"Where are they?" I asked, looking around.
"They'll be here. Bianca was wanting to go to the celebration," Calvin said, in his ever calming voice. He was right, Bianca was wanting to go to the two year anniversary of Tundra's freedom. She had been talking about it on her calls to me in the last month, and honestly she deserved it. The team had been going hard for the last few months.
Calvin, Victoria Palmer, Ziva, and I were freezing waiting for the Hare team to show up. We were right along the Canadian boreder, and I didn't praticularrly like it much. They had been picked up three days ago by what they thought were the Canadians, after they were looking for some kids. Calvin, Victoria, Ziva, and I had been in North Dakota on a mission ourselves, we were looking for a kid who was being chased by the PSF's, a black apparently. I heard nearby rustling and I instantly shot up. Instead of a wild animal, I saw fifteen people walking up to us, led by Jenna. Several of the other people I didn't recognize and they only had one kid with them, Sara.
"Hey," Jenna called out as she approached us.
"Where is everyone else?" I asked, getting concerned.
"They're fine," Sara said, waving me off.
"Who are they?" I asked, turning to look at the people who were surrounding the two people.
"Canadians," Jenna said, coming to stop beside me. "We got picked up by border control and taken to this military base where he," she pointed at a fifty year old man with greying hair, "was visiting. He was looking around at things when we got picked up, and we managed to convince him to come with us to talk to you."
"Umm, should I know who he is?" I asked.
"Oh right you weren't into politics," Jenna said. "This is Justin McKinley. He's the current Prime Minister of Canada."
"Really? Why did he come here?" I asked, giving him a pointed look.
"Heard that you guys needed help, so I decided to come and help you guys," Justin said.
"Quit lying, why are you really here?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest. My people seemed to have gotten used to this line of questioning, so they didn't say anything. Justin's men seemed surprised by the question though. As Jenna and Sara walked around the truck to put their things in the back, Justin seemed to have finally caught his breath.
"What do you mean?" Justin asked.
"It's been six years since the outbreak started? I think five and a half since you closed the border with this country. Why do you suddenly care now?"
"Because your team gave me pictures of the camps and told me what IAAN really is," he said looking around. "I'm trying to lend you a helping hand."
"Why?"
"Because I care?"
"Why? Again, you haven't sent anyone over here, you barely sent food, and you're suddenly brought to pity by three teenagers, and two adults?" I asked, and he nodded. "I don't believe you."
"You should," he said.
"You've given literally no proof," I said.
"How about," Sara said, interjecting into the conversation. "We should go somewhere where it isn't freezing."
"It's not that bad," I said, looking at their winter clothing.
"There is literal snow on the ground, and you can't feel the cold," Sara said looking at my clothing.
"Wait really?" Justin asked. I gave him a side look before looking at Sara again.
"I explained things to him, but he doesn't fully believe it yet," she said with a shrug. I could feel the electricity above me starting to crack. I grabbed onto it, and sent a lighting bolt into the tree behind me. Everyone jumped surprised. The tree cracked and started smoldering, it fell right behind the truck. I winced and moved it out of the way.
"What just happened?" one of Justin's men asked, surprised.
"She redirected the electricity to the tree so when it finally did on its own we wouldn't get hurt," Jenna said, and she started picking something on her hand. I turned to look at the tree again, and put the flames out before picking it up and throwing it to the side. I looked at the tree stump, and started regrowing the tree. When it was done, I turned back to the group. Jenna and Sara looked bored, why everyone looked surprised.
"Come on," I said. "There's a secure location fifty minutes away."
"Almanze?" Sara asked, and I nodded. Almanze had been the fourth camp we had raided. It had been a yellow camp that had been really small. It was secure despite everything. We hadn't used it much, but was proof enough.
"How about we go up to our own base," Justin suggested. "That way we aren't infected by Agent Ambrosia?"
"Fine," I said more towards Sara than anyone else. She gave me a pointed look before sighing. "Fine. Apparently there's a black running around here, so Jenna, Sara, keep an eye out for them."
"Alright. See you around," Jenna said with a half hearted wave goodbye.
"Bye," I said as they jumped into the van. I watched the van pull away before I turned back to the crowd.
"Shouldn't you have an entire team searching for the kid?" Justin asked.
"We do, but their searching a different area. Plus I was wanting to meet up with the Hare team?"
"Hare," one of the men said with a laugh.
"Whatt knock it off," Justin said with a sigh.
"They got that name because they managed to find over three thousand kids going directly towards camps and not leaving any sort of trail," I said, putting my right hand on my waist. "Plus they managed to round up over eight thousand adults on the outside. Mostly they got it because they're the crew we use whenever we're about to raid a camp." The men seemed to pause in surprise again.
"So how did we catch them?" the man asked.
