[This issue takes place during the events of Descendants #1]

Laurel sat near her on the floor, applying solder to a circuit board. “I can’t agree with you on that, Alex. How are those kids going to learn to control their abilities if they’re not allowed to use them?”

“It’s only until the renovation is done.” Alexis argued. “Besides, maybe it’ll be good for them to learn to do for themselves without using their powers all the time.”

“You’re one to talk about the random abuse of powers. I seem to remember a certain someone making microwave popcorn in her hands on a bet back in school.”

Alexis couldn’t help but smile at the memory. “I didn’t do it on a bet – you’re the one that started giving odds.” She regained her more serious posture, “Anyway, I’ve grown up. You don’t see me flying everywhere, do you?”

“You haven’t changed as much as you seem you wish.” Laurel said, turning the circuit board over in her hands. “For example; We don’t have a coffeemaker yet and I’m pretty sure I didn’t hear the teapot boiling… so can you tell me how you have a piping hot cup of Joe?”

Alexis blushed and sat her cup back down. “So, what exactly are you working on anyway?” She changed the subject, knowing Laurel couldn’t resist describing whatever new invention had captured her fancy.

Laurel nodded and stood, taking the circuit board over to one of the tables. “I’ll show you, but don’t think you’ve heard the last about letting the kids use their powers.”

Alexis followed her friend to where the other woman was opening the face plate on a notebook computer. “I thought you got out of the hobby of making computers from scratch” she offered.

“I did,” Laurel shrugged “but this is a very special computer. This little guy *should* help make Kareem feel a bit more at home here.”

“I thought Kareem was adjusting pretty well, considering. He talks to Melissa and I all the time and he seems happy. The only problem he has is accidentally reading thoughts when he’s trying to communicate.”

“This is exactly what this device should help. In theory, it will allow him to hold conversations on this plane instead of depending on his telepathy all the time.” Laurel seated the circuit board she had been working on into place and began adjusting jumper settings. “See, I was reading Kareem’s file from the Academy and it said that he could allow others to astral project with him… you know, before they did whatever they did to him.”

“I don’t really follow…” Alexis admitted.

“Well, I got to thinking; what if he could astral project a computer program instead? Astral projection is pretty much just bending the Theta brainwave so you can perceive the Astral Plane.”

“Now you’ve totally lost me.” Alexis said, making the face she always did when her genius friend went over her head.

“Sorry, I’m getting to the point now.” Laurel grinned. “See, brainwaves are just electrical impulses, just like –“

“Idiot speak, please, Laurel?”

“But this part is so interesting!” Laurel whined.

“Only if you have even the tiniest bit of understanding what you’re talking about, L. Please, just tell me what it does – how it does it would just give me a headache.”

Laurel nodded, defeated. “It lets him show his image on the screen and speak through the speakers. With a large, high definition screen, it’d be as if he were physically in the room with us. And on his end, the device would broadcast what the camera and mic pick up directly into his mind, so he wouldn’t need to use telepathy.”

“That’s wonderful, Laurel! You’re right; he’ll definitely feel more comfortable with something like that.”

“Eventually, I hope to put one in all the main rooms, so he can take part in everything. After that, I can work on –“

One of the computers began a rapid fire chirping, which drowned out whatever Laurel was saying. Both women rushed over to investigate; Laurel sliding into the leather computer chair at the center of the rows of monitors and databanks.

“Should I be worried... or diving for cover?” Alexis asked.

“No worries – my overheat alarm is House of Flame by Pan’s Garden” Laurel explained, typing away at the keyboard. The central monitor displayed the front page of a Florida news website. “This is just my information flagging sound.”

“Information flagging?”

“Yeah. After what happened with the Academy, I figured I should watch for any strange activity from them. So I’ve have this server; Vimes, crawling the internet for any Academy activity or changes to sites regarding the Academy.” With a few taps of the keyboard, Laurel brought up another page from the same news site and displayed it side by side with the other page. “Clever boys.” Laurel commented, typing furiously.

“What’s clever?” Alexis asked, nervously.

“Check this out;” Laurel enlarged the two pages and pointed, “On January 28 of this year, Quinn Bluffs, Florida experienced a freak flash flood which knocked out most of their power grid. On February 3, the Quinn Bluffs Courier reported that the flood caused a mud slide that partially buried the almost completed science center being constructed there by the PTAA, forcing them to abandon operations. Heavy rains have kept them from excavating ever since”

“Serves them right, but I don’t get why that’s clever.” Alexis said.

“That’s not the clever bit. This is the clever bit; May 6, a day after we came to Freeland House, the Courier’s webpage was changed. What I just read to you was from a search engine’s cache. As of the 6th, the page reports that the science center was owned by the Abrams Foundation for Scientific Research.”

“I’ve never heard of them.”

“Neither has anyone else.” Laurel said. “I just did a search and they have one result: their own website. A Whois query shows that their site was registered on May 10.”

“Huh.” Alexis remarked. “Clever.”

“Aren’t they just?” Laurel smirked. “And now for the icing on the cake; I had Vimes search police reports for strange occurrences between the date of the flood and today. Besides a town with an annual rainfall of fifty-eight inches getting thirty inches in the past three months, there have been eleven reports of money and food disappearing before witnesses who swear no one touched them, six thefts with no signs of forced entry, and four sightings of a ‘demon’.” She pulled up the police reports as she spoke. “Put them all together and they spell…”

“Psionic.” Alexis finished.

“Got it in one.” Laurel nodded. “And I’m guessing this one is another kid they had sealed in a stasis cell. The question is, ‘what do we do about it?’”

“You know the answer to that, L.” Alexis said. “We can’t let them catch this kid and do god knows what to them again.”

“I thought you said you weren’t up for doing the prelate thing.” Laurel gave her friend a wry smile, “I think you said that it drew too much attention… that it was for the best concerning the kids?”

“That was before another kid was in danger.” The raven haired woman replied. “Besides, this isn’t like prelate work. I’m merely going to go find this new psionic and bring him back. That’s all. No fights with Enforcers or anyone else.”

