EPISODE 1 - The Dawn of the Omegapaths

Parsefal wouldn't admit it out right but he felt at ease around agent Nichuka. Actually he never really felt much of anything and that was precisely what he noticed. The medication he took that assisted in the control of his powerful psychometry made it difficult for him to empathize and it actually hindered his empathic abilities, nearly rendering them useless. They were necessary though, at least he believed they were. It had been so long since he had attempted to restrain his strongest ability on his own that he never considered whether or not he could abandon the drugs. He was contemplating it now though and he could only attribute this clarity of thought to the fact that his agent was a 'functional Genomorph'; a Genomorph that lived in society and was able to develop social relationships. Parsefal himself had been granted the freedom of his own apartment but he was still heavily monitored by IDS and ICOR. She, however was... normal.

To aspire to be normal, it was so cliche, but a reality nonetheless. Agent Raiko was able to conduct himself acceptably among Humans, but it was always a strain. There didn't seem to be anything natural about it, but with this woman he felt 'normal' because she was a Genomorph while being as close to a Human as possible.

Parsefal stayed close to Nichuka, trusting her powers to lead them to the boy. Instinct told him that the 'Chi' would not be that difficult to find. He definitely stood out in a crowd so he agreed that they should deal with the boy first, but they'd have to see what transpired. If the opportunity to pursue the young man presented itself they could make the decision then, but currently he would stick with agent Nichuka's decision on capturing Peter Stance.

As they crept through the dark alley, Parsefal was impressed with what IDS referred to as 'tracer', an agent specialized in only one thing — tracking. At one time he was placed in the same category but as his other abilities developed the label was soon lifted. She had training though and the woman who was basically a consultant had remembered her lessons well.

Still no sign of the boy, so agent Raiko took some time to relay some information to the clairvoyant. Since her omega waves were already spanning out and touching upon his a natural conduit formed and so he spoke to her telepathically a form of communication to which he was far more accustomed.

—"The young man's name is Faeyt Dunn. We began tracking him a couple of weeks ago. Local law enforcement had been investigating a triple murder, the suspect, an elderly man by that name. He disappeared, no doubt the victim of vengeance, but then the man's 'life-line' was red flagged when it appeared. He had been declared missing, possibly dead and the location of the I.D. bracelet supported this theory, yet it was sending out a signal that could only be produced by the man's living genetic code."—

Indigo's mind translated Raiko's thought's into speech. One could only describe the experience as a combination of a listening to audio which was a combination of the sender's voice and their own, accompanied with the occasional vision to describe detailed scenes and to literary define imagery. In truth it was a far more efficient way to communicate but I difficult one to accept.

—"The boy is Peter Stance. Sector escapee. Classified and dangerous. He is our top priority but his abilities are still developing and he is not yet as great a threat as a rogue omegapath has the potential to be. Stance is aware of his abilities he has been trained in controlling them and he will attempt to do so. Faeyt Dunn on the other hand is oblivious of his new talent, though I believe he has begun to suspect. He cannot deny that his body has significantly regenerated. We have never seen latent omegapathic abilities manifest in a Genomorph as they have in Dunn. It appears that his regenerative capabilities repaired his telomeres as well, but up until now documented psychokinetic studies have revealed that the dwindling of telomeres is only drastically slowed, never repaired. Until now."—

“The cure for aging.” Indigo more or less unintentionally relayed back to Raiko through their telepathic link when she heard of the Chi’s astonishing rejuvenation. She had been somewhat stunned by the man’s physique when she first saw him, but to think he had been old and dead before turning into someone at the prime of his life was simply mind boggling. “I’ve got a few telomeres which could use some regenerating.” She joked.

Nichukha was pretty accustomed to communicating through telepathy, since it was considered more efficient than any other method and it didn’t leave any kind of evidence either. No one would ever know what was said unless they were a part of the conversation. Indigo however never really engaged in these sorts of conversations, she was very cautious when it came to ‘invading’ someone’s mind, one way or another. She would just feel wrong if she was the one who started a telepathic link. She often felt she had to restrain herself when it came to her abilities, she thought it best to err on the side of caution. The very idea of letting her powers go was frightening to her.
The only thing she felt comfortable doing was using her clairvoyance, because she felt she had a good grasp of it and was never under the impression she would lose control. She knew how far she could take it and what would happen.

She hadn’t always been like this, but she thought it had been for the better. Avoiding her abilities and adopting a stance which some had called ‘timid’ with a distinct tone of disgust, had made her a better person. After all, she felt pretty happy with her life. She did important work, if not incredibly exciting. She felt at ease being a part of society, not bothered by the ‘drones’. Many people within IDS felt superior to the ordinary human, and in a way they were, but she wasn’t so sure they had it any better than these ‘drones’. She even had friends beyond the odd bunch at the ‘office’, which didn’t make her very popular among her colleagues, but she found that even ‘drones’ could be nice to be around. She even had a husband.
She felt bad for not climbing into bed next to him, instead being out on an adventure in the Subs with her fellow agents. Not that he’d notice her missing, since he was a very heavy sleeper, but still. And even if he did, he’d understand. He always did.

“Thanks for the heads up, Agent Raiko. I would tell you more about Dreyfous, but I think I’ve already said everything I know earlier.” She relayed.

Indigo let a bit of a silence slip into the conversation, and was becoming increasingly more conscious of it. Would Raiko expect her to say more, or would he rather have her remain silent unless it was important? Any regular person might find the silence uncomfortable and possibly rude, but they weren’t ordinary and they weren’t talking, they were using telepathy. She wasn’t sure how the last bit made the rules of normal conversation any different, but it might. Regardless, the man might not care for the rules of conversation in the first place. That was the real worry.

Well, she had to say something.

Should she maybe tell him something about herself? Would he appreciate that?
Probably not.

Perhaps she should pay some professional interest in the man and ask him about his experiences with IDS?
Ugh. This was more difficult than she thought it would be. Indigo almost wished Raiko hadn’t started a telepathic link. All the while the silence only grew.

She’d have nearly said anything that was about to pop into her mind, but then she noticed something. Her powers had led her towards someone. She saw flashes, details of a boy. She heard his breathing. Bringing her powers into focus confirmed it was Peter and she now knew he was but a few more turns of the alley away.
“I believe I have located the boy, be on your guard.” She told Raiko and continued steadily onwards.

Normally a telepath with a normal level of empathy would have picked up on the emotional override that occurred when logical communication began to break down, but Raiko was oblivious of Nichuka's exasperation over the conversation. He spent nearly all of his time with agent Boshun, and she always compensated for the man's cold, calculating nature. Not that he was without humour, it was just that he lacked sensitivity while communicating telepathically.

Raiko was actually very interested in what this agent had to say. IDS was comprised of many levels and she existed in one that allowed Genomorphs to live normally in society — or rather, as normal as they could be expected to live. She had a husband, friends, a life. It was fascinating.

He and Loryann, lived in the same complex. Right across from one another actually. Their apartments were chosen by ICOR and their movements were constantly monitored. Neither of them had never really know freedom in the true sense of the word, at least not the freedom that would allow one to have a relationship with a Human, let alone marry one. They were strictly prohibited from forming close social networks outside of IDS and every physical relationship either of them had experienced had been romantically detached. They were told it would effect their performance, and that the risk of exposure was too high and yet this agent seemed to be perfectly adjusted. Raiko even considered that she seemed far more relaxed than the agents of his department.

For most of his life he like many of his colleagues had considered what referred to as the liaison departments to be inferior to theirs, but this chance encounter had given him a revelation. What if they were appointed to their department not in accordance to their abilities and skills, but by how well they could fit into the Human world?

Raiko put aside his internal debate when Nichuka alerted him that she had pinpointed the boys position. He followed her, but was curious of the direction. The agent was sure that he had picked up on an omegapath behind them, but the waves were inconsistent. Very often, normal electrical and network signals could create a false omega wave pattern, which made it very difficult for them to trace one their kind by the patterns of their minds alone. Raiko simply felt that's what he had picked up and disregarded Sinclair's sporadic omega waves. The chaotic omega wave pattern of one not yet in control of their abilities.

Peter’s image and location became almost as clear as day in Indigo’s mind. The boy held the crate while looming over the corpse of the punk who had ran off with it earlier. In his other hand he still held the gun with which he had ended a life just moments ago. Indigo felt drawn to the image and couldn’t help but speed up through the alley, not caring for whatever else was happening around her, not even looking back if Raiko was still with her.

