This has got to end, Malin thought to herself as she lashed a titanium arm out, crumpling the barrel of a repeating rifle inwards and sending the entire thing flying off the white pedestal it had arisen on. As it clattered to the floor, Malin hunched over, placing her hands on her knees and breathing heavily. It had taken what seemed like forever for her to finally destroy all of the weapons that had appeared in the room. She had husked at least three times, going from Teflon, to brick, to steel and now titanium, all to counter the various perils thrown at her. It was definitely starting to take its toll on her, as she was nearing her limit. She figured she had one husk left in her, perhaps two, before she would have to revert back to her original human skin. She hoped to find a way out of here before that happened.

She straightened up and strode over to one of the walls, hauling back with her fist and punching it with all her might, which was now considerable, given her current composition. The wall dented inward, but only by a very small amount, not nearly as damaged as Malin had hoped. She swore under her breath, then cocked her fist back in preparation for another blow, but before she could even think of throwing it, the ceiling panel right above her opened and a torrent of water gushed down onto her. She looked up in amazement as several other panels slid open from the floor and the sides as well, revealing giant nozzles that spewed jets of water into the room. Before she had a chance to blink, the water had already risen up to her waist with no sign of slowing down.

"Damn," she muttered, willing her body into another morph. The shiny titanium began to slide off, revealing smooth, brown wood. Her power was able to combat most things, but she couldn't husk herself gills. She'd have to try and float to find a pocket of air in the ceiling. Reaching down, she grabbed one of the metallic orbs with her still titanium-clad arm and hurled it upward. It embedded itself into the ceiling right between two nozzles. She had to hope it would be enough.

The water was up to her neck as she tore the last bit of titanium off her face and began to float upward. Malin took a deep breath and waited.

((Okay folks, sorry for taking so long, but there is such a thing as the holidays you know. :) ))

Jaydon sat cross-legged in a shiny white room, it was relatively small, only about the size of a bedroom or apartment. The room was completely and utterly white, and kind of metallic-y, if you could call it that. The only anomaly beyond that was a glass door opposite of Jaydon, outside was, well, he didn't really know.

Jaydon popped a piece of candy in his mouth, he'd woken up to find both the candy, and Jim's cell still on him, but every time he tried using the cell it only said no connection, and obviously the biker guy who brought him here knew there wouldn't be a connection either, that, or he was in too big of a rush to skiff Jaz. But, as stated before, he may be lazy, but he isn't stupid, on the contrary, he'd already concocted a plan on how to get out, now all he had to do was wait for those scientists he'd caught a glimpse of earlier to come back, and he was certain they would.

To his exact expectation they did, three of them to be exact, a female and two male cohorts. They stood outside of the door staring at him as if he were the elephant man or something.

"This one is different from the others. We know he has more interesting abilities, like the woman we captured, but the thing is, he hasn't shown them, he's been sitting against that wall since he's woken up, no signs of struggle, no drive to escape. If you ask me, ma'am, I honestly think he doesn't care, I'm only guessing though," one of the scientists said to the woman scientist as he stared at a clipboard he was holding.

'So she's the lead geek, okay, need to remember that,' Jaydon thought to himself, his face showing no emotional changes as he just sat staring at them lazily. Aside from that he guessed there was one other person captured along with him, and that they were observing him somehow, though he saw no means of doing so with the weird sci-fi white room he was in. Oh, and he also guessed the place was some kind of weird superhuman geek fest study thingy, or something like that, he really didn't care.

"Alright, we'll start his tests soon, just after we check up on the woman, lets go," the lady scientist said, seeming uninterested in him, though, who would be considering the amount of activity he was displaying. Just as they were turning to leave he pulled the bag of candy out of his green vest and began munching on them openly.

The other crony, the male who hadn't spoken became alarmed and dashed forward, "how did you get that!?" The scientist exclaimed, Jaydon only smiled and waved at him with Jim's cell, the man's eyes growing to the size of dinner plates it seemed. He rushed to the door's control panel, and was about to open it but was stopped short.

"NO!! You fool! He's just trying to bait you," the lady scientist said to the man as his finger hovered over the panel precariously. "He's had the candy since he's been in there you dolt! Next time check the feeds. As for the phone, he's not going to get a connection out of here any time soon," she chastised, the man cringing as she scolded him. She walked up to the glass door, a spark of newfound interest in her eyes.

"So, you're not so unmotivated after all," she stated, Jaydon only smiling sheepishly, though there was an obvious hint of mischief in his pretend innocence. Jaydon threw a piece of candy at the glass door, hitting the door it sparked with a white flash and plopped to the floor, a small tail of smoke steaming up from the already melting candy piece. To most this would seem like a simple act of play, but it proved to the scientists that he watched his sci-fi flicks, he knew about the electrified door without even testing to see if he could bust it open with his abilities.

"This one's smart, either that, or unimaginably stupid. Either one, it doesn't matter, if he wants to play, then let him play. You, activate the test, I'm interested to see how things will turn out now," she said, a wicked and mischievous smile of her own creasing across her lips. The scientist who had been ready to open the door now began punching in a sequence on the panel, moments later to Jaydon's surprise, or not, a white panel came down infront of the door, and then it sealed up and he could no long tell that there was a door, or even a panel there, it looked like a wall, then again, he couldn't tell where the walls were anymore with the door gone, it looked like an abyss of white, which was actually, really creepy.

He looked around to take in his surroundings, from what he could tell the light source came from the ceiling, but it wasn't one individual light, it wasn't even a whole bunch of lights, it was like the entire ceiling was a glowing tile, it produced a minimal amount of light, and it appeared just as white as the walls and floor. The fact that the walls and floor were white in such a way made it to where the light reflected around in the room, allowing a minimal amount of light to illuminate the place greatly. The only way he was able to tell the light was coming from the ceiling was the fact that if he stared long enough his eyes hurt like they would if you stare at a light bulb too long; he didn't get this effect when he looked at the walls and floor.

On top of all of this the way the room was lit prevented any shadow what-so-ever. To Jaydon it was like those commercials with the white rooms that seemed to have no walls but you could tell they were there. Well, this place was a lot like those rooms, only worse, he couldn't tell where the walls were, he could barely tell that he was standing on a floor.

As Jaydon looked around slowly he felt that there was no wall behind him anymore, and as he stood up and turned around he found nothing there but white. He cocked an eyebrow and began walking, and walking, and walking, until finally he slammed into a wall. As he looked back over his shoulder and looked at the melted puddle of chocolate on the ground, he blinked rapidly in surprise, he could see the candy, but it was FAR! He had gone that far out and didn't even realize it, because when he walked it felt like he wasn't moving, the perception of passing objects, including passing shadows just wasn't there.

This wasn't a test, it was torture; if someone were to be put in this room that had no abilities or even common sense, they'd be insane in a short matter of time.

Jaydon looked up at the ceiling, he had no idea how high it was, and he didn't want to test, though he wished he could shoot the ceiling with a shard of bone to take out the lighting and create some form of shadow, but he didn't want the scientists learning about his abilities as of yet.

Jaydon scratched his head slowly, this whole thing was maddening, and it didn't help that he was pacing and couldn't even tell. 'Crud, what now!?' He asked himself.

Sitting in the front seat of the squad car, Elisa looked out the front window. If there was any perks to having constant police protection, it was that she didn't have to drive anywhere herself. This time was even better as she looked over at the young Police Officer sitting in the driver's seat. His name was Thomas Williams, or just 'Tommy' as he had introduced himself several days ago, and Elisa thought he was cute.

"So, why do you have to be at the University early today?" Tommy asked. Looking over at her, he continued, "Your dad never told me why."

"Oh, well, its just this lecture their holding today," Elisa replied as she looked over at Tommy. They were stuck at a traffic light just two blocks from the main entrance. "Its not required, but my biology professor is giving us extra credit."

"Nice," Tommy replied. "I wish my professors had been that nice when I was back in tech school. Then again, I never would've made it to the Academy if they were that nice."

"Well, then maybe it was for the best afterall," Elisa agreed as she smiled at him. As the car kept moving down the road, Elisa then said, "How long has it been since you left the Police Academy?"

Smiling, Tommy replied, "Just one year out actually. I'm quite glad, actually; those rookie pranks can be quite vicious."

"Pranks? Like what? Shaving cream in your locker or something?" Elisa teased.

"No, more like whipped cream in my hat or making me deal with the crazy cases. Stuff like that," Tommy replied with a smile.

"Crazy cases? Sounds like you've been set up a couple of times," Elisa commented.

As they turned a corner into the school, Tommy turned on his lights to get them moving towards the parking lot easier. "Oh yeah. Some major setups, actually. They've got it coming, though," Tommy replied somewhat disjointedly as he concentrated on his driving. Finally reaching some spaces near the lecture hall, Tommy parked next to an unmarked car in the spaces designated for the Police and Campus Security.

Putting the transmission in park, Tommy then cut off the lights and the engine. "Well, lets get inside," he commented. "Maybe if I listen good enough, they'll give me my Associates, ehh?"

Smiling as she got out of the car, she then said, "Just maybe." Heading into the lecture hall, Elisa was a bit surprised at how crowded the hall was, but then again, the subject at hand was dealing with the evolution of the human race. Not to mention that Elisa was feeling like she was one of those that had evolved given her transformation ability.

Looking for two seats, she found one next to a medium-toned girl similar to herself with dark hair. Sitting down next to her followed by Tommy, she started to pay close attention to the speaker.

"Sounds like a script to me," Tommy quietly commented after a couple of minutes.

"I know," Elisa whispered in reply. "I thought he was going to be talking about the 'specials' and not this, erm, stuff."

"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?"

Overhearing the two girls next to her, Elisa looked over at them. "Well, I read his paper just the other night. Pretty interesting stuff, if you want my opinion," Elisa commented. Catching the slightly confused look on Milly's face, Elisa stuck her hand out, "I'm Elisa."

((OCC- The reason I left it so long between posts was because I got the feeling people left but I wanted to give them a chance to post, they hadn’t so I guess they’ve gone…No great loss, still got plenty. So the people I’m considering as left are tommycat, phantom, count, kotor_freak and padawan.))

