Anomalies: Control

“You know, we’re in the most trouble when we stop trusting each other…” Lily trailed off casually, going back to the dishes. Cole felt his lips lift in a small smile. “Yeah, I know,” he said, going to join Henry. He stopped short as Henry hustled the younger kids back in with a dangerous look in his eyes. “Hen?”

Henry lifted a ‘shh’ finger to his lips and gestured for Cole to join him, and the two boys went to the door, shutting it silently behind them and ducking under the railing of the steps to slip under the steps. They had a stash of food and water down here, for those weeks they were punished via their food supply. They watched from under the steps as trios of Officers marched down the street, stopping at each house to inspect the trash, and comparing their findings to the information on their handhelds.

“They’re checking the number of extra dishes against the number of people listed for the households,” Henry whispered almost completely inaudibly. “I wonder who the missing Anomaly is?” he said, a bloodthirsty look in his eyes.

“It doesn’t matter to us...Whoever it is isn’t in our house, so it shouldn’t matter to us.”

Henry turned to him, giving him a look like he was a moron. “But if we found this Anomaly and turned him or her in, think of the reward,” he said. Anomalies typically had high price tags on their heads: the more dangerous or sought after the person, the higher the reward. If this particular target was worth Officers lowering themselves to checking trashcans, logic said the kind of reward would enable the boys to leave the foster home without having to worry about having a job the moment they left the house. Henry was only six months younger than Cole, and Cole was already living on borrowed time, having had his eighteenth birthday the previous month, and both boys constantly worried about what would happen to them once they left the relative security of the foster home.

Cole considered for only a moment. “No. It’s not worth destroying a person,” he said. He’d been attacked and beaten enough times that he felt enough sympathy for Anomalies and enough hatred for the Officers that even if he knew where the runaway was, he wouldn’t expose them.

Again with the ″you’re an idiot’ look. “It’s not a person they’re looking for, man. It’s an Anomaly. They’re like, one step under monsters.”

He woke up to the sound of movement, and bolted upright to see Rune pulling her shirt over her head and reach for her gloves. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. “Morning.”

She glanced back at him. “That’s usually what light outside the window means.”

He stood and draped the blanket back across her mattress and tossed the pillow atop it. “Did you shower already?”

“No. I don’t shower in the mornings.”

“Oh,” he said, wondering if that meant she showered at night or at random times. “Ok.”

“She turned to face him, giving him an odd, almost uncertain look he couldn’t figure out. “You can use my shower if you want. Or there’s some shared ones down the hall.”

There it was; she wasn’t accustomed to being hospitable. “Yeah, Banshee told me.”

“Good. At least she made herself somewhat useful.”

“She was nice.”

“So I’ve heard,” she said, shaking out her hair and walking out the door. He leapt up to follow her, ducking into his room to grab his shoes and yanking them on as he hopped after her. “Where are you going?”

She turned to look at him oddly. “What are you, a puppy? I’m getting breakfast; you gonna trail me the whole way?”

“I am hungry.”

She looked like she was going to smile, but at the last second scowled. “Fine. Come on then,” she said, and they walked through the bullpen, past the suddenly quieter crowd, past the odd look from Tech across the room, and out the door. He sighed. “Damn these stairs.”

“Quit complaining, it’s getting on my nerves.”

“Is there anything that doesn’t get on your nerves?”

“No.”

He swallowed a laugh. “Right. I’m getting that.”

“Too bad you haven’t already gotten it.”

He was surprisingly light-hearted considering everything that had happened yesterday. He paused at the thought for a second, and had to quickly lope after her. It had only been yesterday his entire world had fallen to pieces, and here he was jogging down stairs after a girl he’d never met who’d swooped in with a solution to pretty much all his problems.

They hit the bottom floor and went out the front doors onto the grey-light-tinted streets, and she turned north to go uptown. He caught up and walked alongside her. “What’s for breakfast?”

“I know a guy who owns a diner. We’ll eat there.”

“A friend of yours?”

“You could say that.”

Something in her tone made him cock his head at her. “How else could I potentially say it that would keep it accurate?”

“He tried to turn me in once and I didn’t kill him for it. Now he gives me free food under the assumption that it’ll make me less inclined to finish what I started.”

“Does it?”