As Indigo closed physically, so did her vision focus on the boy more and more. She looked at him while he had his back turned to her vision, as he looked at the meat heap before his feet. That was, until he turned around and seemed to look right at Indigo’s mind eye, though surely he was not aware of her, she was too far away for him to come into contact with her omega waves. Nonetheless there was an eerie stare that did not veer from her vision, and her vision ever closed.

Indigo was shocked and even somewhat frightened by the turn of events and even though she wanted her vision to back off, she could not. She could not look away nor did she have any real power over her own gift, whatever the boy was doing, it was nothing like she had ever encountered. Her vision drew ever closer. Indigo could no longer see the alley or the dead body behind the boy, everything but the child had faded into a disturbing darkness. As her vision relentlessly closed on the boy’s stare even his face began to fade. Or perhaps it was his eyes which grew brighter, she couldn’t be sure.

All the while Indigo continued down the alley as fast her legs would take her. She weaved through the dark and abandoned streets as if she was a drunk hopped up on some kind of stimulant. She hoped that the faster she could get to the child the quicker she’d be able to regain some kind of control over her vision, but it wasn’t working.

It wasn’t until she managed to blink. Or was it the boy who blinked? She wasn’t sure, but instead of the blink turning everything black, she suddenly saw the alley and the dead body, but no boy. No crate either. This wasn’t her vision however, she was actually staring down the alley way. She quickly looked around, but had managed to get there entirely on her own, she had been so distracted she could no longer feel Raiko either. Indigo was hesitant to use her powers immediately after her experience with the boy, but if she was to get any trace of him she’d have to do something.



The woman’s sudden increase in pace was unexpected. Sinclair watched the woman go from a gentle walk in the park kind of pace into an almost mad bolt through the dark and dirty alley. Sinclair would have been more intrigued but his mind continued to ache and the stabbing pains seemed to become worse. Despite his worsening condition Sinclair knew he had to stay close to the woman, she wouldn’t suddenly start running if there wasn’t something going on. He hastened to go from cover to cover through the alley, much like the man the woman worked with had done before him. Actually, where had he gone? Sinclair realized he hadn’t been paying all that much attention to him since the woman began to run and his pain had gotten worse. Had he already gone around the corner after the woman or had was he still somewhere nearby?

Sinclair had to make sure they weren’t on to him, or who knew what might happen, but he was thinking of it just as he went for the next piece of cover. A jolt of pain later sent him rolling into his cover instead of doing it with any kind of grace. Sinclair hardly felt hitting the pavement, more focused on the pain he experienced inside his head. Despite the pain, the bruises and his now dirty suit he crawled up against the wreckage of half a car in the hopes of quickly easing the pain inside his head while staying out of sight. He wasn’t sure how much of a ruckus he had just created, but it didn’t matter anymore. He just had to get over this pain.

Agent Raiko followed closely behind, Indigo, his weapon drawn. Anticipating that they were closing in on the boy, Raiko telepathically alerted his partner who was still holding her position. She approached slowly, ensuring that their quarry would not be able to back track.

Navigating the dark alleys by her vision alone, Agent Nichukha's pace increased ever more. Parsefal was sure they had him, but then something strange happened. The woman seemed both confused and frightened at the same time. Had she lost the scent? The boy was further along than they had anticipated is such was the case, but now that they had were on his trail, his fate was sealed. Raiko's psychometry would extract all the information the boy left behind, and they would find him and at last end this chase, but there was nothing. Not even a single 'time-memory' of his passing. He was utterly baffled.

"What happened?" Raiko asked the other agent.

It was just then that there was a loud bang drawing their attention to the scene of accident at the end of long alley across from the agents. It looked like it was just a fender bender, but it was the cause of the wreck that interested them. The man, that agent Nichukha had been tracking was there, on the ground, apparently suffering from an 'omega-seizure'.

"Is that your man?" Asked Raiko, verifying the target.

“What happened?”

The agent sure knew to ask the right question, didn’t he? How was Indigo supposed to know, she wasn’t into this kind of thing. She had no experience with nonsense like this apart from listening to some stories at the office. She always thought these were highly exaggerated, but she was suddenly a lot less skeptical. She would have contemplated the boy’s sudden disappearance and the very creepy way in which it took place, but pressing matters emerged near instantly.

When she heard the thunk she had to quickly switch gears and turn her attention to the odd noise which originated a bit behind them. Raiko’s keen eye had spotted a man tumbling down unlike Indigo, she needed to squint to even see where this man had stumbled towards. Though when she laid eyes on the man there was no doubt who it was; Sinclair Dreyfous. Where did he come from? If anything Indigo thought him to be long gone rather than stalking around the same dark corridors as herself.



“Is that your man?”

Despite the pain and distraction of the headaches Sinclair noticed the murmurs coming from the male agent. It took a while but the woman he had been following primarily later answered.

“Yeah, that’s him, but…”

She seemed confused. Whether or not the two expected to find him skulking after them, the fact that he was their ‘man’ was probably not a great sign. When people with guns are after you, yeah, you might consider that to be a bad thing. Of course, he had no idea what they wanted from him or his case, but finding out was not very high on his list. His every instinct told him to get on his feet and just run, but despite his desperate attempts at trying to right himself it wasn’t working out.

The two agents slowly approached him while he clawed his way back onto his feet heavily leaning onto the wall trying to make up for his wobbly legs. Sinclair was going to make his escape while hugging the wall if he had to, but obviously that wasn’t really going to happen. Not only could he hardly make any progress, wall or no, but together with his weak legs, his hurting head his stomach also turned. Without warning Sinclair’s stomach began emptying onto the dirty alleyway.

“Ugh. Does this happen often?” The woman asked while Sinclair was busy hurling and making sure he wasn’t about to fall into his own mess.

Raiko's brow furrowed a little as he watched the man began to wretch all over the place. He was all too familiar with the sickness that accompanied the manifestation and also the suppression of omegapathic abilities. Some of course were more fortunate than others and never experienced the migraines but he wasn't one, nor was Dreyfous it seemed.

"Let's pick him up." Suggested Raiko as he lead the way down the alley toward the man.

It was then that they saw a tall man, with pale, gold coloured hair appear out of the shadows and move toward the ailing man.


Faeyt had been lurking in the shadows, waiting for the agents to clear off. From his hidden vantage point he observed that the vomiting man who was apparently in severe pain also expressed an interest in their movements. Was he like him? Faeyt wasn't sure but it was pretty obvious that the agents were closing in on him, and so without wasting anymore time, he scooped up Sinclair and dragged him into an under-passage.

"My name's Faeyt Dunn." he told the man, "You have to try and run, if you can."

Faeyt was able to easily support the man's weight, but Sinclair had to help balance out the load by at least moving his legs. He had an idea where they could hide out, but first they had to evade the agents. The under-passage just might offer such an escape route. It wound it's way below the regular sub-level, a labyrinth beneath the labyrinth. If they could get away and make it back to the Mid-Core, Faeyt was confident that he had a place they both could get some rest.

Sinclair wasn’t very pleased with the sudden change from severe internal movement to one of external momentum.
Alright, it was nice that he was no longer throwing up his innards’ content, but being picked up and hauled off by a stranger wasn’t exactly something he fancied either.

Though, this blonde man wasn’t really a stranger was he? He recognized the face the moment he got a good look at his savior. Or was he? Well, he didn’t seem to be best friends with the well-dressed people and they didn’t really strike Sinclair as having his best interest at heart. So that made this lad a welcome sight for his watery, sore eyes.
God, his head hurt.
His stomach wasn’t much better either, even though there wasn’t anything left to vomit, his stomach didn’t seem to realize that and continued to twist and turn. With his guts his head too spun, though it was starting to feel better. Maybe all of this had been something he had eaten?

There really wasn’t any time for too much thinking about the subject, there was still the matter of the chase at hand. Sinclair had to get control back over his body which had been moving quite involuntarily and wasn’t much for running right now, still he couldn’t just keep dragging his feet. He hardly needed the encouragement of Faeyt to start using his legs, it was more of a body management issue that needed to be addressed.

While putting a lot of thought and effort into the needed movements he managed to get his feet to work in tandem with Faeyt, more or less. In the end it was the result that mattered, and they were picking up speed, so that was good.

