Microstory 192: Paulo Rocha

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An important early member of Bellevue jumped ahead of that infamous short list of anomalies, and discovered Paulo Rocha living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was born in a small town nearby, but moved to the city to be closer to the targets of his ability. He could sense and manipulate waves on the microwave section of the Electromagnetic spectrum, including ultra-high frequency, super high frequency, and extremely high frequency waves. This allowed him to interface with television broadcasts, walkie-talkies, cell phones, GPS, and later line-of-sight communication such as wireless internet and near field communication. He could push the boundaries and adjust or redirect these signals beyond their normal range. He was always a curious boy, and liked to listen in on private conversations. He never worked in espionage, or sold information to the highest bidder. He just liked to know that he knew things that others wouldn’t want him to know, and would do him harm if they knew that he knew. But this early Bellevue member was desperate. A friend of theirs had unknowingly become father to an extremely powerful Generation Two, and the infant needed to be protected from the world. Much of Brazil was about as remote as one could get in the world, and Paulo was about as random an anomaly as one could find. He agreed to raise the child in secret. He remembered learning of a small tribal village that had experienced minimal outside contact from his life in the small town, and so he took her there. He kept that baby safe, teaching her to control her abilities, and to make her own choices for what she wanted to do with them. Many years later, after hearing of her birth father’s death, this girl took to the skies and became a superhero to honor his legacy. She traveled to Bellevue and secretly absorbed the abilities of all anomalies she could find. She then went around the world, mostly in South America, saving everyone she could, and capturing criminals. Bellevue officially contacted the two of them not long after, and discussed their options. Paulo ended up holding on to his connection with his adopted daughter, and ran communications for operatives in South America, much like Radimir in Europe. His ability was perfect for it.

Microstory 191: Mosi Jengo

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Tanzanian Mosi Jengo was born to a wheat family of modest living. His was a community of farmers, and when he was a child, the only one not dealing with a drought. The surrounding area farmers were suffering greatly. Recreational drugs were illegal throughout most of the world, but parts of Tanzania relied on the industry to keep them aloft. Confederacy authorities allowed this to continue, partly because they lacked the resources to shut them down, but also because they were willing to concede a small fraction of drug users if it meant poor farmers had enough money to survive. But a certain farm off a nearby town had learned of Mosi’s community’s fortunes, and went in with weapons to find out what was happening. Upon hearing that they were somehow responsible for the miracle, they attacked and terrorized Mosi’s family. His parents pleaded with them, and tried to explain that they had no idea why the rain had chosen fall only on them. Out of anger and fear, Mosi used his abilities to pull a lightning bolt from the sky and strike down the man who was manhandling his mother. What he did not understand at the time, was that his mother would be harmed by the lightning as well. She was electrocuted and killed instantly. The leader of the rival farm allowed Mosi to mourn his loss before removing him from his home, and paying the father what he considered to be a fair exchange. The leader became Mosi’s mentor. He provided him with an education, a bed, and more food than he was used to. Together, they rid their country of the drug business. They spent years converting farmers to legitimate businesses by selling them good weather. Every year, they would return to Mosi’s home to pay respects to his mother’s legacy. By the time Bellevue found him, Mosi and his mentor had transformed Tanzania into a flourishing paradise. As the land turned, not only did the farmers become richer, but tourism began to boom, further enhancing the country’s economy. Through irrigation and other modern farming techniques, Tanzania began to be self-sufficient, and no longer needed Mosi’s assistance. He and his mentor joined Bellevue, but spent very little time in Kansas. They traveled with Blake Williams as a sort of specialized weather team. While Blake absorbed and quelled quakes, Mosi protected target areas from other natural events. Slowly, he shaped the world to make it safer and more convenient, and was later able to gain enough power to control the weather across the globe from any point, to nearly any degree.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 25, 2049

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Two of Gilbert’s men instinctively grabbed Mateo and Leona to pull them ahead of the group and down the corridor towards safety. The tallest of them had not had much opportunity to stand up straight while they were walking before, but this second had a higher ceiling, and allowed them all to move much faster. The floor was already wet, so there was a lot of slipping and running into walls, but they were able to stay on the move. The water flooding in from behind them was moving much faster, and would soon overcome them. But there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Literally. The walls cleaved from each other with each passing step as the ceiling flew up from the floor.

