Microstory 140: Máire Lyne

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The standard tactical team of the Confederacy’s paramilitary arm carried seven people: a leader, his or her lieutenant, a sniper, a spotter, an engineer, a technician, and a combat expert. Teams were designed this way for a number of reasons. Scientists and other researchers had determined, based on basic dimensional physics and other strategic factors, that whenever a team needed to sufficiently surround and neutralize a threat, seven was always the minimum number focal points. The smaller team was also capable of infiltrating enemy lines without being detected, and the odd number prevented internal disputes from being stuck in a stalemate. Seoc Lyne and his sister, Máire Lyne belonged to a special strike team that had a total of eighteen members. Unlike her brother, who could fuse his body with one other person at a time and become nigh invulnerable, Máire could merge other people into herself. Each person she merged with increased her physical strength exponentially, and this appeared to be limited to around a dozen. While Seoc was fused with the team’s leader, Rashad, Máire was merged with ten other people, and though she was assigned to be the combat expert, those ten others gave her a huge variety of skills and expertise that she utilized with a psychic connection. The eighteen of them were compressed into seven and sent all over the globe on missions, protecting the world from threats that it was sometimes not even aware of. Upon joining Bellevue, Máire discovered that she was capable of presenting the abilities of other anomalies when merged with them. Because of this, Bellevue’s leader asked her to form a special new team. As the need arose, she and her brother would merge with one person from each department and go out on extremely vital missions as a single, nearly unstoppable, force. Tamra Shore provided telekinesis, Dores Roach allowed them to heal the innocent, Dathan Shapiro was more knowledgeable than all of them put together, Serenity Theodo gave them the ability to phase through solid objects, Valary Sela enhanced their vision, and Levi Jacobson allowed them to fly. They referred to this as Team 8.

Microstory 139: Hester Khan

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There was a long and strict vetting process for prospective residents of a coveted gated community in Roanoke, Virginia, and such an occurrence had been a rarity for years. Every current resident was aware of a special secret about one of their own. Hester Khan lived in the most luxurious house at the end of a cul-de-sac, despite her feigned reluctance for the treatment. She was employed as the neighborhood gardener because of her ability. She could remotely dissolve living cells with incredible accuracy. This would have allowed her to kill people, or other living creatures, with a single thought, but that was not her use. Instead, she tailored her skills to keep the grass cut to the perfect length, bushes trimmed into ornate patterns, and other plants nice and pruned. All she had to do was focus on a single line of cells in a plant, and once she completely destroyed them, the remaining two parts would be separated from each other. As many anomalies did, she practiced her ability on her own as she was growing up. By the time she was hired as the gardener, should could clip an entire lawn in a split second. She was not paid a wage for her services, per se, but she was given anything and everything she needed, or wanted, by the homeowner association. She was included as a kind of amenity for all residents, along with the pool and recreational center. Like Donna Belmonte and her town, the majority of Hester’s neighbors ended up moving to Bellevue with her, and forming a tight-knit community so that she could continue her work as the groundskeeper. By the time knowledge of Bellevue’s existence had reached the public, it had formed into a fairly large town of its own, complete with its own security and law enforcement. Any government or other entity that threatened its survival was met with strong opposition. Their dedication and loyalty helped lift Bellevue up from obscurity to become a respected and legitimate organization.

Microstory 138: Flora Canto

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Many found it interesting that a person named Flora Canto would be able to control the growth of plant life. It fueled unpopular speculation that anomaly abilities had less to do with genetics and more to do with how an individual was raised. Those educated enough laughed at such theories. Those with an understanding of the past knew that such an idea was not out of the realm of possibility, and had actually happened many years ago. When Nevada native, Flora was young, her mother took her to the new botanical gardens in Arizona. As part of the fun, the gardens handed out bags of seeds that children could use to learn how to plant. While her mother was distracted, flirting with a garden worker, Flora started noticing that an entire section of plants were dying right before her eyes. She had already exhausted her bag of seeds, but she had the urge to solve the problem, so she grabbed a handful from the bag of a girl near her and scattered them on the ground. Upon her command, the entire section sprouted back up with new plants and flowers. Only a few other people were around, many of them fully aware of what it was like to keep a secret, so the word did not spread about the miracle at that time. Her mother took her back home and warned her to never again do what she had around other people. Still, she could not help but spread life. She felt like it was her responsibility. Over the years, there were rumors of plants in the deserts of Laughlin that did not belong there, and could not have grown naturally. Because of this, she was eventually discovered and kidnapped by an associate of a Bellevue member. He held her in captivity, along with a small number of other anomalies, until they were uncovered and freed by Bellevue before the second stage of recruitment had even begun. Despite having had no prior experience, Flora stepped into a leadership position for Bellevue, and was third to the primary leader.