“…in the hope it’ll lead us at triple Helix in both extending life and making it more comfortable for all mankind.” Jason finished reading the speech and turned around and walked back to his seat allowing Mrs Caminetti to walk up the podium.

“Thank you Dr Hawk.” She said with a sickly sweet smile and looking over the assembled group of students. “This is the end of our lecture but the facilities will remain open to be viewed. My associates and I will also stay around to answer any questions you may have about Triple Helix or Globe-net.”

Jason sighed and looked down at his watch he had fifteen free minuets until this whole lecture thing would restart and now he had to spend them answering questions. Questions about all the great work he does in the fast and exciting world of genetics, of course he had to Lie as this was mostly a way for Globe-net to get early recruitment of future scientists.

Jason was quickly ushered into a small office by the side of the lecture hall where he was expected to answer the questions of anyone who entered.

Looking for two seats, she found one next to a medium-toned girl similar to herself with dark hair. Sitting down next to her followed by Tommy, she started to pay close attention to the speaker.

"Sounds like a script to me," Tommy quietly commented after a couple of minutes.

"I know," Elisa whispered in reply. "I thought he was going to be talking about the 'specials' and not this, erm, stuff."

"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?"

Overhearing the two girls next to her, Elisa looked over at them. "Well, I read his paper just the other night. Pretty interesting stuff, if you want my opinion," Elisa commented. Catching the slightly confused look on Milly's face, Elisa stuck her hand out, "I'm Elisa."Milly eyed the girl. She looked very familiar, but Milly couldn’t quite place her. Nevertheless, she smiled and shook hands with her anyway. “You’re in Professor McGraw’s 101 class, right?” she whispered a guess. “At 11 o’clock?”

The girl nodded.

“Milly Cheveyo,” she introduced herself. “Bio217 at 9:30. I’m sure I’ve passed you in the hallway once or twice.” She nodded up at the stage where Dr. Hawk was just wrapping up. “Some ‘speech’, huh?” she whispered to Elisa. “His paper was good, but his speech, well….” She paused. “As the saying goes, if you can’t say something nice,…” She gave a helpless sort of shrug and a crooked grin. “At least there’s the extra credit, right?”

“Thank you Dr Hawk. This is the end of our lecture but the facilities will remain open to be viewed. My associates and I will also stay around to answer any questions you may have about Triple Helix or Globe-net.”

“Great! Questions,” Milly said enthusiastically as she stood up along the rest of the people in the auditorium. “C’mon,” she said more to her friend Jane than Eliza, and she gathered up her backpack. “’Cause I’ve certainly got a couple of questions for Dr. Hawk.”

“Well, I’m not staying for questions,” Jane said abruptly. “Extra credit didn’t include anything about ‘questions.’”

“But don’t you want to know why he didn’t talk about his own research?” Milly asked outright. She did. It was the entire reason for her coming here. To find out how many other 'special' people were out there.

“If it doesn’t get me any more extra credit? No.” Jane shouldered her purse. “You comin’? I was going over to the student union to meet Sean.”

Milly shook her head. “No, you go ahead. I’ll catch up with you later.” She then turned to Elisa. “You want to come with me?” It was then that she noticed the young police officer, standing on the other side of Elisa, seemed to be with Elisa (rather than just extra security as Milly had first thought,) though whether he was there in a professional sense or not Milly didn’t know. And she didn’t want to. It was bad enough that Cass was waiting in the wings, let alone to be seen with a uniformed officer. She let out a barely audible sigh. “Erm, do I know you?” she asked him plainly.

“Erm…” was all that Tommy managed to get out before Milly held up a quick hand and cut him off. “Nevermind.” She looked at Elisa, then smiled. “Doesn’t matter. I like cops. I really do.” She glanced over at Cass, who was standing at a relaxed but practiced parade rest stance near the end of the auditorium’s stage, and gave a quick roll of her eyes. He caught her gaze and gave her a small, discreet wave of his hand. She smiled back. “Just don’t like them hovering near me in very public and potentially embarrassing-situation type places,” she added quietly through clenched teeth.

Elisa seemed to pick up on the fact that Milly, like her, wasn’t completely alone in the auditorium today and seemed to have a police escort of sorts, too. “Oh. Does your escort annoy you sometimes, too?” she whispered.

“Yeah, especially when he leaves the toilet seat up.” Then Milly did a double take. “Escort? Oh. Good grief, no, it’s not like that.” She gave a little nod towards Cass. “It’s worse. He’s my brother. And,” she added, for Officer Tommy’s benefit as well, “he’s a detective.”

The two, or rather three to include Tommy, headed toward the Q&A area where Dr. Hawk waited behind a small desk. There were a few other people there, most of them collecting a Globe-Net pamphlet or just saying thanks or congratulating the doctor on his speaking ability. Not one of them were asking any questions, well, at least not any questions about why he hadn’t even mentioned his own work as well as touting Globe Net’s success.

So, pressing her lips together in a tight determined line, she waited for a moment, and then waved to get his attention. “Dr. Hawk? I’ve got a question for you.” The small room went eerily silent. Milly swallowed, then cleared her throat. “How many samples and, if any, what types of special DNA code mutations, mentioned so prevalently in your most recent scientific paper published on the net, have been factored into Globe-Net’s Triple Helix research and how would that affect the final outcomes?”

((Joint post with Jasra))

Lara's heart jumped into her throat. What was this? Asking such a question in public? It would not do. She stepped forward, clearing her throat. "Surely you realize how much junk is posted on the internet... how much faith are you really putting on the bet that this thing you read was actually written by Dr. Hawk?" She rolled her eyes. "Don't waste his time."

Milly's mouth hung open aghast at the audacity of the outspoken girl. "Excuse me?" she asked, staring at Lara. "Are you accusing Dr. Hawk of plagiarism? You think he just added his name to a paper he didn't write?" She shook her head with disbelief.

"Hardly," Lara replied. "I am merely suggesting someone else planted his name on their paper in an attempt to gain an audience from his success."

Milly looked over at Dr. Hawk, and then back at Lara. "That sounds...." She paused, thinking of an appropriate word. None came. "Stupid." She cringed slightly, thinking of how 'stupid' she had just sounded.

Lara offered a tight smile. "Indeed," she said. "And yet, you'd be amazed at how often it happens. Look at MySpace, for example. Think of how many profiles there are that claim to be the real person. On the internet, there is simply no way of telling the authentic from the bogus."

"No one would publish a paper like his and then...." Milly stopped herself. "Who are you to criticize someone as esteemed as Dr. Hawk anyway? How do we know that you're not a bogus student and not a reporter or something trying to make Dr. Hawk and Globe-Net look bad, huh?"

Lara glared at Milly and determined it would be better to intimidate the girl into silence. "What makes you so desperate for this paper to have been written by Dr. Hawk?" she demanded. "Perhaps you think you're special? And so you cling to the only speck of hope you have, a doctor who supposedly publishes a paper about people like you. Looking for answers... looking for answers where there are none... just a brilliant doctor striving to make life better... for the everyday human." She shook her head. "You'll find nothing supernatural here."

“Everyone’s ‘special’ in some way,” Milly said outloud, but in her head she was thinking, How dare she imply that Dr. Hawk’s paper is fraudulent?! Wonder how ‘supernatural’ she would think it was if I told her I could see crumbs from the poppyseed muffin she had for breakfast imbedded on her shirt.

Lara brushed her hand over the front of her shirt, subconsciously reacting based on Milly's thoughts. "I know that," she admitted slowly. "I don't care if you can see down to the microscopic... but we can't all be superheroes." She turned to Dr. Hawk.

"I'm sorry we cut so far into your Q & A time," she told him. She sensed somewhere in his mind that he recognized her voice, and so she planted her cell phone number there with a slight hint of a suggestion to call.

Milly’s eyes widened as she watched Lara brush off the microscopic crumbs that she shouldn’t have seen or even known about. Something wasn’t right. In fact, Milly began to feel that something was downright creepy. Is she reading my mind? Milly thought. Instinctively searching for some security, she looked over Lara’s shoulder, through the doorway, across the auditorium to where she could see Cass waiting at the other end of the stage. She let out a tiny sigh. Good, he was still there, she thought. Even better, he was making his way towards them.

Lara caught Milly's discomfort and realized what she had done. Furthermore, she noted Milly's glance to where Cass was approaching and she half-turned to look over at him. Instantly, her eyes landed on his badge, clearly displayed on his belt and her eyes widened. In addition, there was a uniformed cop not far away and her eyes went to him next.

"Oh, not good," she whispered to herself. And without another word, she made for the door and slipped away. Globe-net had warned her against police inspection of any kind and she wasn't about to test what they could do to make her life significantly less comfortable.

Milly gave a sideways glance at Elisa, and then followed the disappearing form of Lara as she exited the Q&A room and headed towards the auditorium’s exit.

“Weird…” Milly muttered under her breath.

'Shove it all, all this thinking is making me hungry,' Jaydon thought to himself, annoyed at his dilemma, which increased his hunger further. 'And all I've got is candy,' he continued, looking down at the bag of candy that he pulled out of his vest. As he stared at it his gaze shifted towards the now hardened puddle of chocolate a great distance away, but suddenly his expression changed to a look of sudden realization as something clicked together in his brain.

"Eureka," he quietly muttered to himself, a lazy grin spreading across his normally placid face.

Moments later he was doing something you normally only saw little children doing, and that was smearing chocolate all over the wall.
****

Jaydon smiled as he peeled himself away from the last wall and smiled at his handiwork,though he'd barely had enough candy to cover each wall with at least a small streak, as the matter stood, the room he was in was huge. A bit bigger than a gymnasium. And now with the walls covered to a slight degree, he found he could stand the room now, considering that he now had a sense of depth to count on.

But he was still hungry. He looked down at the near empty bag, the only thing left was a small piece of candy. Jaydon wretched it from the bag and popped it in his mouth, chewing slowly. He sighed, crumpling the bag up and pocketing it, he walked towards the middle of the room, licking his hands clean of chocolate as he went.

