The corridors were vacant of any teenagers all the way to the cafeteria. From there Abigail and I followed the back of the throng shuffling their way inside. Abigail parted from me, moving through the throng to the front. Inside all the teenagers were gathered and Mike, quickly joined by Abigail, stood on a small podium with a microphone in hand. There were over a dozen armed Pied Piper officers dotted around the space. Whatever news we were about to be told surely was expected to ruffle feathers.

I remained standing at the entrance to the exercise area not wanting to draw attention to myself. I searched the mass of teenagers and caught sight of Tiffany and Mikayla. They looked as prettied up as before; no change there. Jay and Amar stood behind them. They both looked normal with none of their powers on display.

"Ay," said a familiar voice to my left.

Blain was standing with his back to the wall and his arms crossed. He looked to be in a bad mood. I wondered if he was angry at me for some reason.

"Hey," I said.

"How you holding up?" he said.

He offered me a hand and I shook it. Boy the guy had big hands.

"Not too bad," I said.

Blain nodded. "We need to talk," he said, "After this."

I nodded, "Sure," I said, "Everything okay?"

He shook his head. "Nah, man," he said.

Before any more could be said Mike tapped his microphone and drew everyone's attention.

"Listen up," he said, "I have been given new information regarding your status as guests at this facility."

Mike cleared his throat and, after a quick look to Abigail and the Pied Piper officers surrounding him, he said, "Several hours ago a new act has been passed in Parliament which effective immediately is now law."

Oh crap, I thought, here it comes.

"The act passed by Parliament is called the MICE act and, in short, you are all effective immediately under arrest."

Mike struggled to eek out each word as if he were giving the world's worst best man speech. A cacophony of questions and screams and murmurs broke out in the wake of Mike's statement.

"Now," he said, speaking loud enough to be heard over everyone else, "This means that any contract you signed to be a willing guest at this facility is forfeit, including any monetary compensation. A special arrangement has been made with the Pied Piper's Return leaders to continue your stay at this facility until such a time as is deemed necessary for your relocation."

The murmurs became furious questions yelled at Mike, Abigail, and the Pied Piper officers.

"Is this a joke?!"

"You can't be serious?!"

"You can't do this to us!"

And more things yelled in the same vein.

I looked at Blain and his eyes were wide and his face furious. This was all news to him like it was for everyone else. He fixed his attention on me and I could see the recognition in his eyes that I wasn't looking surprised like the others.

"As always," said Mike, "You must continue to comply with the Pied Piper officers, as well as Miss Hoffman and myself. We do not want any further loss of life and your compliance will ensure a safe and effective environment at this facility. Those of you who are currently enrolled in extra duties will need to speak to me about alternative compensation."

The uproar in the exercise area was only increasing by the second. The Pied Piper officers had their machine guns raised and ready to fire if need be. This, and only this, seemed to be the thing keeping the crowd at bay.

"Now," said Mike, "Given the severity of this news we understand many of you are upset. You will now all make your way to your blocks immediately until further notice. Failure to be in your designated block in the next fifteen minutes will be met with serious consequences."

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Mike lowered his microphone and stepped off the little podium. I moved out of the exercise area and Blain reached my side. I felt his heavy arm drape over my back and he pulled me aside. We stopped near the start of the corridor which would lead on to the cafeteria. Blain turned and fixed his attention on me, his hands on my shoulders.

"Look, B," he said, "Things are getting bad."

"I noticed," I said.

"It's Mikayla and Tiff," he said, "They're getting involved with some freaky girl."

"What do you mean?" I said.

Blain looked over my head and then back to me, "There's this girl, Holly, init. For a while this girl's been getting teens here to join in these 'therapy sessions'."

I nodded, trying to follow where this was going.

"At first it was normal," said Blain, "Just simple things like guided meditation, 'imagine a forest in your head' type stuff, you know?"

"Right," I said.

"But then she started talking about all this booky stuff," said Blain, saying the word like boo-key, "She's talking about contacting spirits, crap like integrating with the powers of the universe."

"Okay," I said, feeling a tightness in my stomach at the idea of mixing some strange novelty mysticism with teenagers with burgeoning super powers.

"Bruv," said Blain, trying to drill into me how serious he thought this new development was, "It's witchy, devilish crap. Do you get me?"

"Blain," I said, "I get how this could be a problem. But has there been a problem, yet?"

Blain leaned in closer.

"Bruv," he said, "They've been doing these late night sessions. Have you seen Tiff and Mikayla up close yet?"

"No," I said.

"They've got fangs, bruv," said Blain, "Freaking fangs. Mikayla used to be against this booky crap but Holly's got in her head making her think this witchy crap is the answer to controlling our powers. Tiff's into it too."

"Okay," I said, understanding, "This is messed up."

"Thank you!" said Blain, patting me on the shoulder, "You're like the only sane bloke left in here, init."

"Thanks," I mumbled. I didn't feel very sane but it was nice of him to mention it as a possibility.

"So what?" I said, "You want me to talk to some sense into them?"

Blain shook his head.

"Man, you can try, init. But you ain't going to get far. They're sucked in. Warped, bruv. Warped. And your boys are in on it too."

"My boys?" I said.

"The white guy and the indian boy, bruv."

"Ah," I said, "Jay and Amar. That's not good."

Blain nodded, "Yeah," he said, "If we don't get a lid on this crap soon bruv, Holly's gonna keep pushing this devilish foolishness to its limit."

He leaned even closer, whispering into my ear.

"She's thinking about starting some kinda revolution to get out of here."

"Crap," I said, "That's nuts."

Blain leaned back and folded his arms. As big and tough as he was I could tell this had all unsettled him a lot. No doubt because he cared about Mikayla and, it seemed, possibly about Tiffany too. Though how much Tiffany came as a packaged deal with Mikayla I couldn't tell.

"Burgess?" said a voice.

I turned and saw it was Abigail.

"Look," she said, "If you want to go back to the fourth floor I've arranged for that. Mike has cleared it with the officers. Do you want to go?"

Abigail looked from me and then to Blain. In truth despite what was happening with Blain, Tiffany, and Mikayla, all I wanted to do was go back to the fourth floor. Down there I could think. Being alone on the fourth floor was bliss compared to the mounting worries above. All it took was one look at Blain for me to know what I had to do.

"No," I said, feeling a strange confidence take hold of me, "I'm good, thank you."

Abigail studied me and then gave a nod.

"Stay out of trouble, okay?" she said.

I gave her a cheeky wink and she rolled her eyes. What had gotten into me?

"You'll be in block B-6 in that case," said Abigail, "I'll let the officers know."

With that she hurried off to handle other urgent matters.

"That's good," said Blain, "That's the same block as me."

I nodded.

"Look," said Blain, rubbing the back of his neck, "I had to get out of B-9, init. George was doing my head in with his screaming."

"It's fine," I said, "I was close to requesting a move myself."

The part about me thinking about putting in a request to move wasn't true, but it seemed like a nice way to make Blain feel better about things. I was used to the sound of screaming growing up. Maybe he wasn't. It wasn't like these were normal circumstances.

Pied Piper officers appeared at the entrance to the exercise area as the last of the teenagers shuffled out. There was a dour mood in the air. The officers fixed their gazes on us.

"Alright," said Blain, "Let's bounce."