“Um… Hi.” Jessica began, more than a little unsure of herself.

“Hi back.” I said, just as unsure. I sat down across from Jessica, and looked over at her. She looked pale – like she hadn’t been sleeping well, and she had a bit of a facial tic. Something was obviously bothering her. Otherwise, she looked as gorgeous as ever – tall, thin, blonde, with a body and face that only plastic surgery or god and good genes could give a person. “What’s up?”

“I… I wanted to apologize for yesterday. What I did was pretty shitty.” Jessica replied. “I’ve been having problems since the Emergence, and sometimes I just snap at people for no reason. It wasn’t anything you did.”

“That’s good to know.” I said. “What’s wrong, if I might ask?”

“Well, I… I can hear people’s thoughts. But I can’t seem to figure out how to shut it off, so I can’t sleep, and I’m… I’m always picking things up around me, whether I want to or not. I’m really tired, and stressed, and bitchy, and I’m sorry.” Tears started flowing from her eyes, down her cheeks. “I didn’t want to be here in the first place – but now I’m not sure I want to go home. I’m in a shitty situation, and I don’t know what to do.”

I was surprised to see her crying – but if what she said was true, she probably hadn’t slept in close to a week. No wonder she looked run ragged! “What’s going on, Jessica? I’d like to help, if I can.”

“I don’t know how.” She replied, flatly.

“I’m not sure either, but I want to help. Let’s start with the voices or thoughts you hear at night. When I first got my super senses, I could literally see and hear everything for about a mile – I nearly went crazy with too much information. I had to learn to ignore the stuff I was wasn’t needing to pay attention to – like a filter, so I only heard what I needed to hear. I might be able to teach you that, if you want to try. Then maybe you could get some sleep.”

Jessica looked up from crying, with a hopeful expression on her face. “Do you think so? I want to sleep soooo badly it hurts.”

“Well, I’m willing to try helping you, if you’re willing to try to learn.” I said.

“Why? Why do you want to help me?” Jessica asked.

“Cause we’re all on the same team, Jessica. We’re all MRT, and I don’t like seeing anyone in pain – even if they did hurt me yesterday. And that comment of yours did hurt. You were right. For a while I did hate you. But after a while, I realized you must be hurting too, because normal people don’t hurt others for no reason.”

“Do you think it will work?” She asked, wiping away some of her tears.

“I don’t know. But I do know that if it doesn’t, I have a backup plan. A friend of mine has some awesome white noise headphones that cancel out all sound. They might help you relax without hearing things too.”

“I guess it’s worth a shot. What do I do?”

“First off, let’s eat breakfast before it gets cold, and I’ll organize my thoughts so I can tell you what I did to cut out the excess and control my senses. I hate cold eggs.”

“Yeah,” she said, sniffling. “Me too – and cold bacon is too greasy.”

“Yeah, well I wouldn’t toss it. Cold bacon is almost as good as hot bacon.”

“Ewww. Gross!” Jessica smiled. It was the first smile I’d seen on her face since I arrived.

We sat and ate our breakfast for a while. I could feel the eyes of the others on Jessica and I, and I hoped no one would stir up anything unless it was warranted. Finally, I polished off the last of my breakfast. Jessica had finished a few minutes before me, and was waiting quietly.

“If you’re ready, I think we can start.” I said.

“I’m ready. Is here the best place?” Jessica asked.

“Here or the lounge area, I suspect. There needs to be a few people around, unless your range is far enough that you don’t need to see people.”

“I don’t need to see people. I can sense people farther away. It’s like I have ‘Cerebro’ in my head, and I can’t turn it off.”

“Damn. That sucks! Let’s see if we can help.” I thought of how I had begun to filter out sounds. The first step was identifying what was there. “I did it sort of like this… I took all the sounds I could hear – like you should take all the voices or thoughts you’re hearing – and I prioritized them: Dangerous, requiring immediate attention, or Not Dangerous, so they can wait. Are any thoughts in the area dangerous to you or others?”

