Chapter Three:

“Talon? Alloooooooooooooooooo?” Rin called out. She was walking through the city rongsokan, sampah Yard. Some employees were about and heard her. She quickly turned around a bit so that she could change her face to her cat-apparel, then looked back at the worker.

“You’re looking for someone?” The worker asked with a slightly worn out sigh.

“Um yeah,” Rin answered, “a friend of mine wanted to meet me here… is it okay if I look around? I- I won’t touch anything!”

“Um... well alright,” oleh the quick reply, Rin guessed the man was busy and eager to finish up, “just make sure anda don’t mess around with any of the tall piles. If they fall you’ll get crushed.”

“Gotcha. Thanks.” Rin wondered a bit, still calling for Talon. She stopped in mid call when she noticed a very interesting-looking car. It was red, fairly flat-looking, and while it was scratched and dented, it had interesting white stripes around it.

Distracted oleh this, Rin decided to shrink herself, and go inside of the car to honk the horn. Sadly the horn was gone, as was the steering wheel… so she made her own noises. “Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!” … “beep beep!”

After a bit of this she began to hear footsteps. “Ups.” Rin teleported outside of the car and dashed out of sight from who she thought was the worker.

“Rin!” called a voice from behind. The identity did not think to distinguish the voice, and began running forward, though not to a speed that would seem supernatural.

“RIN! WAIT!” This time Rin recognized the voice as Talon’s, and as soon as she did, she spun around and started running back, but collided into Talon instead, who was running after her. They fell one on puncak, atas of the other, stomach over back in an X shape.

“Y’know,” Rin began with her face in the ground, “if this had gone differently it would’ve been way lebih romantic.”

Nick caught on to what Rin was referring to and promptly shoved himself off of her and got up, brushing dust off his pants and arms. Rin got up as well. “I was calling anda for a while, why didn’t anda yell back?” She asked.

“Why did anda run away?” Talon retorted.

“I thought anda were one of the workers… I wasn’t supposed to be making the beep noises.” Rin admitted shamefully. “So I hope this explains everything.”

“Um… Define everything.” Talon raised an eyebrow, while stepping back slightly.

“You wouldn’t call Kal atau Jesse back, and anda weren’t at school. anda missed me talking in an Irish accent. I did a Lucky Charms commercial impression; wanna hea-“

“I was gone because I was trying to figure out something… abnormal… with me.”

“Which iiiiiiiiiiiiiis…?” Rin asked, peering a bit while stretching her neck out at Talon.

Nick looked around a bit to make sure no one was watching. “Um…” He then looked about for something to shoot at. His gaze fell upon an old Tricycle. “Alright watch this.” Talon raised his hands, extending his claws, and began to excrete a black mist. It looked liquid-like and mist-like at the same time, like black paint being tossed in the air. It was completely black, and not see-through in the least. He charged up the energy, causing a ringing sound to begin, and fired.

When the bike was hit it began to burn up, only it did not appear to be on fire. It seemed that parts of it were disappearing, not breaking, until the entire trike was gone.

Talon turned to see Rin’s reaction. Her eyes were white. “… Is it that bad?” He asked somewhat calmly.

“Uh, well… it… loo-looks like… Dark energy to me… kind of.” Rin answered nervously, still staring at where the bike was.

Talon looked a bit irritated, “What exactly is dark energy?”

“It… absorbs and adapts and stuff… wait did anda absorb the Tricycle?”

“Um… I don’t think so,” Nick felt around his chest and arms to make sure there weren’t any metal bulges.

“Hm…” Rin shot out a bit of her nanites onto the ground. “Do it to those.”

Talon was a bit confused, but obeyed, which the same affect happening to the Nanites. selanjutnya to the Nanites, he noticed Rin twitching a bit before the Nanites disappeared, and only calm down a good five detik after they were gone.

“That… wasn’t dark energy.” She informed, seeming to have trouble concentrating.

“What was it?” He asked.

“It felt like…magic… only… different. anda didn’t destroy it, anda just… ported it to somewhere else… a pocket dimension I think.” Rin paused for a moment, thinking, “Try pulling it back.”

“U-um…” Talon turned to where the Nanites were and concentrated on pulling them back to their location… they appeared in a black smoke.

Talon himself was both marveling and gaping in terror and thrill of this. Rin kept silent for a half menit before asking him, “Why did anda want ME for this?”

“What do I… wha?” Talon was a bit zoned out.

“Why did anda want me specifically?”

“O-oh, I,” Talon slapped himself back to his senses and faced her, “I thought anda might know lebih about it, since anda have powers already, anda were in the lab, and you’re from a different plan-“

“Different, Mobius.”

“Right, sorry-“ Rin hugged Nick directly after that sentence.

“Um…” Talon made no movement.

“Yay, no dark energy!” Rin let go. “So you’re having trouble controlling it atau something?”

“Well… kind of. That was only part of what it does… I think. The detik time I tried it, another flame thing came out… my bed’s wrecked.”

“Well let’s see it, c’mon!” Rin pressured curiously and excitedly. Talon sighed and slowly created a secondary mist; it was darker, but not oleh much, though it surprised Rin that it could be. Rin noticed that Talon appeared tense now, with a small hiss escaping his mouth. It was unnerving, almost looking like he was a bit in pain.

The mist seemed much lebih electric than fire-like, and seemed to reach out at all matter about it, but not destroying anything that Talon did not allow it to.

Nick thought about attacking the Nanites again, but decided against it, not wanting to know what it might do to Rin. He pointed at a car piece and shot the mist at it. The mist began eating away at the car’s hull, and eventually the rest of it, leaving scraps on the floor.

The mist did not stop there however. It kept going for a while until Talon stressfully ended the output power, and even after that, the mist engulfed a bit lebih car pieces before distinguishing. Nick was panting, noticeably stressed, “That’s the part that’s hard to control.”

The Identity hesitated to act at first. Her eyes were white again. There was no sign of her perky positive attitude in reaction to this power. It scared her.

Talon at one point turned to face her with a confused look, his eyes widening a bit. He recognized the color in her eyes and could only guess that she was either scared for him, atau scared for herself. He honestly though it was the former. He could not think of why it would be the latter… just yet. Ironically though he decided to bank on the latter, as it at least did not sound prideful.

