{Emily}

I stayed the night at Tyler's apartment and went back home in the morning. Once I got back home, I started to feel very ill. I didn't have sex with Tyler yet so I knew I wasn't pregnant or anything like that. I had to call in sick from work.

As soon as I felt sick I called Anna and she came over immediately. Thankfully I didn't have a fever but I was constantly throwing up in a trashcan most of the day.

"Did you have sex with Tyler yet?" Anna asked, "Is that why you're sick?"

I shook my head and after I threw up again I said, "No, we didn't have sex yet."

When I went to throw up again Anna grabbed my left hand. "What the hell is on your hand?"

"Huh?" I said. Anna showed me the palm of my hand and it had four black dots on it. My eyes went wide at the possibility of this might mean. "Shit!"

"What? What's wrong?" Anna asked, frowning.

"The last time I was sick like this, I started developing a new ability," I explained. "I don't know exactly how long it's going to take for it to finish developing but this means I'll be out of work for a couple of days at least. Good thing it's not something else."

"I stay here and help take care of you if need be," Anna said.

I shook my head again. "No, you don't have to do that. That's not what I'm paying you for."

"While that's true, I'm still your friend and I care about you," Anna said. "You know what, regardless if you want me to stay. I'm going to assume that once your new ability develops you'll be good as new!"

I nodded and I was going to say something but I threw up in the trashcan again instead. "Well if that's what you want to do then go right ahead and do it."

For the rest of the day I laid in bed throwing up in a trash can and when I tried to eat something I immediately threw it up. Later in the day when Toby got off work, he came over to check on me.

"How are you feeling?" Toby asked with a concerned look on his face.

"Not good," I grimaced after I threw up. "I think I know what's making me sick but I have to wait to see if I'm right."

"Okay until then, you should rest," said Toby. "I'll stay right beside you as you're resting."

"Aww that's cute! You and Anna want to help me out so much but you really don't have to-" I said.

"I know I don't. But I want to," Toby said. He sat down on the bed next to me and pulled me into his arms. When he looked he grabbed my hand and looked at the palm of it and gasped, "What the hell is on your hand?"

"I don't know, but that happened the last time I got sick too!" I said. I paused when I saw it. It was one of my dirty socks floating in mid air. "What the hell?"

Toby tilted his head. "Yeah what's going on?"

"I have no idea," I said. "But the last time I got sick was ten years ago and I developed a new ability by it. So this kind of confirms that I was right. But I don't understand, I'm not at A-Circle and I'm not being tested on."

Sure enough when I looked down at my hand the black spots on it disappeared. Not to mention my stomach started to feel better at that moment too. I looked at my dirty sock floating in mid air with curiosity. "Hmmm."

I reached over and grabbed the sock. I opened my hand that didn't have the sock in it and it floated in mid air again. I wondered if I could move it around just by pointing my finger or hand at it. I pointed my index finger at the sock and flicked my finger off to the side to see if the sock would follow it. The sock moved in the motion that my finger was pointing at.

"Interesting," I said. "Looks like I've developed some sort of magic."

I looked over at Toby puzzled to see that his mouth was moving. There were words coming out but very slowly, "What's… Wrong?"

I shook my head. After that, everything went back to normal. The sock stopped floating in mid air and I held it in my hand confused about what just happened.

"Okay, I'm going to say this again," said Toby. "What's wrong?"

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Well it's hard to explain but it felt like everything was slowed down, like time was slowed down for a moment. I heard you speaking but the words were coming out very slowly! It was so weird."

He blinked. "Huh."

I nodded. "Yeah I know. I have no idea what this new ability could actually be. That means, I'll have to do some testing on myself to figure it out."

"Are you nuts!" Toby panicked. "We're already trying to keep you safe from Dominic and now you're trying to kill yourself?"

I snorted. "No I'm not suicidal dumbass! I want to see what this new ability can help me with."

"Yeah that's what I'm afraid of!" Toby said.

"Don't worry about it," I said. "I told you I've been able to protect myself for five freaking years and I don't see why I can't keep doing that now."

"That makes me worry even more because you're not immortal," Toby said, giving me a wary look. "Besides, you just started feeling better."