Once all that was under control there was only one thing left on Sinclair’s mind.
“What the frip is going on!?”



Raiko and Beshun probably knew well by now that running around wasn’t Indigo’s strong suit, so when the young man who had offered his help to her earlier popped out and snagged Sinclair she couldn’t help but curse under her breath. They were way out of her league and there was no way she was going to keep up with those two.
There was however the matter of something that belonged to Sinclair. It was a disgusting sight, covering part of the wall, the wrecked car and forming a horrid puddle on the filth covered concrete.
The bright side?
It came straight from Sinclair’s gut.
She had managed to produce a small vial and a pair of plastic gloves from her pockets, but that didn’t really make her following actions any less gross.
She had uncovered a new reason to dislike field work.

Faeyt bore under the strain of the man as they wove their way through the crowds that inconsiderately gathered in the narrow space. His muscles burned, and a few times he clumsily he drove his shoulder into the idle pedestrians as he attempted to maneuver around them. A few cursed him, but most took the hit, bounced of the wall and continued on their way, staring blankly ahead.

"Damned, Zoners.", Faeyt growled under his breath.

When he was a younger man, about fifty years ago, the internet had become a fully integrated cerebral network. People were literally able to upload their consciousness into the web and it didn't take a damn rocket scientist to predict what happened. Faeyt had seen it from the beginning, everyone with common sense did. The damned fools who were uploading what brains they had, weren't getting them all back. The system, turned into just another bloody drug, and it took a decade to eradicate the technology. Five years ago, somebody illegally resurrected the 'cerebral-net' and started to sell accounts. The people who used the system were called Zoners. Like all junkies they chose to live semi-conscious lives, staggering about the streets their minds trapped in between fantasy and reality. Stupid, jack-asses is all that came to Faeyt's mind as he plowed through them. They stuck to the dark labyrinth, wandering the narrow corridors like zombies because outside of it they would most likely wander into a car or walk off of a building. Fortunately, they would slow up the agents as well, but not enough. Faeyt was getting tired. He took a moment to catch his breath, and focus and that's when something rather peculiar happened. He simply wasn't tired anymore. He literally caught his breath on the first one and he felt strong again, maybe stronger.

Refreshed, Faeyt looked toward the stairwell that he had not even considered an option. "Com'on." he said to the weakened man as he hauled him up once more.

Together, Faeyt and the sick man sprinted up the stairs as fast as possible. The tall man, powered his way up every step, and the stranger could feel the heat radiating from him. He was like a furnace. Sweat trickled down his face and his golden hair was now damp. Thankfully, mid-way up the stairs, the other man had at last regained his senses and began to work with Faeyt, pumping his legs in unison. Now they were making good time and even though neither of them could yet here the sounds of the pursuing agents they both knew that they were right behind them.


Raiko did not pursue. He stopped with agent Nichukha while she took her sample and contacted his partner, then relayed what he had told her to Indigo.

"Agent Boshun will continue the pursuit. We will rendezvous with her later." Raiko told her, he then stared down the street curiously, "Do you have a car?"

He figured she must have a vehicle. This agent was not physically conditioned to foot chases. If they used her car, they could follow, Boshun's directions and perhaps corral these two rogue omegapaths.


The elevator raced to the surface, leaving the subterranean world behind. Faeyt had picked up a thing or two during his long life and he knew how to jimmy a service elevator. Thankfully they had found one that he had knowledge of, and just as the stranger, was starting to make sense of things, Faeyt had pushed him into the car and proceeded to remove a panel in the floor. Reaching into his pocket, he produced a swiss army knife he had picked up at the shelter he stayed at when he was helping out with some repairs. He used it to remove the screws then popped open the metal door that concealed a circuit board. He then dove in, obviously aware of what he was doing, crossing wires and reconnecting one to the emergency power supply. The elevator then started working, and Faeyt hit the button for Mid-core street level. The car began to climb and with a sigh of relief, Faeyt took a seat on one of the benches that ran along the walls. The trip would probably take ten minutes, and so many long distance elevators had benches so that weary people could take a load off of their tired feet.

"So, why are those agents after you?" Asked Faeyt of the man, as he leaned back against the wall while throwing his long legs on an adjacent one and making himself comfortable.

Even while Indigo lead the way towards her beloved Lightningbird the smell of vomit was still stuck in her nose.

“I sure do. It’s not far.” She said, “Right by the train station.”

Incidentally, she was rather proud of her car. Alright, it was a bit of mess, but cars like this weren’t just sitting on every street corner. Oh no, the Lightningbird didn’t just look like it was a car from a forgotten age, in which it was hardly the only car on the streets today, it was one of the first to have the mid 19th century styling. Of course, that meant it had been out of production for a good decade and she was lucky to have found one at all, even second hand. Though, she had to admit, she didn’t even know much about cars, but she knew a sweet ride when she saw one.

“It’s a 3.9 Energy Cell T3 Lightningbird. Light blue and chrome.”

Even though she hardly had a clue what it meant to have a 3.9 Energy Cell under the hood, she had been told by its previous owner that was the best kind of Lightningbird powercell out there. Some people were actually impressed by these specifications, but Indigo got the feeling Raiko wasn’t one of these people.

“I’m told the 3.9 is quite the spectacle, but to be honest I’m not sure what it all means, its just something people like to hear. You know?”



Sinclair was happy to be off his feet and sitting down in the reasonably comfortable and quiet elevator. While it made its way up to the Mids Sinclair got a chance to recover from his terrible headache and his upset stomach. Oddly enough these things went almost as quickly as they came.

“So why are these agents after you?”

Faeyt’s voice made Sinclair cringe. He was getting better, but the loudness of his voice still hurt his vulnerable head.

“Agents?” Sinclair mumbled.

What agents? Those people chasing them were agents? Like what? Cops? Sinclair had been edging towards thinking these people were operating on the opposite side of the law, but perhaps he was wrong. He couldn’t imagine why the mob was after his crate but even less why the police would want it. Or why they’d want him. Or why they’d want this young man.

“I’m not sure.” Sinclair finally answered, “Were they after me? I couldn’t tell what they were up to, but they sure were interested in my mother’s scotch.”

Sinclair wasn’t sure what good an answer like that would do the man, but heck, maybe he actually had a clue and it all made perfect sense to him.

“By the way, I’m Sinclair. Nice to meet you… I guess.”

Indigo's anticipation of Raiko's response could not have been any more accurate. Agent Nichukha's might as just well have been a toaster with wheels as far as he was concerned. Years of training and conditioning had near removed all impracticalities that ICOR would consider a hindrance to those who served in his specialized department.

"It is a very attractive vehicle." Parsefal responded. A failed attempt at being complementary, but then he was not really sure that flattering remark should actually be applied to the buyer of a well made car. All accolades should go to the manufacturer should they not?

Raiko stood motionless outside of the car until she bid him enter. He slid into the passenger seat, his eyes quickly inspecting the interior then he responded to her self directed question as if reciting it from a manual.

"The 3.9 E-Cell, is a hydro-electric chamber with dual hydronics. It produces a substantial 3 mega-joules of power but it is the '0.9' that makes the car unique. The T3 Lightningbird's two hydronic processors increase the power core by 1.8 meg's, giving the T3 an impressive 5.7 mega-joules at high speeds without any dampening. Due to the expense, this car was the only model to ever to be equipped with dual hydronics, in fact the hydronic technology was shelved and replaced with the now common 'radien amplifier' used in all models produced by the same manufacturer."

Raiko then requested, "Proceed to 172nd Street and Auburn Ave." as if he were relaying the directions from a silent source, and Indigo could bet that was a telepathic message from his partner.


After hearing Sinclair's side of the story, Faeyt just leaned back against the side of the elevator and laughed heartily. He hadn't laughed since his bizarre resurrection and it felt good to let it out and wash away the anxiety that had been building up within him.

"Sinclair," he started between laughs, "I can assure you that those people are not after your mother's scotch." He continued to laugh then for a few more minutes before he finally caught his breath and wiping the tears from his eyes continued, "I'm sorry for that, but they've been on my tail for over a week and within the last few hours I've ran into some freaky child with a pulse-arm and now you, who I have to say has taken me a little by surprise."

Faeyt was a quiet for a moment, still musing at his own situation but it then glancing over at the confused man it dawned on him that he had only just become immerse in all of this.

