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Penguin“Guys, I can’t believe it. I seriously can’t believe it. Sure, I could see Cameron doing it and quite a few others. But seriously, him.” Tia said furiously as she walked into the briefing room of their old headquarters. Headquarters seemed strangely off with even fewer than essential personals required to run the place there. “Seriously, if I see that backstabbing coward again, all hell is going to break loose. I’m going to…going to…GAH! I’m so pissed I don’t even know what I’ll do.” Tia said as she slammed her fist down onto the table before wincing at the pain.
“Hey Rookie, why don’t you calm down and tell us why you’ve called all of us down here.” A man said calmly as he leaned back in his seat. He was used to Tia’s outburst and truth be told, he liked pushing her buttons at times to get a reaction from her.
“First of all, aren’t we a couple years overdue in calling me a Rookie. Second of all, how can I be calm when there’s going to be a whole new batch of Supers who are actually going to be at rookie status.” Tia said snapping back before turning her attention towards the holographic projector at the center of the table. “And whoever has their phone on mute better turn their phone off like I asked because I’m in no mood in having my briefing interrupted by your raunchy texts from your lover. By the way, you better tell her that tomorrow won’t work. We’re all going to be too busy.”
“Okay, enough Tia. Can you tell us what you’ve found?” Carter asked looking at Tia before looking at the others at the table. He was glad to see that Aaron and Annie both made it the night before and although not a Super, Richard was a reliable man. As he watched with a slight amusement as Richard quickly tried to turn his phone off, he wished that there were more there in the briefing room even though he knew he couldn’t. The Gen Alphas were out of the question due different reasons for each Super and having Pearson there would turn out problematic. He was hoping that either Mike or Caleb would have been able to make it but the team would just have to do without.
“You know how I’ve been saying that the security system at the lab has been tampered with and whoever erased everything during the time of the break in knew exactly who they were dealing with? I was correct. Not only they removed the evidence, they destroyed whatever caused the memory swipe so that I wouldn’t be able to track down the source. They even swipe the memory or disabled the cameras from a five mile radius so that I wouldn’t be able to track where the perps went or who they were. They were careful. However, I’m even better.”
“Hey now, don’t get cocky. Emotions like those leave a bad taste in my mouth and unlike you I can’t turn my abilities off.” Ben said, interrupting the woman.
“However, I know I’m better than whatever computer whiz they hired on because they were sloppy. You see, the facial reorganization program is a beautiful thing and running that on every single person that even had an ounce to do with the S Project reviled quite a few people in a fifteen mile radius between an hour before and after the break in. Only five went through the dead zone who weren’t working at the lab that day and only one of them I’ve seen leave the dead zone without ever entering it. Dr. Backstabbing Wilson was in a bus crash about ten miles away from the lab.” Tia said as she brought up a picture of a map with the lab and the bus crash highlighted without touching any of the buttons required to control the screen. With a flick of her hand, Tia brought up a surveillance video of the crash and paused it as Dr. Wilson got off the bus and zoomed in on the man as she pulled her thumb and pointer finger apart as a person would do to zoom in on a smartphone. “What’s even more interesting is that someone pulled the surveillance tape off the bus and has requested the names of those on the bus. Someone’s using the TSP’s name to get the information and I have a good idea who it is.”
“So let me get this straight, you believe that Dr.Wilson administered one of the vials on the bus?” Aaron asked with a raised eyebrow. “Dr. Wilson, even Cameron knows not to get civilians involved in this. Civilians bring nothing but trouble when it comes to the Sierra Project. Why would they be doing this?”
“Hey, I don’t know. I’m just giving you guys the facts. A bus crash happens and Wilson suddenly pops out of thin air. He must have gotten on in the dead zone because I followed the bus route back to the beginning and I never found a trace of him before the crash, even of him entering the dead zone. Now someone with a TSP badge has taken a list of those involved in the crash and I doubt it’s one of us nor Pearson and his gang of idiots…”
“However I think me and my idiots will be getting a list now.” A voice said interrupting Tia as a man followed by two armed guards entered the room.
“Oh...um, it’s nice seeing you again Pearson.” Tia said, breaking the silence that followed Pearson entering the room.
“Mr. Lee Carter, if I’m not mistaken the Sierra Project is still out of commission so can you explain to me why you and your team is here?” The hardened man late in his fifties, if not early sixties said as he ignored Tia’s greeting.
“Listen Pearson, do not take this out on my team. I requested them to come here under my orders so…”
“I don’t care, they are here now. Not only that, I’ve picked up news that three of the vials are missing. Am I understanding this right Lee, we’re going to be having untrained, civilian Supers running around and from what I caught from Tia, we don’t even know who these Supers are?”
