Defied Reality - 7. Chapter 7: Ripping Reality

And then the man from the chopper took aim on the one directed and fired a round and suddenly Tess felt a bullet hit her in the shoulder blade. She jerked her hand away from Barack's head and a scream escaped as she swerved to the side and hit the wall, blood staining it as she lowered down to sit on the floor, crying in pain.

"Tess!" Trent ran forward and over to her side, kneeling down and pulled her from the wall so that he could look at her back. "Taylor! You gotta come heal her!"

Taylor's eyes widened and he started heading for Tess only for another round to suddenly hit him in the shoulder. His eyes widened and he stumbled back and fell onto the floor, a scream escaping.

Trent's eyes widened and he started to stand up but by this point, Barack had woken up and ran to the corner and retrieved his gun and started firing several rounds in Trent's direction. He ducked down and then dived into the Secretary's office where she was hiding with Spencer and he dived to the side and out of the way of the door.

"Taylor!" Tess started forward and then screamed when Barack started shooting and scrunched up into a corner, holding her arms up and over her defensively.

The man had quickly ducked down and out of the way of the President's fire and placed a cloth over Taylor's nose and mouth, rendering him unconscious. He then pulled Taylor close and dragged him out of the office and down the hall where more guards and men were coming when they heard the gunfire. Most of the men ran by to save the President but two of them had stayed behind and picked Taylor up and they headed off down the hall as the suited man texted for the shooter to have the chopper land out front for them.

Tess's eyes widened when the men all rampaged the room and took aim on her and she sucked in a breath and held it.

Trent looked around the corner, noticing Taylor gone and then Tess cornered. "Fuck...I can't let them get two of us!" He whispered out angrily.

"I've lost...a...a lot of...of blood." Tess then started to look faint and then her eyes closed and her head fell forward, she passed out as she astral projected out of her body and got up, walking unseen as she stepped into Obama.

"Lets go, the important thing is safety first." Obama said abruptly, under Tess' control. Watching the men as they started walking out of the room and he went along in the middle, surrounded and then stopped in the hallway as she stepped out of his body.

Tess ran through the room again, just in time to see Trent carrying her into the Secretary's office. She moved in there and stepped back into her body once she was laid in the corner and gasped as her eyes opened. "I got him to order them out of the room. We need to go, now."

"Going to be kind of hard without Taylor, they fucking got him!" Trent said.

"I know! But this place is a death trap right now! We'll improvise, you carry me, I'll possess anyone we see and get them out of the way." Tess sighed, her eyes closed and her head fell forward.

Trent picked Tess up and looked at Spencer. "Come on!"

Spencer had pretty much been frozen in fear the whole time. He quickly got up and took off after Trent.

The man from the white house walked into the white room and sat down at the table and grinned at Taylor who was handcuffed to the metal chair, knowing he was sedated, it was sad that had to be the case. "My name is Caleb, by the way. Caleb Boyd, I hope you've had some time to think, you know, we really don't want to keep you on drugs all the time."

Taylor stared at Caleb through the drug induced haze. "Screw you." He laid his head back and looked up into the bright lights and then closed his eyes. "You know, I sort of get it, you want to make all these bad things go away...but it's only a matter of time before you start getting greedy, find out the lottery numbers, rewind time, get the right ones. Or is that a little amateur for you? No, the stock market sounds more like your game."

"And you've never been tempted to?" Caleb asked.

"Please...I just found out what I can do...my mind has been plagued with finding out why."

"Oh...things like this." Caleb sat the crystal pyramid on the table. "Like the tablets you have. I bet you can't translate them...but this was a picture, wasn't it?"

Taylor looked at the pyramid.

"It's amazing how it was found, how it drifted to shallow waters, researchers saw it glowing in the water, you take it out though...it stops glowing. It only works in the ocean though. It was turned over and we decided to put it nicely away until we learned more about it. So close to where the Atlantis remains supposedly are, at least that's what many people believe those under water structures are."

"You need to let them have it...for whatever reason, it's important or we wouldn't of known about it." Taylor's head rolled forward. "Please."

"I will, if you start cooperating. I'll send it in a nice Fedex package." Caleb grinned.

"What do you want me to do?"

"That depends...if we let the drugs wear off, we need to know that you won't be a danger." Caleb picked up the crystal pyramid. "I don't know if this thing is destructible or not, I haven't tried a hammer on it yet, if not, you nor your friends will ever get it." Caleb said.

