Chapter 6

They had all stopped for lunch as Skinner ran around sky clad. No one knew, Nemo's staff was already running all over the place, none of them saw the invisible man… as obviously no one would. Stepping to one side as a squad of workers went down the hall, he thought about the newcomers. He had examined each of them at their lessons. Mina's girl and Jekyll's kid were doing alright. Or so it seamed. Unfortunately for Skinner, Nemo had the door to the bridge closed enough that checking in on the taller kid was harder. It was harder to get into it without getting caught for spying and eavesdropping. Although Nemo was of the decent sort, Skinner didn't think that the captain would take kindly to a snoop where he wasn't wanted.

Lost in his mind as another squad passed him, he didn't notice his stomach rumbling loudly until the staff looked around in confusion. Fleeing from the scene as fast as he could go with no noise, Skinner headed to his room. 'Figured it was time for some kipper. He thought to himself. Although the proposition of having to put on clothes wasn't an idea he loved. Still the idea of being polite for guests was a better idea then being rude and slipping in for food naked.

He didn't like fish. He really didn't like fish. But as Kriss sat down to the table in the conference room the idea of food overpowered the dislike of fish. Besides, he thought with a mental sigh, food is food, and we're under the ocean, what did I expect? Beef? His mouth watered at the thought of steak but as he looked around the table, his eyes lit upon the Japanese fish food sushi. Politely reaching for it, he loaded a few pieces onto his plate. Maya looked at him in disgust.

"How can you eat that stuff?" she asked as he took a nibble off a piece. Swallowing the salty wrapped rice and fish, he shrugged.

"It's good. Besides, the Japanese ate this for ages. It's in my blood." She made a grossed out face.

"Oh lighten up Maya." said Kali, helping herself to a few pieces too. Maya's eyes just about popped out of her head.

"Since when do you eat that stuff?" Kali shrugged.

"I like sushi. I have since my old foreman gave me a few pieces 2 summers ago." She chomped down on a piece and swallowed, then grimaced. "However it's the first time I've tasted it live. Mostly it's only ever been shrimp. Pity it's so expensive at home." she forked another one into her mouth and chewed. Most of the league ate simple fish dishes that were supplied. Crab, lobster, blue fin, squid. Shrimp by the bucket loads. Luckily, Art knew how many of her friends hated fish and had made many other things to compensate. Ryder helped himself to some bread with tomato and chewed on it. He looked thoughtfully at the food and wondered how in the world it was kept fresh. Tomatoes didn't usually keep for a long period of time. Nemo looked across at his apprentice, noticing his glaze.

"You are wondering something Ryder?" he asked. Ryder looked up in surprise.

"Umm… yes sir, how do you keep this fresh? I didn't think that tomatoes kept this long." Nemo shrugged.

"Just a simple bit of technology that I found useful." The captain continued eating as Ryder mentally shrugged. He had learned that the captain was not exactly the most talkative of people. The door opened as a black turtle neck and pants in shoes walked in. No head was visible, and no otherwise noticeable skin was visible either. The diners stopped to stare as Skinner walked in. The suit of clothes stopped as if it was frozen by their gazes.

"Wot? 'ant a bloke come in 'te eat?" came Skinner's voice. Mina swallowed.

"We did not expect you in such, uh… casual wear, Skinner." stated the Captain. The clothes seamed to consider the words.

"Did I forget my makeup?" he asked. The company nodded. "Oh. Well, I'm 'ungry, so pass me a plate and eat 'er own meals." The invisible man held true to the word "tuck in" as mounds of Art's cooking disappeared. The girl watched the man load up and finish her and Faran's cooking with wide eyes.

"Wow." she said quietly. Skinner stopped.

"Wot girl? You look like 'you've never seen anyone put away so much food before." She blinked.

"Not recently."

"Well, sit back and watch girly, you're about to watch a master at work." Skinner kept at it. Complementing the food, the cooks, and shovelled. Art kept blushing from the complements, and Kie kept shooting Skinner death glares. The invisible man ignored him. The room slowly emptied, as Nemo, Jekyll and Mina vacated. Followed by Kali and Maya, then Ryder, Kriss, and Sawyer. Skinner, Art and Kie left together. Kie and Art going left, towards the rooms and Skinner headed off to the bridge. Slipping in, he saw the rest of the remaining league. They looked up as the invisible man walked in. Quietly closing the door behind him, he sat down in one of the chairs as the League looked at him.

"So. What do you think?" he asked them. They sat in silence for a minute.

"I don't think they mean harm." said Nemo. "They could be playing with us, but I see no evidence of that yet."

"Gray didn't look harmless either." growled Mina.

"I didn't say that I trusted them yet, Mrs. Harker." Mina didn't answer.

"They could be dangerous. Kali showed me something odd, not something I've seen before." said Sawyer. Their eyes flicked towards the southerner. "I taught her the basics of gun care, and the first thing I showed her she repeated many times before she stopped to listen to the next part. But the ones after that she didn't repeat, she did it once perfectly and waited for the next instruction."

"So what are you saying then Sawyer?" asked Nemo. Tom took a breath and looked around that them.

"I think that each of those kids have something that makes them powerful. Something…. Normal humans don't have."

"Is that even possible?" asked Mina. Skinner smirked.

"Well, milady, take a look at 'yeself. 'ew should know whats possible 'an wot isn't." Mina glared at him.