“So far.”

He wasn’t sure whether to laugh or be concerned, so he kept quiet as they walked the miles downtown. He was used to walking, but this was pushing it even for him, the miles of city blocks it took to get out of old construction and condemned building territory and into the more grid-like formation of the microdistricts in more modern areas of the sectors. Though the scenery didn’t change much, still grey and monochromatic, the buildings got shorter, more uniform, more modern, metal sheeted buildings as opposed to the brick of the older skyscrapers in the older districts that hadn’t been updated for whatever reasons.

There were more people out and about in the grey tinted daylight, in all different microdistricts and walking between them to public transits. Blue Collars in ill-fitting pants and button-downs too old and dingy to be called truly clean, White Collars in pressed black pants and clean, pristine collared shirts, people on their days off in jeans and t-shirts. Kids in ill-fitting hand-me-downs darted around underfoot, ignoring the yells of the Officers.

Rune walked with the casual nonchalance of someone with nothing to hide, but Cole was close enough to see the way her eyes darted from corner to corner looking for Officials- men and women in the government with actual power as opposed to the Officers’ mere brute force- who lingered in the crowds, flawlessly hidden in White collar clothing rather than the blue and grey uniforms of the government in order to better catch unsuspecting Citizens breaking laws, or Anomalies. He didn’t know how much experience she had with the law, but he had a fair share, and just being out where an Officer might see him was enough to drudge up bad memories. From yesterday, of course. Why he couldn’t just forget that day was beyond him.

“Those are some... interesting eyes you have there,” The Officer said, the threat in his voice all the more ominous. Cole just nodded, refusing to speak, just praying to whoever might be listening to him that the test came back positive, like it had every other time. Genes were strictly regulated to avoid missing individuals with the Vario Disorder. Hair and eyes were dull, watered down colors, making his stark turquoise eyes stand out in any crowd. They were why he’d had more beatings from Officers suspecting Anomaly genes than he could count, why he was petrified to run, as the tazing was almost always followed by arrests, or straight punishment, until the test came back. They were why he couldn’t find anyone to employ him. Why even his foster mother couldn’t stand to meet his eyes for more than a few seconds, why he almost hadn’t had a foster home at all, and he suspected why he’d been given up in the first place.

He pushed his sleeve up past his wrist, baring the little barcode barely visible beneath the skin of his inner wrist. Everyone had one, a small electronic microchip implanted and programmed at birth of every child. They’d started out crude, a couple decades ago, just chips with preprogrammed information in them: medical history, allergies, criminal records, and basic information that would be found at the DMV. But as science and technology advanced, so did the chips. Now the chips were programed and connected via every city’s smart grid, connected to the internet telecommunications network. With a simple scan, the authorities had access to anything they could find in their department systems - criminal, medical, or public record.

The little handheld machine was over his wrist, and scanned. An eternity passed in that second it took for the machine to sputter out a tone, and flash green. The Officer reset it, and held it up again, and Cole didn’t protest, nor did his foster mother. Standard practice around him, they’d both long since learned. To fight or argue would be pointless and ultimately painful. So he settled for silent prayers.

Another tone, another flash of green, and the Officer turned away reluctantly. “The children are clean, ma’am. And your last test was…?”

She dove for the drawer of the table in the main hall, and pulled out her test papers. Any working men and women had to be tested every year for any latent anomalies in their genes, and foster parents had to be checked every third month, like the disorder was a contagious thing that could be passed like the flu.

They walked until they stopped outside a little diner, and she paused, eyeing a guy leaning against the edge of the building. The guy was dressed in a dark jacket with the collar pulled up high and a hat pulled down low over his forehead to shade his eyes from view. She pushed Cole in the direction of the door. “Go inside. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Who’s th-”

She pushed him again, and turned to approach the mystery guy. “Go,” she said over her shoulder as she walked away.

He grumbled but obeyed, and went inside, finding an empty booth and flopping into it, laying his head on his arms on the tabletop. A waitress came by, and he could hear the indulgent smile in her voice. “A little hung over today darlin’? I’ll get you some coffee.”

He mumbled a thank you, playing up the drunken teenager role. She came back with coffee, asked if he needed anything else, and he mumbled no, and she walked off, leaving him alone without having to ever see his eyes.

