Vida could not help but jump when the unknown man that called himself a Federal Agent touched her shoulder. What was she doing? Oh yeah, someone had stole one of their cards. She trialed after the man until they had the boy cornered in an alley. At this time she was able to get a closer look at the Fed man. He did not look to be with the pick-pocket so she decided not to worry too much with him. Her attention turned to the boy that was now bagging on a door to get in.

When the door opened Vida took a half of a step back before she noticed Jenna. So there was three of them. She quickly looked between the two and immediately decided that they were all going to die in this alley way. She had to hold back a sigh. It was a strange reaction for her. Normally she would be on the verge of peeing her pants. This whole situation did not seem real anymore though, it felt like she was watching a CSI show.

CSI: Genetic Wars. Or CSI: Bio Soldiers.

When the man started talking from the door Vida snapped back into reality. This was no time to be thinking about the next TV show she would watch in her head later. The man’s argument sounded convincing, but the fact remained that the card did not belong to them. She also listened to Jenna. Sure they could go back and tell the two that brought them here that they allowed themselves to get pick-pocketed, and now they needed more money so that they could go shopping. Vida tensed up at the thoughts. She was more scared of telling them then she was of the threat in front of them.

“Now, now.” She finally said. She pulled the sleeves of her jacket up to her elbows then raised her hands. “We don’t want any trouble and won’t even report you.” She said glancing to the Fed man that had followed them. “And this guy can’t do anything unless he has proof the card was stolen and not…. Um just… you know picked up after it was dropped. I mean we don’t know if the guy was going to turn it in or something.”

“Yes! I’m not stuttering too much!” She celebrated a silent victory in her head.

Vida stepped in front of the man that was helping them. If anyone was going to get shot or stabbed it might as well be her, she figured. She had not died from a bullet wound yet. Nervousness crept on her face as she started to slowly walk towards the man at the door. “If he would just hand over the card we will be on our way. No harm, no foul.” She hoped to anything with a higher power that if they did decide to grab her they touched her skin, freak out, and run away.

Ester watched as the man at the door was joined by three others. 'oh christ almighty do not tell me he's part of a gang.'[i/] Ester thought anxiously, hoping that the building the kid ran into wasn't full of dangerous crooks. She rubbed her hands, hoping that her current anxiousness and slight fright would cause her powers to go on the fritz. Ester listened in to what Jenna had to say, then looked at the 3 other men at the door the thief ran into. [i] 'What if we have to fight them? Jesus Christ i'm a child psychologist not a combat girl. I just wanted to make a damn phone call! Ester continued in her head.

Finally, she hesitantly spoke out. 'Yeah, We don't mean any trouble or anything!' She added onto Jenna's sentence nervously. She looked at her, then thought of a quick lie. 'And, the cards expired anyways!' She said, hoping that the men wouldn't go and check to make sure. 'Please work, Please work, Oh please let that lie work.' Ester thought, gripping her hands together as she slightly prayed for the situation to lighten. Even though they had a federal agent by them, Est was nervous that a fight could break out.

May 4th, 2014.

Tom lay on the table, trapped in another feverish nightmare. Meanwhile Melanie fussed over him; drawing blood samples and infusing him with IV fluids. She was a little nervous herself. As his sister, she was fraught with worry: Her brother had just performed a feat of preternatural strength and speed, and then collapsed on the ground after saving the lives of 4 people. As a scientist she was completely engrossed in fascination. Her brother had just performed a feat of preternatural strength and speed. She struggled to balance the two as she brought him back to her lab. DARPA had bought out several buildings and modified them into research and development centers out in the Meatpacking district. Few people ever came here anymore that weren't looking for some sort of illicit activity, so it was the perfect front.
His blood work came back negative for any traces of foreign substance. Unsurprising, she wasn't expecting him to be doping. So she took a sample and ran it through a DNA sequencing unit. She ran it for comparative analysis against a sample she previously had on file. Thanks to her research she had access to cutting edge tech, and the process would identify anomalies and changes in the DNA strands within a matter of hours. In the meanwhile, She monitored his vitals, fretting over her big brother.

