Warnings: Slash (Colt/Punk) (Hacksaw Jim Duggan/Rowdy Roddy Piper), Minor Het (John Cena/Nikki Bella) (Daniel Bryan/Brie Bella), Profanity, Future smut, AU setting, Sequel to Rhizomorph.


The training centre is nice, and that's about all John is able to say about it. It's a nice place to call home base, but that's about it really. When he'd first come two years ago, there'd been a busload of them, all of them scared and confused, suffering from smoke inhalation and bewilderment. The Warehouse had been terrifying. The way it'd caught fire, the way those drones had started shooting, the way everything had gone to shit, and the way that those two guys had looked so calm and focused the whole time.

They'd been kids, no older than John, maybe even a little younger, but they'd looked like they knew what was going to happen, and it'd intrigued him. By nature John's a cautious kind of person, he takes risks but only calculated ones, and there'd been something about those two that had screamed that they were more than willing to take the sort of risks he never would. He'd watched them carefully, had watched the whole group of other talents carefully really, trying to remember them from the first visit he'd made. John had remembered those two right away. The first time, they'd come together, not on the bus with everyone else, but with Heyman, and they'd stood so close that it was obvious that they were together. They'd gone around asking everyone what their talents were, and had offered absolutely no information about their own. They were smart, canny, and far better than the rest of the rag-tag group of talents assembled by Heyman that day, that much had been obvious even from that first visit. The second time John had seen them, it'd been blatantly obvious that they were far above everyone else in the group, so good compared to everyone else that it was laughable to try to make the comparison in the first place.

John's never been great with names, and when Piper walks through the facility, flanked by those two guys from the Warehouse, and tailed by a harried looking Hacksaw, John is left fishing for their names. He knows that they'd given them when they'd first met, but what they are John can't recall.

"Hey... Isn't that the guy who saved your life?" Daniel mutters, and John stares at them even harder, willing names to come to him, but none do, and he wishes they would. "In the Warehouse, he stopped that drone from shooting you. You remember, right?" Daniel fidgets, and stands, drawing the attention of one of the two other members of their group. There are four of them in total. John, the default leader thanks to his personality, and talent. He's a confident guy, sure of himself to a fault, and it makes him a natural leader. His talent, his strength, makes his more than strong enough to protect every other member of his little team. Daniel is a natural fit for the second position, a nice guy and a fairly decent telekinetic, but much more laidback and subdued than John, he's happy in the role of second in command. Then there's the girls, the beautiful, funny, charming girls. Nikki, and her sister Brie. Daniel has it bad for Brie, you can see it in his eyes when he looks at her, and whilst it's lovely and sweet, it's kind of sad really. Brie is just as bad, both of them dancing around what is obvious to John and Nikki. John isn't sure if he's as interested in Nikki as Daniel is in Brie, but he'd not say no if she said she was interested. She's brash and confident, where Brie is mild and shy. Nikki is the fire she controls, and Brie is the ice she wields. They'd not been at the Warehouse, not like John and Daniel, rather they'd grown up in the facility, their parents having dumped them in an orphanage when little Nikki accidentally set the curtains on fire, and Brie had tried to freeze the flames to help. Property damage didn't endear them to their parents, nor did it endear them to the orphanage. Someone from the facility had taken them in, and they've been there ever since.

"Some guy saved your life, John?" Nikki glances up from her book, squinting at the little group of four on the other side of the common room, her voice heavy with amusement. If any member of their team was likely to rival John for the spot of leader, it's Nikki. She'd be damn good at leading, at least to John's estimation, but she seems to enjoy being a little lower on the pecking order.

"Yeah... The guy with the dark hair." Daniel smiles, and Nikki snorts, returning to reading, her interest short lived.

"I'll be sure to thank him." She mutters, a slight smile on her lips, and John looks away from her. Sometimes he's not sure if she likes him or hates him, she's a confusing, and dangerous woman.

"I think the blond one's a telepath." Brie says softly, and John glances over to see Daniel staring at her, rapt with attention at her quiet words. "I felt something press against my shields." John turns his attention to Brie.

"How'd you know it's the blond and not the other one?" John mutters, and Nikki snorts at him, a smirk on her pretty face.

