The explosion rocked the classroom, and set everybody panicking. In Beth’s shock, it seemed like all the jabbering from the students blended together, and she couldn’t make out a word. She was paralysed, glued to her desk seat. It took someone’s hand on her shoulder to snap her out of it.
Tony locked eyes with her. “Miss McDowell.” Another explosion, closer this time, drowned his next words in noise, but he repeated them. “Need to get the students out, call the authorities. Move.” He stepped back, eyes still locked. “I’ll take care of this.” He slipped out, gone before she could say anything, and the slamming of the door was punctuated with a third explosion.
Goosebumps raised on her arms at the thought the explosions were getting closer, but there was no time for that now. It was time for the woman in charge to take some charge. “Everybody, calm down!” She kicked off from her seat, and all the students in the room went quiet, giving her another moment to think. “Matt, Kathleen needs help standing. See to it. Ellen, look after your brother. And I know one of you has a cellphone I can borrow.”
----
Within minutes, everybody had evacuated, and the smoke followed them out the door. Beth breathed a sigh of relief, and let herself relax a little. The fire fighters were on their way; she could hear the sirens in the distance, getting closer and louder every moment.
Her relaxation was shattered when she saw the look on brown-haired Andrew’s face as he came running up to her. The only part of his face shielded from the grime and ash was just behind his glasses. “Beth, we didn’t get everybody. There are two students missing.”
Beth’s eyes went dull for a moment before she blinked herself back to her senses. “…what? Who?”
Andrew whipped his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. “Tony Artemicia and Lucas Jackson.” His hands shook, and it took a few tries to get his glasses back on. “I just hope neither of them decided to be a hero.”
Beth’s jaw set, as she made herself admit it. “Tony… he charged out of my classroom, he said… well, what he usually says.”
Andrew stared at her blankly. “And you let him?” He shook his head, and moved on before she had time to justify herself. “At least Lucas is in there, he should be able to look after Tony. I mean, he is a pyroki—” He stopped in mid-sentence, and they both skipped a beat. “…you don’t think?”
“A pyrokinetic on a rampage?” They both jumped and turned at once. The strange winged thing vanished from her back, and they were left facing a black-haired, Middle-Eastern woman in a skirt suit, walking toward the school on slightly-heeled shoes. The badge on her lapel had a photo of her face, but permanent marker covered the name. “Guess I got here just in time, if not a little late.” She seemed to be talking more to herself than anyone. Before either of them could say a word, she pushed past them and the flow of the student body, headed straight inside the school.
Beth stared after her for a moment, mind trying to register this on top of everything else. She wasn’t doing too well. “Was that…”
Andrew’s mouth finally stopped hanging open. “An agent. FGA. I saw it on her badge.”
----
Whoever was doing this had a clear, and apparently thorough grudge against academia. The equipment in the computer room had been torched to melting point, and practically all that was left of the library was ash.
Tony shook his head, and just closed the door behind him. He hoped the library had the kind of insurance they’d need to handle that, but he didn’t have time to stop and worry. From the sounds of the explosions, the pyro was moving toward the chemistry lab. There were enough explosions there on a daily basis already.
Once he came a bit closer, he could hear the boy singing in between explosions. “No, more, pencils. No, more, books. No, more, teachers’, dirty—”
Tony stepped out from around a corner. “Old song. Not like your style.”
Lucas was wreathed in flame, especially along his shoulders. It looked like his hair wasn’t so much on fire, as completely replaced by it. He chuckled, and slowly turned around. “It seemed appropriate. Still got a few more lines to go until I get to the good bit, though.” His eyes flashed with more fire than they could have reflected.
Tony stopped and stood stock-straight, a fair ways down the hall from him. “Stop this, Lucas. Don’t want to fight.”
Lucas grinned broadly. As he lifted his hand, it burst into flames. “Of course you wouldn’t want to fight me. Hell, if I was you, I wouldn’t want to fight someone like me either.”
“Not what I meant.” Tony feigned left, and stepped right. The first fireball went harmlessly wild, and he kicked off the floor before the explosive impact could send him reeling. He ducked to the side, leaving the next fireball to merely singe his hair, and sent an uppercut into Lucas’ jaw as soon as his feet next touched the ground. The hit was solid on a KO point, and Lucas crumpled to the floor. The fight was over.
Upon hearing a noise behind him, he turned away from the unconscious pyro. A transparent, blue, impish creature was standing there, its colour contrasted by the red fire extinguisher in its gnarled hands. After a moment of staring, it faded completely, and a dark-skinned woman strolled around the corner to replace it.
She bent down to pick up the extinguisher, watching him appraisingly the whole time. “That was an impressive feat you just pulled.” She walked toward him. “What’s your name?”
“Tony Artemicia.” He glanced to her badge. “Yours?”