Finally, they were out of the corridor and into the largest chamber they had ever seen. It was a deep cavernous ellipsoid, at least a half kilometer wide, and they were standing in the middle of it, on a sort of mezzanine balcony. There were stairs and seats carved into the rock across the way. The occasional narrow waterfall poured from the walls. Stalagmites littered the floor. Some kind of stage waited patiently in the center of the very bottom. They were standing in an auditorium. But the most fascinating sight was the ceiling, or rather that there was no ceiling. Despite being deep underground, and knowing that this was absolutely not a known landmark of Easter Island, the sky could be seen above them. Rather, there were many skies above them. Stars periodically blinked in and out of existence. The sun appeared from one side and then disappeared, and then it would later appear from a different side. Sometimes, it was like they were seeing multiple versions of the sky at once in a spectacular vortex collage. They watched for several minutes before one of the men pointed out that they were no longer in danger from the rushing water.

“What’s happening here? Is this a hologram?” Gilbert asked.

“It’s a time window,” Leona explained, to the best of her ability.

“What does that mean?”

“You’re seeing the sky at different moments in time, from different angles, and likely from different locations.”

“How is that possible?” he asked.

“Same way my boyfriend and I travel through time; we do not know.”

“I thought I was crazy for thinking that to be the explanation for you two,” Gilbert said. “But I was right? That’s amazing.”

“Why is the sky seemingly perpetually zipping through time?” one of the men  now asked.

“That’s another question we could not answer,” Leona said. “What are you trying to find here, Boyce?”

“Immortality.”

Leona and Mateo took their gaze from the skies and looked at Gilbert.

He looked back at them. “Does that mean anything to you?”

They now looked to each other. “It does. It’s possible.”

“Who told you that would be here?”

Gilbert shifted his chin to various angles. “I don’t know.”

“That’s usually not a good sign,” Mateo said. “You shouldn’t do anything without knowing why.”

Leona went back to admiring the beauty in the skies. “Rule number eight.”

Mateo reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. It always traveled through time with them, and was always able to determine when and where they were, and he regularly checked it to make sure his pattern held. “This isn’t right.”

“What is it?” Leona asked.

“My phone says that it’s April 25, 2049.”

“That shouldn’t be,” Leona agreed. “We never made the jump. It should still be 2048, unless...”

“Unless what?” Gilbert looked concerned.  “How are we in the future?”

“The cave didn’t protect us from the timejump,” Leona realized. “It just included everyone here.”

One of the men did his best to sound upset, but actually seemed more excited. “Is this permanent?”

“I couldn’t tell you,” Leona noted. “Last time that happened was with me. That was twenty years ago.”

Gilbert sighed out of fatigue and resolve. “We have no choice but to push on, do we? We’ve come this far. Let’s find the fountain of youth.”

“We are still not certain that is a good idea. Someone wants you here, and if they erased your memory, then they probably do not have your best interests in mind. We should go back,” Mateo urged.

“We have been having this conversation for a year. I’m over it, and I’m not going to repeat myself.” Gilbert turned and began walking down the steps. His men followed, and so did the other two.

As soon as they had all reached the bottom, the sky stopped changing. It had settled on a brilliant shade of red. Shimmering and dusty cloud loomed overhead. “Why does it look like that?”

“It could be a setting sun, or that’s from a couple billion years ago when the sky was orange, and the atmosphere full of methane.”

“How are we still alive?”

“It’s a time window. We are still standing in 2049.”

“I’m not liking this day much more than the last,” Mateo informed her. “Just want to put that on the record.”

“Noted,” she responded.

They continued to walk across the floor and head for the stage, the only logical place to go. The air shifted from hot to cold and back again, warning them away, but they never stopped. Gilbert was the first to step up to the stage, and noticed a sense of relief and mild euphoria. Leona and Mateo came next, and felt the same thing. They were still aware of all of their problems, but they were not worried about them. Suddenly, Reaver and the man who tried to kill them, as well as mystery that was Frida, didn’t seem so important. There was only now.

The other men followed them up, but felt quite differently. One started to smack his lips. “I’m really thirsty. Anyone have any water?”

One grabbed his head in pain. “Son of a bitch!”

“My hands are tingling,” another said.

“Guys, I can’t hear anything,” said a fourth.

The one who had helped Mateo down the corridor while the water was rushing behind them started nodding off. “I can’t keep my eyelids open.”

“What is happening to them?” Gilbert asked, with worry but no sense of urgency. “Why is it not happening to me?”

