Nikolai Afon - Moscow, Russia

Nikolai listened to her and nodded as she spoke. That made sense, the Atlanteans being one and a half times immortal. That was an interesting thought, living over a hundred as long as he died of old age and not sickness. Then he had another thought. "So there is the AUP, and there is the Royal Family of Atlanteans. Is there any other organizations? There must be others who knew about the Atlanteans, I mean, us, before a week ago."

Another thought came to him. "And if there is any other organization, what do they want. Surely not all Atlanteans want to do something as...noble as unite the Atlanteans. After all, even Atlanteans can be human in nature. So, is there anyone who uses there powers for crime? I guess I am going towards the superhero/villain stereotype here, but is it true?"

Leon Nef- ????

"Thank you for accepting our....request, Leon," The man said as he reached out for a phone, which lit up briefly for only a second before going dark again. Suddenly, a man came on the speakers of the warehouse.

"Welcome to The Syndicate, Leon Nef." the voice said. Leon looked up into the top of the warehouse, as if to pinpoint the source of the voice. "All I can say is that I am a big fan of yours. As a preliminary job before it becomes more....permanent, go with the teleporter next to you, he has the coordinates, and....eradicate any person you find there. Return when finished."

Leon listened closely, until the last few words, where he sort of opened his mouth in surprise.

"Wait, wha-" But before he could finish, the other man spoke now.

"You heard the Directive, if you have any questions, consult with Jeremy, otherwise your job needs to be done."

"Shall we get on the road then?" Jeremy said. Leon should have said something then. He should have spoken up, but he was in too much shock to actually have plausible words come out of his mouth. Just then, the man grabbed onto Leon, and the two teleported somewhere new. Leon felt liked screaming out, but no words came. Was he really expected to murder people?

The cold air is what he felt first. He didn't know where he was, but it was certainly a lot colder than the climate he was used to in Italy. The man spoke once more, in barely a whisper.

"Okay, so the people in the clearing to my right, they are the targets you have to eliminate. If you get in trouble, just yell my name and I can teleport you out of there quickly, otherwise once you've finished fighting I will come out to join you. Good Luck."

Again, before Leon could speak up, the man was gone, and Leon was here, all alone, supposed to commit murder. The men, three or four of them, stood to his right only a few meter's away. Leon quickly hid behind a tree, and began to panic a little.

"Oh, sh*t, oh sh*t, oh sh*t!" He said quietly under his breath. Leon didn't know what to do. He figured he might have teamed up with the wrong organization right now. Sure, as a member of a gang in Italy, he had often held people at gunpoint, but he had never killed someone. He was shot at, and on a couple of occasions returned fire, but that was more out of self-defense. This was different. This was outright murder. Murder to people who he did not know, to people who have done him no harm.

Leon crouched down now as he observed the men not too far away. His mind began to wander now, and to figure out why he was sent to do this, and what were their motivations. He knew at least some of whatever this 'Syndicate' was were Atlantean. Does this mean they were, indirectly, protecting Atlanteans by murdering these people, who possibly threatened Atlanteans? If that was the case, indirectly, Leon was too being threatened, and in this case, this would be self-defense. Leon's mind could only come up with that rationalization for killing them. He left all his other morals, all his values and principles of life and death in the back of his mind. Right now, he was stranded in the middle of who knows where, and potentially, the second they see him, they might attack him too. Furthermore, they could be armed. Even further, they could have back-up. Leon had to think these extremes. That's how he managed to survive this long on his own. Right now, it was either him or them.

There was just one problem. At the moment, he had none of his Atlantean power in him. To make matters worse, this appeared to be a forest area. No electricity for miles. This was a problem. From what little Leon could figure out about his power, he did discover one thing. He can only harness the power of other electricity sources. Put him in the middle of a forest, and he's useless.

Just then, he felt a slight tingle in his arms. He then remembered earlier in the day. When he was showing the person in the office building his power, he managed to absorb the electricity of the lamp there. It wasn't much, but if he could harness it successfully, it could turn out to be enough to kill one of these four people if hit directly to the head, scrambling his brain, or heart, possibly stopping it. Also, if he hit's any of their spines, it could potentially paralyze them. Still, that was only one shot he was going to get. There were three others there with him.

Leon began to breathe heavily now, as is he had just been running as he hid behind the tree. Thankfully, the cold wind that blew heavily hid his sharp breaths. Leon check his pockets to see what he had, and as luck would have it, he pulled out his old gun. He checked the ammunition. Three bullets. Either a huge coincidence, luck, or some godly force suddenly convincing him to go through with this borderline insane plot, not to mention killing four people.

Leon had to be quick, he had to be precise, and he had to be fast. He took one more look at the four people, who appeared to be talking amongst themselves. One laughed. Leon observed them. They appeared to be normal people. Not murderers. Not corrupt, evil people. Maybe then, it was Leon that was corrupt and evil? Perhaps he was the murderer?

No, he thought. It's not about the murder. It's about survival. It's always been about that with me. Survive. That's the most important thing. Right now, it's either them or me. What's it gonna be Leon?

