Candi: "It was a struggle to get that thing out, but I managed. Fresh air began to replace the bezeetol-fumed air, and I could feel my strength coming back."



Candi: "I made sure to destroy that guillotine as best I could. I threw it out of the way of the entrance. I saw the night vision goggles lying on the ground.

What would Emeraldon do without them? He was now too weak to fly! And he couldn't see a being that was as strong as he was! I put the goggles on. Now I'd had enough! I was not about to let MY mission kill off such a great hero! At this point, it was personal!"



Candi: "I guess what he saw next startled him...a Centhuen Prototype...battling against Jeffrey and winning! He had helped save my life, and now I was saving his! I finally had Jeffery beaten bloody, and as I kept stinging him, he begged me not to turn him in."



Erin: "Incredible! My own sister! Even I didn't imagine you'd make this much discovery so soon! Yes, I'll definitely tell you where you came from, but finish this story!"

Candi: "I stung him one last time. He passed out. I decided I'd done enough, and retracted all my legs."



Candi: "He hid me until after the police had finished hauling away Jeff the Invisible. After that, he had me come out of hiding. He asked me for my name, and everything else. He must have seen something in me, because he asked if it were okay that we go somewhere more private to talk. I told him that I'd be honored."



Miriam: "Where'd he take you?"

Candi: "To Viron University. He was renting a house nearby. I figured that nobody was home and that you all were probably going to be at a party, so I spent the night on the sofa.

The following morning, he woke me up with the smell of his cooking. We had a very lengthy Bible devotion time at his house before he decided it was bed time. Therefore, I trusted him not to try anything."

Erin: "Even then, what you did was risky!"

Candi: "Yes. But he was a good-hearted soul. He introduced himself as Donte McArthur."



Candi: "At this point, he already knew my name, and was impressed. He reiterated that I was the Gifted Flippo, and that I needed to be protected at all costs until it was my time. I told him I had no idea what this stuff was about. He told me it was probably for the best!"

Erin: "Okay. I'll give you a small bit of information now: Emeraldon got his suit through your Phaelite half-brother, Ploribus!"

Miriam: "Wait! Ploribus is our half-brother? How is that possible?"

Erin: "I'll explain in a minute, let Candi finish her confession!"



Candi: "We quickly became the love of each other's lives. His is a very sad story. Maybe it's better if he tells you the details. But I can tell you this much: lost his father at age 9.

He's five years older than myself, so he was about 23 or 24 at the time we met. He had never bothered with women until I came along. Like me, he has had to fear losing loved ones to the Meethlites. He's also had to face the Kerphers, etc."

Miriam: "How did he become Emeraldon?"



Candi: "I...really don't know the answer to that one, sorry! All this time, and I've never asked him. Something to do with the Phaelites, I'll bet!"

Miriam: "Why the sad look on your face?"

Candi: "Because...he works with the Phaelites. Ploribus, even my godfather Imaki Izuki!"

Erin: "The tailor who made the suit Ploribus gave to him!"

Candi: "Yes. The Meethlites have found a way to invade the Phaelites' home planet. They've asked him to assist them in the war. He's conflicted, but I fear he may have no choice.

His mother is a Meethlite prisoner! I fear we might not see him again alive! I am to speak with him tomorrow, to see if he's going or not..."



Miriam: "Well, pardon me for being rude, but this small world stuff is beginning to bug me. I'm gonna just take a peak at what's in here, and call it a night. You two think you'll be done soon?"

Erin: "You're likely to miss out on a lot of history."

Miriam: "Ah, whatever. I'll just lounge. I'm feeling tired, but I'll listen."



Candi: "You're not too upset that I didn't tell you about Donte until now, are you?"

Erin: "No. You did well. Even in such odd circumstances, you've proven you can be trusted. Now, poor child, I must tell you where you came from..."



Erin: "The time to act on what I'm about to tell you may come sooner than you think. But you must know who the Meethlites really are..."

Candi: "I'm listening..."

Erin: "It began in the Dark Ages, some time after the fall of Rome... Feudalism was beginning to take hold. There was a feudal lord, and he was something of a tyrant."

Miriam: "This sounds pretty far-fetched..."

Erin: "It's not technically my family history...but it does involve Candi's. Anyway, a man named Zeras led a rebellion among the serfs. Numerous attempts had been made on his life, but he sought to liberate all he could. While hiding in a catacomb...he came across a mysterious hole in the air around him..."



Erin: "He didn't know it, but he'd discovered the phenomenon of Zeran holes, named after him. His descendants would develop Zeran technology...quantum packs we call them...which would allow them to carry in something the size of a belt buckle...a complete wardrobe! His first visit would take him to the planet Metheel, the next to Phaelon."

