Leon Nef-Syndicate Headquarters-Birmingham, England

Leon watched a smile appear on Joshua's face. For some inexplicable reason, one that Leon had no idea why, he disliked the man right away. Perhaps he had one of those faces that were just hated right away, or perhaps it was his clothing, or perhaps he felt all he would get from him is cryptic answer, like the whole rest of the organization. Whatever the reason, Leon felt his jaw clench as the man was about to speak.

"You will be training to gain better control of your abilities. With my aid, by the end of today you should have much greater control over your ability."

Actually, that was no at all what he was expecting to hear. In fact, that was the best news he had heard all day. Leon had wanted to learn more about his power for a while now. Maybe this guy wasn't so bad, after all. Time will tell. "Follow me please," he said, and Leon obliged.

They reached an elevator, and when it arrived, Joshua walked in. Leon followed him. Neither spoke in the elevator for a while, mainly because Leon didn't know what to say to him. This was not typical, as Leon usually spoke quite a lot. Eventually, the silence was broken by the sound of a clearing of the throat, and the man speaking.

"So Leon, explain to me, what exactly can you do with your ability and how do you control it?"

Leon looked at his hand when Joshua asked the question. He clenched his fist.

"Well, from what I understand, I have the ability to control lightning. It doesn't come out of anywhere, though. I need a source. From what I can gather, I need some sort of electricity near me that I can absorb in order to use my power. I know I can hold that energy inside me for a while, but often not for too long, or I start feeling a tingling sensation in my arms. I also have trouble taking in too much sometimes. If I take in too much, I get numb, and the energy explodes out of me before I get a chance to us it. As you can imagine...it's not pleasant."

He took a look at the man next to him for a moment, before sighing.

"That's...basically all I know about it as of now. Maybe you can show me some more."

Joshua Meier - Syndicate Headquarters, Birmingham, England

By the time Leon had finished explaining how his ability worked, the elevator doors chimed as they reached their destination. Joshua had been listening intently, despite already knowing much about how Leon's ability worked, he merely needed verification that Leon was at the point Joshua believed him to be at. He noticed Leon take a look at him before sighing.

"That's...basically all I know about it as of now. Maybe you can show me some more."

Joshua smiled again, "I can do more than just 'show you some more'," he spoke, "I can, and will for that matter, help you to control this ability." Joshua took a look at his own hands as he stepped out of the elevator, Leon following behind before the doors closed quietly behind them.

They had stepped out into a similar corridor that they had left, except that this one did not have windows at either end; only stark concrete. They walked towards the right, passing a couple of other corridors and black wooden doors leading to other places before coming to a door like all the others gone. Taking a quick glance at Leon, Joshua reached for the handle and opened the door into the stark white lab. Two lines of desks on either side of the door held computers and other desktop apparel, several researchers typing furiously, ignoring their entrance. At the front was a viewing platform looking out through a massive glass window, down into some sort of testing chamber, Joshua took Leon up to the window.

"This is the training room, where we will not only teach you how to use your ability, but also perform tests, to make sure you are ready." He gestured to the empty room below, the stark white walls making it seem bigger than the half football field size it was. Joshua smiled as he knew there was much more to the room than just four walls, but he would let Leon find that out in due time.

"If you don't have any questions, then we can perform some preliminary tests before we start training." Joshua was almost anxious to see how Leon fought, from what he had heard about his fight in Moscow, Leon was nothing but raw, untapped energy, that needed to be controlled. Training Leon would be interesting.

Michael Cale - English Countryside, England

The night air grew chill as the darkness surrounded Michael. Stumbling blindly through the thick fog of darkness, he ran and ran, running from the very source of the darkness but no matter how fast nor far he ran, it was always behind him. He was too scared to look behind and stare it in the face because deep down, he knew exactly who it was. He tried to run again, but it felt like his limbs had suddenly become incredibly heavy and would not move. He glanced behind briefly, he knew the source was approaching, yet despite his desperate attempt to move, he was frozen in place. His heart was pumping, sweat was pouring down his face as he exerted all his strength into moving his legs that little bit to get away before the source caught up with him and the darkness swallowed him whole. He felt it place its ghostly hands against his shoulders, gripping tightly on either side and sending cold chills down his spine. He wanted to yell, he wanted to scream but it was as if his lips were magnetised together, and even if he could open his mouth, his throat felt as if it would not let out anything but a small whisper of air. He turned his head, slowly at first, and soon his body followed, he was turning to face the source of the darkness front on, fear ravaging through his body. He could almost see it when he felt a tug, the all too familiar sensation of falling, and everything going black.

Gasping for breath, he looked up to see Oakley leaning over top of him, arms gripping his shoulders tightly and shaking Michael's body. "Michael…uh, you're awake," she seemed somewhat relieved that he was awake, and looking around, Michael noticed that he was the last of them to awake.