"Fine...I'll cooperate."

"Good, once I see you start doing that, I'll make sure they get it...but I won't tell you when. Could be this week, next month, a year from now..." Caleb stood up. "So you better be prepared to cooperate and keep cooperating." He grinned and walked out with the pyramid, shutting the door and locking it behind him with two dead bolts and a padlock.

Tess paced the hotel room. "Thank god for your reality manipulation power, though it helped going to one hospital first, getting vicodin, ripping my bandages off, going to another and then getting percocet before you fixed me!" Tess threw the prescriptions at the bed. "They'll sure help while Taylor's being tortured at a base somewhere! Poked and prodded and studied!"

"Hey! You're just lucky they didn't keep you!" Trent sighed.

"That's because I possessed the doctor into some super duper quick discharge papers that she laid on the bed next to unconscious me and then we snuck out!"

Then there was a knock on the door.

Tess's eyes widened. "Oh no, it's them, they found us." She turned towards the door. "They are going to bargain Taylor's life for us."

Trent got up and slowly walked towards the door. "Who is it?" He called out.

"Pizza delivery." The guy mumbled and then suddenly the door dematerialized and crumbled into nothingness to reveal a guy with hair so blonde it was nearly white, he wore dark black sunglasses, a black leather trench coat with a matching tee shirt and BDU's with combat boots. He stepped up into the room and reached up to pull the glasses off to reveal brilliant blue eyes, so vibrant that it was as if they almost glowed.

"Oh no! We have other alien enemies!" Tess screamed and fell back on the bed.

"Nice to meet you too, sister." The man tucked the glasses into the collar of the tee shirt. "Or should I just say half?"

"Sister?" Tess's eyes widened.

"The names Gage." He sighed. "Gage Zion. And yes, I'm your half brother, the one without a human half. Though there isn't much difference, is there?"

"Your eyes!" Tess screamed at him.

Gage grinned. "That's for effect, I thought it would make for a cool entrance." Those vibrant blue eyes then lost that glowing effect, even still, they had an oddly vibrant appearance.

"What are you doing here? Not that we don't appreciate, because we're in a jam..." Trent said.

"Obviously, there is only two of you. And this is Washington DC. So let me guess, your third got kidnapped? Government?"

"Well, yeah. We were trying to get the pyramid from the white house and...well...we messed up." Trent frowned.

Gage sighed. "Amateurs. You have plenty of time to train and you jump the gun. Well, regarding the pyramid, that's partly why I'm here. I don't want that thing killing me." He paused. "I'll explain that to you once we have it."

"Wait, it kills us?" Tess crawled on the bed.

"No...it's not dangerous to us...not unless we choose it to be and put ourselves in the circumstance for it to be. Which I am not." Gage turned around. "Oh, we should have privacy." He held a hand up and red particles quickly flew up as the hotel door reassembled out of thin air.

"So you're a full blooded Annunaki...what we learned is sets of powers. We started with one and have advanced with powers that are relative to that first one." Trent said.

"Then you're limiting yourself." Gage turned around. "You all can do all of the things that you all do. Trent, you can do anything Tess can, and vice versa, and you both can do everything Taylor can do. Plus more, though being hybrids, you might never reach your full potential as reality warpers, still doesn't mean you won't be pretty damn strong." He paused. "Some of us...can create and destroy entire planets. Though, not even I am that powerful, I am only as old as Tess is, older by a year. Only our greatest of elders have that power, and they don't use it to interfere in affairs, staying hidden and protected is important to them."

"But they do interfere..." Tess walked over to Gage. "Don't you know that they want us to breed and pray to...someone that we wipe the human race out and eventually create a world of hybrids? Yeah, what we know, what little we know, is God got pissed at them, sent them packing and took the humans, so they want to unite humanity and Annunaki...though how God will react to that one, I don't even know."

"Oh, except for that." Gage nodded. "It's about unity. They made the humans, as you see, look at me, you are made in our image, we look just as human as you. He just stole it. Think of it like plagiarism, the original author is cool so long as he or she gets their credit on the book as the original author...and then the thief gets credit for authoring the changes to the story and...in the end it becomes a united force."

Tess laughed. "Yeah, well they are fools if they think three people can create a whole new race. I mean sure, we can go around and fuck some people." She turned and fell back on the bed. "But while we are, humans are still going to be fucking humans and outnumbering us by the large."