He lay in peace for a few minutes, then a hand coming down to slam on the tabletop made him jerk up in a panic, narrowing his eyes as Rune chuckled. “You need to work on your awareness, kid.”

“Only around you apparently.”

She smirked. “I like to make sure people are on their toes.”

“You do a bang up job,” he said. “Who was that guy?”

“An old acquaintance.”

“Not a friend?”

Her eyes darkened as she settled into the booth across from him, facing the door of the diner. “No. He works for the government.”

Cole’s panic returned in an instant. “He does? Should we be leaving? What if they-?” She shook her head, holding up a hand to stall his protests. “No. He won’t call anyone.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he doesn’t make a move unless called in. And called in at the right price, at that.”

Cole glanced around, masking his nerves with casual indifference, a survival trait he’d learned a long time ago. If you looked nervous, people assumed you had something to hide, and they usually assumed it was an ability. Then Officers and Officials got called in and it got very messy and very painful very quickly, even if you turned out to be innocent. “But if he called us in, they could give him the go ahead at the right price.”

She quirked her lips up in a smirk. “Adam doesn’t work that way. He likes the chase. If he calls us in and the government gives him the go ahead, he won’t have accomplished anything. If he leaves us, and gets the call later, he’ll have to hunt us in order to succeed. He’s in it for the fun and the chase, not for easy money. He’s reliable that way.”

He eyed her, but stayed quiet as the waitress returned, asking if they were hungry. Rune put in an order for toast and bacon, and Cole ordered pancakes, hash browns, sausage and eggs, having forgotten his hunger in his concern that they should leave until just that moment. The waitress walked away again, giving him a strange look as he hadn’t taken his eyes off the menu lying flat on the table since she’d arrived, but left without commenting, and he turned his turquoise eyes back to Rune. “Why do I get the feeling he’s not the only dangerous ‘acquaintance’ you know?”

“Because he’s not,” she said almost instantly. “If it had been Anna Maria out there, we’d have left immediately.”

“Who?” he asked, taking a sip of coffee and offering the cup to her. She accepted it without thinking and took a long drink, passing it back to him. “Anna Maria,” she clarified, “You remember Tracker said there was another Affector in the City that worked for the government? That’s Anna Maria. She’s loyal to the government in the same way a particularly stupid dog is to its abusive owner. For every kick in the ribs, the damn thing will keep crawling back for more. Same with Anna Maria: for every Anomaly she lets slip through her senses, she’s been beaten, threatened - whatever ‘encouragement’ they use. For every one she finds, she’s found a fugitive; yay for her, end of story.”

“So why does she stay?”

“Because she thinks the government will be her savior. As do a good amount of the people working for the government.”

“But not all?” he asked. They fell silent again as the waitress delivered their food, which Cole dug into with vigor, while Rune took dainty bites, alluding that she’d either eaten recently, or was used to not eating.

“No, not all,” she continued once the waitress was gone. “Some do it because they’re assholes. Frankie’s one to watch for around here. On the street they call him the Shadowman. He can manipulate shadows, use them to capture or injure you, like they’re actual living beings, only when you fight back, you’re fighting a shadow, so anything you can do doesn’t affect them.”

He swallowed his bite. “So you’re fighting a losing battle.”

“Most people are.”

He cracked a smile. “Implying that you’re not?”

She met his eyes with eerily calm ones, and for the first time, he noticed her eyes were a dark brown, not black. But he could’ve sworn they were black the night before. He shook his head. Whatever. “I don’t fight losing battles,” she said, and he felt a skitter of trepidation, which intensified as her eyes did actually darken to black as he watched her. “How good are you at fighting?” she asked out of nowhere, her eyes never leaving his.

“Do fist fights with my foster brothers count?”

“No. Duck.”

He didn’t question or hesitate, and ducked down on the seat in the same moment she raised a hand calmly, sending a tremor of power shuddering through the floor until it hit the front door, which three Officers had just walked through, their eyes searching for Rune and Cole. The men fell back out, thrown from the floor as the floor bucked like a rogue wave.