“And what if they don’t give us the choice?” Both Alexis and Laurel’s heads whipped around to find Ian standing in the doorway.

“How did you know to be here?” Alexis puzzled.

“He asked me to page him when Vimes dredged up anything on the Academy.” Laurel explained. “So I just programmed in a line of code to do it automatically.”

Ian nodded as he closed to door and came to stand with the two women. “Ever since Prometheus tossed me around, I figured we’d have to cross him or someone like him again. Better we be prepared for it, right, ladies?”

Alexis gave him a pointed look. He had certainly changed since the trio had last been together. Back when they were in the Academy, he’d been more of a spectator for all the daring things she and Laurel had initiated. Now, he was more proactive than her – at least as far as dealing with the Academy went. Laurel didn’t seem to notice this change, but Alexis chalked that up to Ian and Laurel having lived near each other almost continuously since their Academy days.

Ian shied away from the gaze directed at him. “I’m not looking to fight Prometheus again, honestly – but it’s a possibility, so we shouldn’t pretend it isn’t.” He leaned over Laurel’s shoulder and scrolled over some of the text. “Quinn Bluffs – sounds like a nice place. When are we going?”

“Someone’s got to stay and look after the kids.” Laurel said, pausing slightly at Ian’s half chuckle. “So you and Alexis can go. Take my car – it can work on gas or electric, so if there’s another blackout from those floods, you’ll be able to get around.”

“Cool.” Ian nodded. “Too bad you won’t be coming with, Laurel; it’d be just like old times – the three of us road-tripping, terrorizing the countryside, devouring the peasants’ sheep…”

“That’s dragons, Ian.” Laurel laughed.

“Oh. So what did we do?” Ian grinned, looking to Alexis in an attempt to get her in on the joke.

“I’m pretty sure we didn’t eat anyone’s sheep.” the psionic genius supplied, giving Alexis a worried glance.

“Great, so terrorizing the countryside’s still in. how about you two go into town and gear us up – I’ll watch out for the kids.” Ian offered.

“Actually…” Laurel gave both her friends one of those smiles that told them she was planning something. “How about we take Melissa and Cynthia with us, Alex? We don’t really do things as a group and I think that’s a shame, considering we all live under the same roof.”

Alexis shrugged. “Fine by me. Let me go get ready.”

Rain pattered down, splashing against the lone window in the room. It wasn’t much, but it was the only reasonably comfortable room in the abandoned apartment building it was part of. The only light was a feeble grayish patch of sun trying vainly to shine through the clouds.

A young girl, probably twelve, sat on the windowsill, watching the rain and the people in the streets. Across from her, on one of the mattresses that took up the majority of the floor space, was a young man of about sixteen with black hair. He was trying to read a newspaper in the dim.

“Could you move over a little bit, Rain, you’re in my light.” The boy said, turning the page.

“But I like looking out the window, Kevin.” The girl, now identified as Rain pouted. “It’s not like there’s anything going on in here. Noah’s asleep, so I can’t even ask to go up on the roof.”

“You can get out of my light without moving away from the window, ya know?” the boy, Kevin, responded.

Rain blinked for a moment, then moved so that she wasn’t blocking the sunlight. “Better?”

“Much.” Kevin said.

A few moments of silence followed, then. “I’m hungry.” Rain announced.

“A little patience, Rain.” A smooth, purring voice came from the closet in the corner. Its owner was obscured by shadows. “We’ll all have something to eat once Tesser comes back from ‘shopping’. We should even have TV if she managed to find a generator at the Centre.”

“I thought you were asleep.” Kevin said.

“Can’t sleep. You’re worried, Rain’s getting hyper and my empathy’s mainlining it right to my brain.” The voice said again, a bit irritated. “So what is it that you’re worried about, Blank?”

“The Centre, mostly.” Kevin said. “I mean, the Academy isn’t going to leave it abandoned for long. What are we going to do when they send Enforcers down here, Noah?”

“We’ll be moving on eventually.” Noah said. “We have to. We can’t keep Rain here much longer.”

“And if they come before we move on?”

“None of use is going back in one of those boxes.” Noah declared. “If they think that, they have another thing coming. I’ll fight them to keep the rest of you safe – and I don’t doubt that your or Tesser feel the same.”

-- • --

Laurel’s SUV blazed down I-95 somewhere south of Brunswick, Georgia. The sun had only recently gone down, but on this particular stretch, there was very little traffic at all. The pair had decided to drive straight on through the night to reach Quinn Bluffs as soon as possible. A few miles back, they had stopped at a convenience store for snacks and to switch places along the way.

Alexis was at the wheel, with Ian rummaging through the brown paper bag containing their dinner.

“I got you a chicken wrap when we stopped at the Jiffy-Mart back there.” Ian asked, removing a foil wrapped package from the bag. “You still like these, right?”

Alexis let herself smile. Ian had a knack for remembering even the smallest details when it came to his friends. He could hardly remember what he’d had for breakfast, but he remembered her favorite junk food from years ago. “Thanks Ian.” She said, accepting the item.

She thought back to a few days earlier when she had remarked to herself how different Ian had become. She took a bite of the tortilla wrapped chicken. The taste was almost nostalgic, even though the truth was that up until coming to Freeland House, she had still treated herself to one at least once a week. Smiling at the feeling, she glanced over at Ian, who was unwrapping his own sandwich; a pile of meat forced between two slices of bread which were making a valiant effort to contain the shear volume of pastrami, turkey breast and roast beef that strained to be free.

The more things change, the more things stay the same, she mused. Unbidden, a bit of worry tarnished her walk down memory lane. The truth was that she had felt guilty for all the times she and Laurel has dragged Ian into trouble. Learning that Ian had become much more independent had stymied the guilt, but what if it was all just an act. She couldn’t put it past Ian to lie to make things go smoother for everyone involved except him.

“This is pretty good, isn’t it?” Ian asked, looking out the window into the darkness.

