Drowned in the fear of onset schizophrenia, Mike grasps his head. Voices, thoughts all permeating deep into his mind from those around him. The sheer magnitude makes him lose his footing and he slams into a light post redirecting him from entering the street. Sweat piles up from the heat of his mind, over-exerted by the white noise of hundreds of conversations. Searching for a sensible voice, yet fleeing from its prospect. Vague hints of his conscious seep through as he manages to ask himself, "Am I crazy?" amidst all the other people talking. The dim corner of the block takes his eye; he rushes towards the secluded alleyway. From the darkness, the image of a lit sign shines against the opposite wall. Light fragments out into an unbroken form with no direction. Squinting his eyes to follow their movement, setting the cracks of the mental breakdown. As all else fails to calm his senses, desperation begins to swell. An urgent want to disappear to a happier place. A need. It has to happen. All his struggle builds up as he pictures the perfect place away from the big city; a simple place in isolation. A quiet place. Void of people, a place that simply has no one around. Just the vision of a picture he was able gaze upon from the inside last place he could remember.
It all is a flicker at first, and the energy flows faster and faster with the picture turning from a faded concept to a clear image. Something snaps, he can feel the fresh breeze of salt filled air. Almost as fast as the change of location the very same happens which causes a release of breath as he lays down in the wet sand. Each wave washes new life into his spirit. Every sound emptying his mind. The cold brings yet more water into his shoes, and almost pulls the stress with it while the water recedes. Time slows metaphorically during the reconstruction of his sanity.
Gears in his mind begin to turn. Gradually his location, the voices, it all comes together. It was real, and he remembers it. Still unsure of what exactly happened, an unknown guy and girl followed the path emitted in his wake. The very sight of their appearance, causes Mike to crawl backwards in a meager attempt to flee. From, them? Perhaps. From the breakdown he believes may actually be happening? Maybe. His eyes looking at nothing while focusing straight ahead on a concept that can't be real, as his body continues backwards. Fear stalls his movement, his eyes shifting back and forth between each person in front of him. Another wave crashes into the beach and pulls mike back into the moment, pushing him into heavy breathing. Gasping for air, one of the two goes to retrieve a small paper bag, and hands it over to Mike. Mike grabs the bag automatically, blows into it and follows up instead by poping it with his hands.
A few moments pass by, the concerned looks on the to onlookers at Mike.
Weaker than the sound of the ocean, Mike utters a word under his breath, "Hi," breaking the silent stares.
"Hey, I know you must be freaking out right now but it's ok."
"Yeah, each of us were here at one point, it'll get easier."
"Ok… so what's going on?"
"You've awoken a sleeping gene in your body, and has mutated you into a new species."
"I'm sorry," Mike crazily laughs and chokes out, "what?"
"Cara, hold up; there's no need to jump right into it."
The two strangers look at eachother for what feels like hours. Talking to each other privately, arguing how to best discuss the situation to a new potential recruit. *You know what? I got this. Let me deal with him.*
"I'm Mike." Mike says while standing up. Patting himself down, as a means to remove the encrusted sand off of his clothes with a somewhat aloof look on his face.
"Hi, I'm Cara, and this is Stephen. We are here to help you." Cara says with some concern. "I know there are a ton of questions you have about what's exactly going on, but there isn't much time. Soon a group called Ultra will be after you, they probably aren't far behind us. We have to hurry." Cara says while looking around the area, scanning for anything out of place.
Puzzled, Mike thinks through a few scenarios. One; Either, they must be attempting to recruit him into their ranks in a war and maybe don't have any idea about the capabilities of this 'Ultra'. Two; He's still crazy. Three; They genuinely care about his wellbeing. Four; Or, these people have no idea what they're talking about as they're in the middle of nowhere at the moment. Allowed to think uninterrupted, Mike responds pausing between the first few words, "So then. War. Great. I assume you have a safe place to hide then?"