"Better question, why did they let you catch them?" I asked, walking around the crew. "Come on, it's a hike back to your cars." I could feel them look at me confused, but nonetheless followed behind me.
"Where are you from, originally?" Justin asked.
"Maryland, Kansas, Kansas, Nebraska," Victoria said, pointing out each person as she said it.
"Anywhere specific?" Whatt asked, curiosity in his voice.
"Why does that matter? Almost everyone we know is dead, in a camp, or is willing to sell us for ten grand," Ziva grumbled. Whatt flinched, and I couldn't blame him. Ziva was young, and shouldn't have that much bitterness in her voice yet.
"So you're a black, that's pretty cool," Whatt said, trying to shift the topic.
"Yeah, I'm pretty excited about helping create a new city," Vic said happily.
"Yeah, that's coming up pretty soon," I said looking back for a second. Victoria had put in a lot of effort recently, and had come to the age to get to run her own city.
"Yeah, fifteen is a big age," Calvin said.
"What camp are you taking over?"
"Highland. That green, blue camp over in Wyoming," Vic said eagerly.
"It's camp number nine we've either raided, or incorporated into smaller camps. Since so many camps are only a couple dozen kid it wasn't hard to force them to close them," Ziva said. "We're not brave enough to raid a lot of the larger camps."
"Didn't you raid Black Rock? Which had over twelve hundred kids at the time?" Justin asked.
"Yeah, but they kept an eye out for kids who were before IAAN hit, so we had a lot more motivation to raid them, then a camp like Thurmond," Vic said with a shrug, and I felt the cars in front of us roar with life.
"Come on," I said, walking towards the cars. There were three cars, and we could be easily divided amongst them. "Calvin ride with Ziva. Victoria, you and I are going to ride alone."
"Alright," the three said at one time, splitting up and going to two different cars. I walked to the third and used my powers to open it. Justin and his men followed and slid into their seats, leaving me to settle by the window. It was strange being next to the window, but I liked being able to watch nature pass me by. The men in the truck let me sit in silence for a while before their curiosity got the better of them.
"Can you really set things on fire, and move a car with your mind?" one blond twenty year old asked. I turned my head surprised, and he looked sheepishly away. "Sorry."
"Don't be," I said with a small laugh and he brightened up. "For the last year and a half or so, most of the kids know at least what they can do, if not at least someone else, and they figure out the powers pretty quickly, so I don't usually get that type of question."
"Ah," he said, "but the fire thing?" I held out my left hand, which was the farther one from the window, and created a small flame. I held it open for thirty seconds before letting it burn out.
"Cool," another one of the men said, and I looked out the window again. "Are you alright ma'am?"
"I'm fine. Whenever I've travelved for the last two years, I couldn't sit next to the window because it was too dangerous. If I had been spotted then someone could have called me in and we would have skip tracers and bounty hunters on my butt," I said, and his smile dropped.
"Sorry about that," the man said.
"It wasn't your fault," I said, and I looked at Justin. "Justin, as soon as we get to your base, can I see my people?"
"Of course. They were allowed to leave whenever they wanted to, but they were still giving us information when we left," Justin said. "Who were you tracking?"
"Some kid who was in need of help, but Sarah and Jenna are the type of people who could find them," I answered, and I felt the car slow to a stop. We slid into a parking spot, and I saw some buildings in the distance.
"We're here," Justin said, sliding his door open.
"Thanks," I muttered, sliding the door open, and jumped out. I let the guy next to me out before slamming the door shut. There were a few buildings in front of me, and it was easy to separate them out using my powers. It was also easy to find where my people were being held, so as soon as the three in the cars jumped out of their cars, I started walking towards the building they were in.
"So how much information did the Hare team give you?" I asked.
"Some of the camps that you guys raided. Camp's you're going to raid. Colors and powers. Basic information about some of the people you have," Justin said, and I opened the door of the building. I walked through a few hallways and into a large room where my three missing search people were, who seemed surprised that we were here.
They were all standing around a table that held multiple documents and drawings. There was a map of the United States hung up on the wall with stars marking the camp's locations. Maps of states with camps were hung up as well so the camp's locations could better be seen. There was a small piece of paper taped next to the camps with the camp's name, if it had been claimed by us, or were still unattacked. There was also a list of how many current residents were in each camp. Bianca, and John noted me, but for the most part ignored me as I walked into the room, though everyone else's heads snapped towards us.
"Hey," Bianca said with a small wave.
"Hey," I said and sighed with relief. All three of them were dressed in fresh clothing and none of them were dirty or harmed. If not for the strange people around me, I would have thought they had swung back to Tundra for a little while. "How are you doing?"
"Fine," John said as I walked closer to the table to get a better look at the table.