“No…”

“So if nothing needs your immediate attention, then try filtering out the voices or thoughts from outside this room. Try to ignore those thoughts for a moment, and concentrate on the other thoughts. They’ll still be there, if you need them – but right now, put your attention on other thoughts instead. Like when you study with the TV on, you can ignore the TV – like that.”

Jessica tried – it looked like she was engaged in a lot of concentration. “I can see how you did it. In your head. Your thoughts are so loud. Do you mind if I look deeper, to understand it? It might be faster that way.”

“If it helps, sure. Just try not to dig too deep, okay?” I said, nervously.

“I’ll try. God, you really are like Clark, aren’t you?” She said, smirking. “I went a little too deep, Sorry.”

“Is it helping? I can’t feel anything. It’s like you’re doing nothing at all.”

“That’s normal. No one can sense when I’m reading them or anything. It’s like it’s so stealthy, you don’t even notice. I’m not sure even another telepath would notice if I read them.” Jessica looked a little proud about her power – and hell, why shouldn’t she. It sounded very powerful.

She paused, and kept concentrating… and a few minutes later she started to smile. She looked up at me, tears running down her face, while smiling. “It’s… It’s quiet now.”

“That’s great!” I said, smiling in turn. “I bet it was tough.”

“You have no idea.” She replied. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Do you think we could bury the hatchet and try being friends?” I asked.

“I dunno. I can still be pretty bitchy. You probably wouldn’t want to be friends with me.”

“Well, I’m willing to try, if you are.” I replied.

“Fair enough. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Did your cat really come out to hunt me down yesterday? I couldn’t help but hear some of the others thinking ‘Pepsi was going to get me.’”

“Yeah,” I said smiling. “Since the Emergence, she’s apparently been able to understand human speech, and she heard you got me upset. I think she wanted to teach you a lesson for hurting her human.”

“That’s super cute.” Jessica said. “I’m sorry about that. Do you think you can forgive me?”

“Yeah. But could you maybe not do something like that again?”

“I’ll try, but no promises. I did say I’m pretty bitchy.”

“Fair enough. I am duly warned.” I replied. “What now?”

“I’m going to beg Dominic to let me sit out the team-building exercise and try to get some decent sleep, before I go crazy.” Jessica replied.

“Good Luck.”

“Thanks. You know, for what it’s worth, you didn’t deserve what I did yesterday. Sorry.”

“I won’t say it’s okay, but don’t worry about it. It’s being dealt with.” I replied, thinking about Nadine and her day at court.

“Okay. See ya.” Jessica got up, and put her tray away in the racks provided by the cafeteria, and went over to Dom. I got up and put my tray away too, and by the time I was done, Jessica was already on her way out of the room, presumably to get some much needed sleep.

Dominic saw me, and waved me over, calling out to the rest of the MRT in the process. “Hey, listen up guys! We’ve got a few team building exercises today, and I want to go over some of them with you. We’ve got an obstacle course to complete together, plus some games that should help build teamwork between us. Jessica is sitting this one out today, for health reasons, and she’ll join us next time.”

“What’s her problem?” Cliff snorted derisively. “She break a nail?”

“Stow it, Cliff. Actually, she hasn’t slept in five days, and Karen showed her how to tune out the extra voices she was hearing so she can sleep. She’s going to probably sleep until dinner time or even after.”

“Why the hell would you want to help her, after what she did, Karen?” Cliff asked me.

“Cause she was hurting. I could see it, so I tried to help.” I replied.

“Sounds like you’re a glutton for punishment, to me.” Cliff replied.

“Whatever, Cliff. You wouldn’t understand what she or I were going through. Most of you guys seem to have an understanding of how your powers work. I don’t – and neither, I think, does Jessica. She didn’t know how to turn her power off, so she’s been listening to about a hundred people’s thoughts for every minute of every day since the Emergence. I taught her how to tune most of it out, so she could sleep, and think, and not go insane. She needed help, and I gave it. It’s that simple.”

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Cliff grumbled, but stayed quiet.

“All right,” Dom said. “Get dressed in some athletic gear – something warm, cause we’re going for a run – and we won’t be back here at the dorms until about 2pm or 3pm.”

There were some groans all around, but everyone nodded, and went to get ready.