"Yeah, here hold on to my hand, I'll teleport the both of us there now." Stephen says outreaching his right hand. Mike grabs onto it with trust and all that's left behind for a few seconds is a tuft of smoke in the shape of their bodies.
Immediately the dampness of an underground cave surrounds Mike. Cara and Stephen have been used to being in the abandoned subway system, and openly greet the others of their group. They introduce Mike to everyone with kindness, each person coming up in a unique way.
Russell says, "Welcome to becoming a human-superior."
A few of the others just shrug, and John comes forward and practically states how dangerous life is for them in an attempt to control the situation.
"Ok, I think I understand what's going on, but first I'd like to learn a little bit more about the powers I now possess, it'll help me wrap my mind around our actual strengths as a whole and give me some time to reflect about what has transpired and think about what to do next."
Stephen gets a call from Jedikiah, interrupting the conversation. "We need you to come in, a new development has been made. The tomorrow people are getting better at recruiting others, I heard our scouts felt a flow of energy move. They report someone we were pursuing was detected, two sources followed after and now we've lost track of them. It's possible there's another new group out there.
"On my way, sir." Stephen says before gazing around in an awkward state as a means to show his farewells before teleporting to the base of Ultra. Cara tells him to go. Upon Stephens departure, the crowd quickly dissipates.
With most everyone dispersed now, no longer interested in the new party member; everyone was more intrigued by their own prospects.
Cara openly says, "Stephen is the chosen one, from what I've heard and seen, he has powers none of us have had. His father is also the founder of our group and there is talk about a safe haven for our kind out there. He might be there now."
"Look kid, this is a fight that we have to win. And it's my duty to protect everyone here, so it's time for you to begin your training."
"Training?" Mike asks intrigued at the learning experience.
"Yeah, you'll learn all the different ways to use the powers we have and how to effectively use them if you need to." John says, "I've got things to attend to, welcome to our base."
A crooked smile becomes visible upon Mike's face, a fervorous look glints outwards from an eye. John telepathically tells Cara before leaving, "This may be a bad idea."
"You know what? I'll teach you the basics. I'm kind of stuck down here most of the time anyway." Cara offers.
"What do you mean stuck down here?" Mike genuinely asks
"It's a long story, but I had staged having my powers removed in order to get out of ultras main base. So I can't go to the surface as freely as before."
"I thought you were never free to teleport or use powers up on the surface as you'd stick out like a sore thumb."
"Yes, but if I get found, Stephen will be in trouble as he is the one who was supposed to have injected me with the "antidote".
Mike just stands around absorbing all of the information he had just learned. Standing still and contemplating on how best to proceed, Cara interrupts his train of thought by saying, "Follow me." as she heads towards the training ground in another section of the base.
Mike recedes back into thought during the walk down to the training grounds. *These people are in a lot of trouble. They're fighting a pointless war by themselves, each one acting as a leader. We can just… ignore Ultra. Their plan of recruiting more people is obviously the best idea, but they've become completely engrossed in this drama. They're far, far too busy to realise that they've lost the ability to focus on any priority and cannot function properly because of being emotionally compromised. With some basic information of Ultra and their bases, we can easily set up a better hideout in a greater location. Randomly choosing where to appear to gather food, steal technology that can be used… We can easily have a self sustained culture eventually with these powers. Oh man… this is exciting [he pictures lifting a 500 ton weight and harnessing the frictional energy caused by gravity pulling it downwards] *unlimited power! Oh jeez… we can out produce entire corporations individually! I can't wait to leave this underground train station after learning more about what I can actually do. In 10-15 years time, we can become our own world power and provide all the basic necessities of life to everyone, everywhere. Hopefully, maybe. I don't know... I need to know more about what exactly we can do.*
"That's quite the thought." Cara says.
"Wha.. what? I didn't say anything did I?"
"Besides being able to teleport, move objects with our minds, or the rare ability of stopping time. We also happen to be telepaths."
Mikes jaw drops, and locks up in place; frozen in fear from the violation of his mind.