The Facility. Two months after the attack.

Ariadna looked around the conference room at the others who had also turned up. So many faces she recognised from social media and TV, all in one room. The same room as her.

“So this is our conference room. Since the attack it’s had a new face lift,” Brad said as he ushered her into the room.

“Face lift?”

“You know, like a renovation. It’s been made bigger and had more seating put in, which is just as well now considering how many of us are due here today,” he explained. “Here, take this seat. We’re early.”

Prior to arriving at The Facility, Brad had picked Ariadna up from Fort Prirough on his way from NYC.

“How are you feeling,” he had asked her when she got into his jet.

“A bit uncomfortable,” she responded.

“That’s understandable. Everyone will be here, including The Rodeos and the human members of the Woodland Warriors, so people will hardly notice you.”

“Even Boy Beaver?”

Brad chuckled. “Yeah, he’ll be here too.”

Back in the conference room, there were a few whispers and mumblings going on between small groups of people as they greeted each other and hypothesised what the reason for the meeting was.

Ariadna wondered how many of them knew who she was and who would wonder why she was there.

She saw Dylan Petersly walk in with a young looking boy who looked of Thai heritage. Dylan then introduced the boy to Kimona Jones, also known as Agwé.

Reuben and Effie Rodeo were sat at the other end of the chair circle near the triplets who were deep in conversation with the other alien who she learnt was the man behind The Astral Sheriff armour.

A short while later, Boy Beaver came through with some people she didn’t recognise.

Brad came back to her. “Relax, ok? You’re not the only newbie here. That lad with Dylan is being introduced to everyone, and the girl with Boy Beaver is new too. Besides, I think this meeting is going to be about bigger things. We haven’t been together in an official capacity for a long time. Oh, and Ferris is now here!”

Ariadna spun round and saw Ferris walking in holding Terri’s hands.

“Ariadna!” Ferris said enthusiastically and warmly. She smiled slightly in return and pulled her sleeves down over her hands.

“Hi Ferris. Hi Terri.”

“How are you feeling?” Terri gently asked.

“Ok. A bit… nervous about all of this,” Ariadna answered, glancing back behind her at the other members of The Collective.

“You’ll be fine. I’m excited for you. We’re going to find some empty seats but I’m with you all the way, alright?” Ferris said, nodding encouragingly.

“You’re in good hands,” Brad assured, taking his seat next her.

***

The Secretary came through the door with Amber Hamilton. In the immediate aftermath of the attack on The Facility, the head of the Department of Homeland Security announced she was soon going to be taking a more active role in the running of The Enhanced Beings Collective.

And that time had come.

The room fell silent and those who were stood, slipped into the nearest free chairs.

The Secretary smiled at the group and opened her mouth as if to say something, but Amber Hamilton cut in and kicked things off instead.

“Good afternoon everyone. It’s great to see The Collective and the Warriors altogether. I know that hasn’t often happened in the past, but we will do this more. Most of you will know that I am Amber Hamilton. For those who don’t, I’m Amber Hamilton and you can refer to me as Ms Hamilton. I’m happy for you to continue to refer to Vedhika as Secretary or Ma’am.” The Secretary pursed her lips shut as if she was preventing words from tumbling out. “My department has been overseeing The Enhanced Beings Collective since Homeland was created in 2002. The Collective has always been its own department with its own leadership, which Vedhika has been having a go at for a while now, but it has been decided that I take a more prominent role in its running.”

The group remained silent, out of an increasing sense of awkwardness and loyalty for The Secretary.

“Who do we go to now then?” Mindy asked. “Who is our boss?”

“I am,” The Secretary said quickly, before Amber could.

“Vedhika is, yes technically, but she will ultimately be going through me with every decision and I will be filtering down through her when I naturally have other things to do.” She smiled falsely, her eyes not sparkling as they would if it was genuine. She looked to The Secretary, indicating she had done talking for now.

“Right. Thank you, Ms Hamilton,” she said just as insincerely. “I’d like to welcome Kimona back to The Collective after her stint with the Woodland Warriors. We also welcome to the Warriors, Eden Mohan, who has joined after some time working on other projects.”

“Heck, it’s good to see you again Greenfingers!” Dylan called out.

