Disclaimer:
~The Center universe and any original characters from it that appear here belong to Lilith Langtree.
~Characters or lines taken or paraphrased from published works are their creators’ property.
~Any characters I create for The Center universe are open for use by anyone else, just ask first.

Author's Note: Big thanks to Enemyoffun and Nikki/Padfoot for helping me with ideas for this chapter. Also, a big thanks to Nikki/Padfoot for helping with the edits.
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Chapter 7

The facility they had come across looked like it had been standing in the middle of a war zone. Most of the windows were blasted out, the walls were all scorched, and the place looked like it was about ready to fall over at any second, or if a strong enough wind came by. Raven walked into the area with Sheri and Ray following close behind her. Max was keeping an eye on Rita and Tina while they questioned the witnesses they had found.

The four of them lifted the caution tape over their heads, so they could cross the ruined threshold and enter the ruined genetics research facility. Raven was looking over the copy of the floor plans that she had been given. The facility was about the size of the Center, with only two floors; and the upper floor was smaller than the ground floor. Also, the facility had a basement that they seemed to have been using for storage.

She thought for a second as she looked around, and then said, “I’ll start on the top floor. Sheri, you check out the ground floor and see if you can get an impression off any of the objects that are still around. Hopefully, they can tell us about who attacked this place. Ray, you start in the basement. We’ll meet up here in about one hour, also, we should make contact at random intervals.”

“Why?” Sheri asked. “Didn’t they already secure this building?”

“They did say that, but, if there are people around that can manipulate the thoughts of others, I don’t want to be caught off guard,” she told them, hoping to give them some insight into her thinking and hoping that they realized that they still had to watch out for what could still be around them.

Sheri and Ray both nodded, but looked grim at this. They remembered what had happened with James Cook, and they understood Raven’s concerns completely. The two of them split up a few seconds later, while Raven carefully made her way up the emergency stairwell that she had noticed in the plans. The elevator was a lost cause, and given the building’s current condition, she wouldn’t even think of risking it.

The second floor of the research building that she had just arrived on didn’t look that much better than the first floor. Raven carefully stepped over and around the fallen shrapnel that had come from when the building was rocked violently by the small explosions that had taken place all over the lab. There were electrical lights sparking randomly along the corridor and it reminded her of some ghost movies. The emergency lights were still working, and they were glowing an iridescent blue, barely illuminating Raven’s way. The sunlight that was filtering in through the broken windows and holes in the wall was doing a better job of illuminating the area, realizing that she had at least this, otherwise it would have been
very difficult to walk through here.

Raven pulled out a flashlight and turned it on to help her along her way. She had just finished looking through what remained of a couple of offices, and didn’t see much there. The desks were blasted into tiny bits, along with anything else of what seemed to be of value. She eventually entered one of the laboratories on this floor. The hanging sign on wall next to the door read, “Chemical Synthesis.”

Raven stepped into this lab, and saw that it looked like several small bombs have gone off inside the room. This idea she figured was probably true, considering the extensive scorching marks over most of the room. Raven could hear the crunch of glass breaking under her boots. She looked down, and saw various beakers and flasks that had been shattered, she guessed from the explosion. There also were piles of ash and burnt compounds all over the room. Raven though that the room smelt horrible; it was like burnt rubber, rotten eggs, and a skunk all rolled into one extremely enclosed area.

She put on some gloves to keep her fingerprints off of anything she might touch. Her prints may have changed with her emergence, along with her DNA, but she didn’t want to be blamed for something along these lines. She also didn’t know if it would show fingerprints of a person who should be dead. She headed over to the binders that were lying on the ground, and looked through what she could, trying to see if she could find anything of any importance.

Most of the pages were from the MSDS binders, and even those were singed pretty badly and she could not read anything from its pages. After thumbing through the scraps for a few more minutes, she went over to take a look at the computer, but she saw that the tower was a melted pile of slag. She was wondering if there was anything else, but she looked around and didn’t see anything else. She sighed and left the room to continue her search for clues on the second floor.

After ten minutes of checking out the remaining offices on the second floor, Raven made her way back down to the ground floor to check on Sheri, and see if she needed any help. Raven thought to herself, ‘Whoever is responsible for this act is sadistic and methodical. They practically destroyed anything of value or that could leave any clues to what they were after.’

As Raven walked along the first floor, she could see the level of destruction was the same, if not worse, than it was on the second floor. Various labs were torn asunder, several pieces of equipment was either destroyed or damaged, computers were turned into a pile of melted slag, and notebooks were torn up and burned. It appeared that almost nothing could be found from any of the things here.

‘It is not going to be easy to figure what they were after,’ Raven thought.

