Chapter 3
After checking in on Morgan and Jed at the hospital, John teleported to the Refuge and quickly found Stephen, Cara, and Russell, who were discussing Natalie.
"John," Stephen acknowledged.
"Thanks for the help there, buddy," Russell said.
John nodded in response.
"Hey, John," Cara said. "Russell said Natalie is extremely powerful now, but you suspected something else was going on."
"I sensed someone else deep within her," John explained. "He has to be very powerful; he knew how to push Natalie's powers to her limits."
"Any ideas?" Stephen asked.
"It has to be someone you know," Russell suggested. "He thanked you."
"For what?" asked Stephen.
"That's why I came here," replied John. "Someone must have gotten the idea from me to transfer his consciousness into another person. Aside from Jed, Derek and Morgan are the only people in our group who know the full story of my recovery. They didn't tell anyone. Did any of you tell anyone else?"
"Astrid knows," said Stephen. "I'm not sure who she'd tell, but I'll ask her."
"Your mom was there, too," Cara pointed out. "You should ask if she told anyone or had been thinking about it around any Tomorrow People."
"I know it might be a longshot when we consider who might have learned about this telepathically, but I'd still like a list of who knows," John requested. "Then, I want to know who has been accounted for."
Russell looked at Stephen. "Your mom's powerful."
"You think it's Stephen's mom?" Cara asked incredulously.
"No, but I think it's someone in her generation. Natalie called John a freak."
"Why is that important?" John asked.
"You told me a long time ago that when you were a prisoner at Ultra, the Founder called you a freak. I think it's the Founder that's in Natalie."
Cara looked at Stephen. "We never found out what happened after the Founder went into that vortex."
"Did my uncle tell you about the Founder?" Stephen asked John.
"Yeah, but how would he have done this and how would he even have known what I did?"
Cara shrugged.
"So he's looking for revenge?" John pondered. "Starting with Russell?"
"He said I'd be a good start," Russell explained. "The four of us and Astrid were the ones who attacked Ultra and brought him down."
Stephen perked up.
"Astrid was never in the building," Cara told Stephen, trying assure him. "The Founder wouldn't know she was involved."
"Same thing with you, John," Russell pointed out. "You were powerless."
"We need everyone here to be on guard here," Stephen said. "We need to get the word out."
"And he could be in anyone, couldn't he?" Russell asked.
"We'll periodically scan everyone here," said Cara. "It'll just be a surface scan so we don't invade anyone's privacy. We'll scan each other periodically, too."
"Stephen, you defeated the Founder before," John pointed out. "I'm sure you could do it again while he's limited to Natalie."
"Of course," Russell quickly said. "Natalie only beat me, Janie, and Darnell because we were exhausted from playing superheroes."
"Wait," Cara interjected. "You don't think the Founder has his full powers?"
"You did a lot in a normal human's body," said Stephen.
"I had a fraction of my telepathic powers because it went with my consciousness," explained John. "I couldn't even do that much with it until I was near my body and I used it all by tapping into your telekinetic powers. If the Founder's transfer is similar to mine, he'll retain some of his telepathic powers, but that's it. Everything else is Natalie's."
"We'll handle them," Russell proudly said.
"Let me know if you need any help. I'll try to track him, too," John said. He turned to leave, but stopped.
"What is it?" Cara asked.
"Morgan's in labor. Stephen, you might want to check in on your cousin's birth. It'll be a long while, though. The doctor said she's taking her time, but that's apparently normal for a first birth."
John teleported away.
Stephen looked at Cara.
"We'll do dinner out later," Cara said. "This should take priority, unless you want to see your uncle."
"Not yet," responded Stephen. "Let's get Samia, Darnell, Janie, Sam, Christine, and Isaac here. We'll scan them and then the nine of us will scan everyone else."
"We should encourage everyone to be in someone else's company as much as possible," added Cara.
After checking in on Morgan and Jed again, John teleported to work.
"Any updates?" Derek asked John.
"Nope. She's coming along, but it'll still be a while. How are things here?"
