CHAPTER FIVE

"I've never even heard of Chloe Greezer," Rio muttered as she and Sarah and Davey watched the news over breakfast. She could see many cameras flashing in the popstar's face, as well as Jordan's next to her, inside the 4400 lobby as she talked about how Jordan's book impacted her life and decision to cut her tour short.

"Because I felt like I had to be here. Obviously, I'm not one of 4400 but I expect to be treated just like any other student here. If I'm lucky enough to tap into an ability I will use it to ensure the world a brighter future."

"Congratulations, Chloe Greezer, you have achieved first key," Jordan announced as he draped the bronze necklace around the popstar's neck.

"As if being a cult wasn't bad enough, now they're a pyramid scheme." Rio made a show of fake gagging, earning a giggle from Davey as she washed her plate and bid her good mornings before heading out for the day.

That day was like any other for the most part. She did strength training with Agent Hilliard for the first couple hours. It flew by without a case that needed her ability falling from the sky and she was set up at her own small corner desk in Tom and Diana's office before the day was over. Jarvis set her up that way so Tom and Diana could keep an eye on her. As if they really needed to. While she was making a list of office supplies and Tom and Diana were taking a meeting with Jarvis, her cell phone rang with Kyle's name.

She smiled as she answered, "Hey college boy."

"You mean college boy who just got an A- on his first paper," Kyle responded proudly.

She chuckled into her phone. "That's great! How are your other classes going?"

"Some are mind numbingly boring," he quipped. "Some others are fine. I'm just ready to get the general ed stuff over with so I can take classes I actually want to take."

"Before you know it, you'll be in medical school, buddy," Rio assured him.

"I don't know about that," Kyle said. "I'm a freshman at 21. I should be getting closer to finish a BS and researching medical schools by now. But I'm stuck at the starting line."

"Hey, I didn't even finish High School," she quipped. "There's no shame in not following society's formula to a T. Your age doesn't matter when you're trying to achieve a dream you really want. You're meant to help people, Kyle. And being a hotshot doctor is your way to do it. You'll get there."

"Well, I'm not getting there anytime soon," he said. "But there is this party at a frat on campus this weekend. Last Day in Pompeii. Supposed to be fun."

"You deserve to let loose, Kyle," Rio agreed. "You've been working hard. As long as I don't catch you in a toga, or taking part in some stupid hazing ritual, I won't have to smack you upside the head."

Kyle laughed loudly. "I promise. Just one party."

"Go have fun," Rio encouraged him. "You've earned it."

When Rio got home after a boring day at the office, Nikki was in the kitchen eating all of the peanut butter cookies Sarah baked. Rio mimed pointing a gun at her and said in a fake cop voice, "Hands in the air! Step away from the cookies!"

Still chewing on one, Nikki dropped the other half to her plate and held up her hands in mock surrender. Only once she swallowed did she say with a grin, "It's not what it looks like, officer!"

Rio rolled her eyes with a chuckle and dropped her hands. She swiped a cookie for herself. "What are you doing here? I thought you had class early tomorrow."

"Got an email from my professor that it's cancelled," Nikki said. "So I came here to do my laundry."

"And steal my cookies," Rio joked.

Nikki grinned as she grabbed another. "You get mom's baking every day while I have to wait."

"You wanted the dorm life," Rio pointed out. "These are the consequences, young lady. How is dorm life anyway?"

Nikki shrugged but was smiling. "Fun. There was this big karaoke contest with a stage and backup band. My roommate sung 'Torn' and got a standing ovation. Reminded me how good you are at singing. Bet you would have won hands down."

Rio's cheeks warmed but she shook her head. "Being plucked from the 80s and landed here with telempathy – I take as a big sign that a singing career wasn't my destiny."

Nikki stuck out her tongue playfully. "But the classes are killer. I can't wait to move through all this general education baloney and study what I really want to study."

"What an echo. Which is?" Rio asked.

Nikki shrugged. "I don't know."