Present Day:
Tom smiled at the reactions of the others. For people with the gifts they’d been given, they understood nothing about them. Not that he understood much more, but at least he knew they were different. These street punks should be no match for one skilled fighter. He sidestepped the girl who put herself in front of him, touching the small of her back and leaning in to whisper in her ear.
“Stay behind me. This is my job” He smiled at the platitudes that the girls offered, and his cop instinct told him that even now it was too late to walk away. As the other men stepped out and joined them in the alleyway, Tom produced a pair of finger-less gloves from his pocket, and removed his suit jacket, tossing it on the top of a dumpster. Now exposed was an under the shoulder holster carrying a Smith and Wesson .40 pistol. It wasn't loaded, but no one needed to know that. “Now, the lady here is wrong about a couple of things. See, I gave a direct command based on probable cause to your young friend there. And he ran. He is now chargeable for resisting arrest and evasion of a federal agent. That’s a pretty serious crime. As for you, you’re obstructing the course of an investigation.” He slid the gloves onto his left and right hands slowly, as he talked in calm, even tones. “Now, let’s make this really easy on everyone. Turn the card back over to the young lady and everyone gets to walk away no harm, no foul.”

he stepped into the middle of the alley way, a cocky grin on his face. He loved when assholes didn't listen.

"I'm fine," Sam lied automatically. Most folks gave away their true emotional state by the natural modulations of their voices; fear could make the voice smaller, quieter, or anger might cause a growling effect or more forceful annunciation. This was not always true of Samantha Cole. What gave away her lie was the flatness of her tone. It was devoid of emotional effectors or influence. As she picked her way through the aging ruins of some of the older, abandoned buildings, she was inwardly curious about that tendency in her.

Samantha Cole displays a recurring reliance on emotional detachment and depersonalization disorder. Her file had said. The recurrence of such events is not wholly unexpected, and may be intentional in some cases. If it were true, this certainly was one case in which Sam wished she could choose to detach.

This area had clearly been used as a dump site after its shutdown by the city. Discarded electronics littered the streets, haphazardly thrown toward dumpsters which had not had pick-up service for what looked like months. The openings spilled over with refuse, and the cornucopia of unwanted items produced an unpredictable range of odors; some of the trash had been decomposing for so long that it no longer produced a smell. Sam zeroed in on a small pile which looked like it might contain mostly abandoned electronics and set to work sorting them into small piles.

"Watch your step," Sam muttered absently. "You don't want to fall here."

"I'm fine," the words echoed through the darkness, flat and empty. The kind of response a computer might display after a virus check. It was the sort of response that anyone who truly was fine never gave. The kind that built up over years of being asked, years of not being so and refusing to acknowledge it. It was the same sort of response that Christian had given to anyone who'd asked for months after the accident, some might say he was still giving it.

Christian heard Sam's footsteps recede somewhat and a panic rushed through him that caused the pain in his head to recede. He'd gotten here with the help of his "second sight" but that was erratic and irregular and there was no telling if it would come back now or in weeks or if he could ever control it. Without Sam he'd have no way of finding his way back to the others. The best he could do if he lost Sam would be to wander and hope someone from the group found him, his chances with that were close the zero, he needed Sam.

Christian ran his hands over the sidewalk till he found the wall of an old crumbling building. He used it to haul himself to his feet and was nearly overcome with dizziness again as the smell assaulted him. "Sam?" He asked straining his hears to hear any sign of her.

Then a voice came out of the darkness again. "Watch your step," Came the murmur. "You don't want to fall here."

Christian stopped dead. He could feel loose pieces of trash and refuse he thought under his feet. Here would not be a good place to wander.

He gulped in his breath, he'd once sworn to himself he'd never say these words and now in less than three days he'd done it as many times. "Sam, could you help me. I can't find my way."

---

"How many rounds in that do you have clip? Ten? Is it a fifteen round clip?" JC said motioning towards the man's gun. "Are you sure you want to keep that gun out fed? Do you even know who's inside or what firepower they have? I'm surprised that you don't have any backup here and that makes me wonder if you even know who you are dealing with because if you did I have a feeling that you would be approaching this situation differently. It's one armed fed versus all of us. Do you really want to start a firefight here? What's the likely chance that a stray bullet might hit one of those citizens by accident?" The man said with emphasis on the last word. "This is my last warning, leave now or things will go sour." As he stood in the center of the alleyway, JC watched as the other three slowly moved towards the group. As long as they took the fed down they would be fine. Nabbing one of the girls and holding a gun against her would stop the fed in his place if his warning didn't work. It was only a matter of time.

