Chapter XVI: The Beginning of the Hunt

Maryland

Major Antonio Vassallo's house, built along the bay shores of Maryland, was a massive structure of brick, marble and honest craftsmanship that the Italian-descended man greatly treasured. It had cost him a fortune to refurbish most of this formerly foreclosed building to his own personal liking, but it had certainly been worth every cent in the agent's eyes. With his salary it was completely manageable. After all, being a high-ranking member of an elite government agency did have its perks. Despite that it could be considered a small mansion, the major was the house's only occupant, as he lived entirely alone. No wife, no children, but all the free time he could ever ask for whenever he wasn't needed or decided to go remote for the agency. Having a personal relationship with a significant other wasn't on his plate at the moment.

Starwatch took direct priority, since he was a major in the agency, leaving any sort of courtship out the window. He'd spent most of his life working for Starwatch, breathing new life into the once-disgraced organization, and he wasn't leaving anytime soon.

At this hour in the afternoon, the Starwatch agent was keeping himself busy with making lunch, a homemade balsamic asiago salad. With lettuce leaves plucked fresh from his backyard garden, along with some baby tomatoes and goat cheese, the man was ready to get in some desperately needed "me-time", especially after what went down back in the Pentagon. Hopefully Woods had everything under control with his absence. Vassallo hummed a whimsical tune to himself as he stirred the bowl into a nice mix, making sure to get it just right, finishing up right as he turned on the television to HBO.

Though no sooner did he lay down on his leather couch did the phone behind him start ringing. Vassallo swallowed his first bite of food before he reached over and grabbed it, wondering who had decided to call his house.

"Hello, this is Antonio Vassallo. How may I help you?"

"Major? It's Director Woods."

"Ah, Woods. I was just thinking about you," he said as he took another bite of his salad, "How are things over at Starwatch? I hope this isn't an urgent call. I just sat down to enjoy my show." Vassallo jokingly said. Of course the man took his job seriously, but he could afford to have a sense of humor once in a while.

"Actually sir, I'd like to say that this is rather urgent." Woods responded, and from what Vassallo could hear from the other line, the elderly man sounded a little nervous. The major leaned upwards as the director continued to speak. "Listen. Last night, while you were away, we received a call from two of our patrol agents that managed to find something during a night watch."

"They found something?" Vassallo wondered, now a little curious himself. "You mean like another shard piece?"

"No sir, not like that." Woods paused for a moment before he spoke again, his tone of voice now more serious than before. "Antonio, I don't know how to say this other than we might have stumbled onto something nothing short of incredible! At first I didn't believe it, but the two agents have proof! Real proof! They managed to capture video footage that is utterly revolutionary! It could prove everything that we've been saying in Starwatch correct! Our theories, our research! It's all real!"

"What kind of theory Woods?" Vassallo asked as he bit down on another forkful of his lunch. Listening to the director talk so excitedly had built up his appetite again. He hadn't heard Woods talk like this in a very long time, and it relieved and concerned the major.

Woods remained silent for a few moments before he dropped the proverbial bomb on his superior.

"A metahuman theory, sir."

Vassallo bolted straight up off his couch, eyes wide as saucers while accidentally knocking over his salad bowl straight to the floor. At the moment, he couldn't bring himself to care. Not after what he heard from Woods. All these years of trying to show the world, there was only one thought raging through the major's head.

I was right!

...

Royal Woods Air Force Museum

"...and here is the F-16 Fighting Falcon, introduced into the United States Air Force all the way back in 1974, nearly five decades ago! Since then it's been used for all sorts of roles within our country's military." So said the tour guide for Ms. Johnson's fifth-grade class as they passed by the large open exhibit, with some of the kids stopping to take photos on their phones. Meanwhile, at the back of the group, Lincoln and his friends were also looking around the museum, going at their own pace but making sure to keep close with Ms. Johnson just in case they got lost. This place was quite big, after all. The exhibit they and the rest of their class were in was a converted hangar that now housed several other decommissioned aircraft, including fighter jets, helicopters and even an old biplane.

