Leon Nef-Syndicate HQ-Birmingham England

"I can cut objects just by looking at them." Archie said as he demonstrated his power to Leon, cutting through the tin of the bean can. It all looked rather impressive to Leon, but he'd never admit it to Archie. Instead, Leon stared back into Archie's eyes as he stared in his and gave him an affirmative nod. "Not bad." He said. It was as he first thought. Looks can be deceiving. It was a very interesting ability, and it gave Leon a little bit of insight on the range of abilities that people had. It was also dangerous. To make matters worse, or better depending on how you look at it, Leon didn't really know the extent of his powers. Still, even though it appeared they would all be on the same side, it gave Leon more motivation to get even stronger.

Leon's thought process was interrupted by the clearing of the throat. Leon turned to find the Directive standing with another person, a guy with tanned skin, black hair and a hoodie. He was, as the Directive revealed, another new recruit by the name of Jericho, or Jerri. Leon covered his mouth to contain a laugh. To Leon, this had to be stupidest collection of names he had ever heard. He wondered what kind of parents would ever bare to name their children thus. Sending his gaze over to Jericho, Leon gave him a nod, deciding to hold and comments, for now. Archie then spoke, asking a good question. The most important one. Why were they recruited? Why were they here.

"We recruited you Archie, because we saw you as someone who could achieve great power and become something much more than another body in the crowd." He spoke to everyone in the kitchen now. "you were all hand-picked because you show potential to achieve a lot of things."

Leon gave the Directive a blank stare. It was probably not the exact answer they were looking for, because in reality, he didn't say much, other than the usual bullsh** anyone would say if leading an organization based no doubt on secrecy. Leon understood he wasn't going to get any real answers from him, even if he attempted to pry him with answers. But from what Leon was able to gather, the Syndicate was after something; and since they needed Atlanteans, probably in mass, it was something huge. Despite his attempts to push the memories away, Leon's mind wandered to the forest, and the four Atlanteans he was sent to kill. If they were truly gathering Atlanteans, why not gather those four as well? Leon figured it out by putting two together: they were most likely from another group, probably a rival group, perhaps the AUP or Atlantean Royal Family the Directive mentioned before. Leon didn't know what he was in store for, but if he truly had, as the Directive put it, "potential to achieve a lot of things", exactly how many on the other sides had that same potential.

Leon's mind stopped it's wandering, and returned to the situation at hand. His eyes scanned around the room at the group of Atlanteans in it. He shrugged as he spoke.

"I'm sure we'll get along fabulously." Leon said, giving a grin to the rest of them. "But...well, if these are the, how you say, 'cream of the crop', then I suppose I shall make due. I guess I'll see how well you handle yourselves, because to be honest, you don't look like much to me..."

Archie Stevens - Location Unknown

Leon's response to Archie's demonstration was simply to stare back and nod at him, adding a "Not bad." Archie returned the nod. October's reaction was a little more, alarming. She began to clap a little too enthusiastically for Archie's tastes. He was starting to get a creeping suspicion that this woman really was scary, like if he had just decapitated a puppy she would still be clapping scary, and it was not a good feeling.

"well, looks like we have another amazing ability to add to the list. I myself am a Seismokinetic, pretty much I make earthquakes, don't I Leon?" She said, glancing at Leon and laughing. It disturbed Archie the way that she said the last bit and the way that she laughed. Yes she was definitely someone he should be careful around. Though her power didn't seem too much to be afraid of, she could cause earthquakes but unless she could create really high magnitude ones she wasn't that dangerous was she. "You've experienced Jeremy's teleportation abduction, Leon can tell you about himself, the only other person we have here is Adrian, who should be back sometime soon." So that left two people who's powers were still unknown, Leon's and this Adrian's.

"Well I can only manage to cut metals at the moment. I haven't worked out why, it could be an intrinsic limitation of my power or just I haven't mastered it that well yet." Archie said, to October. Since none of them had picked up on the fact he had slightly mislead them he would have to assume they didn't know what his power was before hand or at least not his current limitations.

Both October and Jeremy declined Archie's offer of food, which was fine with him. The arrival of another person startled Archie slightly, well to to be precise but it was one of them clearing his throat caused the alarm. Archie turned to face the new arrivals. Instantly recognising one of them but forgetting the name that went with the face.