"Who are you?" A brunette haired white man asked. He wasn't dressed in military clothing, and his hair was much longer than would have been accepted.
"Hastings, what are you doing here?" Justin asked as he walked around me to get a better look at the man.
"Was here to talk with you about several things that we were going to use, and then I heard you went and found you guys had some psi here," he said looking at Bianca. He looked back at us. "Who are you?"
"Ava McBrian," I said, and nodded at the others introducing them as well. "Who are you?"
"David Hasting. Tech billionaire," he introduced. "What can you do?"
"We're all blacks, which means we can do everything the others can do," I said, taking a closer look at the map. It seemed to be a pretty good idea of what was going on.
"That's cool," Hastings said, joy in his tone. I paused and sensed something going on with him.
"Who's Sulvia?" I asked, and I felt him pause.
"She's my daughter," he said, pain in his voice.
"I'm sorry about her injuries," Victoria said, and I could feel his confusion and sadness. "How was she hurt?"
"The car she was in was t-boned. She's been in a coma for the last two months," Hastings said, and I paused, letting myself sink into his mind. It wasn't hard, he was lost thinking about his daughter. Memories floated past and I could see his love for his daughter.
"How about we look at her? We've been practicing a lot and I'm sure whatever insite we have could help her," I suggested.
"Really?" he asked, hope in his voice.
"Really," I said, and turned back to face the group. "Anyway, what was your plan to help me? You didn't say anything about what you wanted to do earlier."
"We could take control of the United States, free the camps," Justin suggested.
"That wouldn't work," I said, walking next to the table, and leaning my hands against the table. "If Gray hears a word about the Canadians raiding the camps he'll order the PSF's to kill the kids in the camps, and when we couldn't prove the kids were dead, they would send someone to come kill us."
"So we do nothing?" Whatt asked.
"No, you can help, but you can't make it public until the kids are taken out of the camps, and we've managed to find most of the one's on the outside," Victoria said, coming to stand next to me. I saw Justin and David look at one another.
"What are you two thinking?" I asked and David sighed.
"Canada refugee policy states that anyone can move to Canada if there is a legitimate threat to someone's health. I think this is enough of a reason for you guys to move," David said. "Your government isn't going to just disappear, and it's not going to change anytime soon. If you guys needed a refugee we could house you until things settle down again."
"Why would you want to do that?" I asked.
"People started seeking refuge from other countries and started causing a crisis in certain cities, and our farms aren't performing as well as they used to," Justin said with a shrug. I shared a look with Victoria, and she shrugged.
"Look, I can't give you a simple answer. Moving to Canada would honestly solve a lot of our problems, but there are also a lot of problems that wouldn't be solved. First off would be the housing problem. We have about sixty thousand people between all of our locations, and we're growing every day. There isn't much you could actually do to help us and eventually we're going to run out of room here. Plus we're going to need a lot of help." I felt my wrist watch beep, and I looked down at it. It was a reminder to get ready to go back.
"Look," I said, and looked at Victoria and Calvin. "We need to get down to Wyoming by tomorrow, which means we have to leave now."
"Alright," Calvin said. "Come on everyone, you guys need to catch up with the rest of your crew."
"How about," Ziva started, and everyone looked at her. "How about I stay here, and start helping here."
"Look, as much as you might know about everyone here, you can't sign any documents, or anything else," Justin said. "I don't mean be rude but that's how things are run."
"I can't sign anything, but if you are interested in helping us, then you're going to need someone to actually tell you what we might need. Plus, I wasn't going to send the search team back until someone could come up and watch me. I'm twelve, not an idiot, I know I don't know everything, so bringing someone up would help me, and Victoria and Ava could return back to their mission," Ziva explained, and my jaw dropped slightly.
"Ziva, where's this coming from?" I asked.
"Look, I'm sitting around Tundra doing nothing. I can easily do school online, and I already know all of my powers. If I'm here and talking with them with the help of everyone then we could help everyone else," Ziva explained, and she paused. She tapped her head, and I realized what she wanted to think, not talk.
What is wrong? I thought.
His daughter's blue.She thought pointing at David He seems to be the kind of man who actually care's about his kid.
And?
No one knows how to heal us better than us right. I do want to help us, but I want to help her really. I sighed, not even disappointed in her.
Fine, but don't do aything stupid, and wait for our lawyers to try and do a lot of things, I said pointing at her in a motherly tone. She nodded happily.
"Okay. Calvin, Victoria and I are going back to raid the next camp. The rest of the Hare team is going to stay here with Ziva until we send her grandmother up, and one of our lawyers. Justin, if you try to make her sign anything without a lawyer present, we won't go through anything you want."
"Deal."
"Also, David, Ziva's going to heal your kid," I said and he looked up surprised.
"Wait really. Why?"
