Slade Industries Cailfornia Branch

Tristan's hand began moving rapidly as he let the vision was over him. "Paper!" He managed to call out before he was lost to the vision. His vision's usually came in random forms. This time he needed to see it and draw it.

Suddenly, He was standing in an old building. The day was clear and cloudless. He felt an odd presence surrounding him. Whatever it was, was anger, bitter and alone. There was a figure atop the building but Tristan couldn't make it out. He wanted to scream for it but the figure jumped. Quickly, Tristan ran for the body but there was nothing where the body would have fallen. A spirit. Tristan thought and was shot back to the present.
Holding his head, he said. "It was a residual spirit. Nothing to worry about." He said shaking off the effects of the vision.

Aaron listened while the others made plans for the day, one asked their leader about any new missions. 'This is a good question,' he thought, it had been months since his last one, mostly because he'd been there longer so they thought he would be able to handle the really dangerous stuff and nothing that terribly threatening had happened for a long while. He looked over and saw another one of the techies, Faith, sitting by herself. Of course this didn't surprise him because being a techie himself he knew the lure of a social life wasn't as strong as hacking into an elite system, but that's just him. He got up, placing the scone in his mouth to be carried and dropping off the newspaper and plate before heading towards the other computer geek.

He sat down with no words, across from Faith and chewed the mouthful of scone. She appeared to not have really noticed him all too much, which again was expected; she was wearing head phones and engrossed in her laptop. After a while of waiting, Aaron got bored, he never really was all to patient with other people, but with computers that was a different story.

"So Faith," he began, taking a sip of his ultra caffeinated coffee, "I have a new firewall for the industry and it passed the computer test and I was wondering if you could take a look at it? You know, try hacking it yourself and all." He wasn't sure if she had heard this and was nearly positive that he might have to repeat himself a couple more times before the girl would answer back. Until then he was as content as a cucumber just sitting there and drinking his coffee.

Jeong had her journal on her and handed it, along with a pen, to Tristan the minute he called for paper. She watched with worry as his hand moved across the paper. she began thinking about all the times she nearly lost Lucas, her rival or Tristan to a mission.

"It was a residual spirit. Nothing to worry about."

She was jolted out of her thoughts. "R-right..." She took the journal and pen from his hands before he held his head. She saw the building. She put two and two together and closed the journal. "Just tell me when you feel alright... You don't have to stay with me here... I can get Alex to take you back..." she told him, taking her hoodie off and looking back at him.

Peyton watched Tristan head off then looked around the room. She was feeling bored, though she got bored easily. She never has gotten close to anyone in the industry. They all seemed to have their own little cliques and she just never 'fit' into anyone one of them. She was still waiting for her own team to be formed, so she wasn't sent out on missions that much. She knew things about everyone in the industry, though they didn't know she knew. Things just came to her, she kept a notebook in her room of everyone in the industry. They where all locked up in her desk, her psychoscopy ability was one of her abilitys that she has had the hardest time getting under control. The easiest thing for her to do was write it down, maybe knowing all this stuff about her co-workers was what made it hard for her to 'fit' in.

She jumped off the counter as she finished the coffee. Putting the cup in the sink "im heading upstairs if anyone needs me" she said as she turned and headed for the hallway. Walking upstairs to her room, she grabbed a fresh notebook, turning on some country music, she sat on her bed and started writing down things that where coming to her mind.

"I'm fine," Tristan said shaking the soreness from his left wrist. He always hated when he needed to draw. He swore he'd have Carpel Tunnel before he's 20. It was then noticed the look on Jeong's face. "You think too loud," He said giving her a knowing glare. "Everyone's fine, Cap, no need to think about the past." He said, knowing precisly what she was thinking about, Without being a telepath, he could always knew what Jeong was thinking. "Don't you have some dancing to do?" He said throwing an arm over her shoulder.

