Good greetings to you all!

Here's my latest piece in the Puzzle of my story! I dearly hope you like it!

Chapter Four: Powers

"Jake? Ellie? Can you hear me?"

The teen heard his father's voice amid the fog clearing in his mind. The faint, sharp odor of ozone lingered in his nasal cavity. Yet, above all, the air was unnaturally cold.

"Are you alright?"

Groggily, Jake opened his eyes. His father and the hover-chair the man occupied were floating above him. He saw that he was still in the R&D Division, in the same spot he had fallen. To his left, he saw that Ellie was still unconscious.

"Ugh..." he groaned, getting up. The hazmat suit clung to his form; it felt different, somehow. "Dad? What happened?"

"The IGD short-circuited the welding arms," explained Danny. "Your grandpa was glanced in the head. Don't worry, he'll be fine. You and your friends are lucky; you could have been sliced in two! Are you okay?"

Jake was about to answer when he felt something cold travel up his throat and down his spine. A wisp of blue vapor, like before, escaped his lips. Shivering, he said, "A bit cold. Where are Dave and Chrissy?"

Danny raised an eye. "Cold?" he asked. "Oh, never mind. Your friends are upstairs, with your Grandma and Tuck. Besides, why are you cold? The temperature's fine."

"Not to me," replied Jake. "It's freezing!"

"Oh my...I'll get Dr. Kwan. He's only three floors down. I'll be right back!" He swerved away on his chair, disappearing beyond the door.

The lab was silent as the grave. What had once been a center of activity was now a desolate collection of scattered parts, tools, robotic apparatuses, and uniforms. It was devoid of life, save for his sister and himself. Their father was right; they had been lucky.

But what had happened?

He shook his sister, who stirred in response.

"Ellie?" he murmured. "Wake up!"

"Mmm...just five more minutes..." she groaned.

Jake sighed exasperatedly. "Wake up, sis!"

Her eyes shot open. Leaning up, she looked around like a rabbit scanning for predators.

"What happened?" she near-shouted.

"Calm down, Sis," mused Jake. "I'm sure–"

Ellie seemed to be in no mood for consolation as she grabbed Jake by the collar of his black-and-white hazmat suit. "WHAT HAPPENED?" Her voice rose an octave.

"I DON'T KNOW!" he shouted back. "LET GO!"

Desire became deed, and Jake slipped right out of his sister's grasp. Yet, there was one thing wrong with that: she had never let go. The collar of the suit just seemed to go straight on through the young woman's fist. Almost...ghostlike.

Looking at his hand, Jake noticed something. His hand seemed hazy and translucent, as though it were a mirage. When he waved it around, an aura of tiny particles shifted around it, creating a sort of jet-stream for his hand. Ellie looked scared and fascinated at the same time.

Suddenly, halos of white light traveled along the length of Ellie's body, inverting the color of her jumpsuit. However, that was not all. Her hair, which had once been jet black, was now a shade of white comparable to snow. Her eyes, once bright blue, were now a neon green. Jake started to back away; something bad had happened. He was scared.

Halos of light exactly the same as those that had changed Ellie traveled along Jake's form. His jumpsuit's colors were also inverted, a bright white instead of inky black. Also, his hair and eyes had changed to match those of his sister.

Nobody spoke for a few minutes.

"...Jake..." Ellie finally managed to say, "what happened to us?"

The boy was unable to find an answer; he merely started to hyperventilate with fear. In his state of shock, he had failed to realize that his entire form had become completely transparent. Ellie's eyes widened, and she started to dart her head around.

"Jake!" she called out.

"What is it?" asked the young man uneasily.

Ellie looked in the direction of the voice. "Jake? Where are you?"

"Here."

She walked towards the voice, bumping into her brother's unseen form. The girl would have fallen; in fact, she should have fallen. But she didn't. Instead, she floated in midair, as though she were resting on a sofa. Jake became visible, not even knowing how the initial change had taken place.

"You–You–You're..." he stammered, "...floating..."

Ellie had taken notice. She frantically tried to right herself in midair, like a scuba diver underwater. A few moments later, she felt gravity, falling to the floor. Getting up, she looked at her brother, shuddering with fear and cold.

Jake tried to harness his voice. "Ellie," he said as calmly as possible, "something happened. I think we need to calm down and figure this out. Okay?"

Ellie nodded, regaining control of her breathing. The halos of light traveled along their bodies as their emotions quelled, the hazmat suits disappearing. They found themselves back in the clothes they had been wearing under the suits.

"Okay..." said Ellie, trying to control her breathing. "That was just about the freakiest thing I've ever seen."

"Got it," replied Jake. "We have to find out what happened to us and how it happened."

"But how are we supposed to do that?"

"Maybe–" He was interrupted by the sudden return of their father and his physical therapist, Dr. Kwan.

"I'm back! What–" He froze, looking at his two children. "Are you okay? Where are your jumpsuits?"

"Um...over there!" Jake lied, pointing to an identical set of uniforms lying on the floor.

"Oh. Well then, we'd better get going. Dr. Kwan?" He turned to the man whom Jake and Ellie had known him for years as their father's personal doctor after the unfortunate car accident. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man, obviously an athlete in his earlier years. Yet the image was a bit contrasted by his horn-rimmed glasses.

"Right then, Mr. Fenton," answered the doctor. "Kids?"

Jake and Ellie walked towards their father. As they approached, blue clouds of mist escaped their lips, sending chills down their spines. Danny noticed the two shivering.

"Something wrong?" asked the CEO.

"Oh no," Ellie answered quickly. "We're fine."

The four left the R&D Division, the mist still coming out of the twin's mouths. For a brief second, Jake and Ellie thought that they saw a similar wisp of mist emerge from their father's mouth. Then again, what were they thinking? Too many strange things had been happening all day...

DATA UPLOADING. RECORDING WILL PLAY MOMENTARILY.

Chet U. Calinison, Board Chairman of Dalv Corp., looked intently at the screen through his dark-tinted sunglasses. In the near-darkness of the monitoring womb, his white hair–gathered at the top of his head–shone against the glare of the screens. His skin was sallow from lack of sunlight, contrasting with his black suit.

UPLOAD COMPLETE. COMMENCE VIEWING, FATHER?

"Of course," answered Calinison in his obnoxiously nasal voice.

The screen came to life. There was the Fentonworks R&D Division; the Voyager prototypes being welded together in a shower of sparks. Jack Fenton, Joint Project Supervisor, was bellowing orders at engineers and showing a group of children around the station. Chet grinned; all the company's reverse-engineering budget had gone into getting this data.

On the screen, a massive bolt of lightning from a trailer struck a pair of robotic welding arms attached to a catwalk on the ceiling. They flew at Jack and the children, knocking out the man and impaling a scout vehicle.

"Wait!" exclaimed Calinison, "review that image! Slow-mo!"

The video played again at an eighth of the speed; the first arm glanced off Jack's head, but the children were completely unharmed as the robot bypassed them.

"Freeze!"

The image froze on command, the arm halfway past the children.

"Zoom in!"

It magnified. The welding arm was actually passing through the children. Squinting, Calinison looked at a photograph of him and Dan Fenton, CEO of Fentonworks, suspended above a mainframe access port. Chet was grinning madly, holding a giant fish and wearing the necessary gear. Fenton seemed to be sulking, obviously not enjoying the Chairman's company.

"Well well," mused Calinison. "It seems that some new hybrids have finally hit puberty..." He grinned in the darkness, laughing a familiar laugh...

Finally! I've got this thing running! Review; I want to hear how I'm doing and how I can improve!

Your sincerest regards,

Monsieur Caracal.