With the aforementioned friend group, Lincoln was at the front, his face buried in a guide pamphlet that he'd picked up from the info booth. Before long they too stopped to see what the rest of the class was looking at. Rusty pulled out his smartphone to take a snap, while Stella whistled at the sheer size of the F-16 in front of her.

"You never realize how freaking big they are." She said, hands on her hips as she gazed upon the awesome military machine. "They seem so small in the movies until you're standing in front of one."

"Yeah, nor how fast they can go. I remember seeing the Blue Angels at an air show with my paw a couple years ago, and by golly they go fast! Nearly blew my hat off to the other side of the county!" Liam added on. He could distinctly remember seeing the blue and gold jets flying overhead at shattering speeds.

"Not to mention loud as heck, too."

"Hey Lincoln," Clyde loudly said to unbury his friend's attention from the pamphlet, "What do you think so far? Pretty cool, huh?"

"Oh yeah, definitely cool." Lincoln said with a affirming nod. Clyde couldn't help but smile. Ever since Lincoln had arrived at school the white-haired boy had a swift and welcoming mood change much different to what he was over the past couple days. No longer was he spacing out or keeping to himself, the Loudster had returned to his regular jubilant self, and his friends couldn't be more relieved. Though when Clyde asked him what caused this change, Lincoln simply replied that it was a family matter that came up lately, and that was it. With Lincoln's massive family, that could have meant anything, but they all took it as a good thing since their friend was seemingly back to normal.

Or at least that's what they all thought. The six of them headed on over to where their fifth-grade class was standing around, looking at a MiG-15 that the museum had procured. The shining chrome hull and dark red highlight lines along the body of the jet certainly caught the kid's eyes, along with the odd shape of the fighter jet itself with its bulbous engine fan located directly in front of the plane.

"Man, those Russians sure do love making some weird-looking stuff." Zach stated once he and the rest of the friend group were standing in front of the old plane.

"No kidding," Stella said as well, and then turned to face the ginger with a question, "Hey Rusty, you're kind of a plane guy. How fast did these jets go?"

"Y'know, at first I thought you were making fun of my personality there, Stella. Why don't we have a look over here." Rusty said as he walked to the information plaque at the foot of the jet near the landing gear, using his finger to trace through the facts before he found it. "Hmm. A hah, there it is. It says that this jet, the MiG-15 which was built in 1949 by order of the Soviet Union, could potentially reach a maximum speed of over six-hundred and fifty miles an hour."

"Still not enough to break the sound barrier, but for a jet that's almost eighty years old, that's pretty fast." Clyde said.

"And during the Cold War, too! My grandpappy told me all kinds of scary things that the Soviets did." Liam piped up behind them.

Meanwhile Lincoln was also curious about the top speed of this old piece of machinery, but for his own personal reasons. Knowing full well that he had superpowers that could potentially rival those speeds that Rusty just talked about, it got the boy thinking deeply about how he could match up to this war machine. The boy had only been gifted with these powers for a couple days, but he was always thinking of how far he could go. And now, he couldn't help himself but think about his own abilities when compared to the likes of such vehicles.

I bet I can go faster than that... Lincoln thought to himself, scratching his chin as he imagined going toe-to-toe in the sky with the old Soviet fighter jet. In fact, I think I can probably go faster than all of these planes here!

He could see it clearly in his head; him decked out in a sweet red cape and mask, soaring over the ocean as both Russian and American Cold War-era jets raced behind him, desperately trying to keep up with the clearly faster Loud boy. It almost made him chuckle out loud. Older planes like this Soviet machine would have trouble keeping up with him, and he knew that he could go fast, but perhaps if the chance came the more modern jets of today might offer more of a challenge.

That would be fun! Who knows how fast I can really go!