"No telepath is gonna be saving your ass, Cena." She laughs, and John scowls over at her. She enjoys winding him up far too much, and she's far too good at it. "I wonder what they're doing here..." She seems more interested now, sitting up, watching the little scene playing out on the other side of the room. Piper is talking quickly and quietly, clearly explaining what the facility is, and what the rooms are, whilst the two new arrivals look bored. There's a part of John that wants to shake them, and demand that the show Piper the respect he deserves. The old man has been good to John, good to the entirety of the students in the training centre, and he deserves to be respected for his good deeds. Something the blond says amuses Piper, his laugh loud over the dull silence of the common room, and John relents a little. If they can make Piper laugh, these two can't be all that bad.

"Piper seems happy to have another telepath around." Brie's voice is always so soft, like snowflakes on a winter morning, and just like those snowflakes, it fills John with a slight chill. He likes her well enough, but she's too cold, too not Nikki for him to really like. They might be twins, but Nikki is far more beautiful in John's mind.

"It's nice having people with the same power as you around." Daniel offers, and Brie laughs, a tinkling, brittle sound like icicles snapping.

"Hmm... I felt him poking at my shields too." Nikki leans forward in her chair, her eyes narrowed, a dark little smile on her lips. "Blondie's strong... Dangerous. My money is on Piper trying to get him to fix Heyman... Lord knows, Piper wants that creep better for some reason." Her laugh is heavy with blazing amusement, and John has to close his eyes to save himself from being scorched by the flame in her tone. Her fire overwhelms him, and it scares him a little. He's very used to being in control, he has to be, it's far too easy for his strength to get away from him. It's not uncommon for John to over-estimate how strong a door is, and pull it clean off its hinges. Nikki makes him worry, makes him wonder if he'd stomp her fires out, or if she'd reduce him to ashes. There's as much of him that longs to finds out, as there is that dreads it. Piper and Hacksaw suddenly leave, and the two new comers stand watching them go, before coming over to John and his team.

"Hello again, Daniel." The blond smiles, and John frowns. He's not used to feeling on the back foot, but he always feels that way with Piper, so the Twins were probably right about the blond is a telepath, because John feels on the back foot.

"Hi... I think I remember you two from the Warehouse." Daniel smiles awkwardly, his hand outstretched to the blond, who seems to be ignoring it in favour of looking between John and the Twins.

"Yeah, we meet you and John there." The one who saved John's life smiles, and shakes Daniel's hand. "I'm Colt, this is Punk." The blond takes Daniel's hand, and smirks at John, there's more than a hint of amusement in his eyes, and John gets the feeling he's being laughed at.

"You're the leader of this little team then, John?" The blond, Punk, extends his hand to John, and he takes it, shaking it firmly, trying to impress his authority and command in that one handshake. Punk seems utterly unaffected, and even more amused by him for the strength of his handshake.

"Well, I see you're making friends already." Piper appears, and Punk turns to him, a smile on his face. Its galling being summarily dismissed by Punk, John's not used to being dismissed, and he's used to Piper paying him attention over everyone else. There's something in John that's mildly offended at being ignored by him, but it really seems like Piper's concern is on the two new comers. "John, I want you to make use of these two... They're not field tested, but your little team is the best we've got. They'll be useful, I assure you." Piper smiles, and ruffles Punk's hair, getting a mildly annoyed glare for it. "Punk, Colt, this is your group for the next few weeks." There's a pause, and a faraway look in Piper's eyes. He looks rattled, and Punk looks amused more than anything. Witnessing telepathic conversations always unnerves John slightly, it's odd to see how vacant other people look when they're focussed on the voice in their head, but Punk doesn't seem like it really affects him. "I know." Piper snaps eventually, and Colt laughs this time. John can't help but wonder if it was Colt, and not Punk, that Piper was talking to in that exchange.

"We'll be good, don't worry, Pipes." Colt pats Piper's shoulder, and John's beginning to think that the scowl on his face is going to be permanent by the time he gets rid of these two. It's clear that they're a unit, a team, and it's clear that they're not going to make John's life easy. He's used to being in charge, fully in charge, even if Nikki likes to test his boundaries, when it's down the line she does as she's asked, these two are used to being in control of their own fates clearly, getting them to be subordinate might be difficult.

