Author's note: Whew! Yes, I finally updated this! Yeah, I know that it's been a while, but like I said, I was really busy lately. I'll try to update the next chapter as soon as I can, but no guarantees. So with that, enjoy and like always, send in reviews. Pretty please?

Chapter 11

'Oh my God! Oh my God!' I thought through a cloud of sheer panic.

It happened so fast that it was all I could really do at that moment. One moment I was headed back into the house after being outside to think, and the next I was being held tightly from behind and a gloved hand was covering my mouth. I was so shocked by this sudden event that I couldn't make any kind of noise or even fight back. I was able to look down at the glove the person was wearing, though. It was either black or a very dark color. I couldn't tell because it was almost total night and the light was so low. Frantic thoughts were blazing through my mind, things like what did this person want and what was going to happen to me.

A few seconds after I was caught the person spoke into my ear in a very low voice. "I'm not going to hurt you, okay? You have to trust me on that. I'm just here to talk to you. I need to blindfold you, though. I can't let you know who I am just yet because it might put both of us at risk. I'm already taking a huge chance just talking to you right now. Don't worry, everything will be alright. I'm going to remove my hand from your mouth if you promise not to scream. Nod your head if you understand."

It was a woman's voice. I couldn't tell exactly who she was, but I already had the feeling that she was our mysterious woman friend from ATI. The fact that she was wearing gloves more than likely meant that she was wearing her super suit as well. I couldn't tell which super she was because she was disguising her voice so well and I didn't know the color of her gloves. While I felt myself somewhat relax from knowing that it wasn't some rapist or someone like that, I didn't like the fact that she wanted to blindfold me. Why did she want to hide her identity from me? Was she ashamed of herself or something? Did she have yet to fully trust me? I couldn't see why if she was the one who contacted us in the first place. Why was she even here in our backyard to begin with? Was every super in Metroville spying on me or something? God, what was up with that? I wasn't that fascinating to look at, was I? Was this some sort of game or something, spy on the reluctant super and see how they react under such circumstances and then reveal themselves when the time was right? They might enjoy it, but I sure as hell didn't. I was getting severely pissed off. All this spying was going to end right here, right now. However, I couldn't tell her that or learn why she was here unless I agreed to be blindfolded. I didn't like that idea at all. I mean, I was almost sure that she didn't mean me any harm, but I still had that lingering doubt. I also knew that I didn't have any other choice. I had to trust her on this, so I slowly nodded my head.

"Good," she said. "I'm about to remove my hand now, and I'm trusting you not to scream. I'm sure that you're trusting me not to hurt you as well. I promise you that I'm not here to do that, so I guess we'll just have to trust each other. Okay, here we go."

She removed her hand and immediately wrapped a cloth around my eyes. Despite her promise that she wasn't going to hurt me, I was still incredibly nervous. My breathing was shallow and my heart was pounding so loudly in my chest that I was certain that we both could hear it. After she tied the cloth tightly around my eyes, she carefully led me away from the patio. Judging by the way she was guiding me, I figured that she was moving me toward the center of our backyard and away from anything that I could stumble over. It was a nice gesture to ensure that I wouldn't get hurt, but I still wasn't ready to completely trust her yet. Only a fool trusts a total stranger completely, well, that and a certain younger cousin of mine, but I won't go there.

"Are you that woman super that works at ATI?" I asked her.

I heard her chuckle. "Somehow I knew that you were about to ask that," she said. "I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised by that. Anyway, yes I am. Was it really that obvious?"

"It was just a guess," I told her. "Was it really necessary to blindfold me if you are, though? I mean, couldn't you have just told me who you were?"

"I probably could've, but I can't," she said. "Not yet anyway. Maybe later. The reason is complicated, so don't ask. If it makes you feel any better, Leon and Chance haven't seen me, either. I've only talked to them over their phone so far."

"What would make me feel better is if you tell me what you're doing in our backyard," I said. "You're not spying on me, too, are you? I'm getting tired of supers spying on me, and I want it to stop."

She chuckled again. "That's such a strong word, don't you think? I wouldn't exactly call it spying. It's more like keeping surveillance."

I couldn't believe this! This was just totally unreal! "Keeping surveillance? So you are spying on me as well! God, first Leon and now you! This is just crazy! What is up with this? I can't go anywhere without some super looking over my shoulder or something? Has my life suddenly got so important or interesting or something that it attracted every super in the region? Or is it just something you're doing for fun? Well, tell me!"

