Today was not a good day to be on my bad side. I snatched the Styrofoam cup of straight black coffee from Jones, and muttered 'thank-you', the best courtesy I could muster for him right now. It wasn't Jones's fault I was in such a bad mood, and the poor kid had been working none-stop since Neal and I had failed to check in yesterday.

I woke up this morning to the sounds of the FBI team sent to find us, smashing down the door and everything. I also discovered that someone had put shaving-creamed my hand, and thereby my face via the age-old feather prank. Soon after sitting up, I also found my suit pants and the mattress underneath were soaked. I was not impressed, to say the very least.

But I could have gotten over it if not for one thing.

Ezzy and Ade were gone.

Apparently, they left our room sometime after three in the morning, and anonymously phoned in the tip of our location from a payphone three blocks away. I confirmed it just now, listening to the recording of the message myself in a fresh suit at the office.

My wife ran over just after I swallowed my first sip of the scalding brew, and I chocked it down quickly to go greet her. I put on my best smile and embraced her tightly, doing my very best to comfort her and assure her that I was alright. I wiped the tears from her eyes and just held her, pressing my nose into her hair, and closing my eyes, maybe assuring myself a little too.

After she pulled away, I told her to go see Neal while I took the folder from Diana, who had stepped back and allowed us a little time together. Ezzy and Ade weighed heavily on my conscious; I felt like they were my responsibility and I had failed them by letting them slip away. I think Neal felt that way too, especially with Ezzy since they apparently bonded over playing pranks me. I hoped Elle might be able to comfort him a little like she had just helped me.

My eyes scanned the file my team had been compiling on Itex and the Institute over the course of our investigation. If I couldn't stop them from leaving, the least I could do was take care of the Institute for them.

I was so focused on reading at first that I brushed off someone who was trying to speak with me. But since the person persisted, I pried my eyes off the words and gave the person a 'hurry up or leave' glare. To my surprise, it was no one on my team, or anyone on my floor for that matter.

"Who are you," I asked, slightly annoyed and slightly serious. She lost her nerve and fidgeted, looking down and mumbling. Creasing my eyebrows in agitation I crossed my arms. She straightened and offered me a slim file, clearing her throat to speak, "Um, I'm Piper James, a clerk downstairs in the human resources department and I – ah," she paused and fidgeted, before noticing my slight glare and hurriedly proceeded, "I got this e-mail from one of my old college roommates, and I think it applies to your Institute case. I only got to decipher the first part of it, but its serious stuff and I thought you guys should get it right away, and – yeah."

I accepted the file with slight excitement, thanking and dismissing her with a nod. "Here's the flash drive with the rest of it; I just printed off the stuff I deciphered," as soon as the flash drive was in my hand she was gone, back down to her station.

I was across the room with equal speed, sending the flash drive to the tech guys, ones that I knew and trusted of course, before shutting myself in my office to pour over the folder.

The words she had ciphered glared up at me as I read them. It was an introduction to an experiment summary:

"The mutated gene was discovered on accident and is very rare. It is estimated that only 0.0000000000000001% of the population carries this gene worldwide. Only one branch of three families in the United States was found to have this gene within the last twenty-seven years of research. Of the families carrying this gene, it is estimated that only 0.01% of them express this gene without interference. Twenty subjects were extracted from these families for research, and of those twenty, only half were found to be suitable for the augmentation program.

Those ten were then further divided into groups of two for the individual augmentation program specialties: these specialties are dubbed 'Space', 'Land', 'Sea', 'Air', and 'Espionage'. The children were selected based both on skill and personality potential before augmentation. They were also tested regularly throughout development. This report includes all the test subjects' treatments, tests, results, goals, and notes for the Air Augmentation K-Gene Program. Our subjects were the oldest and the youngest of the one of these families and will be referred henceforth as experiments E11-27URF and A11-27URNrespectively."

I set the file down heavily, a deeply disgusted feeling in my gut making me wish I hadn't had that coffee just now to heave it up.

A soft knock interrupted my stomach's queasiness and I forced myself to be composed, "Come in."

Neal poked his head in, his eyes immediately finding the file on my desk. He didn't have to ask me; the look on his face was easily read. "No," I sighed heavily, not wishing Neal to know just yet.

