Sam's normally stony expression was taken by a moment of annoyance. Christian had assumed she could control what she did, when the truth was that she didn't even know how she did it. She hadn't bothered to tell him about the side effects yet, but after the comparison of inconveniences, she felt compelled to expand on earlier explanation. While she waited for him to finish, she considered how she would respond.

"Stable," she ventured, after the talk of money had concluded. "Is not a word I would use to describe myself. More like 'broken'."

The memory of the incident with the lamp came back with a vengeance, forcing her to relive some of the data she'd gathered. It was all disjointed images, abstract and hardly useful; except that she somehow knew what it meant. It was like those posters composed of hundreds of photographs, only she saw the completed image while the individual photos were too blurred to understand. She didn't know whether it was simply a matter of practice, or if she would never gain the full benefit of her ability.

"I don't even know what to do with it yet, or how to make it happen. The truth is that I haven't touched anything in the way of technology since I broke the lamp in my room. Wilson says it was my ability that did that. He also says I blacked out; had some kind of episode. I can remember a few other times when I woke up with a gap in my memory, during the week before the Reformers came for us. Every time, it was after I'd salvaged something or fixed something up. I don't know how I did it. I just know that, every time, it makes my brain go haywire."

"It sucks."

Cal groaned as she felt herself being cushioned by the man. That was lucky! Somehow she managed to escape relatively unscathed. She swore she heard swearing coming from under her. She tumbled off as the gunman stood up.

She dashed her head against the rough asphalt ground and her eyes became slightly unfocused. She pulled herself up slightly only to have a massive fist slam into the right cheek. The impact turned her head sideways as a blue-green patch began forming on her right cheek.

“Urgh…”

Callie clutched the side of her head helplessly as he pulled his arm back. She fixed her electric blue eyes on his livid face. She screwed her eyes shut and turned away slightly. The next one would be worst.

“Hitting a pretty lady is a no good, no go.”

One eye opened then the other. Soon the battered airhostess stared at the woman restraining her assailant. She blinked slightly in an attempt to clear her double vision. Yet the the scene unfurling before her was sending off very bad vibes. She shuddered. The tables have turned…

But…

She watched as Vida for the man’s face…

“There was payment you said. Yes, yes. Payment was said. How about your life? Would it be enough to pay?”

“Stop! We don’t have to kill him.”

Both turned to look at her. Her eyes looked into the man’s fearful ones and her heart skipped several beats. Slowly she turned back to her yet-to-be-known companion. The eyes appeared normal, but no, this definitely wasn’t the woman from before.

“Pretty lady, are you ok-ok?”

“I-I… yes. Thanks.”

Cal gave Vida a grateful smile in an attempt to distract the other from committing murder. “We don’t have to hurt him, okay?”

Her eyes glazed over as the world began spinning again. There seemed to be hundreds of people all around. Multiple clones moving around. It was all very surreal. The edges of her vision grew dimmer. All the sounds around them faded away. Cal swayed slightly. Those blue eyes that were looking straight into Vida’s closed as Callie fell backwards. She flopped on the ground and lay very still.

“Stop? What are you going to do if I don’t?” The man said with a slight chuckle as he turned towards Jenna. “I doubt you can do a single thing to stop me.” Taking a hesitant step back as the man took a step towards her, the man chuckled again. “Heh, don’t waste my time. Why don’t you leave while you have the chance? I don’t have time to deal with cowards like you.” Turning around, the man continued towards the fed with an aim to stop the fight before things became ugly.

With the knife in the man’s hand Jenna knew she had to do something quickly. Sure, the federal agent might be able deal with JC on his own but he was going to get hurt if the man attacked him with the knife and then both of the gang members would have the upper hand and that would be troublesome for the whole group. “No.” Jenna said running towards the man. The thought of getting injured or getting killed swarmed her mind but even so, she knew she had to act just like the other have done. “I can’t let you hurt him.”

Pushing the man hard on the back, she was trying to push the man towards the ground as she saw Cal and the federal agent both do but wasn’t faced with the same success as she watched the man stumbled forwards before regaining his balance and turned towards Jenna. Face to face, she looked at the man and wondered if she too could use her power against the man as Vida did. Thinking back to the restaurant when she tried and grabbed the silverware, Jenna wondered if she could replicate the incident and move the knife in a similar fashion. Reaching out with her in the direction of the knife, the woman then balled her hand into a fist and jerked her hand over a few inches.