Raven made her way to a laboratory at the end of the western hallway. As she made her way down the scorched hallway, she continued to wrestle with the questions of whom, why, and how. There were so many questions running through her head at the moment, and she wondered if she could figure any of it out. Looking through the doorways that had their doors blasted off of their hinges, she could see Sheri try to get an impression off of the destroyed objects. From what Raven could see through the holes in the wall, Sheri seemed to be having the same results that Raven had on the second floor, nothing but dead ends and frustrations. She felt sorry for her and realized this was not going to be easy.

She was just about to search the nearby labs, when she heard a voice over her radio, “Raven, this is Ray, over.”

Raven reached for her radio and replied, “Go ahead, Ray.”

“I think you should come down to the basement. I found something down here that I think you should see.”

“On my way, over.”

Raven turned around and tried to quickly make her way back to the staircase that led to the basement, jumping and weaving over the debris in the hallway that was slowing her progress down.

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The basement didn’t look as nearly as bad as the other two floors. There was significantly less damage on the basement; most of the damage to the basement came from when the parts of the first floor had caved in. It seemed that the assailants ignored the basement, thinking that there was nothing down there of consequence. However, it was hard for Raven to see anything that wasn’t close to her, since the only light was seeping in from the holes in the first floor. Ray had met her at the bottom of the stairwell, wielding a flashlight.

“What did you find?” Raven asked, as she reached the bottom landing, pulling out and turning on her flashlight.

“Something that I’m hoping whoever ransacked this place missed,” he replied, with a note of deadly seriousness.

Ray led the way down the darkened corridor, using their flashlights to light their way. They passed the autoclaves and other biohazard waste disposal facilities when they arrived to a cardkey-coded door, with also a regualar key lock. The name by the door read, “Backup.”

“Backup? Backup what?” Raven asked.

“Not sure,” he replied. “Do you have a hairpin or a paperclip on you by any chance?”

“What?” Raven asked, wondering why he would need any of those things.

“Well, unless you have a security access card that will let us in, I need some tools to try to pick the other lock.”

“Oh,” Raven replied, mentally slapping herself for not realizing something like that. “You can pick locks?”

“It was something that I caught a glance at in a movie,” he answered, explaining in a nonchalant way.

Raven handed him a paperclip, and then said, “Will you be able to pick the lock from the scenes you saw in the movie?”

A few minutes later, Ray managed to pick the lock, and they were in.

“I guess so,” he said, seeming a bit overconfident.

He pushed the door open, and raised his pistol and flashlight in both of his hands as they entered the room. After a quick search, they discovered no one was in the room with them as they entered. However, they did just strike gold in their investigation. The room held the backup servers for the entire facility from the looks of it.

Raven whistled, “Damn, looks like we just struck gold. Good job, Ray.”

Raven and Ray began inspecting the four servers that were in the room for any signs of damage, still wearing their black leather gloves so they don’t leave any of their own fingerprints behind. Electrical shorts were possible, since the assailants did damage the power grid during their raid. Ray was more of a techno buff than Raven was, but she did know how to spot a short, or singe marks from a spark.

After a few minutes of inspecting the servers, Ray finally said, “Well, it appears that they were able to weather the attack. But, we’ll know more once we have had a chance to open them up and see if they have anything that could be of use to us.”

Raven nodded and then said, “Arrange for the servers to be taken back. We don’t have the equipment to go through them here. If the company complains about this, tell them they’re evidence for a possible security breach.”

Ray whipped out his phone and replied, “You got it.”

As he began to talk on the phone with the team outside, Raven decided to head back up to the first floor to see if Sheri had picked up on anything, hoping she may have picked up on something to get a clue as to who could have done all this.

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Raven wandered the hallways of the first floor, as she looked to find Sheri. She was a little concerned since she didn’t answer the radio call. In Raven’s mind, this could only mean one of two things: one, which could be that Sheri was deep in some kind of trance while she got a reading on the objects she was holding, or two, that she was captured by forces that the raiders could have left behind and had kept hidden from the military. Raven was hoping it was the former and not the latter, if not they would have even more problems.

As she looked inside the genetics lab, along the route she was taking to check each room, she found Sheri finally. She was just coming out of a trance as she put a scorched notebook back down onto the countertop.

Raven cleared her throat, and Sheri turned to the doorway and said, “Oh, Raven, I didn’t see you there.”

“I called you on the radio a couple of times,” Raven said, looking concerned.

“Sorry, whenever I use my abilities, I go into a trance-like state. It tends to block out most things at times, and that must have been one of those times.”

“Ah,” Raven said, trying to understand. “What have you found out?”

Sheri sighed as she recalled the memories of images she had obtained from her part of the investigation. “There was a struggle between some thugs and the scientists. It appears that the raiders were after the scientists for some reason. One of the scientists was holding this notebook, when they saw their colleague being dragged out of the room against their will,” she said somberly.

“The scientist was still holding it when they saw an emerged throw a fireball at the walls, and at the security guards.”

“Anything else?” Raven said, looking concerned.