But the mere thought of racing against any sort of jet made him remember that terrible night he had, when he had snuck out of the house and was then chased all over the skies of Royal Woods by a strange, modern-looking plane. The pale moon hanging overhead as he tried to escape, the wind howling in his ears, and those yellow eyes staring at him through the crystal blue glass cockpit, like they were burning into his very soul. Lincoln doubted that he would ever forget that night, no matter what. Seeing all these planes together in the air museum was only causing those troubling memories to resurface with a vengeance. He could feel a small bead of sweat dribble down his temple as his young mind began to overthink again.

Was he feeling guilty for what he did? Perhaps he was, and maybe his consciousness was begging for him to tell the truth to someone just to get it out of his system. But he couldn't, the boy knew that he had to keep his powers a secret.

"Uh, Lincoln? You okay there bud?" Clyde leaned over and snapped his fingers in front of his friend's face after he saw that he was starting to act a little strange.

"W-What? Oh, sorry. I was getting lost in my own head, that's all." Lincoln fumbled with wording before he regained his thoughts and turned to see that his friends were looking quite concerned with him. He quickly came up with an excuse, wiping away his sweat in the meantime.

"You were spacing out again, dude. I thought you were over that." Rusty plainly said.

"I know! It's just," Lincoln sighed while he rubbed his eyes, "I didn't get much sleep last night," That's one way of putting it. "I was up all night feeling excited for our trip today. Fighter jets are really cool! I was thinking about if I was a pilot back then fighting against each other in the Cold War."

"Don't beat yourself up over it, Lincoln. Lots of people get anxiety when something big comes up." Clyde encouragingly said to his buddy. "Like when I went to my cousin's wedding last October! I was so nervous about it that I didn't catch a wink, and then I slept through the whole thing! Lemme tell you, my cousins were not happy about it."

"Maybe if you talked about what's on your mind, you might feel better about it." Stella offered some helpful advice for the boy.

"Yeah, maybe. But it's a family thing between me and my sisters. Kinda confidential, if you know what I mean." Lincoln said, and his friends immediately understood. While he knew that his friends were only concerned about his well-being, there was no way that the Loud boy was going to tell them about what happened to him and his sisters, and how they all had superpowers now, regardless of how cool it would be to show off his ability to fly in front of them. It was terribly tempting, but he knew that Lori and the rest of his sisters would have his hide if he did. Lincoln didn't want to break his family's cover any more than he did already. He had just got on Lori's good side this morning and the last thing he wanted was to throw it away because he couldn't help himself but be a showboat.

Strangely enough, the moment he thought of his sisters, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Reaching for it and tapping on the screen revealed a text from Lynn.

LYNN: Lincoln

LYNN: We oughta tell the others about that thing

LYNN: Sister Meeting, after school ASAP. AND don't forget!

Lincoln felt his palms go sweaty and his breath hitch in his throat when he saw the texts, and what the "thing" Lynn was talking about meant. Truth be told, in the midst of him having fun with his friends, he'd completely forgotten about the interaction he had earlier this morning between him and his sporty older sister. Hearing that they had somehow seen the exact same thing during a lucid dream, the large halo made of white light, was unsettling at the very least, making it yet another mystery that more than likely was linked to their powers.

"Is that one of your sisters texting you?" Zach asked as he leaned over to take a peek at the screen.

"Y-Yep. It's Lynn. She was checking up on me." Lincoln stammered before he put his phone away and sucked in a deep, long breath of air. He was starting to feel like he was getting all worked up over something that was out of his control. Right now it was about having an enjoyable time with his friends and not dwell too deeply over other matters. He was still a twelve-year-old kid. The poor boy didn't need any more stress in his life, not with ten sisters and superpowers with it.

"Aw, that's nice of her!" Stella cooed.

"So," Rusty said, "Are you feeling better now, mister space case?"

"Yep, feeling a lot better." Lincoln gleefully said as he opened the pamphlet back up to see what was coming up next. "There's a bunch of World War 2 planes in the next room, let's check it out. Maybe there's something cool in there."

If any of them had noticed, there was a small red glow coming from the vent above them, watching the six children leave. And then it was gone, disappearing back into the darkness.