Rio chuckled as she began putting together a sandwich. "Then I suggest you muddle through extended High School education while you figure out what it is you really want to study."

"I was thinking something along the lines of theater," Nikki said bashfully. "I did like doing Hamlet in the eleventh grade."

"That would probably be perfect for you," Rio said, tossing another cookie at her sister.

Rhiannon couldn't believe the circus her life had turned into over the next few days after it came out that a 4400's saliva could cause people to lose a large amount of weight, seemingly overnight. He was fielding contracts from multiple companies. And now corporations were trying to sign 4400s up left and right to try and profit off even the possibility of a lucrative gift.

"Va te faire foutre," Marco overheard her saying into her phone as they bumped into each other in the parking. He was taken aback by how pissed she seemed. "Whoa—I didn't know you spoke French," he remarked with a grin.

She rolled her eyes. "I picked up some R-rated stuff from a woman in group. That's the third company to call and harass me about getting a contract. This Appelbaum guy – whether or not his gift is legit – has created an extra-large headache for the rest of us."

"You don't think his ability is real," Marco guessed as they entered the building.

She sighed. "I've learned to be wary of seemingly to-good-to-be-true shortcuts in life. Say his saliva really does, what, burn the fat off of people? Say it works. There are always unforeseen consequences to everything. Just like there's some sort of ripple effect to the 4400. Yes, he could be a cure to every weight-related disease in the world. But what if that's just the surface of what it does, and it doesn't end there?"

"Like?" he prompted, staring at her with interest. She didn't really seem to know she was speaking so much.

"Like what if it works like a diet pill?" she suggested. "I had a friend in High School – in my time – who practically lived off of those things. Started having seizures so violent, she hit her head falling down the stairs and ended up in a coma. I looked her up a few months after I got back. She's still in the coma – her parents are drowning in unpaid loans and bankruptcy keeping her body going."

"That's awful, and a good point," he said.

"It's not like the FDA can approve his saliva," she said. "And what if it isn't just fat they're losing? What if it's also water or-or muscle? That's likely with rapid weight loss. That's why it's unhealthy to lose weight too quickly."

"That's a good point too," Marco said slowly, giving her a look.

They were in the elevator by now and Rio paused enough to take a breath. In the lull, she caught Marco's look and furrowed her brow at him. "What? You didn't expect me to know shit?"

"No, it's not that—"

"Just because I don't have an MD or PhD, doesn't mean I'm stupid," she told him, frowning. "I'm more than just a telepath."

"I know you are—" he tried to say as the elevator doors dinged and opened and he followed her out on the Agent's floor. "Rio, you're invaluable."

"Shouldn't you be going to the Theory room?" She marched off towards her shared office. She bumped into Tom on the way, who seemed to notice the smoke coming out of her ears.

"Whoa, what's wrong?"

"This whole day," she sighed. "Where are you with this Appelbaum guy?"

"A whole lot of nowhere," he said, opening the door to their office for her.

Diana was there already, on the phone, sounding as frustrated and indignant as they felt. "No, this is not a negotiating stance. It's my answer—no. Goodbye."

"So, let me guess—the answer is no?" Tom commented as he sat at his desk.

"That was a rep from the Yoyotron Corp. They want to sign Maia to a $300,000-a-year holding contract," Diana explained.

"Next time you should give the phone over to me," Rio suggested. "I pull off a great Russian babushka."

Tom chuckled before mentioning, "But Maia doesn't have any ability anymore."

"Well, you don't need any to make any of these deals," Diana said. "They're signing 4400s up on spec. They want them in their pocket in case something develops down the line."

"Well, you did the right thing by saying no," he replied.

"I can also teach you some French swear words," Rio offered, taking her own seat in the corner behind Diana.

Diana sighed, going to the office door to shut it. "Guys. About Maia."

"What?" Tom frowned. "She's okay, isn't she?"