Leon took a deep breath, and gathered energy in his arm. From what he learned about his ability, all the electricity he gathers is coming from somewhere inside his arm area. At least, that's what he feels, so that's what he assumes. He concentrated all the lightning power he could find, and gathered them to the two tips of his fingers. His nerves pulsed, sometimes going numb for a second as they accepted the transition of the energy from the inside of his body to the outside. The sharp wind once again masked the slightly noisy gathering of lightning at the tip of his two fingers. In one hand, he loaded as much energy as he could. In another, he held his gun. Standing up now, Leon turned, and acted quickly.

He shot the large amount of lightning out of the tips of his fingers, at the woman all the way to the further left. The lighting his right in between her shoulder blades, and she fell down without another sound. Ignoring the tingling in his left arm, Leon raised his gun, and shot.

BANG! BANG BANG!

Three shots fired, all three aiming for the remaining people, in the hopes that it would be as simple as that. He took a look to see what had happened. Two people lie on the floor now. The one he hit with his lightning, and one more, who had a whole coming through his head, blood coming out and onto the snow below. The other two people, however, were up and turned to Leon, one person grasping his shoulder, where blood came out. The other having the bullet miss him entirely. Leon stood, unable to move for a second as he basically forced his body to try to move. The man on the left took a deep breath now, and appeared to scream at Leon. But it was no regular scream. The pulse of the deep shrill filled Leon's ears, and as the apparent wave of noise fluttered towards him, he could see branches and trees break from the noise. Leon held his ears as he moved behind a tree to avoid the impact of the killing shrill. He finally understood. As if things couldn't get any worse.

They were armed, alright. Armed with Atlantean powers.

Leon continued to hold his ears as the sonic scream shrilled in the air. His head felt a little light as he began to ran. He had no ammo, and the two pursued. The other man suddenly had thousands of spike-like needs come out of his body. Leon cursed under his breathe as he attempted to avoid the spikes as the man flung them into the air, like bullets of their own. Leon made his way through the trees, avoiding the high-pitch sonic scream and the needle-like spikes flying through the air, ripping through branches and cutting leaves like paper. Eventually, he was hit on his side by a couple of spikes.

Leon screamed out loud at the pain. All too familiar with knife wounds, these felt just a bit sharper, and twice as unpleasant. But the hit caused Leon to inadvertently reach for his side, where he had a knife. Reaching out for it, he positioned himself as he tossed the knife right at the spike user. In the meantime, the spike user launched a barrage of spikes at Leon's direction. The knife hit its mark, hitting the spike user directly in the head, appearing to kill him instantly. At the same time, however, Leon was hit by at least half a dozen spikes across his body as well. The force of the hits felt almost like gunshots, and Leon fell into the snow. He cursed silently under his breathe as he heard footsteps come towards him.

The sonic voice Atlantean stood over his body now, angry. He bent down, and positioned his face right over Leon's, and sucked in his breath, about to launch the deadly sonic shrill right into his face, which would kill him instantly. Desperate, Leon's mind worked like a bullet as he tried to figure out what to do. With nothing else to do, Leon reached for his side, where his empty gun was, and hit the sonic manipulator right in the face. He fell back a little, and the sonic scream was released right next to Leon instead of right on him. The super screamed buried into the snow, creating a small crater, and caused Leon to hold his ears. He felt blood come out of them a little, as he began to lose his sight a little, and began to hear his ears ring. He was slowly losing consciousness, but the sonic manipulator wasn't done. Positioning himself right over Leon again, he sucked in breath. Leon could only watch as his life appeared to flash before his eyes. He still felt the pain from his ears, as well as from the impacts of the spikes, which were still lodged in his body...

The Spikes, his mind seemed to realized. In a swift motion, Leon pulled out one of the spikes from his side, and stuck it into the sonic user's neck from the side, before he had a chance to release his attack. The sonic user fell back, blood seeping out of his neck as he gasped for air, struggling on the floor. A few more seconds later, he stopped struggling, and stopped moving.

Feeling he was in no more danger anymore, Leon gave himself a small smile, and slowly, everything around him went black.

"We are not aware of any other groups at the moment, but you shouldn't rule it out. There will always be people who are swayed by material things and bad thoughts, Atlanteans who have been surrounded by bad mortal judgement for too long," Natalia said, glancing at her phone. Nikolai was just about to ask another question when her phone beeped. She held up her finger for a moment, then looked up and said, "I'm sorry, but we have to move again. I'll answer you other questions in the car." Then she gathered up her things and motioned for him to move out the door.

It had begun to snow while they had talked, and now a light dusting of snow was on the ground. No doubt there was more snow farther north in Russia, but in the middle of Moscow, not much had fallen so far. Nikolai loved the snow, but he wished he had brought something warmer. Oh well, it was not like he had planned to be kidnapped into a secret organization. Natalia quickly unlocked the car and climbed in the drivers seat while Nikolai got into the passenger seat. After a few minutes of heading north, Nikolai asked another question. "So how large is the AUP? Your obviously very organized as a group. But how many of you are there?"

Natalia Zaytsev - ???, Russia

Oakley North - London, England

Nikolai Afon - North of Moscow, Russia

Nikolai and Natalia talked about other, simpler things as they made their way north, out of Moscow and into the wilderness that surrounded the metropolis. The snow fell slightly more heavily now, slightly obscuring the road. They drove for about an hour when Natalia's phone suddenly buzzed. She quickly reached forward and put it on speaker phone.