He looked around, wondering if that was all they intended to do to, 'test' him. But just at that moment he felt a slight vibration pass through the room, and then a low groan could be heard followed by a muffled click, like the sound of an enormous lock being unlocked by an equally enormous key.

"Why can't I keep my thoughts to myself," he muttered with a groan of protest, he knew something bad was going to happen. Just as he thought something did happen as a part of the wall behind him dislocated itself from it's place in the room and began hurtling towards him. Jaydon barely saw it in time to move out of the way, the huge rectangular column grinding past and slamming into the opposite wall.

Jaydon sighed, that was too close for comfort, way too close for his kind of comfort. But just as he got settled from that ordeal, he suddenly felt the ground shake like the whole place was coming down around his ears, and after that had subsided he began hearing various moans, groans, and unlocking clicks coming from his surroundings.

"Ah Snap!" He exclaimed unhappily, as he started moving towards the chocolate puddle that represented where the door had been, because if there was one thing that wouldn't come streaking towards him, it was the wall that was apart of the hallway, or so he hoped. As he made his break for it the place came to life, large wall panelings began detaching and going off in various direction, at various heights, and the whole place was full of sound now.

Jaydon ran with the determination of a man who acted like a chicken with it's head cut off, which was surprisingly fast. But as he thought he would make it and find a safe place where he could avoid oncoming pillars, he found himself rising up at an amazing rate, to his disbelief the floor had begun shifting too. Suddenly it was a world of rectangular columns and cubes shifting and moving around at high rates of speed, and Jaydon had nowhere to go but down. He jumped, not wanting to be caught between the floor and the ceiling as they tried to kiss, after all, who was he to stop their romance?

Jaydon landed with the grace granted to that of a rubber ball, he hit the ground, bounced, came back down, bounced once more, then hit the ground and rolled until he came into contact with the side of a column that had already come to rest. Once Jaydon came to his senses he yanked his legs tight to his chest, but it wasn't out of the want to curl up in a ball and pray for mercy, but the fact that a column was coming towards his sprawled out legs, parallel to the column he was lying against. The column soared by, only a couple feet from him.

He decided to remain lying next to the column, considering it was the safest place he'd found so far. He watched as another column rose from the floor to meet the ceiling, and a couple of smaller cubes shifted downward into the floor, giving the pit a weird look, like one you'd find in those strange drawings where everything confused the mind and eyes. He remained still for good while longer, though he couldn't see anything else moving, he could still hear columns and cubes grinding, screeching, and slamming around in the room. But slowly the sounds began to die, one after another, until Jaydon only heard one last thud as another column slammed into something, and then all was silent.

Jaydon got up, dusting himself off out of instinct. He looked around, the place was an obstacle course now, and the sides of the pillars and columns weren't white, which allowed him to see the shape and depth of things, that, and the fact that portions of the ceiling were covered, allowing a strange form of shadow for him to mentally grasp things better.

Jaydon put his hands in his pockets and nodded to himself, if it weren't for the fact that it had just tried to kill him, he'd say that the room looked nice, like a piece of art, well, because...it did look like a piece of art, an odd, abstract, bloodthirsty piece of art. And if it weren't for those nerds he'd have never have had to have dealt with this, he could have just sat in his small white room, staring out the glass door, eating candy and fidgeting with Jim's cell, all while concocting a successful plan of escape.

That was it, if he ever saw that lead geek in person again, he'd, he'd!....Give her a serious tongue thrashing....yeah right. Having a younger sister was a blessing and a curse, it made him appreciate the opposite gender more than he'd like to admit, but it also meant he couldn't bring himself to do anything about one of those opposite genders if they ever seriously ticked him off. Oh well, what's done is done, or so he hoped.

But just as he finished pondering, he found something new happening, oh goody!

"Oh no!" He exerted with an exasperated sob.

Suddenly panels began opening on the pillars and columns around him, and what he found that came out would have been a dentists dream come true. Staring him in the face, or vice versa, was an rather big drill on a mechanical arm, in fact there were quite a lot, and not just drills, saws too, and other physically painful implements.

From what he could tell the scientists had figured out that his abilities lied inside, and not outside, because he had shown no physical external use of powers, and from what they could probably tell, he had none...or so they thought, or, he thought they thought...whatever.

Jaydon looked around him nervously as the saws and drills, and other various thing began firing up, and turning menacingly in his direction.

'So they wanted to box me in so they could get in close,' he thought to himself, looking around for an opening of escape.

"How bothersome," he moaned his most spoken phrase, a drill suddenly snapping to life, lunging for his chest, his eyes widening with shock.

Cass crossed the last half dozen meters to his sister and came up to stand to Milly's right side. The crowd had parted for his approach, no doubt because of the gold shield at his belt, and were still shooting him sideways glances as they all turned to refocus their attention on the speaker at the front of the room. Odd spectacles were probably somewhat commonplace at big universities, especially ones with rather outspoken students. At least they weren't in Florida.

"Sorry for coming over," he whispered to Milly quietly. "It looked like you and that Aussie chick were getting pretty heated."

"Yeah, sort of." Milly gave a mock shiver as she watched Lara escape the auditorium. "And she kind of creeped me out, too." She gave Cass a look that told him there was more to the story but that she would tell him later. "But she's gone now, so s'all good." She turned to Elisa. "This is Elisa," she introduced the dark haired girl standing next to her. "Elisa, my brother, Cass."

Cass extended a hand towards Elisa. "Charmed," he said as they shook. He then noticed the young uniformed officer standing just behind and to the side of Elisa. "Officer..." Cass squinted to read the nametag, idly wishing he had his sister's power, "...Williams." He reached a hand over to the junior cop. "I'm Detective Cheveyo, West Precinct."

"Officer Williams, out of the North Precinct," Tommy responded.

Introductions made, they all turned back towards Dr. Hawk who, aside from looking quite bemused, still hadn't answered Milly's question.

Jason walked around the desk and sat on it’s edge with a smile on his face, despite what the Australian girl said before she stormed out the office he was more than happy to answer the other students question. Most of the other students had left so now all that remained were the girl who asked the question, one other girl and two members of the police force.

“Triple Helix and Globe-Net have nothing to do with my research.” Jason replied. “As far as I know they consider the situation the same as everyone else and non-existent. All my work into it is personal, I’ve pretty much devoted my life, spare time and money to it. All in all I’ve managed to collect around fifty samples from people all over the country and discovered a great many differences in each mutation.”

Jason stood up still smiling and looked down at the girl who had asked the question. “So you read my paper. Few would admit that.”

Milly shrugged a shoulder at Dr. Hawk's observation. "Yeah, well... I'm a college student. I read all sorts of weird stuff on the net. It's a prerequisite for living in the dorms." She paused, as Cass was giving her an odd look. "Not that I live in the dorms," she added quickly, "but I could if I wanted to."

She shifted uncomfortably, and cleared her throat. "So, fifty mutation samples? That sounds like a pretty good sample size, Dr. Hawk. Can I ask you what types of mutations you found? And do you think the etiology for the mutations are more environmental or...," Her eyes quickly flicked over at Cass. "...genetic?"

“I can’t say for sure if the mutations are related to the Nature or Nurture, to be honest the samples I have are few compared to the amount I would need to make a fare assessment.” Jason replied still smiling that someone has an interest in his work. “The Types of mutations are varied one can create barrier like forcefield, another can create flame, Just last night I met someone who can intercept electronic signals and send them using only his mind, That’s weird and should be impossible and that’s only the second strangest mutation I’ve discovered.” Jason stopped for a few moments looking at the girl asking the questions, the only people who have showed even half the interest this girl has were all the specials he described.

As Dr. Hawk explained some of the powers that his 'samples' had, Milly's mouth began to drop. Forcefields? Flame throwing? Electronic signals? These incredible mutations suddenly made her vision and Cass' luck seem... paltry and insignificant.

"Wow," was all she could say. "That's... wow." She gave a quick glance at her brother again. "So, you said the second strangest mutation? Erm, what was the strangest?" Milly wanted to know.

“There was this guy who made people dance and sing.” Jason answered. “His life is a never ending musical… I remember singing ‘That’s a weird power’ while taking a blood sample.” Jason explained with a large grin across his face remembering the occasion. “Most people don’t remember doing it and those that do think they dreamt it…. The point I’m trying to make is that there are more people Like that… well not exactly like that but you get the point, than you can possibly imagine.”

"Oh, I can imagine," Milly blurted. But then, realizing that she might be giving too much away about herself, hurriedly followed up with, "Say, wasn't that a plot line for a t.v. show or something? Star Trek or The Outer Limits or...?"

"Buffy," Elisa suddenly offered.

Milly gave her new friend a strange look. "Huh?"

"The t.v. show," Elisa clarified. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm sure of it."

"Oh." Momentarily distracted, Milly gathered her thoughts and addressed Dr. Hawk. "So... strange, and musical, mutated powers. In your paper, you were exploring the possibilities that this might be some sort of evolution. But... is it possible that these mutations could be reversed? You know, make the people 'normal' again?"

“As far as I can tell the mutation is an alteration of the normal Human DNA.” Jason Replied to the second student. “All though can’t be certain such mutations could be cured by Gene Therapy of course the mutation may be fixed in and unable to be removed without causing the person in question great harm, personally I believe it is Evolution and natural selection at work.”

"So, its like the X-Men or something, then?" Elisa offered. Catching some odd looks from a couple of people she defensively added, "Hey, somebody was going to ask."

“You’re not wrong in linking this situation with that seen in Comic books such as the X-Men.” Jason agreed. “I mean people are doing things that are impossible.” Jason smiled and chuckled. “I suppose I’m a little like Xavier, trying to find these people and help them discover their potential… if only I had Cerebro then the job would be a lot easier.”

"Discover their potential?" Milly asked, sounding a bit suspicious. Again, she shot a look to her brother, Cass. Even though he had said Triple Helix and Globe-Net had nothing to do with his research, she couldn't help but be suspicious about why Dr. Hawk would want to help these 'specials' develop their powers. "Why, so you can help them get some kind of government job or something? I mean, what's in it for you?"