Rune got up and stalked out the door, her fingers twitching, and brought a hand up, yanking a pipe through the sidewalk to point like a weapon facing behind her at the door to the diner, discouraging any Citizens with thoughts of heroism from attacking her from behind. She reached the front, and twisted the hand she had raised, bringing three more pipes up in front of her and sending each one straight through the chest of each Officer, pinning them to the floor, motionless, dead eyes still staring at her. In less than ten seconds, the men Cole hadn’t even realized were in the room were dead, and Rune had turned to the kitchen to stalk into it with a dark look on her face, leaving Cole staring in shock and horror at the unmoving bodies on the ground. He’d never seen a dead body up close. And while he’d suffered and witnessed his fair share of violence, this was… something else entirely.

He felt his breakfast coming back up and ran after Rune into the back. He pushed through the door just in time to watch the industrial stove shoot across the room to pin a man in a chef’s hat against the far wall.

“What did you do?” she growled in dark tone that would have had Cole heading for the hills if she’d directed it at him.

“I didn’t call them for you! I didn’t know you were here!”

“You expect me to believe they stumbled in by accident?” she spat, her fingers twitching in response to her ire, making the stove press harder against the man who was gasping for breath.

“No! I called them, but before I knew you were here! I called them for the boy! He’s all over the news, the Pravitas Department is looking for him!”

“What’s the price?”

“Twenty thousand! Please, mercy!”

She ignored him, shooting Cole a look that asked why he was worth so much, but his own jaw was hanging slack, his giveaway eyes staring in disbelief at the owner of the ruined diner. In the current day, where Blue Collars made about fifteen thousand currency a year, White Collars thirty five and government Officials sixty to one hundred fifty, that sort of money for one wanted felon was all but unheard of. A low-risk Anomaly was usually priced around a thousand dollars, medium risk around five, and high risk anywhere from eight to twelve thousand. A few years ago, when the rebel Anomalies (the League, he’d made the connection after Banshee told him about them) were numerous and a serious threat, the prices had risen to the twenty thousands, but had since lowered back to usual standards after more than half of them had been captured and imprisoned or killed. Fleetingly, he realized Rune would have been on the street during that time, but the realization wasn’t enough to overcome the severity of his bounty, and what it could mean.

Rune, however, didn’t stay motionless or curious for long. She turned back to the owner. “The kid is with me. Pass it on that anyone that takes issue with him, or tries to get rich on his bounty, is fucking with me. Understand?”

“Yes! I understand! Please let me live!”

“You can live so long as you pass that message around to anyone else going after him.”

“Done!”

She left, not moving the stove away from her victim, and Cole loped after her. “Where are we going?” He asked, hoping she wasn’t going somewhere to get rid of him quickly and quietly.

“We need to get as far away from here as possible. Enforcement tracks the Officers’ vital signs. They’ll know they’re dead and they’ll send reinforcements.”

He racked his brain to remember which branch of the many government branches Enforcement was. It was either the branch that controlled the Officers department overall or the one that just managed the individual Officers, like a CEO compared to a store manager. Based on the way Rune talked, it was the latter, the manager. “But where are we going?”

“Back to Skye. I need to talk to Tech.”

He nodded, walking with her at a painfully slow, casual pace. They couldn’t risk attracting attention, lest they both get caught. “Why is my price so high?”

She stopped and grabbed his shirt, pulling him to a stop with a jerk. “Don’t ask about that. Don’t talk about it, don’t even think it too hard. Not until we’re back at Skye, and even then only with Tech. Do you understand?”

He nodded, and she continued walking, him a pace behind her. She was worried- no, not even worried, she was downright terrified. Whatever she thought made his price so high was obviously frightening her. “Rue… you killed those guys.” Those men and women had families, lives, people that would miss them, and now they were just gone.

“If I hadn’t, they’d have arrested us and brought us in. Do you know what happens to arrested Anomalies?” she snapped. “No one hears from them again. Ever. It’s dog eat dog out here, Cole. Get used to it.”

He didn’t have much of a response to that, so he fell quiet, and simply followed her the miles and miles back to the safety of Tech’s safe house.

They made it back to Tech without incident, and he could almost see her let out a breath of relief as they snuck into the building from that same side door they’d left earlier. Up the stairs, and to the 23rd floor, she waved a hand and shorted that same fuse box from yesterday, which he realized was some sort of security system box. Not that it was much protection from Rune.