She stepped past him, and gave Lucas a quick spray. With the fire gone, he was left bald, though his clothes were intact. “Agent Theresa Williams, FGA.”
Tony stepped back, a little standoffishly. “FGA uses codenames.”
Theresa kept on walking, putting out fires as she met them. “That doesn’t mean I have to.” She looked over her shoulder to give him a wide grin. “I’ll be honest, Tony. I’m impressed with what I just saw you do. What kind of Gift do you have? Enhanced reflexes, speed, agility? Oh, I bet it’s something Psychic.”
Tony shook his head. “None. Un-Gifted.” His steps barely made a sound as he started following her.
She stopped suddenly, and just stood there, looking at him. “You just took out a full scale pyrokinetic… and you don’t even have any Gift to help you do it?”
He simply nodded, as if he didn’t see anything impressive about it.
Theresa slowly started walking again. “Tony, time for me to be blunt. I’m not just a field agent… I’m a recruiter. How about it? Want to see if I can convince the boss to let you join the FGA?”
----
They’d finally arrived. Major Mayes straightened his cap with a grimace. At this point, he was probably more used to his dress uniform than he’d ever been to his real one. It was quite a frustrating thought.
He stepped out of the limo, and paused. When a moment passed, and he heard nobody following him out, he turned to glare over his shoulder. All he could see were flashes of Pylon’s blond hair and Katy’s red, and two pairs of hands roaming all over where they shouldn’t.
“Both of you!” Mayes barked. The lovebirds jumped, and their faces withdrew enough to actually turn and look at him, though their hands stayed where they were. “Come on already. Any other delegate would bring a full suite of bodyguards. I should at the very least manage a pair of Gifted who can actually stop necking long enough to pay attention to the job at hand. Do you hear me?”
Pylon flashed his smug little smirk. God, did Mayes hate that smirk. Any time he saw it, he just wanted to get a metal scourer and wipe it off. “Of course, sir.” He gave Katy’s bust one last shameless squeeze before he reached to grip her hand, and pull them both out of the car. “Lead the way.”
While Pylon was visibly agitated, Katy could easily act like nothing had happened. Her breathing wasn’t quickened, her lipstick wasn’t smudged, and after a couple of sweeps, her auburn hair was neat and tidy. As creepy as it was that she could do that, let alone sneak the way she did on those stiletto-heels, at least she could act professional. “Where to first, Major?”
Mayes glared at them both for a moment before he turned away, and started walking up into the hotel. “Well, we’re not checking in, so don’t get your hopes up. I don’t plan to be here that long. We’re just going to go straight to the conference and get it over with.”
Katy slipped her hand from Pylon’s, and walked behind Mayes’ left shoulder while Pylon took his right. She gradually let her heels actually start making the click-clack they would with almost any other woman. “What’s this conference all about, anyway?”
“The same as usual.” The elevator doors opened only a moment after he pressed the button. “Same old agenda, trying to push us into taking that… boy-scout of theirs.” The doors closed behind them, and the elevator started to move.
----
The flier imps swooped to set them down, and then faded. Theresa started walking as soon as she touched down, walking toward the entrance while she fixed her hair and jacket. She glanced to the side. “Tony, you okay over there?”
“Fine.” He was walking oddly straight for a first-time flier. Most people would stumble or even fall down after being dragged through the sky at those rates and then unceremoniously dropped back to earth. Tony seemed to have not even noticed it – though there might have been telling that he hadn’t done anything to fix his hair. It couldn’t be that he just hadn’t noticed it. Certainly.
The doors opened on their own as they approached, leading them into a stark white room with a set of elevator doors on the other end. The only real break in the plainness of the room was a steel robot arm projecting from just above the elevator with a surveillance camera on the end.
“Welcome back, Agent Williams.” A smooth masculine voice came out of the camera as it extended towards them. It turned aside to glance at Tony. “Who’s the guest?”
Theresa grinned, and faced up to the camera with her hands on her hips. “Good to be back, Overmind. This is Tony Artemicia. If all goes well, he’ll be our newest recruit. I don’t suppose the Major’s back yet?”
The camera swivelled back in forth in something like a shake of the head. “Not yet. If it’s going to be the kind of conference it usually is, he won’t finish until after nightfall.” It turned toward Tony. “Now, tell me a bit about yourself, Tony. For starters, how did you catch Theresa’s eye?”
Tony managed not to visibly flinch from the talking camera, even holding his chin to speak eye to… equivalent. “Pyrokinetic.”
“You’re a pyrokinetic, hm? We’ve not had one of those work here before.” The camera withdrew a bit. “It’d be worth it to at least talk to the Major about it, maybe even let him see you in action.”
Theresa shook her head, still grinning. “No, you misunderstood. Tony fought a pyrokinetic, and won. Took him out with one clean punch. Without any Gifts.”
