Paul was sitting in his office, lazily checking his e-mail inbox. He had dozens of e-mails to read and reply to, but didn't feel like doing any of it. He rested his chin on his palm, browsing random Internet pages.

He had had a horrible night, barely sleeping after experiencing another attack. They were becoming so frequent and lasted so long, he was surprised he could still get up and walk out of his office without killing anyone in frustration.

A knock on the door brought him back to his office, and he answered in a lazy voice. "Come in".

Martin Hatch stepped inside, and Paul was almost tempted to roll his eyes.

"' morning" said Hatch, taking a seat without waiting for Paul to offer him one.

"Mh-mhm" mumbled Paul, his chin still in his palm.

"Having a bad day?" asked Hatch, putting his papers on Paul's already overcrowded desk.

"Mh-mhm".

Hatch cleared Paul's desk from the chaos of files scattered all around, and gave him a disapproving look.

"These are the latest reports on the CFR and the Lifeboat Protocol from the research team. I have also scheduled a new training program for our soldiers, since you are too lazy to do so. If we had waited another week, they would have revolted against us. All I need now, is a signature here" said Hatch, pointing at the bottom of the paper where Paul was supposed to sign.

Paul did as he was told, scrabbling his initials on the file and returning it to Hatch.

"Will you ever finish those?" asked Hatch, looking at the scattered papers on his desk.

"Maybe. Eventually" answered Paul, and he suddenly felt very tired "thank you, Martin".

Hatch understood that was Paul's way to dismiss him, and he left his office.

Paul sighed heavily and went downstairs to make himself a cup of coffee. His phone ringed at the same time.

Paul actually rolled his eyes this time, and went back upstairs where he had left the phone to answer the call. It was Dr. Kim.

"Good morning, Paul. Hope you are doing fine today. I was wondering if you could meet me and Sofia at the laboratory, whenever you have some time" he started.

"Hi Henry, of course I can. I will be right there" Paul replied, suddenly not feeling all that lazy anymore.

"Excellent! See you soon, then" and Dr. Kim ended the call.

Paul walked straight to the door and took the elevator to the laboratory. On his way there, a young girl purposely bumped into him and dropped her stack of papers.

"Oh, I am so sorry, Mr. Serene!" she said, her high-pitched voice sweet as honey. Paul kneeled down to help her gather her papers and handed them to her with a forced smile.

"Thank you, Mr. Serene! You are so kind!" chirped the girl, and giggled.

Paul was used to some of his female employees chasing after him and trying to make him notice them, and was not sure what to feel about it.

"You're quite welcome, Miss…ehm"

"Just call me Laura, Mr. Serene" the girl said seductively.

"Right. Laura" Paul said, and felt truly awkward with the girl flapping her long eyelashes at him.

"I…ehm, have to go" Paul said, and left the girl still standing there, dreamily staring at him.

Paul arrived at the laboratory, where Dr. Kim and Sofia were waiting for him by a weird-looking machine. It had a chair in the middle, with straps for the hands and feet and a huge processing generator in the back. Paul thought it reminded him terribly of a torture machine.

He hesitantly approached the two scientists, who looked as worried as him.

"Paul, I am glad you could make it this fast" Dr. Kim greeted with a nervous smile.

"What's this?" asked Paul, fixing his gaze upon the machine, which took almost all the space in the large laboratory. He had also noticed the rest of the team was not there.

"Well, this is something I have been working on for a while, actually. But I have been hesitant, Paul. It is an experimental machine I was originally planning to use to extract larger amounts of chronon particles from Ground Zero. Today, I would like to test it on you, if you agree" he explained.

"How does it work?" Paul tried to sound calm and relaxed.

"You sit on it, we start it, it extracts the chronon particles present in your body which we can recycle and use to power the Lifeboat Protocol and our soldier's harnesses" Dr. Kim explained.

"I see. And what about the straps?" asked Paul.

"Well, the process is not exactly pleasant" Dr. Kim answered and Paul nodded quietly.

"I see" he said slowly "we can try".

