Stupid alarm. With my eyes still closed I reached over to where I had set the alarm on my desk. I couldn't feel it with my hand and just as I opened one eye I managed to knock it to the floor. I heard it break and figured I should get out of bed.

I swung my feet off the bed and stood up. A sharp pain shot through my leg and I fell back to the bed. I crossed my legs so I could see my foot. Stuck into my heal was a jagged piece of black plastic. I winced as I gingerly pulled it out and was amazed to see that a whole inch of it had gone into my heel.

Dark red blood oozed from the gash on the bottom of my foot. The blood stopped and I stared in fascination as the wound seemed to be disappearing before my eyes. I could almost see the skin re-attaching itself as the wound fully closed.

If I wasn't questioning myself before this surely made me do so. Now I knew for sure that there was something different about me. That was part of the reason that I had set my alarm for 4:00 A.M. so I could get up early and kind of test myself out.

I knew I was capable of talking to Lea in my mind and wondered if it was because she had been tested on as well. I had tried to talk to other people but no one responded when I threw out my greetings in my mind.

I also knew that I could fight really well and shoot bullets stupendously. There had been that one time when time had seemed to slow down and now I had just found out that my skin would heal itself rapidly.

Fifteen minutes had passed as I dressed in my dark blue t-shirt with black jeans and gray shoes. I was ready to go and try and figure out just what I could do.

My door didn't make a sound as I slowly opened it and crept down the long hallway. I wasn't trying to be sneaky, I just didn't want to wake anyone up. I went down the flight of stairs and turned left to the door. There was a guard standing by the door decked out in the black combat gear. I hoped that I could get some gear for myself, they looked pretty cool.

I tried to walk as normal as I could and I made it outside without being stopped so I guess it wasn't illegal or anything to go out early. I turned right, on 5th street, and headed to the old baseball field. I hoped that no one would be there this early.

Thankfully the field was deserted and I headed to the far end. I was hidden from sight on three sides by a grove a trees so I didn't have to worry about being seen easily. I stood still and breathed deeply and then I sent out a hello with my mind. I still thought there had to be at least someone else besides Lea and I who had abilities. I was met with silence and I sighed.

Suddenly I spun around and caught the arrow that had been speedily shot at me. The tip was shiny metal and I knew it was no ordinary arrow. I had stopped the arrow inches from my forehead and I heard someone gasp from in the trees.

"Who's there?"

No one answered and I scanned the grove of trees carefully. I focused on trying to find the mysterious person and suddenly I just knew where she was. I faced the tree they were hiding behind. There was a clump of bushes at its base making it the perfect hiding place.

"I know where you are."

The bushes parted and a girl stepped out with a bow drawn back. I shifted to one foot.

"Don't move."

I stared at the girl in front of me. She looked to be my age and had long black curls that cascaded almost to her waist. She was wearing dark blue jeans and a black t-shirt with a brown vest over it. Her eyes were hazel with specks of yellow and I found myself staring at her eyes.

"...and what you're doing here."

I snapped back to reality and realized she had been talking to me.

"What?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Havn't you been listening?"

"No—I mean yes. What?"

"I said, I'm going to shoot you if you don't tell me who you are and what you're doing here."

"I'm Lance Pendleton."

She lowered the bow slowly but kept it drawn and looked at me suspiciously. Most people would totally believe me when I told them who I was, she obviously didn't.

"How do I know that you're not lying."

I thought about it for a minute. "I have my I.D. card," I said.

I pulled it out of my wallet and held it out. She was about ten feet away and made no move to take the card.

"Aren't you going to look at it."

"I did."

I looked at her and then the card.

"There's no way you can see it from where you are."

"I have good eyesight," she said shrugging.

"No one has that good of eyesight."

"Just because you have a card with a picture on it that looks like you doesn't mean it is you," she said changing the subject.

"Well, what more do you want? My mom's the second in command—"

"Lieutenant General."

"Right, second in command. You can ask her if you're still not convinced."

"How'd you catch my arrow?"

"What?"

"I saw you move really fast and catch my arrow. No one can move that fast, how did you do it?"

"Just like no one can have that good of eyesight!"

"Seriously!" she said rolling her eyes again.