The fed couldn't leave. News about their gang couldn't get out or there would be trouble with the others. They made a mistake about staying.

Ester looked at the gang man. 'I can't believe i'm actually saying this but.' Ester said, 'I really think we should just... go. let's just go!' She said, a nervous smile on her face 'The card is expired, like I said trust me!' she explained to the gang man. Ester was more nervous than ever. She suddenly felt a freezing shiver crawl up through her body.

'Ohhh no...' Ester thought. 'Keeeep Calm. Cool. Stay calm...' Ester repeated in her mind. Just to check if it wasn't a cold draft, Ester let out a slightly lengthy breath into her hand. Looking into her hand, Ester's fear induced hunch was right. She was loosing it. 'Calm.' Ester she thought, taking deep, but quiet breaths. 'It'll go away. Just keeeep calm...' But what ester was scared of was actually fighting a gang of all things. She was scared that she was going to lose control, get herself and her friends into lots of trouble, maybe even get higher authorities involved. Ester crossed her arms, sticking her hands under her armpits like she did when she was 'kidnapped'. 'Conceal... Screw it up and they'll know...'

Callie was the last to arrive. She skidded to a stop at the mouth of the alley. How odd? The rest were just standing there. Sensing it would be in her best interest to remain low-profiled, the woman edged towards the others. She ended up behind Ester and it didn’t take her long to realize they were in deep shit.

She continued staring dumbly and her survival instincts kicked. Even though she appeared calm on the outside, her mind was frantically searching for an answer. She can't figure out why the men were so hostile. There had to be a reason! Clearly, blaming the fed was the last thing on her mind. Not that she hadn't noticed Tom earlier, but nothing clicked.

Noticing Ester hugging herself, the stewardess wrapped her arms round the shivering woman. "Yes. I think it's best we leave."

She hoped the latter was okay, because frankly, the woman didn’t look too good. As Cal unconsciously reached for Ester’s hand, her fingers brushed against something icy cold. The shock made her exclaim loudly as she let go.

Seconds later a shot was fired. Luckily, the bullet zipped pass, but it was enough to startle Callie. C-crap! The man was still aiming at that them and the only source of cover was the huge dumpster way back. There was no telling how many people will be hit by the time they get there.

I must do something…

She felt sick to the stomach, but she refused to be intimidated. Taking a deep breath, she did the only thing she could think of – Cal yelled loudly. “Run!”

Instead of turning around like she hoped the rest were doing, the blonde charged forward while trying to keep as low as possible. Then Callie leaped in front in an attempt to tackle the man. As she fell forward she could have sworn she heard the other two guns go off.

Everything started at once. There was no time to think about what they should have done as a man grabbed Vida. No good. she thought as the man grabbed a hold of the back of her jacket instead of her arm like she had hoped. The man pulled her back to him forcefully almost choking her with the jacket. After a moment of struggling she reached up and unzipped the jacket, now all she had to do was get her arms out. Quickly she ripped one arm out then the other leaving the man with only her jacket as his hostage.

Vida ran a few paces before she stopped and turned around to look at the man that had grabbed her. He seemed slightly confused on what he saw. Looking down she could see the rusty brown color on her shirt, a reminder of the night before. She was still wearing the shirt that she had been shot in. It was shredded in the back from the bullets and completely stained with blood. The man recovered quickly from his confusion and charged at her again. She stepped back from him now wondering if it would have been better to keep running instead of stopping to look back. She barely dodged the man once, but the second time she was caught. He grabbed her arm forcefully she twisted it behind her back in an awkward angle. It felt like her joints were going to pop at any second.

She endured the pain, the man would release her at any second when his skin was turning black. A moment passed.

“Now listen up.” The man said that was holding her. “I’ll shoot this bitch if you guys don’t settle down.” With that said he put a gun to her head and held it their firmly. At this time Vida was able to see the scene that was in front of her. There were more people than, a couple of them had guns and her stupid power was not working for some reason.

“Die… we’re going to die...” Vida started her teeth now chattering. Her confidence from earlier was starting to shatter. “No. No. We can’t die. No there is more. My cats. I need to help them…” She was starting to panic now. Her breathing was more ragged and sweat formed on her face. Oh god she was going to hyperventilate. “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.” She repeated to herself.

“Shut up!” The man with the gun said as he pushed the barrel of the gun harder onto her head.

“I don’t…” “Then simply, my dear, don’t die.”

