Kinetics (9 page)

He wasn't lying about the clothes not
being stylish.  There was a pair of loose fit jeans, and a white shirt along
with a fresh set of underwear.  I'm not the most fashionable person around, but
come on. 

I picked the hoodie up off the ground
and sniffed it hoping that I would still be able to wear it, but I was wrong. 
I gathered up all of the clothes off the floor, and decided that I should just
go ahead and have them burnt.

I left the bathroom clean, and Sandy
shot right in after me.  Kenny looked pissed that he was beaten to the door.  I
suspected that he let her win though.  It was weird to see them like that, like
nothing ever happened.

"Feel better?" Sam sat in an
oversized recliner in the living room. 

"Much." I said, “Is there
anything to eat?” I rubbed my stomach.

"There is some food in the
kitchen.  I have to leave soon, but I wanted to hang out until you got done in
the shower.  A few things that I wanted to let you know about; I will be a
guardian for all of you, but I won't live here.  I live three houses down.  I
will be checking up on you occasionally.  I’m also there if any of you need
anything.  We consider you adults until you prove otherwise."

"Sounds good to me."

The cabinets were full of instant foods
and nothing really hit the spot, but I picked something anyway.  I made myself
some noodles with chicken flavoring.

I went up to my bedroom and laid out the
blanket.  I got into bed and tried to find a comfortable spot, but the bed was
stiff and unused. 

I looked up to the doorway, "That's
going to get creepy." I said to Ronnie who was standing in the door arms
crossed. 

He was clean now.

"I don't mean it to be creepy.  I
just worry.”

“I worry too, but I don’t sneak up on
people.”

He smiled and leaned on the doorway,
“How are you feeling?”

"Are you having any trouble using
your abilities?" I sat up on the bed.

He held out his hands and a bolt of
energy arched across his palms, "nope it's actually getting easier the
more I use them."

"Oh." I looked at my hands.  I
concentrated on nothing else and thought only about the fire, but still nothing
happened.

"Maybe we can ask Sam." He
said, “I’m sure he’ll know what’s going on.”

"I don't know." I thought for
a moment, “Can we keep this between us for now?”

He nodded as he walked away.  He closed
the door making sure that it clicked.

Sleep came surprisingly slowly that night
with all that had been going on the past few days.  My body was hot,
uncomfortable, but I wasn’t sweating at all.  There were a lot of new noises,
and the heat was out of control in the room.  I kicked the blanket off in the
middle of the night.  Somehow one of the pillows ended up by the door. 

~//~

The next morning Sam was waiting in the
kitchen with a buffet of breakfast foods waiting, cooked to perfection.

"Can we expect this every
morning?" Kenny loaded his plate down with some of everything on the
table. We all did just as he did, mounding food onto our plates.

“Are we going to get fat eating like
this?” Sandy asked.

"No, your body will burn all of
this off by midday.  And unfortunately Kenny, I will not be able to cook like
this on a regular basis.  I just wanted you all to have a good start to your
first day." He had a much, much smaller plate of food in front of him.

"What are we going to do
today?" I took a bite of toast.

"I'm going to show you around Eastcroft. 
Then I’ll take you down to the server and get you guys into the system.  You'll
need to think about what you'd like for your codenames.  You won’t need them
today, but I want you to think about it over the next few days.  You will need
it before you go on your first mission." Sam explained.

"What do you mean by ‘in the system’?"
I asked.

"We have a system implemented to
track anyone who uses different abilities or oppose us in any way." Sam
said.

Sam took us on the promised tour of the
small town.  He showed us the location of the school, the clinic, and a small
corner store.  We also passed an unused police station and a larger group of
abandoned buildings.

“What’s with all of the abandoned
buildings?” I asked when we passed the fourth building.

“When the company that owned the town
put it up for sale they cleared out in a hurry.  Most of these buildings are
still full of equipment and we haven’t had time to clear them out yet.” Sam pulled
into the parking lot of a small building that was set apart by the huge
satellite dish on the roof.

“What is this place?” Ronnie asked.

"This is a server for the UATN, Users
with Ability Tracking Network.  It’s one of six across the country.  The dish
repeats up to that network station at the top of the mountain next to the
observatory." he pointed to the top of the mountain, "and is
accessible from anywhere in the world with the right set of access codes."

"Will we have access?" I
asked.

"Yes, we will give you everything
you need to use the network."

We walked inside of the building.  It
reminded me of when I went with Ronnie to get his driver's license.  The chairs
were very uncomfortable as we waited for an old white haired woman to call our
names.  She made me think of the old woman from the orphanage.

My name was called last.  I walked up to
the window where the woman immediately snapped my photo without any warning.

"Wow, how about some notice next
time." I rubbed my eyes, irritated, trying to blink the spots away. 

She looked like I had personally ruined
her day. She asked me the standard questions like my age, height, weight, so on
and so forth.  She asked me about my abilities.

What are my abilities?

How quickly did they show?

How hard was it for me to use them?

What color were the chemicals that they
used on me?

How was the chemical given to me?

It was all a little overwhelming.

I went ahead and told her what happened
at the Aurora facility.  I left out my new found lack of abilities though.

When she let me leave I met everyone
outside in the parking lot.  The lobby was small so I couldn’t blame them for
wanting to get out into the open air.