"Okay, okay, I get it. I'm just excited, okay?" I said, "So I'll take it easy at least for the rest of the day."

"Are you insane?!" I heard Ann shout and I looked over at the doorway and snickered.

"What do you think the answer to that question is?" I asked, "How long have we been best friends?"

"Six years," Anna said. She paused and then laughed, "Okay I get it you're crazy and you're always trying to push the envelope! Now I think with this new ability you're bound to be more reckless. I'll be a-"

I rolled my eyes and cut her off, "Helicopter best friend? Why does that not surprise me?"

"What? You know how I am!" Anna said, "You're like a little sister to me and I just want to do everything in my power to keep you safe!"

I chuckled, "Alright then fine, I just told Toby that I would take it easy at least for the rest of the day."

"That's good," Anna said. "But I'm still going to watch you like a hawk when you're training!"

For some reason Toby burst into laughter. I looked at him. "What is so funny?"

He composed himself, "Sorry but you are acting like siblings that's for sure. Or maybe this is a mother and daughter thing?"

"Hey!" I protested, "She's not my mother, that's for sure! My mother…" I looked down. "My mother's a bitch!"

Toby gasped but Anna didn't seem fazed by it.

"Look I know you hate her for dropping you off at that place and I probably would too, but I don't think I would say that about her…" Toby said.

"Well it's absolutely true!" I exclaimed, "She really is a bitch! She dropped me off at that place and got my name changed to a fucking number because of her! Get this, every time I didn't cooperate with A-Circle and their tests they would threaten to send me back to her! So yeah she's a bitch and I hope I never see her again!"

Toby opened his mouth and then quickly shut it, staring at me in disbelief. I balled my hands into fists as I tried to calm myself down. I sighed, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't get so triggered over one statement."

Before Toby could respond Anna said, "It's okay Emily he didn't know. Calm down please."

I nodded and before Anna could pull me away from Toby to console me, Toby grabbed me and held me tightly. "I'm sorry, Anna's right I didn't know."

"It's okay but that doesn't excuse my temper," I said. "And before you ask, no I don't want to make amends with her. That's not happening."

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"Yeah, I'm not even going to suggest that," Toby said. "Trust me I wouldn't want to forgive her either if I'd been in the same situation as you. Question is, how are you going to deal with it from here on out?"

I shrugged. "I have no idea."

"You know now that we're dating if you have an issue with something you can talk to me about it if you want?" Toby suggested.

I hesitated. "I don't know…"

Anna rolled her eyes. "Yeah good luck on trying to get her to open up to you, she barely does it with me. She's finally starting to act like a somewhat normal person and it took her five years to do that."

I snorted. "A 'somewhat normal person' seriously?"

Anna shrugged. Toby chuckled, "Well you're not really a normal person considering you have superpowers."

I rolled my eyes. "Superpowers? More like supercurses!"

Toby smirked. "Supercurses huh? I say you should use them to your advantage."

"How? Because from where I'm standing everyone else at A-Circle is ten times stronger than me and if they really wanted me dead, I would be dead already!" I said, "I think right now they're just toying with me until I come out from hiding, as if that's going to happen. If I come out from hiding now they win. I won't get into a real gun fight with them unless it's needed."

Toby nodded. "But you said you were going to take it easy for the rest of the day and Anna and I are going to make sure you do that."

I rolled my eyes and snickered. "Yes daddy, I'll be a good girl!"

"Are you trying to seduce me?" Toby said.

I shook my head and smiled. "Nope! If I was, I would be saying a lot more than that!"

"Okay, I would say you get a room but you're already in a room, I'll just uh, leave you two love birds alone, see ya!" Anna said quickly and she ran out of the room as fast as she could closing the door behind her.

After Anna left, Toby and I couldn't stop laughing at her reaction to us flirting with each other.

"Did you see the look on her face?" Toby asked in between his laughter.

"Oh yeah," I said in between my laughter, "Maybe we should do that in front of her more often just to mess with her?"

Toby composed himself, "Maybe? That sounds like a fun idea! But we probably shouldn't do it in front of Susan because she'll take it as a challenge and do even more than what she's already tried to do."