The girl smiled and cocked her head to one side. “Hey Dylan, I didn’t recognise you not screaming and yelping as I chased you with vines.”

He went red and shook his head, ignoring her jibes. “Are you a good guy now then?”

“Yes, Dylan. She’s rehabilitated and will be an asset to the Warriors,” The Secretary said abruptly.

“Well, welcome Greenie. Good to have you on our side.”

“‘Eden’ will do,” the new girl said.

“You’ll always be in my heart as Greenfingers,” Dylan responded smiling wildly. “You should embrace it. What other names have you got for yourself?”

“Well I had been trying to avoid Greenfingers just because you had come up with it, but if I use it, I’ll let you know.”

“Yeah, because I’ll want the royalties if you do,” he teased.

“Ok you two. You can have this conversation after this,” Amber interjected. “Vedhika, continue.”

“Alright… Well I’d also like to formally introduce Ariadna and Pan to The Collective. Ariadna has been training with Ferris in preparation for her start, and she will be using the moniker of ‘Justicia’ and Pan has been doing more work with us, notably in Cuswijan not long ago, and… I think for now we’re sticking with Pan for now, correct?”

“I’m working on a name for him,” Dylan called out. “I’ll keep you posted Ma’am.” His interruption made everyone look at him, which Ariadna was pleased about.

“Er, he won’t be,” Pan clarified in a way that made everyone laugh. “He was trying to pitch to me ‘Mister Boy’ for Christ’s sake!”

“It was an early idea. The firsts are never the best, gee!”

“Right, thank you Dylan,” The Secretary said, reigning the meeting back.

“Is it always like this Vedhika? Do you always allow your team to just have their own conversations?” Amber asked, clearly irritated.

“Apologies,” The Secretary said. “Ferris and Ariadna will be pairing up as a team after Canada have agreed to Ferris moving to the States with Terri, and so we will have the pleasure of utilising his experiences in The Collective too.”

Everyone clapped.

***

One month ago.

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Ariadna stood facing her opponents. The fifteen of them charged for her, closing the fifty metre distance that was between them.

She brushed her hair clear from her right ear and pressed the button on her head piece. The noise that came instantly caused Ariadna to black out instantly.

Ferris glanced over at her. “You ready?” he asked.

She turned back to look at him, her eyes jet black. “Oh yeah,” she replied in her possessed sounding voice. It always gave Ferris the chills but he had been getting used to it during their training sessions.

They ran head on towards the mob of fifteen and took them on in hand to hand combat. Ariadna leapt over assailants to surprise attack another, while Ferris ducked low to dodge swings and to counter back with his own blows to vulnerable areas.

Within three minutes, the fifteen were down and out. Once the threat was gone, the colour drained back into Ariadna’s eyes.

Some clapping behind her started. “Well done both of you!” called out Brad as he and Terri walked over. “I knew you could do it Ariadna!”

The fifteen people they had just fought started picking themselves up.

“It really works,” Ariadna marvelled, taking the head gear off completely in awe.

“It does, I’m really pleased with it,” The Secretary said, coming to Brad’s side. “And I’m really pleased with you too,” she said smiling at Ariadna.

“So Ferris has been a bit cagey about how this works,” Terri said. “Come on, tell us now. How does it work?”

“Ok, well, it contains two hearing aid gizmos that discreetly sit in the ear that can firstly filter out sound above a certain decibel level that could inadvertently trigger her berserk black outs and also can be used to emit a sound at a frequency that only she can hear which can trigger it, all without deafening her. I just couldn’t go into it too much because it’s Canadian tech and they’re quite precious about it.”

“Interesting…” Terri said.

“We also know that certain light frequencies can trigger her also, so the material of those goggles will eventually be made into a visor that will stop them from having a heavy affect,” Ferris finished.

“Like sunglasses,” Ariadna said.

“Exactly,” the Canadian agreed.

“So how are you feeling about partnering up with Ferris?” Brad asked.

“Fine,” she answered simply.

“Ok. Great,” Brad mumbled. He was starting to get used to her social interaction and didn’t take any of her bluntness personally, but it didn’t really take a conversation very far.

“We’ll work well together, I’m sure of it,” Ferris said.

“And you sure you’ll be able to use your enhancements to help me with mine?” Ariadna asked.