He eyes begged me, and I felt the undercurrent of his need to help Ezzy. I shook my head one more time, but more in defeat, "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Neal's hands were on the file before I could offer it, and he scanned with a frantic intensity. His face paled at first, and then turned a bit green around the edges. "I see," he managed to get out, the wheels in his head turning just as fast as mine had.

These people were experimenting on children they abducted, making them into some kind of a prototypes for…something. It sounded like a super-solider program to me. Something you read right out of science fiction novels and comics.

Neal set it back down and walked out of my office to pace, and I thought of going to talk to him about it. I decided against it since I wasn't settled just yet myself. I drummed my fingers on the file and mentally urged the tech guys to hurry up. Time was of the essence. We needed everything we could get on them, go through the right channels, and take them down hard…today. Something like this could not wait. The Institute would have relocated out of our jurisdiction if we made one wrong move or were too slow.

I was about to get up to pace myself when my phone rang. I sat down and frowned, hoping it was the tech guys, but at the same time knowing they wouldn't have called me, "Hello, Agent Burke here."

"Hello Mr. Burke," a pleasant sounding female voice spoke, "it's a pleasure to finally speak to you. My name is Dr. Karen Michaels."

I froze as soon as heard her name. A thousand things went through my head. How did she know? Did my tech guys betray me, or was there another leak in the office? Or did they simply hear from the wolf-thing that we were with Ezzy and Ade, and then notice our reappearance at the office?

The next second, I pulled out my tracer device from my bottom drawer and plugged it in, waving frantically for one of my team to come in and help. "Dr. Michaels, how can I help you?"

"Now now Mr. Burke, we both know that you are looking into The Institute because of me, and you are involved with two of our experiments," her voice was too sweet as she said it, "Let's not beat around the bush, shall we?"

"Alright," I answered slowly, motioning Diana and Neal to be quiet and man the tracer equipment, "Why are you calling me?"

"I'm calling because you don't have the full picture, and I want to enlighten you before you make a huge mistake that you'll only regret later," I was sure my teeth would rot if she tried to add any more sugar to her voice, "The "children" you think you are helping are not children."

When she paused, I egged her with a snort, raising my eyebrows for dramatic effect, even if she couldn't see it, "Your experiments are children no matter what you do to them."

Only sounding slightly annoyed, she addressed my comment, "You're right to an extent; their age hasn't changed, but they have. They are not innocent like children, and they do not think like children. They are hardly even human anymore. They are living weapons now."

Her voice became excited, "They have been trained not to feel emotions and how to manipulate others. They are the prototypes of human evolution itself! They are the future of our race, but they have been so drastically altered, that they have become a danger to themselves and to others."

I scrunched my eyebrows as she continued, but finally, I probed by asking, "How are they weapons? They're just kids, even if you experimented on them."

She sighed impatiently, and I fought a smile, the longer she took explaining things to me, the better evidence I had to link her to The Institute. And if they were holding her (or the better way to put it: aiding and abiding) then we get to go in and arrest her. While we are there, anything we find is fair game. And I was going to find everything I needed, one way or another.

"We are on the same side in this case Burke. Those "kids" are a threat to the public. As I'm sure you're reading even now, the file you have will detail the things done to them to make them weapons. Just take the girl for instance. She is built to fly, but her body is also incredibly durable and adapts quickly to a variety of things such as temperature, pressure, and altitude. She heals five times as fast as regular humans, and she is twice as strong as a normal human. This alone should be enough to make you worry. Think about it Burke, this girl could survive anywhere, for any length of time. She can out fight any human and recover from injury faster than any human. And that's only scratching her surface. Her rare DNA grants her a unique ability that we are still studying. As of now, she can manipulate the light energy around her in various ways. But on a cellular level, she could potentially convert other forms of energy into light energy and convert light energy back into those other forms of energy."

I had to take a seat as I took this in, which, believe me, it was a lot to take in. Diana and Neal were also shocked, their mouths hanging open as I looked over at them since the first time they arrived in my office. I forced my own mouth closed and focused back on Dr. Michael's voice.

Her voice was practically elated as she continued without pause, "Just imagine all the things she could do! If she ever learned to control her power, she could literally live off light, and kill with it. It really is a phenomenal power to have, but she obviously doesn't know how to handle it. We can help her, and we will, before she hurts herself or others on accident because she can't control it. Help us help her; we aren't the bad guys here."

I had to choke back a sarcastic remark, "You are the ones that started this, correct?"

