1 --- 5

Nate burped loudly in the confines of his bedroom having just finished a late breakfast of coffee, bacon and eggs. It was a hearty and delicious breakfast. It almost made him feel good about this place. *Almost* .

As if on cue, the same maid who gave him clothes stepped in to clear the plates.  "It was delicious. Thanks."

She nodded without saying anything as she began to pack the plates.  "So what's your name?" He asked, eager to start a conversation with someone who isn't frightening or crazy for a change and other than the doctor, there was none here.

"Martha, sir." She replied timidly, still not looking up.

"Please drop the sir. My name is Nate."No response again. "I couldn't get the TV on. Could you please help me?"

She went to the large television set. She took out a remote underneath the set and expertly started to set up the TV.

Nate had lied. He hadn't even tried to put on the TV. He just wanted her to stay longer, trying to figure out why she was so scared of him."

"All done s…" She hastily choked down on the last word and handed the remote to him. His thumb accidentally grazed her hand and she visibly shuddered. He focused his will into his ears and he could hear her heart thumping fast. She hastily took the tray and went out.

"I hope every girl I meet isn't like that."

He started to scroll the channels. He found some romantic movie but got bored quickly, then changed it into a basketball game and lost interest in it too. He wanted to get out of this place to find clues of how he ended up in that alley last night. Like answers to his prayers, the next channel was a news channel talking about the murder of two people in an alley last night.

  "…. These unidentified individuals were brutally murdered. They were taking to the New York's central hospital for examination that would help the further the police investigation. The suspected murderer, who was caught on the scene escaped arrest by attacking the policemen on duty. This man is considered highly dangerous. Anybody with information on these individuals should report to the nearest police station. In other news, the mayor has ensured-"

        Nate muted the TV and let his thoughts wander. He wondered what he could find out if he examined the bodies himself perhaps an insight to what went down yesterday."

A knock jarred his thoughts. The door was flung open and Minx walked in. He sighed. *I've got to start locking that.*   Without saying a word, she threw two items into his lap. It was a phone and a large wad of cash.

"Victor asked me to give this to you. Welcome to the family."

He looked down at the money. It was a large sum. *What am I going to be doing for victor? * He quelled his troubling thoughts.

Without counting, he pulled out some notes from if and stuffed it into his pocket and tossed the remaining into a bedside drawer.

"I want to go out."

"Yeah, I was thinking maybe we could go shopping. You know, get some new clothes."

He frowned. It was not a bad idea but not the one he needed right now. "I am not going shopping."

"Then where?"

"I don't have to tell you."

"Actually, you do. Victor asked me to follow you wherever you go."

He scoffed. "I don't need a babysitter." It was bad enough that his new boss did not trust him enough to let him go on his own but it had to be Minx.

"Sorry. Those are my orders." She said even though the grin on her face showed that she didn't seem to mind.

"Whatever, let's go." He said angrily.

They left the room and he let her lead the way. They walked for a few seconds before something caught his eye and he stopped in his tracks.

It was a wall painting depicting a group of willers, men and women led by a man who looked all too familiar. "Dumba."

Minx came to his side and looked at him weirdly. "You say you lost your memories but you seem to know everything else."

It was weird for Nate as well. It was like some basic memories still remained with him.

"What is his painting doing here?"

"He is kind of a hero for Victor; you should see his face light up whenever he is talking about him."

"Dumba?! He is a psychopath who is responsible for the death of millions.

She shrugged. "You cannot argue with the results. Victor says he is the only reason we don't have to hide in the shadows anymore."

He felt disgusted that they were people who worship Dumba. "Can we please go now?"

"Sure."

They walked away from the painting to an elevator where they met the woman who had tried to kill him last night.

"Hey Ronda, you have met Nate. Nate, this is Ronda."

Ronda glared daggers at him but he didn't acknowledge her. She was probably still sore from last night. Three of them entered the elevator and Minx flipped the up button. *Underground.*

That explains the lack of windows. The elevator reached its destination and dinged open. They stepped out and Ronda left them without a word.

Nate stopped top examine his surroundings. It was a large hall. Long and wide, roughly the size of two football fields. "What is this place?"

"It is supposed to be a nightclub but Victor stopped building even before I arrived."

Nate imagined this place as a nightclub and shook his head. What a pity, It would have been magnificent.

They went out through a door close by. It was manned by two guards. He scanned them both with his will, They were humans. They let them out without questions. Once out in the streets. Nate took a deep breath of the polluted air.

He hailed a cab. "Central hospital." He said as he got in. the driver looked warningly at Minx before stepping on the gas.

"Central hospital, huh? Didn't you just meet Doctor Ruiz?"

"I have something. I want to check out." He could have told her but some gut a feeling told him not to. Especially if she was reporting back to Victor. Thankfully she did not ask any more questions.

