Chapter 1

John lay awake staring at the ceiling. It was 5.58, the alarms would go off at 6am as usual, signalling for them to get up. He could feel Killian becoming restless in the bed below him, Killian was starting to wake up. After a few months of being at Ultra the recruits bodies starting getting a sixth sense for when it was time to wake up. John hopped down from the top bunk, moments before the alarm went off. He wanted to be the first in the bathroom, to beat the crowd of people that would enter in a few minutes.

There were 4 sets of bunk beds in John's dormitory, each uniformly spaced apart, with two small metal wardrobes lined up beside each bed, one per boy. Eight boys slept in John's room. They all shared the same large bathroom, which had two cubicle toilets, 3 cubicle showers and had 4 sinks. There was always a queue for the bathroom in the morning and John liked to get their first. If he didn't, as the youngest boy in the dormitory, he'd be pushed to the back of the line. The girls had it much easier; there were only 5 of them to the same sized bathroom.

John walked back towards his bed after having showered and brushed his teeth. Their dormitory looked peculiar, even though most of the boys were teenagers, the room had no posters or photographs or anything that made the room personal. Everything was uniform. Every bed was made in the same way, everyone had the same uniform, the same pajamas, even the boy's haircuts were similar. Ultra was very strict about personal items, if you had any they were to be kept out of sight in you wardrobe. No individuality was allowed.

John wasn't surprised to see Killian barely out of bed, he had never been a morning person. John approached his small wardrobe, pulling out a light grey T-shirt and dark grey combat trousers. John had been here nearly 2 years, he had just turned 15 and was the youngest recruit by a few years. Every other recruit was now over 18, the oldest being Dan who had just turned 24.

As Killian went to shower, John got dressed. He exited the room, using a cuff on his wrist to unlock the door. The cuffs were how they controlled the TP recruits, the cuff was called a suppression variant. When activated, it could prevent a TP from using his or her powers. The cuff remains on the TP at all times during training and can be deactivated to allow powers to be used. It also served as a key, unlocking doors that the TP has been allowed access to and was used to track the TP's movements across the building.

The cuffs were only deactivated in the training rooms. At night they were kept activated to ensure the recruits couldn't teleport out of their bedrooms. The recruits were also denied access to their dormitory door after 9pm, after this time, no matter what happened, recruits were stuck in their rooms all night.

John wasn't stupid, he knew he was a prisoner, whether the others saw it or not. But Ultra was the government, they legally controlled his life and he couldn't do anything about it.

John made his way towards the gym, he completed the 10 mandatory morning laps around Ultra's athletics track. This equated to a 4km run, a morning warm up expected of all recruits. John ran slightly more than this as he had decided to wait for Killian to finish his laps.

"McCrane." Jedikiah had called Killian over before they could leave. John glanced at them curiously, before making his way to breakfast. Killian would be while.

"Have you made your decision yet, regarding the Annex Project?" Jedikiah enquired.

"I'm still considering, sir."

"Killian, you've been given all the information. This could make you a better soldier, it's a once in a life time opportunity for you to develop a skill that no other TP has. The first Annex drug trials are starting next week and I'm giving you the chance to be one of a new wave of revolutionary TP agents."

"I know sir, and I'm grateful you're giving me this chance. But I've never done a drug trial like this before sir."

"I understand your concerns Killian, but the some of the best doctors in the US are working on this project." Jedikiah continued, "These trials may seem intensive, but they are safe." Jedikiah fully understood the risks of the procedures, but he needed Killian to agree to these trials. Killian considered, for what seemed like a long time.

"Ok sir," he said, with some reluctance. "I'll do it."

TTP

Killian grabbed a bottle of water and some fruit from the cafeteria and sat down opposite John. He ate nervously, his eyes not leaving the table. John eyed him suspiciously.

"What was that about?"

"Nothing." Killian said dismissively, looking up to change the subject. "What was your time?" John grinned.

"14 minutes 38 seconds." He beamed.