"We're keeping an eye out, but we haven't picked up anything suspicious yet. I looked at what Dr. Price had on the Founder."
"Any thoughts?" John asked.
"Aside from revenge, it'd make sense for him to target his old workplace," Derek suggested. "I think we should be monitoring the Refuge up close continuously."
"Are you planning on engaging if he shows up?"
"Might as well. I'm sure the Refuge could handle it, but I might as well do something if I'm there."
"Take Melissa with you."
Later, Marla returned home and Luca was in the living room watching television.
"Have you finished packing?" Marla asked.
"Almost."
"Save TV for later. Go pack right now."
Luca switched off the TV and dashed upstairs.
In the kitchen, Marla gathered a few canned foods and heard the sound of teleportation.
"Stephen?" Marla thought.
Not getting an answer, Marla teleported to Luca's room. She saw the Founder, who immediately grabbed Luca. He wrapped Natalie's right arm around Luca's neck.
"Hello, Marla," the Founder said.
"Let him go," Marla warned. She levitated a glass bottle.
"Oh, Marla, did you really think that was going to work?"
Marla hurled the bottle towards the Founder's right side, and the Founder extended his right hand to catch it.
"And did you expect that to work?"
Marla suddenly struck the back of the Founder's head with the corner of a picture frame.
"I expected that to free Luca and distract you," Marla said as she telekinetically grabbed the Founder and tossed him over Luca's and her own head into the hall.
"Stephen!" Marla thought aloud.
"Mom?"
The Founder hurled items from an open closet in Marla's direction.
"The Founder is here at home! Come take Luca!"
Marla teleported behind the Founder, put her hands on him, and teleported both away to a mostly-empty storage room in the hospital basement.
"I've been raising two teenage boys alone and managed to keep my house intact. You think I'm going to let you ruin it?" Marla said while hitting the Founder with a blast.
"Feisty!" the Founder commented as he teleported behind Marla and landed a blow to Marla's back. He thought he finally gained the upper hand.
Marla quickly turned around. She landed a punch with her left hand into her opponent's abdomen and used her right hand to land a punch to the face. "This isn't feistiness. It's pleasure at beating you and that face. I hope you both are feeling every hit."
The Founder suddenly grabbed Marla telekinetically and flung her to the ceiling, shattering a light bulb. He tried to keep Marla's body under his control.
Despite the Founder's efforts, Marla freed an arm and hit the Founder with another telekinetic blast, sending him into the wall. She, in turn, landed on the ground with a thud.
Marla quickly recovered and sent the Founder into another wall, and then another.
"You really sold yourself short with that body," Marla said.
"Are you offering yours?"
"Come on. Try it. See how it turns out for you."
The Founder teleported away.
Marla teleported home. "Stephen?" she called.
"We're at the Refuge."
Marla teleported to Stephen and Luca and hugged Luca.
"Are you okay?" Marla asked.
"Yeah," Luca answered. "Are you?"
"I'm fine."
"What about the Founder?" Stephen asked.
"He retreated. I think he's going for Plan B now, but Luca will still stay here."
"Sorry for dragging you into this, Luca," Stephen said.
"It's fine," Luca said, unconvincingly.
"What about Astrid?" asked Marla.
"I'll bring her by later."
"You should bring her in as soon as possible. Even if he's not after her, he could still ruin her on the way to ruining you."
Stephen nodded and teleported away.
"How sure are they that they can beat the Founder soon?" Luca asked his mother.
"They're not," Marla replied.
"Then how long are we staying here?"
"I'm sorry, but until it's safe. I got my work schedule rearranged. I'm working nights now and you'll be here during those hours. During the day, you'll be in school and I'll be nearby."
Soon, Stephen teleported to the Refuge with Astrid. He set up accommodations for her and then went to Cara's office.
"Astrid's safe," Stephen explained. "She doesn't really want to hide here and neither does Luca."
"I'm guessing the uncertainty of the timing isn't helping."
"No. That's why I'm going to the roof. Maybe I can draw the Founder out."
"You think that will work?" asked Cara.