“Didn’t even use his Gift? Now that’s just showing off.” The camera glanced from one to the other. “Or... do you mean that he’s just... un-Gifted?”
“Un-Gifted, but more than capable. I saw him in action with my own two eyes.” She folded her arms. “Well, it was through my imp’s two eyes, actually. But you know that counts.”
Overmind sighed, though it didn’t crackle over the speakers. “I don’t know, Theresa. It’d be a bit of a stretch to get the Major to accept an un-Gifted into the Federal Gifted Agency.”
Theresa smiled wickedly. “Well, then isn’t it a good thing the Major is out today?” She clapped Tony on the shoulder. Though she could feel him tense up, his face didn’t change. “Tony has the whole day to get the rest of the Agency to fall head-over-heels for him. Then, if the Major says no, we can all go on strike until he changed his tune!”
Tony glared at her, then at her hand. In case the message wasn’t already clear enough, he reached up and brushed her off without a word.
She winked. “Not literally speaking, of course. I’m sure if you do your job well enough to impress the Major, he won’t care how un-Gifted you are. You just have to do something to really blow his socks off before the day’s out.” She turned back toward the camera. “Now, are you going open the elevator for us, or not?”
Overmind sighed, and it somehow didn’t crackle over the speaker. “You’d probably have one of your imps tear the doors open if I didn’t, so I don’t have much choice.” With a quiet ding, the doors slid open. “Scan, Jenny and everyone else still in the building are down in the basement. Good luck on first impressions, Tony.”
----
“I’m just going to tell you this one last time.” Mayes betrayed his calm demeanour when his fist slammed down. “The FGA will never have an un-Gifted agent.”
Pylon jumped at the sound, one Taser-tipped arm flinging toward him from across the room. Katy just gave the blond a bemused, even mocking smile while she waited for him to get back to kissing her.
The contacts, though, were more used to Mayes’ brazen mannerisms. “Good.” His first contact, a skinny woman with copper-red hair, glared straight at him while she spoke. “If that’s the last time, hopefully you’ll stop giving us that nonsense. You don’t have a choice in this matter.”
The other, a six-foot-tall bearded man, clasped his hands over the table and tried to play Good Cop. “Major, you have to understand. You know what the Treasurer is like. Even the Marines are having trouble funding their GW project. An entire federal agency of nothing but Gifted…” He shook his head.
Mayes sneered. “You’re just not comfortable with Gifted at all, are you? Here, I’ll even prove it.” He thrust his hand through the table. His arm, all the way up to the elbow, had turned ghostlike and semi-transparent. There was a moment of silence – the contacts were stunned, and the lovebirds he’d brought with him were too busy to say anything. “…that’s what I thought.”
The bearded man was the first to recover. “You’re not listening. We’re not the problem. Maybe after the next election we’ll have a Treasurer with more… sympathy, but we have to deal with what we have. Dorothy and I have considered all the angles, and it’s just the best way. Besides, after everything that happened five months ago, some good PR would be good for you.”
Mayes sighed, eased back in his chair, and made himself relax. ‘Fine.” He looked down at the file on the table. “But… not this one.”
----
Tony always kept a couple of steps behind, and his footsteps didn’t make a sound. Theresa had to glance over her shoulder just to make sure he’d even followed her into the elevator, and he didn’t say a word on the way down.
When the elevator opened into the basement, the first thing they encountered was an anteroom, the walls lined with benches and lockers. The pane of bulletproof glass across from the elevator looked into a massive training room, with gym equipment, a small shooting range, and even some more exotic and specialised gear.
A toned-looking woman with short, reddish-blonde hair stood underneath a pressure-plate, holding it up with both hands. Her feet were set into the ground, and her teeth were gritted. “How much longer is this going to take, Doc?”
There was a blonde-haired woman in a white labcoat and blue-rimmed glasses standing before a control panel, just next to the door into the training room. “You’re doing fine, Jenny. I’m going to increase the pressure by another twenty-five kilograms. Do you think you can handle that?”
Jenny groaned, one eye squeezing shut as she strained under the weight. “Sure thing, Doc. I mean, I’m only hauling three times the un-Gifted Olympic record right now.”
“This is a waste of time.” A Native American man with dark brown-red hair was standing by the console, arms folded, back against the glass. “You already have my reading from her, what more do you need?”
The blonde doctor wrinkled her nose. “I just need to check the accuracy of your results. No offence to you or anything, Scan, but you haven’t been here long.” She started slowly twisting a dial. “Jenny, give me a shout when you’re at your limit.”
Jenny gritted her teeth and her knees buckled a little. “Now.”
“Then let’s see.” After the plate retracted itself, the doctor peered down at the console and pursed her lips. “Hmph.”
Scan glanced to the screen, then smirked back at her. “See, Church? What did I tell you?”
Church sighed. “Exactly that number.”
