Finding Brody - Ch. 01 - The Others

Chapter One

The Others

It was early on a Monday morning when Brody Ashcroft first sent out the message and by the time school had ended, he had seven new emails and his voicemail inbox was full. He knew exactly what the messages would say. Brody sat at the computer in his bedroom and decided to get ready before he read the emails. He reached into his dresser drawer and removed the little helmet he had constructed. It wasn't a helmet as much as it was a hat. He had spent seven hours installing tiny shards of metal inside a baseball cap he now wore daily. It protected him from the vibes.

When Brody was seven years old he had a vivid dream. It involved his getting into an accident with his family and being the only one to survive. The accident occurred three days later and after seven weeks of lying comatose and waking up completely normal, as if nothing had happened he knew he was different. It was when the doctor told him that his family was dead, that little Brody recalled the dream.


Since that day ten years earlier, Brody had come to discover a lot about himself. He found a little old man named Vo Nadashi who knew exactly what was happening. Brody's mind was mutating. Nadashi told Brody that he shouldn't worry, but the mutation would have strange effects. Nadashi had told Brody that every person responded to the treatment differently. He also said that Brody wasn't the only one.

Brody would have gone back and asked more of the old man if he hadn't have suddenly disappeared. The word treatment had stuck in his mind, however. Nadashi had mentioned something about treatment, which told Brody Ashcroft that the new feelings he was experiencing weren’t normal. Someone had forced them on him and he wanted to know who. He also wanted to know what had happened to Vo Nadashi. That would mean tapping into his gift.

Brody had toyed with several different possibilities. He had attempted everything from flying to teleporting to throwing fire from his fingertips. He decided to give up for awhile and let whatever was going to happen, happen.

It had happened on his twelfth birthday.

He was on his way out the door with his Grandmother. They were on their way to the cafe for his traditional birthday luncheon. His frail old granny was walking in a direct line for a skateboard in the driveway and images of her falling flooded his mind. He quickly opened his eyes and watched in amazement as the skateboard slowly slid out of the way. Granny didn't notice and slipped into the driver’s seat.

Brody dropped beside her and they drove to the cafe. By the time he was fourteen, Brody was an experienced driver. The minute he had gotten his Learners permit, Granny had started using him as a chauffer. He didn't mind, he had needed the driving practice.

That night Brody sat in his room staring at a ball on his dresser trying to force the thing to move without touching it. It rolled over and Brody went to sleep that night with a satisfied grin. He finally knew exactly what Vo Nadashi had been talking about.

Now that he was seventeen, Brody knew everything there was to know about his gift. He had exercised it to its full capacity using every single day of the five years he had known. It seemed this mutation was similar to the human body. If you gave it exercise and kept yourself healthy, it would develop and become the best it could. Five years after he first discovered it, Brody Ashcroft had his power fully developed. He didn't know what exactly his power was called, but he knew what he could do with it. He thanked his lucky stars that he had met Vo Nadashi when he was ten.

He could move things without touching them, predict things without any prior knowledge, he could send messages through thought and aim them at certain people. He had told only two people whom he completely trusted. His Granny and his Aunt Liellianne. He had practiced on them and they were glad to be his test subjects. They supported his abilities. He could read people's thoughts if he wanted to. He knew however, that metal interfered with the signals, which is why he had spent seven hours constructing a hat with metal shards inside.

The message he had sent out Monday morning was directed to people with un-natural abilities like him. The message had been sent to his fellow mutants.

He had wanted to meet each of the respondents separately at first. He wanted to know them first, before he introduced them to one another. He didn't want their secret to be out, he wanted to remain anonymous at first. Vo Nadashi had been open about his gift. He had gone on talk shows and done circus acts and been in movies. However, three months after he had gone public, he had disappeared. It was only because Vo had gone public, did Brody track him down. He didn't want anyone tracking him down in the same way.

He checked his voicemails first.

The first came from a girl he knew. She was in his class at school and they had spoken maybe twice throughout their whole school career. They both knew who the other was but never really acknowledged. He put the phone to his ear.

"Hi Brody. This is... Lindsay Matthews. I got your message, sort of. It was weird. I had no idea you were, well I'm the same way sort of. But yeah. Call me."