“I’m afraid that is what it looks like Mr. Pearson.” Carter said respectfully. He knew that this day would come, however he wished that Person wouldn’t have arrived so soon so things wouldn’t have to be so complicated.
“There’s a reason the vials should have been destroyed Lee.” Pearson said shaking his head.
“Yes sir, but…” Carter started to say before Pearson raised his hand towards Carter to silence him.
“Tia, I want you to track down each and every name on that list and find out everything you can about each person and those who potentially could have turned into a Super. Aaron and Ben, the two of you are going out and will try to find all these potential Supers by using Ben’s power. There will be no contact with these Supers or there will be severe consequences. Do you all understand?” Pearson asked looking at each person as he waited for each of them to respond. “You have thirty-six hours to find all of them, do you understand? My tactile team will be arriving in forty-eight hours to be briefed on all the Supers so that they can prepare to retrieve them. Carter, do not screw this opportunity up.”
As the man and his guards left, Ben looked around the table with a similar expression of disbelief. “Wow, and I thought Rookie was the moody one.”
“Any progress?” Cameron asked looking between the three Supers who materialized in his in his hotel room. Days have already passed since the list of those who were on the bus was given to Josiah and Daniel and they were still busy finding each person. Things were going way too slowly for his taste and had a sinking feeling that those at the TSP might have caught wind of what was going on. He only hoped that if they so, he and the others were several steps ahead of them. However he was glad to see that Garret arrived with Daniel and Josiah this time, it would make bringing in the new Supers much easier once they reached that phase.
“We’d have more progress if it wasn’t for the fact that Daniel can’t handle it when I jump across town.” The man standing between the other two said as he released his grip on the other two.
“That only happened once Josiah. And not only that…”
“I don’t care. You’ve ruin my nice jacket, my new leather jacket that you will replace.” Josiah said interrupting Daniel with a hint of annoyance as he sat down in one of the living room chairs. “Anyways, from those we’ve found we’ve found a few Supers. We haven’t been able to track everyone down yet and quite honestly it’s hard to do so without Tia’s aid. Seriously, why don’t I go see if I can convince her to leave the mountains and help us out? Unlike the rest of you guys, she’ll actually listen to me and once she hears about the situation we’re in, there’s no doubt she’ll help us out. Or better yet, she trusts Dr. Wilson. If I bring him along we’d be back on no time since I’ve been to her house before and will be able to jump there and back. “
“No, we can’t have her involved. With everything we have planned, we cannot someone so close to Carter here. All of our plans and everything we worked for would be futile if him and the others at the TSP found out. Besides, she would be one of the first from Gen Bravo that they would bring in. By now she’s probably out trying to investigate what happened at the lab and where the vials are.” Thinking back to that day, Cameron hoped that the bus crash didn’t screw their plans up. They had everything planned to keep Dr. Wilson invisible to Tia’s eyes but the crash threw everything off course. Even though Dr. Wilson told him that he kept his head down and avoided being spotted by any cameras, Cameron was concerned on how cautious the doctor was.
“Since one of the vials were already wasted on a busload of civilians and the TSP are probably out trying to find the vials, why don’t we let them handle the civilians. Maybe they’ll think all three of the vials were administered and they’ll be off our back and too busy babysitting the civilians.” Garret asked, sitting across from Josiah. “Seriously, it’ll save time and the distraction will help us out.”
“Sure, it’ll help us out now but what about in the long run?” Daniel asked looking at Garret with a raised eyebrow. “Not only will we have to deal with Pearson and his G.I. Joe wannabes as well and Carter and his team, we’d have a whole new group of Supers in that mix. To keep our plans afloat, we’ll have to execute our plans earlier and modify what we were going to do.”
“However, that will be detrimental to the impact factor that we are striving for and we need the impact factor for our plan to work.” Cameron said as he took charge of the conversation. “Our plans might be set back due to the civilians and cause it to be more difficult. But who knows, they might become good allies and comrades down the road. Although the Gen. Charlie didn’t turn out to be who we wanted them to be, maybe we can train them to be what we want them to be. It will be beneficial to them since they’ll be able to learn about what happened to them and find out the whole ordeal between us and Carter without being told half-truths and oppressed by Pearson. Along with that, with enough training they’ll be able to aid in our cause just like those we chosen to be Gen. Charlie. The civilians don’t need to be babysat like you said Garret, we won’t make the same mistakes that happened in the past with the other civilians. We’re more capable than all the procedures, ranks and other crap the TSP tried to shove at us, we won’t make the same mistakes.”
“Alright, so yes on the civilians.” Josiah said with a slight shake of his head. He knew that a problem would arise in the future when the news had to be told to the Gen. Charlie candidates that they were unable to become a Super because an untrained group stole their spot. He only hoped that he wouldn’t have to be the chosen scapegoat that will have to deal with them. “So, do you have a plan on how we’re going to round them all up? You’re wanting to round them all up about the same time so that the TSP won’t have much time to respond so I’m guessing I’m going to be one your main guys on this job by jumping people all over the place.”
