Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Columbia Pictures and to the writers and producers and whoever else I may have forgotten to mention. The only things I claim to own are my own characters and the plot of this story.

His first day of high school was over. That was the only thing Connor could think of as he watched the bus pull away from the curb in front of Jack's house. Cindy shouted goodbye and waved, and Connor raised his hand slightly to wave back. Then he turned and went inside.

Jack's house was nothing more than a bachelor pad really. It was a little place he'd bought just before Connor had been cleared to leave the base, big enough for the two of them. Fortunately, Jack wasn't home -he was probably down at the old garage working on something- and Connor could retreat to the relative quiet of his small room to relax for a bit.

"Or I guess do some homework," he said out loud as he set his backpack on the desk and flopped onto the bed with a sigh. Even though high school definitely hadn't been like he was dreading it was, this whole new routine would take some getting used to.

After a moment, he sat up and reached for his bag to start on homework. He opened the book and began to read through the pre-cal problems, but before he could answer any of them, the front door opened.

"Hey, Connor! I'm home!" Jack shouted as he slammed the door. "And I brought dinner!"


The next week was much the same for Connor. Wake up, get ready, eat breakfast, head off to school, come home, eat dinner, do homework, then go to bed. And after a couple of days, he found that he was actually beginning to settle into his new schedule.

He was sitting in his fifth period English class when he realized that he'd been in school for exactly one week. The teacher was going over something from Othello, the story they were reading at the moment, when suddenly, Connor heard something vibrate in his backpack.

He ignored it. Probably left my phone on vibrate. I'll get it later, he thought as he tried to focus on the whiteboard. But the buzzing sound was getting the attention of the kids around him, until Mr. Campbell stared straight at Connor.

"Mr. Shepard, might I ask what that noise is coming from your backpack?" he asked after a moment. "I hope that it's not a cell phone. You know the policy."

Connor knew it well, having gotten his phone taken up the second day of class. Slowly, he reached into his bag for the source of the noise, but froze when he realized it wasn't his cell phone. It was the pager Marsha had given him in case there was a mission.

Neither Jack nor Marsha had ever told him what to do if the thing ever went off in class. Obviously it meant they had a mission, but he couldn't just up and leave in the middle of discussing Othello and Desdemona's relationship issues. As the class stared at him, Connor was at a complete loss for words.

As he wondered what to do, there came a knock on the door. Without even waiting for someone to answer, Dylan burst in. "Sorry, Mr. Campbell, but Connor has to go," he said as he motioned for Connor to follow him. "Come on, we have to go now."

That forced Connor out of his embarrassment. He quickly gathered his things and practically ran out the door behind the other boy. "Didn't Dr. Grant ever tell you how to handle getting out of class?" Dylan started. "Wait, don't answer that. He obviously didn't. Everybody else is already outside waiting on us."

"What's the rush?" Connor asked.

"Not sure. Marsha didn't put it out on the pager, just said it was extremely important," the other boy replied as they pushed through the front doors.

There was a black passenger van parked out front, since the flying saucer they normally rode in would have been a little too conspicuous. The doors were slammed shut behind the two late-comers and the van squealed away from the school.

Marsha turned to look at the team from her spot in the passenger seat. "Glad you two could make it!" she said sarcastically. "I'll have to get onto Dr. Grant for not telling you the procedure, Connor."

She reached over and pressed a button on the dash. The windows on the van instantly switched over to video monitors covered in different images. Some showed blueprints for several buildings, others had maps of downtown Phoenix. Marsha unbuckled and slipped into one of the back seats as a partition came down between the driver and the team.

"Okay, here's what we've got," she said pointing to a screen playing a live news broadcast. It showed a downtown street blocked off by several fire trucks and a pillar of black smoke climbing into the sky from a building farther down the street.

"That is DataTech Labs," Marsha continued after a moment. "The US Army contracts them to help develop technical weapons, including some of the ones that you've used before in training. This morning, a silent alarm was triggered at their Phoenix facility's R&D lab. Before anyone could respond to the alarm, there was some sort of explosion. But apparently, some of the thieves are still inside the building, holding hostages. Your mission is to get in, free the hostages, and get out."

