The Right If Not The Responsibility
A/N: Okay once again, a thank you to all of you for the positive reaction to the last chapter. Now this chapter is much in the vein of the last one, in that its more slow paced and focuses more on reactions, with them also setting up a few essential plot points for the story. Now I know that I said last time that the next chapter would be a bit complicated, but as it was getting to long and the story felt unbalanced, I managed to simplify it by simply moving several elements from this one into the next chapter.
As always I hope you enjoy this.
Chapter Four: Status Quo Redux
Charles sighed as he wandered around the supermarket; of course he had ended up pushing the trolley while Scully and Hitchcock just poured the items they wanted into it. Something about buying all these cheap poorly made snack foods filled to brim with unnecessary levels of salt and Tran's fats, offended him but what was he going to do about it? Its not like they were going to ask him about his opinion on food, even if he had forgotten more than most would ever dream of knowing.
Really Charles just wanted this to be over. Clothes shopping had been a nightmare, why Hitchcock and Scully insisted on trying on several sets of clothes he would never know. They were just going to get them filthy the next time they ate then only wash them at the very last possible moment. He was snapped out of his thoughts when he suddenly realised they were no longer pouring food into the trolley.
"Wow! We have got to get it." Scully said.
Boyle looked up; the two of them were staring at a large orange microwave. "What? No! Captain Holt gave us money for clothes and food. Not kitchen equipment." Boyle replied.
"But look at it, it's in the sale." Hitchcock weighed.
"No," he snapped, "we can't afford it, not without having to put some of this back." Hitchcock and Scully grumbled and looked away.
Turning Charles eyes suddenly opened wide. Before him lay such a beautiful sight a silver caldron with a malt black ceramic inside. "A decent slow cooker for how much? Oh my god, I have to get it!" he murmured.
"Hey you just said no cooking equipment." Hitchcock yelled.
"Yeah you said we couldn't afford it." Scully piped in.
Boyle let out a groan "you're right," he said, "we can't afford it, let's go." He made a silent promise to come back later and retrieve the beautiful slow cooker. Going through the checkout it turned out they had to spend all the money Holt had given them, but at least they had their food. Bagging it up Scully and Hitchcock grumbled as they had to help carry it all.
"One minute, I'm getting hot," Scully groaned. Putting his two bags down he began to take off his jacket. The microwave fell out of it. Looking down Scully let out a gulp, "Oops." He said.
"What? How did that fit in their? You stole a microwave!" Boyle yelled. He clasped his hand over his mouth. But it was too late, the cashier had heard them.
"Hey! Stop them! Their stealing a microwave!" he yelled.
"No, no, no, this is just a big misunderstanding." Charles tried. But several large employees suddenly came running towards them. Scully and Hitchcock grabbed each other's arm. His eyes opening wide Charles let out a yell. Then suddenly the colour faded from his vision. 'Oh no, not again!'
Everyone froze staring in disbelief. "Where did he go?" one of the people yelled.
"It must be some kind of trick. Quick grab the others!" someone else yelled. Two men grabbed Scully and Hitchcock, they tried to pull them along but they wouldn't budge. Confused now all three employee's tried to pull them to the side, but still they wouldn't budge. It was like they were glued to the spot. Equally confused Scully and Hitchcock stared down at each other's shoes.
Boyle froze; every instinct in him told him to just run. But as much as he would love to, he couldn't just abandon Scully and Hitchcock especially not with a weird medical soldier order organisation out their chasing them. He knew this would probably get him put on a disciplinary he ran into the nearest employee.
Charles was nowhere close to being a big man and he wasn't exactly strong either, but he still was enough to push an ordinary human off balance, especially when they weren't expecting it. The man fell to the floor, looking up he stared in confusion. A crowd of customers had now gathered around, they were all staring. For just a moment the other two employees grip lessened as they turned their heads to stare at him in confusion.
Seeing this, Boyle took his chance and then with all his might he shoved them. It didn't knock them over, but it was enough cause them to stager and let go. "RUN!" Boyle yelled. Grabbing a few of the bags, Scully and Hitchcock followed him as they ran for the door. Emerging outside Boyle let out a yell of agony, causing him to stumble backwards; it was too bright, too bright!
He tried to shielding his eyes but it was no good, as they were transparent now he could now see through both his eyelids and his hands. Forced to stare at the ground, he grabbed Hitchcock's side and let him pull him along behind him, unable to look upwards. "Stop them! They robbed us! Police! Thieves!" someone yelled behind them.
Scully and Hitchcock had only ran around thirty yards but they were already sweating and panting. Turning the corner they three of them ran into an alley, and then took a left turn into another alley way. Shielded by the buildings the light was more manageable here, and Charles found that he could look up. Blinking he groaned as his eyes adjusted.
Looking behind, it appeared they had lost anyone pursuing them. "Why did you try to steal a microwave?" Boyle yelled.