Jeong merely nodded at Tristan and began walking. "I do, don't I..?" she smiled at him and walked backwards. "Sorry..." She turned and opened a door. Many guys were standing around talking. "Sorry, sorry, everyone! I got a call and I had to take it!" The back up dancers merely chuckled at their leader's silliness. "This is Tristan, a friend of mine! Now! Who's ready to get started?" The guys fist pumped and cheered. They quickly got everything ready. Jeong pointed to a chair. "You can watch from there." The boys were in position and ready. She hit play and the music began playing. "5, 6, 7, 8..!" The boys began dancing to Jeong's commands, like little puppets, which was the jist of the song, "Game of Life". Then Jeong joined them, dancing her part as the puppet master, her mouth moving with the song as she mock sang.

Sitting over a pentagram that she had sewn into her bedsheet, Skyler Stòn was nearly motionless in a yoga-style position (which she actually slept in every now and then) and talking to herself.

"지구 어머니,이 날을 통해 나를 안내. 나에게 안전을 가져와. 나에게 승리의 열매를 허용합니다."

This Skyler meditated on about once a week and repeated at least five times every session; she didn't have the organization to repeat her meditation daily when missions were about, but Charles hadn't assigned her team anything difficult recently, if anything. The mentor that taught her the meditation spoke Korean, too, and it was difficult understand the guy's English. She just started repeating his Korean mantra, and even though she ended up getting it translated as a wish for the earth to assure her good health, Skyler kept it in its original language out of respect.

Then her midsection rumbled; she'd almost forgotten breakfast!

"Whoops." A quick wave of her hand and a few specks of dust made a beeline all the way from Skyler's room to the kitchen. There, they wrapped around a couple slices of just-popped toast and disappeared with them. The golden-browned bread followed the faded trail until it took shape back in her readied hand. A bite from one... "It could use some cream cheese."

Tristan took a seat and sat back and watched Jeong dance. She was extremely good and the song was catchy too. He sat back and watched as she danced, nodded to the music. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a small girl. Sadie... He thought and ignored it. She always appeared after a vision. She'd been haunting him for years, always with those big dead eyes filled to the brim with desperation. She'd been the first spirit he'd ever seen and the only one he hasn't help. She'd sent her death to his mind in every dream he's had since he first saw her. He didn't want to think about her now and worry Jeong. He turned his attention Jeong and Sadie faded to the back of his thoughts.

The song ended and Jeong and grinning from ear to ear. Danncing or singing always made her feel better. She saw Tristan's eyes flutter off to the side and the seed of worry was planted again. She quickly covered it and turned to the dancers. "That was awesome! Everyone get the moves down?" the all nodded or something to that effect. "Good! I'm gonna take Tristan and head to recording! Keep practicing!" She tugged on Tristan's hand and moved them to the door. She threw the door open and there was Lulu with a towel and a bottle of water. Jeong merely took the towel and whipped her face off.

"Are you heading to Recording?" she nodded and drank deeply. "So you do listen to me... Well, head out. I'll meet you over there." Jeong donned the hoodie again and grinned. She saluted Lulu and went down the hall.

Watching everyone file in for breakfast made her somewhat wish she could be closer friends with them. Her roommate, Jeong, was much more social than Faith ever would be. Her eyes land on Lucas, normally Faith didn't let emotions get in the way of her work but Lucas had an aura about him that she couldn't help but be drawn in by. But, of course, she would never say anything... She notices Lucas was more looking towards Elle

Faith sighed, shrugging off her jacket, her razor back tank exposing her angel wing tattoos and she throws her jacket in her bag. Flicking the bangs out of her eyes, she looks up, realizing Aaron had been sitting there the entire time.

"So Faith," he began, taking a sip of his ultra caffeinated coffee, "I have a new firewall for the industry and it passed the computer test and I was wondering if you could take a look at it? You know, try hacking it yourself and all."

"Oh geez," She takes off her headphones and smiles a bit, "Hey Aaron....Sorry... I just..." he mentions something about the new firewall.

"Oh, yeah..." She smiles a bit, "I mean, I could definitely try."

Faith wan't one to toot her own horn about things, but she was an expert hacker. Of course Aaron was as much of an expert, maybe even better. She smiles a bit, taking a sip of her own coffee.

Tristan walked along side Jeong. He listened to Lulu whine about her listening and he found he really didn't like Lulu. "How do you deal with that everday?" He asked pointing with his thumb in the direction Lulu went. "She would drive me crazy." He said grabbing his throat pretending to throttle himself, laughing.