"Where….what happened?" he asked, not specifically at anyone, but hoping someone would answer.

"We are only a couple of clicks from our destination." River responded, sounding harder than she had been back in London.

Michael slowly got into a sitting position, the events of the dream still plaguing his mind and intervening clips of yesterday playing sporadically. He had gone to London, signed up as an Atlantean… Oakley, his sister had been there, and the others too…. Then the helicopter, sitting awkwardly next to Oakley…. The bang as the Helicopter was hit by some projectile and feeling the tug as the air pulled him out of the Helicopter. He remembered falling, the air whistling in his ears and closing his eyes, waiting for the final impact to come…..the one that never came.

"Now that you are awake Mr. Cale," River offered Michael a hand which he took and was promptly pulled to his feet, "we can begin our journey towards our destination. If we are lucky, we should meet some friends on the way." She started heading off north around the lake, after having pointed north-east to where their location was.

He watched as the others followed behind River, the loose mouthed American girl following silently behind them which was a relief. He saw the loose cannon Christian chatting with the Italian girl, it seemed like those two were hitting it off to Michael. He set off behind them, walking slightly behind, still scared from the nightmare dream. He was hoping Oakley would be around to talk to, he wondered how he had managed to survive the fall, and he had the feeling Oakley had something to do with it.

Leon Nef- Syndicate Headquarters-Birmingham, England

"I can do more than just 'show you some more.' I can, and will for that matter, help you to control this ability." Joshua said, as he smiled at Leon. Leon nodded in reply. He wondered in the back of his mind how he knew so much about the Atlanteans and their abilities. Sure, Leon was here for the money, and this guy helping him gain a better understanding of the ability is good, but how did the Syndicate know all of this?

Leon followed Joshua through the corridors and then into a room with computers, where there were scientists who typed on them. They ignored the two of them as they entered, but Leon watched them interestingly, wondering what they were for. They eventually got to the end of the room, where a massive window viewed into a chamber below.

"This is the training room, where we will not only teach you how to use your ability, but also perform tests, to make sure you are ready."

Ready for what? Leon thought in the back of his mind. What exactly are they gonna make me do this time?

First time he entered the Syndicate, it was to killed four people. Four Atlanteans. Besides the fact it was hard, it was the first time he had killed anyone.

Leon walked with Joshua into the room below. It was a simple room, but Leon had the feeling there may be more to it than what is seen, just like the rest of the organization.

"If you don't have any questions, then we can perform some preliminary tests before we start training."

Leon looked at Joshua for a moment. He actually had a bunch of question he needed to ask about the Syndicate, and about his powers, but he decided to leave them off until after his training. His excitement to test and gain more abilities weighed out his eagerness to learn about the Syndicate.

"If I get a source of energy, I'm ready." Leon said

Nikolai Afon - Still Somewhere over Europe

"Good morning Nikolai! Did you sleep well? You know, actually, I wanna know more about your power. I saw your stunt in Australia, very cool. What else can you do?" Nikolai turned and saw that Annie had turned her chair to face him, and was looking at him, eyes glittering as if she had seen something that interested her greatly. Then again, Nikolai probably did interest her with her obvious love for anything tech related, and Nikolai with his ability. Maybe she could help him out with his ability. If anybody could, she could.

What could he do with his ability? "Well, I can play solitar and minesweeper on my phone with my eyes closed", he said grinning, "Seriously though? I'm not really sure. I took numerous computer programming classes in high school and college, and I seem to be able to do anything that I could do in those areas, just much faster. It's dificult to explain, but when I put my hand on any technology and focus, I see lines of code streaming across my mind, and I understand it as if I grew up reading it. The code seems to form into recognizible shapes or letters. For example, when I want to check Facebook on my phone, I can just touch it and focus on the app picture that is used on my phone, and I can recognize it from the code. From there, I can do whatever that specific application is designed to do."

Nikolai looked around and noticed a glass of water on the table beside him, and took a quick drink. "From there, I dont really know, its more of feeling than doing. I'm sorry I cant explain it any better, but I hardly make any sense of it myself. Most of what I have done has been by accident, like in Australia for example. Other things just seems so simple, like being able to turn the TV on without touching it or something. Honestly, I have not really explored what I am fully capable of doing with my ability. I'm sure experience will come with time, but so far I'm just exploring what I am able to do."

Atticus Forsberg - Stockholm, Sweden

Anabel Falkner - Somewhere over Europe

Nikolai Afon - Somewhere over Europe

Nikolai handed over his phone as he accepted her challenge. Nikolai had always enjoyed challenges, and this would be interesting no doubt. His first main problem was just connecting to the computers. He had "jumped" before small distances, but this would be more tricky. Second he would have to locate the correct computer. It worried him that there were five computers in the airplane with the same MAC address, it would be difficult to determine which one was which. Also her computers would probably have advanced firewalls, dealing with those would be...interesting. He had never encountered an extremely strong firewall before, so he did not know what kind of reaciton he would get by trying to enter the system.

