Chapter One

Awakening

Palm Beach County June, 3 8:34 Am

Klaxons, I heard Klaxons. Why do I hear Klaxons? It's June, Kyra and I are out of school. It must have something to do with the day for Kyra's alarm to go off, but what? Just waking up my mind is groggy and I don't really even create a solid thought until I smell Bacon wafting its way into my room, still groggy I look at my calendar, perpetually projected onto my wall, June 3. June 3, why is that important? What I wouldn't give to be a morning person sometimes. I did a quick recheck of the facts, Kyra's alarm, Bacon, June 3. "Crap! I forgot my birthday!" For someone with a genius level intellect I am often very slow.

The Klaxons started to pick up again but are suddenly stopped, and within seconds Kyra, my twin sister is standing in the door looking at me, she is in her pajamas and her hair is in complete disarray yet she still looked incredibly composed, a strange gift she has. "Who is making bacon? And why are you still in bed?"

"I don't know, and it's the summer. Why are you awake?"

"It's our birthday dimwit."

"Exactly its' my birthday and I want to sleep."

"Fine, I'll eat all the bacon."

Sometimes she really pressed my buttons, not just mine really she could do it to anyone but, she did raise a valid point, if I don't get up soon there will be no more bacon. I did my best to keep my night owl dignity by rising slowly but it didn't really work, because halfway out from under my covers there was a veritable lightning storm going on between me and my quilt. (Yes I live in south Florida and I sleep with a quilt, is that so wrong?) After, throwing my sheets off me and giving a loud "Oww!" I realized that, it didn't hurt. Sitting on the edge of my bed I realize that for there to be static it requires a buildup of electrons, which happens normally in dry environments, not South Florida. "Weird." I think to myself.

The rest of the trip out of my room is relatively uneventful, thankfully, no more static shocks. On the way to the kitchen I pass by a picture of my grandfather, a military black ops vet, but before I take one step past it the stupid thing falls on my foot. If I wasn't such a logical person I may think of that as an omen, and if it wasn't fifteen pounds falling on my little toe. "Why is this piece of junk so freaking heavy?" I wonder aloud but the walls did not seem to pay me much heed. I finally make it to the Kitchen and find that Natasha, my 'Aunt' is the one making the bacon. She really isn't my aunt but my Dad and she went through black ops training together, yeah family legacy of black ops, fun.

"Hey Nat, what's up?" Kyra and I are the only people allowed to call Natasha by her pet name that my father gave her years ago before he disappeared.

"I'm making bacon." She said matter-of-factly she, also, is not a morning person.

"We can see that, there is coffee in the pot, unlike Kyle, I don't forget our birthday." Kyra sure didn't pull punches in the morning; she is the only true morning person I know.

"Thanks and your grandfather wishes he could be here but is off who knows where doing who knows what. Honestly that man calls himself a veteran; he goes on more assignments than I do." She reached into our cabinet and pulled out a coffee mug, but in her haste to pour herself some coffee she over-shot the mug and drenched herself in the scalding liquid. Not even emitting a grunt she goes to the sink and runs cool water over her hand. Then with no seeming cues she goes and flips the bacon. Black Ops people scare me.

Kyra asks what I'm thinking, "Did that even hurt?"

Nat just grins at us and says, "A little but you should have seen Puerto Rico, that, was cool."

I sigh, yet another vague reference to a classified op that I can't know about unless I commit to joining the Military, something she has been trying to do for a long time. I don't not want to join just because I don't want to hurt people I don't mind that, people are going to get hurt with or without me, but I lost my Mother to the military shortly after I was born. She was killed by a roadside bomb, at least that's what the government told Kyra and myself neither of us believe it though, she was in black ops too probably a mission gone wrong. Then there is my father, one of the few Government secrets Kyra has ever gotten out of Nat is that he just dropped off the face of the earth, not of his own free will.

Merely seconds had gone by since Nat makes the comment about Puerto Rico that Kyra presses her palms to her temples and lets out a scream unlike anything I have ever heard. However the scream was not just vocal, it felt like it was in my mind as well, rattling every thought and overloading my mind with thoughts of pain, not real pain but just like my brain was receiving pain signals from the scream. With a quick, precise motion Nat was at Kyra's side in seconds, a look of pure terror on her face. "Kyra, are you a mutant? I am being serious, have you ever heard someone's thoughts?" She added the last part after Kyra looked at her with incredulity.

"No, that is a stupid question you would know. I tell you everything." Kyra looks like I do when I wake up, not a pretty sight, all her usual composure and dignity, just, gone.

Nat, with terror still plastered to her face, looked at me, "Did you feel it too, in your mind?"

"Yes but does that mean that she is a mutant? And if she is, why am I not? We are twins after all." Then it hit me, the static this morning. First, it didn't hurt; all that electricity should have hurt. Second, it was raining most of the night, there should not have been enough static in me to cause that much of a display. Finally, third, thinking back I notice something my groggy mind had missed; the static was red, not blue like normal. The realization must have been all over my face because not only Nat but Kyra looked terrified also; there was a good minute of silence before Kyra finally said "Kyle did something happen to you too?"

After explaining what happened to me Nat coolly got up and simply said, "I have a phone call to make."