"I'll have you know, Mr Skinner, that I -"

"Mrs Harker, Mr Skinner, may we please return to the task at hand?" asked Nemo, noting the glaring lady and the invisible pair of pants and a shirt. "Dr Jekyll, is there any chance that Sawyer could be telling the truth?" The doctor thought for a moment.

"I have heard of this idea before, but I've never seen it first hand. There was a few stories going around in the doctorate society that told of humans that could levitate things, read another's mind. This kind of thing."

"So you say that they may be telling the truth?" asked Nemo.

"Yes." the group paused to think of what had just been said.

"Well. Aren't we glad they weren't here before we killed Moriarty." said Sawyer.

"You mean 'afore You killed Moriarty." said the invisible man. Sawyer shrugged.

"I confess a curiosity as to how you come to that conclusion, Agent Sawyer." stated Mina. Sawyer blinked. It had been a while since she had called him that. He cleared his throat as he looked at her.

"Mutant humans, what would have happened if Moriarty had known of them?" His words weighed upon them as they thought of the madman that had killed Alan. Nemo stood.

"Have we reached a decision then?"

"What do you propose?" asked Jekyll.

"Keep watching them. See if we can trust them, we'll have another meeting of this nature later on, may we agree on that?" asked Nemo. The League nodded. Nodding in acknowledgement, the Captain turned and left, bowing on his way out as the other League members dispersed themselves around the submarine to make use of the afternoon.

†

Kali sat writing. Her eyes were blank as the scratching of the quill kept her thinking. She wasn't exactly sure if what her writing was saying made sense or not, but currently she didn't care. She needed to get these feelings out into the world.. Why? She wasn't sure. She wanted to remember them, but it was just simple paper with scratchy quill markings on it. Who would want to remember it anyway? Who would read it other then she? A simple piece of paper, who would read this in 20 years? Would it even survive to come back with them to the present? Too late, the thought crossed her mind, and with it came the flow of emotions that came with regret, and longing. She didn't really want to be home for the work. She didn't particularly miss school, or work. Here it was warm, while back home was frozen over. She cringed at the idea of snow, but her eyes glazed over as memories took over her head and her heart. A giant smile on her face, whooping with joy as she ran down the hall after Ryder and Seth, groaning at the amount of stupid things that Kie had done, rolling her eyes at Kriss as he recounted his experiences with his intestines and wasabi. Holding her sides as she laughed herself silly with Ariane, Fin, Aisling, Art, Kie, and Cara. She leaned back in her chair, still half smiling, her eyes still glazed. She missed them. Like she had thought she would only ever miss Maya. Somehow, despite her attempts at keeping it down, they had found their way into her heart. Lodged themselves there and didn't seam to want to leave. Kali found it slightly odd. Never had anyone do that to her. They always left her after a while. Never did they keep her like they would never let go, but these guys did.

Kali doubled over in pain from the sudden burst of Art's homesickness. Her quill dropping, and her stomach churning, Kali closed her eyes tightly. Art was missing the rest of them as she was. She missed her pseudo older brother Fin, her friends, who doubled more as sisters, Aisling and Ariane. Their constant role-playing, friendly fighting, snapping and duelling, and she missed the hugs. Art's mind filled with the tears of want, as she remembered that their constant feelings of warmth, joy and cheerfulness always had her remembering. That no matter how much she wanted to be the cold, hard, bitchy and unreachable lady that she was, there were people in the world who looked and saw something different then that in her eyes.

The full feelings of Art's pain had Kali barely containing the icy hand that was searing threw her. The constant missing of them had her both dropped over in pain, and wondering. Kie had once told her that if she hung around a lot then sooner or later she would be accepted into the endless ideas of friendship that the group all held for each other. Between the pain that seared threw her body, Kali sat wondering if the feeling that Art was struggling with now was common between them all. If perhaps, not all people in high school were as cold hearted as she had previously thought of. All Kali had seen in the past few months was selfishness, cold, and hard piercing feelings between people. It seamed just to be a giant meat factory, where life was categorized by how much of a sugar piece you had on your arm. She was tired of it. She had fled the world to the outside of it. Always feeling like a shadow looking in for what she thought the world and the people in it could be. It was never satisfied. Kali shook her head, waiting for the nausea to come to an end, only to double up and groan from the redoubled pain. It wasn't just Art this time, and it wasn't missing the present, it was Sawyer, Jekyll, Mina, all of them, suddenly missing Alan.

"Shit.." she swore as she sat back in her chair. Sweat starting to bead on her forehead. The nausea overcame her as she dropped to the desk, unconscious. The inkwell flipping closed as the vibrations disturbed it's quiet life on the desk in the submarine.

†

†Authors Notes†
Hey all. Sorry to be so long in updating. Its been a long few months, and I've had writers block, that and the beginnings of designers overdose. I've been hanging out a lot on DA.
I'll give you guys a link to me… if you'd like, watch my stuff, that way you can all remind me about what I'm writing. Its been a long few months, and thanks you guys, I finally remember that this is around. My thanks to milady LovinaHolmes[whom you all should be thanking as well, cause she pmed me to get me off my lazy butt., milady Miss Quartermain, who added my story to her story alert list. Pleased to say that this is where she will get her alert. Many others have helped in the last little bit, but I think I'll shut up and upload. Here is the link to my DA. http://silverxtippedxrose.
I like comments. Its also where I've been putting a lot of my poetry, and art, and original stories. If you like what I write here, then feel free to check that out. Cause I figure a lot of the stuff there is more interesting, but idunno, thats for you guys to deside. Anyway, see ya later.