Microstory 137: Posie McKenna

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Posie McKenna was born in Bloomington, Indiana to a fairly wealthy family. She had a pretty happy childhood, and worked at a number of jobs as she grew up, always interested in learning a multitude of skills. After receiving her college degree in psychology, she took out some time for travel, and to find her purpose in life. After a couple of years, she decided to return home and expand on her psychology background by going to licensure school so that she could earn her certification to be a paramour. Though sex-based therapy was a preexisting profession, Posie was a pioneer in her field, and innovated a number of special techniques that were published in journals and adopted by her contemporaries. As far as being an anomaly went, she had the ability to store her own and other people’s memories, along with any other data, in everyday objects. Like Upton Starr’s and Patience Cooney’s stones, the data wasn’t actually being stored in the objects themselves, rather they served as focal points to artificial dimensions. Her ability would later help advance computer systems as a whole, but in terms of her personal life, she found no use for it. In line with her nomadic tendencies, Posie agreed to join Bellevue, continuing her work, but now as the in-house paramour. She would later be put in charge of records and archives, but that never took up much of her time.

Microstory 136: Zoey Attar

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There was no shortage of unusual births when it came to anomalies. One member was pregnant for years, another somehow gave birth to a clone of herself with no father, and Zoey Attar’s development was accelerated to an incredibly high rate. Her mother, Solange Attar, went into labor just weeks after conceiving with her gracer, Gaston. They had hoped that the rapid growth would stop, or at least slow, following the delivery, but it did not. By this time, Bellevue had gone public, and so they raced to Usonia to ask them for help. Fortunately, the organization had actually already dealt with a similar case, and were prepared with the treatment. Once Zoey began to age at a normal rate, she appeared to be around eleven or twelve years old. The problem was, however, that she still had the brain of an infant, and this was dangerous because of her ability to control the actions of animals. She could also make it seem like she was turning into an animal, but she was actually summoning one from another location, and then hiding herself in a lower dimension while maintaining control over that animal. The whole story was that she inherited this from her father’s ability to teleport, and her aunt’s ability to manipulate pheromones, proving that an anomaly’s lineage is responsible for the nature of their ability, even if none of them presents one of their own. Instead of being able to do one or both of what her parents could, she was the result of a perfect marriage of genetic traits that formed an entirely new ability, taking aspects from both. This was not abnormal in the rest of the animal kingdom. Half of a scion’s genes come from one parent, and half from the other. These genes are recombined and mutated into a new person, but the way Zoey turned out was still surprising. In order to bring Zoey up to a legitimate level of intelligence, Bellevue conscripted Mandy Alto and Claude Bonner as her instructors. Together, they were able to accelerate the learning process so that she could fit in with her peers. She quickly became best friends with Catriona Rice and Stephen Berg. All three were noted later members of the notorious missing children.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 14, 2038

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Leona nudged Mateo awake needlessly violently. “Are we going?”

“Going where?”

“I slept on it,” she said. “Now more than ever I think we should go on the hunt for Reaver; try to turn the tables on him.”

“What time is it?”

“Twenty thirty-eight.”

Mateo shot upward and looked for the window. “It’s almost 9:00 PM?”

“No, dumbass. It’s the year 2038. It’s just before dawn.”

Mateo fell back down to the pillow and yawned. “We can’t leave yet. We coordinate it with our time jump. That way, the trail goes cold for an entire year.”

“Why would we do that?”

“It’s what I did last time.”

“How did that work out for you?”

“I could never have predicted meeting Duke on the train.”

“You’re right, it was a solid plan. So good, they would never think that we would ever think of doing it any differently this time. In order to keep our family from finding us, we should leave this morning, and throw them off.”

“That’s stupid.”

“You’re stupid.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Mateo nodded off. Leona growled every once in a while.

“What if—?” he started to suggest.

“Shut up!” she cut him off.

He breathed in and out melodramatically.

“I keep going over it in my head,” Leona finally said. “Any plan I run risks them finding us, or Reaver finding us, or the authorities.”

“What do the authorities have to do with anything?”

“I don’t know. We don’t have IDs. One broken taillight and we’re screwed. You’re supposed to be 52 years old! And dead! I wouldn’t be there to hack you out of jail this time.”

“Well, let’s burn that bridge when we get to it. Speaking of which, what does Reaver matter at this point? All we’re trying to do is get back to Kansas. The earliest we could see him is 2039. The earliest,” he reiterated.