She stalked into the room and shouted for Tech, walking straight past the dirty looks from the others with their interrupted conversations and into his office before he’d even had a chance to walk out of the door he opened, simply stepping back as she pushed in. Cole went after her with an apologetic look to Tech for interrupting whatever they’d interrupted.

“Twenty thousand currency Tech,” she snapped. Cole’s bad feeling intensified even further as Tech blanched, his eyes lighting with a knowledge he and Rune obviously shared and didn’t want Cole a part of.

“That’s the same as-”

“They know I have him,” she interrupted, pacing across the floor like a caged lion. “They know I took him in, and they’re trying to draw us out. There’s no other explanation.”

“Rune, you’re being paranoid-”

“But what if I’m not?” She turned on him, still-black eyes flashing.

His eyes worried but his tone and movements still calm, Tech sat on the edge of his desk, pondering, then looked up at Cole, who lowered his eyes out of habit. “What do you think of all this, Cole?”

“Nothing,” he answered quickly, and Rune snorted from where she had resumed her pacing. Tech shot her a look that told her to shut up and focused on Cole. “Be honest, Cole. There’s no wrong answer.”

He considered it for a moment. His instincts were telling him that it was a trap, that there was definitely a wrong answer, there was always a wrong answer, and it was usually the one you were set up to think was the right answer. But on the other hand, his instincts were also telling him that being beaten for the wrong answer was unlikely while Rune was around, so he hesitantly spoke up. “I feel like...I’m missing a few really important pieces of the puzzle you guys are talking about.”

Tech nodded. “I figured as much. Rune?” He said, looking to the girl in question. “You gonna give him any idea what you’re talking about?”

She glared daggers at Tech even as she spoke to Cole. “Once upon a time there was a group of people that made a bad choice of a friend and it got them a twenty thousand currency bounty on their heads.” She snapped, “Happy, Tech?”

“That’s not really the whole story but I suppose it’s all I’m going to get out of you for now, so sure,” he said amiably, despite the concerned look in his almond eyes. “The bottom line is, Cole, that if a government agency wants you that badly, we need to figure out why. They don’t spend that kind of money without good reason.”

Cole nodded, and Tech went to open the door. “I think it’s time we figured out exactly what that power of yours can do. And I think it goes without saying that this conversation and that amount is better kept between us three. I don’t want to think badly of anyone we have here, but that kind of money and the immunity it can offer to even one of us can tempt even the most well-meaning of people.”

Cole nodded silently as they walked out and Tech called for Shock to come over. Cole felt Rune’s presence lingering behind them, not coming out to play, but staying in sight which was good, because Shock had seemed kind of like a loose cannon. But if Tech trusted him, Cole supposed it wouldn’t hurt to give it a chance.

Tech and Shock met in the middle of the room, and conversed quietly for a second, then Shock grinned dangerously at Cole. “Let’s get it on, newbie.”

Tech laughed at the apprehensive look on Cole’s face. “Relax, he’ll go easy on you. Let’s go down to the training floor.” He went to the stairwell door, Shock and Hawk on his heels, Cole and Rune alongside one another and following the other three.

They went down to the fourteenth floor and Tech typed in a code to the same security box that was on the twenty-third floor, and they all went in. It was set up like a gym, equipment set up everywhere, looking old but refurbished- likely Tech’s doing- and space in the middle marked by a huge mat for fighting training. Tech and Rune paused by the edge of the mat, glancing at each other and having a silent conversation, while Hawk set herself up on one side of the mat behind Shock, who was stretching and warming up. Cole hesitantly went to the side opposite Hawk and waited for instructions.

“Ok, guys, it’s experimenting only,” Tech started with a pointed look to Shock, who grinned again. “So-” he stumbled for a second, barely refraining from naming Cole in front of the others. “Kid, Shock’s gonna start it slow; see what you can do.”

“But I don’t control it...” Cole said before Shock could move toward him. Tech nodded reassuringly. “Just try to concentrate on it when it happens. See if you can feel what it’s like when you use it. That’s going to help you keep control.”

