Alex glanced at Sasha, surprised and a bit bewildered. She had struck him as the quiet type, but now she was babbling on and on like nobody's business.

"Um... I honestly don't know. This shirt is pretty thick, and..."

Glancing down, Alex saw that the taser had burned a clean hole the size of a dime through his shirt, unusually precise for a taser. It was then he saw the pendant.

It was a small gold ball on a chain around his neck. He took it off and saw that there was a hole in the ball where the taser had hit it. He realized that the pendant had stopped the worst of the blow, and the shockwave had knocked him of his feet. 

"But where did it come from?" He wondered aloud. "Am I the only one with a pendant? Or do the others have one under their shirts too?

Even though the pendant had stopped the taser to his chest, the hit to his leg hadn't been blocked, and he suddenly realized how painful it was. With a gasp, Alex collapsed unconscious to the floor.