“Rin… are anda okay? Did I hurt your Nanites?” He asked slowly, going back and forth in his mind about whether atau not he should shake her a bit for a reaction.

He could tell that Rin had heard when she titled her head down a bit, “I’m fine… w-well… um, so is that it?” She looked up at him. “Is it?”

“Why are anda afraid?” He asked bluntly. Once again Rin hesitated. “Rin what’s wrong?”

“I’m not a fan of dark energy.” She replied in a faint whisper of a reply.

“But anda berkata that wasn’t-“

“It’s… complicated… I don’t know how it works that well, Talon, I- can we go? Please?”

Whatever sent her into a mood ayunan made Nick want to say “No, tell me what’s wrong now.” all the more. If this were Kal he probably would have. Rin seemed fine the first time, and it was her idea to use the secondary mist in the first place. But regardless, he did not speak those words. It might have been the puppy-dog-like face she was giving him. She still had her cat form on, which not only made her white eyes a bit larger than normal, but now limped ears, and a frown. But these, while distracting, even intrusive, were not the main reason.

If Nick were to ask now, Rin might kerang shut, but if he waited, and asked later, there might have been a chance to find out. He had been in thought for almost twenty seconds. When he zoned back, he still remained silent, not knowing if Rin had asked a detik time atau not, though she did look a bit lebih confused than uneasy now.

“S-sure… alright. Do anda want me to walk anda to Kal’s house atau something?”

The identity looked a bit lebih lighted up now, “Okay.”

During the walk back, Rin’s eyes turned to their normal light blue once again, though she had not been talkative for most of the time they had taken. At one point Nick did see signs of irritations. Rin seemed to be mumbling faintly, and looking confused as they continued on.

When Nick was about to ask what was going on, Rin beat him oleh asking “So anda wanted to talk to me about not losing control of those powers?”

Nick was glad she finally talked again, but seeing how they already discussed this, he felt she was simply absent minded at the time. But he answered anyway. “We already talked about that.”

“Oh right. Welp, I’ve got nothin to talk about.” Rin rested her arms behind her head and fell backward onto the ground on her backside, making a large *WOMPH!*. Talon skidded to a halt from the erratic action, and turned around to see if her head was knocked-on. Then he remembered that she was not a normal mobian and simply looked annoyed.

“Are anda going to lay there all day?”

“Maybe.” She replied, looking up at the clouds. “Wanna join?”

Nick made a scoffing sigh, looking upward as if to plea for patience from above. He looked down at her. “Kal’s house. Remember?”

“We can’t take a break along the way? I SEE A awan THAT LOOKS LIKE A MAGNETIX!” She pointed repeatedly upward. Nick looked to where she pointed, and noticed a awan that looked like a lifting-weight, which he assumed was the magnetix cloud. “What makes anda think ‘Magnetix’?”

“First thing that came to mind.”

Talon laid his head back a bit, weighing his options. He noticed as he did this, that civilians were beginning to stare at the two teenagers, mainly the one laying down on the sidewalk. Nick’s ears dropped a bit, and his head went past his shoulders. “People are staring.” He hissed in a half hostile tone.

“Will those people ever see us again atau remember this in the selanjutnya five days?” Rin asked in a relaxed tone.

“Well we do sort of stick out.” Nick noted, looking back and forth at the staring eyes.

Rin shrugged and got up, “Alright we can go.” She started walking forward. “How often do anda relax?”

Nick made a short “uh” before thinking of that question. He would consider every time he laid about out of boredom to be relaxing, but he felt lebih stressed when he did that then when he was doing things. “I… well not enough I guess.”

“What do anda do to relax?”

“I don’t really. I just keep doing things.”

“Huh, yeah I’m like that too. I like doing stuff all the time.”

It was here that Talon began to feel a bit stressed in the mind. The bizarre and schizophrenic changes in Rin’s mood and the topics at hand began to make it hard to concentrate on what he should be doing at the moment. He wanted to get to Kal’s house, reply to Rin’s reply to him, talk lebih about the power experience, and demand that Rin tell him what scared her about the dark energy so much. He had to decide soon atau an adolescent scream would cause lebih eyes to stare at them. And so he decided to go on to the topic of the powers.

“So do anda have any idea how I’m supposed to deal with this energy?”

“Well I th-thi- …” Rin had to slow down a bit before she could process the reply. Once she had, “I guess it might be emotion-based atau somethin’; I dunno.” They started walking again, “How much trouble have anda had controlling it?”

“Well I had to release it daily. That’s why I wasn’t at school for the most part.” Talon sighed looking at his hands, “It feels like it just builds up like a hunger almost. Strangely enough, letting it out isn’t the only way to suppress it. I tried using it a couple times to kinda… drain some things, and it went dormant for a while. But when I had to let it out, I let it out. There were a lot of holes in the rongsokan, sampah yard. I think they even brought over the police to look it over.”

“How long does it take till anda can’t control it- er suppress it?” Rin asked, going back and forth from curious to frightened.

Nick bobbed his head from side to side, going through the numbers, “About… five hou- n-no … um… Nine hours I think. And every time I release it, it feels like I keep losing a part of my body. I mean…” He stopped for a moment to concentrate, and Rin stopped as well, “it’s not like the other energies… I thought it was, but I… wait,” Talon paused, and then turned to Rin, “How come I end up opening up to everything, and anda won’t even give me a hint about what’s bothering you?”

“W-w-well I Uh… y-you were talking for so long and I didn’t want to ruin it.” Rin replied defensively.

Nick felt used for some reason. He had always felt proud of the fact that he could keep things to himself. But all the adrenaline; this new knowledge and power gave him, just made it so hard not to talk to someone about it, and after all it was he who asked Rin to meet him.

But then again, he did not have to tell her all of this, it was not her business, in fact, why did he tell Rin and not Kal? … ‘Oh right.’ He thought, ‘She could have had answers… well she doesn’t have many and now she knows a lot, and I know a little.’

Finally he came to a conclusion, “I’m not saying anything else until anda give me your story about why you’re so afraid of this dark energy, because believe anda me,” He raised his hands, “if anda don’t tell me what I’ve gotten into, and I DO lose control, I’m only half blaming myself because of how little information I got!”

The identity looked away, and Nick lowered his hands. It looked like she was going to say something about three times, but chose not to. The fourth… finally, “I don’t want anda to lose control, but remembering it all just… hurts… I’ll… do my best, but… can we please get back halaman awal first?”

