Well, I've picked up a favourite, a few follows and my first review so thank you to those people for their support and hope you stick with it.

CHAPTER TWO

John looked around rapidly. He was surrounded by five opponents, all dressed in black and carrying light rifles. He teleported quickly, ending up behind one of them, and delivered a bunch to his spine that caused the man to double up in pain, out of the fight for now. The nearest man swung his weapon at him like a club. John blocked the blow and punched the man in the solar plexus. Two of his opponents ran at him from either side and John teleported, causing them to collide and go down. He turned on his last opponent. The man took up a defensive posture, inviting John to come at him. Instead, John teleported. The man looked round, weapon levelled. John reappeared right in front of him and knocked him down.

Jedikiah, who had been observing the training session, applauded. "Very good, John." He glanced at the downed troopers. "Is anyone in need of medical attention?" One of the men raised a hand. Jedikiah turned to another trooper. "Teleport him to the medical bay."

A disappointingly high number of the Ultra personnel, both human and meta-human, had been ready to accept the Tomorrow People's new regime and work with them. A few, though, had got a little too attached to the idea of hunting and killing break-outs. It was those who Jedikiah had sought out and brought into his new organisation…giving them a few mental modifications to ensure their loyalty, of course.

John was drying himself off with a towel. "What did you think?"

"Good conversions, good reading of your opponents' intent. And you certainly pack a punch. I think we're ready for you to move on to the next stage of our operation."

"New recruits?"

"If we're going to build an army, we've got to start somewhere."

Astrid smiled politely to a couple of the Tomorrow People as they passed her in the corridor of the Refuge. She had a feeling that a few of them wondered why she was there, but the fact that she'd helped save the world meant no-one said it. She stopped by one of the rooms. It seemed like a normal one person bedroom, with a camp bed set up and a few personal belongings scattered around. But something drew her to it. She recognised the girl sitting in there. "Charlotte?"

The girl got up abruptly and turned round, looking as though she'd been caught doing something she shouldn't be doing. "Astrid, hi!"

Astrid stepped into the room, curious. "Is this your room?"

Charlotte lowered her gaze slightly. "No, it…it's John's. I figured he'd need somewhere, you know, when he comes back. I brought his things from the Lair when we left."

Astrid looked around. There was a photo of John set up on the shelf and a few of his clothes hanging up neatly. "I'm sure he'll like it."

"He is coming back, isn't he?" Charlotte's tone was worried.

Astrid turned and smiled at her. "Of course. He wouldn't leave you, would he?"

Charlotte gave a shy smile. "I don't think he'd leave you either."

"Thanks."

Charlotte's smile disappeared. "So where is he?"

Astrid sighed and sat down on the bed. "I don't know." Charlotte sat down next to her and cuddled up to her. Astrid put her arm round the girl and they sat there in silence.

Stephen and Cara were in the office, staring at Tim's display. It showed a map of the city with various spots highlighted. "These are all where paranormal activity's been detected?"Stephen asked.

"That is correct,"Tim replied.

"There's a lot of them,"Cara remarked redundantly.

"Yes."

Stephen sighed. "We really need to get someone to monitor these things permanently. By the time we find out about these people, they're already gone. Tim, how are you going with checking CCTV records?"

"I am retrieving files all the time. Russell and Irene are currently searching through them."

"Hey, bro!"interrupted Luca as he entered the office.

Stephen glanced round. "Hey. You want to hang out with the others for a bit? We're kind of in the middle of something."

"Nah, Mum just wanted me to check if you'd be back for tea."

Stephen sagged, not helped by the fact that Cara had started smirking. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" He drew Luca off into a corner. "You can't say things like that when I'm in the middle of a briefing!"

"Hey, just passing on the message, Chosen One. Blame Mum if you're brave enough."

Cara was only just managing to stop herself from laughing. "Smooth, Jameson. Really smooth."

Before Stephen could reply, he and Cara heard Irene's voice in their heads. "Can you two come down here? I need to show you something."

Irene and Russell were in one of the briefing rooms when Stephen, Cara and Luca entered. Irene gestured to a screen that was showing grainy CCTV footage. "I've been following up on some of the paranormal activity that Tim detected. There's a group of teens turning up all the time. Teleporting into places, doing robberies…and they're not waiting until after hours either. They're hurting people."

"It definitely sounds like the sort of thing we should be looking at,"Stephen agreed.

"You'll think that even more when you see who's leading them." Irene waited until a blonde girl on the footage was facing the camera and then paused it.

"Natalie,"Stephen said quietly.

"That's the girl that threw me againt a wall!"Luca realised.

Russell sighed. "There's a face I hoped I'd never see again."

"I've been quite looking forward to it,"Cara remarked.

Russell looked at her in surprise. "Really?"

"Someone tries to shoot you, it's hard not to want to return the favour."

Stephen was quiet for a moment. "Can you give all the information you've got to Tim? See if he can track Natalie's group down or at least keep an eye out for them when they do pop up?"

"Sure,"Irene agreed. "It looks like the rest of the gang are all the people that left the Lair with her, so I can rig up a basic recognition programme easily."

Russell winced. "We're going to have to go after her, aren't we?"

Stephen shrugged. "Well, if we don't, no-one else can handle her."

At that moment, John was also staring at an image of Natalie: A still image from the footage was in the file Jedikiah had handed him. He looked at it without recognition before turning to his mentor. "Who is she?"

"One of your kind. A rogue element. The very sort of person that Ultra was set up to deal with, before the Tomorrow People got in the way."

"What do you want done with her?"

"Bring her back here. She might be convinced to put her skills to use. Or we might just kill her. I'd be fine with that." Jedikiah noticed John's surprised expression. "She was responsible for the death of someone close to me. My brother."

John's expression softened. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I've come to terms with it. We'll keep an eye out for Miss Natalie. But before that, there's plenty of other things requiring our attention. It's time for a recruitment drive."