"We expect you outside in 05:00 hours!"

Evans woke up staring at the unfamiliar ceilings, slowly remembering that he was now in a secret facility or something of that sort. The attempt to strike up a conversation went badly the previous night, with him returning to his room to eat, alone. Funny how he always alternated between feeling lonely and feeling annoyed at people, he somewhat missed eating with his employees, even if it was in their contract to do so. The phone in his room rang noisily as he dragged himself out of bed. He answered the phone lazily, " Hello..?"

"Hello, we would like to inform you that you will not need to join the main training today. You will, however, have to undergo an alternative training session due to the consideration that you might not be able to take the level of physical training."

" What.. alternative training?" Evans yawned as he started his daily ritual of stretching and morning exercise.

" We will conduct a briefing with you at 8 am."

" Okay, have a nice day." Evans ended the call. He walked over to the mini fridge and took out a bottle of multivitamin and a bottle of fish oil capsule. After swallowing his daily supplements, he entered the bathroom. He used a natural barley face scrub first, then he used a honey peel off honey mask, finishing off with a moisturizer and sunscreen lotion. He finished off his routine with a precise brushing, flossing and teeth whitening. He measured his body temperature, checking that he had no fever. He could not deny, he had an unhealthy obsession with his health. Just then, he heard a thump from his ceiling, noting that the mysterious piano player had also missed out on the session, he stepped out of his room and took a deep breath. With the lack of Kyle's presence, the house seemed reasonably cosy. He prepared his breakfast; all the calories of his meals well memorised; and ate in the common room as he observed the share prices on the wide screen television.

At 8 am, a military personnel with a casual demeanor handed him the files of the other members, advising him to read through them. Evans browsed through the files, pausing a while longer at the new member of the group. Finally, he handed back the files, with much of his little curiosity satisfied.

" Alright, now we have to do a test on the effectiveness of your ability. As you know, many of your team mates have skills that we can observe, save a few like Ms Sidney and Ms Kiley. But put it that way, we want to see how well you can control your powers," the military man said as he brought Evans to a forested area away from the main mansion. The man spoke comfortably not bothered by the knowledge of Evans's age. It did not surprise Evans that there were people who could not care less that a real child be brought into this sort of national security bullshit - like himself. The man continued, "There are many traps and landmines set up in these areas, your objective is to 'search and rescue' our military canine R8 who had been specifically airlifted to a nearby location within these premises and to meet me here. Meanwhile, you will have to also look for a hidden message on one of the trees. You will not be provided with any weapons for this exercise. Good luck."

" I always had that. Instead, you should be the one that needs to look out because I am activating my power as of now," Evans said as a light breeze stirred. There was no fancy display, actually it just seemed like nothing happened. Evans, then walked into the small forest, making random turns here and there almost seeming as if he was aimlessly walking. A small scarlet bird flew above his head, landing on a particular tree that seemed as similar as the one next to it. Evans made a huge detour before getting to the tree. The message on it was simply, "Kill all witnesses." Considering about it for a second, Evans easily made his way to the shed which housed the rottweiler, R8. It was chained, but that did not stop it from attempting to bite Evans. The only way to unchain the dog was to remove the collar on its neck. Evans stood just a small distance away from the dog and ruthlessly delivered a kick to the dog's head. The dog was knocked unconscious and was foaming at its mouth. Evans removed the collar, carried the now half-dead dog and headed back to meet the man.

"Here's the dog," Evans dumped the creature on the floor. The man wrote down the completion time and some notes. " Did you get the secret message?"

"We all have to make choices to lead up to a certain outcome, my power simply does three things. I can control the outcome of a random event activated by me, such as the possibility of hitting a target. Next, I can sense areas where bad events are most likely to happen. Lastly, things just go my way, people that are against me just tend to find themselves getting killed by whatever reasons. But no, I did not find any secret message." Evans explained, "What is it by the way, seeing that I possibly failed already," Evans lied.

" It says, LOOK HERE and you should find a bag with blowpipe to anesthetize the dog," the man said with a slight smile as if happy about the apparent failure.

" How obvious! Silly me. Wait, while I retie my shoelaces." Evans said as he bent down.

" So much for you powers.. wait your shoes.."

Evans snatched the combat knife half hidden in the man's shoes and thrust the knife into the man's throat as he stand up. "Passed," Evans announced as he threw away the knife and handed back to the mansion.