Nikolai closed his eyes and focused again, trying to search outward for any electromagnetic waves being emited in the small airplane. Numerous ones bounced around from what he could tell immediately. He pushed aside the ones that he knew for sure, like cell phone towers or satalites or radio waves, and focused on wifi connection. To determine which one he was looking for, he simply honed in on the most concentrated wave. Nikolai had suspected that there had been some sort of wifi antenae set up on the plane somewhere so that Annie could opperate, so the wifi signal would have to be quite close. After searching for a quick moment, he found it, a signal emiting from the rear of the plane that he identified as a wifi signal. That was the easy part, now to jump. He focused on the signal, slowly following it with his mind to it's source. The further he followed the signal to the source, the weaker he felt, stretching himself towards the signal. Just as he thought that he had failed, he finally established connection with the origin of the signal, and then he began to work out from there.

The first thing to do would be to find the five terminals. This was quite easily doneAll he had to look for was established connections, five of which had the same MAC address. So she hadn't been lying about all five being identical in address. Unsure of which to pick, he chose one at random, and tried to break his way into the computer. He felt no resistance for a moment, then a force stopped him. THe firewall, which ironically did look like a wall of fire. Great.

The firewall condensed as it turned it's focus onto Nikolai, or as the firewall saw it: the unknown program. The virus. The firewall probed his mind, trying to establish what he exaclty was, and experimentally tried to eliminate him by throwing a fireball of code at Nikolai. he was not expecting it was the fireball hit him sqaure it the chest, lines of code exploding outward and flying away. It stung a little and pushed Nikolai back, further away from the terminal, loosing connection. The firewall now formed into a more humanoid form, and started launching more fireballs at Nikolai. This time, Nikolai doged them, and studied them as they flied past him in the grid-like cyber world. Without meaning to, he memorized the short code, and then insticntively launched a fireball back at the firewall. The fireball hit the firewall, aggravating it, now turning more attention towards Nikolai. THe next five minutes were a flash of Nikolai and the Firewall attacking each other with variations of code, until finally Nikolai overpowered it with a barrage of attacks. As a last ditch effort the Firewall attempted to notify the user of the "virus" infecting teh computer. Nikolai quickly gained control and immediately canceled all of the notifications, giving the impression that the "virus" had been defeated and that the firewall was still running, when actually, Nikolai was in control.

Assuming that all of the firewalls on the other computers were the same, he spent some time developing a short code that, with his new knowledge of how the firewall worked, would destroy that specific type of firewall quickly and efficiently. After he completed that, he had an idea. He cycled through the list of programs accesible, and selected the webcam. Dissapointed, the webcam showed nothing but another part of the airplane which Nikolai had not seen. The next ten minutes were spent defeating the various firewall and experimenting with the webcam, trying to find the one where Annie was, or had been sitting. On the fourth, he finally found the passenger area and found himself staring up into Annie's face, which seemed a little odd. He quickly shut off the webcam before she noticed, which she probably did anyway, and accesed Microsfot Word. He cycled through the options, and loaded up the document that had been saved about fourty five minutes ago when Nikolai had first begun. It loaded quickly, and he found himself staring at one line of text.

"Good job. You have suceeded."

Not very imaginative, but effective nontheless. He loaded up the program onto the main screen so that Annie could see it and commanded the computer to type back.

"Thank you. You may want to check your firewalls, they may be a bit broken."

He released his hold on technology and grimaced as a wave of nausea hit him. He had found that he would get nauseated after staying in the technology for too long. He just closed his eyes and waited for it to pass, then looked over to Annie. "So how did I do?"

Christian Calaway and Antonia Costa - English Countryside, England

Sunlight peered through the trees of the English countryside, signifying the dawn of a new day. The light was slowly forced itself through the small cold eyes of Christian Calaway. With a deep groan, Christian, against his wishes, began to awaken. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Christian struggled to take in his surroundings, with the rays of the sun pelting him in the face like snow on a winter day blurring his vision. Overcoming the pain of the sudden rude awakening, Christian slowly sat up, groaning and swearing to himself. A loud yawn followed a second rubbing of his eyes. Looking around, Christian had a brief shock only to remember why he found himself camping last night in the middle of the English countryside. Glancing out of the corner of his eye, Christian leapt a little at the sight of a sleeping woman at his side. Still wearing his jacket, she looked awfully comfortable sleeping beside him. Whether or not, they cuddled….well, he didn't remember. Blushing slightly, he shook his head trying not to read too much into it.