"I hope so... It's only for a few weeks. I need to get some things cleared with HQ, then I'll take them off your hands, John." Piper turns to John trying to look reassuring, but it falls painfully flat. John isn't reassured in the least. This is going to be a complete mess; he can feel it in his gut. 'I appreciate this, John... They're valuable assets, and I'm trusting you to put on a good show for me.' Piper's mental voice is always a shock, and John's never sure how to really reply to it. It always takes him a few moments to be able to cobble his wits together enough to manage it.

'Its okay, Piper. We'll do what we do best. What's the target?' It'll be something important, or something really easy, and John isn't sure which. It all depends on what impression Piper wants to make in the duo standing beside him.

'Ah... The target's details are in the file.' Piper hands him a file, and John starts leafing through it.

'This seems rather simple, Piper. Are you sure this is going to take six people?' John glances up at the sound of Punk's voice trickling through his mind. His mental voice is a little softer, a little kinder, but just as filled with amusement. Piper turns to him sharply, and John is cut out of whatever the exchange between them is. 'Well, John-boy, I think we'll be more than happy to help, right Colt?'

'Oh, for sure.' Colt's smile is incredibly genial, he seems incredibly genial in general, a nice guy to the counter his clearly more abrasive partner. "I'm sure this'll loads of fun, right?" He laughs, and Nikki smiles at him.

"Lots, and lots of fun. I'm Nikki, and this is my lovely sister, Brie. Welcome to the team, boys." She stands and gives first Colt, then Punk a hug, turning to grin at John. "So, fearless leader, when are we off?" Nikki looks just as amused as Punk, and John dreads an allegiance between those two, he can tell his authority would be more than questioned if Nikki decided she liked Punk better than John.

"You leave tomorrow." Piper interrupts; he looks horribly tense, and rests a hand on Punk's shoulder, squeezing it once. "I need to properly debrief these two on regulations. They'll meet you in the morning, six sharp." Piper stalks off, and Colt and Punk follow more sedately behind him.

"They're cute together." Brie says suddenly, and Daniel laughs. "What? It's sweet... I'd like it if someone held my hand." John watches her waggle her glove-covered hand. Unless she focuses on it, her skin can be deathly cold, so she has to wear insulated gloves to stop her from accidentally freezing things. Thankfully, Nikki doesn't suffer from that problem, but sneezing can cause her to start fires. Daniel gently touches Brie's gloved fingers, a slight smile on his face, and John buries his nose in the file. It's much better than watching Daniel and Brie dance around each other.

The file gives details about a little group of talents somewhere near the coast, a rag-tag group consisting of an empath, a strongman like John, and a speedster. By the notes in the file, they're good kids, brought together by bad circumstances. He's pretty sure they'll be easy enough to persuade to come up to the facility. Piper and company will be able to make their little lives so much easier, and that's all John really wants. He loves his job because he knows the kids that he delivers to Piper get better lives. He's seen kids go through training and go on to successful careers in the organisation. He's seen entire other teams formed from kids he's picked up over his time in this facility. It's a good place, and they do good things here. He just hopes that the new comers can see that.

"John." Piper smiles at him, and John takes a seat on the other chair in Piper's office. It'd be well after dinner when Piper had asked him to come and see him, and John had complied without thought. When Piper calls, you go. Its how the facility works.

"Piper, sir?" John sets the file down on the desk, and laces his fingers, trying to feel as relaxed as he usually does in Piper's company, but the new comers, Colt and Punk, have him on edge. He's not happy about playing babysitter to them, not happy that his team's spotless record could be tarnished by their interference. John's team is the best the facility has to offer, and the new comers might ruin their flawless standing.

"I know you're worried about them, but Punk and Colt... They're talented." Piper smiles kindly, and John ducks his head. He's never gotten used to telepathy, never gotten used to having his thoughts spoken back to him. "Really... They don't need to be put with a team, but..." Piper sighs, and rubs at his temples. He looks stressed and tired, and John feels impossibly worried about him. "Think, John. What do you remember about them?"