Tony’s attention got pulled away from the rest of the exchange. “Theresa!” The girl had stayed out of sight and not made a sound before that moment. “Who’s the kid?” She spoke softly, slid off the bench where she sat, and strode over to join them.
Theresa recovered from her surprise. “Oh, I didn’t see you there.” She grinned, and gestured between them. “This is Tony Artemicia. Tony, meet Tara Carter. She’s just starting here, too.”
Tara was a Eurasian woman, half-Korean if he had to guess. Her hair was light brown, and a couple of locks fell across the left side of her face, though her eyes were still unobscured. “‘Too’? You mean you recruited him?”
Theresa nodded firmly. “Just found him today. Tara, you may be talking to the FGA’s first un-Gifted agent.”
“Un-Gifted?” Tara turned to Tony, giving him a special kind of hard stare. “How did that happen?”
Tony started to answer, but his voice was drowned out when the alarms started.
----
Dorothy frowned. “Not ‘that one’? And why not? We’ve already looked into him quite thoroughly, and he seems to be the perfect candidate to us.”
Mayes held up a finger. “That is because neither of you really know how the FGA operates.” He glares down at the file. “We’re not the military, so army training doesn’t help. Not least of all because the training is all he has.”
“Then what would you suggest?” The bearded man asked.
Mayes steepled his fingers in front of his chin. “I’ll need to find the agent myself. Someone with the right mentality, and real, tested skills…” He paused, and then grinned. “I can already think of someone to help me find them.”
Dorothy put herself at ease, but she still seemed in a huff. “Remember how long you’ve delayed this decision. You don’t have long to find your new agent.”
Mayes looked up. “How long?”
“A week.”
Mayes gave an easy smile. “If I can’t find my own agent in a week, I’ll gladly take your army poster-boy.”
----
Jenny sprinted out of the training room and snatched a towel up off a nearby bench. “Overmind, what’s going on?”
The alarms quieted, and Overmind’s voice came through a dozen hidden speakers at once. “It’s an incoming call from our usual liaison. Dr Church?”
She pressed a single button on the console. “This is Dr Harriet Church speaking. What’s the emergency?”
A calm male voice spoke from the other end. “We have a hostage situation, Dr Church. Four bandits, all confirmed as grade-2 Gifted, are holed up in the Florins Bank on 13th Street. Sending profiles now.” The blank screen divided into quadrants, each one showing a different file.
As Church scrolled through, everyone wordlessly crowded around. “You mentioned hostages? How many?”
“At least a dozen, counting disarmed security.” The calm tone turned bitter. “And since you apparently need reminding, they are the priority. You know how to contact me. Do so.” The line went silent.
Church scowled. “They’re not too powerful, but there are four of them. This will be tricky.”
Tony turned toward the elevator. “Florins Bank. I’ll take care of this.”
The doors didn’t open. “No, Tony. You’re going to stay here and let Tara and Jenny do their jobs. A pyrokinetic is one thing, bet we’re talking about four Gifted at once.”
Church frowned at Tony, only just noticing him there. “Who is this?”
“Someone who’s coming with us.” Tara punctuated it by slamming her locker closed, an FGA uniform slung over her shoulder. “That’s all that’s relevant, but Theresa can fill you in on the rest.”
Theresa bit her lip. “Tara, are you sure about this?”
She glanced over at him again, and nodded. “Definitely.” She tossed a spare radio headset his way. “We use the third preset frequency… and you’ll need a codename. Any ideas?”
Tony put the headset in place. “Caretaker.”
Tara flashed a bright smile. “Perfect. Now just give me and Jenny time to get changed, and then…” She winked at him. “…we’ll take care of this.”
----
“That could have gone better.” Katy sneered while she walked along behind Mayes, letting her heels click.
Mayes refused to let Katy’s snark bring his mood farther down. “It went as well as it could have been expected to, and considerably better than it could have. At least we have the chance to come out with our own agent, and with our assets, a week should be long enough. Even if we do end up pushing the time limit.”
Pylon furrowed his brow. “About that… what did you mean by the ‘perfect person to help’?”
Mayes smiled. “You of all people should have guessed that one, Pylon. Hell, without Church putting each candidate through all her intensive, redundant tests, it should actually be easier to find an un-Gifted agent.” His earpiece started beeping. “Now, if you’ll hold whatever thoughts you have, Overmind’s calling.” He pressed a button on the side of the pod. “Speak.”
“Major, do you have a moment? Dr Church needs to talk to you.”
Mayes didn’t even slow down. “Put her on. I have plenty of time, the meeting finished early.”
Church’s voice came on. “I need to talk to you about a new recruit Theresa brought in today, sir. Tony Artemicia.”
Mayes had enough presence of mind not to nod. “I made her a recruiter for good reason, Doctor. What’s the problem?”
“Theresa says he’s un-Gifted, but they took him away before I could test him. If I hurry, I can still call them back.”