“Yeah, in a way,” Ferris agreed.

“‘Justicia and Two Tone’. It’s got a ring to it,” Terri said.

***

“And speaking of new members,” Amber said after the clapping stopped. “I have a few more to introduce you to.”

Confusion washed over the faces of everyone in the room, including The Secretary herself.

“What? Really?” she asked quietly. “I had no idea, Ms Hamilton.”

“Yes, I know. I didn’t say anything to you. I wanted to bring in my own recruits, as you had,” Amber said with a polite smile on her face that didn’t match her tone.

Amber walked to the door, pushing it ajar and giving a cue to enter. Ariadna picked up on an uneasiness from the others.

“Welcome please, Patty-Sue Hall and Jamison Joyner.”

No one clapped like they did for Pan, Ariadna and Eden except for Amber herself. The others just stared as they walked into the room.

Patty-Sue, the female and the first through the double doors into the room dominated the whole of the doorway, in height and width. She was morbidly massive in stature, from fat alone. She wore a huge white vest and short denim shorts that were not a flattering look. Ariadna found it very difficult to keep her eyes off her.

The man who followed, Jamison, was of a regular build, but looked like a stick in comparison to Patty-Sue. He had a short buzz cut hair style and bowled into the room in black drain pipe ripped jeans and a black leather biker jacket that was fringed with hair down the arms.

“You must be kidding me?” Brad couldn’t help but cry out.

“Excuse me? I’ll stop you right there Mr Jacobs Brown,” Amber cut in out of shock. “If you have something to say you can find me in my office after, but I don’t expect such a public display of insubordination.”

He shook his head and rolled his eyes, silenced from his protests.

“You may find that they will join some of you on assignments so make them feel welcome,” Amber continued as the two found a couple of empty seats. Ariadna watched intensely with great curiosity as Patty-Sue approached the chair and then decided to just stand behind it.

Brad shook his head, eyeing the new pair up. “These two? Rea-” he couldn’t help himself to not say.

“Enough Brad!” snapped The Secretary.

“I’m really not that bad of a guy,” Jamison chipped in, winking at Brad.

“It’s ok Jamison, we know that,” The Secretary assured calmly now. “Wel-welcome to the team.”

***

Straight after the meeting, Ariadna, Brad, Ferris, Terri, Kimona and the triplets had taken solace in an empty gymnasium.

Ariadna didn’t really want to be there surrounded by everyone but her and Ferris had something to do after and she stuck by his side so she didn’t get lost.

“So c’mon. Who are they and what’s your problem with them?” Holt asked when they knew they were alone.

“Alright, so Patty-Sue is some Z-list Enhanced celebrity from Nashville,” Brad said.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so big before,” Blane admitted.

Brad nodded and continued. “She’s a world record speed eater and tractor tyre flipper. She calls herself ‘Budge’ because of her intense centre of gravity that she can manipulate at will to literally root her to the spot. She’s unmoveable.”

“She sounds handy to have around then?” Kimona suggested.

“Hardly,” Brad scoffed. “It’s a mockery that they’ve passed this lame local celebrity for The Collective,” he ranted.

“Ok and what about the good looking guy?” Mindy asked.

“Really?” Holt asked in surprise. “He is not good looking.”

Mindy blushed. “I don’t know, he has something about-”

“Nope. Stop there Mindy,” Holt said.

“He’s a low level criminal from Idaho. Definitely not someone we ought to be trusting,” Brad said.

“To be fair, Brad, he was a criminal, Brad. Rehabilitation is a thing and he can’t still be one now to have been given clearance,” Terri warned cautiously.

“Sure, whatever. But in the past he was. And maybe he is reformed now but he just looks like a total jerk.”

“And does he go by another name?” Ariadna asked softly.

“Nauyerdunt,” Brad answered shaking his head dismissively.

“Nauyerdunt?” Mindy repeated. “Er... What and why is that?”

“Because, now you see me…” Jamison, the man himself, said suddenly appearing stood in the middle of the group from nowhere, causing Mindy and Ariadna to jump in fright. “…and Nauyerdunt.” And with that, just as suddenly as he appeared, he disappeared.

“Ugh, so now you can see why I think the invisible fuck is a jerk,” Brad said.

“Hey, I can still hear ya you know!”