Scully and Hitchcock looked around, "who said that?" Hitchcock yelled.
"Are you kidding me! You know I can turn invisible now!"
"Oh, yeah I forgot" Scully replied.
"Why did you steal a microwave? Strike that how did you steal that microwave?"
"Yeah, nice going, if you had kept your jacket on us would have gotten away with it." Hitchcock snapped.
"You're still not answering me! Just cause I'm invisible it doesn't mean you can ignore me." Boyle yelled.
"Relax, we weren't stealing, we were going to go back and pay for it later."
"You can't do that!"
"Of course you can." Scully said, "That's how I bought my first car."
"No you can't! That's illegal!"
Scully and Hitchcock exchanged worried glances, "Uh oh!" they both said.
"Yeah, uh oh. Now how did you sneak a microwave out under your jacket?"
Scully shrugged, "I don't know, it just fit in their. How are you invisible right now?"
Boyle had to concede that was a fair point. He was about to speak, when another voice yelled, "There they are! Get them!"
"Run some more!" Boyle yelled.
Scully and Hitchcock both groaned before running off down the street.
Terry looked down at Gina's phone for the third time, then back up at Amy and Gina. "We've got to tell the others," he said. "They have to know!"
"Well it's been nearly three hours; they all should be heading back by now." Amy said.
"Good in the meantime lets show it to Jake and Rosa." He said.
Getting to their feet the three of them headed back into the other room. Rosa had clearly managed to fall asleep somehow, but Jake was gone.
"Jake!" Amy yelled,
"Oh my god, where is he?" Gina yelled.
Slowly all three pairs of eyes turned upwards. Lying against the celling was Jake, he was still peacefully sleeping.
"Quick we have to get him down," Amy said.
"Shush!" Terry whispered. The other two looked at him. "We can't wake him, if we do he'll fall. He's still recovering from his last one. A second fall could be dangerous."
"Well what do we do?" Amy whispered, "None of us can reach him."
"Curse these surprisingly high ceilings." Gina groaned.
Terry paused to think "Got it," he said, "we'll wake Rosa. I'll lift her on my shoulders and she'll be able to reach Jake. Then she can carry him down, we're set him back down on the ground and then wake him."
"Okay I'll wake Rosa," Gina said. Leaning down she began violently shaking her.
"No! Gina don't!" Terry cried.
Groaning Rosa suddenly sleepily shoved back against her. Gina screamed as she went flying across the room.
Jake's eyes opened wide, "Gina!" he yelled. At that instant he fell. Frantically Terry jumped forward and caught him. Panting for breath Jake lay there in Terry's arms. He looked up at Terry's face "Thank you," he gasped.
"No problem Jake," Terry replied.
"What's happening?" Rosa asked sitting up.
"Jake was sleep flying and you just sleep threw Gina!" Terry snapped.
"What?" Both Rosa and Jake yelled.
"Speaking of Gina," Gina groaned. Frantically Jake jumped out of Terry's arms and ran over to her. Gina lay sprawled against the floor. The others crowded around her. Jake kneeled down to her side and quickly began checking over her.
"Is anything broken?" Terry asked.
"No I don't think so," Jake replied, "Gina how do you feel?"
"Like I got hit in the chest by a cannon ball." She groaned. Jake helped her to feet; Gina took a step before staggering. Quickly Jake caught her, half carrying her he placed her down into a chair. Gina just sat there waiting for the room to stop spinning.
"What is going on in here?" Holt yelled. All eyes turned to see him standing the doorway.
"Sir this is not as bad as it looks," Terry said.
Suddenly Hitchcock and Scully came running in. Both ran to the corner of the room and collapsed to the floor panting for breath. "If the people from the store we robbed come by, say you haven't seen us." Scully gasped.
"You robbed a store!" Holt yelled.
"Wait, where's Boyle?" Jake asked.
"Oh I'm here Jake," a voice from nowhere said.
"What? Wow? Where are you?" Jake yelled. The entire squad's eyes spun around the room.
"Here," Boyle called. As everyone looked around, Jake suddenly head a loud rhythmic thumping noise. Spinning he turned to one of the chairs. As if to confirm it, the chair suddenly moved backwards. All eyes turned to face it.
"Okay, this is more unnerving than seeing Jake sleep flying," Gina groaned.
"Sleep flying?" Holt yelled. "Okay, now I want all of you to tell me everything that happened in the last three hours, and I mean everything."
Terry, Amy and Gina all exchanged glances.
"Yes sir," Terry said.
Looking up from the roof top the Vulture stared into the distance. He looked back at his latest conquest. Mary King was peacefully sleeping now, he must have worn her out. Sighing he shook his head, poor thing she would never get herself a husband if she couldn't learn not to cry while doing it.