"Look, don't worry." He reassured him, "We're safe for now, and once we reach the Mid, I know a place where we can lay low. You can't go home, they'll be waiting. Now, I honestly can't tell ya what'll happen if they catch us but I for one don't want to find out. Near as I can tell, they're after me, because I'm different. Y'know those costumed freaks that got on the news before the censor board banned all videos of them, well I think they're the real deal. There's something weird happening, but not to everyone, just a few of us, and I know there's something different about you too. When I first met that kid, I felt something strange," he tapped a finger to his temple, "up here, and I can feel it around you too."

“Well…” Sinclair tried to get Faeyt to stop laughing so much, “You don’t know the kind of scotch my mother drinks.”

It only seemed to make matters worse, but luckily the young man would run out of steam soon enough and mentioned the costumed renegades that had been on the news a few times. Sinclair hated watching television, but even so this hadn’t passed him by, there were a great number of digital communities fascinated with these people. Though, they had all disappeared from the net almost as quickly as they had emerged. The net really had a viral potential and things on there could come as quickly as they went. The question was why these appearances of these odd people had stopped. Sinclair had never put much thought into it, but Feayt put forward an interesting point.

Though, speaking about feeling something different about him, now that was suggesting rather too much.
“What do you mean?” Sinclair was eager to get on the defensive. He was no freak and he looked horrible in tights, it just wouldn’t work. Despite not wanting to be associated he couldn’t help but rub his own temple and had to admit he noticed his ordinary headache was accompanied by an odd tingling sensation that wasn’t normally there. Still, that could just as well be a side effect of the incredibly painful headaches he had twice already.

“What do you feel so different about me!? I just have these horrible headaches, but I’ve had them for ages.” He continued to maintain his normality.

“Besides, its quite normal to feel odd when you run into a kid with a gun. What about that kid anyway?” Sinclair hoped that’d be enough deflecting to keep the subject away from himself.



“Alright…” Indigo said as she started the car and booted up the sat-nav.

Raiko didn’t exactly bowl her over with his display of factual knowledge. He was about as fun as reading a manual, and at least it would have pretty pictures of shiny components.
She wasn’t sure if there was any subject the man couldn’t smother in the same way. Though, perhaps there was one subject he’d be a bit more… ‘passionate’ about. Perhaps passionate wasn’t the word, since she was referring to Raiko after all, but still. And she might just learn a thing or two from her new partners.

“So, I guess Beshun just told you the direction we should be headed in? Too bad we decided to split up I would have liked to get to know her better. What’s she like? You know, as a partner. To work with, I mean.”

Oh yes, that should do the trick.

Raiko's reaction to Agent Nichukha's question would have gone unnoticed by most, but Indigo's high powered perception could sense the man's emotional intensity rise. There were some feelings there, buried deep beneath his years of conditioning. She could tell that he was attempting to formulate the most precise answer, sifting out any emotional responses which had no place during an investigation, or just about any other occasion as far as Raiko was concerned.

Agent Raiko just stared ahead, barely blinking, his eyes focused on the road the just when it seemed like he was going to ignore the question blurted out, "She's a dependable partner." He then glanced over at agent Nichukha as if looking for her approval of his comment and she was practically urging him on with her eyes to continue. This made him feel awkward to say the least. Raiko didn't often 'open up' to people, well people other than Lorryen. In two weeks they would have known each other for seventeen years, not that Raiko was keeping track of the time or anything like that. She was the only person he had ever let himself depend upon, they even lived across from one another in the same apartment complex. Was this agent aware of that? Raiko was suddenly wary of her motives.

"Agent Boshun is an exceptional agent. She is an impressive omegapath, with a Theta III rating and Tau II as well as an Epsilon in the sixties among other talents. She graduated top in her class, I was very fortunate to have been assigned to work with her."

There was more. Much more, that Raiko could say about Lorryen but it was not for the agent's ears, nor any others. For a brief moment only the heavy burden of a secret showed upon his face then it was gone.

"So you are married, agent Nichukha." He stated, somehow aware of her status, "How does your husband feel about what you are and what you do?" Raiko countered.


The elevator continued it's climb to the mid-core and because it was a service model mainly designed for hauling freight the ascent was very slow. Fortunately, though, they would not make any stops along the way. Not even maintenance personal would be able to override Faeyt's by-pass, at least not until it completed it's run and reset it's control system.

For now, Faeyt ignored Sinclair's mention of the kid with the gun and dwelled on the head-aches. "I used to get them to when I was..." he was going to say in his mid twenties, but that was how old he appeared now, "... a kid. They went on for a few years then they stopped; doctors couldn't explain it. Deep breathing exercises used to help me, believe it or not."

The car suddenly came to a jarring stop.

"What the hell?" Said Faeyt as he rolled off of his bench and onto the floor, absorbing the inertia.

Faeyt quickly rose and went over to check on his little hot-wiring job. "Shit! Everything looks good here, someone else is messing with it."

“My husband?”

Darn, just as she was getting somewhere he had to throw that at her. Indigo couldn’t help but fidget with her wedding ring. Of course he was going to ask her about her husband, they always did. If they didn’t put two and two together and realized the piece of metal around her finger wasn’t just an ornament they’d look at her record and it would clearly state the fact very near the top. Privacy these days wasn’t exactly a high priority, anyone with ICOR could look her up within seconds. Luckily Indigo had no problem discussing her husband, but she’d have rather continued with Raiko. Obviously, he didn’t. She’d get back to it later, though.

“Why, what would you expect? That I live some kind of double life, with secret powers and a secret job? I won’t come home to him and tell him I was saving kittens until the early hours. He knows well enough what kind of city we live in and what my role is.”

Indigo was getting a bit tired of the questions and the well meant concerns, but clearly they didn’t get it. She had tried a lot of approaches to explaining the way her relationship worked, but few people around her could really grasp it. She might have been a bit blunt about it, but in her experience that’s about the best way to get your point across. On the other hand, she didn’t really want the mood in the car to sour too much.

“I don’t expect you to understand, but maybe I can show you something that’ll help.” She said and reached down her collar in order to fish out a tiny pendant. On the end of the silver necklace there was just a small gemstone, barely the size of a pill. The uncut stone was rough, but nevertheless very sparkly in the dim nightly lights.

“My husband gave this to me. When he was younger he did a lot of ‘exploring’. It’s not like there’s anything we haven’t mapped yet on our little blue bauble, but he was under the impression there was something out there no one else had ever seen -- he’s a bit of a dreamer. Either way, he came across this tiny thing once and had a jeweler fashion this pendant out of it. He wore it as if it was a part of him, that’s how much he loved that little stone. Until he crossed paths with a certain lady, that is.”

“This wasn’t the best time of my life, I’d have to admit, but my husband kept telling me we could turn it around together. At perhaps the very lowest point he decided to part with his beloved gem. As he took it off and put it in my hand he said; ‘I can’t always be with you, but whenever you want -no matter the time, no matter the reason- you can be with me.’”

“I didn’t want to take it, but he wouldn’t take it back. He insisted the twinkle in my eyes was a thousand times better than that gem. Now how could I refuse him after that? But you know what? I never once used my gift on it. From that day onward I never had the need. I knew he was there for me and always would be. And now, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t use my gift on it anymore to see him. It has become my gem for all intents and purposes.”

“Does that make sense to you?”

Indigo knew there was something behind that steel mask of Raiko’s, but whether or not she’d ever have a clue of what he hid behind it, that was the question. She might not even like what she’d find, but the tragedy she felt hanging around this man made her want to try and help if she could.



“Oh, yes! Breathing, of course. How could I not have tried breathing! Clearly a headache could be caused by the complete lack of oxygen. Also death, probably. Let me get right on that.”

First the laughing, now the stupid ideas. Sinclair wasn’t in the mood for this kid’s shenanigans. He had tried nearly everything anyone had ever suggested in order to ease his headaches, but none of it worked. He was pretty sure he had tried half a dozen breathing based therapies and what not. They were all rubbish. Still, he might have been a bit rough on the young man, and he would apologize, but the cabin stuttered to a sudden halt. It sent Sinclair tumbling to the floor and smacking into the side of the elevator.

