Chapter One

Awake.

Clasping at air.

Beeps.

Yells.

Scared.

Loud.

Hands were placed on my shoulders, keeping me restrained on my back. I looked around at the blue images, light staring into me. Something pierced my neck. I felt something coming into my blood. I slowly dropped my arms. They were so heavy. They slumped down onto the bed, and the beeping slowed. I tried to keep my eyes open. I had to warn them.

"Keep him sedated."

I tried to reach out to push away the hands, falling down and back into the bed. I was out as soon as I hit the pillow.

I woke up slowly, looking around. Images were blurred, but I could see what was around me. I saw something gold in front of me. Sound blurred into my ears. I closed my eyes, looking away. I tried to focus on what was around me. There were a series of machines hooked up to me. Was I locked up? They had found me. I tried to look for a way out.

"Hey," the golden blur spoke to me "you're okay." Lies. It was all lies. I tried to push myself up, failing. My arms felt too heavy to lift. I looked up at the blur again, my vision improving to reveal a girl, wearing a white blouse and a pair of jeans. Her golden hair dropped down to her shoulders. "I'm Lauren."

I looked her up and down. She didn't have anywhere to hide a gun. No holster visible. But she wasn't a doctor or a nurse.

"Who are you?" I said groggily.

"I was here when they brought you in." She said. "I figured you would want to talk. After all, you're a very special boy." I look around quickly for other people. Anyone in a suit. "You've led us on quite a merry chase." She said. "We've been looking for you for a very long time." I looked at her face carefully.

"What do you want with me?"
"We just want to find some things out about you." I scoffed in response. "You shouldn't have made it this hard."

My arms started to feel more solid – more in control. I stayed slumped in the pillows, so I wouldn't get another sedative shot into me. As Lauren smiled, I noticed a man walk from behind, a man dressed in a grey suit with horn-rimmed glasses. A bulge in his jacket told me who he was. What he was. I looked around, for my clothes. Nowhere to be seen. I was wearing some blue hospital scrubs on my legs and that was it. "So, maybe you're interested about your…abilities?"

"I already know what I can do." I said.

"I very much doubt that." She said. "What you can do is only a fraction of what you're capable of." I watched the man in the horn-rimmed glasses open the door, starting to enter the room. I slowly grabbed the wallet off of the bedside ounter. "Now, if you come with us-"

I leapt up out of the bed and jumped over the top of the woman, sprinting for the doorway and shoving the man into the corridor, while making my way down the hall. I sprinted in my bare feet, and upon seeing another man in a suit, I dodged out of the way of his outstretched arms and hauled myself over his shoulder, sprinting down to the elevator doors and diving into the lift, hitting as many buttons as I can. Only after realising my mistake. I jumped up and kicked open a panel, jumping out into the shaft. I looked down at the cables and jumped onto one, shimmying my way down to another elevator, which was thankfully vacant.

I pressed the first floor and waited calmly in the elevator, placing the wallet in the pocket of the scrubs. I started to hear hurried footsteps and radio crackle as I approached the first floor. I moved my feet to shoulder width, while placing my left first, coiled to sprint forwards. As the doors opened I sprinted forwards with all my speed. I was past the line of armoured gunmen by the time they started shooting. I was heading for the double doors – I was almost out of there. So close.

I burst out of the doors and instinctively bared right. I ran around and into the alleyway, leaping to jump up the ladder on the fire escape, catching the bottom bar and climbing my way up it. I hoisted myself up onto the metallic surface and started to run up the stairs. I reached the top of the escape and jumped up onto the roof of the building and started to sprint to the edge, I was running slower for some reason. My feet suddenly started to hurt from the stone floor. I was out of breath. I slowed down as I got the edge, looking down at the alley way below. I could jump that distance. I was sure of it. I had done it before. I took a few steps to jump but as I started to move forwards, a voice from behind stopped me.

"That would be a very bad idea." I looked around at the horn-rimmed glasses behind me. The man was pointing a large gun directly at me, a younger African man behind him, focusing on me. "You're impressive, I'll give you that." I looked at the younger man behind him, who was looking at me, dead in the eye. "But that's a magic trick compared to my friend here." He said, moving in on me. "Take him in."

The second man moved towards me, watching me warily for any movement. I breathed heavily, any second now I would move from his movement. I threw a punch, which he grabbed and threw me down onto the roof. I was dumb-founded by this. That was not normal – no one was ever fast enough to defend themselves. They couldn't do it.