"That's where you're wrong." Gage grinned. "Every person you sleep with, you infect." He looked at Trent. "You get a girl pregnant, she has your hybrid kid, cool. Then every other man she sleeps with? Biologically...it's his kid, in every way, but one very small way. That kid turns out to be a hybrid, you infect her so that every child she has will have that small trace of DNA, all it needs to start and then as that child grows, it becomes stronger. You won't share any genes, no looks, no blood, it won't be your child at all, just a hybrid, waiting for another man's sperm. Think of it as a prepared hybrid in wait."

"That's disgusting." Tess made a face.

"Oh?" Gage looked at Tess. "And for you? Every guy you sleep with gets infected, just by sex. For you...it acts like an STD, in a way, but it's not. And then as the guy goes on, without protection, he spreads it to other women, like Trent would." Gage spread his arms out and grinned. "So in this world of traveling diseases, don't consider it a disease, consider it a traveling race in the making."

Tess narrowed her eyes at Gage. "You are unbelievable!"

Gage grinned. "Oh and by the way, Trent, every girl you sleep with, they sort of become like Tess, they spread the gene needed. So you three basically would only jump start the process, humanity would continue it with their affairs and future relationships."

Trent sat down on the edge of the bed and ran his hand through the short cropped hair on the top of his head. "Is that natural or is it just how they thought it up and made it happen?"

"It's natural. Why do you think God hated it when the Annunaki started mating with humans? Because of this very thing, human children would never be born anymore, not purely. Pure humans would cease to exist. So he made the flood....and a lot died in it, unfortunately all the hybrids as the Annunaki were mostly out for themselves. Some stayed, helped humans, maybe thought they were helping hybrids. Who the hell knows? Point is that now, you are the only three hybrids in existence, why? Because an Annunaki dared to come here, he wanted to live a human life and unfortunately that didn't work out, but as a result of his treason, this plan was formed and he was forgiven for breaking the laws, so long as he never returned to Earth after delivering you to your homes."

"Okay, well the issue here, superman, is that Taylor is gone and we don't know where he is." Tess stated.

"You guys haven't learned to sense each other yet?" Gage's eyebrows lifted.

"We can do that?" Trent asked.

"Yes, if you learned how." Gage sat on the other bed and rubbed his temples, closing his eyes. "How could they have just hooked you up through a freakin dream and then let you go without some sort of coach? I am surprised you figured the dream out."

"Hey, we're figuring it out, though a coach would of been nice, so you tell all the big people up there not to punish you because we might actually need you." Tess frowned and grabbed her two bottles. "You look stressed. Vicodin or Percocet?"

Gage opened his eyes and stared at Tess.

A swirl of colored particles appeared out of no where on a dirt road before a large warehouse like building as Tess, Trent and Gage materialized and formed into being.

"Why couldn't Spencer come?" Tess asked.

"It's no place for a human." Gage said, adjusting his sunglasses.

"Talk about no where Virginia." Trent said.

"Oh, it's somewhere. Might not look like much, but that's how they want it to seem." Gage started walking down the dirt road as Tess and Trent followed.

"Okay, what about a plan?" Tess asked.

"We won't need one." Gage grinned. "Though, what I will do to save Taylor will put us on the radar on a massive scale."

"Isn't that bad?! Hey, you can fly back off to where ever you came from! We got to stay and deal with it!" Tess stared at him.

"I told you, I'm not going back, it means most certain death, they know that and they are willing to accept their fates, I however, am not." Gage stopped several yards away from the guard shack.

"See? That, that is why we need a plan. Like how I can possess them and make one shoot the other, then open the gate...and as bad as it'll hurt, slam his head on the wall."

"That's masochistic." Trent grinned.

"Time consuming, and it leaves your body vulnerable." Gage grinned. "If your body died...you might have to live as a human man forever." He looked around and then suddenly heard gun fire from hidden snipers out in the fields. He grabbed Tess and Trent and pulled them forward and smashed them together into flying particles as the bullets flew towards him only to then be directed away and towards the two men at the guard shack. The bullets killed them only to continue in their velocity as if they had hit nothing and flew back into the field, screams erupted in the distance as the bullets clearly hit the original shooters. The particles would fly towards the ground and reform as Tess and Trent landed on their asses.

"What the fuck?!" Tess screamed.