“The discovery of finding out what these people are capable of.” Jason answered. “I honestly think that most of these people don’t understand what they have and if I can tell them how, they can understand and see just how far they can take these gifts of theirs.” Jason stated looking at his watch. “Look I’ve got to get back out there but if any of you have more questions here’s my card.” He informed placing a small pile of cards with his Email and phone number on it. Jason walked out of the room getting ready for another few hours of s cript reading.

Cass saw his chance as Dr. Hawk moved to leave the room. "Tough questions, Mil," he said, squeezing his sister's arm lightly. "You should be a reporter. I'll see you at home later."

Pushing through the crowd, Cass caught up with Dr. Hawk just as the older man reached the side door. "Dr. Hawk," he called out, pulling his shield from his belt and holding it up. "Detective Cheveyo, Seattle Homicide. If you've got a minute, I'd like to ask you a few questions regarding a case I'm working on."

The professor checked his watch, then nodded at Cass. "Sure, Detective. Just a few though."

"Right," Cass said, taking his notepad out and flipping through it. "I'm sure you've heard that Peter Jay was murdered earlier today. Did you know Mr. Jay, doctor?"

“Not personally.” Jason answered. “But I did contact him a few days ago, I got a sample of blood and analysed it. It’s my belief that Mr Jay was one of these specials I wrote of in my paper.”

"So you've never met Mr. Jay in person, but you have contacted him, correct?" Cass asked.

Jason nodded. "Correct."

"And you've been here at the university all day?"

The professor rubbed his chin. "Since early this morning, yes. Rehearsal and everything. The faculty will alibi me, if that's what you're thinking."

Cass shrugged. "Just trying to do this by the book, Doc." He took a business card out of his pocket and gave it to Jason. "If you can think of anything that might help with my investigation, please don't hesitate to contact me."

"I'll do that, Detective."

Cass shook Jason's hand. "Thanks, Dr. Hawk." Stepping back, Cass watched as the professor headed through the door into the auditorium, ready to give his speech again. Stuffing his notepad back into his pocket, he turned and headed back into the throng of students, trying to spot his sister before he returned to the precinct.

Nicolay walked down the row of cells looking into them at his four captives, each had a unique gift be it husking, electric manipulation, photographic memory or Bone Manipulation. Each of these people could be used in his experiment which was close to the next stage… all he needed was more Gifts. So far he had only managed to find nine of these specials the four captives and the five that worked for him.

One of the scientists that worked for him stepped over to the world famous geneticist carrying a file. The file was one that had been stolen from Dr Hawk’s office in the Globe net building then copied. The file was his own research in to the specials and it contained 6 DNA samples of people with special gifts and hypothesis. Five of the samples had names attached to them including the four captives and Mr Jay, but there was one that was left nameless, one with a power that Nicolay wanted to study for his project.

“Sir we discovered the identity of the sixth DNA Sample.” The female scientist informed.

“How?” Nicolay asked.

“We already had a record of it in the personnel files.” She informed. “It’s Jason Hawk himself.”

“Well, He had been keeping secrets from us hasn’t he?” He rhetorically asked.

“Shall I have him brought in?”

“No, we need to ensure we have his research first.” Nicolay ordered. “Inform Lara Caldwell that we need him alive.”

The scientist paused for a few moments. “Umm, Yes Sir.”

“Something Wrong?”

“It’s Lara, Sir! I doubt her commitment to us.” The scientist informed.

“You are correct… Send in Kate to retrieve it then bring him in as well.” Nicolay replied. “If Lara is unsuccessful, eliminate her.”

“Aye Sir anything else?” She asked writing on a clipboard

“Yes I want to test the combat capabilities of the Electric man, the husker and the bone manipulator… Take them to chamber 3-7, have Brute and Enigma meet them there.”

“2 against 3 sir? Doesn’t sound fair.”

“I know, Brute and Enigma will slaughter them.” He said grinning. “Have the memory man taken to room 3-8 Show him fight then I want to test how much he’s absorbed.”
__________________________________________________ ______

Jason returned home and threw his bag on the floor, after the day he had he needed some rest… The problem was whenever he closed his eyes he kept remembering the same telephone number in his head, like it had been imprinted on his mind. He walked over to the phone and dialled the number curious to whom he was calling.

((Joint post with SM))

Lara's phone was buzzing. She hated it when it did that... but then again, ringing was worse. She sitting in a class... one of those big lecture types, but the professor hadn't started yet. So Lara tugged her phone out of her pocket and answered it.

"Hi... erm..." Jason stuttered. "This is Dr Hawk, I think someone gave me this number."

Lara's face flushed bright pink. "Yeah... sorry about that intrusion of... never mind. I... my name's Lara Caldwell. Calling... umm... wanted to talk about that paper you put up online."

“Yeah, I remember you were at the Globe-Net lecture.” Jason replied, recognizing the lady's voice. “I’m sorry... I Just don’t remember you giving me your number… was there anything specific about the paper you wanted to discuss?”

Lara breathed out slowly. "I..." She stopped herself, taking her surroundings into account. "Well, I'm... I'm in a class right now, so I don't really have the time to talk, but..."

"Yeah?" Jason encouraged.

Lara glanced around the classroom. "Look, I know it's a little on the later side of the day... but I'd be interested in knowing more about what you... about the things you talked about in that paper."

"OK... erm.. we can meet up somewhere later to discuss this if you like?" Jason informed.

Lara breathed a little sigh of relief. "Yeah, that'd be good," she said. "Class gets over in... roughly an hour..." She looked down at the professor. "And it's just starting... gotta go..."

"Where do we meet?"

Lara cringed. "Just... go somewhere. I'll find you." And the line went dead. Lara shoved her phone back into her pocket and tried to relax, tried to focus on what the professor was saying. But luck was not on her side... a text message popped up.

"Jason Hawk. Bring him in. Alive."

Lara's eyes popped open wide. She snapped her phone shut in a hurry and shoved it in her pocket once more, now trying very hard to focus on the professor.

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


Kevin was bored. Maybe there was something to what Will was always telling him... something to do with working... and keeping busy... and the prevention of a dull time. Kevin shrugged. He'd agreed to meet with Dr. Hawk again, but there was still a little bit of time before that was supposed to happen. Kevin shrugged and headed for his apartment. Will would not be home yet, so Kevin had the place to himself...

Great... he thought to himself. What do I do in an empty apartment? He snorted. Probably, watch TV... Sci-Fi channel, maybe, even though they didn't have cable. But since when was that a problem for Kevin Waters?

Looking over at Milly, Elisa then commented, "Well, that was rather brief. Still, you think we'd get any other pressing concerns answered for the next part of his speech?"

Taking one of the business cards, Elisa looked it over briefly and placed it in her pocket for safe keeping.

The cells of Jaydon, Malin, William and Jacob slowly began to fill with a clear gas through small vents all around the wall. The Gas was Quick acting and all four fell to the Floor and then into an unconscious state.

When Jacob awoke he found himself inside a room looking through a pain of one way glass into a room where Jaydon, Malin and William were still unconscious. His arms leg and forehead were all bound to a chair and making it impossible to turn away from the Glass.

The effects of the Gas wore off on the three captives in a room were the walls, floor and ceiling were all padded with a dull grey cushion. In front of them stood the Agents Known as Brute and Enigma.

Before the three knew what was happening Brute charged at Jaydon and punched him hard in the square of the stomach causing the young man to fly backwards into the wall. Mean while Enigma ran a few steps then leapt into a Flying kick and hit Malin in the Shoulder, As she landed the silent women Turned and punched William in the face before turning invisible.

((OOC-K guys You’ll be escaping pretty much after this fight, but it won’t be an easy one so don’t end it to quickly, and consider other players.))
__________________________________________________ _______


Jason walked into the Lobby of the Triple Helix Labs where he agreed to meet Kevin, although the equipment at his home was good compared to those used in the Triple Helix labs they were a child’s Chemistry set. It was perhaps a little unethical (and illegal) to use the Globe-Net Labs for some personal research but providing he was careful no one ever noticed. This wouldn’t be the first time he had done some personal research at work, he remembers testing the first 6 blood samples he ever found here, including his own.

He awaited Kevin in the Lab.

((OOC- OK If any of the Mall people are still around and Interested in continuing please state so in the D&R thread… I don’t think we have enough to continue that line so I’ll bring you in another way.))

((Do we knock them unconcious? You never really specified; especially considering how hard it's going to be to knock Brute unconcious. Just wondering.))

The first thing Jaydon thought when he woke up was, '...I'm hungry.'

The second thing he thought of was, 'Oh wonderful, another te....' But his thoughts were cut short as a large man decided to send him back into unconciousness, not to mention the wall.

Jaydon made a dull thud as he hit the grey padded wall, and then fell to the floor, his semiconcious mind working itself back into reality. The large man trudged over to Jaydon, and easily lifted him up, holding him as if he were a piece of cloth. The man balled up his fist and prepared to end Jaydon's short life.

But Jaydon was quick to revive, and his eyes snapped open, his mind was working in overdrive now, because this was neither the time nor the place to be lazy, or secretive, this guy could easily snub the life out of him. 'This guy's going to smash my head like a grapefruit!' Jaydon thought as he saw the man's fist move towards him. But Jaydon had already planned ahead...well, actually it was more luck than anything else, as Jaydon had already increased his skull's density during the events with the white room and the uber dentists equipment. But Jaydon didn't trust his own abilities against an unknown opponent, so with his fast reflexes he barely moved his head to the side as the man's fist planted itself in the wall behind him with a thud.

Jaydon looked over his shoulder at the wall, if padded walls could dent, then that's what happened, and that could have been his head. Jaydon quickly looked for a way to get out of the man's vice grip, and found the answer with relative ease. Jaydon wiggled a bit and began pulling his arms into his vest; after that he easily slipped out of his vest onto the floor, as the big fellow had only been holding him up by his vest in the first place.

Jaydon gave the juggernaut of a man a crooked grin and then bolted for it, he didn't have anywhere to go, but atleast he knew he could outrun the guy...until he got tired.

Looking over at Milly, Elisa then commented, "Well, that was rather brief. Still, you think we'd get any other pressing concerns answered for the next part of his speech?"

