The rest of the morning progressed, with most of the teachers preparing the kids for their exams which were not far off. Emma though, wasn't really concentrating. She was a decent student, not necessarily on the level of Noah or Gia, who were both A average students, but she certainly averaged a high B, so she wasn't too concerned about tuning out some of the teachers as they were going over some of the stuff they had been going over again and again for weeks.

She sat, watching Troy as he took notes and listened intently. She imagined that as a result of moving schools mid-term there had to have been some stuff he had missed, but he never seemed to let that faze him. He never seemed to let anything get to him much; he just seemed to meet everything with a calm, poised, and placid demeanour that mirrored the nature she loved so much. When Callum and Dirk had hassled him, he never wavered in the face of the threat. Whenever a monster showed up, he always came up with a plan, directing the others with a certainty that mirrored the plan nature had for the world.

Just like nature though, he was also a force to be reckoned with. When threatened, or when his team was threatened, he had the strength of a hurricane. Creepox in particular had found that out the hard way, losing his life when he forced Troy into a fight to the finish. When all was said and done, one of the Warstar's mightiest warriors fell at his feet.

Despite all that though, he was always striving to be better, to be more than what he already was. He constantly trained the others, and strived to make them at least the equal of, or even superior to any of the previous teams. It was a tall task, especially since they had now met one of the previous team, and knew that they had been trained for their role since birth. With a smile though, especially with all the extra time he was putting in with Jordan to curb his enthusiasm, she had a feeling that he would manage it if he had his way.

As the bell rang, she packed up her things, heading towards the cafeteria...or rather; she was heading to the gym which until further notice was being used as the cafeteria while the real cafeteria was being rebuilt following Jordan's battle through the school with the badger mutant. As she was heading there, she found a scene building in the hallway.

Spider was being shoved back and forth by a couple of larger students, but as one of them grabbed him, he seemed far from scared. If anything, he looked like he was smiling.

"So you think we should leave those mutant things alone?" One of them yelled at him. "You want to protect them do you hippie?"

"I've got no problems with any mutants." Spider stated calmly. "No mutant's ever called me hippie."*

The larger student punched him hard in the jaw, sending Spider to the ground. Emma made her way over, but he was already getting back up.

"Wow, that's a great argument. Believe what I believe or I'll hurt you." Spider said sarcastically. "It takes a lot of brains to use that logic."

The bigger guy punched him in the ribs, before hooking him to the ground. Spider just got up again and wiped his face with his sleeve.

"By the way, you punch like a wuss." Spider commented. The others just shook their heads and walked away as the big guy just pointed to him.

"You're sick man. You're a freak." He stated as he left. Emma went to Spider and looked to him.

"Are you...?"

"I've had worse, believe me." Spider assured her. "Some of the rent-a-thugs some of the places I've picketed use can get a little carried away."

"Yeah, thank God it's Cerberus doing the security at the Queen plant protest." Emma replied. "Um...do you want to get cleaned up or something?"

"What do I have to be ashamed of?" He asked her. "I'm just glad that now the lockdown's over, I can go out for lunch. This place's idea of vegan is grilled asparagus."

Emma just nodded. She wasn't vegan herself, she wasn't even vegetarian. She did insist her dad shopped for goods that had been ethically sourced, since her objection was more with the treatment of the animals during their life than their slaughter for food or textiles. Still, she had signed the petitions for revisions to the menu in the canteen. The State required that options were available for those who had dietary needs, whose religion forbade certain foods, and for those who were vegetarian or vegan, but that didn't mean those options were particularly inspired. Even Jake, who kept Kosher, had commented that he often ended up eating macaroni cheese four days out of five.

"I didn't know you were vegan." She commented. He smiled and nodded.

"Going on three years now." He informed her. "It's not easy, but I found a lot of really good sites that give really good diet tips. A lot of people don't believe you can be vegetarian or vegan without taking a load of pills, but if you eat right, you can."

"Say, would you like to come with me?" He asked her. "We could maybe talk about that story I was telling you about."