"Zaytsev"

Broken language came through the speaker, disjointed and quick. Static and noises in the background obscured most of what the person said. "Natal... d-- br-- ...e --c--... com.. sed!" Natalia frowned and her face went pale. The quickly looked up from her phone and looked over at Nikolai, who returned her confused and worried look. She quickly accelerated and turned off onto a dirt road, then quickly braked as she saw four bodies in a clearing beside the road. She jumped out of the car, and Nikolai was about to do the same when she yelled, "Stay here!" Nikolai obeyed as she pulled a gun out and ran over to the bodies, looking them over, then turning to a sound to her right.

Then Nikolai decided to just get out. Natalia wasn't shooting at all, and she had lowered her gun, so it must be safe for now. He quietly got out of the car and walked over to Natalia, taking care not to step in the blood soaked snow surrounding the bodies. As he looked down at the bodies, quickly taking note of how they died. His father had once told him to always look at the details that others might overlook. They might be useful later. He quickly summed up how they had died. One man had been shot in the head, and there was now a large hole just above his eye. One more had a knife in his head, most likely thrown. The third had a spike in his neck. He had noticed that the spikes had come from the second man. An Atlantean power perhaps? The fourth, a woman, was interesting though. She had electrical burns on her body, which appeared to have killed her. That did not make sense though, there was no electrical equipment around here. Nikolai ended up assuming that the burns had been caused by another Atlantean power.

Nikolai walked over to Natalia and put his had on her shoulder. "I'm sorry." He said, "Did you know them?"

Leon Nef-Birmingham, England

Leon Nef was dreaming. In his dream, he had awoken with a massive headache. Tired, he got out of bed, and walked over to the bathroom to place some water on his face. As he reached for the sink with his hands, he noticed something on them. Both of his arms were covered with the same Atlantean tattoos that cover his shoulder, neck, and part of his face. It was strange, and Leon tried to wash it off, thinking it was ink or something, but it wasn't. Slowly, he realized the tattoo's were spreading. From his wrists, they traveled up and covered his arms, and the one on his shoulder traveled across his chest and down his torso. As he looked now at his face, the tattoo that once covered only part of it spread as well, until his entire face, and rest of his body was covered with it. But it was a strange feeling that passed over him as this was happening. He should be panicking, but he wasn't. For some reason, it felt good. It felt right.

Leon awoke now suddenly, the dream still vivid in his mind. He lifts his hands to his eyes to see they were no longer covered with the Atlanteon tattoos. Leon wondered what the dream meant, if anything. He sat up now, his chest hurting a bit. He recalled the days events, the actions he had to take against those four people. He looked around the room now, not recognizing it, until his gaze fell on Jeremy. He groaned.

"Oh...you. You and your people have a lot of f***ing explaining to do. What the hell? My initiation in this damn organization was to kill four damn people? And to makes things better, they all were ATLANTEAN?! I almost f***king died!" Leon screamed, trying to get out of bed, but realizing he was still a bit soar. He lay back down, looking away from Jeremy.

Leon was pretty angry, but he was also kind of scared. He had been in life-threatening situations before, but this was the closest he had ever came to being dead. Atlanteans were truly powerful. But then, he would know. Leon looked back at Jeremy.

"I expect to be payed a LOT of money for this..." He said.

Christian Calaway- London, England
-----------------------------

"Stay the hell away from my sister, you almost killed her!"

It would make sense that the one time Christian tried to be friendly and even kind hearted that he would be immediately criticized. Sure, he did almost kill a girl, but it was a mistake. Oakley became a threat and Christian responded naturally. It was Michael's fault for not stepping in. If he disliked Christian's methods that much, he would avoided the problem in the first place. Christian glared down at Michael, as the smaller man attempted to place a hand on Christian's intangible chest. Over time, as Christian calmed down (the mental process of making Oakley's outburst Michael's fault did help) his body became tangible. However, Michael still stood before him, erupting with anger, though it was almost obvious he was holding back. Michael's body was tense, his eyes burning with unrivaled intensity. Christian was ready to fire back, almost hoping for a fight if it was going to prove his point. Christian acted in a just manner, while this "brotherly" figure stood back and watched idly.

Christian raised his arm and tightened his face into a dense fist, ready to plow this little bi--

"That is enough! We are not here to fight or make enemies, so keep quiet and stand still."

A beautiful figure separated Michael and Christian with ease and grace. It was River and she was not happy. She glared at both Christian and Michael, both quickly rubbed him off for the time being, focusing her attention to Oakley. Christian had almost forgot about her at this time, being too preoccupied with his analysis of Michael trying to deduce who was at fault. River did some subtle magic trick that seemed to control, or at least subdue Oakley's power. The arm shrunk to normal size and the armored layer of skin dissipated. Upon closer analysis, it appeared it was some crystal that appeared to do it, but Christian couldn't make sense of it.

River spoke again : "Now that we have had enough drama for today, let's finish this." River pointed to the older lady and her younger male friend, "You two may go through the door only my left behind us, there you will finish processing and sent back to your families." She gestured to the others, "You four will be coming with me though the other door behind me. Quickly now, and no drama," she warned before briskly turning around and walking through.