Taking one of the business cards, Elisa looked it over briefly and placed it in her pocket for safe keeping.Milly nodded. She had been a bit floored by the Australian girl's questions and then sudden departure, and equally shocked at the revelation that Dr. Hawk was trying to gather together these 'specials' he was discovering. She didn't quite believe that he was really trying to do this for the specials' benefit, but neither he really didn't seem the type to be working for the government. He looked too laid back.

"I don't know if I want to hang around for that long," Milly said to her. "That Aussie girl sort of gave me the creeps. Besides, I've got what I need for my extra credit." She held up the pamphlet for the talk, and then grinned at Elisa. "Maybe we should have gotten Dr. Hawk's autograph, huh? Just to prove that we were participating in the discussion? Could have got us some extra points."

She looked over Elise's shoulder. "So, you wanna ditch your bodyguard for a bit? Grab some coffee? I still have a lot of work to do on my biology research project. I've got water samples to categorize, but my study group partners are so lazy. But I'm not getting a mediocre grade on this thing. I want to go to med school, and if I can't pass Biology with at least a 'B', there is no chance I'll get accepted as a med student." Again, she looked over at Officer Tommy, who was actually trying to make his way through the crowd towards them. "C'mon, let's go," she said to Elisa. "You look like you could do with not being watched for a while. Besides, if there's a problem, I'll have my brother smooth things out with him. He's a detective on the force."

The pair left the hall, deftly weaving in and out of the milling crowd, while Officer Tommy tried in vain to follow them.

Heading to the local coffee shop on campus, the two girls went up to the counter and ordered some coffee. Finding a table somewhat near the back of the place, they sat down to talk for a while.

"So, you know what I'm taking Biology for, but what about you?" Milly asked

"Me? Well, I'm taking the class as for my preveterinary course stuff. When I'm done, I'm wanting to work as a vet for a zoo or something," Elisa replied as she took a sip from her coffee. Gagging slightly from the heat of the latte, Elisa waved over her mouth. Seeing Milly smile, Elisa then said, "Its hot."

"Well, you did order a latte afterall. What were you expecting?" Milly replied rhetorically as she sipped lightly on her frappe. Looking over at the counter, Milly noticed something out of place. "That's weird. Ever see two burly guys straighten each other's ties in the middle of the street?"

"Not really. Are they gay or something?" Elisa asked not understanding what Milly had said.

"No, they look like they're going to a funeral or something," Milly replied as she shook her head. "Totally weird."

"Well, this is Seattle. Lots of business types around, you know?" Elisa replied as she sipped very lightly from her cup.

"Ye--ah...." Milly frowned. "But I don't think their business is quite the legitimate type, if you know what I mean."

"What makes you say that?"

Looking as closely as she could at the two men, Milly then observed, "Well, unless they have very fat wallets in their jacket pockets, I'd say they are packing. Guns, I mean. Shoulder holsters to be more specific." Frowning a bit worriedly, she then quickly added, "And I know this because... my brother is a cop and he wears a holster like that, too."

With her face suddenly draining of color, Elisa then asked, "Wait a second, they're not, you know, hispanic looking or anything, are they?"

"Erm... yeah. Why?"

Leaning over the table, Elisa then said in a hushed voice, "Oh, that is so not good. I did tell you why I had the Police with me, right?"

"No. I just assumed that you had an overprotective parent or something. Why?" Milly asked cautiously.

"My pappy is under a Protection thing because he's a witness against the mob back in Miami. Do you see where I'm going with this?" Elisa replied.

"Sort of," Milly stated as she squinted to see the men more clearly. "But I see more of where they're going. They're coming this way."

Cursing under her breath, Elisa quickly came up with an idea. "Ok, well, if I can, I'll meet them in the bathroom. They're after me, so when they follow me, get some help," Elisa stated quickly as she slid her cell phone across the table to Milly.

Without waiting for Milly to say something, Elisa quickly got up and went to the bathroom like it was an emergency. Once inside, she quickly entered a stall and locked it. Huddling back in the corner of the stall, Elisa quickly stood hunched on top of the toilet so her feet couldn't be seen by looking under the stalls.

As Malin stirred back into consciousness, the first thing that she became aware of was that the floor was a lot softer than she had remembered. Pulling herself into a sitting position, she managed to open her heavy lids just in time to become aware of the second thing, which was a woman aiming a kick right at her. Malin's reflexes were slow, but she still managed to twist her body enough so that the woman's foot landed on her shoulder instead of her chest. The force of the blow was still enough to knock Malin backwards, and she tumbled across the padded floor. As she rolled to a stop, she was just able to see the strange woman whirl and strike a man in the face, then completely disappear from view.

She blinked twice, as if not believing her own eyes, before shaking her head and slowly rising to her feet. A crash caused her to look to the side where she saw another couple of men, one of them very large and imposing looking who was chasing the other, who was rather young. Malin quickly darted towards the first man she had seen, the one who had been punched in the face. As she neared him, she knelt down. Just as she was about to reach over and prop him up, something hard struck her bare side, sending her flying off. She crumpled to the floor, clutching her ribs.

As she looked up, she saw the mysterious woman appear out of nowhere and stride purposefully towards her. Malin's first instinct was to call out, try and reason with her assailant, but something told her that this woman would not listen to reason. Gritting her teeth, she willed her body into another morph, changing the skin beneath her skin. As the woman stepped forwards and pistoned her leg forward in another kick aimed at Malin's head, the firefighter moved her arm up to block the blow. Instead of flesh on flesh contact, the woman's leg impacted the heavy steel of Malin's arm. The woman's eyes grew wide as she observed Malin's skin falling away to reveal a sheen of shiny metal.

Malin didn't wait for the woman to pull her leg back. She grabbed it and swung the woman full force into the wall.

He awaited Kevin in the Lab.


But Kevin was not the first person to arrive at the lab. Using a little bit of persuasion, Lara worked her way into the building and was given directions to the lab. As she headed for it, her phone buzzed. With a frustrated roll of the eyes, she answered, "Yeah?"

"We are sending someone else to help you bring Jason Hawk in," the voice on the other end informed her. Lara's eyes widened.

"But, no!" she protested. "This is my assignment. I'm going in right now."

"Is there something about this assignment you aren't telling us, Ms. Caldwell?" the man asked. "Some... personal interest in the subject? How many times have we told you that you can get any information you desire from us? Training too. At any time."

"A lot easier in the recruiting speech," Lara grumbled. "I ask, you all say, 'Oh, come back later, do this now.' I just... I want to understand exactly what happened to me. And I'm almost positive Jason Hawk knows. Don't worry. When my questions are asked, I'll bring him in. You have my word."

"That's what I'm worried about," the man replied, "that your word may not be enough. We're sending someone to your location. Her name is Kate. Wait for her before going to Dr. Hawk. And don't do anything rash. You may be an American citizen by law, but what is that citizenship more than a piece of paper and some computer entries? We can get you deported back to Australia if you don't play by the rules. Keep that in mind."

The line went dead and Lara muttered. "Like hell, I'll wait..." And she pushed open the lab door and entered, approaching Jason Hawk.

"Hi," she said softly. "Sorry I was so abrupt on the phone... class started... umm..." She extended her hand to him. "Lara Caldwell."

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

Kevin wasn't far behind Lara, actually. Jason had told him where the lab was, but it was behind a few security checkpoints. No big issue for Kevin Waters. He simply held a plastic card to the scanner and sent a valid code. The scanner picked it up, and he was golden.

But it was after he got through the first three checkpoints that things got a little odd. He overheard a phone conversation, heard the name "Jason Hawk" and decided to listen in.

"... personal interest in the subject? How many times have we told you that you can get any information you desire from us? Training too. At any time."

The response was a female voice... Australian accent. "A lot easier in the recruiting speech," she grumbled. "I ask, you all say, 'Oh, come back later, do this now.' I just... I want to understand exactly what happened to me. And I'm almost positive Jason Hawk knows. Don't worry. When my questions are asked, I'll bring him in. You have my word."

"That's what I'm worried about," the other voice answered, "that your word may not be enough. We're sending someone to your location. Her name is Kate. Wait for her before going to Dr. Hawk. And don't do anything rash..."

Kevin's pulse was racing. That didn't sound good. And in his moment of distraction, he swiped his card... and access was denied. He flushed bright red. The security guard came over.

"Can I help you, sir?" he asked. Kevin grinned and swiped his card once more. This time, it worked.

"Thanks, man," he said, "but I'm good."

"New face," the guard observed. He shrugged. "See a lot of them during the day, I guess... not so much on my shift."

Kevin shrugged. "Somebody's gotta keep busy," he said dismissively. And with a wave, he passed the guard, trying to tune in again to the phone conversation he'd been listening in on earlier. All he got was, "... by the rules. Keep that in mind."

And then, after the call ended, the microphone on the girl's cell phone was active long enough for Kevin to catch, "Like hell, I'll wait..."

In a blind panic, Kevin broke into a run, heading for the lab to prevent what sounded to him like a kidnapping...

((Chat with Lara a bit, SM... Kevin doesn't get there just yet :) ))

As she stood there on top of the toilet, a thought suddenly crossed Elisa's mind. Outside the stall, Elisa could hear the door open to the bathroom followed by the somewhat familiar sound of a safety on a gun flicking off. The feeling of being trapped reminded her of what some animals would do when cornered, and her thoughts drifted to that of the snake enclosure back in the Miami Zoo.

As she could hear the footsteps of the two men searching the small bathroom, Elisa's body quickly began to almost meld together. Dark, grey scales covered her body, and her body collapsed into the corner in a tight coil. Feeling the instincts of the animal, she then realized what she had become: a Black Mamba.

Slithering through her clothes, she used the strength and speed of the animal to quickly remove herself from her clothes. In front of her, she could see the shoes of the two men through the snake's eyes, and she could feel a sense of panic and fear from the snake. It felt trapped, and it had triggered the snake's sense to fight.

In what seemed like less than a second, the snake very quickly slithered out and struck the closest man, and Elisa could feel the poison sacs draining slightly as it injected highly toxic venom into the man. Finally, the man screamed in pain as he felt Elisa bite him, and he instinctively pulled away as Elisa let him go.