"Jericho, I believe you have met Jeremy and Archie here, the female is October and the other man over there is Leon. October and Leon, this is Jericho, sorry Jerri." The well dressed man with the sunglasses presented Jeri to the group, who raised a hand as a welcome.
"Nice to meet you Jeri." Archie said, trying to remember if he actually spoke to the guy when he was in the warehouse. So much had gone on today it was feeling like it had been weeks since he left his flat. If Jeri was here now that meant that the warehouse wasn't too far away, that was unless they had another Jeremy.

"we recruited you Archie, because we saw you as someone who could achieve great power and become something much more than another body in the crowd." The 'leader' said, then speaking to the group as a whole "you were all hand-picked because you show potential to achieve a lot of things." So in other word they have been watching us and we showed the most potential out of all the people they spied on.

"I'm sure we'll get along fabulously." Leon said, giving a grin to the rest of them. "But...well, if these are the, how you say, 'cream of the crop', then I suppose I shall make due. I guess I'll see how well you handle yourselves, because to be honest, you don't look like much to me..." Leon's attitude was starting to annoy Archie, why was this guy so full of himself. He would have to find a way to show this guy up when he got the chance.

"If you don't mind my asking, who are you?" Archie asked the guy who had answered his question.

"Leon, Jeri what are your powers guys?" Archie asked, he was eager to find out what they could do, it could well help him if they ever ended up working together.

Nikolai Afon - AUP Headquaters, France

"Ah, two good questions! First off, Mr. Afon, we will head off to dinner, show you where you'll be sleeping for now then you two will go off to do a bit of training. Tomorrow will be far more eventful, I promise. And Ms. Andersson," he smiled at her. "That conversation is far more appropriate over a hot meal. But, no need to be so serious, Ms. Andersson! You may call me Emil! Now, let's be off! I've had dinner prepared in my office. Come now!" The leader of the AUP was not what Nikolai had expected. From what he had experienced with his father in the world of business was that most CEOs and leaders of big businesses were just self conceited men obsessed with money. Emil seemed to be much more happy and easy going. Nikolai wondered how Emil had founded the AUP, or if he had inherited it from someone.

They walked out of the hanger into a long hallway, stopping at the first set of elevators. Emil pressed the button and the elevator immediately dinged, and its doors opened to let the group in. As they walked in, the boy Devon immediately made his way to the back of the elevator, seeming to avoid the rest of the group. Nikolai wondered about him. he had remembered being somewhat like the boy in his childhood, when his father took him on business trips. Nikolai never enjoyed them, and always tried to avoid everyone else and find things to entertain him until his father was finished. Often times he would just stay in the hotel till the meeting was over, rather than have to deal with the boredom of corporate dealings. So Nikolai sympathized with Devon. He briefly wondered if he had any Atlantean powers, or if Emil had any powers. Nikolai decided to ask later.

The elevator dinged once again, the doors opening revealing a large room with ceiling to floor windows giving a fantastic view of the city below them. In the center of the room was a large table set out with all sorts of different foods already laid out on it. Devon immediately excused himself, and left for his room. Once again Nikolai felt sympathetic to the boy. All thoughts of Devon were forgotten when Helena spoke up. "Annie? My wound... it's nothing serious, I think. But it would be nice to clean it after we've had dinner at least. Also... do you know where the toilets are here? It's like, I need one."

There were some exclamations, words quickly spoken. It would have seemed that the entire group had forgotten that Helena had been shot in the first place. Cooper quickly rushed off to get the first aid kit, then returned and spoke to Helena in Swedish. He was done after only a few moments, after which Helena left down the hall for the restroom. The group calmed down a bit and settled down into their chairs. Nikolai sat a chair away from Atticus, figuring that Helena would want to sit by him for the meal. A light conversation ensued, headed by Emil of course, until Helena returned. Once she did, she settled won in her seat, saying a brief "Tack" to Cooper, who returned the remark with a smile.

After eating for a few minutes, Nikolai brought up the point once again. "So Emil, how about answering our questions now?

Christian Calaway- Atlantean Mansion, Boston England.

