Mindcontrol

by Shrike.

Chapter 4 Learning curve and a helping hand

“Trance!” Seeing her friend come out of his office, Sanura called out loudly to get his attention.

He turned around to her. “Hi Nura, what's up?

Sanura walked up to him holding a tablet in her hands. “I've found something that may be related to that guy, Mindcontrol.”

“Really? What have you found?” asked a curious Trance.

She started, “An out of the way private mental hospital for experimental treatments in Nevada had a serious incident. Delivery people found all the patients gone. One orderly was dead, another had been reduced to a drooling vegetable. A regular part-time visiting doctor was found ripe to be admitted as a patient himself.”

Trance interrupted with a whistle. “How was the orderly killed?”

Sanura checked her tablet, “Apparently he was torn apart limb by limb.”

“Ouch,” Trance reacted with a grimace.

“Indeed,” Sanura said. “Several experimental machines and drugs were found, most of them illegal. The most interesting machine they found was a very powerful PSI inhibitor.”

Trance showed interest, “Possibly for our wayward telepath?”

“I believe so,” responded Sanura.

“Do you have a name for this person?” asked Trance.

Sanura sighed with a mysterious smile, “All records were destroyed. However a partial patient list was found in a backup file.”

Trance almost exploded from anticipation, “and?”

Sanura smiled, “Take it easy, Trance. I said a partial list. Authorities managed to track down about a quarter of the missing patients in the mental ward of Grover C Dils Medical Center in Caliente, Nevada. They were unresponsive, probably in the same state as they were in earlier in the private hospital. A few other patients were found doing menial jobs and living a new life and being quite happy. Some others had picked up their normal life again, apparently completely cured of their mental ailment.”

Trance whistled again, “You think Mindcontrol cured them?”

Sanura looked at him, “You tell me, you're the expert. Do you think a telepath and telekinetic can cure mental patients? Without any medical training or experience in that field?”

Trance thought hard before answering, “It's not impossible, though highly unlikely. None the less, stranger things have happened, and we've seen our share of that already.”

Sanura affirmed, “Yes we have. Now let me continue. All of those former patients said that a nice young man with white hair cured them, more or less. They didn't know his name though. A few patients couldn't be found and of course we don't know how many patients are really missing from the hospital.”

Trance interrupted dejected, “So, we still don't have an ID on Mindcontrol, if this really is him we are talking about.”

Sanura smiled mysteriously, “Yes and no. True, we don't know if this is the work of Mindcontrol. Though the way you sensed his paranoia, it would fit. The inhibitor, that was found at the facility also supports the assumption.”

Trance nodded in agreement, while Sanura continued, “One patient was not found initially, but he popped up in a casino in Las Vegas. He got noticed because he won big in the casino.”

Trance asked, “How big?”

“About 200 million, though only a small part of the money came directly from the casino. He won a lot of money in poker games.”

Trance whistled again, “Are you suspecting he used his powers? All casino's have inhibitors and employ telepaths to check if their guests are using powers.”

Sanura nodded, “True, but the inhibitor at the hospital was a lot stronger, I guess he got used to resisting that much dampening and was still able to use his powers inside the casino. But again you're the expert, you tell me: Is that possible?”

Trance thought for a moment, “It may be possible. It would explain the short bursts of psionic power that I sensed earlier. So, we do have a name and a location on him?”

Sanura nodded, “His name is Daniel Montro, a young man originally from Russell, Kansas. The details of his incarceration into the hospital are sketchy at best. What I can gather is that his father had him committed to the mental ward in Nevada after he went through MORFS and was diagnosed as being almost a vegetable, unable to speak or take care of himself. Later it was found that he exhibited telekinetic powers and they ordered the Inhibitor to be used on him.”

“So, where is he now?” Trance asked impatiently.

Sanura gave him a wry smile, “Unfortunately, we don't have a current location on him. After the last win he bought himself a car and went out on the road. He may be travelling towards Kansas, but that's just speculation.”

“I'm sure that you have the roads to Kansas monitored just in case,” Trance stated.

Sanura just nodded, while Trance said thoughtfully, “I can try to locate him by teleview or even telepathically. Though I am a bit apprehensive about doing that. He's very good at hiding from my TP scans, and if I do manage to locate him, I may be in for another battle.”

Sanura sighed, she would have to rely on old fashioned detective work. She too worried about the upcoming encounter with Mindcontrol. If he was powerful enough to hide from Trance and even beat him at his own special field, she might need all the members of her elemental team to subdue him, if that was even possible. She shook those thoughts from her mind though. Her team where the finest elementals, and even with half the members their power was big enough to combat any villain. She vowed to be there anyhow, since she was one of the most powerful elementals. Then her thoughts went back to the upcoming encounter, a battle with her team against such a powerful foe could mean a lot of collateral damage. She didn't look forward to that. She wished she could just sit down with the young man and have a quiet talk with him. But the paranoia he's exhibited toward Trance made that seem unlikely..

^^^^^

Taking my time, I drove at a leisurely pace through the countryside. Every time I took a break, I practiced my powers. For instance, I had learned that I could teleport to nearly any place I wanted to go. I could sort of see a preview of the place to teleport to. The downside was that the teleportation took a lot out of me. This also limited my teleport range to two hundred meters at best. If I was already fatigued, the range went down fast and I would be exhausted.

Several times at gas stations and diners, I played with people's perception. I would make them think they saw what they wanted and or expected to see. Not only was this intended to hide in plain sight, it was also fun to see how people reacted to the person I appeared to be. 'Should I be playing with people's minds like this? It is practical and the experience may prove to be useful later. Then again, it's not ethical. Ever since I killed Herb, I have been plagued by my conscience. I don't like where this is going. I may end up questioning myself every time I get attacked. That might prove to be fatal.'

It provided me with valuable experience in how to make people perceive what I wanted them to. Of course I couldn't influence recording devices, but I could and did turn cameras off or make them look in a different direction.

I was enjoying a good meal in a diner on the edge of a small town when I heard a commotion. 'Is this about me? Did someone see me or recognize me? I thought I hid myself well enough.' Subtly I scanned the minds of the people around and quickly ascertained the situation. One boy, a big fan of Star Wars, was being harassed about it by four boys his age. The complicating factor was the fact that those four boys were all MORFS survivors. One was a cat hybrid with claws and a lot of agility named Fariz. The second boy, a bit older with the name Edgar, was a Fire elemental. A third boy, called Lambert or Lam, had enhanced strength that he used as he pleased and the last boy, Yves, was resilient, due to his enhanced skin and healing factor.

I could relate a little to the Star Wars fan, a few years ago the movie industry had made a remake of the movies and started a new series. Now, with the MORFS hybrids, they could mimic some of the species that looked more like animals a lot better. Of course everything being shot in 3D and Holographic images gave a new impulse to the whole Star Wars Universe as well. The merchandising had jumped in with renewed vigor, they even had some realistic holographic light sabers on the market, complete with the sounds.

As I listened in to the conversation, I also read the mind of the boy being attacked. His name was Benjamin and he was a bit out of this world, living mostly in the fantasy world of Star Wars. But he meant well and was determined to be a hero of some kind. He stood up to the four boys as they had been making trouble and had thrown garbage all around on the street.

The cat hybrid sneered, “Hey, Benji? Why don't you use the Force on us?, You're supposed to be a Jedi, right?”

Ben had enough reality sense that he didn't reply. He just retreated into the back of the diner. The boys didn't let him go though. Edgar, the fire elemental said, “Yeah, show us what you can do. I reckon you're nothing but a yellow blowhard.”

I easily read the minds from the boys bothering the kid. They were gearing up to inflict some serious damage. They felt strong in their group and wanted to have some fun at the boy's expense. I smiled, I wouldn't mind having some fun myself and give the boy some help at the same time.

I connected telepathically to Ben, *Hello Ben, Don't be alarmed, I'm going to help you show these assholes not to mess with you.*

Ben made a weird move with his head hearing my telepathic voice in his head. “Uh, what do you mean?” He said.

Edgar thought Ben was talking to him, “See, he is stupid as well as a coward, ” he said to his friends. Then he said to Ben, “Here, try to block this.” With that Edgar prepared to throw some fire towards Ben.

I told Ben, *Lift up your arm like a Jedi blocking something.*

Ben didn't ask any questions and raised his arm as if he was going to block the fire with his bare hand. I sensed the fire bolt coming and telekinetically deflected it upwards, where it dispersed without doing any harm.

Everyone was surprised at the unexpected way the fire bolt behaved. Even Ben hadn't expected that. But he quickly recovered, “I didn't want to use the force, but now you made me do it.”

Fariz the cat hybrid growled, and with a speed I hadn't even expected launched himself towards Ben, who instinctively put up his arm. I caught Fariz in the air about a meter away from Ben. Halting him suspended in the air, I spun him around for a moment before throwing him across the room and through the window out into the street. There he was out for the count for a few minutes, while Lam watched the whole event take place.

Then he shook his head and decided to use his strength to show that boy what he thought of it. He picked up a table, about to throw it to Ben.

I ripped the table apart into its component parts and pummeled Lam with the parts he wasn't holding. They gashed his head and gave him several bruises. He became so distraught he didn't even try to make another move against Ben.

Edgar, who had just been watching since seeing his first fire bolt deflected, raged, “What the hell?” He was about to shoot a fountain of fire at Ben, when Ben got into the swing of things. His thoughts were clear to me on what he wanted to do and while he waved his arm, I threw Edgar into Yves with my TK power. The fire bolt he was already throwing hit Yves instead of his intended target. Yves yelped in surprise and pain, though his tough skin kept the damage to a minimum.

Lam started to get back to his senses, while Edgar was getting ready to get up without even looking at his injured friend. I said mentally to Ben, *Make a movement with your hands like lifting something and then wave them into a circle for a while. Then move like you're throwing something.*

Ben got my meaning and as he moved his hands, I lifted the three boys into the air and started to spin them around. Ever faster they spun round and round, till Ben made his next move. I pushed the boys out of the building through the already broken window. They landed in a disorganized heap on the fourth boy, Fariz, who was just coming around from his earlier crash into the pavement. It knocked him out again.

The boys outside were flabbergasted for a moment till Ben stepped up to the broken window, “Now, I said I don't like using my power. But for you I made an exception. Want to come back here for some more ass whooping?”

The boys looked at Ben in astonishment, and scrambled up to get away in a hurry. They were in such a hurry that the cat hybrid was left behind, as he was unconscious again. He woke up a moment later, saw his friends running away and decided to join them.

Ben yelled after them, “Guess you had enough, now stay out of my way.” Then he turned around and with a gloating smile on his face said, “Yes! Finally I'm a Jedi.”

I deposited several hundred dollar notes on my table, I didn't want the owner of the diner to be left with the costs of the damage. Then I mentally said, *Don't get cocky, kid. If I hadn't done everything, you'd be lying in the gutter feeling pain and humiliation.*

Ben said, “Who are you? Show yourself to me.”

I stood up and walked towards him, *Here I am, now quit living in the imaginary world and work on making something of your life.*

With barely contained anger, Ben said, “No, I am a Jedi and I will not falter.”

I sighed, this boy was incorrigible. Then reading his mind, I got an idea. I let him think that my image changed to someone with a hooded cloak, holding a handle that proved to be a red lightsaber. *Fine, little Jedi wannabe. You'd do well to remember that this planet is ruled by the Sith. Now get out of my way.* With that I shoved him telekinetically to the side and walked out towards my car. I made it look to Ben like it was a real spaceship and drove off, leaving a perplexed young boy behind.