* * *

We all met outside the dorm, in the chilly mid morning gloom. The day was overcast, but it was pleasant enough and there was no snow on the ground yet, which was nice. Dom gathered us all together, and we jogged from the dorms at Humber college to the Toronto Police college about 2 kilometers away. It was an easy run, but a few of us were huffing and puffing by the time we all got there. Cliff looked fit and healthy, but wasn’t built for speed, and Ben looked frustrated with our slow speed – probably wanting to teleport there instead of taking the long way.

The obstacle course was pretty typical – mud pits, rope nets, logs to climb or walk across, and so forth. Dom had us run it twice – once without powers, and once with – and reminded us to not skimp on our physical training, because if we ever lost our powers – or had them nullified temporarily – then our training would be all we had to keep us alive. It was good advice, I thought. Mal was an old pro, and had no problems with the obstacle course, and neither did Mike or Kumar. Ellie and Emile breezed through it with ease, but Krissie had some problems climbing – her upper body strength was lacking, and the final obstacle – a thirty foot rope climb to a platform at the top – was stopping her dead.

“You can do it!” I called out to her. “C’mon, Krissie!”

“I can’t!” She cried, struggling – literally at the end of her rope.

“You can.” I told her. “We’re here – we’re all waiting for you. You got this Krissie. One step at a time, okay?”

She looked tired, but nodded. “Okay.” She grabbed the rope, and struggled, climbing up a few feet at a time, slowly. As she got higher, I tried encouraging her again, and she climbed even higher.

Finally, she hit the end of her strength – just a foot and half short of the top. I couldn’t let her fail, after trying so hard, so I leant down, and offered my hand. “Come on, Krissie. Just a bit further. Grab my hand.”

Krissie nodded, and screamed with exertion as she stretched to try and grasp my hand – and I felt her hand grab mine. I easily pulled her up the rest of the way, and she collapsed at my feet, crying with exertion.

“You did it, Krissie!”

“No, I didn’t. I would have fallen if you hadn’t helped me!” She said, gasping for breath.

“We’re all in this together, aren’t we?” I asked her, and then Dom.

“Good job, Castle. Yes, we’re all in this together. Any one of you could have chosen to help at any time. This is an exercise in teamwork, not to see who passes or fails. When we’re out in the field, we need to watch each others’ backs – and that means we help those who fall behind – so no one gets left behind. Good job, Krissie. Take a breather.”

“Thanks, Dom.” Krissie said, still panting for breath. “Thanks, Karen.”

“No problem, kiddo. You did all the hard work. I just cheered you on.” I replied. “I helped you when you would have fallen – that’s it. You made it 90% of the way on your own. You did damn good.”

She laughed. “Yeah, I did.”

I gave her a hug. “Yeah, roomie, you did.”

After that, we took a 15 minute breather, and then ran the obstacle course again, using our powers this time. It wasn’t a challenge – but it was fun to show off and let off some steam. Ellie used her powers to leap over most of the obstacles, while Rain, Emile and Mike simply ran the course a second time – just better than before. Ben teleported to the end in one swift move, and Cliff and Mal simply flew over it. I flew over it too, simply because I loved flying – and Krissie pulled a literal broom out of her purse and flew across the obstacle course too. I have got to get me one of those purses, I thought. Dom stood on a rock, and levitated the rock to the far side, flying in his own way. Kumar kind of turned to a goopy mess and slithered through it like a liquid snake. It was cool and weird all at the same time.

Jimmy was the last to go. He had proven very agile and quick in the first run through, but had trouble with the strength based climbing, like Krissie had. I was interested in seeing what he would do. He went and whispered to Ben – I know I shouldn’t have listened in, but I could hear him so easily. “Could you grab the backpack from my lab, Ben?” Ben nodded, and returned a moment later with a standard student backpack. He pulled out a large belt, a bandolier, and a bunch of small devices.

“I thought this might be a good field test for your gear, Emile.” Jimmy called out.

“Go for it, dude! Show me what you got!” Emile replied.

Jimmy put on a costume of black cloth accented with blue, that had wing panels under the arms – probably for gliding. The utility belt and bandolier came next, and Jimmy cinched them tight. His tail was under the costume, looking rather uncomfortable, and I realized the outfit was probably for Emile, not Jimmy.