“Huh?” Alexis blinked, her decent into her own guilt abruptly halted by reality.

“This is like that time Laurel’s purse got stolen while she was in New York and we had to go pick her up. Good times.” Ian said, still looking out the window. “We hit a Jiffy-mart on the way up that time too. Same stuff too, I think – except Satin Cream Shakes didn’t exist back then. I think I had a green tea instead…”

Alexis smiled. “I remember that time, I didn’t want to drive to New York in the dark alone, so I woke you…” she trailed off. The guilt was back and it seemed to Alexis’s mind that it bought friends.

“Yeah, you dragged me out of bed so I could ride shotgun with you.” Ian chuckled. “My roommate was pissed too. He didn’t shut up about that for weeks.” He shrugged. “Not that he didn’t deserve it. Did I ever tell you that he stole my alarm clock when we moved out?”

That got a laugh. “Your alarm clock? Why?”

“I don’t know. I guess he needed one.” The two old friends shared a laugh at that. Still, the guilt ate at Alexis until she said something.

“Ian?”

“Hmm?” Ian said with a mouthful of Satin Cream chocolate milkshake.

“Tell me the truth. Did you mind getting up and riding up to NYC?”

Ian raised an eyebrow. What an odd question… “Why would I?”

“Well it seemed like Laurel and I – especially me – made you do an awful lot back then. Whenever we got in trouble, you seemed to get in trouble too. And none of it was any of your doing. Why did you let me do that to you?”

Ian snorted incredulously. “Made me? You guys never made me do anything. I went along with it one my own, thank you very much.”

“But why?” Alexis persisted. “You didn’t have anything to gain from doing things like get up at dawn to drive to another state.”

“I got the hang out with one of my best friends and a great memory – that’s enough of a reason to be happy I did it.” Ian grinned, taking another sip of his drink. “What bought this on?”

Alexis sighed. “No reason I guess.” She glanced over at her friend, who was now attacking his sandwich with gusto. “You know, I’m glad you’re here, Ian. Not just on the road trip, but at Freeland House as a whole. You and Laurel being there will definitely keep me from going overboard with the kids.”

Ian only nodded, but at the mention of the kids, Alexis noticed a twinkle in his eyes she was used to seeing Laurel’s eyes shortly after getting away with some form of mischief. Inwardly, she wondered if she should be worried.

The next morning, in a Sleep and Go Motel in Quinn Bluffs, Florida, Gina Sheldon was miserable. She had been in Quinn Bluffs for two months. In that time, the light drizzle that fell on the city had not stopped for a minute. She was cold, she was tired, and the mold growing rampant in the humid environment was playing havoc with her allergies. Grimacing, she blew her nose loudly. “Goddamn rain girl. When I find her, I’ll wring every last damn drop of rain out of her.” She hissed, brushing a few stray blonde locks out of her face.

“A big, snotty trumpet, followed by profanity. Really, Gina, you are the most soft – the most feminine lady I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.” Josiah Colt said dryly. He was sitting on one of the beds in the room.

The room was a carbon copy of all cheap chain motel rooms across the country; a couple of deceptively wide beds, topped with two woefully inadequate pillows, a night stand between the two to which a phone and a remote control were shackled, and a television set upon a low dresser that no one ever dared use to store clothing.

Josiah was doing his best to ignore the poor accommodations, instead opting to concentrate on the solitaire game he had going on his computer. He was a short man of Mediterranean heritage, his long, black hair hanging free around his face, neatly framing his well manicured moustache.

“Oh, I’m so very sorry if my suffering is bothering you.” Gina rolled her eyes. Two months of living with Josiah had her on the verge of killing the arrogant Enforcer from Los Angeles. He had spent the entire time not spent searching for the Psionics who had escaped and effectively demolished the Quinn Bluffs facility needling Gina about everything from her looks to her habits.

“Don’t let it happen again, love.” Josiah said with a shrug.

Gina grimaced and took a look at what Josiah was doing. “The finest technology a government grant can buy, a computer capable of processing at half the speed of the human brain and rendering photorealistic images in real time – and you use it to play cards.”

“Solitaire is a game of kings, Gina. I don’t expect you to understand.”

“Yeah, lonely pathetic kings. And one obnoxious drama queen.” Gina said mocking Josiah’s dry wit. She walked over to the door and took down her dark red rain slicker. “I can’t take being stuck in here anymore; I’m going out to do a sweep for those brats.” She picked up what looked like a palm-top computer, switched it on and nodded at it approvingly.

“Oh sure, I’m sure you’ll do much better than we’ve done in the past seven weeks.” Josiah sneered at her back as she went out the door.

Later, she had learned that breaking other speed barriers granted her other benefits. At twenty-two miles per hour, she became insubstantial, capable of passing through solid objects. At her top speed, thirty miles per hour, she was difficult to track with the naked eye.

She was exercising all three of these side effects at the moment, dashing down the streets of Quinn Bluffs toward the abandoned apartment she and her new friends called home.

While thirty miles an hour was hardly what most people considered when they thought of superhuman speed, to achieve such a speed under one’s own power was an exhilarating experience for Tesser. Despite carrying a backpack crammed with food and other pilfered necessities bound for her friends, Tesser couldn’t help but take a circuitous route through the commercial district to earn just a bit more time exercising her powers.

All too soon, however, the rundown building she had called home since February came into view and she was forced to slow down so that she could climb the stairs instead of passing through them. Now fully visible and corporeal, Tesser stopped to admire herself in the grimy, but still usable mirror in the hall outside of apartment 303, down the hall from where the group of escaped Psionics lived.

Despite being on the run and being forced by necessity to steal for her daily bread, Tesser maintained the vanity her mother had instilled in her from an early age. Thrusting a hand into the backpack, she produced a comb she had taken from the purse of a passerby on the street. The teeth weren’t as fine as she’d like, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. Removing the knit cap she had been wearing, the tall, thin seventeen year old attempted to corral the rat’s nest of red locks that had replaced what she remembered to be a full, lustrous coif before she had awakened in a glass stasis cell after what had apparently been eighteen months.

