Re-Emergence - 14. Chapter 14

Within a couple of days it was clear the world everyone thought they knew had changed. The nightly attacks grew in number and severity, even as power and communications across much of the world was becoming so unreliable large areas were all but cut off from the rest of the world. Thanks to COSAM a few world powers were getting military communications back up while the Unified British Isles, Unified North America and Israel had paid considerable sums to get emergency networks stabilized. For a longer term solution, satellites would have to be built and launched. Partially because he was already in London, and partially because UB was all but opening up its country's coffers, Bryan Caldwell and COSAM helped in the launch of two communication satellites. While it wasn't enough to give all of UB stable communications, London and the surrounding areas never fully broke down. This allowed military and emergency teams to coordinate and deal with threats much more quickly than anywhere else in the world.

The problem was, as soon as night came, the number of calls continued to grow. Large numbers of military personnel were transferred over to help deal with the growing threats, but oftentimes it was patrols who spotted problems, since the emergency system kept crashing. By sunrise of the fourth day after the storm, the leaders of Unified Britain found themselves in a terrifying new world. Reports from one end of the isles to the other circulated the halls of both the government and military. While the vast majority were unverifiable, or only accompanied by blurry images taken by people who were trying to film even as they ran, screamed in terror, or both; there was growing hard proof. At the same time, scientists were coming to grips with the new reality. One irrefutable item came from the aircraft downed in London on the first night. In the wreckage, recovery crews found what had downed the attack helicopter. It was an organic spike. While its exact nature was still being looked into, initial scans show it was composed of ultra-hardened cellular material, meaning it had come from something living.

The remnants of one of the weird flying lion-like creatures was carted into parliament, ending the scoffs of even the firmest disbelievers. At the same time bodies of a pair of bipedal lizard-like creatures with dexterous hands were being looked at in the UB Defense Ministry building by top generals and those in government over them. While most of the creatures seemed to disappear as quickly and easily as they appeared, carcasses of other creatures were being discovered throughout the country in ever increasing numbers. The words Mythical Attacks was overheard by a member of the press and before noon on the fourth day, the term M.A. was being widely circulated. Within days it would be one of the widest used new terms in history.

Even worse, military and emergency casualties stood at two dozen and civilian well over a hundred. Some reports suggested others had disappeared with the beasts, who took a few through 'glowing holes' or 'simply vanished'. The exact numbers were still being tracked, but anywhere from a dozen to a score of people seemed to be missing with no trace, and that was only what was being reported. If anything, this was even more terrifying than the fact hostile beasts were appearing out of seemingly nowhere.

The real crisis was no one really knew what to do about it. By mid-morning of the fourth day after the storm UB Parliament disintegrated into a series of shouting matches as some proposed a wait and see approach, others wanted to enact a nationwide curfew, and yet others wanted to implement martial law. Another growing coalition of members recommended making safe zones for people to go if they wanted: these would be heavily fortified by the military while those outside the safety zones would have little to no protections.

For those in the hotel and aboard the Cynthia, the raging debates were noted, but for the most part ignored. The adults rotated out, but rest was hard to come by. For even as things calmed in UB, reports started coming in from other areas as the sun set in other areas of the world. This meant round the clock monitoring and cataloging of every event. The other problem was the disruption in power grids was far harder to solve than the communication grid. Just about every waking hour, Bryan and COSAM science teams from one end of the globe to the other focused on trying to cut through the interference caused by the pulsing green waves erupting from points throughout the globe. They had some limited successes. First was to move power sources closer to key installations, so the disruptions wouldn't drain away as much power. This was a straight forward but cumbersome solution, since there was less distance between the what was making the power and what was using it. Second was heavier insulation around the main wires. Neither solution was feasible for the general public, since thousands of kilometers of high power lines would have to be made and replaced. This meant many homes outside of a couple dozen kilometers of power plants started to lose power unless they bought generators.

Because of this, Bryan lead a team which designed a new low cost generator and COSAM moved a production facility into mass producing a small 50 Amp generator in one of its UB facilities. The government gave it a military priority so supplies were brought in to build more. The supplies actually came in faster than they could churn them out.