Shrugging his shoulder the Vulture sighed and looked out on the city, it had been easy enough to get out once he figured out his new power. He still had no idea what it meant or how he could do it, but that was a question for tomorrow. Why he had come up here, he wasn't sure. But he had felt this natural urge to get up high especially before they did it again.
Looking out the sun just was beginning to set now, it was nearly six O'clock. Feeling hungry the Vulture began his decent down the building's fire escape. By the time he got to the bottom it was already quarter past six. His stomach grumbling the Vulture decided to cut though the alleyway. There would a rib shack or something on the other side.
Strolling down he saw this tall thin fella standing in front of him, he was dressed in old clothes and had a gold chain around his neck. As the Vulture watched he stepped out in front of him blocking his path. Turning around the Vulture saw another man standing behind him, only this guy was marginally better dressed, black and quite a bit bigger.
"Aright let's make this painless, give us your wallet." The first man said.
"You want money? Get a job gutter trash." The Vulture spat, he didn't have his gun on him. But now he had mind control, he didn't need it.
The guy glared, and unclicked a switchblade. He held the blade up pointed at the Vulture's throat, however at this moment his partner stepped forward to stop him "Easy Jakey, I'm sure the gentleman regrets what he just said." Slowly the other figure walked around so he was no facing the Vulture to.
"Oh I regret it," The Vulture replied, "I regret the fact I didn't insult your ape to. What's he paying you in bananas? Looks like you get too many already."
The other guy's eyes turned cold. Snarling he grabbed the Vulture by the collar. "Listen," he growled. "Give us your wallet, or my mate here will be forced to take it from you."
"Let me go." The Vulture replied. Nothing happened, his face turning confused the Vulture tried again, "let me go!" he said.
The two fellas looked at him confused. "Look I'm happy to let you go, and cause I'm feeling generous, I'll even ignore that ape crack. Now just give me your wallet." The second man said.
"I said let me go you ding dongs!" the Vulture yelled.
Having had enough the second man swung at him. It was only at this point, as he saw the huge fist coming for his head that it dawned on the Vulture that maybe his new abilities might not work on everyone. Frantically the Vulture pulled backwards, he just managing to avoid the punch and caused the big guy to shake. But he recovered quicker than the Vulture expected. Using his full body weight he tried to wretch free of the man's gorilla like arm. Snarling Jakey, dived forwards and tried to rip open his pockets.
"Hey get out there." The Vulture yelled now squirming wildly. The second man had to grab him with both hands to stop him breaking free. With his left hand, the Vulture uppercut Jakey. The force knocked him to the floor. The Vulture let out a yell as Jakey slumped down.
"Jakey! Big mistake mate!" The other guy snarled. He threw the Vulture backwards into the wall. Snarling he jumped at him. The Vulture hadn't been in a fight in years. But somehow his body responded correctly. Diving to the side he avoided the guy's punch, his left hand suddenly felt a momentary sting of pain. Bringing it around, the Vulture caught the guy to the neck.
There was a loud slicing sound and guy began to gasp for breath; clutching his throat, blood seeped out of it. He slumped to the floor. Startled the Vulture starred down at his hand, stretching out of his knuckles was three long bird-like talons. Each around six inches long. The Vulture shrieked at the sight of them.
"Allen!" the other man screamed. Turning the Vulture saw the second man charging at him knife raised. "Why you…." Before he could finish the sentence the Vulture plunged his new talons straight into the guy's throat. Ripping them out, Jakey collapsed the floor. Not truly thinking the Vulture ran back the way he came. He kept on running until he was sure he could run no more. Taking shelter on some steps before a doorway, still panting for breath he looked down at his blood soaked hand.
The talon's were right their stretching out of his bones. "Go away," the Vulture yelled. He couldn't keep them he looked like a freak. And then suddenly the talons began to retract back into his hand. They disappeared leave just three cuts which quickly sealed. Startled the Vulture stretched out his hand, curiosity overcoming him he willed them to come back.
There was another momentary sting and the talons stretched back out of his hand. Reaching out with his right hand, the Vulture touched them. They were dark brown in the colour and were solid; feeling like bone or maybe horn. Looking down at this other hand the Vulture willed for talons to come out of it as well, and sure enough there was another still as another set of talons pierced through out of that hand.
Digging them down he let his talons scrape against the stone step he was sitting on. It made a loud grinding noise, and left a faint white mark in the stonework. Smiling the Vulture let all the talons retract then got back to his feet.
His legs still felt weak, but were able to hold him. No longer hungry the Vulture just staggered off down the street. Though the evening was close it was still bright outside, it being mid-spring after all. He quickly descended into the nearest public bathroom and once the last of the blood was gone he disappeared off down another alley way.
The evening had given him two important revelations. Maybe the coming night would give him more.
"…To all of you poor souls, you honoured everything being a police officer stands for, New York will miss you, as will all of us." The video stopped for a second time, the entire squad were left starring.