As the man proceeded to reach out a hand, I kicked him in the chest and scrambled to my feet, sprinting to the edge of the roof and jumping off of the top, arms flailing as I sailed through the air. There were no sounds of anyone shooting at me. As I fell through the air I started to feel stronger – more flexible, no limits on my limbs. I slammed onto the edge of the rooftop, pulling myself up without difficulty. I looked around at the duo, who stayed on the rooftop, looking at me in disbelief. The older man let his gun point at the ground as he realised he wouldn't catch me. I breathed heavily. How could the man do that – he took away my agility. My reflexes, my speed – it was like he slowed me down. I wasn't going to stay around to figure out how and turned around, fleeing from them. I sprinted, jumping the next alley with more ease, until I kicked open the door, running through the staircases until I came to a corridor, leading out into the street.

I sprinted out into the streets, looking around for a way out. Somewhere no one will look. I saw the taxi cab, driven by an older man, with a business exiting. I sprinted into it, jumping in.

"Drive." The driver turned around to look at me, examing me in my hospital clothes.
"Where to?" He asked hesitantly.
"Anywhere." I said hurriedly. He nodded slowly, and began to drive, running a red light and turning around the corner and disappearing from sight. The cab journey was completely silent.

We ended up outside an apartment block, the driver getting out and giving me his long overcoat, gesturing for me to follow him into the building. I did so until we came to the top of the building, the cab driver silently unlocking the door and leading me into the room.

It was cluttered everywhere – a board with a map up on one side of the wall, almost taking up all of it. Upon the map where a series of strings and post-its. I walked behind the desk in front and began to examine it.

"What's this?" I asked him, examining the strings.
"Very important work." He said, walking in after me, closing the door and locking it.

"Thank you." I said, turning around to face him. "For helping me." I offered him the coat, which he took. He started to look at the small needle marks over my arms. "I'm not an addict." I said. "It's from the hospital." The doctor nodded.

"Care to explain what happened?"
"You wouldn't believe me." I said, shaking my head.
"Really?"
I shook my head, looking back to the board. I noticed one post it at the corner that rang a bell.
"Hey, the Human Genome Project." I said, pointing. "I remember that."
"You do?" He asked.
"Yeah, I gave blood a couple of years ago." I said. "So did my dad, it was a publicity stunt." I nodded. I stopped then, realising how I just slipped up.
"Really?"
"Story for another time." I nodded.
"What's your name?" He asked, moving over to a cabinet, pulling out various files.

"McKniel." I said cautiously, watching him root through the files until he pulled out one.
"Robert?"
"No." I said, letting him pull out another one.
"Daniel?"
"Yeah."
He beamed at me.
"Have you been noticing anything outside the norm?" I raised an eyebrow at him. "An…an ability that you never had before?"
"An ability?" I asked cynically.
"Rapid Cell Regeneration? Levitation? Telekinesis?"
"Regeneration? Telekinesis?" I asked with a smile. "I'm sorry, I think I left my cape at the Daily Planet." I shook my head. "I just need some clothes, and I'll be on my way."

"Could I at least run some tests on you?" He asked.

"What sort of tests?"
"Nothing that'll take a long time. Just some questions." I sighed. This man had helped me escape. I owed him.
"Fine. Can I get dressed first? It's kind of cold in here." The man nodded, and led me over to the one bedroom in the apartment, pulling out some jeans, a t-shirt and a blue chequered shirt. "Wow, stylish." I grinned as I pulled on the t-shirt.
"They're my son's."
"Never too young to sleep in his dad's bed huh?" I grinned. "He live nearby?"
"No," the man said "he's still in India." I nodded.

"That explains the accent." I said slowly. "Well, you don't look like a politician. Come all this way for a cab driving conference?"
"I'm a doctor." He said, amused by my comment. "I study genetics."

"That's how you're connected to the Genome Project." I stated.

"Yes. I've already found people. People who can do extraordinary things." He smiled. I stood there for a full minute, looking at him uncertainly.
"Could you back up a bit please? I'm trying to change and no offense, but you seem kind of creepy…" The man restored his composure, moving back into the main room with the map. I put on the jeans and pulled on the chequered shirt, leaving it unbuttoned but rolling up the sleeves. I pulled on the socks and a pair of leather converses, walking back into the main room. "Well, the shoes fit." I said, scratching the back of my head. The doctor offered me a cup of tea, which I took, smiling. It wasn't as sweet as I liked, but I hadn't had tea in such a time that I didn't care enough to bring it up. "So…erm…" I waited awkwardly until the doctor nodded.
"Chandra Suresh."

"Right." I nodded. "What were these questions?" He gestured for me to sit down at the table with him, where his laptop sat. He sat down in front of the laptop as I moved to sit on the other side of the desk.

"Have you experienced anything outside the norm?"
"What's outside the norm?"

"An ability you didn't have before-"

I sighed.
"I'm good at climbing." I said, hopelessly.

"Good at climbing?" He repeated. I shook my head.
"Since two years ago, I just started to climb. Really fast."
"Did you climb before?"
"Nope. Not at all." Chandra nodded and tapped a few keys on his laptop before looking back at me.

