.

The guy was ready to create yet another dog, but his actions were suddenly interrupted by a wave of shots that crashed into his body and skull. His body fell to the ground, dead, and the dogs he had materialized dissipated like magic.

Benjamin cleaned his eyes before the carnage that happened just before him. He immediately raised his hands, including the one under the yellow flames.

"I'm with you guys!" He yelled.

His plea to ally with the soldiers was never heard. The armed man rushed over him and the other rebels and started hitting them over and over until they were on board. They did not killed them, probably because they had orders of not doing so, but they surely wanted to. The dozen soldiers that had died on that day sparked the cry out of the reporters and other tumultuous people that had joined them soon after the fight had started.

"Die monsters!"

"You don't deserve to live!"

"You are not human!"

Those words surely hurt Benjamin's heart, he was forced to be seated again in his uncomfortable spot in that Airbus 380 alongside the rebels and the others who had decided not to take any sides.

A few minutes passed, the plane was already on its way.

Benjamin knew that he was going to get alive either way, his power would protect him of any danger, but, he somewhat felt alone, unprotected from the world ahead of him.

A tear of despair escaped Benjamin's eyes as he looked how the city of El Cairo went smaller and smaller and the void below them became the vast seas of the Pacific Ocean.

He had no choice but to accept his fate.

Chapter 1
Chosen from a Certain Derivation of Time

Part 1
"Code Name: Prometheus"

The robotic voice of a white colored computer was heard across the whole room as the doctor placed a blood sample in the small container of a device which looked like a coffee machine.

Benjamin was laying on that room's patient bed looking at the white roof, there was no sound at all except for that the doctor made with her actions.

Her name was Doctor Monica Sigourne, she displayed a long brown and curly hair alongside a distinctive lab coat that reached her feet. She was not like him, she was a normal human that travelled into Tartarus city to "investigate" more about the mutations in his and every other titan in the state. She specialized in theoretical Xenobiology, a major Benjamin never heard of. Like her, thousands of scientists with similar titles had come to call Tartarus city home even though they were never affected by the titan mutation.

There had been 4 months ever since he first arrived into his new home.

"Well, Prometheus" Monica said, breaking the awkward silence that there is always between a doctor and her patient, "Your life signs seem to be good, the mutation is running normally into your DNA without causing any exterior changes... except of course for the plasmic generation of burning yellow flames on your arms..."

Benjamin sat on that uncomfortable bed in order to hear better her diagnosis. She looked at him for the first time

"What about my passive?"

"Oh yes, you mean your... how do you call it? Absolute defense?"

The young man nodded.

"Well we can say that your ability to shift your fists and arms into raging fire fists is due to the titan mutation. However, the data about the Absolute defense is something that we still not fully understand."

Benjamin sighted, and stood up to proceed unto a white door that lied ahead of him. Monica stopped him and smiled.

"I may collect some new data if you let me see it again."

Benjamin looked at her suspiciously, "You know that nobody is aware this" he said.

"As always, testing will remain between you and me" She affirmed.

Benjamin looked at another door that spanned behind him, same color and type but different tag number and title.

He sighted again.

"Fine"

Monica's eyes shined and immediately directed him towards the door on their backs, she entered a security code and pushed the young man inside.

Benjamin entered the chamber. It was black and it had square markings in the floor, walls and roof. It was a square room designed for some sort of dangerous experiments.

Monica entered right after him and closed the door.

"All right then, please show me your talent Prometheus"

"Don't you think its time for you to call me by my actual name?" Benjamin noted.

"Not quite, this is a professional testing chamber, I would like to keep the titles above everything as much as we can, please."

She directed a revolver gun at him, loaded.

Benjamin closed his eyes, "We did this a thousand times already, doctor." he said, annoyed.

"We learn something new everyday my friend"

The gun fired at Benjamin at incredible speed. But it did not affect the man, not a single bit. Instead, a raging fire came in to absorb the small bullet Monica had fired at him almost instantaneously.

Benjamin had not move a single bit to block that shot.

