A blacked-out van had been an excellent vehicle for all manner of skullduggery if not for the fact that nowadays, with the advent of social media and the Network, as well as decades of movies, television, and even radio shows, such a van trailing after someone, or parked for more than twenty-four hours in a single location, threw up dozens of red flags.

‘It’s actually a bit easier now in the Network Age,’ Andrew Morrison thought as he leaned back on the driver’s seat of his ‘nondescript’, white Otomo sedan. While white for an automobile meant that dust showed on it easily, not to mention mud and other filth, there were dozens of white cars plying every road. Coupled with heavily tinted windows and windshield, it allowed perfect discretion within the comforts of the cabin.

With a smartphone, a laptop, and a wireless headset, it would be as if Andrew were backed up by an entire team even by his lonesome. The only problem for him was that the current Season was unbearably warm and humid, and he also didn’t want to keep the engine running. Not only was petrol expensive, but a running car that was parked provoked quite a bit of interest in passersby.

Well, those tools weren’t the only things in his repertoire, though he questioned the need for his Alteration considering the shocking level of exposure his surveillance target had. At the moment, he was parked in one of Winderfield’s side streets, 21st corner 4th. A blocky building occupied the space with a simple Silvermann Gym label on the ground floor. The gym used to have clear windows, but a year ago, enough of the clientele complained and obscuring stickers had been placed across it. Admittedly, watching people sweat on treadmills or exercise bikes wasn’t much of a pleasure to watch, unless the one doing the sweating was a celebrity or uncommonly pretty, of course.

Well, that sort of described his target.

He listened to the chatter he could pick up from eavesdropping on her phone. It wasn’t secured against outside tapping, and she hadn’t disabled her location sharing. Granted, he was only able to tap into the phone because of the twins’ work, and only her phone because she’d been singled out by intelligence from new recruits.

The word was that she, Lilibeth Lawson, was an Altered Human with incredible power. But that wasn’t why the council was interested in her. Powerful Altered mattered in a fight, but they didn’t need more fighters. RuiNation had too many, if he was being honest. No, what they wanted, what they needed, was a face. One that others would believe, one that others would follow, and one that others would worship. Altered Humans, despite making up a large fraction of the population, were ostracised and treated as second-class citizens.

The oppression had lasted long enough. Most were quiet, especially those who didn’t have a visual tell. If they were caught, they either joined or ran, though that depended on who did the catching. On the government’s side, the Protectorate existed to manage and contain Altered Humans and was supposedly there to give them the chance to self-govern and channel their Alteration for the greater good. Hidden with sight were the bones of those who fell. When one had something deemed too dangerous, one was often confined or put down. The Protectorate was nothing but a trap.

But the government was not the sole ‘employer’. Corporations, organised crime, and gangs did their own recruiting, and they were used to justify the continued existence of the Protectorate’s draconian laws.

Some within RuiNation wanted the Altered to rule Astoria, but they were outnumbered. They held no industries to produce weapons, and not all Altered were able to match the might of a single bullet.

Thus, the shadowed path was taken. Sneak around just out of sight. Recruit amongst the government, and other groups, then bring everything together for a rising action. What that one was, Andrew didn’t know, but he looked forward to it happening in his lifetime. Better than his current life of hiding within plain sight.

‘I wonder if I’ll be tapped to negotiate with her,’ he thought idly. There were other complications, of course. Lawson. She was probably from that family and from the traces the twins found, they were supporting her. To what end, he didn’t know, but he couldn’t say that he could walk in a super-rich patriarch’s shoes.

So he listened and watched while formulating various methods to bring her over to their side. If she was as strong as what the reports said, then abduction was definitely out of the picture.

__________

Silvermann Gym had been the compromise between Yuriko and the others. Winderfield was the central location, for several of them, but not all. For one thing, Michael’s residence was close to Trinity, and for another, Haley lived outside of Neo Prism City. And, well, it wasn’t as if she could teach all of them at the same time. Well, she could, but she knew it would not be optimal. Unlike in Bresia, where she could reasonably figure out spells, Altered powers were nearly opaque. Since she wasn’t sure what energy they used to power their abilities, she determined it should be the first thing she needed to find out.

Which was how she, Michael, and Christine were inside the gym’s meditation room. Or did they call it meditative exercise? The walls had varied posters filled with silhouettes in different poses. She studied them for the moment and hummed in recognition. The poses allowed the practitioner to increase flexibility in muscle groups not often used. She used some variation in her morning stretching too, and it was a good way to incorporate breathing exercises.

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“So, what are we doing?” Michael asked.

He was clad in a t-shirt and a pair of shorts that barely covered his knees. The shirt was a bit tight on him and displayed his wonderfully sculpted physique. He wasn’t as good as Heron, but her lover was not only dedicated but had numerous advantages too.

She smirked when she noticed Christine ogling Michael. The brown-skinned vocalist was clad in a similar attire to Yuriko’s, tight and stretchy pants, a black sports bra, and a tank top that she tucked into the waistband of her pants. She was barefoot, though she didn’t let the dust of the floormats cling to her soles. “Well, for both of you, I’d like to observe how you utilise your power.”