Vincent walked off the raggedy bus and went straight to his room, he spoke to no one. He staggered his way into the house, his arms wrapped in the tattered remains of his jacket. Vincent unlocked his door and shouldered it open. He didn't stop to sit down, instead made his way straight to the bathroom. He reached out to the medicine cabinet and swung it open, the cuts along his hands sending sharp pains through each little cut.

The sink turns on as his hands trip the sensor. Searing pain spreads from his hands, up his arms and straight to his core. ' I fucked myself up pretty bad this time.' He thought to himself as he stared down at his skin. Deep cuts hidden beneath a thick layer of blood and grime. The putrid smell from the monster filled the bathroom, he reached over and turned the shower on as hot as possible. He stripped of his tattered clothes and threw them in the waste basket. " No way in hell am I ever wearing that again." He muttered to himself. The water stung for a minute until his body began to adjust, but next came the worst part - the soap-. ' God this is going to fucking hurt.' screamed loudly in his mind before he spread the soap across his body. As the soap lathered on his skin, streams of swearing shot out of his mouth. More than likely the people outside the room could hear that. The water stopped and he climbed out of the shower, wrapping himself in a towel. He grabbed the roll of gauze from the cabinet and walked over to his closet. He snatched an old pair of jeans and slipped them on, not even bothering to button them up.

Vincent took a seat on his bed and began to slowly wrap his arms up in the gauze, making sure each wrap was tight. With each tight pull a sharp pain shot through his body. He tied the last of it off with a wince and looked down at his arm. " I'm going to look like a fucking mummy." He said to himself with a light chuckle. He lied back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. His thoughts racing through the events of this morning. Of how the team worked. I mean yeah we sucked at first, but then we pulled it together. These thoughts just racked his brain. There was only one other thing he could think of, Gazelle. She had balls, she was vain, a loud mouth and condescending as hell; but his mind just kept going back to her.

He shook his head and slowly made his way to his feet and shambled his way to his mini fridge, pulling a beer out. Vincent sat in his chair and took a big gulp of the ice cold liquid before holding the bottle against the small cuts in his chest. He let out a sigh and let his head fall back, he just sat there, letting his mind drift off.

Evans washed his hands as he hummed 'Beyond the sea'. In his room, he had found a note that informed him that he passed but reminded him the duty to keep future rescuees alive and that the agents will still need to monitor progress. He casually thought about whether the man he had just killed had bought insurance. After that, he took a nap and woke up only when the others had come back from their training. They had looked like they had come back from a battlefield, some of them seeming to be more seriously injured than the other, but all similarly tired. Kyle actually seem to look the most poorly, in Evans view. Evans silently congratulated himself from escaping the group training but he still wanted to know what happened exactly. He also noticed that Adela and Renzo were not in the group, perhaps, they had alternative training too.

As the others went back to their rooms or engage themselves in other matters, Evans took some snacks from the kitchen and hanged around the common rooms waiting to talk to someone, just to get more information. He finally found Jack, sitting in front of the fireplace, talking to himself about wanting to have a talk with "somebody who doesn't want to kill others". Details about Jack Ryder ran through his mind, Evans readied himself with a congenial smile and settled in a couch near Jack thinking about the irony of the situation.

He also stretched out his legs and curled his toes, intentionally mirroring Jack's action. " Tough day?" Evans asked almost exuding the same aura of a concerned old man. He offered Jack a Snickers then continued. "The training for the group didn't go that well? What happened?" Evans asked imploring Jack to give more details.

One by one each supernatural freak began to remove themselves from the rusted shack that they had been forced to ride. She had been silent the entire drive her thoughts playing repeats of Buu’s reaction to her. This wasn’t the first time she had this issue – the issue of people avoiding her or attacking her without explanation – nothing new – nothing bothersome. Gazelle seemed to move distinctively sluggish - long drawn out movements had lead her in the right direction.


The once seductive face now seemed hard as stone and cold as a raging blizzard, dark, distraught, providing truth in the evil that could be felt from her very aura. One foot fall lead to the next, causing the rusted bus stairs to squeal in protest under her weight. She paid no mind to where the others went or if any conversations had been passed back and forth. Her grip tightened on the railing as if she needed the support while carrying her body up the steps. Small shards of clothing hung from Gazelle's lithe frame, drifting shapelessly from side to side with each motion of limbs, the lack of clothes had left her to basically walk through the house nude once again – nothing new – nothing bothersome.