A voice…

She felt a tingle over her body, her cells seemed to buzz alive. She felt like her skin was going to wiggle its way off her body at any moment. The sensation did not last long before it was completely covered with pain. She screamed in response to the unbearable pain. It felt like someone was pulling her skin off her. Her screams were echoed by the man’s yell as he let go of her. He staggered back from her and looked at his hand and his arm. They were covered in completely black scabs that cracked and bled. His neck were her head had touched was also covered in an identical way.

“What the- Dammit. What did you do to me?” He covered his arm protectively and backed away. “You… you…” He seemed to struggle to find the right words. “Monster!”

Vida had fallen to the ground and was looking at her hands that his touched him. They looked the same as his. She was different now, she had stopped screaming. “Monster.” She said to herself then turned to look at the man with a twisted smile on her face. “Why thank you.”

((double post nonsense. ))

"You made five mistakes" Tom chortled as he insanely slowly removed the pistol from the holster. He put a finger in the trigger guard and twirled it absent mindedly. "First mistake, your boy there took the card, Second mistake, your boy there ran.” He smiled with a halfcocked grin as he drew down on JC the laser sight on his gun painted a target right on the thug’s forehead. He raised his voice. “Third mistake, you came light. three man crew to take me out? Fuckin’ Insulting,” He smirked, always wanting to have said that. “Fourth mistake, you assume I didn't call for back up when I chased your young friend here,” A bluff. “And your last mistake? You’re lying. If you had more guys in there you wouldn’t be wasting your time out here talking, you woulda sent them to deal with us quickly,” he shifted the grip of the pistol, turning slightly to give a lower profile. “Now, the list of felonies just keeps growing… and you really only have one option here… Give the girl back the goddamned card, and walk away!” he finished at a muffled shout. His tone was commanding, his voice dripping authority. He could feel his heart rate accelerating, as his eyes focused on the leader. “Ladies, I can understand your apprehension. If you don’t want to get hurt, it’s time for you to go…now run!” he said, tightening his grip on the pistol again and putting his finger on the trigger. This was the biggest bluff he’d ever pulled. “Your move asshole!”

Of course, that’s when one of them grabbed the girl and screamed. At that moment, Tom used the distraction to move on JC, charging forward and attempting to use his body mass to dive tackle the gang leader... That’s when the shots rang out.

It took Pat a while to make sense of the situation, he guessed his migraine was slowing him down more than he thought. It looked like the thief had gotten some backup while they had picked up a federal agent from somewhere. A federal agent who seemed much more confident than the situation should have allowed him. It seemed the girls had the few brain cells necessary to realize that trying to appease these guys was their best option, money wasn't worth your life. Unfortunately it seemed the federal agent fell slightly short of that bar and seemed to be actively trying to start a fight. Pat was about to yell for the agent to shut up before one of the ladies decided she wanted to be the first one killed and all hell broke loose.

The girl dived, a gunshot sounded and for the second time that day time seemed to slow. Loud noise and migraines didn't mix. When Pat was younger, someone clapping in a nearby apartment would cause him to wince in pain. A gunshot was a lot louder than a clap. The instant the shot sounded Pat doubled over clutching his ears. He was pretty sure the shot missed him, but it might as well of hit considering his condition. As additional shots rang out, some sort of basic primal instinct began to surface in his pain wracked brain. If the noise wasn't going to stop on his own, he was going to have to stop it. With blurred vision Pat began to stumble, at a surprisingly good pace, towards the source of the noise, hands outstretched, ready to grab whatever he ran into first.

As the fed pulled out his gun, JC followed suit. The man in the beanie towards his left was focused on grabbing one of the ladies but when the fed grabbed his gun the man directly to his right pulled out his knife and gave a slight chuckle to what the fed said. Although the fed said that they made some mistakes, they weren’t the only ones and JC and the others knew that quite well. As JC kept his gun pointed towards the fed, the third man that joined him was slowly moving towards the fed’s side so that he wouldn’t be able to easily shoot both of them so that whatever happened one of them would be free to stop the man

Giving nothing more than a slight nod towards his men, JC looked towards the fed. “My move you say? Its things like this that gets feds and police killed. Hopefully you believe in the guy upstairs because you’re either going to be meeting your maker or will be repenting for the innocent bloodshed you caused.”

That was when all hell broke loose.

