D&R (http://lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=183914)

Cambridge, UK

The young women landed on her hands a top a gymnastic vault in the middle of a large gymnasium. With little effort she pushed away with her hands sending her flying upwards and into a backwards flip, she flawlessly landed onto a mat in front of the vault. A much older women walked up to her clapping her hands with a clipboard under her arms.

“Perfect balance as always Sarah-Jane.” The instructor congratulated. “I have no doubt you’ll win the tournament next week.”

“Thanks coach.” SJ replied with a huge smile across her face.

“You better get ready for your next class.” The teacher ordered as she took her clipboard and began to write on it.

SJ walked off and into the nearby changing room, she didn’t take long to walk out and run to her locker in one of the central corridor. Taking her books from the inside she looked around and saw her boyfriend walking over to her with an upset look across his face. Sarah-Jane’s expression remained cheerful and she skipped over to him intent on a kiss, only to have him back away from her.

“Is something wrong?” She asked as her expression dropped to one of bewilderment.

“Yeah, SJ.” He replied looking everywhere but at her. “I’ve been thinking we should cool things down a bit, you know take a break.”

“Are you breaking up with me?” SJ asked still bewildered from the unexpected turn of events.

“Yeah.” He replied still unable to look her in the eyes.

“You can’t do this!” She shouted and as she did scream a slight tremor shook across the corridor, but she did not feel it. “What did I do.” She continued to shout as the ground tremors got more vigorous. “Why are you doing this to me!”

The Tremors suddenly turned into what felt to those in the corridor to be a full on earthquake, causing the lockers to fall over and the walls to crumble. The ceiling began to split and crack with the wall causing chunks of brick and concrete to fall. SJ realising what was happen noticed she was maintaining her balance with no effort at all as the building it’s self crumbled to the ground.

SJ Closed her eyes only hearing the sounds of the devastation that was occurring around her, the clashing items and screams of the students echoed through her ears. Then all the noise stopped and she opened her eye, looking around at the destruction she realised ripples in the ground emanating from her.
__________________________________________________ ___

Is the world changed by it’s people or are people changed by their world. Evolution and natural selection will change a species to better suit its surroundings, but humanity will change it’s surroundings to suit its needs. So are the men and women of this world destined to stay the same or are we to become more than what we are. If humanity can evolve will a moral and ethics ascend with it or will human nature remain in our times.

I have found that mankind is changing in ways beyond the imagination and dreams have many people. These changes often seem random without any reason or relation to others who have changed. Are those gifted with these special powers the next step for humanity and will this evolution be good for the world and it’s people or could it be the worse thing to happen?
__________________________________________________ ____
Seattle USA
Two weeks later
Analysing a DNA Helix displayed on a small computer screen on his desk, Jason hawk seemed to be in complete concentration upon it. The image was state of the art 3D representation of the DNA of a women with a genetic disorder that prevented her from conceiving. Jason’s job was simple he had to find where the problem was and attempt to work out any possible cures for it, this was his job and he enjoyed the good he did.

However his passion, though involving genetics, was what was on his mind at the time, he had recently written a paper that he published on the internet about a recent phenomenon. So far those in his field of work had only ridiculed it, but he hoped it would reach the people it was intended for, the people like him.

His phone began to ring off to his side bringing him out of his trance and his work, reaching over he held it to his ear.

“Gene Analysis…” Dr Hawk introduced uninterested. “…Speaking… Who is it?…” the left corner of his lip and eye brow raised. “… Are you serious… Okay, I’ll be right down.”

Jason stood up switching off the computers monitor and walked out of his small office, he entered a tight sterile aluminium corridor as he passed many more doors each the same as the last. He soon arrived at some elevator doors already open and stepped in pressing the ‘Ground Floor’ button. The elevator didn’t take long to get to it’s floor and Jason walked out into the lobby and other to a very familiar face.

“Professor Jones, it’s a surprise to see you here.” He called walking over to the Scottish geneticist. “although I’m still trying to decide if it’s a pleasant one.”

“Jason, I’m here because I need your help… It involves your research.” Byron explained.

“Any work I do for Globe-Net is confidential.”

“Not that research, your other research.”

“Oh the one you tried to use to discredit me and get me thrown out of Cambridge for writing.”

“Look I made a mistake, and I apologise.”

“Well you can go screw yourself.” Jason stated. “I’m not helping you.”

“Jason it’s my daughter.” The scot argued. “She can do things.”

“What kind of things?” The Young doctor asked his interest piqued.

“The kind of things you wrote about.”

“Okay I can’t leave now but bring her to my apartment tonight and I’ll see what I can do.” Jason told looking at his watch.

Three Months Ago

A column of IDF soldiers advanced down a shanty Palestinian neighborhood in the dead of night. The night was so quiet, if it wasn't for their footsteps, you might even be able to hear the pounding of their heartbeats. There was a burst of machine gun fire from a rooftop up ahead...

The alarm went off, Adrian slammed the snooze button after two beeps and turned it off. He had been having the same dream on and off ever since he arrived in the states. But it always ended there. Adrian let the thought slip away, and climbed out of bed falling right on his stomach on the floor. He began to follow up on his daily morning routine, pushups, crunches and perhaps after work he would go to the gym. When it was finished he stood up and surveyed his decent Seattle apartment to make sure nothing was out of place. Seattle wasn't really a city known for its crime, but there sure was crime and even worse, it could have been "them". The apartment wasn't anything too great, but it was clean and had everything he needed. After a shower, Adrian threw on some jeans, a really nice black ski jacket, and the one out of three pairs of shoes he had. Finally he opened a kitchen drawer where his Walther PPK sat and threw in the clip. Can never be too careful, they might come looking for him again. He placed the gun in his ski jackets inner pocket. With quick blink of an eye Adrian was downstairs just outside the building infront of a "7 11". Adrian bought the same old thing he bought every morning since he had been in Seattle. A sandwich, one bottle of orange juice, and a pack of Camel cigarettes. Just outside was a nearby bus stop, he sat on the bench and began to eat his sandwich. The bus would arrive in ten minutes which would take him to his work.

"The block is cracked," the mechanic stated plainly, "I don't know why, but it looks like water froze in it and cracked the block."

"But it didn't freeze last night," Devin exclaimed trying to keep his emotions in check, "How does an engine block freeze in fifty degree weather?" Devin already knew the answer. He just couldn't believe it. The band fired him and he let himself get angry. Its a good thing they did it over the phone, he thought.

The look on the mechanic's face was strange. He was trying to think of a good answer that made sense to himself, but was having difficulty. "Maybe the block was cracked earlier, and it didn't break down 'til now."

Good save Devin thought. "So basically my van is trashed. and I have to find another way to work. Just spiffy." Devin started to walk off.

"What about the bill? You gonna pay it?"

"Nope, keep the van. Take everything inside it. I don't need it any more." Devin was finally done being a musician. He poured too much of his heart into it, and now it was getting too dangerous. It's time I gave up on music he thought, I gotta work on my day job. It pays better he chuckled to himself.

Devin headed for the nearest bus stop.

Kevin Waters never bothered to set an alarm clock any longer... not after he discovered that his natural instinct when one started ringing in the morning was to smack it, and with his power, the alarm clock would stop ringing... but it wouldn't start again until he restored the damage he'd done to it. So he left the waking up to his roommate and best friend, William Banes.

"Kev, come on!" Will urged, charging into his friend's room. "Wake up!"

"You're unpleasantly awake at this ridiculous time," Kevin mumbled into his pillow. He opened one eye and peered at the alarm clock. "6 AM? Man, I could use at least three more hours... if not five or six."

"And get up at noon?" Will shot back. "Dude, you lost your last job because you did that. You want to lose this one too?"

Kevin shoved his head further into his pillow and a remote control car at Will's feet came to life and slammed repeatedly into Will's shoe. With a sigh, Will shook his head and retreated. The car left him alone.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Lara Caldwell was already on-campus at the University of Washington at 6 AM. Some might say her schedule was obscene, but she was a 'morning person', through and through. Her first class started in half an hour and today was test day... one could never get enough study time for one of those.

The young Aussie smiled faintly, watching her fellow students rush about campus, clutching at their study materials and their book bags. She took a sip of the cappuccino she'd bought on her way across campus from her dorm and turned her attention back to the study materials on her laptop computer. And that's when her phone rang.

"Ms. Caldwell, we have another assignment for you," the voice on the other end said. Lara rolled her eyes.

"When your... company told me I could learn to control my abilities, I had no problem with doing the occasional odd job for you," she said. "Don't you think you're taking this a little far? It's been almost four years."

"One refusal out of you and we'll have the police after you," the voice calmly threatened. "Ms. Caldwell, people have died because we told you to kill them and you obeyed. Reluctantly, true... but obeyed. Accept the facts. You work for us now."

Lara was silent for several long seconds. Finally, she said, "What do you want?"

"Jason Hawk works for Globe-net," the voice informed her. "He's a geneticist..."

"Hold on," Lara interrupted. "Aren't you a division of Globe-net? Why does this have to involve me?"

"Because Mr. Hawk is withholding research from us," the voice answered. "We need you to... persuade him to give it up."

"I have a test this morning," Lara said. "And I'm busy until..."

"We know your school schedule," the voice replied. "And you have nothing to worry about. Mr. Hawk is based in Seattle. You won't have to travel for him. We'll send the address to your phone."

And with that, the connection was abruptly cut. Lara sighed wearily. She hated it when her days started off with an 'assignment'. Checking the time, she finished off her cappuccino, shoved her computer into her bag, and headed to her first class of the day.

"Ellison!"

Malin Ellison yanked off her helmet and shook out her matted light brown hair, then cast a glance over at the tall, imposing man who had shouted her name. She made her way past her fellow firefighters disembarking from the engine and came to a stop in front of the man. "Yes, Captain," she said, coming to attention.

Captain Remy McLane smiled down at Malin. "Good work out there, Ellison," he commended her, nodding in approval. "Don't know how you do it, but damned glad to have you here."

"Yes sir, thank you sir," Malin replied, feeling her face flush slightly at the praise. During her five-year tenure as a firefighter, she'd received quite a fair few commendations for her work, specifically her rescue skills, but she still felt small pangs of embarassment at being the subject of such effusive recognition. It was further compounded by the fact that she'd been working with Captain McLane and her current crew for only about a week, having been assigned out on a long-term 'loan' program by her home fire department, the FDNY, to the Seattle Fire Department. Her job was formally as a search-and-rescue instructor, but she elected to take her licks along with the rest of the crew, an action that had quickly endeared her to the rest of her fellow firefighters.

"Still gonna make your class tomorrow?" Captain McLane asked her.

Malin ran a hand through her hair, lifting the stray strands that had stuck to her scalp, then checked her watch. 10:30 AM. "If I get enough rest, Cap'n," she replied, smiling.

Captain McLane chuckled. "Yeah, you deserve it. Head on out, I'll take care of the paperwork."

"Thanks Cap."

*~*~*~*~*

Fifteen minutes later, Malin exited the fire station, dressed in plain clothes. Her apartment was only a few blocks from the station, making her commute very easy. Jogging easily towards her building, she swiped her keycard and entered, then ran the twenty flights of stairs up to her tenth floor apartment. Chucking her keys into the bowl by the door, she padded quickly into her home and made a beeline for her bathroom, shedding clothes along the way. She flicked the lights on, then looked at herself in the mirror. She hadn't showered at the station, so her skin was still smudged with soot and ash from the fire she and her crew had battled earlier. She wrinkled her nose at the black streaks lining her face, then reached up and tore the marked skin off. Instead of muscle and sinew, a new layer of pristine, pinkish skin was revealed. "That's better," she sighed, reaching over to twist the faucet on in her tub.

As she got to work husking off the rest of her dirty skin, she planned her day (or rather her night) out for after she slept. Malin had come to Seattle not only to work with the city fire department, but to investigate someone named 'Dr Jason Hawk'. Dr Hawk had published a very interesting paper online regarding people with 'Special' abilities. It had intrigued her when she first read it, but she hadn't actually thought about pursuing it further until she had been sent on this assignment. She had been so busy with her training classes and shifts that she hadn't been able to make headway into finding out more about him. Her assigment was for at least two months though, so she figured she had ample enough time.

Tossing the last bit of skin into the trash, Malin straightened up and examined her now clean appearance in the mirror just before stepping into the tub. Her power allowed her to husk away dirt and grime, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy a good bubble bath.

Three days ago

It was a late night in Seatle. The sky was starless and moonless, as it was a cloudy all over. The only thing illuminating the darkness was the city lights of Seatle.

Alex had just came back from work, when he entered his apartment. He flicked the light switch on to reveal his average living style. As soon as he walked right in through the hall entering the kitchen, something black and furry had snuggled up to Alex's legs which almost made him fall over.

"Puss!" he yelped. It wasn't his cat's actual name, but more of a nickname. HIs cat's actual name was Bruno.

"I bet your hungry, aren't you?" he spoke down to Bruno, which the responce was a typical "meow".

"I take that as a "yes"..."

Alex walked to the kitchen, pulled out his Smith & Wessin and placed it on the bench. He walked straight to the fridge to bring out a purple can of cat food. He opened the tin, and pured a 1/3 of the contents in the cat's bowl.

He walked straight to the window overlooking Seatle, and opened it to allow the cool night breeze to fill the apartment.

The phone rang, which made Alex walk straight to the kitchen to answer it.

"Yeah?" he said.

"Dark, this is Borone. Had any much luck getting the bad guy?" Borone was technically Alex's partner in the bounty hunter business. He filled the role of teaching Alex, because he was still learning to business.

"No..." Alex groaned. He sat down on the couch and played with a small amount of blue psionic energy. It flowed like fire through his finger tips.

"I have a lead on Mr. Kowalski. Locals have reported seeing him hand around in Ridge's Club."

"The illegal gambling casino?" said Alex, standing up on his chair. He walked to his open window.

"Yup... thought you and I should go check it out tommorow. Maybe around 6:30?"

"I'll be there..." he hung up, and dropped the phone on the couch. He looked out the window. Then suddenly, the something snuggled up against Alex's legs. He was just about to yelp "PUSS!" when he accidently tripped down through the window. He fell out of his apartment, forced wind blew into Alex's face. He shut his eyes closed and screamed out loud, as he was about to get splattered on the ground... or was he?

He opened his eyes, and saw he was about a meter above the pavement. But nothing happened. He just floated in mid air. Then he noticed his hands, emitting a cosmic blue energy in the shape of a moving spiral. His psionic energy seemed to be preventing him from falling to the ground, and made him levitate.

He was slowly brought down, as Alex closed off his powers. He carefully landed his feet on the pavement. Luckily no one was around to witness this miracle.

It was a usual morning for a young American lad such as Alex. He woke up not on his bed but on the ground of his apartment. He didn't mind and got up and went straight into the shower. After he was done, he got dressed and checked his mail. Just bills and things that didn't interest him like publicity. He grabbed his wallet and keys and got out.