Her skin wasn’t as filthy as the others – in fact it seemed just small chunks of her flesh, her long tangled hair, and up to her ankles had been coated in the vile mess the creature created. Gazelle was able to fully regenerate the hide that was skinned from her body thanks to Henry's generous give of energy – but as the flow between the two of them ended she instantly felt weak once again and it was seen in each physical maneuver.


From her neck still hung the key to her room, she lazily gripped it and bent her body at the hips, attempting to stick the foreign piece of metal in the hole and turn. The deadbolt rattled and shook against the wooden frame, she twisted the knob and nothing - twisted it again - and nothing.





The door shattered beneath her fists, splintering into the mirrored room – with a heavy roll of her eyes Gazelle proceed towards the restroom, turned the water on - which allowed for the scorching fluid to spew from the pull down shower head, the room filled with steam – a thick steam - a steam which made it hard to breath.


While the hot liquid drizzled down her frame Gazelle began to notice bulky bubbles beneath her skin – they burned, ached, stung and were seemingly growing in size - rapidly growing in size. Once the grime had been rinsed and thoroughly washed from her figure she quickly removed herself from the restroom, her hand tracing over the golf ball sized lumps wincing with each trailing fingertip.


On her bed laid a note that she would later see to read as followed.



With the rapid growth of her flesh the disembodied fluids of the monstrosity they fought had become trapped beneath her skin - with her lack of energy - and pride Gazelle had used what she had - what Henry lent her - to rebuild her physic - that was a mistake - hind sight is 20/20. Even if her body managed to fight off the infection there was no way to drain it other than manually. "Hell fire ant's bullshit all over again" Gazelle groaned to herself as she made her way across the room.


Light footsteps lead her to the closet where a long delicate hand reached for a short hemmed silk house robe. She tightened the crimson rope about her narrow waist and with a huff of air and a hunched back she made her way towards the broken door. The small wooden slivers scattered across the floor as her feet dragged behind. The swollen lumps of flesh seemed to throb with a fury only Gazelle could relate to the leading up to her first death. The searing heat beneath her skin began to drive her into an irritated frenzy whilst shuffling towards the kitchen.


Beams of sun shone through the open skylights, glistening off the granite counter tops, the sound of slamming drawers echoed about the empty room, clanging of metal on metal, then silence. The short trek from her room to the kitchen seemed a tiring length for such weak legs to carry.


A light sheen of beaded sweat gathered upon her forehead, Gazelle's face a ghastly white and her eyes had no longer been their usual pitch black - now the scleras were sheeted white and the irises illuminated a deep sea blue.


Once Gazelle finally reached the front room her abnormal eyes drifted from Evans to Jack and without a word of greeting the sickly looking woman dropped to her rounded ass before the fire place. The flames licked and whipped about the large containing - the heat reached out to kiss her already over internally heated body. The small beads of sweat seemed to build up faster, the sheen becoming thicker - dripping down the bends of her face - slowly trickling down the thin lines of her neck.


In her hands the unstable looking female held two knifes - nothing fancy - just regular toothed steak knives, and the boils beneath her skin were anything but unnoticeable. With wary actions Gazelle placed one of the blades on the hot coals beneath the crispy logs, the other was held tightly in her grip.

If eyes had fallen upon her she seemed to not care, if words were spoken she had become a mute.

She seemed to study her body, eyes attentive to her legs, pinned to the nearly tennis ball sized boil on her high thigh. It was then a startling pain developed beneath her right eye, she could see the blurred lump blocking part of her vision but hadn't taken much care until this moment.


Without a sign of warning Gazelle raised the jagged blade to the inflamed area and tore it across the bulging flesh. Black ichor mixed with deep red blood began to stream from the incision, dripping down her high cheek bone in a hurry. The face of which it fell from kept perfectly still, not a flinch of pain, not a sign of remorse. As the deep fluid streamed a new yellow tinged white puss bubbled and oozed from the gaping wound. It fizzled and popped before it slid down the same path, mixing with the previous fluid - a foul odor began to emanate lightly tainting the surrounding area which she sat.


With her free hand Gazelle reached for the hot red knife which laid beneath the fire, leisurely movements brought the metal to the pussing carve. She pressed the flat side to her skin, sealing off the damage - it sizzled and hissed as it cooked - leaving a nasty long burn across the socket of her eye. "One down" She mumbled under her breath as she placed the second blade back into the coals.


