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Chapter 16: The Fractured Mind
Location: Gauteng Province, South Africa – outskirts of Pretoria
Time: 2:14 AM
The small van rumbled quietly through a potholed road just outside the city limits. Hann sat in the back, eyes focused on a tablet glowing softly in the dark. Files scrolled by—medical reports, incident logs, surveillance footage. All pointing to one name.
Lwazi Mahlangu.
Age: 17.
Born in Tembisa.
Admitted to institutional care at age 12 following an "incident" involving spontaneous telekinetic outbursts and full psychic projection.
It wasn't just some kid with headaches and hunches. According to Wakandan intelligence, Lwazi could see things—memories, thoughts, future fragments—sometimes uncontrollably. And worse, he could reach into other people's minds and shake their reality to pieces.
Untrained. Alone. Misunderstood.
The perfect kind of dangerous.
"Is this a good idea?" Hann muttered.
Beside him, the Wakandan field operative nodded. "His powers are real. What you do with him is up to you."
The van stopped near a fenced property lined with rusted gates and concrete walls covered in ivy. The air was heavy. Hann stepped out, the rings on his hands pulsing faintly. His breath fogged in the cold night. Something wasn't right.
The facility looked abandoned. But it wasn't.
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Inside: Jacaranda Rehabilitation Centre
Cameras tracked motion in long-forgotten halls. Fluorescent lights flickered. Doors creaked. Hann walked carefully, staff in hand, eyes scanning. The walls were lined with messages scratched in ink and nail:
> "You don't hear them like I do."
"I'm not broken. I'm awake."
"THEY'RE STILL IN MY HEAD."
A buzzing hum rang faintly in his ears. The air shifted.
"Stop."
The voice was young. Tired. Somewhere above him.
Hann froze.
"I don't want to hurt you," the voice said again.
"I'm not here to hurt you either," Hann replied calmly. "Lwazi, right?"
The shadows stirred. Something moved across the corridor—barely a ripple, like a shimmer of heat. Hann's instincts flared.
And then the world split.
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Mental Projection – Dreamspace Manifestation
Hann blinked. One second, he was in a hallway. The next, he was standing in a replica of Johannesburg—except it was fractured. Floating pieces of buildings hovered in the air. Colors bled and shifted. The laws of physics twisted unnaturally.
And there—standing on a half-crushed rooftop—was a boy.
Lwazi wore simple clothes, threadbare and faded. His eyes glowed faintly violet. There were dark circles beneath them, and his posture was tense, like an animal cornered too many times.
"You're not real," Lwazi said. "Or if you are, you're bait."
Hann stayed still. "No bait. Just me. Hann."
"I don't trust you. You came with the black cars. The men with white coats."
"I came alone," Hann said. "And I came because you don't belong locked away. But you're not safe unless you learn control."
Lwazi scoffed. "Control? You think I didn't try? Every time I try to sleep, I hear ten other people's nightmares. I see accidents before they happen and can't stop them. My mom's face... it's stuck in my head. I remember her dying every day."
Hann felt it—the boy's pain, raw and turbulent. The dreamspace flickered.
"I know what it's like to carry a burden you didn't ask for," Hann said, walking closer. "To be told you're dangerous, too much, too broken. But you're not. You're just… untaught."
Lwazi's breath trembled. "Then teach me."
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Back in the Real World
They emerged from the mental projection together. Lwazi was sweating, shaken, but clearer. He looked at Hann like someone seeing solid ground after drowning.
"What now?" he asked quietly.
"We leave," Hann said. "You're coming with me. But not as a prisoner. As a partner."
"I'm not ready."
"Neither was I," Hann said. "But we get ready together."
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Later: Onboard the Jet
Lwazi sat strapped in, staring out at the clouds through the window, wide-eyed but silent. The Wakandan pilot glanced back briefly, giving Hann a thumbs-up.
Hann leaned forward.
"There's more out there. Threats you wouldn't believe. I'm building something—something different from the Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D. Something that can deal with shadows before they spread."
Lwazi tilted his head. "Like a black-ops school?"
Hann laughed. "More like a family that can fight."
The psychic boy gave a faint smile. It didn't reach his eyes yet, but it was a start.
"You got a code name?" Hann asked.
Lwazi shrugged. "The doctors called me Project Mindglass. Thought it sounded cool."
"Yeah… we'll work on that."
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Final Scene: Wakandan Outskirts – Training Compound
The jet touched down near a remote training site. Fields of holographic projections shimmered in the dusk. Drones patrolled the edge. Shuri waited with a tablet, already scanning Lwazi before he even disembarked.
"Another one, huh?" she said.
"This one's different," Hann replied. "He doesn't just see the future. He's been living it—again and again. We're going to help him break that loop."
Lwazi stepped beside them, nervous but determined. The first step of many.
Together, they walked into the compound.
End of Chapter 16
Next: Chapter 17 – Hydra's Remnants