Author Notes—Hey all, sorry for this taking so long, I had extreme writer's block, plus some personal stuff to deal with. Then of course, I was waiting to see who had been making the cut in the X-books. Again, my apologies and I hope you enjoy Chapter 3 I always welcome comments, reviews, and suggestions of whose powers you want to see show up, ok?

Chapter Three—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (11/05/05)

"So then Harold says he saw the homeless guy pick up the bugs from the street, absorb them into his skin, then smile and rub his stomach like he enjoyed a great feast or something…" said Officer Derek Mitchelson with a huge grin on his face. "Man, I knew the guy was shook up after finding his wife in bed with his sister, but I didn't think he'd be literally losing his mind over the whole thing!"

"I don't know Derek….Harold was definitely surprised by the affair, but he's pretty much a level-headed guy. You know that as well as I…" said his partner, Officer Erin McRyan. Derek took some friendly teasing when she, a woman half his height, weight, and age, was assigned to be his new partner, but she proved that she could drink, fight, and play, just like any other man on the force. She took a sip from the coffee she had picked up a few minutes ago then said as she put it down. "I think there may be more to what Harold said than what meets the eye. You remember my cousin that I told you about?"

"The one who just passed his academy tests and is a cop in L.A. now, right?" said Derek as he took a sip of his coffee "How's he doing by the way? He and his wife seemed really excited about him following in the family footsteps when they came to visit you at work during the July 4th weekend…"

Erin smiled and said "Yeah, Rachel gave birth to twin girls a few weeks ago, they're still deciding on names." She then chuckled and said "Anyway, I was talking with Shane on the phone just this morning before I came in to work and he was telling me how he was on patrol with his partner last night and were responding to a robbery call. They were just about to grab the perp, who was some Latino kid, when he suddenly ran between them and disappeared."

"That doesn't sound unusual…" Derek said with a wry grin "All it sounds like is that the kid got away from your cuz and his partner, no offense meant to either of them of course. It's nothing to feel bad about, when I started out on the force, I had lost perps before many times. There's nothing to be ashamed of with that…"

"My cousin isn't the type to exaggerate, Derek…" said Erin with a very serious expression on her face. "And this kid wasn't running like your typical punk teenager either. He was going so fast, the force of it shattered windows in the area like they were hit by a bomb." She looked out the window as she continued "You saw the strange flash of light two nights ago? It lasted for probably a fraction of a second, but a lot of people around the world saw it from what I've heard. That's when all these rumors of strange people doing strange things started. I'm being serious here, Derek, something is happening here and please forgive me for being cliché, but it is probably changing the world as we know it for good…"

"Well, I don't know about any weird lights changing the world…" said Derek as he quickly put down his coffee and reached for the door "But those two over there are changing that woman's world for the worse…" He quickly pointed right in front of their car at two men trying to assault a young woman, who by the look of her cane and nearby barking dog, was blind. Erin nodded and quickly reached for her firearm as she flew out of the car at the same time as Derek as she called "Police! Stay where you are and keep your hands where we can see them!"

The two assailants, who looked to be no more than 15 or 16 years old to Derek, looked up quickly as soon as he shouted. One of them quickly pushed the young woman towards his partner then grabbed a gun from his pocket and aimed it at the police officers while his partner produced a knife and held it close to the young woman's throat.

It was just as the young man holding the gun was saying something that everything in Derek's world went, as his mother would've put it, 'to Almighty Heck in a Handbasket!'

He clutched his head and screamed as the world turned white around him. Derek could just make out Erin screaming and someone else too; he wasn't sure who, as images flooded his mind of a bear made of shadows, an old American Indian man, and a young white man flashing an FBI badge among other strange things. It almost felt like to him he was seeing another person's life because with each image came different emotions.

Just as suddenly as it began, it had stopped, although the weirdness didn't end there. When Derek opened his eyes, he wasn't back on the street but in a world of white. He quickly looked to his right and saw Erin standing next to him, looking just as scared as confused as she was. He was about to ask if she was ok when he heard a voice call out "Oh my God, what is going on here? Where am I?"

Derek looked towards the source of the voice and was surprised to find the blind woman was with them as well, lying on the floor of whatever this place was. He quickly rushed over to her side and helped her to stand as he said "Don't worry, ma'am, we're police officers, we'll find a way to get us out of this safely and quickly…" He felt bad about lying partially to the woman since he had no idea of where in the world they were and how they were going to get out of here, but there had to be some way, they just needed to figure out what that way is….

The woman smiled nervously as she glanced in Derek's direction and adjusted her dark glasses as she nodded slowly and was about to say something when Erin said "Hey Derek, we're not alone here…" and pointed at a figure in a fancy red robe that seemed to be sobbing with his or her back towards them a short distance away. Derek looked to the figure then his partner and said "Ok, I'll check this person out; you stay here with the civilian."

Erin nodded and walked over to the figure slowly, who he could tell as he moved closer that it was a woman. He wondered if she was the reason the three of them where…wherever the hell they were now or she was put here like them. He reached over slowly and touched the woman's shoulder as he said "Ma'am, are you hurt? I'm a police officer; I'm here to help…."

