- 1 -

- The Reporter's Truth -

Louise Lee was fuming; no one had given her a dead end like that in a number of years. It was a complete stonewall and if this had been a story or any normal situation she might have given up there. But she wasn't here for a story; she wasn't here because normal circumstances bade her to be. Louise Lee was here because her boyfriend was missing after being attacked, having his family murdered, and then disappearing from right in front of her eyes outside of a hospital. S.T.A.R.T. labs was her last chance at finding out just what the hell happened because Cal's problems all started when he was attacked by that monster at their labs.

Not that S.T.A.R.T. labs were her first option; it was only because she had exhausted every other option that she was now sat in a clinically white room, on a hard plastic chair, with the hawk of a receptionist staring at her every fidget. Louise refused to talk to the receptionist after the first four conversations led to the same answer of "I've given you all the information I have, Ms Lee." Now she was waiting for the Section Leader to come out and talk to her.

It wasn't the same place where Cal's father had taken them; it was an office building in London that served as an administrative base for the company. The building where the accident happened was still cordoned off and being investigated. According to the receptionist, during one of the last conversations before Louise started her strike, the entire complex had been shut down and no-one had been allowed to enter. Louise had immediately been doubtful; she didn't have to be a reporter to know that that isn't the way governments worked. Sure, the actual incident room was probably still out of bounds, depending on what that gas was that was spraying around inside, but the rest of the labs would be back operational.

Louise suddenly stopped fidgeting and sprang to her feet. "That's it!" she shouted, nearly causing the receptionist to leap out of his chair in alarm. Louise nearly jumped across to his desk and laid her hands down on the counter. "Look, you better find me a Section Leader right now and drag them here by their ears, or I'm going to do it instead." The receptionist looked ready to puke, or run away, but a polite coughing from her back caused Louise to turn around.

Stood in the centre of the room, nearly exactly, was a man. He wasn't particularly tall, although he was taller than Louise, and his brown hair was cut short to a near buzz cut. He had vivid blues eyes that stood out even more against his slightly dark skin. A crisp white suit adorned him, complete with a pair of pointed white shoes, a dark shirt, and a silver tie.

"I hope you're the Section Leader the receptionist kept talking about." Louise said coolly, crossing her arms under her breasts.

"Unfortunately not…" the man said, but raised his hand as Louise started to speak again. "I am, however, the Director; is that sufficient?" Amar Watson said, not unkindly.

Louise faltered for a second before regaining her composure. "I suppose so. I'm here about the accident that happened at one of your labs that resulted in the disappearance of my boyfriend." She said quickly, brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes.

"I am aware of the situation. I am Amar Watson, by the way." He held out his hand and Louise stepped forward to shake it. Her hand never touched Amar's, however, simply passing through it and causing the hand to break away into pixels and reform. Amar laughed out loud as Louise looked startled. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh but I couldn't resist. I'm actually in Metropolis at the moment, but I heard you were around and decided to drop by, so to speak. Obviously I wasn't going to waste time flying all the way here. Before you ask any more questions, and before I can answer any, let's go down to my office."

The virtual Amar led the way, Louise following behind, and after turning a few corners, he ushered her through a door with his name on it. Being virtual, he couldn't open the door himself so he asked Louise to do it as he disappeared and when the door was opened, he was sitting at the desk. Louise closed the door behind her and sat in one of the chairs that Amar pointed at, placed at an angle in front of his desk.

"So what can I help you with? I understand your current situation is being handled by the police." Amar said, forming his fingers into a peak and gazing over them.

Louise snorted. "Yeah, like the police could get anywhere when they aren't even trying to get into the lab where it started."

Amar frowned. "To my understanding, your boyfriend disappeared from the hospital. I realise that his visit to the hospital was indeed because of the accident that happened at the labs, but I can't see how is disappearance could be linked."

Louise cocked her head sideways with a look that said she thought Amar was dumb to think she was that dumb. "I'm not an idiot, I'm a reporter. When Cal disappeared, it wasn't because he ran off when no-one was looking; he literally disappeared right under my nose. Once second he was there, the next he wasn't. I'll add that this was after knocking holes in buildings and denting cars with his bare fists. Now, nothing in the hospital would do that to him so by process of elimination; it had to have been in the lab." She paused and when Amar didn't say anything, just kept his gaze on her, she continued.

"It's what I just remembered in the waiting room. When that monster-thing threw Cal across the room like he was made of paper, he ended up in a room with something that was spraying some kind of gas around the room. That was why the room locked down and I couldn't get to him."

Amar nodded slowly. "Yes, the room would lock down. I understand it was explained to you that the gas Calvin was exposed too was a nerve toxin our company was working on."

"Like hell it was." Louise said instantly. "I know nerve toxins, and being knocked out isn't what it does to you; not without a number of other effects first."

Amar narrowed his eyes but didn't say anything. Instead, he seemed to be thinking about what to do next. Then his shoulders sagged a bit and his mouth opened in an inaudible sigh. "Ok, Ms Lee, you got us. The gas that Calvin was exposed to was not a nerve toxin as we have said." Louise raised her eyebrows in surprise; she hadn't been expecting Amar to give up the truth so quickly, if at all. "It was actually a gas designed to genetically alter the structure of the human body in order to grant abilities beyond the natural."

Louise had a very disbelieving expression on her face. "I'm sorry?" she managed to say.

"You heard me correctly." Amar stood up and clapped his hands, causing a large television screen to descend from the ceiling against the wall to his right; Louise turned to her left to look at it. All it was showing at the moment was some sort of screen saver that consisted of an image of 'S.T.A.R.T.' rotating around in the centre. "But I can see that you don't believe me. Here, watch this." He gestured at the screen and the screen saved popped away to reveal a high quality image of what seemed to be some kind of lobby.