The other significant intricacy in handling the growing threat was the MAs were not just increasing in frequency, they were also becoming more vicious with larger and more terrifying creatures showing up. Stan took the lead on tracking new creatures as they appeared. By far the worst, in Stan's mind, was a video clip taken from a fishing trawler of a small sailboat being dragged under the waves in the Gulf of Mexico. While the quality was poor, some technical enhancements done aboard Cynthia clearly showed it wasn't tentacles like many were reporting in Unified North; instead, each extension ended with a head with a single eye and a snake-like mouth. All the long necks were attached to a flippered body and were strong enough to wrap around the small craft and drag it under within just a couple of minutes.

Another video out of Unified South America seemed to show skeletal cats attacking a boy and his dog. The person taking the video was shaking like a leaf, but it ended with a group of men rushing out of a nearby bar, armed with everything from barstools, to beer bottles, to a baseball bat. While the men went about smashing at the cat-like things, a woman and an older teen pulled the boy and his wounded dog into the bar. As soon as this was discovered, Stan dispatched a heavily armed COSAM team to get the child, figuring it was way too much like Evan to not be one of the special kids they were trying to find.

Stan watched the vid two more times before sending it down to get it as cleaned up and stabilized as possible. He wanted a good image of the boy for the team dispatched to Tiwanaku, Bolivia, not far from the ruins of Puma Punku. The fact it had come so close to another mysterious ruin, added credence to what the attack showed. The fact Stan had never heard of Puma Punku until he looked it up told him there were probably hundreds, if not thousands of possible hot spots for the growing phenomenon to come from.

Stan exited the bridge with a shake of his head. He had seen a great deal in his time as a SEAL team member, but this... well this was almost too much. His resolve to find an easy answer had vanished from the moment he saw the images taken from the hotel of the horned thing coming after Alex. The problem was, with each passing hour the explanations were getting harder and harder to find, and even more difficult to accept. For a highly decorated combat veteran, his mind just found some of it too surreal to fully believe. Looking over the enhanced vid of the creature pulling down the boat for the third time, trying to find any sign it had been altered or tampered with, he rolled his neck and shoulders as he stood. He needed air. He also needed to check on the weapon systems on the ship. No way was he going to let some... whatever... attack his ship!

For the kids at the hotel, the games of hide and seek turned out to be eye-opening not only to them but the security details who started following them. Within the first couple of days Iona and Lyle had dialed in their abilities enough to find others from a couple of score of meters away, even through multiple closed doors, although thick concrete and metal drastically reduced how far this 'sense' seemed to work.

Alex and Ryan quickly caught up with Iona and Lyle's abilities, but Evan and Craig found it harder. However, with some work they expanded their own extra-sensory perceptions to about ten to fifteen meters and were continuing to improve. At the same time, Stan had all the kids working on trying to hide or mask their powers, making them harder to notice. In his mind, if they could find each other, so could other things. Hiding who they were and what they could do was essential for their safety. He flatly refused to let any of the six out of the hotel except to practice out on the parking deck until they could figure out a way to mask their abilities.

Even as they experimented at hiding the energies they obvious exuded, the kids started playing with their abilities more. Once the timing of the 'refilling of their pools' could be firmly established, training periods were set up for them to practice and use up much of what they had inside just prior. The 'refilling' turned out to be based on two things working in conjunction. The main one centered on the rising of the moon and the setting of the moon. However, it didn't happen for those who were at moon rise until the sun set and happened as soon as the rays of the sun hit where they were at, even if the moon was still visible. This meant it was an interaction between the sun and moon but the moon seemed to be the real key, since if the rays of the moon didn't shine down until after sunset, the pool would not refill until then. The same thing applied for those who 'recharged' in the morning. If the moon set before the sun rose, the 'pool' would replenish itself.

The good thing about this was the kids knew the moment it happened. It didn't take long for the adults to see this as well, since the kids' behavior changed at the same moment. It was almost like they had been injected with sugar and caffeine. Once this was noticed, the parents universally said they had seen this in their children from a pretty early age, but didn't give it much thought.