“I’m planning ahead! God, it’s like you don’t have ears.”

He sat up on his elbows and tried to match her eyeline as she stared at the bedsheets. “I don’t know if you know this, Leona, but I don’t have an advanced degree in astrophysics. I’ll never be smart as you. Keep in mind that you were a dum-dum teenager when you met me. I was always far older than you, until a few days ago. It’s time to come down to reality and admit that you chose to align yourself with an imbecile. I don’t claim to know what the motivations of the powers that be are, but I’m sure they didn’t choose me for my brain.”

She didn’t respond.

“Now help me find my shoes,” he continued. “I always have trouble remembering which one goes on which foot.”

She fought it, but couldn’t help revealing an adorable smile. She reached down to the floor and retrieved one of his shoes so she could throw it at him.

“I love you,” he said, trying to make up.

She sighed. “Were I you, I would too.”

While they were getting dressed, they made their plan of escape.

During breakfast, they directed the conversation in such a way that would lead others to come up with the exact ideas they wanted them to. And it worked perfectly. Leona’s stepmother, Melinda wanted to take a boat out on Brooks Lake, but Samsonite wanted to take a hike on Loop Trail. They decided to split off and get to know each other a little better. Mateo went on the water with Melinda and Theo while Leona went for the trails with Aura and Samsonite. Leona’s father was in his 60s, and wasn’t up for either excursion, so he just went back to his and his wife’s cabin.

He and Leona had already synchronized their watches, so he knew that he was behind schedule. They weren’t as close to the beach as they needed to be so he offered to take over rowing for Melinda. She thought it was sweet, but Theo seemed to recognize it as unwarranted urgency. While she was laughing at how vigorous Mateo was with the oars, Theo’s special future cell phone rang, which meant either that someone else had the number, or their plan was in jeopardy. When he tried to pick it up, Mateo slapped it out of his hand. “No calls during tranquility time.”

Theo was growing more concerned. “What? It could be important.”

It rang again. “No, I’m sure it can wait.”

Theo looked at him like he was crazy and spoke condescendingly, “I’m gonna answer it, Mateo.” He reached down to get his phone back.

It rang again. Mateo settled into an overly offensive stance. “No. Don’t do that.”

“Why don’t you want me to answer this?”

“Son, he just wants to be free from technology for the day.”

He closed his eyes in exasperation. “He’s a time traveler, mother. The last time he checked his email, he did so with a laptop...like an animal. He rarely uses tech.”

“Don’t you talk to me like that!”

“You’re not my real mother! You were a vessel!”

“You know it makes me feel bad when you try to explain where you’re from, and how I wasn’t the first to give birth to you.”

The phone had stopped ringing, but was back at it. Mateo exerted as much effort as possible into reaching that beach.

Theo grabbed his phone and answered it. “Hello?—How long has she been gone?—Well maybe she’s...ya know. Number two.—She probably just wanted to get far enough away from you for privacy.—Because it’s embarrassing.—I know everyone does it, but most of us don’t like an audience.—Look, I’m sure—” He stopped short.

Mateo could feel Theo’s eyes burning a hole in his head. He turned a bit and looked at him in his peripheral vision.

“Why are you rowing so quickly?”

Mateo ignored him and continued rowing.

“Mateo Matic, what are your intentions with my sister?”

No response.

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” Melinda said.

“Shocker,” Theo said rudely before returning to his conversation on the phone. “Aura. They’re running. Go find her.”

With no further options, Mateo took his chances and jumped out of the boat. Because of how close the beach was, he half-thought his feet would touch the ground, but he just kept sinking. Water filled his nose and stole his breath from him. He pulled himself to the surface and began to swim. He could hear the splashing of Theo behind him, and felt like he was keeping a decent distance between them. Finally, he could feel the fine dirt sliding through his fingers. He turned his body vertical and began running in slow motion until he could get his feet up in the air. Fortunately, he was taller than Theo and was able to hop through the water faster.

“Why are you doing this?” Theo screamed up to him.

“We’re trying to keep you out of it!” Mateo called back. “There wasn’t supposed to be a high speed chase!” He struggled up a hill and through the trees, tripping over roots and rocks. Theo was still in hot pursuit.

He ran as fast as he could in one direction, quickly coming upon the road that likely led to the east side campground. The plan called for him to turn left at this point, but he didn’t want to lead Leona’s little big brother right to her. He took a much needed breath, crossed the street, and headed right. He ran in zigzag, trying desperately to fall out of sight. He had laughed when Leona predicted something like this would happen, and tried to prepare him for it, but was thankful now for her amazing grasp of future possibilities. He removed a pair of goggles from one pocket and something she referred to as a rebreather from another. It didn’t look like much, but she claimed that it would extract oxygen from water and turn it into breathable air. Out of his trust for her and her quick understanding of futuristic technology, he stuck it in his mouth and slipped into Brooks Lake Creek.