"It's okay. It's fine. We're all a little unhinged, aren't we?" Oakley replied with a nervous chuckle. Clearly, Oakley was feigning happiness. It seemed to bring up bad memories for her, which of course was not Christian's intent. A simple apology was his only wish. He immediately tried to think of ways to make up for it, and when about eating hoping an epiphany would strike him. Of course, nothing did. Christian took a few bites of his food, not really tasting it. He looked over to Antonia who smiled. Christian smiled back, failing to gather any words to speak.

"Yeah, unhinged. That is a fair way to put it," Christian finally said after she finished her exchange with the other person at the table, who rubbed Christian the wrong way. That might be a nice way to put it. He couldn't put his finger on why Christian fail to come up with any terms of endearment to describe the man in. Perhaps it was the fact he asked too many questions. Or maybe it was his tone. Voice perhaps? Didn't really matter right now. He could easily pretend to like him for the sake of avoiding any confrontation. If he was Oakley's friend, it would probably be a better idea than fighting him. Though, if they had anything resembling a friendship it was a weak one from his perspective.

Christian was not particularly good at comforting people. In that regard, it was not much better than the man he was complaining about. But in Christian's opinion, she needed a bit of "pick me up" and he was willing to give it a try. A pep talk? No, maybe not that. Recalling the whole situation at the center was rather easy and images of Oakley being almost tormented by her ability was haunting in a manner of speaking. Asking her about her training would either be a great idea as she may have made strides in a day of training! Christian certainly did. But, there was also the plausibility that she didn't. Not everyone was a guaranteed over night sensation like a pop singer who composed a hit single. Perhaps avoiding training would be a good idea. He and Antonia didn't really talk about other than a brief summary on her part. So who said they needed to discuss that?

"I'm sorry, what was your name?" Oakley directed to Antonia.

Antonia immediately swallowed the bite of food she had in her mouth. "Hi, I'm Antonia. Your name is Oakley, I take it. Nice to meet you," she replied with a genuine smile. "I was on the helicopter with you guys. I'm not sure if you remember though."

"I'm sure she does," Christian said, lightly rubbing Oakley's head with his knuckles innocently, trying his best to be like a troublesome brother who just wanted to bother his little sister a bit. "Right?" He wanted to say 'Hey, cheer up!' But the words never left his mouth. Instead, a sincere expression of concern was painted on his face, his cold eyes becoming a bit warmer. Christian perked up to the other person on the table. "Hello. My name is Christian. I am sorry, but I don't recall yours offhand," he said offering a handshake as a weak apology. Pretending to like the guy in that second was a struggle, but Christian was used to talking to people he didn't like.

Oakley North - Atlantean Mansion, Boston, England

Adeline "Otto" Russo - Under The Vatican, Rome, Italy

Christian Calaway- Atlantean Mansion, Boston, England

"Don't worry about it," Antonia said with a gesture of her hand as if she was sweeping the problem under the rug. "Some of us forget things," he laughed lightly. Antonia was tempted to continue conversing with Oakley at the point, but any effort was immediately drowned out by Kieran's chatter with Christian. It didn't help that Oakley appeared to space out. There goes any attempt at conversation with someone other than Christian. Why did he have to go and talk to Kieran?

"Kieran," the boy said leaning over to accept Christian's handshake. It was a firm grip and after a few good shakes, Kieran sunk back into his seat. Maybe he wasn't too bad after all. A handshake can tell a lot about a man. His confidence. His strength of character. A weak handshake is a bad first impression, but Kieran managed to at least provide an acceptable one. He spoke with clarity as well. Christian perhaps was a bit quick to judge. "Kieran Davis. Nice to meet you too, Christian. I'm guessing you're the Christian that owns the motorcycle they brought over last night? That's a pretty sweet bike you got there."

"Yes. That's mine. Thank you. Bought her myself. Been tweaking her around a bit. She is quite fast and handles beautifully. I was hoping to take her out for a ride tomorrow, but to be honest I never took her off road. I don't want mud to ruin the paint job," Christian finished with deep concern in his voice followed by a nervous chuckle. In hindsight it probably sounded like a father being over protective of his dear child. It would only make sense as the bike in many cases represented a step in independence and responsibility in Christian's life. It was his first major purchase without his dictator of a mother breathing his neck and his often passive father supporting him but conveniently forgetting when his mother stormed in, taking her side immediately. It was a culmination of his work as an individual, forging his own destiny. It was probably why he always took such pride in his work on the motorcycle. It was something he always turn to and smile. Working on it, even if it was something as simple as maintenance became a labor of love and a moment of zen. It allowed the usually uptight man to ease his mind.