Sheri continued, after letting the first part settle in, “There were glimpses of the scientists conducting their research. I don’t recall much of that though.”

Raven thought for a second, and then said, “It appears they were after the scientists then, probably for the knowledge in the field that they specialized in.”

“That would be my guess,” Sheri answered, hoping their guessing was close to the truth. It was sad knowing that these people died doing their jobs.

Raven sighed, and put her hand on her head to rub her temple as she tried to figure everything out. For the moment, things didn’t quite make sense. She thought, ‘Why go to all the trouble to trash a genetics research facility only to capture a few scientists.’

Sheri and Raven made their way back out to the command post. Raven was anxious to hear what the others had discovered in their interviews, and hoped maybe that there was more to help them figure out what had exactly happened.

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As Raven and the rest of her team were emerging from the ruins of the genetics lab and examining the entrance, Rita and Tina were just finishing up the interviews with the survivors; Max had gone over to the investigative command post to act as a liaison between the Center and the local authorities. Max went over to reluctantly do this after Tina had assured that she and Rita would be fine, considering that they always had an armed guard with them as they interviewed the witnesses.

Rita was looking a little tired, due to erasing some of the memories of the witnesses, while Tina was looking over her notes one more time before she told Raven what the two of them uncovered. Rita was only erasing memories that Tina didn’t get a feeling that they were trying to cover something up.

“Hmm…,” said Tina, as she continued to go through her notes.

“What?” Rita replied, sounding even more tired than she looked.

“Judging by what these people are telling me, I’m thinking something doesn’t quite add up here.”

“Did you jot down what emotions they were feeling as you questioned them?” Rita asked Tina.

“Of course,” Tina replied.

The look on her face shifted until she hit a moment of realization. She quickly flipped through the legal pad where she had kept notes on the interviews until she came across one of the other scientists. She quickly glanced through her notes, and looked at what she wrote when she observed the person’s behavior.

She grabbed Rita by the arm and said, “C’mon, we need to tell Raven this now!”

The two of them rushed over to the entrance to the ruined lab, as the other three were talking with the local authorities to transport the servers back to the Center. The investigative field agent walked off a small distance from Raven, so they can phone where to drop the evidence off just as the other two reached Raven’s position.

“Raven!” Tina said, with a raised voice to get Raven’s attention.

Raven was caught a little off guard as she was dealing with that field agent who didn’t seem to want to let this case go, even though the Department of Homeland Security was taking over the investigation. The agent was trying to appeal to his boss to try to keep his team in the loop, but he didn’t appear to be having much luck.

“Yes, Tina, what did you find out from your interviews?”

Tina flipped through her legal pad to the summary page and reported, “Most of the people there didn’t catch much of the assailants. They heard explosions going off, which could have been some of the combustible chemicals exploding. Most of the people just tried to run out of the building as fast they could, after locking down and backing up their research.”

Raven nodded, and then said, “Did anyone catch a glimpse of the attackers?”

Tina nodded and added, “A few people did. They were dressed in what was described as black combat gear by a couple of the surviving security guards.”

“Black combat gear?” Raven replied, looking a bit confused.

“Yes,” Tina continued, “from what the guard described, it is like the gear that we are usually outfitted with before a pickup, however, there’s was completely back from head to toe.”

“Any weapons on them?” Raven said, asking the next logical question.

“None. The guards only saw a headset on them, in terms of technology. However, in terms of abilities, I’d say we’re looking at a variety of different psychokinetics.”

“What kind of variety?” Raven asked, after hearing that they were dealing with a variety of psychokinetics.
“From what they saw,” Tina said, while flipping to another page, “One pyro, one hydro, and one aerokinetic.”

Raven nodded, as that would account for some of the damage in the lab.

Sheri quickly added, “Well, the pyrokinetic makes sense, given from one of the visions that I saw.”

Raven said, “Yes, that does make sense. Anything else?”

“As a matter of fact, yes,” she said, flipping to another page in her pad. “One of the witnesses said they saw at least three scientists being carried off by another assailant that looked like they were nothing but muscle. There was a fifth person as well, who acted like he was better than the other four and like he had some sort of smug attitude.”

Ray chipped in, “Well, could that fifth person have been some sort of telepath.”

Raven asked, “Did they get a good look at the scientists that were carried off?”

Tina replied, “I’m afraid so. They were this facility’s top researchers in the field of gene therapy. But, I’m not sure what that is.”

“Gene therapy is a very new technique that is currently being pioneered to treat genetic disorders,” Raven said, as she sighed deeply. “It works by using a virus to deliver a gene to repair a bad gene, or even to insert genes into a person’s genome.”

“Meaning?” asked Ray, hoping she would speak in something more English than what she was speaking.

“It means that someone out there, maybe trying to artificially create their own emerged. Probably for some reason that I’m pretty sure that we are not going to like.”

Everyone groaned and looked very nervous and scared about the prospect that was just given to them just now; the idea that someone could be doing this was dangerous.