Cole shrugged with a doubtful look, but he walked to the middle of the mat to meet Shock. Before Shock had moved more than two steps, Rune’s voice rose in a warning. “Hurt him and you’ll regret it, Shocker.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, witch.” Shock stalked toward Cole, but he paused before touching Cole, and that same magnetism drew Cole to him, making him reach out a hand to Shock without thinking. Shock shot an odd look to Cole, but shrugged and reached out to clasp his wrist, bringing their arms flush against each other. Cole felt that same thrust of power running through his veins and to his palms and more, through every bit of skin that was touching Shock. He tried to force himself to focus, trying to overcome the feeling that it would turn painful, like that very first shock, but the more he concentrated on it, it felt... good. Felt powerful. He drew from that power and pushed it harder. He and Shock were locked, motionless, and Shock had a look of glee on his face, but wasn’t explaining his sudden good mood. Hawk seemed confused, and made to go to Shock’s side, but then Rune was shouting and Tech was running to them. He beat Hawk there and tried to stop before he skidded into Shock, but almost lost his footing and reached out for Shock’s arm for support.

Cole and Shock’s connection broke as Tech screamed in pain and went flying backwards like he’d been electrocuted, and Shock and Cole both broke contact and ran to his side, Hawk and Rune right behind them. Tech lay twitching on the floor, and Shock started to panic so Hawk pulled him away as Rune rolled her eyes and started CPR. She pressed his chest a few times, and reached out to wave her hand and rip a piece of rotting wood from the columns in the room to her hand and lined it up with the revealed skin of his arm. She compressed his chest a few more times, and pressed her lips to his and pulled away, but before she had to repeat the process, Tech started coughing and the twitching grew worse. She rolled him to his side so he could breathe, and waited until he’d calmed. “You good?”

He was finally able to breathe calmly and nodded, panting slightly. “I’m good. Nice save.”

She rose, rolling her eyes again. “You’re the only one that lets me in; can’t have you dying on me,” she said, offering him a hand. He smiled and accepted, letting her pull him to his feet as Shock came running back over.

“Tech, man, I’m sorry. I wasn’t even putting that much into it. It was the kid: he supercharged it; I didn’t mean-” Tech actually chuckled as he held up a hand to stall the man’s apology.

“It’s not your fault. Nor yours, kid,” he directed to the half panicked/ half guilty looking boy hiding behind Rune. She reached behind her to pull Cole alongside her, shooting a look at Shock that warned him against blaming Cole again. Tech looked to Shock too. “Tell me again what happened when you guys touched.”

Shock rubbed the back of his neck abashedly. “Actually, until I almost killed you, it was pretty bloody awesome. I put out a little shock, nothing more than a bit of static electricity. But the second we touched, it was like... I don’t know how to put it, it was like you put a supercharged battery in me. That little bit of effort produced...” he trailed off from his enthusiastic recount, looking embarrassed that he’d gotten so excited about the event that had almost killed Tech. “Well, you know.”

Tech nodded and looked back at Cole. “Well. That’s definitely a start. I wonder if it’s the same effect on all kinds of abilities?” He though aloud as he cast a glance at Hawk. She nodded and walked to the middle of the mat, holding out a hand and looking at Cole expectantly. Cole looked to Rune before going over, and only took the necessary steps after she’d nodded. He was even more hesitant in offering Hawk his hand after what had happened with Shock’s power, but she seemed eager, and closed the distance between their skin almost before he’d realized how quickly she could move. That same flush of power, and he concentrated on it quickly, harnessing it the best he could, unsure if it was even worth trying. She let out a surprised gasp and turned her head to the windows without breaking contact with Cole, her eyes darting around the various buildings she could see from the window.

“Incredible,” she breathed. She closed her eyes, listening for something, and then suddenly opened her eyes and grinned at Cole. “I can see, and hear, without my hawk form.”