...

Pentagon, Washington D.C.

"Talk to me, Woods." Those were the first words that Major Vassallo said when he marched through the front doors of Starwatch with haste in his boots, Woods trailing right behind him as the director held a tablet in his slightly shaking hands. The major had driven back to the agency headquarters in a rush, and wanted to see for himself what Woods had told him earlier. He knew that Woods was no liar and would not joke around with such grave news at hand. He was not a very patient man when it came to these topics, and he hoped that Woods would deliver him some honest info rather than another scavenging ordeal. Vassallo had based his entire Starwatch career on such speculations, so anything regarding this sort of information became his problem.

It had been a speculation into certain key events that occurred over the thousands of years of human history that lead Vassallo to believe since before he had joined the agency; that there were real metahumans currently living among the normal masses of humanity, undercover and unseen as regular citizens. People with the power of the gods at their fingertips waiting for their moment to strike. And it fell to those at Starwatch, including him, to make sure that they remained under the radar, to ensure the safety of the United States and the Earth.

While Starwatch dealt with all sorts of weird stuff that happened across the country, the idea of metahumans fell under the eyes of Vassallo, as he preferred. This meant fewer people, and that meant fewer problems. A win-win in his standpoint.

"Sir, this video that our agents sent, it proves everything that we've been saying for the past thirty years! True metahumans, in the flesh!" Woods excitedly said as he watched the video over and over again on the tablet. Director Woods followed Vassallo's idea of metahumans, but while the major wished for them to be detained for the sake of his country's safety, Woods wished to know just how they could have possibly obtained their abilities, if they had any at all. He hadn't revealed the video to the rest of the agency yet, not even to his own closest scientist employees. It was all very hush-hush at the moment and kept between the two of them. Woods wished to show the major first, since he was his superior, plus he knew that Vassallo would almost certainly believe the credibility of his evidence. Vassallo, on the contrary, had an indifferent mood to his friend's secrecy.

"I'll believe it when I see it, Woods. And, right now, I want to see it all." Vassallo said right as he entered the observational area adjacent to the control room, and looked straight at the large central screen, where the rest of the technical agents were working on their own jobs. The central screen, as wide as the wall it was built on, was turned off at the moment. A far cry from what it was just a short night ago when they had that strange signal coming in from orbit, now little more than a memory. Perhaps this could be their next big break.

"Who were the two agents that got us the footage?" Vassallo asked.

"That would be Aidan Clancy and Joshua Fulton, sir. They were the ones stationed in Michigan where we got this." Woods answered.

"Michigan, of course." Vassallo quietly said. That state was starting to become a very keen place of interest for the likes of Starwatch. First the shard, and now this footage of a legitimate metahuman coming out of the Great Lakes State. Perhaps there were more secrets hiding there, waiting to be found.

"Alright Woods, let's see what you've got." The major said as he pressed a wall-mounted button, and a flatscreen television lowered down from a slot in the ceiling.

"Of course, sir." Woods responded, uploading the video straight from the central database linked to each and every screen in Starwatch HQ. Once Woods found the terminal for the observation room, he pulled the file up on-screen. Vassallo remained quiet and seated in one of the chairs, completely engrossed in what was about to be shown to him. Even Woods held his breath while he turned off the overhead lights once the video began to play.

The video started with the two agents that captured the footage standing beside each other in front of their SUV donning their gear. It was nighttime, and they must have parked it somewhere far away from any sort of light pollution as the moon and stars shined brightly in the night sky. The footage quickly skipped ahead, and the pair were now venturing deep onto a desolate hiking trail surrounded by endless forest, their flashlights lighting up the way in front of them while they walked onwards to wherever they were going.

The footage was oddly silent, much to Vassallo's confusion.

"Where's the sound?"

"The cameras equipped on the standard helmets lack microphones, sir. Everything we're getting is purely visual." Woods evenly said to the major, who was a little perturbed that he was only watching and not hearing, but resumed watching anyway.