"4K in under 15 minutes, you're getting pretty fast Johnny boy." He smiled tightly, looking down at his food.

"It can be a lot better though, Alex once ran it in 12 minutes." He looked over at the cheerful, blonde haired recruit that John was referring to.

"Yeah well, Alex is 21 and has longer legs than you. I wouldn't get your hopes up on beating him just yet. Just under 15 minutes is really good for a 15 year old." John shot him an annoyed look, he wanted to be good in general, not just good for his age.

They finished their food in silence, before heading to a sparring session. The first half hour of this session always involved a long lecture and demonstration before anyone was allowed to fight.

"Today you will be practicing unarmed hand to hand combat. There will be times when you are in a fight and have no weapons, in some cases, you will not be able to use your abilities. So today we will practice hand to hand combat, without powers." The instructor snapped.

"Your body is a weapon. It is a weapon that will always be present, something you can always rely on. If trained properly, it can be more deadly than a gun, more stealth than a knife. And most importantly, if you walk into a situation with only your body to defend you, most people will think of you as harmless, not a threat."

"Today we will learn various disabling techniques, to enable you to take out your enemy quickly and quietly."

John was usually paired with Killian, but today he was paired with Sarah, a 19 year old recruit from Connecticut. When John first arrived at Ultra he was smaller than all the recruits by a long shot, now at 15 he was pleased to see he was taller than most of the girls, if only by a few centimetres. He still had quite a bit of growing to do before he would feel like a man, not to mention some muscles to develop.

In technique both John and Sarah were evenly matched, and although John had the edge on speed, Sarah, now fully grown, was used to her body's proportions. This meant her moves were less clumsy than Johns. The sparring session lasted two hours and both Sarah and John succeeded in disabling each other many times, using a variety of new techniques.

TTP

The afternoon session were specialized. Recruits were able to work one on one with an older TP, this offered Ultra the chance to specifically target and improve recruits weak spots. John's trainer was Roger Price.

"Hello John." He smiled as the boy entered.

"Hey." John replied.

"In the past few weeks, I've had you focus on taking out 3 or 4 trained humans using your powers to give you the edge. You've succeeded in this, but now we are going to step it up a notch. I've asked 10 trained human agents to be here today. They will be using laser guns, if you get hit by the laser your shot, and TIM" Roger glanced up, "will tell me as soon as your hit. Your job is to disable all the guards without injuring yourself."

On the first trial, John teleported behind a centre guard, pushing with his telekinesis to knock him down, before teleporting to the other side of the room and ripping a gun from a guard's hand, kicking at the back of his knee and causing the man to fall to his knees. As John teleported out, lasers hit the wall, they had just missed him. He teleported behind a guard on the opposite side of the room, but this man was ready; as John reached to put him in a sleeper hold he pulled John forward over his shoulder and slammed his back into the floor. John groaned immediately teleporting both him and the man grasping his arm across the room, the man pushed away from John after his teleport, eyes wide with fear and John stared at him for a moment too long.

"Shot." Was all TIM said. It was enough to make John break eye contact with the terrified human guard. John stood to his feet.

"Again." Roger said.

The process continued to repeat, but John improved. By the end of the session he had managed to take out 8 of the 10 guards. Roger had been evaluating him the whole time.

"You did very well, you improved dramatically. Pretty soon I'll be having you take out multiple TP agents." He put his hand supportively on John's shoulder, smiling down at him. "Teleporting has always been a strength for you John, but you're competent at telekinesis too. I think next time, you should try pushing more than one guard at a time, pushing out in a direction and temporarily knocking back the guards will give you cover when you appear after teleporting."

John always enjoyed his sessions with Roger, but in the past few days he felt different. He was angry at himself for liking the people that were keeping him prisoner. John left the session feeling utterly confused. A few weeks before he had been happy at Ultra, he was out of his foster home, he had made a friend; life felt good. But now he felt different things had changed, he had changed.

Maybe to be continued? Depending on if people are interested. If I do continue it, John will probably go through a rebellious teenager phase.