"She's fine. I've been trying to figure out the right time to tell you this. I probably should have done it right away, but," she cut off with a sigh, perching herself on Tom's desk and looking between him and Rio. "You know those visions that Maia used to have? It turns out she was only pretending that they stopped."

"No shit?" Rio cursed, gaping mouth.

"How long have you known?" Tom asked her.

"Not long," she swore. "I only found out because I read her diary, but it was an eyeful."

"Diana…" Rio minutely chastised.

Diana held up her hands defensively, already kicking herself. "I know, I know… you don't have to tell me."

"You going to tell Jarvis?" Tom asked.

"You can't do that," Rio said, almost talking over him. "Especially not after what happened with Gary. If they think they can use her…"

Diana agreed grimly. "I'd rather not turn my daughter's diary over to the government. It's been hard enough on her since Alice and her family disappeared." She turned to her frowning partner. "Hey, don't give me that look, Tom. You kept Shawn's ability to yourself for quite some time."

Tom huffed and stood to leave. "Guess we're even now."

Rio stood and playfully shook Diana's shoulder. "Don't worry about him. No amount of evolution has made men any less of the boneheads they've always been."

Diana snorted a little. "It's not like things could get any more stressful. What with Appelbaum, Maia having visions, and now with my sister in town for the ink expo… They both teamed up on me and convinced me to bring Maia over to watch her Aunt work. In a tattoo shop, of all places."

"I know your anti-tattoo ways but they're actually a great way of self-expression," Rio said. "And it's pretty cool that your sister is being featured. It's not like she's gonna ink Maia, too."

"She better not," Diana chuckled. "Why don't you come tonight? I could use the buffer, trust me."

"Sure, sounds like fun. I'll bring Nikki too."

So, that night, Rio and Nikki met Diana and Maia at the tattoo shop and met the infamous sister, April. It was a little odd for Rio to meet her. She seemed to have a past of screwing up just like Rio did. And it made her think of how different her life would have been had the future not intercepted it.

"So, tell me, since you're not really an Agent, do you have any ink? Any art from the 80s I can check out?" April seemed dying to know.

Diana gave her sister a look. "She was seventeen when she was taken, April."

"Seventeen-year-old rebel in the 80's," Rio pointed out with a grin. "I did get a garage tattoo of Jimmy Page's symbol."

"You have a tattoo?" Nikki asked, eyes widening comically.

April's eyes widened in appreciation. "Zoso? From Led Zeppelin? Where?"

Rio smiled and pulled up her shirt, showing off the deep black tattoo on her left side. "He actually had legit equipment and ink and everything. Turned out really well."

"Looks good," April commented.

"Looks cool," Maia grinned, earning a reproachful look from her mother.

Rio smiled and playfully bopped Maia on the nose. "Don't go rushing to get yourself anything permanent. Be a kid first."

"I know," Maia giggled.

"You know," April cut in, "if you want, I have a free first hour to get set up, but I could use it to fit you in if you have an idea of what you'd want."

"Really?" Rio asked. "Because I've spent the last year mulling an idea over."

"Totally!" April smiled excitedly. "It would be so cool to have a 4400 in my portfolio."

"You should do it!" Nikki said. "It might help convince mom to let me get one."

Rio snorted at the absurd idea. She ended up taking April up on her offer. She had been seriously contemplating a certain idea since she found out about the death of her little brother, Jacob. When she had been taken, a lit joint of hers set her house on fire, killing her parents and her seven-year-old brother. She had been so devastated. She didn't care that her extended family had assumed she'd done it on purpose. She had only been concerned with grieving the life her little brother never got to have. She wanted to celebrate him some way.

"Is that a bumble bee?" Maia asked curiously as she peered over April's shoulder to see what she was drawing onto Rio's bicep.

"Yeah," April said. "And then I'm gonna write the name Jacob in typewriter script underneath it."

"My brother, Jacob," Rio filled in. "He loved bugs, most of all bees. He wanted to be a beekeeper when he grew up. He, uh… never got the chance though."