That was the power of his "Absolute Defense" system. Every single time something would get dangerously close and at a piercing speed, that fire would come and consume all projectiles or attacks incoming to him. He did not understood his power, it acted involuntarily and passively. Simply put, he could not control it.

When the fire disappeared seconds later, Monica smiled and lowered her weapon, satisfied.

"Well?" Benjamin said, "Anything new?"

"I'm amazed, this time you did not even move to evade my shot, are you growing confident of this absolute defense of yours?" She said, opening up the room's door again.

"Well, it is thanks to you if that helps."

Both of them got out of the strange test chamber, and Monica indicated him to sit down again.

That was his weekly check in the Xenobiology. Europa. Lab. (XEL) in Tartarus city. Once the huge city-state was declared independent by the United Nations, scientists from the theoretical and alien investigation began to immigrate to the Tartarus city-state and established their labs in the city to help the affected by the titan mutation to thrive and use their abilities to be part of them.

He had learned a few tricks himself, but only a few. Benjamin had been a person with a low social profile until now and wished to keep it that way. He knew that if other titans discovered his ability to defend himself, a lot of challengers would come to duel him.

Instead, he tested his abilities with the Xenobiologist before him. After all, he was the only one with a yellow aura and with a unique ability.

"From the data that we've collected so far" Monica continued, "I cannot say that the absolute defense mechanism in your body is due to your thinking capabilities... You are not as sharp as your think"

"Oy..." he complained.

"But, the human brain is in control of any functions in your body, keeping your immune systems up and running and keeping your nervous system on check..."

"Yes?"

"Well, it could be that your absolute defense was a more powerful and expanded version of your nervous system as a whole. Probably your body adapted your yellow aura to protect your body from any danger before this one can actually harm you"

"But this is only a speculation?"

"Yes it is, it could be anything else, I need more time to investigate your power, it is really unique Prometheus."

"Tell me something I don't know" Benjamin said arrogantly.

Monica returned to the monitor of the room's computer and started typing on the keyboard, saving all information taken from Benjamin to a mobile memory which she put away in a black leathered suitcase.

Once she extracted the data, she directed the young man towards the door.

"You know where to find me in case you need something... okay?" she said, a little bit more serious on her tone.

Benjamin could notice a slight sign of a worried side in Monica's personality, but she quickly changed to her arrogant and high looks as she crossed through the door, with Benjamin following behind.

Benjamin smiled, she was actually his only acquaintance close enough to be called a friend.

Both of them stood on the verge of a very large corridor where more people with common ropes and lab coats came in and came out of those white doors. The presence of young people like him and adults with lab coats made him always feel as if he was part of something really important. But he could not determine wether that was significant or not, he just felt it.

His thoughts were interrupted, by the sudden appearance of an unknown person.

"Master..." she said.

Before them was a short girl, asian face with glasses, with a warm black coat and winter jeans and long hair. She was beautiful, very very beautiful, if Benjamin had to describe her, she would have been easily the prettiest asian girl he had ever met.

Both Monica and the young man known as "Prometheus" stupidly looked backwards, realizing there was the door they just crossed and them. Even though, Benjamin was having a hard time trying to understand what he heard.

"E-excuse me?" he said.

"Master!" she cried, and purposely ran towards him and hugging the man in the process, her tiny body was dwarfed by Benjamin's tall size, but that was not what he thought. His mind suddenly went black.

".................................Wha-??"

Benjamin, Monica and the people who were passing by looked with their jaws dropped at the young girl as she hung unto him.

Part 2
"Hey..."

Monica stood with a disgusted look, and Benjamin felt an invisible and heavy aura emanating from the doctor beside him, "Prometheus, I didn't know you were into that kind of thing."

"OY!" Benjamin hopelessly cried, "Be reasonable, I've never met this girl in my life!"

"Yeah right, as If I would believe you saying that with the girl hugging you like an enamored flower!"

"I said I've never seen her in my entire life!"

Benjamin glared at the asian girl again, she looked happy, hiding her face from the world in his clothes.