Brody wrote down the number and clicked the phone off. He was slightly apprehensive as he dialed the number and he was nearly breathless when it began to ring. He was about to hang up when he heard her voice come on the other line.

"Lindsay?"

"Who’s this?"

"Brody Ashcroft."

"Brody! Oh." Lindsay hesitated. "You get my message?"

"You get mine?" Brody asked.

"Yes." She said silently. They chatted aimlessly for a few minutes and when silence overcame them they made a date to meet. They were going to see each other on Tuesday in school. They'd go to lunch and show each other their gifts. Lindsay said that he should bring a sweater. He didn't know what that was supposed to mean, but he agreed.

The next message was from someone he had never even heard of.

"Hey, Brody. This is Eric Starke. I know you don’t know me and I don't know you, but I got your little weird mind message. Freaked me out big time. Well, yeah. I guess if I got your message then you know I am one of you. Or you are one of me. Or something. So yeah. Give me a shout."

"Hi. Is this Brody? Well, I'm Summer Rivers. I got your message and it was like... Whoa. I mean, here I am on the track team exploiting a gift that I thought was talent. It was a total, like, blow to my ego. So yeah. I guess you know that I'm one of you, cuz you called sort of. Well yeah. Call me back."

He knew Summer Rivers. She was one of those airhead models. She wasn't blond, but he was sure her raven hair was simply a good dye job. The emails read not much different and by the end of the night he had arranged to meet all ten people at different times over the next four days.



It was Tuesday and he had three appointments on that day. He was going to meet up with Lindsay at noon for lunch, Eric after school at the Ice Rink and he was going out for dinner with Summer. The first two classes seemed to drag on and it felt like he had eyes boring into him at every second. He'd glance at Summer and Lindsay but the two girls made a point to ignore him. He glanced at the other two classmates he was to meet later in the week. Raven Carmichael was doodling in his notebook and Billy Chambers was nose deep in his textbook. He was aware that none of those four individuals knew about each other. Their common bond was Brody himself.

When lunch came, Brody found himself standing by the doors waiting for Lindsay to finish babbling with her girlfriends.

He watched as the people passed by him in the halls. Some just plainly ignored him, others acknowledged his presence but nothing more and some others, like Stephanie Bryant just plain stared at him. It was a typical high school, he supposed. He wasn't popular, but at the same time wasn't hated. Everyone knew his name mainly because he used to play on the basketball team. His basketball days were over, but he still had fans roaming the halls.

Brody realized too late that he had been staring, when Stephanie Bryant approached him. He knew she liked him, she had never hidden the fact. In fact she had liked the entire basketball team and never hid that fact either. She had the entire team and Brody was her next conquest. The only team member she hadn't had in her bed. And now she was on her way over to him, no doubt to ask him out.

"Hi, Brody," She said sweetly. Brody muttered a greeting in reply. "So what are you doing Friday night? I was wondering if you'd like to come to my place. We're having a party and my parents won’t be home until Sunday."

"Thanks, Steph but I can't. I have things to do."

"What things?" She purred. By this time she had her arm around him and was running a hand up and down his back. She stared at him with large almond colored eyes and batted her eyelashes. She was a pretty girl, if only she weren't such a slut. She smiled and flipped her golden hair behind her head.

"I have a date." He lied.

"With who?"

"Lindsay. Lindsay Matthews."

"Her?" Stephanie was aghast. She looked over her shoulder disgustedly at Lindsay who was still standing with her friends. Stephanie let go of him. "Well, if she turns out to be no fun, my phone numbers in the book. Under Daniel Bryant."

The minute Stephanie wandered off, Lindsay wandered over. She gave him a tentative smile as she approached and he gave her one in return. They walked outside into the bright sunshine and Brody regretted wearing the sweater like she had told him too. He was far too warm.

"You going with Steph?" Lindsay said.

"No. She just wants me." Brody laughed. "She asked me out for Friday. Told her I had a date with you."

Lindsay laughed. She had a sweet laugh. It was a mixture of her genuinely soft, sweet voice with a little bit of a sultry, sexy tone to it. He wouldn't mind at all going on a date with someone like her.