The motel wasn't exactly fancy but it wasn't that bad to say. Simple. Just like his life. He got to the parking lot and put his helmet on, started his bike and sped out to work. On the way, he noticed many people in university. How he envied them. He didn't have much money to get to college and he didn't like asking for money, he was an honest young man and would go to college by his own way.

He eventually stopped and parked his bike on the cafй parking lot in which he lived. It was called "The Emerald of Seattle". Not really original-looking. Just normal. He got inside and only some other co-workers were there. Since the cafй only opened at 8:30 and it was 7:45, he still had lots of time until the morning shift. He put on his uniform and got to work.

How he hated his normal life.

Two months ago in Miami, Florida

Elisa sat in her room in front of the glow of her computer monitor. After reading something on the monitor, she quickly wrote down some notes onto a notepad. Turning her head, she caught sight of her clock. "2 in the morning?" she said to herself in her thick Spanish accent. "This is taking forever."

Leaning back in her chair, Elisa laid her head back and closed her eyes. Feeling the onset of sleep, Elisa quickly opened her eyes and sat back up straight. Looking back at the monitor, Elisa minimized the web browser and opened up her media player. Putting on a set of headphones, she set the media player to start playing some rock music.

Maximizing the web browser, Elisa got back to work. Having gone out with some friends to see a movie earlier, Elisa was just now getting back to her work for her English class. As they were covering Public Speaking, her teacher had given the group of high school seniors the assignment of talking about their favorite animal. Despite the unison of groans and eye rolling in the classroom, Elisa was somewhat looking forward to it.

After all, she did work at the local zoo as one of the assistant zookeepers and had done so for the past several years. It gave her a fairly rewarding job, but more importantly, it was giving her experience for what she had wanted to do since she was young: become a veterinarian. In particular at the zoo, however, she had become somewhat attached to a young Florida Panther named Clara. She had arrived as an orphaned cub at the zoo not long after Elisa had first arrived, and the handlers allowed Elisa and several other of the young group of keepers to get somewhat accustomed to the animal.

Of course, that now led her to what she was doing now: getting a bit of research done of panthers that were more commonly called cougars much to Elisa's annoyance. Unfortunately, the teacher had given them the assignment earlier that day and had made it due the tomorrow, and Elisa was just now getting to the assignment after the movie.

With the rock music playing loudly in the headphones, Elisa did her best to stay awake so that she could finish the assignment. As she worked into the night, she briefly heard the distinctive sound of something breaking even over the loud rock music.

Turning her head to face the door, Elisa suddenly threw her hands up defensively as the door flung itself open. Before she could react, two men aimed pistols right at Elisa. Signaling her to get up, Elisa took off her headphones, and one of the men reached over and took her roughly by her arm. Pulling her roughly out of her room, Elisa struggled to keep her footing as they led her into the family room of the apartment.

In the family room, Elisa saw that her father and her mother were on their knees with pistols stuck to the back of their heads. With a swift kick to the back of her knees, Elisa was also forced to her knees. That's when she also felt the cold metal of a gun barrel placed against the back of her head. Frightened, tears began to fall down Elisa's cheeks, especially whenever she saw her two older brothers forced to their knees beside of her.

Looking around, she noticed that all five of the gunmen were from the local gang, and they were all Cubans like she was. There were two other Cubans next to the apartment entrance door, and she could here them telling someone outside that her home had been "secured". Through the entranceway, Elisa finally saw a white man walk through. He was an older man, but he still had a muscular frame that showed through his well tailored suit. Behind him came another white man, but Elisa recognized him. She had seen him drop her father off at their apartment on numerous occasions, and he had told her several times that he was a "business partner".

"Well, Carlos, I never did quite think that your place would be looking as sh**ty on the inside as it does on the outside," the second man commented in a noticeably southern accent. "Especially given how well I pay you. Well, I guess that means that you're more of a saver then a spender, and that means you're definitely going to have to tell what your account number is at the bank so I can collect later."

Pausing for a moment, he signaled his men, and they moved Elisa's mother next to her so that they were all facing Carlos, Elisa's father as he was all by himself. Unlike Elisa and her mother, though, Carlos just sat there and looked up at the two white men with unflinching eyes.

"But, first things first, Carlos. I think we both know why I'm here. Then again, I'm surprised that you didn't try to jump ship on me first. I guess you thought that you were going to get me, too," the man continued. "But its too late for you to run now. Same with your family, too. I guess you just don't love them enough to spare them the sight of your blood staining the carpet."


Taking off his blazer, the man handed it to the first white man, and began to undo the buttons on his sleeves. "So, exactly what were you trying to accomplish, Carlos? Takeover? A clean conscience after everything you've done for me?" he asked as he rolled up his sleeves.

"I wanted to see you die the way you had me kill others," Carlos stated without fear as he continued to look up to the white man with those emotionless eyes. "Then, my conscience would've been clean."

Kneeling down to look Carlos in the eyes, the man then said, "Well, I guess that means that I'm going to have to torture you the way I made you torture others. Ironic, isn't it? Still, I doubt that I'll have your efficiency since I've never really had to do it before."

The first white man then handed the other man a pair of pliers as he knelt down next to Carlos. Taking one of Carlos' hands, he then forced him to stick his middle finger into the air.

"So, we'll start with the basics. Did you go to cops?" the man asked.

"Jodete y aprieta el culo," Carlos responded with a sneer.

"Well, I'd say that its a bit early for you to start snubbing me. Oh well, its your problem now," he stated as he placed the pliers around the tip of Carlos' finger.

"Quit it!!" Elisa yelled out as she couldn't stand the sight anymore. As everyone in the room suddenly looked over in her direction, the man then looked over at Carlos.

"Well, I nearly forgot that you had a daughter. Especially a beautifully little whore like that one," he said to Carlos. Looking over at Elisa, he then said, "Very well. I guess there's no point in hurting "Daddy" till I can get everything from him by spoiling you first."

Much to the horror of Elisa and the rest of her family, the gang member standing behind her reached down and pulled her to her feet by her hair. "Bring them to the table," the first white man ordered as he walked over and helped the other Cuban drag Elisa onto the table while they escorted Carlos over to her side.

Suddenly filled with rage and a desperate desire to get out of her situation, Elisa struggled with every ounce of strength she had in her. The situation was almost hopeless, though, as the much stronger men pinned her to the table in such a way that all she could do was to writhe against them.

Beside them, Carlos was forced into a chair, and several sets of handcuffs were used to secure him to it. "Well, I guess this is rather fitting in its own way. You killed my only son, and now I get to spoil your little girl," the man stated menacingly to Carlos who was now noticeably nervous. Reaching over to Elisa, he then began to rip her clothes off.

Enraged, all Elisa could think was how she could be preventing this if she was just something different. As the man brought his hands near her face to mockingly caress her, Elisa opened her mouth to bite it. Much to everyone's surprise, Elisa's mouth snapped closed around the man's hand and tightened to the point that bones were snapping under the pressure.

Screaming in pain, the man brought his other hand back and punched Elisa's gut. To his surprise, he noticed that her smooth skin was now covered in white fur. Elisa then oriented herself onto her side, and her naked body was clearly beginning to transform. Now embodied with incredible strenth, Elisa wrenched her arms from the other white man and kicked the gang member in the gut which sent him sprawling on the ground.

Letting go of the man's hand, Elisa reared back on the table and let out a blood curdling scream. She had transformed into a panther. Backing away in horror while holding his hand, the man hardly had time to turn around before Elisa pounced on him. Sinking her fangs into the back of the man's neck, the sound of breaking bones could be heard as her jaws crushed the man's vertebrae which instantly paralyzed him. Letting go of the neck, Elisa quickly bounded towards the gang members that were guarding the rest of her family.

Pouncing on the first gang member, she quickly closed her jaws around the front of his neck and used her momentum to rip the neck open as he fell to the ground. Letting go, she quickly swiped her front paws in a pincer motion around the second man's leg and bit him in the side of his gut.

By now, the first man had finally pulled out a pistol from his shoulder holster. Taking aim at the panther, he tried to pull off a shot as Elisa struggled with one of the other Cubans. Just before he could squeeze off a shot, he suddenly slumped to the ground as a bullet tore through his head.

Looking through the sights of the pistol, Carlos quickly shot and killed another of the Cubans. Now, there were only two Cubans left: the one that had been kicked aside by Elisa and the one that had been guarding Carlos. The one that had been guarding Carlos, though, was confused as to whether he should shoot the enraged panther or Carlos. Before he could make up his mind, Carlos quickly put a bullet through his head as well.

The other one, however, was quite horrified and was crawling away from the bloodbath down the hallway towards the bedrooms. Hearing and smelling the man at the same time, Elisa could smell his adrenaline through his sweat as he whimpered in cowardice. Timing herself, Elisa reared back and made a powerful leap over the family couch. Landing just behind the man, she quickly jumped on top of him and bit him in the back of the neck as she had with the first man.

Pocketing the handcuff key in his pocket, Carlos pointed the gun down away from Elisa as he looked confusedly over at her. With the man hanging limp in her mouth by the neck, Elisa looked back over at her father. Following the animal's instinct, she quickly dragged the man's body into her room which was right next door. Taking the body into a corner, she dropped the man's body as she tried to catch her breath.

Looking over at his wife and two son's to see how they were, Carlos then activated the safety on the pistol as he sat it down on the table. Carefully turning the corner, he looked over and saw Elisa still in the form of a panther sitting there as it caught its breath. "Elisa," Carlos called out.

Instantly, the panther looked up at Carlos. Growling in aggression, the panther just sat there over the man as it was going to protect its prey. Standing up with her fur bristling, Elisa screamed a warning out to Carlos to stay away.

"I'm not going anywhere, young lady. Now you get over here, Elisa," Carlos replied sharply to the panther.

Almost instantly, the panther's mood changed as it slunk down. "Get over here," Carlos stated as he pointed at the ground.

Obeying him, the panther slunk its way over to Carlos. Finally reaching him, it quickly began to change. Finally, Carlos was looking at the naked body of his daughter. Kneeling down, his eyes changed as he tried to move her hair away from her face. Looking up at him with tears running down her face and blood around her mouth, she then said, "Papa?"

"Yes baby, I'm here," he said as he took her by the shoulders and embraced her. "I'm here baby."
_____________________

Present Day in Seattle, Washington

Setting the clipboard on the table, Elisa sighed to herself. Finally done with all the paperwork, she thought to herself as she leaned back in her chair.

"Did you get everything done, Elisa?" a woman stated as she walked behind Elisa and opened a filing cabinet. Placing a file in the cabinet quickly, she looked over at Elisa.

"Yes, Doctor. Its all done," Elisa replied.

"Good. I'm glad we're finally done with all of this moving around. I both love it and hate when I have to move to a new office," the doctor stated. "Well, with everything done, we'll be able to start taking some animals in after the weekend. You don't need a ride home, do you?"

"No thanks," Elisa replied. "I brought my bike."

"Okay, well, I guess I'll see you on Monday. Have a good weekend," the Doctor stated with a smile.

"You too, Doctor Johnson. I'll see you then," Elisa smiled.

As the Doctor finished up with shutting down the computers and checking on a couple things, Elisa got up from the chair and went down the short hall of the animal hospital. Finding the small locker room, she hung up her white lab coat and grabbed her book bag. Slinging it around her back, she closed the locker and left the animal hospital through the back exit.

Three days ago, New York City:


“Here you Mr.Hernandez, you’re flight to Seattle will be in 4 days, hope you enjoy you’re trip and thanks for choosing us as you’re Flight agency”- The lady at the Flight agency said.

“Thanks, I need some vacations ha-ha, bye”- Jose said as he left the store.

Jose both a ticket to Seattle to have some relaxing vacation in the northwest part of the country, he was planning this since the last 2 months but he was very busy with his job.

“I should start packing the stuff, it’s along vacations trip …”- Jose thought-“I will take my lap-top just incase the company needs me”-Jose Federico said as he arrived at his apartment.

William smiled as he pressed the big red bottom and a car fell from the cranes hand and into the contractor before being crushed into a small chunk. William had always enjoyed this part of the job. Especially considering he hated the car he was crushing. It was a mechanics nightmare. All the engine peaces were unique and weren't easy to replace. It didn't help they had the lifespan of a wasp and needed to be regularly replaced. In Will's mind, whoever designed this car was a moron.

Once his little enjoyment was over, he returned to the garage carrying a engine peace his salvaged from a car in his scrapyard. He removed a broke engine part from a car brought to him earlier in the morning and replaced it with the one he salvaged from the scrapyard, which was strangely in better condition. Williams was finishing off some tinkering when one of his employees approached him.

"Hey William, check this out, I was reading some stuff on the internet and there's some bloke, some professor, is talking about the next stage of evolution," Said Friggins, a fellow mechanic who had a thing for evolution.

"Lemme guess, it's the complete opposite of you," William replied before shutting the car bonnet. He made no effort to hide the fact he disliked Friggins however as these two were the only two who worked here, Friggins felt like he had no choice but to talk to William and usually completely ignored Williams comments.

"This dude is talking about ordinary people, like you and me, could have supernatural abilities like to lift things with our mind or go invisible, man how cool would it to go invisible?" Friggins asked before chuckling.

"Friggins, your an idiot. That professor is an idiot. Neither of us have super powers or spend our free time being X-Men. Now stop reading your blogs and do some work. We'll be getting a car coming in the next ten minutes. I want you to do a full MOT check, make sure everything is working alright? Understood?" William asked and Friggins nodded before walking away grumpily. William never enjoyed lying like that or the fact he had to hide his power but he knew how people would act to find out his was a human power generator. However what Friggins had said had indeed interested him and he'd need to do some research.

8:45 AM, Lara was in her third class of the morning... but she was not paying attention. Instead, she had her laptop open to Google, scrolling through various search results related to birds of prey and famous people named 'Jason'. Finally, she ran into Jason Hawk's paper about 'specials'.

Sorry, mate, she thought to herself. You're hardly the first to come 'round to this... She thought about the people who'd helped her come into comfortable control of her own abilities... and then she realized the instructor had asked her a question. Not so buried in the instructor's thought process, the answer lurked... and Lara gave it promptly, though she hadn't truly heard the question. Satisfied, the instructor moved on, and Lara returned her focus to the computer screen.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

By 8:45 AM, Kevin was at work, busily trying to sell some random electronic device to someone who didn't want it. He hated the job, but it was a source of income... and he was good at it. In less than a minute, the item was sold and the customer thanked Kevin profusely for talking her into it.

That was it... then, on to another customer. This work day could not be over fast enough.

A couple of months back...

Christan held the tickets out in front of him and twisted his lip.

"This is it Christan, no coming back alright? You've got to be strong, I mean its only across the water..." He thought to himself.

Sighing, he stood up from the bench he was sat on and picked up his large bag.

"LAST CALLS FOR GATE 23" boomed from the speakers around him. Christan walked to the gate with a slow pace, handing in his ticket he simply spoke "Thanks" in his heavy Scottish accent.