"I don't know, I kind of said I'd meet up with..."

"Hey Emma." Troy said as he arrived, putting a hand on her shoulder. She felt the little tingle she often did as he touched her. Usually, it was followed quickly by her ending up on the ground because he tended to only touch her when they were training, but it was still there. "Hey, are you OK?"

"Trust me; it looks worse than it is." Spider assured him, gesturing to his face. "Sadly, not a lot of people like my view of the world, and are patient enough to use words instead of fists."

"Maybe you should..."

"I'll deal with it." Spider interrupted him as Noah and Jake arrived. Spider saw the group and smiled.

"Anyway, I'd hate to take you from your friends, meet me outside the science lab after final bell. We can talk about it then." Spider told Emma, looking her in the eye as though to once again assure her that he was alright without making a fuss in front of her friends. "Catch you around."

"That guy is seriously weird." Noah stated. Emma just rounded on him.

"Why?" She asked him. "Because he has a different point of view?"

"No, because he looks like he just went three rounds with Frank Mir and is walking around without a care in the world." He responded. "What happened?"

"It's like he said, some people didn't like what he had to say." Emma told him. Noah just snorted.

"Yeah, no wonder." He sneered. "Condescending jackass."

"Whatever man, he has his view, if he's willing to take the fallout, far be it from me to try and talk some sense into him." Jake replied. "Anyway, I'm hungry, and it's...oh, surprise surprise, mac and cheese day."

"For you maybe, for us it's mousakka...which means lasagne without pasta!" Noah moaned.

"So do any of you know where Jordan is?" Jake asked.

"He said he was seeing Tensou about something at lunch." Noah replied as they walked away. Emma just looked down the path Spider had taken. She had kind of known him for a little while through the Environmental Club, but she hadn't really spoken with him too much. She was torn between going with him, and with her friends.

"Emma, are you coming?" Troy asked her. She turned, and looked at him, only to see the same vacant, slightly disinterested look in his eyes that broke her heart every day. She longed for him to see her the way she saw him, but it was becoming more and more clear that she would never be what he wanted. She just shook her head and started to back away.

"Someone should really check on Spider." She told him. "I'll see you this afternoon."

Back at Cerberus, Eric and Wayne had gone through the files, and were individually interviewing everyone that had been hired in the last five months in the hopes of finding anyone that had slipped through the cracks and make sure that they could trust those that were around them. It quickly became apparent that while the security checks had not been done exactly to Eric's usual standards, for the most part they had been effective. Between a few checks, and some questioning, which Wayne had volunteered to do since Eric's stress levels were already pretty high, they were managing to dismiss most of the employees hired as being who they said they were, and fit for duty.

By the time they had dispensed with most of the office staff, which in general only took a few minutes, and about a third of the security operatives, it was already coming up to lunch time. Wayne came out of the interview room, into the hall, while Eric came from the observation room next door, which was located behind a two-way mirror. Eric sat on a desk, running his hands through his hair.

"Eric, we need to take a break." Wayne told him.

"What do you think this is?" Eric asked him as the guy with the sandwich cart came off the elevator.

"I mean a REAL break." Wayne stated. "We've been at this for hours, we're both exhausted."

"This son of a bitch threatened me and my family." Eric stated flatly. "I want him found, and when that happens, he better hope the cops get to him first."

"Listen, I understand this completely, if it was Mikey or Jamee I'd be in hysterics too." Wayne assured him. "But if we keep going like this, we're just going to miss something."

"I'm not missing a damn thing." Eric assured him. "Where's that sodding sandwich guy?"

"He's coming." Wayne told him, pulling him away a little further. He didn't want anyone to see how agitated Eric was getting, especially the people still waiting to be interviewed. A large part of their job was psychology, meaning that they both knew they had to be in a position of strength for any interrogation to work. If someone saw the state Eric was in, then it would be clear that he was beginning to get rattled by how close this threat was coming to those he cared about. "Look, why don't we just tell everyone to come back in an hour, have a hot meatball sub, and call everyone back once we've had a little rest?"