"I see you wore your sweater." Lindsay commented. "Good. You'll need it."

"For what?" Brody pressed.

Lindsay just grinned with an eager glimmer in her brown eyes. "You'll see. This is so absolute. For the longest time I thought I was the only one. I thought I was alone in my ability."

"How did you discover it?" Brody asked.

"Well, when I was eight years old I was having problems." She said. "I don't want to get into those, but I got medication. The medication had some strange name on them. I don't know. But after the medication I'd feel slightly light headed."

"But-"

"Let me finish." Lindsay scolded. "Anyways after my parents took me off the meds, I began to have strange dreams. I'd dream I could fly. I know every child dreams that but I don't know. Well anyways, I woke one day in the middle of my dream and I was floating. So I decided to film myself at night and every night I had the flying dream, I floated."

"At first I was scared. Then as I got older I got curious, so I studied the tape again. I noticed that on the nights I floated my fingers wiggled. It was weird. I'd watch the nights that I didn't float and there was no finger wiggling. But on the nights I floated, my fingers wiggled before lift off. So I chose to try the whole wiggle float thing awake."

"By this time I was around eleven. I remember the day it happened. I was standing in front of my mirror focusing. I was so intent on floating. I had my eyes closed and the video camera aimed at my feet. I wiggled my fingers but only began to feel slightly light headed and when my eyes snapped open I was sad to see that I was still on the ground."

"I watched the video and it turns out I had raised a couple centimeters off the floor. Since that day, I've practiced every single day and it showed. When I was fourteen I could raise myself eight feet in the air. It was amazing."

"How high can you go now?" Brody asked.

"I'll show you." Lindsay grinned. "After a few years, I realized that I could do several variations of the same thing. I could make myself lighter and float and I could change the speed of my floatation with a simple command in my mind. I don't know where I ever got this ability, but it’s amazing. I don’t even have to wiggle anything anymore!"

"I know what you mean." Brody smiled, recalling his history with his own gift. As they sat down to lunch he told her the story of his own self discovery. He proved it to her by sliding the salt shaker towards her with a simple glance. He was able to do some things while wearing his metallic hat, He wasn't able to do anything major with it on, though. He had never really had the need to do anything major anyway, so it didn't bother him much. Her face had split into a wide grin. It was slightly better reaction than the horrified expressions of his grandmother and aunt the first time they seen him slide a salt shaker across the table.

After lunch ended, Lindsay brought him out to a secluded field where she proceeded to tie her red hair into a bun. The nearest house was miles away and they were a fair ways off of the highway. Lindsay said that this is where she used to practice after the barn became too restricting. She had been able to go up to the ceiling and wanted to go higher. She took Brody's hand and he felt himself get slightly light-headed. He also found he enjoyed her hand in his. He laced his fingers through hers and she didn’t say anything in protest.

"Look down." She said after a brief moment.

He looked down and immediately regretted it. He was floating six feet off the ground. He let out a yelp and jerked violently. Lindsay let out a startled cry and the pair began to drop. She managed to pull him up before he hit the ground.

"Don't do that!" Lindsay scolded. "I have to keep concentration."

"Sorry." He grumbled.

"Wrap you arms around me," Lindsay said and Brody immediately complied. "Hold on tight."

He already was. He could smell her hair, it was citrussy and he found himself enjoying the ride. Lindsay zipped high into the sky and he began to understand why she told him to bring a sweater. It was cold up there. She continued sailing through the air and suddenly changed angles and was hurtling towards the ground. He felt like screaming but was afraid of breaking her concentration. That could prove fatal. At the last moment, she pulled up and they flew on inches above the ground. She began to slow and Brody reluctantly let go.

"I think we should go back to school now." Brody said, glancing at his watch.

She glanced at her own and nodded. "I'd fly us there, but that would be a little too public. I don't really want anyone to know about my gift."

"I feel the same way." Brody nodded. "We'll just be a few minutes late."