As the video progressed, it then showed Joshua trying to get Aidan's attention, the male agent pointing at something beyond their line of sight. Both of the agents then turned their flashlights off and crouched down into the shrubbery that infested the grounds of the forest around them. With their only source of light gone, it was hard to see where the agents were heading towards other than the occasional glimpse of the moon.

They stopped, however, right as the hit a clearing. And standing right in the middle of the clearing, completely unaware of the two agents, was a young boy.

The moment the boy popped up on screen, Vassallo instantly knew that this young lad was the one, the metahuman, and so he kept his attention on the kid.

The boy was so busy reading a comic book in his pajamas that he hadn't noticed he was being watched, completely drawn into reading the book while using his phone's flashlight to see in the dark. Zooming in on his face revealed freckled cheeks and a chipped tooth, along with some very pale-colored hair. In the black of night it was hard to tell what color it was, if it had any color at all. However, the moment of truth came when the boy suddenly stopped reading and put away the comic book into the backpack that he had brought with him, seemingly finished with his reading.

He then looked up, bent his knees like he was going to jump, and blasted off straight into the sky, leaving behind a small willow of dust and scattered leaves. The video paused there before it rewound back to when he jumped, and then began to repeat the same instance over and over again.

"My god, Woods." Vassallo could feel his heart stop the moment the boy revealed what his powers were, the major sitting as still as a statue. He couldn't believe what he was watching. There it was, right in front of him. The first video documented evidence of a real-live metahuman, here in the United States. Woods came up from behind him, putting a hand on the back of the chair with a smile on his face.

"Remarkable, isn't it?" The director said, still in awe of what was shown on screen. "I remained stunned with what we've caught here."

This was everything Vassallo needed; undeniable proof of what Starwatch itself was built for. The major watched the video repeat itself on that same instance of the boy flying up to the skies over and over again like a mantra. Though the issue remained; who was this light-haired boy that could fly? Where was he, and is he the only one of his kind? These questions rang through Vassallo's mind as he thought of every option presented to him. No matter what, this had to be dealt with the Starwatch way. Before he could decide to launch any sort of operation regarding this enlightening source of information, the door behind them squeaked open for a familiar face to reappear.

"Um, director? Sir?" A young voice chirped from the front of the room, and the two of them turned to see Ms. Smith poking her head in through the door. She seemed to be very anxious about something based on the nervous look she had on her face.

"Ah, Kimberly. Welcome." Vassallo jovially said to the young scientist.

"Hello Ms. Smith. Ah, how goes your work on the shard?" Director Woods asked, remembering her new job. It had been some time since he'd visited or heard from the Starwatch labs where Kim was now working as head scientist.

"I was just about to tell you, Director." Kimberly said, catching her breath. "Regarding the shard thing we have? We've, um... we've hit a breakthrough."

Both director and major shared a look before they wordlessly followed Kimberly out of the meeting room and towards the laboratories, eager to see what she was talking about. Still displayed on screen, paused in the middle of his flight, was the slightly blurry image of the flying child.

...

Lake Huron

Meanwhile, down in the depths of the Great Lake, the two extraterrestrial hunters hiding in their ship were busy doing their own investigation with the footage that the male one had filmed last night. Like their Earthly counterparts at Starwatch, the pair of alien bounty hunters found themselves preparing to make their first official move. On one of their large holo-screens was the same image of the young human boy with the ability to fly. One of the hunters was sitting in a chair, occasionally typing at the keyboard after she had hooked up the ship's onboard computer with the World Wide Web. It took some time thanks to them camping at the bottom of a lake.

Their ship's systems were working hard to find an exact match of the same boy that the male occupant had discovered the night before, slowly but steadily going over every little bit of information that could make a match to the exact same child.

"Have you managed to find the location of the boy?" The male voice wondered from the opposite side of the room while he was checking over his internal equipment before they left. Cannons, missiles, grenades, even some steel-mesh netting could be useful for such an endeavor.