She stayed quiet for a moment and then said, "Now that you're done, I can tell you the reason why, and keep your voice down. The last thing we need right now is your mother or neighbors coming out to investigate. I'd like for this to be a secret conversation between just the two of us, not the entire neighborhood, alright?"

It took a minute for me to calm down somewhat, but I was still very upset about this whole thing. I'm sure anyone else would be as well if they found out that they were being spied on, super or not. However, and I really hated to think this, there was probably some good reason behind this. Like she said, revealing herself could put both of us at risk. I didn't understand that. What kind of risk was she talking about? She did say that she was taking a huge chance just speaking to me at that moment. What exactly did that mean? Was someone out to get her or something? Or was it that her position at ATI meant that she couldn't risk being seen by anyone? What if I was already in danger? Even though I probably knew that I already was, I still wasn't ready to let this go just yet. I was going to get to the bottom of this whole thing and find out what was really going on. If that meant that it could put me further at risk, then so be it. Of course, I could easily say that right then and regret it later, but that was how upset I was at that moment. Besides, I'm sure we've all said something like that before.

"Okay, I'm better now," I said. "But I would still like for you to tell me exactly what's going on here."

"We'll get to that in a moment," she told me. "First, I would like for you to tell me all you know so far."

All I knew? It wasn't very much, but I went ahead and told her. "I know that there has been the theft of important stuff from ATI and that my dad might be working on projects that could destroy this city and he probably doesn't even know it. I also know that this whole thing is under a project codenamed Etybonan. That's all I really know so far."

"Etybonan," the woman repeated the word. I heard her laugh to herself and then mutter something under her breath that I didn't catch. Right then I had a positive feeling that she knew what that strange word meant, but before I could ask her, she then said to me, "Tell me, what do you know about nanotechnology?"

"Nanotechnology?" I heard of that word before on some show on TV, but I didn't have the slightest clue what that meant. Why would she ask me something like that in the first place? "I don't know anything about it."

"It's the study and technological development on the nanometer scale," she explained. She must've seen the lost look on my face, the part that she could see anyway, because she added, "Basically, extremely tiny stuff. In this case, tiny robots."

Tiny robots? Now this was just getting even more confusing. What was she talking about? What did tiny robots have anything to do with this? It had to be important though if she was bringing it up, although I really couldn't see how at the moment.

"I can see that you're still not following me," she said. "I guess I'd better explain the whole story." She stopped for a moment and then continued talking. "For about ten years now, ATI had been researching nanotechnology for civilian applications. At first, the studies were mainly for medical purposes, but we quickly found out the potential of nanotech. For example, the nanotube fibers in our super suits were a result of that research. The overall potential of nanotech is almost limitless. Imagine forty or fifty years from now, microscopic-sized robots and machines that are just as common as any modern device today. Imagine those tiny machines building and repairing other machines and computers, making everything from clothing to skyscrapers, and even repairing our own bodies and making us live a lot longer. Now imagine those same machines being used as a weapon. You're talking about destruction the likes of which have never been seen before. And I'm afraid that scenario is what just might happen to Metroville."

She stopped speaking and I was about to ask her what she was talking about but she continued on. "Two years ago, we made a significant breakthrough in nanotech research and actually created robots the size of a penny. We gave them the name nanobots. A little later we discovered how to give these nanobots roughly the same intelligence of an insect. That is extremely significant. That might not sound like much to the average person, but insects are a lot smarter than most people think. On top of all that, six months ago we've accidentally found a way to have them make copies of themselves at an almost frighteningly fast pace. Still, all this was for civilian purposes only, but it won't take much effort to turn this into a weapon. See where I'm going with this now?"

I didn't really see it. In fact, to me it didn't really make sense. "So you're saying these nanobots may be unleashed on Metroville and probably destroy it? How is that possible? How could penny-sized robots destroy a city this big?"

"A lot easier than you could imagine," she replied. "For example, think of soldier ants. By themselves, they're tiny and relatively harmless. However, a whole colony of them can cut a wide swath through a rainforest and leave virtually nothing behind. Now replace soldier ants and rainforest with nanobots and Metroville and you can see what I'm talking about."

"Oh God," I said softly. I then remembered one night a few years ago when I watched a nature documentary with my dad. It was featuring soldier ants and I remembered thinking about how could such small insects cause such destruction to a rainforest. It was unbelievable, and to think that tiny robots could cause the same devastation to a city as huge as Metroville was almost unimaginable.