Driving along happily on a deserted road, I let my guard down a little. I felt relaxed, but kept my mental shield up high. I was blocking out everything and everyone, since I wasn't expecting anyone near me for miles. I should have been more cautious though.

Suddenly an animal I thought was a coyote, ran across the road ahead of me, coming from some bushes. I couldn't have seen it earlier as some rocky outcroppings hid its path from view. As I got near the bushes, someone on some sort of hoverbike shot from the bushes, right in front of my car. Instinctively I yanked the steering wheel to avoid hitting the hoverbike. My right tire hit something and I found myself flying inside the car that was doing a good impression of a gymnast.

For a moment I thought, 'This is it, I'm going to die here.' Then my self-preservation instinct kicked in and I frantically looked for a way to avoid damage to myself. I could have smacked myself in the head, so to speak, as I already found the solution. I created a telekinetic bubble around myself, absorbing almost any intrusion into it, while cushioning the rapid deceleration for my body.

With a sickening crunch my car came to a complete stop against a big boulder. Still safely cocooned inside my bubble, I found myself trapped in the wreckage. It took quite some force to wrench open the door, but eventually I got out and looked at the remains of what was once a fine car. I felt quite upset about the cause of the accident and expanded my telepathic field to see if I could pick up the person responsible.

To my surprise he was quite near. Apparently he had caught the animal he was chasing. That's when I got another shock, it wasn't an animal he had been chasing on his hoverbike. It was a human coyote hybrid. 'Why does he chase hybrids like that? Is that hybrid a bad person? Or is he a purist?' My temper rose and I walked out towards them. I tried to read the mind of the man doing the chasing, but somehow he was shielded against telepathic probes. I could still affect some of the brain functions like vision, but I couldn't read his mind. Well, maybe with enough force I could break through, but that could easily fry his mind, reducing him to a complete vegetable, like I had done to Steve.

As I walked up to the man, who was binding the captured hybrid in a sort of electrified net, I let him see me as a helpless young woman. He noticed my approach and looked up, his gaze was lustful for a moment till a scowl crept over his face. “What?” he asked.

“I'm sorry, but you caused my car to crash. Can I have your insurance details please?” I said sounding innocently.

Gruffly he replied, “Sorry honey, but I don't have the time. You just have to fend for yourself.”

I was enraged, with force I ripped the image from his head that he was most fearful off and made it look like I looked like that person. “Then you'll make the time. I want an apology at the very least and compensation is in order.”

He fell back on his butt and gasped, “Madam M? How can you be here? I caught it just like you wanted.”

Then he thought for a moment, “You're not Madam M. You're a MORFS. I'll get you for that.” He quickly pulled out a wicked looking gun and shot something at me.

I had no problem holding the object in place before me and it seemed to be a dart of some kind. “Interesting, so you shoot people, just because they went through MORFS?” I now appeared to him as my normal self and turned the dart around. Slowly I let it glide through the air towards the man and he tried to crawl backwards as fast as he could.

“What is in this dart that it frightens you so much?”

He didn't answer so I tried to read it from his mind. Again I was blocked, but now I found the source of the block. His helmet had a sort of build in telepathic protection barrier. Telekinetically I ripped the helmet from his head and after that had no problem reading his mind.

Enraged I growled at him, “You shoot MORFS with poisonous darts? What kind of sick organization is SHAME?” He just gave me hateful look. I spat at him, “Yes, I know you want to kill me. Sorry, but I don't intend to cooperate with that.”

He opened his mouth to shout something insulting at me, but I lifted him in the air and threw him all the way to the highway where he made hard landing on the asphalt

I turned my attention to the coyote hybrid. Mentally I said, *Please hold still while I get you out of the net.*

With a awful accent he said, “Wrank you, miswrer.”

Quickly I was able to get the net of him, “So, tell me. Why is SHAME hunting you down? What did you do?”

“I gowr MORFS,” said the hybrid.

Doubting my own hearing I asked, “You only got MORFS? They persecuted you only for that?”

“Yes, not only me wrhough. WRhey have cells full of owrher hybriwrs. WRhey wron'wr consiwrer hybriwrs human, buwr juswr animals.”

A cold rage swelled up inside me. The SHAME facility appeared just as the asylum that I had been imprisoned in. I quickly accessed the mind of the hybrid, I learned his name was Marvin and I got the location of the facility he had been held captive. “Thanks, want to come with me and see how I will punish those SHAME assholes?”

Marvin shook his head, “Nope, gonna gewr away from here as faswr as I can.” With that he took off in a fast trot.

As I watched him go, I thought on how to get to the facility. It was too far to walk, however seeing the parked hoverbike brought a smile to my face. I didn't know how to operate it yet, but I connected to the mind of the previous rider. He was still conscious, though had broken several bones. I noticed that he tried to grab a transceiver, but failed as his arm was broken in three places. He couldn't reach it with his other arm.

Telekinetically I ripped the transceiver out of its holder and crushed it before his eyes. *I can't have you alerting your pals. Now, let me get what I want and I'll leave you be.* With that I ripped the knowledge on how to operate the hoverbike out of his head.

He looked at me, “You can't leave me alone like this. It's not decent towards another human being.”

I snarled at him, “And what you're doing is humane or decent? They didn't ask to get MORFS. They are just as human as you. Maybe even more. From my point of view, you're the animal, not them.”

With a quick burst of psionic energy I left him unconscious on the side of the road just close enough to be noticed. Maybe he got lucky and drivers would see him. In which case he might get rescued.

Quickly I arrived at some buildings surrounded by a large fence. At the gate my approach was noticed but didn't arouse any suspicion maybe since I wore the helmet of the previous rider. Though my clothes didn't look anything like his, I managed to make the guard see it like I was that guy.

He nodded at me, “Had a good hunt, Achmed?”

I just nodded and went past him without talking to him. The guard didn't even blink, apparently it was assumed behavior by Achmed. I parked the bike near some others and quietly entered the building nearest the parking. As soon as I got through the door, the full force of a Dampener hit me. They were really scared about Telepaths and Telekinetics it seemed. The dampener was very powerful, though not as powerful as the one in the asylum. I could still use my powers, but the range I could use it in was limited from a few inches to a yard.

I could feel the direction of the inhibitor, so I made my way there. As I neared the room where the machine was located, I saw the door open to the outside. Quickly I kicked the door shut, hitting the person behind it, hard. Just as quickly I yanked the door open again and found a man on the floor grasping his bloody head. He was carrying a dart gun just like the one I had confiscated from Achmed.

In my rage I shot him with Achmed's gun and jumped into the room. Another man had been sitting at a console, he was trying to get up quickly, but got caught in the chair and fell down on his face. Still he was grabbing a gun of his own. I had the drop on him though and quickly shot him as well. Both men quickly died from the poison.

I didn't even take a second look at them, I didn't have the time. I wanted the pressure of the inhibitor away, so I went to the only big machine in the room. Soon I found the electric cable and yanked it out of the socket. The inhibitor however didn't die. I did diminish in strength though and an alarm started wailing. 'Damn, the thing has a backup power unit.'

In a hurry I reached inside with my telekinetic power and quickly located the main circuit board. The biggest chip should be the controller, so I yanked it out of its socket and the inhibitor died immediately. The alarm continued however. I crushed the chip and got ready for whoever would respond to the alarm.

I didn't have to wait long, a big man burst into the room with his gun drawn. Telekinetically I yanked him further into the room and slammed him into the wall. The impact left him unconscious with maybe some trauma and broken bones. The next one was more careful, he entered with caution, he wanted to sneak up on me. Too bad you can't sneak up on a telepath. I yanked him inside like the first and he ended up on top of the first one.

It was good that I had my shields up, several telepathic calls were 'talking' through each other, now that the inhibitor was down. It was getting a bother though, so when the chatter increased, I pathed, *Quiet all of you. I'll get you free soon.*

That quieted the noise down quickly, some asked being curious, *Who are you?*

*I'm Mindcontrol, I hate it when people, MORFS or otherwise are imprisoned or persecuted just for being what they are. Now let me dispatch with the guards and other personnel, than I can get you all free.*

A few voices told me, *Thank you, please hurry.* For the most part it got quiet, telepathically speaking. The alarms where still blaring away. Quickly I went through the building knocking people out against a wall or something. Once a fast shooter managed to shoot a dart at me. I stopped the dart midair and returned it to sender. He died quickly from the poison that he had meant for me.

As I walked past some doors to a laboratory, the doors suddenly opened. An older woman, that looked very familiar, stepped out. “What the hell is going on, and who are you?”

Calmly I said, “I'm the one raiding this place and setting all the MORFS free, who are you?”

On a condescending tone she answered, “I'm the facility manager here. You should know that I notified the authorities of a break in and you'll be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. What we're doing here is perfectly legal. We operate inside the law of Kansas.”

“I don't care that this kind of behavior is legal or not. I also don't care if the police come here, they can join your guards in oblivion. Now who are you really.”

She snorted, “I'm Mrs. Montro. You won't get away with this, you know.”

I paled a little, and she noticed. “I got you with that didn't I?”

I focused on reading her mind and found out that my suspicion was right, she was my mom! I snarled at her, “Mother!”

Now she paled and said with a coarse voice, “Danny? But how…”

I snapped at her, “Yes, it's me, finally I can get an answer why you left me.”

My mom paled even more, “I…He…I just couldn't take the abuse of your father anymore. Especially with my baby girl coming.”

“I have a sister?” I asked incredulously, then I continued, “What is her name? No wait, you left me to take all the abuse from dad. Why didn't you take me with you?”

“I couldn't, he would have hunted me, you and Megan down. He wanted you with him. But how did you get here? Why are you not at home? Why are you attacking us? What are MORFS to you?”

I snarled, “Dad had me locked up in an asylum after I morfed. I didn't change physically that much, but I'm a telepath and telekinetic. They abused me and treated me worse than an animal. Now I fight against anyone who does the same. What gives you the right to treat these persons as animals? They are people.”

Mom squinted her eyes, “They are not human, they should be kept in controlled spaces. They are filthy animals.”

Telekinetically I lifted her in the air, “That is where I differ in opinion. I want them released and now.”

At that moment a guard appeared behind her and aimed his gun at me. I yanked him towards me, he flew past me into the wall. With a sickening thud he hit the wall and crumpled into a heap.

Mom said incredulously, “I think you killed him.”

I shrugged, “He wouldn't be the first I have killed. I don't like it, but they leave me no choice. Do you know that they all carry dart guns with a lethal poison?”

“Those are dangerous animals that we're dealing with, many of them have a faster healing power. We need to protect ourselves.”

“I'll take that as a YES.”

I slammed her into the wall and after she yelped from the pain of impact, she uttered. “You don't understand, we have to do something before this plague spreads too far.”

“I've got news for you, Mother. It already is everywhere in the world. Now, tell me where I can find my sister Megan. I hope you haven't corrupted her with this bullshit.”

Mom snorted, “Not likely, she such a do-gooder, she went with missionaries to Myanmar. She thinks she can save some poor bastards from their fate.”

“I'm glad to hear that she has more common sense than you. I never want to see you again, Mother. If you value your life then you stay out of my way and get out of this wretched business.” With that I flung her through the corridor and in my anger didn't even bother to watch her hit the floor.