Once their 'recharge times' were firmly established, all the kids worked on what they could do. As predicted Alex was able to repair the hole in the wall, but it took a huge amount of his 'pool' to do so. On the plus side, if there had been any questions about the supernatural powers in their kids, the parents of those in the hotel had none as they watched the plaster inside and outside of the wall float upwards and shift around like pieces in a puzzle. Each piece moved to where it had been, joined with the pieces around and the cracks vanished as the final bits, no bigger than grains of dust, filled in the last of the damage. The only sign of damage was the fact the area where the hole had been looked cleaner and newer than the rest of the wall.

The morning of the fifth day, right before moonset, those who were about to get their 'pools' refilled played around with what they could do and tested their limits out in the second from the top level of the concrete parking structure in an area purposefully marked off. This meant they wouldn't have much to damage should something go wrong while still being under heavy cover and hidden from others.

Ryan, Lyle and Iona took turns using bits of their pools. Behind the three Alex, Evan and Craig watched, gave suggestions, and when something worked, listened so they could try to duplicate just before moon rise. The problem was, they all had different abilities and how they did things were not the same. The power bases seemed to differ as well, so while Alex could make extremely devastating releases of energies, Ryan could heal.

Craig seemed to be very close to the same in nature to Ryan. Already the boy was learning how to do some very minor healing, and had caused some nasty road rash on one of Flynn's men to heal within seconds, but it took quite a bit of the boy's 'pool'. In addition, Craig seemed to be able to talk to things unseen by the others. But after only three days Ryan was doing the same thing. Both boys said they were talking with 'friends of the Griffins' when it happened. Whatever they were talking to or with helped all the kids greatly. For after a 'talk with nothing' the two had new suggestions which greatly helped all the kids gain more control.

Evan had some amazing powers with animals, and astounded everyone when he taught Iona's iguana how to do tricks like stand on its tail while using its front feet to throw little punches. The whole process was accomplished within just a couple of hours. He also taught it how to unlatch the top lever of the aquarium with its tongue, much to the horror of Iona's father. There was also universal belief of his ability to fully communicate with it.

Seeing this and hearing from the boy's mother about Evan's remarkable talent with animals, Bryan paid for a couple of other critters including a parakeet and a hamster. Evan had the parakeet talking within four hours and the hamster doing back flips after only an hour. Just like the iguana and his dog, the parakeet and hamster were flawlessly following voice commands from the boy within two days.

Lyle and Iona were similar, if not the same, in base abilities. They could increase strength, hearing, sight, feel, taste, smell, quickness... every time Flynn thought they couldn't impress him more, they found new ways to do so. In particular, Iona could run impossibly fast when she used her 'pool' and Lyle could react faster to danger than anyone he had ever seen. The boy could also bend his body in ways Flynn was certain would break any normal person. Seeing a video of the boy's motorcross 'accident', Flynn bet Lyle had used this astounding body manipulation ability to prevent being seriously hurt or even killed. Since, by all rights, the boy should have ended up in intensive care after the kid had kicked his back tire and sent Lyle and his bike over the safely wall and into the repair pits.

However, over the prior few days they learned there was a set of core abilities all the children seemed to have. These 'spells' at first seemed to vary, but as they worked together, the kids found they could teach all the others. At the same time, as they experimented, they occasionally 'found' a new 'spell' by accident. Once this happened they tried to work with the others to see if it was one of what the Australian Team leader, Flynn Markesan started calling 'Core Powers'. He figured since all the kids could do them, they were a core set of abilities all the 'gifted' children had. All six children had started calling them CSs, for Core Spells, over the past couple days. However, much like Stan, Flynn refused to say the word 'magic' or 'spell', but with each passing moment he was getting closer to joining in with the kids and calling them Core Spells.

Flynn stood ready to protect the kids while also encouraging them. He focused more on Ryan since he was rapidly becoming fond of the boy, his quick wit, and very caring side. He also liked how dedicated both Ryan and Alex were to learning how to fight.

However, he had to admit, both kids were beyond their years in self-defense and blade play abilities. The two took to the gladius-like blades and small axes as if they had been born with them. When he added a shield, just to see what would happen, he found himself astounded since neither boy needed any coaching on their use. It was almost like the dreams they talked about had not been dreams at all, but some kind of past life and the dreams had been keys to unlocking not just the memories of how to use such archaic weapons, but also unlocked the needed muscle memories as well. He had the boys demonstrate their prowess the prior day and Bryan, with heavy encouragement from Stan, gave permission for his sons to carry the gladius blades at all times.

