ABSOLUTE POTENTIAL: A Superhuman RP

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Across town, Justin coughed as something seemed to get stuck in his throat, and licked his lips as a salty taste spread over his tongue rapidly, only to disappear just as quick. He felt fuzzier too. Slightly wobbly, and his stomach rumbled. He gulped his lager to settle it and scanned the pub. Someone had just walked in and ordered, and then found a seat. A girl that he vaguely recognized. He frowned as his mind swam to gather memories and organize recollections, and then smiled slightly as pieces slid quietly into position and he placed the face. Alexiana. She was at the Particle Accelerator demo. Maybe she'd been there when it had malfunctioned just like he had. Maybe her memory was just as bad since. Maybe he'd find out. Maybe he'd stop spinning maybes over an empty pint glass.

Justin got up, glass in hand, and moved to the bar. He got a refill, stumbled over a stray stool slightly, and made his way over to Alex and her single table, empty except for her and her drink. He stood beside the empty chair and cleared his throat.
"Hi. Alex, right? You were at the demo when that accelerator malfunctioned. Crazy stuff, right?" He smiled, friendly warmth spreading across his face in a way he'd mastered through practise, and gestured to the empty seat while she looked up at him. "Mind if I sit?"
 
When another person had gotten up and bumped against a chair, Alexiana had made extra care to not look up and over to where it happened. She hated it when others would look over and gawk at her if she did something loud by accident, so she was definitely not going to fall in the same pattern.
Instead she focussed her attention on her drink. Not that that was very interesting, but it was something to look at without having to avoid eye contact constantly.

The silvery blonde had just taken another sip from her drink when someone walked up to her table and stood still. Looking up she briefly stared at the person before her with widened eyes.
"H-hi." She replied, and blinked a time or two before nodding. Yes, she had been at the particle accelerator demonstration. When he asked if he could sit in the opposite seat Alexi nodded, "I mean," and then quickly shook her head. "I don't mind." Double negatives in certain sense always gave trouble.
"So you were there too?" She recognized the face, but wasn't sure if she had seen him there, or somewhere entirely different. "I'm sorry, you know my name, sort of, but I seem to be drawing a blank on yours." She confessed. Awkward as it was, it usually was better to just ask for someone's name than avoiding it, and the name all entirely for the rest of the conversation, and any future ones too.
 
Justin smiled sympathetically. He guessed that his mind wasn't the only one feeling slightly wavy at the edges. Not that this girl had any reason to remember his name - Justin was just good with faces. He sat down.
"Yes, I was. Caught right in that weird shockwave. Went to the hospital after, like everyone else, but they cleared me pretty quick. Might go back for a check-up when it all dies down. Head's fuzzy. Feels like a permanent hangover." He raised his glass and sipped from it, savouring the taste. Say what you want, but lager was refreshing. "May as well make it an actual hangover. I'm Justin. We study Practi-" Justin paused. We? "I study Practical Engineering." 'We' had felt more suitable. He tried to shake the feeling.
"Still, I've felt worse, I know that much for sure. Did you get hit? Been feeling weird lately?" He paused to drink as Alex gave him a concerned look. "Not that I want you to feel weird. But I'm just trying to rule out having a brain tumor or three."
 
A few onlookers screamed. Others backed away and ran like she'd warned. But many just kept a safe distance snapping pictures. Mary looked about nervously, her anger giving way again to fear. She looked at each face around her and everyone seemed to look back in turn. She saw those faces: wide-eyed, fearful, not certain of what was happening or what was going to happen next. And she knew she had a similar look on her green face. The barbs began to retract, shrinking back into her skin. She dropped in height to her more modest human proportions. This brought gasps from many members of the crowd, but it also unfortunately served as an invitation.

Despite her earlier warning, the circle began to close around her. The police approached with caution, and the news helicopter hovered closer to her. The unexpectant spectators closed in too. She felt like she was being caged by them. Caged by all their heat and noise and thousands of petty, smaller things. She wanted openness. She wanted out. She wanted to go home.

Mary felt suddenly the burrowing roots in her feet dig. They dug deep and far and she found her sense of touch could follow them as they moved under the streets, under the sewer pipes, and across untold distances. Mary was shocked to discover the roots had responded to her wishes; they felt so far away that they could only be back at her house. It was like a life-line for her to follow.

She took a deep breath and suddenly she was being pulled down by her feet. Her body split in two as it traveled down the tunnels they'd made. She suddenly couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't access any senses but the feeling of dirt coursing over her entire being. She had left behind nothing in her wake but two holes burrowed into the ground of the hospital lawn, and people full of questions.