“It’s a security system,” Leona told him. “These are time travel symptoms. I don’t know why they’re lasting so long, though.”

The last man sniffed the air. “Do you smell burnt toast?”

And with that, all six of the men disappeared. Something from the pack of the guy with the headache exploded, bits of it landing on the floor. He must have been carrying citrus. They had served their purpose, according to whoever wanted the three of them, and the three of them alone, to be down here.

They turned from the spot the men once held, knowing that there was nothing they could do to help. A large transparent cube had appeared in the middle of the stage. Inside of it was everything one would find in an apartment; a bed, a wardrobe, a dining room table, miscellaneous other things, and even the kitchen sink. But no one was inside of it. The security guard from Reaver’s facility who had tried to stop him from escaping with Guard Number One and Guard Number Two appeared from behind a stalagmite. He was dressed in what appeared to be a rather fancy version of a security guard’s uniform. He was cool and collected; the opposite of his demeanor when they had first met. “Welcome to The Agora.”

“What happened to my men?” Gilbert asked.

“They’re safe,” he answered. “Back home. They helped get you here, but they did not need to be here.”

“Who are you?” Gilbert continued.

“I am The Head Guard. But right now, I’m on holiday. I have nothing to do while the prison is empty.” He looked back and presented the cube. “I need you three to fill it for us.”

“Who’s the prisoner?”

“Fugitive,” Head Guard corrected. “I think you know who.”

Reaver.

“Find him,” he went on. “Bring him to justice. We would much appreciate it.”

“Why can’t you find him yourself?” Mateo put his hands on his hips.

He shook his head. “That is not my job. I guard, I don’t catch.”

“That is not our job either,” Leona said.

“Yes it is. You’re The Rovers.” Head Guard seemed confused.

“We’re the what?”

“The Rovers. You go where you’re needed. Did The Delegator not explain this to you?” Really confused.

“Not exactly,” Mateo said. “He basically told us we could do whatever we wanted.

“Hmm...” he replied. “Something must be wrong with his neurolinguistic programming. We’ll have someone correct that. You’re not to do whatever you want, you are to do whatever is necessary. You do have jobs, you just don’t have one single job. Right now, we need you to catch Reaver.”

“Rovers catching Reaver,” Mateo said with a laugh. “Why would we do that when you could just send a Reaver to catch a Reaver?”

“I am afraid I do not follow.”

“Reaver’s daughter,” Leona said. “She’s a choosing one. Masters of time and space, and they still pretend to need go-betweens. I don’t understand why they send any of us to do anything when they could just jump through time and do it themselves.”

“I do not know either,” Head Guard said. “I’m not one of them. I just do what I’m told; like you.”

“We do not do that,” Mateo corrected.

“No, I suppose you don’t. But you need to start, or there will be consequences.”

“Like what?”

“Bad ones,” was all he said of it.

“And what am I to do?” Gilbert asked.

“You are being temporarily placed in their pattern so that you may assist. After that, you will be so far from your own time that the warrant out for your arrest will no longer be relevant, and you will be free to start a new life.”

“What do we get in return?” Mateo asked.

“If you do what you’re asked, then there will be a reward.”

Gilbert perked up. “Like immortality?”

“Like immortality.”

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Superpowers: Exile (Part VI)

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Enemy of the state, Ellaraitch strode into Governor Stockton’s office with that same smug look on his face he always had. What else could be expected from someone who refused to divulge either his first or last name to the public; insisting that people refer to him by the one name alone? One thing to note about the Amadesis religion was that there were many extremely disparate sects. The main characteristics that held them all together were that they were all evil, they all believed in a single path to enlightenment, and they all considered harming others to be best practice. The largest sect engaged in a sick form of polygamy that not only allowed, but encouraged, child rape, along with good ol’ fashioned incest. Another tortured victims so badly that they were corrupted enough to join up themselves. There was even one that believed in some sort of presumably unknowable hierarchy where only a select few members would get into heaven, so that even being part of it didn’t guarantee you happiness.

Ellaraitch was the head of a sect of Amadesis that was the lesser of many evils; at the time, at least. He originally became famous as a prolific science fiction writer, churning out crap stories like cancer cells. He was known for charging new members with increasingly more money each time for therapeutic treatments, and for creating a level of privileged secrecy surpassed by none other. He would go on to be far more dangerous to the world, but for the moment, Stockton thought of him as the only way to reach his goals. Ellaraitch had always been against the violence of other Amadesins; particularly the ones that sent the bomb to Utah, but not because he wasn’t himself violent, but because he considered their methods to be tactless and unsophisticated. He fancied himself more strategic than that, and he would prove this to be true once his sect began to spiral out of control, and become dominant.