Flynn nodded in satisfaction as Ryan focused on shooting out small darts of fire and ice at plastic bottles, trying to limit the size, since his problem seemed to be overkill, destroying set up targets with massive and heavily draining discharges. Within four or five he was normally wiped out. Today, however, he was shooting much smaller darts and was over thirty with more energy within before his 'pool' refilled.

Next to Ryan, Iona was learning to manipulate the pool inside herself to enhance her strength and senses, just like Lyle had shown he was capable of doing. With Lyle's aid, she was able to gaze out from the parking lot and watch as an ambulance pulled up alongside a badly injured woman. The unfortunate woman had claw marks down her side and her shirt was badly ripped. The fact it was over fourteen blocks down the street and she could make out the hair and eye color of all those involved and could see a broken off claw on the top deep scratch sticking out of the woman's skin verified she had finally been successful.

At the same time, Iona was looking over the victim of yet another MA, Lyle was once again trying to move things the way Iona did. It annoyed him, since she seemed to have such good control. He didn't and had yet to figure out what he was doing wrong. At most he could make things wiggle while she moved the same items around with almost no effort. He could feel the small teddy bear wanting to move, but once again it wouldn't travel toward him. In frustration, he pulled out more from his 'pool' and muttered at it. Moments later it crunched into the concrete and the stuffing exploded out of it. He took a step back, "Oh, crap!"

Flynn, the Australian Special Forces team leader snorted, "Kind of looks like what we wanted to do to the leader of the gang who hurt Evan's dad."

The number two man on the team cringed, "No, Flynn, we had to clean up. Shattering both his collarbones and kneecaps was good enough. At least we didn't have anything to mop up." He glanced down at a wide-eyed Lyle, "So, Mate, what'd the bear ever do to you, anyway?"

"Nothin'!" Lyle stated as the last of the stuffing floated down.

"Yeah, as in nothing left!"

One of the other team members snickered, "Lyle one, bear zero."

Off to the side Ryan glanced over with a big smile, "Hey, massive overkill is my job, stop trying to show me up!"

Flynn smiled widely, "Guess COSAM is going to have to buy a few more teddy bears." He paused as his phone and watch started beeping. "So there is moonset. Did you all refill?"

All three kids nodded.

"OK, so no more practice until tomorrow for you three. Keep hold of what you have in case something bad pops up. Since there is a glow on the horizon, the sun is about to come up which will hopefully kill any more MAs. Your bodyguards can keep us all covered. Let's move on to some blade and hand to hand combat work. Alex, Ryan, you two are way too advanced to work with the others. We don't want Ryan to fix another rib today, do we Craig?"

Craig shook his head, "No, sir, but I'm glad he was able to, because I am sure it was broken."

"I'd have to agree with you, so I want you to work with Pat with the wooden blades COSAM made for you all to practice with. Take fifteen minutes to refresh on throwing a good punch and blocking, then move to the wooden blade. You have a real knack for them, so I think with just a little more work we can approve of you carrying a real one.

"Iona, you are with Harry today. You still need to work on punches and blocks. You don't seem to like the blade work, but I really think you should try to get a handle on it. Harry can work with you on both but focus in on unarmed. Oh, and no enhancing your strength. I don't need Craig to have to repair scraped knees on Pat or anyone else again from being tossed several meters."

Pat snorted with some exasperation, "You don't? What about me?"

"Hey," Flynn grinned, "it was kind of fun watching a little girl take you down."

Everyone laughed as Pat flipped Flynn off.

Flynn turned his attention to Evan, "I really liked what I was seeing out of your blade work yesterday and you aren't bad with unarmed either. You're still a ways off from carrying a blade or practicing with Alex and Ryan, though. I want you with Wilson.

"Wilson split time evenly between unarmed and blade until we can figure out which one he is going to be better with."

Flynn took a long breath and looked over at Lyle, "Son, I know you have your heart set on carrying a blade, but you have some real talent with unarmed and I want you to focus on it. Bobby is my best unarmed guy and with his help you can get yourself up to being on par with Ryan, if not Alex. You work with Bobby during the scheduled training times and give it all you've got and I'll work with you on blade during your free time, OK?"