As they headed back towards the command post, Tina said, “There was also one more thing. One of the scientists, whom we interviewed, seemed off to me.”

“Off? How?” Raven asked, looking concerned about hearing this and what it could mean.

“Well, from the emotions I could feel him giving off, it seemed like he was holding information back, and his story didn’t completely jive with the other witnesses. He seemed to be off and I began to wonder what
he could be hiding.”

Raven turned to Rita and asked, “Did you erase his memories?”

Rita shook her head, and said, “No, I was feeling tired after several of the others, so I couldn’t get to him yet.”

“I want him transported back to the Center for further questioning. I want a telepath in the room, so we can get some information out of this person. We may have caught the inside man in this operation.”

“How do you figure he’s an inside man?” Ray asked.

“I’m not sure if he’s the inside man, but his story doesn’t add up and he appears to be withholding information from us. That points to him having some kind of knowledge that we could use, and I’m pretty sure we could use all the information we can get at this point.”

Ray nodded, and the five of them made their way back over to the command post to see if Max had found anything.

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The five of them found Max looking over a few DVDs at the command post’s electronic area. Max appeared to be engrossed in the contents of those discs. He had a headset on his head as he tried to listen for anything that could be significant on those discs.

Raven went up to him, put her hand on his shoulder, and said, “Found anything interesting?”

Max jumped when Raven touched him, and then sighed after he turned and saw who it was that had startled
him.

“Don’t do that to me again, please,” he said, breathing harder than normal, and hoping his heartbeat would go back to normal quickly.

“All right, I’ll try not to,” Raven said, putting her hands up, trying to look innocent.

Max took a deep breath and then said, “So, what’s up?”

“Well, I was going to ask you if you had found anything.”

“Oh,” Max replied, “I believe so. I’ve been reviewing the security camera footage that the security firm has. They are owned by the corporation that owns the lab and the security firm. They sent the footage
right over to us.”

“Okay, is there something of value on the tapes?” she asked nicely.

“I believe so,” Max replied, turning around and queuing up the footage that he deemed important to their investigation.

“At about nineteen hundred hours last night, two unmarked black SUVs pulled up to the gates of the facility. After the guards at the gate confronted them, the guards were quickly shot with what appears to be a pistol from here. The SUVs then continued up to the facility unhindered and seemed to be making good time.”

Max queued up the cameras that were positioned on the front of the building. He then continued, “Five people emerged from the cars after they pulled up. One guy, with a bunch of muscles burst down the front door. A young woman, who appears to be a pyrokinetic, unleashed a few fireballs at the wall, creating their own entrance, which was odd since they had just broke down the door. A fifth person, who resembled
a young woman and walked with a lot of swagger, followed the muscle guy.”

He queued through the footage again, skipping parts that they caught on was not important, all the while saying, “The psychokinetics, a pyro, a hydro, and an aerokinetic, went on a rampage through the facility attempting to trash the place and destroy anything of value.”

“However, the muscle guy and the swaggering woman went straight for the labs where the missing geneticists were working. It was as if they knew exactly where those three were, and were the objective of their raid. I have a feeling that there is something we are missing because they seem to have some knowledge of where things were.”

Raven just felt like her throat plummeted into her stomach. She thought to herself, ‘It looks like some of the pieces of this puzzle are coming together finally.’

As they were watching the footage, Raven saw something that caught her eye.

“Wait! Go back a few minutes,” she said after something caught her eye had been skipped.

Max rewound the footage of the man with muscles shouldering the three scientists. Raven then said, “Watch the woman.”

The woman they had seen before moved through the lab’s desk drawers, looking for something. Eventually, she came across three heavy binders. She pulled them out of the desk, and then carried them with her as she followed the muscle guy back out of the lab.

“Apparently whoever these five people are, they or their employer wanted the scientists as well as their research,” Tina commented.

“Yeah, which corroborates with what we already know about what happened here,” Raven added, to help catch everyone else up.

They looked through the footage at what the psychokinetics were doing during their rampage for a few more minutes before Raven sighed.

“I think we should get that witness and what evidence we can pull off the servers back to the Center for analysis as quickly as we can. We’ll bring the footage back with us, since that also gives us a timeline of the events that happened here, which will help instead of us trying to make educated guesses.”

The rest of the team nodded, and they began to prepare for their return with what they had learned at the scene of the crime.

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A few hours later, the team’s SUVs pulled into the Center complex. Kristyn was at the entrance of the building to greet them.

“What did you learn?” she asked, as Raven closed the door to the vehicle she was in.

“I think it would be best if I told you in private,” Raven replied.

Kristyn looked concerned; however, she merely nodded and said, “My office in thirty minutes then. Make sure you get cleaned up before you do though. Believe me, it does wonders for the nerves.”