"Not yet. You'd think that it would be easy to scan in the local governments for a single boy, but you'd be wrong on that part." His compatriot said back, running a hand through her hair as her frustration began to boil over, "Goddess above, I'm so sick of sitting here on my ass waiting for some action! I say we get on out there and hunt this boy down ourselves! We've done it before, so why can't we do it again?"

"Because we risk open confrontation with human governments if we act brashly now," he evenly responded, eliciting a scowl from his friend, "and our prey can very well fall into their grasps instead of ours, which is something we can't have. This is a very different Earth than before, so we must plan accordingly."

"Alright, fine. But this better pay off. I'm been stuck in this ship for days now." She rolled her green-yellow eyes and went back to watching the screen in case something came up, hoping that their systems wouldn't take too long. He had a point. If they lost their target, then they could kiss their payday goodbye. But sitting down and waiting around was not something she enjoyed. Though after a few silent seconds, she felt her friend's metal hand gently rest on her shoulder.

"Don't fret. The moment he's found, we'll be on the move."

"Alright." She nodded, now feeling a bit more eager to finish this last bit of work before the fun began.

The terminal she was working at suddenly let out a beeping noise, drawing their attention to the large red-tinted screen to see that the supercomputer may have found what they were looking for. The monitor suddenly narrowed down to the large peninsula west of their hiding spot, constantly flickering between areas on the map. One of the scout drones had found something of interest, the onboard data-stream picking up a small but noticeable lead on a local neighborhood somewhere not too far from where they were hiding out. The male voice couldn't help but chuckle at the sheer coincidence.

"Looks like we'll be leaving very soon, indeed."

...

The trip to the Starwatch laboratories took Vassallo, Woods and Smith down one of the elevators to the unseen lower levels of the Pentagon. The elevator stopped with a shudder and a ping, the steel double-doors opening to reveal the agency's intricate underground network. Deep under the streets of Washington lay the true machinations of Starwatch, hidden from prying eyes. There were long concrete-white halls and bright LED lights that branched off into many corridors The workers here were dressed in all-white hazmat suits and goggles that hid their eyes behind dark black plexiglass. Some of them holding clipboards scribbling down their latest insight into one of the agency's many procured artifacts from around the world. Everything here was treated with the utmost care, as any priceless objects should be.

"Here you are, sir." Smith handed the major a pair of white latex gloves. He hesitantly took them. "Just a precaution. Finger stains are a common annoyance."

"So Kimberly," Woods began as they left the elevator for the hallway, "This breakthrough you were talking about. Explain it to us, if you may."

"Ah, yes! Right this way! It'd be better if I just showed you instead!" Kimberly excitedly said with a skip to her step as she guided the two over to one of the laboratories. The moment they entered, both major and director were greeted with the sight of what appeared to be an ongoing and quite extensive experiment. There were no lights on except for a single lamp standing at the farthest corner. What really got their attention was what sat in the center of the room; a large, tube-shaped machine, about a meter tall and lined with tubes along its structure, hooked up to a multitude of computers. Bolted to iron links on top of it was a metal-lined glass cube with small, cut-in holes at the top and bottom, and below the cube lay the shard, which was held up by thin steel wires connected to a small, narrow tesla coil.

Vassallo also noticed, at the far end of the lab, were cages with small white lab mice scurrying around.

"What on Earth...?" Vassallo mumbled as he stepped over some large wires to get a better look at what Kim was doing. He didn't wish to say it out loud, but he had just felt like he'd walked in to the lair of a mad scientist.

"Kimberly, this is amazing!" Woods breathlessly said, blown away by what his junior had created. "How did you manage to get all of this done?"

"Some of the tech-heads in the Weapons Division had some spare parts lying around. It was merely a job of slapping them all together to make this helpful abomination, as I like to call it." Kimberly said, making her way over to one of the computers where she began typing away. "Took some time, but I managed."

"And this breakthrough with the shard," Vassallo wondered, "what is it?"