"Where are you going, Oakley?" Kieran spoke suddenly, shattering Christian's internal monologue in a matter of speaking. "You shouldn't wander off especially when you just got out of the the first aid room." Kieran looked back at Christian and Antonia, who exchanged looks of confusion. Their eyes met, swapping theories on why Oakley had to have any sort of wounds attended to. To their credit, the way their eyes met almost suggested that they were on the same page, though Christian would sooner admit that his theory was probably far more grand and complex and Antonia (being his better half at this point) had a far more sensible and believable theory. "Yeah, there was a slight incident during training," he gestured to her right palm, the one that was medically attended to, gripping a crystal of some sort bearing some resemblance to one Christian saw earlier. "Oakley fell onto my swords," he then motioned to his own arms, "and I accidentally hurt her. It was an accident and she had to go to the first aid room."

So swords were Kieran's power? Christian couldn't recall off hand if Kieran's power was mentioned to him and who could blame him? With training and the prophecy preoccupying his mind, forgetting a minor detail like that could be excused. Christian doubted that Kieran could create steel swords from his being. Bone perhaps? That sounded the most likely. Bone manipulation was a plausible and interesting power. Sounded more useful than his own in his own opinion. After all, smoke wasn't exactly that deadly. At least not at the moment.

"Doesn't sound like a slight incident to me," Christian said taking a quick gulp of his drink. "I thought you were one of the most experienced members of the school here. If your control over your ability is no better than hers or mine, I would advise you not to intervene in anyone's training, unless you want to cause more accidents. Allow the members of the Royal Family to handle 'incidents' in the future. They know what they are doing," Christian spoke with disdain, bordering on disgust. Kieran now sounded like an ignorant fool. Kieran now proved himself to be a "rookie" like many of the other students, completely unaware of the destructive potential of his powers. But unlike the other rookies, Kieran did not appear to act responsibly. Sure, Christian did not know they exact circumstances of this accident, and many of the situations he painted in his mind made Kieran look almost justified in his actions. But in each scenario, there was a better way to handle things. There is always a better way. Looks like Christian's first impression was right. Forget the handshake. Kieran was a fool. Nothing more. Nothing less.

"Christian," Oakley spoke up, clearly trying to change the subject, "do you speak any other languages other than English?"

Christian calmed down or tried to. Ridding thoughts of Kieran's bumbling accident was difficult. "I can speak a bit of Spanish. I took a few classes in high school. I did…okay. Not great. Better than most I suppose. New York has a large Spanish speaking population, so I never lost at least. It helped in my job when you got the occasional customer who couldn't speak in English as well. But even so, I can understand far more than I can speak."

Atticus Forsberg - AUP Headquarters, France

Devon "Evo" Bernot - AUP Headquarters, France

Oakley North - Atlantean Mansion, Boston, England

Adeline "Otto" Russo - Under the Vatican, Rome, Italy

Devon "Evo" Bernot - AUP Headquarters, France

Nikolai Afon - AUP Headquarters, France


"Why I started the AUP, you mean? Well, many years ago, I chanced upon my heritage by touching an Atlantean Crystal in a bayside market in France. As you might already know, Atlantean Crystals are rare stone that grow only on the original island of Atlantis. Coming in contact with a Crystal releases you from your mortal coil and lets you live to your full potential, abilities and all. Well, after this incident, it wasn't long before I was found by a group known as the Atlantean Royal Family who are the leaders of the race, much like a Prime Minster does with a country. Well, at the time, Cooper here was working for Roscoe Beleren, the leader of the House of Water back then, and he was the one that taught me the ways of Atlantis and about the Universe and stuff like that," Emil nodded at Cooper, giving him a gracious smile. "I was a little bit of a brat then, wasn't I?"

"I've never regretted teaching you," Cooper added, bowing his head back at Emil.