He was about to blame Faeyt for this turn of events, but he seemed rather surprised as well and was pretty sure it wasn’t his fault. It was a good thing Sinclair no longer had anything left to throw up, because he felt pretty terrible as he tried, but failed to get himself back onto the bench. Instead of worrying about it he decided the floor would do for now and turned his attention to the lack of movement the elevator was experiencing.

“How did this happen? Can’t you just override it?”

This wasn’t the kind of place Sinclair wanted to get stuck at.

Raiko's face was a mixed palette of emotions as agent Nichukha painted him a vivid scene of life he had never known. A few times his eyes drifted back to the road but they were always drawn back to the Genomorph as he shared her tale of what he assumed was love. He had never experienced such a thing and if he had was not aware of it.

When Indigo had finished her story and asked if he understood what it meant, Raiko turned away and peered outside of his window as if he might find his response on one of the many 'electronically modulated optical display' or emod billboards that added a splash of colour to the grey underworld. They were traveling up a spiraling incline now and a the vast body of one of the few open areas of the under-city was spread out before them. Soon they would be passing into yet another tunnel and continue their upward descent along the cork-screw like highway.

Finally, Raiko turned back to Indigo to offer a reply to her question. "I envy you." he told her. An unexpected response from the robotic agent and one that he had obviously thought long and hard upon, "I have often wondered what life... my life, could have been like had its circumstances been different. Thank you." He then bowed to her in a Japanese fashion and resumed watching the road.

'Was this another test?' Raiko wondered. His entire life he had been part of ICOR, the largest, most powerful corporation in the world. IDS came much later and in the beginning he was part of a domain not unlike the one that agent Nichukha worked for. The International Department of Security, was comprised of many divisions that were called 'domains', each one a self contained unit with its own policies and Controllers all following the voice of one leader called the Director. Known to few of those with higher security clearance, like Parsefal Raiko, Director Bayden whom few had ever seen was the true leader of the Chamber. She was the most powerful person in the world. No one crossed her, no one except a cocky agent with advanced psychometric abilities who one day saw too much. Since then he has always been observed in one form or another and was placed into one of the most disciplined of domains to ensure that he never had much freedom.

A vision of an elevator shaft flashed into, Raiko's mind. It was agent Boshun and apparently she had located the Teleporter and the Psychokinetic. "Boshun has found them.", he informed Nichukha.

Raiko flicked his eyes toward the 'sat-nav' display and telepathically synched with it and accessed the coordinates to the location. "There they are. She has disabled the elevator but is unable initiate its descent."


"F**K!"

Faeyt grit his teeth and pulled out a handful of wires.

"F**k, f**k, f**k, f**k, f**k, f**k, f**k, f**k. "

One didn't have to be an electrical engineer to know that ripping wires out of a control panel wasn't a good sign. That combined with the young man's colourful language would also tip one off that things weren't going very well.

"Shit!" Faeyt said in a low voice as he discarded the wires and stood before the panel, hands on his hips and head hung low out of frustration. "Well there ain't no overriding it now."

The video monitor beside the control panel then blinked on and on it was rather attractive woman with short yellow coloured hair and vibrant, violet eyes. "You are both wanted for resisting arrest and trespassing." she informed them, "Please stay where you are."

Those were some bullshit warrants if, Faeyt, ever heard any and was already looking for a way out of the elevator. "We gotta make a run for it, Sinclair. Help me pop this hatch."

Envy.

Some would consider that a mortal sin. But if you asked Indigo it was a virtue for a man like Raiko. Unfortunately she couldn’t be sure if it was a wisely concocted answer meant to please her so she’d feel good about sharing her story. He probably thought she’d like to be envied for her life. But she was probably over thinking it, even if she couldn’t be sure around the man whether he truly felt this way or just did his best to emulate these feelings. He did not seem the dishonest type, and surely his measured response was as close to the truth as he could get. She’d take the measured truth over elaborate lies any day.

Indigo left some breathing space after he shared his feelings. There was once again a slight air of sadness surrounding the man. And it wasn’t just his inability to really allow his emotions to surface, but something deeper. He could probably have plenty of emotions, if he were allowed to. And really, all that meant was that he had to allow himself to let them surface. Possibly the tragedy she felt was the very reason for his current state. He might even realize it himself, but feel there is no way out of it. Of course, Indigo didn’t believe that was true. There’s always a way.

Raiko shortly became distracted and then telepathically fiddled with the navigation, Beshun had tracked and trapped the loose genomorphs. These two didn’t mess about, that much was clear. Indigo made sure to step on the gas just that bit harder now that they had a clear target. She was a bit obsessed with sticking to the speed limit, but she’d make an exception if it meant rounding this up before sunrise. It was a good thing she had a coffee or she’d have trouble keeping her eyelids open.

“You know, Raiko…” Indigo felt it was time to pick up where they had left off, “A lot can happen.”

Indigo wasn’t sure if she could say this without him thinking she was meddlesome and should mind her own business, but she really thought she had to give the man some advice.

“Like, how in physics they say that every action has an equal and opposite reaction? And a lack of action means there’s no reaction, everything is static and you’re stuck with the status quo. That’s kind of true in society as well, just that the relations are a lot harder to predict. Still, you can make things better, but it takes a bit of effort. And a bit of faith.”



While the young man wrecked the elevator console Sinclair slowly righted himself. He was beginning to doubt whether or not it was such a good thing to be stuck with this guy in a place like this. Who knew where he’d next try to vent his frustration?

The appearance of the woman on the small screen changed a few things, however. At least now they knew the reason for their ride stopping on them and that they had better not stick around for too long now that their pursuers had them cornered.

“Can she see us?” Sinclair wondered aloud while Feayt explored the elevator for a way to go forward. “Hello? Lady?” He now directed himself to the screen.

“We’d be glad to sort this all out.” Sinclair continued to talk to the screen as he walked to the side of the elevator. “In fact, I’ve got something right here which will explain everything.”

Sinclair went along the side of the elevator until he got next to the screen and decided to give it a good kick. Hey, if Feayt got to ruin a console, surely he could ruin a screen. She probably couldn’t even see or hear them, but better safe than sorry.

“Maybe she’s gullible?” Sinclair wondered aloud, “At least we won’t have to listen to her while we try to open the hatch. It’s win-win really.”

Peter crouched in a tiny crevice in a building. The space was just barely big enough for the boy to squeeze with the crate. He could barely breathe and he was already building up an ache that ran all the way down his spine from his head to his rear, not to mention the corner of the crate was digging into his shoulder.

It was one of those horrible moments where his powers seemed to have a sick sense of humor woven into its mercy. One moment, he was standing there, ready to return the crate to the woman who had seemed so distraught about it. The young omegapath he had been following had given him a strange look when he retrieved the crate and ran from him-- a reaction that had thoroughly confused Peter. Unfortunately there had been no time to mull it over because his head suddenly seared with pain. There was no real image or even a message to think of, just a pure instinct that ran into his brain so powerful that is forced his body into motion.

If there had been any words to it, they would have simply been, RUN. NOW.

His head had pounded with every step, blurring his vision with pain and migraine. He wondered if this time he would fall over, if his muscles would tense like they often did. He had been told he jerked too as though being electrocuted. No, there was definitely no time to be doing that. He didn't know why, he just knew he needed to hide. Peter took off with all of his speed and dove into the first dark crevice he saw, squeezing the crate in with him. It was there that he had to all but gag himself to keep from crying out in agony. His head felt as though something had squeezed it between two slabs of concrete and then pulsed deadly high voltage into it. Curling over the crate, Peter's body tensed with pain and he found himself looking for images in a desperate attempt to shorten or ease the migraine. As though his receiving the "message" would make things better.

On the contrary, it only seemed to make things worse until he realize that there was no vision coming, just more instinctual "knowledge" like before. In the end, he was left panting, sweating and exhausted, with a residual throbbing in his head and all he knew was that the woman was dangerous.

Now he wasn't quite sure what to do-- with himself, with the crate, with these new people. For lack of any better ideas, Peter squeezed himself out of the space with a quiet grunt and stretched. He then looked at the crate and wondered if he should stick with it and give it to the blond guy. What was in this thing anyway? He tried to pry it open with his small fingers, but all he got for his efforts was a splinter. Sighing, Peter pulled the splinter out of his finger and sat down on the crate, looking around and considering his next move.

"Faith?" Raiko pondered the word.

During his studies while in basic training they had some philosophical debates about the subject and he could never wrap his mind around the concept. He required concrete facts in order to see any situation clearly and thus believed that those who went about their daily lives on faith alone, lived in a fog.