Christian appeared to lobbed together with the group coming with River, despite not displaying full commitment to her cause. River and the others went through the door as she instructed. Christian remained in the center of room as everyone else left. In pure, uninterrupted silence, Christian stared at the ruins of the once solid wall. He mused over River's words.

"Our only motive is to help our fellow Atlanteans"

"given your Atlantean identity"

"Free into a world"

"No rights"

"Better control over their respective abilities"

"Your choice."

The words jumbled together, because of a chaotic mess of information. What was he supposed to do? What was the right choice to make?

He had a life. He had control. And most importantly, he had goals. Ever since he left the comfort of his home, he wanted to change the world. Being naive, he was originally idealistic in this crusade but as time passed he became more of a realist. He understood what he had to do change the world: Become a person with authority and power. Unlike those in the established order, he would be morally conscious and upheld a strict code to do so. He would not become a corrupt politician. He would tell the truth and live a strict lifestyle. He would be his own man. That was the goal.

And now this.

He stood in a room with a choice. He glanced at the rubble again. Christian recognized it was fault that the once solid wall was a crumbled, pathetic shell of itself. It became nothing more than crumbs to a regular person, something to be repaired or replaced. But to Christian, it was much more. It was a symbol of the lie he was living for the past week. Christian was telling himself time and time again he was in control of this minor inconvenience. He would learn to control it and put his life back on track. On top of this, he was ordered to work for a politician, who in his mind, were always nothing more than puppets serving corrupt business in some elaborate conspiracy to fill the pockets of the rich.

Christian's body grew tense, until the tension reached its breaking point. Christian roared like an untamed beast and turned the nearest wall. Losing control of himself, he exploded with frustration. Christian punched the solid wall nearest to him. The pain of punching the wall was great, and his fist was clearly bleeding. The pain woke him up though. He chuckled lightly to himself, before actually laughing.

"Guess, I really don't have control."

Christian retracted his slightly bloodied fist, surprised it wasn't broken. He half expected his fist to evaporate into smoke. It would be that, or the wall would resemble its crumbled brethren. It didn't. Any notion he had control disappeared, much like his did on that day one week ago. He swallowed his pride. As much as he valued his freedom and his goals, he would become a hypocrite if he committed to that. He would be lying to himself and over time, it would consume him. By becoming loyal to River and the Royal Family, he would be serving a noble cause. Protecting himself. Protecting the Atlanteans. Protecting society. It was a noble cause.

Christian smiled weakly to himself. He regathered himself and walked through the door that River motioned to moments ago before she and the others left. Christian walked through the now lonely hallway with great haste, knowing he was delaying them from reaching their objective. The hallway lead to a helicopter resting in a courtyard. Christian's shock at the sight was minimal, as he had no time to experience such emotions. He squeezed himself into the tight helicopter, taking the only available seat between two chatty women. They were running their mouths on topics he shared no interest in. Clothes, makeup, boys. There were more important topics than those and they had to talk about such useless things. He hoped the flight would be a short one.

River slammed the door behind Christian and signaled the pilot to leave. She put a headset on and ordered the others to do so. Christian did so, unintentionally revealing his bloodied hand.

"We are taking you to a secure location, about half an hour away, please stay seated and belted in until we land." Her voice cut off and she stared out the window, the other girls beside Christian blasting away at each other with chatter of idiocy.

It was going to be a long flight.

Leon Nef-Syndicate Hospital

Jeremy looked like he was going to say something, but he never got a chance. Behind him a man walked in. He was more or less the same height as Leon, as far as he could tell, with a black suit and silver tie. From the look on Jeremy's face, he was someone not to cross, or someone very unpleasant.

What fun.

"Mr. Nef, swearing and cursing at your colleague is going to get you nowhere and as for money, you will be compensated." As he said this, he took off his eyes. Leon wanted to demand what the hell he was thinking sending him to kill four people, but he assumed his questions may very well be answered anyways.

"as for killing those people, we needed to confirm your degree of loyalty. Unlike Mr. Kyle here, you are a greater asset for your ability to kill for no reason, you could progress quickly for our ranks."

For no reason? The words hung in Leon's ears. He had never really thought of himself in that way. Was that all he was? A killer without a purpose or drive? No, Leon couldn't accept that. Not for now. Who the hell was this man saying who he was and wasn't anyways?

For now though, he remained silent, and let the man continue to speak.

"We collectively are glad that you killed those people, for if you had not, they would have gone on to kill more people."

Well there was some justification right there. He knew it wasn't for nothing. He had silenced people who in turn would have killed many more. This made Leon a bit more relaxed now.

Just then, the room began to darken. Projections of what the man spoke. Leon watched in silence, a bit intrigued by the man's ability.

"There are three groups of Atlanteans out there. The first is the Atlantean Royal Family; elitist and manipulative, they select few people from the rest of our race they believe to be more powerful and better than the rest to create and elite group of Atlanteans. The second is the Atlantean Unification Project; they take all the scraps that the Royal Family throw away and any Atlantean willing to join their cause. Their ultimate desire is to create an indestructible army of Atlanteans."

When he finished, he heard Jeremy chime in asking what the Syndicate's purpose in all of that was.