Raven nodded, as she watched Kristyn reenter the main building. Raven continued to oversee the delivery of the evidence recovered from the site to the laboratories. She watched as a few army noncoms escorted the scientist that was under suspicion from that lab was being led from the SUV to an interrogation room for questioning later. She couldn’t help but wonder if Kristyn would be doing the interrogating or someone else that she did or didn’t know She also wondered what kinds of things he would be put through. Raven thought about all she had learned at the crime scene, and what she might learn after she had a chance to see what was on the files contained on the backup servers. However, she decided to get a quick shower and a change of clothes before she went to Kristyn’s office to deliver her report.

She slipped into her room after the evidence was secured, grabbed her towel and toiletries, and then headed to the showers with a deliberate haste, knowing that she didn’t have much time to shower. Raven thought that she needed a nice hot shower after working at the ruined genetics facility.

As the warm water caressed her body, Raven’s thoughts began to wander. She thought of the ruined genetics facility and what those raiders would want with the scientists. She didn’t know a lot about the new technique of gene therapy; however, she now had more than a passing interest in it and she knew she would study to learn as much as she could about this new technique.

As she ran her hands through her shampoo-filled hair, she thought back over the events that had put her in this situation. For the last two months, she had been adjusting to the fact that she was now a beautiful teenage girl with powers over plants and to top it all off, had suddenly become the leading researcher at a top secret government facility on people that were just like her.

She giggled to herself at the notion of someone telling her that this was where she would end up here two months ago. She would’ve thought they were crazy and directed them to the nearest mental institution, and most likely would have given them directions so that they could take care of. She thought to herself, ‘Well, I will say this about the emergence. I am definitely happier now than where I started out at.’

After enjoying the warm water for a few minutes after washing her hair with conditioner, she headed back for her room to change into more professional looking clothes. She had tossed her combat fatigues that were lying on the floor down the laundry chute, thankful that there was no fight at the scene. She didn’t mind wearing them, she just hoped that she wouldn’t have to wear them often.

She looked around in her closet for her professional clothes, and rapidly found them. She changed into them quickly, and started to brush her hair out. She smirked, as the thought of brushing her hair out amused her. With her thinking about the way things were right now, she never thought that she would have hair this long or this beautiful to brush, and she was still amazed by it. As she held her hair in her hands, she wondered if she could ever think of herself the way she was before she emerged. It seemed her old life was so long ago and in a different world.

After finishing with her hair, she slipped on a pair of three inch heels, and headed for Kristyn’s office. She sighed as her thoughts turned away from her own quick self-inspection and reflection, and to the real issues at hand.

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Kristyn’s secretary just motioned for Raven to enter her office when she appeared in front of her. Raven took a deep breath, smoothed out her clothes, and went inside, hoping that she looked professional enough. Kristyn was sipping some water, and motioned for Raven to take a seat.

“Well, you cleaned up quickly,” she commented, making a nice observation and hoping this would make Raven feel a little more at ease.

“I figured I needed a good scrub after trudging through that building,” Raven replied.

Kristyn laughed a little. “I don’t doubt it. Could you please tell me about the facility.”

“The first and second floors were essentially destroyed. Only a few things in the labs and the administration rooms were left intact at all. The basement, however, was largely intact. The only things of value that we were able to recover were the backup servers for the lab’s mainframe, which were found in the basement. The people who attacked the lab didn’t seem to care about what was in the basement.”

“We’re securing the servers in the computer lab as we speak, and will get some of our top techies on the job to break into them,” Kristyn commented, “Hopefully, we will see what data is on the computer that we can use and anything else that could be important. What did the interviews with the survivors reveal?”

“Most of them didn’t see too much and seemed to have problems trying to recall anything. Tina thought that they were frightened for their lives, during the attack and who could blame them. From what they remembered the psychokinetics went through the facility destroying whatever they could, while a guy with a lot of muscles and an another woman, who was described as walking with a very strong swagger, went directly for a group of scientists and their research.

“From reviewing the information on who was working on what at that research facility, we have discovered that those three scientists were working in the new field of gene therapy and doing some big research in that area.”

“Gene therapy?” Kristyn asked, looking a bit confused.

Raven sighed, as she began to explain as best she could. “Gene therapy is a technique where DNA is inserted into a cell to replace a defective gene. The DNA can be inserted through a variety of means, including via a virus. It’s an amazing thing if you know what it can do.”

“Okay…,” Kristyn said, as she was trying to follow Raven’s explanation, hoping for more.

“Based on what I have seen so far, I would have to guess that someone has sent out a team to capture those scientists for some nefarious scheme they have planned. My guess would have to be replicating the original incident that transformed all of us, but on much larger scale. I hope that I’m wrong, but that is what I have right now.”

It looked like all the color had drained from Kristyn’s face when she heard Raven’s guess. She leaned back into her chair, took a deep breath, and rubbed her hands over her face. She took a quick drink of her water, and then sighed.