"Get away from me!"

The young man grabbed the girl's arms and pushed her away with extreme difficulty, she was grabbing his clothes as if her life was depending on it.

The girl regained her balance right after and stood a meter away from him with an innocent look. Benjamin looked to his surroundings and noticed that, as much as he tried to avoid it, he was already the center of many eyes, which looked either surprised or jealous.

Benjamin throbbed and swore in silence.

He looked at the girl who was standing in front of him, as beautiful as she was, he could not afford to have presentations first, hugs would come later.

Yes, later...

Wait, what the hell was he thinking? He shook his head sideways, feeling the uncomfortable look Monica had placed on him when he did that. Benjamin could not help but smile to his short-lived fantasy like a small kid. He regained his composure and took a deep breath at the same time as Monica opened her mouth to start the now unstoppable interrogation towards the girl in black winter clothing.

"Who the hell are you?" the young doctor said.

The girl looked at her gently with a defying glare, then took a more japanese like stance and traditionally bowed her head.

"A pleasure meeting you, my name is Mori Susuka"

"Susuka..." Monica repeated, with a suspicious look as she examined the girl "You are definitely Japanese, how come you know english that well?"

"I worked as a translator of my previous master before actually coming here" Susuka said almost immediately without hesitation.

"What is your relationship with Prometheus?" Monica asked, going straight to the point.

"I don't have a relationship with him" the girl responded.

"See?" Benjamin shouted, loud and clear for anyone in that corridor to hear.

"What is your relationship with master, doctor?" Susuka suddenly asked.

Monica remained silent, a little bit confused as to why she was asking such a thing.

"Stop. calling. Him. Master." she threatened," And well, if I had to describe our relationship, I could say that he's my lab rat"

Benjamin looked at her.

"Oy..."

"Yes! He would be my great, tall lab rat ha ha ha!" she confirmed before she actually blasted the corridor with laughter.

"I think that you are confusing the experiment with a relationship." Benjamin whispered in his thoughts as he looked at the joyful doctor.

"Anyway" Benjamin interrupted, "Why are you calling me master and why did you hugged me all of the sudden"

A sudden growl interrupted Benjamin's words, he looked down towards Susuka's stomach. The growl appeared again.

Susuka looked embarrassed as she kindly smiled.

"I haven't eaten in the whole day..." she said playful as she turned her backs on them.

"That's one hell of a stomach you have..." Monica surprisingly added.

Suddenly, Benjamin looked at the time, and remembered that in fact, he had not eaten breakfast because of the long examination. He looked at the girl before him and a gentleman's thought crossed his mind.

"That reminds me, I've not eaten as well, and we are already in mid day"

Susuka's eyes shined, as if her opportunity had just arrived.

"Will master treat me some food?!"

The man scratched his hair and adjusted his own glasses.

"Well, I do have questions for you so... yeah let's go."

Monica grabbed Benjamin's arm.

"You little..."

"What?!"

Susuka started walking towards the exit of that corridor, but Monica was not finished on what she was saying.

"Prometheus, be careful with that girl."

"Why?" he asked, surprised to see his friend worried again, "Is she dangerous?"

"Not dangerous, but I believe I had seen her face before in some files, go with her, you have your ability that will protect you from any known attack so far. But still, be careful."

Benjamin nodded.

"I will"

"And I will do my little research about her, and inform you of anything suspicious, again please be careful, something tells that while she might be interested in you, a lot of people might be interested in her."

"In that case, I will be more careful" he said, anxious of going with Susuka.

Monica smiled and gently tapped Benjamin's shoulder before walking on the opposite direction Susuka went.

Benjamin took another deep breath and went out of the XEL facilities to meet Susuka.

Part 3
It was snowy that day.

Benjamin always liked the look of a city under the snow, he had only grasped a few days in the calmness of a cloudy and snowy day when he was a child. But after four months, he had get used to it.

In what was North East Asia, snow was something very common.

He looked behind him and saw the japanese girl he had encountered at XEL a few moments ago, she was following him a meter behind with her head down and with a humble look.