"Now you can see just how serious this situation really is," she said. "Not a very pretty picture as you can imagine."

"Do you know who's behind this?" I asked her.

"All evidence points to our grand esteemed CEO, John Harriman," she replied in an almost sarcastic tone. "I'm still not a hundred percent sure, but I think that I'm pretty close. I can't really investigate any further without blowing my cover. I'm already pushing it enough as it is. But yeah, I'm fairly certain that it's him, but I need more proof to be absolutely sure."

Mr. Harriman was my dad's boss, and very likely hers as well. I've never met him personally, but I definitely knew a lot about him, mainly from TV, newspaper articles, and from my dad. Dad talks about him a lot at home, and some of the things he say I won't even dare repeat. But that only added on to my already growing confusion. It was very hard to picture him as any kind of villain. He was tall and thin with dark but graying hair as he was in his mid-forties and was kind of handsome looking. According to Dad, he could be a real tyrant at times but that still didn't make him out to be a villain. However, I suppose that it could be true that appearances can be deceiving.

"Why would he do something like that?" I asked.

"That's something that I would love to figure out," she said. "Again, I can't get any closer without drawing attention to myself. But even the evidence I already got is still very circumstantial. It still doesn't really prove that he's behind this. Either someone's pointing the blame towards him or he's really great at misleading people. But if he's really behind this, then it doesn't make any sense. He runs one of the largest companies in this country. What's the real point of giving that up to destroy a whole city?"

"He's probably getting tired of it or something," I said more to myself. "Why use those nanobots to destroy Metroville, though? Wouldn't a nuke work better, not that I want that or anything?"

"Well, yeah, a nuke could work better, but there are huge problems with that. One, ATI doesn't have any nuclear weapons. I mean, we do have some uranium but it's not weapons grade. It's just there for researching a better nuclear reactor design. It's also near impossible to just steal one from the military and not have them know it. Two, detonating a nuclear bomb on American soil could more than likely lead to World War III and the end of human life as we know it. Not a very desirable outcome for anyone even if they were just trying to make a point. Three, even if you could get away with detonating a nuke and making it look like an accident, there's still that little problem called radiation. It could render the land unusable for decades. By using nanobots, you could actually get the same results of a nuclear weapon if not more and make it look like an accident. It wouldn't be as fast, though. The nanobots could probably eat their way through Metroville in about a week, but it would be enough."

I couldn't believe what this woman was revealing to me. This whole thing sounded way beyond ridiculous. Tiny robots attacking and destroying Metroville and may be caused by my dad's boss. It would sound like it would've came right out of one of those corny sci-fi movies. But this was real life and she definitely didn't sound like she was joking. Why would she go through all that trouble if she was? Besides, this definitely wasn't the first time that robots would attack this city. However, there were only a few of them and were as big as a two-story house. These nanobots were the size of a penny, and by the way this woman was talking about them, it sounded like there would be millions if not billions of them at once. How could anyone, super included, stop something like that?

Before we went on with anything else, there was something that I had to know right then and there. "I need to know this right now," I said to her. "Is my dad involved in any of this? Tell me truthfully."

She remained quiet for a long moment and then replied, "In a way, yes. You see, your father and I were part of the same team that created the nanobots, as well as some of the other stuff that I suspect may be used in this. At the time, I didn't think that the nanobots of anything else that we worked on could be used in this way. I mean, I already knew that some of those things were dangerous, but not like this. In fact, I only knew about the possible danger to this city from stumbling across a strange-looking memo two weeks ago. Since then I've been sneaking around trying to learn more. I've learned most that I could, but I've now hit a dead end. That's the main reason why I needed you to learn more about your dad, to see if he probably knew something that I didn't. I never once suspected that your dad was involved intentionally in this plot. He's likely the same way I was before, working on things that could be used to destroy Metroville and not even know it."

While I was somewhat relieved that she told me that he wasn't a prime suspect in this, I still couldn't shake the eerie feeling that he was in some way involved. After a moment I went ahead and told her something else. "He hasn't been home for two days straight now. I think that my mom suspects that something's wrong. She hasn't said anything but I can definitely sense it on her face. Is something else going on?"

She remained quiet for a long time. Even though I couldn't see anything with the blindfold, I could tell that she was thinking about that very deeply. She finally said, "I wouldn't quite call that suspicious just yet. It's not unusual for people to stay there for a few days without going home. We actually have bunkrooms set up for that. In fact, I once stayed there for two whole weeks without going home. It wasn't fun, but I had no choice in that matter. Anyway, I'll look into that and find out what's going on. Will that be okay?"