“… *sigh* Alright… but do anda promise to tell me BEFORE anda have chance to escape?”

“I promise.” Rin replied in an at least honest-sounding tone.

“Okay.” Talon hit the side of his pants oleh accident while resting his hands. This reminded him of what was in his pocket. “Oh! I knew there was something else!” He pulled out the flash drive that Tori Sceether had diberikan him. The flash drive that had the information about identities on it.

“… Wazzat?” Rin asked.

“I got it from someone named Terry.” He answered, forgetting that it was Tori not Terry, but he would remember later on. “Apparently she had a family member in Arma-9, and escaped with info on your species.”

“M-my… “ Once again Rin’s eyes turned white. She quickly hid this and turned them back to blue stressfully. “Huh… well let’s get to Kal’s so we can look at e- waaaaaaait…” Rin stopped dead in her tracks, “You’ve already looked through it, haven’t you?”

“Actually no.” Nick replied. “I was going to do it when this whole thing started out, but with the Gator-guy going on, and everything, I forgot. Then when I remembered, these powers started popping up. I would have used my computer but it isn’t as protected as Kal’s is. If it has a virus, its better it’s on the lebih protected comp.”

“Oh okay.” Rin turned back and continued walking, strangely upbeat with the new knowledge, though stiff-seeming.

“Oh… kay…” Nick followed her, suspicious of this attitude, but he was too worn out from the other suspicious thing about her to ask.

When they arrived at Kal’s house, the golden feline yanked open the door looking furious at Talon. “YOU-“ She slapped him across the face; Nick just stood there, eyes wide, “You…” then she tightly hugged him, “We thought the Arma-9 people got you, and anda didn’t even call us!?” She let go, “then anda tell RIN, the newbie instead of us!?... er… no offense Rin.”

“None taken.” Rin shrugged, “… for the most part.”

“I just… sorry,” Nick started, “I thought Rin might know how to help with it, with being all alie-“

“I’M FROM A MOBIUS! I KNOW ENGLISH! I’M NOT AN ALIEN!”

“Well you’re not from this country so technically-“ Jesse noted, walking up to the group.

“Not THAT type of alien!” Rin interrupted.

“ANYWAY,” Nick fumed before looking back to Kal, “I thought she might be able to contain it atau something with her morphing. I didn’t want anda atau Jesse to get killed oleh it, and I didn’t try to tell anda sooner because I didn’t know when I might lose control… wait, how did anda know I wanted Rin in the first place?”

“Tweet tweet.” Rin weakly chirped.

“The little birdy was smart enough to tell me about it, but we thought it’d be best if she went alone so we didn’t scare anda off.” Kal informed. “As for the rest of it… what are anda talking about?”

“I-… oh boy…” Talon hit himself in the forehead, “Look… I… think I’m getting…”

“Powers?” Kal looked completely in utter disbelief. “Prove it.”

“Um…” Talon turned to a hedge near Kal’s house, made sure no one was watching besides them, used the primary mist to engulf it, then made it reappear soon after. He turned back to Kal and saw that she was unconscious on the ground.

Jesse looked down at Kal, then back at Nick, then to Rin, “Uh Rin, could we be left alone for a bit?”

“M’kay.” Rin ran into the house.

Jesse looked behind himself to make sure she was gone. He then started dragging Kal to lay her on her couch. “I think I have an idea what’s going on.”

“How?” Nick gave an extremely surprised, yet narrow-eyed, stare at Jesse while helping him pindah Kal.

“Well,” They sat Kal down on the couch, and Jesse propped her head up with a pillow, “when we came to rescue anda in the base, I ran into a guy. He shot at me, and I literally PUNCHED the bullet off. I didn’t even get hurt. I just went POW and I knocked it away.”

“That’s… weird… okay but how does that explain what’s going on?”

“Well I think that we might have really been some of those hybrids the cop talked about. I didn’t believe him at first, I mean, we didn’t seem to have powers, at least not you, and bullet punching isn’t exactly supernatural exactly, but… maybe we’ve been to Arma-9 before.”

“… But… what are the odds? If you’re right then at LEAST anda and I are hybrids from Arma-9, not to mention if KAL is too, and then Rin pops up, we all know each other, and we all meet up in Arma-9. That couldn’t have been convenience.”

“Yeah I know but… at the same time… I don’t get why anyone would do this. At first I thought it was all for safety, y’know, us all not knowing our powers, and not knowing about Arma-9, but then it sounded like it was all a test. I mean-“

“Can anda stop saying ‘I mean’? I get the feeling that I’ve heard that a lot lately.”

“I’m not exactly keeping track, chief.” Jesse half-glared before continuing, “anyway, the base wasn’t too far from us if we could have just DROVE over there, not to mention other Arma-9 people appeared, including that Rovor guy, the head honcho. So… there’s got to be a connection to all of this.”

“We just don’t know what it is…” They both sat down. “Gotta wonder what would have happened if Rin didn’t pop up.”

Jesse pondered for a moment then spoke aloud in a devious tone, “Oh yeaaaaaaah, anda still have to make good on our little wager.”

“What lit- ! … no way!” Nick stood straight up.

“Hey anda agreed, and if it were me, you’d say the same thing.” Jesse pointed out. “Besides, the way you’ve been hanging out with Rin, it looks like anda like her already.”

“I don’t like Rin! … at least not like THAT!” Nick’s fingers stiffened stressfully, “I took that bet to get anda to do that, because I thought anda liked her! anda kept complimenting her and all, I was just trying to pindah anda two along.”

“Or you’re just afraid.” Jesse smirked. Talon glared. “Alright alright,” Jesse raised his hands, “we’ll call a truce, but really, I was gonna record the thing and everything. I was getting all excited.” He sighed, “Well at least this means that if you’re not interested, I can step in. Besides, anda and Kal hit it off lebih than she and I, so I wouldn’t be surprised if anda two got together.”

“I don’t want to talk about relationships at the moment, Jesse.” Talon forced out, gritting his teeth with his face in his hand. “I have enough on my mind.” He sat down again, ruffling through his hair, pressing hard on his forehead. “This might go all the way to our parents.”

“Wai- wha?” Jesse asked, his face going from a goofy grin to an interested serious stare as he jerk-leaned forward.