“Did you say un-Gifted?” Mayes tried to keep his face straight. “What did Tara think of him?”
“Tara?” Church paused for a moment. “She practically dragged him out with her on the mission. I tried to convince her, but she refused to even listen.”
A grin spread across Mayes’ face. “I say give him a chance, and see how it goes. Tara knows what she’s talking about.”
“Are you sure, sir? I mean, he’s—”
“Un-Gifted, I know. I’ll explain when I get back, the train ride alone should take a few hours.”
----
Jenny’s voice came over the two headsets, as flat and bored as it always was. “Caretaker, Osmosis. That was a big one, are you two okay back there?”
“Nails, watch the road!” Tara gripped the handhold above her seat until the muscles on her forearm stood out. “We’d be doing a lot better if you drove with a bit of sanity!” She grumbled a few more words under her breath before shouting aloud, “Next time, I’m driving!”
“If you have your own license by then, sure.”
Tony didn’t say a word. He’d jammed his feet into the floor and wall to hold himself against the turbulence, and kept on scribbling on a notebook he’d taken from his schoolbag.
Tara watched him for a few streets. He had to stop what he was doing every time the van turned, but he looked pretty stable. She mimicked his pose. “What’s that you have there?”
Tony turned to the book to face her. The penmanship was a bit shaky, but it was clearly a blueprint. “Map of the bank. Should help planning.” He turned it back around and continued to work.
Tara raised an eyebrow and leaned sideways to try to get another look – before she could get the chance, another swerve of the van forced her to sit upright. “A full map? How can you even know the layout?” She furrowed her brow and peered straight at him. “…an eidetic memory, on top of everything else?”
“Yes…” After another moment’s drawing, he looked at her over the book. “What Gift?”
“You mean, what Gift do I have?” A sudden, severe bump in the road practically sent them both flying, and Tara caught herself in exactly the same way as Tony. Grinning, she brushed her two free locks of hair back into place. “I can copy other peoples’ skills.”
Tony let his smile spread wide as he straightened. “Perfect.”
The van shrieked to a stop. Glancing out the window, Tara saw the barricades, the crowds of onlookers trying to push through and into the bank, and the painfully-outnumbered police trying to keep them back. Jenny’s voice came through. “We’re here. Everybody step out and we’ll figure out a plan. Caretaker, bring that map of yours.”
Tony shrugged his schoolbag off his shoulder. “Already have one.” He undid his seatbelt and opened up the van’s double-doors. “Come into the back, I’ll talk you through it.”
Jenny appeared in the doors a brief moment later, her mouth bent into a sneer. Tara wondered if she’d stopped sneering at any point in the trip – or any point at all, for that matter. She hadn’t seen it. “What’s this plan, Caretaker?”
Tony flicked a switches on the side of his headset. “Radios off.” When the others followed suit, he cleared his throat, and began.
----
A few minutes later, Tony and Tara were standing at the front of the crowd, just beside the barricade. They’d already explained everything to the officers, and Jenny had already left to slip around the side. They just had to wait for the signal.
“I’m in position, Caretaker. Are you both ready?”
Tony glanced over to Tara before answering. Her nerves were on edge, and it probably showed on her face – or at least in the hand fidgeting with her hair – but she still nodded.
He put a hand to his headset when he responded. “Ready, Nails. Go.”
“Alright. Moving in on one, two—” The last number was lost in the wailing of the bank’s fire alarm.
Tara started moving just a split-second after Tony. Her reflexes and his took her over, all her nerves lost in the heat of the moment as they both sprinted for the bank’s front doors.
The first Gifted they met was tall, in possession of two strange steely-grey hands, and looking the wrong way. Tara’s first jab to the back of his head sent him reeling, but didn’t put him out. He spun around, and his fist morphed into a daggerlike blade as it swung toward her. She ducked under the clumsy hook, and as she sprung up, her uppercut found its way to a point on his jaw.
She blinked, and looked down at the crumpled robber. The whole exchange must have taken three seconds at most, but it hadn’t felt like it. “Whoa…”
Tony paused in his stride to give her a brief, but approving look. “Come.” His voice was soft, and he moved more stealthily than before. Mind still shaken from the fight, Tara only semi-consciously followed.
The hostages were everywhere – it must have been some kind of peak hour when the bandits attacked for there to be so many. They were scattered all over the room, kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs. The two of them crouched behind a desk at the entrance to the room, Tony hushed the skinny hostage sitting against it with a finger to his lips, and they surveyed the room from there.
Jenny was standing by the fire door – blown halfway off its hinged from when she made it open inward – holding an unconscious and slightly bloodied bandit by the back of his shirt. The last two of the robbers stood beside each other in the centre, one a young-looking Chinese woman with glasses, the other a bald-headed, pale-skinned man.