The woman then stood up and turned around so quickly that it shocked even Derek, who stepped back a few steps. He looked back at Erin and the woman, who both seemed to be about as nervous as he was at the moment. The woman then pushed back her hood revealing a woman with long brown hair and if it wasn't for the fact of the situation he was in, her eyes were glowing red, and that he was married, he would consider her attractive. She then pointed at the three of them and said a phrase that both confused and scared him at the same time.

No more mutants…

A bright white light filled the area and Derek wasn't sure if they were being taken somewhere else or if this was just some strange form of Death and him, Erin, and the blind young woman were killed by the two hooligans and they just hadn't figured it out yet. So, it was a surprise to find that they were suddenly on the street once more at the exact moment when the weird light first appeared.

"…etter drop your guns or we'll make sure the bitch gets it! "The young man with the gun shouted as he shifted his aim between Derek and Erin "Are you two just dumb or scared! I thought the cops would hire people with more balls these days!" His companion laughed as he brought the knife a little bit closer to the woman's throat, making her wince slightly with pain as a small drop of blood appeared causing her dog to bark even more.

Derek tried to contain his rage after the young man heckle him and Erin as he felt this wave of…something…wash over his body as he kept his aim steady on the young man holding the gun. The images of what had just supposedly happened to him were still fresh in his mind and part of him still wondered if it was even real or not, but that didn't matter anymore as he saw the blind young woman struggle to break free. All that mattered was the one part of his oath that he took when he became a police officer that came to his mind at that moment.

To serve and protect the innocent…

"The only ones who should be afraid here at the moment is the two of you!" shouted Derek as he glared at the young man holding the gun. Suddenly, the air directly in front of him began to shimmer, as though it were some form of a mirage. The shimmering then coalesced and took form as a giant snake, which flicked its tongue in and out to the amazement of all those present, even the dog, which had stopped barking and simply looked on in what seemed to be amazement. It then turned towards the young man with the gun, who looked extremely nervous when the snake appeared, and hissed as it bared its fangs at him.

The young man with the gun then screamed and dropped his gun as he took off down the block at top speed with the snake going after him for a little bit before it disappeared in the same way it appeared. Everyone, even the blind woman, looked in Derek's direction with expressions of shock on their faces, but none were as shocked as Derek as he realized what had just occurred….

I did that! He thought I somehow knew that guy was afraid of snakes and I created that…image…of a giant snake to scare him! What the hell has happened to me?"

"Yo, Tyrell, get your stupid ass back here! Tyrell, it's not real!" shouted the young man with the knife. When he realized that his partner wasn't coming back, he shoved the blind woman to the ground then tackled Erin before she had a chance to react, the gun falling away from her hand as the guy held her down and raised his knife as he said "I don't know what type of freak cops you two are, but I am sure hell not going let you do to me what your partner did to my brother…"

Derek watched as Erin struggled to break free of the stronger man's grip as he tried to get a clear shot, but the man moved around so much, he wasn't able to get a clear shot. Just when he thought that there were probably no more surprises for the evening, his eyes widened as he saw his partner's hands start to glow orange. Erin noticed too then smiled slightly as she looked at the young man on top of her then said "Nah, I'll think I'll do something different…" before grabbing the man's arms with her hands and closed her eyes as some form of energy came out of her hands and into the man, causing him to scream. After a few seconds, she stopped and quickly pushed him off before running to grab her gun then go over to her partner's side.

Derek watched as the man rocked back and forth on the ground while on his side as he mumbled over and over "I'm sorry daddy, I'll be good…" He then looked over at Erin, who looked as shocked as he was when he made the snake appear, and whispered "My god Erin, what did you do to him?"

"I….I believe I just stunned him…" Erin said quietly, with a nervous tone in her voice that he never hear her have before. "But w..when I did that, I revived a memory from his childhood, of being beaten by his dad I think. That probably explains why he's in that state off shock now…." She was about to say more when they heard the dog, who they had forgotten about, bark loudly again and quickly turned to find the blind young woman struggling to find her glasses, which were apparently knocked off when she fell as she tried to sit up.

Erin's expression then changed back to the confident one that Derek knew since the day that they first met and said "You go help her out, Derek; I'll call for an ambulance." He nodded as Erin raced back to their squad car while he quickly went over to the young woman and picked up her glasses before helping her sit up as he said "Ma'am, my name's Derek, I'm a police officer, you're safe now. Are you hurt in any way?"

The woman looked up in Derek's direction as she took her glasses from his hand and quickly slipped them on as she nervously said "I…I'm fine, I..I think. A little bruised and battered, but nothing hurts that much, thanks to you and your partner." Derek could understand the woman's fear, considering what she had heard but not see like everyone else had.

The dog continued to bark loudly which caused the woman to look directly in its direction and said "Shadow, I'm ok, thanks to these two police officers, so will you please calm down and stop asking?" The dog then stopped barking, which didn't surprise Derek but he was surprised when the woman gasped and looked like, if she could, she had seen a ghost as she took Derek's hand and whispered "I understood him….I understood what Shadow was saying as though he was speaking English and he understood me. What's going on here? What's happened to us?"

Derek didn't answer the woman at first as he looked to Erin as she was calling dispatch for assistance and an ambulance, sounding confident, but still looking nervous from what had just occurred. He then looked back at the woman and said "Ma'am, I can honestly say I do not know, none of us do…" However, what he didn't say and wouldn't reveal to any, not even his partner, was that he didn't want to know why the three of them were granted such new 'skills' and hoped he never will because he was truly scared out of his mind…