Back home Mary opened her eyes and looked down, discovering her body coalessing at her doorstep. The roots that made her body twisted and fused, turning back into green skin. She realized she was now naked, but found she didn't much care about that. There were, afterall, far too many things for her to worry about already. She made to go inside, then changed her mind and headed for her backyard. She would be able to think better there. She somehow knew it.
 
The officer was joined by back up as the San Francisco Police Department pushed the bystanders back before surrounding the plant woman. Pistols and shotguns alike were both drawn as sirens echoed from down the street, SWAT having been summoned to the scene to help contain the situation. Overhead several helicopters joined the news one as professional snipers trained their scopes on the plant woman, their laser guided sights leaving numerous red dots on the thing's 'trunk'. As cameras clicked and recorded the mysterious plant woman, the various screens suddenly went fuzzy as a large black plane flew over the city. It's four rotars drowned out any remaining screams as they shifted from their vertical position and descended upon the hospital's emergency landing pad. Network communication went down as a man in military garb exited the plan. Rain starting to pour down as clouds moved in on the city with the plane.

"Contain the situation! I want these images off the air, off the network and deleted out of any device that may have captured them!" The man barked out to his associates, his voice was strong and authoritative made further more noteworthy by the Irish accent that punctuated each of his words. He held up a device that gave off a series of beeps as the man fished a cellphone out of his coat's pocket.

"Colonel Bran here. You were right, if we're not careful it's going to be Moscow all over again. I'm reading radiation spikes off the chart." He nodded as the voice on the other side replied to him.

"Yes, Asset Tempest is providing cover while Asset Smythe is managing any information leaks. The rain seems to be dissipating the crowd." The Colonel suddenly turned to a woman on his left as he barked towards her. "Smythe! Progress report."

"I've downed all the local networks, extending my reach into the internet. Anyone watching TV believes they've just witnessed an elaborate prank and won't regard the girl as anymore than a hoax." Smythe replied, her eyes glowing a bright lime green as her hair started to float slightly.

"Excellent work." The Colonel nodded approvingly as he pulled a cigar from his coat, biting down on the end of it before he cut it open with a knife and lit it up. "I think we can ease off on this downpour now Tempest. Maybe coat the city in fog for the time being. We won't catch the bastards today but I think it's safe to bring in a platoon and set up." The man on the Colonel's right nodded his head as he stretched his arms towards the sky, the rain slowly as fog began to descend towards the ground.

"Hey!" A voice suddenly came from the door that led into Shepherd's Hope Hospital as one of the security officers ran onto the tarmac. "You can't land here! This is for emergency aircraft only."

"I'm afraid we can!" Colonel Bran replied as he flashed a badge towards the officer. "Don't worry, we'll be out of here as soon as your surrender every medical examination from the Particle Accelerator vicitms. We have reason to believe these individuals need to be quarantined along with this very building."

"They were all sent home with clean bills of health. There's nothing wrong with them."

"That's where you're wrong doctor, but don't worry out medical staff will show you how to properly analyze these individuals." The Colonel said as he marched into the building.

"Who are you people?" The officer. asked dumbfounded as the Colonel turned to him blowing a ring of smoke from his cigar.

"We're the Super Human Intervention Federal Taskforce." Turning around he continued to walk away, putting his cigar out against his hand as he called back to the officer. "But you can call us S.H.I.F.T."


ONE WEEK LATER, grey
While there was no evidence of the events that had taken place at Shepherd's Hope Hospital, San Francisco was still abuzz with it as her people whispered among themselves about the mysterious plant woman and now the sudden closure of Shepherd's Hope for 'updating'. Most people realized there was some form of censorship at work here, the city hall hadn't had any meetings discussing a budget for improving the hospital, let alone one as new as Shepherd's Hope. The police force too seemed to be out in more force, though unbeknownst to the be people this was due to Colonel Bran and his men infiltrating the city's police. Cruisers slowly drove up and down each street as city workers were given orders to install new surveillance cameras on every corner in the city, the larger the coverage the better.

Standing in the Police Commissioner's Office, Colonel Killian Bran watched over the Commissioner's shoulders as they reviewed some of the newest footage from the camera's installed in the Golden Gate district. Pulling out another cigar, the Colonel offered one to the Commissioner who merely shook his head before Killian shrugged and lit it up.

"Is all this really necessary?" The Colonel turned to look out the window, taking another long drag on his cigar before answering the Commissioner.