Leaving her alone for the time being, Christian stood up and stretched his back and neck. Nearly every movement led to a number of cracks, pops and realignments as he got the kinks out. Sleeping on the raw ground was not exactly comfortable, especially compared to luxurious feather beds Christian grew accustomed to. Making his way to the lake a few feet away, Christian knelt down and stared at his reflection. His face looked noticeably dirty, stressed and tired. Clearly the previous 24 hours were more intense than he had anticipated. Joining a mysterious organization, discovering his abilities were more than he bargained for, a helicopter crash and waking up in the middle of nowhere were not events that occurred to the every day university student. He chuckled remembering that he was still technically enrolled to a university…looks like that didn't really matter anymore. Taking a deep breath of the pleasant country air, Christian dipped his heads in the water and threw the water onto his face, attempting to clean himself up a bit.

With a sigh, Christian lifted himself off the ground and stared into the great landscape before him. He let his mind wander, muse over the recent events, and awaited for some epiphany to arrive in a gift basket.

The leather jacket felt heavy draped over Antonia's body, but she was glad to have had it as a blanket since it had kept the chill winter's night air off of her. With eyes still closed despite the sun trying to blind her, she cuddled further into the jacket, but it was slowly loosing the heat that it had retained during the night. Vague memories of the previous afternoon crossed her mind, she remembered the fear that had swallowed her whole when the helicopter was about to crash, the bravery of the guy sitting next to her as he tried to save them. She remembered the awful feeling of nearly drowning as the lady named River had saved her and the American.

She sat up and looked around, trying to find the guy who had been next to her on the helicopter. She wrapped the jacket further around herself, and when she stood up, it hung down to below her knees, her arms barely reaching the ends of the sleeves. She turned around in circles before finding the man who had tried to save her, watching as he bent down to take a drink from the crystal clear lake before gazing out at the landscape.

Antonia had hardly been to England before, River found her only just the other day, before all the events that had transpired, and taken her into her care when the Syndicate had tried to take her from her parents. Still, the landscape, no matter how beautiful it was, still paled in contrast to her Italian homeland.

She wandered over to the man who was about a head taller than herself. She took in his profile, the graying hair and muscular physique, he was at least in his twenties was all that Antonia could figure out, but he looked much older than that.

"Thank you," she mumbled quietly, "Thank you for saving me. Or trying to." She spoke a little louder this time, giving a half-hearted laugh at the end. Where most people would have found the acrid fumes emanating from his body disgusting, she liked it, it was something different.

"I'm Antonia Costa," she introduced herself, "and you are?"

"Christian Calaway," he answered, continuing to gaze into landscape. He never did well with women...not since her, at least. Christian's brain came to a screeching halt, unable to process anything more than a name. "It was....it was nothing. No need to thank me. I didn't do much anyway. If anything, I put you in more danger. If it wasn't for River..."

Antonia's smile faded, although it was true that he hadn't been able to fully save them, he had at least gotten her out of the helicopter. If it hadn't been for Christian, she would have still been in the helicopter when it crashed, rooted to her seat, too scared to move. "Still..." she moved a lock of hair from her face, the sleeve of his jacket falling down to reveal her hand, "we are alive." She always tried to look on the bright side of things, but Antonia often found it hard to not put it in such a negative context.

"So what is it like to control smoke? I mean, how does your power work?" she asked, it was the only thing that wasn't really personal, they all had an ability, it's not like everyone can hide their like she can.

Christian put his hand before Antonia and small streams of smokes rose from each finger. The streams blended together, forming shapes, figures, and small pieces of art. The various creations appeared to dance around in the sky before them. Christian was crafting a shadow puppet show for Antonia, revealing a slightly more playful side to stern man.

"My ability is powered by thought, focus and concentration. I can do plenty of things with this smoke but all of it requires that I concentrate on it and picture it in my mind. I guess you could say, if focus is the weapon than my imagination is the ammunition. I can generate smoke, control it and...." Christian paused. The smoke figures that performed for them blended together in a sphere. Christian brought the sphere to his hand, hovering in its palm. Looking around casually, Christian suddenly turned and launched the sphere at a innocent tree a few meters away from him. The sphere became a solidified concussive blast that crashed into the tree and when the dust settled only splintered debris remained.

"I can manipulate smoke on a molecular level; make it solid among other things. Even then, I am...I am not quite sure how it works. Half the things I do is a mystery to say the least. I frequently find myself becoming an intangible gas with barely any form to it. Or even worse, I wake up as a smoke cloud floating above the ground. My powers are constantly active so the second I let myself...erm..slip I guess is the best way to put it...I can lose my physical form. I guess that would probably explain why I have been a bit...uptight to say the least. Oh, and apparently I smell like smoke all the time," Christian joked, hoping to stop sounding so melodramatic. "What about you? What's your ability?"