“Let’s hope that is not what they have in mind, but we should begin taking measures to deal with that situation should it arise at some point, or if your theory is even at all possible.”

Raven agreed to that assessment and hoped that she was very wrong. She wondered and hoped that the evidence that they brought back with them would help to debunk her theory.

“So, why did you bring that one scientist back with you?” Kristyn said, dragging Raven from her mind for a bit.

“I believe Tina got a bad vibe when she was interviewing him. From the way she described it, it was like he was withholding information from us. I didn’t like hearing that when she implied it, so I figured it would be best to question him.”

Kristyn nodded, and then replied, “Hopefully, he knows something that could lead us to the group that kidnapped those missing scientists and what they could possibly be planning. With any luck, he gives us enough of a heads up on whatever is going on to try and stop it.”

“Indeed,” Raven added, hoping to contribute to whatever plan Kristyn was beginning to formulate.

“Well, is there anything else that you feel like I need to know about?”

“Not much. Max confirmed what some of the witnesses said about the assailants after he reviewed some of the security footage we obtained from the firm who managed their security. They quickly and happily gave it to us.”

“Then how did those five get past the security that night?”

“They apparently had some foreknowledge of the facility and knew exactly when and where to hit them. The
footage also showed them quickly dealing with the guards before one of them could raise the alarm.”

“Sounds like we’re dealing with a highly organized group of people who control their own set of emerged. Also, it seems like they were able to plan their assault extremely well, and are well connected based on what resources they were using.”

Raven nodded in agreement, and then said, “Will there be anything else?”

“Not at the moment,” Kristyn said, “go grab a bite to eat and then start analyzing the evidence you brought back. I’ll talk with Colonel Harris about setting up the interrogation of your suspect. Good work out there, you did a good job. Now, we need to figure out what to do with the situation we find ourselves in.”

Raven smiled and then left the room to go get something to eat. She was definitely craving some fried chicken and mashed potatoes right about now, and happy to finally being able to satisfy that craving..

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A few days later, Raven was still bashing her head against the encrypted servers. She was having little success using what security programs that the Center had given her. Although she knew a good deal about computers, she did not have the ability to crack the encryptions or do much besides some of the basics. She had stopped by the cafeteria to pick up some coffee, hoping that it will give her an energy boost, before she decided to ask Kristyn for some books on hacking, thinking she should be able to pick a few things up from one of them.

Raven believed that she could teach herself how to hack, but realized that it would take a few months at least. Kristyn was pressuring her to break into those systems as quickly as she could, due to the potential threat on the horizon if those scientists were forced to work for whoever had kidnapped them. She sighed as she knew this was important, but didn’t want to give up or do this as quickly as they wanted.

As Raven reentered her laboratory after her coffee run, she saw Kristyn and an attractive blonde girl she didn’t recognize talking with each other. Raven sipped her coffee and said, “Kristyn, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Well, I was in the neighborhood and I decided to pop down here to see how you were progressing on the servers,” she replied, with an inquisitive tone, as well as hoping that things were going better.

Raven sighed, and then reported, “I haven’t been able to make much headway I’m afraid.”

Raven walked over to the servers, and her terminal that she was working at, and brought up her attempts in the computer log.

“As you can see,” Raven said, indicating to the logs, “I haven’t had much luck.”

“That’s because you haven’t tried to find the backdoor that they installed into their firewall,” the blonde girl said. She quickly added, “Or you can try to trick the computer into thinking you’re an administrator running a simple diagnostic on the systems, if you need to make your own back door.”

Raven looked quizzical at the girl and then said, with a bit of an attitude, “And how would you know all of that?”

The girl started turning red, and then said embarrassingly, “I know my way around computers.”

Raven still looked perplexed and then Krisytn, noticing a potential problem, said, “Raven, may I introduce Chloe Snape, one of our newest arrivals. She’s what we’ve dubbed a technokinetic.”

“May I have a go at it?” Chloe asked, hoping to help her out.

Raven stood up from her chair, while Chloe sat down and began typing frantically at the keyboard. Various windows were being brought up over the screen as Chloe worked. Raven was impressed that Chloe wasn’t even glancing at her hands every now and again to make sure she wasn’t missing a single keystroke. Chloe also seemed to have rapidly developed the perfect rhythm to interface with the servers.

“Technokinetic?” Raven asked, looking confused at Kristyn.

“Yes,” Kristyn explained. “Apparently they have a connection to computers beyond many of the best experts in the field.”

“Is it similar to how you can manipulate electricity, or how I can manipulate plants?” Raven asked.

“That’s our current theory.”

“And I’m in,” Chloe said, out of the nowhere.

Kristyn and Raven both turned to Chloe, and she indicated on the monitor the available file directories that she had gained access to.

“Wow,” Raven said, sounding very surprised, “that was fast and very well done.”

“I’m already copying the files to our directory for further inspection, but that will take some time.”