My eyes went wide in horror at that thought. "Yeah no thanks. That woman is nuts!"

"Yeah I can't believe I dated her once upon a time," Toby said. "The funny thing is she seemed sweet and charming when I first started dating and then I found out how crazy she was and broke up with her."

"Oh, I see," I said. I didn't say anything else except I snuggled closer to Toby while he held me in his arms. Even though I was really excited to start training and figuring out what this new ability can do, I decided to stay in Toby's arms and eventually I drifted off to sleep.

***

I rested for a couple more days only because Toby insisted that I do and Anna insisted as well. Every time I tried to sneak out of the house somehow Anna would know about it and I'm going to assume it's because Red would bark at me every time I left my bedroom. He would bark even if I just went to the bathroom!

I would have to reassure Anna that I wasn't running anywhere just going to the bathroom. She did insist that I eat at least three meals a day and she would even force the food down my throat if I refused to eat. Toby seemed rather amused by Anna's antics when it came down to feeding me. Thankfully he never forced me to eat like Anna did.

After I rested, I finally returned to work. For some reason Susan was there and she had a desk right next to mine!

That's when I heard Toby shouting at someone. "Are you kidding me! Are you aware of what Susan tried to do to Emily last week? Are you stupid or something? And yes I will be taking this up with corporate! Go ahead call me a Karen all you want but don't surprised if you have to fire Susan and report her to the police for sexual assault!"

I paused when I heard that and gasped just like everybody else did in the office. Even Susan gasped and she gaped at Toby's office door. Susan's boss was a young guy named Eric stormed out of Toby's office looking pissed off ignoring the shocked stares of everyone.

"Alright show's over!" Evan another coworker yelled, "Everyone get back to work!"

We did as we were told. I went up to my desk and hesitated but then I sat down and started working. I rolled my eyes when I heard Susan go, "Pssssst! Emily! Pssst! I know you can hear me!"

I turned to face her. "What?"

"I heard you were out sick for a couple days. Is that why I haven't seen you around the office lately?" Susan asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes I was sick, no we didn't do the deed yet, no I'm not pregnant and even though you're sitting next me working I'm not telling you any of my personal business! And no we're not going to be friends so don't bother!"

Instead of being offended by this she smirked. "Wow I didn't know asking if someone was okay would be enough to set them off!"

"Because I know you have ulterior motives!" I snapped. I composed myself, "You know what, just don't bother me while I'm working."

She shrugged. "Alright whatever you say…"

She turned back to her computer screen and thankfully she didn't really say much for the rest of the day. I just got a casual eyebrow raise from her after I came back from Toby's office. I would roll my eyes in return.

I was thankful that Toby was making up excuses and more than usual for me to go run errands for him or for him to make out with me.

Finally the end of the work day came and I was anxious to go to the gun range and test out my new ability. So after going home to change into some comfortable clothing I headed out to the gun range with Anna and Toby in tow. I'm glad I invited Toby to come with me now he would get to see what I can do.

When we got to the gun range and I smiled once I got everything in place.

"Did you bring your gun?" Anna asked.

I rolled my eyes, gave her a wicked smile and pulled my gun out of my pants pocket. I gave a sarcastic snort. "Since when have I ever gone anywhere without my gun? Susan's lucky I haven't found the need to use it on her yet in self defense!"

Anna gasped but then she composed herself, "Alright, you ready to go?"

I nodded. "Hell yeah!"

Anna chuckled and hit the button and I smiled as the robots moved back and forth and every direction in between. I fired some bullets out of my gun and hit the bullets on target. I got hit a couple of times of course so I took cover to pull the bullets out and reloaded my gun. Five minutes into the gun fight I decided to try out my new ability.

I grinned as I remembered how it felt to slow down time. When I did that the bullets whizzed past me in slow motion. I caught a handful of bullets in hand and reloaded my gun with them and the rest that were in front of me, I swiped at them and once I had time going normal again they dropped to the floor.