Walking through the bording tunnel he breathed out heavilly, a sort of frost breath coming from out his mouth.

"Funny.." he thought to himself. Walking on he took his seat, squeezing into the small space he had to sit in for eight hours. Wrapping his belt around his body he tried to relax in the bumpy seat.

"Excuse me sir, its quite hot and the temperature might rise, taking your coat off might make the journey more comfortable." Spoke one of the flight crew.

"No thanks.." replied Christan, "I'm quite cool."

Around eight hours later...

The plane landed heavilly on the tarmac and Christan woke up with a shock.

"Welcome to Seattle" came through the speakers from the cockpit. With a yawn, Christan unfastened his seatbelt and headed for the exit.

"Argh." The heavy setting sun and its heat caught Christan off guard. "Bloody sun.."

After clearing security successfully, Christan looked around and nodded to the taxi drivee holding up a sign with his name on it.

"Christan Stewart?" asked the man.

"Yeah, yeah thats me"

As he got into the cab, the door handle froze with a touch from his hand. Grumbling about it he shut the door and sat back.

"Where too sir?"

"See here?" Christan showed the cab driver the map. "Yes?" replied the cab driver.

"There" Christan sat back.

It was not so much a day ago, had Alex and Borone captured Kowalski and split the bounty fifty-fifty. Borone did play a part in this after all, and it was only fair that he got his fair share.

But today in the present, Alex logged onto his personal computer he had bought not long ago. It actually took quite a while to set it up, as setting up the internet was a real drag.

He clicked onto the internet so he could check his emails. As soon as the window loaded up the Homepage, Alex noted on the left side of the page a feature article.

He always had the time to look at feature articles on websites, clearly because he had nothing better to do on his day off. But this one in particular was most interesting.

The link sent Alex to a another webpage displaying some sort of essay, written by a Dr. Jason Hawk, explaining the phenominon of human evolution, and thousands of people around the globe are... changing.

It sort of related to a book Alex remembered; Activating Evolution. He never read it, but he heard about it. It was a written by a Dr. Surresh, a genetics professor, who explains the reason why so many people with powers are suddenly appearing.

But Dr. Hawks paper seemed to fully explain it so clearly and explores even further about the topic. Alex would certainly like to meet this Jason Hawk one day, regarding Alex's... uniqueness. But not now, as of tommorow; Alex has another Bounty to collect.

The day's work was as typical as can be. Adrian worked in as a machinist, in a machine shop some where outside downtown. After work, he stopped by the gym and did a few ab and arm workouts. The bus dropped him of at the usual place, in front of his apartment complex. Adrian formed the picture of his living room in his head and instantly teleported inside to it, not caring to use the elevator. He surfed the internet for anything interesting, no email, nobody to send him email. That was when he found the article...

Christan woke at the sound of his booming alarm clock.

Trying to find the clock, he placed his hand banging the snooze button, until he accidently froze it.

"Ah crap.." said Christan, banging his head on the wall.

Slowly getting up, he walked to the bathroom, getting into the shower. Funnily enough, he turned the temperature right down to the lowest it could get and sighed happily.

Knock Knock

Christan raised an eyebrow and turned off the shower, picking up a towel to wrap around himself. Slowly pacing towards the door, another knock came.

"Room service" came through the door and Christan sighed.

"Just a moment" he replied, slipping on his clothes, a pair of ragged jeans and a t-shirt. Opening the door on the chain, he spoke out to the, quite frankly, pretty lady.

"Room service sir?" Asked the woman.

"Yeah, sure, could do with it" smiled Christan giving her a sly wink.

Christan opened the dcoor fully and walked back into room, slipping on his jacket.

"I'll be going now, but thanks" smiled Christan.

"No problem sir" replied the woman.

As Christan walked out he picked up a few printed documents and book, "Activating Evolution" by a man named Dr. Surresh. Walking out he closed the door and walked outside of the hotel.

As he walked down the street, he bought a packet of potato chips and a bottle of water. Handing over a few coins, the man on the stall nearly dropped them.

"Argh man they're really cold" said the man. Christan walked of with a slight smirk on his face.

Arriving at work, a small but cozy garage near the city centre, Christan slipped on his overalls and got to work. After serveral hours he was working on the under part of a car, Christan heard another car driving in. Rolling out from underneath the car he was working on on the board, he stood up.

"Sorry Sir, but we're closing soon, come back tomorrow" Christan told the driver as he stepped out.

"I'm not here about the car...Christan, i'm here about you" said the mysterious man.

"Okay...first things first, you're going to tell me who you are and how you know my name before I dig this wrench right into your skull, got that?"

The man chuckled, "Oh Christan, always the angry one. I am no one in paticular, just a friend. i know what you are Christan, what you can do, you're special."

"I'm...i'm just a mechanic, i don't know what you're going on about." replied Christan.

The man shook his head, "Don't deny what you are, what power you have, control over ice? Thats pretty impressive."

"So..whats it to you?" asked Christan, lowering the wrench.

"I can help...the company I work for, we can help...we can...cure you." stated the man.

"Really?" Christan smiled, "..what if I don't want to be cured, what if i want this..this power, and use it? use it for the benefits of others".

"Then that is your choice, but that doesn't mean we won't change your mind."

"Oh?" Christan raised an eyebrow. "And how are you going to do that? You and what army tough guy?"

"No army, just this" The man quickly pulled out a Beretta 92 semi-automatic pistol and aimed it at Christan.

Christan widened his eyes, "Woah...man I thought you said you could cure me...our...type"

"This is the cure" the man grinned. Circling around Christan looked for an escape. Nothing.

"Any last words Christan?" asked the man.

"Yeah..." he replied. Christan raised a hand and sent a blast of ice out from his hand almost instantly. The blast caught the man and froze the gun and the man's arms.

"Freeze". Christan smiled and the man struggled to break free. christan walked up to the man and spoke into his ear.

"If you ever...and i mean ever come near me again, you'll lose your ability to make children, possibly even your life." Christan stepped back and smirked, pushing the man over and out the grage, before locking it up, the man still squirming on the floor.

"I suggest you get out of here." Christan said. The man got up and ran off, leaving his car behind.

"Hm...nice car." Christan got in and found the keys still in the ignition slot. "just my luck.." Christan smiled.

Taking out the book once more and the documents, Christan browsed through them, stumbling across a name. Dr Hawk, Jason Hawk, who was right here, in Seattle. Christan sighed with relief and placed the documents on the seat next to him.

"Time to pay a visit to this...Hawk". Christan started the engine and drove off.

Leafing through her notebook while she rode in the car with her brother, Milly looked up as she felt the car begin to slow. She squinted her eyes slightly, then said, “Take a left here if you want to avoid the backup from the stalled car five blocks ahead.”

"Thanks," Cass said as he pulled off onto a side street. He looked in the rearview mirror and sure enough, the traffic began to pile up. "Too bad you can't see the traffic in the future as well," he remarked as they sped down the road. "Save me a whole load of time on the commute home."

“You know, I don’t know why you don’t just use this gumball thing when you’re in a hurry,” Milly said without looking up. With her foot, she tapped the magnetic police bubble light that was lying on the floor of the passenger seat. “I would if I were you.”

Cass chuckled at his little sister. "But you're not, so I don't," he responded. "It is tempting, I will admit, but as the responsible adult that I am, I can't do it in good conscience." His voice was light with mirth.

Milly suddenly looked up. “Oh! Speaking of good conscience….” She opened the glove box and removed a piece of paper which she handed to Cass. “Can you fix this for me? I mean, I was only double parked for five minutes.” She paused. “Ok, maybe fifteen, but still….”

Cass' face fell as he swerved onto another side street. "Mil, that's the third one this month!" he said. "I can't keep fixing them for you just because I'm a cop. It isn't right."

Milly sighed. “Ok, fine.” She turned her attention back to her notebook. “Maybe I’ll see if this Hawk guy knows a ‘special’ that can fix tickets by telepathy or something.”

"That wasn't the point I was trying to make," Cass admonished her, rolling his eyes as he guided the car into the University of Washington campus. "And it still remains to be seen if he's legit, too. We're definitely not the only 'special' ones out there, and people will probably try and take advantage of us, which is why you've got to be careful."

Milly snorted out a laugh. “Me? Hey, I’m the one that can see through most people.” She looked up at him and grinned cheesily. “So, you’re picking me up at two, right?”

"Mmm..." Cass murmured as he pulled up to the curb. "Today's Tuesday, I thought you had class until four."

“I do, normally, but I’m blowing off physics today. I’m meeting some people at Starbucks at three for a study group thing for that environment project I told you about, and I need to go home and change clothes first.” Cass raised an eyebrow. “Don’t worry,” she continued, “it’s only one class.”

Cass nodded. “Hmm, I was just wondering what his name was.”

“Huh?”

“The ‘cute’ guy in your study group,” Cass said.

Milly frowned slightly. “How did you know he was cute?”

“It’s my job. I’m your brother and I’m a detective, remember?”

Milly opened the door and got out. “Yeah, I remember. See you at two.”

Jason Walked into his small apartment holding his mail in one hand, they were all just bills an junk that disappointed him as he was hoping to get a response from one of the letters he sent out to people he located. Throwing his keys and mail on to a small stand next to the door he walked into the living area of his apartment. It was full of computers and scientific equipment he used for his research and looked more like a lab than an apartment living room. He walked over to the small TV and turned it on changing the channel to the local news.

“… Peter Jay the millionaire was found dead in his penthouse apartment.” The news caster said getting peters attention making him reach over to the list of people he had sent letters to. Looking at the list he saw the name Peter Jay and it was the same man that had been murdered. “Although it appears he suffered from a heart attack a police spokesman has stated sign of struggle were found at the scene. Homicide detectives are investigating Mr Jay’s apartment and place of work for any clues.”

Jason shook his head listening about the man he had discovered to have a special ability and discover exactly what it was. It took him almost seven years to create the formula in order to determine what who the people were and what they could do. Now he had the people who he had tried to contact began to disappear, five had gone missing and now another was dead, there must be a connection.

“Seattle University will be opening its new science wing tomorrow, the wing was donated by Triple Helix research a subsidiary of Globe-net industries. Several talks about the Company and its work on Genetics will take place to accompany the ceremony. Talks will be hosted by Janice Caminetti, Dr Jason Hawk and Robert Samso.”

“Damn!” Jason exclaimed looking over at his calendar, He had completely forgotten that he had been persuaded to do that talk tomorrow.

A knock at the door brought Jason from his train of thought and he remembered why he rushed home this evening. Turning off the TV and putting the list in his pocket he walked off to the door, opening it he was greeted by his old professor and an attractive young women.

“Professor.” The young scientist welcomed standing aside and showing the two visitors in to his apartment.

“Evening Jason.” The older man replied as him and his daughter stepped through to the living area come laboratory.

Jason looked down at the sixteen year old girl and smiled at her as he held out his hand to shake hers. “and you must be miss Jones.”

“Yeah, and everyone calls me SJ.” She replied shaking his hand in return,

“So what brings you here to Seattle.” Jason askedas he walked over toa clothes hook and put on a lab coat.

“I think I may have destroyed half my school.” SJ tentatively stated.

“and you’ve come here to find out why, right?”

“Yes Jason we all know why we’re her, so can you help or not.” Professor Jones restlessly interrupted.

“Of course I can.” Jason said as he pulled out a chair and a high stool, he tapped the chair on the seat and looked over at the young nervous girl. “Please sit.”

SJ did as she was asked and walked over to the chair and sat down on it, Jason also say down on the high stool and smiled to help the girl relax. He reached over to his desk to take a small in descript bag and placed it on his lap.

“Now I’m going to have to take a blood sample, is that okay?” Jason asked getting a nod in reply form Gymnast. He took the girls arm and held it as he took a syringe from the bag and slowly pieced her skin, he lowly pulled the plunger taking her blood. The whole process was quick and painless so SJ smiled back at Jason when he was finished.

“So what are you going to do with that?” She asked curious about what would happen now.

“Well, I’m going to take this sample and but it in that machine over there.” Jason explained pointing at a moderate sized electronic microscope. “From there it will analyse your DNA using a programme I devised, now that will tell me if you have Genetic markers that are shared by people with abilities.” Jason explained getting a little excited as he did so. “Now if you have those I put it in another machine that will find genetic markers unique to you and with that information I can devise what it is you do.”

“How long will that take?” The professor asked.

“If it’s similar to one I’ve already discovered it may take around an hour.” Jason informed. “If I haven’t it could take anything up to a day.”

“One you’ve discovered? You mean there are more like me?”

“SJ, you’ll find…” Jason explained as he raised his own hand up in front of his face and ignited it in flame. “We’re everywhere.”
__________________________________________________ ________

The Triple Helix building owned by Globe-Net was deserted except for the penthouse office at the tip of a central spire on the building roof. The office was that of the owner and chief scientist at Triple Helix, Nicolay Chensky, he was a Nobel prise winner and considered the foremost authority in the field of Genetics. His research was considered to be in the aid of man kind as he searched for cures for genetic disorders and cancers.

However this was all a front, his research was not so noble and he was secretly researching everything from Bio and Viral Weapons to super-soldier programmes, but the bulk of his research was involved with the recent phenomenon of these ‘Special people.

He sat looking at four of these ‘Special’ people, people who worked for him. Nicolay was angry as he looked at a man dressed like a hells angels.

“You killed him!” Nicolay shouted.

“His heart was weak, I couldn’t have know what I was showing him would kill him.” The hells angel explained looking at the company chairman.

“Bah!” He exclaimed in his Russian accent. “You four have your new assignments, bring them in alive!”

Work was over and Kevin got out of there as quickly as he could. A quick search of a phone book turned up nothing on Jason Hawk... but a more thorough search - which involved hacking into a Triple Helix database - was more successful. In a matter of minutes, Kevin had Jason's cell phone number and address.

He drove to Jason Hawk's apartment building and after consulting with the management, he determined which apartment the young geneticist lived in... and thanks to his power, he quickly discovered Jason's computer... and made a slight edit to the schedule. Then, without a cell phone, he 'called' Jason's phone.

"My name is Kevin Waters," he said once the phone had been answered. "I'm just calling to see if you remembered the appointment we set up... no offense intended, but you are five minutes late already..."

Sure enough, on Jason's schedule, there was an appointment with Kevin Waters... and Jason was five minutes late...

With his ear to the phone Jason checked his calendar that he kept on his computer and sure enough he did arrange a meeting with this Kevin Waters. The odd thing was when he checked his schedule this morning there was nothing on it and Jason had no memory of having any form of contact with this man.

“Umm… sure, I’m on my way.” Jason said obviously confused as he hung up the line, looking at the display on the phone he saw that it said ‘number unknown but thought little of it.

Looking at his two guests, the Jones’, he smiled and walked over to get his coat. “Sorry but I have to go, I’ll be back soon so just stay here until I return.”