Jimmy ran through most of the obstacle course like the others did – using his superhuman agility and dexterity to help get past most of the leaping and balance obstacles – but at one point he did something no one expected. At the top of a high tower, where most people shimmied along a rope to another platform, he leapt off and glided across the gap – and halfway across, he fired something from his utility belt! A small grapple caught the top of the other platform, and winched him up to it with great speed, and he leapt over the railing with all the aplomb and style of a performer. “Thank you! Thank you!” he called out, to our whoops and cheers. The rest of the obstacle course was simple, and for the last challenge, the rope, he just grappled up, and was done.

“I like the new toys, Jimmy.” Emile said, helping his friend up.

“Yeah. They work pretty good. I’ll leave it to you to test the other stuff. I’m gonna get out of this costume – it’s a little tight in the trunk. My tail is killing me.” Jimmy joked.

There was some good natured laughter, and we moved on to the next challenge after a short break. The next challenge sounded really fun – Dom wanted us to split into two teams, and basically play a modified form of dodge ball – with powers – until one team won, with best two out of three matches determining the winner. It sounded like it was going to be awesome.

The rules were simple – if you got hit by one of the balls, you were ‘out’ – and once you were out you stayed out until and unless someone on your team caught a ball, bringing one of your ‘out’ teammates back ‘in’. If the ball hit someone else on a bounce, they were out too. The game was played until one team was defeated by having all their players out. Powers were allowed, but going ‘out of bounds’ was not. That was it. It sounded simple, but to me it sounded like a recipe for a glorious mess, and I was really looking forward to it. It sounded like chaos was about to be unleashed.

We were divided into two teams – with Dom, Jimmy, Emile, Cliff, Kumar, and Rain on one team, and Malcolm, Ellie, Ben, Mike, Krissie and myself on the other team. I wasn’t sure about how balanced the teams were, but it didn’t really matter – it was all in fun, right? With all of us on the court inside the police college gymnasium, the court seemed smaller than before, and I wondered how easily some of us would go out of bounds.

A few police officer trainees offered to referee, and the whistle was blown! It was instant chaos!

Emile was first off the mark, running for one of the dodge balls – but before he could grab one, Cliff yoinked one into his hands with Telekinesis – and Ben teleported one of the balls to his hands! Krissie waved a wand – and one of the last two balls moved on its own, and smacked Jimmy, who wasn’t able to react in time! Mike and Malcolm dived for a ball, and I ran for one too, but I found it hard to keep everyone’s location in my head – everything was moving so fast! Unless I was going to blur with my superspeed, I didn’t think I could keep up.

Cliff launched a ball towards Ben so quickly it blurred – but Ben, instead of trying to dodge, just stood there – and suddenly the ball arcing towards him disappeared – and appeared behind Cliff’s head, bonking him out!

“What the…?” Cliff called out

“Stay alert, Cliff!” Ben laughed. “Portals, remember?”

“God dammit!” Cliff left the court, and waited to see if one of his teammates could bring him or Jimmy back ‘in’. Meanwhile, Emile grabbed a thrown ball and launched it at Ellie (bringing Jimmy back into play), who tried to dodge, but couldn’t leap away in time. She got tagged, and left the court – our first casualty.

Mal got a ball, and tossed it with some force – and it tagged Dom, who cursed in frustration – but the ball was snagged by Rain, who looked for a target. Meanwhile, Ben tossed his ball at Kumar – but then it warped again – and tagged Emile from another direction, taking him out. Kumar grabbed the ball. Now it was Rain, Kumar and Jimmy, versus our team, minus Ellie. Rain tossed his ball, and tagged Mal ‘out’ – and then the ball ricocheted off Mal into Mike, taking both of them out. Kumar threw at me – but I sidestepped with ease as my superspeed kicked in.

Suddenly, the battle scene changed from frenetic action and chaos to slow motion. I could see everyone’s position, and everyone was moving at a crawl. I caught Kumar’s ball – bringing Ellie back into play – and tossed it back at him… He wasn’t expecting the burst of speed, and it caught him right in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him. Another out.

