Author's Notes: Well, it's busy with week. And at the time I'm writing this I don't know when I'll be finished. Maybe this week, maybe the next. I don't know. At least I have a free minute here and now.

Dawn of a New Age

Chapter 2- Displaced

Kagome stood still as a statue in shock. The strange boy in the tube had just woken up, but he hadn't seemed to have gotten over the shock that occurred when he came out of that weird sleep he had been in. His clawed hands dug into the cushioning underneath his back as his eyes slowly came into focus. As his breathing returned to normal, he turned to face Kagome and immediately jolted as if he had been hit.

"You!" he snarled venomously. Kagome took a step back, feeling a chill of fear creeping up her spine at the tone in his voice. "Where the hell am I?!"

It took Kagome a second to find her voice. "Th-the hospital. In the basement."

"What the hell are you talking abou-" He paused uncertainly a moment, his nose twitching as if testing the air. He narrowed his eyes at Kagome suspiciously and climbed out of the tube with a predatory grace. He stalked over to her until he was right up in her face, sniffing slowly and carefully.

Despite the fact that she was still anxious and a little tentative, Kagome was also feeling a little embarassed with his proximity. Apparently this guy didn't have much of a concept of personal space. "Um..." she started hesitantly, "what are you-"

"You're not Kikyo," the strange boy said flatly.

Kagome lifted an eyebrow. Who the hell was Kikyo? Obviously someone he wasn't too happy with. "No. My name is Kagome. Kagome Higu-"

"Where the hell did you say I was again?" the boy snapped as he turned and looked around the room.

Kagome felt herself being less nervous and more annoyed. She could understand someone in his situation would probably be upset, but what was with his attitude? "I told you, you're in the basement of the hospital and-"

"Where?"

"Will you stop interrupting me?" Kagome snapped irritably. This was getting really old, really fast. "I know you've probably got some questions, but so do I. Like, what were you doing in that tube-thing?"

The boy looked over at the tube he had been in moments ago and slowly walked over to it. "A stasis pod..." he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "So that's what they did with me." He then kneeled down and picked up the tiny button that had been latched onto his chest only a moment ago. He stared at it hatefully as if glaring at it could destroy it.

Kneeled over, Kagome saw his hair part to reveal a tattoo on his back. It was in a black-green ink and seemed to show a serial number. "What's that?" she asked, reaching out slowly.

The boy reached back and felt at the tattoo. When his fingers moved, Kagome got a good look at it.

64-027-C
Inuyasha

She read it aloud once, and the boy visibly tensed. He tossed his head once so that his hair obscured the mark once more. "Inuyasha," Kagome repeated. "Is that your name?" Strangely, it sounded like it would be. She wasn't sure why, but she just had a suspicion that was his name.

The boy just shrugged uncomfortably. "Yeah," he said after a brief pause.

"Y-you said that... thing," Kagome said gesturing to the tube, "was a stasis pod. Who put you in there?"

"None of your god damn business," Inuyasha snapped. He returned to inspecting the tube. "What the hell?"

Kagome looked over his shoulder and saw that he'd found a digital display on the side that showed the date. June 17, 2033. "What's wrong?"

"This stupid thing must be busted," Inuyasha grumbled.

"Why do you say that?" Kagome asked. "That is today's date."

Inuyasha shot her a glare over his shoulder. "Do you or do you not see the year it's showing, bitch?"

Kagome gave him a glare for that insult before she realized what he was going on about. "Wait a second, what year was it when you were put in there?"

Inuyasha paused for a moment, studying her. "'83," he said simply, as if it were obvious.

Kagome gasped and her eyes widened. Did he mean 1983? If he had been in there that long... but that just raised further questions! What was technology like this doing in the 1980's? Medical engineers today still hadn't gotten it right. Was he part of an early generation of psions? But if he was, why were his physical mutations so dramatic? No psion had ever been born looking that different. Was he being studied by the people who put him in there? And this just went back to the question of who put him in there in the first place.

"What?" Inuyasha asked quizzically, his anxiety slowly becoming obvious.

"Inuyasha, that clock isn't wrong. It's the year 2033." No sense in trying to hide it. As soon as he saw the outside world, he was going to realize that fifty years had gone by. How was he going to handle that, though?

Inuyasha started in shock, turning to face Kagome and staring hard to see if she was lying. After he seemed satisfied that she was telling the truth, he sat back and leaned back against the pod. "Fifty years... Maybe that means... they're gone..."

What was he going on about? Maybe Kagome could get some kind of insight into what was going on. "Who's gone?"

Inuyasha seemed to realize that he'd been thinking aloud and immediately tensed up, looking away with a grunt. "Feh. It's not important."

Kagome supressed a sigh of frustration. He was being so difficult. "Look, we can't stay here. Is there some place you can go that would be safe?"

Kagome realized only after she spoke that fifty years didn't make a difference to some things. Inuyasha's silence was obvious. He had nowhere to go. Nowhere that he wanted to go, anyway. Maybe fifty years ago things weren't so great for him either. In fact, he looked like he couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. It was so strange. In that moment, Kagome couldn't help but feel the need to try and do something for the poor guy. "Tell you what. I'll sneak you out, and you can crash at my apartment for a while until-"

"I don't want your fucking pity!" Inuyasha snapped angrily. His eyes looked almost resentful.