He was confused. “You’re blind?” he asked, feeling annoyed and embarrassed when the Tech and Shock both laughed. She shook her head with a kind smile. “No. I should have been clearer. I had my hawk senses. I can shape-shift,” she said, before suddenly shrinking down and changing colors, feathers seeming to melt out of her skin and fluff themselves out, her face extending to a beak, her legs shrinking until they were the scaly twig legs of hunting birds. He stared down as a hawk peered up at him, cocking its head this way and that. Shock immediately moved to grab her clothes that had fallen around her and lifted her shirt and pants and the hawk grew back into a now-naked woman, the clothes Shock held the only thing preventing Cole, Rune, and Tech from seeing all of her. She turned around and slipped the shirt on and slipped behind Shock’s significantly larger form, tugging her pants back on. She needn’t have bothered; Tech and Cole had both turned around, and Rune had no interest in the girl’s bare form. Once clothed, she came out from behind Shock and chuckled. “You guys can look now,” she said, waiting until Cole was looking back at her, beet red and blinking rapidly, before she started where she left off. “I can shape-shift and my senses enhance when I do, so I can see as far as a hawk can, hear like a hawk hears. But I can’t normally do that when I’m human. When we touched,” her hand drifted toward him like she’d like to touch him again, but both Shock and Rune’s matching growls prevented her from reaching too far. “I could hear like a hawk, see like one. That’s never happened before,” she said longingly. “No matter how hard I’ve tried...”

“So he’s a charger...” Tech offered up. Shock shrugged. “That’s my best guess for a name for it,” he said gruffly, obviously still sore about Hawk’s desperation to be touching Cole. Tech nodded in approval.

“Alright then. What do you say we start calling you Charge, then?”

Cole nodded, smiling. Finally. He was getting tired of Bright Eyes, and worried it would start to stick. “Sounds good to me.”

“C’mon Hawk, let’s get some food.” It took her a second, but she followed him, and the two left, and Cole looked to Rune, a question bubbling up, but he didn’t want to question her in front of Tech.

Luckily Tech seemed not over his electrocution from earlier, and he turned to leave. “Feel free to have it to yourselves for a while,” he offered over his shoulder. “Just no practicing on Rue. I’ll defend you to Track,” he said with a pointed look at Rune, “but she’s right, you know. If Anna Maria’s got bait out for Cole, we don’t want her finding you by mistake. She finds you, and we all go down.”

Rune nodded brusquely and Tech left, shutting the door firmly behind him. Before she could speak, Cole beat her to it. “Nothing happened the second time that happened the first time, in the alley. What was different?”

“None ya business,” she snapped.

“So something was different.”

“What part of ‘none ya business’ is hard for you to comprehend?”

He rolled his eyes and idly drifted over to the collection of old exercise equipment on the far side of the room, letting the subject change. “This is amazing; did Tech do all this?”

She nodded as she followed him with what he was starting to realize was a habitual predatory stalk, though she seemed in slightly better spirits now that the focus was off her. “Yeah. He’s a Mechanical. He fixed up pretty much everything you see.”

“He’s a what?” Students didn’t learn much about Anomalies aside from the major milestones in history, and none of that was very focused on different types of Anomalies, just on the damage they caused.

“Sorry,” she chuckled, “a Mechanical. Means his abilities have something to do with machines and electronics. Tech’s actually a hybrid, if you want to be technical about it. He can shapeshift his arms from the shoulder down into any Mechanical or metal object or tool or whatever. Tools are his specialty; it’s why he rebuilds things around Skye.”

“So… how many types are there? Of Anomalies in general, I mean.”

She shrugged, going over to a worn punching bag and swinging a high kick into it. “Dunno. Hundreds. Thousands. I don’t think anyone really knows for certain. There’s a couple general classifications the government uses, but those blanket dozens and hundreds of different subtypes.”

“Well, how about some you know then?” he asked, leaving the equipment he was at to go hold the bag for her so it wouldn’t swing so wildly. She paused, watching him with an unreadable expression, but went back to abusing the bag after a moment, talking in between strikes. “There’s Mechanicals… Mentalists, the mind based powers, telepathy, telekinesis, mind control… the little linguist that’s upstairs, the Asian girl-“

“Suki.”

“Yeah, her. She’s a mentalist, because she instantly learns any language set before her. It’s just somehow automatically in her brain. Garet and I, we’re considered mentalists.” She gave the bag a few strikes before going on, and he waited in patient silence for her to collect her thoughts.

“Shifters, obviously self-explanatory… Manipulators, they can basically manipulate like, non object things… chemicals, energy, some can mimic other powers, it’s a wide definition… a lot of Mentalists are Manipulators. A lot of people fall into more than one category, to be honest. Elementals…” Her eyes shaded and her voice trailed off as she continued to punch and kick out at the bag. He waited, but minutes passed and she didn’t even seem to remember that he was there, and finally he hesitantly spoke up.