The creek appeared to be murky enough to keep him invisible to someone on the surface, but Mateo closed his eyes tightly in anticipation. He was overcome with an irrational sense of fear that Theo’s arms would reach down at any second and pull him up. Such a thing would ruin their plan, sure, but it wasn’t not like Theo was an enemy. They would just have to figure something else out later. Mateo waited for minutes on end, perfectly able to breathe, until he felt safe enough to resurface. He looked around but found no one. He half-crawled, half-swam to the other side and looked at the map in his special phone.

About an hour later, he managed to make his way to the rendezvous point. Leona was already waiting for him. She was noticeably upset about him being late, but felt more relief about him arriving at all. “Where do we go now?” he asked her.

“The closest town is Dubois, so we’re going to Moran. We won’t get there until next year.”

He gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Lead the way.”

“I love you,” she said.

“Were I you, I would too.”

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Crossed Off: Spirited Away (Part VIII)

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Starla, Alec, Marissa, and Therasia spent hours down in the fountain lair, discussing and demonstrating various aspects of their abilities. Though she has met others with abilities, she related to Therasia the most. Perhaps it was as simple as being around the same age. The three of them reluctantly went back home once it had become too late, but they made plans to meet up again the next day.

“You know who would love to meet her?” Alec asked when they were back topside.

“Karam?” Starla assumed.

“Karam,” Alec confirmed.

“That little pyro,” Marissa laughed.

Starla looked at her watch. “Egypt is just waking up right now, so I’ll contact him while I’m sleeping. As long as that would be okay with Therasia.”

“We’ve actually discussed it. She trusts me to only trust people she can trust.”

Starla giggled. “So, that’s a yes.”

After helping her into the guest bed, Alec slipped in next to her and fell asleep right away, exhausted from the day’s activity. Starla always had trouble sleeping like a normal person, so she sent her Egyptian friend, Karam a telepathic ping, knowing that her body would be forced to cycle itself down with her consciousness away. She waited for twenty minutes or so, but he wasn’t answering. Either he was busy or dead, so she decided to jump into his body and make sure things were okay. She found herself in an unfamiliar location. It was a busy marketplace that looked like it could have been in Egypt, but upon closer inspection, none of the products being sold were labeled with Arabic. She wasn’t completely sure because she had never studied it, but it appeared to be Greek. And her environment was an unusual shade of purplish-blue, like she was seeing the world through tinted lenses.

When she looked down, she saw her own body, wearing her own nightclothes, which was not correct. She should have been seeing the body of the person she was possessing. She walked over to a nearby motorcycle and tried to see herself in its mirror, but she had absolutely no reflection. This was not normal. As she was looking around, hoping to stumble across answers in the fruits and vegetables, she saw an old man who appeared to be watching her curiously. She looked behind her back, but there was nothing interesting. She moved to the right, and then the left. The man’s eyes followed her. “Who are you?”

He tilted his head to the other side and smiled. “Spyridon Colonomos. Don,” he amended. “And you?”

“I don’t know that I should tell you my name.”

“That’s fair. Let’s go back in time so we can prevent me from telling you mine.”

“You can do that?”

Don laughed exuberantly. Anyone in the market with decent hearing should have turned to look, but they didn’t. They could see each other, but no one could see them. “I cannot.”

“So you’re like me.”

“No. I’m older. You’re like me.”

“Semantics,” she said with a shrug. She looked back at the shopping people. “Where are we?”

“Greece; where I’m from. I came to check in on a friend, but my body is actually in Finland right now.”

“Ah.” She pointed to herself. “Canada.”

He nodded politely.

“Can you possess other people, err...?”

“Why would I be able to do that?”

“I guess we’re not the same.”

“No. But something drew us together. Right now, we are in the netherworld.”

“The whatnow?”

“I don’t really know what to call it, but...” He paused to scan the crowd and then pointed to a man in a gray tunic who was trying his damnedest to smell the oranges, but apparently failing. “That guy is dead.”

“How do you know?”

“Wait for it.”

As she watched, the man attempted to pick up the orange, but his hand passed right through the cart. “That’s sad.”

“Indeed.”

“So, you can see dead people?”