His hand was lifted into the air, fingers straight and palm tense. A few feet away from him, one of the hostages – a woman in the bank’s uniform – hovered in the air, her body held rigid and stiff, with her arms stretched down by her sides. “You…” The bald psychokinetic glowered at Jenny. “They heard I was up to some tricks, so they sent you, and thought you could actually defuse the situation?
“Algernon…” the Chinese girl whispered, just on the edge of Tara’s hearing.
“Not now, Crystal!”
Jenny shrugged blandly. She didn’t really seem to notice the weight of the fully-grown person she had hanging from one hand. “Look. This may seem all personal to you, but honestly, I don’t even know who you are.”
“You bitch!” His jaw set, and the fingers of his hand clenched inward just a little. The hostage’s body bent backward, a soft cry of pain coming from her throat. “After everything you did to me, you don’t even remember? You—”
The Chinese girl snapped, “Algernon!” His hand flattened out again, the hostage straightened, stealing a few deep breaths, and he turned to her. “Steel-hands is down. I can feel… one more agent, must be her partner.” She nodded her head to the desk Tony and Tara were hiding behind.
Algernon lifted his free hand, and the desk lifted off the floor. The hostage sitting against it seemed in slow-motion when he glanced over his shoulder. Tara grabbed him by the collar and pulled them both to the ground as the psychokinetic’s hand thrusted forward.
The desk flew over their heads and Tony baseball-slid underneath. His first strike hit before Algernon even realised he was there, and the hovering hostage shuddered in the air. The next strike knocked him out, the hostage fell, and Tony swooped to catch her before she hit the floor.
By the time Crystal had registered what happened, Jenny was standing right next to her. She sighed, and held up her hands. “I surrender.”
----
Tara still felt jittery when they were getting back in the van, after turning the bandits over to the police. Tony, on the other hand, seemed unshaken, even nonplussed. Jenny wasn’t in such a reckless hurry, so he took advantage of the smoother ride to get some homework done. Tara wondered how he could be so adjusted to that kind of tension.
After a few minutes of silence, she put her hand to her radio. “Nails… what did that guy mean by what he said? What was he talking about?”
“No idea.”
Tara sighed, and just sat back. No hints there, then.
“People don’t like imprisonment.” Tony spoke without looking up from his books. “Especially undeserved.”
Tony furrowed her brow at him. “What?”
He still didn’t look up. “Remember what the FGA were like five months ago. Besides Crystal, every one of those bandits had been in their prison.”
Tara went quiet for a moment, then nodded. “But they’ve reformed now, and it’s been a long time. I wasn’t even an agent back then.”
“People they imprisoned then don’t care.” He capped his pen one-handed and pushed it into the binder rings of his notebook.
Tara watched him closely. When she focused, she could feel the skills emanating from him, even the martial art they’d both used. That was the one she concentrated on. “Caretaker… after all that, I have a few questions for you now.”
He slipped his books back into the bag, sat up and turned to her. “Ask.”
She looked down at her hand. She could almost still feel the sting on her knuckles. “Where did you learn to fight like that?”
His pause was just long enough to be noticeable. “Long story.”
She frowned. “You said to ask.”
“But never said I could answer.”
Tara pouted for a moment, but let it pass. “The mentalist, Crystal. She could only ‘sense’ one of us. If you’re really un-Gifted, how could you hide from someone like her?”
“No Gift.” He pushed a finger into his temple. “Skill. Special ways of thinking. Copying should be possible.”
She gave him another close stare. “No… mental skills are a lot harder to manage than physical. For me, anyway.” When a moment’s attempted probing brought up nothing, she shrugged and sat back. “Where did you learn it?”
He turned away. His face was mostly blank, but she noticed the faraway look in his eyes easily enough. Must have been a skill of his, god knew she was terrible at reading people normally. “Same as I learned to fight.”
“In other words, you won’t tell me.” She sighed.
A silent moment passed. “More questions?”
The van rolled into a parking space before she could answer. “Not now, at least.” She pulled off her seatbelt and held up a warning finger, though her tone was still light and joking. “Don’t forget, though, I’m going to find time to grill you until I find something you will answer.”
----
“A few minutes later, we got back to HQ, then I got in the elevator, came up here, left Tony in the waiting room, reported to you, and now I’m pretty much rambling because it’s fun.” Tara rested back in her seat, hands behind her head. She watches the look on Church’s face carefully; this new skill with body language was quite a novelty, and she was making the most of it while she still could.
Church sneered slightly at Tara’s semi-joke. “Cute.” Her brow was furrowed in concentration and frustration; it was taking longer than she’d have liked to get everything typed, and Tara’s distracting attempts at humour weren’t helping. Finally, she finished, and rested her hands on the keyboard. “Is there anything else you’d like to mention?”
Tara leaned to the side to try to get a look at the laptop screen. “No… I think that’s it.”