Lyle made a light growling sound while making a shoving motion. Suddenly all the remains of the toy were blown off the side of the parking structure. "OK, as long as you promise to get me to where you will let me carry one of those swords like Alex and Ryan..." His voice trailed off as he glared at where the remnants of the bear had been. "At least it doesn't look like it is smiling at and mocking me anymore!"

Flynn moved over and patted Lyle on the back, "Remember, conserve your 'pool' until you need it. But, son I'm serious here. You get good at hand to hand with Bobby, then we can work with you incorporating some of those strength and flexibility things you can do. With some work and commitment, you could be one of the most devastating unarmed people on this planet."

Once Flynn was certain the others were situated with men best suited to working with them, he turned to Alex and Ryan, "So you two are with me. Grab shields and wooden swords. You will spend fifteen minutes of trying to take each other down. Then we will switch to unarmed with you doing the same. If I say stop, stop. Once you both have a good sweat, you'll take turns sparing with me. Fifteen minutes of unarmed, fifteen minutes of blade each. I sense either of you slacking we start over. Once I am happy, then and only then will we get showered and have breakfast." Seeing unhappy faces looking at him, he smiled, "Hey, give it your all this morning and later today we'll go into the basement. I'll have Luke work with you all on firearms, since he was a certified sniper instructor. He is setting up a shooting range for you all which is why is isn't around."

Hearing they would get some time with a sniper instructor gave all the kids some serious incentive to give the training their all. Two hours later Alex all but stumbled out of the shower, totally exhausted after the grueling training session. He had to admit Flynn was a phenomenal instructor, though. He had no idea he could be pushed as far or do as much as the man had brought out in the last couple of days.

Alex grabbed a heaping plate of eggs, bacon, and a fresh bowl of diced mixed fruit and moved over to Lyle's dad. He watched the man run an expanded search for other kids with special abilities signifying they may be like him and his new friends. He said nothing as Mr. Cartwright moved a couple more names into a secondary program to do a more detailed search. Finally, Alex let out a long breath, "Any luck on finding Zachery?"

Vince Cartwright glanced over and pointed over to a nearby chair, "Not much, but grab a seat and I'll pull up what Stan and I have come up with. Since you know him, maybe you can come up with some further search criteria."

"I'm not very good with computers."

"Let me handle the computer, you just give me some more input factors."

"Like what?"

"Well, here. Let me show you what we've come up with and you can see if there is any other details you can add."

Alex shrugged, "Sure."

Alex looked over the details COSAM's computers could find. It was actually a pretty good trail from the time of the collision in Hawaii to the time Zachery's family made it back to the outskirts of London. Somehow, Lyle's dad even found records of Mr. Norris paying power and water bills in person to cover for the two-month extended vacation the family had taken.

The trail stayed solid for several months. At this point, Mr. Norris put down more money than was owed on power and water, signifying they planned on another extended trip. But all records ended a day later when Mrs. Norris bought a decent amount of groceries and some dog food on credit and Mr. Norris had a charge for filling up on hydrogen at a petrol station just outside of Liverpool. The same day Mrs. Norris pulled out a sizable amount of cash directly from a bank.

Alex sighed, "So they had plenty of money to take another trip and no need to pull more out. They may have even paid for where they were staying with cash, huh?"

"Same thing your Uncle Stan and I think, buddy. I have tried facial recognition and social media, but other than Zachery's sister posting she was tired of Zachery and his dog, and she didn't want to go to one more... not so nice words... museum, there isn't much. The last posting on her account was a over a couple of years ago saying she wanted to go back home and date someone by the name of Bentley. From there, nothing. I have hit a brick wall."

"So they vanished?"

"Seems so. We'll keep looking and I know Stan has set up a worldwide facial recognition scan, but it could take months, if not longer. We really are pretty much out of ideas. I know after Mr. Norris sold his construction company; he basically went into semi-retirement. The bank still shows a few million in his account, and it hasn't been touched since groceries were bought and cash was pulled out... Power to their estate was shut off followed by water after six months. It is paid for and taxes get pulled out of a holding account every six months, so it is still in their name. I hate to say this, but..."

