“Look, read this.”

“What is it?” Kimona asked.

“It’s a phone, my phone. You can search the internet on it,” Dolphin Boy replied.

“Dumbass, she won’t know what the internet is,” Grey Hat moaned.

“Ah yeah, true. Sorry Kimona. So the internet is basically a way of…” Dolphin Boy paused to find the words. “…basically a way of finding out things and communicating with people anywhere in the world. There’s a heck load of other things you can do on it, but I won’t load all that on you right now. But look, read this article that was written in 1939. It’s on the internet now for people to read.”

“Yeah, we searched for your name and a few articles and pages came up about you,” Grey Hat added.

Kimona took the phone and read out loud, “Twenty five year old Kimona Jones has officially been declared missing after not arriving at her destination of Nassau in the Bahamas after her World Record attempt. Authorities anticipate that she will not be found due to the large search area to cover. Bryan Jones, the father of Kimona, said the family are devastated and would like their privacy to be respected.” Kimona looked up at the boys, tears in her eyes, feeling numb.

“This is insane Kimona! You’re not even dead,” whispered Grey Hat.

“Yeah. I know that. So I need to tell them. Tell my family that I’m not dead. Can I tell them that on the internet?”

“This was ninety years ago Kimona, we can try to find them. But you’re not ninety years older. You’ve not changed.”

“Please, can you find out about them on the internet?”

“Hang on. I’ll just search for Bryan Jones and your name.” Kimona watched in amazement at how quick his fingers danced over the phone thing. “There are a few hits. Was your dad a pilot too?” Dolphin Boy looked up from his phone.

“Yes he was, he was in his fifties when I left. They’re not going to be alive now, are they? Oh I had twin younger sisters though. But then again... they were ten. They’re not going to be alive now either, are they?”

“Well your father passed away in World War Two. I’m sorry,” Dolphin Boy said, reaching for Kimona’s hand.

"Wait?! There was another World War?” Her eyes filled with tears.

“Look, this is a lot for you to take in one day. Come inside and you can rest. We’ll work out what we’re going to do next,” Grey Hat suggested, the boys leading Kimona into the house.

***

Over the course of that afternoon and then into the evening, Kimona learnt that her whole family were no longer living, with one of the twins dying in a car accident when she was sixty and the other dying from cancer in two thousand and fourteen.

She also got a crash course on how the internet worked, like how it had news like the newspapers used to and she learnt that her adventure that morning had attracted a lot of buzz and speculation on something called 'the socials'.

“It says that they think your appearance and behaviour is linked to the disappearance of the USS Birmingham crew a few days ago,” Dolphin Boy explained.

“Disappearance of who? That’s absurd! I have no part in that, whatever that is!”

The boys also took the time to introduce themselves so that Kimona had a better reference other than their items of clothing to distinguish them. The boy with the Dolphin top was called Adam. A fourteen year old Miami Dolphins fan who was friends with the fifteen year old called Raj, who wore the grey hat. Raj lived at the house they were taking refuge at, but was actually staying with Adam whilst his parents were away- hence the empty house they were able to use as a base.

“But why did you come to help me?” Kimona later wondered.

“Well Raj didn’t want to at first, but I knew we had to,” replied Adam.

Raj shot him a glare. “Shut up Adam. Look, I’m glad we did now of course, but we saw you at the beach and you’re quite clearly enhanced and we had no idea what you were capable of,” Raj was keen to explain in his defence.

“Yeah, we weren’t sure if you were a good one or a bad one but you seem good Kimona. So we wanted to help.”

“Hang on, say that again. You think I’m an enhanced? What does that mean?” Kimona leaned forward in the bean bag she had quickly become obsessed with.

“An enhanced is what we call someone who has abilities or strengths beyond normal human possibility. Some use their strengths for good, and some use them for bad. The Government have a team of really good ones who fight the bad guys,” Adam explained simply.

“They’re all mostly human or started as humans and can do things that normal people can’t,” added Raj.

“What, and so I’m one of those enhanced?”

“Err yeah, maybe. Surely you had enhanceds back in your day?" Raj asked.

Kimona looked blankly back at him, "Probably. I don't know. We were quite rural and didn't have all these newsie things you have."

"Well let’s find some footage taken of you this morning,” offered Raj. “Didn’t you notice anything strange about yourself? And what you were doing?”