"Yes, thank you." While I was grateful that she would do that, something started bugging me. Why did she take that long pause just to tell me that? Was it something else? I had no other real choice but to trust her on that, but it only made me all the more curious. I then asked her. "I have to know, why us? Why Leon, Chance, and me? Don't you think that we'd make quite an unlucky team for something this big? Besides, if you knew about me, then you would know that I hate my powers and hoped to never use them again. So, why us?"

"Well, this is a bit complicated," she said. "As I said, I needed to know if your father or anyone else on the team knew something that I didn't. As I was working undercover, I couldn't let anyone else in on what I found yet. It's just like that famous X-Files saying, Trust No One. Anyway, there were at least fifty other people on the team, and any one of them could know more. So why you three? Well, besides your dad, the Hardings have an aunt that works there and was also on the team. I also had the added benefit of us being good friends, although she doesn't know that I'm a super. But even with that, I still couldn't clue her in on what was going on. I wanted to, but I just couldn't take that chance. I needed a way to get information, but I also have a rule that I go by. I don't spy on anyone unless they are either villains or if they are in extreme danger. I know that it's an invasion of privacy and I'd be furious if I found out that someone was spying on me."

Wait a second. Did she just say that she didn't spy on anyone unless they were villains of were in danger? The last time I checked, I certainly wasn't a villain. Did that mean that I was in danger? That seemed to be the main reason why she blindfolded me. I wasn't even all that surprised anyway. I figured that my involvement in this was putting me in extreme danger and that was certainly proven yesterday. And what did she mean that she would be furious if she saw someone spying on her? How did she think I felt when I found out that she as well as Leon and Chance were spying on me? Somehow I really don't think that I was ecstatic and jumping for joy. She continued on before I could think much else.

"Anyway, I knew the Hardings' grandparents were supers. In fact, we joined forces a couple of times before. Although their son never had powers, they suspected their grandchildren, Leon and Chance, probably had them. Super genes can actually skip a generation or two, although that's very rare. I actually met both Leon and Chance when they were both still toddlers. I knew that they'd be perfect for this since their aunt lives with them for the time being. I pondered for a while on how to contact them before deciding to just call them. So last Sunday I did just that and talked to Leon. It took a helluva long time to convince him that something was up and he almost hung up on me three times. I finally got through to him and he said he'd he help me anyway he could."

"Now, as for where you come in, in a way it was quite by accident. I was checking the school system website to see which school they would be attending when I saw that you and Chance had the same homeroom at Washington High. I knew for a long time that your father married Electricia and had a daughter, you. I also suspected that you were a super long before that rumor surfaced. I knew your mother quite well back then before she got married but we weren't exactly friends, more like friendly rivals if anything. Anyway, I didn't want to risk contacting you myself, so I told Leon and Chance to do it for me and inform you on what was going on and ask for your help. The rest, as they say, is history. Even with that, I didn't want you to get physically involved in this. Yes, I know about that little engagement at the Westville Mall yesterday. I have to say, while it was certainly impressive the way you handled, it was also incredibly risky and you almost got killed because of it."

"Hey, that was not my fault!" I protested. "Mr. "Hot-Shot" Leon Harding is a hundred percent to blame for that. I wanted to get out of there along with everyone else, but he thought that he could handle it. I started to leave, but I only went back to help him because I got worried about him." I stopped because she brought up something that I wanted to ask her. "Those people that we fought at the mall were wearing ATI combat uniforms or something like that. What was that about? If what you're telling me is true, then what does robbing a First MetroBank branch and shooting up a mall have anything to do with nanobots?"

"Believe me, I stayed up all last night and all day today to try and figure that one out," she replied. "It doesn't make any sense. I guess that it might…" She stopped when a beeping noise went off. "I have to go. I've stayed here too long as it was. I want you to count to ten before you take off that blindfold and not one second earlier. I'll contact you later if I could. Start counting now."

I did as she asked and counted to ten. When I reached ten, I took off the blindfold and looked around. She was long gone. That was kind of eerie because I didn't even hear her leave. I was really wondering who she was and if the story that she told me was true. If it was then Metroville was in far greater danger than I previously thought. I shook my head and sighed loudly. God, what a strange three days these have been. I guess that the only question I could really ask at that moment was, what next?