Knowing this would be a rather long process and she simply didn't even have enough will power to sit up right on her own Gazelle slide to a more comfortable position, resting her back along the frame of fire. Tired, lifeless looking means of sight glanced about the room once again, before her hand went to slash at the boil which ballooned high up her thigh.

Jack shook out of the trance of the flames as the little man came up and sat next to him asking if he had a rough day. "Ha....rough day, rough day, we fought a 25 foot tall woman made out of dead bodies, yep bad day." Jack said with a chuckle as he looked over at the little guy. "I'm gona ask you flat out right now little man cause I'm tired, what's your deal, you look 8 but you are obviously more mature, can you tell me your story?" Jack asked as he looked over to Evan wondering what his deal was.

He saw Gazelle come down the stairs in a low cut robe, he shook his head at just how sexy she was as she passed into the kitchen. "Whatever your case is you gota have a reaction to that." He said with a nudge, as she came back and laid in front of them with a little bit of her ass hung out and knives in her hand. "Hey Gazelle what are you doiOHHH!! WHAT THE HELL!?!" Jack yelled siting up right as she cut herself and then burned her skin shut. "What are you doing?!?"

The ride back to the house seemed rather.....lax. Everyone seemed to be exhausted from the battle and didn't want to talk or even make a comment past groaning. Even the Gazelle the Great just sat there, her face a torrent of bland indifference, her ever weakening aura betraying signs of malice. Henry, on the other hand, was smiling. Not a big smile, yet, not a small one either. I smile that stated that he was very content. He sat very properly in the bus, with his grime covered suit. He did not feel exhausted neither was he sore or in any pain. Even after giving some of his energy to Gazelle, he felt like he could go another round if he had to. He just sat there, twiddling his umbrella. Smiling his smile of contentment. All while waiting to get back to his room.

He was one of the first off the bus and made a brisk walk towards the door. He was inside in a matter of moments and made a calm bee line for the stairs. His key was in his lock and he was back inside his room. He immediately ripped off his clothes in one foul swoop and threw them in a silver cylinder that made an odd noise after he pressed a button on it. After placing his umbrella back in it's stand and his hat on it's wrack, he practically ran into the bathroom. He jumped into a glass shower that looked very modern with three shower heads. He pulled a knob that activated the biggest one the released a stream of highly pressurized water. It annihilated any form of grime or grease on him. After about a minute, he heard a several loud sounds coming from next door. Apparently, Gazelle was upset about something.

5 minutes later, he stepped out of the shower. His toned, pale form glistened under the fluorescent lighting. He grabbed a black towel monogrammed with a white H.W. and began to dry himself off. Henry walked over to his his glass dresser and....did not put another one of his suits on. Instead he put on a pair of white silk pajamas monogrammed with a black H.W. and then a black silk robe, also monogrammed. He snapped his neck a few times, then got a look on his face like he forgot something. He then smiled and looked back towards his umbrella. He walked over to it and quickly grabbed it and went into his bathroom again.

This time he went over to a body mirror on the wall and pushed one side of it. It made a clicking noise and it opened. He walked inside the dark room and flipped on a light, closing the door behind him. The room looked like a mixture of a chemical lab and a mortuary's autopsy room. He slowly made his way over to a long counter filled with vials and beakers and flasks. He grabbed two empty vials and placed them in a holding mechanism. Henry then unsheathed his blade and gently placed it on the counter. Next, he grabbed an odd looking plastic container filled with a bubbling clear liquid. Henry snapped on a rubber glove and grabbed an empty flask and dipped it into the bubbling liquid. He then grabbed his blade and held it diagonally over the entrance to what looked like a glass roller coaster set above the two empty vials. Henry then began to slowly pour the liquid over his blade and all of the blood and grime began to melt away into the opening. After the sword was completely clean, he re-sheathed it and waited for the liquids to complete their journey.

After a bout a minute, both the vials were filled. One black, the other red. He placed a cork into both of them and brought them over to two giant fridges. Each of them had a strange hieroglyphic like symbol on them. He opened the left one and placed the black vial in a row of other black vials. Before he went to the right one, he placed a tag on the red vial and wrote something on it. He then opened the right one and placed the red vial on one of the many shelves holding other red vials. As he pulled his hand back, the tag was shown to say "G. Kiley" on it.

Henry left his lab and went back into the living area of his "room". He poured himself a glass of green liquid, straight, and lit up one of his cigarettes. He stared out of his stained glass windows, take drags on his cigarette and taking sips of his drink. A smile slowly formed on his lips. "Soon......soon."