Nothing

Again she tried to use her power but yet again there was no movement. Trying again but this time with multiple times in a row with both hands switching between opened and closed fists and anything else she could come up with but nothing was happening. She could feel herself panic as she tried and think back to other times an “incident” came up when her power surfaced but couldn’t think of anything that connected the different incidences. She had no idea how to get her power working.

“What’s wrong ya? Havin’ a seizure or something?” The man said with slight confusion.

“Come on, work already.” Jenna mumbled as the man started to approach her. “Oh crap, oh crap, crap.” Jenna said panicking. With her arms crossed over her head and eyes squeezed shut, Jenna ducked down with the anticipation of the knife hitting her. However she was surprised when she her the man yell out in pain and the sound of the knife falling towards the ground. With her hands still up to protect her face she slowly opened her eyes and looked at the man. He was clutching his ear and could see that he was bleeding. Knowing that she couldn’t waste any time to figure out what happened, she dived down for the knife. She wasn’t exactly sure how she would use it but it would give her the slight advantage, or at least she hoped.

~.~

“What the…” The man mumbled in confusion as he gaze drifted from the old man to the woman as she lifted a pipe. He wasn’t too concerned about the woman having a weapon. With a gun she didn’t stand a chance against him when he had a gun. However the sudden appearance of frost on the pipe, especially in the middle of May, seemed unbelievable. Thinking that it was nothing more than him imagining things, the man looked again at the pipe and the frost he thought he imagined was still there. “H-how did you do that?” The man said with disbelief as he pointed the gun towards the woman. “You better tell me right now what is going on or I’ll...” The man started to say before a cloud of pain collided with him.

He wasn’t exactly sure how much time passed as the man slowly opened his eyes but it couldn’t have been long. Still disoriented, the man could see that the old man was now on the ground. Still in a painful daze, the man slowly pulled the gun up towards the old man. He knew there was something he was forgetting but in the condition he was in at that moment, he couldn’t remember what it was.

~.~

“Monsters. Demon possessed monster.” The man said with a hint of fear in his voice. A sudden sharp cry of pain made the man look towards the other man with the gun. The old man was crumpled on the ground and appeared to somehow hurt his comrade while ice was growing on the female’s pipe. “The whole lot of you are monsters.” The man said babbling as he attempted to make a cross as is often seen with the catholic community. He wasn’t a religious man but that was the only explanation of what was happening besides drugged out of his mind and he knew quite well that he didn’t touch any form of substance that day. “D-demon possessed freaks.”

Although the “pretty lady” did come with the others, she wasn’t exactly like the others. There wasn’t any sign of any freakish activity coming from her. Maybe she would be able to stop the monster. “Y-yes, listen to her. You don’t want to do this.” The man said as he glanced towards the lady but instead of getting an agreement he saw her collapse. He only hoped that somehow the monster would listen to the lady.

~.~

Undisclosed Location

“Are they finished?”

“Hold your horses. Things like this takes time, patience and most of all it takes silence so quit your nagging or I’ll make you wait outside.”

“Fine.” Cameron huffed in annoyance as he watched the man work.

“You know, why don’t you wait in the corner over there or better yet wait in the other room. You X-men wackos give me the creep and I have enough to worry about making sure that your computer-brained wench doesn’t get her hands on any of this.” The man said pausing from his work just enough to point towards the chair that was in the furthest point in the room from him before continuing his work.

“First of all that woman…”

“Go. Leave me be right now or I will stop and let you deal with the mess you created on your own. I signed up to cover the tracks of the first batch of wannabe freaks but now you’ve replaced them all and you want me to do all of this with very little time to work. You're lucky I’m still here so go now while I still have my patience.”

“Just remember, this isn’t for nothing. I will deal with my end of the bargain for you after you are done.”

“Yes, yes you will. However speaking of bargains, you’ve changed your end of things so I think I should have the liberties to do so as well. I have another job I want you to complete. Deandre over there has a file for you with all the information you need. Although your powers are necessary for this, you’ll need some assistance for this one so make sure you take along one of your guys or better yet a few of your new freaks. Who knows, it might be interesting to see what they can do.”