"Emma would kill me if she knew I was eating crap like this." Eric chuckled, getting a credit card out his wallet. "You are a seriously bad influence."

As they made their way toward the snack cart, they saw a guy, about 20 years old, with short, red hair hailing him over. He was one of the people waiting to be interviewed, and just like all the security staff; he was wearing a sharp suit. He got up, and pulled out a credit card.

"I thought you were sick today." The sandwich guy commented. "You're normally..."

"Yeah, they're doing some kind of security check." He replied.

"So where's Roy?" The sandwich guy asked. "I haven't seen him."

"I think it's something to do with him." The red-haired guy replied. "I haven't seen him either. I have heard rumours, but..."

Before he could say another word, Eric and Wayne were over like a shot. Eric grabbed the red-haired guy's wrist, taking his credit card, while Wayne took the PDQ handset from the sandwich cart guy.

"Hey what...?"

"In here, NOW!" Eric barked, shoving them both into the interview room. He and Wayne looked at each other, exchanging a wordless communication they'd developed through years of working together either in combat, or in the security business. Wayne approached them.

"You mentioned Roy." He began. "What do you know about him?"

"Well...we kind of hit it off when he got here." The red-haired security guy answered. "He seemed kind of cool, so we hung out. We worked out together, and we sometimes had some beers together."

"What about you?" Wayne asked the sandwich guy.

"Pretty much the same." He replied.

"So, how well exactly did either of you know him?" Eric asked coldly. "I'd suggest you think very carefully."

"I would too." Wayne warned them. "He's not as patient as I am."

"Well...he didn't say too much, he just kind of...wanted to hear what we had to say." The security guy admitted.

"Did he talk about any of our contracts in particular?" Wayne asked.

"Come to think of it, he did talk a lot about the Queen thing." The Security guy said, thinking about it. "I kind of tuned it out because...well...I was half loaded anyway, but he was going on about some environmental stuff and saying he didn't think we should take the Queen contract. I just told him we protect who we're paid to protect."

Wayne noticed Eric's fist clenching tightly, so tightly his knuckles turned white. He was close to the edge; this was a dangerous thing for him to admit.

"You didn't think that was something you should mention?" Wayne asked.

"We were both loaded!" The security guy reminded him. "Well, I thought we were. The next day I had the mother of all hangovers. Roy was fresh as a daisy though. I still don't know how he did it."

"So, you both knew him, but neither of you knew where he lived?" Wayne asked.

"No, we didn't." The sandwich guy added. "We just...hung out. Where he went after that, we don't know."

Eric was about to lose it, but his training took over as he was about to clench his other fist and he realised something was in it. Looking down, he saw the credit card he had taken. It was then that he had a thought.

"Did Roy ever buy anything from you?" Eric asked the sandwich cart guy. He just shrugged.

"Most days, he always had a tofu salad sub." He recalled. "He was the only reason I stocked the damn things. Otherwise I'd never shift them."

"How did he pay?" Eric asked him, holding up the credit card. "Did he ever use one of these?"

"A couple of times." He replied. Eric smiled, and turned to look at Wayne. He too was smiling. They both thought the same thing...BINGO!

"We'll need to borrow this." Wayne said, showing him the PDQ handset. "Hope you don't mind."

The sandwich guy just nodded, knowing it wasn't really a question he had the choice of refusing.

Spider was sitting in a cafe not far from the school. It was a small place, quite literally tiny. There were only about four tables, and it looked like if more than ten people were in there, people would be elbowing each other in the face as they ate. As Emma walked in, she saw the counter assistant tending to his injuries. He just cleared his throat and left, leaving Spider and Emma alone.

"Wally's is great." Spider told her. "He owns the lot; his grandfather bought it years ago, so they can't chuck him out. Still, it's one of the best places around."

"I just wanted to check..."

"Hey, I told you I'm fine." Spider assured her, holding up a cup. "One or two cups of Wally's herbal tea, and I'm right as rain."