Jeong laughed at Tristan and grinned. "She drives me insane, well more insane, but she's good at what she does. She's a very good stick in the mud, I'll give her that..." She slung her arms over Tristan's neck and pulled him into a headlock before dragging him into a room. "Alright, so, seeing as how Howe isn't here, lazy bastard... You get to push the record button!" She released him and pointed to a switch. "Just hit that so the song starts and it'll flip back when it ends." she told him before opening the door to the recording booth. "I'll give you a thumbs up when I'm ready"

Tristan looked worried. "I seriously don't think I'm qualified to do this." He said and sat down in the producer's chair. "What the heck...?" He said looking around at all the buttons and toggles. "Uh, where's the record button again?" He asked rubbing the back of his head. He looked around to find the one she'd pointed to but it got lost in all the other switches. "Yeah, Jeong, I am so confused," He said with a laugh.

Jeong merely walked over and moved his hand to the correct switch before smiling. "This one, Tristan..." she murmured before walking into the booth and standing by the mic. She slipped the headphones over her ears and took a deep breath. She focused on the song, which was "Iroha Uta", one of her Japanese songs.

(Sorry... Writer's bloooooock...)

"Haha! I knew that!" Tristan joked, he pressed the record button and pressed play for the music to start. He gave her a thumbs up and waited for her to sing.

(There's a bad case of that goin' round)

Jeong began singing, her voice rising when it needed to. The song was beautiful but Jeong's voice added to it. She felt the little pinpricks of tears against her closed eyes but continued.

(Gai si! This is horrid!)

Tristan watched her sing. He was entranced by her singing. Though, he didn't understand what she was singing, he could feel it was something she felt deeply. He smirked and continued watching.

(I have no idea what Gai si means but I agree with you!)

As usual, Cassandra wasn't sleeping at five o'clock in the morning. Since she could only ever manage a whole four hours, maximum, of sleep per night she had a tendency to use the time she should have been sleeping to play around with her computer. Like now, for instance, she was still sitting at her desk, tapping on the keys lightly with her fingertips and scrolling down each page she came to, in an attempt to cure her boredom as her room mate moved about in the room around her. After a few more minutes of this she felt her stomach growl in protest, causing her to realize it had been quite some time since she had eaten last, and she closed the browser and turned the computer off.

Her room mate, Skyler, tended to meditate at least once a week, which she was doing now. It was something Cassandra found easy to ignore as she got up from her chair with a sigh and, after placing her earphones in her ears, she blasted her music. She carried her iPod around as she found a simple outfit to wear for the day; a pair of dark-washed skinny jeans with a white belt and a black tank top to match her jeans, not bothering to shower for the second time within the hours as she knew it was a waste of water and time. Cassandra pulled on a pair of mismatched ankle socks, hardly noticing the blue and purple polka dots on one sock nor the green and white stripes on the other, before she shoved her feet in her plain white sneakers. She ran a brush through her long wavy golden hair before closing her laptop and tucking it into her bag as she left the room to go find something to eat, leaving Skyler to mutter in Korean to herself.

She took the stairs, as usual, but arrived to the cafe a mere two minutes after closing the door to the room she had to share. She said nothing as she walked in and found a seat, taking another few minutes to decide what on Earth she wanted to eat.. Finally settling on a piece of toast topped with strawberry jam and some yogurt, preferring to enjoy the simple things in life.

The 'techie' listened to the goings ons around her as she nibbled on her toast and spooned little portions of vanilla yogurt into her mouth, enjoying the mixture as her eyes glanced around. There was Faith and Aaron, the other 'techie's. The rest she didn't usually bother much with, preferring to stick to what she knew, though she was polite enough to them all.

Jeong finished the song and grinned. She set the headphones on the stand and walked out. "So, how was I? Was it as painful as karaoke night?" she joked with him, messing with some of the knobs and buttons. She made the control panel pop out a CD and set it in a case.

(Gai si, Chinese for Damn)

Tristan sat back. "Nah I've heard worse." He joked as she walked over. " I'm just playin', you were really good, but I don't suppose you have an english verison, I didn't understand a single word of that." He asked, standing up. "And how many languages do you speak?" Thinking that she was Korean but she was singing in what he thought was Japanese.

