Interview with A Tomorrow Person

By Anne Olsen and John Garrett

Authors' Notes

This is an interview from the Shadows and Light Character Interview series. It was first published in the S&L newsletter dated July 2001. For more information about the Shadows and Light universe please check out the website at http://www.alternate-realities.net.shadowsnlight or http://clik.to/shadowsnlight

Thanks to Amethyst Maiden for the beta read.

Disclaimer

The characters of Megabyte and Millie Damon do not belong to us. Neither do Adam Newman, Ami Jackson, Kevin Wilson, Jade Weston or Lisa Davis (mentioned in name only.) They belong to Roger Damon Price, Thames/Tetra and ITV Television.

Kenny does belong to us and should not be used without permission

Feedback to: anneo@paradise.net.nz and gar3358@yahoo.com

****************

Kenny poked his head around the door of the Damon household, looking for his friend Megabyte. "Hi Millie. Is Megabyte in?"

"He's up in his room. Hang on, I'll let him know you're here." Millicent Damon stood at the bottom of the huge wooden staircase and yelled towards her brother's room. "Megabyte, Kenny's here."

"Send him up, Millie, I'll talk to him up here."

Kenny climbed the stairs to his friend's bedroom, entered and sat himself down on the chair next to Megabyte's computer desk. He noticed all the boxes in the room and Megabyte's annoyed expression at the same time.

"You people moving or something?" he asked the redhead. Megabyte was obviously starting to pack away all his computer games, videos and movie related stuff.

"Yeah, some nowhere town in California. Sunnydale, I think it's called."

"Never heard of it."

"That makes two of us," Megabyte complained. "Another few weeks and I'm out of here."

"Do you think you'll come back this way at all?"

Megabyte shrugged. "Who knows? Still it won't be a problem if I want to, what with the teleporting and all."

"Funny you should mention that," commented Kenny. "Remember how you said you'd fill me in on all that Tomorrow People stuff? Well the time has come. Do you mind if I act all interviewer on you and ask loads of questions?"

"Yeah sure, no problem. Just don't take any notes. No one's supposed to know we exist. You don't either, remember? If Adam found out I'd teleported in front of you he'd kill me," Megabyte joked. He leaned back against the wall, waiting for Kenny to start his 'interview'.

Kenny pulled the list out of his pocket. "First question. What abilities do you have exactly?" He saw the look on Megabyte's face and amended his question. "As a Tomorrow Person I mean."

"We can teleport, go from place to place by thinking about it. But you know that. We can move objects using telekinesis. We're telepathic…"

Kenny interrupted. " Can you read people's minds?"

"Ask the hard ones first, why don't you? Telepathy itself, the speaking to each other, that's sort of between ourselves but the whole mind reading gig, that's a bit more complicated."

"How so?"

"Well, with other people, non TPs like you, we pick up a lot of background noise, surface thoughts, that kind of stuff."

Kenny interrupted, looking worried. "You mean you're picking up what I'm actually thinking?"

"Hey did I say that? Depends on how strongly you're projecting." Megabyte grinned. "Nah, don't worry, you're not. Don't panic, we don't usually read minds or anything. Lot of effort and energy involved. It also depends on how strong a person's natural shielding is. Some people we couldn't read, it wouldn't matter how hard we tried, but others would be a lot easier."

"So what category do I fall under then?"

Megabyte laughed. "Do you really want to know? More fun this way, at least from where I'm sitting."

"You're evil, Megabyte. You do know that don't you?"

Megabyte smirked. "I aim to please. Okay, so what's the next question?"

"Okay," Kenny consulted his list again. "Can you hurt people with your powers?"

Megabyte shook his head again. "There's this whole no killing thing built into us. We can't kill even if we want to, and I tell you there's been a couple of creeps out there who are really lucky we can't. Even the thought of violence makes me feel ill. I suppose it's there as some sort of failsafe."

"So that answers my next question then, I suppose." Kenny looked embarrassed as he continued. "Are you planning to take over the world?"