"Tomorrow we will go out to the
field and you will work with Silence.  He is very good at helping people learn
to use their abilities properly.  You are all still very unrefined, but you’ll
gain control, before long you will be masters." Sam said.

He took us back to the house.

"When do we start school?"
Ronnie asked when we got back inside and made ourselves comfortable in the
living room.

"We will get all of that sorted out
in the next couple of days.  For now just make yourselves at home and
relax." Sam stayed for a few moments, but he had other pressing matter so
he left us alone to catch up on television.

Ronnie found a news station.  The words
Aurora
Corporation
caught our eyes.  We all sat in silence and watched the
reporter.

“A short while ago we saw firsthand that
The Aurora Corporation was not invincible when one of their experimental power
reactors went critical in the wee hours of morning.  Despite this small set
back their latest project has not been slowed in the slightest.  With NASA
being completely dismantled after an incident last year, Aurora has stepped up
to take the task of dismantling and transporting the ISS from orbit to a museum
in Nevada.  The Aurora Corporation has been constructing a replacement space
station that will be operated in cooperation with the leading governments
around the world.”  The scene cut away from the reporter to photos of a
computer generated model of the future space station. 

“Oh that’s what we need.” Ronnie shut
off the TV and threw the remote a little harder then he should have on the
coffee table.  The batteries went flying across the room.

The heat was horrible but it seemed like
it was affecting everyone else more than me.  I usually didn't spend a lot of
time outside, none of us did.  Sam was kind enough to unload a couple of
coolers full of water onto the field before he drove off to attend to his
business.

Silence came out of a tent that had been
set up towards the back of the field.  A satellite dish was planted in the
ground next to the tent.  He was wearing the same thick clothes that he wore
when they rescued us from Jolt and his Sabers, but he already had sweat
dripping from his face.  He took his shirt off and threw it on a nearby chair. 

"I don't know if I'm going to be
able to concentrate." Rachel bit her lower lip.  I nodded, but kept hidden
from Ronnie.  Silence was lean, not an ounce of excess fat on his body.

"Alright, we are going to start
today with what we call showing.  I know all of you were forced to show by
Aurora, but using your abilities naturally without the assistance of their
machines can make a world of difference." Silence explained.

"What is your ability
exactly?" Ronnie asked with aggravation in his voice.

"I'm fast, agile, and above all
silent.  I can phase as I move to jump over pockets of space."

Ronnie turned and looked at Kenny, they
both chuckled.  When they turned back, Silence was gone.  Ronnie looked in all
directions very quickly, but in a split second Silence had Ronnie’s arm twisted
around his back.

Ronnie tried to fight back, but Silence
had his arm held behind his back too well, "Alright, I give."

Silence let him go.

"Above all, you must concentrate. 
It is important for you to focus your abilities into something that you can
use.  Never underestimate your opponent."

"Let's get started already."
Rachel said.

Silence pulled a remote out of his
pocket, shaking his head, "Two hundred yards away there are several targets
set up and they are set on automatic mechanisms and timers.  Break up and
attack them as the target dummies appear.”

We all walked off in different
directions.  I could see Ronnie in my peripheral vision.  I kept my eye on him
wondering what I was going to do.  A target shot up in front of Ronnie; it was
shaped like a masked soldier.  He hesitated at first, but quickly shot a bolt
of lightning into the targets chest sending splinters of wood flying in all
directions.

"Very good Ronnie." Silence
yelled from the tent where he was recording everything.

"Thanks." Ronnie spat towards
the tent.

"Visualize what you want to
happen.  Anything is possible." Silence announced to us all.

I closed my eyes and held out my hands. 
I visualized fire between my hands just like Silence said, but when I opened my
eyes there was nothing.  I got mad, furious, and started to fume.  I clenched
my fists so tight that my knuckles turned white. 

Still nothing happened.

"What's wrong Grace?" Silence walked
over to where I stood struggling, "That soldier would have killed you
already."

"Oh, it's nothing." I looked
away.  I waited for my face to cool before looking back to him, "I'm just
having some trouble."

"Really, What kind of trouble?"
he asked, his tone turned concerned in a heartbeat.

"It's nothing." I wished he
would just drop it and move on.

"Your abilities are directly
connected to your mental well being.  How long has it been since you used your
abilities?" he demanded.

"I don't know, since we escaped."
I turned away from him and took a few steps in the other direction.

He grabbed my arm and turned me to look
at him, "Grace this is important, we need to get you checked out." he
pleaded.  I wrenched my arm out of his hand but I didn't know why I was all of
a sudden so defensive.  I realized quickly that I had overreacted.

Ronnie saw what was going on and rushed
over to where Silence and I stood.  He stepped between the two of us.

"I'm sorry.  Did I hurt you
Grace?" Silence looked at his still outstretched hand.

"No, no." I said, "It's
just with everything, I'm just a little jumpy."

"None the less, I need to call
Sam.  You need to see the doctors."

"Is that really necessary, maybe
she just needs to have a few days to find her abilities again or
something?" Ronnie backed me up.

"No, Ronnie I think he is
right." I gently pushed him to the side.  He didn't fight me on the
subject, but looked disappointed.

"So much for keeping it under
wraps." he turned and walked away.

Silence returned to the tent picking up
his shirt on the way.  I felt that it was only a matter of time before they
declared me normal and sent me packing.