"They think we're dead." Jake whispered.
"How long has that been up for?" Amy asked.
"Over a week," Gina replied, "which means we were in that hospital for nearly three weeks."
Holt massaged his brow with his right hand. "Boyle, did you get any drinks while you were out?" He asked. He paused before adding "you will remember that as you're still invisible, I can't see if you nod."
"Sorry sir," Boyle said. Quickly getting up he grabbed one of the bags they had managed to keep and pulled out several beer bottles. "There not cold I'm afraid." He said. Not caring the entire Nine-Nine grabbed a bottle including him. Fumbling he tried to open it for several moments. Sighing Jake grabbed his bottle off him and effortlessly popped the cap. He didn't even react to the act. Boyle looked deeply into Jake's eyes, 'Jake would never miss a chance to boast at how strong that made him look. How hard has this hit him?' he thought.
Rosa sat there on the old mattress, she tried to get up but her legs gave way. Looking up she met eyes with Jake. Rising Jake casually lifted Rosa up and set her down onto a chair. He handed her another beer.
"If they think we're dead," Amy began, "that means that are loved ones do."
"Genevieve!" Charles gasped.
"Sharon!" Terry whispered.
"My wife?" Hitchcock shrugged.
Staring out of the window Holt said nothing but instead took another long sip of his beer. It wasn't that warm surprisingly.
"Hey wait a minute, they didn't even mention me." Gina huffed. No one replied.
"Well it's clear what we must do." Jake finally said, "We've got to show everyone that we're still alive."
"No," Holt said solemnly. "That's exactly what we must not do."
"What?" Rosa yelled.
"Sir, with all due respect, yeah what?" Amy echoed.
"We can't go back," Holt repeated. "It's too dangerous."
"But everyone thinks we're dead, we have to show them that we're not. Besides if we do go back then we'll be in the safest position we could be." Jake said, "Whoever these people are they won't dare grab us if we're in the spotlight."
"Exactly," Holt said, "in the spotlight. Tell me what do you think will happen when, as you so eloquently put it, we're in that spotlight? How do you think the world will react when they see what we can now do? What we have become?"
"Well we just don't show them."
"How? How do we make certain that we don't reveal are selves? How do we deal with sleep flying? Or with throwing are co-workers like a football? Or sticky fingers that can lift twenty pound cooking equipment like it were a quarter?"
"Sir, with all due respect," Boyle began, "I think you might be giving us too little to credit."
"I'm having a conversation with the invisible man, so honestly I highly doubt that." Holt replied, "What happens if you disappear on live TV or simple in front of a crowd? It's too risky. We can't go forward. Not as we are now."
"Okay Sir," Terry said, "say we do go forward and everyone finds out about us. What is the worst thing that could happen?"
Without a moments pause Holt replied "We all get shipped off to labs where we are cut open in an attempt to figure out how our abilities work so they can be replicated."
"They can't just do that to us," Terry said, "it's in violation of are human rights!"
"Do human rights apply to beings that can do what we can?" Holt asked, "I mean they certainly should. But has any lawmaker ever thought about making certain they do and governments or corporations can't just do whatever they want to us? I don't know but I find it highly unlikely."
"Come on, we don't know that's what will happen." Amy added.
"No indeed Santiago I mean that was the worst case scenario after all, but we can say with some certainty the government will want to implement measures to make certain they can keep us under control. Now where do you think their put us in the meantime? No doubt they will also want us to use are new skills to benefit there agenda's in some way. And let's assume that by some miracle the government does let us out and allow us to return to are normal lives, how do you think the people are going to react to the idea that there are beings that walk among them who can do what we can do?"
Holt paused "Say how would you react if you knew that the next time you came home there could be an invisible man in there with you, just waiting till you feel asleep before stabbing you to death or raping you? Or that the next time you were out for a walk, knowing that a flying being could suddenly appear out of nowhere. Grab you, hoist you into the air then drop you to your death anytime they felt like it? How would you feel if you knew there was a woman who any time she wanted to could break into the bank, rip the door off the vault with her bare hands, take all the money and nothing short of an army could stop her?"
"Well…um…" Amy began.
"How would you feel if you knew the guy across the street could be listening into your most interment and private conversation? What would you think if you knew that two out of shape middle aged men could rob you blind and there was nothing you could do to recognise them? Well how would you react?"
"But we would never do any of those things," Jake said.
"I know," Holt replied, "but do the public? If it comes down to it, how many people can we say with any level of certainty we know that will vouch for us? Maybe if we are lucky we'll get three or four dozen, how does that stand opposed to the thousands who would be terrified? It would take years build up those people's trust. Years we might not have. Scared people can be dangerous people; we all know that very well."
"Best case scenario, we would be publically feared and shunned, and would probably also lose are jobs. Worst, angry mobs would break into are homes and try to lynch us."