"Did you ever hear what happened in Moscow?" Looking at the reflection in the window, Killian saw the Commissioner shake his head. Blowing a ring of smoke out of his mouth, the Colonel turned around to face continue his answer.

"One of these so called 'superhumans' turned up in Moscow, had control over radiation much like the one who escaped from the hospital last week. Except this one lost control and leveled more than half the city. The UN elected S.H.I.F.T. to clean up the mess so naturally we had to do damage control and keep it out of the news. By the time we got there, things were so out of control we had to use one of our assets to completely memory wipe the city." He turned around and walked back to the window again. "They're out there someone and naturally we don't want to run the risk of San Francisco being reduced to ash by a college student whose body is changing in ways the world never prepared them for. It's imperative we find them and shut them down."

"I understand, my men and resources at your disposal." The Commissioner replied solemnly as he stood from his chair, offering his desk to the Colonel.

"Don't worry Commissioner. They already were."
 
Having missed most of the action by the Hospital, save from hearsay a day later, Alexiana hadn't payed it much heed.
Her most eventful moment of the day had been talking to that guy, Justin, that had gone to the same demonstration, and had been knocked back by it just as much as the rest of them. And though he seemed like he would have been a fun person to talk to on a more regular basis, she kind of never got up and sought him out after that.
It wasn't that she wouldn't have been able to find him, after all, they did attend the same school, it's just, she didn't want to come across like some weird stalker kid that followed every person that was even remotely kind enough to toss her a smile and a light conversation.

Most of the remainder of the week had been uneventful. Just regular classes, homework, shuffling down the hallways pretending she was just a speck on the wall like so many others. Yeah jumping out wasn't really her style. Her hair stood out enough, and even most people wouldn't really recall that, which she was happy with.
All this time as well Alexiana's powers had been present, awakened by the events of the particle accelerator, but with no one trying to compel her into doing stuff for them, or trying to stop time to cheat off of a test, she had no clue it was surging through her veins like the very pulse that kept her alive.
So today, just like any other, she walked across the campus grounds, her mind focussed on what she would have to study this evening.
 
Jess had been in the crowd when the rain had started pouring. Even for San Francisco, rain coming in that fast was previously unheard of. But she hadn't run from it either- she'd stuck around to see the army infiltrate the hospital. And after a while of nothing much happening, she had left- but not before shoving some of the uprooted soil into one of the specimen containers she'd swiped from the university lab before leaving. It had originally been intended for testing her roommate's white blood cell count before a night out and during a hangover. But she could easily swipe another one.

And it was a week later before she could get into the lab alone to look at it. She was used to looking at blood and samples from the human body, so it took a little getting used to. And, of course she'd forgotten to get some regular soil to compare it to.

She rolled her eyes and put the container back in the fridge. She didn't know what relevance it held, but she had a feeling. She swung her backpack onto her back and headed out, pulling her hair from the ponytail she had it tied back in, pulling off the white lab coat and hanging it up. She had a report to finish tonight, as well as an inorganic chemistry exam to study for. But she couldn't bring herself to head home just yet, and so headed towards the library.
 
As rain poured down, some important looking people came. People scattered all about, however Liam sensed something wrong thanks to the sixth sense of a cat and he backed up behind a tree silently listening from a distance. Dogs and cats both had good hearing and he was slowly knowing his own powers. After some time of eavesdropping, Liam ran off. He was noticed by some officials and questioned though.

"What are you still doing here?" Yelled an official.
"Just walking my dog. I just got here sir... What's going on?" Lied Liam.
"Just a foolish prank. Now scat!" Roared the man.

Liam nods as if apologetic and walked off, not looking back. So it was the incident that caused his powers to communicate with animals and he put his hoodie on as the dog followed.

-- 1 week later --
As days went by, Liam's awareness of his powers gradually increased in a way and so far he learned certain things from it. As of now he learned that he could telepathically speak to animals, as well as imitate their traits. However his powers were limited, and he was still fairly new at it--Not fully adapting to it or welcoming it in fully yet. They were limited because he was only able to imitate animals he has observed rather than seen (be it in media, or etc).

For the past few days he has been staying up late nights studying animals and their traits thoroughly. Even ones he hasn't observed in person yet (IE, wild animals like cheetahs). He figured if he studied animals, one day he can observe them and--BOOM! He can easily imitate them better. But his schedule has also been hectic because there were classes he had to take and during classes he'd become awfully tired before staying up late and catching himself up then after 'school work' do 'animal work' which would be studying, training himself, and experimenting with his powers. In total he would only have between two to three hours of sleep, even none! Which wasn't quite enough for him to handle but he couldn't help it. Stuff needed to be done so he continued doing this hectic schedule.