“Think about it,” Nick laid back in the chair, making a large *fwomph*, with his arms on the sides, “How would they not know about this? I mean, going oleh the theory that we’re escaped lab-rats, they would have at least known about adopting us or… something along those lines. For all we know THEY’RE in on the whole thing.”

“Wait wouldn’t that mean that they’d know about our powers?”

“Yeah, and you’re getting at…”

“If they knew about our powers, in on it atau not, then they probably found a way to suppress them atau something. I haven’t deflected bullets since the raid, but you’re obviously getting all evolved in your powers. So it’s either our powers are starting up now, atau all our lives our parents have been doing something to keep them suppressed.”

“Like… pills atau something?”

“Maybe.” The two paused for a moment in thought. “Maybe... could be our flu shots… I don’t take any medication last time I checked, you?”

“No… but then again they could probably fit whatever pills they’d need into our food each day.”

“Even when we eat out?”

“Well it probably lasts for days each time… which sort of explains why my powers are manifesting now… I guess… it doesn’t match up.”

“What do anda me-“ Jesse suddenly looked about, “wait are Kal’s parents home?” Nick gave Jesse a worried look. “RIN! ARE YOUR RELATIVES HOME!?”

Shortly after Rin yelled back “Nopeseedoodles!”

“Okay, back on topic,” Jesse continued, settling down, “What did anda mean?”

“I…” Nick tracked back to what he was talking about, “I haven’t been eating out too much, even after disappearing I kept in contact with my parents, so I don’t get how my powers are still popping up and yours only briefly popped up.”

“Well my couz’s aren’t great chiefs, and I was paying for my own food for a couple hari during the time when we were breaking anda out of the base, and after that I was back and forth, so it makes sense there.”

“It also makes sense for Kal since she almost never eats out and her powers, if she has any, haven’t manifested.” Nick groaned in annoyance. “Then why did mine?! What’s the connection!?”

It took the slate-colored hedgehog ten detik before he looked back to the hallway, then back to Nick with his theory. “Rin’s the connection.”

Nick was eye-wide, but kept silent, allowing for Jesse to explain. “You met her, and did the psychic connection thing right? That… IS what anda were doing when we were about to be Indiana-Jonesed I’m assuming.”

“Yeah…” Nick replied, beginning to see where Jesse was going. “Rin’s Nanites are… somewhere in my head I think. I can talk to her subconsciously, and yes she was trying to talk to me constantly when I disappeared, maybe the chaos energy is making my powers surpass whatever drugs I’m getting.”

“Well… not that I don’t enjoy all of this, but this is kind of all going on a big What-If.”

“Yeah you’re right… I guess we’ll just have to get our parents to tell us.”

“I don’t even know WHERE to start with my cousins! There’s eight of them!”

“Well best of luck with that.” Talon got up a detik time. “I think I’ll get home. Now’s as good a time as any to ask my parents…. Actually...”

“Now what?” Jesse gave an annoyed stare, with lowered brows and eyelids.

“If we want to know for sure that it’s not the food, let’s do something that’ll keep us COMPLETELY away from our relatives for a week.”

“Like… camping?”

“I’d bank on that, but then again, there’s Kal to consider, IF she agrees to test out the theory at all, not to mention school.”

“Summer’s not for another month.”

“Well do anda want to wait a whole mont- wait what about Spring Break? When IS that this tahun anyway?”

“I’ll… look it up. It might work.” Jesse shrugged. “I’ll tell Kal the situation when she’s… conscious, and we’ll tell anda after that.”

“Good luck.” Nick walked out of the house waving his goodbyes. As he did, he half grinned, muttering to himself “Well I was whining about lack of adventure…”

Kal awoke with a throb in her head. She was alone on the couch, but she could hear that someone was using the bathroom. She got up and looked around, slowly remembering what had happened ten menit prior. “Nick… has… I’ll just ask later. I’m guessing it was a dream… I hope.” She berkata weakly with a cringe. With a sigh she walked up and about.

“Yay you’re awake!” Rin ran up and hugged Kal somewhat tightly.

“Up! Yeah…” Kal replied, holding her breath till out of Rin’s grasp.

“Soooooo, I had a pertanyaan for ya.” Rin berkata excitedly.

“Okay what is it?”

“Are anda religious?”

Kal jumped back at the question. What kind of a pertanyaan was Rin asking? “What kind of pertanyaan is that!?” She asked angrily.

“… An… honest one?” Rin replied unsurely, taking a cautious step back.

“What makes anda think I’m religious?”

“Well your family prays at makan malam all the time so I thought anda were.”

“My PARENTS… are somewhat religious.” Kal berkata with emphasis.

“Well then do anda believe in that stuff?”

“I… believe in a here-after… if there’s a God involved all the bette- I don’t know!”

“Okay, okay!” Rin backed off a bit, her eyes turning dark blue, looking away from Kal. “You don’t have to get all defensive. I was just getting all curious.”

“Rin that’s, just not a pertanyaan anda pop out of nowhere and ask. I wasn’t ready for it is all, alright?”

“Alright… well anyway,” Rin perked up slightly, “Watcha think of Talon’s mist powahs?” She grinned.

“He… does… ha-have…” Kal almost passed out again. Rin grabbed her arms and pulled her back up. “Not again, c’mon.” Rin shook her a bit.

“S-sorry, just… processing all of it…” Kal stammered.

“Surprised you’re so… surprised. I mean, anda see me with all my powers ‘n stuff, soooooooooo what makes Talon’s all weir- wait anda saw that when we talked to the officer guy!”

“What?”

“When we kidnapped the cop… anda don’t remember that?”

“Um, no.” Kal looked completely in disbelief. Rin did as well, though for different reasons.

“How could anda forget all that?”

“I really have no idea what you’re talking about. When did we kidnap a cop?”

Rin was about to explain the entire long story when “Kal!” Jesse called over as he walked up to the two girls. “I’ve got something to tell you.”

Meanwhile…

Rovor stood once again in front of a monitor, contacting his associate. The associate was the first to speak. “Explain something.”

Rovor looked a bit confused, but answered “Alright…”

“Why did anda lead the Mutant to the Hybrids, then inject him with M-R Serum, and let him go crazy around the city and almost kill the hybrids?”