"Good luck with that," Gina said, "Rosa here would rip them to pieces." She panted Rosa on the shoulder, Rosa immediately shot her a glare, Gina quickly scooted her chair to the left.
"And that would make the public trust us more how?" Holt said.
"But what about are loved ones?" Terry said.
Looking up Holt stared Terry straight in the eye. "Believe me Jeffords, I completely understand, really I do. But we just don't have a choice. We can't risk all our lives and livelihoods, no matter how much it hurts." Holt let out a great sigh.
"Holt's right." Rosa said, "We can't let people know we still exist. Not like this at least. They would never expect us."
"But sir…" Terry began, when suddenly Holt's beer bottle exploded. The other's let out a yell as the frozen remains of the liquid fell to the floor. All eyes fixed upon the broken glass and ice.
"Though unintentional, I think that illustrates my point quite well." Holt said.
Everyone fell silent. "I need another beer." Terry groaned.
"Same," said Jake, Amy and Holt. Boyle handed out the last of the beers.
The group sat in silence, everyone looking at each other.
"So what do we do then?" Hitchcock asked.
Holt looked up. "Two things, one we learn everything there is to know about these new attributes that we now possess, so that we can gain enough control over them hidden from the public. Two we work the case of who this mysterious organisation is and what they are after." Holt replied. "But first let's eat; I'm sure everyone is very hungry."
Digging into the food Boyle, Hitchcock and Scully had brought back, the others were disappointed to discover it mostly consisted of snack food. Holt didn't eat anything he just stared out of the window. Everyone ate in silence; eyes kept darting across the room at each other. Jake felt himself grasping Amy's hand before they started eating, he didn't let go when they finished.
"Okay, now if everyone's finished, I suggest we hold are first progress meeting to help us determine where to go next. So what else have we discovered so far? Gina did you find out anything on that symbol?"
"Not really," Gina replied. "I put it into several search engines. Several hundred results came up, virtually none of them liked back to this organisation as far as I can tell. A lot of them were just street graffiti, and not of the Banksy kind. Now I did manage to find several photos of groups of soldiers who had the symbol on their uniform, but they were just family photo's someone uploaded. Their were no links to what it actually means or anything I could find that was out of the ordinary about the people in the photo's."
"So nothing at all?"
"The closest I got was a few websites that speculated about it among other things, but they were just regular conspiracy sites. Half of them said they were linked to aliens or mutants, or the new world order. The rest talked about a variety of supposed, unconvincing and often contradictory government conspiracies. Really even if any of it is remotely close to the truth, it's buried amongst far too much rubbish to be able to pick it out."
"Did you find out anything sir," Amy asked.
Holt sighed, "Virtually nothing," he replied, "the building they kept us in isn't officially a hospital, it's supposed to be a government owned municipal building. But I could find any officially records of employee's, official business actions, or even which municipal department it's supposed to belong to."
"Sounds like a front then." Terry said.
"Indeed, but for whom?" Holt replied.
"Well if it's a government owned building, it must be for a government department." Rosa said, "It kind of reminds me of those rumoured CIA bunker's, where they interrogate and torture dangerous people for information, and they get away with it by not having the bunkers officially exist. You don't think they are behind this?"
"How does a private lab explosion link to state intelligence, I mean they can't have known what it would do us this whole thing was a freak accident, and since when does the CIA have a private army at its beck and call?" Amy asked.
"Indeed," Holt said, "For the moment we can assume it's not them, but Diaz has a point. It seems that whatever this building is it's not officially recorded anywhere. Making it likely we are looking at some sort of classified government ran or at least supported organisation. Which in turn makes are whole situation all the more complicated."
"Okay super powers, a mysterious organization and now a government conspiracy? Tell me when did are lives become the plot of a graphic novel?" Terry asked.
There was a brief pause. "Okay, moving on," said Holt "Santiago, Jeffords, did you find anything in the files?"
"A few things," Amy replied. "For one thing, from the looks of it we're all in perfect health. I mean completely perfect. All scar tissue, and results of broken bones have completely healed."
Jake's eyes spun to face Rosa; he silently chastised himself for not noticing sooner, Amy was right. The scar she had on her brow was gone. "So, when we got are powers we also got perfect health?" Jake asked.
"Yes, according to the test they did." Amy paused, "that includes you sarge, meaning you where effected by the blast just like the rest of us."
"That would explain their being no scars on your back," Jake said.
"But is that all its done to me?" Terry asked.
"Well we never did get to your file." Amy said. "Really I think we're just have to wait and see."
"Hold on," Gina said, "Is us gaining perfect health a power in itself, a side effect of gaining these powers, or something completely different?"
"We don't know," Terry replied.
"Okay was their anything else in the files?" Holt asked.
"Well as Amy said, we never finished reading all of them and a lot of tests I can't even pretend to understand. However there were a few interesting things. For instance Jake according to your file, apparently your overall efficiency of your lungs has improved."