"Haha, I'm sure you do sometimes, Cooper," Emil tapped his nose, then continued with his story. "Well, we were always told if we went out in public to never reveal ourselves because the mortals would soon catch on and kick up a storm."

"Mortals are what some Atlanteans call, uh, normal people," Atticus said, directing his attention at Helena.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Atticus!" Annie teased. He responded by taking another bite of his chicken.

"Well," Emil butted in before anyone else could interrupt, "I always wondered why we had to hide ourselves from the public. Surely we were entitled to live the same lives as mortals, perhaps entitled to even more? Then Cooper showed me the corruption of mortals, the way they warred over such trivial things, like oil and land and weapons. Why couldn't we just all live in peace? It was then I realised that we Atlanteans were different from mortals and we deserve to live in a way which we deserve. So, I left the Family and created my own. Mortals and Atlanteans are like cats and dogs; we can live together, but we were never meant to thrive together, mortals will always be jealous of us. All us members have been hurt somehow by the cruelty of mortals," he gestured to the older members of the table, one by one. "Natalia's parents taken by war and panic, Annie's family and legs taken by jealousy and greed, Atticus'--"

"Yeah, we don't need to talk about that," he put his hand up, shaking his head.

"As you wish," Emil nodded. "But yes, the AUP strives to unify Atlanteans as a people. That is what we're working towards."

As they finished eating, Nikolai thought about what he might loose by joining the AUP. His father was already long dead, claimed by an automobile accident, and his mother was gone, most likely dead as well. The more Nikolai thought about it, the more he realized that he wasn't really close to anybody. Sure, he had some friends back in Moscow, but nobody really close. He already felt somewhat close to the group that he was in now, but even then, not that close.

The plates on the table were now mostly empty, everyone had finished their dinner. Emil stood up, taking plates and gathering them up in a stack. He then passed the stack to Cooper who took it over to a small kitchen and began to pile them up in a dishwasher.

"Yes, now that we're finished, we'll get onto training! You two are still very raw with your abilities so hopefully with a little training, we can get you to have a better grip on them. Helena, if you don't mind, will be going off with Natalia. Nikolai, you'll be training with Wade Harrison. He has an interesting ability that's quite similar to yours, in a way. After training, we'll show you your rooms."

"Wouldn't I be best suited with Nikolai's ability?" Annie asked, frowning at Emil.

"Yes, but you need to rest, Annie. Cooper told me you haven't slept for a while now."

"Right," Annie said, sounding disappointing. Nikolai was disappointed too. He liked Annie, and her ability with computers and technology would have been a great help to developing his ability. He was intrigued by Wade Harris, and how his ability was similar to Nikolai's. From what he had learned, no Atlantean had the same ability as another, so that fact that Harris had a similar ability intrigued Nikolai all the more.

"Well, Ms. Andersson? Mr. Afon? Was there anything else you needed before you set off?"

There was a silence for a moment, then Helena spoke up, "I told you that I would follow you if it would be the safest thing for my family. I don't... I don't think this sounds like that anymore. Everyone here has lost something. I haven't. Are you going to make me lose my family? I won't... no." She rushed out of her chair, and immediately turned invisible, her footsteps echoing against the walls.

"What? Helena, hey, wait!" but she was gone as Atticus went to grab the invisible Helena in front of him but only ended up with a fistful of air. "Helena!"

"Let her be, Atticus," Emil had put a hand on Atticus chest to stop him. "The AUP is all about freedom and free will. Are you going to deny her that?"

"No, but, I think she misunderstood what you said as--"

"Leave her be."

Atticus exchanged looks with the rest of the members, then sighed. "Well, alright then."

"She'll come back when her time is right, trust me." Nikolai could only hope that he was right. From the short time that Nikolai had known Helena, she seemed like a good person. He fought the urge to follow her to undoubtedly the elevator, the only way that Nikolai knew down to ground level.

There was an awkward pause for a moment before Nikolai spoke up. "So, um. If were just going to leave her be, does that mean I should go to training now?" He didn't want to seem insensitive to Helena right now, but he knew that there was probably nothing that he could do to help her right now. It frustrated Nikolai, not being able to help. But what could he do?