“He wasn’t shot with M-R Serum. The gas was aimed at the identity, and was meant to shoot out acid throughout her system. When it came in contact with the Mutant’s system, it triggered a feral form.”

“And anda led him there because…”

“The hybrids needed to be dealt with, and it was the easiest way to get rid of them without bringing attention to us. I assumed the mutant would not befriend them.”

“You don’t recall that the hybrids were to be kept FROM harm?”

“I assumed that the situation was at the point where they were becoming liabilities and threats.”

“If anda try to pull something like that again, anda will be killed, is that understood?”

Rovor remained silent, no change in face atau movement of body. “That isn’t all.” He added bluntly. “We planted M-E-P drones into the hybrids, and are currently working on complete reprogramming.”

“And when did anda do this?”

“When they attacked the now leveled base, Nanite-fog was sent about, undetectable. All three of them inhaled the Nanites, and we have been manipulating them since, and since yesterday at seven P.M we began M-E-P programming.”

“… And what progress was made?”

“Hybrid Sphinx is tampilkan signs of progress, but not the others. It will take a month’s time at longest, and if done with perfect and careful precision, which is lebih than enough time.”

“And anda did not used the Nanites when anda could have? During the fight with the mutant?”

“The Nanites would not respond at that time. The identity’s frequency was putting them off. Thankfully however, once they were completely formed and prepared, the signal did no lebih damage.”

“… Alright, that does make up for your mistake. Carry on, for now.”

Then he nodded, and ended the transmission. “And we did not even get the mutant back after that…” He muttered to himself in irritation.

Meanwhile at the Siets residence, it was an jam after Kal had first passed out. She was still talking to Jesse about the powers issue.

“Okay just to make sure I have this accurate,” Kal began while sitting on her couch, Rin spinning on her head behind the couch, and Jesse sitting on the dipan, sofa opposite to Kal’s, “you think that we’re all hybrids, created oleh Arma-9, but somehow escaped, our parents-“

“and my cousins.” Jesse added.

“-and your cousins, have been giving us special… drugs, to suppress our powers, and because of Rin’s pa- Nanites being in Talon’s head, the drugs aren’t affecting him allowing him to use his powers, and if we don’t eat anything made oleh our parents, atau leave our parents for a week atau so, we’ll get our powers too?”

“Yeah pre-“

“Oh and Spring Break was four weeks ago, remember?”

Jesse looked surprised, then drooped, “Well that’s out of the plan…”

“… anda know that I only five percent believe any of this, right? That five percent- no I’ll give it ten percent, TEN percent being from the cop who called us Hybrid’s, and the Rin Nanites making Talon go wacko.”

“So anda DO remember!” Rin berkata cheerfully.

“I remember anda telling me.” Kal corrected, thus darkening Rin’s mood.

“Well we could have Rin scan anda for supernatural powers.” Jesse suggested.

“Wha?” Rin plopped face first onto the ground, then jumped up and walked around to face them. “I can’t scan people- I mean I kind of used to be able to- … I think, but if I did I can’t remember how.”

“Try it.” Jesse urged, gesturing at Kal.

Rin turned, making her eyes rather large, and gave Kal a very long wide-eye stare, while leaning forward. After ten detik Kal berkata “I’m guessing it’s not working.” With an annoyed look.

“Well there’s always Summer time, right?” Rin asked Jesse, turning back to him, but forgetting that he eyes were still enlarged; Jesse was not about to tell her they were.

“That will take too long…” Jesse sighed, “Well I at least have the chance of having powers. I’ll do it with Talon if you’re not interested.”

“I never berkata I wouldn’t tag along.” Kal replied, shaking her head slightly. “My reasons being that Rin would drive me up the wall-“ Rin gave a half-pout half-glare to Kal,- “and it sounds like a fun idea at least.”

“Don’t we have school though” Rin asked. “You just berkata that Spring Break was over, and Summer’s not near, so how would anda do it? I like talking Irish…ly… is that a word?”

“I don’t think so.” Kal replied. “Well we could just do all our school work ahead of time; bulk up for the trip so we won’t be behind. Rin can definitely do it as long as there aren’t any pop-quizes to remind us about what we remembered.”

“I’m good at concentrating, not remembering.”

“How is that possible?” Jesse asked.

The door opened from behind them, with Talon walking through, looking a bit flustered, and a bit worn out. “I completely forgot about the flash drive!” He berkata allowed. “Kal can I use your computer?”

“Uh… what for?”

“This.” Nick pulled out the Stick Drive and held it out. “I got this from that person we tracked down, Tori Sceether… I’m sure her name was Tori- anyway, it has info about Rin’s species.” Rin coward slightly when he berkata this.

“Identities right?” Kal asked. “Alright, why didn’t anda tell us sooner though?”

“Kept getting sidetracked.” Nick shrugged shamefully. “But anyway, do anda guys want to get a look at it?”

“C-can I…” Rin berkata loudly, “um… l-look at it first… please?”

The teenagers turned to Rin, all seeming suspicious and confused. Nick however changed his emotion to normal again and replied “It’s only fair. After all its your species.” He handed it over to Rin.

“Wait, why do anda want to see it first?” Kal asked, still staring at Rin in suspicion.

The white-eyed identity shuffled a bit nervously answering “Nothing important…”

Kal was not buying it. “I say we all watch it together. It’s obvious she’s got a plan of some sort, atau some OTHER reason to watch it that we don’t know ab-“

“Okay! Okay!” Rin tossed the flash drive back to Talon. “We’ll all see it together, alright?!” Kal nodded silently, then got up and walked to her bedroom, with the others following.

“So where are your parents, Kal?” Jesse asked as they went up the stairs.

“One’s shopping, and the other I forgot.” She replied casually before opening her room’s door and walking inside. The others piled into the room as she accessed her computer. “Alright,” she berkata while putting her hand up behind her as waiting to be handed something, “let’s see.”

Talon gave Kal the drive and soon categorized files came onto the screen. Rin had gone into multiple topics of thought, and soon remembered before being interrupted oleh Kal’s membaca of the titles “Wait a second, I never berkata the cop called yo-“

“We’ve got evidence, and recorded evidence.”