"Minimal threats have been eliminated." Gage said.

Trent looked over to see the guards dead. "Get up, dust yourself off....I'd quote a song...but it would be disrespectful." Gage looked down. "We tune your satellites from time to time." He walked forward and around into the guard shack and shifted the lever forward and the gates started to open.

"I miss her...and that song was pretty good." Tess stood up and walked off to follow Gage, along with Trent and they walked through the gate and stopped just inside of it.

"My Mom used to drive and sing that song to the top of her lungs, she rear ended someone once when she did it." Tess further commented.

Trent laughed. "Figures."

"Yeah, what was your music like?" Tess asked.

"Now, you know better. Everyone gets the American entertainment industry." Trent shook his shoulders and then rolled his head to the side. "Not to say some places still don't have their own little culture."

Gage grabbed the man's badge and then ran his hand over it and the man's photograph changed to a picture of himself. He pinned it to his shirt and headed through the gate and waved them on as he walked to the glass double doors and headed inside.

The inside looked nothing like a warehouse, more like an office building, a successful one, there was just no going up. He walked over to the Secretary and smiled. "Hello...I'm the guard, you know, from outside. Well, I'm new, the older one got fired."

The Secretary was standing there alarmed. "Are you okay?! I heard gun fire! I...I was just about to call a breach."

"Oh, I'm alright, no need to call a breach, I even contacted paramedics to come get the them, standard procedure, right? Simple attempted trespass, probably daring teenagers that regret it." He then walked around the desk. "I just need you to tell me, did you see anyone brought in here earlier?" He nodded to Trent. "Someone that looked like him?"

The Secretary shook her head. "No, I mean I know you are new here but there are many entrances, this is simply for light business, anything of higher security, that goes on in lower levels."

"Lower levels...should of figured." Gage then grabbed the woman by the shoulders and pulled her forward and the woman suddenly gasped with fright as he kissed her and then she fell to the floor, awake, but paralyzed. "It'll wear off." He looked over at Trent. "Why don't you take the opportunity?"

"What? Here? Now? I...for one, I'm hardly in the mood, for two...I'm not going to end up in the middle of a fight while I..." Trent shook his head. "No! Just....no!"

Tess looked over the desk. "A paralyzed woman? I'm not sure what's worse, that...or necrophilia..." She looked up at Gage. "That's like taking advantage of the disabled!"

"You can animate her." Gage said and then shook his head. "Whatever, lets go." He walked away from the desk and then closed his eyes.

"Can you sense him?" Tess walked closer.

"Yes...but he's drugged...I need him to be able to use his powers in order to keep himself safe so that I can save him." Gage said.

"They don't work when we're drugged?" Trent asked.

"No..." Gage looked at Tess. "...they don't." He said, reminding her about the vicodin and the percocet. "Nor when intoxicated." He paused. "They can work, just not as well and...not in the way you might intend for them to."

"So what do we do?" Trent asked.

"He needs an IV and then I can accelerate the process of flushing him out. Tess, up for it?"

"First, we still don't know where he's at, second...I don't know which doctor has clearance...and third, I have no medical training, I could put the IV in wrong, not know how to start it, I could get nervous and shaky and hesitant." Tess rambled.

Gage frowned. "What about accessing the man that took him?"

"Still don't know where he's at! I don't just jump into brains! I astral project, I go out and then I walk around and step into the body." Tess sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"Okay, well you're going to have to test new powers...and you can do it, you guys can use Taylors abilities, you're reality warpers, it's all about the imagination." Gage said. "The reason his powers are so important is that it's to protect him from what I will have to do to bust us out of this place. A freezing power will keep him safe from my attack. So, hopefully, the closer we get, the stronger the signal and the sense."

Gage walked to the elevator and pushed the down button, since that was the only option and the doors slid open and they all three walked in and the doors closed. "Basement level, free game, then level X, Y and Z. Those need codes."

"Well, maybe he's on level X? I mean...the X-files? Get it?" Trent grinned, trying to laugh a little.

"Okay, lets think about this." Tess took a deep breath. "I think the basement is still above ground, this building is elevated, X could be the same level, just the back side, maybe access to hangars? Hello? UFO's? Or maybe just air craft. Y is their lab, below basement and hangars...and Z might be where they would keep someone held, twice as underground, twice the sound proof. What makes more sense?"