Diana brushed her fingers over Rio's other hand clasped with Nikki's. "I think he would have loved this tattoo."

Rio smiled weakly. "Me too."

Soon, Rio's tattoo was done and wrapped up and they were just hanging out while April tended to her other customers. A big guy named Billy rolled in to get a piece on his inner forearm and practically raved over April's work while Maia watched on. "See how cool that looks? Your aunt, she's a real artist," he said. April blushed.

"Oh, say it again, Billy boy. I don't think my sister heard you."

"Oh, I heard him," Diana commented. "You're a star."

"Believe it," Billy said. "As soon as I heard April was appearing here, I booked my time right away. So did pretty much all of my buddies."

"That's impressive," Diana said, looking at her sister with a hint of awe. "I'm proud of you."

"Wait a minute," April said as she finished the last touch on Billy's tattoo to look up at her big sister. "You didn't actually just say that you were proud of me?"

"Cut it out," Diana said. "Of course I am."

April was frowning as she stood up. "I always thought you thought I was a loser."

Diana looked at her sister with disbelief. "Did you really think that?"

"Yeah, I really did," she answered as she walked over to the counter.

"April." Diana followed after her.

"All I said was that I liked the tattoo," Billy said.

"You don't know sisters," Rio said from her seat on a stool.

Nikki pursed her lips. "We'll never be like that, will we?"

Rio smiled and shook her head. "No – we'll always be boss."

"And boss is good," Nikki said certainly.

"Boss is the best," Rio said with a grin.

"You don't always wear your helmet, do you?" Maia asked Billy, walking around to peer at his tattoo from April's seat. "You should wear one tonight."

Billy turned to her. "Why's that?"

"You won't make it over to Monica's house if you don't," Maia said solemnly.

Now Rio was watching the young girl closely. Maia's small fingers prodded at the skin around Billy's tattoo. "Does that hurt?"

"How do you know about my girlfriend?" Billy asked, concerned.

"I really think you should wear your helmet," was all Maia said.

Rio was taking an online computer tour of the NTAC system at her desk while peeking in on Tom and Diana's case and the deadly turn it had taken. Apparently the two first customers had starved to death. They were bringing Appelbaum in and trying to figure out why, running test after test. Currently, Diana was on the phone with NTAC medical, getting the results.

"Okay, I understand, Doctor. Good work," Diana said before hanging up her phone.

"They get something?" Rio asked.

Diana sighed, scratching her temple. "Apparently there's a protein in Appelbaum's saliva that hyper-accelerated the metabolism. It stimulates the brain to release epinephrine and it breaks down fat cells at the same time. But they burned up calories faster than their bodies could take them in. No matter how much they ate, they still starved to death."

"Jesus…" Rio gasped.

"Yeah, I gotta tell Tom and Appelbaum," Diana said, rushing out of the office.

Rio tried to focus on her digital tour of her computer but was distracted away from it when her phone rang. Her cell phone – and it was Kyle. "Hey Kyle," she answered her phone.

"Hey, do you have a minute to talk about something? Without my dad overhearing?" he requested.

"Anything to get a break from boring computer stuff," she agreed. "What's up?"

"Well, I'm actually in the parking lot," Kyle said. "Could you come out to talk for a minute?"

Rio frowned at the shakiness of Kyle's voice but agreed and hung up. She hurried out of the building where an angsty looking Kyle was waiting for her. "Okay, what's with the cloak and dagger? You're supposed to be at school."

"You scanned my head while I was in quarantine, right?" he responded, serious.

"Yeah," she said slowly. "What's this about? Why didn't you want Tom hearing us talk?"

Kyle started to pace in a small circle as he told her what happened last night. He'd gone to the Pompeii party, barely had more than one drink, and blacked out. Next thing he knew, he was outside a store with the window bashed in by a trashcan and being arrested. Tom had to pull the NTAC card to get him away from being charged with a felony. Kyle thought he'd been drugged or something. But blood tests showed nothing in his system.