I could see her smiling as she answered, "Yes."

"So how can I trust you to really help her when you are responsible for the state she's in?"

Without missing a beat, she replied, "For the good of the many, we sometimes have to sacrifice the few. Such is the reason we have soldiers that give their lives to protect the many from the harm of war. It's the reason we would choose to save the lives of children on a school bus before we helped a pair of adults in a car, or why we kill a psychopath to save a multitude of future victims. Whether you like it or not, this is one of those cases. You must choose here; the life, freedom, and happiness of those two weapons, or the safety of millions. Think about it Burke."

And think I did. I thought of Ezzy and Ade. I thought of how they risked their lives and freedom to save us, when they didn't even know us. I thought of how Ezzy went back for Neal and Ade, fighting a creature much stronger than her to protect others. I also thought of how she rolled me out of danger and took the brunt of the wolf-thing's claws.

I thought over the conversation Ade and I had while Ezzy and Neal went out of the room.

I had dozed off, while waiting, an unspoken plan between Neal and I: divide and conquer. The sound of metal grating was enough to wake me up, and I rolled over in time to see them leave. I rolled back over and looked across the room to see if the boy was awake or not.

"Ade," I called softly, watching him for any sign of consciousness. When he didn't stir, I tried again, "Ade, are you awake?"

"So what if I am," came the sleepy response. I stood up and went over to the window, looking out, vaguely wondering how Neal was able to speak with children so easily; it was a skill I seemed to be lacking in. Maybe I should have been the one to talk with Ezzy…

"Um, I don't really know where to start," I began honestly, hoping the boy might appreciate it.

"Start what," he asked, sitting up and looking over at me.

I took my own seat in one of the chairs and contemplated. "I want to hear your side of the story. So far Ezzy has done all the talking," I finally said.

He fidgeted a moment, but decided he wanted to say something for himself, "I'm not as brave as she is. I admire her; I guess I always admired her, even before all of this."

I waited after he trailed off; anxiously hoping he would continue without me having to encourage him. "My side of the story isn't any different from hers, I guess. I wanted, I mean back then, I wanted to be special. I wanted to be a lot like I am now because I thought it would be cool and exciting. It's not – cool I mean. I want things to be the way they were…I want to be normal again…"

I held my breath when he trailed off again and panicked when I heard him hold back a sob. He was trying to be strong; he was trying to do what he thought Ezzy would do.

After a second, while he gravely contemplated the wisdom of confiding in me, the little boy looked back at me, "Promise me that if I tell you something, you won't tell Ezzy."

I nodded my head dumbly and wondered if I should do something to comfort him while he started talking, "I wish I didn't have these wings or have to run every day! I don't want to eat out of dumpsters or sleep on the ground or in trees all the time! I want to go to school and have friends and have my real mom again! I want…"H

He had to stop, the tears cascading done his face, despite his best efforts to restrain them. He probably had been burying those feelings deep down to keep them from Ezzy, or else feel he was betraying her by complaining.

I found myself going to him, holding his tiny body against my chest, and stroking his fine blond hair. He clenched his fists in my jacket and sobbed, probably the first time in a long time. I couldn't tell him it would be alright, because I knew his life would never again be normal, but I said the one thing I could think of, "I'll do whatever I can to help you – both of you. I promise. I promise."

I held him until he cried himself to sleep. I felt as if some buried paternal instinct had just kicked in as I tucked the covers around him, longing to make his world right, to protect him.

As I turned back to my own bed, I glanced over at the cloak that read midnight, and had a sudden idea. I would have to talk to Elle about it, but maybe just maybe…

Our house was big enough, and Satchmo would love siblings….

No. Those kids weren't weapons or threats no matter what was done to them. I was going to keep my promises to them. I was going to do everything I could for them.

"Dr. Michaels, I'm going to need some time to think things over," I told her. We had been talking long enough for a trace.

"Over course, take as much time as you need. Good-bye," she said smugly.

"Good-bye," I looked over at Diana just to confirm. She nodded and I hung up.

"She was using a burner phone through several different channels, but I was able to trace it; she's at the Institute right now," Diana said.

I nodded my thanks and stood up, gripping the file tightly and leading both out of my office. I motioned Jones and the others to join us, heading for the conference room. Closing the door behind Jones, I slapped the file down and got to the point, "We are taking down the Institute. Today. Get to work, time is of the essence."