“I can help you remove the nuclear weapons of the U.K., but you’re not going to like how I plan to do it.” Ellaraitch sat in what was supposed to be Stockton’s chair, and drank his glass of alcohol. It wasn’t technically illegal on the island, but only because it never seemed necessary to pass a law.

“I’m not going to hurt anyone. I regret every casualty of the Korean invasion. I need the next step to be seamless and painless. If it can’t be, then I would rather just give up.”

“I do not intend to hurt anyone. It will hurt, yes, but not physically. It’ll only hurt you, because it’s going to take much longer than you wanted, and it’s not going to make you look good.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Have you heard of Tygreve Melsbach?”

Stockton thought back to his primary school days. “A leader of Belgium; the one who was exiled? That was centuries ago.”

“The important part of the lesson is not that he was exiled, but that he later returned to power. Like you, he took on an impossible mission, and suffered many setbacks before just losing completely.”

“Yeah...” Stockton was waiting for a point.

“And so he was sent to an island, much smaller than this one. He lived there for the better part of two decades, until secretly escaping, gathering support, and taking back his throne.”

“Go on.”

“If he had tried to steal back power immediately after exilement, he would have failed. It was that time he spent away that made it work. In that time, the world changed. Trade deals were made, canals were dug, leaders came and went. By the time he left the island, he had been all but forgotten. He used this infamy to his advantage, knowing that the day’s leadership would severely underestimate his strength.”

“Are you asking me to go into exile?”

“Not exile. That wouldn’t work for you; not in modern times. But you have to fully accept your role as the world’s pariah. You have to suffer a scandal, get yourself sanctioned by the Confederacy, and then Federama has to wait at least five years before doing anything else that gets it noticed. You have to throw your little nation into obscurity so people let their guard down and stop worrying about what you do next.”

“This sounds like a trick to get me out of the way, so that you can take control of the Amadesins. You need the spotlight, and my mission is in your way right now.”

“This is true,” Ellaraitch conceded. “I see a benefit to my movement, but that doesn’t mean you cannot benefit as well.”

“Five years. Of just...doing nothing?”

“After the scandal, yes,” Ellaraitch reminded him.

“Of course, and what do you suggest this scandal be?”

“The United Kingdom.”

“Oh, that explains it. Thanks.”

“An attack from the United Kingdom, is what I mean; well...an apparent attack from them. They won’t actually have anything to do with it.”

“Dawuthuh?”

“I have people in high offices of the U.K. They can make it look like they’re attacking you, but it’ll actually be your people. They can come in with a bunch of those—what are they called—helicopters. Soldiers will descend on the island, start shooting up the place, and steal all the weapons back.” He put up air quotes for the last few words.

Stockton just stared at the man for a minute or so. “You sound like an idiot. Well, even more of an idiot than usual. That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.”

“They don’t have to be helicopters. They could be narrow-body jet airliners. We’ll claim the British threw the bombs into a volcano, along with a bunch of poor unfortunate souls. If you think what you did was bad, just wait until the public hears about the U.K. throwing people into a volcano.”

“This isn’t one of your bad books, Ellaraitch,” Stockton raised his voice. “This is real life. You can’t just come up with plot twists and narratively presentable fabrications to fit the story corner you’ve painted yourself into. This is why your religion is complete nonsense. No one would believe something like that. Airliners? In a volcano? Come on!”

He shrugged. “We can make it work.”

“No, we can’t. You’re asking thousands of people to keep quiet a huge and ridiculous lie.”

“Haven’t you already done that? No one knows what you’re really planning to do with these nuclear weapons. And your mission was a perfect secret until you actually began to execute it.”

“That was based on a system of compartmentalization. Not everyone is on board with this, and people have loose lips. The secret of the fact that the British never invaded my shores would be revealed eventually.”

“Sure, maybe in 1995, or something. But you won’t have to worry about that. We’re not going to just write a news story about the invasion, we’re going to actually stage one. Your citizens will be convinced that it happened because they’ll see it with their own eyes.”