May 5, 2014.
“Yes Dr. Miller. Yes, that’s right. I don’t know how to explain the symptoms other than miraculous.” Tom only heard one side of the conversation. “Yes, he’s perfectly fine now. His resting heart rate is back to normal levels, the only change I found is in the DNA sequence. But I don’t understand what it means..”
Melanie paced the room chewing on a pencil, her long hair pulled back in a ponytail and her glasses resting on the tip of her nose. Tom smiled. His sister, even when nerdy, still managed to look adorable. He dressed back into a pair of sweats and went back to the treadmill to perform his 3rd stress test of the day. The first two had been somewhat uneventful. He had no doubt that She had his best intentions in mind, but this was getting tiresome and they’d only been at it a day. His mind was still hazy as to what had occurred. His memory of the events was returning in flashes. He found himself staring off into space and letting his mind wander, as his sister ramped the treadmill up from her tablet.

“Dr. Miller says that something triggered what you did, but we’re not sure what. We have to keep running tests…”

present

Tom assessed his situation within a heartbeat, And looking up, JC would have seen his pupils dilate, retract, dilate again and finally narrow to near pinpoints. Tom felt a surge in his muscles, using the energy to bash JC’s wrist against the ground, while blocking the hit from the youth’s free hand. The gang leader let out a howl of pain as the bones in his hand smashed into the pavement under the combined weight of the gun, and Tom’s arm. Tom then squeezed his wrist, pinching nerves and bones alike, forcing the hand to open. Several broke under the strain. Tom rolled onto his back, pivoting off of his hip and shifting his legs and weight to put JC into an arm-bar restraint. He was completely focused on his quarry, though he was vaguely aware of the screams of the one assailant, the taunting of the knife wielder and the other man, who had fired off a couple of wild rounds as he fell in pain. One of those rounds ricocheted off the pavement and grazed Tom’s thigh.

“Enough!” he bellowed, striking JC with an elbow, breaking his nose and drawing out a thick stream of blood. He pulled again, removing the man’s shoulder from his socket, and taking advantage of the pain and disorientation he pulled the young man to his feet, and slipped his neck between his bicep and forearm. He held him and backed against the chain link, looking at the scene in front of him.

“Everyone stands down, or I snap his chicken-shit little neck!” he said. His eyes burned fire as he looked at the remainder of the assailants. He had little time. The gunfire would draw police interference, something Tom did not want. “Do it!” He yelled again, ”now…”

Cal felt a pleasant warmth blanketing her. It reminded her of the lazy summer days spent sleeping in Grandpa’s hammock. Next she heard a cacophony of otherworldly voices. She opened her eyes and a long drawn soundless scream escaped her lips. She was hovering hundreds of feet above the rundown puddle filled alley. Was she dead? Callie reminded herself to be rationale. Of course she wasn’t dead or she wouldn’t be thinking. Still her worried blue eyes searched the area and her heart stopped. Lying on the ground was her body. Oh god! She must really be dead.

But how? Why? Surely a hard bump on the head wasn’t enough to kill someone, was it?

She heard more yelling as the man tried continued fighting off the possessed Vida. His eyes were literally bulging as he clutched the clothed part of the she devil’s arm with both hands. He kept his arms as straight as possible to keep the cursed hand away from his face. A garbled mix of English and Italian tumbled out of his mouth as his poor brain tried to accept the stark reality. The scene was like something out of the movie The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Christ! When Father spoke of spiritual warfare he never imagined he would come face to face with one of Satan's minion in the flesh.

Cal attempted to reach for Vida even though she knew deep down that it was futile. To her utter amazement she found herself standing behind young woman. She tapped Vida’s shoulder gently but an angry howl shattered her concentration. Turning to the source Cal saw the fed wrap his beefy hands round JC’s neck. Her stomach churned so badly that she forced herself to stare at hairline crack running parallel to the tips of her shoes. Don't think about it! She repeated the same phrase over and over again in her mind. Her fists clenched and a determined look flashed across her usually kind face as she jerked her head up.

“Please Vida stop!” She screamed as she wrapped her spectral arms round person in front of her.