With a quick goodbye from SJ and the professor he left the building and began to walk down to the meeting place, the schedule on his computer said he had arranged to meet Mr Waters as a small Coffee Shop. The shop it’s self was quiet and out of the way, the kind of place you would go to when you want to have a private conversation away from prying eyes and ears.

On his arrival Jason looked at the tables and saw whom he thought to Mr Waters, as he was the only man sitting alone. “Keven Waters?”

"Alex." Someone said. He simply did nothing.

"Alex." The same voice repeated. Alex now mumbled just some thing.

"ALEX, WAKE UP YOU LAZY BUM!" The same voice shouted as he was immediately woken up to the real world.

"I'm deeply sorry for sleeping at work Mrs. Thompson! It won't happen again!" Alex quickly said.

"We're about to open up so get ready. And try get some sleep at home."

"Yes ma'am!"

"Now that's the spirit. Go on now, customers are coming."

Alex turned to the balcony as the usual morning customers started entering, "Good morning, may i take your order?"

---

A little time later, some customers requested the remote to see the TV and Alex handed it to them as they turned it on. The morning news had already started.

“Seattle University will be opening its new science wing tomorrow, the wing was donated by Triple Helix research a subsidiary of Globe-net industries. Several talks about the Company and its work on Genetics will take place to accompany the ceremony. Talks will be hosted by Janice Caminetti, Dr Jason Hawk and Robert Samso.”

'Jason Hawk? I think i've heard that name before', Alex thought, 'Now, what was it about? He's going to host a talk on genetics...That's it!

"Hey Nichole," Alex told his female co-worker who had just handed him the orders.

"Yeah?"

"You know that guy, Jason Hawk? Wasn't he the guy that posted something on the Internet that created a lot of polemics and such?"

"Yeah, something about "Specials" who could so things normal humans couldn't do."

"Alright, thanks. I'll go working on these orders now."

---

Alex only worked half of the morning shift and another half of the evening shift so he got the whole lunch hour for himself. He quickly drove back to his apartment and got onto the chair in front of his desktop while starting the computer. He logged on and then searched on the net for the keywords "Jason Hawk". A moment later, he got a match. The site had the original article, opinions by the blogger and the comments by other people.

The article itself was very interesting, more so for someone like him, someone belonging to a group Hawk dubbed as the "Specials". It talked about people doing super natural and magnificent things such as flying, walking through walls or even telekinesis or telepathy. The comments were mostly bashing, the blogger simply commented that Dr. Hawk was reading too many X-Men but to Alex, after thoroughly reading it all, he felt like he had found the ideal person to help him. It all made so sense to him now. He had power. But he had to learn how to use it. He knew Jason was on Seattle but how to find him?

"Of course. I've just gotta go to the ceremony. Guess i've got to prepare for tomorrow," Alex said, only then realizing his next shift began in thirty minutes. He heated a pizza, quickly ate it, cleaned and then left for work again.

Skyline apartments were the proverbial rathole. Faulty elevators, locks that sometimes mysteriously broke on the doors, fairly rampant theft, odd stenches in the staircases, and strange filth found in odd places.

On the other hand, it was real cheap.

Jacob fumbled into his pocket, grabbing his keys and catching his breath. Running up five flights of stairs while clinging onto a bag of groceries was a bigger pain than most people would think. He bit the bag and snagged his keys as he walked along the hallway. He pushed the keys into the door and...the door slid open easily.

That was odd. He remembered locking the door. Jacob unholstered his pistol nervously. He noticed the deadbolt had been snapped in half, and there were two dents in the door. As he came around the corner, he saw a huge black man sitting on his couch.

Jacob raised his gun, pointing it straight at the man's head.

"Who the hell are you, and what are you doing in my apartment?"

The black man gave him a thin smirk. His voice was deep, but he seemed to have trouble fitting his tongue around English.

"Good morning, Mister Wallace."

Jacob raised his gun higher. "I didn't ask for a greeting." He tried not to think about how the man knew his name. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

The man stood up. He stood a solid nine inches taller than Jacob and a lot bulkier. Jacob winced. This would be one instance where Judo would be useful. He didn't face many people who were larger than him. Then again, he was the guy with the gun.

"I represent a certain person who has taken interest in you and others like you."

"There's an interest in the Ex-Marines Between Jobs?"

The huge man chuckled humorlessly. Sort of ominous.

"You're amusing, Mister Wallace, but I am aware of your ability."

Jacob raised an eyebrow. "Ability?"

The man stared into his eyes for a moment, then leaned back a bit. "Interesting...perhaps you are not aware. It matters not. As I said before, there is a person who has taken an interest in you. I am here to take you to him."

Jacob snorted. "In case you didn't notice, I'm the one here with the gun, and I'm not going any where, big guy."

The man stood up a little more. "No, Mister Wallace. You will come with me. This is not negotiable. You will come with me, or I will drag you there."

Jacob cocked the hammer on his Colt. "You want to run that by me one more time? I said 'I'm not going anywhere.'"

He reached into his pocket and grabbed his cell phone, pressing 911. The black man's eyes went to his pocket.

"So be it."

The man moved surprisingly fast considering how big he was and clipped the gun. Jacob's shot went wide, blasting into the ceiling, and then the gun was against the wall.

Jacob took a step back and remembered his military training for hand to hand combat. The man was between him and his gun...

"Now, Mister Wallace, your perceived advantage has been removed. You have forced my hand. You have one chance to give up."

"Sorry, no can do, big guy."

The man threw a punch, seemingly slow-moving. Jacob dropped his head to the side, dodging the blow, then returned with a powerful right cross to the nose and a pair of jabs to the gut. He finished the combination with a roundhouse kick to the side of the man's face.

The black man took the hits that would have floored any normal man as easily as he mgiht have taken a breeze. He returned with another strike, which Jacob blocked. Or, at least, it was supposed to.

Instead, his arm was forced down, accompanied by a sharp crack and massive pain running up Jacob's arm that made him grit his teeth. Probably broken. How the hell?

He grabbed his left arm, then feinted to the right. The man shifted to block him, and he leapt to the left, dodging an immensely powerful punch that shattered sheetrock and split a stud in half. He grabbed his gun up from the floor and fired three shots at the men.

At first, he was sure the shots had gone wide. The man didn't even blink after the shots. If the guy hadn't just broken his arm and punched a beam in half, he'd think he had. But he could see three bullets laying on the floor in front of him. He dropped his gun and took a step back. This guy was unstoppable. He took a look around. Fire escape was close.

He ran for it, the giant on his heels. As he flung the window open, he felt a sharp twinge at the back of his neck. He turned around and saw the man standing behind him with an empty syringe.

Darkness nibbled at the edge of his eyesight, and he suddenly felt very lethargic. He dropped over the windowsill. Before he blacked out, he felt a massive hand jerk him back.

(Joint post with SM)


On his arrival Jason looked at the tables and saw whom he thought to Mr Waters, as he was the only man sitting alone. “Keven Waters?”

"That's me." Kevin stood and extended his hand to Jason. "Thanks for agreeing to meet with me."

"That's fine," Jason replied, taking his hand and shaking briefly. "To be honest i forgot all about this meeting."

Kevin smiled politely. "I'm sure you're a very busy man. It's no big surprise you forgot..." He shrugged. "Anyway, I contacted you because of that paper you wrote... about specials."

"I thought as much," Jason stated as he sat on the chair opposite Kevin. "So what do you want to know about it?"

Kevin sat as well, debating how he was going to go about this. "Uh..." He sighed. Before now, Will was the only one he'd ever told about his abilities. It was hard to trust anyone else, but he knew it had to be done.

"I... uh... I'm one of them," he finally managed.

"Really?" Jason said as he smiled and his eyes widened, he leaned in closer to the other man. "So what can you do?"

Now that he'd gotten past the confession part, it was easier to talk about. "You have a cell phone on you." It wasn't a question, Jason could tell. Kevin knew he had a cell phone. He took it out and placed it on the table between them. Kevin held up both his hands to prove he was not holding a phone of his own. And Jason's cell began to ring.

"I can send, receive, intercept, and hack into anything that puts out a signal..." he said. The phone stopped ringing and informed its owner he had missed a call. Then, the phone abruptly powered off.

"And I can control the inner workings of technology," he concluded. The phone powered back on.

"That is pretty impressive," Jason exclaimed with a laugh. "Can I ask how long you've known about these abilities of yours?"

Kevin thought for a moment. "It's been... six years? Yeah, six years. I'd just dropped out of college..."

"This may be a little impertinent but will it be okay if I run some tests?" The geneticist asked. "Don't worry, nothing too invasive, I'll just take a small blood sample."

Kevin frowned thoughtfully. "Tests for what?"

"Well you see people like us have these genetic markers that all us specials have," Jason explained, getting a little excited about explaining his own work. "But I can also find markers unique to each individual person and they will help me help others who may have powers similar to yours."

"People like us?" Kevin immediately picked up on the use of 'us' rather than 'you'.

"Yeah," Dr. Hawk reassuringly smiled, "but if i give an example of my ability it'll freak everyone in this place out."

Kevin chuckled. "Then, perhaps we should take this freak show somewhere else."

"Yes," Jason agreed sharing the chuckle. "My place is not to far, let's go there. I can also take the blood sample."

Kevin nodded and the men stood and left the coffee shop.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Lara Caldwell had no roommates, a fact of which she was eternally grateful. The students in the dorms to her right and left made enough noise through the walls that it was difficult to focus. There was a knock at her door and she rose to answer it. The person standing on the other side was not someone Lara was glad to see... but she didn't have much of a choice. She stepped back, letting the man step in.

"Love what you've done to the place," he commented.

"Didn't change anything," Lara shot back. "What do you want?"

"To give you this," the man answered, dropping a gun on her desk. Lara's eyes widened.

"You can't be serious," she gasped. "I am not going to kill anyone else."

"It's a safety precaution," the man sighed. "Just have it with you. If he gets violent... shoot him."

"I'm going to approach him at the science center opening here at the university," Lara countered. "As a student. I'll play up my interest in his research. Get it without threats, without even a mention of Globe-net."

"Just have it for safety," the man concluded. And with that, he left. Lara glared at the door for several seconds after he was gone. Then, she tried to resume her homework.

For two hours, Dark lay in his car on a stake out. He was waiting for his bounty, which was to arrive at his apartment 45 minuted ago.

"He's not coming..." he breathed, giving up hope and refusing to wait another hour. He had a sudden fetish for coffee at the moment.

The closest cafe he knew was The Emerald of Seattle. There he knew a neighbour of his at his apartment; Alex Stanfield.

The two weren't exactly friends, but the man (with the same his) was a nice guy.

It was a twenty minute drive, as he arrived at the simple cafe. He entered it, and waited at a bar stool. He asked the waitress an order of an Expresso coffee.

While he waited, he played with the little paper tubes of sugar sitting in a glass. He decided to look up at the T.V, just in time to catch a news report... with doctor Jason Hawk.

"Hmmmm..." Dark hummed. He really wanted to meet with this Jason Hawk. He wanted to query him about Dark's... ability. And if there is anything that can be done about it...

Looking outside her window at her apartment, Elisa's mind began to drift back to the events that had taken place earlier. Back in Miami, the white man that had attacked her father along with the rest of her family had indeed survived. The bite she had delivered had paralyzed him, but when the police arrived, they discovered that he was still breathing. Her dad was taken into custody, but he was released as all of the people wounded or killed at the apartment were done so out of self-defense.

As for the white man, Carlos was also able to provide all kinds of information concerning his past dealings with him to the police and agreed to testify against him in a court. Knowing that there were other gangs and mobs that would seek vengeance for everything Carlos had done, he decided to quietly move his family across the country and away from Miami.

To this day, Carlos and the rest of his family was still under a Witness Protection Program, and although Elisa knew that it was necessary, she hated it. Although she had ridden a bike to and from her new job at a newly built animal shelter and vet office, she also knew that a security detail was parked out front of the shelter, and she knew that they had to follow her both to and from. Outside of her home, she had no privacy, and the distance that she could put between herself and the police protection was very limited.

What she really hated, though, was the cold and the rain in Seattle. Although it was relatively warm outside, Elisa found that she had to wear long pants of some kind so that she didn't get chilled. The rain was the worst part. Sure, it rained in Miami every once in a while, but not nearly as often as Seattle. What made both parts of the weather worse was her insistence on wearing sandals everywhere instead of real shoes. Having worn sandals everywhere before except for her jobs and special events, Elisa figured that it was a matter of principle that Florida natives had to wear sandals everywhere.

As she continued to look outside the window, Elisa couldn't help but to think about the freedom she lacked with all the security. Then, something caught her eye out in the distance. Two glowing eyes seemed to be staring at her from a tree. Somewhat freaked out, she ducked down out of instinct. Curious, she looked hard at the eyes to try and understand what they were. Slowly, she could somewhat make out a dim outline, and then it dawned on her: the glowing eyes were from an owl.

Then, the eyes seemed to vanish, and Elisa could just scarcely see the owl fly off into the night. I wish I had that kind of freedom, Elisa thought to herself. Then, she remembered her ability. Shaking her head, Elisa instantly remembered her promise to never transform again. Her last experience had been so frightening as she had literally snapped. She had felt so helpless, and all she could think during the traumatizing event that they wouldn't be able to do anything to her if she could only be like one of those Florida panthers she had been studying. When he had brought his hand over to mockingly caress her, her built up rage boiled over, and that's when the transformation began.

The transformation didn't hurt one bit, but what was frightening was how quickly most of her human consciousness seemed to get swept aside to be replaced with the instincts of the panther. When the instincts coincided with the rage she had for the gang members and the two white men, the panther just responded accordingly in a violent manner to the point that it was willing to devour the last man it had killed. She wasn't able to overcome the instincts until her father began to scold her, and even then, she wasn't directly controlling the animal she had become.

But maybe it was different whenever she actively transformed into an animal. Maybe she would be able to directly control the animal this time around. Curiosity finally overcame her, and Elisa opened the window. Removing the screen quietly, Elisa then realized that her clothes would remain during her transformation. Going into her closet and leaving the door slightly open, Elisa stripped down so that she was completely naked.

Not really sure what to do in order to transform, Elisa decided to just close her eyes and concentrate. As she wanted to fly, Elisa then remembered the eyes of the owl that she had just seen. Then, Elisa's mind wandered back to the zoo in Miami where she had taken care of a Great Horned Owl (also called a Hoot Owl). Remembering what it looked like, Elisa concentrated hard on the animal. Then, Elisa experienced a familiar feeling: her bones and musculature were shifting around. It was an odd feeling, but Elisa really wanted to try and control the animal this time around. As such, Elisa quickly fought the owls instincts and did her best to maintain her grip on the animal as the instincts became apart of her.

Then, the night vision kicked in. Her dark closet turned into a well lit space, and Elisa turned her head to get a look around. Noticing the shorter perspective, the closet was somewhat unrecognizable as she looked around at all the boxes and clothes hanging from the hangers. Then, Elisa realized that she was the one looking around. It was a completely different experience where she was in direct control of the animal she had transformed into.