More cameras were added all around the city now. Or Atleast 'everywhere'. Liam was aware that people were trying to find people like him with powers who were present during the incident, and the young male was good at keeping a low profile. He knew where the cameras were because the animals would tell him telepathically. Birds, cats, squirrels, dogs, you name it. The everyday animals helped him and so he never looked at the cameras--Pretending not to see them. Not to make people aware that he too, had powers. The animals also helped, by no longer following him and causing a herd behind him so Liam was grateful.

During classes Liam occasionally fell asleep here and there. Upon being abruptly called on to say the answer, He'd unexpectedly get them right thanks to birds who rested on the window still or some small bugs like flies or something who told him the answers. Teachers would be surprised at this and off guard even, so they allowed him to sleep during classes sometimes thinking he'd fail yet knowing he'll pass.

Once class was over he ran out the room and through the halls deciding to go to the library to drop off some books and pick new ones up -about animals of course- then get lunch. Or a coffee actually. He also heavily depended on coffee nowadays to stay awake ever since he became aware of his powers and yawned walking through school grounds.

On second thought maybe he could go get a coffee instead and change up on his schedule back to normal. Wake up, work out, shower, go to class, do class work and study for class, go to the library if he needed to drop off then pickup books, work out some more, read about animals, sleep. Maybe that schedule can be his and he decided to try that out starting tonight, at sleep.​
 
Jack groaned as he opened his eyes looking at the ceiling of his apartment, his body still felt horrible from showing up at the demo of that particle accelerator. He'd been released from the hospital a week ago, but still hadn't been feeling the best since them, everything seemed too loud to him, as if his ears were picking up things that he couldn't before. The weird random enhancements of sound were a little annoying to get used to, but it wasn't as much of a hassle as he thought it would be, although he hadn't gone to any classes in a week. The dread of getting a migraine or crying out because of too much sound on campus from his fellow students.

The incident at the hospital a week ago had disappeared from every trace on the internet, magazines, every place you could think of that would have any top secret scoop had nothing on the incident itself, but they hadn't shut it down before the local news had broadcast to most of San Francisco, whether or not people had been watching the news right then. The urge to go to class and talk to someone else who had hopefully seen the incident up close or even just seen it on the news like he had was quite powerful in him today. So, he decided to finally roll himself out of bed and into an average outfit; Sweatpants, a v-neck, a light jacket, and a beanie over his messy unruly hair. Jack slung his bag over his should and climbed through his window onto the fire escape, the landlord hated when he did this because jack went right by the owners room itself, but didn't say because of the steady always on time payments that Jack made on the apartment. The climb down wasn't as hard as everyone thought it looked, the only thing making progress a little slower was the bag of notes and textbooks he carried on him for class. Reaching the end of the fire escape, jack dropped the remaining ten feet, rolled out of it and began to walk towards the campus.

The weather was nice, and it wasn't so far that he needed to call for a taxi today, if anything he'd just run there if need be. He hadn't gone running in a week with Simon at all and felt kind of bad having claimed he had a bad cold and was coughing too much to be able to make any of the recent meetups with the crew. 'Oh well, if he finds out I just didn't feel like running, he'll get over it. It's not like our whole life is with the crew, although mine sometimes seems to be with how much free time I have and how much I love to teach them new things and go exploring. I'll call him after class this morning and see if he wants to grab a few of the crew, or whoever wants to come and head to one of the random training spots and just have a blast today."
 
Jess self-consciously pulled the sleeves of her black denim jacket over her hands. She was still having episodes where she was hearing voices that weren't her own. It wasn't like she was going insane, because it only ever happened when she was touching somebody. Hence why she was much happier in the lab. Gloves and long sleeves completely ruled out skin-to-skin contact. The weather was nice, but she was wearing the jacket anyway. There was no way she was leaving her arms exposed, not when everybody else was also in short sleeves. She was wearing a tank top underneath it to try and keep herself as cool as possible.

The library was blissfully cool, thanks to the wonders of air-conditioning. She found herself wandering to the research section, unsure of what she was looking for. Something that would either help her with her reports, or would help with her own little research project. She stopped at one section. Radiation. Almost hesitantly, she ran her finger along the spines of the books, until she found one that seemed to be what she was looking for.

Radiation and the human cells. She went to one of the tables and pulled out a notebook and pen. She pulled off her jacket, confident that nobody would brush off of her exposed arms and shoulders where she was sitting, and started reading, jotting down notes as she read.
 