Alex frowned at the tone, "Zachery is alive."

"Kiddo, I hope you are right... but..."

"No, I am telling you, he's alive. The bracelet is his and he somehow showed up here in London to help Evan."

Evan looked over as he reached down and scratched his dog's ear, "Whoever or whatever it was, sure looked like Alex and Ryan, Mr. Cartwright." He let out a long breath, "I know it sounds crazy, but I saw what I saw."

"Son," Vince stated, "the things I see coming over the news and the web are crazy. I believe you. And even if it seems like I don't, I believe Alex. But they would have run out of cash way before now. I really don't know where else to look."

Iona finished chewing on the chunk of pear she had in her mouth before speaking up, "What about the sister's boyfriend?"

Seeing all eyes look at her, Iona grinned "Hey, I don't know about the rest of you, but until all this happened and you forbade me from telling my friends much, everyone on my social network knew pretty much everything I do and had planned. l also posted my practice and race schedules so those who wanted to watch me smoke a bunch of boys out on the track could come watch."

"You were getting quite the groupie following," Lyle snickered.

"And one of the reasons she had a better sponsor than you, Lyle," his dad joined in the conversation even as his fingers went to work on the keyboard.

"Huh..." Lyle's mouth twisted up into a thoughtful smirk. "Iona, can you help me set up a social networking page for me to post racing stuff on?"

"As long as your dad says it's ok."

"Fine by me, but I want to review it before it goes live and we will need to figure out what is going to happen with races with all this going on." He paused and looked back, "Oh, and for the record, I better not see either of you two cheating out there with your new found... abilities."

"Come on, Dad, can't you just say magic?"

"No, not yet, and I am being serious here!"

"Mr. Cartwright," Iona responded, "we both had some control before and we didn't cheat... Well I wrecked Blake, but not to win..."

"You wreaking him is fine with me, Iona. But never again, even if someone cheats or wrecks my son. I get why you did it, but you could have killed him. Never again, get me?"

"Yes... Yes, sir." She grinned, "As good as I am going to get at fighting, I'll take on whoever tries after the race, in front of the cameras, and embarrass him."

Alex looked over with a wide smile, "Iona, you and a friend of mine, Shelly, should get together. You'd get along great with her."

Before more could be said Vince snapped his fingers, "Iona, good call. I tracked over to Bentley's social profile and did a search. Right about the same time as the Norris family vanished, he started posting to others to see if they had heard from her..." his face went pale, "Oh, crap..."

Alex moved up to look at the computer and read the post in reply to Bentley's search, it was from a girl by the name of Kara. He felt his heart speed up as he reread it, "According to this, Kara said they went to Dublin a few days before it was nuked..."

Ryan looked over, "Alex, we know he is alive."

"Maybe that is why he looked so skinny and was wearing wrong fitting clothing and junk," Evan added in. "We've all heard there are still survivors in the Dublin Disaster Zone."

"There are?" Alex and Ryan stated at the same time.

Vince nodded, "The whole city was cordoned off and centers set up for anyone making it out past the inner perimeter. Even now there are stories of new survivors making their way out ever few weeks... The UB government and military have talked about going in, but the couple of times they tried they were met with resistance and their equipment was contaminated enough to need to be destroyed. It is a lawless zone of ruins, gangs, radiation, and God only knows what else."

"Then we need to go there and find him!" Alex shouted.

"But boys, if he's there... and if you could find him... He is probably contaminated, sick, and..."

"He was skinny and didn't look great, but he didn't look sick either, Mr. Cartwright," Evan countered.

Flynn stood, "Boys, I'll talk to Stan, but there is no way any of you are going."

"You have to take at least one of us," Iona quickly countered.

"And why do we have to take one of you?"

"Because we can feel him. You can't."

Flynn had no good argument and he knew it. With a deep breath, he pulled up his phone and placed a call to Stan while walking out of the room where the kids were eating.

Stan talked over the situation with Flynn for several minutes. He was flatly against sending anyone into Dublin, let alone kids. However, it really wasn't his decision to make. He reluctantly called Bryan. As soon as the man answered he started speaking, "Boss, we have a lead on Zachery Norris..."