"Well," Kimberly began to say while she walked around her lab, "After Director Woods put me in charge of finding out this little piece of otherworldly metal's purpose, I took a little bit of time reading about what he managed to find, which were the nanomachines. Inactive nanomachines, if I may add. So I decided that perhaps the best way to understand the mechanisms they were built for was to try and get it back online, per say. Which is what I got right here." Kimberly started to flip some switches around the laboratory, which started to cause a reaction within the contraption within, as if it was powering up for something, before she went over to a large lever near the door and yanked it down.

"Like jump-starting a car." Vassallo said.

"Exactly! So, using a bit of ingenuity, and tapping in to a good portion of the Pentagon's available power wattage, I have managed to create a device that has revealed the hidden purpose of what these machines were sent here for." She finished with a hefty sigh, before turning to the two men before her. "Sirs, I have to say this. I've studied my whole life on the potential of alien artifacts all over the world. I've been to some of the darkest, most dangerous corners over the globe thanks to Starwatch. And nothing, absolutely nothing, prepared me for what this little thing can do." She jutted a finger at the thumb-sized silver piece in the glass box, staring at it like it was a ticking time bomb. Whatever she found must have truly frightened her.

"This will change everything." She muttered.

"Show us." It was more of a command than a request from Vassallo's mouth. But the major was called here for a good reason, and he wished to see it himself.

Kimberly wordlessly acknowledged the agent's order and went over to where the cages sat, reaching inside to gently pick up one of the larger mice by the tail. Woods and Vassallo nervously watched on as Kimberly, holding the mouse in her left hand, opened up the glass box and placed the animal within. After that she flipped a switch on the machine, and a gentle hum started to crescendo into a high-pitched whine as the machine powered itself up for what was about to happen. Kimberly went over to one of the drawers and pulled out three pairs of goggles, snapping one around her eyes and handing the other two to the major and director.

"You might want to wear these." She advised, and the two men adhered to her, equipping the goggles given to them. With their eyes now protected, Kimberly went over to one of the computers and started typing away.

"And here... we... go." She said, ending her sentence with a strong press on the last key. And sure enough, a long arc of lightning traveled up the central power wire right into the main component, and the machine, along with the tiny shard, ignited with a blinding glow. The whirring sound coming from the metal chassis became almost deafening, and the three standing in the room had to shield their eyes from the brilliant white light that was coming out of the glass box. From anyone watching from the outside halls first noticed the power around them shifting on and off and the light coming from inside the room, emanating behind the doorway and shuttered hallway windows.

Somewhere far beyond...

It was a sudden sensation, like the briefest of tugs from an unknown source. A pair of white eyes stopped their work and looked up to the starry skies, curious from where it came from in the void above. Such a feeling lasted only for a moment before vanishing before realization came. It was the first sign that progress was coming home.

"𝕴𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌..."

And sure enough, as overwhelming as it started, the sound and light began to ebb until it stopped completely. The machine finally powered down, steam hissing from the cords and wires as it cooled. There was smoke coming off of the shard, to which both Vassallo and Woods saw thin bands of red light coursing over its chrome design before quickly fading away. Yet the mouse, which had been at the centerfold of the event, was seemingly unharmed. Woods slid the goggles off his head, still startled over the entire experience.

"What just happened?"

"Science, Director. It's science." Kim gushingly said as she went over to check on the little animal, kneeling to get a better look inside. Vassallo and Woods did the same thing. Aside from the mouse chittering in his little box, there was nothing unusual about it.

"Are we supposed to be witnessing something?" Vassallo asked.

"Just a moment."

Right as she finished speaking, the mouse slowly stopped moving around and went to rest in the middle of the box. A few silent seconds went on before the creature suddenly launched itself forward, bumping its tiny head against the glass with a tiny squeak. Both the major and the director stepped back in surprise, and even more so when they saw the mouse floating inside the box. The mouse spun around in the air a couple times before it eventually slowed down and went back to scurrying on its feet.

Vassallo blinked.

"The mouse was flying." He dumbly said, pointing at the creature within.