"Anything else?"
"It's like…everything is enhanced." Chandra's face changed to bemusement. "Like, I can hear a conversation a block away, I can sprint faster then anyone else I know, I can dodge anything." Chandra nodded, typing this down as he did so. He moved to take a USB, only to knock over his mug of tea. I moved a hand and caught the cup the moment it fell off the table. Chandra beamed at me again.
"Amazing." He said. "Your reflexes are amazing. They're extraordinary." I jumped my eyebrows. "How do you use your ability?"
"I don't." I said. "It's not an ability. I just…it's natural. It's like instinct. I just…know how to climb. And the other stuff."

"So, it's passive."
"Sure." I said.

"Do your parents have any abilities like this?"
"I don't know."
"Your father?"
"We aren't really on speaking terms."

"Your mother?"
"Dead." I said flatly. He nodded solemnly.
"I'm sorry." He said.
"Yeah well…" I trailed off, awaiting his next question.

"So, what do you do as a job?"
"Well, I'm sort of between jobs at the moment." I shrugged. Suresh typed that down.

"What part of Ireland are you from?"
"You a doctor of phonetics too?" I asked with a grin. "Dublin. Near the North Dock."

"But you moved around since then?"
"Been in New York for four years."

Chandra nodded. He got up and walked to the kitchen to get something, coming back and sitting down, knocking off the mug again. This time, I tried to catch it, but by the time I outstretched my arm it was shattered on the floor.
"I guess no one has flawless powers."
I began to realise how aware I was of my limbs. I shook my head. Sound was muffled now.

"We have to get out of here." I said, getting up and walking to the window and opening it, poking my head out to look for a fire escape. There was none. Just the street below, as I saw a black van parked outside. "That's them."
"Who?"

"They're coming for me." I said. "Is there anyway out of this place?"

"You said you can climb-"

"It's complicated. I need to go now." I said.

He nodded.
"Go outside, run past the stairs and through the window – there's a fire escape there." I nodded.

"Thank you Chandra." I said. I jogged into the bedroom, taking the wallet from the scrubs and shoving it into the jean pockets. I ran out of the door, closing it quietly and running around the corner to the staircase, peeking down to look for any armed men coming up. I heard them before I saw them, and crept to the window, opening it and climbing out onto the fire escape. I started to slowly go down the stairs, careful to skirt around the windows.

I reached the bottom of the stairs, jumping down onto a dumpster and rolling off into the alleyway. I ran back through the alleyway, leading to the other side of the block. I looked around at people, watching them move around. As I looked around, however, I saw a cab pull up in front of me. A door opened as I saw the African man who dulled my senses sitting there in the drivers seat. I turned to run but the voice stopped me.

"Don't." The man in horn-rimmed glasses sat there, watching me intently with a gun pointed at me. "You can't dodge bullets this time." I clenched my jaw in anger. "Get in the car." I breathed deeply, and did as I was instructed. I sat in the car, watching the man with the gun carefully as we started to drive. "Good."

"How did you find me?" I asked.
"It wasn't hard. Just looked for sightings of a boy jumping around rooftops. Not that common." I shook my head.

"Son of a bitch…" I shook my head. Careless. I was careless.

"Now, we're going to take a plane back to the facility, where-"

I pushed the gun out of my way, pointing it into the front of the car, then shoved him out of the car, pushing him into the traffic. I threw my hands around the driver's neck, trying to choke him out. He grabbed my arm and swung the car around into an alleyway. I flew around to the other side of the cab, my head hitting the window. The car screeched to a halt. I opened the door and stumbled out of the cab, making my way down the alleyway. I turned around quickly to see the man there following me. I threw a sloppy punch in his face, unbalancing myself and dropping onto my side. The man lifted me up and threw me against a dumpster. I tried to push myself up, but he threw me back against the wall. He held my arm across my chest in a pressure point.
"I am sorry, but in order to play your part, you cannot be who you are now." I tried to tell him to explain, but was too shocked and overwhelmed to say anything. I was just too confused. He moved a hand towards my forehead, as his necklace dropped into my view. It was the Kensei sign. I knew about it. I had it too…

His hands covered my eyes, causing me to scream in pain as I felt him tear my head apart, mutilating my brain in pieces. Then blackness.

That's it for Chapter One guys. It's a long one, but it's more of a prologue. You get to know the character a bit and it sets up the story. I'm trying to work on several other stories, but will try to update as much as I can. If you have any questions please ask – any suggestions, please tell. Anyhow, I've been working on this all day so I'm going to let you read.

Also, I'm looking for someone who can write a POV about a certain character. PM me for further information if you're interested in writing – for spoiler purposes, I won't give any information on this person – only that they have an ability.