Antonia shied away when Christian asked her about her ability, to her it was nothing over the top like controlling smoke, and next to him, she felt quite powerless. She also found it quite hard to explain exactly how her ability worked, which was always the difficult thing whenever someone asked. "The general term for it is Adoptive Muscle Memory." she started, that was if Christian even understood what it means, "essentially I see someone do something, then I replicate it almost perfectly." She took a step back, "like this," and removed her shoes alongside Christians coat.

She ran forward, towards the edge of the water, but before she leapt in, she jumped into the air, spinning in mid-air before landing in the shallows. "Up until a week ago, I could never have done that, until I watched my cousin do it." She returned and put on her shoes as River and the others woke. She handed Christian back his jacket, despite her body being wracked by shivers for landing in the cold water.

Antonia returned just at Michael had woken, and River began walking of in a north-east direction, apparently towards somewhere safe, but after last night, Antonia began to think that perhaps nowhere was safe for them now. She waited for Christian to catch up to her before responding, "so, that is my ability, compared to yours, its not strong at all." she said, letting her head fall, "I don't even see why they need me."

"Don't doubt yourself. Your ability is quite impressive. I wish I could do that," Christian smiled, patting his stomach to imply he was too fat. It was a poor joke, uncharacteristic of himself but he felt the need to be supportive. He caught up to Antonia and threw his jacket back over her shoulders. "Keep it for now. You look cold," Christian said, refusing to take no for an answer. At this point, Christian was practically immune to changes in temperature. In fact, he had constantly felt a bit warm. He theorized it was an unintentional side effect of his power, being that his body had effectively become smoke. And smoke traditionally occurs where there is fire, which is warm. Made sense in a way.

"Where do you think River is bringing us?"

Antonia wasn't exactly sure where they were going, River had been scarce on details, the only thing she absolutely knew was that they were heading for the Atlantean Royal Family's headquarters. Apparently they were safe there. Apparently.

"From what I know, their headquarters, but where exactly that is, I have no clue." Antonia replied, she continued on, head down trudging through the grass. "It's not like I completely trust her," she said raising her head to look at the ever looming clouds in the sky, "she's a total stranger, she could easily be lying to us and we wouldn't even know it when we are hearing only her side of the story. Am I right? or am I just being paranoid?" she finished, looking back at Christian.

Christian met her glance and nodded in agreement: "I don't trust her at all to be honest. I want to but I find it difficult to trust anyone affiliated with any large organization, even less so when they are part of a government. And now that I think about it, River is becoming harder to trust. She is definitely hiding something. Now what exactly? I don't know, but I do have one possible explanation. It's a bit... ludicrous to be honest but humor me on this one," Christian said before pause. He brought his right arm to his chin, rubbing his stubble lightly to articulate his thoughts. His left arm remained idly across his chest, bracing himself for nothing. "We are finding ourselves involved in some secret struggle amongst several organizations that knew about the 'the Atlanteans' for some time. At most I would date this conflict about 100 years though. This assuming there is bad blood that could date back for generations. Though if it's political strife, it could be shorter. Gah, never mind. Anyway, the 'Royal Family' used the 'reveal' and registration 24 hours ago as a massive recruiting project to gather as many as possible to staff their organization for a major...project let's say. Could they be building an army? Or gathering 'support' for something much greater? I am not entirely sure. My gut says a war is brewing hence why she is bringing us to a base. What are bases used for traditionally? Training. My heart wants to believe there is a good intention behind all of this though. Now, one or more of the other organizations caught wind of this 'project' the family is planning and more than likely launched several attacks targeting high ranking members of the 'The Royal Family'. River, and subsequently us, happened to be victims of those attacks," he finished before placing his hands into his pockets. "She is telling us her story because it is what she wants us, her followers, to hear. Then again, I could be completely wrong. Blame my interest political theory and obsession with conspiracy theories for constructing this elaborate scenario. But...it makes sense if you think about it." Christian sighed a bit, kind of depressed as his own take on the whole ordeal.

Antonia found Christian's rant hard to take in at first, the amount of information he had told her was quite large, but the more he talked the more it seemed like things were beginning to fit into place like pieces of a puzzle. Antonia quickly shoved her hand into Christians palm as River looked back at them to make sure they were following. They had been walking for a while now, and Antonia began to get paranoid that River could hear their conversation and was leading them into a trap. She tried not to look River in the eyes, instead she cast her gaze down at their hands interlocked. Christian had quite big palms that almost swallowed her small hands.

Standing on her tip-toes, she leaned in close to Christian's ear, "You have a good point, we should talk about this later." she whispered in his ear before dropping back down. "So what is your favourite colour?" she asked a little louder, trying to sound like mindless chatter, but to also get to know Christian better.