"I don't really know. Luck maybe?"

She rolled her eyes.

"What kind of an arrow is this?"

Her eyes lit up in excitement and she held up her hand. I noticed that she was wearing leather gloves that seemed to be glowing a soft blue color.

The arrow I was holding flew from my hand, sideways, right into her outstretched hand. My mouth gaped open.

"That's not even the best part!"

She drew the string back with the arrow pointing straight at me and I quickly held my arms up defensively. She whipped around and shot the arrow at the trunk of a small tree about ten yards away.

The arrow flew at the tree and when it hit, the tip spun around fast and pulled the arrow through the tree. It fell out the other side and the girl held out her hand. The arrow flew back to her and she turned and grinned at me.

"You shot that at my head!"

"Oo, right, sorry about that... I didn't know who you were."

"Well, I'm Lance and you are-"

"Eli."

"Eli, who shoots first and questions later."

"That's my motto."

"I could've been killed!"

"Well, you did look strange just kind of staring off into space and I've never seen you before. I couldn't take my chances in case you were a mute or something."

"A mute? I thought that there were only animal mutations."

"Well... you did kind of look like a bear."

"A bear? Are you saying I'm fat?"

Eli chuckled and placed the arrow on the end of the bow. It disappeared inside of the bow and my mouth dropped open again.

"Oh, yeah, just another one of the little things it can do."

"I have got to get me one of those."

"They're pretty nifty," she said slipping the bow into a holder attached to the back of her vest.

"So what exactly were you doing just standing there this early in the morning?"

"Oh, um, nothing. I was just going for a walk and... admiring the stars. What were you doing walking around with a drawn bow? Looking for someone to kill?"

She rolled her eyes.

"No, I was actually going on my rounds, I have the early morning shift for this section."

"Oh, so I'm probably totally distracting you from your job."

"Oh, shoot! Dad's gonna kill me!"

She took off running and disappeared around the corner of the storage shed for the weapons. Shoot is right with that bow and arrow!

"Bye, Eli!"

Wow, talk about one strange girl!

The sun was beginning to come up and I gave up on trying to figure out was was so odd about myself. If I had powers or something weird like that then I would just have to wait to figure out what they were.

I headed back for the house that had been converted into a cafeteria. It was probably breakfast time and I had to ask my mom what I was supposed to do today. I hadn't told her about being accepted on the team, or whatever, yet, and I wondered what she would say.

I grabbed my bowl of cereal and a banana and looked around for a place to sit. The cafe was packed full with people and it seemed like everyone was talking at once. I spotted Michael, waving frantically at me and headed in their direction.

I almost spilled my bowl on someone numerous times but finally managed to get there and I plopped down on the padded seat. All the seats were a dark red color that matched the red trim and offset the cream-colored walls and floor quite nicely. I stopped my wandering eyes and turned to greet the boys.

"Hey Michael, Charlie, what's up?"

"Hey! Heard you got on the team."

"Yeah!"

Michael nudged Charlie.

"Yeah, congrats man."

He totally didn't sound very enthusiastic about what he said.

"Be nice, Charlie, Lance is a good guy."

"Yeah, he must be to get on the team in one day."

"Just because it took you two weeks—"

"Shut up."

"Fine, sorry, sorry. So Lance, ready for today's mission?"

"Sure, what are we doing?"

"Some mutes have been bugging the next town over so we're gonna go check it out."

I had been wanting to check out what exactly these mutes looked like.

"Sounds good."

We talked about how we had ended up being here. Michael and Charlie knew each other before and had both been working as night guards at the same place before General Whitcom found them. They both couldn't believe that I had been accepted on the team after I told them I had no prior experience with anything.

I could tell that Michael was trying to become friends with me but Charlie seemed to resent me for some reason.

Finally, I spotted my mom and politely excused myself from the table. I didn't really ask her what I was doing today since Michael had told me but I still wanted to tell her that I was on the team.

"Hey mom!"

"Oh, hello Lance, how are you this morning?"

"I'm fine. Guess what?"

"What?"

"I got accepted on the team!"

"Really? You haven't had any experience though."

"I know, it's weird but I kind of just know what to do."

"Oh, that's great honey."

"Yep."

