Chapter One
"So, Mrs. Hopkins? Do you like my car?" Tasha asked as she and Amy were showing off Tasha's new car. The car was a fourteen year old, 2 door hatchback, but it was new to Tasha. Furthermore, she had earned the money herself, working part-time at a nearby pizzeria.
"It's nice Tasha. It really is," Mrs. Hopkins, nee Candler said. "I am just glad we are able to finally able to enjoy normal things in life, now."
It had been a long time since Mrs. Hopkins had broached this subject. Mrs. Hopkins, in her younger days, had worked for Project Crescent. She and the other scientists of the project had thought that Project Crescent was a research program to find cures for debilitating diseases. To their horror, they discovered that the project was secretly funded by a secretive Organization, whose goal was to create a race of supermen to rule the world. The plan had been for twelve cloned girls to be created. Each girl had been genetically altered to be more resistant to disease. Each girl, upon adolescence, would develop superior sight, hearing, strength, coordination, and memory.
When the scientists learned of the true nasture of Project Crescent, they destroyed the facility and adopted out the girls to normal homes. Amy had been the seventh clone, but the last baby at the research facility in Washington, D.C. on the day that the facility was destroyed. In the fire to destroy the facility, Amy had been trapped. When Nancy Candler managed to rescue her, she bonded with the girl and took her as her own daughter. They had been living in Los Angeles ever since, where Miss Candler took a teaching position at a university.
Life was normal until Amy turned twelve. At that age her special abilities began to minifest themselves. Amy learned of her secret origins, which she shared with her friend Tasha. Amy learned of an older group of clone boys named Andy, who had been born four years before, which her mother had been unaware of when working for Project Crescent. Amy met the other Amys and Andys. The Amys and Andys together destroyed the Organization, to the best of their knowledge. For complex reasons, about a year thereafter, the clones, both Amys and Andys, lost their genetically enhanced abilities.
During this time, a former Project Crescent colleague, Dr. Dave Hopkins, came into Amy and her mother's lives. Shortly after the kids lost their special abilities, Amy's mother and Dr. Dave wed.
Now seventeen, Amy was riding along with her mother in Tasha's car as Tasha proudly was driving them to a nearby video rental store to get a movie for the evening.
It was pouring in Los Angeles. There was a slight squeak as the wipers went back and forth. It would be dark in an hour. As the light turned green, Tasha started to turn left. Suddenly, a van came around a curve in the road and slammed into Tasha's car, flipping it onto the passenger side and spinning it so they could see a little of the van that hit them.
The three found themselves trapped in seats as the water on the street rolled into the car. They could hear the panicked cries of the passengers of the van as they quickly exited it. Then they smelled the smoke. The van had caught fire. The three quickly tried to get out of their seatbelts, but they were all trapped. As they fought the urge to panic, they could see how close the fire was. How long would it take to jump to their car?
Suddenly, their car was violently yanked away from the fire. It was turned right side up. The three looked at a young Black man, who reached into the shattered window on the passenger side and grabbed the door. Even though he looked homeless, there was no doubt that he was powerfully built. The bulge of his muscles could easily be seen through his coat.
Through the sound of rending metal, the strange man pulled the door open. He quickly grabbed Amy's seatbelt and with a heave, snapped it in two. He helped Amy from the car. By then Mrs. Hopkins had gotten her own seatbelt loose as had Tasha. They scrambled out of the totaled car. The young man had carried Amy to a sheltered bus stop a few feet away.
He looked at the three of them and said, "You okay?"
After a second, the three of them nodded.
He said, "Good." As he started away, Amy asked him, "Who are you? Where do you live?"
He looked at them. "My name doesn't matter." He turned and walked away.