Prelude

It was 7:00 am now in Sydney, Australia; Angela Stewart had been up for nearly 24 hours on one cup of coffee and a bag of airplane peanuts. When she took the call she could hardly believe her ears. All her career she was waiting on someone for her experiment; a mutant of the right age to volunteer. That's not exactly what had happened but she was willing to give a little for the sake of research. From what she had heard, technically the kid had just let his identity slip and an old lady happened to see his eyes. Next thing he knew police were surrounding him like a criminal. There's no telling how long he had been hiding out. He was just an unlucky little fellow she thought.

"So how much farther?" she asked the rather large man whom she was following through a maze of hallways in the courthouse.

"Just a little ways more." he replied in is thick Australian accent.

He wore a black suit with overly shiny shoes for the occasion. Over paid cop, she thought. "Do you know what the full extent of his power is?" she asked.

"No not yet we had to tranquilize him."

"Why?" she asked, a little anger in her voice.

"The little bastard nearly electrocuted us all to death. It took nearly twice the dose to take the skinny ankle biter down. He should be nearly awake by now though, considering how long it took you to get here."

"Really now?" she said with a slight laugh. It seemed a little bit of an over exaggeration, that a 15 year old boy took that much man power to hold down; even a mutant 15 year old boy. "Well, I had to make arrangements for my kids; then hop on an overcrowded plane with a thousand other sweaty tourists. So I'm sorry for my delay." He just glanced at her and kept walking.

Just then he turned down a wide hall to their right. "It's down here," he said. "The last door."

Two guards were outside the door and one tall skinny man, in yet another suit, with shortly cropped brown hair. As the large man left, the skinny man proceeded to walk up and greet her with a hand shake.

"Hi, I'm Officer Daniels, I'm the man in charge of the boy." said Daniels.

"Hi officer, I'm Angela Stewart the mutant researcher." she replied

"Right, well, he's right through here if you're ready to see him." he said motioning towards the door."

Angela looked at the thick door uneasily, how bad was this kid? She thought. "I'm ready, I guess." she said; not quite sure what she had just gotten herself into.

He told the guards to open the doors. She took a deep breathe and slowly entered the room.

Chapter 1 - the kid

He was sitting on a metal bench that was attached to the walls in the small cell. They had his hands cuffed behind his back and he was clearly out of it. He was looking down at the floor with his hair covering his face. He was cold because in the process of bringing him in his shirt was torn off.

This is ridiculous he thought as he looked at his bare feet. He could hardly keep his eyes open, but he knew he was recovering from the sedative. They could have at least kept my shoes on my feet. What are they going to do with me? I haven't done anything wrong. He thought. Just then the thick door creaked open and Angela walked in.

"Hi" she said. The boy didn't look up. "I'm Angela Stewart." She was now trying to see his face but with no luck. They weren't playing were they… she thought to herself He really isn't that strong looking. She was walking slower now but still moving towards him. "What's your name?" she asked.

He slowly lifted his head which caused an enormous headache to take over him. Damn cops he thought. He glared at the woman through his thick brown hair. Who the hell does she think she is? Does she think I'm just going to play nicey nice? He thought. Oh Hi! I'm Alex nice to meet you. How was your day? … Oh mine was ace; I just got attacked by twenty police officers while minding my own business. No… I'll make her work for it.

She had brown hair, which was up in a tight pony tail, and a young appearance. She wore a black and gray pant suit with a pink undershirt under the jacket. She had black pointy toed heels that clicked on the hard floor as she walked in. She was tan but it was apparent that it was from artificial sun and not the real deal.

She stopped walking now clearly a little stunned at the glowing blue of his eyes. "Are you cold?" she asked looking at the chill bumps all over his arms.

"No." he said, lying.

"There we've made some progress, are you sure? I can have them bring you a shirt if you like. I don't know why they would be so careless as to let you sit here, shivering." she said talking louder so Daniels could hear her.

A spark flew from his hair and Angela jumped. "What was that?" she asked

What do you mean, 'What was that?' You know good and damn well what it was. Now go away or let me out of here. He thought. The Seppo (American) Sheila is gonna sit here and get me all pissed off and then ill wake up with a horse tranquilizer in my side. "Well you would know wouldn't you? You're the expert I mean." He said sarcastically, his accent shining through; as he looked at her straight on.

She looked his face over. Well he's a smart ass. She thought to herself. How did he know what I did? Had I already told him? No. I hadn't. She knew that for a fact. "Is that your power? To read minds?" she asked trying to sound caring.

He laughed, "No and I find it quite sad when you can't put two and two together."

"What do you mean?" she asked. I hate him more and more every second she thought why won't he just tell me?

"I almost electrocuted everyone. Remember? What that bloke said to you down the hall. It's sad when even a mutant 'expert' can't figure it out. I control electricity, electric currents, and magnetic fields; that sort of thing."

"How…"

"How did I hear you all the way down the hall?" interrupted Alex. "Well let's say my power allows me to have bionic ears. So on and so forth. Depending on how I use it."

"So why haven't you escaped yet; if you can do all that you say you can?" Angela asked.

"Well now that the tranquilizer has worn off… I could." he said with a smirk as his handcuffs fell off of his wrists and onto the bench. He sat up straight, shook the hair from his face and put his hands on his knees. "I won't though."

During this Angela had backed up to the door and was even about to turn the handle. "You won't?" she wondered, her arm relaxing.

"Naw, considering it would involve me smashing through the building, destroying things; you know all that nonsense." he replied calmly. "It would cause a lot of money damages and lawsuits, and I'm no criminal; you see?" I wish I had a camera he thought her face is priceless.

Angela was a little stunned. Once the handcuffs fell she had seen him blow the doors off the hinges, in her imagination. In her research, mutants were always known to have a reckless temper. Although, she had never actually met with one who would talk with her. He seemed different, though, genuinely honest. A perfect candidate if he wasn't so bull headed. She thought. "What did you say your name was?" she asked.

"I never said" he replied.

"What is it? You have to have a name." she said while putting her hands on her hips.

Faster than she could react; he was standing right next to her his face nearly inches away from hers. "No I don't. I'm a mutant. I don't count." he said, laughingly. This is great. I could go on and on. He thought.

The guards saw what was going on and immediately tried to open the door but the door wouldn't budge. It was magnetized shut. Angela was aware of this. She could see the outline of the door glowing faintly. He's trying to scare me. She thought. Just don't let him get to you. But he was getting to her. He was the same age as her own daughter. She couldn't help but feel for the kid and yet she had the urge to hit him.

"What's the matter? We aren't scared, are we?" he asked. "Now, ma'am I'm not going to hurt you."

"Now why would I ever think that?" she snapped. "Let them open the door, their to the point of panic."

"No." he said shocked by her pushiness. "They'll just come in here and sedate me again, and we all know that's no fun." He was backing away from her a little now so he could look through the small window on the door. "Just tell them everything's fine….Now." he said annoyed.

Angela turned cautiously and looked through the small window. "I'm fine" she mouthed the words carefully to make sure they understood. They did. Immediately they calmed down and resumed talking normally amongst themselves. That's reassuring she thought.

"What is your name?" she demanded.

"Again here we go with the name business." he replied. "Just don't worry about it Sheila."

Sheila? She thought. Who does he think he is? "Listen here. If your ready to stop playing around I have a deal I'd like to make with you."

A deal … he thought. That wasn't what he had been expecting. He just stared at her not quite sure how to continue taunting.

"Well?" she pushed.

"…Ok."

"Your name?"

"… Alex."