The interlocked hands and whisper caused Christian to blush, a bit unintentionally. Never really thinking abou it, Christian did find Antonia attractive to say the least. She had a fairly athletic figure, with dark brown hair framing her a youthful face. The fact she was a head shorter only helped. Christian always had a thing for shorter girls. Most impressive was her brown eyes. Christian preferred green eyes in women. Hazel was ideal. But Antonio's eyes had a captivating allure to them that captured Christian's attention any time she glanced upon him. Just thinking about it caused him to become more flustered than normal, being embarrassingly noticeable.

"Favorite color! Right, right," Christian said aloud, his red face burning with nervous energy. "If I had to pick, I guess it would red. Something about the energy red has. Reminds me of fire. It's a powerful color. What about yours? If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say...mhmm green?"

Antonia chuckled, Christian was far off from his guess on her favourite colour, but at least he had tried. "No, you're wrong. Guess again!" she challenged.

"Yellow?"

"Correct!" Antonia said quite loudly, bringing her hands to her mouth, she had said it a bit louder than she intended to. She laughed quietly, Antonia hadn't had this much fun since being picked up by River back in Florence. A piece of hair had blown in her face, and as she moved it, she took a glimpse up at Christian. There was something about this man, that made Antonia like being around him.

Anabel Falkner - Somewhere over Europe

Oakley North - English Countryside, England

Joshua Meier and Leon Nef - Syndicate Headquarters, Birmingham, England



From his back pocket Joshua pulled a simple nine volt battery, holding it in front of his face to show Leon before leaning down to roll it/ throw it towards Leon's feet, it landing only a few feet in front of him.

"I want to see how much that will last you, if you need more, take it from the socket over there." He said pointing towards the wall nearest to them. Joshua splayed out his arms and legs, opening up his chest as a target. He wanted to test Leon, to see not only his ability, but also his response.

He laughed a little, "hit me with your best shot." He challenged Leon, not knowing what Leon was going to do, but ready for anything Leon could throw at him.

Leon grabbed the battery from the floor, observing the small object with his fingers. He looked at Joshua, surprised by what he just said. Leon responded with an arched eyebrow.

"You do know my lightning could kill people, right?" He said to Joshua. He shrugged, and clenched his fist on the battery. He could feel the energy drain from the battery, and into Leon's hand. In a few more seconds, the battery was empty. He dropped it on the ground, and faced Joshua.

Leon began to gather energy from inside into his right arm. He could feel his nerves tingle as electricity passed through. He then focused the electricity from the base of his palm to his index and middle finger, the point at which he usually focuses to release energy. The electricity passed out of his arm, and was now visibly being held by his two fingers. The harsh sound of electricity filled the room as the energy made its way out of Leon's body. A moment later, Leon pointed his two fingers at Joshua, and released the lightning at him.

Joshua watched in amazement at the amount of concentration it too Leon just to absorb the battery dry and gather the electricity at the tips of his fingers. He continued to watch Leon fire the bolt of lightning at him, he knew that Leon could kill with it, if Joshua was right then a simple nine volt battery could easily hold enough power to kill someone, even if it wasn't used as a weapon in the way Leon crafted it. The way he had it now, Joshua figured, that it was a literal spear of lightning, and would hit like a combination of the two.

The bolt hit Joshua square in the chest, only a few centimetres right of his heart; an almost deadly hit. He wasn't flung back, nor was a gaping, searing hole punctured through his chest. Joshua felt the raw energy absorb into his body, he knew that he could not hold it there for long without it doing irreparable damage to his system, so he let it flow through his chest, bringing his arms arcing forward and releasing the bolt back at Leon.

"Is that your best shot?" he jeered at Leon, laughing maniacally.

Leon barely dodged his own lightning attack which flung back at him. Staring at the wall where the lightning hit, then back at Joshua, he had his mouth wide open, clearly surprised.

"What the f***? How did you do that?" Leon asked, clearly puzzled. Obviously, Leon knew now Joshua had some kind of power, so he was also Atlantean, but it still shocked him.

Joshua laughed again, "Your Atlantean ability is your secret weapon," he began lecturing Leon, "alongside your tattoo, it is the only thing that singles you out from the rest of human kind. A secret weapon is something you want to keep a secret, use at the last possible moment as a trump card. Before you even think of using your ability, you need to make sure you know what your opponent is capable of, otherwise, like what has just happened here, they can turn it back onto you." Joshua hadn't grown up in the Syndicate, but he had been trained much the same way as he was going to train Leon. An Alantean's greatest gift is their inherent abilities, it is the perfect trump card to change the tide of any battle, and should be used wisely.