The good thing was that her human instincts where no longer present. She didn't feel like she needed to use her arms and hands to move things out of the way. Using the owl's instincts, she fluttered her wings to hop over a pair of shoes that was in front of her. Heading to the cracked open closet door, she looked around. The door to her bedroom was still closed, and she could feel a breeze coming from her open window. Her back feathers tinged a bit as the colder air blew across her back, and the owls instinct was to head for the open window and fly.

Following that instinct, Elisa flapped her wings and tried to land on the sill. Instead of using the talons to get a grip, however, Elisa's feet slid out from under her, and the owl went sprawling on the sill. Quickly standing up, it then dawned on Elisa that she didn't really know how to fly. Flying was a learned behavior and not an instinct. Well, I hope this comes a bit more naturally than I think, Elisa thought to herself.

Looking down at the ground, Elisa noticed that it was a bit further away than she had noticed before, but looking out into the night, Elisa could see just about everything as if the sun were still out. She would've smiled, but the best she could do was to wonder how she was going to just fly over to a tree. Taking a deep breath, Elisa then spread her wings and jumped forwards. Flapping, she could feel her wings giver her some lift, but nothing seemed to be very stable.

The animal started to panic a bit, and Elisa quickly began to flap hard. The ground suddenly started to get very close, and Elisa then leaned on the instincts. Her wings began to make small adjustments, and she began to flap in a more up and outwardly motion. As her wings caught the air better, she began to level out, and the owl's panic dimmed away. Heading upwards, Elisa saw a good sized branch and flew slightly above it. Fluttering a her wings a bit, Elisa landed on the branch and automatically clamped her talons into the branch.

Elisa would've smiled again if she was still human: she had just made her first flight as an owl. Inside, Elisa was elated, and now she felt more determined than ever to enjoy her freedom. Jumping off the branch, Elisa used her newfound freedom to soar away into the night.

As she flew on, Elisa couldn't help but to study her surroundings. Everything looked so familiar, but with the new perspective of being above everything, it all looked so different at the same time. A bit curious, Elisa slowly began wondering towards downtown. A brightly lit street corner caught her eye, and Elisa was a bit curious. Landing on a building across the street, the owl's eyes adjusted, and Elisa could make out the the light of an internet cafe bleeding out into the street.

Studying the screens that she could see, Elisa couldn't quite make them out. Seeing that she could land on the street light, Elisa flew over and landed on the street light. Looking inside, she could see the people on the computers, and more importantly, she could make out what some of the people were looking at. One computer caught her eye as she noticed a that a guy had stopped at an article. He was busy talking on his cell phone, but that's not what caught her eye. It was the article that Jason Hawk had written about "special" people. After reading the brief article, she noticed that he was going to be giving a lecture at the University concerning the phenomenon. Making a mental note, Elisa decided to keep on flying so that she could enjoy her newfound freedom some more.

"WAKE UP!!!" Came a sudden shout. "GAHH!!!" Yelped the thin, pale young man who fell off of the bench from the shock and surprise of it.

"Yow, Ow...do you have to yell right into my ear!?" Jaydon asked rather pertubed at the person who stood with a wide grin right next to him. It was a young boy, no older than twelve.

"It wouldn't be fun any other way," the boy said with a grin.

"Right, uh, Jim, could you..."

"Yeah, here, use my cell. You know, you really oughta carry yours around instead of..."

"...Leaving mine at home all the time. I know, I know, you tell me that every day, just like I ask you for yours every day. Now hold on while I make my call," Jaydon said, punching in the numbers and listening to the phone as it rang the other line.

See, the thing about Jaydon is, he's lazy, really lazy...I mean if you compared him to a sloth in a contest of who's more active, the sloth would win. Jaydon is not, however, anti-social, a slouch and a good-for-nothing, yes, but he's not quiet, nor is he secluded. And Jaydon has a daily schedule, so every day he wakes up at the same time, eats at the same time of the morning, goes in the same direction every day, and meets the same people at different times, every day. So Jim is just another one of those people he sees every day.

Every evening Jaydon goes down to the bus stop after work, and every evening he falls asleep, and every evening Jim wakes him up, and every evening Jaydon asks for Jim's cellphone to call a coworker for a ride.

But today Jaydon's routine was broken, because as of yesterday, he was fired. So this evening, Jaydon was calling his own cellphone to leave a message for himself when he got home. Because this evening he was catching a bus downtown to look around for a new job.

"Note to self: Bring cellphone with yourself from now on." Jaydon said into the cell, leaving the message on his phone.

"That's it, your not calling Collin or Judy from work? Or even your sister?" Jim asked with a quizical look.

"Nope, got fired, no point in asking for a ride home when I'm gonna catch the downtown bus to go look for a job. Although, I should call my sis, this'd be a great time to hang out since I haven't seen her in awhile, seeing as I've got some free time now, I think I will." Jaydon said, smirking at Jim.

"You got fired? Great, now I won't see you anymore," Jim said dejectedly.

"Sure you will, especially if I get a job downtown, then I'll be here in the morning waiting for a bus, and you can see me then," Jaydon said reassuringly, holding the cell to his ear as he waited for his sister to answer. Jim thought what Jaydon said over in his mind for a bit before smiling to himself, satisfied with the answer.

"Hey, sis, it's me, Jaydon, well, you know my name, I just called you sis. Um, but anyways...." Jaydon stopped talking, his brows furrowing as it seemed his sister had picked up the phone and was, by all appearances chewing him out. "Uh huh, mmm, ah...okay, yeah....sorry...right. So you wanna meet me downtown...mhmm, sure, our usual spot, I'll treat you to some icecream since it's my fault....yes, brownies too. See ya there," Jaydon said hanging up, a pitiful look on his face, like his puppy had just died.

"Oooouuu, you in twuble," Jim said with a bit of baby talk, and a wide grin.

Jaydon looked at the boy askance, then put him in a head lock, giving him a noogie.

"OW, OW, OW, okay, okay!!!" Jim said with a half grin, half grimace. Jaydon chuckled, "you're right though, I am in trouble."

"What'd ya do?" Jim asked inquisitively, rubbing his head. "I forgot to go to an important dance she was in the other month," Jaydon said.

Jim calculated this in his head for a moment before speaking in a rather loud and irrate tone. "It's been that long since you even talked to her!! Wow, no wonder! You're definately in deep with this one."

"Tell me about it. Look, Jim, can I borrow some cash? I'll pay you back," Jaydon asked.

"You just got fired, why should I believe that you'll pay me back?" Jim retorted with a mock look of severity. "Because I'll get a new job real soon, I am young after all, and employers love young folks, it's when I get old that's when you should worry about me not paying you back," Jaydon shot back in good humor.

"But you already move at an old man's pace, so why should I believe you," Jim said, extending his lower lip. Jaydon snatched his lip and looked him in the eyes, saying menacingly, "just give me some money."

"Ophay, ophay, jus, wet go of my wip." Jaydon let go, grinning at the young boy. "Here, ten bucks," Jim said, slapping the bill down on Jaydon's lap.

"Thanks Jim, I...." Jaydon paused as he looked at the bill he picked up. A dumbstruck look was on his face, and soon a look of grim realisation washed over him.

"JIM I OUGHTA!..." But it was too late, the kid was already hauling butt down the sidewalk away from the busstop. Jaydon looked back down at the dollar bill he was holding. "Little cheapskate," he muttered.

Jaydon sat at the busstop for a little while longer before the bus came. As Jaydon stood up to get on, he felt something slip off of his lap, with amazing reflexes he snatched it before it hit the pavement. It was Jim's cellphone.

'Oh! How ironic,' Jaydon thought to himself with a devilish grin on his face. He got onto the bus, paying the fee, and sat in the back as it headed downtown. He stared at the cellphone, still grinning, 'I'll just hold onto it for him...for safe keeping!' He thought to himself with a chuckle.

“So, Mil, how’s your part of the project going?” Sean, one of Milly’s classmates from her Biology class, asked her as they walked to class together.

“Pretty good.” Milly smiled. Sean was also the ‘cute’ boy that her brother had deduced was in her study group. “I’ve still got to go and get the water samples though.” She looked askance at Sean. “I was thinking I could do that this afternoon, you know, after our group meeting? Care to come along?” Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes…. Milly chanted in her head as Sean took a moment to consider.

“Yeah, I think I can swing that,” he said finally.

Milly grinned. “Great! My brother’s picking me up at two, so I’ll get him to just drop us off at the….”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a sec!” Sean held up his hands. “Your brother? Your brother, the cop, right?”

“Yeah.” Milly frowned. “Is that a problem?”

Sean shifted uncomfortably. “N-o,” he said slowly. “It’s just that… well….” He stopped looked directly at Milly. “It’s just not cool to be seen with a cop, Mil.”

“He’s not picking me up in a patrol car,” Milly said, rolling her eyes slightly.

Sean pointed blatantly at his T-shirt. It had several circular coffee-colored stains on it with the words ‘My other shirt is clean’ superimposed in heavy black lettering. “Grunge and cops… they just don’t mix, Milly.”

Milly agreed that Sean did purposefully aim for the non-conformist ‘grunge’ look most of the time. She looked down at her own clothing. Stripy cardigan, faded jeans, and Doc Martens—still typical college student wear, but far from being ‘grunge’. “Oh. Well, then maybe we can do something else.” An idea suddenly came to her. “Erm… you going to that genetics seminar tomorrow?”

“The extra credit one about freakish human mutations?”

“Yeah, that one.”

Sean shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, I could really do with the extra credit in biology, but….” He shivered. “Sounds kinda creepy to me. I mean, mutant humans? That stuff sounds great in a sci-fi movie, but not in the real world. In the real world, they’d be freaks for a circus or those State Fair side shows. Or on Jerry Springer.”

Milly pressed her lips together. Suddenly, Sean wasn’t looking all that ‘cute’ anymore. “Dr. Hawk calls them ‘specials,’ not mutants.”

“Special mutant freaks,” Sean said, sounding more venomous all the time. “No, I don’t think I want to go. Extra credit or not.”

They walked along in silence for a moment, but just before they reached their classroom, Sean spoke. “We could go to that new cafй that opened last week,” he offered. “You know, just for a coffee or something after the group stuff. What do you say?”

Milly shrugged. “I really should get those water samples today. Maybe we can do something next week.”

Sean sat in front of Milly in the classroom and as she stared at the back of his head, the only thing she could think about was Sean’s attitude toward ‘special’ people. The things he had said, and the way he said them, upset her. A lot.

Her eyes narrowed slightly. As she focused her eyes closer and closer, she wondered if it would upset him just as much to know that she could see the tiny microscopic ‘bugs’ crawling along the hair shafts of his ‘pseudo-grungy’ head.

“Sorry if it’s a little warm in here…”Jason apologised as him and Kevin walked into the small apartment. “…but my AC broke and I don’t really feel the heat.” As they walked into the main living/lab room they both saw SJ and Byron Jones sitting watching the small television.

“These are the Jones’.” Jason explained. “She’s one of us.”

"Don't feel the heat, huh?" Kevin wondered thoughtfully. He closed his eyes for a moment and the AC kicked on. He grinned at SJ. "Kevin Waters, controller of machines, master of information signals."

"Doesn't look like the old coot put up much of a fight."

Cass looked up from the papers he was studying to glance over at his partner. Detective Esmй Almбssy was crouched next to the body of the recently deceased millionaire Peter Jay, her gloved hands carefully lifting one of the dead man's hands. "What makes you say that?'

Esmй wrinkled her nose as she replaced Jay's hand back to the ground. "No blood under the fingernails, no bruising to the fingers," she responded as she stood. "If he struggled, it wasn't for very long before he went into cardiac arrest."

"That doesn't surprise me," Cass said, turning his gaze back to the paper. "Poor guy was pretty old."

"Old yes, but he was anything but poor, Cass," Esmй corrected as she came up alongside him.

"You know what I mean," Cass retorted. He leafed through another few pages, then frowned. "Funny how someone comes here and kills him, but leaves all his financial information behind."

Esmй shrugged. "Whoever did this wasn't after money?"

"Yeah, but even so. With a guy this rich, you're bound to try and take something, right?" He pointed to something on the piece of paper he held. "Peter Jay was one of the most brilliant financial minds on the planet. Look at these figures. They're not fudged." Cass shook his head. "If I had half this guy's money acumen, I'd be a millionaire."

The female detective snorted. "Or you could just rifle through the back seat of your car and find hundred dollar bills at will," she chided him, referring to quite a few times Cass had found large bills of money in his car.

Cass chuckled. "A few Benjamins here and there is one thing. To be able to make a killing like he did is another."

"Too bad he was on the receiving end of the last 'killing'," Esmй said, casting another look at Peter Jay's dead body as a technician came over and covered it with a shroud.

"Indeed," Cass agreed. Just then, his cell phone vibrated. Retrieving it from his pocket, he looked at the display, then frowned. "Shoot, I need to pick up Milly in ten minutes."

Esmй checked her watch. "It's only two. CSU's gotta finish going through the crime scene anyway. We can go pick her up, then by the time we get back, the examiner should have something for us."

"Yeah, let's do that," Cass agreed, flipping over one last sheet. He was about to hand it to a technician for evidence bagging when he read something that made him stop short. At the top of the page was the name 'Jason Hawk'. He arched an eyebrow, trying to remember where he'd heard or seen that name before. His cell phone vibrated at him again and he gave the paper to the technician. "Save that for me, will ya?"

The technician nodded. "You got it, Detective."

"Thanks." Turning to Esmй, he started towards the door. "Let's go."

“Yeah, see ya later,” Milly called out as she exited Starbuck’s. She gave a quick wave to her friends through the coffee shop’s window before heading out towards the corner. She checked her watch, then frowned a bit. It was ten minutes after two.

“He’s late?” she wondered out loud. “He’s never late. I’m the one who’s always late.”

As she waited she thought about Sean, the boy in her study group. He had been rather quiet during their study group meeting, though Milly wasn’t sure if it was because of their conversation earlier in the day, or because Sean didn’t have much of a clue about what to do with microbes in their project. Milly thought the project was easy--find a common substance that nearly everyone has been exposed to at one time or another and see what types of bacterium and microbes it has in it.

Milly’s group had decided to gather water samples in different areas of the city—from public fountains, to puddles, to estuary water. And for no particular reason, Milly had been nominated to get the samples. She was hoping that before he dropped her home, Cass could swing by the harbor so she could get a sample of some estuary water. That is if he ever showed up.

Milly checked her watch again. “Where the hell is he?” she said. She was getting a bit worried. Cass was never late. She squinted her eyes to see through the street traffic—literally.

Her line of sight went down block after block, looking through the cars, vans, and trucks with X-ray vision when necessary, to see if she could spot her brother’s car approaching.

"This traffic is atrocious," Esmй sighed, her voice tinged with exasperation.

Cass looked up from the computer display installed in the car's dashboard and over at his partner. Esmй didn't have very much patience for gridlock. He concentrated a little bit, then said, "Turn down this street."