I walked on towards the cages and disabled a few straggling guards along the way. Soon I arrived at a room with a lot of cages and was appalled at the way these MORFS hybrids were treated. As quickly as I could I released them from their cages and some dropped to the floor in front of me, thanking me profusely. I told them not to do that, but still some insisted.

One even went as far as offering herself as my slave for the rest of her life. I examined her thoughts, she was very submissive and loved nothing more than to be told what to do. Maybe it was in her dog hybrid genes. I nudged her to seek shelter with a dominant alpha male dog hybrid. I promised myself to look into her situation later, just in case she got taken advantage off. I made a connection to her brain that I could connect to from wherever and whenever I wanted.

Soon all the MORFS hybrids in this part of the building were set free and well underway to some well deserved freedom. Meanwhile I went to the second part of the building. As soon as I opened the door, I got assaulted by a wolf hybrid. Before he could do anything to me, I held him suspended in the air, gnarling and snarling, before me. Another person, this time a gila-monster hybrid, came walking awkwardly at me. He didn't say anything, but I heard his mental voice, *Who are you that you can hold my furry friend in the air?*

*I'm Mindcontrol, I just set your fellow hybrids in the other building free. I guess disabling the inhibitor gave you access to your powers again?*

The gila-monster hybrid looked at me for a while with unblinking eyes. *So, you are Mindcontrol and we have you to thank for our rescue? The inhibitor made it impossible for a friend of mine to use his telekinesis. When that dampening field fell away, he opened all our cages.*

I bowed to him, *You're welcome*

*Why did you take such a risk to free us? You look normal enough, except the white hair.* The hybrid sent to me.

This time I talked openly, “When I morfed, they put me into an asylum and treated me just as bad as these sick people did to you. So I'm helping you people get back a life of your own.” With that I released the wolf hybrid.

He landed on all fours and growled at me for a moment. A quick telepathic message from the Gila-monster hybrid later he stood up on his hind legs and said, “Gil here said that you were responsible getting us out of this situation. Thanks, sorry for attacking you, I thought you were another asshole coming to imprison us again.”

“No sweat, glad to be of help.” I said to the wolf. To Gil I asked, “So, all the hybrids captive here are already free?”

*I'm not sure, Harry was still busy opening cages, maybe we should go take a look.*

I followed Gil and the wolf towards another cellblock. A guinea pig hybrid was trying to open a cage and failing. He looked up at us, “Sorry Gil, but this door is stuck. I can't budge it, my powers aren't strong enough.”

I said, “May I?”

Harry looked at me and then at Gil. Gil nodded to him and probably told him telepathically to let me try. Slowly I walked up to the cage and saw that the door had been spot welded in some places. It didn't look deliberate, more like accidental. I beamed to the mouse hybrid inside, *Hi, I'm also a telepath, did you accidentally weld the cage door shut?*

The mouse hybrid looked at me before nodding yes. I knew enough, with one portion of my telekinetic power I held the cage to the wall, while with another, I ripped with all my might on the door. With a terrible screech the door came loose and slammed through the wall behind me, missing Harry by a hair.

“Hey, watch it with your power. You almost killed me.” Harry burst out.

“Sorry, I don't know my own strength, I guess.”

The mouse hybrid scampered out of the cage and flung herself towards me. She clung to me with her arms and kissed me. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Then she released me and went over to Harry. Thank you too, for trying.”

Gil beamed at me, *I think we need to get going. I'm picking up stray thoughts of people coming this way in cars. I think they are police.*

Quickly I scanned around the buildings outside and found that Gil was right. Two police cars were speeding towards us. Quickly I scanned their surface thoughts and everything indicated that they were going to help the SHAME facility in containing or eliminating the escaped hybrids and rescuers.

“Go outside now and stay away from the road and the front. I'll hold the police in check, so you can all escape.” Most hybrids quickly went to the door to comply with my order, some were not so fast in understanding and just stood there looking at me. “I mean now. Go, or get captured or killed.”

That got them moving and I went outside with them. As I waited, I yanked a part of the fence away, that was blocking the escape for the rescued hybrids. I didn't have to wait long for the police to arrive. As they started to hit the brakes, I lifted both cars in the air and threw them back from where they came. As the cars went flying, one door opened and an officer fell out. He dropped for about 20 feet before landing on the hard asphalt. I think he broke an arm and a leg and maybe some ribs.

The cars in the mean time sailed through the air for a few hundred yards, before crashing to the ground outside the fence. The crash left them in a heap of scrap metal and one officer died in squashed car. His death scream echoed inside my mind, but I didn't have time for that. I checked that the police was trapped and couldn't possibly get out in time to prevent the hybrids from escaping. I did a quick scan around me and noticed that the hybrids were quite well underway to get out of the state. I hoped that they would make it to freedom.

As I lifted myself telekinetically into the air, I heard inside my head, *Thanks for everything, though I think you're a bit too callous towards human lives. They were people as well, you know.*

I bit my lip as I sent back, *Yes, I know Gil. I am just appalled at how they can treat hybrid people. My anger got the better of me. I'll try to be better. Take care and try to keep your buddies safe.*

^^^^^

Sanura looked up from the report she was studying, as a sound heralded the arrival of a new RSS feed update. This one was on the police channel feed. It reported alarms and loss of contact at a SHAME facility in Kansas. Sanura hated the SHAME organization, but this could be some MORFS survivors with powers running rampant. Adding to this, was the fact that the site was on the route of Mindcontrol, so she thought it might be worth to have it checked out.

She knew that Trance was busy and she didn't want to tax him with a possible mental assault of a rogue telepath. She knew that only a few of the team could safely go to this facility, and she wasn't one of them. It had to be Blitz, Flutter, Shine, Catalyst and maybe Echo, though with his pink hair, it might be difficult to pose as a federal agent. The others all were too much hybrid to go to Kansas without ending up in a fight with authorities.

On second thoughts Catalyst was too young to appear as a federal agent and though Molten was the best tactical man she had, he had his arms encased in those stony armor. No, best would be to limit it to the most normal looking persons with the best diplomatic man in charge, being Blitz.

^^^^^

Blitz stepped out of the portal followed by Flutter and Shine, all three dressed in a business suit, like they were FBI or something similar, which wasn't too far from the truth anyway. The portal they came from was hidden out of sight of the facility they needed to go to, so they walked the distance to the buildings.

Arriving at the fence of the SHAME facility, they saw two crumbled squad cars and a lot of other police, fire trucks and some ambulances. A police officer told them to stop and identify themselves. Blitz flashed a genuine badge, “We're federal agents. We are just here to ask some questions about who did this.”

The policeman showed them to a high ranking officer. He eyed the three newcomers suspiciously, “I'm lieutenant Spikings. What do you feds want?”

Blitz didn't seem to be fazed, “Can you tell me who did this and what exactly happened? We're looking for a specific individual and are wondering if this was his work.”

Still cautious Lt. Spikings showed them to a command tent. “The perp viciously ambushed one of us. He was chasing a detainee. We found him badly injured on a road not too far from here. A passing motorist almost ran over him. He died of his injuries not much later. The perp used his credentials and hoverbike to gain entrance to the facility and proceeded to destroy property and facilitate the release of several imprisoned animals. During that, he incapacitated nearly everyone on the grounds and killed several of them. Then he destroyed police property and killed one of my officers.”

Shine asked, “And how was this person able to accomplish all this?”

“That SOB was a fuckin Telekinetic and Telepath. I don't know how he could operate inside the building, as we have an inhibitor / dampener working 24/7. Anyway he broke the machine and released all the detainees.”

Flutter asked on a neutral tone, “Would you mind if we have a look around and talk to some people?”

Lt. Spikings eyed them suspiciously, “Yes, I mind. What are you federal types after. You don't have jurisdiction here you know.”

Blitz answered, “That depends on where you got the hybrids from. If you got them from another state, we do have jurisdiction. Can you provide us a list of detainees, that we can have a look out for?”

Now Spikings gave them a malicious look, “No, the lists were all destroyed. Sorry, can't help you with that.”

“Fine, we'll be back with a warrant for that,” said a calm looking but internally seething Blitz. “Now, for your own good, don't go looking for the person responsible, we'll take care of him.”

“Right,” said Spikings, “You'll catch him and give him a pat on the back. No way, as soon as we determine where he disappeared to, we'll catch him and try him for murder, aggravated assault, destruction of property and breaking and entering. He'll never get free again, that hybrid lover.”

Blitz was afraid that his face would betray his inner feelings despite his best effort to keep a poker face. He said, “We're done here then, expect some more agents to come and have a look at the records. Good bye.”

He motioned to equally emotional but appearing poker faced Flutter and Shine. Reluctantly they followed Blitz on the walk back to the portal waiting to transport them back to the Nexus.

As they neared the place where the portal was hidden out of sight, a high whine of Synergy thrusters heralded the arrival of two hoverbikes. The three ECLIPSE members turned to face them. One hoverbike rider said coldly, “Halt or we'll shoot. You're hereby detained for interfering with an ongoing investigation.”

Blitz gave a barely noticeable nod to Shine, while saying, “We're Federal agents, you can't arrest us.”

The man was about to reply, when Shine flashed both men with intense light. Instinctively they tried to shield their eyes with their hands. That was too little too late, though it did take their hands away from their weapons. Blitz fired a dual lightning bolt into the hoverbikes, exploding the engines. Flutter in the meantime conjured up a tornado that sucked up the men and deposited them back into the fenced in compound. Being the gentle woman she was, she even made sure that they were unharmed and made a soft landing.

Quickly the three ECLIPSE members went to the portal and got back to the Nexus. Blitz said while going through, “It's ironic that they hate hybrids, but use the thrusters invented by Synergy.”

^^^^^

As I levitated myself over the land, in effect flying, I saw a bus nearing a stop about half an hour away. I made sure I was there in time and waited for the bus to arrive. I bought a ticket to the next town, which happened to be Kismet. 'How appropriate,' I thought and settled into my seat.

Arriving in the town Kismet, I looked around for a while before buying a secondhand car and went out on the road again. Several times I bought provisions on the way and made stops at diners. I did have a thought of flying or in my case levitating the whole way to Russell. I decided against that, since it would drain my energy and make me tired. I didn't know what to expect when I saw my father again or what it would take to punish him for putting me into that asylum.

On the road I got pulled over once by a hick deputy, He claimed that I had driven too fast. He probably had a speed trap set up somewhere on 183 near Schoenchen. He wasn't too bright, though he wanted to appear smart. He said to me, “Show me your license please!”

I thought of something I remembered from the boy Benjamin. I focused my power on the deputy and then said to him, “You don't need to see my identification.”

He eyes glazed over a little as he repeated, “I don't need to see your identification.”

“I wasn't speeding at all.”

He repeated, “You weren't speeding at all.”

Smiling I said, “I can go about my business.”

He repeated after me, “You can go about your business.”

Softly I muttered, “Move along.”

He said loudly, “Move along, move along,” and waved me onward with his arms.

As I drove off, I laughed out loud at the movie quote I just pulled.

After a long drive, I was finally there. As I stood before the apartment building where I lived before hauled away as trash, I felt anticipation and resentment. I was tempted to feel around with my telepathic power to see if Dad was there and what he was doing. But I decided not to do it. It might ruin the surprise.