His answer was more or less acceptable to Leon. However, he never expected himself to join in for such a cause. He was never the type of man to take political manners, especially those like this, to seriously. He was a petty criminal before. But with these powers, he had a chance to be something more. What exactly that was, he didn't know, all he knew was he would be getting payed quite a lot for it, and perhaps for a cause that was well worth the risk. Perhaps. Leon finally broke his silence.

"I do have a few questions. First of all, will I be getting payed extra for taking out Atlanteans? I mean, come on! I just found out about my abilities themselves, and I hardly was able to use them, and you send me in to take out four of them! Damn it, if I wasn't so tired right now, I'd punch you square in the nose!"

He had to get that out of his system. Seeming to calm down a bit, he spoke in a more relaxed voice. "Alright, I'm ready to move on, I guess, but you have to give me a bit more heads up when you send me on those missions, a$$ hole. At least so I can prepare accordingly."

Jeremy Kyle - Birmingham, England

Jeremy kept to himself around the Directive, he had been in situations where the man had gone from nice to mean in a matter of seconds, and the things that he had seen still tortured his dreams to this day. He desperately wanted to warn Leon against making this man angry, but the Directives presence made Jeremy shrink away and he tried has hard as he could to be "invisible" and with him there, Jeremy did not feel safe nor comfortable warning Leon. Jeremy would agree that before he had been confronted with the Directive, he was a different man.

Just over a year ago, Jeremy had been a hot-headed, angst ridden teenage boy fending of bullies and trying to get his homework in on time. He was just one of the hundreds students that walked the halls of Toronto High School hanging with friends and racing from class to class. The most important thing on his agenda was impressing a high school crush in his final year, generally goofing around in order to gain her attention. This went on for many months, and like a movie, it all slowly built up to a climax.

It was two weeks until the end of term, summer was well and truly in season and Jeremy's class was out for Physical Education. For weeks now, Jeremy had been calming his nerves, putting himself into the mindset, and planning carefully his final act; the icing on the cake that would win the girl he was attracted to, Emily, over. When the chance opened, he slipped beneath the teacher's watchful gaze and made his way into the control room that over looked the stadium they were taking PE in. Within a minute he had the PA system on, and began to let loose his feelings, announcing to the world his love for Emily.

Minutes passed and Jeremy was eventually hauled off to the Principal's office; the soft red imprint of lips resting on his cheek. With a goofy look on his face, he waltzed into the Principal's office, and lunging on a chair, explained in detail his feelings for Emily. When the Principal turned around in his chair, Jeremy was shocked to not find his Principal, but a man he would come to know as the Directive. Jeremy thought the man strange in his mono coloured outfit, insulting the man for it. When the Directive took off his glasses, the room seemed to darken and Jeremy was rooted to the spot. Around him, ghostly images like move clips played as he was finally introduced to his heritage. Jeremy learnt about the first Atlanteans; their immortality, their abilities and their downfall. In a matter of minutes he saw the entire history of the Atlantean Race up to the current point in time.

Moved by this, he asked the Directive if he could see Emily's future. All to willing to help, the Directive showed Jeremy the future he wanted Jeremy to see. Jeremy watched as nearly every encounter with her he was shown, he caused her massive amounts of physical, emotion and mental pain, all culminating in a singular outcome; Emily dying in his arms through a fault of his own. Distraught and scared by what he had seen, Jeremy accepted the offer the Directive made; come work with him, and Emily would live a happy life.

And now as Jeremy sat on the sidelines watching the conversation between Leon and the Directive, he was taken back to that specific memory, and realised that Leon was making a very similar mistake that he himself had made.

Angry at Leon's aggressive behaviour and swearing, the Directive took a step forward, striking Leon across the face with the back of his hand, hard enough to make a large imprint on his face. "Do not," he stressed the 'not', "speak to me like that, I am your superior and you will treat me as so! As I said, you WILL be compensated accordingly for your effort, but if you continue to act like an arrogant fool, then you won't be shown the respect you deserve!" Jeremy could tell that the Directive was fuming now, and he yelped quietly as the room darkened.

Ghostly images played around them, fears dreamt up from the subconscious of the mind that struck fear in almost anyone. Unimaginable horrors lurked in shadows and rose up around them. They felt so real that Jeremy silently freaked out as one passed by him making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on edge.

"Do not cross me," the Directive spoke menacingly, "...ever!" The ghostly images slowly receded as the Directive put his glasses back on and took a more calmer stance. "You will be notified when you need to be on any mission we wish for you to part-take. You may leave any time you wish...the only catch is that it would be in a wooden box." Clearing his throat, the Directive took a quick glance back at Jeremy before addressing Leon again. "Now, if you have any actual questions, ask them now."