Esmй turned to stare at Cass. "Are you kidding? That'll take us away from the campus."

He smirked at her. "Since when do you doubt me, Esmй?"

She stared at him for a few more moments, then sighed again and pulled off in the direction Cass had indicated. To her surprise, it was mostly clear, providing an unencumbered roadway on which to travel. "How did you know this was clear?" she asked.

"Call it a hunch," Cass replied, turning back to the screen.

*****

Three minutes later, Esmй pulled the dark unmarked Crown Victoria down a side street near the University of Washington campus, approaching one of the many Starbuck's locations littered throughout the city of Seattle. Cass spotted his sister standing at the curb, and even from this distance, could tell that she was zeroing in on him.

"I take it she doesn't like it when you're late," Esmй said.

Cass chuckled. "I'm never late," he replied as they pulled up alongside the sidewalk in front of the Starbuck's.

“You’re late,” Milly snapped, glaring at Cass as she hopped into the back seat. “What was the hold up? And where’s your car? Do you know how embarrassing it is to be picked up in one of these?” As she put on her seatbelt, she added. “Hi, Esmй.”

"Don't blame me," Cass responded, jerking a thumb over toward his parnter. "Blame her. It was her turn to drive today."

Esmй snorted. "That's the last time I offer you a ride, bucko," she said, then turned to Milly. "Hey Milly, sorry for being late, there's a big case we're working on at the moment. Where was it you needed to go?"

“To the harbor, or as near as you can get me to it,” Milly answered. “And I’m not blaming you, Cass. I was just…nevermind.” Milly didn’t want to tell him that she had been a bit worried about him. “You’re just never late,” she ended up saying. “Anyway, if you can just drop me off near the water, I’d appreciate it. I need a water sample for a class project. Microbes,” she added. "So what's the big case? Anything newsworthy?"

"Yeah, I'd say so," Cass said, remembering the throng of reporters he and Esmй had to push through, part of the reason they'd been late. "Can't really tell you more than that, though."

Milly grinned. “Yeah, I know. Just thought I’d ask anyway.” She reached into her backpack and pulled out a flyer which she handed to her brother. “Say, for tomorrow, can you drop me off at the new science wing instead of taking me home? If you’re not too busy on your really important newsworthy case, that is.”

"I think I can swing that," Cass said, taking the flyer and looking it over. It seemed fairly straighforward, but upon closer examination, a name jumped out at him again. "Jason Hawk," he intoned, trying to remember where he'd heard that name before and why he'd encountered it twice already today.

“Yeah, he’s that guy that wrote that paper that I saw on the net the other day,” she said, deliberately being vague. “I told you about it, remember?” She sank back in her seat. “We get extra credit in our biology class if we go listen to the talks.”

"Sure," Cass agreed. "Besides, you need every bit of extra credit you can get." He leaned over his shoulder and winked at his sister.

“Ha, ha,” Milly said, then stuck her tongue out at him. “You know, if you want to go with me, you can. It’s for students only, but you can always go as my ‘guest’. Just, don’t sit next to me. Apparently, it’s not cool to be seen with cops.” She eyed him over. “That is, unless you want to try your luck at dressing grunge. Then you’d be less noticeable.”

Esmй couldn't surpress a chuckle. "I think your brother would stick out like a sore thumb if he tried," she said, pulling onto the main thoroughfare.

"Probably," Cass said. "I'll think about it. Esmй and I still have this case to work on, but it should be interesting."

Devin looked at the letter on his wall. Some strange person had sent him a letter. This person wanted to know about any special abilities. When he got it, he thought it was some hoax. Water freezing around him in an instant. At first he thought it was cool. He could walk in rain and not get even a drop of water on him. He could take his surf board and perform tricks in the pool. He wondered if he could part water like Moses. When he tried, he nearly killed himself. It took so much concentration. The water would fight him.

Now he realized how lethal his abilities could be. His boss had blamed him for something someone else did. Devin tried to argue that he wasn't even scheduled to run the forklift. His boss wouldn't listen, and docked him a day's pay. He got so angry with his boss that Devin let his emotions get away from him. He froze the water in his boss's body. It killed him instantly. It was getting out of hand.

Devin stared at this letter. Maybe they could find a way to remove this special ability. Maybe they could help him get rid of it. Maybe the doctor knew more about how this could happen to him. How to stop him. Devin was lethal when he was too angry or too happy. Sure he could move water around, but the cost was too high.

He dialed the number on the letter without really thinking.

Rats, voicemail. Devin started to leave a message, and rather than saying anything about his abilities, he simply said, "I got your letter, I hope you can help" and left his cell phone number.

He called a cab and went to the beach. There he sat "playing" with the waves, waiting for a call back.

((Time For Capture.))

Jaydon sat impatiently on a blue postbox near the curb outside of an antiquated candy and bakery shop. It was his sister and his' special spot where they came to meet, recollect, and gorge themselves on various sweets. The store sold anything and everything that contained suger, anything from chocolate bars and caramel candies, to whole cakes and icecream, you name it they had it, and it was all homemade and absolutely delicious.

Saddly it was in a portion of downtown where most people would miss passing by it, and so it wasn't as popular as it could be, or as popular as Jaydon wished it was, because, as usual, he knew the owners of the store personally, and he didn't want to see their business fail.

But as of the moment he was rather perturbed at the lack of one thing, his sister. It was getting very late and she still hadn't shown up, which was very unusual for her. He'd spent most of the day going from place to place picking up applications from various places, and between each visit he'd check back at this place. Now it was half past time for her to have shown up already.

"Might as well head home," Jaydon muttered to himself. He slid off of the postbox and walked towards the shop, pulling out Jim's cell.

"Hey, sis, it's me again, I called to tell you that it's late, so I'm going home, might as well not come now. Maybe another time," He said into the phone as his sister's voicemail picked up. He walked into the shop with a lazy look on his face, seeing as Jaydon wasn't used to staying up this late.

"Hey, Jaydon, oh, sorry, 'Jaz'. It's closing time, gonna have ta' get goin'," said and extremely wrinckled old man, his features giving him the appearance of a Shar-Pei.

"I know, I'm just getting something to go," Jaydon responded.

"Oh, well, okay. So what will ya have?" The old man asked.

"A half pound of the candy mix special," Jaydon said, his mind off elsewhere, and his eyes half closed.

"Alright, coming up," the man said, getting a brown bag and scooping up candy from a bin. "You seem awful tired. You're a teenager and you still can't keep your eyes open this late?"

"No, I'm just really lazy, not used to late nights. I sleep early, wake up late, and take naps throughout the day. So of course I'd be tired at this time in the evening," Jaydon explained.

"Is that so. Well, here you are, that'll be three-fifty, add a discount and it'll be two seventy-five," the old man said, Jaydon pulling out a five dollar bill and handing it to the man. "Here's your change. See ya later Jaz," the old man said with a wrinkly smile.

"Thanks," he responded, heading for the door.

"Jaz," the old fellow called out to him, Jaydon looked around at him. "Don't let it get ya down," he said with another smile, then with a wave of his had he shooed Jaydon out of the store.

Jaydon had a confused and quizical look as he walked down the sidewalk, but found himself grinning to himself. 'Old folks can be so wise and insightful. Guess that's why I like them so much. And the fact that when ever I'm in a bad mood the old guy always gives me extra candy,' he thought to himself, his grin growing wider as he patted the bag that was an extra quarter of a pound.

Jaydon opened the bag and began eating the varietised morsels of sugar.

Jaydon wasn't paying attention, and found himself slamming straight into someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Jaydon said, looking at the person he bumped ((BTW: I changed Jaydon's heighth to 6'3"; 6'7" seemed too tall.)). He found himself looking at a rather rough and scruffy looking biker, and ontop of that he seemed in a bad mood.

"You know how long it's taken me to find you kid?" The man said with a scowl.

"Uh? I dunno?" Jaydon thought to himself for a moment. "Is that you sis? Wow! You've changed...alot! You sure are ugly now," Jaydon said, his comment sounding almost serious.

"Shut it kid, you're coming with me!" The man growled, reach out towards his forehead.

Jaydon shot his hand out with the same reaction-time he had shown while catching Jim's cellphone from falling.

The man wretched his hand away, and with a smirk he backed up a bit. "Fine kid, we'll do it your way," the man said.

Suddenly Jaydon found himself somewhere else, seeing things that he only saw in his wildest dreams, and darkest nightmares. And he found himself screaming as he pulled out of this nightmarish hallucination.

He stood wide eyed and clutching the bag of candy, he was cold sweating profusely. He narrowed his eyes at the man before him, who was reaching for him again. Jaydon moved to stop his hand, but he was too late, he found himself slumping to the ground as an unimaginable desire to sleep washed over him.

"Seems you broke out of my power rather quickly. But not quick enough," the man said with a cruel laugh as he reached down towards him.

"...Oh well...." Jaydon mumbled as his eyes began to close, and a smile spread across his face. 'At least, I get to sleep...' Jaydon finished in thought, as with his last bit of conciousness he felt the rough hands of the man haul him up and fling him on what he could only guess was a motorcycle.

((I hope I got the baddy and his powers right, I got kinda confused with this one.))

Malin checked her reflection one last time in the stainless steel doors of the elevator. Normally, she'd take the stairs, but since she happened to be wearing heels, she didn't feel like risking a broken neck. Normally she wouldn't be wearing heels either, but since she happened to be going to a semi-formal art exhibition, she figured a bit of dressing up was in order. She wore her one 'dressy' outfit: a spaghetti-strap black dress with matching pumps, with her hair done up in a twist. Being a firefighter, she felt more comfortable in jeans and t-shirts in her off-time, but she couldn't exactly wear that attire to an exhibition.

The elevator chimed and the doors slid open, admitting her into the small but cozy lobby of her apartment building. She waved at the watchman, then pushed open the front door and stepped into the chilly Seattle afternoon. The art gallery was a number of blocks away in the northwestern part of the city, but Malin figured she could walk there. She'd just have to reinforce the soles of her feet and the backs of her heels to accomodate for the uncomfortable feeling that was sure to accompany extended heel-walking. Closing her eyes, she concentrated a little bit, directing her abilities as they changed parts of her physiology. She opened her eyes and crouched down, pulling small bits of flesh off the back of her heel, revealing a malleable, translucent material behind it. Straightening up, she took a few tentative steps forward then, satisfied with the cushioning, started striding purposefully in the direction of the art gallery.

She decided to cut through a small park she usually passed through on her morning runs, figuring it would make her trip shorter. As she stepped onto the dimly lit pathway, she heard a muffled cry of distress. Malin stopped short, listening intently the sound. She heard it again, this time clearer, emanating from a shady copse off to the left side of the path. She moved quickly in the direction of the noise, pushing through the brush and low-hanging branches to come upon a young woman dressed in running gear lying on the ground and clutching at her ankle. "Hey, are you all right?" Malin called out as she approached.

The woman turned to look at Malin. "Hi, and no I'm not," she responded, her voice strained. "I think I've broken my ankle."

Malin tossed her bag on the grass and knelt in front of the injured woman. "My name is Malin and I'm a firefighter. What's your name?"

"Kate," the woman responded. "Do you think you could help me up?" she asked, holding her arm out.

"I don't think it's a good idea to put weight on your ankle right now, Kate," Malin said, taking the woman's hand. "Let me go find something to splint that for you." She gave Kate's hand a squeeze, then disappeared into the trees. A few minutes later, she returned, clutching two thick sticks in her hands. "Now Kate," she said, kneeling at the woman's feet again, "Stay still while I splint your ankle."

"Okay," Kate said, her voice still trembling in pain.

Malin pulled a roll of athletic adhesive tape out of her bag and quickly set to work wrapping Kate's injured foot. "There we go," she pronounced, ripping off the last stray bit of tape. "That should keep it steady until we get you to a hospital."

"Thank you," Kate said gratefully, then looked up at Malin. "Will you take me there?"

Malin paused, glancing at her wristwatch. She was already late for the opening of the exhibition. She let out a small sigh. "Yes, I will," she told Kate, slinging her bag up onto her shoulder, then crouching to Kate's side. "Wrap your arms around my neck and I'll pick you up."

Kate's eyebrows shot up. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I do this all the time," Malin replied truthfully. "Comes with the job."

"O-okay," Kate said, putting her arms around Malin's neck as the firefighter hefted her in one smooth motion. "You're strong!"

Malin laughed lightly. "Again, it comes with the job." She started towards the path. "Let's get you to the hospital."

"No, that's okay," Kate said softly.

"Come again?" Malin asked, not sure she heard correctly. Something brushed against the back of her neck. Probably just a branch... she thought.

"I said, that's okay," Kate repeated, her voice no longer sounding strained. She clutched her arms tighter around Malin.

Malin slowed, feeling very strange all of a sudden. "It's okay," she echoed slowly.

"Let's go that way," Kate said, pointing away from the path towards a small stone bridge. As she did so, a car's headlights flared up, shining bright light towards the two women.

"Let's," Malin agreed, walking towards the car. Her mind felt very fuzzy for some reason and there was something she had to do for Kate...but she couldn't remember what it was.

Kate giggled. "You can put me down, Malin," she said, her voice taking on a sultry undertone.

Malin did as she was told, letting Kate slide down from her arms.

"Mmmm..." Kate cooed as she set her feet on the ground. Reaching down, she carefully unwrapped the splint around her ankle and tossed the sticks and tape away. Turning around, she caught Malin staring at her strangely. She cocked her head to the side. "Something the matter?"

Malin blinked. "You're not...hurt?" she managed, looking down at Kate's foot.

"No, my dear," Kate said, stepping swiftly towards the befuddled firefighter. She reached out and cupped a hand to either side of Malin's face. "But thank you for your concern," she said, then pressed her lips to Malin's.

Malin's eyes shot open as their lips made contact, but after a few moments, her eyelids fluttered shut as she returned the kiss.

It was Kate who came up for air first. "Mmm...I knew you'd be delicious," she told Malin seductively.

The car behind them flashed its high beams a couple of times. "Hey!" a male voice shouted from behind the headlights. "I like a free show as much as the next guy, but we have to get moving! Let's get the broad in the car and go."

Kate turned and stuck her tongue out at the man. "We're coming, we're coming," she shouted back dismissively, then faced Malin again. Tapping the tip of Malin's nose with one hand, her other took a hold of Malin's arm and guided her towards the car. "Let's go, kitten."

“I’m Sarah Jane, I… uh, make earthquakes.” The English girl replied blushing at the Kevin.

Jason held his hand in front of the AC vent feeling the cool airflow out of the machine, he smiled and looked over at Kevin.

“You’re very useful.” Dr Hawk stated still smiling. “So I guess you want to know what I do here in my livinbatory.”

"This close enough, Milly?" Esme asked her as she pulled the car over to the curb. As Cass' sister had asked to be dropped off near the harbor, she had stopped the car near an entrance to a small beachside causeway.