POV: Mass Effect
Darcy Investigations, East San Francisco ​

Something just didn't take.

After his trip to the hospital not longer than a week prior it was back to business as usual or at least that was what he initially planned but for Michael Darcy the week turned stranger than a gang of drunken circus acrobats rolling up in a Pinto in the middle of winter. He still remembered his blackout at the San Francisco State campus when he was on a case, investigating the disappearance of a student by the name of Jessica Gorwick who had apparently tied in with the wrong crowd. He had finished up his investigation when he lost consciousness for whichever reason only to awake in a hospital with a giant migraine on top of a head wound from when his skull collided with the concrete sidewalk. Considering he had dealt with being thrown into concrete sidewalks before this wasn't really the problem, but he had never done so without help from the bottle. The hospital had told him he was fine—saying his head trauma was nothing to be concerned with as it cleared up rather quickly which would have been fine if that was it. But as expected the hospital spit out a bill of service that he really couldn't be bothered to stomach. He didn't live the kind of life that could afford such a financial uppercut, this of course was obvious by his choice in career and the fact he lived in a low rent apartment in a part of San Francisco that wasn't the best of neighborhoods. Not like the doctors upstairs cared much about the fact, though. This left him with an extra bill to pay on top of the usual ones; something he wasn't exactly looking forward to.

Sitting in his office he took a heavy breath, stirring his coffee as he thought about the past week even more. He had finished his last case and the parents of Jessica Gorwick were more than thrilled, but the whole events at the campus still bugged him like an unseen tick burrowing in his back. Taking a swig of the coffee didn't help much, but it was better than pondering about why he blacked out and why he was recovering from such head trauma so quickly. The gash on his skull was still there but that's about all there was to it—no aching head pain, no even reminder outside of a little bit of an indent in his skin when he looked at himself in the mirror. He had been quite familiar with head trauma and how long he usually took to them, hell he remembered his past few he had in the last year—Jason Gibbs with a pool cue, Millie Winston with a purse concealing a brick, and Rico Alvarez with a car door. Each distinct things that happened when he was investigating each of the cases involved with each individual.

After taking to his coffee, there came a phone call from his cellphone—the generic ringtone kicking the dead silence of the room. Reaching for the phone he looked over the number which appeared to be local but it wasn't one Michael was too familiar with. It was probably a job—weird for one to pull out just as he was thinking about his financial situation only minutes prior.

"Darcy Investigations." He chimed as he answered the phone, his voice flat as board.

"Yeah, I can do that. I'll drop by for the details."
 
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After a few minutes, Liam walked towards the library silently. Coffee in his hand as he had a backpack only filled with books and line paper. It was quite heavy if others were to hold it, but Liam adjusted to the weight and went straight to the librarian who smiled kindly at him. The librarian was a welcoming lady, and Liam nodded at her handing her the books and quickly checking them in to return them.

The brunette was only thinking of one thing really, one word. Animals. But that soon changed when he began thinking of different types of animals as he scanned the grand shelves filled with books--Or animal encyclopedias and whatnot at the section he was at... Why not get some 'basic animal' books like dogs and whatnot? The everyday animals, then get one book about the wildlife animals. His eyes scanned extra high, side to side, down, repeat. Liam grabbed books skimming through their pages and contents, before placing them back. This continued on for a few seconds before he finally decided to grab all the books he was just skimming through and check them out.

He grabbed a total of 3 books. Baby steps, this would be a slow but steady and good shot. He grabbed a large book about dog breeds that told every structure, what they're good at, capabilities, and whatnot and also grabbed a book that was the same thing only about domesticated cat breeds and lastly another that was about 'everyday animals' like birds and rodents. After checking them out, indicating he would be having these large thick books he looked around and sat at a empty table that had four seats. 2 Infront, 2 in back.

Liam mentally read to himself, starting with the most boring book of all--'THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF DOMESTIC CATS AND CAT BREEDS'. In truth, Liam wasn't a cat person, It wasn't that he didn't like them -he liked any animal really---they just weren't his favorite. But he had to learn about them because they were common and his powers could be put to good use if he communicated with them in some way. A few of his friends were surprised that Liam was all of a sudden reading a lot of animal books, but they didn't question it however and Liam let out a sigh."Jesus Christ, fucking cats are so boring...." He thought loudly to himself as he let out a deep sigh scratching the back of his head. The male turned the page and was at page 3, reading the authors notes or whatever. Or Atleast, slowly skimming through the notes reading the things that popped up important to his eyes. Then he was already at page 6 starting at a funny looking domestic Egyptian-Ethiopian Feline called the 'Abyssinian'.​
 
As naive as most freshmen were, Jacob was as naive as they came. Back in high school, he took several AP courses which landed him a 4.2 GPA by the end of senior year. Naturally, schools across the state adored him. He applied to several schools, though it was the promise of being able to work with a particle accelerator which affirmed Jacob's position in going to San Francisco University. Indeed, he was very interested in the workings of subatomic particles- more so than the average person of their late teens would be. It was this same excitement, however, which landed Jacob in trouble. He had been busy taking notes at the inner workings of the machine. Too busy jotting things down, whatever happened on that fateful day took Jacob by surprise. He looked up one second and landed himself in the hospital the next.