Michael Cale – Not so far from London, England

The helicopter ride was anything but pleasant; they were thrown about as they seemed to hit every pocket of turbulence. Despite the seatbelts that seemed to cross over his body like chicken wire, he still felt thrown around and around. He could not talk privately to Oakley, the roar of the helicopter blades made conversation without the headset nearly impossible while the headset channel was filled with the useless gossip of the two girls sitting on either side of Christian. Michael smiled briefly as he figured they must be annoying him, it almost seemed like Karma which made Michael feel that little bit better. So for the entire trip, he sat silently beside the girl who was his sister, a sort of awkward silence between the two kept them apart. Looking out the window, he noticed the cityscape begin to give way to suburbs which later opened up to fields of green pasture. It seemed like they were taking them far from the city, and by his guess, it was somewhere north of London. The furthest Michael had been north was up to Edinburgh for a trip with his university friends, the ones he had just left. Thinking about his friends caused an ache inside of him, they were the closest thing he had to a family, until Oakley walked back into his life, and he left them without saying anything.

Looking out the window, he cast his eyes to the North-West, hoping to see a glimpse of Lancaster, the place he called home, but the ever present grey clouds hung high in the sky, obscuring most of the view of the horizon. Letting out a huff of air, he switched on his headset, and still gazing out the window asked, "So, where are we going?", his voice carrying over that of the girls who once they heard his question, quickly quietened to hear the answer.

Looking across at him, River began speaking despite Michael's lack of focus on her, annoying her slightly. "We are heading to a settlement a couple of meters south of Boston-"

Before she could finish, one of the girls interrupted her, "you mean like in America? That is ages away!" she whined in her eastern coast American accent.

Rolling her eyes, the other girl reached over and flicked her, "No you dumb b*tch, why would we go to America by helicopter? Idiota!" Michael wasn't sure, but he assumed that the girl was calling the American an 'idiot' in Italian.

"Speak better English, amigo." she retorted badly, poking her tongue out at the Italian girl.

The Italian girl was now fuming, Michael was sure he could hear her grinding her teeth in frustration over the headset. Calling an Italian a Spaniard was most probably the ultimate insult, and ultimate mistake that the American could have made.

"I am not your friend, amiCo," she stressed the 'C' sound, "nor am I Spanish you American swine. I suggest you go back to school and learn your native language properly, before even thinking of opening that massive hole you have called a mouth!" she spat down the microphone, her voice getting louder every minute.

"Both of you, be quiet!" River roared over the headset, her voice ringing in Michael's ears, but it was enough to get the two to quit their senseless bickering. "We are perhaps twenty minutes from our destination, so sit there, shut up and-" River was cut short as the helicopter suddenly lurched to the right and began declining on a sidewards angle to the ground below.

Grabbing onto Oakley, Michael wrapped himself around her as much as the seatbelt would let him, he was adamant that he would protect the littler sister he had lost. Despite her having a near indestructible armour, he took this chance to be a real big brother. Another bump rocketed the helicopter as something bright flashed outside of the window. Michael was momentarily blinded before he regained sight and saw the door to the helicopter come away, the wind trying to rip them from their seats. He could barely see River frantically trying to wrestle with the controls behind him and focussed on holding his sister tightly.

As the helicopter fell to the ground, Michael was thrown around, bumping into so many sharp objects that he could feel small trickles of blood crawling down his arms, legs and face. One violent bump jarred is elbow as it made contact with the side of the hatch, causing his to cry out in pain. He felt something sharp cut him on the side and a very faint rip as his seatbelt ripped apart. Unable to hold onto Oakley, Michael was the first to be whipped out of the helicopter. Having never skydived before, he knew nothing about maintaining his velocity and plummeted to the ground below.

At one point as he tumbled through the air, he caught a glimpse upwards at the flaming helicopter spinning out of control and at first saw three, then later five bodies fall through the air behind him. He closed his eyes, whispering his final goodbyes to all his friends, as well as to his sister in the air above him. He waited for the impact with the solid ground below that would end his life as the tears from his eyes flew upwards, descending slower than he was.

Nikolai Afon - North of Moscow

Natalia quickly spun around and half raised her gun, then realizing it was him, lowered her weapon again. "I thold you to stay in the car!" She shouted. She sighed, and calmed down after a moment, then answered Nikolai's question. "Yes. I knew two of the men here. We were friends." sighed again, then continued. "Now is not the time to be sad. We have to get moving before they send reinforcements or come to make sure the job is done. Let's go."

They walked quickly back to the car, taking care not to disturb the bodies in the snow. Nikolai swund the passenger door open, then climbed in. Only seconds after they got in, Natalia's phone rang again. As she talked, she swung the car in a tight u-turn, and headed back out of the woods in the direction they came, back towards Moscow. Nikolai tried to ignore Natalia talking, he though it would be rude to eavedrop. But his power made it difficult. Maybe he could feel the radio waves transmitting the signal or something, but even though it was not on speakerphone, Nikolai could faintly hear the other person talking. It was hard though, and he only caught small bits and pieces. Maybe he could explore this more in the future.

After about a minute or two of talking, Natali hung up and looked over at Nikolai, and asked him an unexpected quesiton. "Can you speak German?"

Nikolai smiled. He had taken some German in school, as well as English. He couldn't speak German fluently, but he knew enough to get by. "Ich habe immer gerne lange reisen."

Leon Nef- Syndicate Hospital

Leon sat in the bed as the man known as the Directive approached him. Next, the man struck Leon with the back of his hand right on his face. Leon, not expecting the blow, took its full force. Next, the man spoke.

"Do not speak to me like that, I am your superior and you will treat me as so! As I said, you WILL be compensated accordingly for your effort, but if you continue to act like an arrogant fool, then you won't be shown the respect you deserve!"

