Chapter 8.1: Searching Galore

"What were you doing?" Lee shook her head in disbelief and disappointment as those kids escaped into a portal, getting out of the net of safety that their facility had provided. "They're kids, how could you lose them?!"

"You must know that all of the Neu-Volke that manifested last year have full or a degree of control over their abilities, no matter how old they were." Gustav didn't seem too distraught from their charges jumping right out of the one place keeping them safe... but again, it was his friends that they're trying to rescue. "They may be a bunch of high schoolers, but they're just as good as me and the Green Inferno when it comes to controlling their abili- wait a minute, you're the one that told us this, why are you surprised? You're the expert when it comes to our biology works, right?"

"Ugh." Lee slumped towards her rotating chair. She furrowed her brows and placed her hand on her forehead, thinking hard about what could happen now that they're out. "I'm supremely worried about their safety. Who knows what this... Organization wants from your kind."

"Well, based on Caitlin's description of her brief capture, nothing good." Gustav sighed dejectedly. He hadn't shown it much these last few weeks, but this job of protecting mutants had become extremely difficult with the inclusion of shadowy organizations into the mix. "Susan Walker and Halil Kenzari... they're the ones in our protection program that disappeared a few months ago. Then those kids in the high school in which our current charges attended. And now... my friends."

"Our friends, Gustav. Don't act like I'm just your boss and nothing else. We got drunk together, for God's sake."

"Um." Gustav stuttered, not sure what to say next. "Anyway, I'm pulling up facial recognition on the surveillance cameras in the city. I'm finding absolutely nothing... seems that they're avoiding the streets, for now. Should we tell the parents?"

"Not yet." Lee knew that if they were to know, they'd riot and rage, as it was promised that their children would be completely and absolutely safe. Now that this was happening, she wasn't so sure about that. "Especially Caitlin's mother. She might sue us, or worse. We need to find them before anything bad happens."

"Well, I guess we could kill two birds with one stone." Gustav replied. "If they're looking for Matthias and the others, they would lead us straight to the Organization. Plus, the Organization is also looking for them, so we could follow either one to find the other."

"I'll go and ask the director for some more help with this situation." Lee began typing an email on her computer, and of course, Gustav's technopathic powers allowed him to see what was being typed. "Ah, ha. You're asking for a satellite to be requisitioned in order to find the specific energy present within our babies? That's a tall order."

"Oh, don't worry about it too much..." A single tap signalled that she had hit 'enter', sending the email to the one in charge. "We have enough reason to believe that some old cases and the new ones are connected. A group going around abducting mutants with the help of their own kind."

"Tsk, traitors, they all are." Gustav chewed on a piece of gum. "The Powells and Stravinsky. They'd sell the rest of us out just to get rich. Do you have a funny nickname for any of them?"

"A what?"

"Funny nickname, like... um, since we call Yuki and Matthias the Green Inferno, maybe we can call Stravinsky Blip, since he's a blip in the radar whenever he's teleporting-"

"Hold on, did you just say blip in the radar?" Lee seemed to get an idea. A big one.

"Um, yes?"

"We already got samples of his energy, yes?"

"We know the wavelengths and intensity of his teleportation that is unique to him... why?"

"Can you do the same for Sapohznik?"

"Ah... AAAAHHH, yes, I can, as we got samples from all of the- why did I not think about that earlier?! Verdammten, I'm so dumb."

"Nah." Lee chuckled at him. "We were just too shocked at their sudden departure, you would have probably thought about it in a day. Or an hour."

"Hey, it's not too sudden. They were stronger than we anticipated. I didn't believe that Raymundo could use telekinesis on GAS until he did it! I was so sure it would work."

"Huh... that's a first."

"Hmm?"

"First time I've seen or heard of a telekinetic being strong enough to manipulate such minute particles... you're right. They're stronger than we anticipated."

"Which means?"

"It means go and track portal kiddo's energy. If it works just like with normal teleporters, we may not need the satellite at all. And I won't have to deal with the extra paperwork."

"Paperwork." Gustav giggled. "How fun." Holograms began to appear and shift into existence, seemingly indecipherable numbers and figures running at a blistering pace. And yet, he knew them all... for that was his power.

______________________________

"Where we going again?"

"My house." Nathan replied to Nikolai, both of them still carrying their friends on their backs. He was not faring as well as the other boy, as he was having a far heavier burden. He wasn't that strong to bring with, being a bit thinner.

"Alright, then. Show me a picture of the inside. I can't go to places I haven't seen or haven't been to."

"Oh, right, makes sense." Nathan pulled out his phone, and after a few swipes in the gallery, showed him the living room.

"That's..."