He was prepared for one of the girls to scream but was surprised when he heard one of his own men yell out in agony. It was then when the fed took advantage of the moment and rushed towards him. Firing a round towards the man, he knew that he missed the fed as he fell towards the ground and the man was not wet with blood. Little did he know that he did hit a target, just not the one he was expecting. Luckily the shot wasn’t too serious. Grazing against the outer right side of Ester’s upper thigh, she was lucky the bullet didn’t hit her hand due to her arms being folded. There would be pain and the bleeding would have to be controlled but she wasn’t in immediate danger of bleeding out and would be mobile for as long as she could fight through the pain and not pass out.

With the arm with the gun pinned down, JC made a move with his left hand to try and punch the man in hopes of moving him just enough to be able to get a shot off of him.
~.~

“You… you… monster!” the man in the black beanie said with a startled expression written in his eyes. Raising his hand painfully with unsteady hands, the man aimed the gun towards the freak. He was having trouble comprehending what exactly happened but he knew he needed to stop the woman. Cringing as he pulled the trigger, he knew that he missed his target without having to look at the freak. Again he tried to aim for the she-devil and as he pulled the trigger a sudden force collided against him as he felt himself fall towards the ground. Already holding the gun with the loose grip, it didn’t take much for the gun to fall out of his hand and land about four feet away from him. Cringing from the pain, it took the man a second before he could recognize the woman that knocked him down. It was the freak’s blonde haired friend. His skin wasn’t burning again from touching this woman so that was a plus.

With too much pain in his arm and neck, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to shove the woman off easily but his legs and uninjured arm was still in service. Aiming for wherever he could reach, the man used his uninjured arm to try and punch the woman off of him, pausing just enough to get a word or two in between each attempted punch. “You…are going…to…pay…for that…! You…and…that monster!”

~.~

Since arriving in the alleyway Jenna didn’t take a step. Too scared to run and even more so to fight back, the woman was frozen in place. Hearing Cal urge her and the others to run, Jenna tried to turn back and run away but she couldn’t. Years from now she wished she could look back at this moment and say that she stayed there due to loyalty to the others but it wasn’t so. She watched with uncertainty as Vida was snatched and the man’s skin started to burn wishing she had an ability that would have been more useful in a situation like this. She then watched as Cal jumped in to save Vida wishing again that she the the bravery that the woman or even the fed had. However as the man with the knife moved towards the federal agent and the third gunman moved towards Pat, Ester and herself, she knew that something would have to be done.

Stopping a bullet was out of the question, she could barely stop silverware from moving when she visited a restaurant. However maybe she could do something with the knife. She wasn’t exactly sure what she would be able to do but going against two men singlehandedly wasn’t right, the federal agent would need help. Seeing Pat moving towards the gunman, she hoped he knew what he was doing. She could hear the gunman yelling in protest for Pat to stop but with the three of them behind her she didn’t know exactly what was happening.

“S-stop.” Jenna said yelling at the man with the knife with feigned confidence which was easily read through.

"You've got to be kidding me." Sam's inner voice was a lot louder than her mouth was, though one could probably find a few examples of people willing to disagree. She steadied herself with a palm against a sagging floor joist as the pile of junk shifted beneath her. For that one moment, she marveled at the fact that she hadn't fallen; that her reflexes and balance were still good enough to manage unpredictable terrain. She stole a glance back at Christian, who now looked completely helpless.

"He's even doing Zombie Arms."

Sam hadn't exactly been social with the group; she hadn't had the time nor the inclination. Even if she hadn't been incapacitated by her incident with the lamp, she knew she'd have refused the chance to mingle. It became clear to her that she'd missed an obvious point of order in Christian. He was showing all the classic signs of blindness. How could she have overlooked the presence of a disabled person? The feeling was not remorse or shame. It was embarrassment. If he'd been an enemy agent, an infiltrator, she'd have been long dead before she noticed anything wrong at all. That would have to change.

Just then, a thought occurred to her: If he had no eyesight, then how had he gotten this far? Complete blindness had a way of preventing things like a flawless pursuit through crowded, dangerous streets. There was no way in hell he'd have been able to do that.

"Just so we know who's who," Sam called out, making certain her words were clear enough to be heard. "Exactly how does a blind man follow me through two blocks of traffic and people?"