He took a second before continuing on, changing the subject slightly, "my ability has no official name. Essentially, it's redirection using my body as a conductor. I absorb whatever is being aimed at me, only to redirect it elsewhere, holding it in would do irreparable damage to myself. The limitation to this, however, is that I can absorb only certain things. Since electricity conducts through the body naturally, I can absorb it then redirect it, fire, for instance, I could not." Joshua knew his power better than anyone else, but he still did not have a grasp of it, despite having years of practice.

"This time, I want you to fire another bolt of electricity at me, but when I fire it back at you, you must take it back into yourself and fire it back at me. Think of it like a game of tennis." Joshua moved to a different stance, left foot forward, right foot behind, arms at the ready; his right forward more so than his left to absorb the electricity.

Leon listened to Joshua's ability. He had never heard of that type of ability, but then again, he hadn't heard of other types as well. In fact, he really had no grasp on what types of abilities there are, or even how many exist. When Leon heard what Joshua expected him to do, he began to protest.

"Wait, hang on, I never tried to have it redirected back into my body. I don't even know what it'll do when it goes back inside! Pah..." He stopped, only as to not whine as much. If it was the only way to gain a better sense of his ability, he'll do it. Besides, he was sure Joshua knew what he was doing, right?

Leon gathered energy from his arms once more. The electricity passed through his arm to the tips, and once again, formed outside his body and at the tip of his two fingers. Aiming at Joshua once more, he fired the electricity in a swift motion. When it release, he awaited for what would happen next.

Joshua was ready for the attack this time, making it a much smoother experience. He felt the bolt of electricity enter through his right palm, following his main vein up towards his heart. By the time it had entered into his body, Joshua had complete control of where it went, as it passed across his chest, startling his heart and down his left arm. He breathed a short sigh of relief as it left from his left palm as he thrust his left hand outwards towards Leon. He watched and waited to see how Leon would fare, ready to react if something went wrong.

The bolt of lightning passed through Joshua, and returned to Leon as quick as a bullet. Leon had almost no time to react as the bolt entered his body. He cold feel it now, traveling inside his skin alongside his nerves. For a moment, he didn't know how to react as the electricity slowed as it made it's way from his arms to the torso of his body. He felt a great exhilaration as he felt the immense power travel around his body, but no sooner did he realize the danger he was in the longer he kept it in his body close to his vital organs. He slowly felt himself get numb, and struggle for a moment. Getting a grip over himself, he continued to guide the lightning through his torso, and up to his right arm, back to his right arm awaiting his exit. He pointed the two fingers at Joshua once more, and released a bolt of lightning that for some reason was a lot stronger than the one he originally sent out.

Leon fell to his knees as the lightning finally released out of his body. He panted heavily. He had realized something about his ability in that short exchange: The longer he keeps it in his body before guiding it out, it becomes stronger. However, at the same time, it also becomes more dangerous, and life-threatening.

Leon looked up at Joshua, wondering how he fared.

Atticus Forsberg - Stockholm, Sweden

Oakley North - Boston, England

Nikolai Afon - Somewhere over Europe

Nikolai sighed, he should have known better. He would have to try to do better in the future. No doubt Annie would give him harder and harder tests to train him in...whatever he was going to do. His mood lightened as Natalia brought in three large plates of pancakes and apple juice, bacon and sausage, the breakfast of his dreams. He hungrily wolfed it down, enjoying the tastes of the food.

He looked up as Annie said something to him, "Hey Nikolai, you speak English, right? You lived in California?" Nikolai nodded, and mentally switched languages to English. He hadn't spoken it for a while, it had been a few years since he had last used it a lot, but his second language slowly came to him.

"Hey, Nikolai, are you excited, yeah? You know already where we are going, right? I saw you snooping around yesterday afternoon", Annie said to him.

Nikolai smiled, "Yes. I haven't been to France before, it should be....interesting. Although I am more interested in learning more about what the AUP is like. And what my role in it is going to be."

Christian Calaway- English Countryside and Boston, England

Journeying through the ice fields of England was a easy yet boring quest. Everyone in their party was conversing amongst themselves or walking idly glancing around, admiring the countryside. Christian joined in everyone's convenient new hobby while making causal conversation with Antonia. They managed to get off the topic of conspiracy theories and redirected their focus to more casual topics such as favorite hobbies and such. It was nice to have someone to talk to after his isolation due to nearly killing a small child back in London. Solace was achieved if even for a short period of time.

The temporary peace was broken by the roar of engines rampaging through the serene fields. A horde of off road, quad bikes stopped before them. River stood in front, ready to engage the bikers if they sought combat. It would appear, however, that they were among friends. River talked plainly and comfortably with them suggesting they were friends, or at least acquaintances. Christian, at this point, theorized that the bikers were employed by the Royal Family in some capacity. It was also possible they were actually members of the Royal Family itself. That would have been to fact checked later. Each member of River's group boarded a different bike, usually following an invitation.