Adam was already searching for clips and tweets from the morning and had mirrored it on to the TV. Reviewing footage from the beach taken by camera phones and from the market square taken by news helicopters, Kimona quickly began to feel overwhelmed with awe, and fear and sadness at what had become of her.

“That car, that’s a car, right? It just… just smashed around me. I wasn’t hurt by it at all,” recalled Kimona. The boys shared an awkward look which Kimona caught. “What? What’s wrong? What are you not telling me?”

“It’s nothing, don’t worry,” Raj dismissively said.

“No Raj, it’s not,” interrupted Adam. He turned to their new friend. “Kimona, sadly those people in that car did die when it hit you. I’m sorry, but Raj, but we need to be honest.”

“Do people think I’m a bad enhanced person now?”

“We don’t,” assured Adam, but Kimona could read into that. Adam turned the telly off.

“Definitely, Kimona, we’ll show people that you’re not. First, we should go and find out what you’re really capable of.”

***

Kimona, Raj and Adam dismounted their bikes upon arrival at the cove, a safe and quiet area, with a beach and walled by cliffs. An area left alone at this time of night. The glow of the near full moon and lights from behind the top of the cliffs provided enough light for the trio to explore what Kimona was now capable of. If in fact she knew herself.

“Now we’re not going to find out the full extent of your strengths tonight Kimona, but there are some basics we can check for,” warned Adam on the bike ride over.

“The more in tune you get with yourself, the more you’ll find out. It’ll be a complex thing,” explained Raj while digging out a notebook from his bag. “First there’s speed. From the news footage from the helicopter, you looked pretty fast.”

By this time, Adam had jogged to the other end of the cove and called out “Run to me as quick as you can!”

Kimona inhaled and ran as fast as she could. She couldn’t remember the last time she ran, having been a waitress and budding pilot back in the thirties.

In no time, she had got to Adam who, on seeing her speed in person, was whooping with joy! “Oh wow, Zip is going to have a run for her money now!” he cheered.

“Not quite! Maybe Usain Bolt’s record, but not Zip,” argued Raj after he ran over with his notebook, followed by declaring that strength was the next test. “We’re testing strength next!”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“So we all kind of saw that damage you, errr… that happened to the car, but you also beat up that food stand with very little effort. So let’s try lifting something ridiculously heavy,” suggested Adam, looking around the cove for something fitting the bill. “Here, try my bike,” he decided, not being able to see anything else.

“Guh. Really, Ad?! You could lift your bike,” Raj groaned. His face lit up, “Try bending it instead!”

Adam tried to stop his bike being used as a bendy toy, but before he could protest, Kimona simply bent the bike frame, first at a right angle, but then further so that the handlebar and the seat met.

“Jesus, Raj!! My dad’ll kill me!” sighed Adam, dropping down to sit on a rock behind him. Raj excitedly crossed off STRENGTH on his list.

Getting excited, and ignoring his friend’s wishes, he then suggested throwing it. Kimona, who was now also getting into their experiments, all too happily launched the misshapen bike into the sea, throwing it high and far before Adam could even protest again.

“No!! Don’t thr-” he started, but then gave up.

His anger was enough to snap Kimona out of her new found excitement. They all stared at it in mid-air falling into the sea nearly one hundred metres away. She soon wished she hadn’t had done it. Within an instant of it landing, it erupted out of the ocean on an arching column of water back towards them on the beach. The sea column continued and came to a stop just by their feet, splashing them as it dismantled.

“Holy frick, Kimona! What did you just do?! What did YOU JUST DO?!” cried out Raj.

Adam was back to cheering, his hands covering his face in cartoon-like glee.

“I… I have no idea. I just-” she managed to stammer.

She was cut off by Raj who shouted, “You just made water freaking move!”

“I just willed the bike back. I felt really bad about throwing it,” she muttered as some sort of vague explanation.

MAKE WATER MOVE, Raj added in his notebook.

***

Over the course of the next couple of hours, the boys put Kimona through her paces, working out what she could and could not do. Flying, she could not do- she just fell quite quickly, but she could land with style and no pain.

Due to her affinity with water control, Kimona was tasked with a swimming test. Not a swimmer in 1939, she found herself being able to swim extremely proficiently and with the utmost of ease in 2029. Far out, deep down and with some encouragement from the boys who had by now joined her in the sea, found that she could breathe underwater too.