"Hmmm, interesting…" I said to myself. I winced the next time I took cover to reload my gun because I knew I got hit several times. I had a feeling that I got hit in my back. Okay looks like this ability I can only deal with the bullets in front of me. So that gives me a blind spot. I wonder how many times I can do this?

After a moment or two I used my ability again. Just like last time I caught a handful of bullets and then swiped at the rest letting them fall to the ground. However I got hit from behind again. I took cover again to rip the bullets out. I felt my energy starting to drain even though this was only the second time I used this ability in this fight. I started to feel dizzy and I'm going to assume it might be because I lost some blood while pulling out those bullets after I used this new ability.

Anna must've seen how much I was starting to slow down because she hit the button that made the robots stop moving. I slid down a nearby wall panting and in pain. I smiled as I remembered the pain I went through when I was tested on when I was back at A-Circle. I went through a lot of physical pain back there. It was mostly because of how painful the tests were. But honestly, this pain seemed worse than what I went through back at A-Circle.

Anna frowned. "Okay I think we need to stop for the day! You barely made it fifteen minutes with that new ability of yours!"

"I'm fine!" I croaked, "I just needed to take cover so I could catch my breath that's all."

"Yeah you don't look fine to me!" Toby exclaimed.

"Huh?" I barely managed to say right before I passed out.

***

{Toby}

I paced back and forth in the waiting room of the hospital until the doctors gave the green light for Anna and I to go visit Emily. Emily's lucky to have a protective friend like Anna because as soon as Anna realized how bad Emily got hit she stopped the robots from moving immediately!

She took the bullets out of Emily even though the wounds healed she had lost quite a bit of blood. So Anna acted quickly and told me that we needed to take her to hospital asap. That's what I did and we had to come up with a cover story about why we brought Emily to the hospital considering she heals crazy fast. We said she was attacked by someone which isn't a total lie because she was attacked just by robots and not a real human. We also said that because she was attacked that she lost quite a bit of blood. So the doctors took her immediately and gave her a blood transfusion after figuring out what blood type she was.

The doctor came out of Emily's room and looked at Anna and I. "Well now, your friend will be fine. We just gave her a blood transfusion and she's asleep for the moment. I'm guessing you'll want to be there for her when she wakes up?"

Anna and I nodded.

"Alright then," said the doctor. "You two may go see her now."

"You don't have to tell me twice!" I said. I heard the doctor chuckle as I practically sprinted into Emily's room.

"Well gee someone's eager to be by his girlfriend's side!" Anna laughed. "You do realize she's sleeping so she's not going anywhere anytime soon right?"

I shook my head. "I don't care if she's sleeping. I just want to see her."

I smirked when I looked at Emily sleeping so peacefully. She looked like an Angel to me. Her sandy blonde hair lay perfectly around her head and her beautiful tan skin glowed slightly as she slept. Her big boobs taunted me as they rose up and down in rhythm with her breathing.

In realizing I started having pervy thoughts about my girlfriend while she was in such a critical state I shook my head mentally scolding myself. I should be worried about her not wanting to have sex with her!

Anna burst into laughter. When she composed herself I frowned. "What the hell is funny about this?"

"You want to fuck her don't you?" Anna asked with a smile. "Trust me, you wouldn't be wrong if you didn't. I get it she's not necessarily healthy right at the moment but that doesn't mean you can't have thoughts about fucking her. She is your girlfriend after all. Just don't actually act on it right now."

I nodded. "Yeah I just can't get over how beautiful she is when she's sleeping. I watched her sleep plenty of times and she always looks like an Angel to me."

"Aww someone's got it bad!" Anna teased.

I sighed and smiled. "Yeah I do. I've only been with her for a couple of weeks but I really like her! I want to protect her and help her deal with her issues if she'll let me. I'm not going to push her into anything she doesn't want."

Anna nodded. "Yes I love my little sister even though I'm not her flesh and blood. I wish I was related to her biologically though. I'll protect her no matter what!"

I didn't say anything else but I turned to watch Emily sleep. I know she wasn't going anywhere because she was asleep but I still wanted to keep a watchful eye on her regardless. I'm going to do my best to protect her and keep her away from A-Circle Labs if it's the last thing I do.