“Yes, you’re going to be teleporting them to us and Garret and Dr. Wilson will handle the rest while Daniel stands as lookout. However, we still have a few loose strings we need to fix up, especially with you and Daniel. Daniel, we need to have all the Supers tracked down and figure out all we can about them so that Josiah can memorize all the jump locations the Supers will be at because we won’t have time to drive around like we did with Garret. Things will have to move smoothly and with as few mistakes as possible. While the two of you are working on that, Garret I want you to go with Dr. Wilson and help him in his preparations for the new Supers. We have a lot to do to prepare for our new guests so let’s not waste any time.”
“Hey, I’d like to return my phone.”
“What is the problem?” A worker at the cellphone company asked as he accepted Jenna’s cellphone as she passed it to him.
“Well you see, my old phone broke because of an auto accident I was in so I got a new one yesterday. I charged the phone and all like I was supposed to and once it was fully charged I tried to turn the phone on. However, the screen lit up very brightly and then suddenly turned off. I’m not exactly sure what happened. I even tried to turn it on again and a few other things but nothing worked.” Deciding not to tell the man about a similar incident occurring with her TV that morning, Jenna looked at the man hoping that she could get a new phone. She desperately needed it. Especially since she was supposed to get a phone call sometime soon about potentially receiving the job she interview for at a local school.
“Well, that is quite strange.” The man said as he tried to turn the phone on. After a few seconds of seeing noting more than a black screen the man spoke again. “Let me see if I can find a replacement battery or something in the back. Maybe you received a bad battery.”
“Hopefully that’s the only problem.” Jenna said under her breath as she waited for the man to return. Ever since she’s been having technical issues with nearly every computer based electronics, she’s noticed that that wasn’t the only thing that has changed. Similar to the knife incident that happened on Sunday, she noticed a few other similar incidences during the past few days. With no one in her general vicinity, Jenna decided to see if she could cause one of those incidences again. In the back of her mind she knew she sounded like a crazy person, which was one reason she hasn’t told Emma. She felt bad, almost guilt about not telling her closest friend in whom she shared everything with but decided that it was best not to do so.
Eyeing a paperclip across the counter, Jenna wondered if she could move it just as she unintentionally moved her keys the night before without touching them. However as she stared at the paperclip and tried to will it to move with her mind, she wondered if she was doing it right. In the few superhero movies she halfheartedly watched with a few of her exes in the past, the heroes didn’t seem to have a problem using their powers, it just seem to magically come to them without too much trouble. However, here she was struggling at moving a simple paperclip a foot away from her.
After staring at the paperclip for a few seconds followed by her moving her hands in a non-conspicuous way to try to get the paperclip to move, Jenna shook her head slowly realizing how crazy she was acting. People didn’t have powers in real life, it’s all a work of fiction. Everything that has happened was just by pure coincidence and getting knocked in the head a little too hard on the bus probably made her think that the coincidences that have been happening were something else.
“Wow, I’m such an idiot.” Jenna mumbled as she rubbed her face before dropping her hand on the counter. Looking back at the paperclip as she waited for the man to return, Jenna could feel her jaw drop as she saw that the paperclip was hovering inches above the countertop. “I must have hit my head much harder than I thought.” Jenna said as she tried to blink what she imagined away before resuming her gaze at the paperclip. However just as before, the paperclip was floating in the air as it bobbed up and down as if it was riding on top of a body of water.
A wave of panic filled Jenna as she looked at the paperclip and stumbled back a few steps. However in the process of doing so, the paperclip dropped and fell back on top of the counter with a small clank.
“Ma’am, are you okay?” A voice said as the man returned.
“I…I don’t know.” Jenna said as she turned her gaze towards the man saw a look of concern. “I’m sorry… I-I gotta go.” Jenna abruptly said before turning around and headed out of the store, not waiting to hear about what happened to her phone. A million questions were crossing her mind as she walked down the street as she tried to figure out what was happening. She knew she was freaking out about the situation as she tried to figure out if what she was real or a figment of her imagination. Or maybe it was due to the accident and she needed to get it checked out to make sure there wasn’t something serious going on causing her to hallucinate.
Once she returned home, Jenna locked the door behind her, something she normally didn’t do in case Emma decided to show up. Sliding down against the door until she sat on the ground, Jenna took a good look at her hands. Besides her hands trembling, there was nothing out of the ordinary with her hands that she could see. “What is going on?” Jenna said, panic still in her voice. “This can’t be real, this all has to be a hallucination or maybe a dream. Things like this doesn’t happen in real life, it can't happen.”