Like usual the super was nowhere in sight, so I walked straight through, up to the door of the apartment. There I didn't bother to knock, I just jimmied the lock with my Telekinetic powers and opened the door silently. I was about to yell, “Here's Danny!” when I saw a total different apartment than I was used to. I looked around the room noticing it appeared someone else lived here now. A sound caught my attention and I saw the little girl standing in a doorway to what used to be my room, she looked at me with her mouth wide open. As I took another step into the house, she started crying and ran back into what used to be my room.

I followed her to the room and saw that it was now a little girl's room. Halting in the doorway I mentally said to the girl, *It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you.*

She stopped crying and looked at me for a while. Then she said with a tiny voice, “Weally?”

I knelt down, “Really. I'm Danny, who are you?”

“I'm Megan. Awe you my daddy?”

I was surprised by her question, I had kept my shield tight and my mental influence short. Now I expanded them both and had a look inside the mind of this little girl. She grew up with her Mom. She missed her father, apparently he was missing. A thought crept in my mind, if ever a pedophile became a telepath, he could do a lot of damage with his power. Fortunately for Megan I wasn't one.

“I'm not your daddy, I came here looking for mine and a sister that has the same name as you.”

She sighed and looked down, “Oh, did youw daddy wun away as well?”

I smiled at her, “Not really, my Mom went away.” Then I picked up thoughts of concern for a little girl and an open door. I turned around just as the mother of Megan, Trisha came running through the doorway. She was about to yell at me, who I was and what I was doing here, but I cut her off. “Stop it Trisha. I came here looking for someone else. I didn't hurt Megan and I'm not going to hurt you. I'm sorry for intruding into your home.”

Trisha was looking at me with looks that could kill, but switched to a happy look as Megan got out of her room and ran into her arms. “Megan, I was so worried. Did the man here do something to you?”

Megan replied, “Danny was nice, his mommy went away and now he is looking for his daddy too.”

Trisha looked at me, “Who are you looking for, Danny is it?”

I smiled at her, “My name is Danny Montro, I am looking for the previous owner. I had the wrong impression that he still lived here.”

A sad look crept over Trisha's face. “I'm sorry, was he your father? You can find him about two blocks further down the street.”

Looking into my memory of the city, I realized what she meant. “He is at the Cemetery?”

“Yes, he died from a heart attack, or so I heard. My condolences to you.”

I was enraged, 'How could he do this to me. Even dead he still manages to make me seething mad.' Coldly I said to Trisha, “He was an abusive fuck up, then he put me into an asylum. I wanted to get some revenge and even that has been taken away from me.”

I let loose a Psi cry of anguish, anger and rage to vent my frustration about missing my chance on revenge. I didn't even begin to realize how big a mistake that was, till both Trisha and Megan winced from the pain that my Psi cry made in their heads. I realized my mistake at that point, 'Damn it, this will attract attention to me. I'd better get out of here.' I shoved Trisha with Megan in her arms rudely aside and briskly walked out of the apartment towards the stairs.

^^^^^

“Right,” said Sanura to the assembled ECLIPSE team members, “I hope you're all ready for a strenuous exercise. Molten made a test, as usual, to evaluate our personal and group performance.”

Most of the team gave looks of either approval or resentment to Molten, who wasn't fazed by any of them. Trance, who was added to the test for evaluation, smiled at the stray surface thoughts from the group. It was a pity that the whole group wasn't there though. Catalyst was studying hard for an exam while Instant was on a mission with her parents. Both Recoil and Nuke were away for personal business and Torrent was busy with critical work. Sanura had told Trance that they were lucky Blitz wasn't working at the moment.

As Trance opened his mind to have a look inside the minds of the team members, he suddenly winced and fell down to his knees as a searing hot Psi cry ripped through his shields. Blitz ran over to Trance, “Trance, what is wrong?”

Sanura had turned around and saw Trance on his knees, looking up to her with pain written all over his face. “Scrap the training, we need to go to Kansas. I just received a powerful Psi cry from a very angry Mindcontrol. I'm afraid he's going to kill again.”

Sanura, with a surprised but determined look on her face, said on a commando tone, “Get ready for a fight. We're going up against a very powerful Telepath and Telekinetic. His name is Daniel Montro, aka Mindcontrol.”

Trance relayed the coordinates for the portal to Sanura, who opened the portal right away. She went through first, encased in her black shield aura. The rest of the team followed suit, with Trance bringing up the rear.

^^^^^

Just as I stepped out into the street, a black portal opened in front of me in the middle of the street. Out came a female hybrid encased in a black something. She was followed by a whole group of people dressed in a black uniform with helmets on. Some clearly were hybrids, while others looked like mundane people in their uniforms. As the last person stepped trough, I felt a telepathic presence near me. I recognized it immediately, this was that guy Trance. 'I knew it. They aren't here to talk, but to incarcerate me. Well, I won't give up without a fight.'

Quickly I scanned the group for who they were and what they could do. Some were harder to read than others, but I got a quite good impression. Apparently they were all elementals. From one of them, I found out that he was the owner of the restaurant chain Everybody's Place. I had visited one of those in Vegas, and the food had been excellent.

The first woman in black said to me a bit muffled, “Stay where you are, Mindcontrol. We need to talk.”

I snorted, “Sorry, but I disagree. Strongly!”

Trance said to me, “You don't understand…”

I didn't wait to hear the rest, I was convinced that he was going to say, “You don't understand, you don't have a choice.” So I focused on his mind and send my most powerful message, *I said NO.*

^^^^^

Inferno saw Trance grasp his head with both hands and then his knees buckled. He fell down into a fetal position. He thought, 'That guy is more dangerous than we thought.' He formed a small fireball, meant more to scare than do harm and fired it at Mindcontrol.

Flutter saw Inferno firing a ball of fire and thought, 'Isn't he jumping the gun? He hasn't threatened us yet.' But then she saw the ball of fire change its trajectory and burst apart against a parked car. 'Maybe he is more dangerous than I thought. If I use my power to suck the air out of his lungs, he might strike back uncontrolled. Maybe I should think of something else, something more subtle.' Flutter manipulated the air molecules so that she could rise into the sky and kept contemplating if she should suck out the air of Mindcontrols lungs.

Meanwhile Sanura was giving her attention to Trance, she thought about attacking Mindcontrol, but other than battling Trance, he wasn't attacking anyone. Her power was too high to just outright attack him. Trance was getting back up slowly, so he wasn't hurt it seemed.

Echo saw Trance go down and then a ball of fire from Inferno was redirected. He wanted to prove that he could be just as useful in a fight and launched a sonic attack at Mindcontrol.

^^^^^

I was suddenly bombarded with sound and it was making me queasy. I focused on the source and learned that he could be quite effective and even lethal with that. He was also a bit unsure of himself as he looked girlish. I could tip his mind over to feeling more girlish, making him second guess himself always. It would take too much time though, so I just flung him away for a couple of feet. He would be out of commission for a few minutes.

Then I caught another thought and I saw a weird scorpion looking something jump towards me. My scan of her mind revealed that she was a bio-elemental and was going to incapacitate me by making me sick. I was enraged, 'How dare she do that to me. I'll show her.' I lifted her and threw her through several buildings under renovation. The first few buildings didn't even slow her speed down, much. As she went through the concrete and brick walls of the fourth and larger building, the destruction was enough to topple the structure. A sturdy firewall held her motion and several floors and walls fell on top of her. 'That should hold her up for a while.' It was also quite a distance from me. I hoped I was out of her range.

With that threat out of the way, I could focus on the rest of ECLIPSE. 'What other threats were waiting for me?' I immediately found a thought from someone calling herself Flutter. 'What a ridiculous name,' I thought. But the thought from her wasn't ridiculous. It was outright frightening. She was thinking of using her elemental power to suck the air out of my lungs. Time was of the essence here. Since she was flying, I couldn't just throw her somewhere. She'd find a way to counter it and make good on her threat. I got an idea, I reached into her mind and found the mental inner switch that made it possible to access her power. Subtly I reached out with my powers and managed to throw that switch to off position, or something like that. The result was immediate, Flutter fell out of the sky, having no longer control over the air molecules.

^^^^^

Flutter found herself suddenly not able to feel the air and fell down to the earth as her power seemed to have vanished. 'What happened? Why don't I have my powers anymore?' She had been as high as 20 feet when it happened and as she landed quite hard on the concrete, she cried out from pain. She clutched her ankle as a searing pain indicated that it was most likely broken.

Sizzle was outraged, her teammates were getting hammered. She started to increase the temperature around Mindcontrol. She planned to cook him a little. At the same time Blitz came to the same conclusion after making sure that Trance and Echo were both okay. He powered up and shot a lightning bolt to his target Mindcontrol.

Mindcontrol had anticipated both attacks as he had seen their intentions in their mind. He messed a little with the way Blitz saw the scene. He thought he targeted Mindcontrol, but it was Sizzle instead. As the lightning bolt hit her, she cried out and fell down nearly unconscious. His vision restored to as it should be, Blitz was appalled to see that instead of Mindcontrol, he had shot his own teammate.

He was distracted by what he had inadvertently done and didn't notice the piece of debris that flew towards him driven by the telekinesis from Mindcontrol. Blitz took a hit on his helmet and was groggy for several minutes.

^^^^^

I had managed to misdirect the view from the restaurant owner Blitz and made him shoot down the heat elemental. Then I took him out with a piece of concrete. However, now the Ice guy Glacier and the fire guy Inferno were firing at my position. I made it look to them that I didn't notice and just stood there, while in reality I had moved away quite a bit. I made sure that the fireball hit the ice blast head on. The contradicting temperatures made quite an explosive cloud of water vapor and mist. It would obscure my leaving quite well, making it very hard for the ECLIPSE team to see that I wasn't there anymore. I made them believe though that I was still there in the middle of the vapor cloud. It was taxing my power though, I couldn't do it for long. Even worse, Trance was coming out of his stupor that my mental yelling had put him in. He would most certainly not be fooled with it.

I saw five other members fire wildly into the mist at my last known position. One of them had a particular nasty blast of dark energy. I could sense her aversion to use her power at another human being. But she felt it was necessary. 'Good thing I got out of there when I did.'

I lifted those five members and several others in the air, giving me a headache for using my power on so many persons at the same time right after a big strain from using my power. I spun them around for a bit and then threw them around the area.

As I did that, a sudden impact on my TK shield behind me drew my attention. There were three people standing there. 'Why didn't my telepathic power alert me to them?'

The first one that caught my eye was the chalk white girl in the black leather duster holding her hand out at me. On either side of her were equally bizarre persons. On her left was a bright green snake girl, and on her left was, I almost couldn't believe my eyes, a classic werewolf.

The white woman said with a crisp voice, “Surrender now, or things get ugly!”

As I kept quiet, with a look of contempt on my face, she shrugged off her coat and jumped at me. I tried to read her mind out of raw instinct to see what she was up to and hit a wall of static instead. Before I could react with a telekinetic push, she was on me or rather the telekinetic wall I had around me. I could see the shockwave when her fist hit my shield and it took everything I had to stop her from coming straight through to me.

She reared back while I was recovering from that first hit and just in time I recovered to block her second blow. I had to push to do it, and it sent a spear of pain through my head. Then I started noticing the cold. It was nearly freezing. It was getting so cold that my hands were shaking. I looked at the terrifying grin on the white girls face and looked past her. The snake woman was holding a hand out towards me, and her green hair (or was it tails?) was waving around in the air. There was a massive electrical charge that she was holding in her other hand. Then I realized, where had the werewolf gone to?