“Let’s go with evidence first.” Talon suggested. Kal complied. Inside were many pictures. As they skimmed through these they saw zoomed in looks at the Nanites, Nanites that were being powered up, and Nanite structure. The structure of each Nanite, basing on these photos, was that of an egg. Each Nanite had a cement-like rock shell, with a metallic inside, and a glowing blue yolk, which was labeled “Core Energy”. selanjutnya to this foto was another foto of the same thing only when Chaos Energy was being ran through it. There were pores that would open up at random, with the metal heated and red.

“Don’t see why anda don’t want us to see this.” Kal noted as they moved on to the recorded evidence.

As expected, recorded evidence had many video in it. The first was labeled “material introduction.” They played the video, tampilkan a pile of Nanites on a lit metal table. The video would zoom in and out, and pindah about, and here and there it would tampil someone moving the Nanites around. It was far from interesting.

The selanjutnya video was labeled “Energy reaction”. In it, the same pile of Nanites was shown on the same table. A cattle-prod-like device, with glowing red energy instead of the normal invisible electric energy, pindah into view. Before prodding the Nanites however, it powered down. It was then placed into them and powered up. The Nanites immediately changed from a pile of sand to a hard rock.

selanjutnya in line was “Energy reaction stage 2”, which showed a chip-like item being attached to the prod before it was stuck into the Nanites. In addition, the prod seemed to be connected to a wire cable, wrapped in rubber, which trailed off the screen. When the prod was eventually stuck into the Nanites, they began to change shape while hardening; first a sphere, then a cube, then a pyramid. During the process a grunting, almost whining sound, sounded each time the Nanites changed.

Jesse was the first to realize what had happened. “They hooked it up to someone’s brain to control the Nanites!” He felt soon after saying so that what he had berkata was a bit obvious, but no one called him out on it. And seeing how he was the most aware of his surroundings at the moment, he looked back and forth at everyone to see their reactions.

Kal and Nick had the same look, they were intrigued, but then again Jesse was as well. When he turned to Rin, she looked nervous, her eyes white once again. “Are…you alright, Rin?”

Rin did not reply, so he asked again. Nick looked over after hearing the detik attempt. Rin looked over, shook her head, then went back to watching the videos, as did the rest of them, though a bit reluctantly now.

“Anybody up here!?” Kal’s Mother yelled from downstairs. Everyone groaned, while feeling a bit startled at the same time. Nick quickly unplugged the drive and put it in his pocket, followed oleh everyone going downstairs. Rin quickly morphed back to her cat look.

“Oh…” Mrs. Siets noticed that it was not just Kal and Rin halaman awal as she walked towards the stairs. “Nick, Jesse, when did anda two come over?”

“About an jam ago.” Jesse answered. He looked about nervously, high-strung from the interruption.

“Can they stay for Dinner, Mom?” Kal asked.

“I don’t see why not.” Mrs. Siets walked into the kitchen, setting her car keys on a counter, and began going through some papers on the Dining Room table. Kal took note of this.

“What are those?”

“Hm? Oh, just some events at your school. Oh yes that reminds me,” Mrs. Siets turned to Rin with a smirk, “It seems there’s a rumor going about that a certain someone is Irish?”

“… Sorry I never told you?” Rin fibbed nervously.

“You don’t have to worry about us telling anyone, Rin, but that’s because that’s something you’ll have to do. atau anda can just let everyone find out oleh accident.”

Rin looked down, cringing a bit. She honestly did not consider that Kal’s parents would find out. atau at least Mrs. Siets, which begged the question, where was Mr. Siets.

“Where’s Uncle Aren?” Every time Rin used this term she felt awkward. She tried not to think of what would happen, if her ‘Aunt’ were to find out that they were not related.

“Still at work for now, but we’re still talking about something else here. Are anda going to tell everyone?”

Rin silently shrugged.

“Hey maybe she really is Irish.” Jesse chuckled.

“Yeah, I could have just not picked up the accent!” Rin joked along with a playful grin.

“Nice try.” Mrs. Siets gave them a pity smile, and walked into the kitchen.

Jesse looked back till Diane was out of general earshot, then nudged Kal on the shoulder, “Are anda going to ask her?”

Kal looked bitterly confused at Jesse’s question, raising a brow slowly, emphasizing that he should explain. “The powers thin-“

“Oh!” Kal was taken back a bit, a little looking like she was shoved. She rolled her eyes, with her head lain back before turning back to Jesse, “No I’m not. anda don’t have any proof about this!”

“That’s why we want to ask!” Jesse increased his vocal volume, not knowing that Mrs. Siets could hear these words. And if he continued in this tone, she would start to pay attention.

“Keep it down!” Talon hissed, tensing his extended fingers at them, with teeth clinched. “Scream to the whole neighborhood while you’re at it!” He made sure that this exclamation was a whispering tone.

Kal rolled her eyes once Talon was finished, and went back to Jesse, “And what happens if she doesn’t know anything? What happens if because of this she starts asking Rin questions? atau the police? And then finds out about you-know-what?”

“… anda know wh-“ Rin began before they both yelled “YOU!”

“Oh…” She looked down.

“Well do anda want her finding out when Arma-9 finds us?”

“Jesse, I’m pretty sure they already have.” Nick noted, “They got to me from the police station, and tried to kill us not to recently. If they aren’t planning to get us now, it’s probably because they’re waiting for something.”

“Like what, our powers to manifest?” Kal scoffed.

“For someone who’s seen just as much as we did anda seem really stubborn about not believing anda have powers.” Jesse remarked.

“Maybe that’s because I haven’t DONE ANYTHING SUPERNATURAL.” Kal began to raise her tone but stopped herself. “Both of anda berkata anda did… something, with Nick’s black api stuff and… whatever anda did. I haven’t.”

“Your parents have all that tech, scan yourself.” Jesse suggested.

“I have, thrice.” Kal sat down, tired out from the debate.

“… Is there anything I could do?” Rin asked timidly, raising her hand a bit.

“Can anda scan?”

“Well… no not yet. I could… try to.” She smiled.

Kal sighed and got up, “Alright let’s try it.”

“Let’s, do that outside.” Jesse suggested, placing his hand between them before they imploded the house.

The teens walked to the front lawn. Nick looked around constantly, and nervously. “Really not a good idea to do this out in the open.”

“We can’t do it in the backyard, my parents are in there.” Kal retorted.