Facing away from the man as he spoke, Leon held his hand at his face where the man hit him, and muttered quietly to himself. "You're angry..." He said softly. He then thought to himself. Good. Leon had always like to get people mad. He absolutely loved it. But what he loved even more was when people tried to make a move on him because they were angry. It was even better. He would feel like he won. What he won, even he didn't know, perhaps the other person's pride, or something else. Whatever it was, it felt damn good. Leon smiled slightly.

As the man spoke, his works echoed in the fear of the room as it darkened. Leon was legitimately nervous, almost scared even, but if he would show it, he would lose any feeling of respect he had for himself. Leon chose to remain neutral for now.

"Do not cross me..ever!" He said, the images fading away now.

"You will be notified when you need to be on any mission we wish for you to part-take. You may leave any time you wish...the only catch is that it would be in a wooden box. Now, if you have any actual questions, ask them now."

Leon was silent for a bit before he sighed and spoke, a hint of defeat in his voice.

"Fine, fine, I get it, no crossing you...you didn't have to hit that damn hard, though..." He said, trying not to smile as he maintained his neutral face. "No questions, though. I pretty much got the gist of what's going to be happening here."

Yes, Leon understood. He also understood that what he started here, he can't finish, at least for now. Whoever these people are and what they really do he's sure he'll find out eventually. No use asking them about any of it. He'll fall in line for now, but he won't back down forever.

Oakley North – Not so far from London, England

Natalia Zaytsev - Heading west from Moscow, Russia

Christian Calaway- Not so far from London, England
------------------------------
Christian only rode in a helicopter once in his life before this moment. His father took him on a tour on his 10th birthday around New York City. There was a lot of developing tension in the Calaway household as Christian grew older and more outspoken. His father wanted to get Christian away from his mother, school work and the whole socialite atmosphere. Quality time with his son was the answer and a brilliant answer it was. The sights, the sounds, everything that New York City had to offer was seen from a new perspective. It was only then he had witnessed the "city that never sleeps" and it was only then he had realized how the big world really was. It was pleasant, serene and beautiful. The modern jungle that was New York became nothing more than something that could fit in the palm of his hand. The buzzing of the helicopter was drowned out by the amazement of this one in a lifetime event. This eye opening experience was one of a kind and a moment he will never forget. In fact, Christian credits as it one of this fondest memories and the one of the moments that spoke to his desire to maintain the world's beauty with his own leadership.

This ride was not memorable. At all. He was caught between a rock and a hard place. Michael's sly smirk was only proof of this sad epiphany. If this was a dream, Christian wanted to wake up. Instead, he was forced to sit in a confined space. Arms crossed, eyes closed, face tense, body rigid.

Placing Christian between blabbering idiots would be the equivalent to water boarding a solider for information, in that it causes intense pain and simulates the experiencing of drowning. The only difference that instead of his body feeling the brunt of his punishment, it was his mind. His insanity was being torn apart; his brain felt like it was being crushed; his instinct was demanding he evacuate the plane immediately and crash into to the Earth below like a meteorite escaping from his brothers trapped in the vastness of space seeking a home. At least then the pain would stop.

Perhaps this is all an elaborate exaggeration that displays the evacuating insanity of once an excellent mind. In that respect you would be correct. The underlying point was that Christian was feeling intense pain being surrounding two women who were having the most senseless conversation known to man. The conversation was so depraved of intelligence that Christian could not follow it. The last coherent thought was River attempting to describe their location and estimated time of arrival. At least that is what Christian deduced she wanted to complete a thought along those lines until a girl blurted out some thought about Boston being in America and being far away. Now at least she was intelligent enough to know that Boston, United State was far away. This at least implied the ability to pass a Geography lesson. However, the fact they were in England should of been a hint. Her accent reminded him of those women on that one show…Jersey Lore….Jersey Snore…Jersey *****…well she probably was one…..Meh. Christian didn't care. The show sucked and he understood the premise. She was an idiot. The other girl showed signs of intelligence, being more than capable of counterattacking the idiocy of her counterpart.

Christian was more interested in River's intel. What did she know about all of them? What did she want? Why did she pick them and insist to personally escort them to this facility? What was her deeper motives? He had committed himself to joining River at the time, believing her cause to be just though he had little choice. He had little control over his powers and he needed the help. This much as a given. However, giving her his complete trust…that was too much ask for. Her answers were vague, as if they had be rehearsed. Christian wanted to know more. Much more. He was going to find out. Somehow.

Then, in a single moment, Christian's entire equilibrium was thrown off. Quite literally in fact. Buckled in, Christian did not immediately realize that the helicopter beginning to decline in altitude while tilting to the right. River's estimate of twenty minutes till arrival to Boston became twenty seconds till crashing with the dirt. Michael was playing hero and attempting to save Oakley. Admirable? Yes. Foolish? More so. Oakley's power was armor. That would protect her from the fall. Michael was tossed around like a rag doll with cuts and bruises becoming a new brand of makeup. The torment did not last long before his thrown out of the helicopter. Christian wasn't aware he was a fan of skydiving. Oakley followed suit, dove out, presumably to save her brother.