“Okay, let me know when you’re done,” Kristyn and Raven said at the same time.

They looked at each other, and giggled at their antic. Kristyn then took Raven off to the side and then said to her, “So, what do you think of her?”

“Well,” Raven began, “she has a lot of skill with computers, and she seems to be somewhat comfortable with herself, even though she still has a lot of male mannerisms, so I’m guessing she is still adjusting to her
new body.”

Chloe was sitting in the chair with her legs apart, while she was wearing the skirt that the uniform had. They both could not help but wonder if they had been like that in the beginning.

“We can work on that,” Kristyn said. She then added, “But, I think she would make a wonderful addition to your team.”

“I think so, too,” Raven replied, seeing the value that Chloe could bring to the table.

“Good, then consider her the first member of your team. Do you have any other candidates lined up?”

“Not at the moment. I’ve been so focused on the job, that I’ve been neglecting reading the rest of the student dossiers,” she honestly replied, and realized that she should worry about this now.

Kristyn rolled her eyes. “Well, when you get a free moment, I strongly suggest you begin to look over them. You still have some gaps to fill on your team; however, I think you could use a chemist and an engineer.”

“Yeah, I think those would be the best additions to the team, too,” Raven agreed.

Kristyn nodded, “I want your suggestions for those positions in two days time.”

“Understood,” Raven answered.

Kristyn turned and headed out of the room, and Raven took another deep breath and went over to talk with Chloe about what she dug up.

---------

Chloe had determined that there had been hundreds of gigabytes stored on the lab’s servers, ranging from the simple business operations of the facility to the various experiments and research that was being conducted there on a daily basis. She had already extracted and downloaded all the information that was salvageable concerning the experiments and gave that data to Raven to analyze. She also extracted their email records, and gave those to Miss Fine in the hopes that something could be used to get the leverage they needed on their prisoner or anyone else.

Raven and Chloe were both in the lab, at that moment. Chloe was trying to recover and rebuild some of the corrupted data. Raven was plowing through the logs of the three missing scientists, trying to figure out what plans their kidnappers had concerning them and their talents and why only these three out of all the scientists there.

Raven was impressed with the work that they were trying to achieve. Although she only had some knowledge of gene therapy, she knew enough that it could be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands, or extremely beneficial if used properly. However, as she was going through the research, she could tell that some of the information was just out of her league and would definitely need some help figuring it out.

The team of scientists, whom were now identified as Dr. Alistair Tomlinson, Dr. Michelle Prema, and James Tiber, each specialized in a different field. Dr. Tomlinson was one of the leading pioneers in the field of gene therapy, after spending a majority of his career in genetic engineering. Dr. Prema’s doctorate was in the field of neurobiology, and she had done extensive work in characterizing various neurotransmitters in humans. James Tiber, a recent master’s graduate, completed his thesis in the field of endocrinology.

Raven was amazed by the group as she also began to review papers that the three of them had published throughout their scientific careers. She realized the three of them would be able to come up with some interesting breakthroughs in the emerging field of gene therapy. However, that’s what made their current situation even scarier than before.

Raven had also ordered a few textbooks on neurobiology and endocrinology, since those areas of biology were much more studied than gene therapy. She wondered if she could learn enough to help get a better idea of their research. Raven hoped that by studying the other players, and what they knew, involved in this research that she can help determine what else she could unravel about the research in general.

Time seemed to pass by as Raven just kept on reading the material, as well as making her own notes on what she had of the uncorrupted files of their research. The file corruption was leaving holes in the pattern of the research, and was making things harder for her to figure out. Raven was having a hard time following the research where there were gaps and large holes. However, she was trying her best to figure it out, and she hoped she was doing it well enough as she enjoyed learning all this new information.

Raven sighed and glanced at the clock and was surprised by what she saw. She groaned as she just realized she had been working for six hours straight, and had completely missed dinner and was very hungry. Sarah had come in earlier in the day with some lunch for Raven and told her what was going on around the school. Raven had been a bit reclusive as she worked, and Sarah thought that she would enjoy hearing about the latest gossip.

Raven looked over to the servers and saw that Chloe had left for the night, and wondered how long ago she left. She groaned and wondered how she could have let time get away from her so easily. She straightened up her notes, closed her binders, and left the lab for the night, intending to get an early start the next day.

She walked to the cafeteria for a pastrami sandwich, and then proceeded to eat it on the way back to her room. When she got there, she saw Sarah sleeping on her bunk. Raven grabbed the blanket at the foot of the bed, and reached over and covered Sarah with it. Raven smiled at seeing her peacefully sleep, as she knew that Sarah was putting in a lot of effort into her power training. Raven was wondering if that had something to do with the incident surrounding her first emergence, and had a hunch that it did. She made a mental note to talk to her about it later, and try to see if she realized that it wasn’t her fault and shouldn’t be working herself to death thinking about it.