"So what now?" Lindsay asked as they started walking back to school. Brody didn't know. He had been planning to meet these people, collect their histories and find a common bond. Then he could find out where the gift came from. Sure he could have simply read her mind to find her history, but he'd rather she tell him because it didn't seem right to invade her privacy. He hadn't really thought about what they would want. It had been a selfish notion, he now realized.

He also started to wonder if meeting the others was really such a good idea. What would they do? Create a mutant support group? All suddenly become best friends and hang around with each other? He hadn't thought that far ahead. Unless they all worked collectively to find out where they came from. With all their different abilities it could be useful.

"Brody?" Lindsay asked.

"What?" Brody said.

"I asked what happens now?" Lindsay said. "We now know about each other. What happens now? I mean... I don't know."

"I know." Brody gave a sad smile. "I guess we could try to find others like us. Then we could try and find out why we all have these certain... gifts."

Lindsay nodded.

"Then what?" She asked.

"I don't know." Brody admitted. "We'll just have to find out then."



After school finished, Brody Ashcroft was heading towards the Ice Palace. He was on the side of the street when a dark van pulled up next to him. It stopped and the passenger asked out the window what his name was. Brody was unsure who these strange men were and nervously gave them a false name. Bobby Coolidge. Their next question was if he knew who Brody Ashcroft was and Brody felt a wave of relief that he had given a false name. He said he didn't and asked why they were looking for him. They said nothing and drove away.

That put a little scare into Brody. It was obvious they had gotten the message and were looking for him, but why the sinister 'kidnap a person off the street' van? He thought for a brief moment and decided that he wouldn't do the mind broadcast to all mutants anymore. If the response caused people to become suddenly interested in finding him, it just wasn't worth it.

Brody entered the arena and immediately spotted Eric Starke. Eric had said he'd be the one in the dark coat and sunglasses. There was only one person in the room fitting the description, so Brody wandered over. Eric was leaned back casually with a pair of headphones splitting his spiked black hair down the middle.

"You Brody?" Eric asked as he approached. Brody was slightly surprised. He hadn't even known that Eric had seen him. Brody gave an affirmative nod and Eric sat up. He faced him and lowered his sunglasses, studying with cool blue eyes. "Ok."

Brody was slightly at a loss for words, but Eric didn't seem to notice. He motioned for Brody to follow and led him through several doors and hallways until they came to a locked door. Eric took out a key and slipped it into the lock. The two boys entered the room. Eric snapped on the light and Brody found himself in the Ice Palace storage room.

"So, what’s your story?" Eric asked. Brody told him everything, from the pre-accident vision to the skateboard to the rolling over of the ball and the story of his development. Eric took it all in with a painfully unreadable suggestion, and Brody found himself hating those sunglasses. Brody decided to demonstrate his gift by forcing Eric's sunglasses to float off and hover a few inches in front of his face.

"Shit man, that’s cool." Eric commented grabbing his glasses and sliding them back on his face.

"I know." Brody commented. "Your turn."

"Mine started way back in the day. I think I was nine. I was sitting in my bedroom and I had just gotten into a huge fight with my pops. He had been doing some weird shit at work and Mom was yelling at him. Like most boys I decided I had to protect her, so I began to be a real asshole to him."

"Well after one bad episode, I found myself wishing I was a bird so I could just fly away from my shitty life. I had sat down at my desk and began writing a song. It's what I do when I get angry. I write songs and begin to feel better. Anyways, I pull away from the desk and I have little stickly bird legs! I nearly shit my pants."

Brody laughed at the image and Eric cracked a smile. It was the first glimmer of emotion Brody had noticed come from the boy and it was a relief to see. It showed that there was more than a morose face hidden beneath dark Oakley’s.

"I didn't want to call in my dad, so I called to mom. She came in, gave one glance at my legs and shut and locked us in the room. It was weird. She told me to calm down and continue to focus on the image of the bird. I listened to her, thinking I'd go back to normal."

"She made me hold my eyes closed. The image of the bird had been that of a hawk. Fierce to a fault, deadly but still capable of flight. Imagine a nine year old kid picturing himself turning into a hawk and his mother prodding him on. Then she told me to open my eyes."