"Yeah, this is fine, Ez." Milly opened the door and got out, but then stood by Esme's open window. "Thanks." She looked across Esme to her brother Cass who was sitting in the passenger seat. "I'll see you at home later."

"How you getting home?" he asked.

Milly shrugged. "Walking, I guess. It's not far."

"Just call me when you're finished and I'll come and pick you up."

Milly shook her head. "Nah, I can walk home by myself." She winked. "I'm a big girl now, you know." She looked skywards. "Besides, it's not a bad day." With a quick wave, she started towards the causeway. "See 'ya, later!" she called over her shoulder as she made her way to the small beach.

The beach was relatively deserted even though it was a nice day, for Seattle standards. It was a bit overcast and the wind blowing over the water made it feel a little bit on the cool side, but as Milly reached the end of the causeway, she still took off her shoes and socks and rolled up the legs of her jeans. Cool or not, she loved the feeling of the sand between her toes. Tying the laces together and stuffing her socks inside them, she shouldered her shoes and headed towards the water.

Near the tide mark, she set down her shoes and her backpack, then unzipped one of the pockets in the pack and removed a few of the small plastic vials she was going to use to contain her water samples. Each vial had a label with a number on it, so she could keep track of which water sample had come from where, and so she jotted down the number, the date and the time in a small notebook before grabbing up the vials in her hand.

At the water's edge she waded in to just below her knees and waited for the next rhythmic wave to come rolling onto the shore. After all, she needed a water sample, not silt or sand. She bent down and held the open vial in the water, with the intent on catching a sample of moving water as the wave came in. And then, she frowned.

Something wasn't right. Normally, waves came ashore in a fairly regular tempo, but today, they seemed... well, a bit off beat. She listened and watched a moment more. No, they weren't 'off beat.' They had a beat, a fairly strong one in fact, but it certainly didn't sound natural to her. It sounded something like... "Jane's Addiction, maybe?" she wondered out loud.

Then as she listened and watched a bit more, her eyes started to widen. An odd, unnatural tempo to the waves was one thing, but having a wave 'pause' for a backbeat? That was just downright weird. She quickly capped her vial and then looked around. A guy jogging along the shore with his dog. A young couple, probably still in high school, sitting on the high dry sand talking and sharing a can of soda. A dark-haired man sitting by himself holding a cell phone in his hand. Using her telescopic vision, she zeroed in on the faces of each one of them. None of them appeared like they thought anything was wrong, though the dark-haired Asian man looked like he was lost in thought.

Milly capped her sample vial and headed back to where she had left her shoes and her back pack. Before placing the vial in her pack, she held it up and looked closer at it. Really close. Sure enough, with her 'micro-vision' as she called it, she could see the tiny plankton, bacterium, and particulates floating in her sample. Good, she thought. It would make her biology project that much easier knowing that there were plenty of 'things' in her samples to categorize.

She took another water sample from a nearby rock pool, and another further on down the beach closer to a marina before heading back. The waves there sounded normal enough, but when she began to get closer to the causeway again, they started to sound artificial again and she inadvertently found herself humming a popular tune in rhythm with the waves.

The dark-haired Asian man was still sitting on the same spot on the beach holding his phone. Poor guy, she thought, imagining that he might be waiting for a phone call from a girl that might never come, and she flashed a sympathetic smile his way as she passed by him on her way to the causeway.

She recalled that Cass got the same far away look in his eyes when he was concentrating on something work-related that he couldn't tell her about, and so it was then she thought to make a point to mention the strange sounding waves to her brother when he got home. After all, Cass was a detective, this was definitely a mystery, and it would give him something other than his 'heavy' case to ponder.

Having reached the causeway that led back up to street level, she put her shoes and socks back on. She hadn't meant to spend as much time as she had here. It was getting dark now, and her brother Cass would probably start wondering where she was soon, but she still took a moment to watch the sunset before heading home. It looked absolutely fabulous by adding with just a hint of infrared vision.

The sun had long disappeared beyond the horizon however William continued to work despite the clock telling him he had just entered the following day. William didn't want to go home. There was nothing to do there expect sleep and sleeping was on the bottom of the 'to do list' written in Williams mind. He had look at two cars, find out what the problem was and then fix it before heading to the scrapyard around the back to fix a problem with the Crusher. It was a busy night which suited William. The more work he had, the more on the mind he could use to help him forget about his powers, something that had been plaguing his mind since the day he discovered he was a human power generator.

He had been working for three solid hours when he put his spanner down and took a moment away from his working however it wasn't because he wanted to take a break. In a sense he was forced to stop, because standing in the middle of his workshop was the strange looking woman William had ever seen. The one clear thing about her was her Asian background. However everything else about this woman was a complete and utter mystery.

Her face had been painted in a strange and somewhat scary manor. It would appear that she had a connection or two to some Asian tribe and the face paint was some form of customary appearance. Then he clothes kind of resembled some video game or film clothing and didn't really fall into the ordinary clothing category. But despite her alien appearance, what baffled William the most was how she managed to do inside the workshop. To Williams recollection, he looked all the doors, front and back. The windows couldn't open and he didn't hear the sound of smashing glass, and there wasn't any other way in.

"Who are you?" Asked William after a short moment of awkward silence. She didn't reply. Instead she marched forward, as if Williams voice was some sort of trigger. William wondered why she was heading in his direction when between them was a large automobile, but he understood when she passed straight through the car. As anybody in his situation would do: he freaked. Dropping everything in his hands, he powered up an electrical charge and disbursed it from his body and towards the approaching woman, however the car absorbed the lighting and she was unaffected. He powered up another charge however she was too quick. Second before he was about to fire another electric burst, she reached him and injected his neck with a needle. The substance inside worked fast and within three heart beats, had rendered William unconscious.

“You’re very useful.” Dr Hawk stated still smiling. “So I guess you want to know what I do here in my livinbatory.”

Kevin grinned. "I do so love to be useful," he offered cheerfully, taking a look around the living space. "So yeah... what do you do here?" With a chuckle, he added, "Well... besides entertain a freak show, that is..."

"Captain says we need to come up with something for him to say to the wolves outside."

Cass looked up from his computer screen at Esmй standing next to his desk. "Don't they ever go home?" he asked, rubbing a hand to the side of his face. He and Esmй had to wade through another sea of reporters when they returned to the precinct after dropping Milly off at the beach.

"They need to pay the bills too," Esmй reasoned. Still she didn't look too pleased about it and Cass didn't blame her.

"Yeah, well," he murmured. "Captain's just gonna have to fudge something together. Use his dashing good looks to keep the snapping jaws at bay."

Esmй snorted. Their commanding officer, the eponymous Captain, was a rotund, balding man in his mid-50's who wasn't going to win any beauty contests by any stretch of the imagination. "I'll tell him you said that."

"Good luck finding a new partner then," Cass chided her, turning back to his screen and clicking through the webpage he was reading.

"Got a lead?" Esmй asked, coming up alongside him to look at his computer.

"Not really," Cass responded, moving over a bit to make room for his partner. "Found a piece of paper at the scene that had the name 'Jason Hawk' on it. He's a research doctor based right here in Seattle. Giving a speech tomorrow at the campus that Milly wants to attend."

"Right, that flyer she gave you in the car," Esmй recalled. "Why would Jay have something like that in his house?"

"Dunno," Cass said. He wasn't exactly being truthful, since he did have a hypothesis. He just didn't think Esmй, no matter how understanding she was, would accept it. At least not yet. Esmй was the only partner he'd ever had and he didn't think he could've asked for a better one. She was smart, streetwise and honest in addition to being a damn good cop. He'd actually planned on telling her about his 'gift' at some point, but had held back due to recent events. The current situation was looking like as good a time as any, but he'd have to do it the right way, and with Milly's approval, since she was somewhat involved as well. "But I'm thinking of going to his conference tomorrow with my sister to see what he's all about. I can take him in for questioning afterwards if needed."

"Good thinking," Esmй nodded. "Whoops...getting buzzed..." She straightened up, then pulled out her cell phone and put it to her ear. "Almбssy," she said into the receiver. "Really. Okay, thanks." She looked back down at Cass. "That was the examiner, he just finished up with Jay. Said he found some interesting things."

Cass glanced at the clock on his desk. "I promised Milly I'd be home tonight," he sighed. "It was supposed to be my turn to cook."

Esmй resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at Cass. "Yeah yeah, I'll go see what the medical examiner has for us. I'll give you call if it's anything you need to know urgently."

"Thanks, Es," Cass said, smiling at his partner as he got up and grabbed his coat.

"You owe me some of whatever it is you're cooking," she said, wagging a finger at him.

"Sure thing."

At home now, Milly sat on the couch watching one of the news channels on TV. In front of her on the coffee table were twelve small plastic vials with water in them. She was just lining them up in order of poorest water quality when Cass came in through the door.

“I’m home,” he announced.

“You’re late,” she retorted. But, looking up at him, she grinned broadly. “So I ordered pizza. Extra cheese, extra pepperoni, and no onions.” She looked over his shoulder. “So, where’s Es? I thought she’d be with you, big important case and all.”

“She’s still working,” Cass said, as he sat down next to her on the couch. He winked. “You know, big important case and all.” He took a bite of pizza. "I take it I shouldn't drink out of any of those?"

“Not unless you want dysentery.” She held up one of the vials. “This one has a lot of ‘organic’ particulates.” She gave him a look. “Otherwise known as raw sewerage.” She set the vial down and picked up another one. “And this one has a high concentration of ‘inorganic’ particulates, otherwise known as ‘industrial waste products’.” She reached under the table and handed him a can of soda. “You can drink this though.” She handed it to him. “Don’t worry. I didn’t cross-contaminate.”

“Good to know,” he said, his mouth half full.

“Anyway, thanks for dropping me off today,” Milly continued. “I really appreciate it.”

“It’s never a big deal, Mil. Just as long as you keep going to school, and….” Cass suddenly gave her a bemused look. Gratitude, not upset about him being late, ordering his favourite toppings on the pizza? He was about to ask her what had brought on all the sudden gratitude and what she wanted from him when she pointed to the TV.

“They think it’s a big deal,” she said. The news was covering the murder case Cass was working on. “That’s your big important case, isn’t it?” The question was more of a statement. Milly knew Cass really wasn’t allowed to tell her.

“So, thanks,” she said again. “Oh, and here’s a mystery for you. Something for you to ponder about when you’re not thinking about real stuff.” She nodded to the TV screen. “When I was at the beach the rhythm of the waves was ‘off.’ It was like they had a beat. Not a natural beat, though, more like a rock-n-roll rhythm with a backbeat. But it was only at the spot you guys dropped me off at. Further up the strand, the waves were normal as can be. So, my question to you is, detective, how can that happen?”

“Boat wakes?”

“In just one little area?” Milly shook her head. “It was weird, Cass. But I think I’m the only one who noticed. There were a couple of other people at the beach, but they didn’t seem bothered one iota. Especially that one guy.” Milly thought back to the young Asian man she had seen sitting by himself. "Wonder if he ever got his phone call," she thought outloud. She shook her head. "Anyway, it was really strange."

A New day broke over Seattle and all seemed calm, it would appear to be a normal day just like any other, but beneath the surface was a more sinister side to the city.

Deep underneath Globe-Net’s Triple Helix building was a secret laboratory only a few knew even existed. As well as Labs there was a moderate sized containment area with eight cells across one wall, four of these cells had one unconscious person in each. The Four had been taken the night before and put under sedation that would be wearing off soon.

Nicolay and Kate stood looking through the electrified glass doors that would prevent the prisoners from attempting to escape. Kate looked at the young women she had brought in with a childish pout on her face.

“Why did you have to cure her I’d have enjoyed this kitten.” Kate complained.

“We need her mind clear for the tests.” The scientist replied.

“But I want to have some fun.” She complained still pouting.

“Work now.” Nicolay stated. “There will be plenty of time for fun later.” A sinister grin quickly stretched across his face and Kate let out a childish laugh.
__________________________________________________ ____

Jason looked at his watch to see the digital display change to 11:03, he had been sitting in the same place for more than two hours now while Janice Caminetti discussed the wonders of the new Science Wing. He was currently sitting in one of the large auditoriums within the donated wing where he was waiting to give a talk on the wonders of the genetic research Globe-Net was doing.

He was selected to do this by Globe-Net because of his age and reasonable good looks so he could relate to the students better. They could have gotten anyone to do this job as he was only reading from a script that contained the dictionary research of genetics and some of the good work that Triple Helix was doing of mankind.

This was the last thing Jason wanted to do despite the fact he had a genuine interest in looking at the New Science facilities, although he would be very lucky to see anything other than the auditorium he was in. He wanted to be back in his lab analysing the data he had gotten from Sarah-Jane and Kevin, after Months of getting nowhere two just seemed to have came from nowhere looking for his help.

Jason had spent most of the last evening talking to both the ‘Specials’ analysing what they could do through basic tests. This took most of the night and went into the early hours of the next day, this meant he was extremely tired. The evening ended with Jason agreeing to meet up with Kevin and SJ around 1 o’clock when the opening ceremony would be finished.

“Now please Welcome Dr Jason Hawk.” Caminetti stated beginning to clap.

This brought Jason out of his daze and he stood up to walk over to the podium carrying his notes. All he had to do was spend ten minuets reading the script and then wait another hour to do it again. “The study of genetics is the science of heredity, dealing with resemblances and differences of related organisms resulting from the interaction of their genes and the environment.” He Began in a robotic fashion.
__________________________________________________ ___

The large Seattle mall was full of people including SJ and Byron Jones, the professor promised to take his daughter shopping until it came to the time where they would meet up with Jason again. In reality Byron just wanted something to do to pass the time and take the young girls mind off of the strange happening in her life. After an hour going from shop to shop Byron managed to get his daughter to stand still long enough for them to get some lunch and take a break.

“So why was Jason so cold towards you?” SJ asked before taking a bite of her small salad.

“What do you mean?” Byron asked unsure what the your women was talking about.

“Well anyone could tell he doesn’t like you.”

“It’s a long story.” Byron simply replied.

“Well we have the time.” She stated.

“He was doing the research on these special abilities when he was my student, he wrote a paper on it for an important exam, and I failed him.”

In the auditorium of the new science wing, university student Milly Cheveyo sat in the second row next to a female classmate as they listened to Dr. Jason Hawk speak about the societal benefits of Globe-Net's genetic research program. She was getting extra credit for her biology class by attending the event, but she was also waiting for him to mention something, anything, about his so-called 'specials' he had written about in his paper. But, so far, he hadn't even touched on the subject.

She sighed and folded her hands across her chest. "Unbelieveable," she said disappointedly under her breath.

Her classmate, Jane, who was sitting beside her, nodded in agreement. "Yeah," she whispered back, "isn't it amazing how much they've unravelled the mysteries of the human genome in such a short period of time?"

"No, not that," Milly whispered. "I mean, it's unbelievable that he hasn't mentioned word one about any 'special' human genetic mutations and he's been talking for ten minutes."