Candi: "This stuff really is out there..."



Erin: "His faithful followed, carrying with them an extreme curiosity and highly scientific minds.

Zeras, the founder of Zeran hole technology, was so loved by those he liberated, they made him their king. But his was a lonely rule. He had no queen, and his children had all been sold as slaves before he achieved greatness.

Through their discoveries, the Zeranites were able to keep contact with those still on Earth, and developed their plans for what to do with Earth..."



Erin: "Even after death, some said it seemed like he was haunting the halls of Metheel's main castle, Dilfirrnus. This could be little proven...but the natives swore by it. After his death, the two worlds agreed to grow apart. But their common legacy drove them both to scientific obsession...especially in regards to forced mutation.

Come the nineteenth century, the movements in science either discovered anew or copied from Earth became unstoppable.

Both planets, Phaelon and Metheel, decided that they had to claim parts of Earth for themselves to remain relevant. But the Phaelites and Meethlites both decided major changes needed to be made to their worlds...and to themselves..."

Candi: "What kind of changes?"

Erin: "They wanted to start work on mutations. The hype over creating a superior species was the rage in circles of pseudo-science fanatics. The same mindset that would lead us on Earth to supremacist dictators like Hitler and Pol Pot was taking hold among the Phaelites and Meethlites."



Erin: "This was especially true of the Meethlites, who had the means to create human-animal hybrids.

Insel of the Meethlites was the last king on Metheel to sit on the Zeran throne. One of his first moves as king was to oversee the destruction of the ancient castle.

'Progress' demanded a new means of organization, and both alien breeds wanted to answer the call. There were two animals that had been created in labs...the Metheel Millipede and the Phaelotorian Centipede, specifically for purposes of this human-animal hybrid obsession on both worlds."



Erin: "And did the experiments ever begin...werewolf experiments, some of which they're trying today...AI possession...also their fad...but there was one thing the two types of aliens had always been in a race over...they wanted superhumans. And they looked everywhere for the means. They did many experiments, some of which were disasters.

Both the mutated centipedes and mutated millipedes were incredible creatures. The millipede in question could sense things...pretty much before they happened. They could stick to almost anything, and they were extremely agile. The new centipede species was even more extreme. While it couldn't stick to just anything, it had retractable spare legs.

Rather than store deadly venom like many Earth centipedes, this alien variety merely carried a sleep inducer. The retractable centilegs could do far more than just sting though...they could...allow the creature to throw things around!"



Candi: "Including things five times its own weight?"

Erin: "Yes. The Meethlites wouldn't stand for it! Even among their own number, lives and reputations were at stake. These new species were exactly what both the Phaelites and Meethlites were looking for: a creature that they could splice genes from to experiment with their agendas. Already, the Phaelites had those in their number that insisted on reforms.

They insisted the unethical science experiments must end. Your half-brother Ploribus was among them, and still is. The Meethlites though, were all greed and conquest. The human-millipede race they sought to create, Milthuens, proved tricky business, but they were by no means willing to give up..."



Erin: "A prophecy developed among the Meethlites, that if a Centhuen Prototype grew too powerful, before they had successfully created the Milthuen race, that even before the Phaelites had perfected Centhuens, this human centipede would be the downfall of one of their clans.

Duke Arfaas is believed to be the leader of a particularly obnoxious one that's attacking our world.

In World War II, the Phaelites almost had their adversaries convinced they had created the Gifted One they so feared. They called him Centipede Charlie. The OSS, and later the CIA, made sure to keep him out of public knowledge. He's everything you are becoming, Candi. And perhaps you'll become something even more..."

Candi: "What do you mean?"

Erin: "It's hard to be sure. But the Germans feared him...until they were lucky enough to ambush him..."



Erin: "With the memory of Centipede Charlie all but gone, the Phaelites knew that the Meethlites would plot numerous supervillains to unleash. The Phaelites knew they needed to act fast to make another Centhuen prototype..."

Candi: "Me?"

Erin: "Not at first. Alison Ligash was very down on her luck, the live-in girlfriend of Steve McNolan, a minor league baseball player. He was abusive, so she left him and married Tobey Flippo, but not before she conceived Steve's child. Steve died soon afterward, from lung and throat cancer.

But Alison was desperate! Toby was injured in a car accident, and that left Alison's son Stan Flippo temporarily without a father. She was in bad health herself, and the gangs in Craterville were constantly targeting her. The Phaelite scientists who were coming under fire for their unethical experiments were willing to offer her protection...at a price..."