Now it was Jimmy and Rain versus Krissie, Ellie, Ben and myself. Krissie used her wand to direct a ball, trying to tag Rain – but just as she nearly hit him, Rain got tripped by Jimmy, and both of them went down in a heap, causing her and Ben both to miss with their throws. They sprang to their feet to recover – and Ellie grabbed a ball, tossing it at Rain – who caught it with one hand (bringing Cliff back into play)– and spun, tossing it back, tagging Krissie before she could redirect her wand. Out!

Cliff grabbed two of the loose balls with his TK, and tossed them in a weaving screwball arc – both at Ben. Ben tried to portal both away – but his portals took a fraction of a second too long. The first one got deflected – the second hit him, and he fell with an ‘oof!’ Ben was out. It was just Ellie and me left.

“I got Cliff!” I said – although I was unsure if she could hear me while I was blurring with speed – and I grabbed a ball, tossing it at Cliff – and then another. He got tagged by both, before he could even see them coming, and he cursed again as he got taken out. Ellie tossed the last ball at Rain – and missed; at the last moment her hair got in her eyes, spoiling her aim.

Rain grabbed a ball, and took aim at Ellie, and hucked it – and the ball whistled through the air as she cartwheeled to try and dodge – the ball missed her, and came right at me! I dodged, barely – but only barely – and I didn’t have time to catch it, either! Then Ellie had a ball in her hands and threw, and missed Rain again as he moved just out of reach… How hard was it to hit him? I wondered. He didn’t have any special agility or reflexes type powers!

I grabbed a ball and tossed it – just as Rain grabbed a ball – and he deflected my ball with his, causing it to ricochet into Ellie, tagging her out! What the hell!? Rain tossed at me – and I moved to blur away – and slipped, tripping over my own two feet. I went down in a heap, my blur ending, as Rain’s ball tagged me out. That was insane! How did I trip like that?

“Hey Rain,” I called. “I think we might have seen another power you have! You’re ridiculously lucky!”

“What is it they say?” He replied. “Better lucky than good! If so, I’ll take it! Woohoo!”

Everyone shook hands, and took stock of the enemy team – it was easy to see that Cliff and Ben and myself were power players – and Rain too, if he was lucky on demand. Not that the other members weren’t tough or capable – it’s just that our powers leant themselves to dodgeball well. We took a short breather, and tried again.

Game two went almost like game one – multiple people tagged out quickly – but Ben and Cliff played defensive games. Cliff caught several balls with Telekinesis, bringing players back into play, while Ben redirected attacks at our team into the opposing team. We all went crazy with our powers, and in the end, we managed a tie, when Rain’s luck ran out late in the second match. By that time it was obvious to all of us he must have some sort of luck ability – the sheer number of fumbles aimed at him, followed by the sheer number of lucky shots by him seemed to prove a pattern. Rain was pretty excited, having learned a new power, and both teams were champing at the bit for round three.

The last match was frenetic, vicious and crazy! Emile tripped Ellie and Mal, while Cliff tagged them out when they couldn’t dodge, Ben tried to tag Rain, but kept missing, and accidentally hit Krissie by mistake, I took out Dom, Jimmy, and Kumar – and Rain tagged Ben with a ridiculous shot that bounced off Mike, myself and then into Ben. Dom’s team won finally, as Cliff and Rain took down Mike in a tag team effort – but not before Mike took out Cliff in an epic ‘death from above’ style leap. Once again, Rain was the last man standing!

We grumbled at our loss, but all of us shook hands, and laughed – we had had a great time… I know I had. It was almost as much fun as playing Tag with Mal, yesterday, I thought. And we learned a lot about how each other used their powers, too. Cool.

Dom gathered us together. “Hey – great job everyone. I think we learned a lot today. It’s close to 3pm – let’s call it a day, hit the showers back at campus, and have free time. You all have the rest of the weekend off. Be back by Monday morning at 7am, got it? Good – now take off!”

Everyone cheered, and we began the short run back to Campus. All of us were talking and bragging and talking shit to one another. It was awesome. Today had been a pretty good day, I thought.