"Sir?" John stares at Piper, seeing frustration building in him. He can feel the strange sensation of Piper poking at his brain, and John moves to clench the arms of the chair he's sitting in, trying to distract himself from the feeling of Piper's mental prying. "I told you all I could remember two years ago... They were different, but that's about it."

"Different." Piper sighs dramatically, and from nowhere Hacksaw materialises at Piper's side, running his fingers through Piper's hair. It's annoying more than anything when Piper pulls that invisible trick. There's a part of John that hates telepathy, it seems unfairly powerful, for all of John's unnatural strength, he could be so very easily undone by a telepath. Piper and Hacksaw are talking, a silent telepathic conversation that John resents. He was brought to the office for a reason, not to be ignored whilst Piper stresses over the new comers.

"Sir... Why did you want to see me?" John tries to drag Piper back to the point of his presence, and Piper looks up, smiling at him.

"Ah! Of course, I'm sorry John... Punk is... Well, he's different." Piper smiles, and John hides a scowl. There's fondness on Piper's face, a smile on his lips, a light in his eyes that John's never seen before. It's the expression of a proud father, and John's jealous, stupidly, pointlessly jealous, but he's always wanted Piper to be proud of him. Punk has Piper's pride without ever doing anything to earn it, and that's just not fair.

"They're both different." Hacksaw mutters, kissing Piper's head. "Colt's a good guy. Reliable, unlike his flake of a telepath." Hacksaw laughs, and Piper glares up at him. "Trust him, John. If Colt tells you it's a bad idea, listen to him." Hacksaw smiles at John, and John nods. Hacksaw doesn't give out words like that, he's pretty harsh in his estimation of people, but he's clearly got a soft spot for Colt, just as clearly as Piper has one for Punk. There's more to this story than meets the eye, and John needs to know what the deal with these four is, because he feels like a pawn in a game of chess, and he's not sure who's pawn he is. He hates being out of the loop, but he supposes with telepaths you're always out of the loop. It's the only thing he truly dislikes about Piper, he's never fully open, never fully honest, simply because he never thinks to be, he knows all your secrets, and so doesn't think to share his.

"Why did you ask me to come here?" John's getting sick of this verbal dancing. It's getting late, and he wants to sleep, he needs to be fresh for tomorrow. He's going to have to be on top of his game for dealing with the new comers.

"I wanted... Do you have any questions, John?" Piper smiles kindly, his fingers steepled, his chin resting on his thumbs. It's a big question. It's a surprisingly open-ended question, and John isn't sure what Piper's expecting from him. There's a lot he wants to ask, but he's no idea what would be answered.

"They were at the Warehouse, weren't they?" John asks something he knows the answer to, he remembers Colt and Punk, Colt mostly, it's hard to forget the person who saved his life after all. Piper nods in response to the question, and John frowns, considering his options. "You know them... You've got some kind of connection to them?" At this Piper laughs, and Hacksaw looks away.

"Yeah... A connection is a decent way to put it. I trained Punk... A little at least, before the Warehouse incident. He was different back then... Not as confident." John notes that Piper doesn't say powerful. It's confident, and that puts John at ease somewhat. The last thing he wants, or needs, is another telepath as powerful as Piper in his life. He's only met three telepaths in his life, Piper, Punk, and Heyman. Piper has been good to him, Punk is a complete unknown, and Heyman, well, he actually feels sorry for Heyman. He'd seen him once in the infirmary, a drooling, gibbering wreck. Piper had said that a telepath did it to him, and John had been grateful he'd never met the person who could destroy Heyman like that. Piper had always stressed how powerful Heyman was, and used him as a cautionary tale. No matter how powerful you are, if you're alone, you're weak. Teamwork is something Piper is careful to stress.

"Did he..." John can't bring himself to finish that sentence, because there's a creeping suspicion that Heyman might have been destroyed by the telepath Piper wants John to spend a few weeks with, and John is certain he doesn't want something that dangerous near Nikki. Not just Nikki, the entire team, but if he's honest mostly Nikki. It'd break something in John to let her get hurt. If Punk destroyed Heyman, any member of the team would be nothing to him. Hacksaw stares at John hard, and John glances away. He's not sure what that stare had meant, but he feels warned. Piper just smiles, a normal, mildly distracted smile.