“Rue?”

She seemed to jolt out of a daydream, and shook her head as she looked at him in confusion for a minute. “What?” she snapped, seeming to re-collect herself.

“You were saying… Elementals?”

“Right. Elementals. Uhm, self-explanatory again, element manipulation. Fire, wind, earth, blah blah. Lightning and other weather usually counts too.” Another, shorter pause as she recollected herself. “Exceptionals and Affectors… Exceptionals like Kane, basically just the people with extreme versions of normal abilities. Super strength, speed, sight, hearing, endurance, blah blah blah. Affectors - Tracker’s an Affector, their abilities affect or rely on other abilities. That’s my and probably Tech’s best guess for what you are, though I sure as hell haven’t ever met someone like you before. I’ve heard of negaters, like, people who can take away other abilities. And people who can activate abilities, but never someone who just charges them up like you do. It’s interesting.”

“Yeah?”

She nodded, finally ceasing her workout slash attack on the punching bag. “C’mon. Let’s go find a map and I’ll show you where not to be seen and we’ll figure something out for you.”

He loped after her back to the door, and they fell silent as they went back upstairs to the main floor. There was that same lull in the conversations when he and Rune came in the door, but this time they started up again almost immediately, and Cole smirked as he caught sight of a few people slipping out the door they’d just came in, those few people probably heading down to the workout room that no one wanted to be in with Rune. She went to a corner office and inside without looking around at anyone, and he followed her lead, though his eyes were scanning the room, and he smiled at Banshee as he caught her eyes. She wiggled her eyebrows at him and he laughed as he stepped inside the office, ducking out of the way of Lisa and Suki quickly darting out of the office.

It was a makeshift library. From what he could tell, they just collected all the bookshelves from the other offices and lined them up in this office and stacked their collection of books in it for communal use. It was a good idea, if a bit messy and unorganized.

Rune was already rifling through a shelf of papers, and pulled one out and smoothed it on the floor, revealing a map of the Sector. He crouched next to her and followed the lines her finger drew on the streets. “So pretty much anywhere too public is out. You’re good at hiding your eyes, but if they’ve got a bounty out on you, people are going to be trying to see them. Someone is bound to have sunglasses though, if you need to walk anywhere.”

“Like where?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” she said without even looking away from the map, and he laughed a little, settling more comfortably next to her. Her finger skimmed down the streets until she stopped at a random point somewhere in the heart of the city. “Here’s the important part - the tunnels. Before everything became smaller and more electronically controlled, there were utility tunnels that let workers tend to water and sewer pipes. They streamlined that-”

“How?”

She gave him a look that wondered if he was being sarcastic. “Do I look like a maintenance worker to you? I don’t know. All I know is that about the time I was born, they did, and the tunnels have been closed and sealed since. But some street Anomalies broke the seals in a few select places, and they use the tunnels for safety. It’s not ideal, but there’s enough tunnels that they can hide from anyone coming down, and if the city officials notice the seals broken and re-seal them, it’s not a big deal since they try to keep someone around that can undo the seals. Kane helps with that a lot.” She wasn’t looking at him, wasn’t even saying it like it was something she had familiarity with; she was just reciting facts that she’d overheard more than a few times as she traced different streets with her finger. “Stay to the alleyways and if you find yourself in trouble, get to the tunnels and let them know you’re with Tech and Skye. That’ll keep most anyone from handing you your ass and will get you a meal until you can get back to wherever you need to be.”

“Here, presumably.”

“Wherever. The nomads are pretty untrusting; don’t make any sudden moves if you find yourself relying on them, don’t ask names, don’t offer yours unless asked. They’re not trustworthy. And the few who are don’t stay long; they move a lot, that’s why they’re trustworthy because there’s a ninety percent chance they won’t be around long enough to rat you out.”

“Sounds like a winning group of people.”

She looked up at him with an annoyed look. “They’re still alive and relatively free, that’s what matters to them. They’re not exactly concerned with making friends and influencing people.”

“I wouldn’t at all know what it’s like hanging out with someone like that,” he teased, grinning at her until she gave in and let her lips twist up in a small smile.