Quickly I looked around and then I saw him. He was on the side of a building. He was moving around to the side to attack my flank. 'Damn.' I barely got my attention back around to the white girl in time to block her next punch. This time I didn't bother to hold myself in place, and let the blow slide me back a few feet. 'Damn, this is putting me back closer to the regrouping uniformed elementals.'

I gathered up all my strength and sent a wave of telekinetic force down the street towards the white girl and her friends. The werewolf and the snake girl were caught and thrown backwards. The white girl, however, merely braced herself, and only slid a dozen feet or so, about as far as I did when she hit me. I shuddered as I saw her smile get wider.

I couldn't take on these newcomers or the elementals in the shape I was in now. I certainly couldn't take on both, the elementals were getting ready for round two. I had to get out of here fast. I did a quick telepathic scan of the surroundings. Several people had gathered around a corner to watch the fight and I sprinted towards them. As I ran through the crowd, messing with their vision a little, I threw several high denomination bills of my money in the air and made sure the crowd noticed it.

They started a frenzy to get as much money as they could get, effectively blocking the way for my pursuers. I knew that it wasn't enough though. That wolf could still follow my scent trail. Looking around me I saw a Maglev train about to leave a station and it was not too far away. As it left the station, I concentrated and teleported aboard.

Arriving in the maglev train, I sagged down and noticed some drops of blood dripping out of my nose. The fight and teleport had taken too much out of me. I felt so tired and cold, I could sleep for a week. I wasn't out of the woods yet though. If I let my barriers down for a moment, that Trance guy would attack me. Even worse he could direct the other elementals or those new backup forces towards my position. So I shut down most of my active defenses and pulled my mental shield tightly around me at a low enough power that Trance wouldn't notice it. It was high enough to feel any intrusion and would keep the chatter of the nearby people away.

^^^^^

Trance felt well enough to get back into the fight. 'Dam n, that Mindcontrol has a lot of power. He shouldn't shout like that. Maybe he did it on purpose though.' As he looked around him, he didn't see any sign of Mindcontrol. A quick telepathic check didn't reveal him nearby as well. He approached Void and asked, “What happened, where is Mindcontrol?”

Sanura took her helmet off, “He was tossing us around, I'm sure we could have taken him, if we had the time to regroup, but he managed to keep us all busy and misguided long enough.”

A seething mad Poison ran towards them, “Where is he? I want another shot.”

Sanura calmed her down, “Easy Poison, he's gone for the moment. We'll get him next time. Would you mind having a look at Flutter? She's down and hurt.

Poison looked around still very upset, but started to go towards Flutter who was sitting on the ground clasping an ankle. At that time a white and black shape dropped down in front of Sanura and she halted her movement to see what that was. Maybe it was a new threat.

Quartz came to a halt before Sanura. “Hi kids, we thought you could use some help, seeing that you were losing to that guy.”

Sanura squinted her eyes, “Your intervention is appreciated, though not asked for. We could have handled him. It was just a matter of time.”

Quartz chuckled, “Yeah, I could see that. If we hadn't come along you'd have been hammered into oblivion.”

Trance got into the conversation, “Once I recovered, I could have distracted him enough that we could have handled him by ourselves. He's not that powerful, he just got lucky with a successful strategy and ambush tactics.”

Quartz shrugged, “Fine then, we'll leave you to clean up the mess.” She spoke into her communication gear, “Okay guys, lets knock it off, the kids say they can handle it.”

In a flurry of wings and dust she took off and left the ECLIPSE team alone among the ruins of buildings from the fight. Void put her helmet back on and said, “Team, gather around me, we're going home.”

Quickly the team members gathered to Void and she opened a portal back to the Nexus. There they started to take their gear off. Sanura said to them, “Please, stay here for a moment. I'm disappointed at our performance today. This wasn't our first fight. I think we got complacent and over confident. I know that we didn't go in to have a battle and that Mindcontrol had a good strategy and a lot of luck on his side. Still, we should have been better.”

Jair spoke up first, which was unusual. “You're correct Sanura. With the help of Trance, I'll give you a full analysis of what went wrong.”

Blitz was next to speak, “He was good at using our weaknesses against us. But I think we took the wrong approach. I don't think he's that bad.”

Trance interrupted, “What do you mean, he has killed people you know.”

Blitz looked calmly at Trance, “Yes, you are right. However he could have seriously harmed or even killed some of us. Yet he didn't. He could have used innocent bystanders to hide behind or use as hostages, and again he didn't. I am just saying maybe we should try talking to him, before attacking in full force.

“You may have a point Gabe,” said Sanura. “I'll keep it under advisement. Yes Dana, what is it?” as she noticed an agitated Flutter trying to get attention.

“I seemed to have lost my powers during the fight. I don't know how that happened or why. I've been trying to do anything the last few minutes, but nothing works. Trance, can you see in my mind what is wrong with me?”

Trance focused on Dana, “I think Mindcontrol did something to your brain. You can't access your power, but I think the power is still there. I'm not sure how or what he did though. I'm sorry.”

Flutter sagged, “I hope we can make him repair what he did. Or that you can find out then. I would hate to be a liability to the team.”

“I hope so too,” Sanura said softly.

^^^^^

As I got up to leave the maglev train, I staggered and surely would have fallen down. An older man caught me in time and held me up though. I raised my head towards him and he said, “Danny? Is that you?”

Now I was surprised, I had kept myself closed off to outside voices, since I needed to be very careful not to give Trance a direction to hunt me. Looking up at the man I recognized him. It was Mr. Hanes, one of my old teachers. “Hi Mr. Hanes.”

He helped me up and said, “Danny, what happened to you? I heard you got suspended for a few days and then you didn't show up anymore.”

“I got MORFS, and my father had me taken to an asylum.” I said dryly.

Mr. Hanes was surprised, “Why on earth would he do that? You don't look so different, I can only see the white hair as a change on you.”

I was about to answer him, but because I was still very tired I stumbled and this time fell down on the ground. Mr. Hanes helped me up again, “Come to my house first and rest. There you can tell the rest of it.”

Quite fast we arrived at his small apartment, he got some refreshments while I sat down on his sofa. When he came back with a coke he said to me, “Though it has been a few years, I still consider you a student of mine. As you know I'm also the school counselor. If you want to talk, it will be confidentially.”

I looked at Mr. Hanes, I wasn't up to using my powers yet, so I tried to guess how much I could say. “How confidential, Mr. Hanes? I have done things that I'm not proud of.”

“Well, I'm not a priest or a doctor, so I can't hide behind official rules if there is a police investigation. But I try to keep things between us as much as possible. Why? What is on your mind, son?”

I still hesitated, 'Can I tell him everything? He might report me to the police. I'm nowhere near strong enough to fight those elementals or others like it right now. Even if I were, I got lucky fighting that team.' I decided to take a chance, “I've killed people, Mr. Hanes.”

Mr. Hanes inhaled deeply, “I see, why did you do it? Did you want to kill them for pleasure or fascination? Were you forced to do it?”

I contemplated for a moment, “The first one was in pure rage because of what he had done to me and other people with me in the asylum. The others were killed while defending myself and others and I was callous to their fate.”

Mr. Hanes took a sip from his drink, then he said with a gravelly voice, “Please tell me everything Danny. I won't pass judgment till I have heard it all.”

I started talking about me getting MORFS, being locked up and how they had treated me. When I told him what I did to the orderlies he squinted his eyes, but kept quiet. When I arrived at the time I freed the MORFS hybrids, he looked even more troubled. He even interrupted me at that point. “Danny, I need to ask you something. A goddaughter of mine came down with MORFS. She has been missing for a few months, we fear she might be kidnapped. The police say they are looking for her, but we doubt that they are looking hard enough. Her name is Fae Brenner. She morfed last year into a dog hybrid. I am hoping you have seen her.”

Mr. Hanes got up and retrieved a 3D hologram from the other room. “This is a hologram of her.”

I had to look only shortly to recognize her. She was the dog hybrid that offered herself as a slave to me. With some trepidation I looked up at Mr. Hanes. “She was incarcerated with those hybrids in that SHAME facility. I did set her free, and she offered herself to me as a slave for the rest of her life. She wants to be submissive and dominated. If I had known she was your goddaughter I would have taken her with me here.”

Mr. Hanes waved it away, “You couldn't have known. So, she is alive? I hope she gets back safely or maybe even find a better place to live. This state is really fucked up with those anti hybrid laws.”

I smiled, “I can do better than that. When I freed her, I made a mental connection to her. I can contact her telepathically and ask her about her whereabouts and what she plans to do. But it has to wait till later. I haven't recovered enough yet.”

Mr. Hanes sat down again, “Yes, how did you get in such a bad shape? What happened?”

“Well, I got very upset when I discovered that my father had died. Which led to being discovered by a team of Elementals. They are out to catch me. With a bit of luck I was beating them, when some new arrivals were hammering me into exhaustion. I barely got away from there. That's when I met you in the train.”

Mr. Hanes sighed once and then again, Finally he said, “I've got myself a dilemma now. Should I report you to the police for at least manslaughter? Or should I let you go. On one hand you have killed people that didn't need to die. On the other hand, you freed my goddaughter and several others.”

I interrupted, “I'm sorry for putting you into that spot.”

Mr. Hanes smiled, “Don't be, it comes with the territory of being a counselor. What will you do should I report you?”

Vehemently I responded, “I won't be locked up again. I'll do anything to prevent that.”

“Easy, I didn't say I was going to report you,” soothed Mr. Hanes.

“Sorry, I just don't want to be locked up ever again. The only way they can keep me locked up is using a powerful dampener, which would hurt and torture me.”

“I don't have a quick solution to your problem, Danny. However you are in a lot of trouble. You can stay here with me for now. But for your safety I'm asking you to leave tomorrow. I hope you can understand that.”

“Sure Mr. Hanes. I appreciate the stay for the night.”

“No problem,” said Mr. Hanes. “Now, how about something to eat.”

“I'd love some, thanks,” was my answer.

A quick meal later we talked a little more on the past and how things were now. I could tell he was anxious to hear how his goddaughter fared, but he would have to wait. I still didn't feel up to use much of my power. I only kept my telepathic shield up, to block thoughts of others.

After the night, that I spend in meditation since I had to keep my telepathic shield up, I felt refreshed enough to start using my telepathic power to contact Fae. Slowly I expanded my telepathic range of influence. I was ready to retract my range as soon as I would encounter someone like Trance. When I didn't find anyone near my location, I felt secure enough to try and contact Fae.

The familiar connection was coming from one direction and I expanded my telepathic range as tightly as I could in that direction. Soon I felt the mind of Fae through the mental connection lock and subtly asked her softly, *Hi Fae, don't be alarmed. It's me Mindcontrol, you know the white haired guy that freed you from the SHAME prison.*

I could feel her bewilderment at being spoken to in her mind. She asked out loud, “Where are you? What do you want?”

*Easy Fae, I'm quite far away. I'm with Patrick Hanes, your godfather. He used to be my teacher. He asked me to contact you to ask how you are doing. Just think your answers for me.*

Her unrest dissipated and she thought, *How is uncle Pat? Can you ask him to come get me or send me some money? I'm hungry and don't have money for a place to stay as well.*

I went a little deeper into her thoughts and to my dismay found that she contemplated hooking for some money. She was sure that there were enough degenerates that would pay good money to fuck a real bitch.