Raven still couldn’t sleep even after the sandwich, so she had decided to pull out the dossiers of the possible candidates for the members of her team. She was hoping that if she completed that search that Kristyn would stop bugging her about it, and she also realized that she could use the help. Several of the people she looked at had strengths in some of the fields that she wanted on her team, but none of them really stood out to her. Eventually, the words of the dossiers began to run together as Raven passed out on her desk.

---------

Raven found herself in her laboratory with the blue glow of the emergency lights illuminating the scene. She left the room and saw that the hallway was deserted, with the lighting making the hallways seem creepier. She saw a fox standing in the hallway. When Raven approached it, it took off towards the administration area. Curiosity was getting the better of her, and she decided to follow the fox and head for the administration area to see what was going on, and what could possibly make the Center look like this. As she made her way there, she heard a loud, echoing caw throughout the facility. She recalled hearing that before, but she still couldn’t place it. She wondered where it had come from, and what had made it.

The administration area looked the same as the corridors, completely deserted and on emergency lighting, which added to the chill that ran down her spine. The fox headed into Kristyn’s office, and Raven decided to follow it in. She reasoned that if anyone knew what was going on, it would be Kristyn. When she opened the door, she gasped in surprise as she saw a large calico cat camped out on the couch in her office, but no sign of Kristyn. The cat looked as large as a tiger, and Raven thought for a moment if it was a tiger pretending to be a calico.

Raven heard that caw resonate throughout the building again when she stepped into Kristyn’s office. The cat perked up its ears when she heard the caw and then cast its gaze at Raven, as if it was a sign that Raven had arrived. The cat seemed to understand that Raven had come looking for answers.

“Uh? Nice kitty?” Raven said, nervously and keeping her focus on the cat..

The cat then said in Kristyn’s voice, “Stay on the path, and help the others.”

“Path? What path?” Raven asked, and was wondering why the cat was able to talk.

“Your journey has only just begun, and you will soon be taking flight. The Trickster will be with you soon,” the cat added, keeping the air of mystery surrounding her words.

“Trickster? Who is that?”

The cat winked at her, and then faded from view. Raven was a little surprised at the Cheshire cat routine, and didn’t think too much of it. She knew that the cat was trying to tell her something, although she had no clue as to what, and wondered if she would ever figure it out.

She turned around and headed out of office and nearly fell face first into a large pond of water. The pond had reeds and trees coming out of it, as well as all along the shoreline. The pond looked clear and pretty as it caught the sunlight. There were a few alligators nearby, snacking on some sort of animal. Raven looked around and couldn’t figure out where she was or where the pond had come from, or even if she was even in the Center anymore.

When she turned around, she was a large blast of energy hurling towards her, and within seconds of seeing the blast come at her, she awoke with a start in a cold sweat. She breathed deeply as she tried to catch her breath and realized that it was just a dream. The dream she just had was strange, and she wondered if meant anything. She decided to put it behind her and climbed into her bed to attempt to get what sleep she could before getting back to work. She figured that things would work out, however, she had other things to worry about that were more important.

---------

The next day, Raven was summoned to Kristyn’s office for a meeting concerning the suspect they currently had in custody from the genetics facility. After she sat down in front of Kristyn’s desk, Kristyn said, “We have finally managed to get some information out of your suspect that you brought in. His name is Doctor Henry Charlin. He’s also a researcher in the field of gene therapy. However, he is considerably less talented than Dr. Tomlinson, and felt very jealous of his abilities.”

Raven let the information sink in for a bit and then nodded. She replied, “What else did he tell us?”

“Tina’s and your assumptions that he was the inside man of the operation was completely right. He was able to give the raiders everything they needed to kidnap those three scientists, as well as the ability to get in and get out without too much trouble. However, he doesn’t have any idea of where they have taken the three of them.”

“Damn,” Raven said.

“However, he did mention to us that he was supposed to go somewhere if he wasn’t apprehended by us: The Eternal Bog of Youth at 25th North and 81st West.”

“Now that’s interesting. Any luck on trying to figure out what that could mean?” Raven asked hoping to have some idea on what it could mean.

“Not yet, but Miss Fine is looking into the possibilities at the moment,” Kristyn replied, making it clear that they were going to find something.

“What’s your plan after we have an idea of where they may have been taken and what may be done with them?”

“We’re currently working on that. We may need your team, since they will have a very good standing on
what is going on. Have you had any luck in assembling it?” Kristyn asked.

Raven looked prepared to answer that question, since she had a better idea of who she wanted on her team. She had finished looking over the dossiers before breakfast, and wrote up the short list of people she wanted.

“I believe so. Here are some names of the people that I would want added to my team, if possible,” she said, handing Kristyn a piece of paper with names on it, along with their areas of expertise.

Kristyn quickly looked through the list, and smiled after reading through it. “I’ll see what I can do.”