"Maybe he'll say that in part two?" Jane suggested. She looked down at her program. "He's on the schedule again later."

Milly squinted her eyes, focusing in on the notes Dr. Hawk held in his hands. The notes had been printed out, but the thing Milly noticed were that there were no handwritten notations on the paper. Normally, if a person gave a speech, they wrote something in the margins of the paper--asterisks to remember to emphasize a particular point, or underlines to get the wording exact, or even just doodles. But Dr. Hawk's paper had no notations at all. Which meant only one thing....

"He's just reading someone else's speech," Milly complained quietly, so as not to be heard by the people around her. "I thought he'd at least put in a plug for his own research. You read his paper on the net?"

"No," Jane admitted. "But I'll put it on my to do list." Jane grinned slightly. "He's kinda cute. Did his site have any pics?"

Milly let out a small snort. Typical Jane, she thought. Cuteness always overrided intellect every time. "Dunno," she said, being deliberately elusive.

Out of the corner of Milly's eye, which with her exceptional visual abilities could cover quite an extensive area, she noticed her brother, Cass, waiting near the wings of the auditorium stage. He had told her that he had been planning to go to Dr. Hawk's talk, and she had begged him not to sit next to her. After her classmate Sean's comments of how embarrassing it was to be associated with a cop, Milly decided it was best to put a bit of distance between her and her brother. Not that she was embarrassed by his profession. To the contrary, she was actually very proud of him, but she also wanted to fit in with the rest of the crowd.

As she listened to Dr. Hawk continue, she wondered if he would have a sort of question and answer session after his last speech. If so, she wanted to ask him if there was any recent Globe-Net research in the area of human genetic mutations. With her 'special' vision she could see that the answer to that question certainly wasn't anywhere on the paper he was holding, and she wondered if he would answer it.

Jacob felt like crap.

Between the throbbing of his broken arm and his head, which felt like a huge tribe of tiny people was up there, dancing along his brain and having a celebration complete with drums and unified leaping, he generally felt horrible. His tongue felt dry and thick, there was a funny taste in the back of his throat, and he felt lethargic, with his muscles strangely sore despite his lack of any serious exertion the previous day.

He cracked his eyes open, and immediately wished he hadn't. A stark-white room with a painfully bright light over him was all he saw before he closed his eyes. Resolving to take it slower, he opened his eyes again and toughed out through the pain as his eyes adjusted. He pulled himself up, coming to sit in the middle of the cell.

What the hell?

This wasn't a military installation, there were no guards as far as he could see, nor was it run by terrorists, it was too well kept. As far as he could tell, he was alone.

A glass door was in front of him. Strange. Well, he could break that, he'd just need to be careful not to cut himself to ribbons. He stood, then slid back to the floor. His legs weren't even strong enough to hold him upright. Whatever that gorilla had jabbed him with wasn't wearing off fast. He leaned over to the side. He could tell there were other cells, the outside room was too large for just one, but he couldn't see into any of them. He lay against the wall, breathing slowly.

Maybe if the walls aren't too thick, I can talk through them, see if anyone else is in here. Or try Morse Code, but I'd rather not.

He started to move to do that, but his vision spun.

In a minute, maybe.

"The man sounds like a robot," Lara whispered, more to herself than to anyone around her... though the kid sitting to her left chose to respond.

"You don't think this is interesting?" he asked. Lara rolled her eyes.

"Compared to other stuff he's written, no," she replied. She took out a little notepad and scribbled the web address to Dr. Hawk's 'specials' paper on it. Then, she tore it out and handed it to the kid. "Betcha London to a brick that he says nothing about that."

"London to a..." the kid repeated, puzzled. Lara rolled her eyes and waited for the question she knew was coming. "Where are you from?"

"Forget it," she muttered, slouching further into her chair. The idiot kept trying, though. Yammering something about pretty much nothing. The only bit Lara really caught was that he asked for her number. She rolled her eyes.

"Not the full quid, are you?" she shot back. "Just... rack off, will you?"

"Uh... what?" he stammered. With another roll of her eyes, Lara got impatient and reached out to feel his mind. With a quick efficiency born of doing much the same thing many times before, she nudged his thoughts away from her. In less than a minute, he was focused wholly on Dr. Hawk's robotic speech.

The sound of the clock's alarm annoyed most people, even Alex, but not today. Today, he was eager to listen to the clock's alarm. To wake up. For today...

For today was payday.

Alex got up from his bed even earlier than the clock's alarm and took a quick shower and got dressed. He took out a bowl and a spoon and dished some cereals and milk, then jumping onto the couch and turning on the TV. Just some random news about the usual. That is, until he flipped onto the live feed of the ceremony of the new Science Wing of the school, donated by Globe-Net and the infamous Dr. Jason Hawk was speaking. Not the topic Alex wished it to be though.

"Great, he's reading and not talking. Not even a mention about the specials," Alex sighed in slight frustration as then, somehow, the television switch turned the TV off.

"Uh?" He said in confusion. 'Probably just a malfunction,' He thought. Alex then proceeded to finish his breakfast and dress up and got out but was welcomed with three of his friends from work: Nichole, Rick and Vanessa.

"Hey guys. What's up?" Alex asked them as Nichole showed him an envelope. He then suddenly gasped in panic, "Is that my check?!"

"Yup!" Nichole nodded cheerfully.

"Please, don't make me and Rick spend all our money on your shoppings, please!" Alex told her, getting a smack on the head for it, "Ow."

"Don't be stupid, we're not going to make you guys use your money. You'll just accompany us to the mall!" Alex's friend Vanessa told him.

"Yeah, but that's even worse," Rick whispered, still getting a smack from Vanessa.

"Alright, let me just cash this check up and we can be on our way. Rick, we're using your car," Alex told him.

"What? No way? Why?"

"Because i don't have a car and you're not going to force ladies to drive, now are you? Now stop complaining and let's go, chop chop."

"Hello?"

Malin wrapped her arms tighter around herself as she listened to her voice echo through the empty room. It was rather large, probably at least half a gymnasium's worth in length and width and completely devoid of anything, doors included, save for an oddly shaped structure towards the far end of the room. She hadn't approached it yet, but from what she could make out, it looked like a post made of white plastic, with a metal ball sitting on top of it. The ball had a single around its circumference, making it look like a model of Jupiter.

Getting to her feet slowly, Malin continued to rub her arms and look around. She'd awoken in this room not a few minutes before, cold and disoriented. She didn't know how she'd gotten here and no answers were immediately forthcoming. The room was cold and sterile feeling, and it didn't help that she was still dressed in her black dress which didn't afford her very much in warmth. She vaguely remembered leaving her apartment, but she wasn't sure when that was or how long she'd been unconscious or even how long she'd been here. And this bothered her.

"Hello?" she repeated, taking a few tentative steps forward. "Is anyone there?" She stumbled as the heel in her left shoe gave out. Managing to steady herself, she slipped off the broken shoe, then the other one, placing her feet on the cold, metallic floor and sending an involuntary shiver up her spine. "Bloody hell," she swore, tossing her shoes to the floor. "Those were my good pair, too."

"I'd like to get out of here, if that's all right!" she yelled, a little bit frustrated now. When there was no response, she marched over to one of the walls and pounded at it with her fist. "Hello?! Can anybody hear me?" Again, no response. She sighed, exasperated, then moved towards the odd structure on the other side of the room. Just as she came within a few meters, the structure let out a low, buzzing sound, causing Malin to stop. Before she could react, a bolt of electricity lanced out from the metal orb and struck her square in the stomach, sending her flying backwards. She crumpled into a heap on the floor, shellshocked. Her mind swam, her thoughts hazy with the sudden shock and pain of the electric bolt. After a few moments, she was able to gather up enough cogency to tilt her head forward and stare down at her belly. The charge had hit her right in the middle of her abdomen, frying the skin on her stomach to a crisp to the point where it was charred and blackened.

"Wha..." Malin managed to croak out as she stared. The pain was intensifying every second and if she didn't do something, she was sure to die. Concentrating the last of her strength reserves, she closed her eyes and willed her power to change her body's composition. She opened her eyes again and put a shaky hand to her stomach. Gripping the burned flesh, she pulled, ripping the skin away. Instead of blood and sinew, a layer of shiny black material revealed itself as she tore her charred skin. She'd managed to focus enough to change her skin to Teflon, a substance highly resistant to electical charges. The change had also healed the wound in her stomach somewhat, though she still felt the throbbing pain in her abdomen; the bolt had inflicted an injury that would take a few more 'husks' to fully heal.

She set to work ripping the rest of her flesh off, taking her now-destroyed black dress with it. One of the unfortunate side effects of her power was that if she did a full-body morph, she would have to remove all her clothing, lest it get torn away. The electric charge had blown a hole right through the flimsy material, effectively ruining it. Malin pulled the last bit of skin away from her leg, then stood slowly to her feet, her body now completely shiny black. "I don't know what your game is," she stated to whoever was controlling the orb, her voice wavery but determined. "But I don't like playing it. Release me now, or I'll make my own way out."

As if in response, the orb thrummed anew, charging up again. Malin gritted her teeth, setting her feet as a second bolt of electricity came screaming towards her. It struck her on the shoulder, splashing across her body and down to the floor, leaving the firefighter unharmed. Malin didn't wait for it to strike her a third time. Striding purposefully towards the structure, she wound back and punched the orb with all her might, causing a rather large dent in the side and knocking it off the white post. She let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in, then straightened up. "Are you going to listen to me now?" she asked, balling her fists and yelling at the top of her lungs.

A sliding noise behind her caused her to whirl around, her arms up in a defensive posture. To her horror, panels in the floor were opening and new white posts were rising up from them. A few had the the same metallic orbs like the one she'd just punched out, but a number of them also had what looked like guns and flamethrowers. "Great," she muttered under her breath. "Just freaking great."

The nearest of the flamethrowers swiveled towards her and opened fire.

Jacob struggled to his feet. Over the last hour or so, he'd recovered most of his strength. Krav Maga training had conditioned him fairly well. Nothing had happened, other than his headache slowly subsiding and the throbbing of his broken arm just getting worse. Still, the Gorilla or any of his pals hadn't paid him a visit, so that was a definite plus. Time to start figuring a way out of this place, he felt like a lab rat.

The walls were nondescript. He hadn't figured out what the y were made of, but it was hard enough that Jacob couldn't crack it, the ceiling was beyond reach, the floor was completely blank, leaving only the obvious way out - the worst way, but in this case, the only apparent way. Back through the door.

He walked close. Fairly nondescript, apparently glass, with no obvious reinforcement to suggest it was bulletproof or otherwise resistant. Time to get the hell out of dodge. He started at the opposite wall, braced himself and charged it, shoulder first.

He impacted. The glass shuddered with the impact, but neither cracked nor shattered. As he rebounded, a massive electrical shock ran into Jacob's body, tossing him to the floor, smoking slightly.

"Son of a..."

The voltage wasn't high enough to cause serious damage, but it was more than enough to really, REALLY hurt. He lay there, stunned. Time for Plan B.

Actually, time to start planning plan B.

In a cold, damp concrete cell deep inside the Globe-net building, William was pinned onto a large generator type machine which dozens of wires stripped next to his skin and inserted into the skin. From an observation room, two scientists speak about their new test subject after running a large number of tests to see the true potential that this men held. After reviewing the results, the young male scientists reported to his finding to his female supervisor. "It's still unknown however the power is produced but from what we can, the power builds up in either arm and escapes from one of his hands in the direction they point at."

The female scientists already knew what he spoke, and gave him a sharp look to prove that. "Every time this man uses his power, he body changes slightly, but because there is usually a long period of time between the times he uses his power, his body corrects the changes and he stays same old him. We can also replicate the effects this process has on his body by shocking him with a strong amount, the most effective voltage is that is a car battery..." The man stopped as he heard his superior gasp, causing him to look inside the cell and saw William on the floor crawling away.

"He was... We... He was strapped into the machine... Then he... passed right through it," She said is astonishment.

"Yeah, this is the main effect using his power had on his body," The man explained, "Every time he uses his power, his body changes slightly. His cells in his body begins to resemble that of energy. If he used his power to it's maximum potential like we have been doing, his body continues to change until it's partially living energy, which has the power to pass through certain materials. But don't worry, we're fairly confident that concrete isn't one of those. We're going to let his body return to normal before we began to test more."

After a few more seconds of Jason Hawk's 'speech reading', Lara determined it was time to give him a pleasant (or not so pleasant) surprise. Carefully, delicately she reached into his mind.

Don't be alarmed, Dr. Hawk. The feminine voice was barely above a whisper in the back of his mind. And don't stop reading your speech! I just want to have a word with you when this is all over...

And with that, she pulled back. And her cell phone buzzed.

'Do you have the gun?'

Lara rolled her eyes and sent a txt message back: 'I am not going to kill him. Besides, can you imagine what security would do if I were to pull out a gun on a college campus?'

A moment later, her phone buzzed again. 'Be prepared to kill him, Ms. Caldwell. We don't think he'll be suspicious of a student, but with Jason Hawk, you never know.'

Slumping deeper into her chair, Lara scowled. She would do everything in her power to avoid that possibility.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

At a large store such as the one Kevin Waters worked in, it was easy enough to fool the computers into thinking you were scheduled for time off. The humans weren't as easily fooled, but if you told them to check the computer, they'd apologize profusely and let you go. It was a problem with a connected society, one that Kevin used to his advantage time and time again.

Which was why he was browsing a shopping mall instead of selling things to people who didn't want them. He'd decided that, given the events of the night before, he would not be able to do his job efficiently. So he'd put in a time off request, one that had been filed three weeks earlier. He had the next two days off.

Thank you, weak firewalls, he thought to himself. With a smirk, he decided to pay his friend, Will a visit. Will was the manager of a store in this very mall. Wouldn't he be surprised to see his friend?

As he lay there, smoking slightly and groaning with pain, a trio walked up to the glass door, wearing white lab coats. The front one, a middle-aged woman, began to speak.

"Not as interesting as the other three. So far, no overt displays of any interesting abilities, although the signs are definitely present. The agent who brought him in indicated he may be unaware of his own abilities. Given how unlikely it is that he could have failed to trigger them, given his history, it is likely they aren't anything particularly extraordinary."

"So, we let him go?"

"No. He's got an ability of some kind, so we're going to begin a battery of tests as soon as we finish with the more interesting ones. Preliminary analysis did indicate some interesting patterns in his frontal and parietal lobes, particularly in memory-based areas. About the only interesting thing on the tests. He bullrushed the glass a minute ago, got a little fried. He'll be down for a while. Let's move on."

Jacob groaned as the three scientists walked away. It explained a bit. Corporate, maybe. Could be a Black Ops facility, or a Think Tank. Something about people with 'interesting abilities.' That made no sense. He had no misconceptions about himself - he was little more than an average Marine. Not exactly Delta Force material. He pulled himself up slightly, groaning. This was looking to be a bad week.