"If they didn't find any drugs, Kyle, then they can't have been there," Rio said cautiously.

"They could have screwed up the test," Kyle insisted. "I didn't drink that much."

"I trust that you didn't," Rio assured him. "But scientists from the future messed with your head and landed you in a coma for four years. We have no idea what the real lasting consequences are."

"Exactly!" Kyle exclaimed. "Even when I woke up, I wasn't myself. What if it's happening again?"

"You need to talk to Tom if you keep blacking out and lose chunks of time," Rio said.

"I can't," Kyle denied. "What's he going to do? Turn me over to NTAC medical? I'm not going back into quarantine. No way."

"Do you really think your dad and I would let that happen?" Rio grabbed his shoulders to stop his fidgeting. "After all the crap Tom pulled to get you away from them before you 'woke up'? Everything Tom does is either for you, or to create a safer world for your future. But if you really don't want me to say anything I won't. Not until I really believe you're in some kind of trouble. Okay?"

"Okay, Ro, thanks," he sighed.

"Why did you come to me with this anyway?" she asked, dropping her hand. "I'm not sure what I could do."

"I was thinking you could scan my brain again," he said hopefully. "See if that future guy is still in there somehow. Or if you can recover the missing time or something."

Rio reluctantly sighed. "I can try but it's not foolproof, okay?"

"Okay," he said, nodding.

"Just relax, don't focus on the missing time or anything specific," she coached him. "I'll do the digging and it's easier if your mind is as blank as possible."

Kyle nodded, taking a deep breath as Rio took his hands to establish a better connection and link. She searched his mind. She could see the party, beer, his A- paper, and then him being surrounded by police outside a broken in storefront. In between all of that was this endless black space that she couldn't shed a light on. And she tried. She really tried. But nothing was happening. With a heavy exhale, Rio pulled away. "I'm sorry. I can't see anything. It's all black."

Kyle sighed too. "Thanks for trying."

"You let me know if something like this happens again, okay?" she requested. "I can't possibly help you if you hold back. And I want to help you."

Kyle slowly nodded. "Okay, I promise. Sorry to pull you from work."

"It's been a boring day," she shrugged. "The most fun I've had has been cursing out corporations on the phone."

Kyle laughed, hugged her, thanked her, and got into his car to drive off back to the college. Rio power walked back to her office and sat down, mulling over Kyle's situation. Blacking out was never good. Even when it happened the good ol' fashioned way by drinking excessively. Nothing in her felt good about what Kyle had told her – or optimistic.

But she was soon distracted from her thoughts about Kyle when Tom and Diana's case went awry. It turned out that the corporation Appelbaum had signed with had taken tissue samples from him and already used it on one hundred people who were in the hospital, starving to death. Never had Rio felt so useless with her abilities. Knowing what people were thinking did nothing to solve this 'disease'. But Diana and the other medical minded people found a solution. They found out that Appelbaum produced the protein via his liver. And they could use his liver to produce a cure of sorts for the aggressive malnutrition that was killing people. After promising to get his daughter through college via a scholarship, Appelbaum agreed and everyone got treated and helped.

As if to cap off the case, Rio ended up in the theory room with Tom, Diana, Jarvis, and Marco. She avoided Marco's eyes, still a little irritated with him, even if it felt silly to hold onto her pride. But she focused on the conversation.

"So, we thought we had a cure for the world's obesity problems," Diana commented.

"Yeah, and instead, we've got two dead bodies, a hundred other people in recovery and one corporation scrambling to cover its ass," Tom said.

"And no more corporations harassing me. Which is good, because I was running out of fake accents and French threats," Rio commented, falling into a chair.

"It looks like the great 4400 gold rush is over," Marco commented.

"Making the point of this little exercise what exactly?" Jarvis asked.

"Well, maybe they got it wrong," Diana suggested. "They thought they had a cure, but they didn't. I mean, they're from the future but they're still human beings, right?"