Tripping over his partner as he backpedeled, both men fell flat on the floor. The snake, however, was not one to just run away. Afterall, it still felt cornered, and it struck the same man yet again. Inside, Elisa herself felt no remorse, and she made no attempt to override the instincts of the animal.

As the two men fumbled around trying to leave, the snake targeted the second man, and bit him in the arm as he tried to brace himself on the floor to get up. The first man, however, was struggling as the venom quickly began to work inside of him. The mamba's venom attacks the nervous system, and already, the man's breathing was becoming labored and erratic as the venom disrupted the signals from the brain to the lungs. His heartbeat was also becoming more erratic, and the extra dose of venom from the second bite was making it all the more potent.

Struggling to get to the door, both men finally made it to their feet as the snake rose up in a threatening gesture by spreading its small hood and hissing loudly. Running towards an exit in the crowded coffee shop, they managed to stumble out into the parking lot. As they tried to reach their car, they quickly began to lose strength in their body, and the first man collapsed on the pavement. The second man stumbled past him and got into the driver's side of the car.

The car started up quickly, and the rear tires screached on the pavement as the car jerked backwards. With a violent two bumps, the first man was run over by the left side of the car. Then, the tires screached yet again as it moved forwards, and the first man was run over yet again as the car sped outwards. The car didn't get very far, though. With the venom working hard on the driver, he could barely focus on his driving, and as he tried to turn out of the University, the car slid out of control, hit the curb, and flipped over several times. Both men had died.

Elisa however, realized that people would be looking for her in addition to the reason why the two men had stumbled out of the bathroom in such a way. Thinking quickly, Elisa morphed out of the snake and back into her normal human self. Feeling the rush of adrenaline, Elisa tried to hold back her own tears as she struggled to get her clothes back on. The snake had frightened her in its display of pure aggression, and she was more frightened of the feeling she had felt whenever she let the snake attack the men so viciously.

Sitting down on the toilet, Elisa finally let it all out, and she sat their weeping as she waited for whatever fate would bring.

Milly had seen the two men barge purposefully into the coffee shop, scan the tables, and then head towards the bathrooms. And then, Milly had immediately phoned her brother, Cass.

She had only gotten through to his voice mail though, and she had only just started to leave a message when she heard scuffling coming from behind the bathroom door.

"Crap!" she uttered, just as the beep to record sounded. "Got a major problem here, Cass. My friend, Elisa's in big, big trouble. We're at the coffee shop, and these two men are...." She heard a scream, not from Elisa but from one of the two men as they stumbled out of the bathroom. Milly yelped. "Oh, my God!"

She dropped the phone on the floor, and ducked down along with the rest of the panicked coffee shop customers. One of the men had his gun out, waving it around crazily in the air, but he seemed more concerned about getting out of the coffee shop as quickly as he could, stumbling over chairs and knocking over a plant stand as he scrambled for the side door.

The second man quickly followed, and Milly watched shocked, along with the rest of the shop's patrons, as the two men staggered towards their car. The first man seemed to collapse to the ground before he could make it there, but the second jumped into driver's seat.

The wheels spun out as the car took off wildly in reverse. Milly and the rest of the customers gasped and shrieked in horror as the first man was run over, and then shrieked again as the car moved forward and ran over him a second time. But, it didn't get far before it smacked the curb and went careening out of control, flipping over several times.

While the other customers were panicking and pointing out the window, Milly ran toward the bathroom. "Elisa?!" she screamed out for her friend.

She crashed through the door and scanned the room, seeing Elisa's image in through the walls of the end stall with her X-ray vision. "Elisa!"

She hurried over to the stall, and flung open the door. Elisa was sitting on the toilet, half-naked and crying. Milly's eyes flicked over Elisa's body, as her eyes scanned the girl for broken bones. "Oh, my God...," she said as she knelt down beside her, picking up Elisa's shirt from the bathroom floor and handing it to her. "W-what happened? Are you okay? Did they hurt y...?"

Milly paused mid-sentence. What she saw frightened her even more than what she had seen happen to the two men outside. With Milly's X-ray vision she could see Elisa's bones and organs were... moving--as if they have been previously rearranged and were now putting themselves back into order.

Her eyes widened and although she wanted to comfort Elisa, she involuntarily found herself shrinking back. "Oh, this can't be...." She swallowed hard. "You're... you're a 'special,' aren't you?"

Jason Looked up at the young Australian student and met her extended hand with his own. “Yeah, Hello.” He broke the hand shake. “Maybe we should talking my office.” Jason suggested as he turned around and walked over to the office door.

He opened the door and let Lara walk in first before he followed, it was then he realised that a strange, but attractive, women was sitting in his chair at his desk. She was wearing an open lab coat with a low-cut shirt beneath and glasses, her hair long hair was tied up into a bun over her head.

“Dr Hawk.” The women announced with a southern Accent. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Well I’m here now.” Jason replied. “Who are you?”

“I’m sorry, I should introduce myself, Kate Cameron.” The lady informed standing from the chair and slowly walking around the desk to Dr Hawk. “I’m your New Assistant.”

“I get an Assistant now?”

“The higher ups feel you have a heavy work load and need someone to help you with it.” She said sensually looking into the geneticist’s eyes. “I see you have company, so I’ll let you see to her.” She looked at Lara and walked began to walk out of the room. “I look forward to working under you.” As she walked out of the room she winked at Lara then closed the door behind her.

“Well that was… interesting.” Jason stated as he walked around his desk and sat in his chair. “So what would you like to discuss?”

"Find anything out from the professor?" Esmй asked her partner as Cass came into the squad room and sat down at his desk facing hers.

He shook his head. "Nothing conclusive," he replied. "Guy's pretty young too, looks like one of those nerdy overacheiver types. Says he contacted Jay and obtained a blood sample from the old man for his research, but that was apparently the extent of their contact." He rubbed his chin. "Faculty alibied him at the university all day, so he can't have been our killer."

Esmй murmured in agreement, picking up a newspaper photo off of her desk. "This is him, right?" she queried, indicating a man standing at a podium.

"Yeah, that's him," Cass confirmed, squinting at the picture. "A real boy scout too, got this crazy theory that there are people with 'special powers' all around us, like the X-men or something."

She arched an eyebrow at Cass's observations, but said nothing on them. "Don't think he's our perp, then," Esmй said, reaching over and grabbing a cart with a TV and VCR on it. "Take a look at this. Surveilliance video from Jay's apartment this morning."

Cass scooted his chair forward and stared at the screen intently. The footage was of the front of the millionaire's apartment. "Of course they're not going to have cameras actually inside the apartment," he mused.

Esmй chuckled. "That would make things too easy." She sped the tape up slightly.

A tall figure dressed in black appeared down the hallway and approached the camera and the apartment doors. It sidled up to the lock and inserted a key, then pushed the doors open slowly and shut them once inside. "I guess that's our boy, then," Cass surmised.

"Just wait for it," Esmй said."

A few minutes later, the same figure emerged from the apartment and closed the doors. Before taking off down the hallway, it looked around, revealing the face of a bearded man. "Hello Johnny..." Cass murmured.

"We don't have a positive ID on him yet, but we're looking," Esmй informed him.

"I take it we're not releasing this to the press just yet."

His partner snorted. "As if. We don't want every greedy SOB in the city dragging in the bearded homeless guy they found on the street, looking to cash in on a reward."

Cass shook his head. "I didn't think so. So he's our only lead?"

Esmй rubbed the side of her temple. "Maybe not. Did you say that he sent off a blood sample to this Dr. Hawk?"

"Yeah."

"Had to have gone to a medical professional for that, and recently too. Let's see what we can dig up." Esmй grabbed her coat.

Cass did the same with his, shrugging it on, then putting his hands in his pockets. "Huh," he said, withdrawing his vibrating cell phone. He dialed voicemail and put it to his ear, wondering what Milly had wanted. As he listened, his eyes widened. "Oh Lord," he mouthed, snapping his phone shut.

"What is it, Cass?" Esmй asked, knowing there was something wrong from the expression on her partner's face.

"There's been an incident at a coffee shop where my sister and her friend are," Cass explained breathlessly, pocketing his cell phone. "Near the campus, sounds like an accident, possible armed suspects."

"Need me to come with you?"

"No, you go dig up whatever you can. I'll join you as soon as possible." He whirled and headed for the door.

"Don't worry about it, Cass!" she called after him. As he waved and exited, she sighed then picked up the phone on her desk. "Dispatch, we have a report of a disturbance at the Starbuck's on Stevens Way near the U of W campus. Be advised, possible armed suspects with a vehicle. Detective Cheveyo en route, please send backup."

Having Kate already there was a serious distraction to Lara. So much so that Jason had to ask his question again. Then, Lara's eyes snapped to him.

"Umm..." she stammered. "Oh, yeah. Paper..." Collecting her thoughts, she took a deep breath. "This may sound overwhelming, but... I want to know everything."

"Well, it started with the Big Bang..." Jason joked.

Lara smiled faintly and added to his joke with words right out of his own mind, "... and then there were some dinosaurs, a few scattered apes and ape-men about..." Her smile faded. "You are speaking with the next step up from Homo sapiens," she said, a hint of threat in her voice. "Do be so kind as to explain why this is happening."

"Natural selection, spontaneous mutation, to be honest, I haven't discovered the cause, whatever's causing it, mankind appears to be evolving." Jason said thinking about the girl's statement. "So you believe you're one of the specials I wrote about?"

With a curt nod, Lara explained, "I hear peoples' thoughts, and there's this..." The chair next to the one in which she sat suddenly rose into the air, passed over the desk, and settled back to the ground on Jason's left.

"Telepathy and telekinesis," Jason stated, trying but failing to keep a cool head. "That's pretty impressive."

Lara offered him a tight smile. "Thank you," she said stiffly. "Now to another matter... one that's a little more troublesome..."

At that moment, the lights flickered and went out. In the darkness, Lara spoke: "On the other hand... this could prove to be worse..."