It took a few more hours of discussion, but Governor Stockton was eventually persuaded to agree to the plan. It was the most frustrating thing that had ever happened to him, even up against the past year’s of problems. He knew in his soul that what Ellaraitch had come up with was ludicrous, but the more the man spoke, the more reasonable he sounded. It was evidently his superpower to make people believe preposterous lies wholeheartedly, and Stockton found he had no choice but to exploit that for his own gain. A few months following the conversation, “the United Kingdom” came in with helicopters—not airliners—with precision strike forces, conveniently similar to the ones that Stockton had deployed for his earlier missions. They recorded a series of carefully placed explosions with grainy and fuzzy security cameras.

A few Federama citizens were claimed to have been killed, while others were just kidnapped, along with the bombs and missiles. In reality, they were all removed from the island and taken to what Stockton had always referred to as the second location. He hadn’t needed much time to prepare for this, because this small island in Antarctica was already being used to house the actual weapons stolen from other countries. It was just another method of compartmentalization. If anything went wrong, he wanted the least number of people to be at risk of being within the blast radius. Even the strike teams didn’t originally know where the second location was. After each stage, they would place the weapons on a ship so that a different team could take them away.

The handful of people said to have been kidnapped had agreed to sacrifice their lives. They were either single people with no families, or entire families that were willing to relocate to a secret base in the middle of nowhere. They told the world that the United Kingdom military was responsible for this travesty. The Confederacy began an investigation, and they were unable to come up with any other legitimate explanation. As a kind of punishment, the U.K. was ordered to relinquish their own nuclear weapons, despite the fact that the ones supposedly stolen from Federama were never recovered. These British weapons were transported to an unknown location in Usonia, which was both disgusting and helpful to Stockton’s plans. Now, according to the world consciousness, Usonia was the only nation in the world with nuclear arms. That didn’t seem safe, but it did mean that there was only one more step in disarming the world entirely.

Governor Stockton continued to lead Federama, but with little global intrigue, for less than a year. He was then asked to step down from his position, and was replaced by his frenemy, Roma Tanner. Stockton left the island and joined the sacrificed in Antarctica. He waited there for three years, working on his plans for disarming the most powerful country in the world. The United States of Northern Integrated America. Usonia.

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Microstory 190: Monique Attar

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Monique Attar was sister to Solange, and aunt to Zoey. She spent her whole life in the shadow of her younger sister. Solange was a performer, famous for her beautiful singing voice and spot on impressions. In order to “find herself” Monique left home and traveled across Europe. She had the ability to tamper with the feelings and, to a degree, the thoughts, of any living creature, including humans. She could create, alter, or otherwise manipulate pheromones, and place her target in a hypnotic state. She was never able to control their actions, or change the target's true feelings on a subject, but she could convince them to do things for her with greater ease than other persuasive people. She never used her ability to steal or harm others, but she was regularly able to crash on strangers’ couches, or enjoy a meal at a discount. and sometimes for free. The more she used this ability, the more she learned about what was really happening; the science behind it all. She also became stronger, and was later able to hypnotize more than one person at once. After a couple of years, Monique had grown tired of Europe, and decided to check out some of Africa. She soon found herself working as a safari tour guide. She became famous in certain circles for being able to allow visitors to draw unusually close to wild animals without coming to harm. She returned to France when her sister became pregnant with Zoey, and was struggling with her accelerated development. After Zoey’s rapid growth continued following her birth, Monique insisted they go to Bellevue headquarters in Usonia. After the problem was corrected, the family decided to remain in Kansas where Zoey attended school, and Solange worked in Records and Archives, keeping track of the organization’s history. Used to staying on the move, Monique went out into the field and provided security and protection for operatives and innocent civilians.

Microstory 189: Levi Jacobson

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Levi Jacobson was a moody child, and an even moodier adult. He was generally happy when his father was around, but not always. He was pretty hard to please, and the smallest of inconveniences could set him off. He was anomaly by his mother's blood, and this allowed him a level of flight. While his later love interest, Ellen could initially only fly upwards, Levi could only levitate a few meters from the surface, at most, and fly forwards. He spent a lot of time over the ocean, because that was the best way to avoid people seeing his ability in action. At one point, this led him to Hawaii where he met, and fell in love with, Ellen. She was the first other anomaly he had ever seen, and their love ultimately allowed their respective abilities to evolve. But Levi was not just an anomaly. His father had abilities of his own; ones that predated anomalies by millennia. His ability to travel through time was an accident; and it led him to break a number of other rules. His kind was not allowed to procreate, and this was the kind of rule that could fundamentally not be broken. Anyone who made an attempt would be met with failure; be it interruption, the simple inability to conceive, or miscarriage. But he could not be caught, and could thusly not be stopped. He fathered many children, with more than one woman, who were able to manipulate time in their own ways. But not all of these children knew where they came from, and those that did would regularly lose their memories. Levi had some understanding of his father's past, but lacked discipline and control, which only served to fuel his anger. He encountered one of his siblings as an adult, but neither of them knew this, and she was torn from him before they had the chance to learn the truth.