Christian, as much as he disliked the siblings, was moved by their actions. That and logic proved that remaining in the helicopter was probably not a great idea. He had an idea. A bad one he would readily admit but it was better than knocking on death's door.

"Both of you! Unbuckle your seat belts!" Christian ordered the two girls at his sides.

"But-"

"No time for your idiotic remarks! If you want a chance to live you will listen to what I say! Unbuckle your seat belts and hang on to me!"

The girls were hesitant, standing idly by. Christian grunted to himself and dared to take the lead. He unbuckled himself, and helped the two girls to do so. Forcing them to grab on to his arms, Christian kicked of the side of the interior and launched himself out of the metal deathtrap. It was without the risks, as he experienced the shame sensation as Michael, having several pieces cut him all over his body.

That and the prospect of now spiraling to the ground. Christian attempted to keep a cool head as the figures on the ground became more clear, as if an artist was inking in the details on a piece of art. Christian could imagine the girls become frantic beasts, screaming for their dear lives. Christian drowned out the screams with concentration. His power was the only chance they had…if it worked.

Well, something worked.

Christian, in a not so strange twist of fate, became the intangible smoke outline of his physical body. As he expected, he was flying like a smoke cloud. The girls…were not. In fact, they were doing the opposite….crashing towards the ground with screams piercing enough to deafen a man.

"Crap, crap. crap. Think, Christian, think!" Christian slapped his smoke-like face, experiencing the sensation of his smoke like hand phasing through his body. Nothing was coming to mind. He had no idea what to do. The only thing that came to mind to was to continue hurdling towards the ground and turn to smoke at the last second, making the fall far less painful, if at all.

That isn't what a hero would do. That isn't something a man could do. He couldn't live with himself if let all the people here die without trying to do something. Concentrating, he turned back to a solid state and experienced once again the horror of sky diving. Streamlining his form, Christian dove back down, catching back up to the talkative girls. He locked arms with them, unifying their descent, before pulling up to make their bodies parallel to the ground. This would slow the fall and give Christian more time to think of plan. He did not speak to women. He did not want to worry them more than they already word. He hoped his confident expression would be enough.

Now was the process of Christian listing off a number of possibilities to save them. He had guessed he had a minute or too before impact. Let's see which plan would be the winner.

Leon Nef- Birmingham, England

As the Directive left the room. Leon groaned out loud, the hit on his face definitely was going to leave a mark. He cursed under his breath as he lat back on the bed. At least the hit to the face was getting rid of any lingering pain from his other injuries he had just obtained from fighting those four Atlanteans. Jeremy came up to Leon now, giving him a cloth to put on the mark.

"Hold the cloth there, it will help stop the swelling, maybe even make the bruising less, but you're still going to have a fairly wicked mark."

Leon looked at Jeremy for a bit before accepting the cloth, and place it on his face. He gave Jeremy a slight nod before doing so, his way of saying thanks. Leon closed his eyes as he remembered back to the events in the forest. He kept replaying the events, the moment in which he took his first life with a lightning strike,then his second with a bullet, his third with a knife, his fourth with a spike.

But the one he kept replaying the most was the first. That first kill. Perhaps it was because of the connection with the lightning, or perhaps it was merely because it happened to be the first one. Whatever the reason, it was the most memorable: the one he kept thinking about. He looked at his hand and flexed it, remembering the feeling of holding that much power in his hands. Enough power to stop a human heart. Enough power to kill someone.

And the most scary, and yet exhilarating, thing about it was that it wasn't the full potential of the power he could use. It was but a fraction. He recalled the feeling he had when he was holding the lightning in his hands, electricity tingling at his nerves, his arm going slightly numb as he released the energy then. He recalled the shot of electricity that left his two fingers, and connected to the other person.

Maybe it was the electricity itself, or perhaps it was that feeling of releasing it, or maybe it was just the fact that he had killed someone with it. Whatever the reasoning behind it, Leon found himself realizing something about himself, his power, and that feeling: he liked it.

He was interrupted by Jeremy's coughing. He had actually forgotten momentarily where he was, and that Jeremy was even there.

"So Leon, what's your story?" He asked. Leon chuckled a bit.

"Heh...funny. I would have expected everyone in the Syndicate to have known my whole life story. I mean, how else did you find me?" The feeling of them not knowing everything about his personal life was a bit relieving. Leon preferred that they knew as little as possible about where he came from. Still, he felt he should tell Jeremy something, even if that something wasn't the whole truth.

"My story...I'm from Italy. Ran with a few gangs there, nothing to big, just petty stuff. Things to get by on. Found out about these powers, and I knew they would be useful in my...profession. Instead, I ended up getting dragged here, but I'm not complaining. I'm here for the money, and that's all." Leon concluded briefly. In fact, he intended to make the whole thing as brief as possible. "That's all I'm telling you, and really, that's all you need to know. The basics. If you ever need something stolen, I'm your man."

Leon turned to Jeremy now.

"What about you? Your village get burnt down and your parents died so you swore revenge, or some sad sob story like that? Because if that's the case, I don't really wanna hear it."

In honesty, Leon did want to learn a bit more about Jeremy. Not necessarily because he wanted to know about his personal life, but more because he realized, if he was going to be working with him, he'd better know his specialties.