"Hey beautiful" he said weakly, getting out of bed. He struggled getting up and his vision was blurry. Standing in front of him were two people. As his vision cleared, they were revealed to be a young woman and an older man. The woman was none other than Jacob's childhood friend, Christine, who stood looking at him with an expression which showed a combination of worry and anger. In one hand, she held a Tupperware container; andi in the other, she held a bouquet of flowers. The older man, taller than Jacob with light skin and graying hair; wore a button-down black shirt and a brown tweed jacket. He stepped forward and sighed, placing his hands on the bed. "Oh" Jacob started "Hey Professor Ludwig."

Professor Ludwig was Jacob's biology professor. Though Jacob didn't actually talk much, he and Ludwig actually managed to become acquainted with each other fairly well. On the first day, Ludwig actually picked on Jacob fairly often for having his nose stuffed so far up a book. Jacob stayed after class to ask why exactly. "Lighten up" Ludwig said, short and sweet. How they became friends, however, was fairly strange. It was, in fact, through a conversation and later debate about neurotoxins initiated when Jacob joked "I might just poison your morning coffee". After which, Professor Ludwig treated Jacob out to dinner.

"You know, you really scared us." Ludwig stated bluntly. "Oh... and your girlfriend brought you some flowers."

Christine blushed, dropping what she was holding before leaving the room. Ludwig rolled his eyes before picking up the container and flowers, handing them both to Jacob. He put aside the flowers and opened the container. In it was a metal spork on top of rice with rice, pork chop, and veggies; pork being some of Jacob's favorite food.

The day after he was cleared from the hospital, Jacob had woken up in his dorm to a peculiar noise. When he reached for his phone, he realized that his alarm wasn't on. As he checked his bed, he noticed a musical note marked that hadn't been there before. He cut it out, taking notes of it, but did not want others to figure out. He even skipped a general ed class to dedicate a day examining the note. He then realized he was capable of controlling it, changing the tune like a person could change the tune on a music player.

"Fascinating" he remarked.
 
SOMEWHERE BENEATH THE CITY...
Steam arose from the damp stones with every footstep the figure took as she made her way slowly through the sewers. A faint light radiated from under her skin as mounds of flesh melted off her body, falling to ground as she groaned in agony. The pain of her body constantly breaking down and trying to repair itself was almost unbearable. As she continued to walk through the sewers, the rats near here suddenly fell sick, dying almost instantly.

"No, no!" She muttered to herself, falling to her knees as her body began to break down, more flesh falling from her bones as it was replaced by glowing green layers of radiation. A small explosion suddenly emerged from her body, the stone work arounnd the girl crumpling as steam filled the tunnel. Footsteps echoed through the long tunnel as a man in a long trench coat and ballcap walked towards the girl.

"Not yet," He whispered holding out his hand as the girl floated into the air. The steam in the tunnel moved around him as though he was surrounded by a shield. "I have plans for you, grand plans indeed." He continued to whisper as he turned towards the way he came, the girl floating behind him.

"Not even SHIFT can save this city now."

Gareth Wagner, #4dffff
Aside from classes, it had been almost a week since Gareth had left the campus. The steady 'thud' of a tennis ball bouncing off the wall and then back to his hand filled the dorm room as Gareth repeatedly threw up against the wall.

"Gah!" He moaned as he leaned his head over the edge of the bed before flipping off the bed. "Justin, I'm so bored!" He reached for a pair of pants, slipping them on over his boxers as he picked up a shirt, smelling it to see if it was clean and then shrugging before pulling it on.

"Lets go do something? This past week has felt like months since the hospital called and warned up there could be side effects from the accident. But I've been feeling fine!" He paused for a second. "Well other than seeing double." He added with a smirk as he walked into the common area in the dorm.

S.H.I.F.T.
Colonel Killian Bran watched as Asset Smythe sorted through piles of information gathered throughout the last week. At least forty percent of the college plus visitors had check into the hospital, and that was of course assuming they all had gone to Shepherd's Hope.