The door to apartment 311 opened and Kevin Quaid poked his head out. “Noah said he sensed you. Come on, Tillie, get inside – we’re starving here and don’t have time for your hair.”

Tesser pegged the younger boy with an icy glare and continued to wrestle with her tangled hair.

“Seriously. Noah’s just gotten back to his self. Don’t piss him off again.”

Tesser heaved an overly dramatic sigh, took one last look at her still poorly managed hair and stomped toward Kevin, shaking her head. “I don’t see why we’re so afraid of pissing Noah off and not afraid of pissing me off.”

“Because we’ve all seen what I look like pissed off.” A new figure said, stepping up behind Kevin from inside the apartment. He was nineteen and to Tesser probably the most handsome guy she’d ever laid eyes on…. When he was, as he said, himself. Standing six feet, one inch tall, with brown hair that always seemed in place, Noah was a commanding presence to the three others in the group of Psionics. At the moment, he wore a smock tied around his bare torso and a pair of jeans that appeared to be shredded just below the shin.

Cowed by the presence of her crush, Tesser blushed and pulled the knit cap back over her embarrassing hair. “Sorry, Noah, Didn’t know you were standing there.” She said.

“No harm. Come on inside, lets see what you picked up.” Noah gave her a smile and stood aside as she and Kevin stepped into the apartment.

“Hi, Tillie!” Rain said happily from the pile of blankets that served as her bed. “Did you get something we can watch TV on?” Rain didn’t seem to understand the gravity of the little group’s situation. The fact was that she was the catalyst for everything that had happened combined with the fact that she was the one most affected by it served to both hearten and distress the older kids.

Tesser put on her brave smile (something all three of the older members of the group had learned to do) and shook her head. “I found something we can use… but I couldn’t take it by myself.”

“Just say what and where, Tesser.” Noah said quickly. “I’ll go and get it myself – I am the strongest.”

“Well, I took a little jog through the Centre like you asked me to,” Tesser began. “and I found a portable generator. The problem is that the thing’s in a blocked up room and there’s debris everywhere. We need to phase to get inside, but it’ll take all four of use to clear the crap off the generator in any reasonable time.”

Noah nodded. “Okay, then, we’ll grab the generator tomorrow. And pack anything you want to take with you. Once we get the generator and anything else useful we find at the Centre, we should seriously get out of Dodge.”

Ian squinted through the rain that collected on the windshield of the SUV, hands tight on the wheel. The rain was light, but coming fast enough to make it seem that the windshield wipers were having no effect whatsoever.

“How is it that it’s been raining in this town for three months, but it hasn’t flooded?” He asked, tapping the brake to avoid the phantom of something that may have been crossing the road.

“Well, it did flood back in January – four inches in two hours.” Alexis said, eyes on the road map she was studying.

“But then it kept raining.” Ian pointed out. “Shouldn’t that mean it should still be flooded?”

“Not really. It isn’t called Quinn Bluffs because of any famous poker tournament, you know. Half the town and the out lying region are elevated up on these granite cliffs, see?” Alexis held one hand above the other as if that could possibly illustrate what she was talking about. “Most of the water just drains away. Or causes a mudslide – which is what happened to the Academy place here.”

“You’d still think there’d be standing water everywhere.” Ian frowned.

“Remember you’re also in Florida. The wetlands are a huge sponge that suck up most floods before they start. Didn’t you learn anything in environmental science? That’s what that whole flap over them was about at the turn of the century.”

“I spent most of my time trying to hit on Claire Adler in environmental science class.” Ian admitted. There was an awkward silence at that. “Erm… are you sure we’re on the right road?”

“Gah!” Gina dodged across the street as the SUV sped by, slowing only slightly as if the driver wasn’t sure he’d seen her. “Stupid townies.” She snarled, frowning at the vehicle as it continued down the access road. “It’ll serve them right when they find out that the only thing down there is the Centre and they have to turn around.” She huffed.

Drawing her rain slicker closer around herself and cursing the rain and the little girl she knew was responsible, Gina became aware of the low chirping sound from her pocket. “Hmm?” She blinked, extracting the palm-top device. The light green screen showed a low jagged line similar to those one would see on a heart monitor or EKG machine. The device was designed to monitor Theta waves; the brain wave all people produced, but psionics produced on a slightly different set of wavelengths. And it had just registered two spikes that were not Gina’s.

“I’ll be damned.” The blonde hissed. Without a second thought, she took out her cell phone and dialed Josiah’s number. Before the Los Angelino could even answer, she spoke. “Shut up for a second, Avatar. This is Impact – my scanner just got a pair of hits. And guess where they’re headed.”

-- • --

The building that would have been named the Centre of Psionic Study was situated at the bottom of a granite cliff one half mile from the city limits of Quinn Bluffs, at the end of a freshly paved access road.

The mudslide that had buried over half of the facility and its parking lot also buried the access road up to two hundred yards from where the security gate once stood, forcing Alexis and Ian to travel up to the mud entombed structure on foot.

“Nice place here.” Ian quipped, slogging through ankle deep mud and looking up at the five story former science center. “Wall to wall mud, all mud furnishings – and look at the view of all that mud!”

Alexis smirked, adjusting the travel bag over her shoulder. “Well, with no front door, they don’t have to worry about solicitors, at least.” In fact, even the relatively new residence of Freeland House had had to put up with a few evangelists in its few weeks of existence.

“Speaking of which, how exactly are we getting in?” The pair had reached the northern side of the building; the only part not covered in mud. “I didn’t think to bring a bulldozer.”

“Hmm…” Alexis gave the windows and wall a cursory glance. A window on the third floor was smashed out. “Looks like someone already made a way in… or out.”

“Our kid?” Ian asked, staring up at the broken window.

“Don’t know, but that doesn’t mean there’s not more in stasis in there. We should see if there’s anyone to save here before we try to find anyone who escaped.”