"Practice," I said with a shrug. "We haven't been able to give Ziva someone from a car accident." I looked at Calvin and Victoria. "Come on." They both nodded, and I looked at Justin. "I'm going to need a car." Justin tossed me his keys.
"Make sure you don't utterly destroy it," Justin said with a warning.
"I'll drop it off at the border same place," I said with a wave. I turned to leave, not wanting to leave my friends behind, but I knew that they were going to be fine. The rest of the Hare team was fine, and Jenna and Sara hadn't bothered to make any problem about Justin. David would keep them safe long enough to heal his daughter. One of my other teams, the Gators, was near enough to the Canadian border where they could sweep by and check on them.
"You know you shouldn't have left them," Victoria said as we stepped into the car.
"I know," I said, as I sat down and shut the door.
"Then why did you leave them?" Calvin asked as he started driving.
"Ziva is safer here than the U.S, and do you honestly think I would leave them here alone? The Gator team should be here in a few hours, and can keep an eye on them. Justin actually wants to help for some reason. He doesn't like the whole power thing, but he knows that he probably couldn't do anything about us changing that. Also the camp is one heck of illegal, and he cares enough about us to know that we don't deserve that."
"So why Ziva? Why not change yourself out with someone else, we have time for that," Victoria asked.
"Ziva looks a lot like his kid, I mean a lot, and Ziva is smart. She knows how to use her powers, and will be fine. If anything happens she's the first to go completely nuclear, and they don't have any way to contain her. Anyway, keep driving."
"Alright," Calvin said with a wave of his hand.
After we finished with Highland, Calvin and I returned back to Tundra with the rest of the raiding team. We were still at Tundra so that we could mobilize very quickly. We had grown to two hundred people so we could go in and out of camps easier. It was two days after my conversation with Justin, and as Calvin drove me through the gates of the camp, I felt relief, since I was finally able to handle the problem head on.
I saw Mateo and Penelope standing next to the control tower. Mateo was found three months ago in a camp we had raided, and had been doing well since he had been found. I trusted him enough to not only watch Tundra, but put him in charge of our next raid. "Go," Calvin said, as he parked by the gate.
"Thanks," I said, jumping out of the van. I slammed the door behind me, and walked over to the pair.
"What's going on? You seemed more stressed than usual," Penelope asked as I approached.
"The Hare team was picked up, and the Canadian Prime Minister offered us a spot up there, and now Ziva and her grandmother are in another country," I said with a sigh.
"Why would they do that?" Mateo asked.
"The Hare team rated us out and told the world that they wanted to help."
"What did you say?" Penelope asked.
"I didn't say anything. I had to get down to Wyoming and help them out, but Ziva said she would be trying to figure things out, but she can't do much. Anyway, what happened here?"
"We're fine, found some more people," Penelope said.
"Good. I'll finish talking about the Canadian issue tomorrow morning," I said tiredly.
"Of course," Mateo said, and I walked to my room, and laid down on my bed. As I did, I pulled out the secured phone from my pocket, and pressed Ziva's phone number. I didn't have to wait long before her face appeared on my screen.
"Hey," Ziva said quietly. "How are you doing?"
"Good. The Highland raid went well," I said sitting up. "How's Sulvia?"
"She's fine, managed to heal her fairly well and Justin is trying to push our cases through immigration. Said if he managed to do it before you raid another camp, he can charge the camp workers in Canada."
"That's nice, but it wouldn't explain where we would live. I know we're eventually going to move apart when all of this is over, but I would like to be able to have a place where the psi could go where they would be accepted as they were."
"David and I might have a solution for that. David has been helping the homeless situation here by building new housing and helping people move into already existing homes. He's also been helping forgive debts. One of the things he's been doing is creating small cities around the country. One of the cities that he started to create is on the west coast, and no one is out there yet. David said if we wanted to we could move out there if we wanted to, but he wants us to tell him soon so that could change up the plans so that he could add more fire protections, and add some of the protections that we have here."
"Wouldn't that possibly bankrupt him?" I asked.
"His tech company made two hundred billion dollars last year alone. The people on the team said it would take around fifteen billion to finish."
"Huh. When does he need the answer?"
"He needs it by Friday." Friday was three days from now, and would give me plenty of time to finish talking with everyone. We have changed the system of the council in the last few months. The ones who reported directly to me were the building managers, who monitored everyone in one building, they had floor managers report to them, who each had four different room monitors who monitor one side of each hallway. So it would not talk with everyone.
"Alright. How are they treating you?"
"Pretty good. They're mostly talking with the lawyers, but their interchanging Bianca and I. Though the rest of the team is leaving soon."
"Good. Hey I'll talk to you sometime later," I said with a yawn and she smiled in symapthay.
"Bye," she said, disconnecting the call.