Synopsis:Sarah received a call from Steve Grangers sister Kelly. He is ready to meet Sarah but in a place of his own chosen, but Sarah must meet him alone. Sarah may have finely found an ally in her fight there is only one problem, can she trust him or is she walking into a trap, only time will tell.

I spent most of it last night hanging out with my friends. There was really nothing else that I could do at the moment everything was at a stand still. I just hoped that once I met with Steve, I would have an idea what to do next. But at the moment, I was lost and didn’t know what the next move should be. The thought had come to me to send copies of the files out to the press, but I wanted to wait until I had a chance to talk with Steve Granger, it was possible he had other information that would help.

It was getting close to the time that I was supposed to meet with Steve, so I started getting dressed and made sure that I had my bulletproof vest on under my jacket, Inside my purse, I had a can of mace and my tazer. I was about as ready as I was going to be. When I talked with Adam on the phone last night and explained what was going on, he was pretty worried and wanted to come along. But I explained to him that if anyone else was there Steve would likely run, and I couldn’t risk that. After work though, Adam dropped off his car and drove back with Megan and the girls. So at least I had transportation.

The drive to Burnaby Mountain Park was a long one, but I was able to make it there earlier then expected, which was good because the place that Steve choose to meet me was a fair walk from where I parked the car. The closer that I found myself to the spot where we were supposed to meet, the more nervous I felt inside. But I knew that I had to do this and continued on until I was at the spot that Kelly mentioned, there was a bench there.

I took a seat and waited as I sat there for what seemed like forever, but in truth it was only about 15 minutes when I saw a man walking towards me and took a seat on the bench next to me.

“You must be Sarah, you are not what I expected.”

I looked over at him, “Nice to finely meet you, Steve.”

Steve looked over at me then asked, “How did you find out about me, Sarah?”

“I took Anna’s laptop and her journals, they eventually led me to you.”

“So what happened? Why are they hunting you?”

I looked over at Steve, “There was a malfunction and the nanites took on a life of there own refusing to accept orders and when that happened I became expendable.”

“Makes sense, the last thing they would want is another rouge agent running loose.”

“You seem different then what they said about you in the files.”

Steve frowned, “The information is mostly true, I am alright for the most part,but something happens when my emotions take over and the nanites inside me take over and they overwhelm me. People have died because I couldn’t control myself.”

"That sucks."

“So, what do you plan on doing? They're not going to stop hunting you. I know this from personal experience. They will keep coming after you till they succeed.”

“I think with the files that I have I can expose them to the press, but that would only shut them down for a short time then someone else would continue there work. I would rather take the fight to them and destroy everything, but I can’t do it alone, Steve.”

“Your right, Sarah. There is no way that either of us could do this alone, but you are just a child, you may have those nanites, but can you really use them? It took me 3 years to master mine and even then there are times that I still loose control.”

I thought about what he said, it was true that whenever I was able to call on those abilities, it took most of my strength and I couldn’t maintain the use of them very long. And the fact that when they had kicked in they were motivated by fear and the use of them had cost the lives of two people..Anna was still alive, but she was lucky. My motivation wasn’t to kill her, just take the information she had away from her.

“Your right, I don’t have complete control. But I am a fast learner. You can teach me what I need to know. Then the two of us can take them down. What do you think?”

“If I agree to do this, then what I say goes. I don’t have time to waste, just like you, every moment I am out there is a chance of being discovered. God help us if they found out the two of us were working together.”

I thought about that he said. If they found out the two of us were working together, they would most like send everything that had at the two of us. If the two of us were working together as a team, they would have good reason to be worried.

“Do you have a safe place where we can train?”

“I am hiding out in a cottage outside of town; it’s quiet there and has lots of room, your welcome to hide out there so we can train.”

“Alright, Sarah what’s the address. I will meet you there, I have a lot of loose ends that need to be taking care of, first.”

After I gave him the address the two of us went our separate ways. As I walked back to the car, I thought about what he said, to him, I was just a child. Maybe physically I was, but inside was also a man with over 40 years of life experience. I knew that the world we lived in was dangerous and unforgiving I had experienced it first hand.

After arriving back at the cottage, I setup a room for Steve to use and placed clean linen on his bed. I ended liking him, he seemed really sincere and admitted the fact the file was not a complete lie. But in truth, was he really the one responsible, or was it his nanites. As for myself, I had seen first hand how powerful they could be. It wasn’t really his fault, it was just easier to say he was a monster. But in truth, they had created him. So who was the real monster? It defiantly wasn’t Steve.

It was around 4:P.M. when I heard a car pulling into the drive and parking out front. I went to the window and took a look outside. I didn’t recognize the car, and whoever it was moved pretty fast because I didn’t even see anyone exit it. I immediately started thinking the worst and before I knew what was happening, my fear had started to take over and inside me, I started feeling really funny and knew that it had to be my nanites doing something. It was at that moment someone came running at me through the back of the house.

I felt a slight pain forming in my head and all the sudden, an en energy blast flow across the room hitting the intruder. But to my surprise, his arm came up and blocked my attack while at the same time dispersing the energy from the blast. Then came at me again, this time the attack was a physical one, and before I had a chance to respond, he had my head in some kind of hold and said, "If I wanted you dead, Sarah, you would already be dead in shock,"

"Steve?"

He then releases me with a push forward and as I turned around to face him, he removed his ski mask and before me all dressed in black was Steve Granger.

“What the hell did you think you were doing?”

“It was a test, Sarah, and if it had been anyone else you would also be dead."

"Oh."

“What were the thoughts that went through your head before the attack?”

“I was feeling mostly fear and anxiety.”

Steve looked at me, ”Yhen what?”

“I felt funny inside, then as you came at me there was pain in my head.”