"My lungs? So can I hold my breath longer?" Jake asked.
"Not really, well maybe a little. It's the efficiency of your lungs that has improved not their capacity. It does however mean your breathing will be a lot better regulated, and in theory you should now be able to breathe more or less normally in quite low oxygen environments. Another thing is that according to your files, Captain your overall body temperature has increased to above average. Meanwhile your cells also have shown a considerably higher resistance to the cold."
Holt looked down at his hands, "well that would explain a few things. Anything else?"
"Well so far it seems several of us have got minor changes here and there," Terry replied, "Really though the rest aren't really worth bringing up. Just a few unusual changes, most are not unheard of but at the same time not likely to occur to a person. Rosa, you for instance according to a recent test you have the slightest increase in the plasticity of ligaments in your spine."
"Well it appears you might have been right then Gina." Holt replied.
"Of course I was," Gina said smugly, "now what was I right about?"
"What you said a few minutes ago, about whether this is a side effect to us gaining these attributes, or rather as it seems a correctional effect."
"What do you mean?" Boyle asked.
Holt looked at him, "are you sure that you can't turn back to visible, it's somewhat distracting to attempt a conversation with an invisible man."
"He's over their sir," Jake said pointing towards the chair next to the one Holt was looking at.
"This is exactly what I mean, Boyle."
"I'm sorry sir," Charlies began, "I've tried to undo this, really I have, but I don't know how. Last time it just stopped working when I jumped upon that guard. I've no idea what turns it off, oh my god do you think I could say this way permanently? What if I'm invisible for the rest of my life?" At this point Charles vision shifted back to colour.
"I'm back aren't I?" Everyone nodded, "well that's a relief."
Jake starred on in fascination at his friend. It wasn't like movies where people slowly faded in and out of visibility. Boyle had just sort of snapped into existence. It was almost like he had just appeared out of nowhere.
"Well as I was saying," Holt began, "It would seem these changes that we do know about all exist to compliment the abilities and attributes we gained. After all Peralta for instance you gained an enhance lung efficiency, as in something which would allow you to survive flying through the low oxygen levels of the atmosphere."
"And I can fly now," Jake gasped. "Likewise you can cause objects to freeze and are more resistant to negative effectives of the cold."
"Makes sense," Amy said, "I mean logically if we didn't have the secondary changes all these powers would be useless."
"But that implies intelligent design," Terry said, "We got these powers in a freak accident."
"Indeed," Holt replied, "however biology does generally have a way of compensating."
"Over several million years of evolution. Not over nearly three weeks of alteration."
"Terry's right, if we are adapting to these changes we should at least see them happening in are offspring, not in us." Amy said. "What are the chances that we would end up exactly so that every single one of the random millions of potential mutations that could take place would work out exactly so that we not only gain super powers but they are perfectly balanced out by are bodies? And then what are the chances that said process would happen again the exact same way to all of us? We have to be talking trillions against quadrillions against…I don't probably maybe a googolplex."
"Does anything about these changes make any sense?" Rosa asked, "I mean we don't even have the most remote level certainty of how they work or how were changed in the first; just a few questionable theories and a variety of side effects."
Everyone fell silent.
"Okay, is there anything else?" Holt asked. No one replied. Holt nodded his head, "Very well if there is nothing else then we shall we take a logistics account, and determine sleeping arrangements."
A general murmur that could be described as a groan of agreement came from the group.
"Okay, Boyle how is our food situation?"
Boyle looked into the reaming bags, "we've still got a reasonable amount, we should be fine for a day or two but most of it is snack food."
"Yeah next time, don't let Scully and Hitchcock go shopping." Gina groaned.
"Noted; now weapons. We only have a single firearm, one Berretta 92FS that Peralta lifted from a security guard."
"Right here sir," Scully said picking it up off the window seal.
"Careful with that, man." Terry yelled.
"Relax sarge, I'll put the safety on," Scully said. All eyes watched him as he did.
"Okay Peralta how many bullets are left in that gun?" Holt asked.
"Nine sir," Jake replied. There was a sudden loud bang as the gun went off. Everyone jumped backwards. Boyle, Gina and Amy screamed. Suddenly the two beer bottles nearest to Amy exploded. This time everyone screamed but Holt and Rosa screamed.
"Oops," said Scully.
Panting for breath, Terry quickly disarmed Scully and actually put the safety on. Before putting the gun back down onto a chair. "Damn, Scully why would you hold what you know is a loaded gun by the trigger?" he yelled.
"Eight bullets, Sir," Jake said calmly.
Amy stared at the broken beer bottles. "Did I do that?" she asked.
"Possibly?" Jake replied, "Did anyone else do it?"
No one replied.