"Still no sign of our walking salad then?" Bran asked as he passed behind Smythe.

"No sir. Though I've just gotten word that our forces have picked up strong traces of radiation in the central area of The Avenues."

"Dispatch a squad to that direction. Tell them to use subtly, take cop cruisers." Bran ordered as he paced towards the large window in the Commissioner's Office. "We can't afford to lose that girl, it is imperative she's brought in immediately."
 
Jess looked up as she saw someone approaching. A guy, around her own age, carrying three books. All on cats. She raised an eyebrow, smiling slightly. He seemed pretty engrossed in them, so she turned back to her own books. She tapped her pen against the side of her face as she found a section on mutation.

Some forms of radiation can cause mutation in cells. While this usually causes the growth of cancer cells, etc., it is an ongoing debate as to whether exposure to some forms of radiation could cause mutation to DNA, and the effect this could have on humanity. Further research is needed.

She leaned back in her chair. All of these strange events following the blast at the university... It was like something from a comic book. The voices in her own head... Could it be? She shook her head and stood up. She passed the guy reading books on cats. "If you're thinking of getting a cat, mongrels tend to have the best temperament." She told him, grinning and walking away, the book tucked under her arm. She put it down at the front desk. "I'd like to check this out, please." The librarian nodded, typing it into the computer. "Have you got your student ID?" She asked. Jess nodded, pulling the card from her purse and handing it over.

Ten minutes later, she was behind the lab building, looking for some loose soil, the book on radiation safely secured in her backpack. She found what she was looking for and shoved it into a specimen jar, heading back into the lab. She tied her hair back into a ponytail and pulled on the lab coat. The lab was still empty, and she retrieved the sample of soil from the fridge and went to the microscope, determined to either find out what the hell was happening, or settle the feeling that she had that something was majorly wrong.
 
Jack walked onto campus with an hour left before he had to head to class, so with the time to kill and the fact that his hearing was on the fritz. He decided to head to the library, the quietest place on campus. His head was starting to hurt a little bit as he began to her the sounds of the campus all around him, amplified somehow, but he had no clue yet. "Maybe I could go find out what's going on with me while I'm there too, if anything at least I'll be out of hearing range of the campus, I hope at least," Jack thought to himself. The library was nearby where he had entered the campus at , and he made haste to the doors, welcoming the quiet that it would hopefully ensure.

Jack walked through the doors into the library, and slowly began to feel his headache lessen. There wasn't very much to be heard in the library to his relief, just the occasional whisper between friends or study partners quietly working on homework or quizzing each other for an upcoming test perhaps. He thought about the perks of these moments where he could hear everything around him and even places where he shouldn't be able to hear, choosing to not eavesdrop on the pair of girls lounging on the chairs inside the main part of the library's lobby, only to then think of the detriments of hearing too much when there were crowds of people around. "I don't want to have to avoid all human contact in large groups or even small groups, just to be able to cope with whatever happened to me is doing. What if I could shut it off and turn it on, Jack asked himself. Jack walked up to the counter and asked the librarian where he could find books on hearing, upon receiving an answer, he proceeded to meander to that section. His meandering being just a ruse to listen in on random things here and there, laughing to himself when the whispers of a pair of guys talking about the girls in the lobby chairs reached his ears, knowing they weren't interested at all from what they had just said about the two young men just now to each other. The comments were quite harsh and jack decided to not focus on those people anymore, feeling a little paranoid that someone might know what he was really doing.

The section wasn't too far of a walk and he reached it in no time with his roaming around. The task of finding the correct book on his little hearing condition, if there even was one, was going to prove to be a bit more difficult than he though tit might have been. So jack started to scan the books, searching somethign that sounded right to him.
 
As Alexiana walked over to the classroom where she would have had class, her mind still was elsewhere. Not with powers, or comic book stuff, but with normal, student, problems.
When she came by the room a note was hanging there, stating that the teacher she would have had class from at this moment was out, sick.
Great, just great. So she was here way too early. If only someone had thought to inform all of the students, that would have been great. But either Alexi didn't get the memo, or it simply wasn't told.
Either way, she turned around, wondering what to do next. She had plenty of time on her hands, no one to really talk to, or do stuff with.
She could go to the library, but what was the fun in that. Waiting outside would work, but she didn't really feel like doing so either.
All in all, Alexiana was frustrated, more so with herself because she couldn't figure out what to do with herself now that she had nowhere to go specifically and couldn't make up her mind on what to do instead.