Church nodded, and relaxed, even giving Tara a bit of a smile. Once the typing was over, she was much more amiable. “Good. Now, facts of the mission itself aside, I need your opinion.” She glanced through the glass-windowed door behind Tara’s shoulder.
Tara could figure what she was talking about. “He has my vote.” She clasped her hands in her lap. “For one, he has lots of skills, and I’d need that in a partner. For two, he handled himself during the mission like a pro. For three, he’s got a bit of a tactical head on his shoulders. I mentioned it was his plan, right?”
“Yes, you did.” Church turned to the screen, and paused for a moment as she considered what kind of computer action would best substitute for shuffling papers together. “Well, I’ll be sure to pass all your recommendations on to Major Mayes, but remember that it’s in his hands, not mine.”
“I know, I know.” Tara got to her feet and pulled her shirt out straight. She paused when she was halfway through opening the door, turning back to the desk with her hand still on the knob. “Just in passing, do you know where Jenny is?”
Church gave a nod. “Knowing her, she’ll be back down in the gym until Mayes calls in. Don’t worry too much about catching her before she leaves, she already knows not to go without you.”
Tara eased the door open and rested a hand against the frame. “Oh, I was just going to get her to bring Tony along, too.” She smiled wistfully. “I’d like him to get to know Pylon a bit. Anyway, I’ll send him in on my way out.”
If Tony had moved an inch through Tara’s entire report, it didn’t show. She had to stifle a giggle when an image occurred to her – Tony frantically slipping back into place any time he thought she was about to look.
He noticed her standing there soon enough, and slid up to his feet. “Report done?”
Tara paused long enough to exchange a words. Sure, she could have said what she needed to just by slowing her pace a little, but it would still be rude to just keep walking. “Doc’s waiting for yours. Be ready to get moving once you’re done, I’m going to take you along to meet a couple of people.”
Tony nodded his farewell. “Later.” He strode past her into the office, as always moving just that little bit faster than he strictly needed to.
----
Jenny looked a bit more animated down in the gym, in front of the specially-reinforced punching bag. The way she hammered into it, you’d think it had personally insulted her mother and pet dog. Tara decided to just watch quietly and meekly from behind the bulletproof glass – preferably a long way behind – until she was done.
“What a waste.” It was the first thing Scan had said since Tara had walked in. “The least she could do is at least try to do it without her Gift, so she stops pouring all her energy out into pointless aggression. But no, she prefers to act like deactivating a Gift is impossible, and so continues to weaken and drain herself before a mission even starts.” He shook his head.
Tara gave him an odd look. She wasn’t even entirely sure he’d meant to say that to her, or if he was just ranting to himself. When she’d first met him, she’d thought he was a bit too young to act like such an old man, but she would probably get used to it. And other people would probably come to expect it, too – all that frowning was sure to give him early wrinkles.
Another moment passed without Scan saying anything, so she guessed that he hadn’t been expecting a response from her. Just as she was contemplating what to say to break the discomfort of the silence herself, the earth-shaking assault finished. Tara breathed a sigh of relief, and stepped on over to the door.
Jenny came out with a towel slung over her shoulder. She was panting too hard to speak, so she didn’t even say anything before walking past Tara on her way to the showers. Her body was absolutely drenched in sweat. Tara wondered how her body had even held that much fluid in the first place, but only briefly before she started instead wondering why Jenny had thought a white tank-top was a good choice for that kind of workout. It probably explained why Scan was still watching something he thought of as such a ‘waste’, at least.
Tara kept pace with her easily enough. “Listen, Jenny, can I ask you for a favour?”
Jenny glared at her, but she kept talking anyway.
“I know you usually take the sedan to pick the Major up, but I wanted to take Tony along to meet him, start some good impressions going.”
Jenny started the shower without taking her shirt off, and without acknowledging Tara.
“So, I was hoping that this time, I could convince you to bring something a bit bigger, maybe even the limo. You know… just this once.”
A long moment passed without Jenny responding, so Tara muttered some extra almost under her breath.
“Glare at me like you wish you still had enough energy to strangle me for ‘yes’.”
----
Though his eyes drifted all over the limo, Tony kept his hands to himself. The way he clasped them in his lap, he wouldn’t have looked out of place in a monk’s robe – which was more than Tara could say for most monks she’d seen.
Tara kept a close watch on him from the opposite bench. Try as she might, she couldn’t pierce his mask; his face just looked blank to her. His eyes were the only point that betrayed any emotion, and even they seemed calm, confident and relaxed.
Eventually, she decided to try striking up a conversation. “You’re not nervous about meeting him at all, are you?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“So plain-spoken…” Tara sighed as she shook her head. “Well, that might change once you actually do. Let me warn you now, he can be pretty fierce.”
Tony nodded without a word.
Tara pouted at the overall lack of response, but before she could badger him any more, the limo came to a smooth halt.