"I just heard. Alex and Ryan both came in and woke me up. How solid is this?"

"Still working on it Boss, but... Yeah, it makes sense and we are tracing more social networking posts. We have found over a dozen other posts suggesting they were in or around Dublin when it was hit. The chances they made it is exceedingly slim..."

"You know it, I know it, hell, everything tells me the boy is dead... except..."

"Alex and Ryan."

"Not just them, Stan. Evan is every bit a certain, if not more so. The other three are more than willing, and like it or not, and surprising as it is, Vince says if it helps deal with what is going on he'd let his son go. I am leaning the same way."

"But this is a childhood pipe dream, Boss! A kid as young as Zachery, would never survive in such wastelands. And keep in mind, I am talking about how old he is now, not how old he was when the place was nuked!"

"Stan, I'd never buy into this if the whole world hadn't just gone insane on us and we've both seen what my boys and these other children can do..."

"Yeah, I know. They are growing more powerful and competent by the day." Stan let out a long breath, "OK... It's your call, sir. But I am going to put in my firm belief this is a bad idea along with an incredibly dangerous waste of time, money, and resources."

"While I agree, I am on the ground here in London and the MAs are getting worse as are the electrical grids. If Zachery is someone tied to this and we can stop it or at least turn the tide..."

"It could save more lives than we can count, Boss. I get it... But seriously, even if Zachery is tied to all this, he's just a kid who, if alive, has been though a hell none of us could hope to understand. He is going to need all sorts of mental and probably physical help. Considering all of this, what more is he going to be able to do than what Alex, Ryan and his new friends are going to do?"

"I have no idea... But let me interject something else, here. If we don't try, we will have to hogtie three boys, maybe all five and the girl too. Even if we take them out to the ship, they will try to get to Dublin on their own. I can see it in their eyes."

"Yeah, I could just see Alex stealing a MORSAV and trying to do it on his own."

"My son, but you helped make him who he is," Bryan couldn't help but nervously snicker.

"OK, Boss, tell them we are doing an extended search in hopes of pinpointing some kind of location. This will give me time to talk to Flynn and his team. But we can't take the kids."

"Stan, you've seen the vids. They can sense each other and if the little guy is really out in those ruins... he isn't likely to trust men, especially men with guns. I know I wouldn't and I'm an adult."

"Oh, for the love of God... Let me talk it over with Flynn and his men. I'll get back to you shortly, Boss."

Stan splashed water on his face and made his way down to the sub bay hoping to sort out his thoughts and find an argument to dissuade everyone from attempting to find a boy in the hell that was Dublin. As he turned the corner, he noted a group of kids switching off pods on MORSAV Four. The seven boys and three girls were all part of the security cadet program, and thus wore their security jumpsuits and patches, making them look all but identical since they all had their heads stuffed down into and around the rocket pod. At the same time, two of the senior security people talked each one through the connectors for both the triggering and targeting.

Two of the boys finished hooking it up, then disconnecting it so the next two could take a turn. They moved around to the other side of MORSAV Four lightly poking at each other with good natured playful martial arts attacks. Stan was about to clear his throat and tell them this was no place to be horsing around when one of the boys slipped on the wet deck, reached for something to stop his fall out of instinct, and grabbed the chain holding up the rocket pod. Unfortunately, the thirteen-year-old's hand grabbed on the connector causing the chain holding up the ninety-kilogram weapon system to break loose.

Stan rushed forward while changing what he was about to say, instead shouting at those who had their heads in the hatch where the connections had to be made, "LOOK OUT!"

Alex's friend, Shelly, looked up at Stan's voice and turned. She saw what was happening, but could do little about it. Still, she had to do something. She yanked one of the two who were starting to make the connections with one hand, while trying to grab the edge of the rocket pot with her other. There was no chance she would be able to even slow it down but she had to try.

The two instructors jumped forward as the pod dropped on the boy and Shelly's arm.

Even as the twelve-year-old let out a howl of pain and fear as the pod smacked into his back and pinned him in the hold, Shelly gritted her teeth as she felt the metal smack into her hand and start to cut into her arm.