Trent looked back. "There is another set of doors on the other side. She might be right. X could be access to the hangars, Y and Z could be underground levels."

"Then we break the codes." Gage said and when Trent stepped forward, he outstretched a hand to stop Trent. "Tess, you do it. Press Z, when it asks for the code, send an energy surge into it to make it unlock and let us access."

Tess's eyebrows lifted and she walked to the buttons and hit the letter Z and then it asked for a code. She put her hand over the buttons and concentrated.

"It's okay, this is new to you, take your power...pull it away from the mental. Concentrate on the energy, power, feel it, the electric spark, you want to shock, imagine pulling the power from this elevator into yourself and then sending it out." Gage instructed.

Tess closed her eyes tighter and slowly shook her head. "It's not working." She said, trying not to become frustrated.

"Try harder, you can do this. Picture the lights flicker, the way these elevator lights would flicker..." Gage said.

Tess took a deep breath, picturing what Gage was telling her and then suddenly she felt her hand spark and her eyes opened wide and she pulled her hand away and saw the code box spark and smoke as the elevator began to go down. "I did it." She grinned. "I used his power."

Gage nodded. "Well, one of you is going to have to learn Taylor's much faster. Of course, if push comes to shove, I can do it, but I'm trying to train you guys...so don't let that reliance stop you...because I won't do it unless it's the last resort."

"When do we learn your powers?" Trent grinned.

"All this training will lead up to my powers, as close as they can get...for a hybrid." Gage said as the doors slid open on level Z. "Freeze the elevator doors. Trent, do it."

"How? He just jerks his hand up and does it." Trent said.

"It's a panic response. We can't get out until I survey the situation, if the doors close, we go back up and lose progress." Gage explained.

"But I don't panic." Trent said.

"Just imagine you're on the level you've wanted to be on...and after a crowd of twenty people...you don't want to leave." Gage frowned.

Trent jerked his arm up and waved it and the doors started closing.

"Now panic!" Gage said in a firmer tone.

"Ugh!" Trent jerked his hand up again and the doors froze half way shut.

"You do panic." Tess grinned.

Gage walked forward and carefully stuck his head out of the elevator. "Okay, we're in the middle of a three way corridor, straight hall or side hall, a guard at the end of each. Go left on the side hall and the hall turns right, go right on the side hall and the hall turns left, straight and the hall turns into another side hall. The straight hall, I figure, to the left only brings you back around to the left side of the entering side hall, the right side carries you deeper." He pulled back.

"And the side hall, if you go right, it probably takes you somewhere different too." Trent said.

"Further training." Gage turned towards Trent. "You possess."

Trent's eyes widened. "Woah, that's one of her bigger powers...I mean her door thing is one thing, but to do that?"

"It actually isn't hard, once you get leaving the body down, entering another body is simple, it's the leaving the body part that takes the most work." Gage explained.

"That's the truth, leaving the body takes the most concentration, though I have to say, it's only leaving my own body that's the hardest." Tess said.

"Exactly...because when you're alive, you have what is called an astral rope attached to your body, you just think about returning and it pulls you out of the possessed body, you just have to master leaving your own." Gage nodded.

"But if I do that, the freeze on the doors will wear off." Trent waved his hand at the elevator doors.

"They are professional, they won't all leave their post. In fact, procedure is probably one goes to get lunch and brings it back." Gage said. "So the doors will unfreeze, we'll go back up to the lobby and you can be the guard and bring a lunch followed with nap time."

Trent sighed and closed his eyes.

"I would sit...if you don't want to fall over." Tess wanted to laugh.

Trent shook his head and sat down in the corner of the elevator. "Okay, sitting, eyes closed, now what?"

"I kind of think of light as a feather stiff as a board, kind of." Tess said. "Imagine yourself floating above the floor, hovering. It takes some time, this is a meditation technique, you have to let go and let yourself feel light."

Gage lowered to a knee in front of Trent. "Imagine part of you separating from yourself, wanting to leave yourself behind. Have you ever been through a time, you've wanted to escape so bad? Maybe escape life so bad? Maybe suicidal? Or maybe...you just wanted a time out from life, maybe just to sleep...Imagine your eyes growing heavy, you want to just let go."

Tess rolled her eyes, she doubted he ever felt like that. "Are you feeling it?"

"I'm just getting sleepy." Trent said.

"Let your body sleep, let it fall asleep, but let yourself out of it, come out." Tess whispered.