*Don't do anything rash, Fae! I'll ask your uncle to send you some money. Please wait with what you're thinking of doing.*

She got a bit upset at me, *What right do you have reading my mind like that?*

I tried to soothe her, *I couldn't help it. Those thoughts are very strong inside you. I barely touched your mind at all.*

In her mind she backed down a bit, *Oh, okay then. Can you please hurry with uncle Pat? I'm so hungry.*

*Sure, I'll be gone for a little while.*

As I retreated back into my own mind, I noticed Mr. Hanes walking up to me. I had been focusing so hard in the direction of Fae that I hadn't noticed his thoughts. “Hi Mr. Hanes, I just talked to Fae. She's alright, but wants you to sent her some money for food and shelter. She's really desperate.”

Mr. Hanes asked a bit hoarse, “How desperate?”

“As in thinking of turning tricks for money, desperate.”

I could see Mr. Hanes pale a little. “Where do I send it to?”

I gave him the information he needed and made contact with Fae again. *Your uncle just transferred some money to the Global Union near you. I'll stay in touch till you get it.*

About an hour later she had her money and thanked me and her uncle. I told her that it was no problem for me. Mr. Hanes wanted to thank me as well, but I said, “No need to thank me, you already put me up for the night, despite what I have done.”

“That is something I wanted to talk to you about Danny. Do you feel guilty for what you have done?”

I didn't reply instantly, I thought deeply about what I had done and how I felt about it. “I regret that I killed those people. Looking back I know I shouldn't have done it, but I felt so enraged when I did. Does this make me a sociopath?”

Mr. Hanes sat down in front of me, “Danny, a sociopath is someone who doesn't feel remorse. The fact that you do makes me believe that you are not. Maybe you were borderline when you killed those people. But the fact that you feel bad about it, makes me think that you are on the way back from it.”

“I will try to better myself. Now I know what they mean with 'With great power comes great responsibility' I don't want ever to be locked up again. Do you think I could get away without going to jail?”

Mr. Hanes answered softly, “I don't know. I would like to say yes, but I don't want to give you false hope. You do have to atone for what you have done, but I can understand your situation. I don't know what I would have done if I had been locked up in an asylum and abused. I will support you with whatever happens. If you do get locked up in a prison, I will make sure that you get help and visits. I can also ask a friend of mine who is a lawyer, he may have some more answers for you.”

I smiled a little as I got up, “Thanks Mr. Hanes.”

“Now, what are your plans if you don't mind telling me,” asked Mr. Hanes.

“I'll go look up my sister that I didn't know I had. My mother told me where I can find her, so I'll go…”

Mr. Hanes interrupted, “Don't tell me where you're going. What I don't know, I can't divulge to police or telepaths.”

“Okay, I am going to find my sister and from there I'll see. Live day by day I guess. Maybe go back to school.” I said while packing my meager belongings and heading towards the door.

“Good luck to you Danny, and keep in touch if you can.”

I smiled again, I touched his forehead and made a mental connection like I did with his goddaughter. Then I thought to him, *I will, I made a connection to you as I did to Fae. I'll keep in touch from time to time.*

“Phew, that is weird,” said Mr. Hanes. “It brings me to another point. Please ask people before doing that. They might see it as an intrusion into their privacy. I know you mean well, but it can backfire to you.”

“Oops, thanks for the warning Mr. Hanes. I'll keep it in mind.”

While buying a ticket from Kansas City airport to LAX, I kept an eye out for procedures on the airport on registering names and scanning people. I knew if I would use my credit card, the elemental team ECLIPSE would find me instantly. Fortunately I still had enough money on me to pay for tickets. I noticed that people going on international flights were scanned and the scan was put through a facial recognition program. If it matched with a wanted person or didn't match with the passport biometric data, the person would be detained and questioned. If I would go on an International flight to Asia, I would definitely be detained and imprisoned. Besides I didn't even have a passport.

I went to LAX, because there were more International flights from there. The trip to Los Angeles would be no more exciting as a bus ride, since all the commuter planes were now using Synergy Thrusters for vertical lift and propulsion. As I went to board the 'bus' to LA, I noticed something interesting. The pilots for an International flight were not as rigorously checked as the passengers. Maybe that could be my way to fly overseas.

Arriving at LAX after an uneventful flight, I observed the pilots schedule and the arriving pilots. There were flights going to Thailand, Laos and India, all countries next door to Myanmar. Thailand would be the best since I had found out that Megan was with a group to help the Karen people.

Luck was with me as I spotted a pilot that was scheduled for Thailand and he was still sleepy. Subtly I read his thoughts, John was thinking that he shouldn't have drunk that much on the party the night before. Now he was still hung over and wanted desperately to go back to bed. I nudged his mind towards going back home. I suggested that he had already reported in sick and was ready to go home. Then I raided his mind on all he knew about flying aircraft, procedures and such more. Just as he was ready to go home I made a suggestion to him to go to the toilet and made him forget his carryon luggage.

The luggage contained a clean uniform, which I hastily put on before going to the crew room. Things went fairly easy there, as only a few people paid attention to me. I had no problems letting them imagine that they saw the pilot I pretended to be.

The flight went without any problems and I performed the tasks assigned to me as if I had flown like a pro. After a smooth landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport Bangkok, I slipped away and changed my clothes in a toilet. Just as I walked out towards the exit, several policemen ran past me and some where grabbing a hold of pilots that were walking around. John Astana had probably woken up and an alert had been issued for the capture of someone posing as him. I guess they were wondering how I had gotten past the security checks.

Outside I bought a pad with GPS and a digital map of the country and quickly found where I had to go. A taxi brought me to the office of 'Network for good'. There I would try to get information on where I might find my sister.

A nice woman was there to help me, but when I asked about the whereabouts of Miss Megan Montro, she said that she couldn't give information on their people.

“Can I please talk to your supervisor, then?” I asked politely, feeling a little annoyed that she was stonewalling me.

“Certainly Sir, one moment please.”

A heavy set man soon approached me, “Hello, I'm Art Douglas, how may I help you? Let's go to my office.”

After sitting down in his office I asked, “I would like information on where I can find my sister. I just learned a short while ago of her existence and want to meet her. Her name is Megan Montro.”

Art looked at me with trepidation, “I hope you can understand that we can't give out information about our relief workers. There has been too much abuse of that information in the past. I can understand your request, if I had a sister I had never seen, than I would very much like to meet her. Do you have a passport, so I can check your identity?”

I smiled wryly, “Sorry, I don't have a passport on me. Nor do I have any other papers saying who I am. You wouldn't trust me on my word?”

Art smiled coldly back at me, “Sorry, I can't.”

“All right,” and I concentrated to read his mind on what he knew about my sister. It was easy to read his thoughts and what I got was alarming. I exclaimed loudly, “What? You can't even tell me anything because she's missing? You lost contact with everyone in Kemapyu? What are you going to do about it?”

With wide open eyes, visibly shocked, Art looked at me as I shouted these facts at him. “What… how? How do you know this?”

I snarled at him, “I'm a telepath, now tell me! What are you going to do to get those people back out safely?”

Art swallowed, “There is nothing we can do, there are no ransom demands, or any contact with the kidnappers. We don't hire Rambo to go in guns blazing and get our people out. We don't even know where they are.”

Coldly I said, “Fine then. I'll get them out myself. Don't try anything to hinder me, or you'll regret it.”

Several taxi's later I stood on the edge of a small town called Mae la Noi. I bought some provisions and started walking towards my destination, the village Kemapyu. My sister and her co-workers had reported in from there last. I would try to pick up from there where they had been taken.

Soon I was all alone in the jungle and it was getting so densely full with plants that I had trouble seeing and going ahead. I levitated myself up and hovered just above the treetops across the vast jungle.

Relying on the GPS information I soon found the village Kemapyu. As I was getting near, it was hard to miss with all the smoke coming from some still burning buildings. I went to ground out of sight and walked into to ruins of the village. There was devastation everywhere I looked. Several people lay dead or dying in the streets. One woman looked at me, she was holding her neck with a hand, but still blood was flowing out. I went to her and quickly noticed that she had quite a bad gash in her neck. It was a wonder that she hadn't bled out.

She looked up at me as I knelt next to her. She tried to speak, but it made the blood flow out faster. I hushed her and probed her neck with my telekinetic power. Soon I managed to locate the damaged artery and clamped it with my telekinetic power. The blood could flow through it to the brain, but it couldn't escape from the artery anymore, not as long as I held the telekinetic tube around it.

I helped the woman up and made it clear to here that she shouldn't talk or move too rapidly. With signs I asked here where we could find help. She pointed in a direction and I took her with me in that direction. It didn't take us long to see a black man treating a man sitting on the ground. 'He must be one of the doctors from the Network for Good.'

I approached him slowly with the woman. When we got closer he looked up, “Hello, I didn't know someone else from outside this country was here. Are you a Doctor?”

I squinted at him, “I was going to ask that same question to you. I just arrived here. That is not important right now, this woman needs help, an artery in her neck is nicked. Without my help she'll bleed to death. I'm not a doctor, so can you help her?”

The man stood upright, “I'm not a doctor, just a medic and medical student. I'm Jim by the way.”

“Danny,” I answered.

Jim took the hand of the woman away from the neck to inspect the damage. “How is this possible? She should be gushing from a wound like that.” Then he turned to me, “You said that without your help she would bleed to death? What did you do?”

I smiled, “I'm a telekinetic, I'm keeping the artery from leaking blood to the outside, but allowing blood to flow through to the brain.”

“Neat,” said Jim, “but how am I going sew it up?”

“How about I connect to you telepathically, that way you can steer the telekinetic field through me. I can retract it where you need to put the needle and thread in.”

Jim looked in wonder at me, “You can do that? How strong are you?”

I answered dryly, “Strong enough, now hurry please. Though I can hold it in place for a long time, I might slip up a little with a lot of consequences.”

Several tens of minutes later the woman was patched up and resting from her ordeal. Jim asked me, “Can you help me with some of the other patients?”

Reluctantly I agreed, I had wanted to go on to search for my sister, but helping Jim might mean contact with people that saw something. So I held patients, assisted Jim with handing him tools and stuff. Mostly with my hands, but sometimes we needed a lot of things at the same time. My Telekinesis came in quite handy at those times.

Only a few times I didn't have to help out so much and I could reach into the minds of the people we were helping. What I saw was a lot off the same. Soldiers in uniform pillaging and plundering the village, hurting and killing people along the way.

After several hours working the stream of patients stopped and we could take a breather. I asked Jim, “Can you tell me what happened here?”

Jim took a sip from his drink, “Well, I was out into the fields when it happened. Maybe that's why I am here and not hurt. When I got back I found it mostly like you see it now. Destruction and dead or dying people everywhere. All my colleagues are gone, the men may have been killed, the women they might have been taken alive. From what I heard from the locals, it was a section of the regular army. They are somewhat independent here, and take what they want from the villages. Protests are nipped in the bud, the protesters are ignored or never heard from.”

I had to ask, “Then why come here? If it is that dangerous to be here, why come out here and do missionary work?”

Jim laughed curtly and rough, “ Have you seen the situation here? These people need all the help they can get. I know it's dangerous, but I can make a difference. Back home I can get run over by a car or get mugged for a few dollars just as quickly as the soldiers raid the villages here.”

“True,” I said with a sigh.

Jim continued, “Enough about me, what are you looking for here?”

“I'm looking for my sister. I just found out that I had one and now she's missing.” I answered truthfully.

Jim looked at me with question marks in his eyes, “She was here? What is her name?”