“Well there is a thing called asking anda could try. It helps with getting cookies, video games, salad condiments-“

Rin grumbled something under her breath, but it was not very audible, so aside from Jesse giving her a confused look, it left the discussion unchanged. “Fine, let’s go to the backyard.” And so they went to the backyard, where Kal moved her parents away, made a retort to Talon about her parents becoming suspicious, while Rin grumbled a bit more, and they were ready.

“Okay hit me-“ Kal meant scan of course, and Rin knew that but her attempt at scanning Kal instead lead to her blasting Kal horizontally into the air, and almost out of sight.

Talon made a jerking motion, half-stopping himself, while Jesse gaped. Kal was screaming at the puncak, atas of her lungs. Rin decided to teleport towards Kal and catch her before teleporting back into the backyard with Kal not only still screaming, but with the front of her face and part of her clothing practically charred from the blast.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I-“ Rin continued to repeat this. Nick was uneasy, and not only because of Kal’s possible injury. He ran about the edges of the yard, looking over the fence and checking to see if anyone was near enough to see them. He saw many people, but he could not tell if they had seen Kal. Some were running and jumping, and being loud, but he could not make out if they were playing a game atau reacting, atau anything in between.

Jesse took Kal from Rin’s arms, and covered her mouth so she did not draw in lebih attention. She slowly ceased her wailing, and Jesse notice that her eyes were watery. “Kal are anda hurting anywhere?” He asked. He knew it was obvious, but he could not think of a better way of asking under the circumstances.

“My… face… feels like it’s on fire!” Kal replied while clenching her teeth and squinting between every other syllable. “I need ice!”

“Jesse, get her to the bathroom, I’ll get the ice.” Nick ordered while moving towards the screen door. He halted slowly when Rin asked “Sh-should I do anything?”

“Check around if anyone noticed.” He replied quickly before yanking the door open and darting inside. He did not look back and Rin when she spoke, but he assumed she was trying to fix things. He blamed her, but it was not out of anger. She was simply dangerous, and unstable, and Kal almost died. But then, Rin did save Kal… but everything could be in trouble now because of it.

He could not blame Rin entirely though, after all it was Kal’s idea, so she had to realize how dangerous it was. That was probably why she did not snap at Rin that whole time, mixed in with the shock and pain. And if he were to go even further, it was his fault for having to get mixed into this whole thing in the first place. Once again he had been complaining about how lifeless his life was, and when something supernatural happened, all he could think about was how to keep it quiet and seem normal.

Jesse was currently carefully wiping Kal’s face with a wet towel, and putting up with how much she jerked her face about in pain. It was not like he could be angry with her about it though. He found at least five small cuts on her face, and plenty bruises. He was only glad that there was no First Degree Burn… atau was that Third Degree burn that was wors-

“Still charred.” Kal reminded to the zoning out Jesse, while murmuring curses against ADHD under her breath. Jesse apologized and continued to clean her up. They would most likely make up an excuse about Kal falling on her face during a game. But on the chance that her parents actually caught the event… neither Jesse nor Kal could think of what they would do.

Once finished, they met back up in the backyard. Kal had quite a few Band-Aids on her face, which she was pulling off, only to have Jesse put them back on, which she rolled her eyes to, but did not fight him, and left them alone once he did.

Talon handed her a sealed bag with ice inside, which she placed on the lebih red side of her face, hissing faintly from the impact. Rin kept herself separated from the others, choosing to sit on the opposite side of the entrance to the yard, against the concrete wall, with her knees against her chest and looking down as she nervously spun her fingers around each other. Her eyes were dark blue, and occasionally flashed red.

Kal was the first to notice Rin’s position, mainly because of her eyes flickering red occasionally. She walked over to her. “It wasn’t all your fault, Rin.” She informed, giving Rin some time to look up then continuing, “It was my idea.”

“You could have DIED!” She replied, lighting up a pale blue now then returning to her sulking position.

“But I didn’t and I have anda to thank for that.” Kal was suppressing both her physical stress and peripheral stress, mainly the pertanyaan of anyone seeing her flying through the air. She herself did not take time to gaze about the scenery for anyone who might notice, so it was up to Rin to know, and so… “Did anyone see?”

Rin shook her head repeatedly. “I heard some people say they saw something flying, but they didn’t do anything about it.”

“Okay.”

“I think I’ll just stick to morphing from now on.”

The teenagers, and Rin, met back up inside in the living room. Unfortunately the only people who they did not make sure saw nothing had in fact seen too much. When they heard Mrs. Siets’ voice calling her daughter in a very stern tone a chorus of a single sigh was shared between all four of them.

Mrs. Siets walked into the living room with narrowed eyes. “Why did Dad and I just see what looked like anda fly into the air then blow up in a red light?”

Kal was stuttering to come up with an excuse while at the same time trying to keep herself turned away from her mother as not to reveal her injuries. Jesse was a little further ahead, and had gotten to the “Well anda see… we sort of… with the…” stalling part. Nick had begun thinking up an excuse but became distracted when he began wondering why Mrs. Siets had not talked to them directly after she saw the event take place.

Rin decided to yell out the first thing that came to mind, which was of course “Kool-Aid”, followed oleh an apology and finally while putting on as best an innocent excitable smile that she could, she answered “We made paper-machete-“

“Mache.” Kal corrected.

“What did I say?” Rin questioned.

“Machete.” Kal replied irritably.

“That’s silly. Machetes are knives.” Rin informed obliviously.

“I know…” Kal groaned while covering her eyes and forehead in embarrassment.

“What does paper-mache, atau machetes, have to do with seeing Kal getting blown up?” Mrs. Siets demanded. She seemed hostile but it was understandable. Her daughter supposedly blew up and now she was fine?

“We made paper-machet-“

“MACHE!” the other three corrected angrily..

“WHATEVER!” Rin and Mrs. Siets yelled back. The irritated parent then motioned for Rin to continue.

“Fireworks.” Rin finished, flopping meneruskan, ke depan a bit in verbal exhaustion, eyelids lowered and a rather miffed expression matching them. “In school. We made one together to look like Kal and wanted to test it out in the backyard.”

“That’s why we had to make anda guys leave.” Kal fibbed.

The children remained silent. Each of them showed a different form of agitation. Mrs. Siets kept her stern attitude but did manage to keep talking. “And what made anda decide that it would be of Kal?” The parent looked directly at Kal. Knowing her daughter, she was having a hard time believing that Kal would have no issue with a replica of herself being demolished so quickly in the sky. In fact Mrs. Siets would assume that Kal would take a great offense to something of that nature, and perhaps say that it was symbolic of some hate that they had for her.