After a few minutes of silent drive, she looked at him and asked. "Can you fly?"

He was mildly stunned by the sudden question. He could almost hear the drivers hands tighten on the steering wheel. "I don't know." He shrugged. "Probably."

"So you can teach me?"

"Why should I teach you?"

"Well, everybody in the team can fly except me."

He sighed. "When did you break out?"

"Six months ago."

He looked at her. A breakout at fifteen, she had the potential to become formidable. The younger the breakout, the stronger they could become. He was puzzled at how he knew that information.

"It's too soon; you'd be pushing yourself too far."

"So you won't teach me."

"Not now." *Maybe never.*

The taxi stopped and Nate paid the driver who was all too happy to drive away. They walked towards the hospital's entrance. People stared at Minx and steered clear of their path.

"Seems like you are quite popular." Nate said to her.

"They are afraid of me."

"You don't seem to mind."

"I am familiar with the feeling. They have the same look my parents had when I broke out. Like I was a demon."

He looked at her in pity. "That must have been tough."

She shrugged. "Not really, I felt better after I killed them though."

His pity face changed to horror. "You killed your parents?"

"Yeah. Victor said all they would do is hold me back"

He stared at her as they walked; she almost looked innocent, hiding the psychopath beneath. They stopped at the entrance.

"Stay here." He told her. "I don't want your popularity rubbing off on me."

"Whatever. Just make it fast."

He walked into the hospital and straight to the receptionist who was a plump black woman reading something off a flyer. "Hey. I am here to …um… identify two bodies brought in yesterday."

She brought out a card and a pen. "Name?"

"Nate."

"Nate what?"

His mind went totally blank. He could remember his surname and could not remember any off his head. He looked down at the flyer she was reading. It was advertising a reality TV show, *The Merlyns.*

"Merlyn." He blurted out. "Nate Merlyn."

She looked at him weirdly before shrugging and writing the name out. "Where is your police report?"

"What?"

"You should be with a police report or police escort if you want to identify a dead body in a police investigation."

"Is there no other way to do it without that?"

"No. or we would be opening our morgue to every teenager who wants to see dead bodies." She said with a knowing smile.

He frowned at her. "Whatever, bye"

He left her and another man took his place. He was about to count his plan as a bust before saw a map of the entire hospital hung on the wall right in front of his face. He scanned it and found the morgue. He looked back at the receptionist that was deep in conversation with the man.

He hooked his head low and casually slipped past her. He followed the directions he had memorized. He navigated his way to the morgue where he found a guard sitting at the entrance.

The guard stood to attend to him but he barely let him get to his feet before he sunk a fist into his protruding belly. The man doubled over and Nate slammed his second fist into the side of his head. The guard crumpled back to his seat. Nate arranged the man's posture to look like he was asleep and pulled his baseball cap well over his face.

He entered the office leading to the morgue. There was middle aged man wearing glasses in a long white coat reading a file right in front of a large shelf, not noticing his presence.

Nate moved with blistering speed and smacked the man's head against the hard metal of the shelf. Without a sound he fell to the ground, Unmoving.

   Nate looked around the small office and found some sort of log book on the desk. He picked it up and flipped it to last night records and found what he was looking for. A man and a woman with no names brought in late last night. 577 and 578. 

      He memorized the numbers and stepped in to the numbing cold of the morgue. He counted the little boxes until he found the numbers.

He pulled out box 557 and it revealed the man, naked and calm looking. It almost looked like he was sleeping. He held the man's head and focused his will into the man's lifeless body. He scanned but found nothing that linked him to the man. The man was human. He looked through the body for the cause of death. It was a bad gash at the back of his head.

He left the man and pulled out the other box. It felt somewhat disrespectful to look at the naked body of the dead woman. He repeated the process of pouring his will into the body. It didn't take him long to find it. Like dying embers of fire, it was there. The woman was a willer like him.

He didn't have to look too hard for the cause of death. There were deep slashes to the chest and stomach. There were also small several cuts to her face and fingers. Some of her blonde hair was missing in some parts of her scalp.

He continued his search of her body and found a tattoo on her forearm. He looked closer. It was a dragon with the sun behind it. He retrieved his new phone and took pictures of their faces and the tattoo.

He looked at the woman's face. He remembered the concern in her voice when she was telling him to run, he felt angry for not being able to feel any emotion for her death. He had obviously meant something to her.

He hurriedly closed the boxes. He had taken too much time and needed to leave before someone discovered he was here or the men he knocked out woke up.

He slipped out the same way he came in without arousing suspicion from anybody not even the receptionist. He found Minx scrolling through something on her phone. She looked up when he came close.

"Finally, can we go shopping now?"