"Humans that had the technology to time travel and give me, and many others, powers like telempathy, healing, precognition," Rio brought up. "Need I go on?"

"She's right. Let's not rush to judgment," Marco said. "We know rapid weight loss is the effect on the human body but if the purpose of this protein is to provoke metabolic chemical change… It could have other applications. Like I don't know—breaking down toxic waste."

Diana nodded along. "It could rid the ocean of pollutants. Maybe even restore in the ozone layer."

"So, in other words, the possibilities are pretty much endless," Tom guessed.

"That's all they are right now though. Possibilities. I mean we're years away from practical use," Marco admitted.

"But maybe we have the time that whoever in the future didn't, to figure it all out and use it," Rio suggested. "This could be his ripple."

"But with his new liver, Appelbaum won't be able to produce the chemical anymore," Jarvis pointed out.

Marco shook his head. "He doesn't have to. Now that we've got it isolated, we can reproduce it and find out what we've really got here."

"So, Trent earned his golden parachute after all," Tom said with a hopeful smile. "Maybe his daughter can study chemistry in college."

When the 'debrief' was over with and the agents left to start on their case paperwork, and Jarvis went to her office to do… whatever she did, Rio made to follow them out of the theory room. But Marco's hand on her arm stopped her. Mostly it caused her pain, since his fingers hit her fresh tattoo hidden under her jacket.

She hissed and pulled her arm away. "Dammit, Marco!"

He raised his hands up defensively. "Sorry, sorry, I didn't think I grabbed you that hard."

"You didn't," she said. "I got a tattoo yesterday."

"Oh," he muttered.

"What did you want, Marco?" Rio asked impatiently.

"I just wanted to say—apologize about the other day," he stammered a bit. "I really didn't mean to imply that you're not intelligent in any way. I would have never thought of a lot of the things you brought up. Honest."

"You know what, Marco? It really isn't as big of a deal as I made it," Rio said, her irritation seeping out of her. "I just… before I ended up here, you know, 2000s—I got really used to people telling me I was things I knew I wasn't. Stupid, easy, irresponsible, crazy, a drug addict. The list goes on. Being here… being dropped here is my second chance. I don't want to fall in the same cycle of being perceived as lesser."

Marco nodded, lips in a solemn line. "I understand. I'm sorry I made you feel like that."

"I know you didn't mean to," Rio said.

"I would offer to buy you a drink as per an apology but you're not legal yet," he chuckled weakly.

She chuckled and shook her head. "Wouldn't take you up on it anyway. I don't drink. Went clean when I got dropped here. Besides, can't drink with my medication."

"Right, I forgot about that," he said. "How about coffee? After you show me your tattoo of course."

Rio chuckled and agreed, taking off half of her jacket so she could show him the bee on her bicep.

"Wow, it looks good. Really detailed," Marco said, peering at it. "Jacob… your brother, right?"

"You've read my file," she commented, shrugging her jacket back on.

"Guilty," he cringed.

"Don't worry about it," Rio assured him. "I assumed everyone would know. But, um, he really liked bees. Knew the world wouldn't work without them. Wanted to make sure they never went away. So, I got this done for him by Diana's sister, April, yesterday. Back in '87 I got Zosa on my side."

"Led Zeppelin? No way," Marco said, impressed yet again.

"Yeah, got it done in a buddy's garage," she smirked.

"You can tell me all about it over apology coffee," he grinned, holding the door open for her.

She laughed and agreed, "Deal," as they walked out together. He went with her to her office to grab her things, and she started idly humming to herself while they walked down to the parking garage.

Marco gave her an inquisitive look. "What song are you humming?"

Rio stopped short. "I didn't even realize I was doing it. But, um, I don't really know. It's been stuck in my head for over a year and I don't remember where I heard it. Don't know the words either."

"Well, I don't recognize it," he said. "Maybe you made it up."

She snorted. "Please – I'm not that creative."