“You’ll be able to put your head under in the bath now for as long as you want,” Raj suggested as they paddled back to the beach.

“Boys, underwater, did you hear it? There are so many strange new sounds,” Kimona explained as they got dressed.

On the way home, Raj gave Adam a backy and Kimona ran alongside without losing breath. Once back home, Raj set Kimona up in his room and with some of his older sister’s clothes before leaving with Adam for the night. With promises of returning the following morning, Kimona tried her best to sleep.

***

The following day started with a Starbucks breakfast brought over by the boys. Kimona had only caught a few hours of sleep, partly due to her continuously running thoughts, but also the pet cat's fondness for sitting on her face during the night.

“Yeah, Phoebe loves new people,” Raj had said when he heard about it.

The boys had arrived to see Kimona looking into the fish tank.

“I just fed the fish,” she explained.

“Dammit, I keep forgetting I have to feed Bubbles! Thanks for doing that.” Raj gave Kimona a coffee cup and a paper bag filled with a croissant.

“Bubbles?” Kimona asked. “Is that what you call her? She says her name is Voma, and yes. She says you do keep forgetting to feed her.” Kimona watched the boys’ faces go from confusion, to shock and to excitement when they realised what this meant.

“Yep, that’s right boys. Add ‘talking to water animals’ onto your list. I’ve given up on your cat though. I still have no idea what she's saying,” she said with a grin on her face.

***

That evening, the residents of Truumdale were hosting local and national media at a vigil in honour of the missing Navy crew. This was to be the first of a few town wide events scheduled over the next week. There was a debate between the three of them as to whether they should go.

“Why would I go? They probably all think I did this,” Kimona protested straight away.

“We’ll dress you up in a disguise of course. There could be clues out there tonight,” Adam suggested.

“This isn’t Scooby Doo, bud. We won’t find them hiding in a cave under the town to find out it was the Mayor all along!” snorted Raj. “We’ll all go. You in disguise, and we’ll just try to get a feel for what the vibe is around Kimona’s supposed involvement maybe?”

“Just blend in, keep blending in,” muttered Adam through gritted teeth in encouragement, as they all weaved through the crowds.

“Easy for you to say, you’re not the twenty five year old looking one hundred and fifteen year old wearing strange clothes!” Kimona flashed back.

“Like I keep telling you, it’s just denim. It makes you look more American, you’re fine.”

Kimona shifted the peak of her cap down a bit further across her face and followed the boys. The square outside the Town Hall was packed as they made their way further to the beach for the vigil.

Kimona tightened as she recalled her first time on this beach and she took her surroundings in. About two miles to her left was the cove where they did the other night’s experimentation. A mile to her right, as the shoreline curved into a bay, was the town’s harbour, where due to the search and rescue mission being undertaken, was filled with boats from the coast guard and US Navy. A larger boat, all lit up, was anchored a small distance from the harbour.

The atmosphere was eery. The smell of lit candles lingered and sobs could be heard from some concerned attendees. The Mayor addressed the crowd and media, thanking people for turning out, ‘in the true Truumdale way’ he had called it. Once he had finished his inspiring but sombre speech, he left. Soon after, the crowd started thinning but the three stuck around.

Their silence was broken from a distant but still loud alarm emanating from off shore- the Navy boat in the bay! People stopped to stare, concern growing amongst them. Moments into the alarm sounding, gunfire was heard. This development caused the people on the beach to run, not really certain that they were safe enough to stay there. Kimona, Raj and Adam ran against the direction of the fleeing crowd like salmon charging upstream, towards the water to get a better look.

“There’s our clue, Scrappy Doo,” Adam puffed.

A helicopter came from nowhere, racing overhead to the anchored boat. The three ran further along the shore line, water splashing up their legs as they kept out of the way of the escaping crowds.

“Kimona, you’ll have to run faster than us- we’ll catch you up,” Adam panted.

“But what the hell am I going to do when I get there?” she snapped back.

To their left, across the water, the helicopter that had flown above them seconds before exploded, sending it in to a tail spin, round and round as it lost altitude. The three watched in horror as the crew could be seen jumping out.

Another explosion, this one from the boat and a bit closer to them, sounded out and the boys flinched, then looked at each other.

“Kimona, Kimona.. we have to do someth-” they looked around but she wasn’t there. She was already running into the sea.