"Yeah, my aunt and I."

"Is she home?"

"No..."

"How'd you know?"

"Hasn't been for a long time. She's... dead."

"Holy... I'm sorry, I didn't know. You... live alone?"

"Yes... My other aunt owns the land on which it is built, and she just... never comes. I work just to study."

"You're full of sad secrets, aren't you..." Nikolai held out a hand, ripping open a purple hole in space and time. "After you."

Stepping inside, they'd find themselves in a rather cozy, if not small, place. There were a pair of decent looking sofas set on the wooden floor. The floor looked dusty, as no one had been there for the last few weeks. There was warm lightning, and a little television was standing inert at the wall.

"So what kind of work do you do?" Nikolai asked, setting Ray on the sofa; when he did so, he seemed to start awakening.

"You don't want to know."

"Come now, what is it?"

"Uhhhh..." Nathan pointed at his feet and made a gesture of taking a picture with a camera.

"Wha- you send pictures of your feet to people online?"

"Well... Yes. You'd be surprised how much people would pay for stuff like that. Simps, am I right?"

"It's... a unique source of income, I guess."

"Good for you..." Ray said drowsily, finally waking up as the effects of the sleeping gas finally wore off. "What is it with feet?"

Nathan didn't seem sure how to answer that. "I-"

"Ew." Caitlin muttered. "But it's effective. Given how nice of a place you have despite being 18 and living alone. Am I right?"

"19 actually. I got... delayed when my parents kicked me out of the house for being a light show."

"You're what-"

"He's 19, Nikolai." Ray yawned. "It's not that far from us, you know. Or you, for that matter."

"Okay, okay okay! I get it. It's perfectly legal."

"Feet aren't really a big deal. It's not like I'm-"

"Okaaaayyyy, let's not continue in that subject." Caitlin stood up from the sofa, at first seemingly able to stand up properly... but she flopped to the side and landed her arm on the kitchen counter, narrowly breaking one of Nathan's glasses. "Looks like I'm still a little bunged up by the gas. Can one of you get me a glass of water?"

After getting a glass of water (which she proceeded to saturate with ice cubes using her powers), Caitlin sat in with the rest of them in the living room. There would be an awkward silence, as no one was sure who would begin the thing.

"So we're going after them." Nikolai began, rubbing his hands together. "I'm... not sure how to start."

"You don't have a plan?" Caitlin brows furrowed. "We've been knocked out for hours and you haven't thought of anything?"

Ray continued. "I still think it's a bad idea."

"Gah, this is a bad idea, I know. But..."

"But...?" Nathan looked at his phone's screen, checking Google Maps for the coordinates that were in the transmission.

"What if I let them get me, and say that I'm selling you out?"

Ray snorted. "Bad idea."

"You're an idiot." Caitlin muttered.

"Ah, I know you'll say that..."

"If they have a telepath with them, you're screwed, and so are the rest of us." Nathan tapped on the center table, deep in thought. "What if... you use your visions?"

"I, I don't know how to use that." Nikolai looked down in the floor, ashamed that he can't use his powers of metacognition with any certainty. "I..."

"Mmm, you might want to read these..." Nathan handed a brown file towards Nikolai. "I, uh, was given some parts of case file of a certain Halil Kenzari. He was one of those other Neu-Volke that Matthias told us about... how he could see the future and other people, and perhaps even alternate realities. This here details how he mastered his precognition. That's the only part that isn't blacked out. He's like you."

"How did you get this?", Ray asked.

"Gustav kind of gave it to me an hour before you hatched your escape plan. You had told them how you are unable to control that one last thing, so he said that I should give it to you."

"You're giving it... just now? Why not earlier?"

Nathan scratched the half of his head. "Sorry, I kind of forgot."

"If you aren't so cute when embarassed, I'd freeze your ass right now." Caitlin gave him an annoyed glare. "Anyway how does it work?"

Nikolai looked hard on the file. "He could see other people's locations by... I quote, 'physical contact with their belongings and then concentrating'."

"You got anything any of them had?", Ray asked. "Oh, I do.. this jacket was Tyrone's..."

"What? He gave you a jacket?" Caitlin looked jealous.

"Well, to his defense, he had like six of the same line, so he gave me the smallest one."

"Still too big for you." Caitlin chuckled, noting how the thing looked like a trench coat on him. "So, you're gonna try it?"

Nikolai moved forward and placed a hand on the jacket that Ray was wearing, and closed his eyes, concentrating.

There were would be a few seconds of awkward silence after that. It seemed that there was nothing...

"Found him..."

"Where?", Ray asked. There weren't too bad at half assing things, it seemed.

"... What the hell are they doing in Area 51?"