"But why us? Isn't that usually a job for a SWAT team or something?" Summer asked after a moment of silence. "Why do they want superheroes?"

Marsha paused, almost as though she didn't want to tell the team. Her nose twitched, a sure sign that she was nervous, probably about to tell a lie. Dylan must have noticed this. "Come on, Marsha, if we're going in, we need to know everything."

The older woman sighed, apparently giving up her internal battle. "The thieves, well, they have powers too. Like, ones that are comparable to yours, at least we are assuming. They got in without anyone noticing. Security cameras inside appear to be on a loop from before the lab was infiltrated," she paused. "So we have to send you in blind."

After the team's initial shock had mostly worn off, Marsha filled them in on a few more details that the team needed to know. Things such as building blueprints, security measures they knew were activated in the lab, their drop-off and extraction points. Things they depended on to make their own plan.

Connor sat back in his seat and watched as Dylan began to discuss possible entry points for the group, ways they could get in and out without being noticed. Summer pointed out that the ducts inside the building were probably already heavily guarded. If the thieves were smart enough to loop the security footage, then they probably knew where the most obvious points of entry were. Tucker agreed, and pointed out a sewer entrance about a half a mile from the lab.

"I bet they won't have that guarded," he said as Marsha pulled up a map of the tunnels under the city.

Suddenly, everyone was looking at Connor. "You've been awful quiet over there," Dylan said. "Got any ideas?"

Connor leaned forward and studied the maps for a moment. Tucker's idea of the sewers was a much more plausible idea than relying on vents being unguarded for five kids to crawl through. And it was a very real possibility that the vents wouldn't even be big enough for anyone but Cindy to fit through. He examined the map of the sewers and noticed there was an access tunnel to the building. Confused, he glanced at Marsha.

"What is this for? What exactly are they making here?"

Again, her nose twitched. "They…um… they're working on a serum that would… that would… dampen the effect of powers. Like, almost get rid of them completely in a person for a set amount of time. Almost like the detention rooms at the facility-which were designed here too- but with a much more personal effect. Someone could take the serum and be essentially power-free for a certain amount of time, life for school or work. The access tunnel was put in to give them a direct tie in to the city's main water filtration if the need ever arose. But it's not on any other plans but these."

The rest of the team's eyes went wide. "But why would they want to do that?" Cindy asked.

Marsha wouldn't look at them, so Connor spoke up. His voice was low, anger hidden behind its softness. "In case someone went on a rampage."

Dylan and Summer glanced at him, knowing what he was talking about. Before they could say anything else, Connor had turned away from them and slipped his headphones in. He didn't want to hear any more about this serum, which they were sure to ask Marsha about. I shouldn't have been surprised to find out they were still working on it, he told himself as a memory dredged itself up from the back of his mind, from a time he'd tried much too hard to forget about.


He was sitting in the cafeteria, finishing up breakfast. The rest of the team had already come and gone, but thanks to the "treatment" he'd had that morning, he'd come in too late to eat with them. They'd headed out for some training or something. But the radiation had made him unusually tired that day, and Dr. Grant had excused him from training, telling him to get some rest instead.

For several minutes, he had been the only one in the room, sitting at a far corner table under a light that had briefly flickered, then completely faded to blackness. It was alright with him. He'd begun to prefer the darkness and solitude as of late.

Suddenly, the door at the other end of the cafeteria opened, revealing two of Dr. Grant's lab assistants. They were talking excitedly, and Connor hoped he hadn't been noticed.

"Man! I can't believe that stuff actually worked!"

"Yeah! I mean, if they can get the Gamma radiation to increase powers, think about what that would mean for the opposite. It would be a breakthrough in personal power nullification! Imagine, a superhero stopping a villain just by shooting 'em with a dart of some sort. Or if one of them kids they're experimenting on now were to go cuckoo for coco puffs."

The first assistant nodded. "That'd be great. Maybe then I could stop getting my prized soda can collection used as target practice. Just a few drops of the serum into her morning cereal and boom! No more arrow holes."