"When I did, I nearly freaked out. They weren’t my eyes, man. Wow. How do you explain Hawk eyes? They're totally awesome. They can see way better than humans can. It was like I was looking through some high class binoc's. Everything was close and in extreme detail."

"Anyways, I freaked because I was in the body of a bird. I was still me, but my body was now that of a bird. I looked at my mother and she was saying something to me. I couldn't understand me, so I pecked at her. She took the hint and wrote FOCUS ON YOURSELF on a sheet of paper and showed it to me. I did and half an hour later I was me again."

"I asked her what the fuck was going on and she said she'd explain later."

"Did she?" Brody pressed.

"No. A couple days later, she vanished into thin air." He choked. "No one knows what happened to her. As a payment to her I practiced turning into various animals. It's awesome. Over the years I've developed and changed. Instead of it taking me half an hour it takes me two minutes tops. I can also tap into animal senses but stay human."

"Let's see something." Brody suggested and Eric nodded. His eyes seemed to glaze over and his features began to meld. It looked slightly like he was melting, but growing in odd places at the same time. Within two minutes Eric had gone from a relatively handsome teenager to a tabby cat. The tabby leapt onto Brody's lap, scratched his arm and leapt onto the floor again.

A minute later, Eric was human again. Eric glanced at his watch and said he had to go. The game had just ended and he was meeting his best friend. The two boys left the storage room and wandered back to the arena lobby. It was now nearly five thirty and his supper date with Summer was at seven. He decided to go home and change before meeting her.

He walked out of the arena and started for the school where his truck was awaiting his arrival. Both Lindsay and Eric were quite developed in their gifts and according to the message Summer had left, she had no clue about hers. Well, she had an idea, but it was obviously not as well developed. Both Lindsay and Eric both discovered their gifts at a young age.

He still wasn't able to establish a common bond between the three of them. Lindsay's seemed to be from medication. At least that’s what she believed. Otherwise she wouldn't have mentioned that part of her story. Eric really had no clue what had happened with him. He only told him about the discovery and Brody didn't know where his started from. He would have blamed the coma, but he had a vision before the accident.

He turned into the parking lot and was stunned to find three young men circling his truck. He didn't even have to read their minds to know they intended on stealing it. He quickened his pace and shouted at them. They turned to him worriedly, but when they seen his thin frame they smiled. Brody slowed his pace drastically. This was heading in a bad direction and fast. He didn’t want to fight, he couldn't fight. He had spent most of his time refining his gift not his muscles.

The three men approached, flexing their fists and cracking their knuckles. Brody stepped back nervously and the men noticed the move. They increased their speed. Shit. Brody had showed weakness they were now confident. Brody was about to say something but the words simply fell out and landed in a pile at his feet. He was at a loss for words.

Suddenly from the sky, a hawk screeched and raked its claws at the head of the lead guy. He screamed in agony and held his bleeding head. The hawk disappeared onto the roof of the school as the other two men hesitated for their leader. He ordered them to get the kid. The two men started running at him, but dropped to their knees when a terrifying roar pierced the air. A tiger dropped lithely off the roof of the school and advanced on the three cowering men. It raised a paw and the men ran screaming in the other direction.

"Thanks, man." Brody breathed for the first time in minutes. He watched as the tiger slowly melded into the shape of the boy Eric Starke. "How'd you know I was in trouble?"

"I followed you." Eric replied somewhat despondently. "I figured that if you were talking to me, you might be talking with others like us. It's a lonely life as a mutant, Brody."

"I know." Brody agreed. "I've felt that loneliness too. That's why I risked sending the message, I knew that if there was a response I wouldn't be alone anymore."

"I won’t follow you anymore." Eric said firmly. "Just promise me you'll gather us. Bring us all together. We can’t continue to live these facades we call lives."

"I will." Brody nodded. "You'll be the first I call."



The restaurant Summer had chosen as their meeting place was a high class one, with meals that were higher priced than his allowance ever was. He swallowed nervously and just ordered water from the waitress. She nodded, smiled and sauntered away. Brody glanced the door and watched as Summer entered. She really was a beautiful girl with long raven colored hair and deep violet eyes. He was glad when the waitress arrived with water, because he had a sudden case of dry mouth.