"That's the Metropolis Central Bank." Louise said. Amar nodded and gestured at the screen again, indicating to Louise to watch while at the same time activating the video.

The camera was set above the main counter area, with a wide angled lens that saw about 70% of the lobby with the main entrance more or less directly in front of it. Louise watched as a black clad figure entered the building but was stopped at the door by two guards. After a brief conversation, and without any warning or apparent movement, one of the guards was thrown through the glass running along the side of the door. Louise's eyes widened in surprise and she stood up to get a better look at the television. The second guard had pulled his gun but he too was sent bafflingly flying, this time straight backwards where he disappeared under the camera's view.

The attacking figure stepped into the lobby, in front of all the cowering people, and raised his arms. "Oh, you'll want to hear this bit." Amar said suddenly and clicked his fingers, activating speakers that had previously been turned off.

"Leave the room now please; I wouldn't want to harm any innocent civilians." The figure said and Louise froze where she had been tapping her fingers along her arm.

"But that's Cal's voice." She said slowly before rounding on Amar. "You're telling me that Cal's accident gave him super powers and now he's robbing banks. But he was throwing those men like they were nothing! Just like…him." Her realization sank in as she remembered the masked man.

Amar had stopped the video with a gesture and was watching Louise carefully. "Well, not exactly like him. Not as far as I am aware." Louise was staring at him but didn't attempt to speak. "I know exactly what the masked man can and can't do, but I have no idea of the potential of Cal's abilities. The substance he was exposed to was a brand new idea concocted and put into reality by Richard and Susan Kelham; Cal's parents. You see, instead of trying to develop specific powers within a person, as START had been doing previously, the Kelhams decided that we should think broader and their idea was to turn the human body into a battery and allow it to manifest its own abilities."

"Parallel to that, they began to think of ways to power such abilities without adding strain to the body. So they found a way to convert the cells in the human body into solar batteries with the ability to store a near infinite amount of energy. A billion cells holding near-infinite energy! It was genius." Amar paused and looked down at the floor. "Unfortunately, we have not been able to replicate the process. Richard and Susan took the secrets to their deaths."

Amar's head suddenly exploded in pixels as Louise's open palm passed through it with a slap that never connected. "That's all you can say about them! They were murdered and all you can say is how unfortunate it is that you didn't know the secret of creating an army of invincible soldiers!" An idea dawned on Louise and she pointed her finger threateningly at Amar; whose head had now reformed. "You trying to capture Cal, aren't you? You want to break his body down to reveal the secrets of the Kelham's formula!"

"Not exactly the plan but I'm not about to tell you what that is, now, am I?" Amar said as a sly grin appeared on his face.

Louise suddenly took a step back as a look of worry appeared on her face. "So why did you tell me all of this?"

"It's not like you'll be able to tell anyone." Amar said and watched as Louise spun around to dash for the door.

Only there was now a person behind her and as soon as she started her forward momentum towards the door, she felt a needle slid into her neck and her eyes widened as the drug was applied. The figure had a deep hood, blue in colour, throwing his face into shadow and Louise had a panicked flash back to the man who had attacked them in the labs. She lurched away from the figure but stumbled once before collapsing to the floor.

The man in question lowered his hood to reveal that the left side of his face appeared to be melted, physically. All the skin was drooping and loose, showing the underside of his eye and giving his mouth a permanent lop-sidedness. Some of the skin from his chin was joined to the skin around his collar bone. Apart from that, he looked normal with dark brown hair and green eyes. He was wearing a loose necked brown jumper, over a pair of loose jeans and white trainers on his feet. A white lab coat sat on top of that, with the blue hooded coat on top of that.

"You want to initiate this girl into the programme?" the man said, his words slightly slurred due to his disfigurement.

"Yes." Amar said as he waved his hand and the television rose back into the ceiling.

"I'm sure I don't need to tell you that she would no doubt have told people she was coming here. If she disappears now, you could be attracting unwanted attention."

Amar smiled. "Please, Decard; give me a little bit more credit. There will be evidence that she left this building in one piece." Amar nodded at the door behind Decard and the scientist turned around to see Louise Lee walk through it.

She was wearing a tight black t-shirt, a black sweatband on each wrist, a black nylon belt holding up a pair black combat trousers, which were tucked into the top of a pair of black combat boots. Her blonde hair sat loose around her face and shoulders.

"This is Launi. She will leave the building, as Louise, and create an alibi at another location: giving anyone trying to find her no reason to believe that her disappearance has anything to do with us." Amar said, walking around his desk to stand in front of her. "I'm sure you'll think of something good for Ms Lee to be doing?"

Launi, wearing Louise's face, smiled widely. "I'm sure I can think of something exciting for her; maybe even outrageous."

"Nothing too flashy." Amar warned and turned to Decard. "Take her to the Labs, and set her up in Riser Initiation."

Decard nodded. "Any one of them you want her to specifically participate in?"

Amar seemed to consider before his sly smile returned to his face. "Give her DOT-091."

Decard rose his remaining eyebrow. "Are you sure that's wise, Amar. We have yet to fully synthesise a successful copy; using it on an unwilling subject is tantamount to throwing it away."

Amar's smile disappeared as he rounded on Decard. "You may have originally worked for him but his instructions were very clear; while you are part of my labs you work under my command. Administer the DOT-091." With that said, Amar pixelated away into nothing.

Decard scowled, while Launi walked across to Louise and flipped her over. She turned her head to Decard. "Time to leave the room, melty face."

"What?"

"Unless you want to explain why Louise decided to change her clothes while she was in here; I need to swap clothes." She looked pointedly at Decard and pointed at him with a slim finger. "So you, creepy pants, can get the hell out of here."

"Fine." Decard lifted the hood to cover his face and exited the room, practically slamming the door behind him.