There was a sort of silence after Christian spoke. He knew she was still there, he could hear her breathing but he got the unnerving impression that she was studying him. When she finally spoke again her words hit a soft spot that he hadn't realized he was protecting. He'd not told anyone of the Reformers or his fellow... Gen Charlies (was what the doctor had called them) about his ability. None of them knew about his strange flashes of reality. No doubt the TSP had some sort of record of his abilities from his attempted escape but the only other time he'd used it with a degree of success was when they were being shot at. Surely everyone had been to busy saving themselves to notice at the time.

He could make up an excuse he supposed, say that he'd followed her distinctive footfall, hypothetically it was possible and he thought with some practice he could probably do it but she wouldn't possibly believe it. Christian didn't know much about Sam but from there time in the cells together and in the Reformer's base he'd gathered that she was a kind of loaner. Christian knew people like that, they didn't take anything at face value. They didn't trust anything but what they're own sense could tell them. If Christian assumed this was true of Sam then his only hope of getting out of this area of town was telling her the truth.

He felt a little nervous talking about it and it likely showed on his face. "We're special aren't we?" he asked hesitantly, then it was like a damn burst inside of him and all his thoughts came spilling out in one big burst. "That bus accident, it did something to us. Vida survived four bullets to the chest, Daniel and his people all seem to be able to do something, I don't know what you're deal is but I... I make things move, a lot of the time its not even conscious, when the TSP came to take me I had a wall of garbage and debris flying round my body trying to protect me." He breathed out quickly and sucked in another breath so he could keep talking.

"There's something else that goes along with it. Without my sight I guess I'm like a sniper rifle with no scope, I can fire but don't have a way to aim. My... my power seems to have compensated for it. Sometimes, when things are desperate I just sort of understand... everything. Facts, distances, weights, sizes, and more wacky stuff like light spectrum measurements and pressure and stuff, it all just gets jammed into my head and for minutes or hours I feel... liberated then it all comes crashing out violently the moment its not necessary anymore. I can't seem to control it, it comes and goes. Sometimes useless, sometimes specific and sometimes so surreal that I can't move or sleep like I can feel everything except myself."

Christian stood t here trying to slow his breathing and his heart rate both of which were moving much faster than normal. It felt weird to open up to someone. Of course since the accident people had asked him what it was like to be blind and he usually shrugged it off with a funny or sarcastic remark. Talking about this though was different, it felt special, important and it felt strange to tell something else about it.

"Well that's my explanation, what's yours then, if we just want to know who's who. The Reformer's wouldn't have come after you if you weren't effected so what can you do?"

Ester never felt this much pain before. It was worse than a broken arm, or being punched in the nose. She was full on panicking now, tears slowly strewing from her eyes as she felt the warm blood trickle form the graze. 'JESUS CHRIST.' Ester yelled, clasping her hands on the graze. 'GOD DAMN IT.' She cringed and shook her head in pain. Ester took her hands off, breathing out misty, cold breath. Ester wanted to fight back after receiving her graze, but her fright and anger overtook her. She was took scared to move forward in risk of getting shot. As the third gunman came towards her and Pat, Ester moved backwards, fearing for her and her friends lives.

As the gunman made his way towards Ester, she felt something make contact with the heel of her shoe. Looking down, Ester noticed a small lead pipe conveniently there for someone to just pick up and use. Ester swiftly snatched the pipe up, gripping it with two hands. She knew that this wasn't going to be enough to defend her against someone with a gun, but it was something rather than nothing. As Ester held the pipe, she saw the frost crawl up from her palm and up around the pipe. 'Crap...' Ester muttered, hoping that her powers wouldn't effect her improvised weapon.

Sam stood there, staring blankly at Christian. It felt as though he'd just gushed his life story to her. She had suspected his ability had to focus on some kind of positional acquisition, but had no idea it was telekinetic in nature. The battle in her mind between curiosity about the telekinetic side of things and surprise at the levy of Personal Disclosure which had just burst was ultimately lost when a third contender showed up: His question about her ability.

It had been a little over a week since she had escaped from the facility, and just a day since her liberation from the TSP holding cell. She hadn't had much time to make sense of it. On top of that, disclosure was not something which defined Samantha Cole as a person; she much preferred secrecy and guile. But Christian had spilled his guts to her, and he really did look helpless now. Something inside her felt...wrong. It was as if her primary instinct -the knee-jerk reaction to bail on him and leave him for dead- was somehow a bad thing. It wasn't pity; that would have required an emotional connection. This was something far worse than pity. It was something which made her feel partly responsible for what happened to him. Her mind just couldn't conjure the word 'ethical' at the moment.