Gage sighed. "I don't know how you managed it, Tess, this is one of the tougher abilities to master. Then again, it was specifically given to you as a starter gift..or rather as an advance to your starter gift."

Trent then started to feel his body fall to the side and reached out to grab onto the elevator bar. "That's it! I can't do it!" His eyes opened and he stood up and turned around and then noticed his body laying there. "Oh my god! I did it!"

Tess stared at Trent. "I think he did it, he would of given up, he wouldn't of fell asleep." She grinned. "He probably felt himself falling, his body was asleep, he reached for the bar and that pulled him out." She stood up.

Gage sighed and stood up. "Better late than never."

The doors to the elevator unfroze and slid shut, but moments later, they slid open again as one of the guards stood there and grinned and he stepped into the elevator and pushed for the main floor. "So what's the plan?" The guard asked, under Trent's control.

Tess grinned.

"They eat lunch, get nice and full and decide to have an afternoon nap." Gage said. "Now when you want out, like I said, the astral cord, you just have to will it to pull you back, like a wish, a simple thought, it won't be nearly as hard as getting out."

"That was a bitch..." Trent spoke through the guards voice. "Maybe next time, you should let me do it standing up, falling over pulls me right out."

"Just go get the lunches, somewhere near by." Gage said, the elevator chimed and Trent walked out with the guards body, seeing the Secretary was not there, he assumed she was still on the floor.

"Now what?" Tess asked.

"We wait." Gage pulled up Trent's body and nodded for Tess to follow as he headed out into the lobby and laid Trent on the couch and then sat in the sofa chair beside it.

"Did you know, you can make your eyes glow too? And stun with a kiss? Well, you can do more with a look and a kiss than that. You can hypnotize, bring out the truth in someone, see into their soul, though the truth in what you can do depends on the color of the eyes. Mine are blue, I can make it cold, icy, I can make it rain, I can turn a person's heart cold, not in the physical sense but in the sense that they become mean, evil, bitter, but with that comes strength, independence..." Gage looked at Tess. "Though, if I wanted, I could clone the color of their eyes, or take on the color that would best compliment them."

"Oh, come on. There has to be something positive about blue, almost everyone loves blue eyes." Tess stared at him.

"Well, I could make a grey sky blue, no clouds. Lighten a darkened ocean. The tropics have lighter oceans, I could even make them glow. Ice sculptures, that's fun. And then I could take a cold heart, melt it...let the warmth return. I'm not going to go into all of it." Gage shook his head.

"Well, it sucks that I have blue eyes then." Tess sighed. "What about Taylor and Trent?"

Gage grinned. "Brown, the color of the earth, right? Well..it's similar and the closest thing to a red eye color, so imagine those elementals. Warms the heart, makes a person feel at home, may even create an attachment. Pretty much the opposite of what blue is. A person might run from a blue and retreat to a brown." He shrugged. "Of course, none of this is an issue until you learn to use it."

"Does contacts affect the glow?" Tess laughed.

"I've...never tried it." Gage said.

"I wonder what hazel does?" Tess asked.

"Well, they are a slight mixture of colors, subtle but the only ones that can have multiple affects on the spectrum." Gage said, just before Trent returned.

"Got the McDonalds." He sat the bags on the table, still dressed within the guards body. "So...how are we fixing it again?"

Gage grinned and pulled out Tess's bottle of vicodin and percocet. "Good old fashion spiking, right?"

"Hey, I worked hard to get those!" Tess sat up.

"I'm sure you can get some more." He opened the lids of the drinks and then tossed the pills in the air, a vicodin and percocet for each drink. As they came to fall, he closed his hand into a fist and the pills crushed into powder and fell, in even amounts into the drinks. "Stir and deliver. Make sure you drink good enough before you let the body go so he passes out before he acts weird." Gage said, shoving the medicine bottles into his pockets.

"Dirty." The guard, under Trent's control grinned and stirred the straws around and firmly placed the lids back on and headed for the stairs, using the guards clearance card to gain access to the door and headed down the stairs to deliver the food to the guards homies.

"S...someone h...help m..m...me." The Secretary stuttered.

"Uh oh...her mouth is starting to work." Gage nodded for Tess to follow as they headed for the desk. "We need to contact..." He looked at Tess. "Did you at least get a name?"