Christian and Antonia were approached by a pair of attractive sisters, though he had to hide that fact from Antonia. Antonia boarded one silently, aided by the sister.

"Hop on, Big Boy, let's take a ride!" the other sister said challenging him, sliding up to give him room. Christian smirked and climbed up, unassisted. Knowing motorcycle safety, Christian sat fairly close and grasped the girl's waist. Unlike earlier, he managed to not blush probably telling himself he had to hug her to not fall off. Christian stayed quiet for the ride, unable to have anything of note to stir conversation. Choosing to save any questions he had for later, Christian looked ahead hoping to catch sight of their destination. He was not sure what to expect. A traditional military base like in the movies was the first image to pop into his head. Somehow it seemed out of place the more he thought about it.

It would appear that the shred of doubt that was correct. In the distance emerged a grand mansion. Eased to see the destination, the impatience that dwelled inside of him was calmed for a time. As they crept closer, blasting through a small creek, Christian entered the grounds with awe, surprise and newfound solace. The mansion and it's grounds were that of a functional, peaceful society. Those who sworn allegiance to this faction were training, relaxing, socializing, and enjoying one's company. It was a pleasant sight to see. One that gave the young man hope in the goals of the Royal Family.

Driving into the large garage, Christian saw the resources that this faction had. Cars, vehicles, motorcycles….wait….what was that? It couldn't be!

Leaping off, Christian rushed over to the holy grail of this garage. The prize of the gods. The apple of Christian's eye. His creation. His baby.

THE BIKE.

Christian rushed off, seeing the bike was still pristine condition. No scratches and everything was in place. His helmet was even included. Had the Royal Family somehow found where he had lived and brought his valuables? Maybe they extracted some clothing and other "necessities" such as his laptop? That would be nice. Sure, it was an evasion of privacy but it was a gesture that can be excused as an peace offering for nearly killing them less than 24 hours ago.

After hugging his bike and making sure the thing could start, Christian rejoined the group at the tail end forcing himself to be a part of a brief tour. "Welcome to our home, here your will be safe from outside harm and be taught not only how to control your respective abilities, but also how to defend yourself and ultimately survive. If you would like to follow me, we can go and get something to eat before we meet some of the more important people and tour the area."

River took them to a cafeteria, which was a fairly short walk considering the size of the facility. Alongside one wall stood a table laden with a grand selection of breakfast food. International food. American food. It was a grand buffet if there ever was one. Christian could get used to this. Needing new invitation, Christian grabbed a plate and filled his plate with one of everything (especially anything involving eggs or bacon) and took a seat in the corner of the room at an empty plate. It was time to dine in glory.

Leon Nef-Syndicate Headquarters, Birmingham, England

Leon panted on the ground. It was a good start to learning more about his ability, but it wasn't enough, not just yet. Joshua walked over to him and extended his hand. Leon accepted, and pushed himself up.

"You need to become aware of your own limitations and failings as well as your successes. You won't be able to beat your opponent unless you can recognize your own limits." He said, as he assisted him off the ground. Leon smirked.

"I know my limitations. But that doesn't mean I have to accept them."

As Joshua returned to his original position, he spoke once more.

"Once more, I want to see how many volleys you can do, then we can go get some breakfast."

Ah, breakfast. Leon hadn't realized, but he had not had something to eat in quite a while, and at the mere mention of the words Leon, realized just how hungry he had become. Nevertheless, he resumed the volley training. Leon had gotten a bit of a better grip on his power, and thus, was able to redirect the lightning bolts much fast, and more times. He made sure to be extra careful as the attacks passed through his body as to not suffer any permanent or lingering damage. When the two were done, they headed back up through the control room and into another room where the kitchen was. Leon sat down, and Joshua brought some fruit, and a loaf of bread.

Leon contained a smile at the sight of the food. He reached for the green apple, but Joshua grabbed that one before him. Giving him a look, he looked around for what other fruits were available. Leon hated red apples. He didn't know why, but green apples he loved. But there was another fruit he really loved, absolutely loved. Unfortunately, it wasn't present. Joshua said something else, but Leon wasn't paying attention as he looked for the fruit.

"Not here..." He muttered to himself. Leon sighed, and grabbed the loaf of bread, added some spread, and ate silently. He never liked to talk much when he ate. It was very strange, as many Italians loved to converse during any meal. It was tradition almost. Leon was different. He would eat quietly and quickly, and move on, no time wasted. It was similar in this situation. He ate the bread, a banana, and, with disdain, a red apple, and stood up.

"Well, I'm done. Let's do this." Leon said, not even considering in his mind that Joshua was still probably not done with his own food.

Atticus Forsberg - Stockholm, Sweden

Anabel Falkner - Somewhere over Europe