To anyone that could be called a girl with low esteem, but Benjamin knew exactly what was going on.

"E-Em..." He annoyingly mumbled, "Quit that will you?"

"What?" She said. Benjamin noticed that she was no longing calling him master.

"That servant-master stuff..." He clarified, "It's annoying and completely awkward."

"O-oh yes, I'm sorry..."

What the hell is wrong with her, she was all lovely and energetic a few minutes ago he thought.

She reached Benjamin's spot and started walking his pace, but with her head down and with a more shy look on her face.

The young man took some seconds to contemplate the girl that was walking beside him. From a closer perspective, Susuka was very beautiful and her hair was long and black as the oil. Her glasses gave her a smart but innocent look and her black leather coat and pants gave the impression she was someone very important.



Benjamin could not stop noticing the band on her right arm with a blue cross in the center displaying in her arm.

"I do understand the situation I placed you in."

The sweet and almost childish voice came in from her thin lips, Benjamin was moved by listening to that voice, maybe he hadn't noticed due to her embarrassing actions. Susuka continued:

"I will explain everything once we reach the Commercial District."

"E-m okay" Benjamin mumbled again.

Benjamin swore in silence, those words had turned on his suspicious, he was not stupid at all, Susuka looked in trouble and he was willing to help her. Yet he had no idea of what was happening, no idea on who that Susuka Mori was, but he had a gut feeling that he may had enrolled into some serious trouble by accepting to help her, even though he was just going to invite her to have breakfast.

The two took some stairs that led to a second floor like bridge, where they found a train station. Benjamin payed for two passages and then waited for the train to take them to the Commercial district.

Tartarus city was a big metropolis that had thrived from the presence of all those with the same type of abilities than him, thanks to that, Astronomy and Scholars had moved their workplaces to Tartarus.

Little he knew of the foundation of that city other than it was specifically designed for two things: To harbor Titans and to be independent from any country. In other words, Tartarus was a city-state independent from the World wide community, also regarded as the greatest prison of all time.

Yet, residents at Tartarus were not having a hard life, they could dedicate themselves to whatever they want. If they were scientists, they would work for the technological and lifestyle improvements of the city and its boundaries, if it were teachers, they gave particular study sessions at their homes or at any other place designed for learning and study. It was like a normal city with excessive military presence from the Tartarus state.

Going out was not an option, not because the city's administration wouldn't allow it, simply because the countries that had sent them to Tartarus did it so that they wouldn't have to deal with super humans.

The train arrived to the station, and the young pair boarded alongside a handful of people. The heavy flow of people was early in the morning for work and other practices, now at barely 12 o'clock, there were just a few souls who were wandering in the streets looking to occupy themselves.

The train's rail system was built over the normal streets in order to have the city's inhabitants walk in the level below it. As a matter of fact, there were no cars in Tartarus city, the train and automated buses moving on electricity were the only means of transportation.

Benjamin was getting more nervous as their destination drew closer, there had been an awkward silence with Susuka all this time, and that was killing his patience at a rapid rate.

Five minutes later, the train arrived the Commercial District's station and both walked out. They descended through an identical set of stairs and arrived to what it looked to be a shopping center. People was selling all kinds of things, Food, clothes, toys, Tartarus city was a prosperous place to live in, except that Benjamin could not communicate with the world outside.

That world had abandoned and despised him.

They walked into a cafe where they sat near the door. Benjamin asked the waitress for a coffee and waffles, he was really hungry and his body needed sustenance to keep on going to what Susuka was about to tell him.

Susuka asked for waffles, coffee, chocolate milk, vanilla ice cream and a sandwich.

The young man looked at her, with no comments to come out from his mouth. He swore in silence, he wouldn't tell his guest to have a limited ration of food.

Instead, he worried about the fact that Susuka's tiny body would not sustain too much food.

Once the Waitres had gone, Susuka placed her hands on the table and looked at Benjamin with a more serious tone than the one with shy and humble look.

"Well then, I shall explain myself now"