She wandered, walking back and forth between the various hallways, up stairs, down another, out one building and over to the next. Aimlessly she went, repeating in her mind what she had learned for her test in English Literature.
She didn't stop till she came upon the more unfamiliar areas of the school building, the labs. Now how in the world had she ended up here?
Looking around she didn't really see anyone, which felt kind of creepy, an effect that only would have been enhanced had the lights been off. Luckily for her, it was a bright day, and the lights were still on.
Slowly she walked by the windows, peering inside out of curiosity. Science and the like wasn't really her thing, but it was still interesting to look at. After a while she spotted a figure, way in the back, focussing on lab work of one kind or another.
She hadn't the foggiest idea as to what they were doing, there was a brown content in one of the jars she saw, but that was about it. She smiled, half tempted to go inside and ask what they were doing, but well aware that doing so would disturb them, so she just observed from here, planning on walking on in a moment.
 
Under the microscope, the cells looked almost completely different. Jess frowned. Mutation. She was preparing the samples for a full breakdown when she noticed that someone was standing at the door. She stared at them for a second, before beckoning them in. As the girl came in, Jess looked her up and down. She was a decent bit taller than Jess's 5'4" and had long blonde hair. Honestly, the only thing she and Jess had in common was the fact that they were both slender. She even seemed older than Jess. Jess didn't recognise her as a science major. She didn't recognise her at all.

"Hi there. Are you looking for someone or are you just here to be my test subject?" Jess grinned, fixing the collar on her lab coat as she put her samples into the analyzer. She wondered about actually getting a human blood sample and comparing it to her own, seeing if there was any differences. Seeing if her comic book theory was just a fantasy, or if there was actually something to it.

"So... that commotion a few weeks ago. Were you around for it or did you manage to escape it?" Jess asked, scribbling a few notes into her notebook as she waited for the analyzer to beep, telling her it was finished.
 
Liam was sucked into the book, reading quickly yet as precisely as possible about cats. He preferred to read as much as he can to have as little pages left to read as possible and had a shaky knee. Then, he suddenly looked at the girl who said a comment before leaving.

"If you're thinking of getting a cat, mongrels tend to have the best temperament."

Liam stayed quiet momentarily, then looked away, blinked, and nodded taking that advice. Though, he didn't plan on getting a cat--He planned on observing the cat suggested... If they exist of course. He had never ever heard of a 'mongrel cat' but he didn't doubt it's existence and smiled looking back down at his book."Thanks, I'll take the advice." He answered slightly in a whisper as she left. Then he pondered..... Mongrels...? Cat? He furrowed his eyebrows taking out his phone and deciding to look into the word and whatnot before standing up afte about fifteen minutes to return to his own class. The usual outcome he would predict correctly? Late as always--and the brunette haired male walked to class silently.

Biology.....

Biology.......time to not sleep. Thought Liam as he let out a sigh and raised his eyebrows walking in. Then just as predicted."McFLY!" Joked his teacher jokingly. Liam nodded and made his way to his desk."Ready and better to learn?" Asked the teacher."Always." He chuckled. Chirping birds can be hear by the window as the window was open. Liam listened to the birds but didn't speak to them back telepathically. They were warning him of something bad, however he doubted that. Then he finally telepathically answered them.

"Am I or will I be in danger?"
"Currently--not now." A pigeon said.
"Okay Then forget it, I got nothing to worry about."
"But--"

Liam blocked and ignored the pigeons. They talked about heroism but he ignored. Why should he risk his life and help another whose in danger by putting himself in that situation? He rolled his eyes at their foolish lectures and listened to his teacher quietly.​
 
When the person inside the lab beckoned her in, Alexiana looked over her shoulder to check if they really meant her. Considering there wasn't anyone else in the hallway, or in the lab, the silvery blonde opened the door and entered.
"Hi. Sorry, didn't mean to spy." She said, "I was just walking by, killing some time, if you'll pardon the expression. I'm not part of the science stuff." Alexiana answered, though admittedly slightly confused by the test subject remark.

Being thrown off guard for a bit made her almost skip the question about last week entirely. Last week... Oh right, last week's weird happening at the hospital. "No, I didn't see what happened by the hospital, I was down town and heard about it later, something about a stunt, or prank or some such thing." She had honestly forgotten most of the details. Especially since it had been hushed up so soon and there was little to no evidence to be found of it ever having happened.
"Were you? There I mean."
Her eyes trailed over to the various vials and pots and whatnots that she had no idea what they were called. "So, what are you working on here, if I may ask?"
 
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