Michael was waving at the doorway to hurry up.

"I gotta go."

"Okay, bye."

I hurried to the door. I didn't want to be late, Sergeant Walker would kill me.

"Good luck!" mom said to my retreating figure.

"Where's Charlie?"

"Oh, he went on ahead."

We walked briskly towards the training grounds. Neither of us wanted to be late. We slipped in line with the others and I noticed that Eli was on the far left. I half waved at her but she didn't seem to notice.

I glanced at my watch. 8:29 A.M. Just in time.

"Alright, attention!"

No one needed to be told to stand at attention. The sergeant's voice alone automatically brought you to it. His volume softened as he continued.

"Squadron Four, today we are going to be heading to our neighboring town. There were some mutes spotted there and we are going to check it out. If you encounter a mute you eliminate it as quickly as you can. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Squad Captain Eli will be leading this mission up. It's should be a simple one. Go in, eliminate the mutes, and get out. Oh, and we have a new team member, Lance, who will be joining us in today's mission. Make him feel like part of the team. Any questions?"

"No, sir!"

"You will be meeting with your Squad Captain right after. Dismissed."

The group broke up and the sergeant disappeared. We all gathered around Eli to hear the plan. She bent over and began drawing in the dirt.

"This is the basic layout of the town," she drew a offset rectangle, "we'll enter from the west side and sweep back and forth in teams of three. Any problems and you call for help. We'll be wearing our ear pieces today because I want to be linked to everyone. Michael, Charlie, I want you guys with me. Everyone else, you can choose your partners."

There were twenty-two people in the group ranging from my age, eighteen, to one guy who looked to be in his forties. Everyone had chosen their partners and I was left standing alone. Just my luck being the odd one left.

"Lance, you're with me."

I quickly joined Eli, Michael, and Charlie so I wouldn't look so out of place.

"I want you to be with us since this is your first mission. You'll find your gear in your room."

Eli turned to address everyone else.

"Everyone, go get geared up. We rendezvous here in fifteen minutes."

Fifteen minutes wasn't much time and I joined the others as we scrambled to go and get our gear on. I dashed up the stairs and ran down the long hall to my room. On my bed was a sleek, black outfit. I quickly changed and admired myself in front of the mirror.

Each piece of clothing was made from the recently discovered plexicloth material. It had the strength of a bulletproof vest but was as light as a feather and easily bendable. My boots went up my leg a little higher than standard combat boots and had a knife sheath on the inside of each one.

My pants and shirt were skin tight but not too tight as to restrict fluid movement. I slipped a pair of black gloves on my hands and flexed my hands easily and stuck an ear piece in my ear. I put on what I had thought was a face mask to find out that it was a high-tech helmet of sorts. The helmet had a display on the inside that told the time and what looked like a small map. On the right side was another map that had green dots indicating where my fellow team was. As soon as I put it on, my whole uniform sealed together making one complete piece of clothing.

There were several knives on my bed and I sheathed them in my boots and after I clipped the black belt on, I sheathed the two remaining knives in it. My belt held two knives, a .22, and four extra clips. Everything was black including the knife blades and the even the bullets.

I quickly ran out of my room and down the long hallway and made my way back to the training field. I arrived just in time and everyone gathered around Eli to get further instruction. We all had the same black combat gear except for Eli who had a special holder for her bow on her back. I noticed that she didn't have a gun.

"Okay, everyone's here. We're going to fly in by helipod. We need to stay in a tight formation, there's no telling what might be out there. We'll be using the ear pieces for communication here on out."

Eli stuck the ear piece in and put her helmet on. She headed toward a new looking warehouse building. I was guessing that that was where the helipods were.

What exactly is a helipod? I mean, I know what a helicopter is but what's a helipod?

Eli punched a code into the keypad by the door and twisted the silver handle and opened the door.

My eyes grew wide as I stepped inside and took in the scene before me. There was a small platform to stand on which had two poles going up from the back of the platform. About midway up the poles, there were two other flat poles horizontal to the first ones that had a joystick at the end of each one along with several other buttons. At the top of the vertical poles were helicopter blades skillfully intersected so that the wing span was only about nine feet yet the blades wouldn't hit each other. There were about fifty of the black helipods in the room.