"I'm the one who beat him. He went after my family first. Since that didn't work, maybe he'll come after me directly."
"I'll monitor what I can," Cara said. "I think Derek is out there, too, with someone I don't know."
Stephen nodded and teleported to the roof of the Refuge. He reached out to no one in particular, hoping that the Founder might pick up on his telepathy.
Across the street, Derek and Melissa kept an eye on the Refuge.
"Are you okay?" Melissa asked Derek when she noticed how distracted he was.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I've just been getting a niggling feeling on and off."
"Do you want to go back?"
"No, I'm fine," Derek said.
"We can't exactly camp here indefinitely," Melissa pointed out.
"I know, but - "
A shot interrupted Derek and suddenly Melissa was dead on the ground. Derek looked around and saw Natalie holding a gun.
"What did you do?" Derek screamed.
"I'm clearing a path," the Founder said. He teleported to Derek's side.
Stephen teleported to the fracas but the Founder immediately hit him and Derek with a telekinetic blast. The Founder quickly put his hands on the sides of Derek's head, causing the younger man to scream.
In another part of the city, John was checking in on Jed and Morgan when he winced in pain.
"What's wrong?" Jed asked.
"Derek is reaching out to me. He's under attack." John teleported to Derek. Just as Cara arrived herself, John knocked the Founder away from Derek.
"Derek!" John cried.
The Founder watched Stephen regain his composure. Seeing all three ready to fight, the Founder teleported away.
John scanned Derek's mind. He looked at Stephen and Cara. "Derek needs help. Would you take Melissa to our office?"
"Of course," Cara answered.
John teleported himself and Derek to his company's medical center. "I need help! Another TP attacked Derek. I don't sense any cognitive activity."
Two doctors examined Derek while another pronounced Melissa dead after Stephen and Cara brought her in.
"Dr. Jiang?" John asked as he realized the doctors were finishing.
"There's no brain activity. There's nothing. Everything else is fine," Dr. Jiang reported.
"Then what's wrong with his brain?"
"You tell me. Did you sense anything?"
"There is a very powerful TP inhabiting the body of a moderately powerful TP. He attacked Derek's mind."
"Could someone push out someone else's consciousness? That seems to be what happened."
"I don't know," John replied. "I haven't heard of anyone doing it, but that wouldn't mean it's not possible."
"Why attack Derek?" Cara asked. "We thought the Founder would go for Stephen."
"Not to sound arrogant, but maybe he thought he couldn't," Stephen suggested. "Like we said before, I beat him. I could probably do it again if he only has Natalie's powers."
John sighed. "Please keep working on him," John said with his hands on his face. "Post some guards while you're at it."
"I'm sorry, John," said Cara.
John teleported out and to the hospital. He walked to Morgan's room.
Jed stepped out. "What's wrong? I can feel you hurting."
"The Founder attacked Derek. I'm not picking up any consciousness from him and Jiang isn't picking up any brain activity."
"There are lots of tests that the medical team can run."
"I know. I'm just worried."
Jed hugged John, knowing that words weren't going to help.
A nurse opened the door. "Mr. Price, your daughter's about to come out."
John broke the hug. "It's about time. Go in."
Jed looked at John, concerned.
"Really, go. Don't miss this because of me," said John while he gave Jed a slight push.
Jed returned to Morgan's side and John teleported to the hospital's roof. John closed his eyes and began to scan the minds of the people around him and worked his way out as far as he could.
Minute, later, Jed and Morgan welcomed their daughter into the world. After cutting the umbilical cord, the doctor handed the girl to Jed and Jed brought his daughter to Morgan's side.
"Hi, there," Morgan quietly said to her child. "It's so nice to finally see your face."
Soon, John picked up a large power signature that he recognized. He teleported to his office, grabbed a syringe, and teleported to a penthouse apartment.
"Hello, John," the Founder said.
Thanks again for reading and reviewing. I hope Marla wasn't too out-of-character here. She's shown her aggressive side before onscreen. I figured that in this situation, she might be willing to cut loose.