“Sometimes. It depends on which avenue I take. If I travel using the indigo world, I see ghosts. If I use the blue world, I don’t. I’m not sure how it all works. I can see them, but they have no idea I’m here, ya know, unless I want them to. Except for you. You could somehow see me by default.” He outstretched his arm. “Here, I’ll take you to my body so I can introduce you to my friends.”

“That’s not creepy.” But she took his hand anyway. Their surroundings blurred and zipped away from sight before revealing new surroundings. They were in a small apartment bedroom. Don’s physical body was lying in bed. It looked strangely stiff and uncomfortable, and she couldn’t figure what was wrong with it.

He seemed to notice this. “My body is in hibernation to prevent me from dying while my consciousness is away.”

“I wish I had that.”

“Oh, dear...”

As a boy came into the room snickering, Starla caught a glimpse of a young woman who was cooking breakfast. The boy approached Don’s body and tried to flick his ear several times, but it didn’t budge. Not even bears went under such kind of hibernation. Don’s spirit narrowed his brow and barked at the boy, “Hosanna. Stop trying to wake me up.”

The boy perked up and looked at Don’s spirit. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were here.”

“Do you make a habit out of physically assaulting me when I’m not here?”

“Um...no, of course not. Stop talkin’ crazy.” The boy was not very convincing. “Who is this?”

“You can see her?”

“You found another one of us?” Hosanna asked. “Rather, another one of you.”

“She found me,” Don corrected, but then clarified, “well, fate found us both.”

Hosanna nodded somewhat sarcastically. “Right. She should meet Valary.”

“That’s why we’re here,” Don said. “Val, get in here!” he cried.

“Yes?” the woman asked while opening the door with her back, a mixing bowl still in hand.

Before Starla could see Valary’s full face, something pulled her away from the scene. Karam had evidently responded to her telepathic call, and was pulling her all the way to her final destination in Egypt.

“Hey, Star,” Karam said. “Sorry I didn’t answer. “My husband and I were...well, we were in the middle of something.”

No, no no no no nooo, Starla yelled. But she couldn’t get back to Don’s apartment. She sent her consciousness to random places in Greece and Finland, but none of them were right. If she wanted to form a psychic connection, it would either happen randomly, or she would have to seek out someone that she had already connected with. But that was the problem. She had never actually connected with Don or the other two. She had only come across their vicinity. There was no way to return, and there was no way to contact them in the real world. She knew his last name, but that wasn’t enough to find him. She was certainly no private investigator, and it sounded like they traveled a lot. They were lost to her forever. The more she thought about it, the less she agreed with René’s policy of hiding, and the more interested she was in finding others. She wanted to know everybody. She didn’t want to be alone.

“What’s going on?” Karam asked after she returned to Egypt.

I don’t know. Starla took control of Karam’s head and shook it slowly and deliberately. “I don’t know,” she repeated a few times.

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Microstory 135: Don Colonomos

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Spyridon ‘Don’ Colonomos was born in Greece as one of the earlier anomalies. His was similar to Jaklyn Simonds’ ability to teleport, and Starla Wakefield’s ability to possess others, but with many limitations. If he had a general idea of where someone was, he could send his consciousness to their location and witness the goings on from a third person perspective. That is, he could go somewhere when he knew someone there, but he couldn’t just travel the world whenever he felt like it. He could interact with people by sight and sound, but not by touch, taste, or smell. The default setting was that no one could see or hear him, so he would have to purposely open himself up to them. And this was true of every individual, meaning that he couldn’t theoretically show himself to an entire crowd at once. He would have to invite them one by one. While Starla’s ability caused her body to lose function from being separated from her consciousness too long and too often, Don’s body remained perfectly intact. While his spirit was gone, his body would go into a deep hibernation, and then return to normalcy once he went back to it. Don would use his ability to check in on his friends, but rarely chose to let them see him. He felt an urge to protect them, but had little interest in interacting with them. He received good grades in school, and later went on to become a doctor, starting a private practice with a modest number of clients. A patient of his whose foster family he had helped her escape from—since they thought her to be far younger than she really was—would later become a founding member of Bellevue. He discovered two other anomalies on his own, and took them in when they had no other family. Once the time was right, he pushed for them to join Bellevue with him. One of them, Valary Sela, fell into a leadership position, and made the majority of the decisions regarding its ultimate purpose. Her policies would remain well past her tenure, and were partly responsible for the salvation of the world decades later. The other, Hosanna Katz, would become the glue that held together disparate factions. Whenever an individual was hesitant to join, or when two groups began to disagree with each other, Hosanna was always there to provide them with necessary perspective. Don spent what little he had left of his life as the primary care physician for the organization while it was still in its major recruitment stages.