He then proceeded to sit on the chair, and Sofia helped him with the straps, which were tightened around his wrists and ankles.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Paul?" she whispered in his ear. He nodded and gave her a reassuring smile.

"I'm a tough one" he joked, and for a moment her worried expression faltered, and the corner of her lips turned upwards.

"Whenever you are ready, Paul!" shouted Dr. Kim from the other side of a glass window. Sofia hurried to the other room, to assist her senior colleague.

Paul nodded firmly to indicate he was ready, and Dr. Kim activated the machine.

The lights in Paul's room went out, and a sound of a power unit charging up resonated throughout the place.

Paul sat in his chair, waiting and looking straight into Sofia's worried eyes.

And, all of a sudden, the only thing Paul felt was pain. He had been in worse situations though, and gritted his teeth to prevent himself from screaming.

He held a tight grip on the sides of the chair and started shaking hard, while the feeling of being drained overcame him. Sweat began pouring from his forehead, and he shut his eyes tight.

The pain became more and more intense, as chronon particles flew from his body to the container behind him, and Paul started to groan from pain and jolted as a particularly intense wave hit him.

After what seemed like an eternity, Dr. Kim shut down the machine, and the lights came back on.

Paul had no more energies left, and just sat there, his hands dangling and his head bent down, while drops of sweat fell from his forehead.

Both Dr. Kim and Sofia came rushing to him and checked on his conditions.

"How are you feeling?" asked Dr. Kim, his voice filled with worry.

Paul didn't even have the strength to reply, and resolved to simply nod.

"You are definitely not fine, maybe you need the hosp…" Sofia started, but Paul shook his head and tried to speak reassuring words, but they never came out of his mouth. He suddenly felt very dizzy.

With the help of Dr. Kim and Sofia, he stood up, walked a few, uncertain steps and then fell on his knees, with both his hands on the floor.

"Paul!" shouted Henry and Sofia at the same time, both rushing by his side to sustain him.

Sofia had just one second to realize Paul's eyes had unfocused, just like that evening in his office, his face death white and his whole body shaking hard, before she grabbed Dr. Kim's arm and dragged him away from Paul and into the adjacent room, shutting the door behind them.

"What?" Dr. Kim asked in confusion.

Sofia never go to answer, because Paul suddenly opened his arms and screamed his lungs out, a burst of energy so powerful coming out of his body that everything around him was literally thrown in the air by an invisible force and froze in time and space, hovering over the room.

Then all was silent again. Paul lied on the floor, motionless. The objects that had been hit by the wave burst were still floating in the air as if in slow-motion.

Dr. Kim and Sofia stood there for a while, staring in horror, before resolving to open the door and come back to Paul.

He had passed out.


Paul woke up in a bed in the Tower's infirmary. He opened his eyes slowly, and adjusted them to the sun rays that hit his face from the window across his bed.

"Henry, he's awake!" he heard Sofia say. Then footsteps and two shadows were hovering over him.

"Paul, how are you feeling?" asked Dr. Kim.

"Better" Paul answered and adopted a sitting position, not without struggling.

Seeing Paul punch the pillow behind him and kick hard to do something as simple as sit in a bed made Sofia smile at the poor attempt.

"What happened?" he asked after he was satisfied with his position.

Dr. Kim and Sofia exchanged a look, then she nodded and Henry answered.

"Well, it looks like I was wrong. It is impossible to drain you from the radiations. As soon as they are gone, your body works twice as hard to replace the particles it lost. And since my machine has absorbed a huge amount in such little time, your body has reacted consequently. It ended up producing so many new particles in such a short period of time, that it couldn't contain anymore and released it".

Paul blinked several times and then looked at his hands: they were shaking.

"Your body is still saturated. It can take some time before your parameters are back to normal. Just keep an eye out: emotions like anger or even extreme happiness can release sudden and involuntary bursts of energy" Dr. Kim explained.

"Does this mean I'll have to skip sushi tonight?" Paul joked, and everyone laughed.

"Paul, I'm really sorry" Dr. Kim apologized, and he actually looked mortified.