Adrian Santoro – America en-route to England

Adrian breathed a sigh of relief as Erika accepted his proposal of a leap of faith to join him in the Syndicate. He was quite new to the whole recruiting business, despite having been with the Syndicate for quite a while now. Erika had been his first recruitment assignment, so having it as a success was a good thing. They took a short taxi ride to the airport, checking in and hanging around until their plane arrived and they boarded it. It was a relatively slow and uneventful plane ride, although Adrian started getting annoyed at the Asian man sitting beside him moving around uncomfortably in his suit, continually reminding Adrian of his own ability hidden beneath the folds of his clothing.

Their plane landed in Heathrow Airport in the afternoon, and Adrian was glad to see that the Syndicate had sent them a driver and a car to take them up to Birmingham. Once in the black, tinted window car, they began their long ride to Birmingham, their estimated arrival time somewhere in the evening, meaning that Adrian would get to see October again.

Once out of London, Adrian apologised to Erika, "firstly, this must seem scary for you, it was pretty scary for me coming all the way from Rio in Brazil to here, but you will learn a lot, it's quite a nice place." Adrian then flexed his muscles, pushing out against his shirt until it ripped revealing a skin tight black shirt beneath custom made to fit the extra set of arms that protruded from around the bottom of his ribcage. "I've felt suffocated having to hide these, people just don't understand us." Adrian smiled his perfect smile at her again before cracking knuckles and fingers.

It was only a couple more hours before they pulled into the parking lot under the Syndicate's tower, the driver pulling up to the lone elevator that stood in the rather empty parking lot. Adrian got out, offering one of his hands to Erika as a gesture out of the car before calling for the elevator and entering once it came.

"The Syndicate sorts everything for you. If there is anything you need, just call reception from the phone in your room and they will help you. Twenty-four hours service is nice to have." The elevator dinged and the doors rolled open to the room in front of them. Adrian stepped out and motioned for Erika to join them.

"Adrian!" called October before she leapt into his arms, hugging him tight and planting a big kiss on his cheeks.

Adrian let her down after a couple of seconds before directing her attention to Erika, "October, this is Erika, Erika, this is October, so far the only other female with us." Adrian watched as October smiled at her, extending out her hand in a handshake gesture.

"Finally good to have another girl around here!" October exclaimed before gesturing to the boys behind her, "…these guys are the other new recruits, if you need anything, I'll be glad to help." She returned to Adrian's side, cuddling into one side of him.

Cobalt Chimura – America en-route to England

"Excellent, I'm glad to have you aboard, Brian," Cobalt was relieved that Brian had accepted, he wasn't really sure what the Oracle wanted with an Empath, but if it was the difference between winning and losing, then it was good to have the deciding factor. The car rolled onto the airport and they boarded the plane, Cobalt finding his plane seat even more uncomfortable with the suit on. It had been interesting checking in, they pair got an interesting look from the lady who took their tickets, but she would have seen much weirder than a grown man and a teenager boarding a plane; despite their racial and name differences.

If the plane ride wasn't long enough, then the train ride from London to Boston was even longer. On the train, Cobalt decided to inform Brian about them, "So we are heading to our mansion in Boston, where we help to train promising young Atlanteans to better control their abilities. We have quite a few around the high school bracket, some above in their twenties, so I'm sure you will be able to find a friend. We do teach other things than how to control your ability, have to keep you up to date with your schooling too." When Cobalt and the others had been young, they had lived in the mansion with their parents, only when their parents had passed on and they had acquired the inheritance did they turn from being so select to opening it up to teach others, mostly children of Atlanteans their parents had been friends with.

Once they arrived in Boston, Cobalt grabbed a taxi which took them out to the mansion. After paying the man a fair bit of money, Cobalt led Brian through the entrance and to the dining hall which was now empty save for a few stragglers. He went over to the table picking up a selection of food onto his plate, some of the warmer dishes still fairly warm, motion for Brian to do the same before sitting down at a nearby table to eat.

"Before I show you the mansion and your room," he began talking to Brian between mouthfuls, "I have someone who would wish to see you, The Oracle is a nice lady," he finished another mouthful before continuing, "then we can get you to bed, hopefully we can also get some training done tomorrow morning, how does that sound?"