"I do not have the luxury of faith, agent Nichukha." he said simply, "Perhaps that is the difference between you and I. Do you really believe that people should waste their time by placing their complete trust in anything? In my experience, nothing and no one is dependable all the time."


"Nice kick." complimented Faeyt as he struggled with the hatch. A tall man, he was able to reach up to the ceiling and grab the recessed handle while standing on one of the benches that ran along the wall. "Shit! It's locked." he then commented as he looked around for something to pry the hatch open but there was nothing.

Faeyt jumped down. "Shit! We're sitting ducks. That hatch is the only bloody way outta here. Unless..." Faeyt turned to the doors and jammed his fingers into the narrow opening. He then grabbed hold of one of the doors and pulled back as hard as he could, then when the opening was large enough he rammed his boot against the other. Then with an impressive display of strength (which might have been normal for a man of his size and build) he pushed and pulled until he was able to slip his back against a door and pushed against the other with both his legs.

It had been plainly obvious that in the manner that the tall man had performed the task, he had made it a one person job. It was also debatable whether it would have been easier with two people or not, but it did become quickly apparent that the doors were not going to stay open on their own. Faeyt had to remain holding them open, which meant that Sinclair would have to go first.

Access to any floors during the service elevator's travels were sporadic at best and they had been fortunate enough to stop near one. At the top of the doorway was a narrow opening that a man could just squeeze through, but who would want to? If the elevator every started to roll downward whatever or whoever was within the opening would be ripped in half. A most gruesome way to go, but would the elevator move? It didn't seem so.

"We've gotta be close to the mid-core." Figured Faeyt, "Scramble up there and see if you can find something to wedge in these doors." he requested of Sinclair.


Agent Boshun stood back and briefly chewed on the inside of her lip. A very 'human' habit, one of which she was ever attempting to suppress and also, oddly enough, one of the idiosyncrasies that Raiko always remembered about her. Where was he anyway? Their telepathy had disconnected, just like computers went to sleep after a certain period of being idle, so too did their omegapathic abilities. Not feeling like going to the effort to re-establish a link, Boshun thought it best to take matters into her own hands. She checked a near by control panel, and on a display learned specifically where the elevator had stopped and decided that she could ensure they didn't back track if she was quick enough. She had a lot of stairs to take, too many as a matter of fact and she realized that it was in her best interest to take another elevator part of the way, if she could find one close by.

Agent Boshun wandered out into one of the subterranean streets in search of public elevator that carried people to and from the mid-core. It was either that, or a train, but presently she could find neither. Her 'i-glasses' revealed the nearest station and elevator were several blocks away, but there was a network of stairwells that were closer. What to do? She was not one to shy away from a physical challenge, but would she save time if she hiked her way up to the mid-core? As she debated the question, Lorryen wandered down the street toward an entrance to one of the first stairwells in winding route and that's when she saw it. There just down the street from her was the crate and sitting upon it was the boy. If hadn't of been for the box, she might not have even noticed him, but as it were, this was her lucky day.

Lorryen had to be smart about this. Above her, she had two potentially dangerous, rogue omegapaths and there before her was Peter Stance. What would she do with the boy in the mean time if she captured him. She had to make her ascent and make sure they didn't back track, and dealing with the young omegapath at the moment would not be conducive to her priorities. She had little choice but to call Sector. They would deal with the boy in their own way.

She had to use the word ‘faith’ didn’t she? It was far too vague and far too floaty for a man like Parsefal.

“No, no, no!” She protested to Raiko’s insinuations while throwing her car into a corner with a bit too much speed. “I didn’t mean you should put faith in others. You have to have faith in yourself. If not yourself, then who? Sure, I leaned on my husband, but he got me to believe in myself. I never used the pendant, right? Sometimes you need to be reminded to believe in yourself is what I’m saying.”

Indigo maneuvered the car with its screaming tires and then slowed it down so she could actually take her eyes off the road for a moment.

“But, look, I don’t want to get into a discussion. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be going about bothering you with things like this. It’s just a friendly reminder from one colleague to another.” She said, realizing they were nearing the end of their car journey. Of course she wasn’t really considering to stop her meddling, but it was best not to distract Raiko now that they were nearing their targets once again. Besides, she also had to focus on the task ahead, and maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to make sure she didn’t drive into anything either.

“Our destination is just a bit further. So what’s next? Will agent Beshun be there?” She wondered.



“Hmmm…” Sinclair hummed as he looked at the fruit of Faeyt’s labors. There was indeed a small gap right at the very top which would fit him. Sinclair was less worried about getting stuck up there than he was of where he’d end up. The subterranean skyscraper they were traveling along in the elevator could be filled with a great variety of people and he could end up at a variety of places. These buildings were miniscule cities in and of themselves. Especially in the Subs; they’d have residences, offices, shops and even some light industry right inside what was essentially the foundation of a much larger structure which might even reach right into the open sky of the city. On top of that, this was the sub core, and it wasn’t unlikely the building was the territory of a bunch of mobsters. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon for a building to be shared by more than one group, but of course these people weren’t known for their ability to live in harmony. Sinclair could only guess what he’d find on the other side of the elevator, but clearly they’d be better off inside the building than stuck in an elevator.

He’d prefer to avoid the interior of one of these buildings but there was no point arguing, he had wasted enough time staring at the only way out as it was.

“Alright, let me see what I can find.”

It took him a bit of work, but eventually Sinclair managed to scramble through the hole and into the building proper. He might have kicked or shoved the young man at several occasions as he tried to hoist himself up, but he could probably handle a few bruises. Wherever he was, it was dimly lit and by the looks of it that wouldn’t last very long either as the lamp was periodically flickering. It wasn’t much of a concern for Sinclair though, he didn’t intend to stick around very long anyway.

Even though the room was mostly darkened, except for the light right by the elevator Sinclair believed he got lucky. There was the buzzing of a great variety of equipment in the air that made him believe this was one of the many maintenance floors, filled with pipes, pumps, generators and computers. It would make sense for the elevator to end up at one of these floors. It probably also meant he wouldn’t run into a lot of people. It was however, rather hot.

If only there were more lights on, he’d probably be capable of locating a chunk of steel within a heartbeat. He looked back down at the elevator and found Faeyt looking back up, encouraging him to go on. Yes, well, of course he’d have to, but he wasn’t very comfortable doing any of this. Though, being stared at by the young man was even less comfortable, so he stepped forward and prepared to start fumbling through the dark. But to Sinclair’s surprise he found that a light came on as soon as he stepped into the darkness. At first the flickers startled Sinclair, but once he realized it was just a light coming on he felt relieved.
Motion sensing lights. Of course. Only natural in this modern day and age.

Now he could proceed a lot quicker through the vast room filled with enormous equipment. The lighting made it difficult for him to get a good grasp of the magnitude of it all, as only the nearest lights would come on, but he was convinced there were quite some contraptions down here. There might be thousands of people depending on just the equipment in this room, so he’d better not muck anything up. As he continued looking for something big and strong enough to wedge in between the doors of the elevator Sinclair began to worry about finding his way back, but at least at the far end of the room the faithful flickering light above the door was still alight.

It must have taken him the better part of ten minutes, but he finally found something that might just do the trick. Sinclair had come across a tool box sitting next to a big contraption that looked like it had been worked on very recently. A hatch was sitting next to the device on the floor and a bunch of pipes, tubes and circuits were exposed. At least the thing seemed to work, so no one would be missing the tool box very soon, though surely at some point. But what did Sinclair care? He closed it up and decided to give it a good looking over. It looked solid and rugged, like a toolbox should. He knocked on it just for getting a good feel of the strength of it. But like many modern products it was made of some kind of poly-fiber-steel-alloy-compound, or whatever. But it’d hold, so who cared?

It was however a bit heavy and it threw Sinclair off balance as he tried to speedily make his way back to the elevator. The lights coming on a bit sluggishly didn’t help either, so he couldn’t help but bump into a thing or two as he was on his way back, but all it did was create a bit of a racket no one but he and Faeyt would hear. Despite the bumpy ride, Sinclair could finally present a relieved Faeyt with something to stick between the elevator doors. Sinclair crouched down and handed the tool box to an eager Faeyt.