"Don't worry about that. You were only trying to help, and we must perform experiments, even risky ones, if we want to find a cure" reassured Paul "I am fine".

"We will find it, Paul. I promise" Sofia nodded resolutely, and he smiled at her.


The only positive side of their failed experiment was the quantity of chronon particles Dr. Kim's machine had managed to absorb. They had been able to transfer their particles some floors beneath where they would be used to power more harnesses, or stored for the CFR.

Paul was released from the infirmary the day after the incident, and looked fully recovered. His body was still hyper saturated, but the parameters were quickly stabilizing.

Dr. Kim had sent his machine to Ground Zero, where it could be used to extract chronon particles more efficiently, and went back to his studies together with Sofia.

The days went by the same way, with Paul occasionally coming in to get his parameters checked and updated, and January turned into February and February into March, and then summer arrived, and most employees left for their scheduled holidays, including Dr. Kim.

Sofia had asked for two weeks off, which she thought she could use to visit her family again in New York, and she could save the remaining two weeks for another occasion.

And so, she packed her few belongings and drove to the airport, turning one last time to get a glimpse of Monarch Tower, where Paul Serene would surely be spending the hot summer days. Her heart tightened at the thought, but she kept driving nevertheless and was soon stepping onto the plane to New York.

Her parents came to pick her up at the airport and drove to their house at the outskirts of the city, the same one where she had spent all of her childhood. It was much warmer in New York than Riverport, and many of their neighbors had allowed their kids to bathe in inflatable swimming pools in the backyard.

Sofia spent her two weeks relaxing at home, occasionally going out with some childhood friends who had stayed in town, or grilling with her family. But at night, when everything was quiet, Sofia thought of him. How was he doing alone in Riverport? Would someone be able to help him if he had to lose control like that day in the laboratory? Then she remembered that Martin Hatch had declined his holidays too, and she felt a little bit better. Even if she didn't like the man, at least he would be able to help Paul. He was, after all, his most trusted person.

A part of her, however, couldn't resist and she therefore stood up and went to her pc to write an e-mail to Paul. She was very surprised, though, when she saw an unread e-mail from Fiona Miller.

FROM: Fiona Miller

TO: Sofia Amaral

SUBJECT: Serene's treatments

Sofia,

I know you will be surprised when you'll read this e-mail, but I just wanted to tell you I have stumbled upon some files written by Dr. Kim about Serene's condition.

I had been suspecting for a while that something was wrong with him, and got the confirmation when I saw Dr. Kim's folder left open on his desk. I couldn't help it and I sincerely apologize. But I want you to know that Mr. Serene's secret is safe with me. I have talked to Dr. Kim about it, and he has given me his trust.

Mr. Serene's disorder has caught my attention, and I have been studying the case too.

Since I was never to have read that classified file, I will not be joining you and Dr. Kim in the research, but I wanted at least to give a small contribution.

I have read that you tried to extract chronon particles from Mr. Serene's hyper saturated body, but that proved fruitless and potentially dangerous. I was wondering: what about trying a different approach? You could reverse the process, for example.

You are a talented scientist and, with Dr. Kim's help, I am sure you will succeed.

I hope my suggestion will help you!

See you at work,

Fiona

P.S. Enjoy your summer holidays!

Sofia read the e-mail a few times before stopping to think: part of her was angry at Fiona for putting her nose into classified files she was never supposed to read, but the other part was very interested.

Fiona had suggested reversing the process. Did she mean they were supposed to inject more chronon particles into Paul's body? But why? His system produced high levels of particles by its own, it definitely didn't need help with that.

Fiona definitely knew by now that Paul's system had produced so many particles after they had been drained, that it had burst with energy for days, so injecting even more only meant helping the transaction from human to Shifter form.

Fiona knew this. So why would she suggest reversing the process? Could she want Paul dead? Or did she mean something else?

Sofia thought about it for so long she eventually fell asleep. She would regret it the following day, when she was supposed to return to Riverport, but for now she was fine with it.