 
What you felt was your nanites becoming active, they recognized a threat and were preparing you for an attack. The problem was you needed to take control and choose an action, but you were to afraid. o instead of acting, you ended up reacting to the attack. The nanites took over and did what they thought was needed to be done. Had you took control they would have responded to your wishes."

“I am pretty new to all this, and I didn’t really come with a user manual.”

“That is why you are lucky to have found me, I had to learn all this stuff on my own.”

The first thing you need to do is to start listening to what your body is telling you, the nanites have enhanced all of your senses. Take a deep breathe and prepare yourself for what is coming, but always stay in control. Otherwise, you may end up killing someone. That energy blast of ours is one hell of a good weapon, but what if it had been Adam coming though that door, he would likely be dead."

“How do you know about Adam?”

“Like you Sarah, I did my own investigating.”

I looked over at Steve,” So, how did you block my energy blast? That was pretty cool.”

“I have an enhanced exoskeleton, it can take a lot of abuse, I also have learned from being hit with tazers that I can absorb the energy. It was a real pain, though the first few times, but the nanites are capable of adapting and learning new things. I would imagine yours can do a lot more beside just an energy blast.”

“I can do a few things, I have enhanced memory, speed and strength. I can control a person, but I don’t like doing that because it drains me and the energy blast.”

"Sarah, that energy blast of your is more then it appears, it’s not exactly energy. I think it could be a form of telekinesis and if that is the case, you should be able to use it to do other things, like move objects. I am guessing that the nanites enhanced your brain and you can now use more of it then a normal person could.

I looked over at Steve, “If you could have complete control of your abilities without the rage taking over, would you be interested”

Steve looked over at me,” Of course I would, but that’s impossible!”

"Maybe it was, but not anymore. I have a friend, he is a doctor. I asked him about you. I was looking for a way to fight you if things didn’t go right. He gave me a drug to knock you out, but anyway, he said that our nanites are most likely compatible. If we inject you with some of mine, it is possible that they would overwrite yours."

“It’s possible! How do we know that they will not also copy over your programming and if that happens, it could lead to major trouble. I think it is best to wait and see what your doctor friend can find out first before jumping into anything.”

I thought about what Steve had said. It was true, we really didn’t know what the effect would be, it was best to stay on the cautious side of things in time being. Dr. Picard would know more about how they worked and maybe come up with some way to reprogram them, but for the moment, the two of us were in control, and it was best to keep it that way. I did learn one thing though, I had along ways to go before I was as good a fighter as Steve, but it appeared that I would have a good teacher.

Later that night, Megan drove over with Adam. I introduced them to Steve. Everyone got along well enough, although I could see that Adam didn’t really like the idea of another man living with me. I had to take him aside later that night and explain to him that Steve was training me and that there was only one man that I was interested in, that man was him. After that, he seemed to warm to the idea that I had someone there to protect me while he was away, and to be honest, I was happy that Steve was here too.

After Adam and I returned we found Megan and Steve over at the computer. She was showing him the file that they had on him, he just shook his head and said most of it is true, but some of it had been fabricated, some of the locations in the file he had never even lived in. It just showed that you can’t always believe everything that you read. Megan and Adam couldn’t stay very long, she had mostly come to give Adam a lift to retrieve his car and both of them needed to be home before 11:P.N., so we all had a good visit and they were on their way.

The next morning, I was awakened early by Steve, and the two of us went for a morning run around the lake and back. It was a good hour, before we made it back to the cottage. After having breakfast, the two of us went outside.

"Sarah, most soldiers in the army use a combination of: boxing, Mauy Tai and Jujitsu. Today, we are going to start with the boxing and eventually move onto the others. The more that we practice, the faster you will learn. As far as your condition goes, the nanites should take care of that. We just need to get you to the point where you can handle yourself in a fight, because there maybe a time where you can’t depend of the nanites to protect you. When that happens, it will be up to you."

So, for the next couple of hours, Steve worked with me showing me the different blocks and punches. Like he said, because of my enhanced memory, I remembered all of it and found myself enjoying myself. As the days went on, I found myself becoming quiet proficient with the boxing, eventually we got to the point where Steve and I were sparing against one another. Usually when this happened, I would end up spending most of my time on the mat, but I was finely starting to hold my own with him. I still ended up loosing, but a week later I held my own with him. He then said that I was finished my boxing training, we were going to move onto the Mauy Tai.

I had thought that the boxing was tough, but Mauy Tai was brutal. Even with my enhancements, I still found myself sore, but I was thankful for my ability to heal. Without it, I would have spent weeks recovering, instead of days. For the most part, this was my life, running first thing in the morning, martial Arts during the day. Most nights, I would spend with my friends. Mom and Dad dropped in a few times, but were careful not to be followed, Steve and Dad became fast friends.

Mom and I talked for hours and she eventually accepted the fact that I wouldn’t likely be coming home anytime soon. I was still her daughter, but because of everything that happened, I was growing up fast.It was something that I had very little control of, but something told me that the two of us would always be close. Maybe once things got back to normal, we could have the mother daughter relationship that she wanted.

Being a fast learner, it took me a month to learn Mauy Tai and I did really well, then came the dreaded Jujitsu. I was lucky for the most part, my previous training had prepared me for most of it. It took about a month to learn, but Steve said that I was finished, now there was just one thing left that I needed to do. That was to put it all together into a form my own.

Steve and I headed into town to a gym, and the two of us started sparing against one another. It was a wild fight because it consisted of everything that he had taught me, In the end, I was able to defend myself against him and to my surprise, I won. Steve smiled and put his arm around me, "I am proud of you, Sarah. You are finely ready for whatever is thrown at you. I think it’s finely time to take the fight to them."

I smiled at Steve, “I am ready anytime you are."