He waved Summer over. She smiled. He melted.

"Hi, Brody!" She bubbled when she sat down. She waved the waitress over and got herself a menu. "I am starved! You, like want anything?"

"No, I'm fine with my water." Brody replied and took another drink. Summer pouted and Brody was dazed for a brief second before regaining his composure. She really was a cute girl. "So, Summer Rivers."

"So, Brody Ashcroft." Summer grinned. "Lets, like do this."

"Ok. Tell me. Why do you think you're like me?"

"Because I got the message." She beamed. "Also I run really fast."

Brody simply stared at her.

"Ok. I'll explain a little better. A couple of months ago I found out that I could run surprisingly fast. It was really scary. One minute I was chasing my horses around in their field. We were playing. I found myself running passed them. I was like, whoa!"

"You can run really fast then. What makes that..."

"I can go from 0 to 30 in one minute, Brody." She explained, her eyes daring him to argue. He didn't. He was too enraptured by her eyes. "I've been running ever since. You know, trying to see how fast I can really get."

"Want to know what I can do?" Brody grinned. He was simply trying to impress her now. Sure her speed was something that could be useful, but she needed to develop her skill. If she were to start hanging around with others like herself, then she'd be able to do just that.

Summer nodded eagerly. The waitress stopped again and promptly left after Summer ordered.

Brody glanced at Summer's plate and she followed his gaze.

She let out a cute little squeak of shock. Her plate was spinning in place. Summer grabbed her fork and placed it on top of the rotating china and watched in amazement as the fork began to spin with the plate. Brody went in for the kill. He focused on the fork too, and the fork began spinning in the opposite direction.

Summer burst out a laugh and both the plate and forked suddenly stopped. Brody smiled. Summer was staring at him with a strange look in her eyes. It was unreadable, so Brody decided to break her out of it. He cleared his throat.

"How long have you known, Brody?" Summer asked.

"Since I was eight."

"Eight." Summer sighed. "That’s a long time to live with a secret like that. I admire you."

Was that what that look had been? Admiration? He shrugged and smiled meekly. The waitress dropped off Summer's order and Summer eyed it wearily. "There's nothing to admire about me. Now, hurry up and eat so I can see you run."

"Help me." She said handing him a fork. He shrugged and helped her scoop at her lasagna.


They stood in the same field he had been in earlier during the day. He remembered soaring through the air, holding tightly onto Lindsay Matthews. It had been different then. It had been comfortable, flying with Lindsay was an experience he'd remember forever. In the same field with Summer it didn't feel comfortable. With the moon high and bright in the sky it felt exotic. Summer's eyes reflected a tiny bit of light out of gold flecks in her violet irises. He found himself lost in her eyes again.

He didn't know that the same was happening to Summer at that moment, but when their minds finally clicked in and they realized they were staring they turned away. Summer started saying something, and Brody's eyes dropped to her lips and his throat went dry. She had such full rosy lips, he desperately...

"Brody!" She snapped him out of his reverie. He tried to say something, but fumbled with his words and made himself look stupid. Summer smiled and blushed slightly. She was flattered. "Ok. Take my hand."

He took it. He didn't however, lace his fingers through hers. It didn't feel appropriate. For some reason it was ok with Lindsay. He shrugged off the thoughts and smiled at her, asking what was next.

She considered for a minute.

"I actually don’t know." She dropped his hand. "I thought I'd run and bring you with me, but that wouldn't work. How about this. You time me with your watch. I'll run from here to city hall and back."

"That's a little public." Brody reasoned. "How about you run from here to the edge of the forest and back. It's a field at night, no one will see you. I'll time you."

"How far do you think that stand of trees is from here?" Summer asked, stretching her legs out. She slid out of her jeans and stood in a pair of running shorts and she removed her t-shirt and stood in her sports bra. Brody simply gaped and watched as she did more stretches.

"Brody." She said.

"What?" He stammered.

"How far?"

"Oh." He glanced at the edge of the forest. "It looks about three miles. Run there and back."

"Ok." She nodded. "Ok. Six mile. Start the timer.... NOW!"