Emma just came over, sitting down with him.

"So, you want to do a story on Queen's?" Emma asked. He just nodded.

"I figured that maybe they wouldn't take a couple of kids as seriously as a major network." Spider told her. "Then maybe you could take some telling snaps while I ask some armour-piercing questions."

I um...I guess." Emma replied, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Spider just shifted a little closer on the couch.

"You're not scared are you?" He asked. "I remember seeing what you were like when that badger thing wrecked the school."

"No, it's not that." Emma replied. "It's just...should we do this?"

"If not us, then who?" Spider asked her. "Ghandi, Mohammad Ali, Malcolm X...it is possible for a single person to change the world."

"I don't think I'm like any of those people." Emma said shyly. Spider reached across, touching her face softly with his hand.

"Neither did they." He told her. "I saw you that day, and you are one of the strongest, and bravest people I've ever known. You really don't know how amazing you are do you?"

He moved a little closer. Emma had to stop for a moment to take in what was happening. Spider was not an unattractive guy. He had a decent build, a nice face...injuries aside...his clothes were not what most considered attractive, but Emma herself admitted to never caring about concerning herself with being a style icon.

His hand strayed to her hair. Looking into his eyes, and into his smile, she found something that she hadn't ever seen before, someone was actually looking at her.

"I'm not that amazing." Emma told him.

"That's not what I see." Spider replied, drawing in closer. Emma's heart raced. It was something that had never happened before. For once, someone didn't want Gia, they wanted her. She thought briefly about Troy, but as she saw Spider before her, and felt how he held her, she finally resigned herself to the fact she had been living a delusion. She had been chasing Troy for months, she had opened up to him about stuff only Gia knew about, and yet he still didn't see her as anything more than a team mate. It was then that she resigned herself to the fact he probably never would. Spider though, he had never wanted Gia, he was only thinking of her.

"You didn't want me because I'm a photographer did you?" Emma asked. Spider just gave her a cheeky grin and shook his head, before closing in. Wrapping a hand behind her head, he pressed his lips to hers. Emma had never felt anything like this before, it was everything she wanted, to be desired, for someone to want her, only for her. She pulled her hand behind his head and returned the kiss.

Jordan wandered the woods near the waste plant. He didn't want to go too close, unless he brought out the other Mutants, but he had a theory. If it paid off, he would find what he was looking for. He found his nostrils flaring, and his senses assaulted, before spinning around.

"You shouldn't have come here Ranger." Mephit warned him.

"Why, because you can't fight without a risk of civilian casualties?" He asked.

"You underestimate me." She chuckled. "I can already sense where to find an abundance of fresh victims."

"Fight me here you bitch!" Jordan snarled as his armour burst forth, locking in place around him. Mephit blasted him in the face with a thick cloud of smoke which blocked his vision long enough for her to get away. By the time he switched to heat vision, he saw her form heading off in the direction of a large cluster of heat signatures. He ran off after her, hoping to catch up to her.

In an apartment in the middle of town, a guy with bleached blonde hair was sitting watching TV, sipping some coffee when he heard a knock on the door. He hit the mute button.

"I've already paid till the end of the week!" He called out. There was another knock, this time louder. "Alright, alright I'm coming!"

He answered the door in a vest and boxer shorts.

"WHAT?" He snapped. Just then, his face dropped as he saw Eric and Wayne in the doorway.

"Hello Roy." Wayne greeted him as Eric grabbed him by the vest, shoving him inside. Wayne closed and locked the door behind them as Eric threw him onto the floor.

"Scream and it'll be the last thing you ever do." Eric warned him as he pulled out his phone, showing him the pictures of Gia and Emma. "Now, forgetting about the fact you led me into a four-on-one ambush, why don't we talk about these?"

"I'm not saying anything!" Roy snapped.

"That's a really bad idea kid." Wayne warned him, standing by the door to watch for anyone coming. "If I were you, I'd tell him what he wants to know."