“Megan Montro. I know she was here, but the office in Bangkok lost all contact from here. That's why I came here myself to look for her.”

Jim gave me a sad look, “I'm sorry, but I'm afraid your sister was taken along with everyone else, or at least I hope they were taken alive.”

“So you know her? What is she like? I've only heard of her existence a short while ago.” I asked Jim quickly.

“She was … is so young and innocent, a cute next door neighbor girl really. She looks a bit like you actually, but a lot better to look at, no offense.”

“None taken, “ I replied dryly.

Jim continued, “She is really good with people. She has a knack of making them feel at ease, like any good nurse would have I guess. Though she is only a student nurse, she knew a lot about it and was an valued asset to our team.” He paused, “I really hope you can have her found. I'd hate to have her found dead.”

I asked Jim, “What do you mean have her found? I'm going after her myself.”

Jim looked at me with a surprised look, “You can't do that! You'd be killed. Those people don't mess around, they are very dangerous and have all the power to do as they please.”

With a cold undertone in my voice I said, “I told you before, I'm strong enough, I can handle myself quite well. No need to worry about me. You just worry about keeping the people alive here.”

Jim looked at me with trepidation, he wanted to say something but decided against it and kept quiet. I asked him instead, “Which way did they go?”

Jim pointed upstream, “Up the river in a boat. What are you going to do to them?”

“I don't know yet, depends on what they will do to me. If they start shooting I'll disarm them I guess.”

With that I nodded to him and walked away at a brisk pace towards the river. Arriving there, I just kept on walking, while elevating myself above the water. To the lonely fisherman preparing his nets, it looked like I was like Jezus walking on water.

I few miles later I stopped for the night, and spend it up in a tree in Meditation. Early in the morning I continued my trek after eating some of my provisions. I travelled a few miles, skimming just above the water, when suddenly something hit my Telekinetic Shield. As I realized that it might be a bullet, I heard the sound of a gunshot. I was glad that I took the precaution of having my shield up, but outraged that they would start shooting just like that. No warning of any kind was given. I rose higher into the air as more bullets streamed towards me from the thick jungle alongside the river.

Soon I could see the men responsible for the continuous hail of bullets aimed at me. I had little trouble reading their minds, but couldn't understand their language. Their intent was quite clear though. They had orders to kill anything coming up the river.

I yanked all the weapons towards me with ease and in some cases the men were holding so strongly on them that I pulled them along as well. I dropped everything in the middle of the river and let them sort it out, while I went on towards my target.

En route I got shot at twice more and repeated the same action. Then as I was getting close to my target, I could see some people being held prisoner, I was shot at again, this time even more furiously then before. Before I could repeat my action of yanking all the weapons away, a big explosion impacted on my shield.

I got a bit of a headache from it and looked in surprise in the direction it came from. Some guy with ornaments on his shoulders was operating a very big nasty looking gun. As I looked at it, another grenade spewed out towards me. I changed the trajectory towards a location where heavy gunfire came from. After the ensuing explosion, it became very quiet from there. I didn't pay much attention to it though. The officer, probably the one in charge, was about to fire another grenade at me. This time I held the fired projectile stuck in the barrel. It blew up spectacular injuring the officer behind it terribly. Despite his severe injuries he continued to shout orders and even drew his sidearm to try to shoot at me.

I was furious, 'Why doesn't he get it that it is futile to try and shoot me?' I reached out with my Telekinetic power and crushed his handgun into a piece of useless metal. He still kept shouting orders to his subordinates, but this time it sounded different, I looked to the soldiers he shouted at and noticed that they were running towards the prisoners. The closest ones put a gun to the head of the person they were holding. Two girls, a fair skinned one that looked familiar, 'My sister?', and a darker skinned one were taken and had a gun put to their heads as well. The girls were struggling very weakly and looked bruised and hurt.

I was enraged, they already had taken my sister hostage and now they were threatening to kill her in front of me? I roared, “Stay away from her, you fucking animals!”

Most were nailed to the ground in fear of me, but one soldier twitched his finger. With a sharp crack his gun discharged and a sickening splashing sound accompanied the splattering brains as the slug exploded the brains of an older man out of his head.

I was so enraged that I thought, 'Those bastards, I'll show them. I'll kill them all with their own guns. I'll even let them pull the trigger themselves with me controlling their movements.'

As I was about to act on my thoughts, the words of Gil the Gila monster hybrid and Mr. Hanes popped up in my head. I thought, 'If I kill them all with their guns, I'm proving to be no better than all of them. I'll only become a sociopath like most people think I am. I really don't want to go down that path. I'm better than that.'

I needed a different course of action, so I lifted all the weapons the soldiers had, guns, knives and sticks up high in the air and threw it all in the river. The soldiers were looking bewildered at me. Before they could react and take their anger out on the helpless victims, I lifted them into the air and dumped them into the river as well. I made sure that it wasn't near any of the weapons though.

Quickly after dispatching the remaining soldiers, I knelt down between my sister and her friend. They were both laying on the ground after I got rid of their captors. I turned to my sister first. She looked up at me and said softly, “Thank you, whoever you are.”

“Megan, I'm your brother Daniel,” I said gently to her.

She smiled, “Finally I get to meet you, big brother.”

I smiled back at her, worrying about her health, she looked and felt so fragile. “I'm happy to see you too little sister. Do you mind me seeing in your mind? I'm a telepath.”

She nodded, “Go ahead.”

I quickly made a mental connection and went into her thoughts. I found a gentle and caring girl, worrying more about her friend Nya, next to us, then herself. I quickly glanced at her friend. She had her eyes closed, but seemed to be breathing normally. I turned my attention back to Megan and saw all her hopes and worries. She had wanted to help so many people. Then she coughed violently.

*Megan! What is wrong?*

In her mind she formed the reply, not being able to say it out loud. *I don't feel so well, I'm sorry big brother.*

I held her tightly, *No, Megan! Don't die, don't give up. I can save you. Please stay with me.*

She smiled again, *I love you Dan. I want you to take care of Nya. Please don't…*

That's when she died and being connected to her mind I died with her. As her thoughts dwindled into a void, they were etched for ever into my memory and soul. Inadvertently I sent out a powerful PSI-cry of pain and sorrow.

^^^^^

Sanura stepped into Trances office, "Trance, I'm receiving satellite footage on a skirmish in Myanmar between soldiers and a single person. It looks like the soldiers are losing. I hate to ask this from you, but can you teleview to see if it is 'you know who'?"

Trance grimaced, "Getting more cautious after the defeat of the partial team?"

Sanura sighed, thinking back to the battle in Kansas against Mindcontrol. Suddenly Trance winced and exclaimed, "Oow."

"Trance? What is wrong?"

Trance didn't react directly which only made her worry more. Then he spoke up with a raspy voice that sent shivers across her back, "I just got a powerful PSI-cry of pain and grief. It came from Mindcontrol. I can confirm that it is him there in Myanmar. Please gather the team as soon as possible."

Sanura felt more shivers traverse her back as she said, "The team is waiting already, let's go to them now."

Together they stepped through a portal formed by Sanura towards the assembled team members of ECLIPSE. Sanura said, "Everyone listen up. We have a location on Mindcontrol, we'll go there immediately. I want us to be loaded for bear, but hold your fire till I or Trance give the word."

There was a little murmur before it quieted down and all, even the now powerless Flutter answered, "Ready to go."

^^^^^

I cried softly holding my sister Megan's body. I had just found her, only to lose her again so soon. Some men approached me and one said, “Thank you mister for saving us. Did you know Megan?”

I turned to him, “She was my sister. Who are you?”

The man who spoke earlier said, “I'm Doctor Matt Cassidy, are you sure Megan is dead?”

I looked up at him with tears in my eyes, “I was telepathically connected to her, when she died. I felt her death like it was my own.”

Matt knelt next to us, “I'm sorry for your loss. She was a good girl and a great nurse.”

I laid Megan's body down. “Thanks, can you check out Nya? Megan asked me to look after her. She's unconscious, and I don't dare go into her head with my telepathy yet.”

As Matt started to examine Nya, I saw something in the corner of my eye. I turned towards it and saw that a portal had opened. Even worse the ECLIPSE team jumped out of the portal, looking very menacing. Their number was even more this time and I felt scared and enraged at the same time. I didn't think I would be able to hold them off again. I got lucky last time and probably wouldn't have the same luck twice. Just in case they were going to attack I raised my telekinetic shield to a maximum that I could muster.

I stood up facing them as I felt the presence of Trance. He was the last to come out of the portal. I yelled at the assembled elemental team, “NO! I will not be locked up again. I'll die first and I'll take everyone here with me. I'll detonate a psychic bomb the moment you try to attack me.”

The first person encased in a black something asked to the white haired man with white eyes, that I recognized as Trance, behind her, “Trance? Can he?”

Trance answered, “Yes he can, and you're not fast enough to escape it. Even if you were able to get us all out of here in time, I would still be very hurt or even fatally injured by that.”

Another person, the one I could identify as the restaurant owner Blitz, took off his helmet. He said to me, “Daniel, we haven't come here to fight. Can we have a conversation about you, us and everything else?”

I hesitated a little, then the first person dropped her black casing and turned out to be a hybrid with a tail, probably a cat's tail. She too took her helmet off and revealed herself as a very good looking cat hybrid. Sounding a bit annoyed she said, “Blitz is right, please let's diffuse the situation and talk this out.”

Trance added, “Please Daniel, I'm sure you don't want to kill us all and especially not that young woman the doctor is examining.”

I hesitated, they were right. I didn't want to kill anyone. However I was adamant about not going to jail or something similar to be locked up. I couldn't ignore my sisters dying request though. I had to take care of Nya. Well, for as long as she would let me at least. Telepathically I asked Trance, *What are you guys up to? As one telepath to another, I'm really strongly against getting locked up. But I don't want to hurt people anymore. I'm not sure what I should do.*

Trance thought back to me, *Danny, we really mean you no harm. We want to help you. Please talk to us.*

I sighed, “Okay, let's talk”

I lowered my shield mostly, but kept it around me as a thin layer just as a precaution. As the leader, the cat hybrid, walked up to me, a woman sprinted past her. Taking off her helmet she said exitedly, “I want to talk to him first.” Then she addressed me, “What did you do to me? Why can't I access my power anymore?”

Scanning her mind, I realized that this was Flutter, or Dana McKenna. I had switched off her link to her power. I smiled sheepishly, “Sorry, I thought you were too dangerous. Here let me remedy it.” With that I reached into her mind and switched her inner switch to her power back on after having a little trouble finding it.

I could sense that Flutter was ecstatic about feeling the air molecules around her again and she lifted off into the air flying around and showing off her control of her elemental power.

The leader of the team came up to me saying, “I'm sure Flutter is very grateful that you restored her power.”

I nodded, “It was wrong of me to cut her off in the first place. It was just that her thoughts of sucking the air out of my lungs were so scary that I did what I did. Sorry!”

“I understand. Look Daniel, maybe we started on the wrong foot. I'm Dr. Sanura Miller. I think we need to have a long talk about what happened and why.”

I looked at her suspiciously, “What do you propose?

“Would you mind coming with us to our facility?” She saw my reaction and hurriedly added, “I assure you, no strings attached and you are free to leave whenever you like. We can take care of the injured people much better there.”