Megabyte laughed. "And people tell me I've seen too many B grade movies. Don't worry Kenny you're safe… for now. It's a bit hard to take over the world when you have this whole non-violence thing." He thought for a moment and then continued, his blue eyes twinkling as he spoke. "Of course if that changes I'll make sure you're the first to know."

The tone of his voice became serious for a moment. "Joking aside, at the moment, I think we've got enough problems just surviving. Having these powers tends to bring all the creeps, scuzzballs and things that go bump in the night out of the woodwork. There's a down side to the whole superhuman powers thing you know, even Spidey has his problems."

Kenny looked at his friend for a moment, feeling a little worried. It wasn't like Megabyte to come out with comments like this at all. He wondered exactly what his friend had been through the last few years. He decided to lift the tone of the conversation, fast.

"Could you sneak into a movie theatre… or appear in a girl's locker room?"

"I wish. Trouble is teleporting is pretty loud, and they might hear me coming. Hey it's not like invisibility. Once you get where you're going you're there, if you know what I mean. Girl's locker room." Megabyte shrugged. "Yeah, imagine trying to explain that one to Dad. He thinks I get into enough trouble as it is."

"Who are you? What do you want? Do you have anything worth living for?"

"Yeah right, Kenny…"

"Oops sorry, wrong list. Moving right along then. How many Tomorrow People are there?"

"Five of us at the moment, six if you count Lisa."

"Lisa?"

"Yeah Lisa broke out about the same time as Kevin and I did. We haven't seen her for years though. She broke contact shortly after we met. It's a long story which I'm not going to go into now, call it another example of the down side of being a Tomorrow Person."

Megabyte paused, as though he was remembering something he didn't particularly want to. Kenny got the distinct impression that it was something he wouldn't talk about even if pushed, so he dropped the subject and waited for his friend to continue.

"As well as me there's Kevin, you remember him from school? Adam, he's this Australian guy. Ami who's at college in LA at the moment and working for this…guy, Angel. Oh yeah, and Jade who's also a Brit."

"Any chance I could become one of you?" Kenny asked. " That would be so cool."

"Hey don't look at me, I don't make up the rules. Anything's possible. Adam thinks everyone has the potential to break out and become a TP. What's the next question?" Megabyte changed the subject, rather too quickly Kenny thought.

"Are you aliens?"

"Been watching Roswell again?" inquired Megabyte. "No, we're human alright. We're supposed to be the next stage of human evolution, that's why we have these powers."

"Well that's all I have on my list, but there is one other thing."

"Yeah sure, whatever. Shoot."

"You mentioned things that go bump in the night before. You don't really believe in that stuff do you?"

Megabyte's face became serious for a moment, before he broke into his usual grin, obviously trying to brush the whole idea off. "You mean vampires and stuff? Yeah, right Kenny."

"Come on Megabyte, I've known you long enough by now. You do know. Come on, you've told me everything else, what's one more thing?"

Megabyte seemed to stop and think, before continuing. "Let's just say that all that stuff about vampires is real. I know, I've met one. There's a lot of really nasty stuff out there, Kenny, really nasty stuff." He shuddered as though remembering a past experience.

Kenny opened his mouth to ask another question. Obviously he'd stumbled over something big here, something he'd never dreamed really even existed. "Megabyte," he started to ask, and then noticed the Tomorrow Person seemed to be miles away. It was almost as though his mind was somewhere else. His suspicions were confirmed when his friend turned to him, a worried expression on his face.

"Sorry Kenny I'm going to have to go. Something's come up."

"Were you, you know, talking to someone telepathically just then?"

"Yeah. Sorry to cut you short but I'll see you before the move, okay?" With that Megabyte closed his eyes, there was a flash of white light and Kenny was left staring at the spot the redhead had just been standing.

Just another average day in the life of a Tomorrow Person, he thought to himself. In some ways he envied the Tomorrow People, but in other ways he definitely didn't. Being caught up in all the bad stuff going down in the world must be really hard.

Kenny smiled to himself. Maybe this move to Sunnydale was a good idea after all. With it being such a small town and all, at least his friend would be away from all that vampire stuff. Yeah Sunnydale might be just what Megabyte and rest of the Tomorrow People needed.

******

~Fin~