“Still doesn’t say how we’re getting inside.” Ian noted.

Alexis smiled at her friend. “You’re forgetting something, Ian. I can fly.” Not giving Ian time to protest, she grabbed his arm. Focusing her power, she drew in light, converting it to heat and directing it toward the ground. The side effect was that she was enshrouded in a clinging, black miasma that made her look like a sinister ghost.

With Ian in tow, she flew gently up to the window.

Down on the second floor, the tiny band of young psionics was making little headway in freeing the portable generator. When the mudslide had occurred, the floor had shifted, dumping the desks, file cabinets and other office furniture through the wall into the workshop area adjacent to it. This, combined with the machinery in the workshop had conspired to obscure and hold fast the wagon sized generator.

Heaving as one, Noah and Kevin pushed another desk off the pile of debris. Tesser and Rain dutifully began rooting through the drawers, looking for anything that may be of use to them and stuffing it in their backpacks. Early in the searching, Rain had found a digital music player and discovered it was still in working order. She was currently bobbing her head to the beat of Waiting for One by the Cutthroat Bandits.

“This is going to take forever.” Kevin whined as he helped Noah pull mangled power tools out of the hole vacated by the desk.

“Think of all the creature comforts that this generator can give us, Kevin; heat, light, television, movies! Did you know that two remakes of Phantom of the Opera have come out since I was put on ice and I haven’t seen any of them?” Noah was getting the slightly predatory look that indicated that his ‘change’ was coming closer. Kevin decided to quit complaining.

Tesser hadn’t noticed, she was busy looking around the destroyed former workshop. “I really don’t like being here again…” She moaned. “It’s like walking into a bad dream again.”

“We’ll never have to come back here again after this, Tesser, I promise.” Noah said gently, the predatory look fading a bit. “We’ll go to Miami and live close to the beach or some –“He stopped short in his promises, looking around bewildered. Part of his abilities was that he could sense the emotions of others when they were nearby. At that moment, he felt very shocked and disgusted and he knew that feeling wasn’t from any of his new family.

“Tesser.” He whispered. “Someone’s nearby. Can you check it out?”

Someone had used an impressive amount of violence while taking their leave from the third floor. The place was supposed to be unused when it was destroyed by the mudslide, so no rescue crews had been deployed and thus, the path of destruction had been preserved. Doors had been knocked off their hinges, cameras ripped off the ceiling. A single bullet hole nicked the wall near a much battered steel security door.

The door had been closed after the escape, but the beating it had endured had made sealing and locking it impossible.

Pausing at the door, Ian gave it a casual examination with the beam of his flashlight. “High security, someone needed a card, a code and a thumb print to get in here.” He said with a low whistle. “This is the right place.”

Alexis nodded, pulling the door open. It protested with a loud creak, revealing a black void beyond. Before advancing, she played her light over the nether side of the door. “Claw marks. I think I know why we have reports of demons coming out of Quinn Bluffs.”

“I pity the poor jackass that has to tangle with that kid.” Ian said. “Strong enough to break open an eight inch steel door with claws to match.”

His friend didn’t respond; her eyes focused on what her flashlight beam had landed on. “Ian…”

“Hmm?” He turned to see the flashlight beam had scattered over many metallic surfaces which hung from the ceiling by a hydraulic lift. “What the hell were they doing here?”

The machine sprouted a forest of mechanical limbs beneath the lift. Drills, scalpels, recording devices and other, less readily identifiable implements tipped these arms. The assembly was popularly known as a remote surgical rig; conceptualized a few years before as a method by which the world’s best surgeons could operate on any patient in the world without having to leave their native offices. Despite a media whirlwind surrounding it, the expense of such a machine led to its commercial demise before it even reached the human test phase of usage.

Except this rig was poised over five transparent stasis chambers, with telltale stains on some of the implements heavily implied that someone was using it on humans only a few months before. One of the stasis cells was smashed, a spray of plastic shards evident on the floor. The others, save one, had been wrenched open.

Stepping lightly, and holding back more than a little nausea, Alexis examined the surgical rig. “A lot of these arms are bent.” She said. “Our kid?”

Ian looked at the identifying plates on the stasis cells; C38-1402 CODENAME: Rain, C38-1411 CODENAME: Blank, C38-1421 CODENAME: Thunderhead, C38-1400 CODENAME Tesser, C38-1380 CODENAME: Incubus. “Not kid.” He said. “Kids. Ones who were at the Academy long enough to get codenames for government work.”

“C38… that sounds like a batch number or something. Our kids all had numbers on their plates starting with A14.” Alexis frowned. As she spoke, she gingerly detached the rig’s sound recorder. As she did, something in the center of the cluster, attached to an arm that hadn’t been extended caught her eye.

“They sound like serial numbers. Batch thirty eight from series C; Batch fourteen from series A? If they have at least series A, B and C and each one goes to at least thirty-eight, with at least, what? Four hundred kids each?” Ian tried doing the math in his head to no avail. “I don’t even want to think of that.”

Alexis wasn’t listening. Instead, she was removing the silver and glass globe from its control arm. “Bio-map encoder?” She read the brand name printed around the top of the device. “What’s a bio-map?”

“I’ve got no idea, by maybe Laurel can figure it out. Take it with. Find anything else?”

“Voice recorder. Maybe it can give us a hint about what happened here – or a description of the kids so we’re not searching blind.” Alexis fumbled with the dented machine a second before a woman’s voice emerged from it.

“Sunday, January 28, 2074, 8:54am. Installation code Deep Twenty-One; Babel Tower. Operative Doctor Melody Cartwright, lead researcher at Babel Tower.” The recorded voice began. “Today begins preliminary testing of the Bio-mapping procedure. We’ve chosen low level Psionics – C38’s for the first run – as we don’t expect them to survive. Luckily, Project Tome’s connections inside the Academy give us plenty of fodder to choose from. The first subject is C38-4121, codename—“The player screeched as it skipped over corrupted data.

“Gah!” Ian grunted, covering his ears. “Skip ahead, see if there’s anything else.”