"Can we stop destroying these bottles?" Terry yelled, "We've now got a floor covered with broken glass, which somebody really should clear up before we cut ourselves, and catch the plague or something from this dank cesspool. Likewise it's a borderline miracle that none of the exploding bottles have already cut us what with all that glass flying around."
Again silence fell, everyone gave Terry a look.
"Okay," Holt said, "I think that's enough so let's just move on to sleeping arraignments. Now upstairs there are four inhabitable rooms. And I bought everyone a camp bed while I was out, there in the hallways. We're pair, Diaz, Santiago and Gina you take the largest room. Boyle, Peralta you take the next. I and Jeffords will take the middle room. And Hitchcock and Scully you take the very far room on the edge. You don't have to go sleep yet, but there is nothing else for us all to talk about, so dismissed."
It wasn't yet nine, but honestly following the day they had had everyone was happy to go to sleep. Picking up a camp bed they all sleepily made their way up to their rooms and were soon out. Only Holt and Rosa remained in the room.
"Detective Diaz, how are you feeling?" Holt asked.
"Better, my legs are still a little sore but I could probably walk on them."
"Don't feel like sleeping then?"
"I just slept for three hours; I'm good for a bit."
"Well I'm going to work on those files that Jeffords and Santiago didn't manage to get to, would you care to help me?" Forcing herself to her feet Rosa staggered slightly but managed to steady herself. The two made their way into the other room, and got to work.
Upstairs Amy lay in her camp bed staring at the celling. Gina was loudly snoring in the corner. It had only been fifteen minutes, but as tired as she was, Amy's mind was going too fast to let her sleep. The room had no curtains, so it wasn't that dark. In the dim light Amy could see the grey cracked celling above her. This really wasn't a place that Amy wanted to be.
She could just force herself to ignore the sound of something scuttling in the corner, but the fact this place had no running water coupled with the fact that Amy had no change of clothes, wasn't remotely pleasant. Especially considering she had spent the last nearly three weeks without having a single proper wash only bed baths.
Amy tried to draw reassurance from the sweet taste Jake had left on her lips, from the remains of his musk that still hung in the air. From the sweet smile he had given her just before leaving and from the last thing he had said "Get some rest; I'll see you in the morning babe." But although it certainly helped it just wasn't enough. Amy wished she could have shared a room with Jake tonight, at the very least he didn't snore. Laying there the camp bed Holt had bought her felt cold and empty.
It wasn't exactly comfortable either. No matter which way she turned Amy felt sure she could feel a spring sticking into her back. But really none of that was on her mind, instead the same few words she had read a couple of hours ago kept echoing around her mind: '…suffered from a variety of significant developments in both the patient's frontal and parietal lobe… no other records that come anywhere close to these recent mutations…appear to presently have stabilised…exactly how they will affect the patients thought process and body regulation will not become clear until after they wake up'
'Well I'm awake now, how has it affected me?' Truthfully Amy barely felt any different. No, that wasn't true; she didn't feel at all different. She was still the same Amy…and yet she wasn't. The image of those bottles exploding mixed in with the words from the file. Amy knew she had done that. She had no idea how, but she knew it was her.
'If I can do that, what else can I do?' the image of the bed springing forward replaced the bottles. Looking around the room Amy's eyes fixed upon the cell phone by Gina's camp bed. As she stared at it, Amy began to will the phone to come to her. Nothing happened. 'Come on! Come on! Come to me!' Still nothing happened.
Changing tactics Amy instead ordered the phone to move. Then for it to flip over onto its side. Then for it simple turn slightly to the left. 'Come on, just turn. Just a little. Turn for me. Turn for me! Now!' Still nothing happened. Feeling mentally drained Amy looked away and just sunk back into her camp bed.
Why wasn't this working! Amy threw her fist up into the air, before slumping back in the bed. Staring out of the window she focused upon the light pollution that was visible above the city. Her eye lids feeling heavy, Amy decided to just rest them for a moment.
A drowsy Rosa wandered into the room. Gina was loudly snoring, and Amy was sound asleep. Thankfully Jake had been kind enough to set her bed up for her before going off to his. Wandering over to it, Rosa looked down at it in disgust why did he have to put it bellow the window? Reaching down she casually lifted it up and walked over to the corner where Gina was soundly sleeping. Placing her bed down, Rosa effortlessly lifted Gina and her bed up, and ever so careful not to wake them, placed them down where her bed used to be.
Stumbling into the corner, Rosa moved her own bed along and slumped into it. She too was asleep in minutes.
Downstairs Holt looked put the latest medical file before him and read through the most recent report. Jeffords must not have finished reading the file, for it appeared that Peralta had not only shown signs of an increase in his lung efficiency, but an overall increase in his muscle efficiently, the number of sensory neurons in both his eyes and ears, and his bone density. Gina meanwhile had shown a noticeable increase in her cells resistance to electricity; as well as several strange readings when they tried to give her an MRI. A number of tests likewise had to be abandoned due to equipment malfunction.