“Here you go. That should do the trick, don’t you think?” He said, quite proud of his find.
“Hmmm, is it just me or do you also hear this strange hissing sound? As if there’s air escaping out of a tire or something.” Sinclair noticed this new sound amidst the myriad of hums and buzzes and scratched his head. Had he run into something and inadvertently broken it?

Faeyt was relieved to see Sinclair again. He wouldn't admit it but he thought for a moment that the man might ditch him, but not only did he return but he had brought back something that would serve to brace the doors. He reached up with one arm and grasped the handle, able to guide the heavy toolboxes descent and that's when Sinclair made mention of the hissing sound.

Filtering out the cacophony, Faeyt focused on the noise and his eye immediately widened when he recognized what it was. "Holy shit!", he exclaimed as he quickly jammed the toolbox between the doors, "Its the hydraulics!"

The man quickly scrambled up through the narrow opening and at the same time the car shifted, narrowing the gap. "F**k!" Screamed Faeyt as he lunged forward and gripped the only thing that he could, which just happened to be Sinclair's ankles. All he needed was something to brace his upper body while he pulled is legs through and the weight of the man served well. He had just pulled his legs free when the hydraulic breaks slipped and the elevator car fell. It descended only a few meters before the safety breaks engaged and brought it to screeching halt, but it was more than enough distance to close the gap and sever anything caught in it.

"Thanks." Said Faeyt as he released, Sinclair's legs and rolled over onto his back. His adrenaline levels were already subsiding leaving him with a euphoric sense of calm. "And, thanks for coming back." he added as he rose to his feet, looking around at their dimly lit surroundings. "I guess we should head this way." Faeyt suggested pointing toward a door with a sign on it that represented a stairwell.

As the two men made their way down the corridor the door ahead of them suddenly began to rattle as if someone on the other side was attempting to open the apparently locked door. Simultaneously, Faeyt raised a hand to his temple and winced in pain. It felt like a fire-cracker went off in his head and a small trickle blood issued from his nose.


Raiko was just about to respond to Indigo's question when he doubled over and raised a hand to his temple. He closed his eyes and grit his teeth as a wave of pain rushed through his mind. The mental storm ended as quickly as it had begun but had took its toll on the man; Raiko looked drained, the colour drawn from his face.

"Boshun has found them." Whispered Parsefal as he rubbed his temple and checked his nose for blood of which he was thankful to find dry. "She's in a stairwell, at the floor that the two rogue omegapath's are on but the door is locked."

Raiko was quickly recovering. He knew he had just suffered a psychic-seizure, but he couldn't know precisely where the omega-wave came from. It could not have been Boshun, the two of them had worked together for so long that their waves were perfectly compatible, it had to be one of the rogues. Leaning back in the seat, while performing a breathing exercise, Raiko remained silent and touched the directional map on the dashboard revealing the destination to agent Nichukha.

Despite the omega waves invading Sinclair’s mind he managed to keep a bit of momentum to carry both himself and Faeyt away from the blocked door. The young man was certainly more distracted by the pain that struck him as well, but luckily he could be urged into the right direction by Sinclair.

“There’s another door on the other side.” He announced to his ally.

This door had no convenient sign like the previous door, but anything leading away from those chasing them would be welcome, even if it wasn’t a set of stairs. Sinclair had to guess and rely on his previous walk through the darkened room, with its light barely flicking on in time for him to see where to guide them.

“You think the door will hold?” Sinclair couldn’t help but wonder as he heard it being violently assaulted by Beshun with kicks and bashes. If she could get through they might be in trouble, they wouldn’t be allowed to make a wrong turn and get themselves cornered.

No matter what the agent would decide to do, either bash through the door, or find another way to keep on their tail, the two of them had reached the door after a frantic run through the room. Without any hesitation Sinclair lunged at the door knob and prayed the door would swing open or he’d end up running into it head first.

Wisely the door got out of the man’s skull and opened into a corridor. Thankfully it was lit, though they couldn’t see very far to either side. Still, the left was the obvious choice since that would take them further away from Beshun. They slammed the door shut behind them and took off towards the end of the corridor where it once again went in two different directions. Skidding to a halt Sinclair looked to the left, finding a long hall with two men near the middle, leaning against the wall, having a smoke. The right on the other hand was clear and had Sinclair’s preference. He pointed Faeyt to the right, since he still had momentum and only followed after looking back to the men and the way they came to see if anything was coming after them from either way. Much to his chagrin, the two men punted away their smokes and followed them, but at least no one had yet emerged from the maintenance room behind them.

“Just keep going.” Such was Sinclair’s advice to Faeyt as he ran out in front of him, he wouldn’t be far behind, and there certainly wasn’t any need to slow down and find out what the men behind them wanted from them.

Sinclair could only guess they weren’t happy about two men who came running out of the maintenance room like that. Sinclair could venture a guess to what kind of people they were now dealing with, but even if he was wrong they wouldn’t want to sit around and answer their questions. Getting off the maintenance floor and into a residential or business floor would make things easier for them. Hopefully Faeyt’s sense of direction would lead them there quickly, Sinclair followed as closely as he could, but he didn’t quite have the pace. Faeyt knew well enough he couldn’t run all out and expect him to keep up, so he made sure not to run too fast and threw back a glance at him as well as the two men chasing them from time to time.

As they ran through the building Sinclair heard the distinct sound of a toilet flushing. Before he could even ponder on the matter a door in front of him began to open and there was little he could do to avoid running right into it. Luckily he reached the door before whoever was coming out the door had gotten very far and knocked it so hard that it promptly closed with a whack. A rather upset woman charged out a moment later and eyed Sinclair while holding her nose with one hand and blood running down her face.

“Ey! Chelle!” Sinclair heard one of the men chasing them shouting out to the woman. “Look out, we got two clowns down here!”

“Bit late for a heads up, Grant!” She yelled back as the two passed her. “Run faster you fat lards!” She shouted after them as she grabbed a hold of her communicator and joined the chase as well.

“We’s just the muscle!” The second man apologized for their inability to catch the two omegapaths so far.

“Only muscle I ever see you exercising is your goddamn jaw, Barry!” Chelle was quick to respond before she turned her attention to her communicator instead.

Sinclair was getting a bit nervous as the people chasing after them was increasing at a rather frightening rate these past few minutes and hoped to get away from these people as quickly as they could. It went from just one to at least three, but he had a bad feeling they hadn’t seen the last of whoever was behind that locked door in the maintenance room.

“Any luck with finding a way out of here!?” Sinclair hoped desperately Faeyt had about found a set of stairs or something else that would give them some much needed breathing space.



Indigo couldn’t be sure what the significance of the omega wave was she and Raiko experienced, but it was a clear signal to hurry things up to her. She shook off the pain as quickly as she could and focused on getting to the latest coordinates as quickly as she could make her Lightningbird go. Her regard for safe driving was once again right out the window and she was giving it her all for the final few meters that separated them from their destination.

A heartstopping minute and a half later Indigo parked the car with squeeling wheels and jumped out of her car in front of the building Beshun had led herself and Raiko to.

The vacant corridor echoed with the sound of twisting metal. The maintenance door buckled, and burst open revealing a small, yellow haired woman, her right leg just descending from the kick that had knocked the heavy portal off one of its hinges. Loryann, was positively fuming. To come so close to her target only to be hindered by a reinforced door unhinged her as well, but there had been something else that had impeded her; an 'omega wave', and a damn powerful one! She doubted those two jokers could have emitted such a forceful attack, but stranger things had happened, so she would be on her guard. Fortunately, she had sensed the presence of three local law enforcers who had given chase, all she had to was track them down in order to locate her quarry and redemption would be hers.


Faeyt was starting to regain his strength. Whatever hit him had temporarily scrambled his perception and balance but all that was starting to come back, although the pain in his head persisted. It would seem that, Sinclair had fortunately not suffered the brunt of the strange phenomena as he had. Had he not, Faeyt feared they would be custody, but the wiry man had been able to keep them moving just long enough for the larger man to regain his senses.

Looking back over his shoulder he could see the enforcers were gaining and an energy surged within him, propelling his legs faster. Unfortunately, at his current pace he would soon leave his comrade in the dust, and that simply would not do. As both of the men, frantically searched for an alternate route, Faeyt luckily found one, but he didn't feel that Sinclair would be very appreciative of this new course, but it was the only way.