Alexis did, setting her jaw against the anger she felt toward the recorded woman. The recording resumed, “—locks deactivated. Engaging hard neural inhibitors to keep C38-1402 from waking as we begin the trepanning an—“A low roar partially obscured the rest of what she was saying.

“More corruption?” Ian asked, looking a bit sick.

“I don’t think we have time to listen to anymore, Ian. We need to find those kids and find them NOW. Didn’t you hear that? They were going to trepan one of them.”

“Too late, Enforcer.” A purring voice came from the entrance. “The kids just found you.” Arrayed at the door were Noah, Kevin and Tesser with Rain bringing up the rear. Noah’s eyes glowed a very dim, almost imperceptible green.

“Enforcers? Oh hell no.” Ian said. “Look, we’re here to help you all. Uh, weren’t there five of you?”

“Just like you helped us at the Academy? No thanks.” Noah seemed to expand, the glow of his eyes becoming more apparent and his skin darkening. “And yeah, there were five of us – but you sons of bitches killed one of us before we could save him!” The transformation accelerated. Noah grew half a foot taller and his skin sprouted a short pelt of tan fur. His feet twisted and grew, becoming arched with claws tipping the toes. His hands similarly became claws. A pair of dark, curved horns grew to crown his head and his eyes became huge pools of fallow green with no white or pupil. Finally, a hump formed on his back, only to explode into a pair of leathery wings.

Guess we know where the reports of a demon came from, Ian thought. “Now hold on, kid. You’ve got to believe us, we’re the good guys here.”

“He’s right.” Alexis offered, “We’ve already saved some kids – just like you – from the Academy. We’re just trying to do the same for you.”

“I don’t believe you.” Noah snarled. “Tesser, help me deal with them. Blank, keep Rain safe.”

“But Noah, what if…” Tesser started to say, but thought better of it. Noah had never led them wrong before. Instead, she kicked in her powers and began a circuit of the room to build up speed.

“You’re making a huge mistake, Noah.” Ian said, calling the transformed psionic by the name Tesser had called him. He found himself wondering what he could do to stop the young man, but not injure him.

“You’re the one that made the mistake. You and your whole organization – trying to use us like that. Experimenting on us like animals.” Noah began centering his powers on Ian. In his Incubus form, he could far better control his secondary ability to influence human emotions. Right now, he wanted the Enforcer to feel sorrow before Noah killed him. But as he did, it occurred to him that he was suddenly feeling cold amusement.

There was a sound like a firecracker and Kevin flew forward, propelled as if from a cannon. Rain gasped in shock.

“No, little boy.” Gina Sheldon said. Her fist was still extended into the space Kevin had previously occupied. She still had her rain slicker on, but had now donned some type of light tactical armor underneath it. Josiah Colt stood behind her, dressed in an overcoat, smoking a cigarette. “Your mistake was thinking your little ‘family’ of punks could hide from fully trained Enforcers forever.”

“Really, if those two were really Enforcers, you’d all be dead or captured by now.” Josiah added.

“And Control was not exactly specific as to which we had to do.” She glared down at Rain who hadn’t move during the entire episode. “You specifically, I’m going to kill.” She hissed. “Just to stop the goddamn rain.”

Noah whirled and leapt at the real enforcers. “You won’t touch a hair on her!”

Gauging the young man’s trajectory, Gina wound up a punch. “Heh. We haven’t met, kid…” She landed a massive upper cut on Noah seconds before his claws reached her. The air around her arm rippled as her psionic power shifted his kinetic energy back into him. “The name’s Impact!” With an audible crack, Noah was sent across the room to smash against one of the stasis cells. “Get it?” she sneered at him.

“Noah!” Tesser screamed, seeing her crush handled so roughly. With a wordless war cry, she dashed toward the woman calling herself Impact, who merely drew back her fist. But Tesser had reach twenty-two miles per hour in her trek around the room and Gina’s punch contacted nothing.

Running through Gina, Tesser dropped her speed and grabbed Gina’s hair as she became solid again. The result was Gina landing painfully on her back, her neck and head throbbing.

“Nice trick, girl.” Josiah said with a bored tone. “But you’re solid now.” He reached over and tapped the speedster as she passed, causing her to stop in her tracks. Josiah’s codename was Avatar because he could control the physical actions of others like other people could control their avatar in video games. Now, with a tap, he had taken control of Tesser.

Noah staggered to his feet, teeth grinding. He glared in Ian’s direction. “Well, if you really are here to help us, do something. We’re the only family each other has. We’re kin.” His green eyes whirled with emotion.

Ian nodded, and then nodded to Alexis. “Don’t worry Noah, we’ve got kin too. And we’ve taken on Enforcers before.”

“That one almost killed you.” Alexis pointed out.

“He didn’t need to hear that.” Ian noted.

-- • --

Acting against the heartfelt demands of her brain, Tesser’s body turned toward Noah. She felt her muscles tense and her power beginning to build within her unbidden. In the few months she had spent at the Academy, she had heard of some of the powers possessed by psionics that allowed them some form of control over others.

Powerful telepaths could simply make someone decide to act. Some empaths, Noah excluded, could change someone’s feelings to the point that they acted in a given manner. At some point, she had even heard rumors that one of her classmates had the ability to possess other people outright.

Despite knowing all of these different methods by which her mind could be usurped, Tesser hadn’t been prepared for this. She had always assumed that when one was mind controlled, one would be ignorant of the fact until some time later, after waking up from a daze. But whatever the Enforcer was doing to her wasn’t mind control at all. She was completely in control of her mind, but her body was no longer answering her will.

Taunt muscles sprang into action, power flowed and Tesser’s body launched itself at Noah. Tesser wanted desperately to close her eyes, buy even that was beyond her at this point. Her body began its dash toward him. A quick mental calculation told her that she’d slam into him at eight miles per hour.

Josiah smirked to himself. It took only about as much mental effort to hold control over a person’s motor functions as it did to breathe, so he found himself thinking more about the rest of the psionics before him then the one he was currently launching at the bizarre demon thing his compatriot had already injured.