Mrs. Siets knew her daughter well, and Kal knew her mother well. It took only a moment from being under that stare for Kal to guess what her mother was thinking. “It was a acak choice, Mom.” Kal answered. “We spun a can and it pointed at me.”

“I didn’t see anda come halaman awal with something made out of Paper Mache.”

“She has the burn marks from it.” Nick noted pointing at Kal’s somewhat charred face. “She set it off and it was a little too close to her than we wanted it to be.”

“Well if that’s the story that all of anda are sticking to, anda should know that it’s illegal to use fireworks without a permit in an area as small as our backyard. I’d expect that anda four would know that already, but since anda don’t the fine will come out of your allowance, Kal, Rin-“

“I have an allowance?” Rin questioned.

“I told anda that many anda keep finding in your room was yours.” Kal informed.

“No one told me I was getting an allowance.” Rin defended.

“Actually I did a few days after anda moved in, but anda forgot.” Mrs. Siets reminded. “Now that the interruptions are finished, I was saying that the fine will be paid oleh your allowances anda two, and” she turned to Talon and Jesse, “I will talk to your parents as well. If we do not receive a fine I’ll let it slide with Kal’s face getting burned, but not selanjutnya time. And speaking of that.” She walked over to Kal and began examining her face, “I think we should have this looked at.”

“I’m fine, Mom. Just stings.” Kal rolled her eyes.

“Are anda sure?” Mrs. Siets asked sternly.

“Yes.” Kal sighed. Mrs. Siets stepped back to address the others. “Mr. Siets and I are going to be leaving in an jam so Nick and Jesse will have to leave soon.” Nick, Jesse, and Rin all looked shocked, but remained silent, mainly because they did not want to add to the drama further. Jesse however was lebih silent because he felt guilty for the lying, even if he did very little to none of it.

“What?!” Kal exclaimed. “Why?! It’s not like we’re all going to start some weird blood-ritual while you’re gone!”

“You can argue with me about this when we get home.”

“You’re not leaving for an jam and a half!” Kal protested.

“Then anda can think over why they have to leave oleh then during that time.” The parent left the room.

Kal was gaping with her eyes wide an unbelieving. She slammed her fist into the dipan, sofa against a bantal with a large grunt. “UGH! What was that about!?” She hissed, swinging around to face Nick who jerked back a bit as she closed in on him.

“She knows we’re lying, Kal.” He replied in a soft but blunt tone. “So she’s seeing how much we’re willing to pay for it.”

“It’s not like we can just tell her.” Jesse noted. A detik later his eyes popped and his head sunk towards his shoulders in a suspicious expression “Unless she knows already.”

“The… that thing again?” Kal asked while feeling forgettable.

“If anda mean the parents-in-on-it ‘thing’ then yes.” Jesse replied.

Kal threw her head back with her eyes rolling, “Oy, you’re not going to let that go are you?”

“Kal… anda killed the pillow.” Rin informed while looking at the dipan, sofa wide-eyed. Kal gave her “cousin” a confused stare then looked down at her hand. Her arm had gone through the bantal and made a small tear in the dipan, sofa cushion.

The feline shook herself a bit to reclaim her posture and pulled her hand out of the pillow. She then set it aside and whipped her gaze around to Jesse in a glare, saying “Don’t say it.” Jesse kept his mouth shut but as a substitute for vocals he did make gestures to the bantal with stressed fingers and a strained face, trying to convince Kal.

“Punch something else!” Rin suggested gleefully, obviously being ignorant to Kal’s denial and irritation. And as expected Kal berkata nothing to Rin but gave her a glare as well. Rin gave a weak chuckle and slunk backwards and downwards.

“That’s actually a good idea.” Nick joined. Kal scoffed, gaping at his suggestion. “Oh come on!” He snapped at her reaction. “You just punched through the pillow, Kal. I doubt it’s made of tissues.”

“Yeah, so what, I should go break my hand on my car door?!”

Jesse was wincing throughout every raised voice, and the others began to notice. “What?” Kal asked him.

“Your parents aren’t in the room but they might be listening.” Jesse mumbled (almost grumbled) under his breath.

The teenagers left to the front yard. Kal was reluctant so Rin teleported herself and Kal behind the front bushes as not to be seen oleh the public. “This is ridiculous!” Kal fumed. “I can’t bel-“

“Why?!” Nick was losing his patience. “You saw me use some weird black-hole powers, Jesse deflected bullets, Rin, well we all know about that.”

“I’m special.” Rin smiled.

“And anda punching through the dipan, sofa is somehow not a sign??” Nick continued. “Come on, Kal!”

All three of the others stared at Kal, awaiting her reply. She backed away from them still looking as hostile as before. “I… I don’t know.” She clutched her head while sitting against the front wall. “My head hurts…”

“Let’s leave her alone.” Jesse suggested to Talon. “It’s a lot to take in.”

“I… guess so…” Nick sighed, “Kal, do anda want us to leave?”

Kal waited a few detik to think it over then nodded.

“Okay…” Nick walked down the jalan, street followed oleh Jesse. Rin stayed behind wondering if she should leave too atau not. When Kal looked back up she noticed Rin still standing there and berkata “You can go too.”

Rin ran over giving Kal a large hug then dashed off after the boys. Kal walked back into her house and plopped herself onto the couch. She gazed at the ceiling for a menit atau two while occasionally looking at the destroyed blue pillow. Eventually her head began to ache much worse. She went into the dapur and took some ibuprofen tablets with some water.

After that she sat back on the dipan, sofa and decided to distract herself with some television. It kept her distracted for a short while but her head just kept hurting. Kal tried to concentrate on what she was watching but it was as if she could not focus anymore. It was getting hard to think.

High School had taught Kal that it was best to go over simple known facts then work up from there when having thinking issues. Did this mean she was getting amnesia atau something? If so, why?

“My name is Kal Nyra Siets, I’m fif-… s-sixteen… I live in Hicksville, I have both parents… I… have two friends named Jesse and Tal… T-Talo- Nick, and…” She grinded her teeth ‘Why is this so hard!?’ she thought. “I have a… cous… I have…”