As Faeyt stepped out into cool light, the wind whipped through his hair. He stood upon a platform at the edge of an abyss that fell for hundreds of stories; the opening of a great sun-port that spanned for several city a blocks, a great hole in the ceiling of the sub-core, that was the foundation of the mid. Attached to the platform was a narrow path of metal grates suspended from the lower edge of the massive square opening, barely wide enough for a man. All that protected one from falling to their death in the high winds that were sucked downward in subterranean realm, was guide wire on each side, which a maintenance crew would obviously attach safety lines to. At least a hundred meters or so away, the two men spotted a ladder, ascending up the edge of the sun-port; which was probably a hundred meter climb to the surface of the mid-core.

"Shit." Was all, Faeyt could say as he peeked over the edge of the platform and tested the strength of the walkway with a touch of his foot. The walkway, swayed a little from the push, which deterred the men all the more.

Faeyt turned around and met, Sinclair with a nervous stare. Then quickly closed the door behind them and barred it shut by sliding a heavy piece of cleaning machinery in front of it and wedged against the railing. No one was going to be getting through the barrier any time soon, but now they had no choice but to take the swaying path of doom.

Faeyt exhaled and prepared himself. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a coin, flipped it in the air and held it covered on the back of his hand. "You call it my friend." he said to Sinclair.

Peter's head still dully ached from the "omega attacks" that day. The strain from carrying the crate didn't help either. Once or twice during his wandering down the street he had to swallow his pride and set it down for a moment, rubbing his eyes and wiping sweat from his brow. The image of the young man he had met still flashed in his mind, the strange look on his face, the way he took off so quickly... The boy briefly wondered if the whole thing was some kind of test. To the Omegapaths of the Sector, facial expressions were no means of communication. They were bred and raised to be nothing more than soldiers who did as they were told without any pesky emotions. Peter himself was a rare breed whose own powers and intellect interfered with his training, making him think at just too high a level to know he needed out. Unfortunately, many social cues most people take for granted were still a mystery if not completely lost on the young boy's mind. As far as he was concerned, he simply now had a mission to get the crate back to the young man to figure out what to do with it since the woman turned out to be trouble.

But where did he go?

Lifting the crate again, the young boy centered his weight and trudged on through the darkened streets until he made it to one of the sun-ports and paused again. The faintest of light washed over him and he took in its warmth like he was looking at some picture of a long-lost memory. Even the halls of the Sector facility hadn't been as cold and dank as the sub-core. Peter tilted his head back and squinted up at the port leading into the Mid-core.

Then he furrowed his brow and squinted harder...

... no, those were definitely people up there...

Setting the crate down, Peter stared up at the figures for another long moment. He tried to search through his mind as though hoping he could tap into his powers and conveniently verify what he was seeing. Alas, the omega-waves were not that merciful. Still, although he had no idea who the other one, that first one really looked like him. He decided to take the risk as he moved over the crate and let one hand slide slowly towards his gun hidden within his thin, inside-out jacket.

"Hey!" he called up to them.

“Heads.” Sinclair quickly said, trying not to think too much about the daunting task that would be ahead of them. All he cared for was getting this game of chance out of the way and pray the coin showed heads. There was no way he was going over that tiny bit of metal with just the guidewires to grab a hold of. There was also no way Faeyt was going first willingly either, or he wouldn’t have eyed him so nervously nor gone for the coin toss.

A bump could be heard coming from the door behind them. The two men and the woman had caught up with them and were testing the door. So far, it didn’t budge.

“Owww.” Barry whined, hurting himself trying to force the door open.
“Big baby!” Chelle complained, and suggested; “Give it a kick.”
Another loud thunk followed, with little effect.
“Owwww.” Barry whined again.
“What a waste of space you turned out to be!” Chelle continued to complain.

Things seemed to calm down on the other side of the door, so Sinclair turned his attention back to Faeyt and the coin. Faeyt managed a small smile having seen the result of the coin flip. What could possibly be good about the outcome? The only good outcome would be heads, if you asked Sinclair, clearly anything else would be downright awful. And of course it was quite awful.
“Tails…” Sinclair muttered, “Crap.”
Faeyt’s slight smile turned into a sympathetic frown, but he was clearly relieved it wasn’t going to be him who’d have to go over the world’s worst bridge first.
“Crap.” Sinclair said again as his eyes followed the wonky bridge to the other side. Even without anyone trying to cross the damned thing it swayed in the wind and made a disturbing grating sound. When the wind really picked up you could see bits of the bridge shudder and rattle, making an even more unsettling sound. The ladder going up on the other side seemed alright, but somehow Sinclair was convinced it’d be a lot worse when he got a look at it from up close. Clearly this day would go from bad to worse, at least he couldn’t see it getting any better. Maybe going first and finding the bridge collapse below him would be a good thing. A merciful end to a horrid day. Falling a few hundred stories only to become a very thin layer of mushed flesh and blood seemed like a relatively nice way to end it all.

“Where does this door lead?” Sinclair could hear the woman asking from behind the blocked door.
“Nowhere.” Barry said.
“Well, it goes outside.” Grant nuanced his colleague’s answer, “Which goes nowhere… Though…”
“What?” Chelle wanted to hear the full story.
“There’s this suicidal maintenance bridge across the sun-port out there.”
“Where does that go?” Chelle wanted to know.
“I think its attached all the way across to the Vauxhard building.”
“Isn’t that Frenchy’s territory?” Barry pondered out loud.
“Damn straight it is.” Chelle knew, “This is a great big mess!”
“Nah, nah.” Grant shushed the woman’s outburst, “We’re friendly with Frenchy, right? I hear the boss’ man Albrook is in the building, he’ll get Frenchy to take care of these bozos lickety-split.”
“Unless they’re Frenchy’s men.” Chelle was quick to point out.
“Yeah, well... Then we’re screwed.”
“No shit. Let’s hope Albrook is in a good mood and doesn’t shoot us for f-ing up.”

Faeyt and Sinclair looked at one another and shrugged after hearing the three discussing behind the blocked door. Sinclair had a pretty good idea in what kind of a rotten situation they had gotten themselves in to, but he wasn’t going to waste any time sharing his thoughts with the young man. Maybe he was wise enough to understand it by himself, and otherwise it wasn’t about to matter. What mattered was getting across and up to the Mids. Up there Frenchy wouldn’t be as much a factor as he probably was down here, nor was this Albrook fellow. The Mids were reasonably safe and lawful. Of course, he had been marked as a criminal now, but hopefully they could avoid being accosted by any police agents.

“Right…” Sinclair said and slowly moved up to the gently swaying bridge. “Let’s get this over with.”
Sinclair conjured up as much confidence as he could and tried to find the will to see him across the giant chasm.
“Best not follow me too closely.” He said to Faeyt, “Let’s not stress the bridge too much if we can help it.”

That sounded sensible, didn’t it? If he’d just calmly get on to the bridge and steadily made his way across with a firm grip on the guide wire nothing could possibly go wrong. Construction workers did these kind of things all day long, surely he could do just as well as a bloated brainless gorilla, right? While trying to put as little thought into endeavor as possible he stepped onto the bridge. It immediately reacted by swaying, shuttering and making disapproving noises due to the weight coming onto it. Sinclair however refused to be intimidated and just kept putting one foot in front of the next. Slowly but surely he inched across the drop and through the gusty winds.

His only mistake was to let his gaze wander towards his feet, confronting him with the dazzling height he found himself on. A hefty gust and an unstable grate sent him scrambling for the guide wire and nearly saw him falling off.
“Ffffffffffff…” He nearly cursed into the wind, but felt he was better off focusing on getting both his feet back on the bridge, which was now swaying quite heavily. It took him a few frantic seconds, but soon he had recovered and glanced back at Faeyt who had been gasping at the frightful sight of his near fall.
“It’s alright! I’m fine!” He yelled, though the heart throbbing in his throat clearly indicated he wasn’t. Still, it didn’t matter what he said, in these winds it wasn’t like Faeyt could hear him. So Sinclair decided to motion with his arm to get the man to follow him across.

Sinclair turned back to the direction in which he still needed to go a great distance across the depths of the Subs, but quickly started moving his shaking feet forward.
“Don’t look down.” Sinclair kept telling himself. “Don’t look down. Don’t look down.”
And he slowly but surely got ever closer to the Vauxhard building and the stairs leading up to the Mids.