He had files on Tesser and Incubus, both of whom were soon to be out of the equation. He also had files on Kevin Quaid, known as Blank, but Impact had already taken him out as well. That left the two unknowns that Impact had followed to the facility. He decided that his next move would be to close on the woman – he rather liked the idea of forcing women to carry out his will…

Pain suddenly blossomed in his thigh. Looking down, he realized that he had left out part of his calculations.

Tears in her eyes, Rain held the pen she had just jabbed into the Enforcer’s thigh so tightly that her knuckles were white. She didn’t know much – didn’t remember much – but Tesser and Noah and Blank were her friends and this man and the blonde woman were hurting them. She resolved not to let go until she could think of some other way to help them.

Halfway to Noah, Tesser stumbled and fell, tumbling into his legs and toppling him over.

Shouting in pain, Josiah lifted his hand to give the rain maker the punch in the head Impact had wanted to deliver. A sudden gale kicked up and he was struck solidly in the chest, spinning him around and breaking the pen off in his thigh.

“You two are a couple of real pieces of work.” Ian said, preparing to launch another fusillade at Josiah. “Seriously, attacking a kid? Helping people that do this kind of stuff to kids?” he spat the last part, his disgust apparent.

Josiah braced himself against the wall, his mind still reeling with pain. “You don’t know the half of it, guy.” He said, with a feral expression. His free hand traveled inside his jacket and touched a toggle. Instantly, the pain ebbed as a cocktail of chemicals increased his production of adrenaline, endorphins and temporarily accelerated his healing. “Whatever you came here for, it wasn’t worth what you’re in for.”

As this was going on, Impact regained her senses. Everything above and including her lumbar region was aflame. In fact, she thought for a moment that her hair was bleeding. She was tired of those kids. In fact, she had been tired of them since the first week she had spent searching for them.

Rolling to her knees, she spied the little bitch that had put her on her back. She was going to tear her… her…

Impact shook her head. Everything hurt. She felt like wretching from the pain. Worst, she didn’t even remember getting on her knees like this. What had she been doing? Gritting her teeth, she spied the girl, Tesser, who was the source of this… this…

Blinking, Impact wondered why and when she had risen to her knees. She was in incredible pain and not yet willing to waste her Apollo unit on temporary relief. What was going on? She knew she hadn’t been knocked out, so why did it seem like time had passed? Wherever she tried to put two and two together, she came back drawing a… Blank. “Son of a bitch!” she exclaimed, snapping her gaze onto Kevin, who lay on his side, watching her and counting backward.

Impact’s mind raced. Kevin Quaid was a low level telepath. So low, in fact, that he had only one ‘trick’ in his repertoire of mentalism – he could erase eleven seconds of a person’s memory. He could do this at will, but to be of any use, he’d have to use it on his foes every… every…

Impact groaned. Her skin and muscles burned and knotted. Why was she on her knees? And why was she staring at the telepath known as Blank? Even more strange, why was he counting backward from eleven? Then it clicked. “Stop that!” She demanded, lashing out with a kick to the boy’s head.

Impact’s personal brush with Groundhog’s Day ended with Kevin sprawling on the floor. Behind her, she heard Josiah mocking the two unknown psionics. Her anger at the teens who had eluded her for weeks abated as her professional mind told her to deal with the mystery element first.

Noah righted himself into a crouching position. Tesser was still on the ground, breathing hard, but not gasping for breath. “Are you okay, Tillie?” He asked, trying to focus his emotion reading ability on her alone, but failing to maintain it for more than a moment.

“Yeah, just got the wind knocked out of me.” She sighed. “We’ve got to stop that guy before he takes someone else over.”

Noah nodded, shaking his horns furiously. “You got it, Tillie. I’ll settle this with one punch.” With that, he gathered himself up and sprang at the rapidly recovering Josiah. The highly trained Enforcer stepped forward, into tap Noah with his power as he flew overhead.

But Noah saw the plot and snapped open his wings, stopping himself short of Josiah’s reach. “I saw what you did to Tesser.” He snarled. “You need to touch me to take me over.” His eyes flashed a brighter green. “Well that’s not going to happen.”

Impact kipped up into a crouched position, ready to give Noah another hard punch. A black flare flashed past her head as she made her move, knocking her slightly off balance. “Don’t even think about it.” Alexis said, willing another bolt of black heat into her hand just in case.

“And I was worried you weren’t going to do anything.” Impact said wryly. With that, she stomped the ground, redirecting the kinetic energy from that back up into her and launching her into the air. Alexis hurled her black heat at the Enforcer, but Impact kicked off the wall and slammed into her. Both women tumbled across the lab floor.

Impact landed on top and raised her fist. “Screw control. I’m going to kill every last one of y—“ At that moment, she was thrown sideways as Tesser barged into her.

“You’re not going to kill anyone.” Tesser said triumphantly as she stood over the fallen Enforcer and the strange woman she didn’t know. Her revelry was short lived as Impact planted a super kinetic kick in her stomach, knocking her away.

“I am SO tired of you people.” Impact said. “Now you be a good girl and writhe in pain while I…” She looked at where Alexis had been lying. She was gone. “What the hell?” she asked, seconds before Alexis slammed her flashlight into Impact’s kidneys. As the Enforcer turned to face her, she smacked her in the face with the implement, stunning her for a moment.

“Invisibility.” Alexis gave a deceptively sweet smile. “Very limited, but luckily, so are you.”

Meanwhile, Noah faced off with Josiah, his out stretched wings blocking the enforcer from Ian’s view. So far, thanks to his realization that Josiah needed skin to skin contact to use his powers, it was one sided. While his claws were unable to penetrate the enforcer’s body armor, he had forced Josiah into a corner. Finally, with a leg sweep, he toppled the Los Angelino and stood over him, claws ready for the kill.