“I mean, you’ve seen us use it,” Michael said.

“And I’m not sure what you mean?” Christine said. “I think my power’s always on. It’s a pain, actually. I keep breaking my porcelain and bending my utensils,” she ended up grumbling.

“It’s been several weeks, can I assume you got better control?” Yuriko asked mildly.

“Barely,” Christine continued, “I’ve had to keep my hands to myself.”

“Then meditation and meditative exercise should help you.”

“Oh? Are you a practitioner?”

“I know how to meditate.”

“That wasn’t the question,” she peevishly pointed out.

“Hmm, well, I don’t know what they practice here, but my practice allows me to better control myself.”

“Hoh, well, I guess I’ve nothing to lose but time. I kinda hoped you’d teach us how to fight. Martial arts?”

“Couldn’t you take a kickboxing class, then?” Michael interjected.

“I’ve never seen a kickboxer fight like Lilibeth.”

“Silvermann’s has a ring and coaches, check them out later?”

“I think I will,” Yuriko interrupted. “I like learning new things. For now, both of you sit down cross-legged. Position your heels over your knees and rest the back of your hands over your soles.”

Both of them tried to get into position, but…

“Effing, ow!” Michael yelped as he twisted his leg. He fell back and grabbed his knee. “I hope I didn’t pull a ligament!”

Yuriko examined his knee with her perception, then reached out with her hand “May I?”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” He reddened slightly when her fingers brushed his skin. Yuriko sent her perception through the touch.

“Straighten out and relax. The pain should recede. I would have thought you’d be more flexible considering you’re an athlete.”

“We didn’t do any fancy meditation poses,” he said dryly.

“Why do we have to do it like this anyway?” Christine asked.

“The position allows for smoother flows of energy within the body,” Yuriko answered.

“...you mean blood?”

“No, I mean energies.”

“Er, what kind of energy? Do you mean Ki?”

Yuriko frowned as she recognised a term from watching movies. There were minute differences in its definition depending on the writer. Lilibeth had not been that interested in it, though she recognised it as an Aralian term.

“You could say that, I suppose.”

“Doesn’t it seem like mumbo jumbo to you?”

Michael laughed. “You’ve got super strength and I can make tattoos materialise. Why draw the line there?”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Christine said, though she was still doubtful.

Yuriko clapped her hands to regain their attention, “Well, we can begin with you then. The purpose of this exercise isn’t really to get you into meditation, it’s to allow me to get a better read on your powers, hence, better device a way to help.”

“How will you do that?”

“I will send my own energies into your body as you meditate. I should be able to map the flow of energies within you then.”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that…”

Yuriko shrugged. “Well, I won’t force you. Are you up for it, Michael?”

“Does it have to be that position?”

“You can keep your pose into a regular cross-legged one,” Yuriko sighed. “It might take longer, however.”

“I guess I don’t mind.”

“Wonderful. Get into the pose, please.”

He did so by resting his hands over his knees instead.

“Close your eyes. Take a deep breath.” Yuriko said as she moved behind him. She pressed her palm at the centre of his back, just off the side of his spine, and over his heart. “Take deep breaths and release them immediately. Once more. Again. Now, when you take as deep of a breath as you can, hold it.”

She didn’t really need direct contact to do this, but she felt that he and the others would feel more comfortable if she did so. Her Anima perception entered his body and suffused across its entirety. He fidgeted for a moment while she tuned her perception so that it didn’t interfere with his physiology. She could only do it this easily because his Anima was so weak compared to hers. If they were even remotely close to the same level, or even if his Anima was awakened, he would instinctively resist the invasion. Not that she was hostile.

“I feel warm…”

“That’s just me,” Yuriko chuckled. His heart skipped a beat and she giggled softly. “I didn’t tell you to release your breath yet. Repeat from the beginning. Deep breaths, rapidly repeating.” After four inhalations, she continued, “Now, as deep a breath as you can. Hold it in.”

She activated Chaos Sight and cycled it with Elemental Sight. When she didn’t see any particular concentration in his lungs, she focused on what her perception could feel. After a minute, she told him to exhale and catch his breath.

They repeated the exercise several times but to no avail. Then, she asked him to materialise his ink katar and to hold it while he did the breathing exercise. This time, she noticed movement, but the energies were far from homogenous. In fact, his body didn’t distinguish between the energies at all and used it all to push into his forearm.

“Release the blade please.”

When he did so, she observed that about two-thirds of the ink dissipated into the air, while the remaining returned to his forearm. There, it mixed with the heterogenous energies and transformed them into the ink.

While that happened, she noticed that a part of his mind lit up. She wasn’t well versed in biology, specifically the brain, but the increased activity was close to the base of the skull, right where the spine connected to the brain.

“Hmmm, interesting,” she muttered, then turned to Christine as they concluded the session. “Are you alright with trying now?”

The smaller woman looked relieved as she nodded. “Sure, thanks.”

Yuriko simply returned with a smile, all the while her strands of consciousness went off into half a dozen different tangents. She even used some of her true body’s allocation for it, but she suspected that the energy Altered Humans needed wasn’t present in the material plane.