Like a ghost her entire body phased through Vida. Callie gasped as she felt herself pulled towards her still form. Everything went blank the moment her translucent hand passed through her clammy skin. Pain engulfed Cal and the woman screamed as her eyes shot open. The after effects of her first ever out-of-body experience left the Wright woman feeling severely queasy, but somehow she was able to remember being incredibly frightened by the out-of-control fed. Cal sat up and pointed a shaky finger towards Tom. She fought to keep the remains of her greasy bacon and eggs down when she saw his huge muscular hands wrapped around the throat.

“Vi-vi-VIDA! Stop him!” She screeched.

Sam chewed on her lip in the uncomfortable silence which followed her elaboration on the inconveniences her ability brought with it. She had done it again; had given away too much information. This always happened. She would let someone in and they would discover that they didn't like what they saw.

"Forget it." She mumbled, turning away. "It's not important."

She busied herself with a nearby dumpster, though whether it was out of legitimate interest or as a means to force a subject change was unclear. Sam never found much interest in criminal activity or methodology, but from the collection of discarded electronics within, she suspected it to be one of many dump-sites that the more organized thugs in the city might have used when ditching their "burner" phones.

"What a waste." She said softly. Before she could think better of it, she plucked one off the top of the pile. She dropped it instantly, clutching her hand to her chest, as if to shield it. "Whoops. Almost forgot."

She turned back to Christian. "These phones all have one thing in common. They're all low-tech, pre-paid models. No GPS, no internet...nothing. I'll just bet they all have just one or two calls in their history. Crooks use them to make deals, sometimes. I...uh...read about it."

"Better leave this stuff alone. If they are burners, the deals their owners made would have to be pretty serious, just to cover the cost of their gear. We're not looking at common hoods here."

She hopped down to the alley floor and trudged over to Christian. Just touching that phone had made her edgy, almost excited. She hadn't given herself the time to absorb any more than the most basic information, but it was enough to make her want more. Leaving them was like turning her back on her most basic instinct.

"Come on," she insisted, grabbing Christian's hand. "Let's bail before anyone sees us."

That sentiment would have helped them quite a bit more, had it crossed her mind minutes earlier. She could not know that their movements had already been observed.

Vida seemed disinterested in the woman now. She appeared to only be a passed fancy and since she was now unconscious there was no reason to pay her any mind. Vida turned her attention back to the gang member that was still very much awake in front of her.

“Now, now. Pretty lady has gone to sleep. She won’t hear you screaming louder and louder.”

She tilted her head to the side with an innocent looking smile that did not fit the words that she had just said. She could not help but stare into the man’s eyes as he looked at her with terror.

“Now. Where was I? Oh!” She poked the man’s arm with a giggle that made the man flinch away from her. “Screaming, screaming!” She was just about to enjoy herself even more when Cal regained consciousness.

“Vi-vi-VIDA! Stop him!” Cal screeched.

Vida stopped her poking of the man and looked at Cal.

“Stop who Pretty Lady?” She said confused and showing a little more annoyance than she probably should have. She looked to the people that were around her now. There were more people then she could care to remember. The one that stood out was the bigger guy from earlier. He was yelling about something and threatening to kill someone. She couldn’t help but smile.

Turning her attention back to Cal she motioned to Tom. “Stop Muscle Man is what Pretty Lady wants?” Vida sighed as if annoyed but her facial expression showed she was not. “Alright, alright, but first.” She looked at the man that was trying to get away from them now. “Stay, stay!” Vida reached out with both of her hands and grabbed onto the man’s legs. Thankfully fashion sense said that people should have holes in their pants now as she was able to touch the skin on his legs. The man reared and screamed as she held on through him striking her to get away. The struggle didn’t last long as the man went unconscious from the pain. “Good boy~!”

Standing up Vida walked over to where Tom was. She now looked worse for wear as her cheek was starting to swell from the hit she had received and her hands looked like she was a victim of leprosy. “Muscle Man, Pretty Lady doesn't want him to die, die.” A giggle escaped her lips before she could catch it. “Stop, stop or I will touch you!” She held her hands up that were decayed. She was actually missing half of one finger by now. Still… she was smiling.