“It’s over, Enforcer.” Noah said, broadcasting terror into the Avatar’s mind. “This is for my friends – my new family. You and your superiors will never haunt us again!” The clawed hand came down, but the sound that followed wasn’t the sound of bones cracking and flesh rending. It was the slap of flesh on flesh.

Noah looked down at his hand – his human hand. He was reverting to human form. Since he had began transforming into his Incubus form, usually in times of stress, or when his blood sugar rose too high, but occasionally voluntarily, he had learned that he had no control as to how long it lasted. At times, he would remain in that form for days, sometimes, minutes – he could neither prolong it, nor end it prematurely. Now, it was ending on its own.

His own shock made him lose control of the terror he was pumping into Josiah who gave him a wicked grin and kicked him away. “And that, my friend is why you’re just a C38.” He watched Noah’s flesh twisting almost painfully as he reverted for a moment, and then took out a cigarette to replace the one he’d dropped when Rain stabbed him.

A gust of wind blew it out. He looked up to see Ian glaring at him, a vortex of air forming around him. “Oh hell.” He said, trying to dodge as a fist of air came at him. He was slammed hard against the wall.

Sliding down the wall, he triggered his second Apollo unit. Training for the device advised not using two within an hour of one another. For this reason, most Enforcers only had one in their tactical armor. Josiah however reveled in the feeling of power and speed he got from it and had three. In practice, he used two at once when fighting very powerful foes and kept one in reserve. At the moment, he was just using the second to stop the ringing in his ears.

Charging Ian, he dodged two more fists of wind and planted a knee in the other man’s midsection, doubling him over. Immediately, he brought his clasped hands down on Ian’s back, sending him to the floor. “Now I’m curious.” Josiah sad, putting a foot on the back of Ian’s heat. “Which other Enforcer almost killed you?”

Across the lab, Impact reeled. Her opponent had wreathed herself in what appeared to be shadow, but the increase in temperature in her immediate vicinity suggested something worse. She wasn’t quite sure how to deal with her without receiving some nasty burns.

Then, she saw an opening. As Josiah put down the other unknown psionic, her opponent turned in his direction – her distraction causing her to drop her protective field of black heat. Impact lunged, but was suddenly taken off her feet.

At twenty-one miles per hour, Tesser tackled the Enforcer, and then increased her speed ever so slightly. “I bet you read my file.” Tesser said to her captive as she dragged her forward. “You know about my speed, the fact I can go through things – but you didn’t know I could take people with me.”

Impact gasped, the air having been driven out of her by the tackle and the sudden change in velocity. She glanced backward, seeing the stasis cells coming at her fast. Suddenly, she realized the girl’s plan – but it was too late.

Tesser shoved the other woman out in front of her just as she cut her speed to nil. She ended up standing just outside the stasis cell. Impact ended up inside. With a flick of her wrist, she turned the locking handle, sealing the cell. “It’s not on, but we’ll be long gone by the time you get out.” She said, heaving a sigh of relief.

“Not talking?” Josiah asked Ian mockingly. The effort of delivering such a beating was evident in his deep breaths. “Oh well, I’d better stomp your spine so you don’t get away.” A series of tiny black flames lanced into him, burning like hot needles. He started and reflexively stepped sideways out of the stinging hail. He looked up to see Alexis, covered in her black heat, sending streams of the painful needles his way.

“I thought Impact had you.” He glared.

“You also thought you were breathing heavily because you were winded.” Ian said, flipping over. Now able to see Josiah, he was able to focus his power on further lowering the density of the air around his nose and mouth. The Enforcer known as Avatar gasped and stumbled as his lungs emptied air into the space. His vision blurred.

“Relax.” Ian said, getting to his feet. “I’m not going to kill you. Unlike you, I’m no monster.” With that, he released a pulse of wind into Josiah’s forehead, knocking the man out. As his foe fell, Ian looked around. “Everyone alright… or at least without life threatening injuries?”

Noah and Rain were kneeling beside Kevin. “He’s okay, just got a little smacked around.” Noah said.

“We should put that guy in a cell too.” Tesser said, indicating Josiah. Ian nodded and started dragging him toward one. Alexis came over to help.

“So who are you guys?” Rain asked, putting words to what was on the minds of all of her new family.

“We’re exactly what we said we were.” Alexis said, opening the cell so Ian could push Josiah inside. “We saved some kids from the Academy a little over a month ago. We heard about the possibility of someone here needing our help, so we came to see if we could give it.”

“Thank you both for that.” Noah said. “You saved just about all we have left.”

“Hey, like I said, we’ve got kin too – the kids we saved have kind of grown on us.” Ian said. “If you want to, all of you are welcome to come with us.”

Noah shook his head. “I said thanks, not that I trust you.” He looked at the others, asking a question that didn’t need to be put in words. Tesser and Rain nodded. “Besides, I promised them we’d be headed to Miami after this… live on the beach, maybe see if we can learn more about everything that’s happened to us.”

Alexis nodded. “Well, we’ll do anything we can to help you guys. A friend of ours is a sort of computer genius – when you get to wherever you’re headed, find an internet café and send a message to beautifuldreamer on the Kingston East Network. She’ll hook you guys up with a place to stay, money – whatever, okay?”

“I appreciate that.” Noah said. “And I think we’ll definitely take you up on it.”

“No problem.” Alexis smiled at the young man. “As long as you guys are trying to take care of yourselves and trying to keep out of the Academy’s – and this Project Tome’s hands, you can consider us kin too.”

“And everything that entails.” Ian added.

The sun was setting as Laurel’s SUV left Quinn Bluffs. Ian was driving and Alexis was on her cell phone. “No, Laurel, they’re going their own way.” She was saying. “Really, we’re lucky they’re even accepting our help. If I was in their shoes, I wouldn’t trust us either.”

She shifted the phone to the other ear and settled into her seat. “Anyway, we’ve got plenty for you to look into. Something called a bio-map and a broken voice recorder. Oh, and you better get Vimes fired up on this one – I have a feeling that Project Tome means something far worse for people like us than just the Academy betraying us.”