Even as Stan rushed over to help the two instructors, Shelly started to shake and her eyes suddenly lit up with a bright green light. Moments later a massive updraft whipped around the docked MORSAV causing her hair to blow straight up. An instant later, before the instructors could even get to her, a golden green glow erupted from her pinned hand. A screeching protest of bending metal quickly followed. Slowly the green light expanded outward forming a scissor-like wedge with a jack-like lever in the middle. The lever moved rapidly for several seconds pushing the pod off of Shelly's arm and the boy's back.

Shelly pulled her arm out and shook her head, while the two instructors quickly extricated a stunned, but basically unharmed boy from the open hatch. Other than a bruise on his back from the initial hit, he was fine.

Stan noted Shelly was wobbling, staggering, and blinking her eyes, so he angled to grab her so she wouldn't fall off the internal dock, even as he eyed the glowing green contraption with total confusion.

At the same time, most of the kids backed away with wide eyes, but one boy moved forward very cautiously and poked at the glowing green item. He let out a little yelp as a spark shot off the edge of the makeshift jaws of life, but he still bravely, or foolishly, touched it. He found it warm and tingly to the touch, but hard and strong as steel, "Shelly... How?"

Shelly took in several deep breaths before managing to stammer out, "I... I... don't know, Ramsey... Um, it just came out... I am like real empty inside or something..." She all but fell into Stan, allowing the man to hold her up.

Ramsey once again poked at the green thing and glanced back at Shelly, "But it like came out of your hand! ... It's wicked awesome, but..." he smacked it hard enough for the sound to echo in the all but silent bay, "But I can see through it but it's hard as a freakin' rock! Where'd it come from?"

The boy who had been pinned looked over while one of the instructors cut his jumpsuit open so she could look over his back. "I don't give a crap how or where, I owe you! But, that's... that's like impossible!"

Ramsey smacked it a second time, "Sorry, Darren, but I'd have to say it's real, which pretty much by default, makes it possible!"

The male instructor finally moved over, got a light shock as he extended his hand, but like Ramsey reached out and touched it. "Yeah, impossibly possible... and I'm with Ramsey. While I'm thrilled it... um... appeared... I want to know where it came from... Shelly?"

Shelly closed her eyes and shook her head, "It's like... I thought about a block of metal to stop the pod... but um.... my hand was pinned... So I thought of making it a wedge with a jack in it... um, I used up what was inside, like stuff I use when Alex and I spar and shoot and stuff... I guess... um... but this time it's all gone... Oh, I don't feel so good..."

Stan picked Shelly up and handed her over to the male instructor, "Grayson, get her and him," he pointed to Darren, "to medical and get science down here now!" He then looked over at the two boys who came very close to killing fellow cadets, "And you two, mop and KP duty in the security kitchen! Move before I decide to talk to your parents and get permission to whoop you butts!"

The two didn't hesitate to bolt toward the security mess hall.

He nodded in satisfaction even as he edged over toward the glowing green see-through jaws holding the pod off the MORSAV. He eyed it for several seconds, debating on if he was going to touch it. After a few more seconds he backed away. This was simply too much. He shook off a shiver as it traveled down his spine. After this, he was all but certain all the creatures he had seen, including the one pulling the boat down really did exist. He took a deep breath. "OK, this is a scientific ship, so let's start behaving like it! The rest of you get pictures and vid of this from every angle, but stay back. We have no way of knowing how long whatever this thing is, is going to last. If or when it vanishes I want it on vid but keep well clear. Just let the pod fall in the water. We'll fish it out later. As it stands, the pod should have already killed at least one of you, so let's make sure it doesn't!"

Stan quickly made his way back to his quarters, pulled out his phone and made a call to some former SEAL buddies. In his way of thinking he needed as many special ops folks as he could find aboard Cynthia and able to protect Alex, Ryan and Bryan as he could possibly find. This was especially true since they were heading into Dublin.

Even as Stan talked to one of his former team members, he sent a text to Bryan, "Boss, I'm in. Dublin it is. And we didn't have far to go to find another one like the kids with you. Alex's sparring partner and girlfriend, Shelly is one of them or I'll take my next paycheck in coins and eat them! Oh, and tell Alex and Ryan... I'm now there! It's Magic!"