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

Kevin ran full-speed through the halls, desperate to get to the lab before that Aussie girl, whoever she was, could run off with Dr. Hawk. When he finally reached the lab, he was confronted by another woman. Rather than take any risks, Kevin grabbed her neck and slammed her back against the wall.

For her part, Kate was not expecting any attack and had therefore been unable to use her power against him. She slumped to the floor, unconscious. Then, Kevin reached out and touched the wall. Reaching his perceptions out further and further, he found the time-delay at which the lights were set to turn off. He set it to zero... and the lights went out.

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


"What's going on?" Jason exclaimed jumping up from his chair. "Are you doing this?"

"No," Lara answered slowly. "Not me..."

Suddenly, they heard the door pulled open. Lara whirled, but in the darkness, she could see nothing. She reached out with her mind and felt only a dark intent before something crashed into her head and she knew no more.

"So," Kevin Waters' voice came through in the darkness. The lights came back on and he stared across the desk at Jason. "Seems you enjoy a little trouble now and then. I intercepted a phone call from this one... this young lady was here to kidnap you, Doctor."

"What? Why would she want to kidnap me?" Jason asked in disbelief. Kevin shook his head grimly.

"I don't know," he answered. "But that's what she promised over the phone to do. Do you have anything to tie her up with? When she wakes up, we can find out... but we should leave this building. They sent her, they know where you're at, they could come after you again."

Jaydon was in another sticky situation, the man was faster than he had ever guessed, and had run Jaydon down like a wild animal, and now he had him pinned in a corner. The man swung hard at Jaydon, who in turn ducked down, avoiding the punch, and with instinctive reaction, and a desire to survive, he curled up his fist and brought it up at the man, what happened next would have surprised most normal people, but this large fellow, with his super strength and everything, was not quite so normal.

A long sharp protrusion ejected from the top of his wrist, like a bladed dew claw. It didn't come out all the way though, it remained in his flesh, and attached to the bone it was produced from.

Jaydon brought it straight up into the man's jaw, where he thought he would do most damage, and against Jaydon's better nature, he might kill the man. But it was not so, as the bone spike struck the man's chin it stopped, it didn't even pierce his skin. Jaydon looked shocked, and the man smiled a cruel smile at him. Jaydon tried for the man's chest, but to no avail, the guy was invinsible. The man chuckled tauntingly, and then grabbed Jaydon's arm and lifted him up easily.

"If it's bones you control, then it is bones I will break," the man said in a low menacing voice. And with that the man grabbed Jaydon's arm in both hands and with great ease he snapped Jaydon's arm at the elbow. The man waited for the scream but received none. Jaydon looked down at his 'broken' arm and blinked, the man let Jaydon go, he didn't understand. Jaydon grabbed his forearm, and with a simple tug snapped it back to normal.

Jaydon looked up at the brutish fellow and smiled innocently, "are you kidding, I was doing stuff like that when I was eight, look." And with that indication he bent his other arm at the elbow all the way back, and then back to normal.

"Besides, there's no real major bone at the elbow, mostly cartilage," Jaydon told the man who only looked at him blankly, before grabbing Jaydon again and tossing him across the room into the wall. Then the thug came over to him, planting his foot on Jaydon's chest, he began pressing.

"Then I will crush you," he responded to Jaydon finally. Jaydon gasped, the man's strength, not to mention his weight, was immense, even with his rib's flexibility decreased, and the density increased, it was still like a literal ton of bricks pressing down on his chest. Jaydon struggled frantically, his mind racing, more than usual, to find a way out from under the man's foot, but how? The man was completely invincible it seemed, his skin was like a sheet of titanium....that was it, the man's skin, Jaydon was thinking too broadly about this guy, he was human, like himself, only different, like himself, even at his strongest Jaydon could still be hurt in some ways, so this guy had to be the same.

Jaydon held his arm up weakly, his bone spike still protruding from his wrist.

"Smile cheese head," Jaydon gasped, the man only grinned a toothy grin.

"What will you do? You can't...." But before his sentence ended he had a shard of bone shoved into his mouth. The thug stumbled backwards from two things, the surprise, and the pain. Jaydon rolled over, and then with some struggle, he pushed himself up.

Jaydon wobbled a bit, but steadied himself rather quickly. The thug grabbed the bone piece, and snatched it from his mouth, and after it came a torrent of vomit, with blood mixed in. Jaydon watched with a look of 'ew, gross!'

"How....How did you?" Was all the large man could gasp out as driblet of blood and vomit came from his mouth.

"Easy, I recalled the fact that you, like the rest of us, including me, are human, not some super powerful extraterrestrial, like superman. You can be hurt just like anyone else, I figured your strength was natural, or close enough to it. And I figure you burned like us, maybe not your skin though, I figured your invincibility, as I thought it was, had to do with your skin, so if you were hit by a flamethrower, your skin would be fine, but your insides would cook, all roasty toasty like," Jaydon told the gasping, and somewhat confused fellow.

"If you're wondering what fire has to do with bone, or anything else for that matter, it's this, your insides will cook if fire hits you, so your insides will bleed if I hit them, your mouth, namely your throat, is apart of your insides, so with the personal experience I gained from goofing off with my powers, I simply launched that spike of bone into your mouth, unfortunately my aim was off, and I hit your right tonsil, not the back of the throat as intended, but I still made ya puke at least," Jaydon said with a grin, the large man, hands on knees, only growled, he was too unstable from the whole ordeal to beat Jaydon's head to a pulp.

"Toodles," Jaydon said with a grin and a wave, and then he ran off across the room. He thought he would get some distance between himself and the big thug, when he hit something heavy, metal, and quite solid. Jaydon shook his head, and looked up. He thought he'd escaped trouble, now he had to deal with.....(Jaydon glanced down at the sleek figure, which didn't quite fit his first impression; he felt blood rush to his head, and he literally felt his heart murmur).....A metal, woman!?

He paused, his mind, which was always racing, even when Jaydon was at his laziest, was at a standstill. He didn't quite know what to do, first off, he didn't fight women regardless. Second, he had no clue if she was even against him in any way. Third, he was hungry. Fourth, it could be a statue....a scantily clad statue. Fifth, there was an unconscious man near her, so that had to indicate something, whether good or ill. Did he forget to mention he was hungry?

Jaydon raised a fist, but held it at waist level, 'what do I do?'

Malin had just set herself into a defensive stance, eyeing the silent Asian woman struggling to stand, when something ran into her side. As she was currently composed of steel, the impact affected her very little. Turning her head only slightly, she spotted the young man who had been running at the far side of the room now sitting on the floor, looking up at her incredulously. "Stay back," she cautioned. He didn't seem to pose a threat, as he could have easily harmed her when she wasn't looking. Besides, he was too young to be part of whatever crazy criminal organization had kidnapped them.

The Asian woman stalked forward swiftly, arms up and ready for attack. Malin took the initiative this time, stepping towards her and cranking a steel fist forward, aimed that the woman's stomach. To the firefighter's surprise, her fist actually passed through the woman's stomach, coming clear out the otherside through her back. Malin stumbled forward, the inertia of her swing propelling her past her enemy. She managed to catch herself and whirl back around, but the woman had disappeared from view again.

Great. She looked towards the young man again. "Hey, you!" she said. "Wake that guy up over there." She pointed to the still-unconscious man lying prone on the floor. "We're going to need all the help we can get."

Her eyes widened and although she wanted to comfort Elisa, she involuntarily found herself shrinking back. "Oh, this can't be...." She swallowed hard. "You're... you're a 'special,' aren't you?"Alarmed, Elisa snapped her eyes up at Milly. Shaking her head, Elisa quickly said, "What!? No! I-I can't!"

Hanging her head, Elisa then said, "I was only protecting myself. I-I couldn't help it." Then, it suddenly dawned on Elisa about something. "But how could you know? I had finished changing back when you first came in here."

Jason and Kevin arrived back at the scientists apartment, outside the door SJ and Byron awaited them while. Jason wasted no time in rushing all four people in and he explained the resent events to the Gymnast and his former professor with Kevin’s help.

“So why are they after you?” Byron asked.

“My research into these specials, they must be looking for them or something.” Jason explained thinking. “Mr Jay.” He exclaimed looking over at his desk and walking over to it.

“Who?” SJ asked curious over the Geneticists outburst.


“It was a name of a man, a special I wrote his name on a list, now he’s dead.” He explained looking through piles of files. “The list, It’s gone.”

“What do you mean it’s gone?” Byron asked walking up behind Jason.

“They must have taken it, used it to find Jay and kill him.” Jason Booted up his computer and opened up a file, the file was a backup of the list with phone numbers and places of work on it.” Jason quickly grabbed the phone and began to dial one of the numbers. “Hello, I’m looking for Malin Ellison… Didn’t show up for work?… Erm no It’ll be fine, goodbye.”

Alarmed, Elisa snapped her eyes up at Milly. Shaking her head, Elisa quickly said, "What!? No! I-I can't!"

Hanging her head, Elisa then said, "I was only protecting myself. I-I couldn't help it." Then, it suddenly dawned on Elisa about something. "But how could you know? I had finished changing back when you first came in here.""Changing back from what?" Milly asked, avoiding answering Elisa's question.

Elisa gave her a look, obviously not accepting Milly's avoidance.

Put on the spot now, Milly acquiesed. "You hadn't 'totally' finished changing," she admitted, shifting her weight uncomfortably. "At east, not on the inside." She cringed slightly, not really wanting to tell Elisa about her special visual capabilities, but feeling like she should.

"I think I might be a 'special', too," Milly finally admitted. "I see stuff other people don't. I saw... well, I saw you sort of had extra ribs that shouldn't be there, shifting about inside you and melding with the ones that should be there. It kind of freaked me out. Sorry."

She picked up Elisa's shirt from the floor. "Here. Let's get you dressed before someone comes barging in here." She paused for a moment. "Are you sure those guys didn't hurt you?"

Taking her shirt back, Elisa quickly put it on. Wiping her tears from her eyes, she shook her hair back as she calmed herself down. "No, I'm fine," Elisa replied as she attempted a light smile.

"At least I'm not the only one that can do these weird things. That was the third time that I've, well, changed into another animal. I can explain it later," Elisa commented. "Should we wait for the police, like your brother?"