Woods was just as shocked, unable to verbalize his response, mouth agape and eyes wide as saucers behind his rectangular glasses.

"Yes, it was." Kimberly simply said as she gingerly picked up the mouse with both hands while avoiding the temperate metal casing. The two men were fully expecting the mouse to shoot off her hands like a bullet, but it simply continued to rest in her palms. Kimberly went on to explain to her perplexed superiors, "Unfortunately for us, the effects that the shard produces whenever I do this aren't permanent. They only last for a couple seconds before such wonderful feats fade away. What we just witnessed was probably little more than a faulty taste of what the nanomachines were really capable of doing, mainly because of what little remained on the shard and how damaged most of them were. Which is why I mainly suspect that it has already fulfilled its true purpose."

"So what you're saying is," Woods paused while pointing at the mouse, disbelief in his voice, "that whatever the shard was containing could potentially give any life form the abilities that this mouse just showed us, but remain permanent."

"Just like that kid in the video." Vassallo gasped, now finally understanding what was going on as all the pieces of the puzzle came together. He walked over to the little piece of alien metal and narrowed his eyes at it. "It all makes sense now. The whole construct must have infected the boy with some sort of pathogen that the nanomachines carried inside of them, which then gave him and maybe even others like him these abilities. The machines themselves were stored in whatever the shard came from, hitched a ride through space to our planet, crash-landed in Michigan and then knowingly or unknowingly gave the boy his... well, I can't deem it other than this, superpowers."

"Sir?" Kimberly rose an questioning brow to the major.

"There's a video of a boy upstairs that can fly." Woods replied, stupefying the young scientist as he went back to reviewing said video on his tablet.

"And all that's needed now is to find out who the boy is, and we have our winner." Vassallo said, standing up straight to face the other two. Of course it was easier said than done. The boy could have come from anywhere in or out of the country. Before he could think of anything, it was Director Woods who just solved their latest mystery.

"I think I have him."

...

"Have you now?"

"Mm hm." Back down in the dark of Lake Huron, the investigation between the two hunters had also yielded answers. Thanks to a facial recognition scan from his late-night chase and new footage coming from a town museum thanks to a seeker drone, the identity of their targeted human may have just been found. He leaned over her chair as she typed away at the holographic keyboard. "He's a local kid, lives in a town called Royal Woods. It's also not too far from where the seed landed."

"Anything else?"

...

"He's got a big family. Ten sisters, in fact. Vassallo, that could also mean-!"

"That they're also infected as well. A family of metahumans, living in plain sight. This is bad, Woods. We'll need to start a full-scale operation in order to secure them if that's true, and I won't take any chances." Vassallo scratched his chin, a nervous habit of his. His mind was racing to think of a comprehensive and well-sounding plan for such an event. One was trouble, but eleven? There was no telling what the other metahumans could do.

"Wait, I think I know of that family!" Kimberly pointed out. "One of their youngest has contacts at NASA! She's rumored to be a child prodigy, and she's got a brother! I think that's the boy you two were talking about!"

...

"Do you have a name for the child?"

"Yeah, lemme pull it up right now," she hit one of the large holographic keys, and sure enough an exact match of the boy from his endeavor came up on screen, "A ha! There he is, our little target human. Quite a cutie. His name is..."

...

"His family is from Michigan, which is where the shard was found!" Kimberly excitedly said.

"And the footage of him flying was also shot in the same state. He must live there as well!" Vassallo added on. Both of them turned to Woods, who then revealed the name of the boy that they were talking about. The metahuman, who was now Starwatch priority number one.

"So that's his name, then..."

...

"Lincoln Loud."

It begins. Life for the Loud family will forever change now that Starwatch and the two hunters know who they're after. Also, a brief glimpse at the villain herself and her mysterious connection to the kid's powers.

Also, 21,000 views for the story! Nice! I do apologize for taking so long to get a chapter out. Life's been pretty busy lately. Seriously, thank you all so much for reading my story, it brings me so much joy to know that you're all enjoying it too!

Please leave a fav and a review, kind people.