"Punk's plenty strong, but he's on your side. They're both on your side. I explained protocol to them. They know you're in charge, John." Piper smiles, and opens the drawer of his desk. "Here, these are the keys to the minibus for you to take. There'll be a contact in the hotel waiting for you."

"Who?" This is familiar. This is good. This is planning a mission. It's just the strange thoughts about Heyman that make John feel horribly uncomfortable. John has carefully avoided thinking about Heyman for a long time, and he's not happy with the man worming his way into John's thoughts once more. Even less happy that the thoughts are focussed on who destroyed Heyman's brain.

"He's called Jimmy... He's-"

"Energetic." Hacksaw interrupts Piper with a laugh, getting a smack to the stomach from him.

"Energetic is accurate, I guess." Piper sends John an image of an older man with impressive hair, big sunglasses, and a bigger mouth. "Go get some sleep, John. Six sharp, I told Punk and Colt to meet you at the van." John nods, and leaves the office, pausing outside the door at the sound of Punk's laughter, and Piper's exclamation of shock from the other side of the door.

'We'll be good little subordinates, John-boy, don't worry.' Punk's mental voice is laced with amusement. Punk had been there the whole time, and Piper hadn't known. A feeling of almost dread creeps over John. Punk's not just confident, he's powerful, powerful enough to play Piper, powerful enough to destroy Heyman, powerful enough to hurt John's team.

The morning is cold, the entire team, apart from Brie, bundled up against the freezing temperatures. Brie looks quite comfortable with the cold, a smile on her lips, and a little ice sculpture forming on the ground beside her. John smiles awkwardly at his assembled troops, waiting for the arrival of their new teammates, whilst stomping his feet trying to get some feeling back into them.

"Where the hell are they?" Daniel mutters, rubbing his hands together vigorously. He looks miserable in the cold, his scarf wound tight around his face.

"I guess they slept in?" Brie mutters, and produces a pair of gloves from her pocket, offering them to Daniel. He takes them from her gratefully, their fingers brushing slightly, and John staunchly looks away. He's not jealous of their relationship, though the mirth in Nikki's eyes tells him that's exactly how it appears.

"You want me to keep you nice and cosy, Johnny?" She laughs softly, creeping closer, heat radiating from her body. John keeps his feet rooted, not moving closer, but not moving further away. She bewilders him, and it's infuriating, tempting, and horribly dangerous.

"Are you planning on standing out there in the cold for much longer?" There's a calm lazy voice from inside the van behind them, and John turns to glare at the source of it. Punk's sitting in the front of the little minibus, his feet on the dash, a grin on his lips. Colt's shaking his head, and sipping at a steaming cup of coffee, while he sits behind the wheel, a mildly amused expression on his face. He's clearly used to his partner's antics, and is no longer surprised by them.

"Punk doesn't trust anyone but us to drive, so feel free to fall back asleep in the back." Colt mutters, handing the cup to Punk. Punk takes a sip, and then holds up a bag of doughnuts, shaking it slightly.

"C'mon, I've breakfast for all. Let's go people, daylight's a wasting." Punk laughs again, and Colt shakes his head once more, starting the engine. Daniel meets John's eye, the look on his face is tight and tense. The bus had been empty when they'd come down to it, at least it'd seemed empty. These two aren't above playing games with them, as well as Piper, it seems. It all makes John want to distrust them even more, and there's no real way for them to be sure that they can trust either one of these two new additions to the team. The only person they can really trust is Piper, and he's vouching for Colt and Punk, so for now John's team have no option but to trust the new comers, hoping that Piper isn't being tricked once more.


Thank you to the lovely ladies and gentlemen who reviewed!

AshJovillette, littleone 1389, Brokenspell77, Shiki94, and InYourHonour.

Things are slowly picking up with this one... And in case any of you are wondering, yes The Mouth of the South will be making a cameo appearance in the next chapter. ^-^

If I thought I was concerned about the first part of this story, you have no idea just how freaked out by this one I am... Trepidation haunts me with this fic... as such: Please leave a review, even if it's just "Hey, that didn't suck", I'd be so far and beyond grateful. Heck even if you thought it did suck, tell me too, something is better than nothing after all. :D