I looked at the doctor and Nya, he nodded his agreement to the offering. I looked at Nya, she seemed to be breathing, but still wasn't conscious. She might have some hidden trauma that would only show up in a well equipped facility. Maybe they even had a MBE there. 'I should take her up on her offer. It would be the best for the kidnap victims and Nya. Though I'm still wary of what they'll do to me.' Hesitantly I asked, “You'd give me your word on that?”

Sanura Miller replied, “Yes, I give you my word that we will not try to attack or coerce you in any way in our facility.”

Trance added, “I gave you my word as well, Daniel.”

And then Blitz said, “And I give you my word. I will stand by you if someone would try something.”

I looked at him, “Why would you do that?”

Blitz smiled at me, “I have seen my share of persecutions because of powers and hybrids. Nobody should be tried and convicted before explaining their situation and grievances.”

I nodded to that and said, “Okay, I will go with you to your facility. Do you have the necessary equipment to examine Nya? I promised my dying sister to look after her.”

Sanura Miller looked more closely at Megan's body and said, “That is your sister? I'm sorry for your loss.”

Trance walked towards me and telepathically said, *So that is why you send out that PSI cry. My condolences to you Daniel.*

“Thanks,” I simply said.

Sanura Miller said, “Let's hurry, I want to be gone before more people show up. We're not supposed to be here. The dictatorial leadership still doesn't allow any people from the rest of the world here. Though we can handle anything they could throw at us, I'd like to make minimal waves of our presence here.”

She opened a portal, she briefly spoke into her mic and a stretcher appeared from the portal. Nya was placed on it, while I picked up the body of Megan. I wanted to make sure she got a decent burial. Blitz approached me, “Need some help?”

I shook my head, “No need, I'm lifting her mostly telekinetically. Just lead the way.”

As soon as I stepped through the portal I found myself in a corridor that felt a bit claustrophobic to me. Though the ceiling was quite high, about 16 feet I guessed, there were no windows of any kind, and all the walls looked like concrete or something. I stretched out with my telekinetic power to see what lay behind the walls and apart from two levels below and another small level above me, it was all sheer rock.

The stretcher with Nya and Matt was herded through a door, probably the medical facility. I followed them and inside the room waited for Sanura Miller to talk to me. As soon as I saw her I asked, “Where are we? We're somewhere inside a mountain, aren't we?”

“Quite right, Daniel. We're somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.” Said Sanura.

“What then is the constant murmur of telepathic chatter I am shielding out? I can't quite understand what they are saying though.” I asked her.

Trance answered instead, “That would be the dragons that live not too far from here.”

“Dragons? Well, I would like to see them some time. But first I want to make sure Nya is okay.”

Doctor Matt Cassidy walked up to us, “Together with the BE here, we ascertained that Nya's problem is not physical. It's mental, she went into a sort of coma or unresponsive state. In short she retreated back into her mind. I can't imagine how to get her out of there.”

With resolve I said, “But I do! I have had some experience with it in the mental institution that I was locked up in.”

Seeing Trance and Sanura look at me. I added, “But I'm not licensed to do anything. I have been breaking laws doing it.”

Trance said, “Shall we go have a talk first? We'll put your sister's body in a storage and I'm sure Nya can sleep for a while.”

I agreed and was escorted to an office down another hall. There we sat down in comfortable chairs and Sanura started, “I know about the mental hospital where you were incarcerated. We also know about Las Vegas, the SHAME facility and Russell, where we first met in different circumstances.”

I winced, remembering the fight with them. “I'm sorry about that, I was so sure that you were there to capture me and put me back into a jail cell.”

Trance said, “Well, you weren't totally wrong about that. But it's water under the bridge. Just tell us what happened to you and how you faced the circumstances.”

I started telling them my whole life story, going into detail about the things that were done to me and others at the mental hospital and in the SHAME facility. After I was done talking, hours had passed and we were eating some delicious snacks brought in by Blitz. It was evident that he was the driving force behind the Everybody's Place chain.

Sanura asked me, “So what are your plans now. Suppose that we are dropping all charges and you go free, what are you going to do?”

Thoughtfully I answered, “I haven't thought that much about it yet. After I heard about my sister, all I wanted was to find her. I did have some thoughts about going back to school and learn to be a psychiatrist or something like that. I did like helping the people in the mental hospital getting better and be a happy person again instead of being treated as vegetables or morons. But I also have a responsibility to Nya. My sister asked me with her dying breath to take care of her. So I will do that for as long as she will let me.”

Sanura said, “You did do a world of good with those patients. Though you could also be sued for malpractice since you don't have any medical or psychiatric training. You also can be brought up on charges for seriously harming people and even manslaughter. Not to mention some other crimes like cheating at a casino. Why did you want to accumulate so much money there. I would have thought a few thousand would have been enough?”

I grimaced, “Part of being at the casino was to have a good night's rest. Ever since I have gotten my telepathic power, I have been plagued by hearing others voices. If I don't actively have a shield up, they will torture me with their loud screaming and yelling. I don't think you have any idea how loud thoughts of people are when you're a strong telepath. Trance would know I think. My telepathic 'ear' is on 24/7 and when I sleep, my shield goes down and there is nothing to protect me. That is why I don't sleep but meditate normally. But when I'm somewhere with a dampener, I can finally sleep normally. Which brings me to getting a large sum of money. I need to buy myself a dampener, so I can have some sleep sometimes.”

Trance interrupted, “I might be able to help you with that. There is a technique to create a sort of passive shield to block most thoughts out. I'll be happy to teach you.” There will still be some strong thoughts that may penetrate the shield, but those would be minor and few.”

“Hold on just a moment. Daniel, you still have to deal with the situation at hand. So you want to go back to school and become a psychiatrist. No doubt a high priced one.” Sanura said with a frown on her face.

“I don't have the need for making a lot of money. It's just a means to a goal for me. I think I'll charge people by their wealth. And I'll do a quite some work for free for the lesser fortunate people. I don't think I can decide something like that on my own, so I would like a person or committee to screen cases for me to do for free. That way, it'll be controlled and I won't get swamped with people trying to get me to work for free for them. Do you think that might be do-able?”

Sanura smiled, “So, you've thought it out already. That would be do-able, but it still hinges on you getting out of your situation and realizing your other plans.”

I sighed, “Yes, I know. But though it would pain me to leave Nya without the care I could give her. I will fight for my life before I'm incarcerated again.”

“Relax,” said Sanura. “I've talked it over with an organization that I'm liaised with. We agree to let you go on a probation period. We'll keep tabs on you, and I would like you to have regular talks with an authorized psychiatrist or a highly recommend Telepath. Someone like Trance for instance.”

I exhaled relieved, “I have no problem with that. I would like that even. I still have a lot to learn. I do have a concern however. Should I leave Nya here in your care or can I take her with me?”

Trance answered instead, “Let us just see how she will be doing soon. I want to teach you some techniques first and then together we can try to get Nya out of her coma. If she gets out of it okay, we can ask what she wants.”

I nodded, that didn't sound too bad.

Sometime later I was sitting next to Nya. I carefully and slowly made a connection to her mind, with Trance trailing me and monitoring what I was doing. As I progressed slowly into her mind I encountered a sheer wall of some kind. She meant to keep everything and everyone out. Since this was the psionic realm, our only limit was our minds. So I conjured up a light saber and sliced a hole in the wall with it. I could feel Trance frown at what I did, but he didn't interrupt.

Together we proceeded onward looking for Nya's inner self. As soon as I got to the other side of the wall, I got attacked by monsters of all kinds. They started clawing and biting at me. With some difficulty I managed to ward them off and keep them at bay. As I floated onwards, I saw something to the side. It was a little girl crying. I went over to her and asked, “Hi there, can you help me?”

She looked up at me and changed into a gigantic she-hulk-like woman. “Who are you, what are you doing here? I'll break you in bits and kick it out.”

I could have changed myself into a likewise gigantic man, but I stayed as I was. I just put my hands up to her and said, “Take it easy, please. I just want to talk to Nya. I'm here because my sister Megan asked me to look after her.”

The woman decreased in height till she was the same height as me. “I'm Nya, I don't remember much after we got captured and those men were about to …” Her voice trailed off and she looked like she was about to start crying again.

“Nya, I'm a telepath, as is Trance next to me. We're in your mind at the moment. You retreated into a coma like state. With this intrusion I was hoping to get you out of it. Will you let me help you?”

She hesitated, “I don't know. What if this is all a dream and I wake up with those horrible men again. I don't want to go back there again.”

Soothingly I said to her, “Nya, you don't ever have to go back to there. We're back in the USA. You're quite safe here. Just allow me to guide you back to the land of the living.”

She turned to Trance, “Is this true? Or are you just figments of my imagination?”

Trance answered, “If we were figments of imagination we wouldn't be telling the truth, so you have to decide if you would make something like us up, or that we are really here. The only way to be certain, is to follow us out and see for yourself. It is up to you Nya. We could try to drag you out, but that would be wrong and could do you more harm. Like Daniel said, we don't mean you harm. We want to help you.”

“Okay then,” said Nya. “Let's go.”

Quite fast we got back to where we entered and as I pulled out of her mind, I saw her eyes open. I smiled at her, “Hello, Nya. Finally we meet in person. I'm Daniel Montro.”

She was a bit apprehensive after waking up and seeing a strange place and strange people. But she hid her uneasiness quite well. With a wavering but melodic voice she asked, “So this is all real? We are no longer in Myanmar?”

I just nodded. She continued, “Where is Megan, she promised that everything would be okay.”

My face darkened, “I'm sorry, but I was too late, I managed to free her, but then she died in my arms. She was my sister I just recently discovered and I got only a few minutes to spend with her. Her dying request was, for me to help you and take care of you. However long you want me to, that is.”

Nya looked like she was about to start crying, “She's dead? Oh no. How about the others?”

Trance answered for me, “We got almost everyone out relatively unharmed. I'm sorry for your friend.”

Nya shed a few tears, “I am so sorry for Megan. She really should be alive instead of me. She was such a good friend and nurse. I'll miss her so much.”

Then she looked at me. “Oh, I'm so sorry. You should feel even worse. I mean finding your sister and then losing her again. I can't imagine what you must be going through.”

I grimaced, “I'll grief privately. I'm just concerned for you. What do you want to do? Do you have someplace to go or somewhere you want to be, to rest and get back on your feet?”

She gave me a sad smile, “I don't have much of a family and I'm not looking forward to go to them. I'd like to stay here or with you somewhere. I can feel something from your sister in you. Do you think you could put up with me for a while?”

“Sure, I'll be your friend. Just be open and frank to me. I promise not to go into your mind without your permission.”

She looked up with surprise, “You can do that? I mean you're a telepath, but can they get into minds without permissions?”

“Only the very powerful ones, the evil ones would do that, but I don't want to intrude on people just like that. I want to help people, just as I helped you get out of your coma. I still need a lot of training for that though. Think you could put up with a struggling student?”

She just laughed before putting her arms around me. “I trust you Daniel.”

Later we departed the Nexus facility for the funeral of my sister. Nya was dressed in a black dress that she had gotten from Sanura and held a goodbye speech. I said a few words as well before she was transported into the incinerator. I said my goodbye's to ECLIPSE and promised Trance to contact him soon. Then we were transported by portal to Sun City. I had no trouble acquiring a suitable apartment in a loft and settled in with Nya. I enrolled into College, while Nya took up some drawing classes. She wanted to paint the images out of her head. Some bad memories were still plaguing her.

The end … for now.

The entire MORFS  Universe can be found at http://morfs.nowhere2go.org/

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