And there was another voice which now made itself the solo in this little mental orchestra. He had described himself to her on a level which resonated in a way she didn't like. Samantha Cole was unique, different, rare. To hear that somebody else was having similar difficulties shot that egocentric viewpoint completely to hell.

"It's a lot to take in, isn't it?" Sam ventured. "You're deaf and dumb for so long, and then you have that moment where it all becomes clear. You can't contain it all. It overwhelms you."

She toed a pile of discarded wiring absently, trying to formulate her next words. Even she did not fully understand what had happened to her when she touched the lamp. But she did know that the memory of its design and function had stayed with her. She couldn't shake the image, even now.

"I guess we're not a whole lot different in what we do. It's just how it's done that's different." She paused again, trying to find the right way to explain her ordeal. "You say you can see with your mind. Well..so can I. But it's...different. You see people, places, things... I see what those things are made of. I see how they work, and why."

"At first, I didn't really believe we had been changed. If figured it was all some kind of experiment to see how much pressure it would take to get us to crack. But...after the thing with the lamp..." She trailed off, trying to force herself to maintain control. Her voice betrayed her concern about the incident, wavering slightly in just the way one would expect from a traumatic memory.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to instantly know everything about an object? I remember every detail about that damned thing. I know its frequency cycle, the parts-per-million concentration of halogen inside the tube...I even know the purity of the tungsten element. Wilson's right: I'm different, and this has got to be my thing."

There was an uncomfortable silence during the time it took for Sam to utter the words: "I really can read tech."

Pat continued to stumble forward. It seemed every time he was about to recover his mind another yell or gunshot would bring him back to square one, the gash in his brain being sewed shut only to be immediately pulled open again. Through blurred vision Pat could make out the figure of a man with a gun and some sort of deep primal instinct drove Pat towards him. He was traveling way to slowly to have any sort of element of surprise under normal circumstances. However this man was much more focused on Ester and her pipe than the old man stumbling towards him.

It was meant to be a push, but ended up as Pat just leaning on the man with both hands. As soon as Pat made contact, the man instinctively leapt backwards with a sharp cry of pain, lowering his while clutching and shaking his head with the other. With nothing to lean on, Pat fell forward, landing on his hands an knees. With his instincts now satisfied, Pat stayed in that position, eyes staring unfocused at the ground, waiting for things to quiet down.

The gun shots and the commotion fell on deaf ears as she was focused in on the man with the beanie. Fluidly she stood up and faced the man. Her eyes never left his face to see even though Callie was there on top of him. She did not seem to register her either. Her aura had changed to one that reeked of murderous intent, but the way her body moved willfully and the smile on her face seemed to contradict the notion. Her eyes though did not betray the aura. They were focused as if analyzing the man to see the best way to kill him.

When she was within arms reach of him she knelt down just in time to see his fist rise up to hit Callie. “Now, now!” She reached her necrosis like hand out almost touching the man’s face. “Hitting a pretty lady is a no good, no go.” Her tone was very playful and completely out of character from how she had acted up until this point. “There was payment you said. Yes, yes. Payment was said. How about your life? Would it be enough to pay?”

Her smile held as she shifted her attention to Callie. “Pretty lady, are you ok-ok?”

Christian could hear metal clinking against itself and surmised that Sam was playing with some copper wires or something else she'd found in the trash heap. He almost felt jealous of Sam. Her power seemed to give her direction, it was like someone giving directions while you're driving. To Sam they were giving clear instructions 'go twenty meters and take a right' to him it was more like 'STOP SIGN!' while they snapped there fingers in his face.

"You're lucky, at least your powers stable. You can do something with it. Mine's well... at least for the moment it's completely gone and I don't know how to get it back."

As he said this though he himself wasn't aware of it several lighter pieces of refuse, chip bags and string and things rose a few feet off the ground around him. "Unless you see Safeway around could we move on?" Then he realized that Sam had had her card stolen by the thief that he'd been chasing before he'd changed direction to see if she was alright. "Oh sorry, I forgot." the floating objects immediately fell to the ground.

"What was that?" he asked cocking his head listening for anything else. He decided it was likely just someone dumping unwanted garbage nearby. "Listen you can share my card, I'm not going to spend eight hundred dollars."