Microstory 188: Fiona Mill

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When Fiona Mill’s parents were driving their little baby girl home from the hospital for the first time, they were involved in a vehicular collision. Little Fiona was thrown from the car and suffered an irreparable spinal injury. Fortunately, she survived, but was left a paraplegic, and was forced to remain in a wheelchair. Having grown up in this condition, and not knowing any other way, Fiona was a primarily positive and agreeable person. After her parents entered an assisted living facility, she took over operations of their little eleven-room motel on the edge of Gallup, Ashiwa. Business was not great during her tenure due to a new highway, but overhead was minimal and she employed only one worker. They were able to keep the business afloat with little struggle. As a little girl, her parents would often underestimate her strength, and never noticed when she would sneak over and listen to their discussions. They would regularly discuss something referred to as the Firefly Program, but always danced around the details. One night, she witnessed a mysterious yellow light emanating from her mother’s hands. Simply seeing this with her own eyes allowed her to understand how to make this light happen herself. It started with a violet light, but gradually slid up through indigo, blue, green, yellow, and orange. She was never able to generate any other colors, and she did not understand exactly what was happening, or why she was able to perform this magic. She decided to never reveal to her parents that, not only did she know her mother’s secret, but that she shared her gifts. Fiona was placed on the special list of anomalies, and approached by Bellevue without prompt. Being so agreeable, and really having nothing better to do, she closed down the motel and and moved to Kansas, under the condition that her one employee could accompany her. He ended up seamlessly continuing his maintenance duties at the Bellevue Hotel. After some investigation, it was discovered that Fiona’s ability was not just glowing. The lights were only precursors to astral travel. When she steadied her mind and focused her light, Fiona could actually open up windows to other dimensions called astral nodes. Each color gave access to its own specific dimension, and each successive dimension could facilitate faster-than-light travel to a greater distance.

Microstory 187: Peyton Resin

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A long time ago, werewolves roamed the world; one species in a very short list of those that could shapeshift. But unlike fictional depictions of werewolves, these adhered to the law of conservation of mass. Most shapeshifting is impossible, because it would require the shifter to either inexplicably lose mass, or gain mass that does not exist. One particular anomaly was able to subvert this, but those were special circumstances. For most shapeshifters, matter is folded, stretched, or other rearranged to accommodate the shift, but nothing is added or gained. This meant that werewolves appeared to be either slightly larger wolves, or relatively small humans. To the untrained eye, Peyton Resin appeared to be a shapeshifter who could turn herself into a rock. But this was not what she was doing. Like Zoey Attar, Peyton was invoking a rock from some other location, and then she was hiding herself in another dimension. She did not become the rock itself, but was merely using it in order to tether herself to this dimension. While in this state, Peyton could see everything around her, even though she did not have eyes. As her power increased, she was able to reapply this aspect of her ability to everyday life, so that she was always aware of what was happening around her, effectively giving her eyes in the back of her head. With the help of Rick, Hankford, and Flora, Peyton learned to invoke her special rocks without slipping into the other dimension. She could place these rocks at any location, and be able to remotely witness the goings on of the immediate area. Rather early on in Bellevue’s history, the four of them chose to give these rocks as gifts to other members. They would wear them around their necks, and unwittingly give Peyton access to a powerful security system. Even though this breach of security was discovered and subsequently scrapped, Peyton ended up creating the security department of Bellevue with her partner, Milo Chombers, and still placing the rocks in strategic locations in lieu of traditional security cameras. Hankford also developed an injection containing a special type of microscopic minerals of Peyton’s creation which allowed her to keep track of all members, along with their enemies, without being able to view them remotely. Peyton was a geologist by trade, having chosen the field for obvious reasons. Besides her duties in security, she continued to publish geological papers, and contributed to the progress of science in a myriad of ways.