She took off and Brody pressed the button. He had never seen a human being run so fast and there was no doubt in his mind that she was one of them. When the clock ticked on the fifth minute he noticed she was on her way back, a dot that gradually grew. He watched her running then decided that maybe it wasn't such a good idea. She was facing him and he might get far too distracted to remember the timer.

He turned away the moment she blew past him. He clicked the button and stared in wonder at the digits on the clock. She wandered over and glanced over his shoulder.

"Hey, I improved!" She beamed. "Six seconds lower. My last time had been 5:12 on the six mile run. Awesome."

"Holy shit." Were the only words that found their way out of Brody's mouth. Summer burst into a fit of giggles and a couple moments later, he joined in. They started for the road again and he noted that Summer was walking with a slight bounce in her step.

"What’s up?" He asked her, giving her an incredulous glance.

She smiled and said, "I'm just so happy that I'm me. I've never really fit in any where and now I'm a mutant. I just think it's so cool. Are there others like us, Brody? Or are we the only ones?"

"There are others." Brody said. "I'll gather us all Monday morning in the cafeteria."

"Great!" Summer chirped. "It was fun, Brody."

He nodded. "We should do this again sometime."



Brody was staring at the ceiling. There should be some sort of connection between Summer, Lindsay, Eric and himself. It didn't make sense. However, there didn't seem to be any commonalities between them. Summer was a farm girl, Lindsay just your average teen girl and Eric being the average teenage guy. Brody. Well, he was himself. There was really no connection. It frustrated him.

Brody rolled over and grabbed the sheet of paper that had names and dates on them. He was supposed to meet Jacob Brandon, Mindy Lorrette and Raven Carmichael. He knew Raven from school, but had never heard of the other two. According to the emails, Jacob Brandon was a twenty year old who had happened to be walking by the school when he heard the message. He immediately went home and popped out the e-mail, because Jacob had been looking for others like him for years. It was never successful.

Mindy Lorette was a grade ten student, slightly young but in her email she said that she had her power developed to full capacity. That was a plus. It sounded like she too was looking for others, but she too had failed miserably. Brody thought to himself, what do all of us have in common. He was certain that these abilities weren't natural. They weren't something they were born with.

He noted briefly that all of the people he had met today had physical abilities, Lindsay and her flying and Eric with his morphing and Summer with her running. His own abilities were focused in his head. He knew that they were all mutants, but for some reason he felt different from them.

He wandered to his computer and hooked up to the internet. After a few seconds he plugged onto MSN and found that three new people added him. It was Summer, Mindy Lorette and someone named Valosca. He clicked on Valosca and asked who they were.

~Names Shawn Valo, came the reply.
~Ok.
~I got your little message thing.
~Did you?
~Yupp. You don't know me, but I know who you are. I'm like you, and like you I went searching for others. I found a couple and they're all my age.
~Cool. You guys want to meet up?
~Sure.
~Cool. I'm gathering everyone I meet at the Cafeteria at Lunch. If you know who I am, find our table.
~Cafeteria? That’s a little public.
~I know...
~Lets go to Hanley’s Cross. Meet there at twelve noon.
~Ok then. Sounds like a plan.

Valosca logged off and Summer and Mindy didn't write anything to him so he clicked into the search engine. He typed in his own name and came up with the article on the accident. He didn't read it and returned to the engine. He typed in Summer Rivers and an article popped up. He was mildly surprised and began skimming the article.

Summer Rivers had been kicked in the head by her horse when she was eight. She had slipped into a week long coma. Brody grinned. He had found a commonality between Summer and himself. She too had been in a coma. He glanced at the date. She had been there the same week he had been hospitalized! Maybe it was the coma that had given them these gifts. He skimmed the article and found the name of Summers doctor at that time. Dr. Abby Chambers.

He flipped back to his own article. Dr. Abby Chambers. He nearly shouted with joy. After he met everyone else he'd have to go talk to Dr. Chambers. He thought for a brief moment and typed in Eric Starke. There were several articles. He skimmed them all and was faintly disappointed that they weren't articles about Eric, but his father Jason.