“So you have no idea where he is… Thank you.” James placed the phone back on the hook and closed his eye and in a rage punched his desk hard. “Damn It!”

“What’s wrong now?” SJ asked.

“Out of a list of five names, four are missing and one is dead.” James quickly searched his pocket and found the card the policeman had given him at the opening ceremony. He picked the phone up once again and began to Dial that number.

Due to the recent alteration in his body matter, the sleeping gas worked differently on Williams. Not only did it have a delayed reactions on him, it also caused a delayed effect so he didn't rise alongside the other captives when they woke to find the cooperate mercenaries. As the captives and captors fought each other, William slowly came back to the world. Eventually he was ready to stand, and despite his lack of full awareness, he used the strength and stood. He was soon to stumble backwards, quickly regaining his balance to stop himself falling. As he became more aware of his surroundings, he felt someone kick him which caused him to stumble back into a wall.

"Should we wait for the police, like your brother?""We could," said Milly. "In fact, we probably should. I phoned Cass right before those two guys came howling out of the bathroom and waving their guns arou...." She squeezed her eyes shut tight. "Oh, crap! I dropped my phone under the table! Cass is probably freakin' out by now! Crap. I am in so much trouble...."

Then she gave Elisa a panicked sort of look. "And what about your 'Officer Tommy' that we ditched at the seminar?" she asked. "He'll be looking for you by now, I would reckon. And he won't be happy about finding you here. Especially with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum dead and lying in the street outside."

She shook her head. "No, let's just go. Lemme just grab my phone, and I'll take you to my house. Cass will find us there and he'll know what to do next."

“Well, this is it,” Milly said to Elisa as they approached the door to Milly’s apartment. Milly unlocked it, and the two went inside.

It was a cozy, modern apartment, with the living room decorated with Native American accents reflective of Milly and Cass’ heritage. Everything was neat and tidy, except for a pizza box that sat on the coffee table.

“Make yourself at home,” Milly said, dropping her keys on the small table by the door and her backpack on a chair. “You want something to drink?”

"Sprite, if you have it," Elisa replied as she carefully looked for a good place to sit. "If you don't, water's fine."

“7-up?” Milly said, rummaging in the fridge.

"That works," Elisa called back from the living room as she sat down gingerly on the edge of the couch.

Milly took out two cans of soda and then returned to the living room. She handed Elisa her drink, and then sat down herself on the other end of the couch. “So…,” she started, as she popped the tab on her can. “You and I… we’re different from other people. I told you that I see stuff other people don’t. You said you change. Change into what?”

Breathing in a bit deep, Elisa paused for a moment. Then, she replied, "Well, as far as I know, I can change into other animals." With a crisp pop, Elisa opened her can and took a sip. "I've only done it three times, though. So, I really don't know exactly what I'm capable of."

“So, what did you change into this time?” Milly asked frankly. “Those guys looked panicked when they came running out of the bathroom. And they didn’t look the type to lose their cool.”

"I changed into a type of snake that I used to see when I worked down at the zoo in Miami," Elisa replied somewhat gingerly. "The snake that I changed into was a Black Mamba. Its one of the most aggressive and extremely venomous snakes from Africa."

Milly paused mid sip, then slowly swallowed. “Wow. Remind me not to ever get on your bad side, okay?”

Smiling, Elisa then said, "Well, it’s a bit odd, actually. In the three times that I've changed, there was only one time that I actually changed out of my own will. The other two times..." Elisa's voice trailed off as she remembered the times that she had turned into the Mamba and the Cougar. "I think the other times I changed, I changed because I was threatened with my life. My mind equated the situations with what it was like for an animal, and I just changed without really thinking about it."

“So… you can’t really control it?”

"I don't really know," Elisa admitted. "That's what has me concerned. I mean, I think I can change when I want to change, but I don't know if I can stop myself from changing during, well, extreme situations."

Milly took a sip of her drink. “Well, for the most part, I can control what I see. Sometimes I don’t *like* what I see,” she nodded at Elisa’s ribcage, “but… I don’t usually have a problem breaking it off if I want to.”

"What sort of things can you see?" Elisa asked out of curiosity.

“Well….” Milly shrugged. She hadn’t really thought about how to explain it to someone, mainly because the only other person who knew what she could do was her brother. “Anything I want to really. I mean, I’ve never really measured the distance stuff, but I try I can see microbes, or if I go the other way, a couple of miles down the beach.” She grinned. “But the absolute, coolest thing… is seeing inside stuff. I don’t know *how* I do it, but… it’s pretty neat. Oh, and then there’s the stuff I can see at night, like heat tracks and stuff, but I don’t really have a need to use that very often, so it’s not as cool.”

"I'm sure its useful when you need it, though," Elisa replied. Taking another couple of sips from her 7up, she thought for a moment. "Well, I hope we can get what need to sort out done soon. I need to be down at my job soon."

Milly raised a finger. “Speaking of which, I’d better call Cass,” she said, picking up the phone on the end table. She began to dial. “Man, he’s going to be pissed at me for leaving the coffee shop, but… he’ll just have to deal.”

“Out of a list of five names, four are missing and one is dead.” James quickly searched his pocket and found the card the policeman had given him at the opening ceremony. He picked the phone up once again and began to Dial that number.


"While you're on the phone," Kevin interrupted gently, "what should we do with... her?" He rocked his head backward, connecting lightly with the ribcage of the presently unconscious Lara Caldwell. "Got something to tie her up with or something?"

As an afterthought, he added, "And didn't you tell me on the way over here that she's telekinetic?" He frowned worriedly. "How are we gonna keep her from using that against us?"

"Ugh," Malin uttered as she pulled herself off the ground. The disappearing woman was making life hell for her and her fellow prisoners, despite her best efforts. Glancing over to the side, she saw the woman plant a kick right into the formerly unconscious man's ribs and propel him directly into the wall.

"That's not very nice," Malin hissed as she ran up towards the woman, intent on flattening her before she turned and saw what was coming. Unfortunately, she hadn't seen the rather large man come up from behind the woman and stand between Malin and her target. Before she could react, he had hauled a fist back and slammed it right into her face. Even with her steel-clad skin, the blow still hurt. Staggering backwards, she shook her head to clear the stars out her eyes, then righted herself. The man was now standing directly in front of her, his arms crossed, his gaze imposing.

"I'm getting tired of this," she muttered, forcing her body into another morph. As her steel skin began to shed, she gripped a sliver of metal as it fell from her arm and hurled it towards the man's head. He brought an arm up to deflect it away and that was the opening Malin needed. Lowering her center of gravity, she stepped towards the man and churned her arm upward, planting a fist directly under the man's jaw. She grinned savagely as she felt the man's teeth clack together, the force of her uppercut lifting him off his feet and sending him toppling backward. As he fell, Malin used the time to shuck the rest of her skin, steel flakes clattering to the floor to reveal the sparkling sheen of diamond. She flexed her hand, feeling the sharp edges of her knuckles.

Jaydon was shocked and impressed all in one, not only had the metal woman spoken, but she had knocked the large man completely off of his feet, a feat even he had difficulty doing. But beyond that, the woman had shed off her metal skin, replacing it with what appeared to be diamond.

Jaydon ran over to the woman, standing next to her. "Um, I've got some tips: That guy's skin seems to be impervious to almost all physical damage, look," he said, pointing at the man as he got up from the floor, rubbing his jaw a bit, but other than that, he seemed fine. "See," Jaydon reinforced his point, until the man spit out some blood and a tooth.

"Um, yeah, but his internal parts are vulnerable, so, uh, may I recommend beating him across his head more, the shear force and shock of the blows would harm his brain, eventually knocking him unconcious, or so I'm guessing. I'm only going off of a football documentary I saw where these...." Jaydon stopped, he was talking too much again. "Sorry. Look, bash away at him all you like, or don't, whatever you like. As for me, I'm going to..." Jaydon paused, growing a long, and very sharp sliver of bone from the top of his hand, Jaydon tested the tip. "...improvise," he said with a grin, hoping the woman would realize his intentions, as he was going to attempt to blind the man.

Jaydon was, yet again, cut short of his moment of brilliance, as the large man he had been ignoring had recovered and charged him and the woman, seeing both of them, the man had made the smart decision, and had decided to kick Jaydon, with the flat of his foot, directly in the sternum. This sent Jaydon backwards, and to the floor. Jaydon lay prone on the ground, he was hurting, bad, that kick had been powerful, and it had cracked some of his ribs, even though their density had been increased by a very high amount. He groaned and clutched his chest, gasping for air, the force of the kick had hurt his organs too, he began coughing, flem and blood from his lungs came up, splattering across the floor.

Jaydon got up, his legs wobbled beneath him for a moment before he steadied himself. Jaydon staggered away from the man and the metal...diamond woman, he needed some distance from them, he needed to recover, but he had no such luck, as he felt a well placed fist plant into his lower back, near the kidneys. Jaydon gave out a cry of pain, turning quickly, he swung wildly with his bone spike at who ever had struck him. Only, no one was there.

"Great, now I'm getting attacked by ghosts," Jaydon muttered, his words almost incoherent, until he was knocked to his knees by a kick to the back of his leg. Then, right in front of him, a woman appeared from nowhere, Jaydon only looked at her with a pained, and confused look as she readied herself to flatten his throat.

'Bummer,' Jaydon thought.

((steven, I'm giving you ample opportunity to post, do it! Save me! :p ))

Jason thought for a couple of moments still waiting for the phone to ring then his eye widened like a switch had just flicked on in his head. “Levetivacetam!”

“Huh?” Sarah-Jane said. “Is that supposed to mean something?”

“It’s an anti-seizure drug, given to epilepsy patients, it works by nullifying certain brain activity, maybe if we give her some.” Jason opened a draw and pulled out a subscription pad, one of the advantages of being a doctor in a medical field. He quickly wrote a subscription for the anti-seizure drug and handed it to Byron. “You may need to try a few pharmacies, that stuff isn’t common.”

“I’ll be quick.” The old professor said as he hastily walked over to the door and left the apartment.

Jason held the phone closer to his ear and continued to wait for the detective to answer.