(Then I really agree with you.)

Aaron smiled, "Well alright," he said, a Scottish lilt to his voice still ever present, though not as noticeable as when he was angry, scared, or sad. "We'll have to go to my room because the FOB's are still loading it up for you and Cassandra...speaking of which." He looked over and saw their third techie sitting alone and eating breakfast, he waved her over to come join the rest of the 'Team Geek', as he liked to refer to them as.

"I decided years ago that just because a program passes the computer tests doesn't mean it's fool proof and the best way to test it is get the best hackers to try and break into it. Of course I would help, but that would be cheating since I created the program, you know?" he rambled. He wasn't a horrible chatterer with the others, but with the other techies he found it was easy for him to over talk, mostly because they understood what he was talking about and got excited about the things he got excited about. That was one thing he like about the industry was that it automatically gave you a small group of people who had something in common with you, making it easier to feel more comfortable. Though not completely safe from home-sickness, of course he never had a home technically, so he was more 'ma-sick'.

"So any interesting projects the industry has you working on?" Aaron asked Faith, re-noticing that her laptop was open.

The blonde heard her name and looked up, her eyes immediately going to Aaron and Faith where they sat across the room with the male waving for her to join them. She stood and, pulling her bag onto her shoulder, grabbed the bowl of her yogurt before she walked over and took a seat at their table with a smile. With, of course, a bottle of water in her hand. It was either sickly sweet tea, with five or more scoops of sugar, or water... or hot chocolate, but that was a story for another, preferably rainy, day.

" Morning," Cassandra said easily as she lightly placed her bag back on the floor, making it rather obvious to the other two techie's that her beloved laptop was within the dark material. " Got a new program to crack?" She asked cheerfully before scooping some of her plain vanilla yogurt into her mouth, her blue eyes dancing eagerly despite her rather normal lack of sleep. She listened as Aaron had continued speaking, feeling like she was gaining more energy with each word. Normal people thought they were weird but, hey, what else was Cassandra, at least, supposed to do when she couldn't sleep anymore? Eat away her boredom?

No. She much preferred the alternative; creating and cracking codes, hacking into others' computers and playing games online and alone. Reading was another favourite past time, as was music, but technology always came first.

Faith listens and her eyes flicker over towards Cass as she sits down next to the them.

"So any interesting projects the industry has you working on?" Aaron asks, his eyes examining her laptop. She shrugs.

"Nothing big, but I just finished a demo for a new game my friends and I are working on." She turns her laptop towards Aaron for him to check it out. The graphics were realistic, a first person shooter.

Jeong smiled at Tristan. "I know basic French and Spanish and I'm fluent in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and surprisingly German" She stretched and looked at the clock on the wall. "Oh wow... We have got time to spare and then some... Well, Tristan, I'm going to regret saying this and you will start regretting coming with me but I need some new clothes. All these missions make them rip and tear horridly... So, come on!" She dialed a number, let it ring twice then hung up. She ran to the front, still dragging Tristan by his wrist, and into the waiting limo.

"Well, do you wanna head back to the apartments so I can go shopping? Or are you going to brave the horrors of women's shopping?" she asked, getting ready to tell Alex to drop Tristan off. After all what man wanted to shop with some girl?

Tristan threw his hands up in the air. "Oh no! The horror." He gasped dramatically. He laughed and then said" It's cool. It's either watch you shop or watch Alex play video games ...again I have to deal with that in the room, I'd liked to avoid it when I can cause I'm not sure which is worse." He said with a laugh. A perk of being a psychic, He always knew his options. He could pick his poison. Not that he didn't like Alex, they were friends, like the brother he never wanted but Tristan was never a fan of first persons in the first place and he always knew where his enemies were hiding. A negative of being a psychic. "So shopping, it is!" He said, thrusting his arm out like a super hero. He had a small vision, A micro vision as he calls it, and saw what store He and Jeong were going to. Of course, he didn't tell her. He never did. He even acted surprised at his birthday party last year. He smiled at her. "I'm ready when you are."