"Uh...no." Tess said. "Though Spencer did steal Barack's Secretary's phone." She pulled it out. "I wonder who boss is?"

"Well, call." Gage said. "But keep it brief, get a name and hang up."

"I can't demand Michelle's ring? I kinda want to steal her identity." Tess said.

Gage laughed. "Like that would go over real smooth with the American people. A middle aged..." He paused. "Dark skinned lady, I won't assume her ethnicity, just turns into an American seventeen year old with strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes?"

"Red, please call it red." Tess rolled her eyes.

"If you want it red, dye it red." Gage said.

"Because I like this shade, it's a really...bright red, 'kay?" She then took the phone and tapped 'The Boss' with her finger and brought the phone to her ear.

Mr. Obama looked over and saw his Secretary in her office and then looked down at his phone and saw it best to answer, given the situation. Though part of him was afraid that their powers could reach beyond the distance of a phone, especially given that horrid migraine he was given. A deep breath was taken and he answered. "President Obama speaking."

"Hi, it's me. I'm sure you remember, did you take plenty of asprin? I would hate it if there was any lasting pain. Look, honestly, I didn't want to hurt you...but we needed our own protection. Mr. Obama, may I call you that? Thing is...we're not out to hurt anyone, we understand that we're different and that we're viewed as a threat, alien invasion, all that, the hostile reaction that was planned to be had decades ago. Thing is...and it's a real sad thing, such a hostile reaction, it keeps you, us, the people, from learning of what else is out there and why. Right now, my friend was taken by one of your associates, probably trying to force him to be a weapon for the American military, if not being poked and prodded, the fact that we aren't dead leaves me to believe that making us a science project is not the goal. I could of easily been shot in the head and I wasn't."

Barack listened to everything Tess had to say. "I hear you and I want to believe you, but you can't go storming in and demanding things. The more you look hostile to us? The more hostile we will be to you. How about this, a meeting, between myself and you three, of course I will have my protection here, but there can't be any hostilities if we are to find any common ground. Does that sound fair?"

"First I get my friend back, what was the name of the man who took him?" Tess asked. "What's about to happen might be viewed as an act of hostility but in the eyes of the law, he was essentially kidnapped, given who this man is, he has authority over law enforcement. So in saving him ourselves, we have the right to self defense should it be needed. I get my friend back and you get your meeting. Now what is his name?"

"Caleb Boyd." Mr. Obama replied.

"Thanks." Tess pulled the phone away. "Caleb Boyd." She slid the phone into her back pocket.

Gage looked down at the woman on the floor behind the desk. "You heard the name, how do I get to his office?"

"Level Y has two sides. I don't know the code...but the front doors, facing this way go to the offices. He will have his name on the door." The woman cried.

"Oh...so the back door must have the labs." Tess nodded and walked back over to where Trent had been laid on the couch. "Well damn, that means Trent went through everything for nothing."

"No he didn't." Gage walked over. "Taylor is on level Z, I am sure of it. Now we just need him to come back."

"What do you know about a crystal pyramid? That's what we were after to begin with." Her eyes widened. "We still don't even have it."

Gage frowned. "It's extremely important that you get it...when the time comes, if you still don't understand, I will tell you, until then, I need you guys to focus on everything but that, at least until after you get the crystal."

Trent gasped as his eyes opened. "We got people drinking poison, am I the best witch on Snow White, or what?" He grinned.

Tess nodded. "Okay, that's dramatic. Now get up so we can go get the guy and find Taylor."

Trent got off the couch and looked around. "So how do we find the office?"

"We see through the man." Gage said and extended his hands out and grasped Trent's and Tess's hands and closed his eyes. "Focus on him, this should be easy for you Tess. You know him, you both do, picture him, then imagine becoming him, seeing through his eyes...and relay that to me so that I can see."

Tess made a face. "Why don't you just do it?"

"Ugh...training purposes? But what the hell, Taylor's falling way behind as it is." Gage shook his head. "And in sync, walk forward." Gage then began to step forward, as did Tess and Trent. The room suddenly distorted and stretched, changing colors as if blurred lines were going across a screen and once they reached the other side, the lines pushed together and formed another picture.

"Caleb's office." Tess looked at the tag on his desk and then she noticed the pyramid laying there. "That's it!" She grabbed the pyramid.

"Yeah, but he's not here. How do we find Taylor without him?" Trent asked.