Jenny called back from the driver’s seat, “We’re here. C’mon.”
----
Either they made really good time getting there, or Mayes had called too early, because they ended up waiting for quite some time at the private platform. At least long enough that Tony wasn’t the only one frustrated by it. Tara had left to find a vending machine, and Jenny just sat and grimaced at the empty train tracks, so he was mostly alone with his thoughts.
From a normal, dull morning, it had spiralled into quite an… eventful day. He was less interested in the action and more in the significant people he’d met, and was about to meet. From what he’d been told about them, he hadn’t expected Jenny to be so morose, or Church to smile so often. Still, the person who’d told him that was talking from old data – five months old, and a lot had happened since then.
Just as he was musing about that, the tracks started to rumble. Nothing of him moved but his head, which swivelled to watch the single car approach. It actually moved pretty quietly for a train. He only actually stood up when it got closer, and timed his movements such that he stopped beside the yellow line just as the doors were opening.
Out stepped a man who had to be Major Hugh Mayes. The cropped haircut and olive uniform would have been enough, but he stood near-constantly at attention, wary of everything around him, and had a look on his face that said he thought everyone else was an idiot for not doing the same. Though he had the neatly-pressed uniform of a desk officer, he had the step of a true soldier. He gave Tony an appraising look up and down. “You must be the new agent I’ve heard so much about. Tony Artemicia, codename Caretaker, correct?”
Tony didn’t break eye contact for even a second, even as he nodded and stepped back. “Yes, sir.”
Even Tony only barely caught Mayes’ smile. “Very good.” He said it as much to himself as to Tony. “I have quite a bit to say to you, Caretaker, but it can wait until we’re in the car.” He threw a shout over his shoulder while he stepped all the way out of the train. “Blade! Pylon! Get your hands off each other and come on out, we’re leaving.”
The bodyguards came out arm in arm – or, more correctly, the woman was dangling off the man’s arm. Pylon walked with a bit of a swagger, and had the kind of self-assured smirk that Tony always had to resist wiping off by hand. His eyes were an electric kind of blue, and his hair was blond, short, and choppy. He was dressed in standard FGA uniform.
As they came out the doors, the woman slipped her arm from Pylon’s and put her hand to her hip. Her hair was of the deepest red, almost indistinguishable from black, and very curly as it went just past her shoulders. She had jade green eyes to match a face with some clear Oriental descent. ‘Blade’ was printed across the upper chest of her uniform, and though the uniform itself was clearly modified for better mobility, much more noticeable was the belt around her waist, holding a shortsword in its scabbard.
Tony looked from one to the other. The pair were clearly a couple, from the clear ease they had with each other, all the way down to the tousled, post-makeout hair that she was just starting to correct. Still, the farther they came from the train, the more distance she put between her and Pylon.
Why became clear very soon. Hearing a sound behind him, Tony looked over his shoulder, and watched Tara as she came back onto the platform and greeted Pylon with a flying hug and a kiss on the lips. “Don’t ever take that long again! I missed you!” She turned a near-glowing smile on Tony. “Pylon, Katy, that young man over there is my new partner, Tony.” She put a very proud tone into her voice for the next. “Tony, meet my boyfriend, Pylon.”
Tony just barely managed to keep his face blank.
----
“You said you would explain when you got back, sir?” Church kept her tone cautious, but Mayes knew she wouldn’t be afraid to keep asking until she got an answer.
He kept his back to her, hands clasped behind him as he gazed out the window of his office. “I’m going to be frank, Doctor. They’ve been twisting my arm about it for a long time, but today they finally gave an ultimatum.” He walked around to behind his desk, and still didn’t face her until he’d sunk into his big, overstuffed swivel chair. “They gave me a week from today to find an un-Gifted agent, or they’d find one for me. If I was a believer, I’d say this boy must have been sent straight from heaven to come with such good timing.”
“About that, sir.” She tilted her head forward slightly to give him a stern look over the top of her spectacles. “We still need to confirm that he really is un-Gifted. Scan went home for the night before giving him a proper reading, and some of his abilities seem a bit… suspicious.”
Mayes strode around his desk, and still didn’t actually look at her until he’d sunk into his big, overstuffed swivel chair. “Everything that’s mattered so far have all been his skills. Tara can account for that much.”
“His combat skills, maybe, but the mentalism—”
He held her with a stern look. “Doctor Church. Tomorrow, he needs to come in to be fitted with equipment anyway, and that will give Scan plenty of time. I’ve already given Theresa and Overmind the orders to begin the background checks, so don’t bother bringing that up. And I’ve contacted someone to look into his alleged ‘anti-mentalism powers’.”
Church blinked, and after a moment, her eyes widened. “You don’t mean… Mesmer?”
Mayes’ smile spread halfway across his face. “It’ll be Agent Mesmer again, soon enough. Of that I can assure you.”
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