Looking at his watch Holt realised it was getting late; he decided to read a few more reports before going to bed. Pausing he briefly wondered if Kevin was asleep right now. It would be lonely not sharing a bed with him tonight. Holt shivered slightly, and decided that maybe he would read the rest of the reports before going to bed. After all he didn't honestly feel that tired.
Wunch eyes slowly flickered open, the sight before made her regret it. Her head frantically spinning she looked around the dungeon. She was chained to its wall; and every time she tried to struggle the chains just seemed to get tighter and tighter. The walls, the floor and the ceiling were all made out of black stone. Opposite her was a metal basin filled to the brim with red hot coals. It was then Wunch realised she was naked.
There was a loud creaking sound as the door opened. A masked figure walked in. He was dressed all in black robe, with black sack covering his face leaving only two slits for eye holes.
"Hey you! Where am I?" Wunch yelled. The figure didn't reply he instead walked over to the basin of coals, and pulled a long black poker out of it. Turning around he held up the poker so its glowing bright red end was pointed directly at Wunch.
Wunch turned pale, "h…h…hey! Wait! Stop!" Wunch screamed. The figure slowly began advancing upon her. "No! You can't do this to me." The figure was right in front her now, she could even hear them softly breathing. Rising the poker he aimed straight for her vulnerable exposed stomach. "Get away from me!"
The figure slowly looked down so now his eyes were directly meeting Wunch's. "I demand you stop! Who are you?"
With his free hand the figure reached up and pulled off his mask. The cruel smiling face of Raymond Holt looked back at her. With that he suddenly plunged the poker forward straight into Wunch's torso. Wunch howled in agony, as the smouldering hot metal priced into her like a warm knife through butter.
Sitting up in her bed Wunch panted for breath. Frantically she torn open her nightdress to make sure there were no burn marks on her stomach. There were none, Wunch lied back down and carried on panting for breath. "Just a bad dream she groaned"
Finishing panting Wunch clambered out of bed and made her way into her living room and over to her drinks cabinet. Looking down at the whiskey she cursed the half empty bottle, "it's probably your fault I had that nightmare." Instead she poured herself a small glass of port. Leaning back against her counter, she held her drink in her right hand, while letting her left hand hover over her fish tank.
Taking a sip, Wunch let the sweet liquid with a hint of caramel wash through her tense body. Smiling she felt better already. 'Can't I at least escape from Raymond Holt in my dreams?' It was then Wunch noticed all her fish were floating at the top of the tank. "But…but you were fine a moment ago." Wunch stared in confusion.
But a sudden dripping sound quickly alerted her to the culprit, looking up she saw a mysterious black liquid dripping out the end of her left middle finger. Transfixed, Wunch just stared as the substance drip, drip dripped down into the tank. "Stop," Wunch commanded. The substance stopped dripping.
Rising up her hand, Wunch stared at it. There were no holes in her finger. It was like the liquid had seeped out of her sweat glands or something. Wunch looked down at the tank and all the dead fish, "interesting!" she muttered. Still caught up in her new discovery Wunch didn't even notice she was still holding onto the tank as she turned.
The whole tank went with her. It fell to the floor and the water shot out covering everything. Grumbling Wunch turned to get a mop, when suddenly it dawned on her what had just happened. She had just accidentally pulled a tank full of water off the counter as if it had been a book on a shelf.
Curious Wunch eyed up her antique solid bronze lamp, it weighed around sixty to seventy-five pounds. Grasping it with her right hand, Wunch braced herself for the weight. The force she put behind her hand almost caused the lamp to go flying upwards. Steadying her grip, Wunch just held it in mid-air. She starred at it, eyes open wide, it just felt so light. Placing her glass down, she calmly threw the lamp upwards and then caught it with her left hand as easily as one would catch a baseball.
Effortlessly she lifted the lamp above her head, and then began pumping it up and down as if it was a dumbbell. As she did, her face altered her look of confusion disappearing and her smile grew larger, until it was so large it looked almost painful. Wunch then causally placed the lamp back on the shelf.
Tensing her right arm she felt her bicep. It didn't feel any larger, perhaps a little more toned maybe. But certainly not to any degree that was noticeable. Her memories flooded back to earlier today, watching Detective Diaz lift two men above her head as if they had been bags of sugar. "What's happening to me?" Wunch whispered.
"First I don't burn, then I can produce and secrete poison, now I'm Wonder Woman... it all makes you wonder what I'll get next." Finishing her Port, Wunch smiled as she wandered off to find a mop.
Okay, I hope I kept your interest throughout that. Now the next chapter will be a bit more fast paced, it should be ready in a week or two. However it might be a bit late as I have a few jobs coming up, plus I want to update my other fanfic, as its presently been on hold for four months or so now.
Please Review.