Kagome suddenly realized that this was all about his pride. He thought she pitied him like you would a wounded animal. That would really hurt anybody's ego. But she didn't pity him. She didn't really know what she felt right now. It was unfortunate that he just woke up to find fifty years had passed him by, but right now what he needed was a friendly hand, not someone pouting and tsking over his situation without actually doing anything about it. "I don't pity you, you know," Kagome said slowly. "I just want to help. I don't like seeing anybody in trouble."

Inuyasha looked up at her questioningly before finally hanging his head in resignation. "Fine. Let's just get the hell out of here."

"First we need to get you a disguise. You kind of stand out in a crowd."

-X-

Inuyasha was a little uncomfortable at first in the hospital scrubs and slippers that Kagome had given him. She had told him to tuck his hair into his shirt to hide it and then shoved a baseball cap over his head to conceal his ears which muffled his hearing in a really unpleasant way. But she seemed to know what she was doing so he didn't argue.

As they made their way out of the basement, she told him to try and act casual, keep a low profile. He knew why as soon as they came through the lobby. Inuyasha had never been in a public place before. He felt a little intimidated by all of these people. All these new scents clashing with the nauseating sterile smell of the hospital itself caused his stomach to knot up a little. He got a couple funny looks, but he just followed Kagome's advice and kept his mouth shut and his eyes down.

When they got out to her car, he couldn't help but stare a minute at the sleek, silver vehicle. It didn't look like any kind he'd ever seen before. And there was no smell of gasoline. Weird. He looked up to see all the cars going by on the road. They all lacked the scent of exhaust. Judging by some of the other scents wafting through the air, this future thing was going to take some getting used to. Then again, this whole freedom thing was going to take some getting used to.

The doors of Kagome's car opened vertically rather than swinging out to the side like Inuyasha had been expecting. He climbed in and noted the pristine, heady smell of the vinyl seats and the sound of the engine producing a gentle hum. For some reason, being in suspended animation must have messed with his senses. Inuyasha felt like he was picking up on an old skill he hadn't used in years, making up for lost time in a matter of minutes through practice and memory. Of course, that made him feel a little uncomfortable. What other side effects were there to that damn pod?

The drive was silent as Inuyasha stared out the window, marvelling at the modern city. He had never had the chance to go out in the open before. He'd only seen pictures. This was new and... kind of exciting, too. The tall, gleaming buidlings of glass and steel, the busy streets, the river which he had heard was badly polluted but now looked as pure as drinking water. There was so much to hear, see, and smell. It was almost overwhelming. But Kagome's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"By the way, I meant to ask earlier. Are you a psion?"

Inuyasha looked over at her confused. A what now? "What's a psion?"

Kagome looked like she was mentally smacking her forehead. "Oh, that's right! That term didn't get coined until a few years ago. Well... a psion is someone with... one or more of the lobes in their brain developed differently. So they have powers like telepathy, psychokinesis, thought projection..."

"Oh, those," Inuyasha replied. "In that case, I guess I am." That and a Moreau. But he didn't dare breathe a word of that. Not yet, anyway. He'd wait to see if he could trust her first.

Fifty years had passed. No doubt the world had changed. And maybe the Project was over. Why else would they have abandoned his stasis pod in a hospital basement? How did it get there anyway? And what exactly had happened to the Project? Argh, too many questions and no answers to speak of. This was going to be a long day.

-X-

Author's Notes: Finished this faster than I thought. A little short, maybe, but it's not like I have a whole hell of a lot of time at the moment. Maybe this weekend I can get some more stuff done.

For fans of Let the Music Be Your Master, you might be pleased to know that I've finally begun work on lyrics for some of Damage Control's songs. My first one is Bad Moon. I'll post that along with Chapter 12 or 13 of Lights, Camera, Action!.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Here's to my reviewers...

Father Malvado: Does this answer your question? And no, I don't know much about that, though I have seen some real life stunts along those lines. Google may not work, but I'll still try to dig up some information.

Mimiko: Good to know you like the powers, because I plan to take those in some interesting directions.

Meka-chan: I have a lot of high hopes for this one. Let's see if I can pull it off.

Izayoi: Huh. Didn't know that. Oh well. That'll make it easier to get the DVDs... maybe. I can't remember what logic I was using there.

Mockingbirdflyaway: It's the quick-edit feature that caused those screw-ups. Piece of crap program... It still won't recognize symbols like hyphens and asterisks.

bluefuzzyelf: Would you believe I made up that thing on his chest on the spot?

Magellan-chan: I... kinda think I get it... But I confuse easily, so...

DarkRoses217: I hope that bit of exposition toward the end answered your question. I've always had a thing for psions.

crazy madness: Thank you. If ideas from my dreams are all this popular, I should keep a dream journal or hook a DVD recorder up to my brain or something.