"Yeah, weren't you supposed to be seeing through his eyes? Shouldn't it have took you right to him?" Tess turned around.

"If I did it that intensely, saw what he presently saw, I would of possessed him instead, what I saw, what he saw, could of been minutes or hours ago." Gage said.

"Well, maybe that's the idea. Possess him. Maybe he's with Taylor." Trent said.

Though their questions or ideas didn't get much time to be asked or tossed around as Caleb Boyd pushed the door to his office open and walked in. "You two."

Caleb then looked over at Gage. "Three? So, what? There are four of you?" He grinned and looked at the crystal Tess was was holding. "The four points at the bottom."

Tess rolled her eyes. "Oh, yeah, you're real genius." She grinned and waved her arm across her chest. "Figuring it all out for us!"

Gage frowned and lifted a hand and the man suddenly felt a burst of fire hit his chest as his back slammed to the door and he fell onto his ass. "That's...third degree burns? See where I come from...there are five levels, most don't survive the fourth degree, fifth? Forget it."

Caleb looked down at his chest, crying out in pain but he tried to hold most of it in with a stern expression. "I won't tell you where he is."

"Sure about that?" Gage walked over and crouched down. "There are so many things...you could survive without." He eased in closer. "Then...after a while, you'd realize how much you took them for granted."

Caleb's eyes narrowed. "Why won't you leave?"

Gage grinned. "Pretty stupid question. I'm not leaving my own kind here. Not so you or any other human can cash in on the prize. So I'm going to guess, level Z? What room? And what kind of state is he in?"

"Well, if you want to know, yes, he is being kept on that level and...he's sober and has already agreed to work with me." Caleb said.

Gage rolled his eyes and grabbed Caleb by the throat and the man began to seize until he died. He got up and dragged the man out of the way. "Lets go." He pushed the door open and stepped out of the hall.

"Now what?" Tess asked.

"No matter what you see...go." Gage said as he started running, the other two soon to follow as he charged for the elevator.

Gage ran forward and the elevator doors suddenly slid open to reveal not just a black void but a huge explosion of fire ready to come out of it. "Come on!" Gage screamed and the three dematerialized just as they jumped into the flames, causing the fire to spin out of the elevator and down the hall, computers exploding, other machines blowing up, people screaming in agony while other screams were cut off quite quick and the entire building started to shake and rumble. The Secretary had finally gotten to her feet when the lobby floor gave way and she screamed as she fell down into the pit of hellish fire as the fire over took the basement level and the first floor crashed into the basement before both levels crashed into floor Y, destroying the offices and the science labs, the chemicals causing even further violent reactions.

Taylor looked up and around as he felt the trembles and he shook and jerked on his hands, his eyes shut tight and he grunted, pulling on the handcuffs before finally willing them open and they just fell to the floor. His eyes opened and he looked down at the handcuffs and then stood up. That was when his eyes shifted up, the light flickered and the ceiling started to cave in.

"Oh shit!" He threw a hand up and froze the ceiling, managing to keep it from falling but the fire above raged on. "The hell?" He ran to the door and opened it, running out into the hall just as the elevator doors opened to reveal Tess, Trent and Gage in a white nothingness.

"Taylor! Come on!"

Taylor looked at the elevator and then started running as Y began to collapse into Z and he managed to dive into the elevator just before it collapsed completely. He turned and the elevator door dematerialized. "Where are we?" He stood up, looking around.

"A temporary place until we all get home." Gage said.

"Who is he?" Taylor pointed at Gage.

"Oh! He's a full blood! He came to help us save you! Thank god that he did." Tess said

Trent grinned. "That was pretty bad ass."

"Don't thank, God." Gage shook his head. "We should go." He nodded.

"Okay...well you made it." Tess looked around. "It's like that void in that dream...but it's white, how do you get out of it?"

"Oh, I did not make this place...I just have access to it." Gage said, a grin appeared.

"Hmm..." Tess walked forward and kicked the air and like paper, a hole ripped into the white to reveal the hotel room. She grinned and started tearing at reality like a paper and stepped through it, along with the others.

"Can we do that anywhere, or just in the white place?" Trent asked, they all wondered the same thing.

"Interesting." Gage laughed and turned around and pushed reality back together where it seemingly sealed together, as if nothing had happened to it. "You can rip it like paper...go through it like air...ripple it like water...slip through it like pages in a book." He turned around. "For tonight though, you all rest."