In recent days, a seemingly random group of individuals has emerged with what can only be described as “special” abilities. Although unaware of it now, these individuals will not only save the world, but change it forever. This transformation from ordinary to extraordinary will not occur overnight.

VOLUME 1: CHRYSALIS

Chapter 1: “Children of the Helix”

“Where does it come from—this quest, this need to solve life's mysteries when the simplest of questions can never be answered? Why are we here?
What is the soul? Why do we dream? Perhaps we'd be better off not looking at all. Not delving, not yearning. But that's not human nature. Not the human heart. That is not why we are here. This quest, this need to solve life's mysteries—in the end, what does it matter when the human heart can only find meaning in the smallest of moments? They're here—among us. In the shadows, in the light, everywhere. Do they even know yet?”

It was crazy where how quickly the Greystone Company had become so prominent all over the world. Seemingly out of nowhere, this little tech company has overtaken Apple and Microsoft as the leading light in all things technological. Their double helix on a stone cliff logo was plastered all over billboards, clothing and had been incorporated into graffiti tags. Staring at the logo tagged onto the Fire House 15 wall was Dominic Rhodes. Dom had just finished his shift at the fire station, it was now early morning and it had been a long night in Cardiff. A serious of fires had rocked most of the waterfront, the police would normally call this a spree arsonist but Dominic was getting a different feeling. None of the fires had any kind of immediate explanation, electrics in each building was fine, no gas leaks, nothing jumped out to explain what was going on.



For just over three months, Dom had been learning more and more about himself than he ever thought he could know. He glanced down at his wrist and watched the veins beneath his watch glow with a light orange hue. He had been practicing alone on the farm, learning about this new skill or at least that’s what he’s calling it for now. The orange glow meant his skin had hardened or the density had increased or something along those lines. When the veins turned blue that meant he could phase? He didn’t know what to call it but he could walk through walls! A few years back people with strange abilities began to pop up all over the world but that didn’t last. The EVO’s as they came to be known were hunted down and either killed or captured.

Dom couldn’t lie, the discovery of his “abilities” had been somewhat beneficial. When they first appeared they had saved his and a little girls life. Since then he has been able to use his powers at work, getting to trapped victims in places unreachable otherwise. Still, the awakening of his abilities has also given Dom a strange foresight. He cannot shake the feeling something bad is coming. Something terrible. It has also left him paranoid. Constant phone calls from a man named Suresh and the idea that anything unexplained could be because of someone like him; like this rash of fires. The world and life itself was changing around him and Dom didn’t know what to do. Maybe it was time for him to finally call that Suresh guy back; perhaps he did have answers to his questions. Besides, he did have some time off to take and a trip to New York might just be what the doctor ordered. Getting up from the wooden box where had been sitting for a little while to gather his thoughts, Dom took to the alley behind the station. A short cut to the train station to take him back to the farm was the plan now. He had a date with a pretty girl.

About two miles away from the bustling welsh city sat the Rhodes farm. It no longer operated but back in its day it was well known for its produce. Now with his parents having emigrated to Australia, Dom was the sole owner and occupant of the place. Dropping is keys onto the coffee table, Dom didn’t have a whole lot of time to get ready; he had to hurry. As he ran up the stairs, Dominic didn’t notice the smoke flowing down from the chimney and into his old wooden living room. The dark cinder soon moved into the room and began to rise from the ground, taking a strong solid shape before a flickered ember rushed throughout the black. In place of the smoke stood a woman in a pencil skirt and black blouse. She took some glasses from her handbag and wiped them with her sleeve, glancing at the stairs as she did.



“I’m in”

Ashley had fallen asleep on her sofa, again. It'd become a habit ever since the incident outside her night club, and she'd genuinely forgotten what her apartment looked like before she'd potentially murdered someone. Comics, newspapers, print-outs, and books were scattered across the whole studio, and Ashley had read only a third of them completely. The latest items of interest for Ashley were newspapers, she'd made sure to get a newspaper every single day, and had read each one thoroughly until there was not a single word that she was not aware of. She was always hunting two words in big capital lettering, nightclub and murder. She never had a day where she wasn't waiting for a police officer to knock on her door, or her phone to ring from an unknown number. Honestly, it was surprising that she'd yet to receive or find any information regarding investigation into the murder and she wouldn't dare to try and communicate with any of her colleagues, in case somehow that dead man's body vanished from that alleyway before it could be found. Of course, that idea was impractical, but Ashley couldn't help these irrational thoughts that had flooded her mind for the days after the incident.

What came under the newspapers were books and comics, a mixture of fiction and non-fiction. Ever since a knife had put itself into its own user's back, Ashley couldn't help but feel responsible. Research didn't provide her with much revelation, though it did suggest that she attempt to recreate what had occurred. Another murder wasn't something Ashley was entirely comfortable with committing, if she was even the culprit, so instead she'd merely attempted to move a cup at one end of the bar to another end. For a few days, she spent hours staring at glass. Her perseverance finally paid off though, when suddenly the cup was shattered glass at the foot of the fridge instead of resting happily, preserved, on the counter. She searched the internet afterwards, desperate to find a specific name for what she was doing - but all she could really label it as was "Teleportation", which still sounded unusual, to say that she possessed the ability to teleport and also that that was what she could do. The day after she'd found this name for her "power", she attempted to teleport herself, as she could recollect that she did something similar that night also. It was quite successful, though she nearly ended up head butting a wall in the process.

Due to her investigations into the incident at the nightclub, and her newly discovered power she'd not spent much time socialising, or paying attention to the developing city that surrounded her abode. She was sure that a couple had moved in across the hall from her, though they'd never bumped into each other and Ashley was too on edge to really welcome them without looking suspicious. Therefore, Ashley had become her own personal superhero, exploiting her own power in privacy to benefit herself. Why walk to the fridge to get food when you can just suddenly be there? Why then walk back to the sofa with that food when you can just be sat back down in a matter of one movement? Her overexertion of her power did result in her feeling nauseous frequently, and so she'd started to take a lot of medication but she had decided her power left her susceptible to some variant of motion sickness. Her life had suddenly changed from a bartending socialite to a hermit, and strangely it hadn't phased her. She hadn't been bothered, no one had really tried to ring her, besides the conversations with her parents where she'd tried her best to sound calm and busy. But there had been no real interruption in her life, but this morning when she had woken up on the couch in her living room, it took her a few minutes to really process what had actually woken her up, and it was a very loud impatient banging on the door.