Fury roared through Connor's mind as he listened. It was a strange feeling, one he'd never dealt with before. But it wasn't exactly unpleasant. He stood up abruptly, overturning the table he was sitting at. Cereal flew everywhere. The lab assistants froze as he walked toward them. Even though he was probably a good five inches shorter than the tallest one, both shrank back from him. One even tripped over a chair and fell to the ground, the one that had described the serum.

"What were you saying? About a serum?" he questioned the other man, voice low.

"No…nothing," he stammered. Connor turned his attention to the second assistant.

"Do you want to tell me? Or do I have to go 'cuckoo for coco puffs' to find out?"

The man swallowed and reached for his communicator watch, but before he could, Connor sent a mild tremor through the floor. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he warned as he reached down and took ahold of the front of the man's shirt.

With a strength he didn't even realize he had, Connor lifted the assistant off the floor. The other man scurried backwards, hand reaching for his own watch. The room trembled again, a reminder of the dangers the teenager posed. "Now, what is this serum?"

"It's a p-p-power nullific-cation f-formula," he man he held stuttered. "Dr. Ellis is working on it, but I think he-I think he out-outsourced it to some-some lab some-somewhere. H-h-he wouldn't s-s-say! I s-swear!"

He dropped to the ground hard as Connor released his hold and strode out of the room. The power coursing through his body was intoxicating. A small voice in the back of his mind told him that it was the Gamma radiation, that he should go see Dr. Grant and get help. But immediately, a much louder, powerful voice told him that Dr. Ellis was his target. Or more specifically, whatever serum he was developing.

People ignored him as he stepped into the "good" doctor's lab. It wasn't unusual for members of the team to have scheduled appointments with researchers. Dr. Ellis was in his office, and he looked up as Connor stepped through the door and shut it behind him. It locked with a faint click!

"Mr. Shepard, what a pleasant surprise! I was-" he cut off as he noticed something was different. "Connor, are you feeling alright?"

"Perfectly fine, Dr. Ellis, but I needed to discuss something with you."

"Anything you need? You look different. Are you wearing contacts?" the older man took a step towards the teenager, pulling his glasses down from the top of his head to get a better look.

"I heard about the serum you're developing," Connor said, voice implying a threat when there really was none.

"What? How did you-" this time the cut off came from Connor grabbing his throat.

Abruptly, alarms began blaring throughout the facility, but Connor ignored them. "Where is it?" he hissed.

The doctor didn't move, just stared horrified at the boy before him. Connor squeezed a bit tighter, determined to find out what he wanted-no, needed- to know. "Where is it?"

Finally, the doctor shook his head and gurgled out, "Gone. Nothing viable here. I won't tell you where it is."

The doctor gasped out another breath and went unconscious. Connor dropped him to the floor. The old man was lying. There was a viable serum in that lab. It could be used against him. And he didn't want to relinquish the incredible power he was feeling. He blew the office door open. Lab assistants scattered as the debris fell to the floor. All he had to do was find that serum.


"Connor?" The teen jumped as the voice rang softly through his mind.

He pulled out one earbud and glanced at her. "What?" it came out gruffer than he meant. Inwardly, he flinched, hating the sound of the same voice he'd succumbed to all those years ago.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he muttered. "Just, remembering stuff."

He noticed the van wasn't moving anymore, and looked out the window to see a crowd of armed police men and women surrounding the van. Marsha opened the side door and everyone crowded out but Summer and Connor. The telepath looked at him and grimaced.

"Showtime."


Author's Note: Ugh. I really don't like the way this chapter ended, but I didn't want to get too far into what happens next. Otherwise the chapter would be super long, so I elected to break it up.

Anyways, another chapter down! I hope you like the flashback. In the movie, there isn't much of an explanation of what happened before Connor was sent into another dimension, so I want to delve into that a bit more during the course of the story.

Please leave a review if you enjoyed the story, and feel free to message me if you have any thoughts/ideas/concerns/etc. I love reading comments and they really give me encouragement to continue writing. Also, thanks again to everyone who has reviewed and followed! ~NightRider