Jason was well known for holding protests outside testing facilities. He was the thorn in the hide of the scientific world. According to the articles, Mr. Starke had been arrested several times for trying to force his way into the Weyerhaeuser building. The Weyerhaeuser building was an old decomposing structure that hadn't been used for years. Mr. Starke believed there was radioactive testing being done inside and was intent on proving it.

The only thing Brody found vaguely interesting was that Mr. Starke's companion in crime was Lilly Valo. The name struck him as odd and he recalled the conversation earlier with Shawn. He had wanted to meet at Hanley's Cross. He knew that Hanley's Cross was directly across from the old Weyerhaeuser building. Brody cried out in frustration. Just when he thought he was putting all the puzzle pieces together, he'd find dozens more in the box.

Brody clicked off his computer and dropped into bed. Tomorrow he was meeting with Jacob Brandon at lunch. The young man was supposed to pick him up outside the school at lunch. They'd drive around and relay their stories. He was walking Mindy Lorette home after school and hooking up with Raven Carmichael at the library to study for their final exam.



Biology class the next morning proved to be a huge turn around in Brody's life. He had first believed that the people in the school would simply dislike what he was, he didn't realize that they would utterly hate him. He had no idea that his life was about to be turned upside down. A few minutes into a lesson on genetic engineering one of the football players raised his hand. Mrs. Collander paused in her lesson and accepted his question.

"Mrs. C," He asked. "Is it possible for human beings to mutate?"

Brody stiffened in his seat. His eyes slid to the classmates who were like him, mutants, and noticed that they all had frozen too. They all stared at the jock somewhat worriedly, was he coming out as a mutant? Or was it simply an innocent question? Summer glanced at Brody and gave him a reassuring smile. He wasn't reassured.

"What do you mean?" Mrs. Collander asked. She too had been at a loss for words when he spoke out. She had quickly regained her composure.

"I mean can a human's brain be modified enough, that they begin to establish super human gifts?"

"You mean like spider man?" Someone quipped.

"I was thinking along the lines of X-Men." The jock replied seriously. There were a few chuckles scattering the classroom, and Brody noticed that some of his fellows were among the chucklers. Great facade. Brody allowed himself to breathe again and a slow smile slid across his lips.

"Mr. David, you do realize that X-Men is a comic book, right?" Mrs. Collander said.

"I know." The jock said. "I'm not saying X-Men exist, I'm just asking if it's possible."

"In the world today anything is possible, I guess." Mrs. Collander said, tastefully avoiding the question. Brody took note of her reluctance and added her name to the list in his steno notebook, right beneath Lilly Valo and Dr. Abby Chambers. He would have to talk to her later. "Why Kevin? Been sending messages with your mind lately?"

It was a harmless little quip intended as a joke, but the minute those words had escaped Mrs. Collanders lips, Brody found he couldn't breathe anymore. His face paled and the old woman's eyes connected meaningfully with his. There was a sinister glint in her eyes for a brief moment before she returned to her lesson. Brody was on the edge of a panic attack. He balled his fists and closed his eyes.

When he opened them, the lights were flickering and all the students were watching them. He glanced around nervously and nearly wet himself when he noticed that Mrs. Collander was staring at him with fury in her eyes. She turned to the class and slammed her book on the table.

"Students." She snapped. "In response to Kevin David's question here, I'd like to let you all know that yes. It is very possible for people to be slightly modified to have super human abilities." Her normally calm wrinkled face as contorted into a furious expression. It wasn't her face that was scaring the hell out of everyone, it was her eyes. They had gone from their normally pallid blue to a swirling mess of red and black. Jordy Baker started for the door but with a flick of her arm, the door crashed shut. The window shattering on impact.

Mrs. Collander glanced at him and with a flick of her wrist, his hat flew off his head. He was taken by surprise and the surge of everyone’s thoughts in his mind forced a scream out of him. He felt the fear of some, the excitement of others, their voices were trilling through his mind and he had no time to try and block them out. He covered his ears but the voices stayed locked in his mind, screaming, crying, laughing voices. They even began to hurt after a while and nothing else mattered anymore. There was a throbbing in his temples and he screwed his eyes shut and screamed.

In his mind seventeen voices screamed with him, then he blacked out.

Dilly